I can be adaptable too

First day of working towards goals was easy, 2nd day a curveball came my way but like Jeanne says "I can be adaptable". I did my study chapter and printed off the third one so I am ready for today. ( It is much easier for me to refer to NOT on the computer screen. Hard copy lets me highlight and mark down the answers to the test questions as I work too.)

I was working on the binding project as well and was up to about the half done mark. Then the phone rang--twice. First was the prez of the Home Extension group that I serve as treasurer with a question I could not immediately answer without some digging. Okay, that was taken care of rather quickly.

Second, Oren had Betsy's Christmas quilt 2 back from the long arm quilter and I had told him when he picked up the top that I would finish up the binding and labeling. No problem---I'll be home; come out when you are ready. The problem was that I could not find the binding I had cut and pressed but I did have plenty leftover yardage if I had to do it again. I had initially thought that perhaps I had sent it with him to the long armer but as soon as he dropped it off, I knew I better look again. Sure enough, buried in the basket in the area I thought it was but until I got it off the shelf, couldn't see it. That was a relief--the re-do will "kill ya". I got most of it on before I had to prepare supper. I knew this was coming but not knowing the long armer's back log, I didn't know when.

For those who do not know and are new to the ring, I was asked to complete this quilt for a member of our quilt group who had passed away. Betsy had made one already and given it to one son. The one I am showing was to go to the other son and his famly. She had roughly the top half of the quilt together and some loose blocks to add below. I pieced or appliqued a good bit of the lower half. This link will take you to a picture of her first one Betsy's Christmas quilt 1 . The link above will take you to a closer up shot of the quilt--sorry I should have edited this one first in Picassa.

The patterns came from Oxmoor House as a Block of the Month packet sort of deal--an appliqued block and a pieced block, two packets at a time as I recall. Yep, I had the book too and that made me the logical choice to finish up the job. I totally re-designed mine though to accomodate no spacers and set in seams the church looks more like a building than a store front, etc, etc. I only have the top row done on mine though.

The long armer did a nice all over meander and some outlining with a warm toned tan thread---that choice looks good everywhere but on the Santa redwork and the Santa face, in my opinion. The same one had quilted several of Betsy's quilts and had done some of the collaborative work for the publication's "Other quilts and projects" sections. Logical choice then. I would have just done something very, very basic with my limited abilities in that department.

SO it turned out that my working on something Christmas yesterday was NOT my own project. No biggie. It is more important to me that Russell, Janna and the kids have this in their home to enjoy this Christmas. Oren will be going out to visit them later in the month and can hand deliver it. This will be my binding project--and for more than the hour each day too.

I had to laugh last night---I had headed to my bedroom early last night to watch TV and decided to pick up my sweater left front to knit as I watched--just easy K 1, P1 ribbing at this point. DJ came in at 10 and said "What are you doing? You're a quilter, not a knitter! We are not on vacation!" Well of course, I am but I can wear more than one hat and do more than one craft. He DOES have a point. One trip back to IL I made him a set of golf club covers--last year most of a sweater back.

One other thing---a correction on my post yesterday or was it the day before. The pattern source of the balloons in my SIL's hot air balloon wallhanging shown HERE is from Electric Quilt, not the Sew Precise software. Both quilt software are made by the same company and there are some there. I misunderstood what she had told me.

And so it goes in my little corner of Alabama, USA

Saturday--goal setting and so forth

Goal setting and meeting of said goals--small steps and Daily Threads, like Hanne . No pics today--sorry!

Three hours or so assigned tasks done yesterday:

• one chapter read and self exam taken on nursing CEU. I'm already done with that for today as well---6 more chapters to do
• 40 inches of binding and label done but I worked on this for more like 2 hours
• cat fabric and companion prints cut into a "Leap Frog" Top--like that green EQ sketch in my previous post

Today, I will again bind for an hour. I am also going to take a look at an old Santa applique piece that I had originally started light years ago as Christmas present for one of my SIL's and see what the hold up was with it. Vicky said at one point that she did the first weekend's sewing on a holiday project. I'll take on that challenge and see what I can do towards getting a UFO moved along. Might sew on the cat quilt or might not.

Not that I would advise baking pie in the dead heat of summer but here is the recipe I used yesterday. I have seen others with sour cream or vanilla pudding in them to cut the cloying sweetness of a typical pecan pie. This is the first time I tried this one and my husband was making "mmmmmm" noises. He loves my mashed potatoes so much that he was almost doing the same thing with those, LOL.

PECAN CREAM PIE
The pie will split into 3 layers---nuts on top, cream in the middle and the typical syrup textured layer goes to the bottom.

8 ounces cream cheese ( 1/3 less fat Neufchatel is fine) -- softened

1/3 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 egg

1 9 inch deep dish unbaked pie crust

1 1/4 cups chopped pecans


TOPPING
1/4 cup sugar

2 teaspoons flour

3 eggs -- lightly beaten

1 cup light corn syrup

1 teaspoon vanilla


DIRECTIONS
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Blend the cream cheese, 1/3 C sugar, salt, vanilla and egg. Spoon into a pie crust and sprinkle the pecans on top.

For the topping, combine the sugar and flour and mix well. Add to the beaten eggs along with the corn syrup and vanilla. Mix well, Gently pour this mixture over the pecans.

Bake for about 55 minutes or until the top is golden brown and set in the center. Allow to cool completely before slicing. Refrigerate leftovers.

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??

a typical summer day

Doesn't Pippi look about how I feel? By this time the air was on as well as the ceiling fan but she still had about every inch of her body exposed to any stray breeze coming her way.

I had hoped to have gotten my SIL Jan's hot air balloon wall hanging quilted in July but that didn't happen. I think I will extend July by another week---if Hanne can do that, then so can I, LOL. Actually it had been my goal list for the past two months. And, I made the goal, so I can revise it---and did. It is a gift for a September birthday in her family so time to "git 'er done".

I stitched in the ditch and free motioned meandered around the balloons in the border. My free motion is not as tight as it once was and there does not seem to be any toe nail catchers--the pace is going better. I am just not as confident in my abilities in that area. It's the actually staring at the cloth and wondering which way to squiggle that gets me. I don't draw and even drawing aimless squiggles that appear like a classic loss meander would not be in my nature. Think there is any hope for me? Not that I have any desire to all over free motion any quilt--that weighs the batting down too much and makes the quilt feel like an army blanket in my opinion. I like 'em fluffier if it's on my bed.

I started quilting the Revamped Medallion that I showed you in a previous post after I finished up with Jan's balloons. I got a goodly amount of it finished too--really just 3 sides of the flying geese on the 3rd border are left to go. I did the ditch stitching at center BUT those super huge tan and blue HST's are going to have to have something else there. Bite the bullet and more free motion??? Cross hatch? I am going to ponder that one for awhile as I work.

Pam asked me in IM what I thought I would work on next. HMMMMM. Good question. There is never a shortage of things that I could do--tons of UFO's both personal and for the kids. Lots of things already cut and kitted up. There is some binding but I am never nuts about doing that--save that for the quilt meeting next week so I won't have to drag my machine. Still debating about handquilting my 30's sampler--could try that even.

BUT like I told Norma , my brain needs the reward of the new and challenging rather than a UFO or kit that I already visited and set aside. I have procrastinated doing said UFO long enough that it inspires some guilt on my part--not always enough to make me want to work on it, however. It antiques some more.

SO perhaps the Cat fabric that Linda S gave me will finally find a way into a quilt "for me"--the stipulation she made when she made the gift. Or the butterfly fabric that I passed out as a group challenge will get cut and stitched into the quilt I have been considering. All up to me but it is coming out of the stash, regardless.

Special quilt and Watergate cake

Now that I know Pat has received her quilt, I can post a picture of it here. I had my doubts that it was ever going to get to her since it had been on a three week odyssey.

Our friend Pat is a Louisiana girl (sorry Vicky and Judy L not sure of just where but I believe around Baton Rouge) who has lived various places in the Southeast and Southwest in her married life. She moved in right across the street from our friend Betsy--a weaver AND a quilter. We welcomed her into the group but she told us that she could never be a "Bama" anything---it was okay as it was just a silly, alliterative name to distinguish us from the other groups who make quilts for Wrap Them In Love.

They had decided to relocate back to New Mexico and had been out there since December 05. In the intervening months the Belles and I made the blocks, I assembled it, a longarmer quilted it, Ada finished the hand binding. Then I had to wait for some Bubble Jet set to prep the label and round up a box to mail it. Finally got my ducks in a row and mailed it out. Wouldn't you know that the day after I sent the box on its merry way to Santa Fe, she surprised us at the meeting 3 weeks ago? The mail was all being forwarded to her daughter's about an hour from here so it had to make the return trip. Had I known she was coming, we could have just handed it to her--but we enjoyed that surprise as much as we hope she did hers. I told you about Sarah dropping everthing she was carrying just to go give Pat a hug when she realized who had just said "hello" to her--it was priceless.

Watergate Cake---sorry that I didn't explain that better. The recipe is from back in the 70's (when the Washington scandal and subsequent hearings took place here in the States) so I guess I thought everybody knew what it was. More or less a pistachio flavored white cake with a whipped topping rather than frosting. Pretty and soft green in color and light for summer.

Watergate Cake with Cover Up Frosting

1- 18 1/4 oz.box plain white cake mix (NOT pudding in the mix)

1- 3.4 oz. box instant pistachio pudding mix

3/4 cup vegetable oil

1 cup ginger ale, or club soda or 7-up or Mountain Dew

3 large eggs


COVER UP FROSTING

1-3.4 oz. box instant pistachio pudding mix

1 1/2 cups milk (I use slightly less and a bit more pudding mix so it is a little
stiffer before the cool whip is added)

1-8 oz. container frozen whipped topping, thawed

Directions:
Place a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly mist a 13 x 9-inch pan with vegetable oil, then dust with flour. Shake out the excess flour. Set the pan aside.

Place cake mix, pudding mix, oil, ginger ale (or other liquid of your choice) and eggs into a large mixing bowl. Blend with an electric mixer on low speed for 1 minute. Stop the machine and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Increase the mixer speed to medium and beat 2 minutes more, scraping down the sides again if needed. The batter should look well blended. Pour the batter into the prepared pan, smoothing the top with the rubber spatula. Place the pan in the oven. Bake the cake until it springs back when lightly pressed with your finger, 35 to 40 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool completely, 30 minutes or more.

Meanwhile, prepare COVER UP FROSTING by using the ingredients above and the following directions: Whisk pudding mix and milk together in a large mixing bowl. I t should thicken up but not set, from 2 to 3 minutes. Gently fold in whipped topping. Spread the top with frosting. You can sprinkle toasted nuts over the top, if desired. Store, covered, in the refrigerator.

I have to tell a story on my husband. When he was a small boy and was asked what kind of cake he wanted for his birthday, he just said "green" thinking that green should taste like something--lime, mint, pistachio, any green type flavor that might invoke. He was disappointed when it was just tinted buttercream frosting. I guess he gets "green cake" every once in a while as an adult.

Finally got the miles of binding prepped yesterday between playing on the computer and home errands. Today my goals are to get it applied to Fleeta's little panel top and quilt my SIL hot air balloon wallhanging. The only other pinned WTIL top I will have is Betsy's revamped top which is going to the boy's home anyway--it can wait. I believe that my machine needs to go into the shop for some cleaning/servicing after this last one is quilted. Historically, they will have it for about 3 weeks time so I can get back in piecing mode while it is gone. There are many things that I would like to piece and most can be done on the Jem with time to spare for the round robin due in September. I was reading Sharyn Craig's Great Sets last night and getting a few ideas towards some of these piecing challenges involving butterflies, toads, cats and 16 patches. Since I was having a hard time sleeping last night for a variety of reasons, I almost wished that I could spend those 2 plus wakeful hours pulling fabric, LOL. (I made up for it and slept in till 9 because DJ was off to the golf course)

Off to see what you all are up to------ 

Last day of the month

View looking down the lane

I told DJ that I should get a picture of how pretty our crape myrtle bushes looks this year. I don't think we have ever had that many blooms on the pink one in particular or the smaller white bush. The red ones are my favorite but that one is still getting established. It was pretty small when we moved here in 97 and needed to be staked up as it was growing quite crookedly. It makes us both smile to see how well that white one is doing since we reclaimed it from the kudzu vine that acts like a hedge on the edge of the hill. I wish you could see the lake beyond the tall trees along side the street you see but maybe this fall-winter as the undergrowth dies back. DJ was out hacking at bush he was trying to remove but I didn't get the "bent over bottom" in this shot---like those old wooden "yard butt" things that people used to stick in their yards, as my friend Robin called them, LOL. Her MIL used to paint those things.

Outside looking in

As I was coming back up the yard, I could not resist taking a picture of that little kitty face looking out from her perch. The holly bushes could use some cutting back or she won't have a view much longer.

No sewing yet today and I never did get around to doing anything of that nature yesterday. BUT my house is clean and why not enjoy that a little longer. In the afternoon I made a Watergate cake and supper, read for a bit and then decided to pull out my knitting. I started last year as my carry on the plane project and haven't much touched it since. After just an hour or two I got the back finished up and the starts of a front panel.

So my grocery errands were run this morning and I threw a pasta salad together for our evening meal. It is so hard to know what shop for when you don't want to heat up the kitchen or don't feel much like cooking, let alone eating it.

At lunch today, I told my husband that I thought I would put half of the cake in the freezer. He loves his desserts so he said "Why would you do that? I might die tomorrow and I sure don't want to go to heaven cake-less" What a goofball! He is is not crazy about me making a pie or something and giving it away or taking it off to a quilt meeting. It's his, by golly and he is not always assured of leftovers if shared at a potluck or whatever.

Guess that binding is not going to get sewn with a wiggle of my nose---darn it. The Binding Fairy must be hanging out with the Merry Maid and both are playing hookey.

one word

Since I don't have much to say and the only thing quilty I will probably get done today is making binding and then sewing some down, I'll do the One Word MeMe floating around the ring.

The house is all cleaned up since I mopped up the kitchen floor but now my shoulders and arms are protesting the hand scrubbing involved in THAT process. I think they are trying to tell me "what do you mean, tossing a quilt around, when we are already sore!?"

So without further ado---

One Word for
1. Yourself: caring
2. Your partner: goofy
3. Your hair: auburn
4. Your Mother: loving
5. Your Father: loving
6. Your Favorite Item: computer
7. Your dream last night: interrupted
8. Your Favorite Drink: iced tea (oops that two)
9. Your Dream Home: impossible
10. The Room You Are In: sewing
11. Your pleasure: quilting
12. Your fear: heights
13. Where you Want to be in Ten Years? home
14. Who you hung out with last night: DJ
15. What You're Not: patient
16. Your Best Friends: dear
17. One of Your Wish List Items: airfare
18. Your Gender: female
19. The Last Thing You Did: baked
20. What You Are Wearing: shortset
21. Your favorite weather: sunny
22. Your Favorite Book? mystery
23.Last thing you ate? sub
24. Your Life: fulfilling
25. Your mood: lowkey
26. The last person you talked to on the phone: Linda S
27. Who are you thinking about right now? Pippi

Hope you are having a good weekend-------