Talk about Slow Stitching Sunday,  how about Slow Stitching Week?

I am making slow progress on RSC 2017 Blues but at least some progress! I am becoming extremely frustrated with hand braces.  Seems like forever in getting through the 6 weeks.  Oh Well…..I miss my hand applique, Embroidery, and those knitting lessons that I thought I would be taking this year.

I have 7 blocks made in Blues and a lot of 4 Patches of Blues and Purples already sewn and ready to make 21 more Blue blocks and 12 more Purple blocks.   Of course I am only 6 months behind in this project, but what is a few months backlog?

RSC 2017 Four Patches in Blue

At least I am close to MAYBE finishing them by the 31st and then on to the color for August.

OK, I have achieved 2 goals, not quilting goals, but my walking goals and I have lost some weight  so I will be happy for that!

Have a great week and stay cool 😎  we are in for nothing but 100 thru 102 for the week. Whoopee!

I never post food because most foods are not on my safe list. But there is a one time exception and this is it!

This is one of the best meals we have had together lately. So, I thought I would make everyone hungry.  It is the best Beef Roast I have prepared since I gave up beef.

Menu was a Shoulder Roast cooked with potatoes and carrots in the Crock Pot.

 Melissa provided that yummy green bean casserole that I just had to have a tablespoon of them.  Yummy!

And for a fat-free (😇) dessert – Pineapple and Blackberry Cobblers:

My Cobbler recipe is on my previous post.

Thank you Gretchen!

Good Sunday Morning to all.  We are half way to August and now time will really speed up!  Still dry, but some showers here and there.  Last week I took 3 days to work on the Smith family line.  By Thursday afternoon I was DONE.  A lot of brain cells burned up!  LOL.  It was time to get back to relaxing and sewing the Purple 4 patches for RSC 2016.

The plan was to sew the 28 blocks for the purple and start on the blue for this month.  So far I have 16 blocks sewn and have decided to cut out some blue 4 patches this morning before Melissa comes for a Sunday visit.  This next week will be devoted to RSC 2017 blocks.  I want to catch up with the schedule and then finish the purple and start on February which was teal.  It takes a lot of time to make 28 blocks.  Once the 4 patches are ready it takes about 25 minutes to put a block together – of course that is if one is perfect and makes no mistakes like turning the 4 patch the wrong way!

I have decided to use this as my setting and my blocks are just placed on the design wall as I finish them.  I have 3 different purples in each block.  I try to put the darker ones in the middle and two different colors on each side.    Some of the colors that are given each month will not be used, I may take advantage of that and work on the ones I have not completed yet.

RSC 2017 Purple Blocks (Color for January)

Now for the Genealogy.  My cousins and I have been trying to find our GGGGrandfather Henry Smith – WELL – try to find someone who just did not want to be found, OR he went by another first name.  What a mystery.  I did research my GGGGrandmother Mary Polly Kimmel and was pleasantly surprised to find that I could trace her family all the way back to Germany!!!  I think it was her GGGrandfather Jacob Kimmel that fought in the American Revolutionary War!  This line will qualify me for DAR if I am interested in submitting the paperwork (not sure about wanting to do more paperwork).  I started with a 2 page typed written letter by a family member years ago.  It is like unraveling a mystery.  Names spelled wrong, no birthdate, etc.  But there is enough information to give me some sort of paper trail to start on and I do love research but it can be so time-consuming.  But most of the time when researching one can find one sibling, child, husband, etc and it opens up the entire world.  The DNA from Ancestry is great to find some distant relatives.  I also was surprised to find out that the Smith’s were Mennonites and they all located in Pennsylvania.  The information that I had been given was that Henry Smith was born in France and came here to escape the Napoleonic Wars.  I am not sure that is a fact.  I believe that he was from Germany and that when he came to America he came through France – that is where most of the ships came from.  I will continue on, but only after I have cleaned up my Ancestry trees and loaded Family Tree Maker.  So much information available.  I am 98% European and now I know that the French and Swiss side is from my Father and the German side is from my Mother!  She kept telling me I was Pennsylvania Dutch!!!  I also understand now why I was so at home when I worked in the Washington DC area – that is where my ancestors on my Mother’s side started out in this great country!   I hope you enjoyed this little jaunt through my family history – I need to start a separate Blog for this!  Hum!!!

I have been very successful in getting my walking in at 6:30 AM.  It is so humid even then it ranges from the mid-70’s temp and anywhere from 88 to 94% humidity.  I took the day off today because Melissa is coming and I decided to fix a pot roast in the crock pot.   It is in the crock pot cooking and then I will make a blackberry cobbler and a cherry cobbler for desert.

The recipe I use to make a cobbler is so easy.  Melt a stick of butter in the glass pan while mixing up a cup of flour, sugar, milk, 1 tsp baking powder.  Take the pan out with the melted butter and pour the batter into the melted butter (yummy).  The batter is enveloped by the hot butter.   I use Lucky Leaf pie filling and randomly drop tablespoonfuls  of the pie filling into the mixture.  There is no stirring involved in this recipe.  Cook it at 375 for 45 minutes.  Today I am going to cook it at 350 for 1 hour and see how it comes out.  The crust will be crunchy around the edges from the butter.  Hungry yet?  Maybe I will remember to take a picture of the results and post it and make everyone hungry for sure!

Today I can start working without the brace for my hand – 2 hours on 2 hours off.  I will be glad when I do not have to wear it all day long.  I still will have to be careful for while, do not want a “re-do” on my dominate hand again! I am missing my appliqué so much, but taking the time to just relax in the evenings.

Have a great day!

Well, here I am almost 4 weeks from surgery on the right hand and have been working on my RSC 2017 project which was started in January and put away because I did not think I would like it.  I wanted something easy to do and so I chose 4 patches.  I had not followed the RSC from previous years but had watched Gretchen make her 4 patches.  She is making a King Size quilt so I figured I would do the same since we have a California King.  I had to put the project aside for a while due to a family issue at that time.  But as I was recovering from CTS surgery in the right hand I decided that as soon as the cart was off and stitches out I would be back at the sewing machine!

Last post I was working on Churn Dash and thought I would make some more Mini Dresden’s from Susan’s Dresden Plate patterns.  I made one more, but decided that I needed to wait on trying to cut the small pieces.

I have completed 7 blocks for my RSC2017 (January color) and here is the setting that I am thinking about doing.

Setting for RSC 2017 Project (Test)

Gretchen indicated that she was making 28 blocks of each to achieve the King Size quilt, so I am following her guidance and did some math to figure out how many 4 patches I needed.  A total of 224 were required.  I had a lot of 1 1/2″ strips left from a quilt I made in January and used all of them to make the additional 178 that I needed.  Today I have all 4 patch blocks made and squared (whew)!  Now I need to cut 178 each 2 1/2″ squares and then I will sew blocks together  I would love to have all of them completed by Tuesday (or darn – if I say this too loud a UFR will creep into my life!!!)  So I will just say I will finish them soon!

178 – 4 Patches for the RSC 2017 quilt!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July.  Clay and I enjoyed a wonderful visit with his daughter Melissa and her Shitzu dog Sophie.  She has Sophie trained to mind so well, taught her how to “high-five”, sit, talk, etc.  Sophie lost one of her eyes when another Shitzu bit her.  But she is a trooper and so much fun to play with.  We talked, laughed, and played with Sophie to have one of the best 4th of July’s that Clay and I have had in a long time!

Melissa’s Sophie – such a sweet dog!

This is a picture of Melissa at the San Antonio Fire Department showing us of a picture of Clay when he was fighting a fire in San Antonio as a young whipper snapper (old terminology).

Melissa at the SAFD showing a picture of her Father at a San Antonio Fire in the 1970’s.

Melissa 4th of July 2017

Melissa and Clay look so much alike and have the same personalities!  She is a joy to her Daddy!  Melissa and I have a lot in common in life and love laughing and talking about our life’s journey.

We now have a set of Mule Deer Triplets!!! They are a hoot to watch and the littlest of the 3 is something else – can run like the wind!  I caught a fairly decent picture of them this morning when I was walking and they were chowing down on the deer corn – Already!  More mouths to feed but Clay and I so enjoy watching the Deer and our neighbor’s cat trying to catch a bird!  Maybe we can get a picture of Mischief jumping up and hanging on to dear life and getting a bird to snack on later!

Our 2017 Triplets!

The weather is now really into Summer here in South Texas.  I am walking at 6:30 each morning and it is humid, but not near as hot walking if I waited until 8 or so.  Feels so good to be back into a routine.  Have a great week of sewing.

I would like to first thank my wonderful husband, Clay, who has taken exceptional care of me and has been “right hand man” (a little pun here) through this hand surgery.  He is a love!  What a gift I received 21 years ago when he contacted me on 3 June 1996 when I lived in Virginia and he was in Texas. We had grown up together in San Antonio but never dated.  I had a short visit with his Mother in Texas before moving to Virginia in 1993 and then in 1996 he decided to “look me up” and found my number through a friend of mine.   We take care of each other, but this time he has really had a lot on him!  I am so blessed!!!!!  We were still young (51 years old) when we were married on 2 August 1996!  Thank you Clay for taking care or me and being such a loving and sweet husband.  (A Choctaw-Irish and a French – Cajun – what a pair!)

Clay and Nanette July 1996 – Sterling Virginia Still Young!

Clay and Nanette – 2012

Clay in our Long Gone RV 2014

So here is where I am on my surgery experience.  I am out of the cast, stitches are out, and now to some crazy therapy – tap on the incisions 5 times a day – for 5 to 10 minutes and then next week add rubbing them the same with some Vitamin E oil or Aloe Vera to keep scar tissue down.  No lifting over 5 pounds – for me I will just not lift anything heavier than my fork, water, and coffee cup!  LOL  Better safe than sorry!  I have great movement in the right hand as I did exactly as I was told – move those fingers and thumb as soon as I woke up from surgery – yes it hurt for 3 days, but then each day it got better.  I have a little numbness in the ring finger, but they say it gets better (hoping).

I am having issues with the left hand and realized now that the shoulder pain has been from the CTS!  WOW.  So as soon as the right hand heals (hopefully by early August) I will schedule the surgery on the left hand.  We have a trip to Oklahoma in August that we will not cancel, so it will probably be done the last week in August.

Today I am back to the computer typing with two hands – YEA.  I am now using my hand and was told I can go back to quilting.  I will do some cutting this afternoon.  I really have missed my quilting.

Here in South Texas we are in a horrible dry condition and no rain in sight – We are having 108 heat index and yesterday it hit 102 temperature!!  Good time to quilt – now to get the muscles back in order on the right hand.

Yesterday after getting the cast removed we went to the Mesquite Bean quilt store in San Antonio and I picked up some more shirting fabric! – (Like I really needed the fabric).  Penny Rose has a new line out – very nice!

Have a great week-end, hopefully by next week I will have something to show.

OK. This will be the shortest post for me!!!

Lovely summer – only 108 Heat Index!!!!  Hoping the storm in the Gulf reaches South Texas…..

Update on my Carpal Tunnel (CTS) surgery.  I guess after 20 years we tend to forget just how much fun having CTS is!   I think I forgot that I am 72 and maybe it might hurt more!   I am in a nice cast for 3 more days. They lied to me when they said I could type starting today!  No way with this cast on!

So it is left hand only.  This is so frustrating!  Sitting here looking at all I want to do but cannot. To top it off, my left hand, arm, and shoulder are now giving out!!!

I will be able to get the left CTS done in a month. Yikes am I ever a glutton for pain.  BUT, if I do it in July I will be well in September and get back to quilting!!!!

I did walk today and think, THINK it made me feel better. LOL

I am going to catch up on some Crafty classes I bought a few years back  maybe my mind will come back.

Have a good week!