Happy Friday!
Between working playing in the garden and quilting, 
I’ve been rug making and baking.
I’d really like to be a better baker and the only way that can be accomplished is PRACTICE! After making three successful batches of cinnamon rolls, today I decided to bake some blueberry muffins. They turned out great!
I know for most cooks, these are mindlessly simple accomplishments but I’m starting from below-scratch with my lifelong aversion to baking and long line of disasters. I’m hoping to build my confidence with a string of successes and develop a love of the craft.
The house smells wonderful and DH definitely enjoys 
treats from the oven accompanying his afternoon and evening coffee. He’s always complimentary and never leaves any to go stale. He even cleans the kitchen after my baking sessions!! Unfortunately, he doesn’t eat them all and doesn’t wrestle me away from them. Willpower has never been my strong suit!
I’m sure baking is only a current trend. During our hot summers, I avoid using the oven so I will bake as long as Spring temperatures continue. I’ll give some thought to developing a new talent for Summer…. maybe I should try exercising! Not likely!!
I’ve been really pleased using my second twined rug but for the third, I decided to try tackling the stack of used jeans we’ve saved through the years. Many of them have holes in the fronts and the leg backs are faded but still usable. 
I spent several days ‘de-boning’ jeans; removing the rear pockets, cutting away the zippers, yokes, waistbands and belt loops. What a chore!! I’ve gone through nearly half of them, cut the legs into strips and began twining a new rug.
For this rug, I’ve used high-quality muslin for the warp. The light, blotchy denim is from the jeans back legs and the mottled areas are where pockets were once located. The super-dark stripes are made using new midnight blue denim I’ve had in the stash for nearly 20 years. The muslin was cut into 2 ¼” strips and the denim is cut into 1 ½” strips. It takes real muscle to manipulate the thick fabric but will result in a tough, heavy duty rug/mat. It’s slow going but I’m enjoying it and plan to continue making dark and light evenly distributed stripes.
Happy weekend!
Shirl
By Janice Everage Fri Apr 22nd 2016 at 11:19 pm
Like.
By Janice Everage Sat Apr 23rd 2016 at 1:25 am
I like your rugs ~~ I really like the denim one ~~ it’s going to be great.
By shirlsu Sat Apr 23rd 2016 at 1:39 pm
Thanks Janice. I like the denim rug so far but will never make another one. De-boning the jeans in addition to twining the rug is too much work! Using all new denim is too expensive these days so this will be the only one.
By Janice Everage Sat Apr 23rd 2016 at 9:13 pm
That will make it all the more special.
By Shel Sun Apr 24th 2016 at 8:15 pm
Love the denim rug…….but I believe you when you say it’s tough going…..but it should last a lifetime, for sure!
Glad you’re enjoying the baking…..I learned to love baking while at Mom-Mom Alice’s elbow as a youngin…..loved it ever since…..just don’t do it very often. Funny…..I still have managed to gain a gazillion pounds over the past few years……….Willpower? What’s THAT?!?!?!
xox