TOO HOT !!! . . . AGAIN !!

Tuesday was another crazy day going here, there and back again. No school again due to "extreme heat". As of Tuesday evening it was the sixth day in a row with temperatures in the above 90 degree range. Add to that humidity and no air moving and it was pretty warm.  Any way, no school meant no transportation again.

I've divided my time in the usual manner . . . chores, dinner, dishes, laundry and the sewing machine (when I wasn't on the road playing taxi).

I've worked between two projects the last few days:

Art with Fabric and Growing Up BOM.

Unfortunately, when I ironed the design on to the fabric, I did them all on one color instead of two as instructed. So I'll have to go back and redo half of these.

In the meantime, I have finished the applique on Art with Fabric and will sandwich and quilt Wednesday afternoon. 

As is my usual habit, I do things like dinner prep and laundry when I'm sewing. It's warm enough to dry laundry outside on the line. It's supposed to be our last "hot" day for the next week with a much overdue cold front coming in overnight, hopefully bringing some much needed rain.

While we were out hanging up laundry I found a tomato growing out of my compost bin.

It's too late for it to produce anything.

And the trees are expressing their distress with the lack of rain.

It's autumn, even though the thermometer doesn't show it and the leaves are falling like snowflakes - or raindrops, for those of you not ready for "that" season.

Well, I'm off to do my quilting.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and productivity.

TOO HOT !!!

That's what the local school district said when they decided there would be no school on Monday or Tuesday. Unfortunately, the school district is supposed to provided transportation for kids to other schools, including my son and that didn't happen. I ended up taking him and picking him up. Not impressed, am I !!!

The small part of my day that was available to me was divided between laundry and the sewing machine.

I got some time in for Art with Fabric. A little every day will see a quick finish. This has become a "stash" project since I didn't buy any new fabric to complete it. All the batiks were already in my stash and many were remnants purchased from the local quilt shop on previous visits.

Next up was another deadline, I forgot it. I drew off the pattern pieces and chose the fabrics. I'm hoping to finish the block on Tuesday.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and productivity.

Pam's Quilt and what else have we been up to . . .

I did get to spend some of last weekend working on Pam's quilt.

This is a project I'm doing with my Sunday School kids.

They colored the blocks with permanent markers.

I took scrap fabric to frame each of the blocks and then sashed them with the leftover blue/black from the Lace Cabins. The blocks needed some definition, that's why I chose such a dark print. I like it :)

I had all the rows assembled by Sunday and Monday afternoon I started adding this fun white confetti print for a punch of color between all the dark. 

The quilt is now a top and I have to find some time to sandwich, quilt and bind it. Not sure when I will get to that. But it's in the forefront of my thoughts often.

I have been home very little this past week, so consequently not much is getting done in the sewing room. Rocky and I continue to walk at least once a day. 

This is the end result :)
We are managing almost a mile a day.

Also on Saturday, Honey Do and I spent some quality time in the kitchen.
Yes, there is such a thing :)

Pickles and peppers from our garden :)

The cucumber plant was a stray in the basil plant I purchased. So in essence, these pickles (other than vinegar and seasonings) are free :) God is so good :)

 equals 

I did manage to get another long awaited project done. I put it away to prevent damage and promptly forgot about it. Then I couldn't find a frame. I found one last week, but it was too small. I found a set of two last Friday while Newton and I were out and it fit perfectly. So I just added my little gift card that I received as part of a swap and framed it. I love it.

I worked three days last week, had and appointment, spent a day with Mom and Newton was home from school on Friday. My goal list will have to wait until Saturday when Newton goes camping.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and productivity.

Goal Report for September 4, 2017

Goals for the week of September 4, 2017

1. Pam's Quilt (deadline - due in October)
- sash rows - 50% done

2. Lace Cabins
- label - designed

3. Art with Fabric (deadline - due in October)

4. Wonky Houses DONE
- quilt
- bind

5. Growing Up QAL - no progress, I have the pattern
- assemble block
- post

6. Crazy Quilt Snowman - no progress
- finish stitching

7. - JS Home - I have both patterns, no progress
- assemble Blocks 1 and 2 

Goals for the week of September 11, 2017

1. Pam's Quilt (deadline - due in October)
- sew the rows together
- add borders

DONE

2. Lace Cabins
- stitch label 

3. Art with Fabric (deadline - due in October)
- choose fabrics
- finalize design

4. Growing Up QAL 
- assemble block
- post

5. Crazy Quilt Snowman 
- finish stitching

6. - JS Home - I have both patterns, no progress
- assemble Blocks 1 and 2 

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and productivity.

And the rest of the week . . .

Wednesday started out absolutely gorgeous. Change of plans with BF, so I spent the morning doing other types of running . . .

Joann's - flannel

Abigayle's - FQs/Add A Block

Library - ordering books and downloading patterns

The rest of the week didn't go as planned or expected. I spent Thursday at Mom's helping with curtains and fixtures. They had to be removed for the new windows coming in next week. She just hopes we took everything down that needed to be out of the way.

Friday, I spent the day at work, making dinner and walking Rocky. The evening was again unproductive.

Saturday - up at 7:30 a.m. !! Believe it or not, that's sleeping in :)
After breakfast and cleaning up, I proceeded to make more zucchini bread.

 

This becomes this

and this becomes this . . . 

**

times two :)

I made a total of four loaves again today. The freezer is getting full.

While I was at the library on Wednesday, I found a book dedicated to just zucchini and squashes.

I haven't taken the time to go through it yet. Who would have thought to look for a book on just zucchini. Certainly I didn't.

A friend asked me how I was going to spend my weekend. I hadn't really thought about it. I make a to-do list daily and just go down through it and see what happens. Since I've been gone so much this week and had extra daily distractions with the holiday and both my guys home, I really needed to focus on my goal list.

One thing I don't have to do is make up a project using this for my inspiration. I have been eyeing this at JoAnn's all summer. Unfortunately, it was $29.99. There is no way that was in my budget. It has now hit the clearance table at $14.97 with an additional 25% off for the holiday weekend making it just over $11.00.

I, of course, thought I could make it for much less than that. I went to my local craft store and make my purchases. Not including the frame, my total came to just under $25.00. I quickly changed my mind and stopped on my way home from work on Friday and made my purchase. Unfortunately, I now have to make another trip to the local craft store to make a return :(

I'm off to work on my goal list. 

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and productivity.

Thanks for stopping by.

Goal Report for week of 8/28/17

Goals for the week of August 28, 2017

1. Christmas PJs - bumping to next week, flannel is on sale :)
- purchase fabrics
- sew

2. Shoebox Swap - getting these next week with the trips to Mom and BF :)
- purchase remaining FQs

3. Lace Cabins - DONE
- quilt -  DONE
- bind - DONE

4. Wonky Houses
- pull fabric - DONE
- assemble - DONE

5. Crazy Quilt Snowman - no progress here :(
- finish stitching
- pull fabric
- assemble

6. Jacquelynne Steves BOM 2017 - no progress here :(
- assemble block one

7. Sheep - nope, none here either :(
- sandwich blocks



Goals for the week of September 4, 2017

1. Pam's Quilt (deadline - due in October)
- sash rows 

2. Lace Cabins
- label

3. Art with Fabric (deadline - due in October)

4. Wonky Houses
- quilt
- bind

5. Growing Up QAL
- assemble block
- post

6. Crazy Quilt Snowman
- finish stitching

7. - JS Home
- assemble Blocks 1 and 2

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and productivity.

Mini Stay-cation

Honey Do took some time off that corresponded with our holiday weekend. Here's what we did:

Friday, after Newton left for school, we headed to the West Side Market.

Stalls of fresh fruits and vegetables. 

We got all we needed for at least the next two weeks. We took those back to our truck and headed for the other half of the market - the meats !! We avoided the bakeries, as we are trying to limit our sugar intake, although it would have been lovely with a fresh cup of coffee.
Pork chops, lamb, steak, ground meats and one of Honey Do's favorites - liver. (I know, don't get me started :)

From there, we headed to a "fish" market. Unfortunately, it wasn't as advertised so we went to one of the "super" super markets. It's a "super" super-sized version of the local chain.  There are several in my neighborhood, but because of its size the variety for fish and seafood is much, much larger. Honey Do is the one who really loves fish and seafood. I'm willing to cook it, but wanted him to choose what he wanted to eat.

The afternoon was spent dividing up meat into smaller, meal-size portions and putting them into the freezer. Dinner was BLTs and after cleaning up, I worked on the vegetables . . . cleaning, washing, putting away. I washed tomatoes from the garden and put bananas in the freezer and making pear butter from over-ripe pears; prepping ribs for the grill for Saturday.

Saturday started with another busy morning in the kitchen. After breakfast and cleaning up, I blanched four bunches of broccoli and put them in the freezer. Once that was done, I cleaned up the stems and realized I had enough vegetable scraps to make stock. After a few hours I had almost 15 cups to put up in the freezer. Ribs went on the grill about noon for dinner.

All the food stuff out of the way, I had time to work on the Lace Cabin quilt. I still had a bit of quilting left to do.

 

Then on to the binding. I spent the evening handing sewing the back in place.

AND WE HAVE A FINISH !!!!!

 

The border was quilted diagonally following the design.

I'm absolutely in love with this quilt !!!

Sunday began with a new batch of third graders to add to my second year students for Sunday School. We are beginning the year in the Old Testament with Hannah's prayer and promise to Samuel's birth. 

Once home, Rocky and I went for a walk and then I began working on my Wonky Houses.

I drew up the layout when Jenny of Elelfantz offered the design. I knew I wanted it to be a "Welcome".

I found some letters in my scrapbooking supplies and enlarged them, chose my fabrics and started laying out and assembly.

I debated - for about a minute - machine appliqueing the letters. The thought was vetoed in favor of hand. :)

As a wife and mother, you don't get much time off, but I love having Honey Do home. Cooking is easier because he grills and I do KP.

My morning was spent in the kitchen - there seems to be a recurring theme. French toast from the Challah bread Mom gave me. Leftover servings were put in the freezer for another time.

In the garden, I found more zucchini ready. I want to make more bread and will share with Mom and BF when I see both of them this week.

When I wasn't in the kitchen, I worked on my Wonky Houses. I manged to get all the letters done by bedtime Monday evening.

Tuesday morning was spent working on the back of the project. By noon, I had it sandwiched and pinned and will spend the rest of the day quilting it on the machine and the evening sewing on the binding. 

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.

Thanks for stopping by,

Wishing you a day filled with creativity and productivity.