Cooking up a storm - and what to do when the dog eats your quilt!

When I cook, I like to make a BIG AMOUNT, so I don't have to cook again for several days.  It saves a lot of time! I call it "cooking up a storm", and there was a storm in my kitchen on Monday night.  First, I made a big batch of Salsa Chicken (you can find the recipe here).  The original recipe calls for couscous, but we like it with brown rice.  Also, as you can see, the cook enjoyed a lovely margarita, too!

I needed to bring a salad to work on Tuesday, so I made a double recipe of Summer Tortellini Salad (recipe here).  Quick, easy, and really delicious!

So, this is our favorite couch quilt, and one of our dogs decided to see how it tasted, leaving several chew holes.  What to do? I found this fabric in my stash - an old Alexander Henry with these gorgeous leaves - that I thought blended rather well with the quilt. A few minutes and some zigzag stitching, and the quilt was ready for more service on the couch.

Back side of quilt, had to patch both sides of course.

Another successful patch!

Tumbler quilt done, first finish of 2014

First finish of 2014! So much love and anticipation was sewed into this baby quilt (sorry picture is so dark, it was quite overcast).  My nephew, Nathan, and his wife, Miranda, are expecting their baby in mid-May, and the shower is this coming Saturday! I won't be able to attend, as they live in Virginia, so I wrapped it carefully and sent if off today via UPS.  Fingers crossed for a safe journey!
I had an idea of what type and color fabrics I wanted, but I had trouble finding them at my LQS.  Several that I bought turned up finding a home on my stash shelf, but not in the quilt, and others from my stash joined the new fabrics just purchased.  

Here you see my starting point - the new fabrics purchased, and my inspiration: two quilts made by a blogger friend in Sweden, Margreth! "It's a small world, indeed!"  Check out her lovely blog here.  

My original plan was to add a wide border of all white, but I ended up just using tumblers and sashing.  I found the free pattern, here. While the pattern calls for both horizontal and vertical sashing, I used vertical only, similar to Margreth's gorgeous pink quilt.  

One little tip - as you sew your tumblers to your sashing strips, make sure to alternate them - wide at the top, narrow at the top, and so on.  You need units of both shapes as you assemble the quilt.  You also need to leave at least one inch of white sashing between your blocks, so that when you press your seam to one side, and rotary cut your segments apart, you will be able to make your cuts accurately.  The directions in the link are very clear and detailed.

All pin basted, ready for my machine quilting.  I had a piece of Hobbs Heirloom Wool batting, and I must say, I loved it! It quilted easily, and has a lovely soft draft and nice loft, too.  Another thing I noticed, as I had it on my lap, hand sewing the binding...wool batting is toasty warm!  After it was all done, I machine washed, gentle cycle, and tumble dried on low just a bit, then air dried to finish.  

This high chair goes way back in my family - my children, me, my mom, and my grandma, too.  

This child's rocker just might be my most prized possession - golden oak, hand-caned seat, and it was my grandma Myrtle's when she was a little girl, around the turn of the century.

GREATFUL!

Scott's birthday cards. Scott got lots of attention, cards, gifts and facebook messages. He loves attention! 

Does he look 64? What a great guy!

Tumble quilt is basted, ready for quilting. Baby shower is soon! (great niece or nephew) Happy event, fun project for a cold, snowy weekend.

More snow this weekend - are we grateful for that?

As much as people complain about our long, cold and snowy winter, I guarantee - spring is on the way!

Mug Rug Photo Shoot!

Santa's elves were busy right up until Christmas Eve, making a mug rug for everyone who opens gifts here on Christmas morning.  It was a fun project for me during the busyness of the holiday season, and it was fun watching everyone pull them out of their Christmas stockings.

I got the idea from a blogger friend Kelly, over at pinkadot quilts, who had a great tutorial on making cute but simple mug rugs - you can see it here.

I decided to make each mug rug somehow personal and different.  This is for Emily, in pretty blue scraps (all mug rugs were made from my scrap bin, including the backings...did I even need to say that?).
I wish I had posed all of them for a group shot on Christmas morning, didn't think of it. Pretty soon everyone had taken theirs home, or to their offices, so I had to beg for some posed photos.

Genevieve's arty glamour shot, I love it! They have a lovely view of a forest preserve from their apartment. Her mug rug was vibrant reds, with some dogs (they have two pups) and some hearts.

This one belongs to Matt, Emily's boyfriend.  I had previously made him some coasters of these earthy batik prints, and he loved them, so more batiks showed up on his mug rug.

Here is Nick's - Nick is Genevieve's boyfriend, and I chose red, white, and blue for him because (a) he was born on the 4th of July, and because (b) he loves Captain America! Love this photo too.

Scott's mug rug - you'd think it would be easy for me to get a photo of Scott's, but he had taken it to his office, where he uses it every day.  He brought it home so I could snap some photos.  I chose brown prints for Scott - coffee colors, his favorite color and beverage!

Danny, Hannah's boyfriend, love the Chicago White Sox, so I chose black prints (you always wear black to a Sox game!), and did some fancy stitching in red, to mimic that done on a baseball. This one was fun.

Hannah's cute mug rug - I tried to include soft, Hannah-like colors in hers.  Also, the strip of a heart print in the center was also used in a Valentine quilt I made for her.
There you have it, 7 mug rugs completed in about 2-3 days, right before Christmas.  I guess I usually work best under pressure!

More snow! and a sewing play date!

Lucky us, we are getting more snow today - they say, 6-10 inches by the time it's done. This morning, we woke up to about 2 inches, so Scott wanted to clear it off right away, especially the sidewalks.  That Minnesota blood (our homeland) runs deep, must keep those walks clear! That's Minnesota pride!

Doggies watching and waiting until Dad comes back inside.  Or, maybe they are supervising?

I must work this morning (piano teaching), but then I get to play this afternoon! Bought some new fabric this week, for a tumbler pattern baby quilt (my nephew and his wife are due in May, so exciting!).  Not sure if the stripe and other prints on the right will play nicely with the others I just purchased...may search my stash for others as well.  Gotta love a scrap quilt!  But - I don't have a tumbler ruler, so I drafted a pattern with paper, ruler, and pencil, and cut a template from template plastic! I really had to search for that, bet I haven't touched it in over a decade. (note, the quilt photos above are from another blog, quiltstudio22, her work is lovely!)

I also might work on this project - this is just a teaser, don't want to show the whole thing as I am almost done! This project has been a long-time brewing...started summer of 2012, I think.  I can see the finish line, though, so stay tuned!
It's a new year, and a new month, and I have challenged myself to blog on a more regular basis.  Good luck to me!

Erica and Dan's Wedding!

We were fortunate to attend 4 weddings this summer! Erica and Dan (above) had a huge, traditional church wedding, followed by a lovely reception with all the bells and whistles.  Erica has a huge family, and I think they were all there!  Dan is the brother of Matt, who is my daughter, Emily's, boyfriend. Dan and Matt have a very small family, and because of that, we were treated like family all day.  We sat in the second row in the church, right behind Dan and Matt's dad and uncles.

Matt was Dan's best man, and did a great job.  Emily looked stunning her her deep teal lacy dress - and I can't believe it but I helped her do her hair! The wedding planner at the church said she got the "best dressed" award for the day. Incidentally, they are both beautiful inside, too. :)

Not a great picture, I know, but this was Matt delivering his Best Man speech.  He spent a lot of time writing it - it was really personal and meaningful.  You can see how lovely the room was, too.  And as "family members", we were right by the head table, too!

Emily and Scott, looking cute!

Matt and me, right after we shared a special dance.
It was a great day!

Beautiful Wedding...on a Budget, and in a few weeks!

It CAN be done! The groom, Stuart, is the son of dear friends, and he is also a former piano student of mine.  Stu met his love, Tatjana, while they were both working on a cruise ship on the Mediterrean Sea.  A long-distance romance continued after the cruise job was over, they got engaged, and were married in just a few weeks' time! Tatjana is from Croatia, so there were immigration issues, and time was a factor. Bottom line is - you CAN throw a perfectly lovely backyard wedding, on a budget, on short notice.  Love their sweet flower girl, throwing rose petals, leading in the bride and groom.

The happy couple, coming down the aisle to get married.  They had white chairs and white tents set up, which was a good thing - it was a slightly cool, drizzly day, but no one seemed to mind.  It was such a happy day!

They exchanged their vows under another white tent, complete with the candle lighting ceremony.  A couple things you could not see:  the wedding was being skyped to her family in Croatia (there's a laptop on a table just to the right in the picture), and there was beautiful, live jazz music being played throughout the day, by a jazz combo just inside the house.  Stu is a professional jazz musician, so we were treated to great music.
A friend/neighbor catered the event with delicious food, the wine was flowing, smiles all around.  Congratulations Stu and Tatjana!