Monday: Prayer, Peace, Tea, Quilting and Rebuilding

I had the first morning pot of tea with a sense of peace and well-being

that I have had in a long time.

I had forgotten what that felt like.

It was wonderful.

I realized that with my eyes suddenly

 having lots of halos around lights and then 

a bunch of eye appointments,

then 4 eye tests in May and then another 

appointment with my NYC Retina specialist

and then being told that I need to go to Philadelphia for more

eye tests and such,

that it has been MONTHS of thinking that I was losing my eye sight

in a way I never dreamed possible and I had no idea when or what was happening.

Now that the Philly Doctor has said what he has

and that he believes that I DON'T have the 2 eye diseases that cause blindness,

I feel so relieved.

I realize my eye case is not simple but I really see that I am called to have 

peace about this and patience and not to worry, it is not, at least at this point,

as bad as my NYC doctor had said. 

So this morning's pot of tea was rather blissful.

My friend was also coming over later and I think I was not only 

peaceful but still quite tired. 

But I managed to get a lot done, laundry, dishes, lunch, clean table, change table cloth...

and then my quilting guild local friend Y. came over and helped me do the following...

I had to sew 2 big pieces of fabric for the backing together 

and then a small 11 inch long rectangular piece to complete it.

I was so happy that I realized that I could make the small piece out of the extra

that was already part of the quilt backing, instead of taking it out of the large 

amount of fabric that I had left from the backing.

So the back of the quilt is now all sewn into one big piece and I am just thrilled!

The next thing we did was cut the batting (using a rotary cutter and my big cutting mat)

so that it was even, as I had to sew 2 pieces together to make the middle section of the quilt.

 You can see how my living room + dining room all became my "sewing room"

for the afternoon!  

This is the big piece of backing fabric that I saved from being cut into.

You may notice that the very top of the left hand picture has a "cut" in it,

but this is actually the strip we took from the quilt backing that I cut the 11 inch rectangular 

strip from to finish the backing.  I had sewn that together and the top bit is the part that 

is partially sewn together to the big piece. 

I am excited to have so much fabric leftover, surely it can be used for something beautiful! 

Maybe a small baby quilt or something! 

My two quilt guild friends both told me to use a "zig-zag" stitch to sew the batting together 

so that it would not have a long "lump" in the inside of the quilt.

So basically it was like putting 2 pieces of the same

 "blanket" together in a "seamless" way.

This batting will be the middle part of the quilt "sandwich" and will be felt 

(it makes it thick, soft and just lovely) but will not be seen when the quilt is done.

It provides the warmth of the quilt. 

Above you can see another part of the batting sewn together (left hand picture)

and the 3 layers of the quilt, top, batting (middle) and the back fabric (right hand picture)

Once this was done, then I cut off the extra foot of batting on the right side

and then pinned the rest of the now finished back and middle with the top.

This is called "basting" a quilt - making the 3 layers stay put until they are 

quilted (as in the 3 layers sewn together).

Can you see all the safety pins on the top left-hand picture? The quilt is all in place now!

The right hand is the quilt all folded up with the backing facing out.

 I am planning on doing "stitch in the ditch" for the quilting which basically means 

one is sewing in the lines of the quilt, not making a new pattern.

Here is a tutorial that I hope to watch soon about how to "stitch in the ditch."

It felt so encouraging to make progress on my sewing!

I hope to get back to this again next week.

Look who found the washing machine again! 

Silly Cleo! 

I went to vespers tonight! Met Mr Husband there...

We are doing, as per usual, the feasts 2x ... August is esp "funny"

as our local church is "new calendar" and the one we are offically members at

and serve at is "old calendar" and over an hour drive away, 

so I do a lot of feasts 2x.  I mean, who would not want to be in church, right? 

Well, at least if they knew how beautiful, life-giving, life-saving it is.

(One of our littlest members, so cute)

I love this Angel's worshipful stance at the foot of Christ

(you can't see the whole picture from where I am standing, 

but I love just seeing this detail...)

It was, as usual, wonderful to be in church.

All the church pictures this time were on my Husband's phone camera

as I forgot my phone in the rush out the door.

Thank God that my driving license was not in my phone pocket but in my purse,

since I drove there....!

I had dinner at home after while talking with Mr Husband who had 

been at a work event earlier that had lots of food... 

Did I show you my planner that I got at TJ Maxx the other week?

I am really loving it. 

I use an online calendar all the time, but putting things to pen and paper

is helping me a lot and I am thinking it will help the "email load" 

of reminders I get if I start using this planner more...

I finished listening to this book earlier,

the third in the Princess Academy books.

I wish the author, Shannon Hale, would continue the story... 

but I think she is done with this one.

***

I want to mention that I saw these recipes by Deb Perelman and hope to make them:

Cherry Brown Butter Bars

Apricot Pistachio Bars

And how did I miss this Thai inspired meat-ball coconut soup

Also Ina G's roasted broccoli dish sounds worth investigating...

I get a weekly email from Smitten Kitchen and all of the above were within 

the email, the 2 meals recipes from a lovely new piece that Deb wrote

on meal planning when you have kids

that was a super fun read.

***

I hope the bake the Cherry bars later this week!

And then freeze a bunch of them for the first of my Christmas baking,

that I promised myself I would make in advance this year.

***

I had a really helpful online chat with a friend and realized, as she

pointed it to me, that life is really a series of rebuilding

and reestablishing (inner) peace...

I think if I can keep this realization it will help when I get

discouraged feeling that I am still rebuilding (and getting no where) instead of 

seeing that life is a constant re-calibration, rebuilding and that it IS going 

somewhere and we pray somewhere good! 

***

Ok. I better get off to bed....tomorrow is a full day with liturgy,

hopefully visiting our candle desk man and then doing stuff at home....

***

May God help us, have mercy on us and save us!

Monday: Progress and the most glorious of cookbooks

 The book lost recipes by Marion Cunningham is GLORIOUS.

I am reading through it finally today and tabbing up various 

recipes, thinking of what and when to make them

and find, as she has before, she easily gives confidence to try new things

in the kitchen...

I LOVE her Breakfast Cookbook,

which I have had for some years... I wonder if I bought it in London Ontario

back in the early 2000s when I was at Library School...

I have always loved Breakfast so I would have noticed this book! 

I still remember the first cookbooks I ever used and how I would

buy cookbooks at sales, even when I had a very limited grad school budget! 

For those who don't know how she is, but know a little of the culinary scene, 

you will know of James Beard.... who Marion met...changed her life!

she conquered huge demons in her own life of deeply crippling fear and of alcoholic drink

and in so doing meet James Beard and take a cooking class from his school 

and later, through Beard's influence, was the one who revised and re-introduced 

the Fannie Farmer Cookbook, first in 1979.  

She became very famous in the restaurant culinary world of the States and 

especially of California, where, from what I can see, is the main place

(other than NYC) where culinary change and influence in the States comes from. 

A lot of the epic brunch dishes that

I made for my friend and her daughter, our goddaughter,

just over a year ago,

were from Marion's Breakfast Book and these recipes do not fail! 

So when I saw the book Lost Recipes by Marion

I just had to get it. 

(the four pictures above are of this book's cover and 2 of it's pages).

I find her books clear, warm and so inviting. 

AND ones that are down-to-earth good-home-cooking that 

one just delights in reading and dreaming of making.

I must have 5 or so recipes already tabbed from this book,

and I am just savouring it!

She's one of my top 5 cookbook writers.

I am not even sure which 5 I would pick... she has to be one of the top ones,

who I feel I can go to and find something I will love...

and that the ingredients will not be so hard to source!

***

So that was part of my "fun for today" as it were.

I went to sewing group this morning and got help 

with my quilt... it now is pinned together but I need to sew

the back in one place (the back fabric was not quite wide enough

to be all in one go) and I need to sew a bit of the binding together as well.

Well, for dinner, we had mostly not pictured

green spinach salad, a wonderful fruit salad 

(a banana, orange, strawberries and blueberries), 

and I baked leftover fries and naan bread in our toaster oven,

on a rack so that it would bake evenly. 

***

I also got Deb's cookbook in the mail!

(it's now in the freezer, as I talked about in another blog post,

about how we deal with used books to be sure no bugs come in the house...)

Deb is certainly one of the main cookbook writers of today

that I have read for years now.

I am pretty sure I was reading her already in Ottawa before I met

my Husband, who I married and moved to New Jersey to begin our life together. 

I have never had one of her cookbooks so this will be a treat! 

***

I will be able, God willing, to dive into her book later this week...

Meanwhile, I am hoping to go to NYC tomorrow

and it is late already so I better close this blog post.

But not before I say a most sincere THANK YOU for my dear blog friend's 

encouraging comments on my post yesterday.

I often struggle with feelings of being that 'round peg' in a 'square hole'

world and it is comforting to know that I am not alone, 

a good reminder of this. 

***

I feel like I am still, as many of us are, trying to build my life

here where I find myself.

Tomorrow I hope to do errands and go to my beloved library

and do some work on an essay I am writing.

Later this week I hope to get back to the quilt I began working on again today.

I've been working on it since 2015 so I am really dreaming of getting it done...

***

I pray that you will find some joy in your daily life

(a lot of mine seems to come from the culinary side of things)

and that God is giving you the strength for the next task at hand.

To try to not worry and just do the next thing.

I have to keep working on that.

God bless each of you! 

gems within the day

Last night's dinner and rain drops on roses;

a tea that Tracy sent me last Easter...

Making more vanilla...

Cleo always thinks my chair is her chair

and is ready to eat whatever it is I am making... ;) 

I did three more rows of sewing!

The picture of the part of the finished top I did months (and months)

ago, but took a picture of it to show you where my sewing

will lead to...

Dinner tonight was simple:

baked potato ~ Indian junk food ~ green salad ~ some cashew nuts ~ tea & water.

PT is still going well... 

I am eager to get out again and start being more active.

Lots of good things and I already have tea set out for tomorrow

and DV a plan to have this for lunch:

a toasted English muffin ~ fried egg ~ heirloom tomato ~ cheddar slice

and I have so much to be thankful for.

Yet, my heart feels burdened with many things and I find myself

fighting a sense of sadness.

Well, I will continue to pray, to hope, to read books that have light in them,

to make my home as good as I can and am planning on 

more cooking and baking in my near future, DV.

Groceries have already been ordered and are coming on Friday...

So, so much to be thankful for 

and I know it is thanksgiving that will get me though

the times that are, well, just harder to go through in time.