Sideways Zipper

By now most of you know that I like the Zipper Quilt that Missouri Star Quilt Company came out with.  I had a jungle themed charm pack that I had cut up to make a Zipper Quilt but never did it but this weekend I managed to do a small wall hanging for the office.  I am calling this one Sideways Zipper since it is more rectangular.

I like the fall colors that are in it.  If you look closely, however, you will see that it has hippos, lions, and other jungle animals as well as bamboo in it.  It's fun to look at it from my desk and it makes me smile.  Not a bad thing when you are working all day.

I also managed to find, in my stash of fabric from Ghana some fabric which I thought worked rather well for this.  I just wrapped it around to the front for the binding so it didn't take long at all to finish.

With that UFO finished, I can turn to look at what else I want to work on.  I decided that I need to do another redwork Christmas project so I pulled out my NOEL and started to work on that.  My goal with this redwork is to make the back as nice/clean as the front as far as threads are concerned.  I am going to use a method that I learned from a cross stitch video.  Leave a long enough tail when you start new threads so that you can tie off the end instead of "traveling" with it.  If you can rethread it on a need, then you can also thread it under one more time for further security (or neatness).  So far it is working.  Let's see if I can keep it up.

With all of that going on, I felt like I wanted to cook something so I decided to use up some leftovers and cook some Bacon Potato Soup.  I didn't have a recipe but I thought if it didn't turn out as a soup then I could name it Bacon Mashed Potatoes or something.  It turned out pretty good.  It has some bacon, celery, onion, milk, butter, celery seed, salt, pepper, and of course potatoes.  I thickened it a bit with instant mashed potato flakes so I didn't dilute the taste.

It's time for me to get back to work.  I hope everybody has a great day.

Happy Halloween and other end of the month stuff

Since I am typing this on break time it will have to be short.

First of all I wish to say Happy Halloween

to those who celebrate and/or like the holiday.  I don't do anything special for Halloween since I don't get trick or treeters.  It is a time when I can lock my doors and settle in for a quiet night.  We all need more of those don't we?

I know that I need a quiet night after the busy weekend I had.  I have now finished the t-shirt wall hanging and t-shirt quilt.  They don't have any labels on them but I'm not sure they will have labels put on them.  I will talk to the client about that on Wednesday when I meet him for lunch.

The back of the quilt

The squares finished up at approximately 14 1/2".  Quite large but these were from grown ups and it got to be tricky on how to get the design in.  A couple of the blocks I had to "create" from smaller pieces.

I also managed to cook this weekend and made a Shepherd's Pie in the crock pot and Pepperoni Pizza roll ups.  Combined with the Beer Cheddar soup, brats, and Reuben dip that I took home as leftovers from the work birthday lunch (I was last to choose what to take so they sort of gave me whatever was left), I didn't have to cook much at all and now have food in the freezer for later.  LOVE that idea.

I see some of the people are looking for me so I had better get back to work.  Have a great day everybody!

And, for my vegan friends....

Catch Up

I know it's been awhile since I posted but I have been very busy.  Yeah, that is a lame excuse but it is the one I'm using.  LOL.

No pictures on this post because I haven't downloaded them yet.  I did, however, want to let you know that I'm still around and like many crafters busier than ever.  This weekend, and actually most of last week, I have been working on the t-shirt quilt and wall hanging.  Tomorrow at lunchtime I will get help and measure my quilts and see if I have to tweak them any more.  That is my name for evening it up.  I think it should be pretty good but since somebody is paying good money for it, I want to do my best.  I have had problems with this project but I think I have it where I can let it go and just say...that is as good as I could do with my little machine.  I can hear Connie say I'm my own worst critic and she might be right.

I have some cross stitch projects I want to work on again also but I won't let myself do that until i finish my obligations which have a deadline date of November 8th.  I did get a new cross stitch magazine in the mail this weekend and there are soooo many projects I want to do in it.  You will probably see some pictures of them in a day or two so that I can remember that I wanted to do them.  :)

My Aleve is kicking in now so I am going to sign off.  I feel very good about how much I got accomplished.  I really need to learn to start earlier so that I'm not wearing out my body all at the end.

I hope everybody has a terrific day/night.

Happy Stitching!

More food than Quilting

I wasn't feeling good today because my shoulders are hurting.  So what do you do?  I managed to cross stitch for about 20 minutes before it was bothering them too much so then I decided I needed to cook stuff.

Now my shoulders and back are REALLY sore.  That's ok.  The movement was probably good for them.  I took some Tylenol so we shall see if that hurts.  I really didn't have much of an option about cooking.  The refrigerator was bare.  So I picked up groceries (spent $50 over my budget) so I decided I had better get to cooking.

Here are the results so far (yes I plan to do more tomorrow).  First up was the Sauerkraut Sausage and Bean Soup.

From one of the Fix it and Forget it Cookbooks.

I will be making this again.  I like the combination of sweet and tangy all in one bite.

After dishing up the rest of the soup and putting it into the refrigerator, I had to lay down again.  I was wincing every time I moved my shoulders.   It's that area between the shoulder blades and the top of the shoulder.

Next up was making some Ranch dressing.  No pictures of that.  It was nothing but milk and mayo mixed with one of the envelope mixes.

Soon I was working on crock pot recipe number 2.  This one was called 1-2-3-4 Casserole.

From one of the Fix it and Forget it Cookbooks

It filled up the crockpot and reminded me a little bit of the ingredients that we would put in those foil packets to cook when camping.

As I dished it out, it reminded me even more so of those packets.  :)   That's ok.  I liked those packets and I like this.  It needs a little bit more salt and pepper but that is to taste.

Once again it was rest time.  And, while I rested I thought about what I would do for my last crockpot recipe today.  I decided on the Western Omelet Casserole.  It takes around 8-9 hours on low so it will be cooking while I am sleeping.  I like that!

From one of the Fix it and Forget It Cookbooks

I'll take a picture of what it looks like tomorrow morning.  Aren't crockpots great?!  I love the idea of putting things in them and forgetting them for a bit.  :)

Now I am ready for bed and have a good start on my meals for the week.

I have some more cooking to do tomorrow.  I think I will do a crockpot onion soup recipe and make some hummus.

I'll talk to you tomorrow.  I hope everybody has a great night/day.

creepy crawlies

It's getting to be that time of year again.  My friend Janine LOVES Halloween and all things Halloween.  She loves Halloween as much as I love Christmas.  Since Halloween is coming before Christmas, I stopped working on my NOEL after I finished the "E" so that I could work on a mini wall hanging to give her.  I changed up this mini wall hanging to reflect Janine's artificial leg.  She never did get the ones which looked like a real leg and just uses the metal one.  I thought she needed it to be represented in the wall hanging.  I just need to sew on the skirt and then see how I want to hand quilt it.  Hand quilting since my sewing machine is still not working.

The back of it will probably be the same material that I used for the skirt and shoes.  I wanted the skirt to look more like the shoes but I put my fusible on the wrong side of the fabric.  So the skirt is the "right" side of the fabric and the shoes are the "wrong" side of the fabric.  I actually like the wrong side better.  The back will probably be the "right side out" and I might use the wrong side for the binding.  We'll see.  It will be a challenge to quilt it also.  I haven't done hand quilting before so I am counting on her poor eyesight to ignore my mistakes.  Actually Janine won't care but I will do my best anyway.

I finished up the "e" on my NOEL which is exciting since I only have one more letter to do now.

Once finished, the NOEL will be my second Christmas related cross stitch that I finished this year. That is exciting because that is TWO (2) UFOs done.

Today is September 11 and I don't have to tell too many people the significance of September 11 to the USA.  I chose to dwell on positive things though so instead I shall say Happy Birthday to my friend Theresa and thanks you to all the first responders and everybody that helped get us through that experience.

I did find this nice picture of a flag that I will share.

Just a snippet of a flag but I know what it represents and what it stands for.  Enough of being serious.  it is late in the night and I go to bed without bad thoughts.  How do I do that?  I watch old TV shows that make me laugh or look at cute pictures.  Tonight is a cute picture.  Take a look at this cute little guy.  Doesn't he look like a wind up toy?

I hope that put a smile on your face and that today was a good day.  I'll see you on the next update.  I might have my next Halloween project (cross stitch I think) picked out by then.

Updates and somewhat progress

Today was an aggravating day at work but I still managed to get something accomplished for crafting.  At noon I met with the guy who commissioned me to do the t-shirt quilt and we agreed on a layout.

There are a couple of the blocks that I will be piecing together.  One is the top row second from the left.  It's hard to see because of the colors but the other is bottom row.  I also have to refuse some of the blocks because of transporting issues.  13 1/2" blocks just don't fit easily into things to carry.

The weekend was also pretty good.  I went to see one of my nephews first house.  This is the family with 5 kids (3 teenage girls) and the extra room will be good for them.

Their moving is hectic because Jessica was in a car accident in the middle of it and is just getting back to work and carefully walking around.  Still she can sit on the couch and look out the living room window which is nice.

View from living room

The other thing that I liked is that my nephew, Jason, finally has space to put up some of his artwork.  he is just learning (teaching himself actually) how to pain and he found four pictures that he liked enough to put up on the wall.  The bottom four nature scenes are ones he did.  I love that he is doing this.

The living room is also about the only room that doesn't have a lot of boxes still in it.

Before that I had decided to eat lunch at my favorite place on campus, the Lagoon.  This time I just ate in the car (so forgive the pix).  I parked near the entrance by the Lagoon and it was a delightful day.

I rolled down the windows  and let the slight breeze come through the car window as I ate my brunch.  It was a nice way to start the day.

After seeing Jessica and the family, I went home and finished up stitching some wrist pads that Paul (my ex) had asked me to do for him.  I charged him (1) 2- liter for each wrist pad since he had all the materials for it.  :)  He ordered 4.  He had paid me the 2-liters earlier so I had to finish the wrist pads.  Here is what they looked like.

Then I went home and tried a different recipe for breakfast roll up.  It used crescent rolls, eggs, sausage links and cheese.

Overall it was a good weekend even if last night my sewing machine bobbin locked again and now is not working.  I'll have to try and take it apart again so I can finish sewing the t-shirt quilt.  I got mad at my sewing machine so that I switched back to working on my NOEL.  The last pix of NOEL that I posted just showed where I had the E done but none of the filigree.  Here is your updated picture.

I think that I have flooded your email with pictures in this post but I do have one last pix to post.  Then that will be all until further progress on crafts.  :)

Busy...busy...busy

I know that I've said this before but life is so busy and then times flies.  Why?  Why can't it be slow on weekends and fast during the week?  LOL.  Wouldn't that be nice?  Then I would probably be complaining about how long the work days were.

Let me see what I have been doing.  One of the things that I was doing was driving out to see my sister in law who was nice enough to give me tomatoes from her garden.

I decided to do the YouTube video no cook tomato sauce recipe which is a cold sauce.  After doing that and putting it on top of warm noodles you really wouldn't notice.

So after doing that and making some black beans and rice (with corn) I started to dig out those T-Shirts for the quilts and wall hangings and started to work on them.

 That, of course, made a mess on my floor.

I didn't give up though and soon I had it under control.

That is about 1/2 of the t-shirts.  This weekend I hope to get the rest of them cut out.

I did manage to trim up my redwork trio and soon will look for the rest of it.  LOL.  It was a it and I need to find the rest of it.

I have made some progress on my NOEL too.

I will start working on the red filigree around the L this week.  It is progressing and I might actually get it finished in time for THIS holiday season.  That would be something.  I might actually put up season cross stitch.  :)

Time to get some dinner so I hope everybody has a great day/evening.

Crafting Messes

I didn't report on Friday because I forgot to bring the right color of floss to work on the butterfly block and then I forgot to bring the butterfly block home to work on.  Perhaps this week I can manage to get the butterfly block and the brown floss together.  I was still motivated to do SOMETHING so I pulled out the t-shirts and started to look at them.

I soon discovered that the 12" blocks that I had planned on wouldn't work.  The shirt logos and sayings are too large for a 12" block.  The price that I had quoted the client (it's funny to think that *I* have a client) was for 12" blocks.  Now I have to be 13 1/2" finished blocks.  Will it make that much of a difference in pricing?  Should I do another quote?  Will that 1 1/2" make THAT much of a difference?

Besides that question, I thought I had finished cutting the t-shirts but then discovered a small stack.  That means I will have to cut more.  At least I found out before I started to iron on the interfacing.  I hate to get interrupted from that.  I like to get one thing finished and then start the next phase.  :)

So here is the majority of the t-shirts trimmed down.

Don't they look nice and neat on the table?  Well that is the only nice and neat part of it.  Here's the other side of the story.

Before going to bed last night I picked up the "cut offs" and put them away.  I don't get rid of them until I'm done with the whole quilt since I might have to go back to match up something or add to it.  That's when I found the rest of the t-shirts so it's back to the drawing board.  I will finish that today and then decide if I'll do the interfacing today or another day.

That's about all I did yesterday crafting wise.  I did mix up some home made Bisquick mix and put in the freezer.  It was easy to do and turned out pretty close to the Bisquick.  I hadn't made it before but I made some biscuits with it and they turned out ok.    Here's the recipe:

Homemade Bisquick Mix
by Rachel Paxton (just made it and the biscuit cooked up like when I used Bisquick)

5 cups flour
1/4 cup baking powder
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup butter

Mix dry ingredients together and then use a pastry blender or a fork to mix in the butter until the mixture is crumbly. Use immediately or place in a freezer safe container and freeze for up to 6 months.

It needs to be kept in the freezer because of the butter I have been told.

I hope everybody has a great day and I'll keep you updated on my progress.

Have you seen......

Have you seen  Missouri Star Quilt Company Fall 2016 catalog?  It is their first issue and I just got it today.  I have to admit that I like it.  I love looking through it but then I love looking through catalogs.  This is nicer to me because sometimes I don't want to always stare at a computer screen.  I will stop looking at the screen after 4 pages.  This however, I looked through and already earmarked some pages.

One of the pages that I earrmarked was for what they called Backing and Trims.  It is a page of 108 wide fabric.  That is my favorite to buy because one yard can be used on larger projects or cut up for multiple smaller backs.

I don't know about all the lines that they show, but I do have some Stonehenge Gradations backing and the colors that are represented are pretty close to what you get.  You just need to remember that gradations is like looking at a gem.  It can change somewhat but the overall color is pretty spot on.  I am intrigued by the Chelsea Backing which is like paisleys.  That black and white is REALLY drawing me in.  Good thing it's a small payday or else it would already be on order.  LOL.

I can hear some of you saying "That's nice Bonni but what about the rest of the catalog?"  I think it is nicely laid out.  Certainly catches the eye with the bright colors.  There is more than just fabric in it.  It has notions as well as kits and little extras.  Have you heard of "Couch to Quilt"?  It's a box (ok....others might call it a kit) that has about "$250 worth of goods and services, including machine quilting and binding for just $99.95" (page 72 of the catalog).  What does that mean?  On the next page they tell you what it means.  It means that the supplies included are:

charm pack and border fabric
cutting mat
ruler
rotary cutter
instruction booklet
pair of scissors
thread
pins
seam ripper
free quilting.

Yes, you read that right.  Free Quilting.  According to the catalog "after you get your quilt top sewn together, all you have to do is mail it back to us [Missouri Star Quilt Company] and our fabulous Machine Quilting Department will take care of the rest!  They'll finish up your beautiful creation on a professional longarm quilting machine, and even bind your quilt for free!"

If you'd like your own copy of the their catalog, go to their website and sign up.

https://www.missouriquiltco.com/

They have some great seasonal fabric in this catalog but while you are on their site, check out their deals of the day and sale items.  You might also want to check out their Quilt Snips videos and tutorials on YouTube as well as scroll through their website.  The quilt that is pictured on the cover of their catalog was one that was featured on a tutorial.

The Primetime Olympic coverage is starting so I'll post my progress picture now.  It is Thursday and that means more stitching on the NOEL cross stitch project.

I have more of the green frame done.  The next time I work on the green it will be to fill in the green frame.  I need to work on the red filigree before I move my hoop.  It is coming along.  I am sort of liking this rotation method.  Tomorrow will be back to quilting blocks and it is a butterfly block that I will be working on.

This Saturday is my gaming night so no quilting or cross stitch that day.  Perhaps Sunday I will pull out the box of T-Shirts and figure out what size I will need to cut them.  I looked at a couple and I think 12" finished won't be large enough.  I might have to do 14".

I hope you have a great evening/day.

Hugs to all.

Tuesday and Wednesday updates

I just realized that I didn't post a picture update from yesterday.  Yesterday was a cross stitch day so I worked on my NOEL.  Cross stitch doesn't always show the progress made but I finished backstitching the letter E.  I decided that I needed a break from the reds so I picked up the green.  I still need to do the filigree around the E.

Today, according to my chart is working on the Asian Teaport BOM which dates back a couple (or more) years.  I had these done once but then misplaced the blocks so I am starting all over again.  This is todays block.

Tomorrow is another cross stitch day.  I might pick up on Noel again but I'm not sure.  Guess I will figure it out tomorrow.  LOL.

I'm not working today so I think I am going to lay down.  My ears are bothering me so I'll take a allergy pill.  That is usually one of the first places I notice it.  This morning I woke up with my eyes puffed up a bit.  That's another sign of my allergies.  So it it time to take the pills that me sleepy and I will give him to sleep.  :)

I hope everybody is having a great day. 

1st Day on Schedule

It's Monday and according to my new schedule I made it is work on the Dinosaurs.  I took out my purple dino and managed to finish him up.  I should say that finished him up except for his eye.  I'm not doing the eyes on any of them until the end and then I'll decide if I want that brown circle to be added to them.

That means next Monday when the dino's make it to their rotation, I will be starting on a new one.  It looks like a blue one is next in line.

Tomorrow is suppose to be a cross stitch so I'll have to figure out which one I want to work on.  i might be ripping out one them.  I am thinking that I will redo my Guardian cross stitch.  I have over 1000 stitches in it but I found out that I miscounted how wide it will be.  If I kept on, it would only leave an inch for blocking and framing.  I think that I will start over on larger fabric.  This one is complicated enough so I'm going to want to frame it and that means a mat or something for a border and I will need more than 1" for that.  The fabric won't go to waste.  I will use it for something else.  Now the big question is do I work on one of two Christmas cross stitches or do I continue to work on the birthday present flowers.  Hmm.  I think Noel will win out. I really want to work on the other Christmas one but I don't have all the colors so that can wait a bit.

Then on Wednesday, my day off work, I get to work on the Asian Teapot blocks.  I'm looking to finish one if not two of them on Wednesday.

That's it for my report for tonight.  We'll see how tomorrow goes.

I hope that everybody has had a great day and will have an even better today tomorrow and remember....