Stash Report for Week 3 - 01-20-13 (aka - Yesterday!)

Gasp!  I'm going the WRONG way!!!!  :(

Week 03 - 01-21-13 Used This Week:0.25 yard
Used This Month: 0.25 yard for January
Used Year to Date:0.25 yards

Added This Week: 5.75 yards
Added This Month: 13.25 yards
Added Year to Date: 13.25 yards

Net Used for 2012: -13.00 yards

OK - it is serious DIET time!!!!!

Catching up on last week - was it a lost week - or not?

Update on last Tuesday............

Quilt

1. Finish Borders on Mini Twister Done! 
2. Batting on Mini Twister
3. Batting on Fancy Flowers
4. Quilt and binding Mini Twister
5. Quilt and binding Fancy Flowers
6. Prepare packages - Wendy
7. Prepare package - Peggy
8. Finish Sampler #1
9. Prepare Sampler #2
10. Borders on QOV (Wendy's)

And that's about the only thing quilt-wise that was!  And the ONLY reason the borders are done is because I decided I agreed with Wendy - that I can quilt MORE with the larger inside border and can extend into that space with the black thread! Currently I am thinking of vines and leaves - all twisty and reaching for the center of the quiltlet!  Don't know if that will happen or not - but there you have it!

Regarding the HOUSE part of the page - I got involved in re-reading Bonnie Hunter's Leaders and Enders book - and decided to spend "just 15 minutes" sorting quilt scraps by color - this after deciding to start ANOTHER NEW quilt or two (actually two - one from leftover four patches from the first!)  Of course this involved diving (headfirst) into my bags and boxes of scraps - and...... well, after spending almost the entire day working on the scraps I felt like I had accomplished a lot!

Wednesday I decided to continue working in the sewing room and sorting - and - gasp!!!! FINISHED sorting ALL of my scraps!  Felt so good I celebrated by eating out (instead of eating what I was GOING to eat!)  Definitely a monumental job well done!  AND I found one of my kitties' new hiding place in the process - LOL!  

Thursday I started slicing and dicing  - I though - just one bag!  So I started on Purples (smallest bag!)  Didn't really realize exactly how much was in there!!!!  Also mostly just goofed off!  No paperwork, no housework - just plain goofed off - and READ!  And went to the library!

Also worked on my Taz crazy quilt (crazy quilt because that's what Taz is! LOL)  Definitely not done yet - but it will be - and will be (I hope) cute!

Friday I continued on the slicing and dicing end - got halfway done - plus stitched up several string blocks (cute! cute! cute!) and some of the 4 patches.  Decided I needed to go to the quilt shop - but by then it was after hours so the shop was safe for another day!

Saturday Called Wendy - who is back into writing strongly again (Yay!!!!!  She is VERY talented and I love to read her works!  And - like me - she has been a bit burned out on the quilting end of things so has been devoting her many talents to other pursuits as well!)  

Then I went to the - uh - quilt shop where I bought some red that I just HAD to have for the QOV (never mind that I said I wouldn't need it the previous time I was there!) and saw some really cute QOV type fabric for the outside border which I also bought (quilt not supposed to need borders - but one was necessary for it to be the minimum size needed - this quilt will now have TWO!) 

 Maureen (sales lady and friend) rang up the sale for $11.00 - but that was so much less than I had anticipated (uh - here comes the not so rational lie!) that I said I HAD to get the two batiks which had been calling my name for several weeks - and which were growing less and less!  And of course THOSE two needed other FRIEND batiks - and - uh - well, I ended spending $67.53 for 5 3/4 yards - which included the 2 QOV border fabrics (1.0 yards total and yes, I found the red I already had when I got home!) and enough fabric to maybe do at least part if not all of a lap quilt!

Sunday Cleaning and sewing day! Grocery shopping day as well!  And - uh - avoiding the whole issue of the Stash report and my - uh - falling off the wagon!

Tuesday - what do I do????

My tummy is NOT feeling good - so will probably not teach tomorrow unless I feel DRASTICALLY better!
So will spend tomorrow at home!

Quilt

1. Finish Borders on Mini Twister DONE
2. Batting on Mini Twister DONE
3. Batting on Fancy Flowers DONE
4. Quilt and binding Mini Twister
5. Quilt and binding Fancy Flowers
6. Prepare packages - Wendy
7. Prepare package - Peggy
8. Finish Sampler #1
9. Prepare Sampler #2
10. Borders on QOV (Wendy's)

State of the Garden

1. Finish up the garden seed purchases and "haves"!!!!  DONE
2. Inventory supplies for greenhouse
3. Work on online planter - definitely all the "coles" and salads, also the peas and beans.
4. Set up reminders online to go to my mailbox.  
5. Post pix of garden THUS far (A and B groups) on page.

House

1. Complete Zone 1 - Dining Room
2. WHB Entrance
3. Kitchen - complete Zone 

Call/Go and Do

Menu
B: French Toast
L: Carrot Soup II
D: Either Conchiglie with spinach and mushroom filling (what I REALLY want to have) or the spinach and cheese dumplings. Either way - it is a dairy meal - which is great!

Make 
Carrot Orange Marmalade - yup hasn't happened YET - but it sure needs to!
Home Made Bread
Carrot Soup II (in chicken broth) (lunch!), Schav
Carrot pudding (has to steam for quite a while)

It is NO secret that........

Sewing time - as opposed to quilting - and house cleaning and - well, it seems almost everything else under the sun, seems to be REALLY hard for me to find time.  The wierd thing is that I ENJOY sewing!  A LOT!  It goes fast (usually) and I don't really have time to get bored, frustrated with it before it's done!  Result is that over several years I accumulated a LOT of patterns!  Now - I was sewing all that time - but - like fabric is to someone who REALLY likes fabric - like me! - patterns (as well as fabric) are to someone who enjoys sewing A LOT!  Result - not only do I have a LOT of unused patterns (most - not all - are somewhat timeless), but I also have the fabric (non-quilting type) for MOST of the fabrics sitting on my shelves taking up at least half of each color group of the quilting fabric stash!

Now - I can NOT allow that!  Therefore I must do SOMETHING about it all!

At the same time - my wardrobe (with exception of the clothing that Lynn and I got during one wild shopping spree last fall - which was WONDERFUL!) is definitely showing the stress!

And I'm sick of most (not all) of what I have!

Options are:

1. Inherit a million or so, dump all my present clothing - and go SHOP!
2. DON'T inherit a million - but identify precisely WHAT I need to get and get piecemeal throughout the year.  A much wiser and more probable solution 
3. Just wear what I have until it literally falls apart off my body.  I have a black jacket which may fall into this category! Not that it's old - just it was cheaply made - and I have washed it - A LOT!  It is literally falling apart!  Pockets have been the first to go - and the lining is not far behind (yes, I CAN do repairs and replace the lining - and may do that!)
4. Since I have the fabrics AND the patterns already - and since Wally world generally runs 2 or more years BEHIND Vogue anyway - I can sew the new items in question.  And replace only what I absolutely need to.

However thus far - I haven't.  So - one option open is to declare - at least in my own life - a SEWING day - just for working on a pattern - just for me.  And which will PROBABLY be Sunday.  

The OTHER new page is Judy L's On the Needles - only I've got that scheduled (hopefully I will actually do it - hopefully!) for quilt it and finish it up day!  So for me at least - I'm putting my On the Needles day as Wednesdays.

Which is a good thing since this way I will hopefully NOT get burned out (like I have several times) on quilting - or really any one thing.  

Design Wall for Week 2 - 01-14-13

Hand piece

Hexies

Binding - The Mini Twister quiltlet once it has been quilted.  Same for Fancy Flowers placemats for my dd! NEXT week I will do binding on son and dil's quilt!

LE project

Christmas Ribbons - the LE project for this month at least!

 Machine Quilting - Free Motion Quilting

Nathan and Lynn's quilt

 Machine Quilting - Walking Foot

The First Sampler - almost done! Will finish and bind

The Second Mini Sampler for WF sampler 

Fancy Flowers - promised to my daughter

 The Mini Twister (promised to a friend) will go here

Baby Quilt #2

 Piecing

Wendy's QOV - needs borders and that is that!

Mini Twister - I need to remove black binding and cut down the beige binding which is entirely too wide - make it 1.25 inches UF as opposed to the current 2.5 UF

Here you can see the wider binding - and it just does NOT lend enough eye appeal because it is too wide..  Less is more in this situation!

Two of the blocks of the QOV - I need to put all in rows - then because of the size  of the quilt AND also because of the Scrappiness of it all - they will need most defnitely to have a border.  Red I think - which should really bring out some of the inner fabric variations.  Border to be the same width as the strips (2.5 inches - essentially).  The "jog" in the blocks REALLY bothers me - A LOT!  Not sure what I screwed up on - but I showed Wendy and she thinks there really won't be a problem once it is quilted.

 Sewing - THIS is a frustrating category - because I HAVEN'T!  So - I have decided several things - see the next post!

Whatever happened to days 3 and 4 of the Quiltathon?????

Hmmm - it seems I forgot to post!

Day 3 of the Quiltathon was Saturday - and - courtesy of my forgetting to take my meds until LATE in the day - I thought I was energizer bunny and went on a rampage - of cleaning, quilting - and whatever!  At the same time I was still exhausted from Friday's teach on no sleep and wanting to quilt - and not able to stay awake past 640 PM!

So - Saturday my dd and I played telephone chore tag (we take turns - work our you know what off for 15 minutes so we can feel virtuous - and then sew for the rest of the hour - and one of us calls the other at the end of that time - and we check in and see how much we got done!  It works GREAT! - how to clean or whatever - AND play!)  So I got my laundry done, my room thoroughly cleaned up - even cleaned up the sewing room, etc. - AND worked on the QOV for a bit and listened to audio tapes (The Cat Who.... mysteries)  Didn't finish anything - mostly because I quit early - too much energizer bunny going on in my system!

Sunday I worked on and nearly finished the little Twister quiltlet - again playing telephone chore tag with my daughter - and getting in my son's way when he was trying to put up my shelving in the laundry room (but couldn't - he had forgotten to bring his tin snips) - and still had a bit of Energizer bunny raging around - at any rate the house DID look good - BEFORE I moved all the stuff in the laundry room OUT of there so son could work on the shelving!  Stuff now is in the kitchen as well as on the couch in the family room!  Hopefully shelving will be able to go up on Thursday and I can get this awful mess cleared up.  Hopefully!

Oh yes, - I also spent 1.5 hours looking around for the black that I wanted to use for an outside border for the little quiltlet (table centerpiece thingy) - only to find it when I was showing a friend some of the quilt things I had completed as far as flimsy status was concerned!!!!

Stash Report for Week 2 - 01-13-13 - even if it is the 14th!!!

01-13-13 Geez!  I almost feel like this is a telephone number!!!!  Nothing new - nothing added (and it WAS close!) and - unfortunately - nothing used!  Same old, same old!


Used This Week:0 yards
Used This Month: 0 yards for January
Used Year to Date:0 yards
Added This Week: 0 yards
Added This Month: 7.50 yards
Added Year to Date: 7.50 yards
Net Used for 2012: -7.50 yards  Still a big Ugh!!!

Oops - On the Needles

This is a scarf I began several years ago - as a gift for a friend - only I fell in love with it and the friend turned out to not be such a friend after all!  Which means I get to keep the scarf - once I finish it that is!

Mind you - I think I started this with maybe 30 stitches - and I think it is now something like AT LEAST double that!  And not supposed to be either - but I like it!

And it's SOFT!!!!  and WARM!!!!!

Oh yes - I forgot ......

This is a picture of the QOV - at the point I left off!

Smaller Blocks are finished - ready to be turned into the larger 12.5  UF blocks!

Two of the 12.5 (actually 11" blocks) ready to be sewn together and completed!

Quiltathon - Day 2

First of all - today was a teaching day - social studies for Middle school - great kids and I enjoyed myself thoroughly - would have liked more hands on the teaching end however - but all in all it was a good day!  Only a couple times did I have to remind the kids that we were NOT outside and that it was a good thing to quiet down to a small whisper!

Which to me is one of the disadvantages of public schools - mostly because I'm usually the noisiest one there!


Game plan for today includes class tonight - Open Sew! and Arizona Skies!

Arizona Skies - aka Tequila Buzz - and I need to make sure all my blocks are the same size!  Then sew them into blocks, sew those into rows, then sew rows together, attaching the plain inside border - all this before even beginning on making the middle border!

The Mini Twister - I need to cut this into the appropriate size and shape for the Twister blocks, then sew those into rows - and then into a top!

All this - and then fix supper too! and if possible work on lesson plans (archaeology) and the dininng room - although I think the last two may need to be worked on tomorrow instead!

Quiltathon - Day 1

This, of course, is provided I don't get called in to teach today!  Or that (more usually) my son doesn't call me with a half dozen "mom please do" items - which is actually more probable - and vitally necessary!

OVERALL GOALS FOR QUILTATHON 

1. Free Motion quilt on Nicole's Couch Quilt (Saturday)
2. Walking foot on Fancy Flowers  (Thursday)
3. Arizona Skies (Friday evening - poss - hopefully Fri day)
4. QOV - Scrap Basket Blues  (Daily) 
5. Twister mini quilt (Friday evening)
6. LE - Christmas Ribbons (ongoing)
7. Easy Street - make more progress - hopefully AT LEAST through step 2
8. Finish the Walking Foot quilting sampler (aka Baby changing pad #1) (Thursday)
9. Begin sampler for Walking Foot #2 (from 31 days) (daily)
10. Sampler blocks (IF POSS on Sunday)
11. Hexies - this is my take-along - to RMV, any place I will have waiting time
12. If possible - Quilting Tizzy's Mystery Medallion 

TODAY'S PORTION OF THE QUILTATHON 

QOV - SBBlues - press, size, sew into blocks if possible 

Walking Foot quilting sampler (Baby changing pad #1) - finish

Get WF quilting sampler #2 ready for quilting

Fancy Flowers - finish and get ready for binding

LE - Christmas Ribbons

IF possible - Easy Street. - complete step 1, step 2

MENU FOR TODAY

B: Rolled oats with apple, cinnamon, brown sugar, butter
L: LO casserole of some sort (look in refrig, then freezer)
D: The stir fry I didn't fix last night! with cabbage - and go through lo veggies.
...............................................................................
First break - FINALLY finished pressing the QOV blocks - AND taking apart those that didn't quite work right (WHY can't I sew folded corners so the corners are STRAIGHT with the bottom part of the block!!!!!!)  Also started trimming and "standardizing" the size of the blocks (was SUPPOSED to be 6.5" for each quarter - I'm going with 6.25" and hoping that works!)  Taking a cottage cheese mid-morning break (may also snack on peanut butter filled apple too!)  Wanting a caffeine fix as well - esp a hot mocha! which I am NOT going to have since I'm wired enough as it is!
...................................
Lunch break - decided to get car inspection done while on lunch break (bought food from McD's) and so took my hexies with me so I could feel virtuous about this being a quiltathon!  LOL - they were done with the inspection before I every finished unpacking my hexie shoe box! Let alone figuring out WHERE I put the needle threader! LOL  Now I know where to go everytime I have my car inspected!
......................................

Progress on the QOV

I'm feeling fairly pleased with my QOV progress - so far, at least!

Below are pix from beginning (Jan 1 - really 2nd when I got the REST of the fabrics!)

QOV - most - not all the fabric strips are cut (I don't have all the fabric!!! - couldn't wait to do some of the folded corners - 01-05-13

The rest of the fabric is cut into strips.  Am double sewing the folded corners (sew once for the folded corner then 1/2 inch on the "waste" side sew again - will make some sort of border edging sometime - some place! LOL

Strips are finally cut into blocks as needed - especially the white ones.  LOTS more folded corner units made (need 80 going one way and 80 going the other direction!  LOTS of "waste" triangles for some border or other!)

Folded corners are DONE!!!!  YEEHAW!!!!  Now for pressing, (repairs as necessary) ,  making sure blocks are all the same size - then - gasp - sewing 4 together into blocks - then rows, then - gasp - the whole derned quilt!

Wednesday's ........

QUILT

1. Quilting Sampler
2. Fancy Flowers
3. LE - Christmas Ribbons
4. QOV - should have blocks completed, rows done and ready to put together - almost there!!!!

HOUSE

1. Zone 1, zone 5 - Finish up dining room and setting up living room
2. Paperwork

CALL/GO AND DO

1. Business phone calls - people apparently are NOT available today!!!!!

MENU

B: Spanish scrambled eggs with cheese, toasted bagel half Yum
L: Tossed salad w tomato, hd bld egg, cheese (feta) and Yum again!
D: Stir fry - chicken, cinnamon apple

MAKE

1. Bagels
2. Homemade bread
3. Carrot pudding (with dates, figs, raisins)
4. Get some suet from Big Y - 
5. Make other steamed pudding - Indian pudding????

NEXT WEEK'S FOOD CHALLENGE: Spinach!!!

1. Eggs Florentine
2. Schav
3. Spinach timables
4. Pizza florentine
5. Spinach and bowtie souffle
6. Spinach and cheese dumplings
7. Conchiglie with spinach and mushroom filling
8. Cannelloni stuffed with spinach and ricotta

What's Cookin' - what do you do with a carrot????

This one was hard - not because I didn't know WHAT to do with a carrot - but because there is SO MUCH  you can do with a carrot and it was hard to choose!

Eventually I narrowed it down to:

1. Carrot Soup I (in beef broth)
2. Carrot Soup I variation - is creamed
3. Carrot Soup II (in chicken broth - also "creamed")
4. Carrot pudding - which I NOW have all the ingredients for
5. Carrot and orange marmalade

Eventually I will make all these - and post the recipes.  However for now - I made the Carrot Soup I (in beef broth) variation (I  creamed it! - plus other stuff!)

I love cookbooks (I think I said that before sometime or other) and have a lot of them - some with missing covers, some where the binding is nearly transparent.  This time the cover is still there - and readable!  Where I got it?  I have NO idea - although I suspect I got it from my daughter's bookstore - not sure though!

The book is titled "Soups, Chowders & Stews" by Georgia Orcutt and is part of the Flavor of New England series. It was published by Yankee Books in Camden, Maine and original copyright is 1981 (11th printing is 1991) pp. 44-45.

Carrot Soup

2 Tablespoons butter
2 onions, peeled and chopped
2 Tablespoons chopped parsley
2 teaspoons chopped sage
2 Tablespoons flour
4 cups beef stock
8 carrots, peeled and chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Melt butter in soup kettle.  Saute' onions, parsley, and sage until tender.  Sprinkle with flour and stir gently but quickly until well blended.  Slowly add stock, stirring constantly until mixture is smooth.  Add carrots and simmer, partially covered, over low heat for 20 minutes or until carrots are tender. (Baby carrots may require only 10 minutes.) Press through food mill, season with salt and pepper, and reheat - or chill and serve cold.  Serves 4-6
For Cream of Carrot Soup: Add 1/2 cup to 1 cup cream to pureed soup and reheat; also good cold.

My modifications - I grind my own flour - and used whole wheat flour - which made for a lovely rich beige thickened soup.

I didn't have any fresh carrots when I made this - but DID have dehydrated carrots - so used about 8 tablespoons (could have used a bit more) dehydrated carrots and added it directly to the broth which I then boiled for maybe 30 minutes - thereby rehydrating the carrots (8 tablespoons when re-hydrated is about 1.5 cups rehydrated carrots.  Because I did this the way I did I didn't want to thicken it until AFTER the carrots were rehydrated - and since I had decided I wanted to have cream of carrot soup anyway - I added the flour to the cold cream, whisked that in and then added a bit of the hot to the mixture - whisked and slowly added to the main mixture - whisking all the while.

Yes, I could have pureed it - and may do so the next time - but, frankly I enjoyed seeing the little bits of golden sunshine peeking through the thickened broth!

I thoroughly enjoyed the soup - enough so that I reheated it for supper - and - uh - well, I didn't have any leftover to freeze!

Tuesday's plans.....

QUILT 
Fancy Flowers placemats (finish them)
Quilting Sampler (and finish ANOTHER square!) 
Cut the REST of the QOV strips into blocks (oops! LOL) DONE Still sewing - trying to get to next step!

QOV - to last half of folded corners (80) and center block
Sew First borders onto the mini Twister - and PRESS!      DONE This is done up to the point where Fri I can take the 3" template, slice and re-sew it together!  Will do that first at the Open Sew.

HOUSE
Dining Room - Finish Zone 1

GO AND DO/CALL
Library    DONE
Post office    DONE
Grocery and get the oranges and also makings for carrot pudding (dates and figs)    DONE
Second try re inspection    still need Emer brake, need also diff inspector!!!!!
Call Nathan re mail DONE

MENU
B: Bagels and cream cheese, tea DONE
L: Burger (lo and frozen), carrot soup, DONE
D: Stir fry(include lo rice) Nah - want more carrot soup!

MAKE
Carrot pudding (freeze most of it)
Carrot Soup I (freeze)
Carrot Soup I creamed DONE - may not be enough to freeze!  YUM!
Carrot soup with sour cream
Carrot/orange marmalade (pix)

Today.......

Work on the Fancy Flowers placemats (there are 5) - stitch in the ditch, then binding.

Fancy Flowers placemats

Quilting sampler - 4 unfinished blocks - finish one today

Scrap Basket Blues QOV - finish cutting the rest of the blocks and maybe start stitching together. Maybe.

Design Wall for Week One

This week is the ...... QUILTATHON!!!!! Hostessed by Judy Laquidara of Patchwork Times!!!!

YAY!!!!!!!!!!!

ALSO this week is Open Sew at the quilt shop when I meet with other ladies (usually the same bunch that I meet with monthly at the RunnerMania Class!)  So I'm working on ONE specific project for that group - the Mini Twister Quilt - and working Towards one Maxi project - probably the Tequila Buzz - aka Arizona Skies!  Yay!

Twister Mini Quilt

Tequila Buzz - aka Arizona Skies which name I like better!!!!

HAND SEWING

Hexies - not a lot has been happening  here YET!

LEADER ENDER PROJECT

Christmas Ribbons - TRYING to hold this one to a Leader Ender Project -  I give it a MONTH before the quilt takes over!

MACHINE QUILTING
Free Motion Quilting Foot

Nathan and Lynn's Couch quilt - I will get this done I will!  Promise!

Walking Foot

Sampler #1 - STILL has 4 squares to finish! One a day!

Has been sewn together - this will be Sampler #2 for the walking foot

Fancy Flowers - had hoped to get these done last weekend.  That didn't happen!

QOV

QOV - Scrap Basket Blues!

PIECING

Easy Street - Step One

Somewhere I have the lime green.  This was Quilting Tizzy's 2013 Mystery Quilt

Samplers