Away and Back, Again

Once again, I was away for a week, this time to Austin, Texas to visit our son and grandsons.

We watched a little of the grandsons' (ages 11 and 14) scuba diving lessons. When all we could see were their bubbles (ha!), we left. Three of us also did some diamond painting on coasters, and played Rummykub and Mexican Train Dominoes.

Traveling by car, I had lots of "Passenger Queen" time (picked up that term from my Instagram friend Susan @canadianabroad). The trip was the reason I started a rice bag.

From my last blog post, I learned that several of you seemed uncertain about the use for a rice bag. In this case, it's not meant to be filled with rice and microwaved to warm your hands or feet. Rather, this rice bag, called komebukuro, was first used for carrying a rice offering to a shrine or temple. Today its purpose is as a gift bag or to carry personal items.

I used this free pattern, offered by a 4-H executive on the Utah State University website, but my rice bag isn't soft-side. Instead, I added structure.

First, I sandwiched flannel between the pieced top and back. Second, the patches I added are not raw-edge stitched in the Boro style, but rather have turned under edges as with Kawandi.

All my choices compounded to make the piece a little challenging to hand-stitch because of the thickness.

I used size 12 Wonderfil Spagetti thread to hand quilt 43 times - about ¼" apart - along the 24½" length of the piece.

Darn it, I forgot to take a thimble along with me! A soft rubber thimble would have eased how difficult it was to pull the needle through all the layers.

Anyway, I got the quilting task completed going to and coming from Texas. When I returned home last Tuesday afternoon, it sewed together quickly. The pattern's written instructions for assembly are adequate. Photos help.

In case you're interested, when I finished quilting it, I used Deco-Bond 809 to back the exterior piece. That added more stiffness, I also fused a square of Timtex to the bottom piece. Turning it inside took a bit of wrestling, but I'm pleased that it stands up like a box.

My friend Peggy gave me the rope and empty wood spool for finishing. Thanks Peggy!

Now that I've been home for a few days, I'm back into activities and making. This week I knitted another round loom cap.

I tried a different design following YouTube to make the Raindrop Stitch. I'm pretty proud of myself for strategically adding the gray color stripes. If I hadn't added gray, I wouldn't have had enough red yarn to make the whole cap. Happily, I used every bit of the red yarn. No leftovers!

I'm promising myself I'll return to quiltmaking this week (my Pick-a-Decade Challenge quilt won't make itself!) though diamond painting continues to call me. I'm about one-third done with my 20" X 20" ocean scene. The sea water is sparkly beautiful.

Between the trip to Kansas City in early July, and the trip to Austin last week, I'm now well-stocked-on two of my favorite things: popcorn and coffee.

Hy-Vee (Midwest grocery store) popcorn is the best when it comes to kernels to pop yourself... which I always do. In fact, it was "dinner" for me last night! You can see I'm impartial when it comes to white or yellow corn. Ten bags should last a little more than a year.

As for coffee, I really like the flavors H.E.B. (Texas grocery store) sells, and the fact that most of their specialty flavors - with names like Texas Pecan, Houston, Austin, and San Antonio - are available in regular and decaf. I like to mix my own half-and-half regular/decaf combo to make individual cups. Nine bags should keep me for a few months.

When we go to/from Austin, we stop at all the Bucee's (four stops this trip!) and stay two nights in a motel. Coming home, we decided to treat ourselves to a balcony room at the Hampton Inn on Mobile Bay, in Daphne, Alabama.

We faced west, and though it was hot (like 94℉), we got to see a beautiful sunset.

The highway going across the bay is I-10, and that's downtown Mobile in the background.

Linda