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