Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Wednesday Check-In - Week 12

I almost forgot!


Wow, only one week left in my 13-week challenge to myself!!  This week was a success - quilt, check - pound, check - recipe(s), check.  Here's the quilt:


This one was a UFO that finally got done! I took this pic at the quilters (with my phone) when I picked it up from being quilted.  It's nice to be getting some of these UFOs done, as well as some "new kids on the block".


Recipes this week: roasted vegies (zucchini, red & yellow peppers, purple onions) which were a side-dish with grilled chicken & couscous.  The next morning the vegies were the base of another new recipe - a brunch frittata. A double!!


I continue to debate what my goals for the next 13 week challenge will be.  I think I've settled on what I'll do, but will wait till next week before I reveal (because I'll probably change my mind another 30 times before then!!)


This has certainly been fun!! Tune in next week for the recap!


Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 17, 2011

13-Weeks check in - Week 11

Another week flies by. Another week of summer gone (a lot of us in Florida say "thank you!" to that!!). School is starting for so many already! (I'm sure we didn't start till after Labor Day).  And the 11th week of my 13-week challenge is complete.  Report card?  Straight A's!!  (OK I know the apostrophe doesn't belong, but "Straight As" looked weird.)  Another quilt, another pound, another recipe.

Here's the quilt - another from Lynn Provencher's pattern "Cheech and Chong":


(I don't do very straight lines using Photoshop's eraser!!)  I tweaked the pattern again this week, using more than 9 fabrics, sewing them randomly, and adding a "chopstick" to the white blocks because I didn't like the way they looked - like big blobs of square dough.  I used the "remains" of the strip sub-cuts as the chopstick inserts. Cool! Less scraps!

Speaking of scraps .... this little jewel found its way into my house this week:
The Go Baby is definitely Oh Baby! I used the tumbler die to make quick work of my red scraps. If you haven't seen one of these demo'd, search the blogs - there are plenty out there!  Here's just one: 


No affiliation with the product; just a happy customer!

Yes indeed another pound found it's way into droppage - woohoo! The recipe involved chicken, cream of chicken soup, ranch dressing, and panko bread crumbs.  It was quite good!

I'm narrowing down my options for my next 13 week challenge!  Stay tuned!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, August 10, 2011

13-Weeks check in - Week 10

Wow, it's Wednesday already!  I've been running the streets today, melting my credit card. JoAnn's has the Go Baby cutter on sale and with all the blogging being done about that little gem, well .... of course I just HAD to have one! So now I do. And a bunch of dies to go with it.  Yeow! The cutter is cheap in comparison!  But what the heck - no one's goin' hungry because I bought this stuff!!


OK so what about the week?  It was great! Three check marks this week - quilt, pound, and recipe (roasted squash).  Here's the quilt:


It's the small version of the week 5 quilt.  This'll be another donor quilt - perfect for a wheelchair person. My sewing machine is at the Bernina home, waiting to get it's routine maintenance done.  They are backed up & it won't be ready for "a couple of weeks."!!!  Trusty Featherweight to the rescue! There are quilts to be made!!


I can't believe 10 weeks have gone by already. The summer months are almost over; hopefully that will mean a break in the weather from those of us sweltering in the heat.  It's hot here in Jacksonville, but my friends in (and near) Dallas have it even worse. What a brutal year for heat it's been!


Sewing weekends are coming up! Can't wait for the retreat at Camp Blanding next weekend!  Meanwhile - Friday night at Cinnamon's! Will I see any of you at either place?????


Happy stitching, or whatever your joy may be! Thanks for stopping by.

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

13 Weeks Check-in - Week 9



I am amazed at how fast the time has flown by! I'm noodling on ideas for my next 13-weeks, which I've already decided I will do. (Anybody else wanna play?) Maybe not a quilt a week again - those bindings are weighing heavy on my brain!  


Speaking of weighing ......... yes, another pound is gone. Yes another quilt is made. No I did not try a new recipe this week, although 1 tweaked 2 old ones - does that count? One was the beer bread recipe which was, again, a failure.  That recipe is just not quite right and has been tossed.


 Here's the weekly quilt:




(Whoops - forgot to crop.)  OK I learned a lesson from this quilt - I learned that I don't like the drastic contrast of the sashings to the coins. Doesn't it kinda look like the fabrics are in jail?  This quilt will most likely be donated to a senior's home since it's lap size.  Great for those that are wheelchair bound and tend to get cold.  Or maybe to a kid's place - it's a good size for a kid, too.  Any suggestions? My stack of quilts to donate is growing!!


When I headed out for my walk this morning, it was totally overcast which made me consider leaving the sunglasses at home.  Thankfully I did not! By the time I was on the second half of the walk the sun was bearing down & had burned off most of the overcast-ness.  There sure were a lot of people walking this morning! Twice as many as I usually see on my walks.


Well those bindings are yelling at me so I guess I better go tend to them.  Thanks for stopping by!!

Monday, August 1, 2011

Strips and Scraps and Bindings, Oh My!

Over the weekend, I got a wild hair to sort my scraps - into colors, no less! Here's what I ended up with. There are fabrics in there that I recall, but don't recall the quilt they're in. That's disturbing!


There's also this stack of long strips left over from trimming quilted quilts. I was using a few recent strips to add width to a backing. I think that's what prompted the urge to sort.  Holy mackerel - there are enough strips here to sew together & back another 10 quilts! What am I .... NUTS????  (Don't answer that.)


And now that I'm making a quilt a week, you know what comes after the trimming ....... BINDINGS!!! Yeee-ikes that's a bunch o' strips! Well ... let me get started.



OK ... here we are all sewn together & pressed in half.  Now to start sewing to the quilts .......



This is the stack done so far ....


Three down, 5 (6??) to go.  Hmmm..... maybe I should have thought about exactly what a quilt a week would mean!!!!  TOO LATE! :-)

And now I shall go stitch.

Thanks for stopping by!