Not Much Sewing This Week

I thought I would get a bit more sewing in this week, but other things took priority. One of the biggies being my poor sweet William is experiencing his first cold. But I must say he is a real little trooper and handling it very well! Despite a runny nose and a little chest cough, he is all smiles and laughs and too busy playing. He has a few moments of wanting to be extra cuddled and loved, but he is still taking his naps at his usual times and still has a good appetite and no fever!!!! Hope this keeps up! I gave him some infant Advil before bedtime so I hope this helps him have a good sleep tonight.

The other big thing was a couple of nasty snow storms!!!



This week we had another 40 cm of snow dumped on us!!! With Mum unable to shovel out her own driveway as she usually do, Trevor and I have been taking turns shovelling. He mostly takes care of our driveway and area, while I am shovelling Mum's driveway. Although he did help a few times with Mum's space too. Tonight we are both a bit sore and tired from all the shovelling. The banks of snow are so high now (wayyyyy over our heads) its very hard to throw the snow up over the tops! I hear on the news tonight there is another possible 2 more snow systems coming our way.. one on Sunday and one on Tuesday..... SIGH................ I want SUMMER!!!!!!!!

The other night after shovelling, I did not have the energy to blink let alone play in my sewing room. So I set up the bathroom for a nice "Spa for ME night"! This is how I like to relax in my tub!!!



LOTS and LOTS and LOTS of bubbles!!!! Lots of candles, my nice smelly lotions and body washes, a good book and of course a nice glass of wine!!!!!!!!!

ahhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! Soaking in the tub really relaxes the muscles.



Had Trevor not been working tonight, I would have taken another one of these baths. Unfortunately, that would be the one time I got in the tub, and then the baby cried!!!!! When we are both home, Trevor can take the monitor and take care of Will should he need something while Mommy had her "Tub Time".

When I did have a bit of time to unwind and play, I decided instead of sewing I wanted to get a start on re-organizing my recipes and setting up my food binders. I decided to start with an easy one and got to work on my "Veggie" binder.




(my trusty monkey pen to use on my binders... William loves when I tickle his face with it)!!!

I broke it down into various vegetables; potatoes, mushrooms, carrots, broccoli, mixed veggie, etc. I took out my scrapbooking papers and embellishments and got to work.





After shovelling for yet another hour tonight, I only got to spend about a half hour on my veggie binder.



I am almost finished this one. Although I still need to go back to do some extra embellishing and making it more cute!!!! For now, its just the organizing. I'm trying to decide what binder to do next. I'm leaving the Chicken and the Dessert binders to last cause they are going to take a long time and they are gonna be HUGE!!!!

Tomorrow is Scrap Saturday. I am hoping to get back to my red strippy quilt and get the quilt top rows made and put together at least. But then that depends, I still have to do a little more shovelling of Mum's driveway. Now that I have the stuff the snow plow put into her area, I need to take her car out of her driveway and into ours so that I can get rid of the snow that drifted in under the car as well as widen out the driveway it self cause right now you need to suck in your breath to get the car in!!! UGH!!! Did I mention I HATE this part of winter????

Well its late again, and I am ZONKED!!! I need to get some sleep badly!!!! I'll try to take some photos of the snow banks around our house and the neighbourhood in the next day or so and post here!!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Good Bye Size 10... helloooooooooooo Size 5!!!!

Yep... that's right!! Size 5!!!!!!!!!!!! woooo hoooooooooo!!!!



I mentioned yesterday I was going out to do a bit of shopping. Well, I decided to start picking up some new dress pants for when I returned to work after my maternity leave come the first week of May.



After my surgeries back in October, to date I have lost 25 pounds!!! That is also pre-pregnancy!!!! The last time I weighed in (which was last month at the family doctor's office), I was 113lbs!!!! I will weigh myself again on Thursday at my next doctor appt. Now, this is NOT the way I would suggest losing weight!!!! It resulted in a HUGE scar across my belly and my digestive system not the way it use to be.. but hey on the up side of things.. I'm into a SIZE 5 pant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


(of course what's a new outfit without some bling to pretty it up!!!)

I also picked up a couple new CDs to add to my little collection in my sewing room. I love to play my music while working away. Lately I have been picking up some new CDs here and there. These are my two new purchases... The Mamma Mia one is AWESOME!





Last night after bambino went off to sleep, I went back to my sewing room for a few hours. In the span of 2 1/2 - 3 hours, I managed to get almost all of the placemats I made last week layered and ready for quilting.



I also cut out the 36 white tone on tone squares for the Red Strippy Block quilt.



I cleaned up (as in getting the markings of it) the last sewing motif embroidery block.



And layered the second Coffee mug mat I did on my embroidery machine.



Tonight's goal is to maybe either do a bit of machine quilting on those placemats, or work on the Hot Chocolate Snowman BOM.

We are expecting another nasty snow storm tonight... upwards to 30cm of snow!! blowing winds and just an all out crappy evening. The forecast predicts it won't hit til later this afternoon, so I think I'm going to bundle myself and William up later this morning to run out and finish a few more errands I didn't get to do yesterday, ooh and a trip to Michaels!! I want to make some fancy cupcakes for tomorrow night's Sewing Group!!! I want to pick up some cute embellishing things!! I also want to head to the Bulk Barn to gather some snacks for the impending storm!! need my gummy candy stash built up in my sewing room!! LOL

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Strippy Blocks Made!

I got all 36 strippy blocks cut out last night!! yipppeeeeeeeeeee!!!!



I had hoped to cut out the 36 white tone on tone blocks, but realized the fabric I chose was not pre-washed. So I placed that piece of fabric plus a few pieces of muslin into the wash. While waiting for the fabrics to wash I got started cutting out the battings for the 6 sets of Christmas place mats I made earlier this week.

This week's plan of attack:
Tonight cut out the 36 white blocks, and lay out the quilt top for sewing the top together.
Get the placemats all layered and ready for quilting
Layer the remaining Coffee Mug Mat I made last week
Work on the next Hot Chocolate Snowman BOM

As for this afternoon, I'm GETTING OUT OF THE HOUSE!!! I'm getting a slight case of cabin fever!!!! It is a beautiful sunny afternoon, so William and I are going SHOPPING!!!! There is another 20cm snow storm forecasted for tonight, so we will probably be snowbound again tomorrow as the cars will be plowed in once again, so I'm taking advantage of the nice sunny day and GETTIN' OUT!!! Okay.. I'll stop shouting now.

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Weekend Strip Club!!!

And with the swing of her hips... she started to STRIP!!! ... To tremendous applause she took off her drawers... ummmmm okay let's stop there... I don't wish to upset my readers!!! So yes, I spent my weekend evenings stripping... well sewing strips that is.... lots and lots of red strips!



I finally made all 36 sets of strippy blocks.



I plan to cut them all to 6 1/2 inches tonight. Once that is done I will cut out 36 white tone on tone squares to sew between each strippy block. I think the white will really bring the red out! The white TOT blocks will also give me a chance to do some free motion quilting too!!!

I have to say I really made a great cut in all those strips I cut out earlier this week. There are only a small handful left in fact!



I'll hang on to them for a little longer in case another idea comes to me before the end of the month...oooh oooh!!! how about a Valentine's mug mat!!!! I just remembered I was given a piece of Valentine's fabric a few years ago and had no idea what to do with it!

So I tried that new breakfast recipe I spoke about in my last blog. I made French Toast with crispy Prosciutto. The French toast was tasty but I got to say frying up the Proscuitto made it very very VERY salty!!! I love prosciutto especially with smoked salmon and cream cheese, but not fried. I will post the recipe here below should you decide to make it yourself. You can certainly omit the prosciutto and just have the French Toast.

French Toast with Crispy Prosciutto
(From the book "Breakfast" by Jody Vassallo)



3 Tbsp whipping cream
3 eggs
3 Tbsp superfine sugar
pinch cinnamon
8 thick slices of bread, cut in half diagonally
1/4 cup plus 1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp olive oil
12 slices prosciutto (I used 8)
maple syrup, to serve (optional)

Combine the cream, eggs, sugar, and cinnamon in a wide, shallow bowl and mix together. Soak the bread in the egg mixture, one slice at a time, shaking off any excess.

Melt half the butter in a skillet, add 3 or 4 slices of bread in a single layer, and cook until golden brown on both sides. Cook the remaining bread in batches, adding more butter as needed, and keeping the cooked slices warm in the oven.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet, add the prosciutto, and fry until crisp. Remove and drain on paper towels. Place the prosciutto on top of the French toast and serve. Drizzle with maple syrup, if using.

Tonight I am making my homemade bbq burgers



with homemade baked French Fries and yummy seasonings.



mmmmm the fries are smelling good already. Well the indoor bbq grill is warmed up and ready for the patties. I'm off again!! Once supper is over and baby is bathed and settled back to bed I will be back in my sewing room with my music on a stripping away!!! Will post tomorrow with my results!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

After the Snowstorm

We survived!!! In fact the news tonight reported we only got 17cm of snow. Personally myself, living on one of the higher altitudes of the city we DEFINETLY got more than that!! But not complaining. It was really light fluffy powdery stuff and it fell so pretty!!! Mind you, this morning Trevor called me from the Group Home he worked in on the overnight shift to ask if the snowplow came up our street. "Nope" said I. I was to call him when the plow came up because there was no way his little Hyundai hatchback Accent was going to make it to the top of the hill. About an hour later, still no sign of the Mr. Plow, but noticed Trevor ever so slowly and carefully trying to drive his car up the hill. He was little The Little Engine That Could!!! LOL Alas he made it! He was so proud!!! At least he didn't have to bother shovelling out the driveway as our next door neighbour was kind enough to snow blow both his driveway and ours!

I didn't do much sewing today. I was feeling a bit tired. I did do a little bit of hand embroidery work on my sewing motif blocks while watching Will as he played in the living room.


(the Magic Bullet box is empty and used to keep Will from going over and pulling himself up to standing position with the aide of my curtains)!!

After Trevor woke up from his nap (as mentioned above he worked an overnight shift and had to work another overnight tonight) I gave William his afternoon bottle and then he went down for a nap for 2 hours. I did the same thing.. err minus the bottle of milk!! LOL

When I woke up, I decided to put on a nice pot of comfort food for this wintry day. I made my Coconut Curry Butternut Squash Soup!!!! YUM!!!! There is a little bit of prep work to putting this soup together, but it is worth the extra bit of time.


(Will likes to help by keeping the dishwasher door open while I load the machine. Mommy's little helper)!!

I posted this message on my Facebook page and some of my friends asked for the recipe.. I've made this recipe several times now and I tweaked it a little bit from the original recipe as I like to add a little more curry paste than what is suggested. The recipe below is straight from the cut out recipe from the Downhome Magazine (a local magazine here in Newfoundland)

Coconut-Curry Butternut Squash Soup



One 3-lb squash, peeled, seeded and diced
2 onions, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp Thai yellow curry paste, or 2 tsp curry powder
1 can coconut milk
1 small ripe banana, mashed
2 Tbsp Lady of the Woods Birch Sap Wine (made here in NL) or White Wine
4 cups chicken or vegetable stock
2 sprigs fresh thyme (or 1/2 tsp dried)
Black pepper to taste
2 Tbsp each oil and butter

Heat oil and butter in deep saucepot; add onions, squash and thyme. Cook, stirring until it all starts to caramelize (3-4 minutes). Add garlic and saute another minute or two. Add curry paste and stir a couple minutes more. Add the wine and let reduce a minute, then add the coconut milk. Add the pepper. Let reduce a few minutes. Add stock and the banana and boil until squash is soft. Puree soup in the pot with a stick blender (or transfer to a regular blender or food processor). For a velvety consistency, strain through a medium sieve. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper (I don't use salt unless I have too.. I like to cut out salt whenever I can. there is enough of other seasonings to give it a great taste). Garnish with a little toasted coconut or a dollop of sour cream. (The toasted coconut gives it a little hint of sweetness)!

Enjoy!

It is only 10:30pm, but I am really dropping I'm so tired this evening. I think I caused myself to be more tired when I decided to go out and try and shovel Mum's car out. I only did the light fluffy stuff tonight. I will attack the stuff the plow put in the driveway tomorrow. With Mum's foot bandaged and she has to rest it for the next few weeks, she isn't going anywhere, but I still want to have her driveway cleared out in case of emergency or something. Also if this stuff freezes, it will take dynamite to blow the stuff out!!!

So on that note, I'm going to get into my nice polar fleece jammies and warm fuzzy socks, get under the covers, read my book for a little bit, throw the dog on the bed to keep me warm and eventually snuggle down under the quilts and get some sleep. Hopefully William will sleep through the night. He woke up around 11:30 last night feeling hungry, but after his midnight bottle snack he slept til 8am!!!

Tomorrow night, I hope to get a head start on the Scrap Saturday and the red strippy lap quilt. I managed to finish the tops of the rest of the Christmas placemats tonight. Next step to those is layer and quilt them. But that is for another day!

Tomorrow morning, I am going to try out a new breakfast recipe!!! I will post it if it turns out alright!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Christmas in February!!!

Yep... that's right... I have officially got into my Christmas fabrics already!!!! I decided to get a good head start on my inventory for next Christmas. I cut out 6 sets of placemats and managed to sew 3 of the set tops this evening.



In fact, the last 48 hours I have been VERY productive!!!! Last night, I went through my scrap containers to find as many red scraps I could get my hands on.



I pressed them all nice and flat and put them into piles based on size.



I started a list of some of the scrappy red projects I want to make for this month for my Scrap Saturdays.

I had a three hour break this afternoon from baby play with my William to head to the sewing room and play. While Trevor watched William for the afternoon, I put in 3 glorious and productive hours in the sewing room!!

One of the February Scrap projects is another quilt for the Iris Kirby House. I had alot of fabric strips of various sizes. I cut those down into smaller lengths and cut them into different widths.






I am going to make 6 inch strippy blocks. I think I will put 6 inch spacer blocks between the spacer blocks and then I can do some more free motion quilting!!! I have to take William to his cousin's 4th birthday party Saturday afternoon, so I might cheat and start my Scrappy Saturday project Friday night and then have a good head start for when I get back at it Saturday evening after William is put to bed.

The snow storm that has been plundering across much of the US has now reached us here on the eastern side of Newfoundland. In fact it is snowing out right now.


(a favourite view of mine from my kitchen window. This was earlier today. The birds stocking up before the weather hits later this evening)

It is very pretty as it is silently falling and not a breath of wind. It seems the path of the storm is not going to hit us as hard as first predicted, but we could still see anywhere between 10-20cm of snow. Not too shabby. When we here on the island hear how some areas are getting over 30cm of snow, we don't consider it really that much. But then we are an island out in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean and we are use to those accumulations. To us that is a nice snowfall, not really what we would call a "Snow Storm". But I know for some people who live in areas that are not use to it, then that is another story. I also know some places received alot of freezing rain and therefore lost their power. For that I really do feel for you!!! I remember back in 1994 or 1995 we had freezing rain that took out our power for days. I remember studying for my university exams in the stairwells of the university buildings where they had the emergency lighting or in front of the fire place of my "boyfriend of the time's" family home. For those of you who are affected by the ice and power outages (I know its quite possible you won't even be able to read this til the lights come back on, unless you have battery backup laptops), I hope your power is restored quickly!!!

I think tomorrow as we will all probably be house bound, I might make up some nice comfort food and put on a pot of homemade butternut squash soup. I'm also going to put on some bread as I want to try out a new breakfast recipe Thursday morning and I only have bagels and english muffins in the fridge. I need bread as the recipe is for French Toast! Stay tuned for some new recipes to post! oooh!! speaking of recipes! I came across this FABULOUS blog called "Confessions of a Cookbook Queen"! OMG!!!!!!!!!!!! She is amazing!!! I could spend hours reading her blog! She also has some awesome links to other food related sites with tons of yummy recipes! I'm thinking of trying woopie pies soon! I saw a commercial about them yesterday and never heard of them before! Then last night through her blog I found a recipe for woopie pies!!! I think its a sign!!!! Anyway, if you like food and like to cook, check out her blog!

Until Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

February Already!!http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

I usually find the month of January to be a very long and dragged out month. I suppose after the months leading up to Christmas and making gifts and prepping for the holidays, once the season is over, things just seem to come to a halt or standstill......... HA!!!!!!!! not this time! January was a blur!! But for all good reasons!

I also find it takes me a month or so to kick start my butt in gear to get back to sewing after the holidays. Again... not this time! I started as soon as the tree and decorations were down and stored away and I had my sewing room back in order again!

I'm soooooo glad I got involved with the Rainbow Stash Challenge over at So Scrappy's blog! She has really got my gears thinking of using up my scraps and I managed to make something each Scrap Saturday in January! And from what I read this morning, February's colour is RED!! wooo hooo! I will be making another lap quilt for the Iris Kirby House again this month. I think I already got a design in mind I want to do.

BTW, I got the binding on the blue scrap quilt last night.



I will hand bind the other side in the next few days. I also managed to machine bind a few other smaller UFOs I had lying around that only needed to bind.

While binding, I put another coffee design on the embroidery machine. I want to make another coffee mug mat!!



Thanks so much to everyone who sent best wishes to Mum on her surgery. Everything went very well. It only took the doctors about 1 -1 1/2 hours to fix the problem. She has to keep her foot elevated and walk only on her heel for at least the next 4 weeks. She spent most of yesterday home in bed on pain meds. When I checked in on her this morning she said she is doing well and the pain is tolerable. She plans to just rest and relax as much as possible today and possible do a bit of hand sewing or knitting. :)

Since yesterday was a insanely busy and off routine day for everyone, I decided to take out the ole faithful slow cooker and try out a new quick and easy recipe. I made a yummy Chili Pasta Bake!



I made alot so we could freeze a few portions for future meals. I also took some to puree for William's supper. He LOVED it!!!!!!!!!



I love now how I can take what Trevor and I are eating and mash it up for William to have too! I will take a portion of the left over pasta and grind it up and freeze for William's meals too.

In the meantime I would love to share with you the recipe. I found it in one of my Company's Coming Slow Cooker recipe books. Here it is!

Chili Pasta Bake



1 1/2 lbs Lean Ground Beef
1 1/4 cup uncooked elbow macaroni (oops.. thanks Anita for letting me know I forgot to add the pasta to the recipe!! silly me)!!!!
1 cup chopped onion
2 14oz cans of diced tomatoes and their juice
2 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp dried oregano
3/4 cup tomato sauce (I had none in my cupboards, so used chili sauce instead)
pepper to taste
1 cup shredded cheddar cheese

Scramble-fry ground beef in non-stick frying pan until browned. Drain well. Transfer to 3 1/2 quart slow cooker.

Add next 7 ingredients. Stir. Cover and cook on Low for 5-7 hours or on High for 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 hours.

Sprinkle cheese over top. Cook on High for 10-15 minutes until cheese is melted. Makes 7 cups.

Enjoy!!!

We are expecting a big nasty storm tomorrow and Thursday to hit most of the island. The weather channel says we could get anywhere from 30-40 cm of the white stuff and then lots of freezing rain after that !!!!!!!!!!! YUK!!!!!!!! They are also saying there could be power outages too. Sigh.... well I have lots of hand stitching and binding to keep me entertained and many other things to putter around the house. This afternoon, William and I will head to the grocery store to get a few essentials such as milk, cheese, ooh and cod tongues!!! YEP!!! you read right!! They are a delicacy here in Newfoundland!! I haven't had a good feed of tongues now in ages. So I'll go to Bidgoods Grocery Store over in the Goulds (about a 10 minute drive from where I live) to get those. This store specializes in traditional Newfoundland food. I'll fry them up tonight with some boiled potatoes and mustard pickles. mmmmmmmmmmmmmm!! I can almost taste them now!

I also thinking of using up a few bananas that are turning brown and make some banana chocolate chip muffins. If the power does go out we still have muffins for breakfast!!! LOL ooh along with some yummy fruit and yogurt!

Well I must be going. William is still in his morning nap and I need to take advantage of this time and clean up his bottles and grab a quick shower. Trevor is out shovelling our driveway and Mum's driveway after the mini blizzard (which we never heard was coming) we had last night! Then we are out to run some errands!!!

Tonight in the sewing room I think I might pull out some red scraps to have ready for the first February RED Scrap Saturday. I have a birthday party to attend on Saturday, but I'll have the night time to play!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea