Lucky Me!

A knock on the door and an envelope requiring a signature ... not exactly a comfy event around here. Far too much unpleasant, unwelcome mail arriving here in the past year (and the uniformed divorce-paper-serving process server that scared the crap out of my daughter at 7:00 am was a true highlight) for me to not be really really wary. And from Argentina? Not only concerned, but really confused!

And then it hit me. And I smiled. Big. I signed away, rushed inside, and ripped open that package. Because I knew that in that package was my mini quilt from the In the Good Ol' Summertime Mini Quilt Swap.


And I love it. Sandra read me right. I can't wait to hang it and display it. It makes me smile so much to look at it.

Thank you so much!

Hmmm ...

I bought a charm pack a while ago. A few weeks ago I pulled it out and thought I'd make a coin quilt with it, using a dark rose or medium blue for the sashing. But I have neither, and the more I look at these strips the more I know they just aren't me and I'll never finish working with them.


So please ... take them and create with them! First come, first served on this one ... I'll mail them out as soon as possible. The only catch is that I want to see what you come up with for them!


I cannot get the colors right in the photos ... what you see in close to what you'll get, but not quite.

Thanks.

Crock Pot Chicken and Green Olives

My kids really liked this, thus I had to share ...

And most of the ingredients were really inexpensive due to sales and coupons ... wanted to pass along that part too, just in case there's a reader out there who isn't paying attention to the great deal blogs. Once you begin to coupon and shop carefully you'll be hard pressed to go back to paying full price for much of anything (and some things, like toothpaste, toothbrushes, shampoo, etc. I wouldn't ever pay more than $.25 for ... because they can easily be gotten for free).

No pictures because by the time I realized the kids were eating this and liking it it was almost gone (instead at the bottom of the post is a picture of R. eating mini wheats).

Here goes ...

Crock Pot Chicken and Green Olives

1 lb. chicken tenderloins or breasts
a bit of salt and pepper
1 tbsp. dried chopped onion (or 1-2 chopped onions sauteed in a little oil to soften)
1 tbsp. flour
2 c. white cooking wine or dry white wine (you could use chicken broth too but the wine taste is so nice with the olives)
3 cans diced tomatoes, don't drain (I used two cans of Hunts which I bought last week at Publix for less than $.30 each after sale and coupons and one big can of organic tomatoes, also on sale at Publix and used a coupon and ended up paying less than $.70. Back to the Hunts, they have a green pepper and onion (I think) flavor that is awesome)
1 tsp. rosemary, crushed
1 tbsp. thyme
1 tbsp. parsley
1 jar green olives with or without pimentos, but without pits (combined a walgreens store coupon with a manufacturers coupon .. dirt cheap)
a handful or two of fresh spinach, chopped (the more the merrier ... we love fresh spinach)
*look in the fridge and see what else you could add ... maybe mushrooms or thinly sliced carrots

1 lb. pasta (whole wheat pasta BOGO at Publix, combined with coupons, less than $.40 per box)

Add all ingredients, except the pasta, into the crock pot in the order listed. Cover. Turn it on - low for 5-6 hours, high for 2-3 hours.

Cook the pasta according to package instructions.

Serve the crock pot meal over the pasta. We pulled out a piece of chicken per person first, then ladled the rest on top.

A Gator ...

There's this awesome teenager named Allie. Wonderful girl, great friend to my daughter, smart, funny, athletic, beautiful, artistic, and all that. Last spring she graduated high school and at the beginning of summer she packed her bags and began life as a student of the University of Florida.

C. misses her, I miss her ... but she is having an awesome time and even going to class (I ask).



Allie was in town to help with the regatta this weekend (there were close to 300 sailors participating in total) and C. got the chance to give her a quilt I'd made her as a graduation/going to college gift. Now that she has it I can blog about it ... though it was alluded to here.



Florida colors are blue and orange. Ok, I must interrupt and say that while doing this project I realized that most schools and pro teams have mediocre to almost ugly colors ... not all of them, but a lot. I wanted to do something that represented the spirit of the school but didn't scream Gators (0r dirty gators as my brother calls them, but I'm not going there today!). I considered blue and orange pinwheels or a blue and orange zig zag quilt, but in the end came up with this idea, blue on one end and orange on the other with the two meeting and blending in the middle.



I believe I used 3" squares throughout the quilt. Lots of them. I did not have that many different blues or oranges so I sent out a call for help here on the blog and received fabrics from many people, most especially Amy, of The Calico Cat and mama to the handsome Jacob, who is the same age as R. She sent a gigantic box that I barely dipped into (I've been using her squares non-stop since then in many, many projects ... thank you again Amy!).



The backside is mostly a blue and orange flannel.



The quilt is about twin sized. I figured it'd be great for her bed, or for staying warm at a football game, or, later, to use on the back of a coach as a lap quilt.

Congratulations again Allie!

Awesome Weekend

Yes, I'm back. Yes, I dropped off the face of the earth. Yes, I know I probably have no readers left.






Will I be a better poster? Maybe, but I'm not holding my breath.






Just a few pictures of the weekend. Three of the kids sailed/raced while the other kids and I got to watch from a boat. The weather was unbelievable, finally a little cooler, and it couldn't have been a nicer time.






I didn't get any sewing done but brought some embroidery with me and did a tiny bit of that while River ate cheerios and then napped.

Just Because

Just a Few Pictures

10 months old! I have no idea when, or how, that happened. R. remains a very happy easygoing loving baby. Just a joy.

Our Newest Family Member

is Hippo the cat. He's five months old and came to us from the Humane Society.

Hippo came home yesterday and is fitting into the family quite well.


He belongs to C., the oldest child. She chose him, specifically looking for a grayish cat because his name is Hippo (that was predetermined), and she is responsible for him. And he adores her already.

R. really couldn't care less about Hippo. The picture is very misleading ... the cat was walking past R., not stopping to visit.

*Notice the baby gates in the background. I thought I wouldn't need any since there are so many bigger people around and only one baby ... yeah, the first day he climbed the stairs I was at Babies R Us buying gates. We're up to 4, and need 2 more now that we have a litterbox to keep R. out of.

Good Ol' Summertime Swap

Finished, with not much time to spare (more than I thought I had, actually, I thought it was due today and it's not due to be mailed until Monday).

I signed up for this swap ages ago, like June, and then forgot about it completely with summer vacations and "life in general".

The theme was summertime, which to me means bright florals and lots of color. This quilt is, loosely based on the idea of looking through a window at a field full of wildflowers.

This little quilt is very simple ... stripped triangles sewn together, sashed with a batik blue, bordered a few times, and finished with a wavy border. The backside is a blue bubble fabric I received during the destashing of someone else's fabric collection ... and I love it. The quilt is really bright and busy so I added the multiple borders to try to settle it down a little, I'm not sure how successful that was. It measures about 18" by 18".

To make the stripped triangles I sewed a large rectangle of scrap strips using this method, then cut the triangles out of that. It was really easy and gave the result I was hoping for.

My original plan for this quilt was to use shades of green, brown, and blues to create a palm tree using a counted cross-stitch pattern. However, after looking at cross stitch patterns and realizing how many 1" squares of fabric I'd need to complete the mini-quilt (a minimum of 1600) I put that idea on hold. I'll try it again when I have more time.

I hope the recipient enjoys it (it's really really bright, I hope that works for them).