Friday Feature Card

Good Evening Internet Friends.

Have fallen behind on not only my crafting but blogging of late, and honestly, can't see that ending soon...

Alas, I had a few minutes to myself this evening, so I picked up where I left off several weeks ago and attempted to finish this set of cards from my August Paper Pumpkin set!

Here is what I did :

Now, off to bed as have a day full of my son's activities tomorrow and I'm working more overtime.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Work In Progress Wednesday

I have decided to participate in Work in Progress Wednesday over at The Needle and Thread Network.

I started this project late last night when for some reason I could not sleep:

It's a child's quilt pattern and kit that I picked up last fall at Prairie Points Quilt Shop.  I love this quilt store and the hour drive is always worth the time.  

All the individual pieces are sewn together, now just to sew the rows!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Completed!!!

Good Evening Internet Friends!

Late yesterday evening just after 200 hours I finished:

It's huge in size, and I am very proud of getting this done.  I ended up doing this whole quilt using rotary cutting methods because I have never received the die cutter I ordered at the start of this project back in November 2013 ? : }!!!

The colorway for this quilt is from the Dowager Countess of Grantham (she is my favorite character, I just love her wit and sarcasm) fabric.  The quilt pattern is from the Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along that have been participating in since November 2013!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Star Wars Birthday Cupcakes!

Today we are celebrating my husband's ?? (can't tell you the number) birthday.

Our son decided that daddy should have a home made cake just like him because bought cakes are not good!

While at Bulk Barn yesterday we found Star Wars cupcake wrappers and these cake toppers and my son decided that is what we needed for daddy's cake because daddy is a HUGE fan (I still don't get it, allegedly is something of our generation, but I still can't follow it > : ?  ).

Here is what we made:

We have black sparkly candles for these too!

Now, as you know I finished (mostly) a quilt top last night.

As of this afternoon, this is what it has become:

Cat Nap Approved by Hello Kitty! 

Great cat fur on a quilt yet to be completed and not sure how to explain the hair that will likely be on it by the time it gets to the long arm quilter.....

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Sort of Done...

Good Evening Internet Friends.

As many of you will know I have been working on PQM's Cracked Pots Mystery Quilt for the last six months.

As of late this evening, I have finished all of the piecing of blocks and the assembly.  Take a look:

I will add a green border around the entire quilt yet before I put on the borders.  I have chosen to do the borders a little differently this time due to the fabric I originally purchased for the border.  I bought a very directional fabric and to make this quilt look "Top Drawer", I have had to find additional fabric.  Thank goodness for the internet because I was able to locate the amount of fabric I needed to complete this project somewhere in Tennessee, and it has been shipped out to me.  YAY.  

Now off to try and get my other big project finished so that I can really feel like I got something done this weekend!!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Work In Progress Wednesday

Good Evening Internet Friends!!

I'm back!!  I have been delinquent on my blogging over the past few days (got hives from something I ate at a restaurant this last weekend, and had to make a trip to my local emergency department for a migraine that would NOT get better yesterday !!!).

I am going to participate in the Work In Progress Wednesday  over at The Needle and Thread Network because it pushes me to get "stuff" done.

I am trying to finish my Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along and I think that I might be closing in on that:

This quilt is huge, so even on the queen size spare bed it does not show up all the blocks.  I think I will have to take it outside to the frozen lawn when I am all done, as each of the corners has a set of blocks that all "tell" the story that this quilt is based on!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

 

Kathy

What's For Lunch?

Pizza!!!

It's Family Day today, and we had friends here for the weekend.  Today before they ventured home I made pizza for lunch along with a salad (pushing vegetables any way I can), and the pizza is cheese with veggies!

I tried this Pizza Dough out once before and it turned out FABULOUS, so it is now my default pizza dough recipe!

Hope you have had a safe and wonderful family day, and 

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Pancake Sunday

Since today is part of the long weekend, I decided to make pancakes this morning. 

These Farm Favorite Oatmeal Pancakes turned out fantastic and definitely were what could be referred to as "stick to your ribs"!  Yummy, I will make these again.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Almost There

Good Evening Internet Friends!

I spent some time this evening finishing up my Block 6 of the Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along.

Here is where I am at:

 My plan is to get this quilt finished before this weekend is over!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Work In ProgressWednesday

Hello Internet Friends!

I decided to participate in the Work In Progress Wednesday again over at The Needle and Thread Network.

I was actually hoping to have this sock done, but I still have to graft the toe:

 This is actually my November Yarn from my Sock Yarn of the Month Club from Sweet Georgia Yarns.

One sock done, one more to go!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Quilting On...

Alright, so I managed to get my second of four from  Block 6 from my Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along done tonight.

Usually I chain piece so that I complete all the blocks at the same time, but since I made the first one of these as a "test" block to make sure I was doing it right, I have not been able to get into the mechanics of getting all of the blocks put together at once, so I am apparently completing them one at a time.

Allow me to introduce you to two of my Block 6:

TAH DAH!!!

I LOVE the colors of these blocks.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Carrying On...

Good evening Internet Friends!!! 

Last evening I decided to cut out the pieces for Block 6 of my Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along.  I should probably tell you that several people have not only finished their quilts, but have even got them quilted and the bindings on and I am still at Block 6!!

I will console myself that these people a) have nothing better to do, b) do not have full time jobs, c) likely have die cutters as I have rotary cut mine and let me tell you that is not an easy task to make sense of that, or d) all of the above!

I made one block tonight (usually I chain piece my blocks to save thread wastage), to make sure that I was doing this block correctly and it measures perfectly, so now I can make the other three.  The last block will be super easy and maybe I can finish this quilt this weekend!!

Here is my first block, I need to press the seams a little better:

Yay for me!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Quilt Update

Hello Internet Friends.  I am breathing much easier than usual even in my "bubble" as a new humidifier has been added to the furnace.  It however uses enough electrical wattage (? not sure) that when operational I cannot sew, iron, turn on the light, and the extra heater in the craft room!  

This afternoon I was able to do some quilting since the sun was shining.  Here is what I got:

As you can see Hello Kitty also approves of this quilt and has settled in for an afternoon nap!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Slow Progress...

I am on the final steps (I think/hope) of my PQM Cracked Pots Mystery Quilt.

This evening I sewed together another 7 blocks completing now four out of eight rows for this quilt.

Here is a small sample of what I have completed so far:

My hope is that by the end of the weekend I will have all rows assembled and in a perfect world I will even have the inner and outer borders on!   HAHAHAHAHAHA

We'll have to see what happens ; )

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Work in Progress Wednesday

Good Evening Internet Friends!  I am going to participate in the Work In Progress Wednesday again this week!

As some of you may know I tend to dive head long in to projects and then it seems to take me a while to get them done.

Hence today's project, and probably a few more over the next few days.  I have decided to get all those partly finished quilts, and by partly finished I mean quilt tops done, but I have been too lazy to get the backings on and get them ready to go to the long arm quilter.

This past weekend, along with all my "mom" activities and working evenings over time, I did manage to get some of this accomplished, but because of work have neglected my blog.  I will also admit that I do not recuperate from shift work like I did when I first started nursing almost 20 years ago!  WOW. That makes me feel OLD!!!  

Anyways, here is one of the quilts that I completed:

The horizontal fabric strips were picked up a couple of years ago at The Chicken Coop in the metropolis of Mundare, Alberta.  There are two reasons to stop in this town: first of course the quilt store, second the bakery in town has poppy seed buns, these buns of course are NO comparison to the ones back home, but they come close and are not nine hours away ; )

The outer green border was picked up this past weekend at Prairie Points Quilt Shop in Ponoka, Alberta on my road trip.

The backing for this quilt is flannel Strawberry Shortcake (but old school, because that is what my dollies are) that I bought at Glacier Quilts on a ski trip a couple years back.  Can't wait til March when we will be there again (skiing of course ; )

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Amazing Bread!!!

Yesterday was Sunday (brilliant comment I know), and that meant time for me to make bread for lunches this week.  Originally I planned on making rye bread because I thought I still had some ground rye flour in the freezer, but alas apparently I used it!!

So what should have been rye bread turned into a mixed multi-grain bread, and it is SUPER delicious.  

Here's how it turned out:

I of course used my new (ish) mixer and it worked fantastic.

Here's the recipe:

1 3/4 cuts hot water

2 tbsps canola oil

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup molasses

- turn mixer with dough hook on to medium speed, and when sides of bowl are no longer hot add:

1 cup whole grain flour

1 tbsp yeast

-let mix for a minute of two and then begin adding flour.

You will need somewhere between 5 -6 cups flour before dough no longer sticks to sides and is only on the dough hook.

Continue to mix with dough hook for another 8 minutes.

Let rest until doubled in size, punch down and then form 2 loaves from the dough.

Let rise again, and then bake at 350F for about 20 - 25 minutes.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Plugging along slowly...

Well, maybe more like inching along.

I started my Downton Abbey Mystery Quilt Along back in November!!

As of today I can proudly say that I have both Block 5's completed!!!

YAY for me!!!

Learning to use the Equivalent Die Notation System while I am a rotary cutter girl, has proved seriously challenging, and just about the time I think I have figured it out, the system throws another curve at me.  I will either learn it or hate it for the rest of my life, not sure which as of yet!

Block 5 proved to be a challenge for me and just when I thought I had got the hang of it I found out that I had not and so had to take two almost completed blocks TOTALLY apart!!!!

Here they are though, all properly done:

Now on to Block 6, almost done the quilt and hopefully not too many more mistakes in my future with this.

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy

Road Trip !!!

Today was one of those days that you just knew would be perfect for a road trip!

The temperature was right, not too warm not too cold, so I washed the car and off we went to Ponoka, Alberta.  The purpose of the trip; Prairie Points Quilt Shop.

The road was excellent for driving, and it looks like spring just might be on it's way....

The sun was out, and the snow looked beautiful!

Of course I got fabric, lots of it (hehehehehehe), here is what I got for my newest mystery quilt I am going to participate in:

I think it will be pretty!

Hope this inspires your own creativity...

Kathy