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The eyes have it

Friends with kids joined us for the Superbowl this year and at some point one of them discovered my eye mask. They had such a ball playing with it that I promised to make them some (knowing I had fabric for several already cut out).  Yesterday I cut out the batting and stitched them up for delivery later in the morning. I think they were a hit, at least with the two fellows who were home at the time.

Couch Blankie

The quilt is all finished. I’ve tied the center blocks and I did a bit of “stitch in the ditch” around the border just to give that a try. It’s really better to do that with a quilt that has binding but I’m just a renegade like that. I found a tip that stitch in the ditch is easier for beginners if you sew next to the seam rather than right on it. Since the colors in Daniel’s room will change I think this is going to be more of a couch blankie for winter.

On the border

It’s amazing how much borders change the look of the quilt. It’s really pulling together now. I laid it out yesterday in preparation for the next step and then realized I didn’t have my backing material yet. While I was away at the sewing store to remedy the situation someone appears to have had a bit of fun with my quilt top. I laid out all my layers and pinned the heck out of it so that it’s ready to sew today, time permitting.

A penny saved

I find it easier to stay on budget at fibery shopping events if I take cash. For the past few years I’ve just been using a paper envelope for that. Today I made a cute little fabric “wallet” for my fiber fund, just in time for SPA this coming weekend.

Sneak preview

I realized that I’m going to need to put the contents of Daniel’s room into the sewing room in order to paint. That means I need to get this quilt top done pronto so over the weekend I crosscut my panels and laid out the quilt for a little preview. I can’t decide which block to use as the center, comments are welcome!

Back to school

As much as I enjoy making the “Trip Around the World” quilt, I’d really like to broaden my horizons.  I’ll be taking a quilt class on Thursday nights starting in a few weeks to learn the basics of piecing, machine quilting and quilt binding. I picked up my book a few weeks ago along with the supply list and this week I went shopping for my supplies. The photo with all the batik fabrics shows what I’ll be using for my class project and the photo with the random fat quarters is just stash enhancement. I’ve hit the fabric stash pretty hard the past few years and it’s shrinking alarmingly.

It’s been several years now since I learned I have high cholesterol and we are always looking for ways to improve our diet. Back in October I decided it was time to work in more veggies so I’ve been trying to cut up a containerful at the beginning of every week for snacks and lunches. Jason had been buying hummus to go with his but I haven’t found a store-bought hummus that I like so this week I started a quest to find a recipe I can make at home to fill the gap. This one turned out very mild and fairly tasty. Jason thinks it needs something more, perhaps more lemon or salt, but I like it exactly as is.

Hummus

1/2 pound chickpeas, cooked and drained (used canned if you like)

1/4 cup good olive oil

1/2-1 cup chicken broth

salt and pepper to taste

juice of a large lemon (5-6 tablespoons)

1 large cloves of garlic, finely minced

2 tablespoons tahini

Whiz it all up in the food processor 3-5 minutes, or until smooth.

Quilt in a day?

Well not quite but I did finish sewing all the panels for my quilt. I wasn’t really expecting to do them all but they really just flew by and the snow pelted down. I ended up with 6 panels and 6 inches of snow.

Valentine prep

This year I decided to make some pretty wintry placemats and napkins for Valentine’s day. The placemats have a layer of batting in them and a white backing and the napkins are burgundy and white. It only took me a couple hours to whip them up. I plan to do another set with the rest of the blue leafy fabric and some navy and white napkins. The double-sided napkins were super quick and easy and I’ll probably do more like them since they don’t require fiddly hemming or satin stitch along the ege.

You bought more stuff?

You didn’t think I left Fancy Tiger with out making a purchase did you? I bought this cute pincushion pattern (it makes a pear, an apple, a tomato and/or a strawberry) and some fat quarters to go with it. I think the fairies will get made into yet another tea cozy. I need one for each season, surely. We also made a stop at Penzey’s where I filled my shopping list and picked up some recommended beef roast seasoning. At the end of the day I killed two birds with one stone and got a picture of us all which could also work as my 365 self-portrait since I used the timer function on the camera.

Shop til you drop

The first day of our visit we spent shopping the local yarn stores, fabric shops and assorted and sundry other shops. I found the “Enchanted Sole” which has been on my wishlist for awhile. It has several fun sock patterns that I would love to knit. In the remnant bin at Elfriede’s I found some great fat quarters that would make a nice spring tea cozy and a fantastic deal on two 2-yard remnants of silk dupioni that would make lovely tops. I was also excited to find this tin of lovely postcards. My list of pen pals is really growing so these will come in handy!