Happy Easter

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday! I’m off to church later and then lunch with the family. 

Two Big Quilts

I finally got the binding finished on Gloria’s memory quilt. I love the way it turned out. 

She had brought all of his clothing and I removed the name patch from a pair of his work coveralls and stitched it to the bottom corner. I used a fleece Texans blanket on the middle of the back. 

It was a little tricky, but I’m happy with it, and I really hope she will be too. It’s a large queen, around 92” x 93”. She should be picking it up today.

I was asked to quilt the raffle quilt for our WELCA group at church. It’s even a little bigger than the memory quilt.

Here’s a closeup of the quilting:

I don’t know if you can tell, but it’s not pieced; it’s a printed panel, aka a cheater print. One of the other ladies is going to bind it, so my part is finished.

Someone showed this quilt at our guild meeting Thursday:

She said she found the pattern on YouTube at Tiffany’s Quilting Life. I like it a lot. This one is going on my list of projects I want to make. I think I will try it with a colored background. 

Tomorrow is Easter, and I need to finish the grandkid’s Easter baskets. I’ll get it done in time. I’m looking forward to church service and then dinner with the family. I hope you all have a wonderful Easter!

Picadillo

It’s been a minute since I’ve shared a recipe. I was in New Orleans all weekend, and the food there is wonderful. 

In addition to the beignets I posted about, we ate a lot of seafood. It was all good, but I don’t usually eat out so much. By the time I got home I just wanted some home-cooked comfort food. Of course, that usually means Tex-mex in my part of the world. I decided to make some Piccadillo; my local grocery has a tortilleria, so I bought a package of flour tortillas there (so fresh they were still warm). 

Most recipes for picadillo have tomatoes or tomato sauce added, but I didn’t learn to make it that way. Here’s my recipe:

1 lb ground beef, I use extra lean or ground sirloin

3 potatoes, peeled and cut into small cubes

1 small can green chiles

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 small onion, chopped fine

1 green bell pepper, chopped fine

1 cup beef broth

2 tbsp corn starch

1 tsp. Cumin

Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onion and pepper in a large skillet with a small amount of oil. Add garlic and ground beef and cook until the meat is browned. Add remaining ingredients except corn starch and cover skillet. Cook until potatoes are done and most of the liquid is evaporated. Remove a small amount of the liquid and mix with corn starch. Add to skillet and increase heat until the liquid thickens. This is what it looks like:

I eat it like a taco on flour tortillas with some avocado slices. 

This is not low carb, but it is comfort food at its best!

To-Do-List Tuesday 3-26-24

This is the last week of March, so it is time to get some things finished up. My to-do list wasn't too long or too strenuous, but I still ran out of time. I think I tend to underestimate how long things are going to take and how many interruptions I will have. I’m mostly happy with my progress though.

1) Bind two customer quilts. If I have time, I would like to bind one of mine also. Yes on the customer quilts, but I didn’t get to mine.

2) Quilt two customer quilts. Yes. This one

and this really big one 

3) Do some embroidery or cross stitch. No. I got the transfers done and took it to New Orleans with me, but I forgot to take scissors. So, nothing got done. I hope to work on it a little tonight.

4) Work on Process Flow if time permits. I did work on it, but I didn’t realize the fabric for the setting strips is directional. I need to figure out what to do with it.

Here’s a closeup of the directional fabric:

What’s next? Here’s my list:

1) Quilt three customer quilts.

2) Finish the March BOM from A Quilting Life.

3) Bind two quilts.

4) Work on embroidered tea towels.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. Good luck to all of us on making progress on our goals. I am linking my post to Quilt Schmilt. 

Blog Hop Winners

 

I got back home around 10pm last night. The comments were supposed to be open until midnight—at least that was the way I understood it. It took me a while to wind down from the trip, so that wasn’t a problem to wait until midnight and draw the prize winners.

Here are the lucky winners:

1) Set of blog hop pattern cards: tizzy5552@yahoo.com

2) Three prizes donated by the blog hop sponsors: pmrj333@gmail.com, Julia in Ga, edgarkevin@sbcglobal.net.

3) Three people being entered into the grand prize drawing: Kathy_crocker@yahoo.com, dvcarousel44@gmsil.com, mrush2@gmail.com.

4) A prize donated by me (it’s a set of five fq’s): Karen Shields

I will be sending the names on items 1-3 to Tricia at the Villa Rosa blog today. The winner of item 4 will receive their prize directly from me. 

New Orleans

Happy Sunday! I am in New Orleans with my granddaughter for a volleyball tournament. I will be back home tonight to draw the winners for the blog hop. 

These girls are good, and I mean all the players on every team I have seen. Kathryn’s team got first in their wave Friday. They won all three matches.

They didn’t play again until yesterday afternoon so we spent the morning in the French quarter. Kat wanted beignets for breakfast. We walked about a mile to Cafe Du Monde. I figured I could burn them off with the walking.

Look at that smile! I got cafe au lait with mine. I thought I was ordering one, but there are three beignets in one order, so…….

It was a beautiful spring day. The azaleas are blooming in Jackson Square, and lots of people were out walking and enjoying the weather. 

Then, Kathryn’s team played at 3:00, 6:00, and 8:00. They beat Rosenberg and lost to Atlanta and New Orleans. Disappointing, but when you put it into perspective, those are big cities compared to  Victoria and the smaller surrounding towns that make up Kathryn’s club.  One thing I will say: I forgot what it’s like to share a room with a teenager.

Shoes and dirty clothes everywhere. 

I will be back tomorrow to announce the blog hop winners!

Something New

Moda has a new fabric line called Julia. 

I have a daughter named Julia. I found some of the fabric at the quilt shop and bought a layer cake and a couple of yards of one of the black prints, and then I went back and bought two mini charm packs.

I would have bought more, but they only had two. I sat down last night and started making a table runner. This is half of it.

The sewing is mindless, but I’m having fun with it. I’m still working on my goals, but I need something that doesn’t take much thought. 

I went to Hobby Lobby today and got some embroidery transfers and some dish towels. I want to take the embroidery with me to New Orleans. I’ll post a picture tomorrow. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 3-19-24

Hello Tuesday Friends! I don't know what happened to me, but I only finished one thing from my list, and it wasn't even sewing related. I'm still having trouble with low energy, plus I had meeting three days last week, which took up more time than I expected. 

1) Bind three customer quilts. No

2) Quilt two customer quilts. No

3) March BOM from A Quilting Life. No

4) Get retreat plans finalized. Yes

It wasn't even a very long list, and my progress is pitiful. Can I do better this week? I am leaving town Thursday to take my granddaughter to a volleyball tournament in New Orleans. Depending how many games they win, I may be gone through Sunday night. That doesn't give me much sewing time, although I may take some cross stitch or embroidery with me. I think I'll add that to this week's list.

1) Bind two customer quilts. If I have time, I would like to bind one of mine also. 

2) Quilt two customer quilts.

3) Do some embroidery or cross stitch. 

4) Work on Process Flow if time permits.

That's all I'm putting on the list, and I'm not too confident about getting even that small amount done. Most of my weekend will be sitting in a gym watching the girls play. Maybe I'll find some spare time to visit a quilt shop in New Orleans. I'm sure there are some there. 

I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. I hope you all have a great week!

Blog Hop Day!

It's finally here--my day to post my Villa Rosa blog hop projects! Each participant was sent these five patterns and asked to make one or more of the projects. If you are a frequent reader, you probably know I make a lot of the Villa Rosa patterns for my charity donations, so I was really surprised to receive five patterns I didn’t already have. 

And, you know what? These really are fast and fun! The first one I picked was Gypsy. The name Gypsy refers to a variety of rose. You can see the picture in the upper corner of the card.

It uses half a layer cake, and I had one on hand I wanted to use.

It made a nice size baby quilt, 36” x 45”, and I had enough squares left to piece a second one. I loaded both tops onto a wide flannel back, and quilted them at the same time. One of my time-saving tricks!

I’ve only managed to get one of them bound, but I love the way they turned out. The quilting really shows up on the fuzzy back.

The baby quilts worked up so fast, I decided to piece a table runner with a pretty gray and yellow charm pack. 

I followed the pattern until I got to the border, and my border print had the large dots, so I cut it a little wider. That turned out to be a bad idea as my runner is now a little large for the tiny table in my shop.

It’s still pretty, just a little large. So my advice on this one is “stick with the pattern”!

Never one to leave well enough alone, I used my sunflower charm pack for the Twinkle pattern.

It’s not bound yet, but I did manage to get it pieced and quilted.

It’s a great pattern, and I love the way it turned out. I plan to bind it with the fabric I used for the cornerstones. 

And, now the most important part--prizes! Here's the info from Villa Rosa: 

There are many opportunities for you to win prizes during the blog hop:

1. Individual bloggers may be hosting giveaways on their blogs for you to win. Please visit individual blogs to find out about their giveaways and how to register.
2. Villa Rosa Designs is giving away a 2024 Blog Hop Rose Card pattern collection on each participating blog. International winners will win a digital set of patterns.
3. Sponsor prizes have been donated by our lovely Sponsors, and even from some of the bloggers, too! These prizes are divided into 2 different categories —

• Grand Prizes (each blogger will select 3 entries to go into the Grand Prize drawings):

1. Kaffe Fasset Precut Collection
2. $100 digital Gift Certificate to Hancock’s of Paducah
3. A BIG BOX of mystery quilty goodies
4. An Electric Quilt 8 download — the winner for this prize will be selected on the EQ blog, so you will need to register there for this prize

• Individual Prizes (each blogger will select 3 winners on their blog) which may be books, patterns, fat quarter bundles, 5″ squares, 2 1/2″ strips, 10″ squares, or notions — it will be a fun surprise, I promise!

I will be drawing an additional winner and sending them a prize selected by me. 

If you want to win one of these great prizes, you can register here.

1) Please follow my blog. (This is optional if you would rather not.) The link is on the right hand side near the bottom.

2) Leave me a comment and let me know what is your favorite precut to sew and why. 

3) Make sure I have your email address somewhere in the comment so I can contact you if you're a winner! 

Prize registration closes on March 23rd, so you have plenty of time. Winners will be selected and notified as soon as possible after the 23rd. 

2024 VRD Blog Hop Schedule

Thursday, March 14

https://villarosaquilts.com/

Friday, March 15

Kathleen McCormick -- https://kathleenmcmusing.com/

Cheree H -- http://livelylatte.blogspot.com/

Roseanne Nelson -- https://www.homesewnbyus.com

Wendy Tuma -- https://www.piecefulthoughts.com/

C&T (Valerie) -- https://www.ctpub.com/blog/

Saturday March 16

Bernie Kringle -- https://needleandfoot.com/

Sandra Walker -- https://www.mmmquilts.com/

Linda -- https://www.texasquiltgal.com/

Debbie Huber – http://time4stitchn.blogspot.com/

SIY (Branyn/Jennifer) – https://siysewityourself.com/

Sunday, March 17

Carolyn -- https://quarterinchcapers.blogspot.com/ You are here

Emily (Norton House) -- https://www.nortonhousequilting.com/blogs/news

Gail Sheppard -- https://quiltinggail.com/

Susan Slaton -- http://wazoonewsbits.blogspot.com/

Monday, March 18

Nann Hilyard -- https://withstringsattached.blogspot.com/

Jaftex (Jennifer) -- https://scottfortunoff.com/

Jan Altomare -- https://www.cocoaquilts.com/  

Tricia – http://quiltwithaview.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, March 19

Joy -- https://www.cocoaquilts.com/

Emily Leachman -- http://thedarlingdogwood.blogspot.com/

Vicki S -- www.knitbug2.blogspot.com/

Rose Mikulski -- https://somethingrosemade14.blogspot.com/

QOVF (Lexie) -- https://www.qovf.org/

Wednesday, March 20

Nancy -- https://www.graceandpeacequilting.com/

Jocelyn -- https://happycottagequilter.blogspot.com/

Tracie -- https://joyfullytracie.com/

Daryl Perry -- https://patchouli-moon-studio.blogspot.com/

Electric Quilt (Diane) -- https://doyoueq.com/blog/

Thursday, March 21

villarosaquilts.com

Worldwide Quilting Day

What’s the purpose of Worldwide Quilting Day? Apparently, it started as National Quilting Day. Here’s what my local PBS station says:

Every third Saturday of March is a day to celebrate the rich tradition of quiltmaking. The Quilt Alliance and the National Quilt Museum recall the origins of this day: a "Quilter's Day Out" organized by the Kentucky Heritage Quilt Society in 1989. The day for local quilters to show their makes and share the love of the craft was a success. Participating quilters elected to make it a national event thereafter. The first National Quilting Day was observed in 1992. So get your quilts out and display them with pride this Saturday! And remember, keep on quilting. 

The Fat Quarter Shop has 10 free patterns to help celebrate. Oh, I love that Sewcialites 2 one. It’s been on my list to make since I quilted one for a customer. 

For now, I will continue to work on my Process Flow quilt. Don’t forget to check back tomorrow for my post on the Villa Rosa Blog Hop. There are some really cool giveaways plus lots of eye candy! See you tomorrow. 

This and That

I was hoping to start a new quilt from this book.

Just one problem—I couldn’t find the book. I went to the LQS to buy another, but they no longer have any in stock. I saw the Betty quilt on someone’s blog and wanted to make one. Here’s the picture of Betty from the book:

I like it a lot. I kept looking and finally found the book….then I lost it again—twice. In the meantime, I decided on a charm pack, 

actually two of them, and some background fabric. Once I found the book the second time, I changed my mind and decided on this pattern.

I’ve gotten my squares cut and just need to sit down and sew. I’m still not operating at full energy yet. Who knows how long it’s going to take me to get back to normal. 

Remember this?

I took out the hunchbacked piece I had made and redid it. Now the front and back match.

This is both pieces stuffed and crocheted together. My ears are a little pointed, but I’m okay with that. The instructions said to do three singles in the point, but I will try and adjust that if I do another. I still need to do the rosette and leaf and get them attached. It turned out bigger than I expected.

It’s about 15”.

Today I need to see how much I can get done. I have cardio this morning, and then the rest of the day is open.

To-Do-List Tuesday 3-12-24

I still haven't quite gotten my energy back, and my productivity (or lack of) is evidence of that. Here's my progress:

1) Quilt three customer quilts. Yes. This was the number one priority. 

2) March BOM from A Quilting Life. No. I printed out the instructions, but I never did have time to work on it.

3) Start purple RSC blocks. Yes, I got four done.

4) Clean up the tee-shirt mess in the sewing room, and cut up some of the scraps on the cutting table. I started three times, but I haven't finished it yet.

Time to move on to a new list and a new week.

1) Bind three customer quilts.

2) Quilt two customer quilts.

3) March BOM from A Quilting Life.

4) Get retreat plans finalized.

Not a long list, but I have my sewing group at church today, and meetings another two days this week. And, the kids are on spring break, so I have dog-feeding/pottying duties while everyone is out of town. 

I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt. I hope you all have a fun week and are as productive as you want to be!