HAPPY NEW YEAR TO ONE AND ALL.

It's good to be back to blogging and New Year's Eve is a great time to start.

I started to sew again the day after Christmas. I decided to sew the scraps. You know? The scraps you save from sewing all those quits? Yeh, I save mine in a large plastic drawer. It's called, making new fabric out of old lol. I put a big sheet on the bed and dumped all the saved scraps on it, what a mess...

Next, I set up the ironing board and just started pressing a bunch of anything, no plan or nothing.

Then I just started to sew any which way. Here is a piece...



And here is another piece...

Here is a bunch of scraps sewed together. They are a bit crooked but I'm going to cut it into strips anyway and put the strips around a large picture block, which I will show you later.

Ok here is the picture block...I am going to build a quilt around this block...so I have to use more than just the crazy strips..



This is the companion fabric. I'm making this quilt for my son. He always like those gambling dogs. lol

Hi Everyone, just popped in to say hello. I will return soon. Just getting some things ready to paint and sew and I'll be back to normal in no time lol.

In the meantime I am cooking up a storm..Here is a huge pot of meat sauce. I will will making ravioli and knoces and lasanga, so I''ll need lots of sauce. I also made a "Tres Leches" cake and it is yummy. At the moment it is still soaking in the milks.

I then made the ravioli and some pasta (all home made now) and after I made 6 ravioli, I decided, nope! I'm not doing all this when lasanga taste the same and less work hahahaha....anyway we ate all the pasta before I could take a pic.
Here is a pic of the Panettone...

And that little rude Teddy dog. He belongs to my son and is visiting and he wants to beat everyone up immediately...so we have him in Teddy care...which is a fenced off area that he can't get out of, in my studio...so now he just glares at the other dogs through the fence....lol

I told my son that Teddy Care can be expensive lol....well more cooking will go on tomorrow. I hope to make an apple strusel from my German side of the family and something I have always associated with Christmas. If I have time I will also try some lebkuchen....

Trick or Treat Everyone? Well it's been a while since I've visited my blog. I have been so busy with my ebay stuff. I thought I'd cook a witches brew and post it for halloween and keep in touch so you wont' thing I got lost or anything. I have had the painting bug bite me real hard lately and pretty soon you will be seeing some stuff, promise. I might even show technique as I'm painting along...just don't give up on me yet.

Anyway, here is the witches brew. Here is an 8 pound roasting hen all cut up, seasoned and browned real nice. Add tons of onions and garlic. Then I strain this recardo (seasoning) and keep adding water to the recardo and straining it and adding the liquid to the chicken in the pot. I simmer it for one hour...then cut up a very large tomaoe and add that and cook another 30 minutes. It is still cooking right now. I will have to taste it to make sure it is ready as I have not cooked this dish since the last witches convention some 15 years ago ahahhahahaha....I will then make my homemade tortillas to go with it and yum yum...oh the dish is called, "Renello Negro"..."Black Dinner" so fitting for halloween hahahaha

The Black Dinner whooooooooooo

This is the seasoning. It comes from Yucatan.

I can be as stubborned as all-get-out when I'm ready lol. I insist on having my jars of jam up. I had to reboot to do this and there is not a darn thing wrong with my computer, it's brand new. Here is what blogger tells me when I try to do another post when they don't upload my pics.

Blogger Sign In
We found the following errors:
Your browser's cookie functionality is disabled. Please enable JavaScript and cookies in order to use Blogger.
Blogger Help explains how.

As you can see I'm here and I didn't do anything they said except reboot. Well anyway if anyone has this problem please tell me so I don't sweat the small stuff lol..

Let's see now if I can upload the jars of guava jam..


Well, whatdayuknow!! see they would have me go through a lot of crap for nothing lol...here is the jam, all done. As you can see some of them are still upside down and a couple with just a bit of jam but that's because I made three batches and a little get left but I combine those this morning and it's the first jar we are eating.

Jamming...Guavas are in season. Not everybody like that fruit. The smell or the taste. Well I love it! A friend brought three bags of them to me a few days ago and there is no way to eat them fast enough. So jam is the thing. Here they are all washed.

I put on a good show on the tv and set my stuff up, got comfy and started. First I took a teaspoon and just sliced them in half. Take all the centers with the seed out and put them in a sperate bowl.



Next, I have this little grinding mill and I put all the centers in there and keep turning until all the good stuff is pureed out of them. See the nice color?





Then I take the seeds, after I have squeeze everything out of them and put them in a bowl and add just enough water to wash them and then I use that water to chop the outside part of the guava in the blender. Below you see the seed being strained and then both mixed together

And here are the results, 13 pints of guava jam. I make cakes with it, cookies, ice cream topping. jam rolls or just eat it on toast, delish. the method I use is the one where you use the fruit pectin. When it is done cooking, you just pour in the jar and turn upside down for 5 minutes and then up again and let cool and seal. Ok it won't upload the jars. Anyway does this happen to other bloggers? Is there a limit on how pics you can upload?

dee said...
wow Rosy, I'm so impressed-I only know how to do a few things with the computer related to office work and business. I'm still learning and now I need to learn how to up-load pics. I can figure out the whole blog thing-that's easy, but I need help with the camera-to file-to blog thing. Hopefully soon!

Rosy says,
Ok, loading up pics is not too bad. Firstly make a folder in "my documents" for your pictures. Second" hopefully you have a program like Adobe or something like it. Third, the digital camera. Now take all your pics. Turn the camera off and take out the memory card or you can plug the camera right into a port on your computer and download to your folder. The camera comes with a little book that tell you how. For me I just find it easier to take the card out and stick the card into a slot on my new pc or my new printer, now has these slots as well. Before that I had a card reader plugged into my pc and I would stick the card into the reader. Anyway once you have plugged the card in, go to my computer and click on the drive that is the reader. You want one of the removeble drives. Just keep clicking on them until you find the one that shows the file or folder. Click on it and see that it's your photos. Now click the back button to go back to the folder. Once there, right click on the folder and scroll down to "rename" give the folder a name. Now right click again on it and send it to "my documents". Now fire up your program, adobe or whatever. Go to open and go get the folder with your photos that you sent to your documents. Point the mouse on the first photo to highlight it, hold down the shift key and select all the photos and say open. Now they are all in your program. Click on the first photo, click on image at the tool bar and scroll down to size. In the little box that comes up with the size, it will be highlighted already, just type 600 on the keyboard. You are resizing the picture for faster upload. Save the file with a new name or leave the same name. I am working in adobe so I don't know what your program has. Now when you up load to blogger, make sure you check the middle button so your pics are in the middle of you blog. Now you can skip all the above and upload to blogger right from your folder in "my computer" but you will wait! lol....hope that was helpful.

Wow!! I haven't blogged in ages. I'm on an ebay kick right now. I am selling all my excess stuff and having such success. Stuff, stuff, stuff. I'm getting rid of excess stuff. Hubby is worried hahahahha. He is telling me, mind you..."don't sell all you stuff" hahahaha. Can you imagine that coming from a man? Wonders never cease. Well I'm so involve with the listing, bidding, selling and shipping and banking...it's a new thing you know? it will soon end. The quilts and paintings are callin me to come back home hahahhaha...but i'm still having fun...when is money not fun? hahahaha...ok I'll be back soon promise.






I'm thinking of finishing this painted cloth quilt. I think I showed this before. It's one of those embroidery kits for a bed spread. Who is going to do that work I ask you? Right! not me. I have finished half of it I think.

Another part of the spread.

In the meantime I have set up a new computer and printer and stuff. I love technology.

Time for some food....cake that is hahhahaha. I have bit the bullet and bought a new computer. This one is 4 years old and I have trouble posting in blogger and I have a sneaky feeling it's this pc. It needs a good over-hauling. I will just set this pc up with my quilt programs and games for John since it has a nice big drive. Tomorrow I will pick up an all -in - one printer to go with the new pc. Those printers are a dream. I have one already with the other pc. Oh I have 3, I'm a tech freak hahhaha....Anyway on to the food.

I threw the rest of dried fruit that I found in bags in the frig into a bowl...papaya, pineapple, and some other exotic fruit that I can figure out...golden raisens, walnuts, one stick butter and 4 mashed babanas.


I mixed that up with a mixing spoon that has a hole in it...just kinda stirred it around. Then I added 1/2 a box of brown suger, a squeezed orange and 1/2 squeezed lemon and stirred that around. This is how it looks. This is a quicky. Nothing fancy and ever so tasty and good for you..


I then added 3 cups of flour and some more juice and now it looks this good....and put it in a covection oven to bake for one hour at 350...will post finished cake when done...no icing or anything now....


I have not sewed or painted a lick for awhile now...I've been busy selling stuff on ebay and having a good time lol...but now I have the urge to paint, paint, paint....quilts will have to wait a week...more later....

Cake just done..I have this need to throw some rum over it hahahah..nawww. It is delish...

MY ASS OR YOURS?

Hahahhaha I thought that would get you all going. Ok something different for a change; let me give you the story. Long story short. I went to one of my favorite artist’s blog to read and see and by no fault of my own, to read the comments. Considering that the entire blog was dedicated to this one critic ( who has no name) who fancies herself as??? (asso hollo, I suppose). I just had to read what she wrote. Well she was making some negative comments about the artist’s new way of quilting. One would think that if you didn’t like what a person was doing, one would stay the hell away from that person’s blog true? But I guess she is something like a sex therapist. In more vulgar common language, an "effing know-it-all" that just had to make her negative comments. It was not good critique; it was just plain ignorant, ugly period. Well I proceeded to tell her that she must sit on her can all day with nothing better to do except go to the bathroom now and then and when she does, she probably has to make two trips considering her ass is quite large, one trip wouldn’t carry it all the way the first time. Well I immediately get this hate email from another person who was defending this ignorant first person with no name lol. Long story short…..she told me in not so many words that by the look of my fat face that my ass is probably bigger. Now I have never addressed this second woman with a name, in the first place. ..but she decided to dress me down. I, being the intelligent type as you all know lol, immediately guessed that she was the very same ignorant first person only this time she used a name. So I go back to the blog and read the second person, ( who wrote me the hate email comments) and on that blog, she called me immature and etc. hahahhaa…and then another clone with a name also, chipped in with, “grow up”. Ahhahahahah but if you all saw the other emails I got from the good bloggers, you would die laughing as I am. Well so much for the little excitement. Little does no-name know…how much I love it!!! Ahhahahahaha

Ok on to something else…Yesterday a lovely friend of mine came to visit and brought me these four gourds. She had already painted them red to do Santa’s with. But I guess that’s my job now lol…aren’t friends great? Especially when they come bearing gifts? Oh yes! I wonder if no name has finally made it to the bathroom hahahahhahaha..

Anyway, I am also making my tasty coconut cookie mix too. Here they are all done.

Oh boy did crap happen to me. I have sliced my finger. I was working on a new design a few days ago and I don't know what happened but the blade jumped the ruler and I'm ever so careful always. Well I fixed that real quick. I had no time to mess with blood. I got a wooden iron that I have at least a hundred from my teaching days lol. Here it is...you hold the iron right where your hand should be...you cut, stop..take the pressure of both iron and blade and move the iron up and repeat....hey it worked like clockwork..never again will I cut without my trusty iron..I even have some painted ones...

Ok now for some design work with all those fabrics I spent weeks painting..

.here is the start of some ....I thought I'd do some circles. I joined two piece of fabric together. Then picked out some others for the circles. Later on I refered to them as worlds, they just kinds looke like worlds. Anyway, I cut out size 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18 I think. Then I sewed them in. Oh I used the circle ruler that's called."cut a round".



Here they are all sewed in. Oh I sewed two piece of 18 x 45. The half yards that I painted and that would make a 36 x 44 more or less piece. I love the look and I have mixed feelings about cutting it in strips and I should follow my gut. I know it!!



&*%@*^%cuss and cuss&^%$....of course I cut it up and I want to die. I broke my heart..but we must move on....I just couldn't bear to cut that last piece so I left it like that but the rest is &%$..



I will never ever be able to repeat that piece sniff, sniff...damn damn. Ok let's put the freeking strips in...


It has lost that beautiful space deal that was going on. Well it's 2 am and maybe I'll like it tomorrow after I put the borders on.

Ok this is the way I finished it. What a lot of work. I have no clue how I will quilt it since it's painted fabric. It has a lot of texture already. I think this will be the beginning of art quilts..I do like the way one can just so anything and it works.



Another pic.

Ok, I didn't get to sew last night. Some little not so happy things happening in the family for a few days now. You know when a loved one gets old and stuff, we all have to take turns but all is going along as well as can be expected. Today I'm going to be home, so I started to sew my little design together this morning. Here it is all sewed up. The freezer patterns are hanging on the right. I think I'll file these for later use.



Ok, now it's time for chop, chop. Oh don't be squimish, let me do that, I must be brave, it was a bi**h sewing those curves hahahahha....here it is all chopped up. Ayeee, all that work, jeez!! but never mind. Now let's see.



Notice the strips on the left are a bit bigger? Well I made a mistake and had the ruler turned the other way with the 1/2 inch extra. Crap! I cut two strips before I realized it. The strips are suppose to be 2 ins. Oh well, I decided to be lazy and left them and cut the others at 2. Now it's time to cut the in-between strips at 2 also. Here it is with the in-betweens. And my laziness didn't pan out either. I ended up having to cut those two stips to 2 ins. lol.



Ok now this is where I need a little feed back. Notice that as I put the in-between strips in, the main design is going up, up and I have to do that in order to see the connecting of the undulating curves right? Well look at the chunk I'm going to loose when I square it up. Now I can extend the main design strips or I can go this way where the design does not meet at any angle. What you think?


By the way. I am doing all this in the Firefox broser. IE was the problem not the blogger. Firefox is great for this.

Just checking in for a quickie. I'm still busy getting rid of and selling stuff on ebay. I need room remember? lol Well I took a break and stopped panting the rooster to do a small art quilt, and that happened as I was trying to stuff painted fabric, 200 yards of it, into places where it didn't belong, you get the drift and can relate right? hahah. Here is a pic of the process. I drew some lines on freezer paper, cut them out and pinned them to the design board. Then I would take a pattern piece down one at a time and iron it on the fabric of choice and replace the paper pattern. Here they are all ready to sew into gentle curves. I will then cut it up and put strips between alla Ricky Tims'. My darks are a mix of browns, blacks and tints that were overpainted twice. The have a rich vibrant look and feel to them. I like the way they look a lot. At this point I'm going for contrast. Once I have cut it up, I'll decide on the strips.



This mess is when I'm deciding which fabrics to pick ...so many and so little time lol.



This is where I stuck some of them, in temporary lodgeing lol.



Notice the stips hanging from the end of the bin? the rest of the fabric. Those are the stips I rip off the selvage edge. They have the best colors. I use them to tie presents or hair ribbon or sell them as they are unique and beautiful true? And you know the worst part? I have even begun to dye yet. The painting of the fabic was to prepare me for the way I will dye. I already know that I'm going to dye the way I paint. I have 100 yards of pdf fabric and the dyes since last year lol. Ok, back to work, maybe I can have something to show later tonight.


Now, this is the second time I have written this post. I had to switch to Firefox. I dont' know why blogger is giving me so many problems with IE. I hope this works. I won't be able to rewrite it again.

I have been busy, busy, busy. Doing more supposing and thinking and wishing than doing hahahhaha...Well anyway, remember those funky chickens I got at JoAnns? Well I washed one of them real good to get the dust and stuff off and loveingly basecoated it three times in white acrylic and put it on the side to cure. I got ready to do some intense painting on it but decided to check the paint adherence. Well it scratched right offfffffff. W.T.H. Thank goodness I checked. I always do. So back to the drawing board. I took chickadees outside and wet sanded and hosed all the paint off, thank god I only did one. I then basecoated each one twice with "Bin." Bin is a sealer that will adhere to anything and give it tooth so you can then paint it, even glass. Here are my chickadees curing, bottoms up. Behind the chick you can see a door crown that I started to paint years ago from one of my favorite artists. "Helen Caven". She is dead now and I treasure her books and patterns. Her colors are my colors.


Well have a look at the door crown. It is so colorful and happy. I don't have much left to paint on there. This is one of the projects that I pulled out to finish.


It's still covered in plastic. I also pulled out Oweena the happy witch. I can't stand ugly green witches hahahah...My Halloween witch has to be colorful. She is almost done too.


blogger won't let me do anymore to this post. What a pain they are. OH oH they must have heard me. I edited and tried again and wahla!! Well here is the rooster man of the moment. I pulled him out to start. I had done the pattern on him. So here he is in the ugly stage.

I made him my self some years ago. I put two piece of 12 inch pine together and trace the out line then I cut out both pieces and glue them together. I'm amazed at all the things I have made out of pine. This guy is 28 inches tall and 22 inches at the wides point. When I used to do craft shows, I had this great rooster I had painted. I sold him and I think I have another wood cutout of him too. I love chickens. I might paint him too when I finish this guy. I haven't got a name for him yet.

Let's see if we can get Priscilla on today. When I did craft shows and I'm really tempted to do a couple this year. Priscilla was the ornament tree. I had lots of hand painted ornaments. I am in the mood to paint ornament so I'll be posting some soon...here goes. Does anybody have the problems I have with blogger? It won't let me post more that 4 pics.
She's a bit crowded right now because I can't find her other pegs. I'll have to go through the wood pile again or buy new ones and I hate that.

ahahahah I found them. I went into the wood pile again and found wonderous things. Oh my!! Now I'm going to spruce Priscilla up. The good thing about Priscilla is that she can be anyone she pleases to be just by changing heads hahahahha. Wouldn't I love to do that to my self hahahah. Well I can put A santa head on her or whatever. I guess when I use her for ornaments, Santa will go on and so oh. I'm just adding to this post as I don't have enough stuff for a reguar post. I will be working on some stuff and posting in due time. Hang in there fellas..

While I was rummaging through the wood pile I found all kinds of great stuff. It's strange how I remember everything I have. I found three sets of wood pyramids that I had commissioned my woodman to make out of 1 inch pine. My woodman is long dead now and anytime I get out a piece he made me, I think of him. He was such a sweet man. His name was Tom and his wife Sybil. They were married some 50 something years. Once a year they would come to visit me from North Carolina. They used to live in Orlando by me. Anyway, I still have the rolling pin he made me and there are some things I wouldn't dream of parting with. Thank goodness I always had several made, at least two, one to keep and one to sell lol. Here are the pyramids all basecoated a dark green and their bases which get glue on tonight. Then I will proceed to paint on them...Who knows what.



Notice the fabric in the back. I go in spurts. I guess the jewelry spurt is over for now and the quilting is on hold. I must put those fabrics away until the mood strikes again. I want to paint. I want to paint folk art. Hubby was laughing at me today. He said, one never knows what to find upon entering the studio...But he loves it all. Oh, I already fed him. Here is some of the wood I picked out to paint hahahahah....lotta wood there.


Oh my! ah almost forgot to show you my little chickadee. I got these in the garden section at Joanns ..Aren't they great? Here you see the original the way I bought them and the sealed and basecoated one, ready to paint a design on. I am thinking Talavera...Mexican.


And while I was taking pictures, I took one of Priscilla the jewelry tree. This is a 2x4 post with one of my painted heads and large pegs. Somewhere I have more pegs. I must find them. And blogger has quit on me again..Oh well tomorrow...