Total eclipse

 Shalom stopped by and showed me a couple of the pix that he took of the eclipse.  I thought I'd share with you.

The first two pictures were taken without any filters, etc.  The last one he said was taken through the lens or something like that.  LOL.  I was looking at the picturs and wasn't listening to him.  Shhh.  Don't tell him that.

Isn't this cute?

 I was at Dollar Tree the other day and sawy this cute little cutting mat.  I had to get it.  For $1.25 I jusrt HAD to get it.  

It is only six inchea but it sits nicely next to my keyboard which means I can use it for those quick little bouts of inspiration.  I can see it coming in handy when it comes to working on hexies.

Did I show you the latest Blackwork progress  Here it is.  I have it all caught up.  This week I will get the block that goes on the left and will fill in that square corner.

Not only did I get caught up with the blackwork, I managed to finish another block for the redwork.

Soon I will soon start on another block.  That block is the "love" block.  It won't be long before I willl be at a stage that I can show it to you.

I need to stop here and work on some more prep work and get something to eat.  The sky is still nice out but I'm not going to watch the eclipse.  I can see it safer and better from home and on the internet.  :)

Everybody have a great day and I'll post more updates soon.

Progress

 After coming out of my food c oma from Easter, I got back into stitching.  I will say that my Easter meal this year was the best in a log time.  I messed up on how to put the stuffing into the roast but it all turned out in the end.  It was a little over two pounds before cooking and there was only a half inch of one end that was leftover.  Dan took leftovers home, except for half a cup of mashed potatoes and 3/4 of the pumpking pie.  He took home the stuffing (which is normal) but there was only a spoonful of carrots and a spoonful of greens left and he snagged them too.  The carrots were cooked witht he roast.  The green beans had cut up bacon and onions in them and were cooked in the bacn grease.  Then I put parmesean cheese on top of that.  

I did finish baby blue and she is adorable.  

Nest up is Goldie.  Before that I need to finish up my Words to Live By block.  I will show a pix when it is time to move the hoop again.  I am about 3/4ths of the way done with that block.

 I have to work on my black work but will wait until I get the new block tomorrow (Wednesday).  That will put me two blocks behind but I'm not worried.  I can catch up pretty quickly.

My swap partner for March in the block swap surprised me and sent me two blocks for March.  :)  I love them both but will have to analyze the one on the right more.  I  like it and might try to figure out how she did it.

Speaking of the block swap.  I finished up my April block and it is now in the mail to my partner.

That certainly is appropriate for the kind of weather we have beeen having lately. I decided to make some tuna quiche to help take the chill out  of the air so now I have dinner all ready.  

Well back to stitching.  I hope everybody has a great day,.

Happy Easter

 I hope you all have a delightful and safe holiday.  

Happy Easter

Whew! Time for a break!

I have been busy these last few days.  I even got out my sewing machine and did some 9 patch blocks so I could continue on with Fleur.  Do you remember the blocks I was working on?  This might remind you.

I only have to make two more full size blocks of the one on top and...well...more than 2 for the bottom block.  I will start with the top block so I can finish making them.  Then I have the small triangles to do but I'm not going to think about them yet.  This is a UFO so I feel good about getting back to working on it.

That is not the only thing that I have been working on,  I managed to finish up that signature block I needed to do and mailed it out today.

I know that it looks a bit lopsided but I did trim it accurately.  The flannel that it is pinned to likes to make things look wonky.  Of course it could also be that I didn't put it up straight.  LOL.

Now that I have that in the mail, I started to work on another two blocks for the upcoming swaps.  I haven't stitched it down yet but it is fused on.  I might add a couple more raindrops but that will wait until I finish it.  I will also have to  cut it down but this allows for how tight I might stitch it.  :)  I've learned that lesson the hard way.

The next exchange block I need to do will be for May.  With the saying of April Showers bring May flowers, my May block will be a flower.  I have picked out the colors but haven't fused them down yet.  It will probably be fused sometime this week.

Obviously the green is for the leaves and stem.  Moving up from the colors that lay out, the next fabric will be the inner center circle and the orange.  Next up is the batik orange which looks  more solid.  That will be the circle that butts up to the petals.  The top orange fabric is for the petals.

I wasn't done yet though.  I managed to start on the first of nine blocks for the top of the Baby Dragons.  This one is Baby Blue and I have to admit that I think it is going to be super cute.  The outline is done in a deep blue but the hair and the poof of her tail is/will be done in one strand of dark blue and 1 strand of a lighter shade of blue.

I managed to copy another Words to Live By block to the background fabric. (in water soluble blue pen).  I will try to start stitching this week.  This is the finished block 3.

I still have my black/brown work to do but I am going to wait until the new block comes out on Wednesday.  I will try to get 2 blocks done before the next one comes out.  

Anything else?  Hmmm.  I'm not sure but that is not to be decided in this blog post.  This will give me plenty to do for awhile.   I guess I had better get started.  LOL. 

I hope you all have a wonderful day.

PS:  Time for me to take something for a a headache and maybe even lay down for a little bit while it starts to work.

Once Upon a Time - there were dragons -Update - 3.13.24

 Today is an exciting day.  My test dragon turned out cute enough that I am going to start on the real blocks.  

First up, of course, is choosing the colors.

Those are the colors I will be working on for blocks 1 (top - blue) through block 9 (bottom two colors).  Where there are two colors shown, I will either use one strand of each color.  The third block will probably have the frog and the dragon in it so I'm undecided if I want to just use one strand of each green or make one creature one color and use the second color for the second creature.  I can rationalize both of those arguments in my head.  I have time to choose though.  Here are the pictures of the coloring pages along with the colors assigned to them except for number 5 and number 6.  Number 5 is all redwork and number 6 is all blackwork.  I might post up pix later but right now I didn't see the need because you all know what the red for redwork and the black for blackwork looks like.  :)  

NOW...to the dragons because they get antsy if I leave them unsupervised.

Keep in mind that most of the background images, if not all, will not be stitched.  At least at this time I do not plan on stitching them.  Somethings will be necessary to include like the egg shell on Number 9 or the frog on Number 4.  

That's my plan so far.  Any comments?  Let me know what you think.

What has been happening

      I am so happy that I made progress on  couple of things today.  Not only did I get to change up what is hanging on my walls, I am all caught up on my blackwork.  THAT includes this weeks pattern.  YAY!    That is basically al I wanted to say.  But here are some of the pictures of the wall changes.

     First up is Ellie.  I love Elli.  Since elephants are seen in Africa, I also put my African Zipper table runner on the dresser.  Now they all can chat away.

     Going with the March green theme, I also put up my bamboo quilt.  

     Not all things I put up were all green.  Here is the small quilt that is now hanging above my air conditioner.  It is getting to that time of the year where I have to put up small, or shorter, wall hanging so as not to cover up the a/c unit.

     Another small wall hanging that I put up was my turtle.  I love the colors in this one so it got to hang up on my wall.

     Not all things that I hung up was for quilting.  Here is the latest on my free 2024 PPSAL.  I can't believe that it is 10 weeks in already!

     It was such a nice day today that some of the other cats made their way into the yard.  I had forgotten how many oranges there were.  The one is almost white but still goes in orange category.  I call these three the ringtail family.

     The oranges weren't the only cats that were enjoying the weather.  Tigger also stretched out on the porch and napped.

     Sorry for the filtered look.  Tigger was to comfy to move so I couldn't open up the door for a better picture.

     I guess I had better stop here and get back to cutting out some rectangles.  As you can see from the back of these rectangles, I have them marked and just need to cut them out.

      

I hope you all have a great day!.

It is a blah day...or week

 Have you ever felt that your inspiration has declined or gone?  Or that there is a disconnect between your brain and hands?  The latter is what I have been experiencing the last couple of weeks.  So hopefully, by doing this post, it will kick me out of my doldrums and I  can get back on track.

First up is a picture that I had saved just because it was interesting and used buttons.  I wouldn't want them on my jeans but would look cute as a pillow or on the wall I thought.

Since it is March, and my block is in the mail to my exchange partner, I can share what I sent.  Somehow I love the simplicity of the shamrock so I always like to use that for my March exchanges.  I usually use a darker green but this was the winning fabric and I will say thank you to those who voted on the fabric choices.  Obviously you all have great taste and didn't steer me wrong.

So what has been keeping my mind active?  Hexies and rectangles.  It is one of my UFO projects which I've picked up again since in the Our Time to Quilt group were talking hexies.  I have a big project that might get cut back on once my initial enthusiasm wears off.  Here is a pix of what some of the hexies look like as well as one of the rectangles.

The group is also working on some redwork.  That was an opportunity that I couldn't resist.  You know I love my redwork.  This project is more whimsical and will involve different colored blocks.  Each dragon block will also be done in one color.  In other words, one block will be done in red, one in blue, one in black, etc.  At least that is the current plan.  I decided to see if I had any background fabric that would work.  I found some Stonehenge fabric that I thought would work well.  I decided to do a sample block and this is what I am working on now.  I like how the red stands out against the background.  I'm going to have to dig out different DMC colors and perhaps do some running stitches on a background scrap fabric to see how the colors will look.  I will  use two threads.  I will, of course, share progress pix.

I am still working on the redwork Words to Live By blocks but haven't enough done to share a pix.  So I will be working on that in the near future.  I also need to work on the blackwork SAL.  I am behind because this simple pattern, yeah right, is kicking my butt.  I think it is because it isn't the straight squares but rather different shapes.  I just have to concentrate on it more than I have been.

Now on to some cooking news.  I was given 15 pounds of potatoes and as I went through them, I found these three potatoes in a heart shape.  I thought it was appropriate to finding it in February and it reminds me of the shape of a heart.  LOL.

I also made some marinara sauce.

I used one of the jars to make Lasagna Soup which turned out to be a bit spicier than I expected.  Not too spicy but just spicier.  I will let you know how it is on day two.  I am thinking of making a potato and sausage recipe.  Pretty simple ingredients.  1 package of smoked sausage sliced thin, 4 large potatoes-diced, 1 large onion sliced, and 1 can of cream of mushroom soup.  Just dump everything in a  crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours.  I guess that means I had better stop now and get it ready to start.  I think that I will have it for dinner tonight.

I hope everybody has a great day.

SQUIRREL!!!!!!

Good morning.  

    Today has already turned into a squirrel day.  I woke up (always a good thing) and got up and fed the cats by 7:1`5 a.m.  Mind you, that is around 5 minutes later than I normally do and boy, did the cats let me know it.  They were meowing at me, hissing at a couple of others who got too close to BC (Big Cat) who is loveable towards me and most of the cats unless they cross his line of vision and try to get to the feed bowl before he does.  Then I went inside and put Slow Cooker Barn Raising Soup in the crockpot to be ready for later.

   That led me down the rabbit hole of recipes.  I found a chicken drumstick BBQ recipe that will be making sometime soon.  I have all the ingredients already.  I don't know about anybody else, but once I start looking at recipes, I can't stop at one (dang, now I'm hungry for Pringles even though I don't like them that much any more).  So I pulled out my bread machine recipe book and thought about making some bread but squirreled in a totally opposite direction and found myself watching a quick little vid about Mexican Pizza.  Not too bad.  only takes two tortillas, enchilada sauce, refried beans, tomato, cheese and a green onion.  So off to the pantry to pull the ingredients.  Tortillas - check.  Refried beans -  check.  cheese - check.  Green Onion - already  cut up so check.  Oops red enchilada sauce?  Nowhere to be found but that's ok.  I have a delish recipe for it.  My kitchen squirrel led me to my recipes and quickly found it.  Hmmm.  The recipe only calls for 2 1/2 tablespoons of it.  Do I really want to make a whole batch for just 2 1/2 Tablespoons.  No worries my uncaffeinated brain informs me.  Just add some of the spices to some tomato sauce and you'll be fine.  After caffeine I realize that if I just add some spices to the tomato sauce...it is basically the same as me making up  the whole recipe.  So I will do that later and make the pizza tomorrow.  THEN I realized I didn't have fresh tomatoes but remembered I had opened up a can of diced tomatoes fore my salads and since I ate up all my lettuce the tomatoes are clear and free to be used elsewhere.  Whew!   Get me out of the kitchen before I do something sensible like dishes!!!!

  I sought the sanctuary of my living room where I proudly look on my FINISHED second block of Words to Live By.

  I shall indeed celebrate and print up the 3rd block which is entitled laughter. ....oh wait...there is another rabbit hole in my living room.  I wonder what is down it?   Isn't that...oh wait...again...Is that my shamrock pattern peeking out from underneath those patterns?  Why yes I squirreled yet another time and went down the road of shamrocks.   I pulled out my pattern and, obviously, THEN had to search for my fabric.  The March block for the exchange will be a shamrock on a white background.  I won't even get my partners name for probably 3 weeks yet so why am I down THIS rabbit hole?  I blame it on my  childhood.  We raised rabbits on the turkey farm (does that look as weird to you as it does to me when it is typed out?) and I know...I mean I KNOW what kind of escape artists they are.  Where was I?  Oh yes, down the rabbit hole.  I pulled out the pattern and some green fabric and decided I could wait to make the final decision on which fabric  to use.  Hmm.  I wonder what this little side tunnel is...Oh yes I am now back to the Words to Live By road.  Print out the pattern while I still have some ink in the printer.  Done!  Now I can sit down at my  computer and read emails.

   Oops.  More holes.  Before I knew it, I had signed up for Sew Much More's Churn Chain QAL which runs from March 7 - April 25th.  Has anybody else signed up for that?  You  can find info on it at:  

https://www.sewmuchmoore.com/join-the-churn-chain-qal/

   

Ding?  Yep, you guessed it...another squirrel just rang my doorbell.  This one said Missouri Star Quilt  Company sent an email.  Oh look they want me to order my rectangle template before it is no longer available.  Of course I know that is a marketing ploy...but what if it is true?  I'd better go and order it...so I did.  Then my brain decided I had better write down what elements I want to include in the quilt...so I did.  THEN my brain said why don't you start to look for some of those fabrics so you know what you will need to buy...so I..

STOP!!!!!!!!!

   I must turn off my brain so that I don't talk to any more squirrels today or nothing will get done.  Perhaps I need to watch Emperor's New Grove and take lessons from Kronk on how to talk to squirrels <chuckling>.  On that note of laughter, I have come full circle and will pull out the printed block three pattern for Words to Live By.  I think laughter is a good place to dwell for a bit.  :)

  I hope everybody has a great day and if you see any squirrels, tell them to shut up for the rest of the day, ok? 

Happy Valentine's Day

I just wanted to take a moment to say thank you for all the support everybody has given me.  

Hugs!

What is on the Wall

      It is almost the mid month so I thought I would do an update on what I have on the wall.  It is a mix of quilting and cross stitch.  I have also added in a new recipe or two.  Let me start with an overall pix of my wall and then I'll show more close ups.

   Doesn't that look like a colorful mess?  Now let me break it down better for you.

   First up is hexies and my new templates.  You can see the hexies in the picture posted above.  These were made using the Missouri Star Quilt Company Quilt As You Go template.  I really like using it because when I attach them together.  I thought I was getting more when I ordered more of off Amazon.  I picked the wrong thing and this is what came.  

                              

   Don't get me wrong, they are useful templates but not what I as expecting.  I did find it, eventually, on MSQC's website.  This is what I wanted.

     And this is the pattern that I want to make with it.  Bu what do  I want all this for?  I am designing a hexie project.  Think of a garden.  There will be clusters of various thing.  For instance, one area for shrubs and trees, one for butterflies and flowers.  Maybe a fountain or statuary if I can find the right fabric.   I am debating on whether or not to put a wall around it.  If nothing else, I might use the rectangles for the border.  Who knows.  Who knows when I get to it or when it will be finished.

That's the plan anyway.  That's not the only thing I have been working on. 

   Here is this week's picture of my blackwork.   This is up to Week 6.  

   The other Blackwork I am working is to redo the Courage blackwork that I stitched on actual graph paper,  It currently looks funny because I didn't have any large sheets just 8 1/2 x 11 so it is a pieced graph.  This is what I have done so far.

 

   Of course I have to work on some redwork, especially in February, so here is my progress update on the second block of Words to Live By.

   I also did some new recipes.  This week I made snickerdoodles for 1.  It made around 6 cookies and I think I sill make it again.  It was a little weird to make a recipe with only 1 tablespoon of egg.  I used the rest of the egg in my breakfast scramble this morning.  LOL.

Snickerdoodles for 1

3 TBSP butter

1/4 cup sugar

6 TBSP Flour

1 TBSP egg

1/8 teas baking soda

1/4 teas salt

1/4 teas vanilla extract

Coating:

1 TBSP sugar

1/2 teas cinnamon

for Coating, mix all together and set aside

- Mix everything together except for coating.

- Form into one inch balls

-Roll in coating

-Place on parchment paper on baking sheet

-Bake 12 minutes or until edges are golden brown


   In closing, I'd like to leave you with some pix that I thought were particularly cute.  I hope you enjoy them too.