All About Me 'N' Crafts

Surprise In The Garden

2012-01-12T09:31:00.000-06:00

During my cleanup this past weekend (meaning I finally got around to doing it), I realized the sweet potato bucket needed to be emptied (technically it should have been emptied prior to the first frost, but life got in the way and we had 2 back to back frost come in too quick for me to do anything in the garden. I just left everything alone. I figured the potatoes had turned to mush or something, but when I brushed away a few inches of soil, I found a couple of potatoes. I then took hold of a dead vine and pulled it and about 4-5 small potatoes were attached. I thought this can't be true (only my 2nd year growing sweet potatoes). So I started to clear more and more soil and low and behold this is what I found. I don't have a scale to weight them, but that won't be a problem, because once they are peeled and seasoned (to become sweet potato fries) and put in baggies to go in the freezer for later use, they won't be around long of enough to worry about the weight. To see what bucket was emptied see my video here.

The photo above is the largest potato in the bunch.

I have to thank my daughter for helping mom out (well technically she was paying off a debt instead of paying me in cash, she paid me in labor, shhhhh don't tell Department of Labor you know child labor laws and all). She pulled all the dead plants from about 7-8 beds (ranged from medium to large beds), chopped them up to be thrown away (my compost bins runneth over, that is the next project to figure out a better system since my trash can system is not working out so well). She also helped me (sew) another mesh covering for my greenery bed (still pictures and what I did to come in case you want to give it a try). The next project she will help me with if I can wait (since she has an all day business competition next Saturday and then SAT test the following Saturday) is to lay 6-7 bags of mulch on the garden floor (to prevent grass from growing) and clean up the flower beds around the house. I am so ready for spring to come (but not the 100 degree temps of summer last year).

Do You Know the Difference?

2012-01-09T09:27:00.003-06:00

I came across this post and I found it truly informative. I have just started seeing it appear more and more in patterns I wish to make from appliqueing, bags, etc. I love the fact that Ashley includes brief project examples of how to use either interfacing, fusible adhesive, and fusible web and the close up shots of what each one looks like (back and front) helps you understand what you will feel and see when trying to decide. Have you ever wondered what was the difference between these (keep in mind there are several different companies that make them, so you will have to experiment which you like best), well Ashley has broke it down for you. I have seen racks of various types interfacing at my local craft store and they were all different and I was baffled on what I needed, also I was curious if I should buy more or different types when they are on sale or when I have a 50% coupon, well this post helps me. The next thing to do now is test it out.

Summary of 2011 Events and Stuff

2012-01-01T10:36:00.000-06:00

I wanted to take a few minutes to recap how my 2011 went (and boy did it go by fast). I slacked off a few months on updating my blog...to life taking over....you know how that happens. The memorable events of 2011:

Knitted my first shawl, completed a full size quilt (including the quilting) for my husband.
Loaded all of my loose knitting patterns, magazines and books into http://www.raverly.com/.
Completed my goal (well it started with 25 in May when first started tracking and ended with 100) of reading/listening to 100 books before the end of 2011. Next year my goal will include half of them being classic books.
Daughter had all 4 of her wisdom teeth removed. This was her first introduction to being put under and dealing with stitches and above all not being able to talk like the wants to. Not sure if the no talking was a bad thing, just kidding.
Participated in my first "judged quilt challenge" for a charity group. I made a quilt out of batiks (not a fan of that fabric). I did not win, but it was truly gratifying to have to come up with a quilt with a specific theme and have it looked at by people.
My garden was destroyed (except for 1 bed that contained greens, Brussels sprouts and chard) due to a continuous 3 night frost. I had tons of plants with tomatoes and peppers that were almost done and some just starting to ripen. I know that I took a chance with a few new plants, but that was way to quick. Luckily enough a few days prior to this freeze I took off a lot of the peppers that were ready and today I am still using them (I chopped them up and put all in separate zip lock bags).
Presented and attended my first Quilt University for my local quilt guild. My booth instructed people on how to choose a pattern. The Quilt University took a new quilter from the beginning to the end of making a quilt.
Built floating cold frame/enclosure for my future lettuce/greens that consisted of window screen and stitching together with cotton twine (pictures will soon come).
At the end of summer we ended up having around 90 days of consecutive 100+ degree temperatures.
Installed drip irrigation in garden. It is not the greatest and I still have a few little things to do, but it works.
Tried growing "personal size" watermelon and they got to be about softball size and then all rotted. Don't think the location was conducive to them. Will try again next year.
Completed building all the vegetable boxes I needed in my garden and layed down about 1-2 inches of mulch on the garden floor bed to cut down on weeds, grass, etc.
Inventoried all my books and uploaded into http://www.goodreads.com/. Turns out I own over 700 books. I had to purchase 2 more bookcases to try and coral them all, that did not work. I have since decided to give away the books that are no longer needed by me and that I know I won't re-read and that my daughter/husband aren't interested in. I am trying to get it down to just 1 full bookcase at any given time that looks presentable.
Inventoried all sewing patterns onto an Excel spreadsheet and uploaded to my phone so that I don't purchase duplicate copies.
Converted to the IPhone world. Never thought I would, but I did.
Inventoried seeds onto an Excel spreadsheet and uploaded to my phone so that I am always in the know of what seeds are needed.
After returning from New York was sick as a dog (dying dog at that) ended up with the flu for a few days and then into the hospital for a few days with pneumonia. Oh what joy.
My daughter and I went on our first airplane ride ever (and even without my husband) and out of state to boot. My daughter's band was invited to New York to perform and also the band directors included a few days of recreational fun for the students.
Attended first quilt retreats locally, next will be to go away to a retreat for a few days.
My daughter got her first "paying" job over the summer. It was a joy to see her budgeting and spending her own money for a change.
Discovered audio books and found that I can get through 1 almost every day.
Had a tooth pulled, although in hindsight I think I should have gotten a second opinion, not to worry will be switching back to my dentist of over 8 years (long story).
Started back knitting and the obsession begins.
Decided this was the year to venture out and meet others and join various groups to expand my crafting, charity events, but above all to meet others.

Completed Projects 2011:
[3 x 6] Sampler Quilt Mini Bee-Flickr Group, 1st Qtr 2011 (Beehive 22), signed up 11/20100 (runs 01/2011-03/2011) Must be mailed by 03/31/11. Completed 3 of the 6 blocks needed (02/11/11) Mailed 03/21/11.

quiltingimaginations-Yahoo Group, Signature Block Swap, signed up 11/2010 (runs 01/15/11-04/30/11) Mailed 01/27/11.   May do a miniature wall hanging or a mug rug.

scratchingpost-Yahoo Group, 2011 Birthday Club, signed up 11/2010 (runs 01/2011-12/31/2011). Completed 12/2011

Must be mailed by 02/21/11.  1 rug, pending completion of binding/label and 2nd rug needs to be quilted/binding/label. Mailed 02/11/11.

quiltingforall-Yahoo Group, Spring Tulip Table Runner, due by February 28th for voting. Completed 02/17/11.

Spring Into Summer Embroidered Quilt

2011-06-01T08:19:00.000-05:00

A co-worker and I are going to start making this quilt. We are going to make it a lunch time project. I think this is going to be a cute quilt. However due to the fact that we are doing this on a budget (yes I said budget, I have wayyyyyyyy to may projects that I have purchased, but have not started or completed, ~~however, that does not mean I will stop buying/starting/attempting more projects~~) and I am going to be embroidering it on a white background (she had bolts of white linen like fabric on hand so we decided to go that route), so it will probably be a wall quilt (not a fan of white fabric with a dog in the house.

http://sentimentalstitches.net/free-stuff/spring-into-summer-embroidered-quilt/

Kaleidoscope Quilt Along

2011-06-01T07:59:00.000-05:00

I just came across this quilt along and I am going to attempt to do this quilt. As a kid I loved looking into the round tube to see the beautiful glass or foil paper inside and seeing the changes as you turned the end up into the light. It always fascinated me, well now I can make a quilt with the same concept. I am thinking of going with either Asisan type fabric of a springy pastel color range. The fabric requirements will be posted on June 3rd and there is a great incentive at the end if you finish your quilt by August 4th (that is only 2 months to complete the quilt, not sure if I will make it, but I am going to try), check out the site to see what the incentive is and what you need to make the quilt.

Using Bias Tape

2011-05-31T16:03:00.000-05:00

Because I hate doing binding in general, I came across this article and thought how ingenuous. Now I know this binding material has been around since the beginning of time, but hey I am new to it all and anything that makes the process easier let along faster and still looks just as good, I am all in there. I came across this article and I thought I could really do that, I also realized...hey that is what is on my potholders and oven mitts...never knew it. I have heard through various quilting groups that people are starting to use this type of binding for their quilts and I think I will give this a try. I am in the process of making a mat for my dog water/food dishes to go onto, so I will be able to test out the process real soon.

Smashed Peas and Carrots: How to Sew Bias Tape {A Tutorial}

Enjoy.

Binding Tutorial

2011-05-31T15:56:00.000-05:00

I know there are tons of binding tutorials out there and I think I have read most of them (no seriously, I think I have), but binding is a part of the quilt process along with actually quilting the quilt that scares me. I guess this is the final touch that you put on a quilt and if you mess it up the quilt could fray or better yet come apart and all that hard work is lost. What also scares me is the finishing of the binding by hand, WHY OH WHY do we need to do it by hand, but I guess if you want it to look great and you can't get the "stitch in the ditch to line up properly, finsihing it by hand is the way to go, just set some time aside to do it right espically on a big quilt. Kerry at verykerryberry: Single Binding Tutorial gives you great up close photos of the process step by step, I know that takes a lot of work to do, but it is so very helpful. Give her method a try and just replace the single binding with your double layer/folded binding.

Enjoy

What is a fat quater????

2011-05-31T15:50:00.000-05:00

Are you new to quilting and the terms we quilters have come up with, well here is what I have found to be Fat Quarter 101. This article goes into detail of what a fat quarter is along with diagrams (pictures are always helpful).

I find fat quarters quite helpful in quilting, especially when you need a small amount of fabric or you just want a punch of something to add that pizazz to your project and your local quilt store won't cut you a small piece. I collect fat quaterts like I collect charm squares, layer cakes, jelly rolls, and fabric yardage. You just can't get enjough and why should we.

http://quilting.about.com/od/stepbystepquilting/ss/fat_quarters.htm

Peppers In The Garden

2011-05-27T20:10:00.002-05:00

I took a moment earlier last week to see what kind of peppers I had planted in the garden. I also wanted to make a note of which ones were producing already, so they would be a likely choice (after tasting them) for next year.

Small pepper bed (transplants purchased):

Sweet Banana Hybrid (4)
Bonnie Green Bell (7)
Cayenne Hot (4) already producing some peppers, picked 1st batch last weekend

Large Pepper Bed (grown from seed):

California Wonder Bell (2)
Jalapeno (2)

Large Pepper Bed (transplants purchased):

Orange Sweet Bell
Lilac (purple) Bell (2) already producing some peppers, picked 1st batch last weekend (the peppers were small, but were ready)
Mucho Nacho Jumbo Jalapeno
Serrano Chili already producing some peppers, picked 1st batch last weekend
Tam (mild) Jalapeno already producing some peppers, picked 1st batch last weekend
Sweet Banana Hybrid
Yellow Bell
Red Bell Sweet (2) already producing some peppers, still green
Chocolate Bell (2) already producing some peppers, still green
New Mexico 6-4L Chili
Santa Fe Grande Chili

Sporadically Placed Around Garden (grown from seed):

California Wonder Bell (2)
Carnival Mix Sweet Bell
Crispy Hybrid Bell (2)
Jalapeno Early (2)

Here are some photos of the peppers picked this weekend.

Lilac Bell Pepper

Serrano Chili Pepper

Sweet Banana Hybrid Pepper

Cayenne Hot Pepper

Red Bell Pepper (had to pick early as we needed one for dinner)

Sweet Peas

On a non-pepper note, while out in the garden picking peppers, I noticed the grape tomato plant had a few tomatoes that had turned red. I had to taste them on the spot (2) and brought 2 inside the house. They were good and slightly sweet.

Enjoy.

Here are some radom photos of how the peppers have been doing over the last couple of weeks.

Quilt Block Of The Months

2011-05-27T19:29:00.000-05:00

I am trying to get caught up on my quilting since being sick the last few months.

Honey Bee:

February

March

April

May

Ready To Sew Bernina:

February

March

April

May

Austin Modern Quilt Guild:

Double Four Patch, block #5

I also did the Plus block that was on the creators website

Stripy Circle block #6

Wonky Log Cabin, block #7

Pinwheel, block #8

I am now officially caught up with the groups. YEAH so excited. Enjoy.

Garden 2011 #3

2011-05-23T15:50:00.000-05:00

Here is an update of the garden from May 8th.

Seeds From Praxxus55712

2011-05-19T09:23:00.000-05:00

I received my seeds from Praxxus a couple of months ago and due to being sick, was not able to set time aside to germinate them. These will be the first plants that I germinate next year. I am super excited to get them, there were hundreds of people that requested his seeds. The only seed that I really wanted, but did not get (becasue he ran out) was Polish Linguisa tomoato, he has raved about them and I wanted to test them out.

I received the following:

Large Cherry Tomato, Germinates in 7-14 days and 75 days to maturity
Rutgers Tomato, 75 days to maturity. Through research here, I will find out later if this is the determinate or indetermainate variety later.
Hot Jalapeno, Germinates in 10-20 days and 65 days to maturity
Mild Jalapeno, Germinates in 10-20 days and 65 days to maturity
California Wonder Bell Pepper, Germinates in 10-20 days and 75 days to maturity
Thai Hot Pepper, Germinates in 10-20 days and 75 days to maturity
Cubanelle Mild Pepper, Germinates in 10-20 days and 65 days to maturity. Through research here and here it is a
Boston Pickling Cucumber, Germinates in 5-10 days and 55 days to maturity
Carrot Imperator, Germinates in 9-17 days and 68 days to maturity. Through research here and here tells me that this will be a long sweet carrot.

I also came across this visusal guide to peppers. I am sure there are more peppers that are not included on this list, but I thought I would share with you.

In The Garden

2011-05-12T12:21:00.000-05:00

Here is an update on the status of my garden. I am feeling much better from having the flu and being in the hospital with pneumonia (although I was considerably behind while trying to get well, I have on 3 tomato plants left to plant, some plants are way too small for this time period, but they are in the ground).

I have noticed that since I moved the black/red raspberries and the blue berries to the patio there has been considerable growth. I think next year will be much better since these plants are now getting total sun and they should be able to fruit up. I am also giving the plants coffee grounds.

The potatoes are already starting to flower. I would have thought it would have been a few more months before this occurred. I planted them in March (I need to check the tag to see what the maturity time period is).

Here are the various tomato plants that I have actively growing in the garden.

2 photos above--Lemon Boy (store bought transplants)

Jelly Bean Hybrid (grown from seed)

Cherokee Purple (from seed, thanks engineeredgarden)

2 photos above--1 of 2 of my Roma Burpee plants, 1 is waiting to be planted (from seed).

Better Boy Hybrid (from seed)

2 photos above--Roman Candle 1 waiting to be planted (from seed, thanks engineeredgarden)

Burpee Sweet Snack Hybrid (from seed)

Early Girl Hybrid (from seed). This plant had some frost damage, but so far it is almost as big as some of the other plants in the garden.

Burpee Sweet Hybrid (from seed)

2 photos above--Black Cherry (thanks engineeredgarden)

2 photos above--Bonnie Grape (store bought transplants)

Roma (store bought transplants)

Yellow Plum (store bought transplants)

2 photos above--Yellow Pear and it is forming tomatoes, since it is an indeterminate, we shall see (store bought transplant). The last time I grew these were from seed and I got a lot of greenery, but one lonely tomato.

2 photos above--1 of 2 of my Paul Robeson tomato plants, it is starting to form tomatoes (thanks engineeredgarden)

3 photos above--Paul Robeson tomato plants, the 1st tomato plant is starting to form tomatoes, the 3rd is waiting to be planted (thanks engineeredgarden)

Pepper plants, most of the peppers in my garden, which there are tons, have all started to flower and/or produce baby peppers of some sort.

2 photos above--Chocolate Bell Peppers

Lilac Bell Pepper

Sweet Banana Pepper

Cayenne Pepper

Radishes

I have 3 egg plants in my garden and so far 1 of the 3 are starting to flower. 1 was about to flower, but since I moved it, the plant shock made it drop its flowers. My third plant was being shielded by the cabbage so I moved it and it is still a small plant (it is getting bigger by the day).

My cabbage plants are transplants and I have 4 of them growing. Not sure if they are to close, so next year, I will try to plant them much further apart.

The green beans are coming along quite well. I am not seeing the tendrils so not sure how big these plants will get. I can't wait to try the green beans. When I grew green beans during my first year of growing, I got enough to make one meal out of them and I was happy. Hopefully I get more so that I can freeze them.

The peas don't look great, but they are flowering and have already started to form peas. I love eating them right off the vine.

Cucumbers are starting to produce. I LOVEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE cucumbers. I accidentally picked up transplants that did not have the tags in there, but I do remember that some were Armenia, lemon, and burpless, will only find out which is which at picking time. I don't mind.

The 1st photo below are the zucchini plants prior to them being moved into the buckets (2nd photo) as you can see they are very happy. I have one plant in the bed in photo 1, just in case the buckets don't survive, it is not as big as the ones in the buckets, but it was planted much later. They are all growing quite nicely.

Flower Beds and Plants

2011-05-12T12:11:00.000-05:00

I am happy to see a lot of my plants survived the cold winter we had (however, I still lost a lot).

Gardenia plant is trying to come back.

Not sure what this plant is???

Elephant Ears are starting to return.

Blackfoot Shasta Daisy is showing up for the summer. They looked a lot better last year.

The cactus that I got through freecycle last year is starting to flower. I moved it from a shaded spot to an area that would get way more sun.

Tulip, I realize that this area is not right for the tulips, so if it does not survive, I will be planting new bulbs elsewhere.

3 photos above-Hollyhock. I have had this plant for about 3 years now and it is the first year that it has flowered. Last year I realized that squash bugs (or similar bugs) were taking it over and I also lost 2 other good size plants to rust.

The Agapanthus is coming back. Last year and the year before around this time they would have already flowered. At least the bulbs are still viable.

2 photos above-Earth Kind Roses

Very proud of our work. We moved the BBQ pit from the patio to out in the yard. Now have to get another propane tank and clean the grill so that I can use it again.

Hydrangea, I have never done well with these growing in my yard, so I am going to grow in in the house and take cuttings from it to try again.

Peace Lilly, I had lots of these last year, but an infestation of fruit flies had me clear out all my plants. No matter what I did, I could not get rid of them. OVER WATERING was the enemy.

I received this plant (although it was a tiny cutting) from a propagation class last year. It is doing quite well.

Money Tree (Pachira Aquatica)-Picked this up at IKEA last month and I really like the plant. I have to research care for it.

Dragon Tree (Dracaena Marginata)-Picked this up also at IKEA last month. I lost my others due to the infestation of fruit flies.

Birdie Stitches Embroidery BOM #3

2011-05-10T12:29:00.000-05:00

Little Miss Shabby Birdie Stitches March block. I decided to spice mine up with throwing in some clover and grass for a St. Patrick's theme.

Happy Mother's Day

2011-05-08T21:17:00.002-05:00

I want to thank my husband and daughter for a great Mother's Day. My husband brought home Kerby Lane Cafe breakfast (my favorite) which contained

Gingerbread pancakes
Scrambled Eggs
Soy Sausage
Country style potatoes

My daughter baked a pound cake for me and it was quite good. My husband and daughter worked together to create a fabulous dinner, which was:

Spinach Lasagna
Chicken Marsala (first time it was made and my husband did a tremendous job on it)
Garlic bread

Also, to my total surprise I received gift cards to Starbucks and Joannes. Well I must say that my crafting and coffee addiction (recenlty acquired coffee additction, considering I could not stand it a few years ago, same thing happened with Chineese food) will be satisfied (as just on Saturday I broke down and purchased me a gift card to Sarbucks as well, go figure 2 gift cards for COFFEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE), I will be overwhelmed with

Venti
Bold
Carmel
Little room for cream

I hope everyone had a great Mother's Day, I know that I did.

Also, I picked this weekend to inventory and enter all the books that I have in my mini library into an electronic database http://www.goodreads.com/, turns out I have 559 books. I like this program so far, as I can have it with me at all times so that when I come across a book that I need and it is on sale, I can purchase it without purchasing a duplicate.

Garden 2011 #2

2011-05-06T13:22:00.001-05:00

Update on my garden (04/09-10/11). A majority of the spinach all set seed so I pulled most of it and found small plants growing underneath so I kept them (I am sure they will set seed as well with the heat). My potatoes are also forming flowers, I would have thought it would have been much later in the season before it started this. I moved my raspberries and blueberries to the patio to hopefully get more sun (shall see if that helps them sent more fruit). I gave up on the soaker hoses because I discovered a lot of the plants were not getting the water from the hoses if it was not directly next to them. I am mapping out doing my own drip irrigation system for the garden.

Questions:

My onions seemed to have set seed early than I have experienced before. I also tried using some of them the other day and some parts were real hard (I was only using the root portion since the stalk was hard), is that normal, should I pull them all and compost them?
My brussel sprouts still look the same in the video today, should I pull those as well and start again next year. I am not that familiar with the growing of brussel sprouts, so maybe when it gets this hot they stop forming the sprouts. Also, last night I noticed a flower starting to form on the top of the plant, would you say it is done for the season?

Thanks and happy gardening.

Seedlings 2011 #3

2011-05-06T13:10:00.001-05:00

Update on my seedlings (from 04/08/11 a little behind), which most of them are now happily planted in the garden and I also started some Marigolds (of course it was probably late in the season, but I did it any way. Lastly started some watermelons and cucumbers.

Update

2011-04-10T20:05:00.001-05:00

Well March turned out to be a crazy month for me:

I was ill from the end of February to the beginning of March. Went to the doctor as was told that I had a respiratory infection, ear infection, nausea, and a bad headache. I was on medication for a week or so. I was wondering if this illness would prevent me from going to New York with my daughter and her band over Spring Break (03/14-18/11). I got a little better and went on the trip. I started developing another cough on the trip, thought maybe it was just the exhaustion, airplane ride, still getting over illness, different environment and lack of sleep. I pushed through the trip and when I got home on Friday my cough was worse. I went to the doctor on that Monday and was told I had the flu, ear infection, nausea, and a bad headache. I had been battling a 102 temperature since I had gotten home from NY. On that Thursday I starting having coughing fits and could not catch my breath, so I went to the doctor again. She told me to go to the hospital as it may have been pneumonia or a pulmonary embolism. Got to the emergency room (doctor called ahead so the process was real quick) and in about an hour was confirmed my lungs had pneumonia pretty bad (both lungs). I was told this is what they call "walking pneumonia" and I may have had it for a few weeks and that is why I was not felling well. I ended up staying in the hospital for a few days and then another week at home recuperating.

I am still not at my norm. I get tired easily and my gardening has to be broken up into about an hour or 2 at a time. So with this being planting season, it may take me a while to get through. My crafting has also slowed down, I just don't have the energy. Today I was so tired that I took about a 3-4 hour nap and I am still tired. Normally I don't try to nap on the weekends so that when I do go to bed I can really sleep.

I have to shake this because this is not me. I know I have been running on fumes for the last few months with work, the trip, etc., but normally I can snap back. OH well I guess it is age that is starting to tell me that I have to slow down. However, I will be telling age to take a back seat, I got things to do. HA HA.

I will be posting pictures of the NY trip, updates on my gardening and quilting projects that I have been working on. I also got a chance to read some books that I had on the back burner for a while because I found them on CD and during my hospital stay they kept me company.

Hope everything had a good Spring Break, St. Patrick's Day, April Fools, and are enjoying the changing in the weather.

New York Day 1...Not Quite San Antonio

2011-03-14T18:41:00.000-05:00

Sitting in the San Antonio International Airport. We were supposed to board at 1:55pm and be in the air at 2:30. We received word that our flight was delayed 1 hour.....then 2 hours. The delay was due to weather that Houston was experiencing and the flight we take goes through Houston and they had to wait for it to pass before they could get to San Antonio. We boarded at 4:30, only to be told that the flight was cancelled after everyone was belted and bins closed. Now we are waiting in the airport for another crew to come and take us. They said they cancelled the other flight because when it arrived it had a malfunction that was fixed before we boarded, but because of laws the flight crew could not fly anymore for the night (since they were only 2 min. away from non fly time. So another crew is coming from Houston and should be here around 8:00pm and of course that means we will not get to New Jersey until after 1:00am. What an experience for my first time flying. I am still optimistic that this is normal and it will all be okay.

My nerves were up and I had just relaxed after looking out the window at the wings of the plane and making peace with whatever happens, then we get told it was cancelled.

Garden 2011 #1

2011-03-12T17:20:00.002-06:00

Here is a video of my back garden in the state before I cleaned it up for Spring planting. Last weekend I ended up moving the:

brussel sprouts to the small bed,
cilantro and I think I will need to cut it back as it does not look too good,
chives into the small bed.

I pulled all the vegetables that were looking bad and the cabbage that looked like something took a chunk out of it. I also layed the 4 large bags of mulch that I received from a fryeecycler. My husband lent me his muscles and he Incorporated compost into the beds and turned the soil.

After the cleanup I was able to access where the plants will go in the spring and I have more room to plant more of the tomato varieties that I have bought.

I finally got a chance to plant 3 of the 4 potato varieties into rectangular planters closed to the house:

Freedom Russet
White Superior
Red Norland
Yukon Gold (pending to plant)

New York, New York

2011-03-12T17:20:00.001-06:00

My daughter and I are on the way to New York soon. Be on the look out for posts and pictures of our first trip out of Texas as well as first time on a plane. Looking forward to it.

Seedlings 2011 #2

2011-03-12T17:08:00.000-06:00

Update on my seedlings from seeds, new transplants, grow light.

Seedlings 2011 #1

2011-03-12T14:59:00.000-06:00

Here is a video of the seedlings since starting them from seed back on 02/11/11. I started some seeds that I got from Engineeredgarden talked about here and store bought seeds. I feature all the transplants that I have purchased, my growing light system, timer, recycled containers, etc.

Happy B-Day (02/22)

2011-02-25T09:30:00.001-06:00

Happy Birthday

For my husband's birthday this year he requested homemade Italian Creme Cake, but in a cup cake form, since he is not a big sweet eater and once he gets his fill (which is a couple of them) he is done. So I went on a mission to find a recipe for this cake (I found a lot of recipes that called for a whole lot of ingredients). I have eaten it before, but never made it. I came across this recipe during my search from Christine at Have Stand, Will Mix. She already made the cake into a cupcake recipe and the ingredients were easy ones so I gave her a shout out that I would give it a try. There are always a few things that I have to think about when baking in my house (1) my daughter does not like nuts or coconut, but she likes white icing (so far any color icing), (2) my husband loves nuts and coconut and somewhat white icing, and (3) I like nuts and coconut, but not a big fan of icing that is not chocolate. So I had to figure out a way that all 3 of us would be able to enjoy his birthday cake. So here is what I did:

Made the batter, but only used 1 cup of sugar (as I try all my recipes with less sugar than called for and each time it is made I take away a tablespoon or so, my goal is to get it slightly sweet and the less sugar I can use the better), added extra vanilla (1/2 teaspoon) and left out the coconut until the end. My husband suggested that in addition the vanilla that next time try a little bit of coconut flavoring.
After batter was done, I poured some into a small cake pan about a 3-5 inch pan (these are the single serving size cake pans) for my daughter's cake.
Once her cake was separated into another pan, I added lots of coconut (more than the recipe called for as the bag I found at the store was a 7oz bag) to the batter (next time I will add even more) for our cupcakes (or use the suggestion of my husband's above).
I prepared the cupcake pans (there was enough batter to make 19 medium size cupcakes)

The next day I had my husband taste one of the plain cupcakes, he was like "can't wait to get home to eat those". I was super excited that it came out well. We headed out on his birthday movie day (2 of them "Unknown" and "The Eagle") and we enjoyed a nice lunch at Taco Real. Sunday will finish out his movie weekend where we will go to Alamo Draft House and watch "True Grit" (this did not happen as we we so tired from the day before that we all chilled at home). When we got home:

I made the icing and had both of them taste it to make sure they liked it (since I used a different icing from the recipe, see what I used below), my daughter said it taste like marshmallows and my husband said it was creamy and he liked it.
I toasted lots of coconut in the oven to be sprinkled on top of the cupcakes and I chopped up the walnut halves, I purchased the halves so that I could make sure there were no hard centers in the walnuts (next time I may try this recipe with pecans to see what flavor it gives, although my husband said don't change it because he REALLY likes it).
I frosted her cake (with a lot of frosting), then added more untoasted coconut to the frosting mix and frosted all but 4 of the cupcakes and put the toasted coconut and walnuts on top of his (since I really did not want the icing on mine).

For the frosting I used Betty Crocker Home Style Fluffy White Frosting Mix, this was to cut down on some of the dairy, egg and sugar content of the recipe as a whole.

From Saturday through Monday my husband ate all but 7 of the cupcakes, which I gave to my father-in-law (when I was packing them up to take to him my husband said to grab one more and put it in the fridge just in case he wanted something sweet later).

The only problems (well I call them problems as I was totally unsure of myself through the whole process) was that I could not really get the eggs to form stiff peaks, I think I should have used a wire whisk attachment on my mixer instead of the regular paddles for mixing. I noticed when I went to fold in the eggs into the batter they never really mixed in completely and there was a lot of liquid at the bottom of the somewhat stiff egg whites, I still put everything into the batter. Also, the cake had oil on the cupcake papers and into the pan, so maybe I should cut back on the oil next time or was it because the egg whites did not all form together, really not sure, have to play with this to see where the problem is for me.

I hope you all give this recipe a try as I think you will really enjoy it and will add it to your arsenal of GO TO RECIPES.

Hometown Seeds Offer (Deadline 03/15/11)

2011-02-23T08:59:00.001-06:00

I was contacted by this company, which specializes in high quality garden and herb seeds. Most of their seeds are open-pollinated and all are GMO-free. Since I am new to gardening and new to growing my plants from seeds, I thought I would give them a try. They are offering:

$5 off any purchase over $25 products. By entering the coupon code spring 2011, $5 will be reduced from the total cost of any order over $25. The code will be good through March 15, 2011. There are quite a few items on their website that you can test out. This may become your source for seeds in the future.

They can be reached at http://www.hometownseeds.com/herb-seeds-c-3. So don't delay their is a deadline for the coupon code of March 15th. Let me know how the seeds work for you, who knows you might inspire me to try something totally different in my garden.

Happy Gardening

Liebster Award

2011-02-22T08:59:00.000-06:00

I am so very thrilled to receive this award from Shauna and YES I do accept it. I am ecstatic that she thought of me to receive this award. Thanks you Shauna. Your kindness at my recent quilting project came at the right time. Really appreciate it.

1) You have been tagged, do you want to accept?

YES! then create a post on your blog and post the love blog photo.

2) Link back to the person who gave you the award and say if you accept.

3) Choose 3-5 of your favourite blogs to tag, link these in your post too and tell the lucky people they have been tagged.

The aim of this award is to bring unknown good blogs to light, therefore, please don't tag somebody with 3000 followers.

I pass on the award to:

Jackie, you always have nice encouraging words on my posts.
Jeff/EG, your amazing information on gardening and the ability to just do it.
Rock Rose, the amazing photos and the detail you provide on your blog.
Bobbi, love all the photos and information you share on your blog.
Bingo-Bonnie, great information on your blog and how you include your kids in your posts.

I hope you accept the award, but if you don't, no problem.

Road To Oklahoma Block

2011-02-20T13:50:00.000-06:00

I just completed the large project for the Happy Scrappers group that I am in. I made mine into a wall hanging instead of a pillow. I wanted to work on my free motion quilting. I am not that happy with it, but I am still learning. I really like the block and it came together quite fast, it is completed of four 8 inch blocks and sewed together makes a 16 inch block. I added borders to make it 18 inches total.

I just recently purchased the supreme slider to help me in my free motion quilting, but you still have to relax.

Birdie Stitches Embroidery BOM #2

2011-02-19T06:16:00.002-06:00

Here is my completed 2nd block on 2/16/11 (previously discussed this block of the month here). I must say the embroidery process is getting faster. The only slow part is picking the colors of thread. I don't always want to use traditional colors for things, but you won't know what the colors look like until you stitch it (then pretty much it is there to stay, due to the holes in the fabric). I found some new transfer pens at Joann's and I got them on sale, they are called Water Soluble Pencil by Clover and you get 3 different colors in the package. I think I only ended up spending a few dollars and I really like them. I used the gray one on this block, next time I will try the pink, just to see if there is a difference in being able to see the lines after a few days. I am enjoying this stitch along. Can't wait to see what March is about (maybe a St. Patty's day type theme).

Spring Table Runner

2011-02-19T06:02:00.000-06:00

I completed my table runner for the Quilting For All group. The due date is February 28th to have it posted to the group so that it can be voted on for the project of the month. I must say that I really enjoyed making this and the applique was not so bad after all.

Here is a photo of my pre-applique process, trying to test out a few things (I accidentally made the green petals before I realized they were supposed to be white). I decided after all not to use the green petals.

Here are a few up close photos of the completed applique process.

Completed table runner.

Quilting Gallery Mug Rug Swap

2011-02-14T19:06:00.000-06:00

This weekend I received my mug rugs from my anonymous partner for the Quilting Gallery Mug Rug swap, I previously talked about it here. She did a great job on making them. The photos below are the front and back of both mug rugs. The one with the sewing machine and spools will be put in my craft room. The colors fit my room to a T.

Now how did she know that I love drinking coffee. I am going to take this one to work. I love the fabric that she chose in this mug rug.

Anita says she is a beginner, but I could not tell. She did a fabulous job and I am glad to receive them.

She also went one step further and put a little gift in with the mug rugs. A coin purse. TOOOO CUTE. It will be attached to my purse to hold my access badge to enter my building at work (I spend more time digging in the bottom of my purse for it each morning).

Thanks Anita, I really appreciate it.

Quilting Block Of The Months

2011-02-09T21:37:00.001-06:00

This weekend I worked on a few projects.

Honey Bee 2011-January

Ready To Sew Bernina-Basket Case January

Austin Modern Quilt Guild-Scrappy Hedgerow, block #4

I still have a few other blocks that I have to finish very soon to meet deadlines, but I think I can do it. I don't have much planned on Saturday, so that will be my target date to complete:

3X6 blocks, One completed, 4 more to go. I am using this pattern Box Quilt in the colors specified by group members

Layer Cake Quilt Along, Block 8 has just been posted

Spring Table Runner, won't take long, just have to sit and do it before the 28th. I have the fabric.

Small and large project for Happy Scrappers club and to complete the Tumblers Aplenty quilt

Small and large project for Charm School (before the 26th)

I think this is it for the major projects (I think). Wish me luck.

Tumblers Aplenty Quilt

2011-02-06T15:01:00.001-06:00

I have made considerable progress on the tumblers quilt for my Happy Scrappers Club. This is a major undertaking for me at the least. It requires working with a template and cutting out lots and lots and oh did I say lots of tumblers. I decided to go through all of my scraps and cut them into the tumblers rather than going with any one particular fabric line. This way I can use up a lot of my excess fabric that I would not use in other quilts. I first talked about this quilt last month here. I actually did not start cutting out my tumblers until Friday (when we had a snow day) the day before the 2nd meeting (this quilt has to be completed be completed before the end of the 6 month session. I got most of them cut out and sewn into a few strips. My plan is to finish the major part of the quilt by next weekend and then sew borders around the strips to enlarge it, but for sure to have the quilt done by the next meeting March 5th. Here are photos of my progress.

These are the 16 individual strips done so far.

These are a few strips sewing into groups of 2's.

According to my calculations once all 16 strips are sewed together it will measure 64X63. Not sure how large I will make the borders. This quilt is planned to be a TV cuddle quilt. Can't wait.

Quilting Gallery, Mug Rug Swap

2011-02-04T09:07:00.000-06:00

I mailed out my 2 mug rugs to my secret person. I hope that she will like them as these are the first mug rugs I have made. They are just miniature quilts and sometimes working with small pieces, especially binding can be hard (for a beginner like me). I enjoyed it and I think thee are great Christmas gifts for this year. See photos below of the front and back of both mug rugs.

Snow Last Night

2011-02-04T08:30:00.000-06:00

Leander received a reported 1.5 inches of snow. Most of the schools surrounding the Austin area are closed and most businesses are on a 2 hour delay. We received more snow last year (see pictures from my garden and front yard). I decided since my flannel pajamas were all nice and warm, there was no reason to actually go outside and take pictures. So these pictures were taken from the inside of the house through the storm door.

Coult not resist taking a photo of he pretty clouds that are supposed to bring freezing rain tonight.

Hope all are safe and warm. I am.

Simply My Style Simply Sweet

2011-02-04T07:52:00.000-06:00

A few years ago I purchased the first block in the Simply My Style, Simply Sweet block of the month program from Joann. Unfortunately I misplaced the block and over time, I forgot about it. I discovered the block a year ago and thought I would not be able to use it in the BOM program, but maybe as an extra block in another quilt. I did some research and discovered that I could contact Joann and order old patterns (maybe not for everything). I contacted them and they were happy to send me copies of the missing blocks for free at that (go figure). I only needed blocks 2-8 plus the setting block. Now I have to figure out what type of fabric I will use to complete the quilt. The copies arrived yesterday in the mail.

I am looking forward to putting this quilt together.

Main Street Quilt & Thread Guild-Starry Night

2011-02-04T07:38:00.000-06:00

Here is my first block completed for the Main Street Quilt & Thread Guild. The request was either for a pink or purple and white block. In this guild you have the option of completing the monthly block and you are given a ticket at the meeting along with all of the people that complete the block who want to be in the drawing. A drawing is done and the winning ticket will win all the blocks submitted and you have to come up with a block for the next month along with presenting how to make it.

This is a neat idea.

Layer Cake Quilt Along-Spin Wheel

2011-02-02T20:47:00.000-06:00

Here is block 7 by Celine Perkins through the Layer Cake Quilt Along. This pattern was quick. I am finally caught up with my blocks.

Layer Cake Quilt Along, I WON

2011-01-31T11:03:00.000-06:00

Look what I won, a Perkins Dry Goods Perfect Piecing Seam Guide. I won this prize for participating in the Layer Cake Quilt Along and the actual block that I won the prize for was Block 5 (I am known as knitdemon on flickr). I received my prize in the mail this Saturday and I went around to my sewing machines and checked my 1/4 seam allowance and this liitle doo hickey really works. Thanks Celine Perkins and Konda Luckau.

Upcoming Weather....Possilbe Snow (yeah right)

2011-01-31T10:52:00.000-06:00

Although we have had some cold days this month (where as when I would go out to take off the covers the fabric was hard and ice crystals had formed), but it looks like they are predicting snow (not going to bet the house on it), but that means that the temps will dip close to freezing where I am. I have had 2 days straight so far this past week where I did not have to cover the plants (however, no rain). I still cover mine if the temps are below 45 degrees at night (just to be on the safe side) some say that is not necessary until you are in the very low 40s and 30s. I don't mind doing it. It might just be me, but the weather has been real freaky in 2010 and now 2011 (or it could be that I am paying more attention to it with gardening).

Add Seam Allowance Without A Ruler

2011-01-31T09:32:00.000-06:00

Saw this post from Debbie at squigglytwigs and thought this was a neat tip, especially if you are working with curves (maybe not so much in tight corners/curves). I have not tried it out, but it seems very doable. Enjoy.

Spring Tulip Table Runner

2011-01-31T08:43:00.000-06:00

I will be attempting to complete a table runner through the quiltingforall-Yahoo Group. It is called a Spring Tulip Table Runner, which is due by February 28th for voting. We are not sending it in for voting, but taking photos and posting it to the group and those who wish to will vote. I decided to change mine from all the spring colors to more earth tones colors as this will fit more into the decor of my dinning room, which has glass, black wrought iron in the furniture, deep rich browns, reds, and mahogany in my pictures on the wall.

This runner has a little bit of applique and it is the perfect amount since I am just now learning applique in another group that I am in. 2011 was the year set up to learn applique, embroidery, and learn more in quilting my quilts.

Here is a photo of my fabric choices. This week I will spend time ironing and cutting out the fabric. My goal is to have it posted by the third weekend in February.

Birdie Stitches Embroidery BOM #1

2011-01-31T08:33:00.000-06:00

Here is my completed first block on 1/23/11 (previously discussed this block of the month here). I actually completed it before the end of the month. I saw so many wonderful blocks where the person filled in certain aspects on the project, So I decided to give it a try and I filled in the ear muffs on the bird and the scarf on the snowman. I have to really work at this as the stitches started to pucker (was not sure if it was me and my tight stitching or working on the hoop, most like me). I will also try a different pattern transfer method. After a few times of working with the block the white chalk started to disappear, which made it hard to find where to stitch.

Can't wait for block 2.

Layer Cake Quilt Along (Pointing The Way)

2011-01-30T20:00:00.000-06:00

Here is block 6 by Toby Lischko through the Layer Cake Quilt Along. This pattern was easy and came together way faster than I thought.

Layer Cake Quilt Along (Rainbow Boxes)

2011-01-17T16:52:00.000-06:00

Here is block 5 by Cara Wilson through the Layer Cake Quilt Along. This pattern was very interesting. I did not think the corner squares would come out right, because they are supposed to change directions when you cut them apart and behold they did. Amazing. I think I will be trying this on larger measurements.

Birdie Stitches Embroidery BOM

2011-01-17T14:12:00.007-06:00

Here is the fabric that I will be using for the Little Miss Shabby Bridie Stitches BOM. If you want to get into embroidery or if you already do, you should check this project out. I am looking forward to making the quilt. I found this Jelly Roll and gray fabric at Joann's on sale. The jelly roll is by Fabric Central (that I have had about a year now) and the gray fabric (was purchased with a coupon earlier this week) is standard solid color quilters fabric. I discovered that I have a lot of DMC floss so I can get underway with the project and I will decide later what the last border will be as well as the binding and backing.

I finished putting together the blocks so that I can embroider on them.

I decided to try a white chalk pencil to transfer the pattern. I will see if it is difficult to stitch with the light color on the fabric.

Layer Cake Quilt Along (Starry Starry Snowball)

2011-01-17T12:20:00.000-06:00

Here is block 4 by Sherri McConnell through the Layer Cake Quilt Along. This pattern was easy and came together fast. I like her technique for sewing on the corner triangles.

Blind Quilter

2011-01-15T06:08:00.000-06:00

I am speechless. I will let the video tell you the story.

Singer Confidence Quilter 7469Q

2011-01-12T21:10:00.000-06:00

I purchased this sewing machine back in October, 2010 and I recently did a quick review on the Singer site. Here is what I wrote about the sewing machine:

Upscale Beginner Machine

Pros: Good Value, Great Features, Easy to Use

Cons: manual missing information

I have had the machine for 3 months now. I have tried out about 90% of all the features. I like the machine so far. It is not as quiet as I thought that it would be, but I think that it is a good machine overall. PROS-I love all the extra feet and the extension bed, that gave it the extra scoring points with me. I really like the digital selection buttons. I also like the button for needle up/down and the twin needle function. This is truly a plus. CONS-What really hit a sour note with me was that the manual is for the 7469 and does not touch on the 7469Q features. So you have to figure it out on your own. I think with a better made manual the sewing machine would be that much better. Also, the drop/raise feed dog is located at the back of the machine. Not sure why this mechanism could not have been put on the front or even the right side of the machine.

Also, need to note that this is not a quiet machine (sometimes I have to turn up the TV or music that I am listening to because of the machine). I am not sure if the noise is normal or maybe the more expensive machines are a lot quieter. However, I am used to it now.

The only other thing that I wish this machine had was a speed regulator. Since I am learning to free motion quilt, I wish I could set it to a medium speed to practice. This will be something that I will want if I get another machine.

Here is a sampling of some of the stitches on the sewing machine.

I had to add a name next to the length and stitch selector as I always got them confused.

Harry Potter Project of Doom

2011-01-12T20:52:00.001-06:00

Are you a Harry Potter fan, do you know someone that is (I'm sure you do)? Well Jennifer (AKA ofenjen) is doing a block of the week mystery quilt with paper piecing geared toward Harry Potter. The Harry Potter Project of Doom started today and you have time to join in. Jennifer is a major Harry Potter fan and through her I have learned more and more why my daughter loves Harry Potter. My daughter hates that the books are over, however she has discovered Twilight, but as she says "there is nothing like Harry Potter".

Also, take a moment to check Jennifer out at her blog as well as on YouTube (she is the paper piecing queen). She does so much for the Linus Connection and she teaches classes at Honey Bee Quilt Store. When you check out her videos on YouTube you will be amazed at all she creates (she amazes me at the things she comes up with). Not only are your quilts, crotchet projects, and revamping clothing awesome, but the costumes that she creates for her kids. WOW, just WOW.

Also, she is a person you can talk to, just a regular person, I like that about her.

Take Time To....Embroidery BOM

2011-01-11T22:38:00.001-06:00

I am currently working on a BOM from Caroline of The Contented Quilter. She is doing a serious of embroidery blocks dedicated to the concept of taking time to do....various things. Here is my first attempt at it. I plan to frame them individual and place them on a section of the wall in my craft room (always need a reminder to enjoy life). I am still new to the embroidery stitches (not as similar to cross stitch as I thought)and I am sure that this could look better and I am sure that I will learn during this project. On to block 2.

Happy Scrappers (Month 1)

2011-01-11T21:55:00.000-06:00

I joined a new group at a local quilt store Ready To Sew Bernina-Cedar Park and the group has a bunch of lively ladies in there and I think it will be a great group. Our leader is making us work the next 6 months on a nice size quilt and she is also giving us mini projects to complete each month as well. We are going to receive points for projects that we complete (total completion=quilting and binding, OH NO). The major prize for the most points is that your membership is paid for the next 6 month session. I like that idea. I have completed (well still have to add a button and hook) the first project that will be due next month. It is a planner cover. The cover was supposed to be a test run because I wanted to make one bigger than the pattern called for, so I used whatever I had in my stash to make it. I kind of like it (but my original fabric is still calling me, ha ha).

Pictures above are prior to the green binding being added.

We are making the quilt on the front of the Sew Scrappy Magazine, Volume One, 2010 Issue, Quilts for Fabric Lovers, Better Homes and Gardens Creative Collection. It is called Tumblers Aplenty. I am going through my stash now to see what I can use and I am thinking that I will be making my blocks at 4.5 instead of the 3.5 size the pattern calls for (just to make a crib/wall size you need 378 tumblers, to make a full/queen you need 1,110 tumblers (WOW).

Also, instead of making a plastic template, I will be using one of my Christmas presents that my hubby got for me. It is the Easy Dresden template.

In this scrappers group you learn all kinds of tips and tricks for making your quilts. One lady bought dollhouse wood and made her template, others used various other dresden templates as well as template plastic, etc.

Daughter's First Quilt

2011-01-11T21:12:00.000-06:00

I made this quilt for my daughter this Christmas. This is technically the first quilt that I have made for a family member. I made it in her favorite color, purple (also found out that orange has been added to the list, so it worked out perfectly), but I had to throw in some other colors to jazz it up a bit and make it more of a teenager quilt. The quilt is 57 x 68, which is about the size of an Afghan. The pattern is called Log Cabin Polka (a wonky type log cabin) and it is from Creative Quilt Collection, Volume One, From That Patchwork Place. I picked this book up last year at Half Price Book Store and this book has quite a few quilts that I want to make. In the pattern it had 4 quadrants of a log cabin block sewed together to make 12 individual 18 1/2 blocks (it called for a partial seam piece technique), but I did not want it to be tooo busy for her. I then took left over fabric and made two inner offset boarders. My husband helped me pick out the backing (deep burgundy color for the 2 outside strips and a pretty purple for the large inside border) and binding (a bright red). At first I did not think the binding would go, but it did and it turned out great.

She was all tooo happy to pose outside with the quilt (don't mind the dead grass, itis really not dead, just REALLY sleep, haha).

My only dilemma was the quilting, I dread this process as I am totally not comfortable with it. So I tried several different techniques as I was doing it, (1) chalk and a stencil, (2) printing the pattern on thin paper and sewing through it, (3) free hand drawing (not very good at all, my hearts look like a heart about to explode), (4) then finally free motion quilting. From a distance it all looks good, but up close you see the flaws, my daughter did not care she loved it (that is all that mattered).

I really like the inner panel on the backing the pattern really jells together with the burgundy side panels.

This label was done by ironing my fabric to freezer paper (the kind you find in the foil and zip lock section of the grocery store) and typing up what I wanted in Microsoft Word and running it through the printer. The amazing thing about this process is you can write anything you want and as long as your printer recognizes it as paper it will go through the printer. See a video about it from YouTube here.

The strange thing is that my craft room is open to anyone and no matter what I am doing (even in secret) my family walks in. So the whole time I have been working on the quilt, I kept trying to hide it from her. At first I don't think she noticed it as I am always sewing for something or some group. When it got to the part of putting on the last borders, she started to notice a big vibrant purple quilt. When my husband and I (had to coax him to help me with it) were putting the quilt together for the basting and quilting process, we had to use the dinning room table due to the size. My daughter passed by and said what are y'all doing and my husband chimed in and said "oh this is a quilt your mom is doing for charity and the lady requested nice bright colors as she is loosing her eye sight". I almost said "WHAT", but I caught on (usually I am real slow in the department, ha ha). She believed him and said "WOW what pretty colors, she is going to like it". That made me feel good as I had been fretting over the process the entire time. During the days of the quilting process she saw it again and said "WOW mom you did that on the quilt, but how, I really like that, if you can one day, will you make me one". I said "well I don't know right now as this is a big quilt and it takes a lot of time to put it together, we will see". I almost burst into tears (emotional moment there, ha ha).

The only box we could find, as I did not plan the wrapping part, was a Dell box. I told my husband "if she sees that Dell box she is going to freak and think she finally got a laptop and she won't have the same excitement when she opens it and sees a quilt". He said "don't sweat it she will be okay". Well on Christmas morning, this quilt was toward the middle of the presents she was opening and I was right, as soon as that Dell logo first appeared under the wrapping paper the girl almost fainted, I almost burst out laughing, it looked like she just meet a famous superstar or something. I said "dont' judge a book by its cover as you never know what is inside". Well, my husband and his love of wrapping things with lots of tape, made it difficult for her to open, so they had to get the scissors. However, when she opened it she saw the label on the quilt she was jumping for joy, "you made it for me...WOW cool...thanks mom" and then she posed for several pictures, since we opened gifts before getting dressed those pictures are freighting with our hair and sleeping clothes looking crazy (so they will be private viewing only, ha ha).

To my joy she loved it and that was all that mattered. Thanks sweetie for allowing mom this moment in time.

Holiday 2010 & Scrap Pile Mystery Quilt

2011-01-10T12:36:00.001-06:00

I signed up to participate in the Holiday 2010 Mystery Quilt project (of course I am behind, what joy). You can still do this project as the information will be on his website through completion of the quilt (which is still going on) as well as some time afterwards I am sure.

I am pulling the fabrics from my scrap pile and will begin to start on the quilt this month. Depending on the outcome of the quilt it may be a gift for someone at Christmas time. If I start now I won't have to rush later (of course I will rush because I will do another quilt last minute, RIGHT).

I also saw this Scrap Pile Mystery Quilt (which they already completed) on Eriks site. I like the concept of always being able to get rid of your scraps in a great way. I will most likely donate this quilt.

Seeing how well the scraps were being used, I found a group at my local quilt store that will be using scraps in various projects, so I joined. If you have lots of scraps and don't know what to do with them. Check out the 2 options above.

Enjoy.

Leander Adult Book Club

2011-01-10T12:25:00.000-06:00

I just joined this book club and we are reading the Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards. So far so good. I came across this book a few months ago and had it on my list of books to read and through this book club it has been pushed to the front of the list.

Free Calendars For 2011

2011-01-10T11:49:00.000-06:00

I never know what the date is let alone what day of the week I am on. So I try to put a new calendar in each room each year (well at least I try). I came across these and thought I would pass them along to you. Various cute calendars that you can print and display.

EZ with Creature Comforts used watercolors to make the animals/nature prints in her calendar (she actually painted them).

Shivani with My Owl Barn has made a clickable calendar, which allows you to decide what picture will print for the month you select. Way cool. You will not look at owls the same way.

Cameron with Cottage Industrialist created a calendar geared toward vegetables. This would be so cute in your kitchen.

I am sure there are tons more out there that people have created, so just Google the web and you never know you might just discover a new blog that peaks your interest (that's what happened to me).

Enjoy

Central Forge Carpet Cutter Blades (possible replacement to regular rotary blades)

2011-01-08T07:27:00.000-06:00

I know that all quilters who use rotary cutters probably think like I do (at least I think so). That when it comes to rotary cutters, they are the most expensive tool of the trade (other than fabric and a sewing machine of course). Since I have been quilting the cost of the blades have ranged from $25.00 to $36.00 for a refill pack of 5 blades for the OLFA brand cutter. The other brands are around the same cost (except for the Gingham which was considerably more around $11.00 for one blade).

Well through one of my online quilt groups, someone alerted us to the use of the "Central Forge Carpet Cutter Blades" sold at Harbor Freight Tools. They told us these blades were meant for cutting carpet (but as we quilters know, just because it is meant for something else, it can't be adapted to be used for quilting at a considerable cheaper cost). Someone discovered that the blades fits the 45mm OLFA, Fiskars, and Dritz rotary cutters. They mentioned that even if you have a notch in your rotary cutter the hole in these blades will fit your cutter. The amazing thing is that if these truly do work the cost is astronomically cheaper that the name brand blades because these blades cost $1.99 for 2 (that is $1.00 per blade, not include shipping). I know that sometimes if something is cheaper it may not be as good, but since you have to change your blade out so often, why not give something cheaper a try.

In my research I found out that I have 2 Harbor Freight Tools in my city and I have called one and they had a large number in stock. I will be picking up quite a few and testing one out and making sure that I like them (before the return date expires). For those of you who do not have a location in your area, they are on the web and you can have them shipped to you. If you do have one in your area, when you call to find out if the have any (which I highly suggest, since more and more quilters are discovering them) they will most likely ask you for the SKU number (mine did when I called) and that is "Central Forge 97642". I hope you give them a try, you never know until you try it out. However, you know if they get hip to the quilting game, the cost will rise considerably.

After I working with them more, I'll let you know what I think (from a beginner quilters prospective).

Here is a side by side photo of the carpet blades (right) and an OLFA bade (left). So far the only difference is that the OLFA blade has a notch in the center. The blades fits my OLFA cutter and they cut the same (at least to me).

The blades edges are sharp on both sides like the OLFA, so I don't think I will have a problem in using both sides of the blades.

Photo below is the carpet blade installed in my OLFA rotary cutter (front & back photo). The blade looks and feels the same as the OLFA.

I hope this information helps you in deciding whether to test out the carpet blades. I did not find the carpet rotary cutter itself to see what the difference was between mine and theirs (will continue to look). Enjoy.

Tomato Seeds

2011-01-07T08:30:00.000-06:00

I received these seeds from Our Engineered Gardener (thanks again Jeff) back in November. I am very excited to try these varieties of seeds. I am still very much a newbie to growing my plants from seeds, so hopefully all will work out. Also, I love watching his videos, he shares so much information/videos regarding his growing process that it is like you are right there (along with Jude). Also, he is truly amazing at creating things from scratch (from wood, electronics, etc.), you can't imagine the things he has created (just do a search for his compost turner, that will show you). He is also very giving of wanting to share his knowledge when creating a new project. Thanks again Jeff.

Cherokee Purple, Information from others from Daves Garden
Roman Candle, Information from others from Daves Garden
Black Cherry, Information from others from Daves Garden
Paul Robeson, Information from others from Daves Garden

Here is what EG says about these tomatoes that he grew:

Cherokee Purple - I've got plenty of these to go around, and if you haven't tried it before, you're missing out....

Black Cherry - Really good cherry tomato.

Roman Candle - This is a bright yellow paste tomato that is really pretty.

Paul Robeson - A black tomato, and really good.

I will keep everyone updated on these varieties and my process in growing them.

Lookie What I Won

2011-01-07T08:15:00.000-06:00

I recently participated in a Fruits & Vegetable Challenge at work through our Wellness Council and I won a $50.00 gift card to Whole Foods. I really like that store, but the food is rather expensive, so this gives me an opportunity to test out a few things, without breaking the budget. Who knows I may find something that I just have to have always (wink wink).

The goal of the program was:

Eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables each day from November 1st to December 24th. You were required to keep track of your daily intake of produce and the prizes were:

1) Farm to Work Produce Basket
2) Cookbook: Food to Live By, author: Myra Goodman
3) $50 Gift Card to Whole Foods

The American Cancer Society recommends eating 5 or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day to help prevent cancer. These foods contain important vitamins, minerals, phytochemicals, and antioxidants and are usually low in calories. In general, those with the most color - purple, green, red, yellow, and orange -- have the most nutrients.

Eating at least 5 servings of vegetables and fruits each day may not be that hard to do when you look at how small one serving really is:

1/2 cup of fruit
1 medium piece of fruit
1/4 cup of dried fruit
1 cup of leafy vegetables
1/2 cup of cooked or raw vegetables

Trying to visualize the serving sizes?
1 medium apple or orange: the size of a tennis ball
1 cup vegetables or fruit: the size of a baseball
1 medium sweet potato: the size of a computer mouse
1 cup of dark green lettuce: 4 large leaves

Tips to fit more fruits and vegetables into your day:
• Try filling half your plate with vegetables or fruit at each meal.
• Explore the produce aisle and choose something new. Variety is the key to a healthy diet.
• Add fruit to your cereal, oatmeal, waffles or pancakes at breakfast.
• Create your own yogurt flavors with plain yogurt and different combinations of fresh fruit.
• Snack on raw vegetables or fruits instead of chips or pretzels.
• Use chunky salsa instead of thick, creamy snack dips.
• Add frozen veggies to any pasta dish.
• Keep fruits and vegetables in line of sight. Grapes, oranges, bananas, and apples make a colorful bowl arrangement on the table
• Dried fruit is just as portable as potato chips -- and less messy.
• When cooking vegetables, make 2-3 times more than you need and immediately store the extra for tomorrow. It will save time later.

Eating the fruits and vegetables was no problem at all as I use certain fruits as my sweet for the day and the vegetables are pretty much served at each dinner meal and sometimes used as a snack. The problem was the tracking (as eating them was second nature), but I had to stop and track it or I would forget. On the weekends, I had to send myself a message to remember to log it when I got to work. I am so glad that I participated in the program and overall I won for something that I do anyway. Tooooooo cooooool.

Organizing Scraps (at least my attempt)

2011-01-06T09:03:00.000-06:00

I have been organizing my scrap piles into colors for some months now and I finally had a chance to stop and do it all at once on 11/24. Close to being finished I ran out of the plastic shoe boxes (of course) to store them as I had been working up until 11:00 pm, I told myself to just put them color sorted into plastic baggies and purchase the containers the next day. That way it is sorted and you are that much further along in the process.

This is what my scrap pile looked like before (there are more bins next to it and stuff was in baggies):

This was my attempt to sort them by size, that got old real quick.

Here is what it looks like now, still needs more work, but it is much better than before. I find it alot easier to use the bins this way because if I need a certain color, I start there before I go into my actual fabric stash to cut a size that is not in the bins.

Layer Cake Quilt Along (Basket)

2011-01-05T18:02:00.000-06:00

Here is block 3 by Sarah Vanderburgh through the Layer Cake Quilt Along. This pattern was easy and came together way faster than I thought.

Layer Cake Quilt Along (Block 2)

2011-01-02T16:45:00.000-06:00

Just completed bock 2 by Vickie Eapen through the Layer Cake Quilt Along. I mistakenly grabbed some solid brown fabric that I had in my stash and was done making the half square triangles (HST) and as I was pressing the seams open on the last one (of course it would be the last one), I noticed the others were shrinking. Upon closer inspection turns out that solid brown fabric was not 100% cotton, still don't know what it is. I had to make the HSTs all over again. I would have been finished and onto block 3 earlier today. Oh well you live and learn. Enjoy.

How to make a grow light on the cheap

2011-01-02T08:35:00.000-06:00

I watch Praxxus quite often on YouTube, he always brings informative information form his experience in doing it himself. He tells you quite often to give it a try, you will never know if you can actually do it. I thought I would pass this video on to those who like to start their plants and flowers from seeds when it is cold outside. Last year I went to put together a growing system from the hardware store and the already made products were very expensive (the light bulbs alone cost more than the lighting system), so I used other lighting to get my plants going, needless to say the light was not bright enough, so I did not get very good germination and most of the plants died. I will try this and see how it works out (as I just recently made my own light box for transferring patterns, post to come soon on that, so I am not so afraid of putting wires together, I still respect electricity though). Enjoy.

Crazy Quilt Block Tutorial

2011-01-02T08:08:00.000-06:00

I came across this pattern from the blog of Jennifer at twobutterflies and thought it would be great to use up more of those scraps that we always seem to accumulate and the process to make this quilt is so fast. Can you imagine this quilt with a white background and the inner squares in various arrays of black or even one with just red colors both black and white with a hints of white in them. She made it as a baby quilt and the random colors she chose were great too. Just wanted to pass this along and I am also adding it to my to do list (which is getting very long) HA HA. Enjoy.

A new way to jazz up your binding

2011-01-02T08:06:00.000-06:00

I thought this was a neat technique to jazz up our quilts in the binding department. Trisha with TLC Stitches has a tutorial on faux piped binding. I thought I would share this with you as I think this could really add the look of another border built into the binding or puffy piping, depending the direction you iron your strip. Her tutorial/pictures are very easy to understand. Tooooooo cute. Enjoy.

Layer Cake Quilt Along (Alabama Spinner Block)

2011-01-02T07:59:00.000-06:00

I just completed putting together block 1 by Gene Black through the Layer Cake Quilt Along. I am using various fat quarters to make mine as I am not finding layer cakes in town that fit what I want (the quilt stores don't sell a lot of different layer cakes or at least when I get there the pickings are slim). There is still time to join the group. I am going to start on block 2 today as the group is already on block 5 and the patterns are still up for those who want to make them.. The cool thing is if you meet the picture posting deadline you are enter to win prizes each month. What an incentive.... plus you get a nice quilt in the end with a little work. The quilt will be 64X80. This will be a nice since cuddle quilt. Enjoy.

Happy New Year Everyone!!!!!

2011-01-01T05:45:00.002-06:00

I hope 2010 was a good year for you, however I hope that 2011 will be even better. Wishing great health and prosperity to you and your family and friends.

AMQC Block #3 (Modern Plaid)

2010-12-29T16:37:00.005-06:00

See photo below my completed block #3 for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild. This pattern was an easy one, just time consuming pinning pieces to ensure the straight lines flowed through the pattern. You have to watch your placement of the strips at the end, I accidentally sewed the small orange and white strips all on one side. Enjoy.

AMQG Block #2 (Disappearing Nine Patch)

2010-12-29T11:26:00.004-06:00

Here is a photo of my completed block #2 for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild. This was a very interesting block. You could have chosen any random order to piece it together and when you cut the block in half both ways you would have come up with something different. I really like it.

Birthday Cupcake Swap 2011

2010-12-28T19:25:00.000-06:00

I am currently participating in my first fusible applique swap (first time working with appliques and fusible at that). The swap is through scratchingpost a Yahoo group. Sindy is an awesome creator of appliques and you could see all the items she has to offer on her fatcatpatterns website. She offers her patterns for free and also when a new BOM has started you are able to get the pattern free for a month before the next pattern is put up.

Over Christmas break I completed fusing the heat n bond to the fabric, cutting out the patterns, and partially fusing the frosting top to the cake bottom. I just now need to prepare the envelopes for mailing and purchase more stamps.

I was truly surprised at how easy the process was. This particular pattern is not one that you have to reverse before tracing it to the heat n bond. The only thing I discovered is that you need to have good scissors when cutting out the little pieces. I wear a thumb ring and working with small scissors constantly hitting the thumb ring irritated the finger (even if I took off the ring). The group consists of 50 people total and the cupcake has 2 pieces, so the amount of cutting was a lot.

I researched and found these scissors by Fiskars and on my next project I will use these.

Here is the stack of completed cupcakes with a few extras. Once I receive mine for my birthday I will know more how I will put these together. I think I will use a black background to make the cupcakes pop.

I am currently working on a Christmas wall hanging pattern by Sindy (that I did not get a chance to complete before Christmas) that deals with fusible applique. See a quick snapshot below.

I am also working on mask that my husband drew up for me. I love masks and for my first one, I think it looks pretty good.

Weather...First Frost??????

2010-11-30T08:34:00.001-06:00

I am not sure if Friday night (11/26/10) was considered the first freeze of the season or not. I woke up Saturday morning to frost on the protective covering to the plants and lots of my flowering plants were black (time to trim them back). However, the weather is being predicted to be at or below freezing tonight 30s in Austin and in surrounding towns mid to high 20s.

Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T15:10:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving and enjoyed the chilly weather in the late afternoon as Austin received it along with crazy wind. Mine started off all wrong, but overall it was a good day.

I woke up Thanksgiving morning prepared to enjoy good food and visiting with family and friends. Around 5:30AM (we are earlier risers everyday) as I was going through my normal routine, my husband came and asked me to help him with something in the kitchen, he needed me to take a look to see if he was seeing something correctly (I immediately thought some SNAKE or RAT had invaded the home, not looking forward to seeing what it was). As I entered the kitchen, I saw tons of pantry food on the cabinets. I said WHAT THE (all I could think of was the work that would be involved in taking care of whatever it was that he saw). He said take a look at this and tell me what you think. I immediately knew what it was....weevil (WE EVIL). HOW IN THE .....did they get in my pantry, then you know how in movies where you see flashbacks, I knew exactly how I got them.....

About 2-3 months ago someone gave me some wheat crackers to try out. I put them in my pantry when I got home (Friday) then on Sunday I decided to try the crackers with some peanut butter and asked my daughter to make them for me (as she was making a PB&J herself). She came to me and said mom is this normal and I saw weird casings in the folds of the cracker container and some dead bugs. I said no sweet heart, put them all in the trash. I did not think twice about it after that.
Last month we started seeing bugs flying in the house. I thought OH NO my plants have gnats again (last time I got gnats, I lost all but 2 of my plants around 10 of them) and I felt so bad because I guess I over watered the plants (did not do the finger test). So I figured well there goes my last 2 plants. After looking at the bugs more carefully, they were not gnats, but much bigger and they did not seem to bite when they landed on you (can't say 100%). We were dealing with these bugs for about a month and it was driving me crazy because I could not figure out where they were coming from and what they were let alone how to get rid of them (never thought about grabbing my camera or a baggie to put them in to investigate later, just wanted to kill them).
About 5 days prior to Thanksgiving, my husband went to use some Basil and saw a bunch of bugs inside of the container (I started buying my seasonings from the weigh-it section of the grocery store), I could not figure out what they were since they were green (I guess from the basil). We are supposed to seal all containers tightly before you put them away (mainly to prevent something from going stale), but hey it happens sometimes, so I think that is how they got into the container (unless I did not notice them when I poured the seasoning from the baggie to the seasoning jar).
About 3 days prior to Thanksgiving, my daughter told us that when she went to get something from the pantry that in the bag where we store the plastic bags from the grocery store to reuse as trash bags, bugs flew out of them. I figured, maybe a bug got into the pantry and flew out when the door opened.

Well all reality hit on Thanksgiving morning. Everything and I mean everything was pulled from the pantry and investigated from top to bottom, inside and out and dates were checked. Everything was opened and poured out to look through, put into separate plastic containers or zip lock bags. We had an assembly line going (of course my 15 year old did not like being awaken at 7:00AM to help (but do they really)). My husband pulled the items out and put on the dinning room table, I then went and picked up a group of things, inspected it, wiped it down, etc. and put on 2nd counter for my daughter to dry off and put on the breakfast table (mind you these are all separate rooms, trying to contain the problem). My husband wiped down the walls and shelves inside the pantry and my daughter wiped down the door inside and out. The pantry was swepted and mopped and left to air dry while we finished doing the food. We ended up with a kitchen size trash bag and a black outdoor garbage bag of trash. Nothing went back in there that was not encased in something plastic. I figured if they appear at least it will be easy to see where they are coming from and I can discard that product. I will have to get used to my bread being in the refrigerator (don't like cold bread, but I am sure I will get use to it). I was so hurt to throw away so much food (a few items were about to expire, but most of it was recent purchases or the expiration date was far off, but it had been invaded).

We had never had this problem before and we have been in this house going on ~~what felt like 100~~ 11 years. We felt so invaded and just kept wondering what had we been eating before...as my husband always says nothing like a little protein (GROSS).

If the weevils did not come from those crackers then these are the only other ways that I can come up with:

Food from grocery store had them.
My vegetables that I bring in from the garden have them.
Some other product we brought into the house had them.

Have you ever had these before, if so what did you do to get rid of them and what do you do to keep them away?

Weather Forcast 11/25/10-12/1/10

2010-11-25T06:13:00.001-06:00

I guess this means a nightly routine of covering the plants will begin tonight. I just checked the 7 day forecast as I heard that a front would be coming in about this time and this is the forecast predicted. If it is cold in Austin it is even colder where I am at.

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-25T05:53:00.000-06:00

I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and you have the opportunity to visit with family and friends to share your reasons for Thanks. Oh also eat to your hearts content (save room for desert).

Weighted Pin Cushion

2010-11-21T15:36:00.000-06:00

Earlier today I completed the Weighted Pin Cushion by Elizabeth from Oh, Franson. The pattern can be located at Sew Mamma. I had this on "current projects" list for almost a year. I had not used fusible interfacing before and wanted to learn more about it before I dove into this project. The project came together quite quickly. I now can say that I like fusible interface. I picked up a value pack on sale/coupon at Joann's and you get 15"X3 yards and I only used a sliver of it. I have lots more for other projects.

I did have to refer to some of the pictures a little more closely to ensure that I was reading the instructions properly and I found that was on the right track, however, overall it was a great project.

Completed waste bin, this was neat, I did the boxed corners and lining. I think I will make a larger one and make a trash can for my car in a fabric that I like.

With a button.

I dd not put in the sewed lines for the pockets as I have trays on my table that holds most of my tools, however, I am using the pocket to hold feet for the sewing machine.

Instead of rice, I used rocks. I had these and they did not work for the project I bought them for, so far they are working in this project.

TA DAH........

The only thing that I would have done differently on this project was to put the waste basket on the other side.

Thanks Oh Franson for sharing this tutorial I really appreciate it.

Growing Culinary Herbs in Texas

2010-11-20T16:43:00.000-06:00

On Saturday, November 12th, I attended an herb class that was offered by the Central Texas Horticulture at the American Botanical Council, presented by Vicki Blachman. It was a great class. I never knew so much about herbs and thought the 1 or 2 plants that I picked up and have been lucky enough to keep alive were the extent of my "herbal gardening". Now I am adding herbs to my list of plants to purchase. They truly flavor food dishes and also offer that certain look to your garden. Some of the herbs such as Tarragon, Lavender, Mexican Mint Marigold, etc. add splendid color to your garden. Also the herbs that remain green are beautiful as well, such as Rosemary, Thyme, Sage, etc. They also add tremendous smells in your garden through wind and by the brief brush of them as your work or walk through your garden. I truly recommend this class to anyone who is new to gardening. Vicki also touched on preserving the herbs and she has made various flavored vinegars with the herbs in her garden (nothing goes to waste).

We also received this publication, which touches on information regarding herbs from the Texas Department of Agriculture-Go Texas.

If you are in the Austin area, I highly suggest that you bookmark the Central Texas Horticulture blog to keep updated on future classes. I have taken several classes through them and even if you know a lot about gardening (not me) I think you will learn something new as well as meet other people who love to garden and also newbies who are always looking for someone to help them, that could be you.

AMQG: Block #1 (Friendship Star)

2010-11-19T21:51:00.005-06:00

I completed my block #1, first block in the year long quilt-a-long for the Austin Modern Quilt Guild that I have recently joined. I am trying to limit my use to scraps that I have on hand and then I can splurge to purchase fabric for any borders needed. I missed a meeting due a scheduling conflict with my daughter's band practice. Looking forward to the next meeting.

Thanks to my subscribers

2010-11-18T10:36:00.001-06:00

I wanted to let my followers know that I am THANKFUL for you subscribing to my blog to read what I have to say. It always shocks me to know that someone is interested in my ramblings and bad photo taking. You are truly appreciated.

I also wanted to say THANK YOU to all those who post comments on my blog posts, the information/comments/suggestions/compliments you share is appreciated by this newbie.

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday season.

Thank you.

big B
Tigozinha
Caroline
Jennifer
Jason
Jackie
Texas Red
sowieso
myamiphil (under your profile, I could not get your blog address to come up)

Signature Block Swap

2010-11-17T10:06:00.001-06:00

I have just signed up to participate in the Signature Block Swap, through quiltingimaginations through a YAHOO group. This will be my first quilting type swap (looking forward to it).

This swap will entail using earth-tone fabrics and signing and dating your 3 1/2 inch blocks on the front. Imagine how this quilt will look once put together. You will have a quilt that was made from quilters all over the world. If you would like to participate, please go to quiltingimaginations and join the group, then select the "Files" link (left side of page) and sign up. The deadline to sign up is January 15th, with a mail out deadline of April 30th. This seems like it will be a fun swap and the block construction is quite easy (seems like you can whip them out fairly quickly) the more people that join the more interesting it will be.

I already have an idea of how I will do my blocks. I will put all the signed blocks in the middle and surround them with unsigned blocks then maybe an inner border of a light color then and outer border of a darker color. Not sure yet, but my first idea.

Chores completed through 11/14/10

2010-11-14T18:04:00.001-06:00

Here is a list of chores completed in the garden:

Watered and feed (with liquid food) all vegetables and plants in the back garden.
Potted up aloe vera, peace lilly, lemon blam, and sweet potato vine in front garden.
Expanded flower bed next to faucet in back garden.
Moved iris from pots to expanded flower bed in back garden
Also planted Muscari, Daffodil, Papewhite, Black Beaded Iris, and Dutch Iris bulbs to the expanded flower bed in back garden.
Shortened the hoops on the raised beds, 2 of them as the 3rd one currently has tomato plants that are real tall are are currently tied to those hoops to keep them upright (realized that the hoops were way to high and the row covers that I purchase for winter use is not utilized to its best because of all the air that gets in under the cover). Be careful, got knocked in the side of the face once the PVC was cut, under pressure.
Layed mulch on the expanded flower bed and already established flower bed.
Removed the pepper plants, realized after looking at all the plants that there were only few bell peppers and jalapeno peppers, so was pointless to keep that bed dedicated to plants that was probably about to stop producing. Amended the soil with more garden soil and added compost/granulated food in preparation for more greenery to be added.
Removed the eggplants (4). As I was removing the last 2, I found a couple of small ones. I had already pulled the plants and figured the fruit would not be able to mature before it gets too cold. Took a long time for it to produce fruit. Got LOTS of flowers though. Next year will plant it in a different location and much earlier. I found the tag for the eggplants they are Eggplant-Black Beauty, the tag says they have a 80 day maturity time frame, think I pulled them to early. Now I know. Here is what others say about this plant.
Moved one of the society garlic planters to the back porch after I found out that society garlic is good to deter mosquitoes (we will see).

Upcoming chores:

Weed within the enclosed garden bed.
Lay more mulch (if not more newspaper then mulch to kill off the grass).
As soon as frost appears, remove the remaining tomato and pepper plants (should be sometime in late November to December).
Purchase more winter row covers (at least 5)).
After tomatoes and peppers are removed, top off beds with compost and work into the soil.
Remove the Zinnias from front and back garden.
Move tender floral plants to the shed/garage as soon as frost is about to arrive.
Research why blueberries failed.
Update garden plan for Spring 2011 along with list of plants that did well this year to purchase again next year.
Begin list of plants and when to start from seed for Spring 2011.
Figure out layout plan for possible irrigation system in vegetable garden.
Research the building of cold frames, ensure the ones being built are interchangeable with existing raised beds.
Plant the following seeds (may not get good germination, but experiment, it is only seeds):

Early Golden Acre Cabbage (sow September-May)
Gala Mache (sow September-February)
Micro Greens Spicy Mix (sow spring, summer or fall)
Kale Red Winter (sow early spring, late summer or fall)
Spinach, Baby's Leaf Hybrid, Harmony Hybrid, and Bloomsdale Long-Standing (sow early spring, late summer, and fall in the South)

To aid in germination, put a plastic top over the area for the seeds and then remove as soon as seedlings emerge.

Great Crafty Storage Ideas

2010-11-14T10:59:00.001-06:00

I came across an article that gives various ways to organize and store your craft supplies. In thinking of what I have in my craft room, I had already incorporated some of these ideas. When I purchased my "faux" craft storage supplies, I did it because it was cheaper and did the job the same if not better than a name brand item. What is cool about the items they list is they show you the before with an approximate cost then they show you the after and how they changed the item to fit in great with your craft room. The items they show can be very expensive if purchased in a craft type store, but the options they give you can usually be found in your local hardware store or big box store in the sections that you would not normally visit for your craft storage. You never know, there could be a gem waiting to be turned into a crafty storage system.

Quick and clever ideas for organizing craft supplies

Craft storage containers

Space tidy tabletop storage solutions

Some items I have revamp into crafty goodness:

This was from IKEA and it was a rack made for the tops of your pots/pans. I use it to hold my quilting rulers. I had to use some left over cardboard to hold some of the odd shaped and smaller rulers.

Got this at Wal-Mart in the automotive section for nuts and bolts, now holds my jewelry making supplies.

These are blocks in separate "Hefty Jumbo Bags" hanging from hangers. This way I can pull out a bag to add a finished block or when I am done I can pull it out to work on the quilt top. Keeps things clean and neat.

This is what I made into a ribbon holder. I took a dowel (cut it in half), rubber bands and 4 curtain rod holders and made them to hold ribbon spools Eventually I would like to replace the rubber bands with maybe some end caps, but the dowel is real small, so not sure if they have something like that.

This was an elephant that I found at a dollar store and I turned it into a pincushion which holds my needles with left over thread and my pins that have plastic heads (so I know not to use these when ironing).

I acquired this a few years back, it is a plate rack and I have turned it into a thread cone holder. I will eventually paint it a different color (the gold is not for me) and I may decoupage the plates (they have a Christmas theme on them).

I got this from IKEA, it is used in the kitchen and it hangs from a metal bar (see the hanging mechanism to the the front). I am using that bar somewhere else so I used some left over picture hanging clamps and put it on my wall to hold my printer ink.

This metal grid is from the system that gives you tons of grids and the little plastic round connectors to make shoe racks, shelving units etc. It always fell apart, so I donated the system to Goodwill, but found this one left over in a closet, now it holds misc. items. To attach what I need to it, I just use the black clips from office supply store.

Like I said you can turn things into so many useful items for your craft room. I am always looking to re-purpose something and not pay a hefty price for an item just because of a name.

I recently acquired this top and this base because I needed a table to support my vintage 66 Singer sewing machine. The base made the table to low, so I remembered that I still had 2 legs left over from a sewing table that I created with IKEA legs and top (I ended up only needed 2 legs as my original sewing table, fell apart and the drawer unit was still good and that supported the other end of the table). So I went to IKEA and picked up 2 more legs and which to my luck they were on sale for around $3.00 (originally $5.00) and now I have a VERY sturdy table for my somewhat heavy sewing machine.

Green Bag Lady Bags

2010-11-07T15:18:00.000-06:00

In August I received 2 Green Bag Lady bags. I use the green one to carry my projects to my quilting groups on Saturdays because it can hold a lot of things. The red one is used to carry vegetables/fruit. I just remembered that I had not taken a photo of the bags to share with everyone. They are such simple bags, but are so very useful. I am a subscriber to the Green Lady blog. Please check her blog out if you are not aware of her and her cause.

Cynthia/Texas 11076 and 11077

Thanks Bagette Dad and Teresa.

Makeup Expiration...Is Your Product Expired?

2010-11-07T14:06:00.027-06:00

I came across this article on when makeup should be thrown out the other day and found it to be very interesting. I have thought about when my makeup may expire, but never really researched it. I also recall a few years back that Oprah did a show on how to read the coding on labels on your makeup to know when it is due to expire. However, half the time the labels have rubbed off of my makeup and I can't refer back to this. Also, I guess this would entail me making some kind of note on the product as to when I purchased it and/or opened it to know when it is time to throw it away. It is amazing that so many companies push makeup and the cost is outrageous only to have to throw it away when there is a large quantity of it it left I only wear makeup about 4 times a week (for work, not on Fridays) and for special occasions on the weekend. I am more cognizant of the mascara going bad as I had a problem with eye infections last year, so a couple of months after use it goes in the trash. I am going to try to consider this when using my other makeup, but may not always follow through. Enjoy.

2010 Friend Swap (UPDATED)

2010-11-06T06:16:00.000-05:00

I participated in my first swap and this one was put on by Khristina over at sewprimkhris and my partner resides in Canada. We have been chatting often about our lives and really getting to know each other. I must say this was hard for me because I had not personally met Flavia and had to rely on our conversations and her blog to figure out what she would like. You can't assume everyone will like what you do, so I sent her lots of goodies. I received my package in the mail on Saturday and was excited (like a kid on Christmas morning....which by the way is officially 52 days from today). Here are some photos of the items received. I took pictures of each package before I opened it. I really liked how she took the time to wrap each package with little trinkets. She left a cute note in the package stating a few items will have to be explained and I think I know which ones they are (HA HA).

I opened the packages and this is what I found

What a cute note, yes Flavia I agree.

This could be an ornament for your key chain or something cute to hang in my craft room.

This is a rosary to hang in your car, I love the flowers and the cross attached to it.

She made me a CD (you go Flavia, American Idol is calling).

The cat and chicken pincushion patterns are way toooooo cute. I can see where some of my scraps are going.

These bags will come in handy for on-the-go projects (I have lots). I like the plastic on the front so you can see what you have inside.

This is sooooooo cute, scissor case

This bag is TOTALLY AWESOME. I could not wait to clean out my Old Navy black and white camo bag that I carry, so that I could show this one off. It is so durable and the embellishments on the front are way cool.

Thank you Flavia for the nice gifts. I really like them.

Weatherman is calling for possible freeze....(UPDATE)

2010-11-04T21:12:00.001-05:00

This morning Shawn Rutherford called for a possible freeze for tonight and tomorrow night. I currently have tomatoes and peppers still growing. I was debating this morning about what to do with them due to the possibility of a light freeze. I contemplated pulling all the fruit and leaving the plants covered, just in case the flowers that are on the plants still produce (I know it is getting later in the season and they may not have a chance to produce any edible fruit) or the choice is to leave the fruit and winterize everything. Still in debate, since I am deemed to be in the Hill Country and we get colder than others when temperatures change. The first freeze that I know of is usually in December. Maybe things are changing. What would you do in this situation?

Average Freeze Dates For Texas

I got home this afternoon around 6:00 and decided to pull some of the items (of course while trying to cover some of the tomato plants, vines broke so I had tomatoes from that) and bring them in and cover everything else. Took me almost 2 hours to cover everything (with watering all the plants to hopefully help them get through the freeze, I read this helps). I realized while covering the plants that I did not buy more winter row covers. The amount I had was before the extra boxes I built and the extra old sheets I had did not finish the job either. Well guess I will be buying more since a real freeze is sure to be on the way.

I also saved some Thai and Sweet Basil plants that somehow ended up growing in beds where they were not originally planted and also from the pathway of my garden.

In each pot there is enough plants to make several individual pots of basil. I will be giving some away once I get a chance to pot them in individual little pots this weekend.

Hopefully my covering of all the plants helps and I can still enjoy my vegetables.

11/07/10-The temperatures did drop on Friday night as well as Saturday night. According to the weather forecast tonight will also be around 42 degrees. So I will wrap the plants again. It shows that the rest of the week the lows will be in the 50's. So I SHOULD be okay until the weekend. Let's hope so. These are photo's from Saturday morning. I did not go out Sunday morning as I had been up since 4 am preparing roast for my Father-In-Law's birthday luncheon today. My husband was nice enough to go out and unwrap the plants. Nice sunny day today. Headed out to wrap the plants. You can see that one of the coverings blew partly off. This bed has the eggplant. I think I have lost them (never got any fruit, but tons of flowers).

Team Ra-Ras Kicks Breast Cancer

2010-11-02T08:09:00.000-05:00

Let's help kick breast cancer!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This dance routine is to benefit "Susan G. Komen for the Cure" (Breast Cancer). Each time someone views the video, United Healthcare will make a $.10 donation to The Philadelphia Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure. Please take a moment to watch the video - and, just as important, pass this link onto your network of friends, family and colleagues? It benefits a very important cause!

Thanks for helping!

My Frist Quilt

2010-10-30T11:56:00.001-05:00

I took my first quilting class in the later part of 2008 from Ann Randall. I came across her while googling local areas to learn quilting. Everywhere I looked they had just completed their beginner series and I would have to wait after the new year to learn. I was so happy to come across her and when I met her she made my anxiety about quilting subside. From that class on, I have been sewing every since and it sparked my volunteer work with her group as well. Ann helped me pick out a pattern for my quilt and do the math. The pattern called for one that was 80X97. I was going to make it that big, but Ann suggested with it being my first quilt that I should go smaller. Well I went 66X67 after all was said and done (I should have went much smaller like she suggested, listen to your quilt teacher students). Sometimes I don't listen, HA HA HA. The piecing of the top was no problem, but finagling that quilt into my sewing machine to quilt it was the problem. That was a lot of work. I learned that you can do it if your mind is into it (forget about your arms and shoulders hurting), so I did not get discouraged, it just took me a lot longer than the other students to complete my quilt due to the size. The binding is where I learned I don't like hand binding. That took me until September of 2010 to finish. Every time I kept thinking "hey I need to finish that quilt, the binding is only left", I kept putting it down. I should have machined bind it due to the size. However, I am glad that I did not waiver and I persevered. After washing it the quilt soften up and I noticed even though it is not a heavy quilt, my husband still likes it on the bed.

I stopped at the inner boarder and pieced it from left over rectangles from the pinwheels. I also left off the corner pinwheels in the boarder (too limit the size)

The backing was pieced together using remnants when purchasing the main fabric. The brown added a pop to the back of the quilt that I love and I use this technique a lot in my charity quilts (due to the fact that we don't get a lot of yardage donated).

Things I learned making my first quilt:

Reading a pattern.
Making a plastic template.
Using a rotary cuter/ruler/mat (I cut part of my pointer finger off, not pretty).
Working out math for the amount of fabric, so that you don't have to make a lot of trips to the store (don't get me wrong I love shopping at the store (my husband could attest to that), but I rather work on the quilt).
Working on getting the 1/4 seam allowance right, that is real work, still working on it.
Selecting fabric that blends well on quilt top.
Using imagination to piece a quilt back.
Sometimes your points are lost.
Stitching in the ditch when your blocks don't align quite right.
Frustration of working with such a large quilt on such a small sewing machine.
Using a walking foot (very interesting bringing up the bobbin thread BEFORE you start sewing).
BINDING, need I say more

I still love quilting.

Quilt Projects In Process

2010-10-30T10:54:00.001-05:00

Back in July, 2009, I took my first paper piece class from Jennifer Ofenstein where I learned to make a pineapple block. I have been taking more of her classes and I currently have 2 of her paper piecing projects on my To-Do List. She makes up her own patterns and she is currently doing a somewhat monthly project. If you can't take her class at Honey Bee Quilt Store, then drop into Honey Bee (you may also run into Jen while you are there as she is their website guru) to see if her pattern is still there (as limited paper versions are made) or check out her site or her blog to purchase her patterns. Believe me you will not be disappointed. What I love about Jen is that she is always available to help if you don't understand something about her patterns and she is just an overall fun person to talk with. She also has a class at Honey Bee Quilt Store where you can bring in any paper piece project and work on it (shhhh you will want to work on hers I am sure).

Intermediate Paper Piecing + Curves, 04/24/10

Book: Paper Piecing with Alex Anderson
New York Beauty Block

Floating Mariner, 09/25/10

In addition to the projects above, I also have this one that I came across and thought you have to give it a try. I purchased and started on this project maybe at the end of 2009 or the beginning of 2010 and put it to the side. While I was organizing (or should say re-organizing then organizing again as I have to do frequently to find all of my TO-DO projects and put them in containers so they could be found easily) I found this one in the back of my fabric closet. This has been my first project with Batiks. The reason I put it down before is that you could not really use pins as the holes stay and when you sew incorrectly and have to "un-sew" those pin marks stay and is not real attractive. Since I was new to quilting, I relied on pins heavily, but now I can sew some pieces without using pins. I started work again on this project last weekend and I am more than halfway done piecing the blocks. I hope I can finish piecing the top this weekend. I have to figure out what baking I will use. Also, I will have to research how you quilt with batiks I don't think I will use batik fabric as all of the baking (too expensive, plus don't like that feel against my skin). Click on the link below for the pattern. I will surely make this quilt again using regular fabric. I like it and it is fairly quick pattern.

Treasure Box Quilt

All of these quilts are so different and that is what I love about them. They encompass various styles and techniques.

Gardening-Tomatoes

2010-10-29T12:31:00.002-05:00

Trisha Shirey on Central Texas Gardener talks about the caring for tomatoes in your garden. She covers everything from blossom end rot to bug damage. The information she shares answered quite a few questions I had on my tomatoes (so happy I got some this year). Take a look.

Very Interesting

2010-10-29T10:50:00.000-05:00

In August, my husband and daughter discovered this in our backyard. I was busy in the enclosed garden and did not see it. I did a little research and it is a dragonfly. The color on it is fascinating and it is truly amazing at how transparent the wings are. God's creatures. AMAZING.

Mexican Mint Marigold (Texas Tarragon)

2010-10-28T11:50:00.000-05:00

Tarragon

Last year I had to find Tarragon in the store to make a chicken salad recipe that I tasted at a Bunco meeting (it was amazing and the Tarragon is what set off the whole dish). The cost of fresh herbs in the store is crazy. So I found some and of course they only sold by 6 packs (crazy me did not read the planting directions and I planted them close together). Now they have truly grown. By the time I realized they were going to get so big, I could not find the tag to name it and determine what I needed to do with it for the winter. I happen to come across a recently found friend on Facebook and there she had a photo of what looked like my plant and then the light bulb went off. That's what that was and then I remember why I loved it so much. The smell is truly awesome. If your ever needing any and it survies the winter, your more than welcome to have some. HA HA.

Chairity Quilt Projects In Process

2010-10-28T09:40:00.000-05:00

These are the quilts that will be donated to Crafting Comfort. I really like this organization and I love working with Ann. She is appreciative of what quilts I make and understand that I make them as fast as my life allows me to (as we all know working and having a child can really hinder your sewing time).

These 2 quilts are almost done. I have quilted the teddy bear quilt and just need to bind it. The checkerboard quilt has a few rows of stitch-in-the-ditch to be done and then binding. That will bring my total of donated quilts to 4 in 2010.

These quilts are in process:

I started this quilt back in early 2009 and found it in a pile of my TO-DO quilts. It is pieced together, pending quilting and binding.

I have 2 of these quilt tops pieced and they are ready for quilting and binding. The cats and the pink fabric is real cute.

The 2 quilts above are my version of coin quilts, pending quilting and binding.

I just recently completed a quilt from this cheater fabric, but it was big enough to make 2 more, pending quilting and binding.

This cheater fabric is big enough to make 2 different types of quilts. Pretty cool with a glittery touch to it. I think a little girl will love it. Pending quilting and binding.

The 9 quilt tops above are planning to be completed in 2011. I have quite a few more ideas for quilts from scrap fabric that I have accumulated. All the fabric to create these quilts have been donated fabric. I love being able to make quilts for charity with donated fabric, because it makes you have to be real inventive and as a newbie to quilting I am not limited to a pattern. Even if the quilts I come up with are not elaborate, but they are truly different in the fabric choices. I also get the opportunity to practice my quilting, which I am still scared to do.

Teach Yourself to Sew- Sewing for Beginners Video Series: Tips, Techniques, Projects and More

2010-10-27T10:07:00.000-05:00

I came across this online sewing series a few weeks ago and recently sat down and watched all the videos. I found the information very informative and some of the stuff I did not know about, but mostly it helped me to visually see it being done. I thought this would be something that a beginner sewer would enjoy. Sometimes hearing/sewing it rather than reading it helps you to understand something new. I hope this video series is helpful to you and peeks your interest or if you are already interested....keeps you wanting to know more and more. I have heard many times since learning to sew that sewing in general is a dying art. Many people have others do it or they throw the item away and buy a new one. I have heard that Home Economics was taught in school and sewing as well as cooking was included in that class. I know my daughter's school does not offer it so it is left to me to teach her this, even if it is just to sew on a button or hem an item.
Teach Yourself to Sew -- Sewing for Beginners Video Series: Tips, Techniques, Projects and More

Shred Day

2010-10-21T12:32:00.000-05:00

I am not sure if some of you are like me, but I try to keep up with my shredding, but sometimes it just gets away from me. When I hear about events like this, I try to take advantage of it (especially if it does not have a stipulation for where you live and having to show proof). I thought I would share this information with you as well. The BBB is putting on a shred day this Saturday at a couple of locations. One of them is close to Austin, check out their link. For those of you close to the Austin location see the information below:

Austin
October 23, 2010 9:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Dell's Round Rock Campus
Building #8 at 2401 Greenlawn Blvd.

The Austin event is also recycling old mobile phones. Each car is welcome to bring up to five boxes of documents to shred.

Hopefully you can take advantage of this event. Nothing like cleaning house.

Sweet Potato Harvest 2010 (UPDATE)

2010-10-19T09:02:00.001-05:00

Previously posted 10/06/10
Well I finally harvested my sweet potatoes and boy was I surprised. Take a look at this video (first video I actually edited, YIPPPPPEEEE). We enjoyed some of the potatoes last night when I made this recipe from Mad Hungry, it was real good. Next time I will plant less plants in a container, so the potatoes are not so crowded (if that is even possible) and I may see if I can do succession planting (but starting as early as possible). I would not mind having smaller potatoes for meals throughout the growing season, rather than bight potatoes at the end of the season.

Enjoy, because we sure are.

10/19/10-I gave a few of the potatoes to my FIL yesterday and last night while peeling them, he noticed some holes and dark spots. As he was cutting that part out he noticed the holes went deeper and deeper into the potato, once he cut it open he saw these. I was shocked because I had not seen them in mine (will have to check the last bag when I get home), I had holes, but once they were cut out everything was fine (similar to store bought potatoes). I am thinking back through the whole process (after reading the article), I did not mulch, I did not mound the soil, and I planted these slips in a bucket next to the area that I previously had white/red potatoes growing (not in the same spot, but next to it) and I did not pull the grass growing around them (as the grass was not that high and the potatoes were in a bucket). Also some of the potatoes surfaced the soil level and I let them as I would be harvesting them soon. I will keep these things in mind for the next planting and the potatoes will be grown quite a distance away from the current bed (as crop rotation is highly advised). Will see.

Say Hello To My New Friend.....

2010-10-18T15:53:00.001-05:00

In August I acquired my first antique sewing machine. It is a Singer No. 66, Oscillating Hook machine. I did the research and it was built in 1957. I acquired the machine through Thread Bare, it is a charity shop and the owner Ann Randall is awesome. People donate so many awesome items to her and she in turns sells the items to benefit various charity organizations. You should check out her shop, donate or even volunteer. She is also the creator of Crafting Comfort. So if you have a few minutes, take a moment to look her up. Through the gift of giving, so many benefit from it, regardless of how big or small it is.

Meet "Ole Girl", she is a little dirty, but will be clean soon. I am truly enjoying my machine. I have a mission of getting to know it from top to bottom and inside and out. I want to be able to repair it and keep it going. I bought this machine because I wanted one that I could set to my quilting measurements and it stay that way. With the ability to set it and forget it, I could piece items that much faster and hopefully keep them more accurate.

The machine came in its original case (a light greenish color). I had to be real careful and not care it by the handle of the case as the machine was so heavy it almost separated from the top portion and would have fell to to its doom. It did not come with an original manual, had to locate that online and the pictures are not that very clear, but it is something (rather than nothing at all). It also came with a lot of attachment feet that I have no clue how to work (see them later on in this post)

Front Side

Front Face

Back Side

Rear End

Serial Number

Motor Information

I already see a few things that will need to be replaced (in addition to the thorough cleaning it really needs), the motor belt (fraying and may not last very long) and bobbin tire which is not longer pliable rubber, it is now brittle and has no traction). Those things are pretty small, so I am not too worried and a local sewing machine shop Singer Northwest Sewing Station says they can almost always find parts. Which is good, because I just broke the lower pulley trying to replace the belt (I did not realize that there was screw to loosen to get the motor to move up and down for adjustments). I will have to have that part replaced as well.

I wish that there was a manual that gave you a good diagram of the parts of the machine, so when you are searching for parts you have a name to look for. The manual I printed off line has a diagram, but I guess in copying it the photo was distorted.
My biggest dilemma is trying to name and figure out how to use all the additional feet that came with the machine. Some of them I am finding based off the small part number that is listed on them. However, others may have a number, but it is too small to read or there is no number at all. If you recognize any of these or could lead me to sites that could explain their attachment to my machine and above all how to use them please let me know in the comments. It would be greatly appreciated.

Name ME above?

Name Me above?

Name ME above?

Part#36865

These 3 above are all the same

Name ME above?

Part# 85587

Says it is a Hemmer

Name ME above?

I also recently joined a Yahoo group geared toward singer sewing machines, called Vintagesingers. I have been reading their posts and these are enthusiasts, hobbyists, and sewers who really love the older model machines. To think that most of these machines end up in the trash. I am glad that I was able to rescue at least one of them. I now have to arrange my craft/office/sewing room to fit a 3rd machine (one I just decided will be a travel machine for classes and it is tucked away in my travel bag). So now to place the 2nd one where it will get as much use as the the newer model computerized machine.

Quilt For Chairity #2 (2010)

2010-10-18T13:01:00.001-05:00

Last month, I completed this quilt and as soon as the other 2 I am working on are done they will all be going to Crafting Comfort. I am trying to complete at least 5 quilts per year and I am a little behind.

The quilt top is what I call a cheater cloth and I just did a stitch in the ditch along with some squigly lines. I am still new to quilting a quilt and not yet sure of what I need to do to ensure that it stays together, but at the same time looks and feels good to the receiver.

To bind the quilt (since I hate hand binding), I just did regular sewing on the front and then turned the other half of the binding under on the back side and found a decorative stitch to stitch from the front and to catch the back. Not bad.