Friday ponderings

I've been playing Susie Homemaker and that picture is about how I feel at the moment, complete with mop rag. Most of it is my fault too. I am making a turkey breast in the crockpot for supper---not much of a heat generator there but come on, you gotta have the trimmings that go with it.

Just boiling the simple sirup to make whole cranberry sauce was enough but then add an oven on for 55 minutes plus to make a pecan cream pie. Then add the dishwasher running and no a/c on till oven goes off---87 degrees by our thermometer indoors. My internal thermostat didn't get to cool down from walking before I started either. It is much cooler back in the bedrooms where I am thankfully located, reading blogs and now posting. I'll hit the shower in an minute or two. We have been eating a lot of sandwiches or fast meals lately so I want a good meal with leftovers. Nuts, I know. DJ wondered if I was trying to spoil him or something---well, maybe a little. It is his favorite meal, after all.

Comments on comments:
I accept the compliments on the hot air balloon in the previous post on behalf of my sister-in-law who made it. I just quilted it and posted the picture in this case. I neglected to say that Jan had said that many of the patterns came from Sew Precise and are foundation pieced. SP 1-2 has a few in the fun section along with some kites and SP 3 has bunch of them.

The quilt on my bed is a summer favorite because it reminds me of sunlight and it is lightweight. I purchased the top from a friend (we were both living in IL at the time) whose husband had a booth in an antique mall there. John was and still does look for textiles for Cindy as she is also a quilter. Originally it was rather long and narrow like for a twin bed with pillow tuck so I took them off the length and put them on the side but had to make about 8 blocks. I have some fabric on hand that is from the era or else looks like it was and was able to match the yellow fairly closely. It just barely fits on my bed with the pillow top mattress.

I had to laugh at Pam's comment that my bed was made---I admit that I don't always do that. BUT since that great housekeeping jag a week ago or whenever it was I am keeping things picked up fairly well and that means the bed is made!

On the sewing/quilting front---the revamped medallion is quilted as much as I am going to quilt it. I think I am just going to leave those giant HST's puffy. If I change my mind (like when I see the picture of it ), I can go back and do something more to it. I am done wrestling it around except for putting on the label. That is the last WTIL pinned quilt in my stack so I am caught up in that department.

I have considered what I want to do with my cat fabric and think I was making things far more difficult than they need to be. I drew something up in EQ that I kinda liked but I am not necessarily in love with. Sharyn Craig's "Windblown Square" setting might work but I like that idea better for something else I have to play with. I have plenty of the cat fabric but only about a third of a yard of the "go- with's" to play with. I wanted to do a interlocking squares top but that means a fabric run. While I didn't sign on for the no purchase thing (its my birthday month after all and I got a round robin to think about) I would prefer NOT to have to run out to Hancock's for some nebulous thing. I'll save the interlocking squares idea for another quilt challenge.

SO I am thinking, Cher, that it will be that old favorite "Leap Frog" . Cut the strips I need from the "go with's" and add more from my brights bin. There are probably some already the right size in the bin, come to think of it. It may be smaller than pictured at left You can remind me where the heck this pattern came from. Decision made! Now I can quit agonizing over this decision and start cutting this afternoon. Why waste any more energy in that area?

Hanne, that hour a day thing in my case might need to extend to something I need to work on in my personal life---home study continuing eduation hours so I can renew my nursing license at the end of September. UGH! Not something I want to do or enjoy doing but have to do if I am to keep my license current " just in case" It would be far too easy to just procrastinate so I guess I'll get TWO hours of something I am not nuts about doing that has stalled out. My quilting "stall out" will be binding for one hour---I am setting the watch!

See what Judy has in mind for her "hour a day" plan soon I guess------three hours a day spoken for??