Honky Tonk 2

First finish of the year!

(My official goal is one per month, so far on track!)

Honky Tonk 2

42" x 66"

traditional fence rail block using a jelly roll

I just loved the other Honky Tonk quilt I did last spring/summer that I decided to do another (that, and someone saw it and loved it and bought it!).  :)  If you are counting, the body of the quilt is made with 30 strips from a jelly roll and I had enough brown guitars for a border along with a skinny floral border.  I squeaked out the back and binding with just a few inches of binding to spare and used up the rest of the coordinating fabric I had.  If you tally up my leftovers I maybe have a fat quarters worth of fabric left, but no big pieces; not even enough to make a little pouch!  No close up, but I quilted it with a loopy meandering line and sewed the binding on by machine.

Here is the back, pieced strategically so I didn't have to buy any more fabric.  It is now hanging out in  a laundry basket to get washed and wrinkled!

And a goofy picture of Timmy for all of you grandma types.  :)

And he insisted on a picture with Tigger.  She is thrilled with the honor, obviously.

This Week...

We hosted our circuit Pastors' meeting, wives and kids included.  While the men met after lunch and church, we took the kids bowling.  It was a blast!  Timmy, David, and Joseph were a hoot to watch, cheering each other on and learning how to take turns...

My mixer is getting some love this week!   Midway on my mixer cover and I am really excited!  The bottom piece in the picture is getting a quilt as you go treatment and using up a lot of my scraps.  The mixer will be getting a bowl appliquéd on soon and then the whole thing put together.  I had a piece of flannel leftover from backing another quilt that will be the liner.  So luxurious.  :)

Jared pulled out his HO set and Timothy was at the control.

Honky Tonk (number 2) is getting pieced.  By the end of the weekend, it will hopefully have borders and basted onto a back and batting.  I think this quilt will pretty much use up every last piece I have of this fabric line.  The binding might get a little creative...

Success in the Kitchen

After many, many, many failures in the kitchen with yeasted recipes, I found one that I didn't mess up...pita bread!  Finally!  Here is the recipe I used.

Timmy wanted to roll out some dough, except his was the day-glow yellow playdough kind.  :)

He also really enjoyed watching them bubble up in the oven.  And if anyone knows how to clean between the glass oven door panels without taking your oven door apart, please let me know.

All puffed up!

Timmy approves (don't mind the green marker on his nose).

And a highlight of having lots of snow on the ground: Snow ice cream!  With wind chills down in the negative double digits a few days ago when we did this, this treat was COLD!

Early January Cabin Fever

The temperatures this month have been very low and with winter winds blowing strong, the wind chill has hardly been above zero.  Snow piles around town continuously grow without any warmth in-between snowfalls to keep their height checked.  We have all felt a little trapped this past week...

But we have tried to the best with what has been dished up, including moving Jared's drawing table into the nursery (we aren't using the room anyway) and Timmy has been joining in.  Jared has a goal of drawing one picture a month...

He has also discovered the joy of warm feet and conquered his fear of putting his feet into slippers.  This is quite a feat when we think about the past and how he would just gag when his feet were on weird textures or his hands were put into mittens...

"Mom, take a picture of me with daddy"...

Jared's aunt Kim sent me a couple of pictures of the table runner I made her for Christmas, so you can see it finished!  Thanks Kim!  It looks lovely on your table, I am so pleased that you love it...

Happy Birthday to me!

We had a nice day planned out today and it kinda all went out the window.  Jared ended up needing to go to Sioux Falls to visit a parishioner in the hospital (6 hours round trip) and Timothy woke up with a stuffed head and then developed a fever by mid morning.  I decided to do some birthday sewing for myself.  :)

I made myself a knitting bag!  Super easy pattern and worked up quickly.  Here it is (free!) if you want to make one yourself.  Thanks to Eric and Michelle, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law, for the gift card for Christmas and my birthday.  Michelle and I had a great trip to the fabric store where I picked this fabric out.  Yay!

I also made a matching zipper pouch for my accessories.  Here is that tutorial.

Here is a shot of the inside.  Perfect for a medium project or a couple of little ones.

Here are the projects going on right now:

A Star Wars scarf for my sister, Mindy.  I have 52 rows done.  388 more to go.  

Seriously. 

I am almost done with what I call the fighting kangaroos.

My husband just rolls his eyes.  :)

And my sweater is slowly growing!  I have about 18 inches done so far, another 26 inches to go!  It is kind of boring, but perfect for when I don't want to count stitches.

Do you want a Star Wars scarf?  Here is the tutorial.  I am not making another one.  ;)

Here is the link to the sweater too.

Happy 2015 and Happy Making!