2010 Completed UFO #1

Caleb's Quilt -

Our family has known his dad Tom since he was 10 years old. My kids grew up with Tommy showing animals at the county fair. Now he and John are both Fair Board Directors.

And I pretty sure Tom would be happy if I would stop calling him Tommy. But some habits die hard!

I'm not crazy about this "design". As a matter of fact I really don't like the look at all, but my daughter bought me the fire truck fabric at my request. So I decided to use it.

Tom was a Jr Firefighter as soon as they let him at the local fire station. Now he is a full time Firefighter in a larger neighboring community while still volunteering at his local station.

So, the fabric was not an option.




I have decided that my baby quilts will all be give with a book. I'm sure this will spread to all children's quilts. Really is there anything better than curling up with a book under a nice quilt?

I have help again. Really she just wants me to throw the ball. It's ALL about the ball!

An extra 2.5 inch strip and it's ready for delivery. Done!

Panini - fancy word for Adult Grilled Cheese

HOW TO:

Heat your griddle and a bacon press. OK, the press is not needed, but the if you like these sandwiches, that $8 bacon press is a really cheap Panini press. I've had mine for years, and I was a little off on the price.

You can order a simple Lodge press from Wal-Mart for $16.


These sandwiches are pretty much up to your taste. We like ham or turkey, cheese, spinach, tomatos, and avacado - spread a little ranch dressing on one side of the bread - and butter the outside of the sandwich.

No avacado in the house today - we just made due, but its not the same.

Place the sandwiches on the HOT griddle and press.

When you start with a hot griddle, it does not take long. They will burn quickly.

Flip, press again and ENJOY.

Dinner is scheduled for 1:30pm

Yesterday I had the day off with John. We did some of those routine things together. With him working nights we don't get much "together time", so we went grocery shopping - Ughhhh.

Ok we need to work on this I know it......

I need to be quite but we need something for supper at 1:30. Lets start with potatos.

Don't worry about getting them cut up the same size - just hack at them, but I'm making them small - I only have 4 hours!

Soup's cooking! Chicken stock, potatoes, onions and spice - in the crock-pot. Done.

A little clean up needed, but this isn't to bad.

That's my little red french press, I couldn't do anything in the morning without it first.

After 3 hours on high, the red onions are a thing of the past. The boat motor will make quick work of those chunks.

(Note: if you leave this cook for 4 - 5 hours on high the soup will taste more like baked potato soup-this crock-pot will even brown some of the splatters on the side so I know when to stop)

A few more steps - 8 oz of cream cheese (life is better with CHEESE!)

Add this to the pot and cook for 15-20 min longer to melt.

This is just shy of 1/3 a 12 oz package of bacon.

And I did NOT get the remainder back into the freezer in time. John grabbed it for tomorrows breakfast. He is usually off on Sunday, and that is his day to have a nice breakfast. It usually involves eggs, toast and some type of meat - bacon is his favorite! It will be split between the 3 of us. Or rather, I will get 2 pieces. And the guy will split the rest.

Now I have help in the kitchen, its not a little space but I just want to finish! And John does NOT understand taking photos while cooking a meal.

He is off to the shower. I have 10 min to get this done. Chop and crisp. (we need something else) check out the panini's in the next post. I made it, but didn't get all the pics I wanted.

The result: A Success!! - Now off to chop on some fabric, I'm going to play.

Crock-Pot Potato Soup
• 2.5 lbs peeled & cubed red potatos
• 1/2 small onion (diced)
• 2 cloves garlic (minced)
• 1/2 t seasoning salt
• pinch cayenne pepper
• 1 qt chicken stock
• 8 oz cream cheese
• Garnish (crispy bacon and/or green onions)

Place all item in crock-pot except cream cheese and garnish - cook on high for 3-5 hours. (a longer cook time in my HOT crock-pot will give a roast flavor, but I have to watch that it does not burn)

Smooth soup with emersion blender, cut cream cheese into blocks and add to soup. Cook 15-25 min longer to melt.

Stir and Serve with garnish as desired.

Blocks for Scrappy Quilt Border

They look pretty wonky pinned to the curtain, but my back is killing me and I am NOT going to try to set even these few on the floor!

I'm done for the night, can't take anything for the pain-I'm on call this week. So I am going to add wood to the stove, get a drink and watch the olympics.

Winter in IL

It's winter in Illinois
And the gentle breezes blow
Seventy miles an hour
At twenty-five below.

Oh, how I love Illinois
When the snow's up to your butt
You take a breath of winter
And your nose gets frozen shut.

Yes, the weather here is wonderful
So I guess I'll hang around
I could never leave Illinois
'Cause I'm frozen to the ground!'

Another Day Off

More crawling on the floor. Baby quilts are much easier but fighting the dogs for the floor is always a interesting!

First lets trim up the batting. What a waste, all I have in the house is a package for a queen size quilt. I can get 2 small quilts from this, then I will have to piece the scraps.



Next I am going to pin this. The kids and their dogs will be comming Friday for the weekend, so NO batting can show - Addy loves to pull apart batting!



I don't think I'm going to get a design wall in IL, so I have been making do. Here is a piece of muslin with my latest blocks.

Somethings not right! Funny how I looked at this completed block for over 3 hours and never noticed the error. Pin it to the wall and take a picture, NOW all I see is the error. More unsewing....



Don't beleive if for a minute! When I sit down she will be right there with that ball for more play.

Heidi's Quilt

I don't know that I have EVER been so indecisive about a quilt! THREE attempts but I think I'm sticking with this one. This is a quilt for a friend at work. She is having her first child, and I wanted to make something babyish but everytime I picked out colors that went together nothing seemed to work - I just could not do it.

First there was the false start - dont know what else to call it. A few disappearing nine-patch. I love the fabic and colors. It just does not say baby. see....


Then there was Scrappy Baby Blocks. Without the dark blocks the quilt was muddy, there is no other word for it. With the darker scraps - blahhhhh And I'm fairly sure those borders are NOT going to quilt out.


I will finish this, but unless someone loves it - I think I will try to find a home for it as a charity quilt. I want to try machine quilting, and I have been looking for something to practice on. This looks as good as any, well except for the fact that I may have to fix the yellow border. Now where to start? I guess I will be looking on the web for Machine Quilting for Dummys or something similar.

Then I found a double star quilt online. I didn't like the boarder and the construction instructions were lets say "different". But I like the simple double star block design. And as a bonus, I will finished it as 16inches per block. Six blocks would be find as baby quilt. Back to the stash and now I'm looking for some bright colors. It may be a baby quilt but I'm not in the mood for pastels.

How do you like the orange! But somethings still missing.



Some sashing, because I can't let it be.

A few teddy bears because I'm feeling like its still not babyish...

Now should I add more to lighten up the orange I love? hummmm