Crazy

Well the month is flying by! To be honest I'm glad election day will soon be behind us, even if the bedlam isn't over after election night. I never thought I'd see things go so badly in the US, but here we are.

The crazy quilt pillow is finished and I'm well pleased with it. I'm feeling inspired to make a full sized quilt now. It could happen. This was a good practice piece to 'get the hang' of it.

This will go on the bed, solely for decoration. The insert is a $5 pillow from a big box store that I opened up to un-stuff a bit and re-sew it shorter, to fit my cover. Works a charm.

Work on the Christmas runner has progressed well. It will be finished soon, probably this week.

Last Sunday's Harvest Festival in a small, nearby village was great fun. I had my three spinning wheels and took them in rotation, demonstrating from 10 am to 3 pm. I also had a couple of my quilts hanging up as backdrops and they got lots of good comments. It's great to see people taking an interest in how wool is spun. My friend from high school had an antique corn shucker that he was demonstrating just outside the door of the barn in which I was stationed. That was also popular.

I was surprised to see how many artisans were displaying and selling their wares. For such a small town, it puts on a good show. Craftsmen and women from all around. A very good turnout as well. I had a very nice, lengthy conversation with a woman from Virginia! And another from Maine!

I made a batch of soap about 3 weeks ago; something I haven't done in quite some time. It should be ready in early December, just in time for the holidays. I scented it with cedarwood and balsam. A small batch, just 6 molded bars.

Making soap is another one of those deeply satisfying endeavors. There is something about taking raw materials, be it lye and fat, or wool, etc. and making something basically useful from them. It just feels great!

I finally learned how to make decent garlic sauce like one gets at Chinese restaurants and I've been making it often. LOL. For a single meal for one, about 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, about 1 tablespoon of maple syrup, about 2 to 3 teaspoons of rice vinegar. Mix those together. Heat a bit of oil in a pan (or wok) and gently saute a couple cloves of crushed garlic and some minced ginger (about a small fingernail amount). Then add the liquids and heat it up. Mix a teaspoon of cornstarch with a teaspoon of water and add that to the sauce and bring it to a boil to thicken. Stop when the consistency is right. I've been steaming a bunch of vegetables (broccoli, cauliflower, green pepper, onions, etc.) and sauteing some shrimp, then adding it all to the sauce. The whole thing can be done in a wok as well. Yum yum.

Lots of cello work and piano work last week and I can feel it. Feels good.