Design Wall (Table) Monday

Currently my yellow challenge is on the bed.  It is long enough to cover the top.  I am trying to figure out what to use for the border.  I will have to go buy it as I don't have any yellow pieces big enough to do them. 

I have to run to Jo Ann's and get some steam a seam 2 for the totes.  I thought there was more in the box than there was.  I'm not looking forward to going out as it is currently 5 degrees out.  Hopefully it will start to warm up soon.
I'm trying a new recipe for dinner tonight.  Bow ties with sausage, tomatoes and cream.  Hopefully DH will like it.  I will post the recipe if we like it. 
All is quiet here currently while we wait for the storm.  It should start snowing some time tonight.  We are only supposed to get about 18 inches to 2 feet total.  That's just enough to be a pain.  They are also calling for high winds which will cause a lot of problems around here with the drifting. 
Please check out all the other design walls at Judy L's Patchwork Times

Stash Report

I'm still working on my yellow challenge.   I will be happy to get it to a top by the end of the month.
I still have 2 totes to finish also.  Need to get busy sewing.


Used this Week:               3.25 yards
Used year to Date:           13.25 yards
Added this Week:               3 yards
Added Year to Date:       12.5 yards
Net Used for 2011:            .75 yards

Sewing Saturday

Today I'm working on my yellow challenge.  I am showing just part of it as I will be working on the strips.  I still haven't decided on sashing and borders yet.  I want to get all the rows done first.  Then I will finish my totes.

Shopping

What a day!  One of my guild sister's called and asked if I wanted to help pick the fabric that is being used for charity night at guild on the 8th.  Sure, I won't have to do anything but pick out fabric.  Easy, I thought.  Well, my daughter called and she is sick, so I took the baby.  Gwyn loves to go with Grandma.  She is a little over 6 months and likes just about everything.  So off we went to the LQS.  She is all smiles.  Grandma is not, as her stroller is so big that I can't turn in some areas of the store.  We did get a bunch of men type fabric for the guild and some real cute children's fabric.   This year we are making walker bags, fleece shrugs, pillowcases and burp cloths.  We will have birthday cake and sew.  It should be a great meeting.

Cutting Today

Today I finished cutting out the strips needed for my yellow monochromatic challenge.  Tomorrow I plan on sitting and sewing the top together.  I will be happy just to get the top done for Judy L's challenge.  I hope to be able to quilt it as well, but we will see what I have time for as I will be doing this on my home machine.  I hope to have some pictures tomorrow.

Design Wall (Table) Monday

I've been cutting fabric for my monochromatic challenge.

I also cut out one tote for the UFO challenge.  One more tote to cut and sew and the UFO challenge will be done.

Quilting Today

Today I met up with members of my guild and we worked on the guild raffle quilt.  The blocks are paper pieced.  Today we laid out the blocks and put them together.  I wish that I had taken my camera and taken some pictures.  We just have to remove all the paper now and stitch the sashing and cornerstones together.  A group of us are meeting on Tuesday night to remove the papers, so I will take my camera and take some pictures.  I am waiting patiently for this quilt to be done.  It is batiks and has a applique border that members of the guild are working on.  I will try to find the name of the quilt and start working on a label.

Stash Report

Not much sewing this week.  I did get the dog's coat done and that used a yard.  I gave away a half yard.

Used this Week:               1.5 yards
Used year to Date:           10.0 yards
Added this Week:                0 yards
Added Year to Date:        9.5 yards
Net Used for 2011:            .5 yards

Hubby's Coat

I'm still working on hubby's coat that the puppy chewed.  What a pain in the butt it has been.  I've done the cuffs 2-3 times each and still have the waist band and zipper to do.  I want to get this done as I have other things to work on such as my totes for the UFO challenge and my monochromatic quilt.  I have the pattern picked and just need to get time to work on it. 

Dog Coat is Done!

Here is Riki wearing her new coat.  She doesn't like to wear it unless it is really cold.  She will get a chance this weekend as the highs are forecast to be in the single digits.  I finished this last night but couldn't get a picture until today.  This coat should keep her really warm as it is 2 layers of fleece and a layer of cotton batting.  I copied her old coat to make sure that it would fit.  I think she will like it once she has worn it a few times and it smells like her.
Riki is a boxer/bull dog mix we think.  She was sorely abused when she arrived to me.  We nursed her back to health and she is a happy part of our crew.

Cleaning and Grandbabies

I spent part of the morning exercising on the Wii Fit after I found batteries that would fit it.  Hubby took the ones that fit it to work.  I swiped some from 2 of the many remotes hanging around the house.  Why we have 9 remotes that we don't use anymore I don't know.  He has them all lined up in the entertainment center. 
The grand babies were here today also.  Surprise Mom, can you babysit for a few hours while I run to the store?  DD needs to learn that mom has things that she has to get done too.  I did get started on my spring cleaning while the kids slept, briefly.   I already told DH that I was sewing tonight as I have tried to for the past few days and it just hasn't happened. 
Dinner is almost done and the chicken smells wonderful.

Design Wall (Table) Monday week 3

Today I'm working on a new coat for one of the dogs.  Deedle decided to play with this one.  Riki is getting lime green for her next one.  I will try to post some pictures of her wearing it after I get it made. 
I am also going to wash my yellow fabrics today.  I picked up some more and discovered that a few of them bled, so I will toss them thru the washer on gentle and then dry them.  I'm still trying to decide what I will be doing for sashing.   As you can see I have a helper.

Snow

It has been snowing like crazy here today.  Officially at the airport there has been 97.0 inches for the season.  Just a little over 8 feet.  I live 15 miles north of the airport and we have received more.  I didn't keep track this year and have the feeling that I should have.  Here are some pictures of the snow and 2 of the dogs out in it.

Hey!  There's something in here!

A view out of the window, this tree was clear this morning when I got up.  By 5 it looked like this.

After dinner, I'm going to work on those totes again.  I need to put zippers in and I don't like zipper installations.  I have procrastinated enough and done enough on the computer for today.

Stash Report

I worked on my totes for the ufo challenge and made a couple of small totes for my quilt guild. We also had our snowed out Christmas party at guild, and 2 yards left for a new home, but I brought home 2 yards . 

I also bought some fat quarters for my monochromatic project.  I seem to be going the wrong way and need to stop bringing in the fabric.

Used this Week:               6.0 yards 
Used year to Date:           8.5 yards
Added this Week:            6.5 yards
Added Year to Date:       9.5 yards
Net Used for 2011:          - 1 yards

Paint for the sewing room walls

Dear hubby had to get some stuff from Home Depot this afternoon and I decided to ride along.  While he was looking at stuff, I decided to look at the paint.  I will be painting the sewing room from the pastel green that it currently is to anything else.  I have a great spring green that I was going to paint it.  But I started looking at their screw ups.  They had this really great teal color that I just fell in love with and it was a great price,only $5.00 a gallon.  The only problem is that it is a gloss instead of semi-gloss.  The walls will shine and sparkle, I have the feeling.  I also picked up a gallon of indigo paint.  I thought that maybe I would paint the bottom half of the kitchen walls with that and either white or a pale blue for the top half of the wall.  Currently the bottom half is forest green and a butter color on the top. We have not painted the kitchen since we moved in over 14 years ago.  I guess it is time.  There are other rooms that have never been painted by us either.  The sun porch is one of them.  Maybe in the spring I will empty it out and paint it.  It currently is DH's office and work room.  The other room I would like to see painted is the mud room.  It is the same pastel green as the sewing room.  The previous owner must have gotten a deal on that paint as 3/4 of the house was that color.  We painted some rooms before we moved in and said that we would do the rest later.  Later is finally here as far as I'm concerned.  Hopefully the hardwood floors will also go in this spring. 

Cleaning off sewing machine cabinet

Today has been busy.  I have been trying to clean off my cabinet for my Bernina.  I had 6 projects stacked up on it, fabric for my stash, a few of my DD's items to be made and a bunch of books and magazines.  Now I just have to move the books and magazines to the book cases.  The fabric was put into labeled totes so I will now where it is.  I found the book I have been looking for for about a year now.  It was in the closet with a bunch of my DD's stuff that she brought me a year ago.  I apparently picked it up and put it with her stuff.  It is with its project now.  I'm all set for Judy L. to draw that number now.  I found part of another project while I was cleaning also, so that can be put with the rest of its parts.  I'll take pictures tomorrow of what I found.

Design Wall Monday week 2

I know, it's not Monday, but I've been busy with quilt guild stuff and home and grand babies.  

Here's whats on the table today or Monday as the case was.

This is DH coat, the puppy chewed it and DH split the zipper which had dry rotted.  This is an old military style jacket and a real bear to work with. Here's a picture of the culprit Deedle Dee.

 I also finished up my quilt block for guild and made a bag for our Christmas Party.  We had it this month because of the bad weather a month ago.  We were in the midst of getting 3 foot of snow.  That kinda slows us down here.  A few inches(up to 6 inches) is a common every day occurrence, a few feet not so much.  We are use to some but not in the foot a day every day for 3 days, a 1day break, and repeat for the next 3 days.

Our block exchange this year was illustrate a Christmas song that you picked.  I picked Holly Jolly Christmas.  I could only remember Burl Ives singing it in Rudolf, the Red Nose Reindeer.  So that is what I did and put the holly at the top and some mistletoe above the deer.  The darker colored one has a red nose.  I fused and machine appliqued everything down.
The other thing that I did was to make a bag for our fabric exchange.

3 fat quarters and you have a cute tote bag similar to gift bags that you buy in the store(size wise).  It takes about an hour to cut and sew one bag.  I'm sure that I'll get quicker as I make more.  I plan on making more of these and having a few on hand instead of paper gift bags.  I may add a snap to the center top or Velcro.  The pattern is from thehappyzombie.com.  It is her Poochie bag and may be made in 3 different sizes.  I used the one with the big boxed corners or milk carton corners as she calls them.
Here is a picture of my DD and granddaughter at the Christmas Party.  DD is a member of the guild and I'm slowly teacher her how to quilt when she has time.

Stash Report

I decided to do the stash report after all from Judy L.'s Patchwork Times.  I cut out pajamas for my grandsons.  I have one pair made except for the elastic in the waist as I don't have their waist measurements.  So I'll only count the one pair for this week and add the rest to next weeks total.

Used this Week:               2.5 yards 
Used year to Date:           2.5 yards
Added this Week:            3.0 yards
Added Year to Date:        3.0 yards
Net Used for 2011:           -.5 yards

No Quilting Today

I was too busy to quilt or sew today.  Gwyn, my 5 1/2 month old granddaughter was here.  She is cutting teeth and is very cranky according to my DD.  Well Gwyn wasn't that cranky for Grandma.  She coos and laughs while sitting in her high chair playing with a few toys.  She likes to watch the computer screen if I have the laptop set up.  She loves when the dogs or cats get close enough so she can touch them.  The critters are very tolerant of her and like to give her kisses. 
I did read a magazine while she slept for half an hour before DD arrived and took her home.  DD was upset that  she couldn't stay longer as she wanted some of the jambalaya that I made for dinner.  Her hubby wanted to go out for dinner. 
Maybe tomorrow I will be able to sit and sew.

Busy yesterday

Last night must have been busy, I tried to post for a couple of hours and just couldn't get the screen to come up.  I spent yesterday working on my tote bags for the challenge.  I also cut out a pair of pajamas for one of my grandsons.  One tote is all cut out and the fabric is washed for the second one. 
Today I am working on my quilt guild block.  I have some thread work to do.  I will post a picture as soon as it is done.

Design Wall Monday

I started these totes once already and have lost the pieces, so I'm doing them again.  The black/white/green is for my friend Linda. The other one with the batik and colored fabrics is for my DD.  She asked me to make this tote about a year ago and I had bought the fabric and it has set.  

The yellow is for my monochromatic challenge.  I'm going to try and find some more yellows.  I have the pattern all picked out.  Just got to figure out if I want sashing and borders or just borders.

The search begins

I have been looking for the pattern for the tote bags that I need to do and thought that it was on my computer.  It was except I have a different computer.  So I had to hook up my old hard drive and search thru that.  I finally found the pattern and have all the fabrics washed.  Tomorrow I will start cutting and sewing these totes.  I think that I have finally figured out the zipper that will hold them closed so that will be good.  Now I'm looking for yellow fabrics for the monochromatic challenge.  Let's see what I can find.  I have found one piece but it is about 8" wide and the width of the fabric.  I may end up going to the LQS and see what I can find.  I need to install EQ6 onto this system so I can work on my design.

Recipe and Other Items

Here is a picture of the pork loin right before I put it in the oven.  I love how moist and juicy the loin comes out of the oven or off the grill.  I'm posting the recipe and please let me know what you think of it.  There are 2 versions of this as I use the second version as it isn't as spicy as the original.
Cocoa Chili Rub(original)
1/4 cup Brown Sugar firmly packed
2 Tbsp Unsweetened Cocoa Powder
1/2 tsp Ground Cinnamon2 tsp Garlic Salt
1 1/2 tsp Chipotle Chili Pepper


Mix all ingredients together to form a dry rub.  This is too spicy for my taste and hubby is not fond of Chipotle Peppers.

So here is how I make this:

1/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed
2 Tbsp unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/2 to 1 tsp Cayenne
2 Tbsp Paprika

Mix all ingredients together to form a dry rub.   

I thought that I better take a picture as DD and SIL were over for dinner and I wasn't sure how much would be left over.  Good thing I did as there is only 1 slice left!  Hopefully I'll be able to eat it tomorrow for lunch.  
I checked Judy's site, Patchwork Times, and she picked #6 for January.  I will start these totes and get them done by the end of the month.