Cholesterol and rhubarb

'Tis the season for desserts made of fruits.  I have a refrigerator with rhubarb, strawberries, and rhubarb just waiting for me to enjoy.  Today's plan is to make a small strawberry-rhubarb pie, but some bars are also a possibility.   Still, I will have to maintain some restraint.

Last fall, the physician's assistant at the Health Center told me that I needed to reduce my cholesterol OR take statins to do so.  I decided to go the non-chemical route and really worked hard for the next six months.  Success!  But the food on our 10 day cruise in the Netherlands was fabulous and did a bit of damage.   The ice cream was particularly delicious.  My pants are a little tighter than they were when I left.  We start the weekly forest walks on Tuesday, thank goodness!

Spring planting

We've always had a shady spot behind the lilac bush where grass didn't grow.  Right under a kitchen window, it doesn't get a lot of sun and is pretty bare except for some moss.  Chris offered to help me plant a little shade garden there, and today was the day.  It was cool out, just perfect for digging, and he and his friend Mared were done in no time.  The adjoining house is currently for sale, but I hope the new owners will let me extend the garden next year.  I'd like some more ferns and bleeding heart.  We'll see how this variety of plants does, especially after the winter.

I finished quilting the May section of my Dear Yve quilt and have just two more blocks to applique before I can put the June section together.  It's been a fun year-long project, but I'm ready to be finished.  By the time it's all together it should be a generous double or maybe even a queen-sized quilt.  I keep swearing I'll make smaller quilts in the future!

Splendid Sampler / Dear Yve

I have only two blocks left to applique for my year-long Dear Yve sampler quilt based on The Splendid Sampler books 1 and 2, by Pat Sloan and Jane Davidson.  It's been fun, but it is time to sash the last two months, quilt those sections, and put all 12 sections together with a border.  I'm hunting for a quote to quilt into the border along with Yve's name and dates.

There will be 144 6" blocks when it's finished, and this quilt incorporates some of the fabrics Yve gave me (she was my best customer, not that I have too many) along with lots and lots of scraps from my stash.   I used a lot of low volume backgrounds, too.  Yesterday I emptied the project box, returning larger background pieces to their respective color boxes and cutting the smaller scraps into 2" and 2.5" squares, a few triangles, and some strings.

I will be needing some of those pre-cut pieces for Jen Kingwell's My Small World which I have been gearing up for.  I don't plan to spend a year working on it - it's a wallhanging.  I have been looking at quite a few renditions of the pattern on Pinterest and see that it's another scrappy sampler.  I've cut some of the 500+ 1.5" sky squares already, and gathering some fabrics.  I will replace the factory buildings with granite sheds, I hope, and include a few other things to make it represent my world here and there.

Meanwhile, I'm anticipating receiving a variety of black and white charm squares, various 12" blocks, and some double churn dash blocks through swaps in the coming months.  I'll also be taking a class at the Vermont Quilt Festival.  More UFOs!

Getting back to "life"

I am finally on Eastern Daylight Time, I think, after two weeks across The Pond.  For a several days, I was falling asleep at 9 pm or before and waking up at 3:30 or 4 am.  Thank goodness that's over.   Above is a photo one of our fellow travelers took of us onboard the ship.  I'm glad I packed Paul's orange shirt at the last minute.  It was fine tribute for Koningsdag and the House of Orange.

I've been busy writing a diary of our trip, as I usually do when we go on vacation.  I try to incorporate photos which can be problematic.  Some I take on my phone show up upside down and backwards, so then I have to fiddle with them in the document.   Now, I think it's ready to print and mail to my mother and Wisconsin brother.  My friend Samantha also told me about a couple of places on line to make photo albums so they can simply click on links to more pictures.

We had a bit of snow yesterday but my daffodils bounced back after it melted.  It's been raining quite a bit lately which makes everything green, but it also made the funeral we attended yesterday a bit soggy.  My dear old co-worker and former boss Kent was laid to rest after a long struggle with health.  Given his Parkinsons and other problems, it is a testament to his strong character that he lasted 25 years after retirement.  There were only seven of us there to say goodbye, but I'm glad we could support his two sons, one of whom clutched a box of Kleenex the whole time.  I'm glad we made the long drive north to be there with them.
 

Home!

We had a wonderful vacation!  The cruise was luxurious, interesting, relaxing, fun, and busy.  We stayed a few days longer to visit family, and that was excellent, too.  I have been pecking away at all the things one does after two weeks away from home, but my body clock is still not on Eastern Standard Time.   Hope it will regulate itself over this weekend.  Above is a view in Amsterdam and below a few more photos of the Netherlands.

  The bulb fields near Enkhuisen

  One of 19 windmills at Kinderdijk

Resting after a walk around old Amersfoort