Design Wall Monday

When my mind is full, 

my hands need to be busy.

I tried sewing at the machine but that was a fail.

I can work on my Pieced Hexies,

stop when I need to just think.

There's something very comforting about pulling the needle through fabric.

This is the start of the final blue row. 

I might need to make a few more neutral and gray hexies

but the major parts are ready to sew.

(I just noticed that my purple by the blue is the wrong purple!) 

(Easy fix!!)

As I was working on it last night, 

all of the sudden it was very heavy.

Time to pull out more of the papers. 

Only the hexies that are not surrounded by other hexies

need to have the papers left in them.

When all the pieces are stitched,

I will work on a border to make it a straight edge. 

I plan a solid neutral border (solid as in tone on tone)

and then the blue fabric used in the center of the blue rosettes will be the outer border.

I am so close

and so excited!

Check out the other great design walls today at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

January Pantry Challenge--Week 4

For me, a pantry challenge is a good thing. For the most part, I have always kept a well stocked pantry. I admit to getting lazy sometimes about going to the store to stock when the prices are good. I also admit to hating to shop!  I use what I have in the house and the stock gets low and I get panicky.  Then I have to work, work, work to get back into my comfort zone.

I feel I am in a good place right now with what I have remaining in the house. There are somethings I need to replenish...I am out of tomato product of every kind! I am running low on pasta. I'm running very low on beef in the freezer! But there is enough other meat that I'm not worried about that at all.

I love having a menu plan but find it difficult to plan for a whole month. I prefer a week or 2 at a time. I did a menu plan for January but have strayed at times. No big deal. I kept a list of what we actually had for dinners. I've also kept a list of what others have shared on our group and have some pretty good new ideas for us.

So enough babble...my week went like this. Monday was an on your own day-aka leftovers. We had a meeting in town and went to Costco--may as well, we were in town!  Tuesday we had dijon mushroom pork chops, Wednesday was turkey tortellini soup.  Thursday was breakfast for dinner-my favorite! and Friday Ernie wanted Chinese so I ordered and he picked it up. The serving sizes are so large that we had enough for Saturday dinner too.  It was like date night 2 nights in a row. 😉😉

I used pantry stock to make some Vanilla Chai Tea Mix. A doubled recipe makes 2 1/2 quarts. Granddaughter Taylor loves this so I had promised to make her some. Will she get a full quart? Probably.

With 4 days left of this challenge, I'm calling it a success for me. I need to take my list and go to the store. I am planning to continue into February with the challenge. I will watch the sales but as far as just going to get groceries..no thank you. I don't want to. I'll just use what I have. I  has to be a good sale to get me into the store. 

Thanks Leisa of Suttons Daze on you tube.  I look forward to what will happen next month. 

Design Wall Monday

My mojo went missing for a while, but I found it again.

Yesterday I spent most of the day with On Ringo Lake.

If you want it, you'd better head over to Quiltville and get your clues.

It will be gone shortly!

As I'm sewing more blocks together, I see a pair of geese flying backwards.

I'm surprised I only found 1 pair like that.

All blocks are complete! 

Next is to finish sewing the sashings together.

You know neutrals are my favorite colors!

Quilt inspector Polly needed some serious attention.

So we headed to the couch to work on hexies.

On The Road is so close to being a quilt top!

Only a 3 more major rows! 

Check out the fabulous projects linking up to 

Design Wall Monday

at

Small Quilts and Doll Quilts.

January Pantry Challenge-Week 3 Update

I had the best week! I spent Monday - Thursday with these people as their parents went on a well deserved mini vacation with friends. My daughter and her 2 besties have been a trio since grade school and they all turned (ugh) 40 with in a few months of each other. In September they celebrated in Vegas and this time in Palm Springs.  How fun and memorable for them!

It was fun using someone else's pantry. Normally we have our meals planned and Momma has everything ready for us to just fix our dinner. This time we did it all ourselves. Tuna and noodles, burritos and baked chicken. There were some bananas that needed attention so there was talk of bread. I started telling them about my sister's fabulous banana cake and cake won out. Only 1 turn up his nose but we didn't care...more for the rest of us. 😏

When I came home Thursday afternoon, Ernie cooked steaks for dinner. I parked myself on the couch and barely moved. Friday I woke up thinking about Leisa's fiesta chicken (I used ricotta cheese and added an egg to my home canned chicken) and decided to try it in jumbo shells with a cheesy cream of chicken soup sauce over the top, then baked for 30-40 minutes.  I loved it, Ernie thought it was too spicy.  Again, that's ok, I'll put serving size portions in the freezer today for lunches. Last night was homemade pizza.

Not one trip to the store! I think maybe Ernie may have gotten take-out one night but mostly he ate from what was in the fridge.

Today there will be some chicken in the instant pot, the rest of the week includes meatballs, turkey tortellini soup with homemade bread, breakfast for dinner and some stinky clams for my man cuz I'm nice like that.

I will look through the grocery ads and only get what's on sale for pantry stock. Last week there was nothing! I'm sort of hoping there is nothing this week too.

We are planning a trip to our beach place soon. The menu plan and items needed will go with us. I brought most of the pantry items home last time we were there. I didn't want to risk anything freezing...you can't trust Mother Nature. When we first bought our place, Ernie thought we should support the local stores. But that got too expensive too fast. We do support them a little, but just for snacks and treats...mostly ice cream. 💗💗💗

We are planning to continue this challenge into February. I'm going to need to get a few staples. I have a great list of menu ideas from other friends in our group. I can't wait to try some of them. I need to sit down and figure out the menu for the last week of the month. I slacked not knowing what would be left in the pantry but I'm fine with what is left.

January Pantry Challenge-Week 2

I asked my amazing woodworking son in law to make me a tower for my canning rings. I drew what was in my head and he made it for me. I need another one but haven't asked yet. 😏

The prototype is short--I think 6" tall. That will work great for bringing what I need from the pantry room to the kitchen. You can barely see it on the right.

I had a great pantry week. Most days I followed my menu plan pretty good.  Sunday we had an unplanned family potluck--2 big packages of fish out of the freezer. Monday was a no cook day, hubby had a meeting so I had leftovers. Our oldest granddaughter is here from Baltimore so we did another family potluck. Baked Ziti from me, all ingredients from the pantry. Wednesday was chicken and rice soup, Thursday was lunch out with Granddaughter so no cooking, Friday was a delicious meatloaf with cheesy potatoes. Today will be chicken enchiladas.

I did add more on sale cheese to the freezer. When the new ad came out, the only good sale was bacon so 3# were added to the freezer. I had to buy creamer but I knew I would and it was on sale for a really good price so I bought 2. That's it.

With all my grocery money savings, I went ahead and ordered 80# of chicken breast from Zaycon for March delivery. I'll have a huge canning session when that comes in. Most of it is destine for jars.

I consider this week a success. Next week will be easy peasy since I'll be using daughter's pantry while they are on a trip. She will have her menu planned and everything I need at the ready. The rest of the week for my house is super simple. Hubby will join us for dinner so no worries for him.

I love having my menu planned out for the month and everything I need in the house. One of these days I will have to go real grocery shopping but I have a good list started and I have some incredible new menu ideas already planned out for February. 

Almost Mid Month UFO Progress Report

Normally, at the first of the year, I'm all gung ho on my UFO project.

This month it is Strings and Stars.

The only thing I have done is measure it and decided not to add a border. 

I'm going to use it at the beach for a sit outside cover up.

I ordered a baptist fan stencil and it came the other day.

I need to decide how to mark it so the marks stay on while quilting 

but come off when I'm finished.

I'll probably just mark one row at a time. 

How will that work with my pin basting?

I don't know.

 I'm not a spray baster,

I might have to convert and become one.

I have been working on my #4 UFO in the evenings while watching TV 

This is the zip bag of parts and pieces.

I decided today it was time to lay it on the bed and decided exactly what I need to do to finish it.

I knew I needed more full rosettes to get it to the size I want.

So here's my chicken scratch list on top of my box of more parts, pieces and papers.

For a minute I thought I might call the blue row my last and finish filling in the top with half yellow/orange rosettes.

Then I told myself to not wimp out and finish it like I originally wanted.

This is an awesome design my Mickey Depre of Pieced Hexies fame.

This is her free On The Road Project for 2016-1017.

I started mine August 2016.

I'm hoping to have it ready to quilt when #4 is called for Judy L's UFO Challenge.

Mystery Monday and Design Wall Monday

I've been working on my Quiltville mystery On Ringo Lake

here and there.

Not like I have in the past where I sit down for hours.

I'm so excited to be putting my blocks together

and had to put some up on the wall.

One afternoon I sewed with my friend Trina via Messenger.

It was so much fun.

She sent a picture of some of her blocks on the wall,

I had to send her mine.

I love my mix of medium to darker blues.

I love my reds and black on blacks,

I love my creamy neutrals that are quite washed out here.

I'm excited to get the remaining blocks and sashings sewn.

It's going to be a fun day in Blogland today.

Mystery Monday Link-Up, Parts6-9 at Quiltville

and 

Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts and Doll Quilts

January Pantry Challenge-Week 1

In December, I told you about the January Pantry Challenge that I planned to participate in. 

Here is my week 1 recap.

I had previously made a dinner menu plan for the month.

Dinners on days 1-4 were not what I had planned.

There were things in the fridge to get used up.

A Taco Soup craving happened. 😀🙋

No big deal.

We still ate from what was in the fridge and pantry.

I had said that I was only going to shop to stock the future pantry.

On Tuesday the grocery ad comes out for Safeway.

They have cheese on sale-2# for $5, limit 4.

Since my Wednesday group was cancelled, 

Ernie volunteered to go shopping for me.

Armed with his detailed list and asked to check for on sale beef, off he goes.

He came home with all the list items plus

2 big packages of hamburger and

4 big packages of chicken thighs.

Good shopping!

We got that all packaged up for the freezer.

Thank goodness he likes to vacuum seal.

(I kind of want to go get more cheese and thighs to can.)

On Tuesday evening I had taken 4 pork loins out of the freezer.

We got them on sale last year for a really good price.

I think the price was so good because they were the toughest pork I had ever had!

So after they finally thawed,

I cut the meat off into chunks and we ground it up into sausage meat.

I had watched this video about making Sausage Eggs cups

and knew I wanted to try canning sausage.

Don't turn up your nose until you've tried it.

(I did make some egg cups using diced ham...yummy yummy!)

I got 22 1/2 pints canned up and yesterday tested it making gravy.

OMGoodness! Sooo good.

I still have more roasts to thaw and grind.

So I consider my week a huge success.

I bought no real groceries,

I stocked the pantry and freezer with some yummy food.

 I have my husband on board with my challenge.

I don't mind being flexible with my menu plan.

It's working for us.

My plan for next week is looks really yummy and exciting!

Do you do kitchen and cooking challenges? 

Here are a few of my past freezer challenges.

I'm so easily entertained. 

January's UFO

Judy L has chosen UFO #10 for the 2018 UFO Challenge. 

I'm pretty excited--my #10 is Strings and Stars.

Every time I see this quilt top, 

I think about if I want to add borders or not and usually I say no to myself.

I'll measure it again and then make the final decision.

Oh gosh, a light bulb just went off in my head! 

I have a box of string strips already made up, 

what will that look like!

I kind of do have a plan.

I plan to do some walking foot quilting like I did on Taylor's quilt.

I have the thread picked out already.

I'm still thinking about the binding. 

I have some of the blue sashing fabric left but not sure if there is enough.

I don't remember how much of the cornerstone fabric I have.

That would make a great binding.

Should just go scrappy?

I also know that I'm going to use some of the older quilting panels

 that my friend gave me for the back.

I'm going to piece scraps of batting that will empty out another bin.

Looks like I'm about set with my big plan.

2018 Word For The Year

I remember as a child thinking about the year 2000.

Holy cow! That was so far away.

Here we are starting 2018.

I have several big goals for this year.

This is why I have chosen productive as my word for the year.

productive

achieving or producing a significant amount or result

Let the games begin!