November OMG - completed!

My Snowman and Silent Night wall hanging was completed last night! This is machine pieced as a sew along with Jacquelynne Steves and then I hand quilted it. Excuse the cat hair - Peanut needed to test the softness for his nap yesterday. 36x36 inches.

Linking up with the November OMG.

 

Hand quilting done.... now to the binding.

With another 2 hour meeting this morning I was able to finish stitching the border on this wall hanging.

I just need to trim it up and make and attach a red binding. It is looking really good for meeting my November OMG goal. Here is a shot of the back where you can see the hand quilting a little bit better.
 

Emily is finishing my Mom's orange salad. She requested homemade chocolate cake for dessert tomorrow so we are on tap to make that next. 

Last night we did make a veggie lo mein recipe that the chef at school made the last block days before break. (both kids are in culinary this semester) It was mostly to demonstrate knife skills and different preps of food. Emily wrote down the recipe as he was cooking it and we tried it last night. A few went back for seconds and it was deemed 'add to rotation' by all of us! It took me about 50 minutes from start to finish making it in the wok. I did let the kids do a little of the cutting.

I added the recipe to my recipe tab at the bottom but here it is if you are looking for something different to try. I forgot to get zucchini and had to try 3 stores to find the bok choi. You really could adjust and modify the veggies as you see fit.

Chef's Lo Mein recipe: (He used this to demonstrate knife skills)

I medium onion - chopped.

2 carrots - cut on the diagonal in slices.

2 green peppers - julienned

2 zucchini - julienned and diced (1/2 and half)

8 -12 ounces of baby bella mushrooms - sliced

1/4 of a cabbage - (chopped like grass)

2-3 leaves of bok choi - dice the white part and chiffionade the green part

1 clove of garlic, minced

fresh ginger - diced (I did a little over a tablespoon)

2 eggs

1 pound spaghetti

Kosher salt

Canola oil

soy sauce

honey

saracha

sesame oil

Prep all veggies first (chef put them all on a baking sheet). I used our wok - on 375 for temp. Medium high heat if using a skillet.

Once heated - add some oil to the pan. Add a pinch of salt with each veggie addition! Add each of the veggies in this order one at a time - Onion, carrot, pepper, zucchini, mushrooms, cabbage, bok choi, then the garlic and ginger until fragrent. Add 2 eggs and toss everything around. Add the cooked spaghetti and separate it. Add soy sauce just until the pasta starts to turn a light brown. Add a little honey (a couple of tablespoons) and mix it. Add a little Saracha (the kids added a few tablespoons before I stopped them from adding more!), toss, then turn off heat and add a little sesame oil.

Slow Stitching progress on Snowmen....

This is the progress shot this morning - 3 of the 4 blocks are hand quilted! 

 I finished off this 3rd block last night. I decided to continue the X in the corners since I did that in all the other blocks... and had no clue what else to do there!

Block 2

The first block that I started on last weekend.

This is the one I will start working on shortly. First - I think I will make a batch of scones for breakfast. Everyone is sleeping in the house but I still wake up a bit after 7AM every day! I am wanting cranberry orange... but have no orange so I think I'll make my yogurt scones and do some with blueberries on top and some with dried cranberries. The recipe I use is in my recipe tab - I got it while up in Vermont from a bakery that used to be in Cabot. They are really yummy... and I happen to have plain yogurt in the fridge today!

I have been working away at my brown hexagons this month. I prepped a slew of them last weekend and will need to prep the last bunch later today. I have 2 in sets of 4 and 4 in sets of 2! These are a nice quick project once they are all prepped and ready to pick up by my recliner or in the car line or at horses with Emily. I have been making one per day this year (only a little behind this month!) in the color of the month going along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I decided November was brown for me and will hit black and grey next month.

After stitching the 'binding' down and doing a quilting stitch about 1/4 to 1/2 in from each edge, I am whip stitching them together. Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

The boys had an early morning yesterday and did a fishing charter out of Crystal River. They were to go out in the gulf but with the cool front going through and high winds, the guy called Friday night and asked if they wanted to reschedule or just stay in the rivers and catch and release. They opted to go and do the rivers. 5 hours on the boat and they had a great time! They were catching fish like crazy and did manage to catch a few to take home. The captain filleted them and put them on ice in the little cooler they took. They are in the fridge now - but might get frozen today for a meal later this week. Not sure what they caught - Greg has the few photo's on his phone but I think they were red grouper?  They saw lots of wildlife - pelicans and tons of birds and even a manatee or two! 

I spent the late afternoon working on the pantry! Emily came in from chicken duty and is very particular on how things should be so she ended up taking over but I was not allowed to leave the kitchen and was organizing things into groups as she took them out and then handed them back over as she decided where to put things. Someone might have dumped Hershey's cocoa powder in there so there was a bit of a mess to clean up - I got the sweeping and mopping duty.  Aidan looked in there last night and said there is nothing in there! Sigh - their 'snacks' for lunches were gone for the week.... so Em might have made a batch of brownies last night for their nighttime snack! Now I know what I have and what I need (heaven forbid there is only ONE can of corn in there.... but 6 chick peas!) Did I mention my girl loves corn? Someone figured baking would happen this month so Sam's size flour, sugar and powdered sugar are at the bottom and out of sight are the big bins where I keep the 'open' ones. I'm guessing about a week before it is all messed up!  

The kids are off school this week as we celebrate Thanksgiving here in the US. I took my 15 pound turkey out of the freezer and put him in the fridge on a platter Friday night. I hope he is not still frozen Thursday morning! Have a great stitching week everyone.

I'm going to try this Cinnamon Apple Cider Bread today too - I have cider in the fridge that is not going down so this might be a good place to use it! 

November OMG progress

I finished quilting the first block and moved onto the second one. Amazing that you can make progress if you put the phone down and stitch instead! I'm hoping to make more progress over the next week with less car time bringing the kids to and from school. They are off all next week for Thanksgiving holiday. 

 

Slow Stitching Sunday

Cooler temps in Florida this morning has me smiling at this snowman! He has not gotten much attention this week but if I can put my phone games down and pick up the needle and thread I should get progress on this guy this week.

Some of the brown hexagons I have been working on this week waiting to get their quilting stitches in them. 

 One down and 6 to go for this batch.

Linking up with the other Slow stitchers over at Kathy's Quilts.

Sunday....

 Well, nothing was accomplished for me yesterday except to bring Em to horses. A splitting headache required a nap all afternoon and I watched movies in bed last night.

Today, I have prepped some brown hexagons for the month of November and pinned 2 quilts for hand quilting. The Endless Diamond quilt and then my OMG for the month of the Snowmen Christmas wall hanging. I think I'll mop the floors and then relax with another movie and some hand quilting on the Snowman quilt. 

I have a feeling I am on the kid pick up today from Grandma's. Calculus and Physics are Greg's 2 classes for this 8 week period and it is quite a bit for him. The kids have not been over for a couple of weeks and for Em it has been 3 weeks since she has gone over for the day. Grandma is down to one Dog - She had to put Buttons, the old dog from her friend, down at the end of October. Scruffy will be happy to have her kids there to play with her today I think. 

I'd better sweep and mop so I can snuggle in and enjoy some hand quilting. Linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers.

Next in the hand quilting lineup...

I just finished adding the borders to this Snowman and Silent Night sew along from Jaquelynne Steves - The Art of Home. Next up will be to find a backing, batting and pin it for hand quilting. Do we think I could actually get this finished by the end of November? Maybe it should be my OMG for November then? As it is fairly small - at 35 or 36 inches (I have not measured it!) I think it is possible. 

First up - carving some pumpkins (because in Florida you can't do it in advance as they will rot too quickly!) and then the afternoon will be watching a few of the girls from the girl scout troop roller skate. I still need to schedule their Mom and Daughter Painting to finish off a badge for the girls. 

Linking up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers (prepping for hand quilting counts right?) and OMG for November when it opens up tomorrow.

Weekend.... will I survive?

That is the question! I will be heading to Camp Wildwood with most of my girl scout troop this weekend. (Friday night -Sunday morning) I will enjoy the shower when I get home around noon on Sunday after 2 days at camp with the girls. We are staying in the house on the property this time but I expect lots of walking around camp all day Saturday.  Highs around 90 and lows around 65 overnight. 

I have been working away at the green hexagons this month. I still have quite a few to stitch up and quilt and begin attaching into their groups of 4. I think I'll do browns next month and black and grey in December to round things out. 

I made a little progress yesterday on the Snowman sew along and have the four blocks framed and the next round started - red/green/red strips. I was attempting to organize and prep and pack for the weekend when I normally get to sew.

The OMG quilt has made progress and is in the hand stitching the binding stage. I had the boy check it for length... he is under it and said 'that should work!'. 

I started stitching it down last night and Peanut had to test it out for snuggle time. He had a good nap so I assume it passed muster!
 

The little bit I got done due to the cat's nap. 

I'll link up on Sunday to the following:

Rainbow Scrap Challenge and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Assuming I survive the weekend with the girls (5 of them age 10-12 in my troop). It is a Figmentopia theme - with trips to 100 acre woods (for archery, fire building and knots), Yellow Brick Road (geocaching and exploring the trails), A party with the Mad hatter (crocket, building a scarecrow, etc) and science with the Magic School Bus and Ms. Frizzle - for bottle rocket fun. Dinner is at Hoggwarts Hall... I can't wait to get my chocolate wand =). 

In the interest of 'clearing out' some quilts.... I am bringing 4 with me for the girls (Em already has some so she does not count!) to choose from for an extra blanket this weekend and then it goes home with them. I chose these from old RSC projects....

Cubes - made with my 16 patches. (Lauren)

Spring Blossoms. (Hailey)

Scrappy Houses (Seems someone is not happy with my choice to have this one leave the house!) (Ireland)

Stashbuster 2020 quilt. (Sofia)

I'll need to pick one more for my girls who is not attending this weekend.

Snowman and Silent Night sew along

 I took some time today and stitched up the last block in this sew along. The finishing instructions come out on Monday. The pattern is currently free until the end of the month if you sign up with Jacquelynne Steves - The Art of Home.

Snowmen and Silent Night Sew Along

Jacquelynne Steves from The Art of Home is having a quick 4 week sew along for a cute wall hanging. I went the easy route this year in hopes of actually starting and completing it - and purchased the 4 snowmen center panels. I also got the labels and the little hearts. There are a bunch of labels so I am actually going to use them for a few quilts! This is the first block. Head on over to her blog and sign up for the sew along and she will e-mail you the patterns.