Saturday Simmering and Help! I need opinions

Hello, all!  I am still around.  It has been kind of a rough week and I did ZERO sewing.  This morning I have been cleaning in my sewing rooms.  Yes, I said rooms.  I have enough fabric in the dresser, totes and closet of a second room along with my ironing board I have to claim it, too.  God help me.

First off I have to say a BIG thank you! to my blog buddy, Stephanie, over at My Imperfect Life.  She read in my blog about my BIL wanting a Marine quilt.  She went off to her local quilt shop and found the exact fabric I wanted and is mailing it to me.  How sweet is that?

Okay, now for the opinion part.  Last week I posted a picture of the quilt I was working on for my niece for graduation.  I have since tried other layouts.  Big mistake. Now I don't know what to do!

This is the original plan

 Pretty busy, huh?

Okay, I laid it back out and kept them all the same direction.  Problem is they aren't all exactly the same blocks.

 This seems to be well liked by my sister and SIL but my sister says that may be their age.  They are 40.

I tried another version of rotating them but only 90° every other block.

My final version rotates every other row 180°.  I can live with it.

So, are you dizzy yet?  The recipient loves orange and hot pink.  All blocks will be sashed with the same width white strips you see in the blocks.  They sew out to 1 1/4" to get the dimensions in the blocks to work.

Give my your honest opinion, PLEASE!

I did play with fabric some this week.

I have all of these now.

And am at a loss what do do with them.  I have never used a charm pack for anything.  You will note I have two each of Ruby and Twirl.  I also have a yard of coordinating fabric for each of those.

One final picture.  This is Audrey, one of the ladies at retreat.  She worked on her One Block Wonder Cube quilt.  She was the sweetest person.  She asked me to thread her needle once.  I didn't tell her I couldn't see the darn thing either!

Isn't her quilt amazing?

What do you have simmering today?

Keep stitchin'!

Mary

Monday's Makings: Taco Pizza

I did not forget about posting recipes.  Last week I was traveling.  I had a plan for this week but I forgot to take pictures.  So, I took some tonight.

Tonight we were having leftover tacos.  I use the components up by making a deep dish pizza.

It really is good.  For a while we did not have this because my walking, talking appetites - also known as my sons - did not make for leftovers.  AND this pan was not big enough to feed all of them (it is a 12" skillet).    But now they have grown and only come home to clean up my leftovers on the weekends.

Back to the recipe.  I make a cornmeal crust that is basically polenta

1 cup water
1 cup milk
1 tsp salt
1 cup cornmeal

1/4 cup Parmesan with 1 whole egg, beaten

Preheat oven to 400°F.  Prepare the pan by lightly oiling and sprinkling with cornmeal.

Bring the liquids and salt to a boil.  Gradually stir in the cornmeal.   Remove from heat and mix until a smooth stiff dough is formed.  Add the Parmesan and egg at this point.

Place the mixture in the pan/skillet.  Oil your hands and use them to shape edges (I did not do this tonight.  More on that later!).  It should look something like this.

Bake for 20 minutes.  It will still look about the same when it comes out but won't be sticky anymore.

Add toppings and bake 25 more minutes.  For toppings I spread the leftover refried beans.  Top that with the meat.  I then layer on some salsa and maybe green chilies.  I add a little cheese and then put the vegetables.  Tonight I put green peppers, onions, olives and the leftover tomatoes. I top it with more cheese.

You can refrigerate it at this point.  I used to make it up as I cleaned up the kitchen.  Then I had a quick meal for the next night.

Bake for about 25 minutes.  Serve with sour cream and more salsa or hot sauce if you like.

We really like it.  It is also handy because the kids or the husband can pop it in the oven to cook and it will be ready when you walk in if it is a busy night.  Hope you enjoy it!

Mary

Retreat Report and Near Misses with the Witch

Hello, all.  I returned from Retreat last Monday.  I had fun but I was tired. I came home and had to go to my BOM meeting that night.  Then I worked 12 hr days the next three days.  Since then I have tried to catch up here at home and in my sewing room.

At our retreat we met several lovely ladies.  We also did a mystery quilt.  I am not sure I will ever do that again.  To top it all off, I had a migraine on Friday and was taking too many meds to be sewing.  I screwed up so many times!  I have not spent as much time "unsewing" in all of my 40+ years of sewing put together as I did that day.  I finally finished at 1:30 a.m. Saturday morning.

I am reasonably pleased with it.  But I have to confess this is the repaired version.  AFTER I got the borders on I found another mistake.  Here is the picture I took at the retreat.

Look on the far right side at the middle star and the plain block below.  I have the red pieces backward on BOTH of them.  I was so frustrated I was just going to leave it.  No one else saw it until I pointed it out.  I bring it home and lay it on the floor.  My husband zeroed right in on it.  So, I took both pieces out and turned them around.  Can't even tell.  Thank You, Lord.

I am a cheap skate so I picked my own fabrics from my stash.  So did some of the other ladies.  Some did buy the kits but I only have pictures of one.  Here are some of the others.

This is my aunts.  She cut her fabric the night before we left and I got up and finished it while she showered the morning we left for the retreat.  I don't like yellow but it turned out fantastic.  Very much HER.

This is Ann.  She also made hers from her stash.  She worried the entire time but it turned out fantastic.

This is Claudia.  She and her twin sister, Linda, both bought the same kit.  I didn't like any of the pictures of the fabrics for the kits but they all looked great in the end.


The other thing I did is work on my stacked coins quilt I am calling Making Change. At some point I either cut wrong or changed my seam allowance.  As a result I ended up squaring them all to 16 1/4" instead of 16 1/2".  I think they will work fine.  I am out of the white fabric.  My sister is getting me more tomorrow.  This is where I am so far.

I am not totally happy with it because I did not consider matching the three way split white bars with the vertical bars between the stack.  I think I will like it better when it is sashed with the white strips.  I bought orange batik to back it and hot pink to bind it.  She loves brights.  So, hopefully this will make her happy.

I also bought so much fabric while I was gone my luggage was at the weight limit.  We visited three shops in Austin, one in Kingsland and went to Stitchin' Heaven three times.  I was much better than some of the other women.  Some of them spent $1000!

Now for the near miss with the witch.  I am the witch.  I just about broke out my broom Friday night.  My son is a distance runner for a college.  His entire team was on their cool down (this is a phenomenon non-runners can't grasp.  You run more at a slower pace to "cool" your muscles).  They were near a high school they had been using the track at.  They were in the cross walk.  They had the right of way.  A car slowed and then sped up and hit two of them.  One of whom was my son.  Mama ain't happy!  I can handle an accident but the little twit never even stopped after both of them bounced off the hood of her car.  I wanted to break out the broom and fly down there to give her an attitude adjustment.

The odd thing is all three of my boys have been hit by a car while at college.  The older two were on bicycles.  Number 1 was at fault.  He was on the sidewalk.  The driver stopped and was very shaken and concerned even though #1 assured him it was NOT his fault.  Number 2 was hit by a driver that blew thru a stop sign and he never stopped either.  I think my kids are some sort of magnets for idiot drivers.  God pity one that actually hurts one of my babies.  I can't promise I won't break out my broom!

Right now I am praying that there were lessons learned by all.

I have a lot more pictures from retreat I will try to post later.  My BIL asked me yesterday to make him a Marine quilt.  A lady at retreat had the best Marine fabric.  Unfortunately, it is sold out everywhere I find it on line!  So, that is what I am stewing about.

Off to make ham balls to send back to school with #3.

Just found that Sarah over at Confessions of a Fabric Addict still has her linking party open.  So, I am linking up.  Thanks Sarah!  Whoop Whoop!   Amy Lou Who still has hers open, too.  So, though I am late this week I am grateful to link up with these ladies and I am pretty sure Richard is still open.

Keep Stitchin"!

Mary

Monday's Makings: Mint Torte

Years ago  due to a variety of circumstances I did in home, direct sales parties.  It was a great job for me because I got to talk and cook at the same time - two activities most people would tell you I excel at!  As a result of this I collected a lot of recipes.  Most of them are made using too many convenience foods for my taste.  I am a "from scratch" kind of cook MOST times.  My variation of this recipe is one of my exceptions.

Since it is warming up around here and feeling like spring I wanted something suitable for warmer weather.  This is like a creamy cheesecake.  We have it in the winter, also.  But we eat chili in August.

15 Oreos, finely chopped (wally world's knock offs work great)
3   tablespoons melted butter or margarine
2/3 cup of melted semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 to 1 teaspoon of peppermint extract stirred into melted chocolate chips*
2  8 oz packages of cream cheese, softened
1/2 cup powdered sugar
1/4 cup milk
1 8 oz container frozen whipped topping, thawed

* In place of extract and chips you can use mint chocolate chips if you can find them.  I have used Andes chips but my kids like it better with the extract.

Finely chop cookies and combine with melted butter.  Press crumb mixture into the bottom of a spring form pan (if you don't have one use a deep pie dish but line it with parchment or wax paper first).  Refrigerate while prepping filling.

Place chocolate pieces in microwave for 1 1/2 minutes stirring every 30 seconds until smooth.  Stir in mint extract.  Cool slightly.

Beat cream cheese and powdered sugar until cream and smooth.  Gradually beat in milk and melted chocolate mixing until smooth.

Save back 1/2 cup of the whipped topping.  Gently fold the remainder into the chocolate mixture until smooth.  Spread evenly over crust.  Refrigerate at least 30 minutes. 

Use a cake decorator and pipe the remaining topping around the edge of the torte.  To be really fancy you can grate some chocolate on top if you want.

This is a really quick desert IF you have the ingredients on hand.

Hope you enjoyed it.

Check in later and I should have something up for design wall Monday. I am trying to pack for retreat.  We will see how it goes.

Mary

Sock Monkeys and Rags for FIUF, March 9 UPDATE: Better photos

Hello, all!  I truly have a Friday finish. I was up in my sewing room at 0430 this morning working on my finish.

I did not have the week I wanted.  See my previous post for what my plans were and what sent me down in the dumps.  I was due back to work this morning at 0700 and I work all weekend.  I leave for Texas Tuesday morning. I really wanted the Sock Monkey quilt done before then.  I put it on the quilting machine yesterday afternoon. 

I tried something new for my free motion quilting.  I had read to draw large FMQ lines and quilt back and forth over the lines so that you never sew yourself into a corner.  It took some practice to get the lines right - I was drawing them too close.  But it worked.  The part that has me madder than a wet hen is that my water soluble marker keeps coming back!

Can you see the blue lines on the white?  I am sorry for the quality of the pics and I may replace them.  I wanted them before I left this morning and rushed.  I won't be home before the sun goes down.  This may be as good as they get for a few days.

Anyway, the quilt is now in the washer.  I have warned my husband not to but it in the drier.  I am hopeful he will remember to hang it up for me when he gets home.

Here is the entire quilt.

Better photo:

The pattern called for using the same fabric as the border for the binding but I thought it needed something more.  That is the same reason I fussy cut the monkeys for the cornerstones.  I backed it was some prewashed tan flannel. 

I had some thread samples from Superior Threads that I used.  They had sent me a red bobbin with Bottom Line in it that worked great for this after some tension adjustments. It is a very fine thread.

I used a variegated thread that they had sent (and the brand escapes me!) for the top.  I love variegated threads.  Must be 70s flashbacks.

I did this for a girl at work but used a pattern from a BOM project.  So, have to take it to my BOM meeting on the 19th and then I will give it to her.  I hope she likes it!

UPDATE:  The trup through the washer took the marker out.  It is a comfortable quilt.  I hope the baby drags it to pieces!

I took a picture of the strip rag quilt I made my MIL one day this week. 

It looks very bright is that picture.

This is a little more like it.

I don't know what I was thinking when I bought those fabrics but my MIL loves them.  So, maybe I was thinking of her.  At any rate, it consumed 9 1/2 yards of my stash!  Woo Hoo!

I am linking up with Amanda Jean, AmyLouWhoSews, Richard and the Fabric Addict today.  Hop on over to their blogs and see what is going on with everyone else.

A big Whoop Whoop for the new grandbaby that the Fabric Addict is anticipating.

Thanks for looking!

Keep Stitchin'!

Mary

There is a plan & Farewell Mollie

Getting off work in 45 minutes.  It will be my "weekend".  I have a plan.  Let's see how it goes.

Goals for today:

Get groceries - #3 is home on spring break.  He informed me he is FINALLY within his recommended weight range.  At 6'2" and running 80 miles a week, he requires a LOT of food to maintain that weight.   Btw, he thinks he is only 6' 1".  So, he weighs all of 152 lbs.

Speaking of weight, I just have to interject here.  In yesterday's mail I received an invitation to join Weight Watchers for free.  That wasn't so bad.  I did do WW many years ago with a friend.  I wanted to lose 10 lbs but I was within my "ideal" weight range.  Still am.  It was the second piece of mail that got me.  It was addressed to me personally with the correct address.  It was an offer for a seminar about bariatric surgery.

I said to #3, "My mirror and my scale must be big liars because I didn't think I was anywhere needing this."  My husband told me to write, "I am NOT fat!" on the flier and mail it back.  I should show up.  They sent me the invitation, afterall.

Okay, next on my list.  Quilt the sock monkey quilt.  If I don't get the binding on before I go to Texas, that sucker is going with me.

Cut the fabric for my mystery quilt at the retreat.   I seriously wonder what I was thinking signing up for this but I am going to give it a try.  Stepping outside of my box.

Cut the fabric for the stacked coins quilt.  I think I am looking forward to this.  I hope it looks as good as I imagine.  I bought bright orange variegated and bright pink variegated threads to quilt it with.  My niece loves orange and pink.

The final thing on my list really sucks.  Bury the dog.  Today we are having our beloved collie, Mollie, put down.  She is fourteen and it is time.  I am afraid if we don't someone will run over her.  Yesterday she got down in my MIL's drive and couldn't stand up.  #3 went and helped her up but I just can't risk it.  Have to be responsible.  That sucks!  It was so much easier when we were setting a good example for our kids.  But they are now grown.  I understand why people go crazy in middle age now.

There is always a little humor in our life.  After EK helped Mollie up yesterday she started doing her, "I'm not dead!" act.  I have warned her she may break a hip doing this but she tries.  Hubby was going to go dig the hole to bury her yesterday. I told him he didn't have to and that EK and I could do it today.  He grunted like he was Tool Time Tim and told me in his best cave man voice, "Digging holes is MAN work."  I pointed out that EK is 21 and now a man.  He let him help.

After he got out the backhoe to dig the hole, I hollered out and asked, "Are you burying the dog or ME?"  He said, "Both!"  When he came in he told me that digging a hole was man's work but filling it back in is woman's work.  It is amazing this man has reached the ripe old age of 48 married to me and talking like that.  He is gonna want to watch his back if he is giving me the shovel around a predug hole.  Just sayin'....

I also hope to start sewing on my crazy quilt jacket.   Better do that before the vet comes tonight because I will be a mess after that.  I am doing the right thing but I will miss her like crazy.

RIP Mollie....you were a good dog.  After helping me raise three boys and four other pups, you have earned a rest.

Design Wall Monday: Crazy Quilt Jacket

I am still working nights.  Yesterday when I got up I managed to do a little cutting.  Today I did some placement.

Here is the story.

I have observed on a couple of different occasions a crazy quilt type jacket in pastels at The Stitching Post in Washington, Indiana.  As the years have passed I have found more interest in using my decorative stitches on the various machines and love this idea for that.  I made up my mind I would make one to wear when I fly to the quilting retreat.... next week!

I have hundreds of patterns and was sure I would find one that would work.  I did but it was not for the size I am now!  That is fine.  I have enlarged and reduced patterns for years.  I wanted to use poly batting for it so that it didn't distort with washing.  When I went to Rilleda's to get the fabric I need to finish various UFOs she showed me a beautiful poly batting from Quilter's Dream that felt like cotton.  I loved it. 

She also showed me the new Fig Trees collection, California Girls.  I will be honest that I generally am not a fan of this designer.  This time she has added a blue to her collection and that makes all the difference for me.  I was going to link to the collection but you can see it all in a picture below.  I bought a layer cake.

Today I finished cutting the batting and forced myself to randomly cut the fabric.  That is nearly impossible for me.  It offends my CDO. 

I began to put the fabric on the batting.  I was using a spray adhesive.  I discovered that I can't pick it back up off the batting very easily and that is good because it keeps me from rearranging for "perfect".

Here is how I started.

I found myself lining the straight edges up parallel/perpendicular with the pattern edges.  I made myself start working all over the piece.

This is how it ended.

I think I like it.  The color in the picture isn't completely true.  The peaches seem very orangy.

Once again, my design is on my floor.  I have to do the rest of the pieces and start sewing.  I am seriously doubting I will get it done before Texas but I am going to try.

Going to link up with Patchwork Times for her Design Wall Monday.

Hop on over there and see what everyone is doing.  It will inspire you!

Keep Stitchin'!

Mary