Playing Catch Up

So, I got behind on things while I was sick. No surprise, and it took me a little bit to feel semi-energetic again. This week has gone pretty well, and I’m trying to catch up on all the things I am behind on.  Besides working on Kathryn’s overalls, I got some quilts done. This sea turtle one:

The back is tropical fish.

Another sea turtle quilt:

The back on this one is sea turtles and manatees.

The lady these belong to made them for the twin beds in her sister’s beach house. I quilted a queen sized sea turtle one for her several months ago.

I put binding on this one:

I’m not the one who quilted it, and I didn’t notice it wasn’t straight until I had the binding on. It’s the thick, fuzzy fabric, so maybe that was a problem. I’m not really sure what happened. 

I also got a Christmas top quilted. 

I will need to get the binding put on it. I was thinking black binding, but now I’m leaning more toward red. I think that would give it more of a Christmas feel. 

Every morning when I get to my shop, these two are waiting for me. 

I really don’t think of myself as a cat person, but they are so cute. They wait for me to pet them before they start eating, and the orange one purrs really loudly. 

After all that, I went home yesterday and started cleaning the house. I like to do the bulk of the cleaning on Friday afternoon /evening so I have all weekend to enjoy a clean house. I still need to do a couple of loads of laundry. I’m going to try and do that this afternoon and maybe mow the grass. 

Under the Weather

I came down with some kind of bug last week.....Covid is going around again, so naturally, I assumed that's what I had. The symptoms seemed to be the same as the other time I had it. I isolated myself at home and slept a lot. On Saturday, I did a Covid test, and it was negative, so I'm not sure what I had. I was feeling quite a bit better by Monday, although still a little run down. 

Needless to say, I haven’t done much, but I have been working some on Kathryn’s overalls. I got the letters stitched down on the front.

The back is fused, but not stitched yet.

The back pockets are pinned on.

The first football game is this Friday; I’m not sure I can get these ready by then, but of course I’ll try. I have a lot of things I need to catch up on this week like laundry and cleaning. And of course, the yard. Wish me luck!

Chicken Chili

I took a pass on To-Do-List Tuesday because I really don’t have time to work on the post right now. It takes some effort to get all the photos taken and uploaded, and the grandkids are wearing me out right now. Kathryn and Serenity are both playing volleyball, and Roger is playing soccer. The soccer games won’t start until September, thank goodness. Kathryn and I are working on “senior overalls” which is something they wear to the football games. If you’re not familiar, they look something like this. 

It’s a ton of work; we spent all of Sunday afternoon pulling fabric and embellishments. I had to order some ball fringe, but I should have it in a few days. Once I get the overalls finished, I hope to get back to “normal”. Whatever that means.

I don’t have much time to cook, so I made a quick recipe Monday night that I can eat for a few days. It is weight watchers friendly as the only ingredient with points is the chicken, and that’s 2 points in 3 ounces, so not bad. Here are the ingredients:

12 ounce package of precooked chicken breast. I used this one

15 oz can kidney beans, undrained 

15 oz can black beans, drained and rinsed

27 oz can pinto beans, undrained 

15 oz can corn, undrained 

1 can of Rotel tomatoes 

1 can crushed tomatoes 

1 pkg chili seasoning

1/2 cup chopped onion

1/2 cup chopped celery 

1/2 cup chopped bell pepper

2 tbsp. minced garlic

1 tbsp. olive oil

Heat olive oil in a Dutch oven. Add celery, onion, and bell pepper and sauté until translucent. Add garlic and chicken strips. I cut the chicken strips into small chunks. Cook and stir for about 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients and bring to a boil. I added about 1/4 tsp. of ground comino and oregano, but I like the extra spice. It’s not really necessary. 

This chicken chili is really good, and low in calories. Let me know what you think if you try it. 

Weekend Update

It was a good weekend and a busy one. Friday night was Sip and Sew at one of the local quilt shops. When I went last month, I had put this runner together.

I decided I would add a pieced border, and that’s what I worked on Friday night. I got one side done,

and the other side is mostly done. It won’t take long to finish if I can find time to work on it. Maybe as a leader-ender project. I really should have been able to finish it Friday night, but I was distracted by other things. A few of the ladies were working on a slippers project, and I got interested in that. I bought the kit which includes the pattern, the basal foam, the interfacing, and the gripper fabric for the soles. 

I can’t wait to get started on it. Besides the kit, I will need a charm pack, a yard of lining fabric, and a zipper. When I went up front to pay for the kit, I saw some shelves of one-yard cuts that were on sale so………

In other words, I was shopping instead of sewing. 

On Saturday, my church group invited the congregation to join us to stuff pillows and tie lap quilts. We also invited the St. Joe students to come and help. There was fun, fellowship and it was for a good cause, so just a good day all the way around.

Two of the St. Joseph students were at my table. They learned how to whip stitch the openings closed after the pillows were stuffed. I wish my granddaughter could have been there, but she had a volleyball tournament in Shiner. They won the tournament, and she was named as the All-Tournament player. 

I wish I could have been there, but I was busy sewing pillows. We had more stuffed than we had time to sew closed, so three of us took some home to finish. I got mine done while I was watching PBS.

I will take them back to the church on Tuesday, and they will eventually get delivered to the dialysis centers or the hospitals.

Today I have exercise class and lunch with a friend who is going to Houston tomorrow for knee surgery. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 8-13-24

Hello to all the Tuesday friends. I have been so busy! Not with quilting so much, but the week just flew by. I spent most of my free time working on income taxes, and Saturday and Sunday I worked on the yard. I’m limited on how much time I can spend out in the heat. The older I get the less tolerance I have for the heat. I worked outside for about 20 minutes and then went inside and cooled off for 20 minutes, then repeat. Needless to say, it takes twice as much time to get the yard work done. So, not too much progress on my to-do list.

1) Bind two quilts. No. Well, I did get the binding made, but I never did find time to sew it on. 

2) Finish June workshop quilt. No. I am missing some of the blocks I made for the border, and I can’t really continue until I find them.

3) Julie’s tee shirt quilt. No. 

4) Income tax. Yes. Hallelujah!

5) Finish Villa Rosa quilt. Yes. 

It’s a little wrinkled, but it’s done. I had a hard time figuring out what I wanted on the border. I ended up adding the narrow strips to the top and bottom, and then just adding the pink roses all the way around for the outer border. 

6) Cut and sew pumpkins for August workshop. Yes. Five made. 

They will get stuffed and embellished at the guild workshop next week. 

7) Catch up on BOM’s. No.

I need a new week and a new list.

1) Bind two quilts.

2) Quilt three quilts.

3) Julie’s tee shirt quilt.

4) Catch up on BOM’s.

5) Play with the potato chip blocks and the 5” squares I cut last week.

I took the June workshop quilt off the list until I can find the extra blocks I made. I don’t have extra fabric to make more, so I really need to find them. Today I’ll be at church, and this afternoon is the first volleyball game of the season. I’m going to take my tax paperwork to the CPA on Wednesday. That will involve a short road trip. I’ll have the rest of the week to do whatever I want to do, so we’ll see how it goes.

Have a good week everyone. I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt.

Some New Quilts

The good new is that I have been plugging away at my income tax preparation. I have spent a couple of hours on it, and I would say I’m about one-fourth of the way done. It feels like a totally disgusting waste of time, and there are piles of papers all over my table. 

After a little income tax work, I reward myself with sewing time. I finished the Chicken Little quilt. 

The pattern is called Iced Tea

but the fat quarter pack I made it with is called “Chicken Little” so that’s hat I e been calling the quilt. 

I was looking through my Villa Rosa patterns for something that I could use my 5” squares. After cutting all the scraps, I have 3 boxes that need a project. I settled on this one. 

The funny thing is that it uses 5-1/2” squares, but I’m pretty sure it won’t make a difference if I use 5” instead. I need a way to use some of the strange looking squares. 

I think this will work. I’m pretty motivated to get it done. 

There’s not much else going on around here. My daughter has been sick with Covid so I cooked and took food over to their house for a few days. She felt well enough to cook last night, and I was happy about that. I was running out of ideas. I fixed an enchilada casserole Monday and a couple of links of sausage with green beans and potatoes Tuesday. I figured they could do leftovers last night, but apparently there wasn’t anything left. Oh well. Thank goodness the kids aren’t picky. I don’t have a lot of patience with that. I have my exercise class this morning, and then I need to hit the ground running. There’s a lot to do, and it’s already Friday. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 8-6-24

Happy Tuesday! Let me start by saying I am still a little distracted and pulled in too many directions right now. I keep thinking things will settle down, and I will have unlimited time to work on everything I want to get done, but that's not how life works. There’s a lot that didn’t get done.

1) Quilt three quilts. Yes. 

2) Bind two quilts. No. I just did one.

It’s a pieced binding—jelly roll strips pieced together on the bias. I’m a little disappointed that it doesn’t show up that well. I thought it would be more impactful.

3) Finish June workshop quilt. No. 

4) Finish Villa Rosa quilt. No. I got stalled out on the borders. I think I have figured out what I want to do and can hopefully finish this week.

5) Work on Chicken Little quilt. Yes. I finished it!

I still need to iron it and stay stitch the outside edge. I’m not doing any borders; I don’t think it needs any. Once it’s quilted, I will bind it with the green I used for the centers.

6) Julie’s tee shirt quilt. No.

7) Income tax No.

So, a few things got checked off the list, and the rest will go on this week’s list.

1) Bind two quilts.

2) Finish June workshop quilt.

3) Julie’s tee shirt quilt.

4) Income tax.

5) Finish Villa Rosa quilt.

6) Cut and sew pumpkins for August workshop.

7) Catch up on BOM’s.

I think I will have to get the income tax stuff done. It is hanging over my head, and I really dread doing it. I need to just bite the bullet and get it done and off my list. Today I have some work to do at the church, but the rest of the week is open. I hope it stays that way. Have a good week everyone. I am linking this post to Quilt Schmilt.

Scrap Management

I got the Accuquilt mats I ordered—I got my new dies a couple of weeks ago. I ordered the 5” squares and the 2-1/2” x 4-1/2” rectangles. So, instead of working on my to-do list, I cut up scraps yesterday. I have a couple of totes full of scraps, plus a large tote bag. 

I cut 5” squares

and the rectangles for “potato chip” quilts.

There’s not much waste depending on how I fold the fabric, but I did put the leftover strips in a bag to use for string quilts.

My 5” boxes are almost full at this point.

I really want to find time to work on the potato chips, but other things are taking priority. I’m going to try and complete a couple of items from the to-do list, and then maybe I can work on potato chips.