Yesterday's Kitchen Challenge from I Heart Planners was to tidy dishes, mugs and cups. That prompted me to pack away the 10 place settings and serving pieces of Pfaltzgraff stoneware for our granddaughter. It took two containers and a lot of scrap quilt batting, but I got it done!
Now it was time to do some cabinet and countertop re-arranging. I moved the coffee pot across the kitchen. Next was to put all the coffee and tea paraphernalia in the cabinet where the stoneware used to be. The mugs were put on the same shelf. I re-arranged my baking pans and supplies above that. The appliances that are rarely used were put in the bottom cabinet.
Where the coffee and mugs were, now has the china from the buffet.
Our eclectic mix of stoneware also got some re-arranging.
Now for today's challenge: pots and pans!
Peace!
My sixteen year old granddaughter, Angelica, made the Granada quilt, by Villa Rosa Designs. It was one of the Quilt of the Month quilts for 2014 at Bernina Sewing Centre. She chose her own fabrics. At first she was going to use red as the accent but switched to the gorgeous light turquoise. I'm so glad she did as it turned out great!
Now it's my turn to quilt her quilt. I just purchased Quilting Wide Open Spaces by Judi Madsen. The book has great advice for choosing your design as well as quilting it. Judi also has several quilt patterns in this book. The main piece of advice, I took to heart, is practicing on the quilt! She says she never practices on paper. Judi has it down by the time she first advances the quilt on the longarm. I decided I'd give it a go. I'm quilting an all over free motion pattern I call fractured squares. I've never done this pattern before but believe I did okay. I'm using So Fine #411, black, in the needle and black prewound bobbins, from Superior Threads. Angelica's quilt is ready for the first advance.
Peace!
Today's post is a reminder to make sure your medicines are kept out of reach of your pets. Child proof bottles don't work on dogs. With their strong jaws they just eat the bottle and pills.
This week two goldendoodles, Hudson and Kirby, from different families, swollowed human drugs. Hudson, a bottle of muscle relaxers and Kirby, Rimadyl! They've both had to have dialysis. The costs for ICU and treatments are thousands of dollars. Vet's don't know yet how much permanent neurological damage Hudson will have. It looks like Kirby will be okay.
You might also want to look into health insurance for your pets. Even if you have the insurance, you'll have out of pocket expenses.
Our Goldendoodle Lacey is from Moss Creek Goldendoodles, as were the two sick dogs. The Moss Creek community has rallied behind these families with prayers and money as needed. I'm so proud to be a part of this community.
Please check all your meds, cleaners, chemicals, etc. and make sure they are locked up or out of your dogs reach.
Peace!
The Kitchen Challenge this week is about recipes and meal planning. My recipes are already organized in a Longaberger recipe box. My cookbooks are kept neatly in a cupboard. I don't do menu planning. Made for an easy week so far.
We choose our dinner each day by what sounds appetizing. I always have the same meats, and seasonally, the same fruits and vegetables on hand. This works well for us.
Since I didn't have much to do with the kitchen organization, I did some sewing organization. I re-arranged all my sewing drawers and discarded a few items. After they were organized, they were labeled (I love my label maker). I ended up with three empty drawers.
Here are my labeled drawers.
Peace!
Over the weekend we spent some wonderful time with our youngest granddaughter. Friday evening we picked Faith up and drove to Kohl's. We were Birthday shopping. We had to go to a second Kohl's before we found the perfect dress. They were on sale so we bought two dresses.
You can't tell from her face in the picture, but her favorite is the top one. It's because the skirt is higher in the front and lower in the back. She'd recently had to give away her previous high/low dress. She was not happy that she'd outgrown the dress. She is very excited about the new one. She wore it on her birthday.
After making our purchases, it was off to Olive Garden for her birthday dinner. Anytime you ask Faith where she wants to eat, it's Olive Garden! She and Gramps played Tic Tac Toe while we waited for our dinner. We had good service and a lovely dinner. Then, off to Grams house for the night. Faith fell asleep in the car. Brushing teeth and getting PJ's on wasn't too difficult. She wanted to sleep on a pallet on the floor next to our bed. Her routine for that is, to fall asleep in our bed and we move her to the pallet when we go to bed.
At 6:30 in the morning I woke up to a sweet little voice saying, "Can I get in and snuggle?" Of course I answered yes. We snuggled and then I asked if she was excited. She nodded her head up and down rapidly. This was her seventh birthday.
Next, pancake time with Gramps. Faith and Gramps mixed up the batter. For the first time she got to pour the pancakes onto the griddle and flip them. They were making memories. When I sent a picture to her mom, she responded that it's too soon as that's her baby. Gramps responded that seven year olds aren't babies anymore! While that's true, she'll always be the baby of this generation of grands.
For those that read the gourmet pancake blog post, these pancakes did NOT take three hours to make!
After a delicious pancake, bacon and strawberry breakfast it was time to take her home.
Peace!
Another project from last year I participated in was monthly wall hangings. The patterns were from a company called Joined at the Hip. I purchased mine each month with a kit from Bernina Sewing Centre.
Most months I used what was in the kit. Occasionally, I substituted from my stash. I chose not to do the one for October as it was a jack-o'-lantern. We don't do Halloween because of it's pagan connections. I already had a pumpkin one for another month and just used that for October.
The pattern called for you to make a background with buttons that each months quilt could be buttoned to. I chose not to do that either, as it was a little too country for me. Been there done that! Anyway, I just put tabs on mine as seen on the photo below. It's hanging backward on the hanger for your benefit. You can also see the beautiful little hanger I also purchased from Bernina Sewing Center.
The wall hangings were all made and quilted on my Bernina 750. I love sewing on that wonderful machine! It has a stitch regulator, but most of my quilting is done without using that. I've been quilting for more years than that technology has been around, so I'm more comfortable on my own.
I quilt each quilt as I feel it's telling me to.
Below are six of my favorites from the year. I hope you enjoy them.
Peace!
