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Post by choney2 on Dec 29, 2022 0:05:11 GMT
Good evening,
CJ,, ok I am about to really rock your world/mess with your head. Think of how cute it would be to make the bitty house blocks as a seasonal quilt….for example using a bright yellow fabric for only during summer months..gem colored red and green for winter….perhaps red hearts for February. Guess in the back of my silly head I have it as possible that for each season you would be able to make no two blocks alike, based upon the seasonally different fabrics and the changes in weather/temperature. But that is also a whole lot of work and thinking. The house blocks are adorable however!!! I like the concept of the coriander quilts quilt- the ability to modify the level of difficulty. Glad you were able to order more fabric for the temperature quilt, and its great that someone still has it available.
Ruth, so when AC Moore closed you moved their entire yarn stock to your home? Glad you have been able to shift it around a bit in your home, so that you can find what you are looking for better. Will have to check out the Jacklyn Steves cup of tea block…sounds adorable. How did you know I was just finishing a cup of herb tea? Sounds like you did decide to take on the paw patrol hats. Bet they are adorable, but I can imagine how many different pieces that must be sewn on. What kind of soup did you make?
Ds said he would eat with me, so I made a ham loaf. Oh my, I forgot how very good that is! Very glad I have a few days worth of leftovers. I did get to the store today and pick up navy beans so I will make bean soup tomorrow.- in my trusted crock pot. I have stared a bit at the fabrics I selected for the table topper. I viewed the video the designer put up on youtube expecting directions, instead she simply sold patterns. I can make this without her pattern, it will be very simple. Just gotta work on layout and how/ which fabrics I will use.
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Post by choney2 on Dec 29, 2022 0:15:15 GMT
Yes, and Ruth, I was enjoying the end of a cup of herbal tea
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 29, 2022 3:34:58 GMT
CJ,it sounds as if you have some really good ideas for quilts for the upcoming year. I really like those little houses! And the way you're planning on organizing the fabric pieces will make it much easier I'm sure. I'm glad it was warm there for you today. I'd be happy with 50 degrees right now also.
Ginny, I made soup with leftover turkey that I had put in the freezer after we had it before Thanksgiving. It's kind of a jumble soup with the turkey, potatoes, onions, celery,frozen mixed veggies and peas as well as dehydrated spinach and some cheese powder. I blended it some so that it would be creamy and also put in milk powder.It sounds strange but it's a healthy soup and tastes great.
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 29, 2022 3:37:24 GMT
Oh I meant to mention that I've never had ham loaf. I have to look that up. I don't know if I mentioned it but I never heard of Goldrush brownies or butter letter either so I,too had to look them up and I love the sound of those Goldrush brownies. I'll have to buy some sweetened condensed milk.I do have choc chips and graham crackers
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Post by choney2 on Dec 29, 2022 12:32:58 GMT
Thanks for the reminder….I meant to mention last night to CJ about the gold rush brownies. My mom did not make them every week or every month, but a couple of times a year. They are absolutely totally addicting. The good news is that you can half the recipe easily- using half a box of graham crackers and only one can of sweetened condensed milk and a cup of chocolate chips. (I forget the actual quantity of chips to use) The brownies are very dense, very sweet and gooey. Just be careful not to over cook them. Because there are no eggs in them and all components can be consumed raw its ok if they are slightly under cooked.
The recipe I used for ham loaf I got from taste of home. I first had Ham loaf in Lancaster Pa, at one of the smorgasbords. Think it actually is an amish recipe, that you can make with or without pineapple. The TOH recipe I used last night did not call for ham, but was delicious. I used a small quantity of ground beef instead of pork with the ham. And previous reviews - or perhaps the recipe itself- indicate that it freezes well.
Ruth your soup sounds good, and I am sure that you put it together and season it just so that it tastes perfect for you and Dh. Funny, the best pot of soup I made was years ago…was a batch of beef vegetable. I kept saving (freezing ) leftover vegetables and scraps from pot roast until I had enough for a pot of soup. Basically just put all I had saved together, probably added a can or two of diced tomatoes…..and I put it in jars,. Think it took about 20 minutes in the pressure cooker to process. But it was absolutely the best batch of beef vegetable soup I ever made, and even better that I had several quarts of it made to keep on the shelf.
Gotta figure out a layout pattern for this table topper. I am going for a walk with my friend this am..then will just be home doing some housework and I hope to have a small fire outside. My propane delivery did arrive late yesterday. It sounds silly, as I lived with that not having its own installed heat source for a very long time, but I feel better knowing that I have it set up to be heated independantly of my normal utility.
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Post by cj59 on Dec 29, 2022 18:57:33 GMT
Hello Everyone - Hope you are all doing well today and having nice weather. It's sunny and in the 50s here, really nice. I took care of a few things outside earlier since it was good weather. Phyl and Sue - Hope you are O.K. and getting to do some crafting. Ruth - Your turkey soup sounds good. I bought the ingredients for the gold rush brownies, so we'll both have to make them and see what we think  Ginny - Hope you can get your table topper layout done and that you enjoyed your walk. I'm glad you have a separate heating source. I was supposed to get an oil delivery yesterday, but so far I haven't seen them. I hope maybe they will come today or tomorrow. I like your ideas for the bitty houses, but like you said it would take a lot of thought and planning. I think I'm going to need to standardize colors for the sky fabrics and I'm thinking blue (sunny-no rain), gray (rain) or white (snow). I also want to standardize the sides of the house to white and/or maybe cream. Then I can choose whatever colors I want for the roof and the house. I'm hoping to go through my scraps tomorrow and Saturday and pull some out to get them ready for piecing next week. It will help me to have a bunch of the standardized pieces already cut. I figured out that I'm going to lay the houses out in rows of 16, breaking them down by month (acting like there are 32 days in each month) with 24 rows down. I will need some small filler blocks, and I decided to make some cute little tree blocks to use as fillers. I made them this morning so they'll be ready to use. If I lay out the quilt this way it would measure 48x72. The length is O.K., but it's not going to be wide enough. I thought maybe I can do side borders of flower blocks or maybe larger trees. Just to add maybe 6 inches on each side making it 60 inches wide. Here's a picture of my test bitty house block and the tree blocks I made today, these all are 3.5 inches unfinished, and finish at 3 inches. Take care everyone and have a good day!   |
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Post by choney2 on Dec 30, 2022 1:32:53 GMT
CJ- what a great idea to use the trees as filler blocks and to use up fabric for house blocks. Gosh they are adorable.it will be a fun and colorful quilt for sure. I hope that somehow you got your oil delivery! My friend had trouble with hers, she was supposed to get a delivery the other day and they declared her driveway too slippery to negotiate. They did deliver the next day. Thankfully we are both experiencing milder temps, so our need for oil or propane is not so dire.
My walk was enjoyable….and just so nice to catch up with my friend. I did stare at fabric for quite awhile did a little bit of cutting (not much) and pretty much know what I am going to do. Tomorrow is another day, and I will cut and get so sewing then.
Gonna go read….sleep well!
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Post by gramma15 on Dec 30, 2022 7:29:49 GMT
CJ,that is a lot of trees. They'll be perfect with the houses. It's going to be a really nice quilt. It's great too that the weather was such that it allowed you to get to those outside things you wanted to get done. It was so windy here yesterday that we couldn't put out our garbage for pickup.Today,of course,there was only a little breeze.
Ginny, thanks for explaining the ham loaf.I love meatloaf but I don't know about ham loaf. My dh doesn't even like meatloaf so I think it's safe to say that he wouldn't like meatloaf. Do you have a grinder or do you just chop the ham fine. I'm glad to hear you had a nice walk and were able to catch up on everything with your friend.
I was organizing the hats I've made recently into piles for dd and her family,ds and his family,and donation hats.I was extremely surprised to see how many I've made There are three big piles upstairs and another down here that I still have to sort.
Flower story... I mentioned that since I got home late from our travels early this year I had to buy plants instead of planting seeds. I bought about 4 different kinds including the petunias I mentioned previously.Well all summer the petunias did really bad.The just barely stayed alive. well when fall came and it got cold and colder, the other plants started to shrivel and die off but the petunias started growing and flowering. I sure was surprised. I brought them inside and they're still flowering.It certainly is a bright spot in dreary winter.I used to bring in marigolds but ran out of marigold seeds.
Sleep well.
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Post by choney2 on Dec 30, 2022 12:25:49 GMT
Ruth, love the story about the petunias! Along a similar vein, my Dd has brought in pepper plants which have ripened fruit over the winter and went on to go back outside in the summer. Anyway what a nice treat that you should have fresh flowers blooming in your home in the dead of winter. Why are you surprised that you have made so many hats!!! That must feel great though, a feeling of accomplishment seeing all the lovely hats you created for family and those in need. When I make ham loaf I put the pieces of ham in the food processor (it really needs to be chopped that fine). And it tastes nothing, absolutely nothing like meat loaf, although there is a small amount of ground beef in it. Think the sweet glaze really adds to the ham taste, and then there are some recipes that call for adding pineapple.
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Post by cj59 on Dec 30, 2022 22:24:52 GMT
Hello - Hope everyone is well and having nice weather. It was sunny and in the 60s here today. It's so nice to have the house comfortable - not too hot or too cold. Ruth - I'm glad you are getting to enjoy some flowers in the winter. I'm sure it was amazing to see all the hats you've made. Ginny - Hope you were able to get to some sewing today. Phyl and Sue - Hope you are well. This morning I cut some scraps for the bitty houses blocks. I decided to sort them by white and cream - for the sides of the house, gray and blue (for skies), and then any other colors for roofs or houses. I didn't cut them to the small size, I kept them all at 2 inches by 4 inches, since it's easy to cut them down from there. I also pulled out all the 2.5 inch fabric strips I've been saving - I have two gallon size ziplock bags full of them! I'll be able to use these for roofs and houses, and probably some for the skies and sides of the house. It will be a great way to use some of these strips. I just want to go through them and sort out the whites, creams, blues and grays. So I might try to do some of that tomorrow. I made the Gold Rush Brownies today and they are good, thanks for mentioning them Ginny I think if I made them again I would use less graham crackers, since I'd like them a bit moister. But I love graham crackers, so they are still good. Take care |
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Post by choney2 on Dec 31, 2022 12:53:32 GMT
CJ- what recipe did you use for the gold rush brownies? And the bake time is critical- I have found that slightly underbaking the recipe keeps them more moist and gooey. (Also keeps them from sticking in the pan as much). I think that these bitty house are perfect for you, you have mentioned so many times that you were looking for a way to use up all the smaller scraps of fabric you have. Do I dare say it? this will be a scrappy quilt….but I think honestly that with the cream and white breaking up what appears to be a collision of fabrics that do not “go together” I think scrappyish quilts are great….and hope you have fun making it. It also sounds like a nice low stress quilt for you, not as much pressure but also easy to catch up if you miss a day.
All I did in the land of crafting yesterday was to eliminate which fabrics I will not be using in the table topper. I had picked out some additional fabrics….the one I am still on the fence about using. Think I will get everything cut out and then audition a layout, and decide then about the one fabric I am still a bit undecided upon.
I have a window bird feeder (in addition to the one on my tree). Todays silly treat- a gold finch decided to sleep in my bird feeder. I thought that maybe it was injured or dead (but I did notice it was breathing). It took a visit to the window sill by my cat to wake the little bird up, which happily flew away.
Going for a walk this am and will finish my housework. Then going to work on the table topper.
Ruth, hope you had a good afternoon yesterday….Phyl and Sue, hope you are doing well.
I have no plans for today, which is really just another day. I hope I can find something pleasant to watch on TV this evening, as most of the NYE stuff seems stupid to me.
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Post by cj59 on Dec 31, 2022 20:18:02 GMT
Hello - Happy New Year's Eve to you all Hope everyone is well and having good weather. It mild here but we're getting some showers. Glad I don't have to go out. I've never been a partier, so it's a quiet night at home for me. Ruth, Phyl and Sue - Hope you are doing well. Ginny - I hope you enjoyed your walk and that you are able to work on the table topper today. I looked at several different recipes and most of them called for 18 graham crackers (2 packages) so that's what I used. I think one or one and a half might have been better. But I am enjoying them. The bitty house quilt will be scrappy and I'm already feeling a bit stressed about that. My mind just works better with order and coordination. But I'll hopefully make the quilt work. This morning I cut more pieces of blue and gray fabrics for the skies, white and cream (and some prints) for the sides of the houses and I found a little bit of a white with snowflakes on it that will hopefully last me for snow days (I'm fine if I get none this winter  ). I also sorted out the rest of my 2.5 inch strips into colors, novelty, and light prints. It will be fun to cut those as the house and roofs. I have a bunch of these, so I should be fine using these scraps this year. I've been re-thinking the Temperature quilt and might go in a little different direction with it, I'll wait to see how January goes. I hope that I can get my sewing machine cleaned tomorrow and put in a new needle, and put in a new rotary blade. I did a little hand quilting this morning. I really wanted to get up to a certain part of piece done by today, but I'm not sure I'll be able to. I sure hope I can work on this morning over the next few months to finish it. There are always more hand quilting projects I want to start, but I try not to have a bunch of unfinished projects. Everyone defines unfinished projects differently. For me it would be something that I've at least started cutting or piecing and then stopped. I really only have one project like that and it's my tumbler quilt blocks. I've been wanting to make this quilt for awhile and sorted out the pieces by color so I could try to work on them as a Rainbow Scrap Challenge in 2023. I'd sure like to get that quilt top done. Take care |
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Post by gramma15 on Jan 1, 2023 2:04:49 GMT
I've never been a party person either and will,as usual stay home and won't even watch the ball fall even though I'll still be awake at midnight.
Ginny, I hope you enjoyed your walk and also hope you've decided on whether or not to use that fabric you mentioned being unsure of.
I don't know how I keep getting distracted and miss the board entirely yesterday and part of today. I'm working on an aviator hot for 8 year old grandson and need to put those parts on the Paw Patrol for my youngest dgs and youngest dggs.
It hasn't been too cold here but dark and dreary.We don't have many of those days here but we have had a few this past week.
Happy New Year's eve to all
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Post by choney2 on Jan 1, 2023 21:19:00 GMT
Happy new year all! At the moment I am taking a break from playing with fabric. It’s been an interesting process getting my fabric cut and a simple layout done. At the moment I am getting ready to trim the blocks so that they will all work together. Decided to eliminate the red fabrics completely- and add the floral.
CJ- I will locate my moms recipe for goldrush brownies. When I make a half batch I use 1 can of sweetened condensed milk and 1 1/2 sleeves of grahams and I think a cup of chips. So basically half a box of graham crackers. And bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Don’t stress over the bitty house quilt! That is why I was trying to add a random element, so that you would not make decisions. Another idea. If you are going to vary the house body colors- and let’s say there are 15 houses per row. Commit to using 15 different house fabrics but the same for each row. For example each row will have a yellow floral in it and then just very where the yellow floral appears. (Am I making sense?). Then in varying fabrics with some consistency it’s not so random and loses the scrappy look a bit.
Ruth how far along are you in making the aviator hat? Sounds adorable - and I do not envy you putting so many pieces on the paw patrol hat. Which character are you making a hat with? Not that I know all their names. Think Chase is the most popular. Glad your temps are moderate.
Gonna go sew these rows and see what monster I have created
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Post by cj59 on Jan 1, 2023 21:58:24 GMT
Happy New Year to all of you in our group Hope you've had a good holiday weekend. Ruth - Sorry it's been so dreary there, hope you get some sunny days this week. The aviator hat sounds cut, I bet your grandson will like that. Ginny - Hope you were able to get your sewing done and that it's looking the way you want it to. Thanks for your suggestions on the house blocks. I can tell they are going to stress me out a bit, but I really would like to make 365 of these this year. I'll probably have to adjust as things go along. I think if I can keep to blue, gray or white for the skies and white or cream for the sides of the house that will help my mind to deal with it more since there are less fabric choices. I probably have enough fabric scraps that I could make 3 or 4 houses from the same fabric and then I could spread them out throughout the quilt. I made 6 houses this morning and I'm pretty happy with them. I had hoped to start sewing them together in a row, but I think it might be better to get 30/31 done (a month) first and then work on laying them out. Picture below. I'm not sure how the darker blue fabrics are working, so I might use less of those and spread them around to break up the lighter sky fabrics. I also started on the Temperature Quilt and I like how it's going together. What I've decided to do is make one with temperatures for a year that was several years ago, instead of doing one for this year. I've been wanting to make one of these for years but always hoped that I'd move out of this area so I didn't want to start one - even though I know I could have still checked out the temps if I didn't live here And I still hope I can move out of here this year. But making one for a past year that I did live here all year is something I like better. Hoping that you all have a happy and healthy 2023. Take care! 
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