Getting Closer to the Finish Line!

Woohoo! Amelia's lap quilt (using "Amelia" fat quarters) is very close to getting put all together! I'm so excited!! I worked from home yesterday as it was snowing pretty good in the morning and then turned to freezing rain/rain (we are dealing with ice-covered driveways and roads this morning). Since I was home, once I got done with work, I turned around and decided to do some sewing (my sewing machine is right behind my desk). I worked on the blocks for Punkie's quilt. On my new sewing machine too. Very nice. Oh! I want to thank Sinta (no blog) for sending me her Amelia fabric "scraps"... scraps to her, extra fabric for me. Worked out very well. I had enough fabric and then some to finish my blocks and I didn't have to get into the fabric I have set aside for a matching pillow case. Thank you Sinta!

The blocks are done! I even started laying it out but I only got three rows figured out before I was discovered by Punkie, my little helper who was desperate to help Mama out. She hung around for a bit but I packed it up so that I can do it in peace and concentrate. I think I will actually have the blocks all pieced together this weekend! Very excited! Then I can figure out the yardage for the border, binding and backing.

It's going be very pretty once it's all put together. I love how it was looking when it was laid out on the floor... I need a design wall. Hmmmmm, I'll stick the idea on my gift list for my husband.

Enjoy your day!

Jen

Quilt Pattern using both Fat Quarters and Charms...

Know of any? I'm sure I can come up with my own "design" but I'm not confident enough (yet). I bought, I should say my husband bought (late christmas present), the Darla fat quarters for me and I also got the charm squares for Oh-Cherry-Oh!. I want to use both these fabric lines in a lap quilt (or bigger) for myself because I just love them! But I don't have a pattern that uses both fat quarters and a charm pack.

So? Any body out there got any ideas?? Know of a nice (read - SIMPLE) pattern that I can do to utilize both in one quilt??

Jen

Diet Challenge Update - Week 3

I'm down a pound. But I think it's the same pound that I tend to gain and then lose again. So I'm not thrilled. I need to do something better, something different. I've been going to the gym a couple times a week when my schedule lets me but maybe I need to do a little Wii Fit or something on the days I can't make it. Sigh.

Moving along... here are some dessert recipes that Sharon gave us for our "homework" this week. LOL.

Vanilla Pound Cake

Serves: 12

Points: 5

1 spray(s) cooking spray
2 large egg(s)
3 large egg white(s)
2 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp almond extract
8 oz light cream cheese
3 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 1/3 cup(s) sugar
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp table salt
1 3/4 cup(s) all-purpose flour

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Coat a 9-inch loaf pan with cooking spray.
In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs, egg whites, vanilla extract and almond extract; set aside.
In a large mixing bowl, using an electric mixer, beat together cream cheese and butter until blended. Beat in sugar, baking powder and salt until blended. Beat in flour and egg mixture, little by little, beginning and ending with flour.
Pour batter into prepared loaf pan and bake until a wooden toothpick inserted in center of cake comes out clean, about 55 to 65 minutes.
Cool cake in pan on a wire rack. Cut into 12 slices and serve. Yields 1 slice per serving.

Add some berries and maybe a dash of whipped cream... YUMMY!

Chocolate Chip Meringue Cookies

2 points per serving

Serves: 12

1 spray cooking spray - flour variety

1 tsp all purpose flour

4 large egg whites

1 cup sugar

1/2 cup mini chips

1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat oven to 2oo degrees

2. Coat large baking sheet with cooking spray and dust with flour. Shake off excess - or skip that piece and just put down parchment paper. That's what I do.

3. In a large mixing bowl, beat egg whites with electric mixer until soft peaks are formed. Gradually add sugar and beat until stiff, glossy peaks form; gently fold in chips and vanilla

4. Drop mixture by heaping tablespoon onto prepared baking sheet (if I want to get really fancy, I pipe them out using a large star tip) about an inch apart, making 24 cookies

5. Bake until lightly golden and no longer sticky on the surface, about 1 hour. Turn oven off and let cookies sit in the oven for another hour. Transfer to wire racks to cool completely.

If you want chewy cookies, bake the day before. These are really good!

After locating the meringue recipe, I really wanted to make some. Of course... no eggs in the house and I was too lazy to go out and get any!

I hope everyone did well this week with the challenge!

Enjoy your day!

Jen

Sew Some Love Swap Items Received!

The mailman left me some good mail yesterday! Kris (our swap leader) was my secret swap partner. How exciting!

She packaged everything up so cute... look at all those hearts.

I just LOVE the table topper! Can you see it under all the stuff? Now I have to clean my house so that I can display it on my table. And take a new picture so that you can really see it. No rest for me today. And the towel is oh so cute! I need to know where Kris got that nice waffle weave towel. I can't find anything like that over here. Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong place. I've been using regular kitchen terry towels to embellish but I like this one so much more. And she was nice enough to include Amelia and gave her some Play-Doh (Punkie loves play-doh!) and some cookie sprinkles and heart cookie cutters. We will be making some sugar cookies soon.

Thank you Kris!

My cousin and her family came to my mom's house to visit last night since we haven't seen each other in a while. Her little boy is getting so big and Punkie can't wait for him to get bigger so that they can play! I can't believe he's 4 months old already!

My cousin also came bearing gifts. She, her husband and baby boy went to the UK for Christmas to see his family. She brought me back some yummy fat quarters! I say yummy because they have cupcakes and sweets on them. I can't wait to pick out a pattern and make a lap quilt for myself out of them. Add another quilt to my ever growing list!

So, I am by myself today. Punkie spent the night at my mom's so she won't be home until later this afternoon. My husband left very early this morning to go snowmobiling in upper Vermont. He won't be home until Wednesday afternoon. Punkie and I are solo. But since I'm free, I don't know what to do... clean my house, veg in front of the TV with a movie or sew and watch a movie. Decisions, decisions! I'm sure I will sew since I don't get this kind of free time very often and I'll get a lot done. Maybe I'll start on Magoo for Punkie... I will finish my swap items! Or do I work on the quilt top for Amelia...?

Well, I better get started on something!

Enjoy your day! Thanks again Kris!

Jen

Recent Pattern Purchase...

I've been wanting these patterns for a while now so I broke down last week and ordered a few of them off my list from Treasured Threads.

First order of business is to make Magoo. I LOVE that little monkey! Has anyone out there made Magoo? I read the instructions about 4 times last night so that I'm familiar with what I'm getting into. I'm okay up until I get to putting Magoo all together. Of course, I'm not following along with fabric pieces, just in my head so that makes things a bit tougher. But of course, I'm still confused. What else is new? LOL. I'm sure I can always email Melly for tips and advice. I am envisioning a purple Magoo with pink shorts for Punkie. And I found the perfect fabric for it. And of course, I need to make one for myself. Not sure what color mine will be...

Of course I have a bunch of OTHER stuff that needs to get finished before I start on Magoo. Like Punkie's lap quilt. I keep staring at the finished blocks and they stare back saying "Finish us already!" So I think that's what I'll be working on this weekend. Punkie's lap quilt and my Valentine's Day swap items.

I also wanted to thank everybody for their thoughts on my fabric stash and how much to buy question. Seems like everyone is in the same frame of mind. If you love it, buy as much of it as your wallet will let you! I will keep everyone's suggestions in mind when I go shopping this afternoon at my LQS... they are having a sale. Can't pass that one up!

Enjoy your day!

Jen

Birthday Giveaway!

RachelJane is having a giveaway for her birthday. Why don't you go over, give her happy wishes and comment to be her in giveaway. I'm sure she would really like that!

Answer Me This...

I don't have a big fabric stash. I barely have scraps. I buy fabric with a purpose in mind right then and there. So, when I see fabric I really, really like but have no immediate plans for it and want to stash it away... how much do I buy?!

1/2 yard, 1 yard, 10 yards?? I'm curious to hear everyones answers to this question. I've talked to other sew/quilting people and they gave me their opinion. What do you do? Reason I ask is that I've seen lots of pretty fabric choices out there and I want to get some to keep and use at a later date in some sort of project but I have no idea how much to get to be "safe".

Can you give me some insight to my question?

Thanks!!
Enjoy your day!
Jen

Quick Monday Update

Nothing really new to report on the diet front. The only thing new I've done, or I should say purchases, was a new bathroom scale. I didn't think mine was working correctly - in my favor so I should have just left it alone. LOL.

Anyway, I think I'm down another couple ounces. Nothing great. I got some Christmas goodies (i.e. cookies!) as a gift on Thursday and I've been busy nibbling on them. Between my husband and I, they are almost gone. And Ihave been living off cold cereal for dinner the last couple of nights because my husband has been working.

So, that's it. No new recipes to report. Just a new scale.

Okay, dinner is in the oven. I have to check on it.

Enjoy your night!
Jen

Blogintine Giveaway

Lani is hosting a Be My Blogintine giveaway. Go and check it out. Great prizes to be had!

Finally Finished!

I finally finished sewing together the fleece for my god-daughter's birthday gift. I made her a fleece blanket and a coordinating pillowcase. No, I didn't use my new sewing machine; I didn't want to get it all linty. Her birthday was 2 weeks ago and I just dreaded sewing this blanket. Why? Because the one I did for Punkie didn't work out as well as I wanted it too. The fleece kept shifting even though my husband and I pinned the crap out of it. This one did the same thing! BUT after I had finished Punkie's, my husband said, "if you do any more, it would probably be a good idea to sew it on the floor. Keeps it all level." Yeah, yeah... moving along. What do you know.

Man, I HATE to admit he was right! My husband took Punkie to his parents house for about an hour this morning so that I can get the blanket done. Sewing it on the floor worked like a charm. No issues. I didn't have to fight with the fleece shifting or anything and I got it all sewn up in about 30 minutes. Now I like them (the blankets) again and will be making more for some inexpensive gifts to come this year. I have one more to do for next month, my god-son's and then I'm taking a break for a bit. I have the fleece for another blanket but the recipient's birthday isn't until August. I may just get it done just to have it done. We'll see. I still need to get the pillowcase fabric for the other two blankets. I really do like the sewn edges look better than the whole knotted business. I hope she likes it. I just have to package it up and get it in the mail this week. The green of the pillowcase is more of a limey green then what is in the blanket but they do look nice together.

I have been playing with my new sewing machine. I just LOVE it. So does Punkie. I think she was as excited as I was! LOL! I've been letting her sew on it. I work the foot petal and she moves the fabric around. Too cute.

That's all for now. Amelia is taking a nap so I'm going to take this break in the action to play on my sewing machine and finish up my swap items!

Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

Lookit! Lookit! LOOKIT!!!

I went into the store for thread. See? Two little spools of thread. Green and white.




And came home with THIS! OMG! I LOVE IT! And I haven't even set it all up yet! My husband is going to KILL ME! LOL!

Not really. He knows I bought A new sewing machine. But I didn't tell him which kind so when I came home with a DIFFERENT one today, he's none the wiser! ;)

To make a long and exciting story (at least for me) short... I went to my local sewing machine store for some thread and stood for a moment to admire the fancy sewing machines. I wanted a BabyLock Ellure Plus. The man came over and we talked about this and that. He was going to give a good price on the machine I wanted. I was thisclose to walking out of the store with it last night. But I stopped myself and said "Self, You need to talk to your husband first." So I did. I talked, I yelled, I cried... not really, just talked and he said I could get the machine if I really wanted it. YIPPPEEEEE!!!!

I worked from home today and around lunch time, drove back into town to get my machine. OUT OF STOCK! :( NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! I have a loooong weekend coming up! I have Monday off! I have PLANS! I want to SEW! I have Valentine's Day swap items to finish! I was sad. But because I ASKED the man last night if he had them in stock and he assured me he did WITHOUT checking, he sold me the Brother Innovis 1500D for a very nice price.

I'm happy! :) :) :) :)

More later once I set this baby up!

I'm DETERMINDED

to join in and make the Bunny Hill BOM. I've seen such pretty blocks out there! So last night, I stopped at Joann's for some beads for a project I'm working on and bought a book to help me better understand applique. I also picked up some very cute fabric that just came in for 50% off. Can't beat that. $6.99 a yard normally for half off? I'll take two! I compared the yardage I got from Joann's to yardage I purchased at my LQS for $9.00 a yard and truly, I don't see the difference in the more expensive fabric line that Joann's carries to the LQS one. I don't think I'm going to rule Joann's out all the time. Anything I can get on sale is worth it to me. On top of that, quilt shops in my area are few and far between. I have one 10 minutes from my house but it carries very traditional fabrics and I like more happy, whimsical stuff. That's where online shopping comes in handy but sometimes I want to get started NOW and not wait for mail to arrive.

ANNNYWAY...
I thought and thought and thought some more about the fabric I bought and scooted out to Joann's on my lunch hour and bought more! Lots more.

So, I picked up some fabric to throw in my very little fabric stash and I bought some for the Bunny Hill BOM - since I don't have much of a fabric stash to speak of yet. Lots of scraps but no real yardage.

I have everything but my background fabric. I haven't decided if I want to stick with one background fabric for every block or match/coordinate the background to the fabric colors in the applique. Either way, I got nothing yet. Hard decision to make since we don't know what the future blocks are going to look like. I'm going to think about it and go out this weekend to my LQS and pick something up. I'll see what strikes my fancy when I get there.

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

I'm a LOSER!

An almost 3 pound loser. Not bad. I'm happy. Could have done a *bit* better this weekend but I didn't go wild and crazy. My water intake this weekend wasn't what it really should be. Monday - Friday, I drink 100+ ounces of water a day because that's all I allow myself to drink and I'm sitting at my desk, working. So it's right in front of me. On the weekends, I'm out and about so I may sneak in a soda or juice here and there or not drink anything at all. I have to keep a special eye on that.

About 8 years ago, I lost 75 pounds on my own with diet and exercise and I kept it off until I had Punkie (darn "eating for two!"). I was a heavy soda (and NOT diet Coke) drinker back then. My first week dieting, I totally cut out soda, only drank water and lost 12 pounds my first week! Tells you how much extra, empty calories you can take in in just sugary liquids!

I made Sharon's Tequila Chicken recipe last night for dinner... can you say YUM?! Very good! If you haven't tried it yet, you must. It's delish! I also made a big pot of chili yesterday - with 90/10 ground sirloin. I'm having some for lunch today. Can't wait for it!

Alright! Alright! I'll post a picture, for crying out loud but I'm not happy about doing so. Here's a picture of myself and husband at my cousin's wedding, June 2007. As you can see, I was part of the wedding party. I *think* I'm about the same weight now as I was then. I'm going to use this as my "before" picture.

That's all I got!
Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

PIF - Pay It Forward

I joined RachelJane and Sharon in their Pay It Forward quests and now I have a question. Each of them asked for 3 people to join them and since I joined TWO... do I now need SIX people for my PIF?? I just want to be fair, you know?

So, I guess now for the rules... in a nut shell, these two kind ladies will hand make me a giftie and instead of paying them back, I return the good deed to others (whomever would like to participate). Those that received gifts from me, in turn post on their blog (I guess you need a blog to join) that they are participating and choose three people to which they will pay it forward (and so on and so on). Oh! And I believe you have roughly 6 months to get your gifts made and out to your participants.

So? Do I have any takers to join me in the Pay It Forward quest? I guess I would need at least three and possibly six so that I cover all the rules for myself (since I joined two of them).

If you're interested, kindly respond to this post.

I have put my lap quilt project aside for now so that I can get started on on my Show Some Sewing Love swap items. Things are going pretty good. I would like to get them done in the next couple of week so that I'm ready to put them in the mail by the deadline. And I need to get a fleece blanket sewn for my god-daughter so that I can get that in the mail for her birthday; which has past already. I sent her a card though with an "IOU a Birthday Gift" note inside. The pillow case to match the fleece blanket is done. Just have to get to work on getting the fleece sewn.

That's all for now.
Enjoy your day!
Jen

It's Thursday

Not much to report. It's been pretty quiet on the sewing front. I did get a chance yesterday to work on piecing more blocks of Punkie's lap quilt. I think I have 16 more blocks to go and then I can lay them out in a nice, visual pattern and start assembling the quilt top. Very exciting! I need to order the fabric for the border, binding and backing. Waiting for my next paycheck to do that. Then I can commission someone to quilt it for me. I'm so excited that the quilt blocks are coming together that I don't want to mess it up by trying to quilt it.

On the Diet Challenge, mid week update... I've been doing really good! I was home all day yesterday due to an ice storm and of course the kitchen is very accessible but I stayed away! I stayed out of my husband's chips. I stayed out of my chocolate chips; I don't normally snack on those at all but I needed a chocolate fix but I drank some tea and the idea went away. I snacked on some blueberries instead. Logging my Weight Watchers points. I jumped on the scale this morning and the numbers are moving in the right direction but I won't post that information until the "official" update on Monday. Need to make it through the weekend first!


That's all for now.
Enjoy your day!

Jen :)

Amelia - Lap Quilt in Progress

Here are some blocks that I worked on for my very first lap quilt. It's for Punkie since the fabric line is called "Amelia".

After my fat quarter issue, my husband figured out the math for me; along with tips from others and everything is working out. But (there's always a "but"), I'm short fabric. I don't know what I did wrong or what I did right but I'm short. There is good news though. I have some leftover yardage from this fabric line that I intended to make into a pillowcase - I already made Amelia one but I was going to make two of them. I will use the extra yardage and create the strips that I need. Hopefully I can mix the blocks up enough so you won't really see the repetitiveness of the strips that I'm going to use. I doubt you will. There's so much going on in the pattern, I don't think that's going to be a problem.

Since I'm back to work, my sewing will only happen on the weekends now unless I get a few moment here and there during the week. I hope to have the top pieced together in a couple of weeks and then I can order the yardage for the border, back and binding. Then I need to figure out how to quilt this sucker. I have decided that my machine is just too small to quilt large items (that's my way of hinting that I really need a new machine) or that I'm just not talented enough to figure out how to quilt large items on my machine in an easy way. My machine is good for small stuff but I think I will have major headaches trying to quilt this. So, I may just have it quilted by someone else. I have some time to decide.

I'm just excited to be working on a lap quilt, my fabric issue was figured out AND my blocks are actually coming out (pretty close) square! BONUS! LOL.

Enjoy your day!

Jen

Diet Challenge 2009 - Starting Today

Okay, I'm starting today. I logged back into my Weight Watchers online account that I have ignored since April 2008 and tracked my breakfast points. Should be an okay day. I'm working from home today so that may be a little challenging for me. We had icy roads this morning and I travel 40 miles to get to work so I decided to stay home. I also caught a cold over the weekend and I just don't feel like coughing and sneezing on everybody today.

I'm going to try to be good today. I made my lunch last night, a salad and piece of grilled chicken so I'll have that this afternoon. Haven't decided what we're going to do for dinner yet.

On the sewing quilt front, my husband figured out my piecing and block sizes for the lap quilt that I'm working on that was giving me troubles a couple of days ago. Things are going together nicely. I have a portion of the blocks done. I meant to take some pictures yesterday but I forgot. I hope to take some today and post them up here.

Well, it's telecom time. Back to work I go!

Enjoy your day!
Jen :)

Whirl into Winter Blog Giveaways

Go and check them out. 60+ bloggers giving lots of stuff away like Crafty Janie! She's got lots of goodies up for grabs!

Good Luck to everybody who plans to enter! I've already done my fair share of commenting!

Jen :)

First Day of 2009 and I don't like it

And I'm ready for the day to be OVER! I've decided to tackle my very first quilt using a pattern and fabric from my little stash. I washed my fat quarters and pressed and spent an hour yesterday cutting all my quarters to length so that I can start piecing tonight when Amelia is in bed for the night.

Today, I have some time during Amelia's nap so I decided to sit down and start on the first couple piecing steps. All my strips are 2 inches too short length wise! WAH!! Okay, it can't be me. I could not have precisely cut all my fat quarters two inches too short! So either my fat quarters shrunk in the wash OR they weren't cut right to begin with. I can't say for sure because I didn't measure them beforehand to begin with.

Someone tell me not to panic and all will be well! The pattern I'm working from is "Yellow Brick Road" by Atkinson Designs and I'm supposed to have strip pieces that are 21 inches long. Mine are all 19 inches.

I should get two 6.5 inch units and two 3.5 inch units from each strip... and my ultimate block size should be 9.5x9.5. I'm thinking of cutting off the 1/2 inch everywhere and get two 6 inch units and two 3 inch units from each strip and whatever my block size will be... I don't know. I'm very bad at math. But I don't want to scrap this fabric as I love it and bought it for my Punkie Girl and it's already cut for this pattern.

Please, please, please... someone tell me it's going to be fine and what I'm thinking of doing is okay! I'm not a seasoned quilter so it's hard for me to think outside the box when I'm following a pattern.

Big Sigh.
Jen :(