WHY OH WHY DO I SET ANNUAL TARGETS???

 Sigh.  Every January for the past several years I've set some targets for the year ahead of me.  If you don't know where you're going, you will never get there, right?

• Lose 5 lbs.  ha ha ha ha ha...  To my credit, I DID lose 1.5 lbs.  However I have since located those pounds. 😒
• Reduce stash by 80 meters.  ha ha ha ha ha...  I would have been down 20 m., but a quilting buddy passed away and left me two totes that contained about 20 m. 😢
• Finish three UFOs.  ha ha ha ha ha...  Although, I did clean up some sh*t.  Does that count?

HOUSE BLOCK SWAP

I make five blocks every month, with something 'cute' in the window, and give four of them to the other gals in the group.  We have a target date of the 15th each month to have them pieced so they can (theoretically) be delivered by the end of the month.

My January blocks turned out kind of cute.  Dark & gloomy, but cute. I put the goofy faces in the windows because we are all going STIR CRAZY with this awful weather.

I told DH to put on 'real pants' one Sunday a few weeks ago, that we were going for a drive to get the heck out of the house!  As far as guild meetings go, I've had one hellish drive home in the dark from an evening meeting - when I got home I swore I was not doing that again.  In the future, questionable weather will mean I'm staying at home.  Then my daytime guild was postponed for a week because of a blizzard.  We'll see what February brings.

But...back to my blocks:  Since I've been inside, I figured I'd make the February blocks early.  Oh, very bad words.  I remade all the blocks - they were THAT BAD.

Bad blocks on the left, better blocks on the right.

And since my last post, my cooking has not gotten any better!  This was planned as our Christmas Morning Breakfast.  Yes, I'm aware that Christmas is now a distant memory but there hasn't been a lot going on - I'm trying very hard to keep you amused.  A lovely pan of cinnamon rolls.  I prepped them on the 24th - this is what they looked like after they rose.  At this point I put them in the fridge, with plans to bake in the morning.

6 am Christmas morning I took them out of the fridge:  Whoooaaa Nellie!!  WTF??  I was pretty sure that some alien from Planet Zyborg stole my cinnamon rolls and left these in trade.

I'd never heard of 'over-proofing'.  Apparently (?) that's what happens when dough rises too much, and then collapses on itself.  Hoping to spare you from experiencing my angst,  if you're refrigerating dough for baking the next day, DO NOT allow the second rise to happen - it will do that itself in the fridge.

I'm very grateful that DH has low expectations when it comes to my baking.  It has been a long-standing joke that when the smoke alarm goes off then supper is ready.  If you read my last post about my Red Hat lunch you'll agree that this 'joke' is sad, but true!

This, unbelievably, is what they looked like after baking.  And he ate them.  That, ladies, is true love.

I have since redeemed myself with a lovely ham quiche (recipe from Dairy Goodness - you know, the Milk Calendar).  The recipe is actually for Asparagus quiche.  You may have noticed that I've got no qualms about editing recipes to suit myself and my supplies.  😬

Then there's my favorite tuna casserole, with my normal changes/additions (recipe from the Looneyspoons cookbook.  Truly, in my opinion the Best.Cookbook.Ever.)

And I'm two steps closer to heaven after quilting a couple of Binbrook Guild donation quilts.

To end on a humourous (sp?) note:

Janice came by for tea yesterday afternoon.  I guess I was backlit by the sun - she started laughing.  Then told me, between giggles, that I had an inch long hair growing sideways out of my neck. I gave her a pair of scissors and she thankfully cleaned me up.

 

Should I Win An Award? And Another Brilliant "Cooking-With-Helen" Story

 I think it's just possible that at some points in time, mine could be in the top 10 of messy sewing rooms!

However, I'm going to suggest that in my favour, you can't make an omelet without breaking a few eggs.

These are the 11 quilts I took to Martha House this week.  One of them I'd forgotten I made.  Hah.  Not that my memory's going, or anything like that! 😒

The two little red soft books (on the far right) were made by a guild member.  The three quilts on the right I had trouble forcing myself to put in the box. 

They're larger quilts, and I really like them.  The dark/light Potato Chip quilt, the rainbow Jacob's Ladder, and the blue/green Kira quilt.  I will absolutely be making another Potato Chip quilt this year.  It was an excellent leader/ender project.  And since I have another layer cake, of 30's prints, I might make another Kira quilt too.

I've been working on my HOUSE BLOCK swap group blocks.  These little blocks always take much longer to make than a large block, but I think they're also much more effective in a small size.  More impact when you look at them.  These are my December blocks.

This is what I've got so far.  (Well not really - there are more in the pile, but I don't feel like going and taking another photo!) Note all the adorable features in the windows. 

Yesterday and today I'm working on dog quilts.  My two monkies ...

...have clawed their way through the bed liners.  Which I made, like, 25 years ago.  Pfftt.  Just can't get good quality stuff anymore!!

I'm using the lovely fabric from IKEA as the new upper and just stitching it on top of the old quilts.  It's all upside down on the longarm, but you'll get the idea.

There are two more that I'll quilt today, then when that's finished I'll cut the new tops bigger by 2", fold over the raw edge and stitch to the back.

 

My kitchen/social story this week

Also, potentially my SECOND award, and NOT a good one.

The Red Hat Christmas Pot Luck Lunch was held here.  I cleaned the house.  Good Lord, I cleaned the OVEN.  I couldn't really see through the window any more, so, you know.   Anyhow...as my contribution I did a spiral ham from Costco.  Easy.  Heat it up.  Except, this is ME we're talking about.  Ahem.  

I put it in a small roasting pan that came with our toaster oven because it was the perfect size for the ham.  I added 1/4 cup of water.  I wrapped it in tinfoil.  Put it in the oven for two hours.  Took it OUT of the oven (remember, it's wrapped in foil, which I cannot see through) not realizing how much water came out of the ham during the heating process.  Frigg... I'm not a scientist, ok??  So, I spilled greasy ham water all over the bottom of the oven, all over the door, in  between the two oven windows (did you know your oven has TWO windows???), all down the cupboards, and all over the floor.  Said more than a few bad words.  Threw an old tea towel on the mess on the floor before someone slipped through it and decided to sue me.

Then, because I can read instructions, AND because I'm occasionally stupid, I turned up the oven to 425 and added the glaze to the ham.  OMG.  

• Smoke.  
• Potential for fire. 
• Smoke alarms. Several. Blaring.  
• Windows and doors open in the sub-zero weather.  
• My Red Hat girls wondering what the hell was going on in the kitchen.
• Dogs licking up whatever that delicious human-food juice was on the cupboards and floor.

Surprisingly enough, the ham was good.  Had an added 'smoke' flavour. 😳

Maybe not surprisingly, someone else volunteered to host the 2026 pot luck.

Merry Christmas!  Happy Holidays!  Serene Stay-In-Your-Jammies Season! 

And many thanks to my friend Jean, who made me cry, with this lovely card she painted. xxo.

Defiant or Delulu?

 Ha ha, love the word 'delulu' which was added to one of the dictionaries this year. 😄

I was cleaning up the garden yesterday, November 8th and took these photos of some very determined flowers.

Today, November 9th, they're faced with this:

This was the evening horizon on October 30th in Tobermory.  Just, you know, to make you jealous:

I came home on November 1st.  A coupla girls were happy to have me back:

Since then I've completed the quilt I was working on at retreat.  

That quilt represents four years of block swapping at the Binbrook guild - two years of half-squares, and two years of 4-patches.  When you combine those they make Jacob's Ladder blocks.  

Binding and label finished, too!

 Coincidentally, Border Creek Station Pattern Company runs a stash-buster every year.  As I was scrolling through their site I discovered that this was their pattern from 2020 (although they are called Cross-Eyed Switcheroo Blocks on the site...admittedly, a much more fun block name!), so I had an actual pattern to follow.

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I've been OBSESSED with this quilt since I first saw it at Quilt Canada several years ago.  It's by Terry Rowland - you can find her on facebook and youtube.

Look at how cute those blocks are!  Every window has something 'fun' in it.

I have managed to convince four of my friends to join a monthly block swap of houses with me.  The blocks are 4 1/2" unfinished which meant I had to do a little persuading.  When dealing with recalcitrant humans, the dogs have taught me to make cow-eyes while you squeek out a quiet, pathetic whine.  

This helps to make humans go along, even when they're not really convinced.  Because the blocks are small they're a little finicky to make, so I didn't want too many participants.  The five of us are all pretty good piecers and I don't expect any, um, surprises. 

Here's my organizational setup - four ziploc bags (one per person), plus a box for mine, which is big enough to hold the ziplocs until I can distribute the blocks.

Now to go find some more cute animal prints...

In the Dark (or how to entertain five longarm quilters when the hydro goes out)

 Retreat is half about socializing and half about productivity.  I was plugging away and got the braid border finished for a Round Robin.

I finished the Block of the Month for the Binbrook guild (two blocks, really).

I also finished a sample block to see if my instructions were workable, for the house block swap group:

We were enjoying ourselves in the afternoon sunshine:

When all of a sudden - POOF!  NO HYDRO!

We looked at this for a while:

Then, we decided that since my laptop was charged up I could show them my pics from Birmingham Quilt Festival.  EXCEPT...(there's always a "but", right???) the laptop wasn't charged up - it was down to 25% because I'd left it turned on.😖  However, fearless leader Diane had brought a power pack with a zillion cords, so we plugged the laptop into the power pack and were back in business.  That lasted for quite a while, until the laptop swore and walked out, like a bad loser.

Desperate times call for desperate measures.  By now it was dark and we had to entertain ourselves like the little 12-year-olds we are at heart. 

We could have given up and gone to bed early, but... WAIT!  THERE'S MORE!

There are a few Jays fans in the group and there was a game on, that couldn't be watched.  But also couldn't be missed.  More technology brilliance - hotspotting from a phone to a tablet got the girls a watchable screen until the bitter end.

Supper never happened because the hydro was out until 2 am.  We had sandwiches from Monday's leftover salmon using the rye bread that was intended for the ruben sandwiches that were supposed to be supper.  We finished it off with cheesecake, which has the magic ability to shut up anyone who was thinking about complaining. 

Is It October Already?

 I have temporarily exchanged my horizon, from this:

to this:

so I could spend time like this:

and like this:

I'm planning to get the borders on this:

I've also convinced four friends to join me in a monthly House Block swap, to copy the Terry Rowland quilt.  So stinkin' cute with all those little critters in the window(s):

Blocks will be 4 1/2" unfinished:

sample made by Janice:

Good lord, it looks like a bomb went off in there. 😳  We were cutting kits for donation quilts, to be made up by members of the Binbrook guild.

Stay tuned.  There could be more goings-on to share this week...

Leavin' the Country

 I'm killing time...the last half hour before hubby takes me to Hamilton Airport, to get on the bus to Pearson Airport.  In Toronto I'll get on a plane to Heathrow in London.  

The bucket list is getting another item crossed off - I'm attending the Birmingham Quilt Festival.  Today I made a couple little cord-minders - one each for my phone and tablet.

Two weeks ago I was making little 'project bags' for the Singapore family, who are here visiting.  Hubby was kind enough to contribute some very sketchy jeans.

I pieced the outside of the bags on the longarm.

• I loaded batting only, no backing.  
• Basted some gridlines so I could keep things reasonably straight. 
• Sew the denim pieces with 1/4" seamlines.
• Pin the 'fashion fabric' top & bottom pieces, then stitch those with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Once the piecing was complete, I unloaded and cut the appropriate pieces, and constructed as usual.

Gotta go - time to load the suitcase in the car!