Tuesday, December 31, 2019

16th, 17th, 18th, 19, and 20th finishes for 2019

It has been a binding marathon and I am halfway done! Here are pictures of the fronts and backs. The quilts with the smaller squares are 40 1/4" x 47 1/2", the one with the larger squares is 36" x 48 1/4", and the lap quilt is 48" x 59 1/2".

My friend is here today and spending the night for New Years Eve. Look at all those cute bunnies she is machine appliqueing!
My goal is to get the other five baby quilts bound today.

Monday, December 30, 2019

Not what I planned

I had planned to bind at least some of those quilts Saturday and Sunday, but you know how plans can change when opportunity knocks. The opportunity was a friend and her significate other coming over and installing closet doors in one of the bedrooms. The doors have been sitting for about two years so I was excited to finally get them installed. Before I had anyone over I needed to do some cleaning and straightening up. I spent all day Saturday straightening out the fabric storage room, putting stuff away the had piled up in the studio, vacuuming, and generally making the place not so lived in if you know what I mean. LOL!!!

My friends brought lunch and made cookies for desert.

Here is the closet opening

Here are the doors

and now they are installed!

I will have to stain the doors, paint the jambs, and install the trim. With the doors installed I can now finish the baseboard and get this room done!

I am having a sewing friend come up for New Year's Eve so I have to unload all the quilts I have stored on the guest bed. Ugh! More straightening up! I did the grocery shopping this morning so I could feed her and now I plan on spending some time getting binding on at least a few of those quilts.

Friday, December 27, 2019

Let the binding-palooza begin!

I got the lap size quilt quilted so now it is on to the binding for this and the 9 baby quilts.

It is quite a pile!

Before I start binding I have to head outside since it is 59 degrees! I need to wash the car and get out the leaf blower to clean up the backyard. I did spend about 2 1/2 hours cleaning up the garage yesterday and it is looking a lot better.

Thursday, December 26, 2019

Another one quilted

I now have baby quilt number 9 quilted!

I decided to put this fun print on the back for a bit of variety instead of using that African print with the bird on it. I still have enough of the bird fabric for a couple more baby quilt backs.

I now only have the lap sized quilt to quilt and I can start binding. I would love to get all 10 bound before the end of the year. I plan on machine stitching the binding. I don't mind machine stitching for baby quilts; I think it makes them more sturdy.

The temperature is going to be 60 today so I plan on spending some time cleaning up the garage. I have stuff that has been accumulating.

I received another box from Amazon. I got another pair of windshield wipers! They are the same size as the last ones and don't fit my car. I will pass them on to someone who can do something with them.

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas. Mine was good and we all had a good laugh when I discovered one of my son's cats took a walk thru the pumpkin pie I had made. It was wrapped in a heavy terry towel so it was still eatable!

Monday, December 23, 2019

Getting closer

It was a busy weekend! I got number 8 quilted.
Then I got number 9 pin basted. This is the last of this group of baby quilts. I still have a lap top I want to quilt before I start to bind them.

I got started on the Christmas baking. So far I made two pecan pies, a cheesecake, and I am working on stuffed shells. I didn't buy enough ricotta cheese so I will have to go get more so I can finish the shells. I need to write down the quantities I buy of ricotta, mozzarella, and provolone so I will make sure I get the right amount next year!

I have most of my wrapping done and bagged up for transport. I still need to make that peanut butter pie and pumpkin pie.

Friday, December 20, 2019

TGIF!

Last evening one of my brothers and his wife took me to dinner at the Texas Roadhouse. This is their way of thanking me for my help with the band. It was delicious and I will have the leftovers for breakfast. Then my SIL handed me a package if dinner wasn't enough! It was a HUGE box of truffles! I asked her, kiddingly, "is that the biggest box you could find?" LOL!!!

Yesterday we had our company luncheon. The home office gets lots of goodies, but few make it out to the job sites. So I asked one of the ladies if they had some extra cookies or sweets that I could take out to the job trailer for the guys. She gave me two tins of Danish butter cookies, a box of crackers, a summer sausage, a salami and three different cheese bricks.

I cut it up this morning and now we have snacks for the day!

I am going to take some time off during the holidays, but I will still be posting. In my head I have big plans on getting a lot of stuff done. Let's see what I accomplish! Have a great weekend!

P.S. I received two peanut butter pie recipes! Thanks so much!

Thursday, December 19, 2019

Number 7 and peanut butter pie - help!

Well I didn't get number 7 done, but I now am at 80%. I only have six more blocks to quilt and it will be added to the pile for binding.

I have been asked to make a peanut butter pie for Christmas. I have never made one. Do any of you have a favorite recipe for peanut butter pie that you would share?

I exchanged Christmas presents with my boss yesterday. She gave me a gift card, a minion ornament and a bottle of Christmas cheer! I have never tasted Baily's Salted Caramel, but how bad could it be? LOL!!!


Wednesday, December 18, 2019

Number 7 progress and cookies

I am now 66% done with quilting number 7. I hope to get this one done tonight. Only two more baby quilts to quilt!

I made chocolate chip cookies to give as part of a Christmas gift. Over at the hospital job I give something to the project manager, my boss, and the lady laborer who I have gotten to know over the last couple of years. The laborer is a hoot and she loves cookies. She doesn't like to cook, so I thought she should have some homemade cookies and take a break from the store bought ones. The house smelled so good last night that it was hard to go to sleep! The recipe was from The Vanilla Bean blog and they are the pan banging chocolate chip cookies. The only change I made was I made my dough balls 3 ounces instead of 3 1/2. Even with reducing the amount of dough for each cookie, they are big! I got 13 cookies out of the batch.

As I was cooling the cookies I was thinking I sure need another cooling rack. It then dawned on me to check on a never opened bundle of sheet pans my brother gave me that his wife didn't want. Sorry for the glare.

And there it was - another cooling rack!

Tuesday, December 17, 2019

Progress on number 7

I got a bit of FM quilting done on baby quilt number 7. I decided to use pink thread and a backing that looked more girly since I used many of the pink and lavender blocks in this top. I have 26% of the top quilted.

I received a postcard in the mail from Vicki of Colorways by Vicki Welsh. Isn't it fabulous?
I will hang it up on my design wall with the other postcards I have received from Vicki and others over the years.

Monday, December 16, 2019

Knitting and painting

What a busy weekend. I just want things to slow down a bit! I spent time knitting this weekend. I need to get this scarf done for Christmas so I spent a lot of time working on it. I did get a lot done. I think I need to add about 10 more inches and it will be done.
I got done from the where the yellow arrow is pointing.

Between Saturday and Sunday I spent 7 hours working at my brother's house not including travel time. I have to bring my own tools so that takes time packing and unpacking the car. I got those ugly green walls painted. I had to use a brush since they were so uneven a roller wouldn't work. That took a while to do. I also got the floor finished.

This is where I had to put the furniture.
Now it is painted.
Then this wall needed some paint. It is a rough stucco type finish so I had to use a brush again.

Installed the access panel

and I cleaned out the dryer vent piping. Stick a fork in me I am done with the basement. After I got home from that on Sunday, I got visitors. I had to run home get a shower, clean up the kitchen and bathroom, start some laundry, then start lunch. I was so tired that I would not have gotten all of this done if company had not come! I was so tired that after they left I just sat then went to bed early.

With some info from Vicki, I looked up online what might be going on with the random stuff I have been getting from Amazon. It is call "bushing". Don't you just love the names that are given to scams? Not. Bushing is vendors sending you random stuff so that they can go and post a review to boost their company's rating so it comes up quicker when people search for an item. I went in and changed my password for Amazon just in case.

Friday, December 13, 2019

Number 7 and another box from Amazon

I finally finished pin basting baby quilt number 7 so now I can get it quilted this weekend.

I got the batting cut for baby quilt 8, 9, and the lap sized quilt.

The rows in the yellow rectangle show what I got knitted yesterday on the scarf.

And now I know you are anxious to hear what was in the latest box I got from Amazon. I did not order this, my name is on the box, and my credit card has not been charged. I received a skull mask. Crazy hun? I am at a loss for words. LOL!!

Some family members are going to get some interesting joke Christmas gifts this year! To recap, I got a pair of windshield wipers, a pair of generic Bluetooth noise cancelling headphones, and now this skull mask. I wonder how long this is going to continue? LOL!!

I am glad it is the weekend although I have spend some time at my brother's house finishing the painting in the basement. I have decided to paint the wall behind the washer and dryer too; it just looks sad. Have a great weekend!