It is finally here!

It finally came.....it's white, sporty, leather interior, heated seats, ipod connection via the navigation system, hands free phone link.  It is my dream car.  Instead of my "mid-life-crises" car, I am calling it my "menopause" car...lol. 

That smell.......

that smell.....I recognize it.....it is the smell of a new car.....uhmmm.........more later with a picture!!

Busy Weekend

The kids were here for a short visit.  They got here Friday evening, got to eat with us last night and Elijah preached at Grace church this morning.  I so enjoyed their visit.  I got a picture of them before they left.  Aren't they so cute!

I am treating them to a beach vacation with me in June and we all are so excited!  It will just be three nights.  I've been unable to get the "girls" to commit to a beach vacation and it turned out that Elijah and Katie are going to have a few days off so it worked out great. I'll take my sewing, read my books, and they can do whatever they want.  I love my son and DIL so much! Jim can't do the beach (because of his polio disability - walking in sand is almost impossible), and he plans to fish that week anyway, so it works out for all of us.I am looking forward to getting away from work and getting to enjoy the beach.

I also got some sewing done this weekend. Made labels for two quilts, finished my March Civil War BOM, and finished quilting a baby quilt. I am really unhappy with the baby quilt.  It just didn't turn out as well as I hoped.  I am going to make a different one for my boss's new baby.  This will go to someone else.

Beautiful Saturday!

What a gorgeous morning we have here in east Tennessee.  Finally finished removing and re-stitching a row of quilting.  I had trouble with the bottom thread and didn't notice until after I'd done the row. The sunlight this morning really shows off the quilting.  Finished the binding on this quilt also.  I used a technique from Anka's Treasures blog.  It does allow for faster binding. This quilt is 72 x 72 and I bound it in an hour and a half.

This is the best thimble ever!  Pricey, at $8.95 at quilt shops, but well worth it.

Eat your greens

I was the pickiest eater as a child.  Really.  I think I grew up on cheese sandwiches, hot dogs, and chocolate milk. In my forties, something changed.  I started cooking more, trying new foods, and really enjoying food.  Sounds kind of wierd, but true.  I made up a recipe tonight that I thought was fabulous.  I really like raw spinach.  It is so healthy and yummy. I've been experimenting with creamed spinach.  Here it is and it sure is good!

thick pat of butter
~ 1/4 cup water
bag of fresh spinach
~ 1/4 cup of cream cheese
~ 1/4 tsp of minced garlic
~ 1 to 2 Tablespoons of cream or half and half
salt and pepper
good sprinkle of parmesean cheese

melt the butter and throw in the spinach and the water on top.  Cover until the spinach starts to wilt.  Add the cream cheese, garlic, salt and pepper.  Stir until evenly mixed.  Add the cream and parmesean. Stir well until spinach is cooked down.  Don't cook it too much or it will get like mush.

Yummy.  Would go well with any meat or pasta. This would serve 2-3, unless one of them is me, then it only serves one!

Machine Quilting

Worked on these two today.

Finished

After I put the borders on. Love me some batiks!

And then got the final borders on the blue/gold sunflower. It is prettier in person than in this picture.

Retreat Results

Here is a picture of the projects I worked on at the retreat.  Completed one baby quilt (pink) and only have some borders to do on the other three projects.  My favorite is the batik.  I had a great time and hope to attend many more future quilter's retreats.

Quilting Retreat

First day at the retreat.  Lots of work getting done!!

To cut or not to cut

I am trying to decide whether to cut out a new quilt today or wait and use a pattern I am borrowing from a friend.  Both patterns are similar.  I am going to use Berry Bliss Bali Pop strips.  See how I've started to arrange them? Oh, I do love batiks.  My first quilting retreat is coming up this week!  I hope to get lots done, but my bet is I won't get as much done as I would on a normal weekend.  The reason? - there will be lots of new friends to meet and lots of projects to look at. I won't be able to be my normal compulsive, speed-quilting, finishing-project self. This is a good thing.  I need to expand my quilting hobby to one that includes building friendships with others who are like minded.  I know there is a wonderful community of friendly, caring quilters out there. I am so "not social", but I've made myself get out of my little introverted box in the past and it has always been good for me.  So here goes.

Resilience Prescription

I liked this.  Taken from Ben Sherwood's The Survivor Club

1. Practice optimisn
2. Identify a resilient role model
3. Develop a moral compass and unbreakable beliefs
4. Practice altruism
5. Develop acceptance and cognitive flexibility
6. Face your fears and learn to control negative emotions
7. Build active coping skills to handle your problems
8. Establish a supportive social network
9. Stay physically fit
10. Laugh as much as you can.

By Dr. Dennis Charney, Mt. Sinai School of Medicine, New York

Frugal Soup

I got this idea from a book I read recently.  You keep a plastic container in the freezer and you accumulate leftovers.  When it is full, you make soup!  Well, so far, so good.  The first time I had leftover chicken fajitas, onions, peppers, white beans, refried beans, lima beans, I can't remember what else.  I added chicken broth to it and it was great soup!  We both loved it.  Today, I had accumulated leftover roast meat, sausage, lima beans, a few white beans, green beans, and baked sweet potatoes. I added beef broth and wallah!  It was good also. If I had to do it again, I might leave out the sausage.  Not that it tasted bad, it was just a bit strange having sausage in soup.  Nonetheless, it was still very tasty. I really love to experiment with food.  Seems you can make soup out of anything!  From my Russian travels, I do remember having all kinds of various soups that I grew to enjoy.

Batik Back to Nature

I did the first block of my Batik Back to Nature BOM quilt.  Right now I am very glad that I only do a little bit each month. This was the first time I've had to cut pieces too big, make the HST and other pieced items and then have to square them each up.  Takes too long.  Maybe it will make my accuracy better, but I really couldn't see that much difference in the final block and it took way longer than normal.

I spy

Jesse likes to sit on my Gammill table and look outside.  We have a scraggly crepe myrtle planted just below the window.  He likes to spy on the birds. 

Flowers on flowers

I am pretty pleased with it.  I did the freehand flower in the squares, the small stippling in the sashing, and did a stylized stipple (as the Pajama Quilter calls it) on the green border. It is a little difficult to see unless you click on it to enlarge it.