I was on a roll and remembered a nice stump I had thrown behind the rockwall last fall. It had a nice size planting hole, but the hole went completely trough the stump so all the dirt would fall out. Last week I saw a man on a TV show staple screening on the bottom of a similar stump. A quick look in the shed yielded a nice piece of old screening. A trip to the basement and I found a staple gun. It even had staples in it! Today is just my lucky day. It ended up being about a 10 minute task and is now ready for planting later next month

Still full of energy, I decided to do some more clean up of the flower beds. I spent a total of about 2.5 hours outside working. It was a lovely afternoon, warm and not windy. I feel like I accomplished a lot for a work day.

I have been working on dressing my deck greeters--two wooden crows that I have had for quite a few years. Each year I scour garage sales to find clothing for them. A toddler size 2 is the perfect fit. It is fun to find accessories for them to carry. They are just a whimsical addition to my outdoor decor.

In a few weeks they will take their position at the main entrance to the deck.

Here is a picture of the doomed burning bush. The damage to the lower part of the bush does suggest rabbits; however, there were deer tracks all around, so I am assuming they are the villains.

Chicken Bow Tie Pasta & Rice Soup

I love soup. For an early dinner tonight I made a delicious Chicken Rice & Bow Tie Pasta soup. With a couple of pieces of garlic toast, it was the perfect light meal. It is very easy to make, especially if you have chicken left over from a previous meal.

Chicken Bow Tie Pasta & Rice Soup

2 cans chicken and rice soup
2 soup cans water
2 14 oz cans chicken broth (I used Swanson)
a large handful of bow tie pasta (two handfuls, if you have small hands!)
salt and pepper to taste
good sprinkling of parsley (I used dried)
2 boneless skinless chicken breasts cooked and cut into bite-size pieces
1 TBL Chicken base (or a couple bouillon cubes), optional
-just to add a bit more chicken flavor-(add either before adding salt, taste, and add more salt if needed)

Bring the two cans of chicken broth to a boil. Add the bow tie pasta and simmer about 10 minutes, or until pasta is tender. Add the remaining ingredients. Heat through. Serve.

Quilts in the Garden

I spent about 5 hours outside in the gardens yesterday. It was a warm day and it felt good to be digging in the dirt again. I accomplished quite a bit--raked and cut down dead flowers in 6 of my smaller gardens. The deer damage over the winter is bad this year. They are eating my tulips as they poke through the ground. Last year I planted about 200 more tulips and I was expecting a nice show this spring. Now I will be surprised if even half of them make it. They also ate all of the bark off a large burning bush shrub. It is likely to die now. There really is not much I can do to keep the deer away (short of putting up a high fence around the entire property). I have just learned to live with them. I am throwing in a picture of last year's garden bench with quilted pillows. I tend to use a lot of my extra blocks to make quick pillows to use outside. It is not something you want to spend a lot of time on as they will get ruined. But I like the coziness they add to the garden. Last season I spent a few afternoons lying here with a good book.

Denim--New Quilting Direction

I decided to quilt a simple grid on the plain blocks of the jean quilt. Quilting the stars on the pieced blocks is taking way too much time, so I am changing direction midstream (not something I would recommend doing unless you are totally FED UP and feel sure you made the wrong first choice AND you are keeping the finished piece for yourself, so who really cares?). I am just going to outline quilt in all of the light triangles and call it good. If you look closely, you may be able to see this in the bottom block. This will cut the time down to about 20 minutes per block. I have done 4 blocks already this morning. I am much happier with the quilting pace now--I am just not willing to spend over 100 hours quilting this one.

Unproductive Week

I have not accomplished very much this week. The log cabin is still awaiting its binding. I have been doing a bit of quilting on the denim quilt. Quilting the stars on the denim is quite a chore and I am not enjoying it nearly as much as I did the log cabin. Perhaps it is time to take a quilting break and get out into the gardens. It is supposed to be about 65 degrees tomorrow, so I am planning my first day of raking pine needles and cutting down dead flowers. I have not been outside in the fresh air since about October, so it will be a welcome change.

Live to Work or Work to Live

I just returned from a mini vacation (two nights away). Today it was back to the old grind of getting up and going to work. I am feeling like I want a bit more free time & I was trying to remember when I have had more than one week off work. It was 16 years ago next month - when I got married. Life is passing by so quickly & I am spending too much time working--that is my conclusion.

The Last Stitch

8:45 a.m. I called to my husband to bring the camera. He snapped this picture, thus recording my last quilting stitch in the log cabin.

All quilted

My Website

I have a gardening website that I started a couple of years ago on tripod. This morning I had an email from Tania requesting more info so she could create a similar arrangement on her deck. I was totally flattered that someone wanted to imitate my planting. I am always on the lookout for inspirational gardening websites with pictures. It is hard to find sites that show the garden as a whole--I want to see the layout of the borders--not closeup pics of individual flowers. If you know of any, please let me in on the secret.

Bitten by the Bug

The gardening bug has bitten and I am looking through last years pictures to remember what will be coming up soon. Here is my sad looking rock garden today

This is what it will be in about 6 weeks if the deer do not eat all of the tulips before they bloom.

Log Cabin Progress

I just spent the past 1.5 hours on the log cabin quilt and I am down to only one and a half more blocks to quilt! I will probably finish the quilting tomorrow. Now that the gardening season is almost here, I need to get the whole quilt finished so I can move on to outside activities. I have really enjoyed the hand quilting on this one and am almost sad to see it coming to an end. Because I quilted along each seam, I did not have to do any marking. I still use the old pencil-marking method and it is not one of my favorite parts of quilting. Does any one else still use a pencil? Most of you probably machine quilt. I have attempted machine quilting, but, alas, I have NO talent in that art.

I am planning to make a few matching pillows for the log cabin. I may try an envelope style with a fringed border for one of them. So many projects, so little time!

I need to go wash my new Amazon purchases and get them put away. I was reading the instruction booklet for the KitchenAid and I guess I need to do some beater adjustment before I can use it. I need to go find a screwdriver for that. Do any of you have a KitcenAid and, if so, do you like it? Please tell me yes, as I have just spent a decent wad of cash on this baby, and I really want to like it!

The Gardens Awaken

Spring comes late in Northern Michigan. We have had a few days of warmish (high 40's) weather this week and the majority of our snow has finally melted. Today was the first day I was able to get out and take a walk around my gardens. If we do not get more snow, I should be able to get out in about a week and start the spring clean up. Because I have so many gardens, spring clean up is a MAJOR task for me--hours and hours of cutting down the remnants of last year's flowers. From late spring through fall, I spend almost all of my free time in the garden. It is my true passion. It is hard to believe that the mess you see here today

Already contains all the sleeping beauties you see in this picture from last year!

It is so exciting to come home from work and find a UPS delivery. Last week I ordered a new KitchenAid mixer and 2 pans from Amazon. About a month ago my little hand mixer died. I spent a few weeks debating whether to order the Professional Viking (which I really wanted, but it is very expensive) or this smaller KitchenAid. I decided that spending $400 to whip up a .99 cent cake mix was foolish, so I got this one instead. Compared to the little hand mixer, this is a Cadillac! I haven't tried it out yet. The cookware is Calphalon, which I like. This is my 4th piece and the 5th should arrive tomorrow. All in all, they are two nice pieces to come home to.

Blogger Breakdown

As I surf through the blogs today, I noticed we are all complaining about the Blogger breakdown yesterday. Yes, I was frustrated, but we need to remember that this is a FREE service and I, for one, am very grateful that it is provided for us.

And I wonder why I am not losing weight? This was dinner tonight--leftover lemon cream cheese pie topped with lemon curd. (DH was not home so I did not cook). I really wanted to eat two pieces, but came in here and blogged instead. Hmmmmmm, I might have something here--The Blogging Diet--whenever you get the urge to overeat, you must post to your blog instead.

Some Blogs I Read

I wish I knew how to add links to other blogs on my sidebar. If anyone can explain how to do this, I would be forever indebted. Maybe for now I can just put a link or two in my post. Like so many others, I have become totally addicted to reading blogs—I can’t even tell you how many I put in my favorites (dozens). I am always clicking on other’s links to find new ones. I get up very early (4:45am) and I check out blogs before I leave for work at about 6:15 a.m. It is amazing that I have never met any of these people, yet I feel like I am visiting a friend when I enter their cyber homes. I hope I do not need to ask permission before I post a site (I am not too sure of blog etiquette). I am assuming that if the blog is public, they are happy to have more visitors. If I mention your blog and you are not happy, please let me know and I will remove it.

One of my daily visits is Brit’s blog, Running Stitch.
http://www.terrapintextiles.blogspot.com/
Everything I know about Brit, I have gleaned from her blog. She is an energetic mom to “Mr. Moo” (her adorable baby boy) & wife to “The Man”, she quilts, she runs, she always has some project in the works (I do believe she and “The Man” are renovating their home). My take on Brit is that she is very fun-loving, creative, has a good sense of humor, and is a dedicated mom & wife. Her blog is a good read with a lot of pictures and she posts almost daily.

http://www.sallad.net/blog/
On Feb. 25, Dallas posted a pic of a very nice denim tote bag that she made. I loved it and took a moment to post a comment – I believe it was the first blog comment I ever made. I had just finished my denim quilt and her pic inspired a use for my left over squares. (I have not made it yet, but am still planning to). She is just learning to quilt and drives a very neat blue 1971 VW bus. She also posts frequently with pictures.

Cheating Doesn't Pay

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. We went to my inlaws for brunch and had a very nice time. Everyone in DH's family enjoys cooking, so it is always fun to sample the new dishes. I made a lemon cream cheese pie, a new recipe for me from an old issue of Taste of Home magazine. I embellished it a bit by adding a topping of lemon curd, and it was quite tasty. I wish I had taken a pic of it to post for you. I do not consider myself a good pie crust maker, so I tried to "cheat" by using one of those rolled pie crusts in the refrigerator section. You just open the package and roll it into your own pie plate. It unrolled very easily (no tears). I put two into the oven (crusts were blind baked for this pie). Ten minutes later I opened the oven door and much to my surprise, the edges of both crusts had fallen down right on top of the bottom crust. (I did take a pic of this, but I am not posting from my home computer so can't show it). There I was with two FLAT pie crusts. I ended up having to make my own after all, which turned out O.K. (I could have used a bit more crust on the edges to cover the shrinkage).

I did not do much quilting this weekend--just one block on the log cabin. I am down to only 3 more blocks to quilt and then I have to make the binding. I am considering a multi-fabric binding using many of the fabrics in the quilt. Of course joining the different fabrics would result in a lot of seams, so I may have to rethink this. Do you all make your own binding? I have to admit that in the past, I have mostly purchased quilt binding. The colors are very limiting though, so I will probably make it this time. For those of you who make your own, do you cut it on the bias?

I made these French Country curtain valances for my kitchen. At least they seem "french country" to me. (Butterick #3323). Have you noticed there are so many interesting valance option these days? I keep buying patterns (whenever JoAnne's has their .99 sale, I stock up). I am planning to make new living room valances as soon as I find the right fabric.

Since the calendar says spring is here, I thought it was time to replace my winter quilt. This pattern is "Jacobs Ladder". I made it a few years ago.

Selfish Quilter?

Yesterday Miya asked me if I always make large quilts. The answer is yes and the reason why has me wondering if I am different than most other quilters. I make them king-size because that is the size bed I have and I make quilts only for myself. In most of the blogs I read the quilters are making them to give as gifts to everyone from family members to co-workers. So I am trying to evaluate why I never give them away. I have determined that I don't really know anyone who truly appreciates quilts. No one in my family quilts and neither of my sisters seem to have any great desire to own a quilt. Even a relatively "easy" quilt takes many, many hours to make. Take the log cabin I am working on now--I started hand quilting it in November and will have over 100 hours into JUST the quilting. I have no idea how many hours I spent machine-piecing those 1.5" logs--I just know I have dedicated a significant portion of the time I have left on this earth to that quilt! It is certainly no blue ribbon award winning piece of art--it is just a simple quilt. Still, if I were giving it as a gift it certainly would have to be to someone VERY near and dear to me. Call me selfish, but if a person does not know a log cabin from an Ohio star, then my conclusion is that a Martha Stewart Kmart Quilt would have the same meaning to them. Am I the only person who feels this way?

Scrap Buster is finished! That is, the piecing is done. I just finished putting the prairie points on. Now I need to sandwich her all together, roll her up and let her await her place in the quilting line up. You don't see the pinwheels here because they are behind the pillows (just in case your wondering if I removed them). I am off to cook dinner now and then I plan to settle into a nice relaxing evening of blog hopping.

Boy, oh, boy, do I need a LOT of these little triangles! I keep running out of the color fabric I need (see, Brit, I have the same problem with scrap quilts--never having quite enough of the fabric I want). For those who have never heard of prairie points, that is what these little triangles are. They are very easy to do--just cut a square and fold and press a few times. I like to sew mine into a long chain before putting on to the quilt. When I get it finished I will post a pic.

While searching for some fabric to finish making the prairie points for Scrap Buster, I found 2 of these blocks. I vaguely remember making them years ago. I can't remember why I made them (a pillow?). They are 18" -- much larger than I would make for a quilt. I much prefer blocks that are less than 10" and I like them to make an all over pattern when joined. On the other hand, I don't like waste and since these are already made, there must be SOMETHING I can do with them...maybe it could become the center for a medallion type quilt???????? Ah, the old brain is chugging along now...LOL...another quilt is the last thing I need to start right now!

Scrap Buster

I added my final borders to the Scrap Buster (which I have decided to name this one in honor of using up most of my remaining scraps). The pinwheel blocks I originally rejected have found their home in the quilt after all.

I quilted 8 blocks on the log cabin this weekend...only 5 more to go! As you can see I am heavily quilting this one --not more than an inch anyplace without quilting. I spent a very relaxing Saturday watching taped episodes of Simply Quilts and Rebecca's Garden while I quilted. So relaxing, in fact, that when my eyes got heavy, I took the quilt out of the hoop, layed on the sofa, wrapped it around me and took a little nap.

Decorating Your Entrance Door

This site is having some sort of contest for having a welcoming entrance door. Readers have sent in photos and they have them nicely arranged by season. Worth a glance if you enjoy decorating your entrance area.

Easter Table Setting

Full Table View

Vintage Hydrangea Tablecloth

Can you believe it is almost Easter? I thought I would post a pic of an Easter table setting. One of my hobbies is collecting dishes and this table is set with old pyrex dishes and Capri glassware (the blue). The vintage tablecloth is probably from the 50's. It is one of my favorites (I have just a handful of these old tablecloths--maybe 4 or 5). The centerpiece is just a bowl full of artificial flowers and Easter eggs. You can't see the eggs very well, but they are real eggs that I have decoupaged. I did the eggs years ago and they have held up well. Many of them have quilting motifs.

Need some Quilting Inspiration?

http://www.amishcountrylanes.com/IEversion.shtml?Patchwork1&google
Wow! These quilts are just stunning. There are about 200 in this gallery with 6 or 7 pictures of each quilt beginning with a view of the quilt on the bed right up to a close up of the quilting. This is a site that sells quilts, but if you just browse, I guarantee the creative juices will begin to flow. I am almost embarrassed to post the pics of my quilts after viewing these.

Forget the Template Help Plea

Well, when in doubt, just change templates. That brought my archives, etc. back to the top. I still need to know whey the profile has all zeroes????????????????

Profile User Stats

Newbie Blogger Question #2: Why are the user stats on my profile all zeroes?
I sure hope someone out there knows the answers to these questions. It has been driving me nearly crazy trying to figure it out!

Template Help Please

How did my archives, etc. move way down to the bottom? Does anyone know how I can get them back up to the top section?

This blogging can be very complicated!

Last Border is Finished

The fourth border is on. I am beginning to like this quilt--and to think I was going to abandon the entire project just a few days ago. I just keep adding things as I think of them. I have decided to finish it with prairie points. I have always wanted to finish a quilt with them, but have never done so. I did make a shower curtain last year with p. points and I like it.

Oatmeal Cookies

I made Paula Dean's Loaded Oatmeal Cookies today. They were very good. If you are a butter lover like I am, you will especially love the browned butter icing. I think they are called "loaded" because they have more spices than the normal oatmeal cookie--cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, allspice, ground cloves. I did not have any ginger, so I just left it out. You can find the recipe on the Food TV website

http://foodtv.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,1977,FOOD_9936_25193,00.html
They also have ratings from many people who tried the recipe. It has a 5-star rating.




Paula's Loaded Oatmeal Cookies Recipe courtesy Paula Deen

1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, softened
1/2 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 cups packed light brown sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
2 1/2 cups quick-cooking oatmeal
1 cup raisins
1 1/2 cups chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
Brown Butter Icing, recipe follows

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Grease 1 or more cookie sheets. Using an electric mixer, cream together butter, shortening, and sugar in a bowl until fluffy. Add eggs and beat until mixture is light in color. Add buttermilk. Sift together flour, baking soda, salt, baking powder, ginger, nutmeg, cinnamon, cloves, and allspice; stir into creamed mixture. Fold in oatmeal, raisins, walnuts, and vanilla, blending well. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto cookie sheet. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes. Drizzle with Brown Butter Icing.


Brown Butter Icing:
1/2 cup butter
3 cups sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 to 4 tablespoons water
In a small saucepan heat the butter over medium heat until golden brown, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat; stir in 3 cups sifted powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla. Stir in enough water (3 to 4 tablespoons) to make an icing of drizzling consistency. Drizzle on warm cookies.

Yield: enough to ice 5 dozen cookies
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Ease of preparation: Easy

Decision on the Double Nine

This is what I ultimately decided to do. I put the bottom border on three sides today. I still need to make 11 more blocks for the top border. I wish I had NOT put the single nine-patch in the corner of the second border. I considered taking it all apart and removing it, but decided life is too short to worry about such a trivial thing!

As promised here are some pictures of the double nine patch and some of the border ideas I tried.

Google Fight

http://www.googlefight.com/

If you are a bit bored, here is a place to waste of few minutes of time. You pit two words against each other (example: male/female). Google gives results of how many times each word is in their data base. For the record, "male" is the winner with 89,300,000 to "female"'s 79,200,000.

Progress (or lack of) Report

I have not worked on the log cabin in a week, so I am still at 17 blocks left to quilt. The denim quilt has been sitting neatly folded awaiting its turn in the quilting lineup. Last week I started another quilt. Having many leftover 1-1/2” strips from the log cabin, I decided to use them to make a double nine-patch. I pieced 22 blocks and began playing with the setting possibilities. Nothing really excited me. A number of the blocks were not quite square, which was very frustrating. I decided not to waste any more time and abandon the project. The next day, I exercised my female right and I changed my mind. I added a blank block between each double nine, I added two borders, I made some pieced 1”inch strips for another 5” border, I made a few pinwheel blocks (just to see if I wanted to put a border of pinwheels—current thought is “no” as the blocks are too big). I am still not sure what I am going to do, but I think I will keep adding borders until it ends up as my normal king-size covering. I will post pictures when I get time to take some.

My goal in making these scrap quilts was to use up my stash. I was heading in the right direction until this past weekend when I went to JoAnne’s “40% off already on clearance fabric” sale. For over an hour and a half I drifted through the marked down aisles in a daze, grabbing bolt after bolt of formerly $5.99 - $7.99/yard fabric, now going for a mere $1.20 - $1.80/yard. I bought a number of 2 or 3 yard parcels, ending up with about 31 yards of new stash. I bought nothing that was destined for any particular project…just stuff I would have-- if I ever needed it. So once again I am overloaded with stash. Ah, life is good.

Vocabulary Test

I like to take vocabulary tests and just found a new one at http://www.okcupid.com/tests/take?testid=14457200288064322170 . I scored "advanced", but did not do as well as I would have liked on the "expert" questions. I believe it was 54%. At the end of the test it gives you your score on beginner to advanced questions. (I was 86% beginner, 93% intermediate and 93% advanced). Odd that I scored less on beginner than on advanced! It was fun--a nice break from my quilting-- and I will probably go back to try again later. I MUST IMPROVE on that 54%!

Speaking of quilting, I have only 17 more blocks to hand quilt on my log cabin! The end is within sight now.

Wickedly Perfect

They voted Darlene off on Wickedly Perfect tonight. I am momentarily stunned. I was hoping she would be the winner. Does anyone else watch this show?

Model Homes

For those of you who like to peer into other people's homes, this link is for you. Beautiful model homes to inspire your decorating efforts--one could spend hours just surfing through them. I save any that are truly inspirational to me. . .

New Work Week

Why do weekends go by so fast? I did not work on either quilt this weekend. Instead I played around piecing small nine patch blocks (just 3 1/4" finished size). I am probably going to make a double nine-patch with these tiny blocks at some point. I quickly estimated needing over 400 of them. I guess right now I am wanting to piece and not quilt. I hope I get back in the hand quilting mode this week. I am getting so close to finishing the log cabin.
I did make a pretty good vegetable/beef/lentil soup which we will have for dinner tonight. I went shopping and got some incredible bargains (75%) on sweaters. I bought 5 of them. Saturday night I went to a casino. It was an all around good weekend and I hated to see it end.

Quilt Art

I thought I would try using quilt blocks as wall art, so I made log cabin blocks and framed them. I have not yet put them on the wall, but I am contemplating making a gallery wall of quilts down my hallway. I may work a bit more on that this weekend.

Another log cabin wall hanging

Music on blogs

Is it just me or do you all not like music on a blog? I hate it when I am just surfing through new blogs, hoping to find a good read and music starts blaring out at me the moment I enter. The first thing I do is hit the X!

Reading Difficulty

Do you find the white text on this black template difficult to read? Please post a comment to let me know.

Quilting Star Close Up

Here is a close up of the quilting I decided to do on each pieced block. Except for a few tips of the star points, there are no seams to quilt through.

Backing & Batting Completed

I have added the backing (muslin) and batting to my jeans quilt. I used quilting pins rather than basting as I have found this to be so much easier and I have not had any problems with puckers on the back side. I just could not bring myself to tie any part of the quilt (I just don't like those ties sticking out all over). I decided to hand quilt a simple star in each corner and center of the pieced blocks. In the plain blocks I will quilt a large star in the same shape as the pieced blocks. Eager to see how difficult this would be, I marked one block and began...............while I wouldn't say it is easy, it is doable, but not something I will do for long periods of time. My fingers are a tad sore and I have only quilted 3 small stars. It will be a long slow process, but I am in no hurry.

Did you notice the crocheted afghan on the chair? My Mom made it for me several years ago. I just noticed yesterday that it is in the same Ohio Star design.

Domestic Diva

I have a confession--a sort of deep dark secret--I enjoy cleaning. Ah, having admitted this I feel so purged, so clean, so refreshed...I have spent the last two days in a cleaning frenzy. I know not many people will believe this, but at 4:30 a.m. I was cleaning under the kitchen sink. Yes, I removed every bottle of cleanser, took a bucket of water and Pine Sol and happily removed every trace of dust, and built up gunk that so readily accumulates under the kitchen sink. I wiped down the tops of each bottle and then put them all back in neat tidy rows. Finishing this project only left me wanting more--I glanced around looking for more dirt to conquer. Ahhhhhh, those air vents on the wall--I noticed a bit of dust in them last week. A trip down to the basement yielded the proper screwdriver and within minutes I had it off the wall and into a sinkful of soapy water. A few scrubs into the vents with a toothbrush and it was sparkling clean. I felt so good! I did two more. Then I looked into the living room and my eyes landed on the bare wood molding around the entrance door. We had a new door installed and had not yet painted the molding. Let me be more precise. The door was installed in April of 2003. Yes, nearly TWO YEARS ago. Off to the basement I went. I found some Kilz and a 2" paintbrush. In less than 20 minutes I had it primed. A 20-minute task and it had gone undone for nearly two years! I was feeling so darn good, I remained in a state of domestic bliss all morning--cleaning kitchen cupboards, vacuuming, putting ice cubes on carpet indentations from the furniture I moved yesterday. Ah, life is good. By the way do you all know about the ice cube trick? If something heavy has left indentations in your carpet, just put ice cubes on it. By the time the cubes melt the carpet nap will be normal. Really. It works. I do it all the time.

Oh, and just for the record...I enjoy cleaning only when I don't have to go to work. (remember, I have taken the rest of this week off from my paying job). It takes me back to when I was a stay-at-home wife and mother and my house was always clean because that was where I spent the majority of my time and all of my energy. I can guarantee you that when I go back to work next week, my domestic talents will greatly diminish!

Finished Denim Quilt Top

I decided just to use the Ohio Star blocks around the bottom (sans the checkered denim squares as I ran out of the fabric). After spending so many hours on this the last two days, I am just happy to be done with it! It is now neatly folded and on top of my "to do" pile awaiting the batting and backing . I have decided to use batting because the lumpy seams need some padding and a quilt just isn't a quilt without that middle layer. I may go out today to find some backing fabric--and then again, it may sit there for months. I am only mildly enthused about this one.

Vacation

I am taking the next 4 days off work and spent all morning working on the jean quilt. I found some checked denim fabric in my stash and decided it would be perfect as alternate blocks. I centered the 4 black jean blocks and I will probably use 4 more to anchor each end when I decide how to finish it. I know I need a 12 inch border, but not sure what. I am thinking about hand quilting the unpieced blocks (someone slap me aside the head! I must be insane to even consider hand quilting denim). I will have to spend some time thining about it. I am not fond of tied quilts, so I thought if I quilted the checkered blocks and tied the pieced ones it might be a good compromise. Anyone have any ideas for the border?

16 Blocks Done

I am amazed at how fast these blocks go together by chain piecing all the star points. I have 16 done as of 6:30 a.m. I think I need 81 for a king-size quilt. I probably won't have enough jeans.

Quilting Mess

At the moment this is where I am cutting out my pieces--right on the family room floor. I am sure it is not very good for the back and it sure does make a mess. I really should take the time to set up a cutting area on a table.

Blue Jean Quilt

For a long time I have been saving old jeans thinking I might one day make a jean quilt. This week I decided to start. With no plan, I just began cutting jeans into squares (I just happened to have a plastic template in a 5-1/2"size, so that is what I used). Once I had a stack of squares, I thought, now what will I do with these?I did not want to do all squares (just too boring), so I decided on this Ohio star. It is a simple design and the 5-1/2" squares were perfect for the triangle portion (just had to slice them diagonally). When I got home from work at 3 p.m. today, I made a quick cardboard template for the 4.5inch squares that I needed for the light colors and cut out just enough to make these four blocks to see if I liked it. I am happy to say that I do--much more than I thought I would. So now I will make many more - I have not yet decided if I will make a king-size quilt (I was considering a much smaller Christmas tree skirt which would look nice with the denim stocking ornaments I made in December). At first I wasn't too keen on a denim cover for my bed, but right now I am liking this design, so who knows what I will end up doing (maybe both)! I will keep you posted as I progress. . . Looks like the log cabin quilt will take a bit longer now that I have started another project!

Chicken Collection

I like chickens. I have been collecting them for years. The past few years I have been into less clutter and have tried to break the collecting addiction, but, as you see, I have had limited success. I have pared down and have tried to arrange them into tasteful vingettes scattered around my kitchen. I have kept only those that are dear to my heart--which amounted to about 95% of them :) .

Picassa

I am using the new Picassa program that Google recently released (free!) for these pictures collages. This program takes all of your photos from anyplace on your hard drive and puts them all in one place. I love it! Have you ever tried to find a picture, but can't remember where you saved it? This will end all those hassles. It is also super convenient for posting pics to your blog. Here is what it says on the Picassa site:

Picasa is software that makes it easy and fun to view, organize, edit and share the digital photos on your PC. Picasa won't delete your pictures or put them online without your permission.
The download itself contains only the Picasa 2 software. Picasa will not uninstall other programs or add any non-Picasa programs or files to your computer.

They have a page of system requirements which you may want to check to see if it will work on your system.

So far, I have very pleased with it.

Collage of Table Settings

One of the things I enjoy is setting dinner tables with all of these dishes. I like to mix and match different designs. I really don't entertain that often--I just set a lot of tables!

Dinnerware Collection

One of my passions is collecting dinnerware. I have been taking pictures and logging them into the computer. I thought it would be a good idea for insurance purposes. It is quite a bit of work to photograph them all and count how many of each plate, etc. This is a collage of about half of the sets.

Webshots Quilts

If you enjoy looking at other people's quilts for inspiration, check out Webshots, a searchable photo album site that has thousands of pages of the most awe-inspiring quilts. I can spend hours just surfing and drooling.
If you have read some of my earlier posts, you know that I do make quilts--rather, I make a quilt now and then. I piece by machine and hand quilt. It takes months to hand quilt a king-size piece. The quilt I am doing now was pieced in 1999--the blocks sat all neatly ironed and stacked for nearly 4 years before I was inspired to sew the top together and quilt it. It will take 100 hours (one hour per block to hand quilt). I started in November and I still have about 35 blocks to go. I don't even know how many hours it took to piece those 1-inch logs.
When I look into some of the personal photo albums from Webshots, I just cannot believe the number of quilts these ladies (and ocassionally men) produce in one year. It just boggles my mind!

Thank you, Mel!

Someone found me! Thank you Mel in the UK for the comment. I would love to know how you came across my blog, so if you wander in again, please let me know. I spent some time today looking for garden blogs. Did a google search and found a couple. There is just not much garden action this time of the year. I like to see pictures of other people's gardens--long shots, not close up flower pics. I want to see how they have integrated their gardens into the overall landscape. If anyone has found a good site , please let me know. If I ever get time, I will attempt to figure out enough html to get a sidebar with links to the blogs I visit. What is the proper netiquette for doing this? Do you ask the author's permission or just post it?

Your never too old to learn

Tonight I have a computer class (Excel)at my local community college. The class is three hours long on Tue. and Thurs. nights. I get home from work, make a quick dinner (left over Chicken Florentine from below), a quick clean up and off I go. I am in bed within half an hour of getting home. It makes for a long day. I am glad this is only a 6-week adventure.

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

I am enjoying just staying inside this cold, snowy weekend. Weather like this always inspires me to cook and bake. Dinner tonight will be stuffed chicken breasts (stuffed with cream cheese, spinach and ham). I made extra so we will have them again later in the work week. While I enjoy cooking on the weekends, I do NOT like to come home from work and cook dinner, so I always try to make extra on the weekends so that I only have to reheat on at least two of the five work days.

Fabric Covered Wastebasket

I also made a matching wastebasket by covering a ho-hum one with the same fabric as the shower curtain. It is a fun, easy project. The fabric is attached by slathering on a decoupage glue (I used Mod Podge) and wrapping the fabric around the container. Once all the fabric and embellishments are on, put a nice layer of the glue over top and let it dry. Apply two or three more layers of the glue. This gives a nice water resistant finish. I found it easiest to put a glob of glue in my glove-protected hand and just rub in on.

Prairie Points

For those who do not know what prairie points are, here is a picture of a shower curtain I made using them. They are the triangle thingies on the edge of the shower curtain.

Log Cabin Quilt Progress

I have been steadily working on my hand quilting since November. So far I have 60 blocks completed and have 40 blocks around the edge to finish (only 40 more hours and the quilting will be done). I was contemplating finishing with prairie points, but after trying it out on the bed today, decided that the length is perfect as is. The prairie points would make it too long. So now I just have to decide on the binding color.

Winter Doldrums

I am so tired of SNOW. We are getting 5 - 6 inches today. It has been bitter cold all week. I am spending my Saturday inside cooking, cleaning, quilting and counting the days until I can enjoy my flowers again.

Flowered Filled Deck

This is the same space a few months ago.

Missing my garden