Container recycling

Recently Jo at Jo's Country Junction showed how she reuses yogurt containers to hold cut pieces. I don't have many of those but I do seem to have a surplus of coleslaw containers. "He who must be fed" likes a particular commercial coleslaw which I can buy in these neat squares which just happen to hold 2.5" squares. So as I cut the plaids for the mountains I slice up some and maybe some day I"ll do another quilt that will use them.

Productive Day

Had a productive day today and something to show for it:
1)  Got the second panes together for the Trip Around the World

2) Cut and sewed four mountains

and half of the fifth hiding in the corner
3) And put the borders on a Streak of Sunshine for a co-worker,plus found fabric to use for the back.

Now to get it quilted so I can give it to her this weekend as I might not see her again before she goes on mat leave

Lead into temptation

I had good intentions, really. There was an offer of a 20% off coupon at the thrift store I frequent if you brought in two bags to donate. So I clear out some summer clothes I hadn't worn this year and obviously wasn't going to again. Then, just a walk through the fabric section in case there was a little something. Bad idea, there were several somethings. Looks like another quilter hung up her rotary cutter and donated her stash. Good quality fabrics that were too good to leave behind; Moda, Northcott, Pat Sloan for P & B, Wilmington. How could I resist.

Well I did leave some of it behind, the panels (3 of them) were tempting but so far I haven't used any that I've gotten so they were pushed away. Final tally:  6 fabrics, 11 yds, $13 for an agregate of $1.39/yd.  Four florals, one cream toile, one indego (underneath them in the picture).  The plan is to cut 10.5 squares for the back of my Floribunda quilt top and some more stips for the piano key border and maybe with this much floral fabric, I could do another Floribunda.....

Kale chips

For todays Try it On Tuesday, I decided to bake something.  I know, really silly in weather this hot to bake, but this only takes 10 min. My kale I was using for salads got big while we were away, so I wanted to use up a whole lot to cut it back. I remembered a recipe I had seen for Kale Chips. So here they are

A bunch of Kale leaves washed and dried. Tear up smaller and toss in olive oil and salt. ( Receipe said seasoned salt but I didn't have any)

Then bake at 350 for 10 min. It is that easy. They have a neat crunch to them and almost break into powder in your mouth. And you can say you are eating chips and getting your vegetables too.

Time to Eat !

Down in the Basement

Still so hot out the basement is the place to sew, cut, iron. And that is what I have been up to down there. Working on the new Trip Around the World, have one panel sewn together,

Four more on the way. And started cutting out the plaid fabrics and shirts that I have been accumulating. Decided to make a Scrappy Mountain Majesties from Bonnie's free patterns. I thought I could sew it at the same time as the Trip using it as a leader/ender project but getting the mountains in the right order is a little too fiddly to do that, so it will have to be sewn on it's own timeline.

Here are blocks getting cut. Before we went on vacation I was having trouble with my Featherweight skipping stitches so the other day I pulled it out of the card table where it lives and my DH cleaned and oiled it. Running like a charm now.

Sorry for the glare, I tried to edit it out but need more practise on my photo editing.

Begining a new quilt

Tempuratures here have been scorching. Fortunately my cutting table and featherweight are located in the basement. Right now, even with the air conditoner on , it is the most comfortable place to be. Having finished the Trip around the World quilt for my neice I want one for myself.  I have been collecting the fabrics for a few months, choosing and rejecting, today I finalized the lineup and started cutting.

Stips of 4" WOF cut and lined up in sewing order on my ironing board ready to start. Let the sewing begin....tomorrow, off to work now.

Back from Vacation

We are back from vacation, well actually we have been back since Saturday but slowly easing back into routines. Our DD who came with us, picked up a bug the last few days of the trip and almost as soon as we arrived home I started feeling ill. Tried to go in to work as I had a full week of shifts scheduled but wound up coming home the third day too ill to work. A quick trip to the doctor and sure enough she says it is strep throat and I'm now on anti-biotics. Feeling better now, enough that I've been pulling fabric out to plan a new quilt.
Spent more time socializing than picture taking but here are a few of what we did.

Here's the bride and groom cutting the cake.

The wedding entertainment, with the groom in the white shirt.

DD in the back seat, driving to my sister's.

Visiting the lighthouse in my home town

And that was it. A very brief visit with people we love and don't see often enough.