The Cupboard is Bare! Yay!

All the quilts finished in 2011 have been dispersed/accounted for.  Four were given to friends, two went to DI, five went to United Way, two are still hanging in the store, one was sold, one is on my bed and I've also kept the seasonal snowball table topper still in the cupboard.  Whew.

Yesterday a nurse who sees a lot of preemies at the health department told me they give out donated baby blankets and receiving blankets.  Fabulous!

Training

It's a fabulous morning here and so I flung open the doors to let the air circulate.  An open front door is serious business for the boys and especially so for Dylan.  He gets very concerned and very vocal about anything moving past the house with the exception of cars driving by.  Those may pass unannounced.  Everything else though is cause for alarm.  The guys across the street talking on their cell phones and smoking as they pace in front of their house?  Trouble.  Children on their way to school?  Trouble.  Mom pushing stroller?  Big trouble.  Dog walker?  REALLY big trouble.

Ok then.  I filled my pocket with kibble.  As I ironed, I listened for the first rumble from a dog then stepped over there and showed them the treat.  If they don't bark they get it.   So far so good and I got a lot of ironing done.

I have large pieces of fabric that have been washed and needed pressing, folding and putting away.  Today I crossed 16 plus yards off the to-do list.  These are all pieces larger than two yards so do not do well with the new folding standard here.  These pieces are folded selvedge to selvedge. then into approximately 9-inch folds and stacked that way.  Most likely they will be used for quilt backs.

In the course of spending all that time in the living room this morning I had to wonder once again about this across the street:

I mean really what's wrong with the driveway?  I'm not sure what's still going on over there but I think maybe the floors and maybe a re-do because there has been a fan in the open front door quite often.

Go ahead, laugh and call me Fred and Audrey.

Marking the quilt

I tried all of these.  Left to right: Hera Marker, water soluble pen, Chakoners, 2 styles for rolling a fine line of chalk, and painter's tape as a guide for the walking foot.  Tried them all and the winner is the Hera Marker which marks by leaving an indentation.  I never thought that would be the one I would like the best but for this quilt it's perfect.

Design Wall Monday

Nothing to show on the wall.  Two quilts in various stages of quilting.

Stash Report Week #13

Added this week           3.5
Used this week             3.88
Added year to date     25.13
Used year to date        14.92
Net year to date        +10.21 YARDS

Not much change this week, soon though :-)
I did treat myself to this bobbin box.  They look so tidy and sparkly!  There is a lid to the box so they will stay that way!  It makes me happy and I couldn't wait another day for it.  $4 well spent.
 

First UFO finish

I 'm hoping a friend of mine will like this quilt for her new granddaughter that is on the way.  Some of the blocks have sweet farm animals like the kind you would see in a children's story book.  I think it is cheerful without being over the top bright.  I'm happy with the machine quilting I did on it, too!

Corned Beef

I love it.  I really love it but today I had it yet again.

Last Friday I bought some corned beef very thinly sliced for sandwiches and also a thick slab to use in a casserole.  I had a sandwich on Friday and then we had sandwiches at work on Saturday.  Had one last sandwich on Sunday.  Tuesday I made a dip and today I made the casserole.  I will finish the casserole tomorrow.  Yay!

I brought sauerkraut for the sandwiches and I felt like we needed 1000 Island dressing to put on them even though they were not official Reubens.  I only buy 1000 Island dressing once a year for this very thing so this year I decided to make it.  Easy!  Fabulous!  I found this one on Allrecipes dot com and modified it just a bit.  When I made it on Saturday I wanted it fairly thick so I used dry onions but when I made it again today I wanted it more pourable.

1000 Island Dressing

o    ½ cup mayonnaise

o    2 tablespoons ketchup

o    1 tablespoon white vinegar

o    2 teaspoons sugar

o    1 tablespoon sweet pickle relish

o    1 teaspoon white onions, finely minced

o    ¹⁄₈ teaspoon salt

o    1 dash black pepper

Mix all ingredients together.  Refrigerate for several hours to let flavors blend.