A = April = Avocado

 This is no April Fool joke--  I freeze my avocados!  Yep!  When they get too ripe, I put them in the freezer for another day when I can bake with them. 

Now, I'm ready to bake some flourless Avocado chocolate brownies! 

I add sugar free chocolate chips and walmuts to my batter--yummy good!  Top off with sugar free whipped topping and you ahve a great dessert worthy of praise!

And another great recipe is chocolate avocado cookies--I don't make this recipe often as I'm too lazy to dish out heaps of batter to make cookies; I'd rather smooth out the batter in a baking pan and bake!!

I'm not a fan of avocado toast--no texture there for me so I"ll use our overripe avocados this way.

April brings us birth-days--in fact, there are four special days in April--Son, daughter, husband and grand daughter in law!  We have one big celebration for everyone--special gathering!

On the fiber side of life--ain't much happening!  My mojo for sewing has slowed down--my thought is to finish what I've begun and really complete it--

there are the BOM that I would like to do but have resisted--good for me!

A to Z here we come!!

--Journey to Easter

 

Our cowboy Church fortunately has access to a shofar for call to worship--It is a great call to worship!

Our caller is the chaplain at the Sculpture Prayer Gardens in Kerrville, TX  If ever in the area, please stop in to spend a few minutes celebrating this special prayer garden.  You can even leave a prayer on a rock.

Recently, we had a family/friends dinner and one of our guests was wearing tassels through his back belt loops.  When asked about them, he replied it was a way to show his faith and when people asked about them, he could talk about his faith--it was a perfect opportunity to lead into a conversation about God. 

tassels — in Hebrew, tzitzit – צִיצִ֥ת “You will have these fringes [tzitzit] to look at so you will remember all the commands of the Lord, that you may obey them …  I am the Lord your God.”  (Numbers 15:38–41)

The tzitzit pictured above are tied in two different styles.  The all white one is tied in the traditional Ashkenazi style, while the one with the thread of blue (techelet) is woven in the Sephardic style.  Notice that each tassel has eight strands with five knots, totaling 13.

The long thread of a special shade of blue that God commands in each tzitzit is called techelet in Hebrew.

According to a Midrash (story), the blue thread acts as a visual reminder to keep a heavenly focus on the Divine Presence of God, since the blue resembles the ocean, which resembles the sky, which resembles the Throne of God. 

We are leading into the last few days of Lent before Palm Sunday and the return of Jesus to the city after his 40 days of trails and temptation.  

My trials are nothing compared to others but I've been knitting along with Victoria Methodist Bristol on their special Lenten Knitalong--Each week a Lenten plan has been laid out with patterns to knit as we meditate on our journey.

We’re in week four.  I’m knitting with my hand spun wool/cashmere blend.  

Each week a section is revealed along with scriptures and pattern; hymns add to the mediations.  A lot of prayers are said as I knit.   By Easter, the scarf will be ready to wear! 

Books and Food

 Read any good books lately?  Something saucy and juicy? Or maybe a story that is sad and weepy?  How about an adventure on the high seas? 

Recently, I was thinking what food to serve along with a good book discussion.  Well, that means two or more people should read the same book—nope!  Hold onto your hat,  why can’t you fix couple of dishes that celebrate a certain book topic and share your thoughts on the book you’re reading?

Now reading  Midnight at the Blackberry Cafe—

here is my menu: definitely Blackberry pie for dessert.  Since this book is set in Alabama—how about A take off of cafe food— biscuits,  crispy hash browns, pancakes, ham in red-eye gravy, eggs, sweet potato hash, green beans, fried green tomatoes, corn, bacon, chicken-fried steak,  fried chicken, mashed potatoes, collard greens and grits, roast chicken, hot chocolate, potato salad, chocolate fudge cake, succotash--it would be easy to fix a menu for this book.

This book takes place in France--what a menu I could come up for this dinner!!  

• Boeuf Bourguignon.Bouillabaisse.: This Provençal dish is an elevated take on the catch of the day. ...Tarte Tatin. ...French onion soup. ..Escargot. ...Chocolate soufflé ..Crepes. ...Salade Niçoise.
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• I read this book at night--it's a light story about two English sisters, who are living together and take in older gentlement, who is down on his luck--some laughs on each page.
• Oh joy, what a menu with this one--Full English breakfast--sausages, back bacon, eggs, tomatoes, mushrooms, fried bread, and beans. and of course, big pot of tea!
• or an afternoon tea consisting of light cakes, scones and sandwiches. Traditional sandwich fillings are often cucumber, smoked salmon, coronation chicken or egg mayonnaise. But they should always be served with the crusts cut off - and Tea!
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  A Greek Island tour!  Ahhh!  Delicious Mediterranean food!  Greek salad ( tomatoes, onions, cucumbers, black olives, feta cheese,bell pepper!). Beef shish kebabs, pita bread, hummus, 

  Baklava for dessert.  
  This book is interesting because we have visited Mykonos to do Greek isles tour.  
  
  
• As I was thinking about food and books, I came across a blog that puts these two things together--Cook The Book Club--and there are others that talk about books and food as well--
• I'm off to listen to Midnight at Blackberry Cafe while preparing dinner--it’s a southern evening of fried chicken, mashed taters, green peas and for dessert—blackberry crumble. 

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Some Assembly Required!

 

What?? Is going on here?!!  

Hopefully, I can keep up with this mess!

Definitely looks confusing!! all it takes is some assembly required—and a brain that will keep things straight. 

Attention! Please! 

There are four different projects ongoing here—when you have everything cut and ready to sew, why stop sewing on one project especially when you can sew one after the other??

It’s called leader-ender!

There are the 1/2 squares that are borders for Peaceful Paths--red and white.

Then there are the pieces for the Heart Quilt—it is slow work cutting 1.5” strips and sub cutting into 2.5” sections

The turkey squares will make a nice table runner.  I was gifted Dresden pieces—didn’t know what to do with them , finally settled on turkeys! The center pieces were from a panel fabric, just perfect for a fall runner

While cleaning out a basket, I came cross the squares - side pieces—all that was needed was center 4.5” square—patriotic top for sure

In the bin was this!! More small pieces!  

Onward we go as we do “ leader-ender” sewing! 

 

Sundry Items

The days dwindle by--seems like yesterday we were in January and look up--here it is mid March!!

We all seem to say "where did the time go?"

I know where our time went--keeping good thoughts for baby JD, his mom and dad, my mother, our daughter who was in hospital for 10 days and friends who are on a different life path.

Yes, each day dwindles down to a precious few minutes we can cherish.  

I must tell you about a young man we met--he came to look at our HVAC unit (sad--but, it needs to be replaced--unhappy face!)  Anyway, he told us of his family event, which wasn't extreme but it was unfortunate--It was time to share!  and share we did!  We both put our faith in the good Lord!  That's how we make it through each and every day!! It was a chance to celebrate our trust in God! 

 Remarkable--how HE puts the words in our mouths to say what is needed in those times !

Anyway, that was an aside to this blog!

The Lucky One sponsored by Fort Worth Fabric Studio has posted the second clue to the mystery--

I'm excited that this will be a table runner!!

The clue was easy peazy!  I used greens from my stash!  This is the start of year long project--Brown headed daughter has always requested table runners--I'm on the first one for the year!!  YAY!

I'm stacking up the blocks for Pat Sloan's Childhood Memories Quilt along.

She has plenty of others to keep your attention

Another one bites the dust from Sewcialities 2  from Fat Quarter Shop Jolly Jabber,  I try to keep up to date with these blocks as they drop each week, but so far I'm behind two weeks. This will be patriotic top.

Peaceful Pathways Anew!

Peaceful Pathways have been renewed!  

I've been looking at this plastic bin sitting in my stack of many plastic bins--I can see some red fabric and white fabric.  How long has it been sitting there?  Oh, ages, I'm sure--at least since 2011 or before.

Opening the bin, I find a partial top--Hence, Peaceful Pathways by Esther Aliu.  At one time, I was a member of her BOM club.  She is the most awesome designer of lovely quilts!  Her work is beyond my scope of expertise for sure.  

But, this one BOM captured my fancy! 

Yes, I want to make this!  It had embroidery and piecework--that would be fun to do!

You can guess what happen though--yelp! I ran out of interest--

Opening the bin, I found I had all the embroidery pieces and some of the piecework along with the instructions.  And look!  how many 2.5" half square triangles were finished??

Seemed to me, most of the hard part was done so

all it took was to open the box and renew my desire to finish

Peaceful Pathways

Why not?!!  We had just had a wonderful retreat to refresh

our journey --this is the perfect way to complete that feeling or Anew!

I just needed to put the parts together--and I decided it would be easier to do by hand stitching--especially with all those stops and starts

Love this Biblical verse--almost every wedding these verses are recited by bride or groom.

The middle was complete--just place all those odd shaped pieces along the sides

see those 1/2 square triangles?  That took alot of time to stitch--

and I found all the triangles I needed to complete the other border--

Center all together and all the borders sewn together--just go from there!

 

A Little More Zen

Years ago I turned to Zentangles as a way to relax and refresh my brain.  Then, things got in my way and I put those aside and went onto something else

Now!

I'm back at zentangling!

Gathered my supplies--shading pencils, micron pens, artist's tiles, snubbing point

We're ready!

There are many patterns to learn--you can find them on Instagram, Youtube, Facebook, etc.

There are online couirses, newsletters

Free lessons is good!  When I first learned, we had a speaker who walked us through the first sessions. 

What is a Zentangle? 

"The Zentangle Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. We call these patterns, tangles. You create tangles with combinations of dots, lines, simple curves, S-curves and orbs. These simple shapes are the "Elemental Strokes" in all Zentangle art. These patterns are drawn on small pieces of paper called "tiles." We call them tiles because you can assemble them into mosaics."

Here are a few of my tiles, past and present

From different angles, you'll see unique features of the line drawings

These are simple line drawings--easy to follow

relaxation in all senses!