Stash Report

I seem to be in a buying mode...still. I NEEDED to buy fabric for Liz's I-spy quilt since I had a 25% of coupon from a local quilt shop and I NEEDED buy a couple of fat quarters for the triangle madness, then finally I bought a back for Melissa's family's I-spy; it's preshrunk, pressed, and seamed; ready to be put in the long-arm tomorrow...well, tomorrow is too busy I think it will be Wednesday.

Liz's- 5/8 of lime green for border, 2 1/2 (just enough to add to the 3 yards I already had.)

Mel's- 4 1/2 of a cool route 66 fabric that has California and Texas on it.

Triangle madness- 2 fat quarters...I just did not have the right blue or gold!

I used some fabric and covered the back of the piano in our Children's meeting rooms at church. I used 2 yards of rich brown that didn't come out of my stash....it was donated so I won't be counting it. :( In fact my friend gave me the rest of her bolt to use; so I have enough for ...oh, 3-4 more pianos! I sewed a couple of tucks in the back so it COULD be used to hold word strips or pcitures. It was Roger's idea to add the fish line to hold the tops of the pictures so they won't topple over.

donated; same--66 yards

used; 15.75

purchased; 77 yards

The stash report is going on again on Judy's blog.

big babies

My daughter just called to tell me that her 2 month old weighs less than my baby did at birth. Landon is 10lbs 4 ozs. Jeffrey was 10lbs 7 ozs. ...at birth. :)

global warming

I have lived in Texas most of the last 31 years. THIS year I bought some of these; silk long underwear. I'm telling you, I have never felt like I needed long underwear here, but I wear them EVERYDAY! They are so comfortable and just add a little bit of warmth right were you need it; under your jeans. I just ordered another pair of bottoms, the tops show a bit under some shirts so I usually skip wearing the top and wear one of my red jackets.
And why am I mentioning this at the end of winter? I am sitting here shivering since I thought it would be warm enough to just wear my jeans...wishing I hadn't put both bottoms in the washing machine.

I-spy

Here it is again with it's first border. The question is what to do next.

In case you want to make one of these:

• the squares are 5.5 inches
• the corner triangles are cut 2 inch square then sewn diagonally and trimmed. Half are black and half are white.
• the border rectangles are 5.5 X 3with the same triangle units.
• the corner is 3 x 3
• who know what the next border will be.....

edited; Be sure and press the white triangles away from the white triangles and press the black triangles toward the black triangles...I hope that makes sense. 

Cook's Illustrated

I went grocery shopping wondering what to fix for dinner and picked up the new issue of 'Cook's Illustrated'. Read their recipe for crisp pork tostadas then purchased the magazine the meat; a pork roast, and went home and fixed it. Jeffrey loved it, everyone else liked it too. YES! Something everyone likes. It's basically 'pulled pork' cooked a bit differently and is easy and tastes great.

The next day I put the leftovers into a batch of minestrone that everyone had seconds of too. So dinner is ready for tonight since I haven't figured out how to make a batch of soup that feeds less than 20.

Here's the minestrone that I kind of followed. Except I had no celery and no parsley. I doubled the garlic and used some V-8 (usually I skip the tomatoes and just use V-8.) I cooked the green beans with the carrots since we like ours overcooked. I added chili powder and a bit of Tabasco. Then I sliced the cabbage, shredded the 3 zucchinis and put them in after the pasta was done so those vegetables only cooked a few minutes, while the table was being set.

published?

I had to buy this magazine, Fabric Trends, last month. Why? Because a quilt I quilted is shown as an ad in it. It is photographed in such a way that you can't tell it was quilted but it's there. It was this quilt:

Years ago I was published in the Quilt Sampler magazine....there was a picture of the local quilt shop, Quakertown Quilts and a pillow I sell a pattern of was in the picture. I bought that magazine too. It was one of these pillows, now that I mention it I can't remember for sure; but I think it was the heart one.

I guess that's not really what they mean when 'you are published' but it is fun anyway.

edit: It was the star pillow.

Red

I think I like red. Recently I visited a thrift store and found another red jacket, this one looks like (and is) a red wool blazer with a black velvet collar. Really as classic as you can get; $.99. I bought it but I'm wondering if I should take out the shoulder pads, but maybe the shoulders will sag.... After I got home I thought about my other red jackets.

• January I found a Coldwater Creek Clearance sale and bought this red velvet big shirt that I wear as a jacket.
• December I went to a Coldwater Creek sale and bought myself a red polar fleece jacket that I've lived in all winter.
• I have a red sweatshirt jacket that I wear.
• The red blazer that I mentioned above.

That's 4 red jackets. I guess it is time to quit buying red jackets. I just found a black polka dot one that I'd love to get...but my closets are full and I live in south TX.

Design wall

I worked diligently last week on triangles. Lots and lots of triangles. I figured this quilt needed approximately 897 triangles; 1 inch, 1 1/2 inch and 2 inch triangle units. Hours after putting it on the design wall I found a mistake.

I think the border is too light; but I won't remove it until there are several more blocks done. Fridays the local quilt shop has an open classroom for people to sit and sew. Cutting the triangles is an easy thing to do with company to talk too; this week I will get some more fabric ready so I can get more triangles to cut during this 'bee'.

I also NEED to find time to sew the I-spy together; but it needs to stay on the wall for awhile so I can rearrange the blocks.

We need to come up with games to play with I-spy.

It could certainly be a counting game; How many ducks can you find?

How many frogs?

which animals would you find in the zoo?

or Africa? or a farm?

Which things relate to the beach?

California?

Daddy?

Mommy?

I put in things that relate to Grandma- the sewing machine; great-grandma-the butterflies; great granddad-the plane; Mom-the cello; Dad-the bikes.; Granddad-the birds.

It would be nice to have a Dr. fabric...and a canoe. What about .......

scatterbrained

This is a list of what I've worked on this week....

1. Put border on 'Pink Sampler Christmas' Quilt...put aside last April because the border didn't go on right. I had to hunt for the border that I'd cut too short, sewn on and ripped off, then add more fabric and sew it on. Easy? Not when the quilt is 109 X 109 and the pins were downstairs; so I had to do it without pins.
   
2. Cut and sewn approximately 300 half square triangle units, (HAD to buy some red and white stripe for it since I had NONE) and made one block of the 'Triangle Madness' Quilt.
3. Pulled out a Christmas Log Cabin that was unfinished and made some triangles in class Monday to use for the border.
4. Ironed all the smaller than 5 yard pieces of fabric for Liz's quilt.
5. Embroidered and attached a label for a quilt I finished January 2009.
6. Contemplated, researched southwest designs and began designing quilting for 'Two Gray Hills' quilt.
7. Resumed work on Dresden Plate for customer.
8. Sorted Brian's funeral quilt and continued sewing on it as starters and enders.
9. Loaded customer quilt but didn't quilt it yet.
10. Purchased fabric for Austin's little brother's quilt's border; and sewed it on.
11. Attended 2 guild meetings; got some neat ideas to use scraps up; some call them 'mile a minute' blocks others call them crumb quilts. The speaker called them SSS quilts; for slice, sew, slice. Lynn, look at the last quilt on the slide show, that's the only one from the program (the rest were show and tell) and is the one I was talking to you about.
    
12. Received I-spy blocks back and spent hours sorting them into 5 separate piles. Made a few more so I can put Melissa's up on the design wall Monday.
13. Made a marble bag! for Andrew...not counting it in the totals.
    
14. Finished 1 bag for shopping. Cool bag; more to come.

Like I said a little scatterbrained; one of these days I'll finish one of my quilts.

Purchased this week:

• 1/2 yard for baby border
• 1.25 yards for Triangle Madness

Used this week:

• more than 1/4 yard...less than 1/2 yard for bag... I'm calling it 1/2 yard.

Year to date:

• donated; same--66 yards
• used; 15.75
  
• purchased; 67 + 1.75= 68.75
  

If you're interest in other's stash busting efforts go visit Judy's blog...now she is really busting!

quilt designs?

This is the next quilt to go on the long-arm. I'm having a hard time deciding on the designs. Any suggestions?

Verna's quilt

In my family we rotate giving gifts for Christmas. This year I had my oldest sister so I offered to quilt her a quilt. Her daughter made this one and I quilted it. It is ready to mail to her; in fact that's my goal for today. So I had to share it with you first.

We have had weeks of lousy photo weather so I finally got the tripod out and took this picture. I managed to edit the picture....and then saved it but I can't find it so you get all the background too.

Supper is ready

I came home from my meeting hungry for King Ranch Chicken. So I combined the contents of my refrigerator and got a delicious King Ranch like dish. Make sure you have the following leftovers first:

• roasted onions, peppers, and garlic.
• chicken breast
• a bit of cream cheese
• a bit of process cheese (I know WHEN have I ever had that in my fridge? Never.)
• rice
• salsa

So good. I used up all of the above leftovers except for the onions and peppers, that will be served separately since the boys don't like them. I made enough for supper and my lunch. I'll serve it with a side of diced tomatoes and an avocado. Then heat up some green beans and supper is ready.

Happy Dance

I received by 496 'I-Spy' blocks back from the exchange! They are wonderful and I hope to get them on the wall for next Monday...maybe even get some sewn together.

Design wall

Is this cool or what?

This is NOT on my Design wall. This is a quilt of an antique quilt that hung in the Quilt Festival, October 2009. I posted the picture back in October.

Today I'm taking a class called 'Perfectly Painless Triangles' while I don't actually think I need the class I thought it would be good to get to know a few people in our guild. During class we are expected to work on a quilt that has a lot of triangles. This is the one I chose.

So I could say it is on the design wall in my head. I have one center star made.

edit: I'm home from the class....taught by Debbie Caffrey. I have almost ALL of the 308 1" triangle units finished! The morning was spent on a trial set of triangles then she helped us each figure out how to approach the quilt of our choice. I spent 2 hours? working on the 1" triangle units; another hour and about 320 will be done. I am concerned that I may not have gotten them scrappy enough. I'll see next week when it is up on the design wall.

I'm calling this quilt 'Triangle Madness.'

Stash Report AND OPAM

I DID IT! I was trying to finish my little valentine quilt and I did. Here's the quilt I made my Mother in 2003, Mom is fussy cut in the lower right heart. Notice the lovely frame my Dad made for it.

Then the one in 2010. I fussy cut my sister's and my initials in the bottom right heart and then fussy cut the little heart corner blocks. This is also a project I started in 2003 so it counts toward my 'One Project a Month' (trying to finish one OLD project each month) goal.

So I can report I USED 1/3rd YARD!

I also made a tote; that I'll post about when I get a couple more made; and that took another 1/2 YARD I'm just really moving forward here on the finished projects!

Year to date:
donated: same 66 yards
used: 15.25
purchased: 67 yards nothing new this week!

Valentine's Day

It's Valentine's Day and I'm wondering who came up with this holiday? The florists or the candy manufacturers? I'm prepared. I made my sweetie a chocolate heart. I hung one of my heart quilts in the entry. I bought a new Candy dish and kept it full of M&M's for 3 days (for my boys.)
I recieved a new heart from my sister.
Heart 'healthy' cookies (at least they have very little fat in them) are in the oven. They are also gluten free for my church class tomorrow....well later today. Unfortunately I did not finish the heart quilt. Almost but not quite. I'm sure to be done___________ ....I don't think I can give a date since I have a class Monday....and Tuesday, and Thursday. (blogger is having some issues....like no 'enter' use and I can't put the pictures where I want them.) Surprise, surprise the photos turned out just right....

Stump the Mom

What is the strongest acid know to man?

How many elements in the periodic table are 'artificial'?

A new recipe

Last week I posted those delicious cookies but after experimenting and deciding that the apricot filling was the best I made a double batch of the filling and then had left overs! What's a woman to do? So Andrew and I mixed up some sweet bread and after it had risen I rolled it out. Put in some cream cheese filling then a ribbon of the apricot filling down the center third. I had visions of laying a fancy lattice on top, like this one; but I just flopped the bread over the filling twice, let it raise and baked it. So good, even if it wouldn't win any beauty contests.

Cream cheese filling;

• 8 ounces of cream cheese
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 egg

Beat cream cheese until smooth; add sugar and egg.

Use any sweet bread recipe.

Go back to my cookie post for the apricot filling.

I love cream cheese filling.

Valentine for Roger

I made a valentine for my husband yesterday. I needed a big heart shaped cookie cutter.

Cashews and

Craisins, and Chocolate.

I buttered the cookie cutter, wrapped the foil up around the heart a bit. Melted the chocolate slowly; poured it in and studded it with his favorite nuts and the craisins. After it cooled awhile

I put it in the freezer and then it came right out of the mold. Now I just need to wrap it inventively and hide it for a few days. It is probably too big; a smaller heart would work as well!

Brian

Today has been very busy. I hadn't realized until just a few minutes ago that it was the 9th. I thought about it last week and knew it would be Tuesday but ...

Brian Jacob Stone, my son, died of cancer 11 years ago. It seems like yesterday sometimes. My 2 children at home don't remember their brother, and I think that is very sad. He loves them. They loved him.

This picture was taken at M.D.Anderson where he received great care. They helped all of us.

We all had great fun with Brian the last 18 months of his life. I got to be with him all day every day since he didn't go to school. What a joy that time was. He would clean out my purse on the way home from the clinic every week. We stopped at taco bell for lunch often and got him 2 tacos until they were too messy for him to deal with (he lost the use of his right arm about 5-6 months before he died.) The school sent teachers to him and so he had some school work but mostly it was me and him and 2 babies.

I was looking for a picture that Melissa took of him standing in the hallway of the institute building; it showed his beautiful blue eyes so well.

Inspiration quilt

This week's inspiration quilt is closer to an exact copy. I blogged about this quilt in July but I couldn't find the photo from the magazine. I saw the above picture in Country Living magazine, taken at a Riverwind Country Inn in Connecticut.

Made in 1994. blogged about here also.

I put it in one of my 3 inch binders. I have many. That's where I put pictures of the gazillion things I'm going to do some day.

This one is labeled QUILTS but the picture should have been in the one labeled 'Quilt Notes.' Once I start working on a quilt I gather my notes and pictures and it goes in 'Quilt Notes.' Since I have more than one thing started I make a 'journal' entry each time period I work on one project and it goes with the other notes.

I also have a notebook labeled 'Scrap Bee' which has all the notes gathered that pertain to the scrap bee that I did for 10 years.

Lunch

I fixed the BEST dinner yesterday. One of Jeffrey's friends stays with us most Saturday nights and all day Sunday. He recently decided to eat vegetarian so I try to cook things he will eat for Sunday. He really liked this although J still did not. Notice I added a can of rinsed black beans to increase the protein.

Here's a picture of the BEST lunch. A double decker chile relleno casserole with fresh diced tomatoes.

Design wall

Saturday I took a class from Winnie about borders. I think everyone has already taken this class; I know a couple women that have taken her border class a couple of times. This is what I came home with Saturday after sewing 5 hours. We make the 10" center at home and pre-cut strips to take to class. I had the yellow and green fabrics from my stash but the pinks did not match what was in my stash; it is a little coral-ly, so I had to purchase it. I wish I hadn't used so much of the yellow in the center....

After working another 2 hours I had this:

Now the 74 dollar question is do I make it bigger? Continue with more borders? Or do I turn it on point and then continue? Do I just bind it here and call it done? It's not like I need another project....

So, I would really like your opinion. On point or not? Continue or not? I'll be waiting to hear. Will I be twiddling my until I hear? Nope, I'll work on something else this morning...Should it be the I-Spy blocks..... NO THEY ARE FINISHED!

This is what 495 blocks look like:

And, yes, nano seconds after this picture was taken the tower fell over behind the couch so I get to dig them out and reorganize them. The exchange is due Wednesday and then I'll get them back next Monday. In 2 weeks what do you suppose will be on the design wall?

So today I get to choose between;

• buy and sew border on spotty dotty baby quilt?
• alter prom dress for customer?
• quilt Verna's quilt?
• design southwest quilting design for new customer quilt?
• sew together Dresden plate for customer?
• or clean a room?

What a dilemma; so much to do and so little time....

Stash report

My daughter made me do it. Does that sound familiar? I went shopping Friday. I spent money Friday. I bought A LOT of fabric Friday.
22 yards! Liz's quilt is finally closer to getting....started.
That includes fabric for the back of the second spotty dotty quilt.
But with no finishes this week by totals look dismal.

Year to date:
donated: same 66 yards
used: same 14.25
purchased: 67 yards

Progress

Today I went shopping to a couple of quilt shops that are far from my house. Cactus quilts is about 40 minutes and Pinwheels and Posies about 30. These were the 3rd and 4th shops I've been to to look for fabric for Liz's quilt. Luckily for Liz I found the perfect fabrics in the 4th shop.

The colors are not perfectly true here. The cream is a little more wheat-like. She wanted it to be the colors of the Idaho landscape.

You know the sky is blue sometime.... the red is the branches of the dogwood? I think anyway it's the accent color of the quilt and then she wanted some spring green too. It is beautiful in Idaho; winter and spring, summer and fall.

Unfortunately the blue bled into the water badly. I'll have to get some 'retain?' tomorrow and try again. I don't think Liz would be happy if her quilt was not washable!

Remember the quilt I'm making?

cookies?

These cookies? are like pie, but better. While getting ready for our last wedding I went shopping at Whole Foods and purchased one of their packages of fresh cookies; rugelach. I had never heard of them but I LOVED them and went to the web looking for recipes for them. I found out that rugelach is a Yiddish word and it is a traditional Jewish pastry that is served year round. I made them several times but the filling always fell out since it is made similar to a cinnamon roll, then baked on it's side. So when I found this recipe that calls them un-rugelach; but has the same ingredients I was eager to try it.

Perfect. I think this is my favorite cookie ever. I figure it's a fruit, so eat with a clear conscience!

Un-Rugelach or Turnovers
Adapted from ‘The Pie and Pastry Bible’ by Rose Levy Beranbaum
Crust
4 ounces cream cheese
8 Tablespoons softened butter
3 Tablespoons sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1/8 teaspoon salt

Filling
3 Tablespoons sugar
2 Tablespoons brown sugar
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
6 Tablespoons golden raisins
1/3 apricot spread/jam (the good stuff)
½ teaspoon cornstarch
½ cup coarsely chopped pecans (be generous here)

Topping
Cinnamon and sugar mixed
Milk

Mix ingredients in the food processor, form into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and chill 2 hours.
Pulse first 4 ingredients in the food processor until the raisins are unrecognizable (my kids don’t think they like cooked raisins). Add the jam and the cornstarch; pulse, then add the nuts, combine, but do not chop fine.
Keep the dough cold while making the turnovers; form them into 1 tablespoon balls, chill, work with one ball at a time; roll between plastic wrap until about 4 inches across. Put a full teaspoon of filling on half of the circle and fold the other half over. Chill formed cookies 30 minutes before baking. Brush with milk and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar mixture. Bake at 350 degrees for 15 minutes. Cool completely before eating; the hot apricot jam can burn.

Yes, these are a bit of trouble. The dough is very soft and hard to handle. But so incredible!

My kids liked them; even the one that doesn't like nuts didn't mind them here.

Now I'll have to try a chocolate version; instead of apricots use miniature chocolate chips....

edited; We tried it filled with Nutella (hazelnut and chocolate spread). Jeffrey liked it best. I also did it with just apricot jam. Very good. After the kids went to school I did one last one with a square of milk chocolate and one of dark chocolate, topped with pecans. Yummy. But the apricot-raisin mixture was the best.

edit: Made again 3/1/10 This time I used a recipe for dried apricots that are cooked then blended and some sugar added then cooked again...it wasn't as good but I have a couple bags of dried apricots that need to be used and it is still delicious; doesn't need the cornstarch.

lost my mind

I'm wondering who eats raw hamburger meat in my house? I've planned for 2 days cooking a new recipe of spaghetti... went to the store yesterday and bought all the ingredients except the meat; CAUSE I ALREADY HAD IT, went to cook dinner and the hamburger meat I purchased is missing in action. Jeffrey hates to go to the grocery store with me, I hate to leave him here alone and do something by myself when I have been by myself all day. So I'll find something else to fix but it won't be as good.

Do you need other examples to prove I'm loosing my mind?

• I took a picture off a piece of paper, scanned the picture, lost the paper... I did not move off this chair and it disapperated. (this is not actually a word...I think it is from Harry Potter)


• I came downstairs 3 times today to get....something and kept forgetting what; and each time it was for the same thing.


• Now that I sat down to type up the things that are driving me nuts I can't think of them.
• Oh, yes, cleaning up....I try to finish something and I can't cause I'm out of ziplock bags...I try to put something away and I can't cause something BIG is in the way, I try to cleanoff the counter but I have so many appliances that I don't know where to put them. Oh and everytime I move around I start coughing....
• I filled the washer with whites and waited while I cleaned a bit to put some more in (a front loader isn't easy to add to after it gets started.) I went upstairs 3 times to get a few more whites, forgot each time, then started the washer, then found the one more Sunday shirt that needed to be in that load.
• Oh, and I have a TEENAGER!

Jeffrey's music keeps lecturing him on using a metronome. Yesterday they got the wires to make a monster metronome; monster meaning it uses our wonderful sound system to make the metronome rEALLYY LOUD!

Hearts

I imagine you will see lots of heart items this month; here is one of mine.

I made this for my sisters first grandchild. My sister died several years ago and wouldn't be making Aeryn a quilt, but I could. I wanted it to have some kind of nod to the quilt Rene had made for her only child over 20 years earlier. That quilt, made in 1976 was red, white and blue and had hearts and squares. I only saw it once, but I remember her talking about it. This quilt is made with 4" squares on the front and 10" squares on the back. It was also inspired by this quilt;

This was made by Lynda Milligan and Nancy Smith of Possibilites. They have a blog and a store in Denver, CO. The pattern was printed in Traditonal Patchwork N0.79. I made my 2 quilt in 2003; but I don't know when the magazine was published. I don't think I used their pattern; I just saw it and read the directions and adapted it to suit me. I ended up with 2 quilts when I took the outside of the hearts from the first quilt and appliqued it to another fabric to get this quilt.
I thought they turned out rather nice and I'd do them again if I ever had a granddaughter. Here's the back of the first quilt. I bought yards of pastel fabric and cut them up into napkins for a spring lunch for Church then kept them and have used them....once, here.

Design Wall

Today I started to put what I was working on on the 'design wall' and decided I needed a 'design cookie sheet' instead.

I made one of these for my younger sister years ago. Then I felt guilty because I have more than 1 sister. Gradually over the years I've made one for my Mother and 1 for my oldest sister. This one is for Cheryl; I pieced it at least 10 years ago....this is the year it gets finished. The heart in the lower right corner has her initials and mine. Unfortunately I do not have pictures of all of the ones I've done. (Please send me pictures.) I just spent 30 minutes looking for the picture I knew I took of Mother's but it isn't findable.

The row of hearts at the bottom is for me....I don't think it will get finished this year since it needs many more hearts pieced. And yes, those are 3" hearts; but paper piecing makes it easy.

I finished set #4 of the 'I Spy' blocks; only 99 more to sew and I have 10 days! I've 2 classes to prepare for and a house to clean. I think I can I think I can.....