Weaving group, soap

Current US COVID related deaths: 786,268

US COVID deaths as of yesterday: 784,779

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MAN…I am in crisis mode. You all KNOW how important QoV’s are to me….I got another request for TWO QoV’s….and I have exactly NONE completely done in my upstairs guest bedroom (where all finished quilts reside). So, Tuesday morning (11/16) I was up bright and early to get a move on, on the QoV’s that are on XENA. The other problem is…I will need 2 labels…and of course I just got a new embroidery machine last Friday…which I really don’t have a clue how to use. I’m not really crazy about days like yesterday and today…where my studio time is broken up by different things/meetings….I just feel like I don’t get any momentum. I am looking forward to Wednesday…when I think I don’t have anything…and I can sit down in the peace and quiet and try to see if I can get a label done.

And, speaking of having lots of time to get something done.....it is amazing to me how my brain conveniently forgets things….I was sitting here…thinking that I have 3 solid days….Friday-Saturday-Sunday, to knock these out. So I went over to my calendar just to check…what did I forget? We are hosting the cast party next Sunday after the matinee….and I will be doing some of the food Friday….some Saturday…and then the bulk on Sunday!!! It kills me how I just conveniently forgot that!

I do not want to be in this position again with no QoV’s to hand out….I don’t even have any tops pieced in the downstairs bedroom….so I think the beginning of 2022 will be dedicated to QoV’s. The QUAP Retreat is fairly early in February, and I should be able to knock out several tops during that week. I’ll have to make sure I spend January cutting everything out! AND….I only have one men’s quilt left….so I gotta get going on those as well. Trust me….I am so grateful that I have a hobby I am going to do anyway…and I have places for those quilts to go to help people….what a win-win!

My honey made me an egg/cheese/toast for breakfast:

so that I could just keep on stitching…and I was finished by 11 AM:

I sewed one more strip on for the backing of the Bento Box quilt, before heading upstairs to get ready for the afternoon.

The weaving group is meeting here, and Pam asked me to do a soap making demo. My soap table is not even visible because so much junk has been piled on it….so I got that cleaned off, got my equipment set up, and got my lye and the rest of my oils measured out. My honey was out running to ALDI’s and CVS and got home shortly after everyone arrived for our meeting at 1 PM.

Pam has a new attachment to her spinning wheel....the vertical piece of wood on the right in the picture, becasue she is weaving flax!!!

I talked first about soap making for around 30 minutes…then we all headed to the kitchen to melt the oils (palm kernel, coconut, olive oil and caster oil). I told them I was glad I didn't get to make soap when I first read an article about it, becasue at that time it was all about melting down beef suet...and your house smelled like a tannery!

Once the oils were melted, we headed out to the garage to mix up the lye, then we left everything to sit and cool down. We dropped back to our regular meeting, including show and tell:

-these are Melanie's beautiful watercolors:

Of course, Ludy & Ethel are always interested when the weavers/knitters come:

By the time everyone left around 4 PM, my solutions (of lye/distilled water and oils) were about cool enough (it took FOREVER!!!), and I stirred them together….brought it to trace (which is a soft pudding like stage)

added my scent (lavender) and color (lavender) and put it into molds. Hopefully I'll have soap when I unmold on Wednesday or Thursday.

Michael and I finished up the last of Loree’s summer tomatoes (sad face) on our pizzas for dinner:

then he left for the movies to see DUNE, while I just collapsed for the rest of the evening.

*** I never thought I’d be the kind of person who would wake up early in the morning to exercise…..and I was right! ***

*** I just paid for a 12 month gym membership…..my bank called to see if my credit card was stolen. ***