Nine Patch blocks done

Last night I got up into the sewing room and thought, oh I'll just sew for a few minutes. Well, two hours later I was rushing to finish so I could get downstairs and watch a television program I'd been wanting to see! Time sure flies when you are doing something you like to do. Here's a picture of the nine patch block that is going to pair with the rolling star blocks. The finished block measures nine inches.

We had chef's salads for supper last night. I picked up some bagged lettuce and added it to some romaine. Added some chunks of cooked turkey, cheeses, hard boiled eggs, and other salad stuff. It was a good dinner. I have no idea what I'm going to make tonight. I better figure something out quick, though, because I'll be leaving the office in an hour and a half and need to pick stuff up on my way home! We don't have a grocery store in the town I live in.

I am a little aggravated at our insurance. The premiums went up, and so did the cost of the prescriptions. It will vary, but one of the scrips that was $10 for three months through mail order is now $75! sheesh, that's a big jump. But medicine is not something we can scrimp on so we just have to bite the bullet.

The Superbowl is this Sunday. I don't know yet what we will be doing, if anything.

Old book, new to me

Here's the book I ordered from Amazon a couple weeks ago. It's from 1988, so by no means is it new. It doesn't even include rotary cutting techniques, but it has a lot of different block patterns in it. It cost me $4 total, with shipping and handling. There is a book fair coming up in a couple weeks that I would like to go to and see if they have any cast off quilting books.

I'm glad this week is almost over. Seems like it's been a long one at work. Every day we seem to hear of more and more people who are being laid off. Not a good time for our country. I hope that we can all have faith and work together to bring it back to greatness. I'm not going to get too deep into politics here, though.

I didn't get any sewing done last night again. I was just too tired. Once I got home and had dinner fixed, even though it was something super easy, I sat in my easy chair and I was down for the count. Both the kids were out of the house and it would have been perfect for me to sew uninterrupted, but instead I fell asleep! Oh well, I guess I needed the rest.

I ended up making the chicken bacon ranch subs using the breaded chicken tenders from the grocery store deli for supper last night. Tonight we are having chef's salads, per darling daughter's request.

We got snow - Finally!

We finally got some snow! I love it! I guess I should give some credit to the weather people on the t.v. for actually getting this one right. The snow started yesterday afternoon and it snowed until about midnight. It looks so pretty. Of course now the sun is shining, so it will probably all melt soon, but I'm enjoying it while it's here.

Had to dig the car out (we have a 2 car garage, and I park outside, why is that?). Streets were snowy, and not many in town had been touched by a plow, but except for intersections, I didn't have any trouble. Just went nice and slow.

Daughter's college is closed and Son's school is closed, so both of them are home with their dad, until he goes to work at 3. I am terrible because I thought this was a good reason to go to work? hee hee. If they weren't home I would be able to sew all day, but when the kids are home I always seem to get caught up in other things, or can't get into the sewing room because it's in use, or someone is sleeping in the room next to it.

That was part of the reason I didn't get upstairs to sew last night. So I just took a day off from sewing. I did make a big ol' dinner. I made some bbq pork chops and hash brown casserole from new recipes. I also made some hamburger helper for my darling hubby to take for his lunch at work. He likes to have something he can heat up quickly and not spend time messing with because he only has a 20 minute lunch break. Then I made a cake from a new recipe that called for sour cream in it. Oh, man, it was a very good cake! It baked in a bundt pan and then you put a glaze over it when cooled. It was very very chocolatey and very very good!

I don't really have any ideas on what to make for dinner tonight. I might just stop at the grocery store deli and pick up some already cooked breaded chicken strips and have them, maybe as chicken bacon ranch subs. Nothing is jumping out at me to make. I'm still trying to make at least one new recipe a week.

The Superbowl is this weekend. I'd like to make some chicken hot wings. I need to find a good recipe for them. But they are a lot of work, I know that.

A bit of snow - I want more!

We had a little bit of snow on the ground this morning. I am guessing we got about an inch. They were forecasting up to 8" so once again the news stations wanted the grocery stores to show a profit on milk and bread! That just drives me nuts. Almost every time the weather is forecasted to be bad the news stations hype it all up so people get panicked.

Last night I was in the sewing room for about an hour. I finished the rolling star blocks and pressed them. Then I started the double nine patch blocks that will go with them. The layout of the quilt is to have the blocks alternate and be on point. So that means setting triangles on the sides.

I was going to put off making the scrappy mystery that was on one of the Yahoo groups, but I saw that there were instructions for a wall hanging size that only needed four squares. I might go ahead and make one, just to see how it turns out. Then start on Darling Son's graduation quilt.

We had meat loaf last night for supper. I cooked some egg noodles, then made a packet of broccoli cheese soup with a little less water so I could use it as a sauce over the noodles. It turned out pretty good. Darling Daughter requested creamed peas, of all things, to go with it! Also had some canned fruit, so it was a pretty good meal.

Tonight I think I'm going to try a new barbequed pork chop recipe. The sauce looks simple and easy. Just mix the ingredients and throw over the chops in the oven for an hour. Might make a hash brown casserole to go with it.

Oh, I also made some brownies last night. Over Christmas I received a 'jar mix' with directions to make double fudge brownies with it. The brownies were a little bitter, but if we put a spoonful of ice cream on them they were okay! Hee hee hee.

When it was snowing last night, I had to let the dogs out for a little bit. They romped in it and when they came in their backs were covered in snowflakes! I don't let them stay out too long because the older one has some arthritis and I know that cold must bother her. She is also losing her hearing. I know that doesn't have anything to do with the cold. She is just getting older. I'm thinking she is around 13 now.

Waiting for snow

This weekend I was able to do a few hours sewing each day. I finished making all the nine patch blocks for the Double Delight mystery. I also put together 20 of the 30 'rolling star' blocks for it. This is step 4 of 7 on the mystery. I think I'm getting close to the home stretch here. Hopefully. This picture is one of the rolling star blocks. The colors are okay, I guess. The fabrics are all scraps, nothing new was purchased.

I made a turkey for dinner Sunday. We had mashed potatoes and gravy, a pea casserole, and a spinach and cheese dish my daughter makes. It was a good dinner. Saturday I made a big pot of beef stew. It's cold so that stew went down real good. I even had some for lunch today.

We are supposed to get some snow tonight, according to the weather people. I'll believe it when I see it. We got a half inch or so over the weekend.

This April my friend and I are going to Paducah for the annual quilt show. I'm really looking forward to it. We will be staying at a retreat center an hour away from the show, but that's as close as we could get a room. It's supposed to be a real nice place to stay, overlooking the river, on the bluffs. I hope so.

Tonight I have some hamburger thawed out. Guess I'll make a meat loaf for supper. I want to make another turkey pot pie with the leftover turkey later this week.

Darling son got a job! He's going to be working in our little town at the dollar store. I'm really happy about that. He needs to be earning some money instead of mooching off Mom and Dad all the time!

I printed off the directions for another mystery quilt. I don't think I'll start that until I get darling son's graduation quilt top made. I can't put it off too much longer. I also need to whip together a baby quilt for a coworker.

For those reading my blog that are not residents of our fair state, Illinois, I have to say that the majority of people here think our governor is an idiot. At least the majority of the poeple I know. Please don't judge us by one man. One power hungry, pompous man. What a fool. That's about all the politics I'll put on the blog, unless something big rolls our way!

Fish Fry Friday

My friend Diane called last night and asked if I wanted to go get fish tonight. I'm up for it, so we are going to go get take out from a little bar/cafe a couple towns over that is famous for it's fish on Fridays.

We had a customer appreciate day in the office today and served ham salad and chicken salad sandwiches to our customers. I am not a fan of ham salad at all, so I had a chicken salad sandwich for lunch. It was okay. No great shakes. There is a funny story behind my aversion to ham salad. When I was newly married, decades ago, and had made a big ham dinner, we of course had a lot of leftovers. I decided to make ham salad. Since at the time I didn't have a food processor, I thought it would be the same if I put it in the blenders. Not. For the record, I think I created ham paste. It was horrible. My darling husband kindly told me that I should not ever make it again. And I haven't.

I finished cutting all the strips apart last night for the DD 9 patch blocks. Now I need to sew all the 3 piece sections together to make the 9 patches. This is just step 3 of 7 steps on this mystery. I think it should start to go faster after this, though. Hopefully all the tiny and tedious sewing is done. Hopefully.

I also want to start a scrappy mystery that just uses a couple hundred rectangles and a couple hundred squares. I figure if I can cut strips in the right width, it will go really fast.

And I have got to get moving on darling son's signature quilt. Need to quit playing around and just get it done.

We had tacos for supper last night. Since there were leftovers from the tacos, I threw together some chili in the crock pot for whenever we want it.

Spice Drawer Horrors

I know this isn't quilt related, but it could be...if you got sick from it and weren't able to sew because of it. I have a spice drawer, like I suspect 99% of the people reading this have. I don't replace my spices regularly, but that is going to change. The spice company hasn't put their spices in these small metal tins for years. And who knows how long I had this container before they quit using the metal tins? Ugh. I knew I was going to need the dry mustard for a recipe yesterday so I bought a new container (little plastic round one - so cute!) and dug this old one out of the drawer. And threw it away.

I need to go through the drawer and get all the yucky stuff out of it. I should also throw out what my children call the 'sentimental' jar of parsley. My great grandpa used to have a huge garden and he dried parsley and other herbs. I have a jar of parsley from him, but it's not useable. Great grandpa died in 1991, so it's no good, I just hate to throw the jar out with the slip of paper in his handwriting that says 'parsley'. maybe I'll throw the contents out, and save the paper and jar.

Last night I made baked macaroni and cheese along with some baked chicken breasts. The mac and cheese could have been creamier, but it was still pretty darn good. I made a pretty big casserole dish of it. This morning when I went to make a plate to take to work for lunch I couldn't find the leftovers in the fridge. I finally found them, in the bottom of the vegetable drawer with all kinds of produce piled on top of them. My daughter hid the leftovers! I guess she liked it...

I got pretty shook up last night. Let me explain a couple things about my little town. When there is an emergency call, they blow the fire whistle to call all the volunteer firemen and paramedics. I think they also have radios and scanners, but they also blow the whistle. The whistle is blown once at 5pm every day. My husband likes to say "oh, boy, quittin' time!" It is also blown the last Thursday of the month three times in a row at 7pm for the monthly meeting. So any other time it blows, it is blown twice for an emergency call.

Well, at about 7:30 last night the whistle blows twice. Both my kids were home and my husband was at work. I sent him a text message asking if he was okay - I always do a head check when there is an emergency call. He sent me one back saying yes. I didn't think much about it again, except when my son said he was going to a friends house about 10 minutes later. I told him to be careful because I had heard the whistle and there might be emergency vehicles on the road he would need to be aware of.

My son left and a few minutes later he calls me and says there is a lot of emergency equipment blocking the road to his friends house and that there was a car off the road about 20 yards in the field, flipped over. He said he couldn't get through and was going to go around the country way.
I no sooner hung up the phone than my daughter gets a call from one of her friends, who happens to be the sister of the friend my son was going to see. The sister was going home and couldn't get through for the same reason, but she got out of the car to see who it was. It turns out it was the son of one of my friends' and he had a girl in the car with him. Totalled out his mother's brand new car. He and the girl were both okay and I know for sure he came home last night from the hospital. I don't know about the girl, but was told she was okay. It's a miracle either of them lived. The car is crunched up pretty bad. So that really shook me up. There by the Grace of God go I. It could have been my kid and I thank God that it wasn't, and I also thank God that the kids involved are okay. Cars can be replaced. People can't.

Tell your family you love them. Every time they walk out the door.

Mid Week Musings

Last night I didn't think I'd be doing any sewing, mainly because it was my first day back to work after a long weekend and I had really sewn quite a bit over those three days. Well, I just couldn't stay out of the sewing room. I was up there for 45 minutes, sewing strips together and pressing them for 9 patch blocks for the DD mystery. Tonight I'm hoping to get the little pieces cut so I can start sewing them into 9 patches. I have 130 of the light/dark/light strips for the middle already cut. I have to cut 260 of the dark/light/dark combo now.

We had a simple dinner last night of bacon, eggs, biscuits and gravy. The previous night we had some sausage that a local deli/caterer sells in a little town a few miles from us. They also have a very limited lunch menu every day. I convinced my dear hubby to go in and have some lunch with me, since I had to go over there anyway and get the sausage. The menu had ravioli, bbq sandwiches, and chef's salads. Each day the menu is different. The food was really good. The atmosphere is something I like for a lunch. There were only a few tables in the place and the majority of people having lunch were working men. The deli portion did a steady business with carry out lunch orders as well as deli and other items.

I really enjoyed watching all the innaugural festivities on television. I sure hope our new president can bring about the change our country needs.

Tonight I'm planning on making baked macaroni and cheese with baked chicken breasts for dinner. Nothing fancy, just good food.

Do I have any baby girl fabric?

I really feel good about getting so much accomplished over the weekend on the Double Delight mystery. I don't know how much I'll do on it tonight, because I'm starting to wear down this afternoon at work. Having spent over 6 hours in the sewing room yesterday and over 5 hours the day before, I can say it's okay if I don't want to sew today!

I had a visit from a young couple that used to live on our street. They stopped in the office today to tell me they had adopted a baby girl on Saturday! She's only a week old. They are walking on cloud nine, and for good reason! This couldn't have happened to a better couple.

So, I really should whip up a quick baby quilt for them. I'm sitting here trying to remember what 'girl' colors I have in my stash. I think I have some pink with little white ducks on it that would look nice. I will have to raid my stash and check it out.

Mini Nine Patches

I'm finally on step three of Double Delight. The first two steps took forever to get through! Those square in square blocks were tiny and tedious, but they turned out really nice.

Step three has me making tiny nine patch blocks. These measure three and a half inches unfinished. All my fabrics in this mystery quilt have been from stash. I think if I were going out and purchasing fabrics I would have coordinating them better, but it seems like the colors worked okay. We will see when it's all done.

Another cold day

It's another bitter cold day. I'm so glad it's Friday. I'm going to the movies with a friend tonight. I'm really looking forward to it. We are going to see Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino. I don't go to the movies too often, so I hope this is a good one. I remember one year I only went to one movie, around my birthday, with my husband. I was so disappointed because the movie was a real dud.

Last night I finished cutting the brown triangles for DD mystery. I was able to sew triangles on half of the squares on one side. I'm thinking since the kids are just going to have to fend for themselves, food wise, tonight I might get to sew a little before I go to the show. But if I don't I have a three day weekend to sew as much as I want.

We have an old car that we need to junk. I'm hoping we can get it cleaned out and that it will run just long enough to get to the junkyard tomorrow. The price of scrap iron is up a little right now, so it would be a good time to do it. I need to get the Nativity scene off the cedar chest so I can dig out the title.

I left my lighted house village up so my friend (who I'm going to the movies with) could see it. After she sees it tonight, I'll be free to take it down over the weekend. And the rest of the Christmas decorations. The tree has been down for a while, but I like to leave the village up longer. I enjoy it so much.

Squares and Strips

Last night I worked on the DD mystery for over an hour. I cut squares out of the gold fabric and cut the brown into strips to be subcut into triangles. I did cut three strips worth of triangles, but then ran out of steam.

Today was payday for me. Why is it that as soon as I get paid, I'm broke again? Sigh. I guess that's because I pay bills when I get paid or else the money slips away. Don't get me wrong, I am very grateful to have a job in these hard times.

Since before Christmas, I had my eyes on a quilt book I was wanting to order. It is $25 plus shipping. Well, I was just going to go ahead and buy it, even though spending money right now isn't a great idea. I went to the website to buy it and paged through it. Once I did that, I realized I didn't really want it after all. The patterns in it turned out to be ones that I could live without.

But I still wanted to get a new book...it's been a rough week and I wanted something, anything, just for me. A gal on one of the quilt groups was talking about looking up a pattern in one of her books and named the book. I looked it up online and found it used for one cent! Plus $3.99 shipping, but for $4, not $25+ I have ordered a book and I'm satisfied.

I also sent, via snail mail, a note to the Amish store over in Arthur that I had previously purchased a huge cone of a certain brand of thread that I like. The cone I have is getting closer and closer to the end and I would hate to run out. So I mailed a copy of the label from the cone of thread to the store asking if they still carry it and how much it would be to mail me a cone. I'm really hoping they can do that, because it is a two and a half hour drive to their store.

The temperature when I went out at lunch was a balmy 4 degrees! Brrr! I had to go to the grocery store, and when I was done, rather than bring my stuff in to the office to put in the fridge, I just left everything in the car. I don't think anything, including the ice cream, is going to melt out there.

Tonight one of the television shows I like to watch is going to start airing new episodes again. I've been looking forward to this all week. I may even make myself some popcorn for the show. It's called 'Supernatural'. I know, it doesn't sound like a show an adult woman who is into quilting would watch, but I've watched it from the very beginning and some of the plots and story lines get quite detailed. I used to really enjoy watching the show 'Jericho' but that was taken off the air. About the only other shows I watch now are 'Ghost Whisperer' or the Food Network. I like some of the shows on the History Channel and Discovery, and if John Edward is on I might watch him if it's not a repeat.

Did you say rice bags?

It may sound strange to some people, but here are a couple of rice bags my daughter and I made. They are wonderful to put on achy bones and muscles. The ones we made don't really have any set dimensions. We just grabbed some material, doubled it up, and sewed around the edges. Then turned it right side out and filled about 3/4 full of plain old white rice. After stitching up the opening they are ready to go. Just put one in the microwave for one to two minutes. Make sure they don't get wet and they will last a good long time.

Last week a friend of mine at work was having some muscle pain, so I made her a rice bag and brought it to her the next day. She took it home and said she carried it around with her all night! That sure made me feel good. She suggested I make them and sell them, but I don't think there is much of a market for rice bags!

DD Step One Finally Done

I finally finished step one of the Double Delight mystery. These are the squares as I was trimming them down to 3-1/2". I looked through my quilting journal and I have spent almost 10 hours on step one alone! Wow. Now, that included choosing and pressing the materials, so I'm hoping the next step doesn't take that long. Step two has me making another 120 square in square blocks in a different color scheme. I will be glad when they are done. This is not one of my favorite blocks to make, but I do like the way they look when they are finished.

Last night darling daughter made a really good dinner of chicken alfredo fettuccini. She uses one of the commercial sauce packets, and doctors it up. I sure like it when she cooks...it gives me more time to sew!

Since she made dinner last night, I put together a crock pot meal for tonight. I browned several pork chops and layered them in the crock pot with some sliced onions, then put chicken broth over them. Before I left for work this morning I put the crock pot on low. Tonight when I get home I'll add some sour cream to the broth. This is the first time I've made this recipe but it sounds really good. I'm thinking it would also be good if I added some mushrooms, but darling daughter doesn't like them, so I probably won't.

As a rule, I try to keep this blog upbeat, but there are times when I have frustrating things going on in my life and they spill over into the blog world. Like when my children do things I don't want them to do. Like get a tattoo. Ugh. Dear son, who turned 18 a few weeks ago, decided that he wants a tattoo. Well, I can't run his life, and he is 18, but I sure don't like the idea one bit. NOT ONE BIT. But does it matter to him? Probably not. And I will love him whatever the outcome.

Baby it's cold outside!

We are going into a cold snap here in my neck of the woods. Great weather to quilt in! I need to get some hand quilting done on Tennessee August. It hasn't been touched since before Christmas.

I plan to work on the DD mystery tonight. At least I want to get the squares done for step one and then the material cut for step two. This mystery is taking a while to complete, but the way it looks, it promises to be stunning when finished!

After I get this mystery done I really need to think about starting on darling son's signature quilt for his high school graduation in May. It's just going to be six inch squares but I'll feel better when it's in the works.

Call me crazy, but I'm also thinking of doing another mystery that starts on January 24th. These mystery quilts are so much fun I can hardly resist! And they are great stashbusters.

Tonight we are going to have the ham and beans I cooked up yesterday. I found a box of Jiffy corn muffin mix in the cabinet, so I'll bake that and supper will be ready. I wish I had one of those neat cast iron pans that you bake cornbread in - they look like ears of corn. I know I can get one at one of the stores here, just have to recover from Christmas before I spend any more money!

Darling daughter called this afternoon from school. She was between classes and was agonizing over the fact that she had to purchase a $75 lab manual and didn't have the money. I told her not to stress over it, but that she would have to wait until Thursday when I get paid. She's not working at the moment. This is not a big deal and I don't want her to have any unnecessary stress. She's a good kid and doesn't ask for much.

Sunday night, good night!

What a weekend! Saturday I sewed for 5-1/2 hours on the Double Delight mystery. The first part is sewing 120 square in square blocks. Have I ever mentioned I'm not fond of triangles? Well, this got me past that in a hurry.

Today I sewed for four hours and I'm still not finished with step one. But I'm getting close. I have about three fourths of the sewing done on it. The pressing and trimming will be next. I'm not crazy about pressing, but that will be a cinch compared to trimming up the squares.

If I didn't have to cook and do laundry I probably would have gotten them all sewn, but it's just as well I didn't. My bones are stiff! ha ha. I made stuffed pepper soup yesterday for supper. It was a hit. The soup has quite a few ingredients, but when it's all done it tastes just like stuffed peppers.

Today I made a pot of ham and bean soup for tomorrow. I used ham shanks and a chunk of ham, a mix of different beans (usually I just use navy beans, but I had a package with a mixture in the drawer that needed to be used), an onion, celery, carrots, and some diced tomatoes. I just let it cook all day long. Should be a treat tomorrow. I'll make some cornbread to go with it, probably.

For dinner tonight we had breaded chicken strips, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, and salad. The chicken strips were pretty good. I bought the meat already in strips, dipped them in egg, then a Bisquick mixture and baked them. The recipe is on the box of Bisquick and was surprisingly good.

Darling daughter goes back to school tomorrow. She commutes to and from college and this is her second semester. I think she's a little nervous but she's not admitting it. Darling son is out with his friends planning the next lan party. He loves those parties. I don't blame him.

NYE Done

I came home from work tonight and put the last border on the NYE mystery quilt. Now that the top is finished, I think I'll move on to the Double Delight mystery on Bonnie Hunter's website.

I did a couple of test squares for the DD mystery, to make sure I could get the measurements right, but I think it's too late at night for my brain to cut things correctly! I'm going to wait until morning and try again because the two that I tried didn't come out right.

We ended up having meatball subs for dinner. I bought some meatballs, spaghetti sauce, rolls and shredded cheese and made a quick dinner.

Borders

Last night I cut two borders for the NYE mystery quilt and sewed the first border on. I used the dark navy fabric to make an inner border and the light blue to make the outer border. I checked the material I originally wanted to use and I didn't have enough of it. So far I'm liking the results. I'm planning on using the medium fabric as the backing of the quilt. I should have just enough.

I guess I should start quilting these tops, but right now I'm having so much fun making tops and doing mystery quilts I'm not going to worry about it.

So maybe in the back of my mind (okay, there's really no maybe, it is in the back of my mind!) I'm thinking that I should have a nice stock pile of tops to practice on when I can afford to get my longarm machine. Right now, the target date is five years out, so I'll probably have to put on a room addition to hold all those tops...ha ha.

Darling daughter will be starting her second semester of college next week. Darling son is in his last semester of high school. I'm so proud of both of them.

The chicken cacciatore was good last night. I had egg noodles to put it over, then made broccoli and cauliflower, salad, and garlic bread. It made a nice meal. I have no idea what we are having tonight. I need to go to the grocery store at lunch or after work.

NYE Mystery finished!

I finished my NYE mystery last night! woohoo! This picture really doesn't do the fabric justice. I had started out with a different focus fabric, but I am really pleased with the results after changing my mind on it. This focus fabric has a midnight blue background with snowflakes in it. The focus fabric was actually part of a panel fabric that had trees and small houses on the bottom border with a light background. I may use that portion of the fabric for the border. And I have a lot of the medium fabric left that may be used for the backing. Not sure yet, but I am sure that I absolutely thoroughly enjoyed this mystery! It was a mystery on the yahoo group fabricaholicsannonymous. Ann Smith is the designer of the pattern.

Last night I made that hamburger casserole with noodles and tomato soup and cheese in it. The recipe made a very big casserole dish. My family ate every last bite last night! Wow. Either they were really hungry or it was really good... Since there wasn't anything left in the fridge (I cleaned it out a couple days ago) I made some tuna for dh and dd to have for lunch (ds will get lunch at school today) and I took out some tortellini soup for dh to take to work for his evening break.

I put some chicken breasts in the crock pot to make that chicken cacciatori again. All I will have to do is cook some egg noodles and dinner will be ready when I get home. Might stop and pick up some salad to go with it.

I'd like to get started on another mystery, but I still have to pick out the brown fabric for it. That part just has me stumped, so I will have to force myself to make a decision. I know that sounds silly, but sometimes I get roadblocked on the littlest things.

Here are the some of the fabrics I have picked out to do another mystery (as soon as I have the NYE one done!). I may not use the duller blues if I have enough of the darker blues. I still need to find a brown that will work.

Last night I didn't get up to my sewing room until after 9 p.m. and wasn't going to do any sewing. I was just going to put up a calendar. Well, next thing I know it's after 10 and I've finished the blocks for the NYE mystery quilt! I need to press half of the blocks yet, then I can sew them together. I really like the colors a lot. I do think there is an easier way to put the blocks together, with less cutting. If I make the pattern again, I may modify it.

The spaghetti was a hit last night. I am going to have to stop at the grocery store on my way home tonight and get some hamburger. I think I'll make a hamburger casserole for supper. Tomorrow I want to put some chicken breasts in the crock pot for chicken cacciatore. I'd like to make at least one new dish a week, starting this year. We get so tired of the same old things over and over.

Darling daughter had her 19th birthday yesterday. So now we have an 18 year old and a 19 year old in the house. Where did the years go?

Monday blahs on Tuesday

We woke up to icy streets this morning. Today is the first day back to work for me since the new year and it was really hard to get up to begin with, let alone drive to work on ice! But I made it and the streets have melted a little so the drive home should be better.

I thought I would post some pictures of the quilt I made for darling daughter for her high school graduation. When I told dd and her boyfriend I needed to take a picture of the back, they got silly and turned around with it, so I thought it would be funny to post that picture too! The label was done freemotion on the old Singer. I may make a smaller one, as this one is pretty big. DD wants a cross stitched label, but I'm just not into that right now.

Still working on the New Year's Eve mystery quilt. I'm on step 10 of 11, so it's almost done. I made spaghetti sauce yesterday while I was off, so dinner won't be a hassle tonight.

Back to work tomorrow

I have been off for five days and tomorrow I have to go back to work. boo hoo. I won't whine too much because I know how lucky I am to have a job. These are certainly hard times all around.

Today I did some sewing on the New Year's Eve mystery. It is coming together nicely. I think I'll use the 'trees' portion of the snowflake fabric for part of the border and the medium fabric for the back, if I have enough. It really feels good to use stash for an entire quilt.

I bought a new journal today at Dollar General to use as my quilt diary. It's a nice size journal, and I already added bits of material to one of the pages describing what I am working on. I'm thinking of putting a quilted cover on it.

Since I was home, I made dinner for tonight and tomorrow. For tonight I made a turkey pot pie from the leftover turkey I cooked Friday. It turned out really good. It had turkey, onions, celery, green pepper, corn and peas in it, topped with a premade pie crust. We had some toasted english muffins to go with it. For tomorrow I made a pot of spaghetti sauce.

New Year's Eve Mystery in progress

I'm loving the mystery quilt I'm working on! The pattern is neat and the colors are working together nicely. I did change the focus fabric from the birds to a snowflake pattern that works better.

Today I got up early put a turkey in the oven. When it was done I made some some grilled turkey sandwiches with blue cheese and sauteed onions on them. Everyone seemed to like them.

Darling son had a computer party tonight. It's an all night party where the guys bring their computers and hook them together and play games. I took some sloppy jo's for them to eat, but didn't really stick around too long. That would be un-cool, I'm sure.