All the Little Pieces

Good Morning - 
I'm gearing up for another retreat, 2nd of my 3 in a row.  I started sewing my HST on the last day of the last retreat. They will be part of the little pieces that make up one of my older UFO's.  I've decided lately that I want to use these retreats to finish up UFO's (if I can). 

I only got about 1/3 of the 640 sewn, but figured it would be helpful to get what I could trimmed before heading to the next retreat.  It will probably take me most of the retreat to finish up just this part.   :)

I have a bag of untrimmed, I trim and then they go in another "Ready" bag - then I can press open and sew them together. 

Since my big machine is still in the shop - I have been using my smaller/travel machine and I didn't want to unpack and have to pack back up in just a couple days so I've been working on trimming and then also a little on my embroidery

Lots more to do on it but having fun with it.  And no it won't be done for this Halloween.  

Since I'm staying over night on this one, I did my marathon cooking for Hubby too.  Beans in the crock pot on the right, chili sauce, (cooked salsa) on the left pot.

Spaghetti sauce in the middle pot for the spaghetti w/ french bread and Caesar Salads. 

Sausage egg and cheese breakfast burrito's.  and not pictured hamburger patties.  

Kinda like prepping for a camping trip.  :)

That's for now, I'm going to finish packing and I'm sure I'll let you know how the retreat goes.

Blessings, 

Lynn 

Production Line

Yesterday just fell into place. Right after breakfast I started a pot of Vegetable Beef Soup and put it in the crock pot.  The fan for our A/C is acting up so I didn't want to heat the house anymore than needed. 

 Then after Hubby left for golf, I called my Sis and talked with her for quite a while.  We text every day but like to catch up on the phone every few days.   So while I was talking with her, I hand stitched the binding on this table topper. 

 Here's the back.

 This one I did the day before to try out the machine after getting it home from repairs.  I was able to stitch this one my machine.

 Here's the back.

 Then I started trimming up the blocks for Daisy Days, and laying them out to see how it would look.  The top block needs to be finished and then I can start putting it all together.

 Then took out my Halloween embroidery that I've just started and looked at the pieced border.

So I started looking for black to use (note to self - you need black fabric bad)  once I found the black I wanted to use, I started cutting out the pieces.  And since the A/C is struggling and my sewing room was the coolest room in the house.... I started sewing the blocks.  I needed 4 HST and 32 QST. 

 It's been a while since I've made QST.  Good to keep up the skills. 

Before I knew it all my borders strips were cut (will cut exact size when embroidery done) and the piece border blocks were sewn and trimmed. 

Then because it was still kind of early and my sewing room was still nice and cool - I worked some more on the last block of Daisy Days.  I normally would do this in the living room with Hubby while watching or at least listening to what is on TV, but the cool room kept me where I was.  

Here is where it was when I started on it, I was still working on the lettering. 

This is where I finished last night before bed. 

I tried filtering and enhancing the picture but it is still hard to see some of the colors.  

I finished the lettering, did the pointed part of the banner, the rounded part of banner and the pink on top of banner.  Then I started doing the Bee and it's trail. 

So not too bad for a day's play in the sewing room.  

Now I'm off to give it another try and see what I can accomplish. 

Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn 

Bee Flimsy

Hooray - my Bee quilt top is done. 

I'm really happy with how it turned out.  After spending a good part of my sewing time organizing some things in the garage, I didn't have a lot of sewing time before hubby got done golfing.  But after dinner it was still kind of early so I spent a little time adding the last couple of rows and the sides to finish the top.  I also got the backing ready and the binding made and even found a piece of batting that is just the right size.  This quilt is on the road to being completely done.  Yay!  

I've got a few lined up to being quilted - now I just need to get the quilting done.  

For dinner last night I tried something a little new to us - I made taco fixings and put it in a tomato. 

It was pretty stinking good.  I probably had a little more cheese than I needed to on the beans, but I didn't have a tortilla or sour cream so I guess not too bad.  

Today I have a couple of house keeping items, then I want to make the backing and binding for Carty's Minecraft quilt.  I need to piece the back so I want to put pixel squares of fabric across the middle like the pixel squares on the front. After that I have a some cord keeps to make for a workshop, and if there is still time I came across a fabric book someone gave me that I want to sew up for Nellie and Ben and the new baby.  Not sure if I'll get all that done today but I can try. 

Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn 

Spa Day

Yesterday was a busy day, it started off with our little Pumpkin having her "Spa Day" at the groomers. 

She's all pretty with her little scarf.  :)

After she was done, we went to the gym.  I did 8.75 miles on the bike and then 30 reps on 5 different machines.  

I told my friend Judy I would come over and help her place an order from Amazon with gift cards she got from her children, so I gave her a call after I cleaned up from the gym.  She wasn't home so Hubby and I ran a couple errands including stopping by the library to reserve a couple of movies.  Shorty after we got home, she called and was ready for me to come over.  I did that and by the time I was done with that we were hungry - I made some pork chops and cauliflower fried rice for us.  

It was still a little early so I worked on cutting out the remaining blocks for this old UFO I found.  

Can you see the date?  2010 Yep it's old.  I saw something on Instagram about "One Thing" with Amy.  Instead of getting overwhelmed you list just list one thing you want to get done this week.  So I listed that I wanted to cut out these blocks.  Well that worked well, I'm done.  This will be another thing I will take to the retreat to work on, if I don't start on it before.  :) 

Today I want to finish cutting the borders for this quilt, then I'll cut out a couple more pillow cases.  Next - I finished the bee corner stones.  I'll take a pictures once I get them trimmed up. If there's still time I will start sewing them to the sashing and start putting the rows together on the Bee-Utiful Quilt. 

That's it for now - Have a Blessed Day!

Lynn

#onethingwithamy

Left Overs

Yesterday after doing some house cleaning,  I got into the sewing room for a couple hours. I had some left over blocks from my Red and Tan Butterfly quilt 

and thought maybe I could use them for part of the back.  This ended up being bigger than I thought 62 X 62.  So I started measuring, and sewing the squares together in a long strip that I thought I could put down the center.  

Well after I did all that - it still wasn't enough.  So I went digging and found a tan that looked pretty good with the brown and sewed a strip of that down the center instead. 

But now I still have the left over blocks that I don't know what to do with them.  These blocks were given to me and are not very good quality so I really don't know. Hmmm. 
Next up on the left overs - I told you in my last post that I was going to try and make a low carb tamale pie.  Well it turned out wonderful.  And as usual I didn't think to take the picture until I dished up the left overs. 

Left over kind of day I guess.  :)  This is roughly figured according to My Fitness Pal.  It's 319 cals per serving, 9.2g carbs 12.6g fat and 25.1g Protein.  I made it with ground beef, I'm sure you could lower the fat and calories even more if you used chicken.   
This morning, I made a scramble of eggs and egg whites, a little ham, green chili's, tomato and a sprinkle of grated cheese.  Then I had some "left over" low carb cheddar jalapeno biscuits made from almond flour in the freezer so I defrosted and toasted them - believe it or not I got a picture.  Very yummy.

We dropped Pumpkin off at the groomers.  When she's done we will go to the gym.  After I'm done with that I'll shower and then I'm going over to a friends to help her with her computer. 
That's all for now. I think I'll try to grab a few minutes in the sewing room before the groomer calls. 
Have a Blessed Day!
Lynn

Making the Cut

I have been doing a lot more cutting than sewing.  Aside from my Bakers Dozen of quilting and finishes I want to get done in the next 6 months, I have other UFO'S and scrap busting I want to accomplish.  
My next retreat is coming up in a month, and retreats are often times I start a new quilt top - then I think great another top that will need to be quilted.  So while I was doing some organizing in my sewing room (no I'm not done - ugh) I found some old ufo's.  (like I needed more ufo's than the ones I know about ha ha) 
Any way I found two patriotic ufo's that I started years ago.  One,  I had started cutting out a Quilts of Valor Mystery - I had Clue 1 and 2 cut... a ton of 2 1/2" Squares and some 3 1/2" strips. 

  Well it's been long enough now that I can look at the finished quilt.  Uh - No!  It ended up being a really big log cabin quilt, I don't do log cabins well.  So now what do I do with all of these red, cream and blue squares?   Here's what I came up with.

 I'm using the "On Point" method to make 11" Squares.

  

then framing them and sashing with pinwheel cornerstones. 

 That is Project #1. These little pinwheels could take me some time so this might be enough for the whole retreat.  If I get done or bored with that one - here's Project #2 of the patriotic ufo's I found. Scrappy Friendship Stars.  I had 6 sewn and about 10 more cut and lots of  scraps of patriotic fabric in the bag.   

I've been cutting, cutting cutting.  :) Paired up with matching colors - I have separated with scraps of paper. 

I think I have enough to make 42 blocks 6 x 7.  They are 9" blocks so with a border or two it should make a good size lap or even a twin size. 

These two will accomplish a couple things, I'm getting ufo's done and I'm using up some scraps and stash. 

Speaking of using up stash. - if all of that wasn't enough to keep me busy at the retreat, and I'm sure it is.  I have cut out some pillow cases. 

Not sure what I'll do with them, but it's using up fabric I don't have another use for.  I may donate them to be sold in the quilt show boutique.

But wait there's more - Guess what else I found, another old UFO.

There are 8 completed blocks - 4 to go. I may or may not put the fancy border on the outside.  It involves quarter square triangles and I'm not sure I want to do them or make the quilt that big. Pattern says it finishes at 60 x 74.  The ribbon border is 4 1/2" so that would take 9" off .  51 x 65.  We'll see.   

So here's the good the bad and the some ugly.  

Good: 

* I now know what I'm going to work on for the retreat in June and possibly in August.

* I'm working towards getting UFO's done instead of starting all new projects. 

* I'm using up some stash an some scraps.

Bad: 

* I'ts creating more tops I'll need to Quilt.  

* I'm still not getting to the new projects I'm itching to start.

Ugly:

**  There's still way too many UFO's, Scraps and Stash left.  :( 

Ha Ha.  

Okay and for my final little part of this post.  Now that things are settling down again - I'm working in some of our low carb recipes again.  This morning I made zucchini fritters with eggs.  Bacon for hubby and a little piece of ham for me. 

For tonight's dinner I think I'll make a Mexican casserole that will be kind of like a Tamale Pie but with cauliflower rice crust instead of corn meal Polenta.  

I'll let you know how it turns out.  

Have a Blessed day.  

Lynn 

Water Time

Hubby and I had a couple of days recently near the water.  He has been fishing a little more, something we did a lot of together in Oregon, but since we've moved here not at much.  I haven't gone with him enough to justify getting my own license but I went one evening, read my book assisted in getting tools and putting the catch on a stringer, and taking pictures of the river and ducks. 

I don't really like to eat fish, it's not something I ever say hey I would like some fish today.  Nope!  But I am being a big girl and so we decided we would BBQ some of the ones we caught.  My Brother in law loves them this way, so was taking pictures for him, if you don't want to see zoom past the next couple of pictures. 

Then a couple of days later Hubby and I took a ride to Lake Havasu City.  It was a beautiful day and I love taking drives. 

It was a great day with my hubby and being in the sunshine. 

Blessings, 

Lynn