Ready for Fall

 I finished my Quilty Stitches cross stitch sampler. Thank you to Little Miss Shabby for the free pattern. Here is the link http://www.littlemissshabby.com/quilty-stitches/ I am so pleased with how this came out! I am going to frame it and put it in my sewing room. I am going to get some framing advice from one of my coworkers. Now I can move on to some other hand work projects like wool felt appliqué and quilting with perle cotton.

I know it is nearly fall because look what I found at the grocery store last night! I buy both issues every year and savor reading them.

Since our weather has been very mild here at the end of summer it is making me want to transition into fall now. Quilting, cooking, and working also help me get into the fall mode. This is one of my favorite fall/winter recipes and I always have everything on hand for it. This was a Pampered Chef recipe from years ago that I altered and made it my own. I made it this weekend and my whole family enjoyed it!

Baked Potato Chowder

Ingredients:

• 6-8 baking potatoes
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 cups of milk
• 4 ounces cream cheese chunked
• salt
• pepper
• grated cheese of your choice for topping
• cooked bacon bits or diced sausage for topping
• chopped green onion for topping

Wash and bake your potatoes as you usually would. I usually do 1 hour in a 400 degree oven. Remove and allow to cool enough to handle. Scrape the potatoes out of their skin (it is ok to leave a little skin on and sometimes I save the skins for later in the week and make baked potato skins) and into a soup pot on low heat. Add butter and mash slightly. Stir in milk, cream cheese, salt, and pepper. Heat for about 10 minutes on low heat until warmed through and cream cheese has melted. Serve with desired toppings--bacon bits, cooked & diced sausage, and chopped green onion. It is also great left over!

Have a great week!

August Over!

 August is at its end and our weather has been cooler than usual with more clouds, good sewing and reading weather. Last year, I made a perpetual calendar using:

and I finally came up with an easy way to hang it up in one of my classrooms. Now, I am thinking I should make another set for my classroom at one of my other schools. I think the clothes pins will be easy to deal with changing it.

I  am nearly ready to start on my last block for Quilty Stitches. I spent a couple of hours this morning stitching on it while I waited for my teenager to wake up so I could get in my sewing room. She needs her sleep because she is battling a cold which I know I am catching. Yuck! I am starting to sneeze and sniffle. Got to love sharing germs...Speaking of sharing, check out what everyone is up to for Slow Sunday Stitching here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

I am also making very simple quilt blocks using Angry Birds fabric for a nine year old boy's quilt. I should be able to get that top done despite my congestion plus with tomorrow off. Stay tuned!

Back to School/Sewing

I have a finish! This is exceptional since I worked all week and feel like a zombie. I added the final borders yesterday, made the label, pinned it, machine quilted it, and bound it. I pieced this quilt in late July and early August because I wanted to make orange peels like I was seeing all over blog land. I thought it would make a good baby quilt, but really did not have a specific recipient in mind...

I attended a charity board meeting on Monday night and saw one of my fellow board members. She is expecting a baby girl in October. I asked her about the nursery and she said she had lots of natural wood, a throw rug in bright colors, and she had painted little orange accents throughout the room (Her house is also a 100+ year old Victorian). I immediately thought of my Rainbow Orange Peel flimsy.

Initially, I had bought this fabric, Soire'e by Lula Tueller of Moda, for the backing. It was a flat fold for $5 a yard, I will use it for something else eventually. Instead I decided to embrace her orange and  to use an orange with white pin dots I had bought in June from Connecting Threads for $2.50 a yard. I only had two and a half yards, so I added this blue print from my stash and was able to use every bit of the orange with white pin dot for the binding. Between the orange pin dot fabric and Wonder Under I bought to make the orange peels, I only spent $15 on this quilt. Everything else was from my scrap bins and stash.

I just quilted around the orange peels using my walking foot on my Pfaff. I considered echo stitching again on the inside, but I decided there was enough quilting.

 I made a quick label and machine bound it. I also added a hanging sleeve in case she decides to hang it. I washed it this morning and just took these pictures out in my pasture. It measures 44 x 52 inches, so it is a decent size. I plan on giving it to her at our next meeting on September 8th. She is pretty eclectic, so I think she will love the scrappiness of it! I entered it in this quilt-a-long over at Quilty Habit, so be sure and check out the others here
http://quiltyhabit.blogspot.com/2014/08/orange-peel-qal-final-linky-party.html

 I also managed to get some slow stitching in this week after work. My oatmeal sashing on my Quilty Stitches is coming along and setting off the cross stitched blocks. The pattern for the last block came out on Monday, but I have not started on it yet. It is Sunday, so I will keep working on this for Slow Sunday Stitching be sure to get inspired with what others are working on here http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca

My fat quarter bundle of Miss Kate from Bonnie and Camille of Moda arrived in the mail yesterday! I ordered it at the beginning of June with some birthday money.

Recently I have been collecting Bonnie and Camille fabric without knowing what I will make with it. I just know I have to have it! I hope to keep making some progress on my quilting while getting back into the groove of work...

10 Quilty Little Secrets

Ok so this is going around in blog land and they are kind of funny. 

Here are my 10 Quilty Little Secrets:

1. I love to use steam when I iron! The more steam and heat the better. I mean I want enough steam in my face that it brings my blackheads to the surface and  I never iron clothes only fabric.

2. I do not like to appliqué and refer to it as the "A word."

3. I have never even tried Aurifil thread. It is too expensive for my budget. I am a huge fan of thread from Connecting Threads and buy it even from them when it is on sale. (I am frugal!)

4. I never ever prewash fabrics even red.

5. I cannot stand paper piecing! I always mess them up.

6.  The only hand quilting I do is big, primitive stitches with perle cotton.

7. I never read through all the directions on a pattern first--this is a big, horrible confession because I am teacher and always tell my students to read all the directions first. Don't tell on me!

8. I have never been on Facebook because of privacy issues, but I guess many of my baby quilts are on there. I make baby quilts for pretty much any pregnant employee at all of my three schools and they are compared and shared on Facebook! One of my coworkers showed me yesterday.

9. I hate to use my mom's long arm, but I feel guilty when she quilts for me.

10.  I have to use reading glasses to thread my needles on my sewing machine and for handwork (this only started at the beginning of summer and I hate it!).

I believe this idea started here http://www.13spools.com It was fun to read some others including http://shaunas-world.blogspot.com/2014/08/my-10-little-quilty-secrets.html

Think about it and share yours!

FNSI & Week in Review

 I reported to work on Wednesday for back to school meetings and school starts tomorrow. When I first go back to work after the whole summer off, I come home very exhausted and struggle to get dinner on the table. I decided to prepare a double meal of one of my hubby's favorites-- zucchini pie. We have tons of zucchini from our garden, so I am always on the lookout for recipes that include them. A few years ago I found a recipe for zucchini pie in Taste of Home Simple & Delicious, I modified it...

Zucchini Pie

Ingredients:

• 1 tube of crescent rolls (I use reduced fat, generic)
• cooking spray
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 onion chopped
• 2 cups zucchini chopped
• 2 to 3 tablespoons of basil (fresh or dried) 
• 2 tablespoons of Dijon mustard
• 1 cup chopped ham
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 cup mozzarella cheese
• 3/4 cup cheddar/Monterey jack cheese

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Saute chopped onion, zucchini, and basil in olive oil. 

2. While veggies cook, spray pie pan with cooking spray. Place crescent rolls in the pie pan and spread over the bottom and up the sides. It is ok if they are thin. Drizzle Dijon mustard on top of the crescent roll crust.

3. When zucchini and onions are tender, stir in ham, and turn off heat. In a mixing bowl, hand beat the eggs.  Stir in veggies and cheese. Mix well. Pour into crescent roll crust. Bake for 30 minutes. 

4. Let rest for 5 minutes and serve. You can also serve it cold like a quiche. It is also very easy to double the recipe!

Try it, you will love it and leave out the ham for any vegetarians you may have!

I did manage to participate in Friday Night Sew In (FNSI), but all I really could work on was my Quilty Stitches sampler. Check out what everyone else is up to here http://sugarlanequilts.blogspot.com/2014/08/fnsi-sign-ups-for-friday-night-sew-in.html

Saturday was our daughter's 16th birthday, so I did not have that much time to sew... I plan on working some more on this tonight for Slow Sunday Stitching http://www.kathysquilts.blogspot.ca

 I have been participating in a BOM quilt along for this Country Homecoming quilt.

I managed to piece the top this week. I am going to use wool felt for the border stars, berries, and vine and embroider some details on the houses. I have until mid-September to have the top completed, so I better get busy!

I also cut and pieced this Lucky Stars quilt. My sister had a pack of Heather Bailey's Up Parasol fat quarters sent to me. She wants a quilt for one of her friends. There were 15 fat quarters and 3 of them were solids, so I hit my LQS and bought some additional fat quarters. I used a slate Kona to set the stars and I am going to find a gray for the backing. I took this picture on our garden's fence because it is tall to keep the deer out and can display big quilts.

My dogs and my neighbor's chickens cannot figure out what I am doing when I am outside taking pictures. My dogs watch me and the chickens get boisterous. 

My days of being a taxi driver should be over tomorrow because my daughter is taking her driving test. It should increase my sewing time!!! Have a great week!

Last Week of Summer

 My summer is coming to an end, so I was running around with appointments all week. I also took my daughter and two friends to Denver for back to school shopping and to celebrate her 16th birthday. Needless to say, I did not have a very productive week quilting. I did manage to complete all the available blocks for Little Miss Shabby's "Quilty Stitches" http://www.littlemissshabby.com/quilty-stitches/

 I started sewing the sashing today. I decided to go with an oatmeal color instead of the white. I think it will highlight the blocks a little better. Hopefully, I can get the sashing done before the final block pattern comes out. I am linking with http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com for Slow Sunday Stitching today.

I did manage to read this book on my Kindle this week. I really enjoyed it and its' ending. I go back to work bright and early on Wednesday...My summer has been so lovely, I wish it was not over yet!

Quilting Interrupted

I was pretty productive this week. I put my orange peels together. I plan on adding a 1 inch border of white, so I do not lose any points when I add the binding. I am planning on echo quilting the orange peels into the white a few times.

 My mom arrived back in town early in the week, so we got together to sew on Thursday and I started on this Lori Holt pattern. I am using navy Kona instead of white and I used a layer cake of Bonnie and Camille's Marmalade.

 I did add in a couple of other fabrics from their Scrumptious and Happy Go Lucky lines because there were a couple of repeats. The blocks are all done and I just need to play with the layout. We also sewed together on Friday with Lindsey.

Saturday, I made some flying geese for my Love Blooms Here BOM I have been working on all year.

I am continuing to make progress on my Quilty Stitches. I think a new block comes out tomorrow which is good timing because I am catching up! I plan on working on this for Slow Stitching Sunday today. Check out what everyone else is working on here http://kathysquilts.blogspot.com

I also got this on my iPad yesterday from the library which interrupted my quilting plans...I read half of it yesterday and will probably read the rest today, but it is on my iPad which means I can't sit outside and read too much glare. I am just thrilled to have a book that I can't stop reading!