Flowers from Erin--your UFO is still my UFO/WIP

Awhile back Erin gifted me a few flower blocks to play with.  I had several ideas of things to try with them.  The let's get it done was only a 24 hour bug and the blocks got buried under a pile of TO-DO's.
Well thankfully our A/C is still not working.  I spent a day at the building where I have my fabric.  It has A/C and my quilt machine.  I sorted and uncovered many forgotten goodies.  Everything for this project was kitted up with notes on ideas I had had.  Guess which one I choose----none of them!

Erin had given me 15 blocks (11 1/2 inches m/l)  I knew I wanted to add butterflies (8 1/2) blocks.  What to do, what to do.  I knew I didn't want to do a ton of butterflies as an outside border so I compromised and did just a strip to off-set the D-9 setting.  I love, love, love this look.

I will come up with some sorta of witty saying for a wide border and then finish off with the black/pink flowers.  Now to google butterfly sayings--lol

Thank you Erin, you can send me your Orphans anytime!  I have two little grand-daughters (and their mom) who have called dibs on this future keepsake.

The 'Pink' around the flowers is a yarn used to make pot scrubbers.  The texture is a bit stiff, but so cute.  At first glance it looks like I had tension problems and didn't know it--ha ha.  I hope to find large pink buttons to sew in the middle of each flower.

The A/C is getting replaced tomorrow, so I will have to find another excuse to take a day off and sew.

Erin's flowers and pink yarn

Yes I already had the butterflies cut out for a future project

New favorite setting for 12 focus blocks.

flowers, flowers, and more flowers pt 3

All 20 are cut and tacked, ready to raw-edge applique.  Hopefully sometime next week I can start working on the borders.  There are a couple in this series I didn't get photos of.  I can't believe how many times I have changed my mind on how I want to do these.  I think I will be as surprised as everyone else when I finally get done.  I am considering adding beads and/or buttons after I quilt the top.  So far this top is entirely out of scraps.  I did use a sheet for my background fabric but it was one that cut into to finish a different quilt.

Our A/C is out (new one on Monday?) so I spent most of the day at the missions building.  I cleaned, and sorted fabrics and wish I had taken a before photo.  Pat on the back, I am bring home 5 empty laundry baskets.  Several ladies are meeting with me on Tuesday to go through more fabric.  Hope I get to send a bunch home with them.

Ben picked the prints for these flowers

I hope to embroidery the thinner lines 

looks like I forgot to make the embroidery lines

wouldn't buttons look cute in the middle of these violets

more embroidery opportunities 

flowers, flowers, flowers cont...

still working on the applique blocks from our library class.  I have cut out next months flowers.  I don't know when I will raw-edge applique them all.  It has been fun selecting scraps to cut shapes from.

Here are a few favorites so far:

Cosmos should be pink, lavender  I like the whites

zinnia  pinks reds orange-  ha ha-  this will look better after I trim up the bottom flower 

hyacinth  this block is a re-do didn't like the first try

not sure if this needs something else, kinda plain

my floor after cutting the zinnias

this one will need embroidery on the berries

love these fabrics

flowers, flowers, flowers!

Marionville quilt class at the library on the first Tuesday of each month is always a lot of fun.  We have great show and tells.  I pretend to teach the class but Connie always has all the examples made.  This series we are looking at ways to applique.  I have the complete set of 21 flowers from the Detroit Press 1931. - 1932.  Some of these flowers were re-introduced in the Kansas City Star a few years later.

Here is a sneak pre-view of my work so far:

(Disclaimer-  I wasn't sure if I was going to do any blocks but did a coin flip that confirmed that 'I was"  My flip-a-coin version of quilt design is leading to a few interesting choices in this future keepsake.)

I have the first 7 blocks cut out and ready to machine raw stitch applique.  I hope to embellish with embroidery and maybe even a bead or two here and there.    The flower pots/vases were all cut from the same piece of batik (another coin toss decision)

The battery on my camera is low so I didn't get pictures of all seven that are done to this stage.  14 to go!

I like to add words to my outer borders-- This quilt will read:

The grass withers
The flower fades
but, The WORD of
GOD stands Forever

two of my favorites--so far

ooops I see a piece missing, 

My Journey 2016- Time to tackle the piles

I mentioned before that I lack the skills to actually ask for what I want.  I have over the years written out detailed plans for ideas that I would like to do.  I usually loose the napkin I wrote them down.

I am going to try something 'new' to me.  My focus this week is to specifically edit my spaces and clutter.  (Insert all your images of a hoarder here!)

While I manage to pretend that I am moving piles around and have a plan, truth is I don't.  I get many ideas and really don't have the physical ability to implement them all.  (Another reason to continue getting stronger)

Special thanks to Deny for reminding us that 'cleanliness is next to Godliness' is not in the Bible. That helped a so much to take the pressure off-  just kidding.  Maybe he was deeper then he intended to be and meant "god-liness"  making the act of cleaning into an idol.  I have no plans to convert to a worshiper of anyone/.anything other then our Creator.

Healthy living is still my mantra for the month.  I plan to explore different parts of what makes me tick over the course of these posts.

First the moving piles around is not a joke.  For years I have been collecting items for future projects.  My dad use to say if you see something buy it b/c you will spend 10x  as much money and time collecting the supplies to make it yourself.  This is advice is so true.  Like many students of life, I always fail the test and the make-up test.  The bulldozers and dump trucks have not lined up at the door (yet) so maybe there is hope that I can get a handle on it.

Here are my specific visions for the basement.  (Reference is to a vision board not a cosmic experience)  Starting in no particular order.

Back store room:  convert to mosaic room.  Move Jesse's blue desk to the west wall.  Move all holiday storage items to another location to be determined later.  Use north wall for shelves and edit supplies to specific projects.  I will keep the cat's litter boxes in this room and promise to keep them clean.

Glass room.  Sort, clean and edit materials.  Remove all items that are not necessary for the creative process to work/design with glass.

Laundry room.  Move washer/dryer to east wall.  Install toilet and sink and counter tops.  Consider the area where washer/dryer are currently and see if this area can be converted to holiday storage. Address concerns  for the overhead pipes.

Sewing room-  finish putting stuff  away.  Pat on the back, this room is closest to being usable the way it is.

Furnace room.  Clean out and install cabinets/counter tops to make into a Kitchenette area.  Use the cabinets for storing overflow kitchen stuff, large pots/pan etc...

Fireplace room.  Clean out and add shelves to east wall.  Move quilting machines and materials from church building back home.

Gun room  Install cabinets and counter tops.  South side of room, clean up and add shelves or cabinets on south wall and/or east wall by fireplace for misc storage.  Keep room open, maybe couch or chairs and small table.  Do a stained glass piece for window.

I am thankful for the space we have in the basement.  I have wonderful memories of the many different ways we have utilized these spaces.  Walls have gone up and been taken down.  Just about every room has been used as a bedroom for a bit.  Kids have moved in and out.  Stuff has been stored, sorted and stored some more.  As much as I have enjoyed each phase of use in our downstairs areas I am ready to ask for help in meeting goals for how it is used now.  I do not want the basement to be a junk area, I want to use it as a space to be creative and spend time with family and friends doing good works with our hands.

I know there will be a lot of physical work needed to make my vision a reality.  I hope family and friends will bear with me as I hint, and hint and hint and finally work up to asking for help.

Anyone available to help me get started?

My Journey- 2016 5th Sunday (May) Veggie Lasagna

 On the 5th Sunday of the month, our church group gets together for a pot luck lunch after morning services.

Kelly and I traded ideas (and I googled) on how to make a veggie lasagna.  Mine turned out pretty good.  Several ladies asked for the recipe.  My plan was to get up and cook and finish early and make it to class.  Kelly beat me to church---I think she cheated-  she fixed her cake last night.  And she only had 5 kids to get ready,(cousins spent the night) and a 30 minute drive.  I had to wake up by myself--enough said.  Kelly rocks!

My version of Veggie Lasagna:  I didn't write an ingredient list but will try remember the order in which I did things.  All mentions of amounts are guess-ta-mations-  I didn't really measure ingredients..

Saturday I purchased, Spaghetti squash, mushrooms, frozen spinach, a baggie of shredded stuff (Brussels sprouts, celery, cabbage and other veggies) and jar of spag. sauce.  (I looked for a chunky mix w/no meats and low carbs per serving)  I had on hand onions, peppers (red, orange, yellow), coconut oil, and homemade cheese dip (I make my dip with cream cheese, sour cream, rotel (I make my own) and grated cheese blend- Colby/Monterey Jack.  I left the spinach in the refrid to thaw over night.

Cut the squash in half length wise.  -Harder to do then what I thought it would be.  I placed both sides cut side down in a baking dish w/a bit of water and covered.  I cooked it at 425 for just less then an hour.  Google says 45 min.

While the squash is cooking I worked on the rest of the meal.  I started with a spoonful of coconut oil (b/c I couldn't get the bottle of olive oil open),melt on medium heat, added 1/2 bag of veggie stuff and stirred.  I then added 1/2 cup of water and covered so it could cook/steam.  When that mix look like it was cooking down I removed the lid and let the water cook off.  I then added sliced onions (I like purple)  I like to have several different sizes when I cut.  Cover and build back up to steam.  Uncover and add slices of the different peppers, cover and let simmer.  When this looks like a good texture I mix it up and add a layer of mushroom to the top.  I like to splash the mushrooms with Teriyaki sauce-  cover and let the mushrooms cook/steam.  When the mushrooms are done, I uncover and let the excess water cook off, you could just drain if needed.   Mix and add jar of spaghetti sauce, (I save back enough to cover the bottom of the baking dish first) Simmer this mushroom/veggie/sauce while working on everything else.

The spaghetti squash will be hot-  I put 1/2 in a bowl and ran water over it.  I used a fork and scraped the insides and put them into another bowl. Repeat with other half. When I had all the squash I could get I drained off the excess water and added a spoonful of coconut oil and a 1/4 cup of grated Parmesan cheese and mixed (tossed?)  Then I microwaved for a couple of minutes to get it hot.

I had the cheese dip already done so I drained the spinach and added it to the dip.

In a clean baking dish I first poured enough sauce from the jar to cover the bottom of the dish to keep the squash from sticking.  Then layer squash (It is stringy so I drop clumps and spreed them out with two forks)  Next is about half of the mushroom/sauce mixture.  Then a layer of the spinach/cheese dip.  Another layer of squash,  Then mushroom/sauce mix and topped with grated cheese-

I was running late so I covered the dish with foil and brought it to the building to put in oven on low till lunch.  I think I could just heat until cheese melts and serve or better yet do the layers and freeze for later..  I was hoping to have enough left over to see how it taste after it has been the refrid. but the entire dish was scrapped clean.

I have only made spaghetti squash one other time and I seriously did NOT like it.  This was good enough that I will consider doing it again.  Maybe next time I can fake a pizza or better yet a meatloaf-  now I think Kelly needs to plant squash!

One of the benefits of eating healthy is all the wonderful flavors found in real foods.  I don't normally use salt when I cook and rarely even add pepper.  I am enjoying discovering what others have known all along.  Eating Healthy is easier to do then I thought it would be.  It had been a few months since I made this pledge--

 Ask myself this question everyday--  How can I find, prepare, and eat healthy food.?  

I am looking forward to seeing what new recipes I can make in June.

Your UFO, my UFO it's still a UFO

To make a short story long-- Erin sent me a pack of blocks intended for another friend on her site.  Lucky for me I passed them along to their rightful owner.  What a lovely surprise when these black and white beauties showed up in my mailbox!  Thanks Erin, your UFO's are now MY UFO's and may or may not be UFO's much longer.

I love the B/W and the green just pops!

I am hoping to add a yarn embellishment to enhance the flowers a bit. Several of these blocks still need appliqued to the backgrounds.  At first I wanted to make many different color flower outlines but the cheapo in me settled for one skein of yarn

 Since most of these gifted blocks are black on the left and white on the right I think I may break them up with an alternate block between them.

Took a bit of searching but I did find a pack of B/W & Pink butterflies.  These are started on 8 1/2" backgrounds I will need to figure out a way of getting down to 12 1/2" total preferably with out having to  cut new backgrounds.

I 'found' this Black and Pink and had to bring home a couple of yards just in case I wanted borders or binding.

 I may have the use the print to border the flowers to get them up to size.  Really don't want to take the time to size down the butterflies.  So many decisions, no wonder we have so many UFO's!!