Two More Off The List, Superbowl Prep, and the 2020 Pet Peeve

Every year I make a list of projects that I want to complete.  I call it my DO-IT CHALLENGE.  The first week of January my new list for 2020 included "complete 3 UFO's".  Well, by golly, here it is just past the first month end and I've knocked that one out of the park already.   

APPLE CORE  The pieces were cut using JAWS, and I used a pattern from the Accuquilt web site.  I increased the size of the quilt by quite a bit - it's plenty big enough for DH to take a nap under.

This is for the living room, to replace a quilt that has seen better days.  My plan for the OLD quilt is to cut it up into smaller bits and donate the little quilts to the SPCA.  I need to contact them to see what size they'd prefer.

I really like this pantograph, it has a nice modern feel to it.

STRIPPY HEXAGONS  Using the 2-1/2" strip die for JAWS made this quilt a lot easier than you'd think.  I pulled out leftover bits of cool fabrics, along with yellows & cream/whites.  Sew three strips together, then use a 60⁰ ruler to cut triangles. This gets you two blocks from each strip.

The colours make me think of Easter.

Pretty, leafy pantograph.

Along with the star quilt UFO from my last post, there's my three UFO's done. 

As a little reward for myself, being so GOOD about my challenge list, I granted permission to me to start a new quilt tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the Superbowl.  I will stitch during the game, but watch during the commercials and the entertainment bits.  I know some people might think that's a little backwards.  They're probably the same people who think cutting up perfectly good fabric is weird.  What do they know.  Hmm?
The traveling sewing machine is upstairs by the tv, along with a prepped project and the necessary supplies.  DH still has to fetch the card table for me.   The quilt is very simple, using charm squares that I bought at Missouri Star Quilt Company a couple years ago, on one of Diane's bus trips.

Supper will be a frozen lasagne popped in the oven, and if I get really ambitious I'll make a salad.

THE 2020 PET PEEVE

Geez Louise.  Longarm is ONE WORD.  Long arm is an adjective and a noun.  I do not have a long arm, I am actually rather short.  Longarm is a noun or a verb, depending on it's use in a sentence.  I use a longarm quilting machine to perform longarm quilting (or "to longarm").
This is seriously driving me crazy, people.  I know that all of our "devices" change it to two words but if you persist, your device will eventually accept the new word.  Take back control - don't let the devices rule the world.

Drunkard's Path (or, I Am Not To Be Trusted!)

Part I

I used to teach an 8-week quilting class twice a year, and I always wrote my own patterns.  I have an Accuquilt die cutter (see JAWS tab above), so I designed a Drunkard's Path quilt.  I asked a friend to test my pattern instructions, and she made this quilt  That was, I think, in 2009.  When I was visiting her last fall the quilt was STILL flopped over her design wall.  Every time she's mentioned this quilt she would get an unhappy tone in her voice, which always made me think she was having a hate/hate relationship with it.  So when I was visiting in September I stole it. I figured I would quilt it, get it off her 'annoying' list and she'd be super happy with the nice surprise. I packed it in my suitcase and snuck it out the door.

Part II of the story... 

We have a UFO challenge every year.  Geez Louise - doesn't she decide that THIS QUILT is going to be her first project.  During our weekly phone call she tells me that she spent A WHOLE DAY looking for this top and couldn't find it anywhere. OMG.  I didn't know if I should fess up...then she mentions that she also couldn't find the preview papers with her quilting ideas.  I never saw them and didn't take them - I only pilfered the quilt. Knowing that she had no plan any more I decided to keep my mouth shut and get the darned thing quilted.  

I finished it, wrote a stupid poem to pack in the box with the quilt and shipped it back to her in the hope that she loved me enough to forgive the skulduggery.

Part III - delivery 

As she was leaving for her knitting group she saw a parcel thrown in front of her garage.  First, she thought it was for the neighbours, then realized that no - it was addressed to her, from me.  She threw it in the car and continued on to knitting.  When she got home a few hours later and opened the parcel, what she saw was the light blue backing. She didn't recognize the fabric, so that made her think I had mistakenly mailed a customer's quilt to HER.  Then she noticed the piece of paper and the poem.  She laughed and laughed.  I have been forgiven and have a new reputation of being very sneaky and able to keep a secret.  She loves the way it turned out and is quite happy to knock this off her UFO list.

I did s.i.d. around all the piecing, to outline the colour bands and the floral centers.

The straight line quilting nicely contrasts with the "Nemeshing".

There's also a lovely border design which doesn't show on the top stripe, but looks really pretty on the back.

Later today...

Well, yes, I'm cheating a little bit.  This is LAST year's photo, but I'll be doing the same thing with different fabrics.  Gotta watch the Super Bowl commercials!

Modern Neutrals & tomato recipe

This lovely neutral quilt is destined to be a wedding gift.

Since this is for a young couple - what young person does not like music?

I pulled a nice co-ordinating sashing design to go with the musical border.

The brown panels hide the quilting (for the most part) but were stitched with a puzzle design.

I am in the throws of tomato season.  So far I've done 15 jars of salsa and 21 quarts of diced tomatoes.  Last night for supper I made a Tomato Tart, using a recipe from the newspaper.  If you google "tomato tart" you will get a bunch of recipe ideas, many incorporating mustard and/or additional cheeses, etc.  This one is dirt simple and it tasted pretty good.  I just served it with chicken cutlets & lemon wedge.  And wine. :-)

As you might have guessed, I am done (!) with zucchini reports for the year.  I'm kinda swamped this time of year between the garden and the guilds starting up again.  I didn't manage to work on my quilt challenge over the last two months, so I will repeat the same challenge for September & October. Hopefully I'll get somewhere with it this time.

TOMATO TART

• 1 puff pastry
• 1/4 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/4 fresh chopped basil
• 1 T. fresh chopped oregano
• 1.5 lbs. fresh tomatoes, sliced 1/4" thick

Roll out the pastry to 13" square.

Mix the cheese & herbs, then sprinkle on the center 11" of the pastry.

Layer the tomato slices on the center 11" of the pastry.

Turn up the outer 1" of pastry all around like a crust.

Bake at 425 for 30 minutes.

Baby Quilt (UFO Challenge) & Garden Update

This little cutie was my UFO challenge project for May/June.  And it's all done except for completing the hand stitching on the binding.

I love Flying Geese blocks.  I use the Quilt In A Day ruler(s) by Eleanor Burns to make them.  Four blocks at a time.  What could be better?

It took me two tries and a ruined label to get this to print nicely.  There was much cursing involved.  I ended up zigzagging the label on to a piece of card stock to feed it through the printer.

GARDEN UPDATE
DH got a little carried away with the potatoes this year.  I had to plant the zucchini in the cutting garden, and I think that's where I will be putting the pepper plants and some of the Roma tomatoes, too.  I'm wondering... did he plan that so there would be no room for zucchini???

This is the section that he fenced off for me to keep out the stupid rabbit.  Yes I know it needs weeding.  But you can clearly see the rest of the garden is pretty tidy.  This takes a bit of finessing to get into - I have to undo a couple of zip ties to open up a section so I can slide through.  Then the fencing falls over, which means I do a bit of swearing and have to go back out and pick the fencing up and prop it up and try again.  So ... you know ... I avoid it. :-)

**!@&*  Dammitall.  Asparagus beetles.  I go out and squash them every day.  Later, like 7 pm-ish they are slower and don't fly away as quickly, so that is a better time to do it.

And speaking of squashing...  As I pointed out, there is not a lot of room left in the "proper" garden.  So I decided to commandeer the front flower bed outside of my workroom windows to plant the butternut squash.  I went out Thursday night and dug a few lovely holes and gently plunked the wee plants into them.  Watered with a bit of Fish Emulsion Fertilizer (because you know I like to be all organic-like, eh?).

**!@&*  Dammitall.  I went out Friday morning and THREE OF THE FOUR PLANTS HAD BEEN RIPPED OUT OF THEIR PLANTING HOLES.  Probably a stupid CAT decided there was buried treasure a fish under the squash.  Stupid cat.

Mmm... strawberries almost ready.

See?  Tomatoes!!  These are the plants that were under the red warmer cones I showed you earlier.

It's been crazy windy and pretty dry so the watering must commence.  It's only 6 am and normally the wind is pretty calm at this time of day but stuff is already blowing all over hell.  Now, I'm off to fight with the garden hose...

Stash Report & UFO Challenge

UFO Challenge for Jan/Feb - status complete! I'm up to eight blocks complete now.  I will get this bugger finished in this century.

UFO Challenge for March/Apr - these Dresden Plate blocks were brought in to the Binbrook Guild a couple of years ago.  She had lots of them in bundles of 12, so I took one bundle.  They are a little bit full in the center, so I need to...

• Tweak the seam allowances. 
• Turn under and baste the outside edges.
• Find a background fabric.
• Applique these to the background.
• Make and apply center circles.

Sassy Stars using the Quick Curve Ruler - DONE and OFF THE UFO LIST.

Another little cutie, finished and ready for donation to the Hospice.

STASH REPORT
It seems I neglected to file a stash report in January.  Bad me.

	30-Jan	28-Feb
Used this month	13.15	9.74
Used YTD	13.15	22.89
Added this month		0
Added YTD	0	0
Net 2016	-13.15	-22.89

I am adding a sidebar to the blog with an indicator of my current quilt booking schedule.  If you know you need a quilt by ________ (insert appropriate date) make sure you call me and get on the schedule.

2016 UFO Challenge and In The Kitchen (the YOGURT story)

2016 UFO CHALLENGE
Every year, my dear friend Margaret (of the Kawartha Margarets) organizes a UFO Challenge for a few of us.  Normally we send her a numbered list of 6 projects, and every two months she pulls a number out of her...we'll say HAT.  This year there will be no numbers.  And no lists.  This year she will have us PICK A PROJECT every two months.  The nice part about that is by the time November rolls around we are not stuck with something we thought about way back in January.  There is nothing to stop us from making a clandestine list, which I may do, since my memory is good for sh*t.

As for me, for the past two years this baby has been on my list, yet has not seen the light of day.  No more procrastinating!!!  Piece 'O Cake, here I come.

IN THE KITCHEN
Just after Mom died at the end of March my friend Noshi came over and got me started on making my own yogurt.  Ever since then I've been making a batch about once a week.  (on a side note:  most people including DH are afraid of home made yogurt and will not eat it.  Curious, eh?)  Fast forward to Christmas when DH and I went to Calgary for a week.  On Jan. 2nd I started a batch of yogurt using a clump of starter that I had put in the freezer before I left.  It doesn't set.  Huh???  Damn.  Down the drain with that four cups of milk.  I have no more starter of my own yogurt, so I opened the last packet of commercial starter and put another batch on.  It doesn't set either.  WTF???  Down the drain goes THAT four cups of milk.  I headed to Goodness Me for supplies and brought home another box of commercial starter.  OK.  Four more cups of milk and ANOTHER failed batch.  Twelve cups of milk have gone down the drain now, and I'm beginning to wonder if Mom is annoyed with me for not visiting her plot since the summer.  Or, maybe it's too cold in the house?  I decided to live it up and try one more time.  But this time I'm going to leave the batch in my lovely warm workroom where there is a nice toasty fire.  Hah.  Fail.  Four more cups down the drain... I'm up to 16 cups of milk down the drain at this point.  I do the math...every four cups is about $1.33, sooo I'm out of pocket over $21.00 just in milk.  Never mind the hydro to heat it up to 185 degrees and the half hour of time to make each batch.  The other part of my brain is calculating how much it would have cost me over the past nine months if I had been buying Greek yogurt.  This half decides that I am still plenty of $$ ahead of the game.
I will try one. more. time.  But THIS time I will put the oven on 'bread proof' setting, which stays at 100 degrees.  We have a dinner date with friends for Chinese food so the yogurt should be done by the time we get home.
... oh dear... much blue air... still runny after eight hours... and the oven is NOT warm.  (There may be an automatic shutoff on the bread proof setting.  After all, who proofs bread dough for eight hours???)
By now I am pretty pissed off.  Pour a glass of wine (size:  large).  Decide "what the hell" and turn the LIGHT on in the oven and shut the door.
When I got up at 8:30 this morning, magic fairy dust had sprinkled itself all over my milk and turned it into yogurt.

The short part of this long story is that the house was too cold for the yogurt culture to ... culture.  Leaving the light on in the oven totally solved the problem.  See?  You are never too old to find out you don't know what the hell you're doing.

Shakin' the Dust Off For the Sale (and the stash report and the UFO report)

This is how I spent my day.  So far I've let Mother Nature 'dust' over 30 quilts.  There are at least another 10 to go, but I hit my daily limit of trips up and down the stairs.  It's not like I pretend to be even quasi-fit.

Yes, I have too many quilts and I'm having a sale.  If you happen to be in town for the Christmas House Tour which is run by Grace United Church, I will be across the street in the Kinsmen Hall.  Stop in for cookies!  Bring your credit card!

You will find quilts and pillowcases, made by moi.  Shaker Roads is bringing blanket boxes, cutting boards, step stools, and foot stools.  Vignettes Decorum will be bringing some of her refurbished furniture.  DH will be selling steel quilt racks, steel Christmas Trees, and perhaps one or two pieces of garden art.  Even if you don't find anything you simply must take home with you, you can at least have some refreshments and a free quilt show.

STASH REPORT
I was updating my stash report today, and discovered that I have not even looked at it since August.  What the hell????  Note to self:  smarten up!
Used since last report:    27 m (this is ALL pillowcases)
Used YTD:                     85 m
Added since last report:   6 m
Added YTD:             41.25 m
NET YTD:             (-43.75 m)  Hah!  Such a good girl!

UFO CHALLENGE
If you've been following along, you would have seen the ONE ROW I added to the Double Wedding Ring quilt at the Tobermory retreat in October.  So, I met that quilt challenge for the September/October period.  Now, for November/December I need to complete one block on the Piece 'O Cake applique quilt.  Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I will get a block marked and pieces cut before Friday.  Then as I'm sitting in the Kinsmen Hall this weekend I'll have something to work on.  What's that saying.... "idle hands are the devil's workshop".

the Double Wedding Ring (which is also the UFO Challenge for Sept/Oct) and a Recipe

DH said to me last night "you're going to start getting complaints about your blog"  Yes.  I know.  I've just been busy this week.
This is the starting point of the DWR for October 2015.  One row is completely sewn, and the second is mostly complete. If you recall, last year the puppy Anni was taking off with some of my bits.  Little bugger.  She was much better this year.  When she tried it the first time I scolded her and she dropped it right away.  Hah.  Obviously I am FIERCE.

This is the ENDING point for October 2015.  Sewing that second row and laying out row three took me a whole day.  Whose brilliant idea was it to make a double wedding ring?

When I got home from Tobermory I needed to dry out had some leftover cream cheese and half a pound of bacon that I wanted to use. I also had some puff pastry in the freezer that was at least a year past it's best before date.  Not poisonous, but a little dried out.  Nothing that I wouldn't feed to DH.  pfftt - I'm such a bad wife.  There was a recipe for a Leek Galette on the internet, but it needed a few modifications to include my leftover ingredients.  It made for an EXCELLENT supper.  If you add a salad it would rate higher on the "healthy" scale.

This was a 'mission' for me because I have two long rows of leeks out in the garden, that I am DETERMINED to cook with.  Two years ago I spent a whole day digging the leeks, cleaning them, chopping them, and then freezing them.  I think they are all still in the freezer.  Grrrr.  This year I decided I'm not doing that - I'm just going to EAT the damn things.  so...

Here is my version of the recipe:
LEEK GALETTE

Ingredients

• 1 puff pastry sheet, thawed.  **Get the good kind, made with BUTTER, not shortening. That shit will kill you.  Honestly, you are totally worth the $4.00.
• 3 chopped leeks, the white & light green parts - I think I had about 2 cups worth. 
• 1/2 tsp sugar and a dash or two of salt
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped, or more depending on how much you like garlic, 
• half a pound of bacon, chopped into 1/2" pieces.
• 1 chicken breast, chopped into 1/2" pieces.
• half a block of cream cheese (4 oz./125 g.).
• 1 c. vegetable broth
• 1 egg blended with 1 T. water

Directions: 

•  Preheat the oven to 400.
• Roll out the puff pastry until it is 11 or 12 inches.  Try to make it into a round-ish shape. Leave it on the parchment paper and put the whole thing on a cookie sheet.  Keep it in the fridge until the filling is ready.
• In a large frying pan fry the bacon until crisp.  Remove to paper towels, reserve 2 T. bacon grease.
• Cook the chicken in the same pan until no longer pink. Add the chicken to the bacon pile.
• Add the 2 T. bacon grease to the pan, add the chopped leeks and garlic and sugar and salt.  Cook on medium/low for 15 minutes until beautifully fragrant and greeny-golden brown.
• Add the vegetable broth and deglaze the pan, mixing until all the crispy mess stuck to the pan is incorporated in the broth.
• Add the cream cheese, the bacon, and the chicken and cook gently until blended.
• Mound this filling in the center of the puff pastry, leaving 2" of pastry around the edge.  Fold that pastry up and over the filling to contain it, sort of like a pizza crust.
• Brush the visible pastry with the egg wash.
• Bake at 400 for 25 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit for 5 minutes (just enough time to pour a glass of wine and set the table).  Yum.  Enjoy.

UFO Work on Vacation

OK, it's not really work.  Bad choice of words.  Thank goodness that's not how I make my living, or I might be fighting with Sadie over her dog food.  I'm on vacation, doing what I LIKE to do.
Jean and I spent the morning at the beach and (gasp) went swimming!  We came home, had a late lunch, and washed off the beach salt.  Jean got down to reading and I pulled out the Asian Batiks (from my Singapore niece Christmas 2013). Coincidently, they popped up as the UFO project for July/August, when she was actually HERE in July.
I think I showed you the planned quilt.  If not, I guess you will just have to be patient.
I am sewing on the corner blocks (navy blue) and restitching 1/2" away.  That will give me the blocks I want PLUS two bonus half-square triangle blocks, which will probably go in the border.
Tonight's entertainment is the LIVE Big Band performance from 6 - 8 pm at the Gazebo In The Park, Bandstand at Mitchell Field, Harpswell.  Tomorrow we should be making sure we get a lobster supper.

Bow Tie Quilt and UFO & Stash Reports

It's 2:30 in the morning - I seem to be having one of those nights when I cannot sleep.  That is a good opportunity to draft a blog post, which quite possibly will make no sense. But at least there are pictures. ☺
The UFO challenge for May/June was my Bow Tie quilt. 

This started several (!) years ago during a lesson at the Binbrook Quilt guild, when we learned how to make these cute 3-d bow tie blocks.
I really love the white with summer-beach-house-blues.  It has been custom quilted, using the IQ.

Now there is just the hand stitching of the binding to be done.

Here is my Singapore cutie-pie. (translation of cutie-pie:  great-niece)  Modelling the two outfits made by moi. Her head is lopped off in the photos as her parents like to keep strict control of her social media pics.

She is a total freak about FROZEN (the Disney movie) so this goes along with the pillow & bag from THIS post.  I  love making clothes for little girls.  They can be FUN and BRIGHT.

STASH REPORT
Used since last report  11.4 m
Used YTD                   58 m
Added since last report  0 - zero - zippo - yay
Added YTD                 35 m
Net YTD                     (-23 m)

It's up! It's up! and the UFO Challenge update

OMG.  Get your mind out of the gutter.  The MAILBOX is up.

VIEW FROM THE EAST

VIEW FROM THE WEST

UFO CHALLENGE
Sigh.  The challenge quilt for March/April did not happen.  And I'm not explaining it.
May & June - this is still (!) a quilt from the UFO list back in 2011.  Good Lord.  The top was completed in March 2010 so it has marinated quite long enough.  It shall be done.

Hmm.  Speaking of ufos... I really should update the little list on the sidebar, eh?

How to Quilt Multiple Placemats, and UFO Report

Here is a little tutorial on how to get a zillion placemats done for Meals on Wheels.

Start with a customer who gives you a large bag of remnants - mostly man-stuff like fishing & camping fabrics.

Add another customer who gives you a box of started scrappy quilt blocks.

Take those two items to your quilt guild, and guilt the members into taking some of that stuff home to make wee placemat tops that measure somewhere in the vicinity of 12-ish inches by 18-ish inches.  While they are groaning and rolling their eyes at you, remind them that they DO NOT NEED TO QUILT THEM.  If they are still giving you a hard time, let your eyes get a little watery as though you might be starting to cry, and tell them about how your mom used to get little gifts from Meals on Wheels and it really cheered her up.  That should work.

When they bring them back to you the next month, take 'em all  home and try to find one backing fabric that will look ok with ALL of the wee tops.  This is definitely a challenge!  Here, you can see that I found a nice neutral in my stash.

Pin those puppies on to a very large hunk of backing fabric which has been matched up with a very large hunk of batting.  Allow three inches of space all around each placemat.  And use a thinner batt - pouffy stuff tends to tip over wine glasses.  Not that seniors drink wine, of course.  :-)

Baste around the edges of each placemat.

Quilt them.  Stay INSIDE each placemat with the stitching - you'll see why in a second.

Cut them apart, leaving a generous one inch of backing all the way around.  Trim off the batting at the edge of the wee top. This way, you can simply turn the backing over to the top, folding over twice, and top stitch in place for binding. 

I have a very fancy name for this binding, calling it "Back To Front Self Binding".  Ahem.

UFO CHALLENGE UPDATE

Ta da...  Here is the Blooming 9-Patch all done.  Binding finished and everything.  Even labelled.  Now I'm waiting for Margaret to pull the number for months March & April.  I am going on a retreat this weekend so maybe I could do a little work on the next one.

Have I shown you my cutie-patootie lately?