The Quilt that was, then wasn't, now is...

Having a good idea for a quilt and bringing it to a finished product are, as every quilter knows, two different animals. In the Fall of last year, I decided I wanted to make Mr. B a "Lego Quilt" for his March 1st birthday (the big 7!) because that is all the young man wanted or talked about. Particularly Lego Ninjago mini-figures. For two years now that's all he's wanted for Christmas, his birthday or whenever he saves up money to buy something for himself. So a Lego Ninjago quilt would be perfect!

I had no pattern, just the idea in my head. Using fusibles, primary colored fabric, and my trusty light box, I created the four Ninjago figures plus the Sansei. All the details you see are done in thread, including their belts and the wrinkles in their clothes. Mind you, my grandson can identify these characters by THE SHAPE OF THEIR EYES (!), so I really had to pay attention and get the details right. Nothing worse than be scoffed at by a 6 year old.

The quilt got put away over the holidays, but came back out in late January. I got the main characters up on my design wall, added some pinwheels to give the quilt some motion, and sewed a large LEGO logo. I fiddled around with placement, found the PERFECT background fabric, and generally just tinkered with the lay out.

For too long.

Mr. B has apparently moved on from Lego to all things Pokemon. Lego Ninjago minifigures are yesterday's news... or quilt embellishment, as it were.

Sigh sigh sigh...

So now I have these amazingly wonderful applique'd Ninja guys that took FOREVER to create, a young man no longer all that interested (though we all know, that could change next week and Lego's will once again be his main source of entertainment), and a birthday self-imposed deadline looming. What to do, what to do....

I grabbed a variety of blue fabrics from my stash, combined with some white on whites, and went to HST (half square triangle) land in a hurry. Here's the result - a nice, traditional blue and white twin-sized quilt (shown on my queen size bed) that can be appropriate for several years, no matter what Mr. B's interests are.

Front

HOWEVER...

I just couldn't let those Ninjago guys be left homeless or stuck away in a UFO Block box. So.... here's the back of Mr. B's quilt:

Back

 

 

I will use the Lego logo to make a matching pillowcase for him.

The good news? It's done in time for his birthday. The bad news... I guess there is no bad news, but I do feel a little "cheated" that I didn't get to make the Lego quilt that was in my head!

Happy, happy birthday, Mr. B.  I couldn't possibly love you more.

Things that Keep on Giving

I admit to not paying a lot of attention to my vegetable garden lately -- a few weeks, in fact. My husband went out twice and picked green beans, but when I look out the kitchen window and see the garden getting dry and brown, I kind of assumed it was on it's last legs, and needed to be prepared for winter.

Not so.

Today I went out to start winterizing -- pull up all the plants, remove and clean up stakes, etc. - and to my delight, discovered that my garden is still going strong!

Here's today's harvest:

I found three red tomatoes (and at least six more on their way), a green pepper, four white eggplant, and lots and lots of green beans! Some of the green beans are too large to just steam and eat (shame on me for not picking them these past few weeks), but they will do fine in soups throughout the winter.

The dried beans in the front will be a project this week for Mr. B and I. We will open up the bean pods and pull out the dried seeds/beans inside, and put them away to plant for next year's garden. It's a huge cost savings if you don't have to buy seeds every Spring. You can't do this with all vegetables because many are crossbred and you won't know what will be produced, but beans are beans in my book, so I will plant these next year.

Bean, green pepper and eggplant plants are still flowering -- a huge surprise since we've had two heavy frosts already. I guess the fence and shed that back up to the garden are protecting the plants from the frost. Isn't it nice when you're the recipient of a happy accident?!

It started to rain as I was picking beans, but tomorrow is forecast to be a nice day, so I think I'm going to plant some spinach and lettuce seeds and see if I can extend our growing season a bit longer. Here in southwestern Ohio you just never know -- we could still get six to eight weeks of 50 to 70 degree weather, with just an occasional frost. That's perfect weather for lettuce and spinach.

Recipes also keep on giving, if you think about it. 

I did some baking yesterday, and need to share this recipe with the world - Donut Muffins! Oh my oh my. It's a muffin - and tastes just like a fresh donut rolled in cinnamon sugar. You can find the recipe here. I made a dozen in standard size muffin tins, but then made another dozen in the tiny muffin tins - donut holes!

I also made Cranberry Bread. When I was a little girl, my very favorite food was the Cranberry Nut Bread my grandmother baked. I visited her several times a year, and she'd almost always bake a loaf of Cranberry Nut Bread for me. (Braised short ribs was my favorite meal she cooked. I'd love to find her recipe for that. She made them in the pressure cooker, and before she'd open the pressure cooker, she'd clear the entire family out of the kitchen, "just in case".) Since we were having a family gathering for breakfast today (my son is visiting from Texas), I thought Gramma's Cranberry Bread would be appropriate. It went over very very well.

I also made Breakfast Burritos yesterday for breakfast today. I made a small batch of home fries (using this recipe from the Southern Plate web site, which has some of my all time favorite recipes, especially the Chicken and Dumplings!), then cooked up two big links of mild Italian Sausage (took off the casings and broken the sausage up into small pieces as it cooked), with diced onions and peppers. Made up a batch of scrambled eggs (6 eggs for 10 burritos), and mixed it all together, and put a big serving spoon full of the mixture on a burrito, sprinkled with grated Cheddar Cheese and a little Taco Sauce (I didn't have any Salsa on hand), rolled them up, put them in a 9 x 12 baking pan, covered it with aluminum foil, and stuck them in the freezer. Last night before I went to bed I moved them up into the refrigerator, and then popped them in a 350 degree oven this morning for 30 minutes. It might seem silly to freeze them for just a few hours (about 8 hours), but that prevented the scrambled eggs from getting watery, which they would have done if they'd just sat in the refrigerator. These burritos were a huge success!

Today is a lazy day. Windy, rainy, cool and just right for curling up and watching a movie. I've once again gotten my Cathedral quilt blocks out to work on while watching TV. Another winter preparation, I suppose.

Life is good - and even better with your family around you.
 

My first quilt contest - vote now!

 VOTE FOR "MISS AIMEE'S QUILT" HERE
Quilts are in alphabetical order - scroll down to bottom of page and look for
"Miss Aimee's Quilt" 

I've posted a photo of the quilt I made for Miss Aimee before, but I got brave and entered it in the weekly quilting contest on the Quilting Gallery web site. I've never entered any of my quilts in any kind of contest before, so it's a little nerve wracking!

Just a little info on the quilt. I used the "Twisted Square Dance" pattern (a variation of the Lil' Twister block) for the center of the quilt (quite possibly the fastest quilt block to make that has this much visual impact) and just added on borders from there, then machine applique'd Aimee's name at the top. The fabric was an easy choice. Before Aimee was born her mom sent me to an online store where she bought crib linens - and lo and behold, they offered fabric that matched the bumpers and crib skirt she bought! How could I resist that?

My granddaughter lives a thousand miles away. I'm in Ohio and she is in Texas, and I don't get to see her very often. It breaks my heart. I'm so close to Mr. B. and have had him with me at least several times a week since he was born, but I don't get to have that bonding and connection with Miss Aimee. So I wanted to do a quilt for her first birthday, so every time she is wrapped up in it, she can feel her grandmother's arms around her.

So if you would be so kind - would you vote for my quilt? I haven't seen my "competition" yet, but I do know one "big name" is up there who probably has a zillion followers to her blog and web site. LOL But hey... a girl can try, can't she?

Here's the quilt:

And here's the link to vote - You scroll down the page as you look at all the quilts, then AFTER all the photos, you will see the click-on vote boxes -- just look for "Miss Aimee's Quilt" and click!

 VOTE FOR "MISS AIMEE'S QUILT" HERE

This Week's Menu and To Do List

Lots of things spinning around in my head to get done this week, so it will help me to make a list here.

Our GreenBeanDelivery bin arrives on Tuesday and this week it seems to be mostly fruits and salad items. The bin comes every two weeks, and I try to use up the contents before the next bin arrives.

MENU

Monday

(Extra long day of babysitting)

Subway take out - $5 footlongs

Tuesday

Steak au Poivre

Green salad w/bacon and poached egg

(variation of this recipe)

Wednesday

Ham slices

Scrambled Eggs

Sliced Oranges

Toast (homemade peach oatmeal bread)

Thursday

Oven fried chicken

Sweet potato fries

Orange glazed carrots

Green salad

Friday

Homemade Fish Chowder (with haddock, potatoes and corn)

Biscuits

Saturday

Vegetable Crustless Quiche

Spam slices (on sale this week and Jeff loves it)

Mixed fruit salad

TO DO LIST FOR UPCOMING WEEKS

I need to take advantage of this no-snow winter we're having and get a few things done outside.

Build raised planter beds for vegetables (I'm shutting down my huge vegetable garden and going to three raised planters just off my back deck.)
-- Power wash old wooden decking to use for planter sides
-- Stain same decking
-- Put planter/beds together, line with landscape fabric
-- Start compost of leaves/grass in each

Start new Lego-themed quilt for Mr. B.  I've got it designed, I've purchased the fabric (there's no such thing as "registered" Lego fabric, by the way) and now it's just a matter of starting.

Finish dress/jacket for Miss Aimee. Almost done. It's adorable! Pictures soon.

Again, take advantage of this gorgeous (high 40's, low 50's) weather and do some weeding in the front gardens. I think this sounds like a job to share with Mr. B. when he's here on Monday for the day.

Purge closet and donate. For someone who never has anything to wear, I sure do have a lot of clothes!

Armoire in garage. Not sure what to do with this. It's a beautiful waterfall-style armoire that's been sitting in our garage for years, just taking up space. The more I see re-purposed old furniture, the more I'm thinking about painting it and/or turning it into a sewing storage cabinet (with fold-out table for a sewing machine?). Need to figure out where I'd put it before I decide to paint it.

It's NASCAR season once again. Jeff and I are big NASCAR fans, and rarely (OK, never!) miss a race on TV. But these races can be from 3 to 5 hours long, and that's a huge amount of time sitting and doing nothing except watching TV. So it's time to get out quilting that I can work on while watching the races. I need to revive the Cathedral Windows quilt I was working on last year, put it in a basket in the family room so it's easily accessible during races.

That's all that's on my mind for now. Life is good!

Planning the New Year - Sewing Room Re-organization starts 01/10/11

In the past few months, I've been in my sewing room quite a lot, and completed several projects, including my queen-sized quilt, mug rugs, and quilted Christmas post cards. All were "scrap" projects, and for me, scrap projects means I am constantly digging through my fabric for the next piece... and the next piece... oh, not that piece... the next piece. The result? My sewing room is a mess. Fabric and notion chaos.

I am going to do a complete re-organization of my sewing room starting January 10. Anyone want to join me? I will be working on it one to two hours a day, two days a week (probably Mon. and Wed.) and weekends. A LOT of time will be spent folding and sorting and purging fabric. Getting rid of projects that no longer interest me. Gathering notions and scissors and patterns and threads and finding just the right home for them.

I will post every step here on my blog -- from when I initially completely empty the room, review the furniture and storage I have and what I need to add or what isn't working and I need to get rid of. This will be a BUDGET reorganization - no running to WallyWorld for storage containers, but using what I have or making do.

If you'd like to join me, please do! I may have a giveaway or two as I find things/fabric I no longer want, need, have a use for. When I begin, I will put up photos of the "before" and hopefully you will do the same. I will post things to motivate me, and they might just motivate YOU.

I find I do not work well in chaos. I need a clean, organized, inspirational space before I can be creative. I need my fabrics sorted and folded, my notions laying in wait, my cutting table clean and at the ready, my sewing machine area cleared and ready for the next project.

Leave a comment here if you think you may want to join in! You can also subscribe to my Twitter and get reminders along the way.

I'm excited! I'm motivated! I can't wait to get started! Join me!

Feedback Friday - on Saturday

I like the thought of reviewing how my week went -- the good, the bad, the thrifty and the not so thrifty.

The pattern

I've spent a great deal of time this week working on a new quilt. Given our gorgeous Fall weather this week, I probably should have been outside cleaning up the vegetable garden and even putting up Christmas lights, but the quilt bug hit and I'm not one to fight it. I found this photo on the web, and fell in love with it (except I don't care for the four red blocks). I'm too cheap frugal to buy the pattern, but it was easy enough to figure out. Basically it's a 9-patch, believe it or not. I chose muted greens, blues and oranges (honest, it's prettier than it sounds) for the colors. I have completed 23 of 56 blocks. I have no idea where I saw this pattern, so unfortunately, I can't provide a link.

Still making progress on my hand-sewn Cathedral Window quilt. The more I complete, the more I love it. I find the hand work so soothing and relaxing. Yeah, I know.

I had a cooking adventure this week. I purchased a very nice pasta rolling machine at a yard sale a few weeks ago, and decided to try making homemade ravioli. The dough recipe I used was very, very dry, so I had to overcome that problem before actually rolling out the dough. I made a filling of ground beef, cream cheese, oregano and garlic (actually, that was good all by itself! I'll have to look for another way to use that filling). Long and short of it - the ravioli fell apart in the boiling water. D.I.S.A.S.T.E.R. Apparently there's a method to adhering the two pieces of pasta together besides just moistening the edges with water. Not sure if I'll try that again.

The leftover dough got made into nice 1/4 inch wide noodles and we ate those the next night - I cooked boneless chicken breasts, then added cream of chicken soup, sage and frozen mixed veggies, and served them over the noodles - and they were delicious. I normally buy Dreamfield's pasta at $2.49 a box. These homemade noodles probably cost me under .50 to make. Obviously, it's all about the time it takes to make them.

Thanks to a suggestion from someone on my local Free Cycle, I also used the pasta roller to make homemade tortillas. All I can say is YUM. Totally worth the time it takes to make them, and again, just a fraction of the cost to buy them in the store, and without the preservatives.

After last week's stock-up grocery shopping, I will not go grocery shopping this week, per se. I do have to pick up orange juice and laundry soap, but that's all that's on the "must get" list at the moment. I am planning my menues for the week on what I already have on hand.

Mr. B's first "class photo" came in this week. Be still my heart.

My grandson, Mr. B.

I just finished reading Julie Glass's new book, The Widower's Tale and absolutely loved it. She is also the author of Three Junes which was in my Top 10 for a long time. I highly recommend either, both.

I finished Mr. B's Christmas shopping -- took advantage of free shipping at Toys R 'Us web site. I kept it under $100, which I'm pleased about. He will also get a few of the toys I received to review for Amazon. I don't think he'll care!

It was my son's 31st birthday this week. I do wish he lived closer so we could at least get together for holidays and birthdays, etc. We plan on going to visit him in Colorado in the Spring - but that seems so far away.

I am helping my daughter (Mr. B's mom) with some time management and budget issues she's having. She wants me to create the card system I used when she was growing up, from the old Side Tracked Home Executives book from the 1970's (which is what Flylady.net is based on). That book was my bible when I worked fulltime and had two small children and a husband in school fulltime and who also working fulltime. It was the only time management system I ever found that worked for me. Today much of what I do automatically is because of using that system for several years, thus installing better time management/housework habits.

 Jeff had a day off Friday, so we took Mr. B. to the Newport Aquarium and had a wonderful time. That little boy is so well behaved and only once did I have to remind him to stay with us. By the end of our visit, he was absolutely worn out. He made it through lunch at Johnny Rockets (very expensive and not all that good), but fell asleep immediately once we got in the car.

Does anyone else think it's ironic that "Mitchell's Fish Market" is located next to the Aquarium?

I'm not sure yet what this week will entail. I'll make up my menus and week's To Do List on Monday.

All in all, it was a good productive week, and those are my absolute favorite kind of weeks to have!

A day at the zoo - and surprising quilt inspiration

My husband's work provided free tickets to the Cincinnati Zoo today (with unlimited rides, free parking, AND some really great food!), so off we went with Mr.  B. for the day. Apparently four years old is the PERFECT age to go to the zoo, as he was enthralled with all the animals (and educated US on meercats and pirhanna!), and behaved himself the entire five hours we were there. Jeff took more pics than I, but here's what I have.

Whose hand is bigger - my hand or the gorillas?

As we were walking, I saw some beautiful tile and decorative painting - what gorgeous quilts these would make!

My Cathedral Windows Quilt in progress

I have always loved the look of a Cathedral Windows quilt, so when I saw this great tutorial from the Hyena in Petticoats blog, I knew I had to do one.

This is not a quilt for those who want a weekend project or who need to finish a task quickly. The folding and ironing of the background squares take nearly as much time as the hand sewing of each square! I work on the quilt at night while watching TV, and can generally get four to five squares done in three hours, not including the initial preparation of the background squares.

I am doing this as a scrap quilt, since the cathedral squares are just 3 inches square. I do not pre-cut my squares (though you certainly could), but instead quickly cut each square as I go. I do not pre-cut my batting squares, but have a small piece of batting scrap at hand to quickly cut out a small square of batting.

Besides loving the look of the finished quilt (I am all about traditional, symmetrical quilts), I love the fact that I am actually "quilting as you go" -- which means the top, batting and backing will all be together at the time I finish piecing the top.

I haven't hand sewn or appliqued in awhile, and it was good to find how much I truly enjoy doing this type of precision sewing by hand. It's so easy to piece with the machine, but I find the mental demands of hand sewing to be very soothing.

I believe it will take me at least a year to finish this quilt, but it's the perfect cool weather quilt to work on, and makes sitting in front of the television at night a bit more productive. When I do finish it (and I will!), I know this will be a quilt meant to stay in my family for generations to come.... which we quilters call an Heirloom Quilt.

Time to start a "TV Project" - Cathedral Window Quilt

I decided I need a project to work on in the evenings while watching TV. I always think of TV time as such a waste of time, but there are shows that I love (Survivor, Amazing Race, So You Think You Can Dance, Project Runway, Top Chef, The Next Iron Chef, and more!) and it's easy to slip into TV-mode now that the colder weather is here. And, it's NASCAR's Chase season, which means 4 to 5 hours in front of the TV on weekends! The only way I can spend that much time in front of the TV is to be accomplishing some other task at the same time. Despite having a sewing machine in my family room (a wonderful old knee-pedal Majestic - my workhorse machine), I decided I want to do some hand piecing. I learned quilting by taking a 12 week class on hand piecing and hand quilting, but I'd gotten into the "faster is better" mode, and haven't done hand work in years. A quilt that's been on my "Want To Do" list for years is a Cathedral Window quilt. It's a wonderful way to use up scraps, plus I love the symmetry of the finished quilt. You can do it on a machine, but traditionally this quilt is done by hand. One block takes me about one hour to complete. It actually starts with a 10 x 10 inch square of muslin, which is folded twice down to a 3.4 inch square, then a center fabric added, and the musline pulled over the center fabric and hand stitche to create the rounded "frame". This is what I got completed over the weekend while watching the NASCAR race and Project Runway: Considering how many total blocks this quilt will take (250? 300? I haven't measured it out yet), I probably won't finish for a year. But that's OK. I'm in no hurry. I'm quite delighted to find out how much I truly enjoy hand piecing. It's the way I started making quilts, and the precision of the hand stitching and the concentration needed really appeals to me. I'm quite sorry I got away from it for as long as I did. Lately I feel like I lost my enthusiasm for quilting -- but could it be that I simply enjoy hand piecing far more than I enjoy the assembly line method of machine sewing? Interesting... Here's a photo of someone else's completed cathedral window quilt (from centralbucks55.com - found with a Google search), so you can an idea of what the finished quilt will look like.

I need a vacation!

Our planned vacation at the lake house didn’t work out last weekend, and it’s re-scheduled for the last weekend of April. But I need a vacation N-O-W! Away from housework, away from blogging (you’d think by looking at this blog that I haven’t any right to say that, but my other blog has been VERY busy lately!), away from cooking, and most of all – away from cold weather!

Although Spring sprang (sprung?) two weeks ago, it’s also seen fit to disappear. Yesterday’s high was 44. I’m ready for at least 25 degrees warmer than that. I swear, my body is craving the warmth of sunshine these days.

Jeff and Mr. B spent all day Saturday doing “man stuff” – going to the hardware store (geesh, you think my trips to the fabric stores and flea markets take a long time? They were gone TWO HOURS and the store is just 5 minutes away!), and then doing maintenance work on the weed wacker and lawnmower to prepare them for the upcoming months. Mr. B always wears his “mowing hat” when he’s out on the riding lawnmower with Umpa – but the child has grown so much his special hat no longer fits! So, we found a new “special” hat for him – and boy, does he look like a little boy now and no longer a baby.

Awwww…what a cutie! And yes – ANOTHER male with eyelashes females would kill for!

Mr. B brought his dog, Jack, over for a visit. Jack was banned from our house two years ago because every time he walked in, he peed on something – usually my couch. Nooo, thank you. So unknown to me, my daughter brought Jack with her on Saturday to drop Mr. B off. And what did Jack do? Peed on the floor length curtains in the family room that I had JUST washed. It will be at least another two years before Jack comes back to my house. Mr. B thought it was SO funny!

This week is Jeff’s “Hell Week” at work – he will work at least 16 hours a day for the next seven to ten days. He has to do this five times a year – it’s an accountant thang. For me? It’s a mini-vacation. The best kind of vacation, in fact. I don’t have to cook, no one is in the house to mess it up, and a nice warm body climbs in bed with me for at least a few hours every night. Life is good.

Today I’ve decided to give myself a “stay-cation” and am headed up to my quilt room to do some sewing. I swear. It’s too cold to work outside today and I cleaned house over the weekend, so it’s still clean – and no dinner to fix. I am grabbing my Mp3 player and a quick pattern for a table runner and off I go. I swear. In fact, I’m going to challenge myself to finish this today and show you photos tomorrow.

I love my horoscope for today: A relaxing weekend quickly fades into the distant past on this busy day. It may be challenging to keep up with all that's going on now, but you'll just have to grit your teeth and do what you must. Although you may resist at first, you could actually be inspired once you find a creative voice that's in touch with your hopes and dreams.

Amen to that.

Little bits

I'm here! I've been stashed away in my quilting room for the past few days. That's right. Me. Sewing. Not cleaning, not organizing, sewing! A BOM block completed, a grocery bag/tote completed for an exchange, some Ricky Timm One Seam Flying Geese blocks done for some upcoming placemats... See? I can do it! I was just waiting for motivation. Photos will come as projects get completed (and after my swap partner receives the goods). Now you're going to thank me. I may even become your new best friend. Ready for this? You know that New Year's Resolution you made about losing weight? STOP! Pick UP that cookie! Step away from the skim milk! A new study is out and it's a doozie! I just finished reading a GREAT book -- and the fact that it was great came as a total surprise to me. I'd heard of the book, but every time I heard the titled I assumed (sorry, Mom) it was chic-lit -- like Red Hat books or Angry Housewives Eating BonBons or ?what was the name of that book about a group of southern ladies - the sweet potato recipe club? Shoot, I can't remember. But that's the type of book I thought I was about to read. Wow, was I wrong. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows is truly an excellent book, and one that I did not want to end. It is fiction based on fact -- the Nazi occupation of Guernsey Island (which lays between England and France), and how it's residents deal that five year span of time after the war. This is not a military book or war book. It is an amazing array of post-war friends, new and old, who bond with letters and the reading of books. The author's writing style is so brilliant that each character, no matter how briefly mentioned, is an integral part of the story and would somehow be missed if not present. I'll put an Amazon link over in the right hand of this page for you -- or check your local library!

Quilting, sewing, making lists

I finished another quilt top last night. Wow -- is that actually TWO in one week? That may be a record for me -- or simply the fact that I suddenly realized Christmas is a little more than two weeks away! The one I completed last night is a nap-cuddle up on the couch quilt for Brayden. Cutting and sewing the quilt only took me about six hours -- but choosing the colors -- lordy, that took me two days! Almost 3 yr old Brayden is all about propellers lately, so I'm going to quilt the spinning wheels with propeller shapes (it makes sense in my head -- not so much in words!) The Pine Tree Quilt should be completed tonight. Just have to hand sew on the binding, and I'll do that while I watch TV tonight. (The last episode of The Amazing Race is on the DVR waiting for me!) I finished the socks I wanted to get done, and those all get mailed out this week. No photos -- family reads the blog. Really all I have left to do for homemade gifts are two quick wallets to "gussy up" gift cards. Maybe three. Oh, and an Mp3 player case. Or two of those. Shoot -- I need to quit thinking. The more I think, the more gifts to make I come up with... This is a busy busy week for me, with the exception of today. Today I will spend at least an hour cleaning my quilt room. It's gotten messy from the sewing that's gone on lately, and once it gets messy, I don't want to go in it. So clean it I shall! (Can you hear that determination in my voice?) (No, I didn't think so.) The rest of the afternoon will be spent sewing. Tomorrow is hopefully my last day of shopping. I really only have stocking stuffers left, plus gifts for my daughter but if she doesn't give me some ideas soon, she's going to get a lump of coal a gift card. Wednesday and Friday, of course, I'm babysitting for Brayden. We'll be making those white felt Christmas ornaments I showed in a previous post (scroll down). Brayden will sit on a stool beside me at the sewing machine for hours IF he can help me with pushing the buttons on the sewing machine. I have a Janome 6600P computerized machine, so there are a LOT of buttons he can push for me! With this craft I will let him select the decorative stitches we use, and we should be able to knock out a whole bunch of these sweet ornaments! My husband will be on vacation Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week, so he'll be around to help with Brayden. Ha! Who am I kidding? Brayden would rather spend time glued to "Umpa" than with any other person in this world. I will hardly even see them! Hear them? Yes. See them? Not so much. I won't be able to sew unless Jeff takes Brayden out somewhere... which I will suggest. Jeff's birthday is this Sunday, and his birthday dinner choice is lasagna and garlic bread. Much of Saturday will be spent cooking, since Lasagna is always better the second day. I make a GREAT lasagna, taught to me by an elderly Italian lady more than 25 years ago. I'll write it down as I make it and post it here next week. Worth coming back for! On Sunday after the birthday dinner and opening presents, I hope we (Jeff, myself, daughter Mary and grandson Brayden) will pile into the car and head to a local park that has a wonderful drive-through, old-fashioned Christmas light display, and then get Brayden's photo taken with Santa. Hopefully, he won't scream like he did last year. Hopefully.

Christmas Tree quilt almost finished

Wow - it's been way too long since the Quilt Bug bit around here. But bite it finally did! I'm almost finished with this wallhanging for my family room -- just need to finish tying the tree squares (I like the dimension the tying adds to the tree - the off white background is actually machine quilted, and the tree outline-quilted to give it some more dimension.), and add a bit of machine quilting to the outer border, then add the binding. Can you see my major mistake?? (Click on the photo to view a larger image.) I put in a "knife edge" narrow red border before adding the dark brown border, and didn't realize it was going to hide the top of my tree! I appliqued in this little red bird: The off-white background is already machine quilted, I just need to do some quilting on the borders and add the binding. I may actually finish this one! There's a link to this free pattern on my Quilting on a Budget blog -- look at the posting for November 25th.