Distractions of the adorable kind....

I am supposed to be quilting today........
What does it look like when you are too sick to go to school but too healthy to be in bed?

It looks like this:

Actually, she went to school but I got called to pick her up. She has a nasty ear infection. This is the little one I babysit. (lives across the street). She wasn't too sick to eat a peanut butter and banana sandwich however. Check out the chocolate milk mustache!

Stash Report-Week 13

I went a little crazy over the last few weeks and bought 36 yds of fabric.
I KNOW....I KNOW!

Most I have plans for so it isn't as bad as it seems (yeah RIGHT!)
So without any fanfare my totals are:

Fabric Added this Week: 36 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 36 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 29.25 yards

Total -6.75 yards busted

Honey Mustard Chicken

Another winner and easy to make.
This is my favorite dinner and I make it a lot. The asparagus was a bit soggy. I usually always steam it fresh but it was super cheap a few weeks ago so I tried blanching and flash freezing and then using the food saver and put them in the freezer. They were soggy. I don't think I will be doing that again.


What is on your design wall? This is on mine.

A little organization and Dinner

Mark got home around 1pm today and he spent a large part of the day picking up the yard and burning sticks and twigs and general clean up. What a difference that made. I officially moved my sewing machine into the quilting room and set it up near my big work table. I had it on the tv table in the dining room and had extension cords all around plugged into the iron, sewing machine and light and well.....I tripped yesterday and almost...I said ALLLLLMOST, sent my Janome 10000 flying! Oh, I don't know what I would have done then. I have hopefully solved that problem by getting rid of all the cords and tripping hazards. That was a close one!

Yep, another dinner to blog about.
Since Mark was such a good man and cleaned up today, I made him one of our favorite dishes. Szechwan Beef:

Yes, we like spicy food in this house. This recipe is very flavorful using lots of spices for the marinade.

Jess approves:

Personal Quiltathon day 2

Ok, so it took me longer than I thought to get everything I wanted to DONE, but DONE it is!
First, the wedding dress quilt. Here it is:


I used the Meandering Magic technique by Suzanne Earley. I am totally giving her credit because I was trying this technique on my own and it just looked "off" and too thready. (I was practicing on a practice piece of course). I finally broke down and read the book and it just totally made sense. I tried it out using her instructions and it looked so much better.

I also got the center of the Carpenter Star put together. I will do the borders later. Mark is on his way home and I need to put it away.

Personal Quiltathon

I have three main goals for today. #1 is to finish this customer quilt. I have been sitting on it for a long time because quite frankly, I was scared of it. It is made from a wedding gown. Yes, a satin and heavily beaded wedding gown.
I finally swallowed hard and loaded it last night. This shows how heavily the beading is on the outsides. It was a pain to pin on and not damage the beading.

This is what it looks like now. I will finish this first today and then move on to other tasks.

This is a Christmas gift for my husband. He is gone and won't be home until early afternoon tomorrow so I want to at least have the center of this all pieced. I can add the borders at a later date:

I need to finish the center of this quilt; This is a pattern by Judy L.
I'll check back with an update in a few hours.

A hearty dinner before his trip

Well Mark and Jess are at work. Mark is going away for a long weekend but leaving right from work so I won't see him until Sunday when he comes home. Who knows if Jess will be here tonight or not. That's ok, I'll just do my own thing.

I plan on sewing and quilting a lot in the next few days.

I made a nice hearty dinner last night. This one I make often. It couldn't be any easier. First, I peel carrots and scrub red potatoes and rough chop them up, I add any other veggies I want like fresh mushrooms, green pepper and onions. This time I added broccoli because I had some. I fill the pan up like so:
Hint<I use tin foil in pan for easy clean up>
Then sprinkle with olive oil and season with salt, pepper, onion powder, garlic powder, and parsley, red pepper flakes are optional and just stir it up to kind of coat it, then rough chop up some Italian sausage links and throw those on top like so:

Pop it in the oven for about an hour and 15 minutes, or until carrots and potatoes are done. I usually take it out and stir it once after about 40 minutes.
This is a nice hearty meal and easy to prepare. We love it.
Plated up:

Oh, and then I made a pineapple cake for dessert and to send with Mark on his trip.
I had some for breakfast today:

Sunday Dinner

We had a szechwan Chicken stir fry tonight.....here are the veggies:

Plated up!

This was awesome!


This however was not so awesome:You guessed it....the border on a customer quilt. I give up!
I am NOT A MAGICIAN!

Heart/Hug Blocks

I belong to a small sewing group that meets every other Tuesday evening. I also go over to sew every Tuesday with my good friend, Cat, since she is retired and I am unemployed and have the time. When my Tuesday sewing group has a loss such as the death of a mother, father or spouse, everyone makes a "hug" block for them to make a memory quilt with. You would be surprised how many of these blocks get made. Last year one of our ladies, lost her husband suddenly and not soon after, she lost her father. We made a friendship quilt for another gal in our group who is battling cancer for the second time. We are making blocks to make a friendship quilt for one of the gals in our group who is leaving us and moving to Texas. We really just want to tie her up and make her stay, but instead, we are making her a quilt. (that is what my string blocks are for.) Anyway, I made some heart/hug blocks. One to give to Carolyn, who lost her husband and 3 extras to have on hand. (since I had everything out already)

A Gift from Jo

You know about my mini long arm group? Well 3 of the gals, Nancy, Linda and Jo came over to sew last week and while they were here, I noticed Nancy's little thread catcher/pin cushion. It was so cute! She had won it as a prize at MQR. You will never guess what I got in the mail yesterday!
Go ahead, GUESS............................Give up?

Jo sent me this along with a little thank you for a fun day. She is so sweet. I love this little bag and am already using it. I have the best friends!

I've Discovered Strip Blocks!

I have seen plenty of strip quilts and always thought they looked cute. I've never made any, although I am collecting blacks and whites to make one in the future. One of the ladies in my Tuesday quilt group is leaving us and moving to Texas.....THE NERVE!

We will miss her a lot and all making strip blocks to put a small memory/farewell quilt together for her. I didn't realize how FUN these are to make. I had a blast and when I laid them out I loved them!
Here are my blocks:

Now I'm fixin to make some strippy hearts appliques for memory blocks for a few people...I am really behind on this. Here the reds I cut out to make them:

Stash Report-Week 9

Well, I fell off the wagon.....but it is Suzanne's fault. She had a fabric sale at Knots and Bolts and I needed fabric for a new strip quilt for my niece. I will fill in with other fabrics from my stash. I will count the new fabric in my stash when I get it, UNLESS, I am able to pull all the fabric for the new quilt and in that case, I won't add it in and I will have more stash busted for that week. I count the fabric when I pull it for a project. Easier for me that way. So this week I don't have much to report. I used 4.5 yards for a quilt backing and binding. I made a few strip blocks from my scraps but I'm not counting that because I can't measure it. Other than that, nothing until the new shipment comes in.

Fabric Added this Week: 0 yards
Fabric Added Year to Date: 0 yards

Fabric Used this Week: 3.5 yards
Fabric Used Year to Date: 29.25 yards

Total 29.25 yards busted

Payton's Quilt

Payton is one of the children I babysit. She just turned 10 last week. I asked her if she would be interested in quilting a quilt and entering it into the "Kids can Quilt" Contest at MQX. She was excited to do it. I explained the quilting only is judged so she agreed to use this small pink log cabin quilt I had here. Pink is not her color, but she agreed. She chose a design and I showed her how to work the machine and gave her some pointers.

She diligently practiced every chance she could for two weeks.

She came over yesterday to quilt for real:

Look how serious she is:

Unfortunately we had some tension problems and we called it a day. She was dismayed to learn I had to remove the stitching she already had done. Not as dismayed as I was however. Her 40 minutes of stitching took me 5 hours to frog. I went to bed at 2am, my fingers raw and my eyes burning.

She came over this morning at 11 to give it a go again.

She got right to work:

She noticed that the machine didn't feel right and said it was catching at some points. She described to me what sounded like thread in the wheels so I looked and sure enough....there was thread wrapped around a wheel. When I did a deep knee bend to take a good look I heard my husband say from behind me, "I didn't think you could still do that" (smart ass)
Anyway, I started getting the thread out and Payton took over. She did a good job and cleaned it up and got back to work:


Last row:

Finished at 2pm...NOT BAD!

She wants to make a quilt herself. I told her we will do it this summer when she doesn't have homework most nights. She makes me proud!