Finished and Started

My Six Hem Sampler is framed and ready to hang in the perfect spot. And where is that perfect spot? Hmmmm. I haven't quite found it yet, but then, there isn't much wall space left in my house.

On the sewing front, I made a few Smart Bags by Quiltsmart. They are easy to make and use two fat quarters. For a tote bag, they are a little small, but just the perfect size to carry some books. They would be great gifts for your book club friends.

Shhhh. This is part of a secret project. That's all I'm saying.............

This pillow case is for our Bee Christmas charity project. Instead of exchanging gifts, we decided to make pillow cases for children fighting cancer.

Lastly, this is the latest counted cross-stitch project in the works. It is Little House Needleworks Acorn Hill. I'm using Crescent Colours - lovely fall colors.

On the day after Thanksgiving, I'm thankful for the container of leftovers that Cheri prepared especially for me. I got to enjoy turkey, green beans, corn souffle, mashed potatoes, stuffing and cranberry salad all over again today. Yum.

Schoolgirl Lessons finished

This little piece is now my very favorite stitch. It was a breeze to do. I love the design and using just one color thread. The silk thread was smooth as........well, silk.

Little House Needleworks

"Schoolgirl Lessons"

28 ct White Lugana

Belle Soie fine silk thread - Sister Scarlet

Scones

Confession - I get very jealous of the bloggers who make bread. I love the smell of baking bread because I was brought up in a home where my mother always baked bread. We had fresh rolls at dinner time, fresh biscuits with strawberries in season, sweet lemon bread, and savory cheese bread. Mom also made the best scones - savory and plain - almost like baking powder biscuits.

When I purchase scones at grocery stores or bakeries, they are always sweet and almost cake-like. They are not at all like the kind my mom made - where we devoured them fresh and hot out of the oven, slathering them with butter.

A Scone cookbook that I recently purchased from Amazon had a recipe for peanut butter scones. Since peanut butter is my most favorite of all foods, I decided to give this recipe a try.

First a disclaimer - I am NOT a baker or a bread maker. I don't understand the chemistry, nor do I know enough to be certain that the batter is the right consistency. So, when the batter was very gooey and the recipe called for me to roll it out with a rolling pin, I knew that something was wrong. There was no way I could roll it out, so I kind of just smashed it down on the counter, divided it up with a knife, and globbed portions onto the baking sheet. I thought for sure that it would be a huge failure. This is how the globs baked up:

Not too bad looking. And the insides had the right consistency.

The taste is OK, but a little too sweet for my taste. I think I will try making these again, with more flour perhaps, and less sugar definitely.

Time to go make a cup of tea and plan my next attempt at baking.

Round Robin

The two Round Robin quilts that my friend Lindsay and I are making progress slowly. We gave ourselves a year and it looks like we will use every minute of that year. I think it has been two months now since Lindsay gave me this beautifully appliqued round. I just hated to spoil it by adding mundane borders. At our Bee group, Gail suggested that I add strip borders with many different fabrics of the same color - one purple border and one green border. I really liked the idea. One of the rules for this Round Robin exchange was that we must use fabrics from our stash.

I gathered purples easily and made the first border. Then I went through my greens and discovered that the selection was poor and the greens were not right. Too many sages and limes and greens that did not read solid enough for my taste. I agonized and fretted and finally decided the best thing to do was eat lunch. After lunch I went through my stash one last time and uncovered a kit from years ago that I had never started and from which I had previously stolen fabric. In that kit was a stack of green strips. After doing a happy dance, I got to work and made the final border using those wonderful green strips.

Now this quilt goes back to Lindsay for quilting and binding, and I will receive back the other round robin quilt to do the same.

These quilts are being donated to our church for a fund raiser.

Good Day

It is a good day when you can sit in your favorite chair, listen to a good book on your iPod, and stitch a Little House Needleworks one-color piece.

Posted on a Good Day by.........

Is it an age thing?

See the red arrow pointing down to the box of tissue? See the arrow pointing up to the paper taped to the side of the cabinet? This morning as I reached for a tissue, I looked up and there it was! The invitation.

Yesterday there was a shower for my grand niece for which I knitted a baby blanket (see previous post). (Side note - someone asked me how long it took to knit the blanket and I looked it up. I started it on July 19th and finished it on October 31st. Did I knit on it every day? No. ) OK, back to my story. Last week when I looked on my messy desk for the invitation, I could not find it. I cleaned off my desk, I looked in my highly organized Pending file. I looked in my highly organized Pending notebook. I looked in my highly organized Save This box. I simply could not find that invitation. Then I started thinking that maybe I never got an invitation. I was helping with the shower (centerpieces) and there had been many emails, so maybe no one ever sent me an invitation.

At the shower (which was great!), I almost said something to the hostess, in a kidding fashion of course, about not receiving an invitation. Fortunately I kept my mouth shut.

Imagine my surprise this morning when there it was - highly organized and taped to my office cabinet wall. Now I remember doing that and thinking I was so clever - using my cabinet wall like a bulletin board.

That means that now when I am looking for something I need to look in the Pending file, the Pending Notebook, the Save Box, AND the bulletin-board wall. Am I too organized, or is it my age?