Knife, Fork, Spoon, Quilt and Blocks

What does a knife, fork and spoon have to do with this post?  Well, a friend was over the other day and she said the persimmons this fall had lots of spoons and a few knives.  I asked her what the heck she was talking about, to which she immediately explained that the seeds predicted what kind of winter we have to look forward to.  Of course, when she drove off, I came in to look on the internet and here is what I found.  So you know me, I raced out the front door and fight with the deer to get my load of persimmons.  Ok, so the deer weren't there - but there are plenty of tracks to show the COULD be there... And how lucky is it that we have two persimmon trees on our drive?

Adventurous person that I am, I came in and tried to crack open a seed.  It should be easy right?  WRONG!  Those little suckers are (1) slippery, (2) hard as a rock and (3) very narrow.  You cannot get a grip on them to save your life!  I slipped and slid, I washed them and I tried again.  They slipped out of my fingers and shot across the room.  I grabbed them with a paper towel and promptly cut it trying to cut the seed - but the seed refused to budge.  I was going to cut my stinkin' finger off trying!

SO, I let them sit out overnight and tried again.  Ditto.  "Same same" as the Singaporeans would say.  I yelped at Steve (masculine man that he is) and he tried it too.  I was beginning to think he was going to cut off a finger trying, so I ran out and got a pair of pliers.  Once I gripped the seed with the pliers I nearly ruined 2 knives - but I finally got inside the seeds.

What did I find?

A few knives and a lot of spoons!   I tossed away some of the seeds, but here is what I kept.  So now I have decided I need to run out and get more persimmons; 10 to be precise because I want to be as accurate as I can.  Then I am going to crack open a seed from each one and see how that turns out.  Since I have now figured out how to open them, it should be a breeze.  Don't worry, the deer will thank me for leaving them some seedless fruit after I am finished predicting the weather.  I don't eat persimmons, but they sure do!

So are we supposed to have a lot of heavy wet snow cut by the icy winds like the persimmons predict?  Forecasters on the news say mild and less went winter than normal.  Persimmons say otherwise.  Who will be right?  We shall see.  What does your winter say?  Go grab a local persimmon and (hint) USE PLIERS!


Yesterday, I went and picked up my very bright Turning Twenty quilt from the quilter!  Oh.  My.  Gosh!  You cannot see it here because the picture does not do it justice, but it looks terrific!!  Yes, it is bright.  Yes, it is girly.  I have no idea what I am going to do with it, but I love it!  I just have to bind it now and it will be finished and waiting... for something.  Not sure what, but I will just admire it for a while before I decide what to do with it.

Wanda, the lady that does the quilting... well, actually, her hubby, Charles, does the quilting, but Wanda picks out the quilting pattern and tells him what to do and Charles, like any good husband, does what he is told to do.  Anyway, Wanda picked out what quilting pattern to use on my bright Turning Twenty and she chose a perfect one:

Isn't it wonderful?  Girly and hearts.  Gotta love it.  Well, at least *I* gotta love it - and thankfully I do!


On another note, I have finished a few more blocks of my Underground Railroad quilt:

I now have 10 finished - can you believe it?  I love doing the different patterns!  Let's see... the star in the upper right was the most difficult and then the bear claw (middle left) was next because the directions and measurements were not correct.  You would think the bear claw would have been a breeze for me after my Batik Quilt.  The log cabin (lower left) was one of the easiest to do - but I love doing them all!  A friend and I do a block or two a week together as this is a project we picked to do together.  I love sitting in my sewing/scrap room and quilting with a friend - and I love seeing those blocks come together.  Yes, I think I am a quilter.  

But I think I have to find a money tree.  

Too bad the persimmons don't turn into gold instead of predict the weather.

Quilting is an expensive hobby.

Scrapbooking is also expensive.

But I gotta have hobbies, right?