beating the STASH into submission

Oooh - Snoopy Dance here. The stash is back in the minus zone!!!  November will be a good report too, because this weekend I am quilting my Asia top that was completed at the Tobermory retreat.

STASH REPORT
Used in October 41.85 m.
Used YTD 77.7 m.
Purchased in October 0 m.
Purchased YTD 74.75 m.
NET 2012 (- 2.95) m.


A large quantity went on the backing for three Christmas panel quilts.  I put this backing together at the Tobermory retreat.  Pfftt...awesome photographer that I am, I should have taken the pic before I cut the quilts apart and finished them, so you will have to use your imagination.  I made one LARGE backing and loaded the quilts on one at a time.

These are the tops.  I learn so much from my customers - I have a gal who often takes a center panel, puts a couple of borders on it, often with cornerstones, and VOILA.  So on these, I was manifesting my inner 'Marie'.

Two of these are being donated to the Rotary auction, and the third is for the Holiday House Tour.

I called this quilt Leftover Love.  Because I DO love leftovers - I get to be creative when I try to use them up.  Actually, I love leftovers in the kitchen too.  When I (rarely) do meal planning I like to start with a hunk of meat that will get roasted, then go through a couple of cookbooks and plan meals around the leftovers.  This week it was a ham, then leftovers went into Ham & Cauliflower Gratin.  I had good intentions of making a Strata for breakfast, but that didn't happen.

The little 9-patch centers are leftovers from the commission quilt I did last year.  On this top I was manifesting my inner 'Thelma'.  She makes (usually) 20 block tops, using sort of log cabin-ish blocks, with a centre something-block (often leftovers from another project).  Separate with sashing, add a border or two.

Stash busting on the back.

The niece and her bf moved into their apartment yesterday.  Her dad came Friday night and stayed over to help with the move, so I made Oat Pancakes for Saturday breakfast.  These are a hot item on the menu at the Tobermory retreat.  I had leftover pancakes (surprise!) so this morning I had a few with almond butter for breakfast.  Yum yum.

Double Wedding Ring, Family luncheon

I just finished quilting this Double Wedding Ring quilt.

The pieces were cut with an Accuquilt Go cutter - she cut up a whole stack of her leftovers from other projects.  This has always been on my to-make list so I may have to see if she's interested in a little, um, barter.

A pic of the back.

As I mentioned, our niece and her boyfriend have been staying with us for the month, until they get their new apartment November 1st.  The niece is on dh's side, both familially and physically, and our nephew (on my side, both F and P) lives about 45 minutes away.  I thought it would be nice if they got to meet each other, so here's the clan.  Note to self - must get proper tripod so photos don't exaggerate the double chins quite so much.  Observation:  wow - my hair matches dh's beard almost exactly.  Ha ha!!!

I know you are always interested in what other people eat for breakfast.  This is definitely on my list of 'most weird' - scrambled egg and reheated sliced beets.  We are out of milk, so I can't have my oatmeal.  Poking around in the fridge, it was either going to be reheated Chinese food (gag me - blecchhh) or this.

Canning 101 (a.k.a. preventing ouchies)

I always like to start with some fresh ingredients, preferably out of the garden.  Note that this is a staged photo.  These are the nice looking smaller beets that I am saving to roast and eat over the next couple of months.  They will keep for a long, long time in the fridge.

These were the humungous beets that took about two hours to cook last night.  They are turning into Spiced Beets, done with cider vinegar, water, sugar, mustard seed, cloves, allspice.  There should be cinnamon sticks too, but, um, I forgot them.

Get out an old ratty tea towel.  This helps to protect the counter from beet stains.  It also protects the jars if they turn out to be hot and you accidentally drop one.  Or two.  Note the green canning funnel.  DH came home with that years ago and it is wonderful.  It gets used year round for filling jars AND filling ziplock bags.

This little baby is the best thing since sliced bread.  It is a magnet for getting the rings and lids out of the canner.  Who'd-a-thunk?

Another nifty invention - a jar lifter.  When the boiling water bath time is up I lift the jar cage out of the pot and put it on another clean/ratty tea towel.  All that leftover boiling water does not go to waste.  I VERY CAREFULLY and WEARING CLOSED SHOES take the pot outside and pour the hot water over the weeds growing in the patio interlocking bricks.

Now I just need to wait until the jars cool.  Then I can label them and take the outside rings off.  I got sick and tired of the rings getting all rusty when I leave them on, and the books suggest that you don't need to leave them on for any reason, so... off they come.

Retreat Recap

It's bad manners to go somewhere without a hostess gift, so we four 'guests' made our hostess a quilt top. The pattern is Trimming the Tree by Sharon Holland Designs.  I was having a good snicker while I ironed this.  Any longarm quilter knows that group quilts are, generally speaking, a bit three dimensional.  That is a polite way of saying "OMG - who the hell pieced this.  Don't they have a measuring tape?  Or an iron?  Did they cut the pieces out with a hacksaw?!!*".  This quilt is no exception.  And since we retreaters are ALL longarm quilters, the recipient should know what she's getting.

You can see we had no intention of going hungry. 
This baby is crammed to the gunnels, and there is MORE food in the downstairs fridge.





We had no intention of going thirsty, either.  And we didn't want a cold.  And there's that Looneyspoons cookbook I'm always raving about.  That darned thing is everywhere.

We often do little 'gifty' things for each other.  Diane made us pincushions.

I took the easy way out, and ordered us all t-shirts.

This was my first completed project.  These are the fabrics I purchased on my trip to Asia in 2009.  They had marinated long enough that I knew what to do with them.  This pattern (and I NEVER follow patterns, so I have changed the measurements) is Fresh Vanilla by Karen Montgomery. You can find the real instructions here.  My pieces were cut wider and there are lots more of them, to fit our king size bed.  Quilting needs to happen soon-ish because I want this ready for the trunk show I'm presenting in November at the Ancaster Quilters' Guild.
                   

Filling Up The Railing

Part of the fun at retreat is filling up the railing with everyone's finished tops. Between the five of us we have six tops there so far. And there are still four sewing machines whirring away. I've just run out of projects, so it's cocktail time for me. The other gals all started without me - for a while I was the only one without a drink. Don't expect that to happen again soon.

Retreat day 3

Wednesday was such a gorgeous day we took a long long walk before lunch, which helped counteract the ladyfingers. The afternoon cocktail was enjoyed on the deck. The girls said that NEXT year I should bring enough for refills. What are they trying to tell me?
Italian Fascinator
1 oz Galliano
1/2 oz Kahlua
1/4 oz Grand Marnier
Whiz up in a blender with 3 oz milk or cream and some ice. Enjoy with friends.

Morning 1

This is the cleanup crew after our breakfast of Eggs Benedict.  Yum yum yum.  We washed it down with coffee and Baileys.  More yum yum yum.  Last night for supper we had Rockin' Moroccan Stew, and tonight we are having Britney's Spears with almond crusted chicken and roasted sweet potatoes.  Carrot cake for dessert.  Don't try to find us - we won't share!!!
Recipes are coming from the Looneyspoons  cookbook, in case the recipe names haven't clued you in.  Although I can't find any reference to Baileys in there.