Hard at work....

The other day while DH was watching FoxNews and searching ebay, I decided to try my hand at sketching a little quilt. I have it all sketched out, figured yardage and block sizes and yesterday got sewing ...

Here is a sneak peak.


I bought this fabric for a diaper bag that never got made. There are 24 blocks made out of little less than 2 yards of fabric. Today I am off to see "Bride Wars" with my sister. We will then do a little fabric shopping for another couple of yards to go with the blocks.

Hope to show the finished top next week.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

I spent today making a charity quilt. I have a whole bucket of polka dots and decided to just cut and stitch. I still have a whole bucket left. How does that work?

I used the last of the bread tonight and made garlic bread along with Chicken Parmesan and a side of spaghetti. YUMMY!!

Tonight while DH listens to FOXNEWS, I will work on my next redwork block.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

The last 10 days....

Where have I been the last 10 days? Let me think back....

Last Saturday we took off to our youngest granddaughters first birthday party. She really liked her cake. She liked it so much she needed a bath afterwards..
Her sister helped her open her gifts and play with them. We got her something that has pieces, makes a lot of noise and takes 4-D batteries. I love toys like that.




I was hoping to go to a local quilt shop, but the party started at 2pm and the quilt shop closed at 3pm, so that didn't happen.

I have been working on my redwork blocks, doing some charity blocks using some of my brights stash and teaching the neighbor girl how to do redwork. I have also been taking many trips to the eye doctor and Monday I was told that my right eye was totally healed up and I just have to be weaned off of the steroid drops now. I will always have a small hazy area but it does not affect my eyesight so I am thankful. I do have to pay attention and get to the eye doctor much sooner if I notice symptoms returning. Apparently once you have herpes simplex in your eye, it is very likely to return. Live and Learn...

My latest finished redwork block....





Today was a snow day as we got about 6 inches, so I decided to bake. The last 2 desserts (new recipes) I have made have been total flops. Even DH wouldn't eat them and he is pretty easy to please. Today I made a lemon bundt cake with lemon glaze and it smells great. I know it will be good as I have made it before...

Then I decided to make some veggie soup. I love this stuff and will eat it for every meal until it is gone...


Now, I have always been just a wee bit envious of Judy. She makes her own bread. I love bread. I used to make a lot of it when we were first married and it was cheaper to make it. Then I started having kids and working and it wasn't as easy. Judy even has a separate blog for cooking. She is something else. I first read about this style of bread making at her blog and then this morning I read about it again on Motherload. Three seconds later I was HERE and I should have the book by next week.

So while I wait, I decided to pull out that great Christmas present I got.



and make this....




Um...did you notice that more than half a loaf is missing?? Yea, 3 teenage boys, sledding down the street and then hot chocolate and half a loaf of warm bread with butter....LOL

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

The Mystery Continues....

So far, so good. These are my mystery blocks for my Quilt Guild. November, December and January blocks are due tomorrow. I was really afraid I wouldn't have mine done, but here they are... This is one of each month. Each month you make the same block multiple times. According to BEV!!! we can't use matchy, matchy fabric. We must use scraps. That is hard for me to do. I try each month to close my eyes and just pick, but alas I confess I do move things around a bit. Sorry BEV!!! I am mixing up the fabrics within a block so I am trying...

I also made some bread Friday. A couple of days ago, my oldest daughter was telling me about some beer bread mix she had purchased from Simply Tasteful. At $4 a box, it was fairly expensive and she really liked it. Google to the rescue. I found a recipe here that you can print out. Here are the ingredients.... I don't buy beer very often so I thought I would at least buy something I would drink in case I didn't like the bread and ended up with 5 extra bottles. LOL



Dump all this together and you get this....


Bake for an hour and you get this....


It's a sweet bread and very dense. Would be good with a hearty soup.

DH and picked up Abbie yesterday and kept her while daughter and hubby went to his Christmas Party. Yes, it's the middle of January and it was his Christmas Party. We have to take her back today. OOPS!!! Is 7:40am and I hear her stirring.. Best go get her up for some breakfast and snuggling before we have to take her back..

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

Quick Giveaway Alert

We all like to save the environment.. Jane4Girls is giving away a set of 5 reusable grocery totes.

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

A New Year deserves a Clean Slate.....

Over the holidays (ok, way before that!), my sewing room was a dumping station. DH Santa gifts were all in there hidden behind clutter, I was finishing up some Christmas presents and it just got worse and worse. Yesterday, I decided I had had it...It MUST be cleaned. Here are some before and after photos. What a mess... to see all the horrible mess, double click the photos to make them bigger.

This is my ironing table and cutting table. My DH made both of these for me about 5 or 6 years ago. I am tall (5'9") and these fit my height very well. He is very handy to have around. The shelves underneath the ironing table hold some of my fabric, mostly folk art colors by Pat Sloan. I love her color combos. Isn't this a mess? Now I did take all the stuff off of those shelves above and THEN take the photo, so it looks worse than it was. Those shelves above run around my entire sewing room. They hold a ton of stuff and are another Pat Sloan invention. Well, she didn't invent the shelves, just where to put them...

And the cutting table after. The gray container on the left hanging on the wall holds all of my hand embroidery thread. DH made the ruler/scissor holder on the right. The black metal thing in between is a paper holder. I am not really even sure what is in there now. The white bucket above holds my Mystery Quilt blocks.

And the ironing table after. I decided to hang all my swap postcards so I can see them everyday. Aren't they cute?

Here is where I sew. I used to have a HUGE sewing table that you can see HERE. DH made that also, but it has served it's time and it was freecycled. This table is portable. It has wheels. I can load it up and take it to retreat. It's a SewEzi table. LOVE IT....See it HERE. Hopefully this table won't get clutter like the old did, but I have realistic expectations and I am sure it will. -sigh-
So before

and After - Not much difference. I do like to use those Command Hooks. They will stick anywhere and when you want to move them, they come off clean. No marks on the wall. I have two totes hanging there. Both were gifts...I LOVE them. I use them. All the time..

Bookshelves are notorious for clutter and mine were no exception. This holds most of my mags and books, my Kona for hand embroidery, some special knick-knacks. It was OUT OF HAND!!!

Much better. And when does a UFO stop becoming a UFO? When you make it a curtain!! I need to line it so it doesn't fade.


This is the forth wall. Just a wall, but boy can it get crazy...


Ah, much better.

A full view.....


I think I need to sew and make a mess!! LOL Hope you enjoyed the tour...

Off to work on my calendar quilt. You can see the beginnings hanging on the design wall in the after photo of the bookshelves. Yes I am a week behind. While I was cleaning I found a piece of fabric that Pat Sloan mailed me when I was making a calendar quilt a long time ago. Think I will add it to this one....

Happy Sewing,
Nancy

I've been a good girl....

How good, you ask?? So good that the ulcer in my right eye has completely closed up!!! YIPPEE!!! I have been so diligent with my eye drops and oral meds. Now we are waiting for the roughness to ease out a bit and I will get to start on steroids which will completely heal the sucker... Can we hear an AMEN!!

I couldn't believe my eyes (ha, pun intended) when I woke up this morning and slowly opened my right eye to find out that there was no pain... I am so thankful for the healing. I have done some laundry, cleaned my closet and was going to make sompin a little sweet, but I don't have any frosting so maybe tomorrow.. Unless someone has a good chocolate frosting recipe? I have baking chocolate, butter, confectioners sugar, milk and probably anything else I might need, but maybe not since I have never made homemade frosting.

Anyway I am so happy to be healed, I am willing to make HOMEMADE FROSTING... and I think some retail therapy is in order. LOL Tomorrow...when the hubby is working from home.
Cause I don't have an eye appt tomorrow. Yea!! I don't go back until Thursday!! Or maybe I will clean the sewing room? I was in the middle of that when the eye took me down, so I could hide in there tomorrow and clean...

Or maybe I will work on THIS. I kind of am two days behind...

Thanks for all the nice comments and concerns. I really appreciate it.

Can't have a post without photos, so here is one I snapped over Christmas. Grace, Jackson and the Rock Star... don't ask me what Jackson is doing, he's 6.



Happy sewing,
Nancy


PS - yesterdays post was a joke. I only drove to the eye dr and didn't have a flat tire.

PPS - The coconut cupcake recipe is easy peasy. White cake mix and add a big ol handful of coconut before baking. Vanilla icing and then dip in coconut.....I have two left I am saving for DH dessert tonight.