A little sewing...

Well, I did make it into the sewing room a bit over the last two days and have all 96 of the blue blocks completed for the boy's quilt. This is a picture of 80 of the blocks laid out on the floor.

There will be two more rows on the bottom and that should make the quilt about 48x72 without borders. It is a toss up right now as to what the borders will be. I know there will be an Aidan at the bottom but I may do the alphabet around the other 3 sides or just go with a plain border..... ???

I also spent a lot of yesterday working on cutting these little fans for my midget block for the week. This one is very time consuming but I think it will be pretty. Hopefully I can get it all together for Tuesday. I just need to figure out how to keep the tops down to applique them..... must invest in some glue to help me I think.

If I get some time in the sewing room today I plan to cut out some more of the Sow along blocks and some things for the Birds in the Air blocks for next week. I also need to do a fix on the graduation quilt and then get that pressed and rolled for pinning. I hope to get that pinned off tomorrow night after work and dinner. Then hopefully a week from Wednesday I can get that quilted and the binding put on.
Not much of a neutral Saturday but there is some neutrals in there. Go on over to SoScrappy and see what others have been working on for the Rainbow scrap challenge of 2012.

Feeling blue....

Not really but I was working on some blue blocks last weekend after cutting up a bunch of blue 2.5 inch squares so I could finish these blocks. I needed one of the stars and twelve of the nine patches. That gave me 40 each of the stars and nine patch blocks. Here is a shot of 80 6.5 inch blocks.

I think that will give me an 8x10 setting... but I had some notes of making 8 more of each block.... so I guess I was thinking I needed it longer and two more rows would do the trick. I need to do some math and see how many more blue squares I need to cut..... I believe I have that many hst's left still so it will clear out all the remaining leftovers from my parents anniversary quilt! I just love using up existing pieces that are just sitting around waiting to be invited to join a quilt. Don't you?

On the other front....time to clear out the fridge. When you don't feel well and don't cook for 3-4 days.... sometimes you need to poke around and see what needs using up. I talked the kids into eating some apples for a snack this morning... they were getting soft. A bunch of oranges will probably be squeezed into some juice and used with some honey to make some orange chicken for dinner tonight. The kids won't eat oranges... but will drink orange juice and eat this chicken. The two cukes..... one was made into a dill salad for lunch and the kids each had 3 or 4 spoonfuls! It is a quick salad I found years ago from the Taste of Home Magazine. I never use the recipe anymore and just do it by taste. A big spoonful of mayo, some vinegar - maybe 2-3 teaspoons, some sugar - 1 tablespoon or so, some salt to taste and then some dill weed. I use a good sprinkle - maybe 1-2 teaspoons. Stir this together with a whisk. Then add some cucumbers that have been sliced. I usually use one European cuke or a couple of regular ones from the garden. Put in the fridge for a bit before eating... although I never get around to it and it tends to get eaten all up before I can chill them.

#36 - 4-H Club

#36 is called 4-H Club. There were a bunch of extra lines in the paper piecing on this one to help line up the block.I decided to eliminate them and think it came out pretty good. Still on track with doing one a week this year at 4 months in.


I doubt I'll be in the sewing room much this week. I've been sick in bed for the last two days and am finally able to sit up today. Thank goodness for my Mother in law who came and took the kids to her house Monday afternoon and kept them overnight and returned them last night after dinner and baths... in time for bed and after Daddy got home from work. The goal today is to do a little laundry and try not to overdo anything while keeping an eye on the kids. Wish me luck.

Scrappy Saturday in neutrals...

Here are my two scrappy pinwheel blocks for the neutral month.

I think all but one of the fabrics would qualify as 'neutral' with one being a brown. Now that project is crossed off the list for the month. That leaves the Birds in the Air blocks for next week. I'm still thinking on those....

I also got one of my Quilt Square Along blocks done.

This one was pretty quick although I ended up with some colors together that I had not planned on when I laid them out late one evening this week. Oh well, it is put together and once the whole quilt is done it will not be that noticeable. I could easily see this block doubled in size for a 24 inch block and then make six of them for a nice sized throw.

That leaves the boy's quilt. No progress on this yet. I need to grab the stack of blue fabrics and cut a bunch more of the 2.5 inch squares so that I can finish the friendship stars and make the other 9 patches. I think I needed 9 of the stars and 8 of the nine patch blocks but I'd have to go check my notes and probably lay out the quilt again and do some calculations. I have a feeling I will be making a bunch of letters to go around this quilt as we are working on letter recognition now so it will be a little learning tool.
I'm linking up on Saturday with SoScrappy's blog for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge of 2012. Go on over and see what everyone else has been working on.

Sow Along 4-6

I was able to cut another 3 blocks and get them sewn up in little bits of time here and there over the last couple of days. These are the second set of three blocks which can be found here at Randy's blog.
They are Autumn Tints, Box and Calico Puzzle. They were really easy to piece and Randy's directions were wonderful.

I would have shown all six together but the upload is not working for me right now. Maybe with the next batch.


I was also able to finish the hand quilting on one of the quilt square along blocks (March) and have started on the second one that I have ready to go from February. I hope to get this month's block cut out today and maybe a little bit of sewing done on it. Since I am planning to do the remaining three on the pattern.... I am going to start with the easiest one today so I'll have it ready for hand quilting this weekend. I'm finding that if I have it hanging around in the living room I can get a lot done on it while watching the kids a bit during the day. One length of thread worked on here and there.... and you get a done project very quickly. I am starting to feel more comfortable with the hand quilting (I am too lazy to mark anything so it is all done free hand) and think once I get caught up on these blocks I'll pull out the fireworks quilt from last year's July rainbow challenge and work on getting that quilted. Here is a picture of the fireworks top from last year.

#35 - Butterfly Midget Block

#35 is called Butterfly. I took a note from Angela over at SoScrappy and decided to eliminate a few of the paper piecing lines. They had three lines of the red middle part and yet...it was the same fabric. I just did it as one piece and then put the backgrounds around it. It went together very quickly and came out pretty cute.

Ham leftovers....

First.... I was all set to pin the graduation quilt last night and found a little hole it in. I will have to take it off the boards and fix that somehow today... better to find it now than when quilting it. Somehow a seam was a little less than it should have been. Instead... I pulled out the March block from the Quilt Square along and only have a few more stitches of hand quilting before I put this one aside until I put the quilt together next year sometime. I really like having something to grab that I can work on in the little minutes of 'free' time I get with the kids. Not too bad for 2 days work. I had stopped at my local quilt shop on Friday to pick up some hand quilting thread that would match better than the one I used for the January block ...but they had closed at 4 and it was 4:10. Bummer. I looked in my sewing room on Saturday and found the thread I just got from Connecting Threads and I think it works great with this quilt. I fear that my hand quilting will always be without a hoop or thimble =(. It just feels easier for me to control.

So, what do you do with all the ham leftovers from Easter? I had a 7.78 pound ham for 4 adults and 2 kids....so there is a lot left over. I got out the Seal a Meal and made two pouches of ham to go into the freezer for later use. Please remind me to go in there and find this ham in about two or three weeks!
The rest will be split up into these three recipes that I'll make today.

The first.... French Lentil Soup. I got the original recipe here from the Costco Connection magazine on-line. I used to have a Costco membership up in Vermont and loved this magazine. They usually have some good recipes and the month and page I am referencing is Crock Pot recipes. I admit... I've only made this one and I love it. I modified it today by putting the ham bone with ham surrounding it into the crock pot to cook. about 2 cups of chicken broth I had leftover in the fridge and water for the rest of the liquids. The Herbs de Provence I picked up for a recipe from Melissa De Arabian over at the Food network with skillet zucchini and onion. Another yummy recipe. Anyway..... I have made this soup multiple times... sometimes I use just Thyme and other times I use the Herbs de Provence. Either way it is a very yummy soup. The kids will even eat it! Got to love that. Emily was playing in her room while Aidan and I put this together. I cut and chopped, he measured and added and stirred. So nice to have little helpers around (when there is not time limit to getting things done!)


The second recipe is a new one to me and I'm going to modify it. Dinner tonight will be some soup and then a ham and veggie pasta that was in my e-mail this morning. I think it was from Betty Crocker. It is a warm dish with penne pasta, ham, veggies - (I have a summer squash, mushrooms, spring peas in the pod and onion in the crisper that need using!) and the 'sauce' is an italian dressing. We'll see how it turns out later tonight.

The third recipe is my old standby and a favorite at my house. The original quiche recipe for Light and Fluffy Quiche is from Allrecipes.com and I modify it a bit to fit my needs. Tonight.... it will have leftover asparagus, ham and cheese in it. This will probably be my breakfast tomorrow and the kids and Daddy's breakfast or lunch tomorrow.

So.... what do you do with all the leftover ham from Easter?