Making Progress

Happy Monday! I hope everyone had a good weekend. I spent some time working on my Villa Rosa blog hop projects. I have one pieced and ready to quilt, and I’m working on another using this charm pack:

I had planned to watch the superbowl last night, but I couldn’t get it on cable. I’m not sure why. It was supposed to be on CBS, but all I could get on that channel was a bunch of infomercials. It’s okay. I can always sew or cross stitch. I was also able to get some cleaning and laundry done. 

Other than that, I spent a lot of time on the iPad looking at quilt videos and quilt patterns. I’ve never made one of these

and I actually thought about cutting out the pieces, but I need to finish what I’m working on first. Story of my life. LOL.

Here are the Rest

Donation quilts part two. (It takes me a few minutes per picture to get them uploaded from my cloud, so it's easier to break into two parts.) They are resized, but you can click on the picture if you want to see more details. 

I was lucky enough to have an orange/red/yellow print for the back of this one!

I like for the backs to coordinate, but I don't get too obsessive about it, and I even use sheets for the backs when I have them available. I can get them from Goodwill for $2.99 each, and that's a lot cheaper than yardage. I launder the sheets in lysol and detergent to make sure they are clean and fresh before I quilt with them.

Altogether, I think we have twelve ready to go. Also, there are a couple more that are quilted and bound and need pillowcases. I have the pillowcases cut out; Betty and I just need to finish sewing them. 

Donation Quilts

I finally got them photographed! Betty brought by more bags she had made, so I decided to get everything bagged up and ready to go. These will all go to Midcoast Family Services. We make a pillowcase and a bag for each quilt.

Both of these have the dinosaur fabric I’ve used before. I have a dinosaur quilting pattern I used on them. You can see it better on the backs.

There are also two with the state fabric.

That’s the last of that fabric….I don’t think I had even an inch left.

I’ll finish uploading pictures tonight and post the rest tomorrow. 

I’m doing okay with walking at the track. I walked two miles Monday and Tuesday. I’ll go again this afternoon. I went to the fitness center Monday and Wednesday mornings for an exercise class so I’m staying on track on that too. The instructor is killing me with the squats. I can barely stand up from a seated position. I have been doing the class for some time, but I missed a couple of weeks, plus the instructor changed up the routines and added the split-leg squats. My thighs are so sore. 

To-Do-List Tuesday 2-6-24

Happy Tuesday friends! Let me just say I need a written list to keep me focused. I had a very unfocused week, but when I looked at my to-do list last night, I got myself in gear and knocked out a couple of things. 

Here’s the progress:

1) Finish piecing The Lady. Yes. 

I still need to press it and stay-stitch around the outside edges, but the piecing is finished.

2) Keep working on the sweatshirt jacket. Yes. I still need to quilt the sleeves, and then I can start putting it together.

3) At least three customer quilts--four would be better. I got three done, but I apparently only photographed one. 

4) Get donation quilts photographed. Not yet. I’m not sure why I’m dragging my feet on this.

5) Work on February RSC blocks as soon as the color is announced. Yes. The color for February is red, and although I only cut out two sets, I cut some pink and some blue and got those done.

6) Quilt my January UFO quilt. Yes. 

7) Keep working on scrap vortex blocks. No.

I think this week’s list will be a little shorter.

1) Quilt three customer quilts.

2) Bind one customer quilt.

3) Photograph donation quilts.

4) Bind Birthday Cake quilt.

Other than quilt-related stuff, I plan to make it to the track at least three evenings to walk. I have a cardio class three mornings a week at the gym, but the blood pressure medicine I was put on in June has caused some unwelcome weight gain. The cardiologist says it’s not the medicine, but I’m pretty sure it is. It’s a beta blocker, so it only stands to reason if it slows my heart down, it probably slows my metabolism down too. Anyway, I am hoping to jump start my metabolism if I can. The fact that I like to cook and like to eat is not helping matters. Oh well.

I am liking this post to Quilt Schmilt. Have a wonderful week wherever you are reading this!

Air Fryer Pork Chops

Like most people, I got an air fryer sometime around 2017 or 2018. And, like most people, I didn't really use it. It was one of the basket type, and it was okay for reheating takeout or fixing frozen tater tots.

Fast forward to 2022, and I got one that is more like an oven,

and I started experimenting with cooking different types of food in it. I found I can cook meat that is done without being dried out and tough. I had some pork chops I bought at Aldi, and although they weren't as thick as I normally like, they were thick enough to go in the air fryer. I seasoned them with some grill seasoning from HEB and some Tony Chachere. 

I preheated the air fryer to 400, and cooked them 5 minutes on each side. If they had been thicker, I would have done 6 minutes on each side.

While they were cooking, I sliced a couple of potatoes, and cooked them in boiling water to just about half-way done. After I took the pork chops out, I drained the potatoes really well, added cheese, bacon pieces, green onion, salt and cracked pepper and air fried them for 5-6 minutes. I sprayed the pan with a little spray butter so they wouldn't stick.

I also heated up some brussel sprouts. I had enough for two nights, and it was so good! 

Blog Hop

I normally write my posts at night and set them to publish early the next morning. I forgot to set this one to publish, so it’s a little late, but better late than never as they say.

I have some exciting news! Villa Rosa Designs is planning a blog hop in March, and I was chosen to participate!

There are around 15-20 bloggers participating, and they have sent us each five patterns: a table runner, one using 10” squares, one using 5” squares, one using fat quarters, and one using a panel. We each have to choose one, make it, and write a blog post. We can do more than one if we wish. There will be some duplication since there are only five patterns and 15+ bloggers. The blog hop will happen from March 14th through March 21st. I already have a layer cake picked out for my project. I started cutting it yesterday. It’s called “Fast and Fun Blog Hop”, and the five patterns look pretty easy, so I think they will all be fast and fun.

When I was in Yorktown on Thursday, I bought a layer cake for another different Villa Rosa pattern (not blog hop related). 

There are quite a few duplicates in this one, but it’s so pretty I don’t care.

I want to use one of these two patterns:

I bought two yards of orange in case I need a border.

I also found a new Villa Rosa pattern when I was there.

I haven’t seen this one before. It takes 11 fat quarters, so of course, I got enough to make the pattern.

Don’t even ask me when I am going to get all of this done. 

Still Working

I would like to say I am finished with the patchwork jacket I started, but I'm still working on it. It's going a lot slower that I anticipated. I had to get my sales tax forms filed yesterday, and although it's not hard, it does take a couple of hours. And, I had a customer quilt I needed to finish quilting. So, once I finished those two things, I got back to work on the jacket. Here are the sleeves.

They are pinned together, but they still need to be basted and quilted. Once you figure out where to position all the stars that were made as pre-work, you have to sew together more "fill-in" pieces, and keep adding them onto the stars until all the sweatshirt pieces are covered. I kept it as simple as possible once I figured out how much time it was going to take. I am doing the quilting on my domestic machine. I'm just doing a cross-hatch pattern. You can see it a little on the back.

I took a few pictures at the workshop.....one of the most fascinating things to me is how different people choose different fabrics.

Here is one that is all black:

I don’t think I got photos of all of them. I’m anxious to see what they will all look like when they’re completed. It’s so cool to see how differently everyone thinks.

Let’s see….what else? I’m headed to Yorktown today to pick up fabric I ordered from their facebook live last week. They would ship it, but it’s nice to get out of town for a little bit. Betty is going with me, and I’ll see if she wants to get lunch too.