A Quiet Yet Busy Weekend

I have to say I packed in a nice bit this weekend both in my kitchen and in my sewing room. With Christmas only a few weeks away I had to sit down and seriously take a look at everything I need to complete sewing and baking/cooking wise and how I was going to get it all in. I've come to realize after looking at my list I now have to live as a hermit for the next 5 weeks only going outside for work and the occasional trip to the grocery store LOL!!! I can see that once again this year I will probably be stitching up the last of the gifts midnight on Christmas Eve!!! Eeeeeeeekkkk!!!

But saying that I am pleased with what I accomplished this weekend. Friday night and Saturday I managed to bake 3 different loaves of bread with one of them being a brand new recipe. It was called Chunky Apple Bread... All I can say about that one is ........ YUMMMMMMMM!!!! It is sooooo tasty toasted with Apple butter!!!

Here I am making Savoury Pull Apart Bread for supper Saturday Night. I made homemade spaghetti. Instead of having garlic bread, I made this yummy one instead!




When this bread rises to twice it's size, it's put in the oven. It's best eaten when it is just come out of the oven with some butter!


Alexi is never too far away from me when I'm playing in the kitchen.. As you know from past posts, she has a liking for bread!


While I was teaching my Sampler quilt class Saturday morning, as they were working on assembling their borders, when I wasn't needed I sat down to start hand binding tree skirt #3!!!

Tonight I tried out a new recipe for supper. It is called Mushroom Cheese Pies. Again all I can say to that is YUMMMM!!!! I had never worked with Puff Pastry before and I figured tonight was the night I was going to do it!!! I made 4 out of the recipe and they were a nice size for supper. We had one each and I have two more left to reheat later the week. I'll have to try and remember to post the recipe here soon.

Throughout this afternoon I managed to get the "Snow Days" Quilt layered and quilted, and this evening after supper I machine sewed the binding to it. I just have to slip stitch the other side by hand this week. My goal is to complete it along with stitching up a nice label for it on my embroidery machine before the end of the week.







It is now 11:30pm on Sunday night and after writing out what I just did the last few days I'm POOPED!!! I think I'm going to head off to la la land for my beauty rest as it's back to the work day grind again tomorrow!!!

OOh... I thought I would throw this photo of Alexi in for good measure. Trevor took this photo a few days ago during one of his days off work. This is a common thing for Alexi to do and it cracks me up every time I see it!!



What a nut job for a dog!!! She certainly keeps up entertained with her comic relief every single day!!! I just LOVE this photo. I plan to print it this week and frame it for my sewing room! This photo is her silly personality to a tee!!!

Whewww!!! Now it's bedtime! Good night, sleep tight!!!!!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Just A Short Check In

I haven't alot to report since the last posting, but wanted to drop a little line or two all the same.
Not alot to talk about as I haven't done anything different sewing wise since Thursday. I did manage to purchase my batting and backing for the "Snow Days" quilt last night. I will pre-wash the backing tonight and perhaps by the weekend I'll get it layered and ready for quilting.

Tonight I think I'll get back to machine binding another tree skirt or two. I think I will make my goal two tonight. I still have to slip stitch the other side by hand. I'm figuring with Trevor working all this weekend I'll probably have myself a movie fest and slip stitch myself to insanity LOL.

When I got home this afternoon from work, I was in the mood to make up my batch of apple spiced nut medley. I found the recipe in one of my slow cooker recipe books and it sounded yummy. I made it for the first time a few weeks ago during our Halloween party we hosted here. The nuts didn't last long. After that night, Trevor has asked if I would make them again. I have a nice batch of them in the slow cooker now. They will be ready in a few hours when he gets home from work.

As for the halloween party, I thought no time like the present (even if halloween was weeks ago) to post some pics of the evening.

We had a little convict on our hands during Halloween. I guess that made me an accomplice to the crime by housing a prisoner in my home LOL

And here is Trevor... Disco Stu!!!! I'm not up on my Simpsons characters, but supposedly there is a Disco Stu!! :)

Disco Stu with my work friend Gale, the very tall Go Go Girl. She towered over everyone that night in those boots! Not sure how she managed to walk in them LOL

Me (the throw something together Hippie girl) with my very good friend and long ago Little Sister from the Big Brothers Big Sisters group, Lisa. We have both packed on a few pounds in this photo... and to think we are to pack on a lot more in the next few more months :) wink wink :) (Whatever way the photographer took the photo, I just want to say my hips are not that big LOL) ohh and as for the girlie drinks in our hands.... virgin pina coladas... well for another few months anyway :) wink wink :)

Disco Stu with his good buddies, Buddy (not sure that's the name, but it's the cowboy character) from Toy Story (Jody), and the ever scary Dracula (Keith)

I forgot to take a photo of the cake before it was cut!! Ooh well, better late than never....

To the right is a white dish filled with the Apple Spiced Nuts I spoke about above.

Another table of food!

Witches Fingers and Ghost cookies

Happy Haunting!!!!


I didn't have any new photos to share sewing wise and I hate writing to my blog without some photos, so I hope you liked the Halloween photos.

Well with supper now done, I'm off to go on a quick little errand then back home to do some binding!!! Fun fun fun!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

When it Snows, What Do We Do?

Why we sew of course!!!! And take the pooch out for a little frolicking in the snow in the back yard!



Years ago, back in my teen years I was involved with the Canadian Air Cadets. My Veteran's Day would always mean a parade we would have to march in and to remember those who risked their lives to give us the freedom and the life that we are so lucky to have today. Although I am no longer part of the military, I do still spend a little time on November 11th to remember those who have lost their lives and those who came home from the wars. I read the papers, the Internet articles and say a little prayer in thanks. To all the veterans past and present ........ THANK YOU!!!!!

With the day off in the middle of the week, I made sure I put it to good use. After a nice morning sleep in, I got up made myself some blueberry pancakes and decided I needed to have another day in the kitchen. So I started with making a French Apple cheesecake for the Thursday night sewing gals crew (which we will dive into later this evening). I also made two batches of butter pecan tarts, and two loaves of bread.





I think I got out of the kitchen around 3:30. At which time, what do you think I did?

Yep, went downstairs to the sewing room where I sewed my little heart out til 10:30 that night. Well between 9:30 and 10:30 I sewed during the commercials while watching "The Tudors", a story of the life of King Henry the VIII. I think we are up to wife #4 in the series now, Anne of Cleves. Seems he wasn't too enthralled by the woman! LOL

I managed to complete the top of the "Snow Days" crazy patch quilt. I'm hoping by the weekend to get it layered and quilted.



I also officially started sewing the bindings on the tree skirts. Tonight I will continue to complete the machine sewing of the bindings on the rest of the skirts I have quilted.



I still have 2 more to layer and quilt, which I hope to do this weekend!

So on that note, the ladies will soon be here and I have bindings to sew!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Productive Weekend

Since I feeling a heck of a lot better health wise this weekend than I was last weekend, I managed to get alot accomplished in my sewing room. I now have 6 of the 8 Christmas tree skirts quilted and ready for binding.



Folded Tree Skirts ready for quilting


I also managed to get all 8 sets of binding sewn and pressed.



Hopefully this week I'll get a start on binding the skirts and having them ready for the hand stitching. I love to hand stitch, so when I'm ready to do that part I'll just throw a few movies on the tele and stitch away.

This week coming is a 4 day work week as Veteran's Day falls on a Wednesday this year. If all goes well I will take that day to get back to working on the winter crazy patch lap quilt I'm working on. I managed to get the sashing fabric washed and pressed this evening and it is now all ready for cutting. My goal is to complete that quilt by the end of this month.

I also got back to playing with my embroidery machine. Thursday night while we had our quilting group, I decided to try to figure out how to copy designs from a Christmas CD I purchased to the memory stick to put in the machine. Well I tried EVERYTHING and it just wasn't working! I was getting more and more frustrated by the minute as I was following the instructions to the T!!! I knew I had to do something before I went bald from tearing out wads of hair out of my head so I went to my trusty source for information! I went to one of my favourite quilting sites at the Quilting Board. I threw the question out there in the forum and within 20 minutes I had an answer. It seems I was transfering over the wrong format. Seems Janome likes the JEF format of designs. Well.................. I was the embroidery stitchin' demon after that!!!!!!!!!!! I was stitchin' out all these different Christmas designs and other designs I found online and downloaded!!!

Now that I knew what I was doing, out came all my rayon threads!!!



Here are two of the many designs I stitched out. I gave a few of them to a friend of mine Thursday night! She is excited about the machine too as we can all put the designs into our projects over years!! She looked at her designs and started planning what she was going to do with them!





I'm soooooooooooo addicted to my machine! I have since gone surfing the internet for designs and trying not to drool all over the keyboard from all the GORGEOUS designs out there!!!! So along with the addictions of quilting, scrapbooking (which I really need to get back to as I have been away from it for a while), recipe collecting, playing in the kitchen, reading, I now have machine embroidery to add to the list!!!!!!!!!! I need another addiction like I need a hole in the head!!!!!!!! There's no hope for me now!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Alive and Kicking

If you have read my last post, it seemed like I was on my last leg I was so sick with the cold. Luckily that is all it was (as per my doctor's prognosis). As he said, and I quote "Your symptoms are the exact opposite of the H1Ni strain. You just have a very bad cold.". Whew!!!!!!! Well I am FINALLY back on my feet again, although I can't seem to get rid of this pesky cough. I have coughed so much and so hard the last week that I practically lost my voice. Trevor was happy LOL!!!!

I missed my sewing room sew much!!!! I FINALLY managed to get in a little sewing time last night for a couple hours. I picked up where I left off on the crazy patch blocks I was doing. I am hoping tonight to complete the embroidery work on the blocks so I can start adding the sashing to make them into a nice lap quilt.

I have nothing to show quilty wise right now since I'm only getting back to my sewing, but soon I should have something to share with you all again.

I also received my swap partner for the Fall Quilt Swap. I will go through some of my favourite Fall themed projects over the next few days and pick out a pattern I want to make. Although I have until mid January to send out the pressie to my swap partner, I really want her to have it while it is still Autumn!!! I just love playing with my fall colours and so am anxious to start!

I also need to get cracking on my Christmas gifts to make again. I feel I have fallen off the wagon and having a hard time getting back into the swing of making my gifts again. I really need to give myself a good serious talking to as well as a good swift kick in the butt!!!

So on that note, no more gabbing, and its time for me to get my butt down to my sewing room and get productive!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea