What I bought today

Kona cottons were on sale at Hobby Lobby for $4.19 a yard and Cotton Classics were $2.07. Some of these are Kona and some are Cotton Classic. The purple shiny stuff behind this array is polyester satin for the new chair seats and backs. I will quilt it first and then make the covers.

OK I recently said I wasn't going to buy any of this Kona, since I have hand dyed that is also Kona, but there are colors here that I didn't or couldn't have dyed, like the very dark green and the very intense purples. Commercial cottons are more purplier than hand dyed. I don't know why. And I had to get black and white too, so there is that in the mix. So I figured that I might as well not quibble about buying all this, since it will be easier to cut into things that are all the same length. With my hand dyed stuff, who knows what the original cuts were before dyeing. Or some such excuse...It took me two stores, one on each side of town before I could actually buy anything. And then I remembered that this is money I just made from two old quilts.

Thank you Teri Springer.

This is one gorgeous piece of my hand dyed sateen. I may or may not use this in the quilt I plan to make. But it looks so shiny next to the Kona. It will quilt up fabulously.

I also went to two TJMAXX's and finally at about 5:30 I bought some tablecloths. I was gonna make them but geesh, these are only $8 each. Not worth the effort. And I already have several dress up tablecloths, and these are more Christmasy and 'rustic' except for the white one which is damask.

And finally, the pillow forms and extra-loft batting. Dave hates pillows but it is a necessary evil to bring color into the decor. Get this: Dave had a dream that we painted the living room in four shades of purple! And he said it was gorgeous. So I bought the purple satin for the chairs and that will be making his dream come true.

I am going to change the settings on this blog so we can have comments from each other.

Love Mel

Not any of these are my colors

This quilt had a simplicity that was appealing, so I copied it and tripled the design and changed the colors slightly and may 'copy' it.

Hard to believe that is three sets of the one quilt above it, isn't it?

The artists pieced all of these. Many of the layouts are simple and still I doubt myself willing to make something similar. I just want to add color to the room and have accessesories to match. Duh.

Those Crocheted Leaf Pins

So here they all are. Do you require a closer-up?

The Complex Tomato Sauce

Reading your blog this morning, I have to share this recipe with you - and blog it for me so I can do it again!

I had made some chicken sausage recently for a different recipe - Sweet Potato and sausage hash - but I had some sausage left over, and I wanted to use it.

So, I started with a small mirepoix - the carrot was probably 5 inches long and the onion and celery were tiny. I sauteed that in oil until they sweated, then added a chopped green bell pepper and 2 1/2 chopped plum tomatoes (one half was looking a little ick). To this I added about a tablespoon of balsamic vinegar and about a 1/4 cup of red wine. I brought it to a boil and then added 1 small jar of traditional prego. Then I stirred in 2 sliced garlic cloves and a little later about 2 teaspoons of sugar. OH, and the frozen chicken sausage. I let that boil, then simmer, for about 20 minutes. Then I stirred in 2 tablespoons of dried basil, maybe just one. It was sooooo good. So much better than just prego, which I have been known to serve. We all had 3 helpings.

So the chicken sausage was ground (cuisinarted) breast meat, garlic powder, salt, pepper, and lots of ground anise. I have lots of anise seed, and also some fennel. Which do you have in your grinder? I put the anise in my grinder, but it wont grind. I have to pound it in my molcajete.
I have not tried grinding anise in my grinder...I assume that it should work, since it grinds coffee beans with no trouble.
I'm cooking a lot today. The main course is turkey cutlets wrapped around stuffing. I will take pictures. I'm already tired.
The turkey cutlets looked positively delish. I am wishing I were a guest at your table.
Have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

This will be my night table. I will probably change this room arrangement fifty times, but for now, wiped as I am, this is the new office/bedroom arrangement. The crazy thing is that we paid for one table and brought two home. We didn't realize it until we started unpacking them today. I should say two of the same INGO table, and one little round table.

And on the other side will be my desk. I need a place to set up the printer which I have never been able to do.

I emptied the Alex which was holding my tv upstairs, and will use this for files and stuff that gets lost. Important stuff, whatever that is. I will no doubt always do my emails in this chair, so no point setting up the laptop on the desk unless I need to print something.

Notice the fake teapot and cup. I just needed some red there. And the twigs are not staying, since we need them in the living room and it is being painted, still.

Places for paper clips and stamps and erasers and pencils and pens. Sigh.

And my new tv, which sits on this corner bookcase. This has got to be changed, as soon as I figure out how.

The Day's Accomplishments

Well as you can see, I made some progress. I like the pictures better than the real thing. But maybe it's gonna work out. After lunch I just deflated and laid on the couch for 2 hours watching a movie. Then, feeling like I needed something to be accomplished, I made a caramel apple pie.



I went online to get the crisco pie crust recipe, and they had this video showing how to make pie crust in the food processor! I'm sure I have that information filed away in my head somewhere, but I had forgotten it completely. I've been making pie crusts by hand forever. Well, it was really easy.

But I didn't have a recipe for the topping. So, I melted the rest of the caramels that I had taken from mom's kitchen, and stirred that into some oats and chopped peanuts. Quickly, while it was still hot, I sort of mushed that all over the top. I baked it in my stupid little oven, with foil over the pie, for 45 minutes. I pulled it out at 30 minutes, decided it looked dry, and squirted some caramel ice cream topping on the apples, then put it back for 45 minutes.

Oh dear. Not anywhere near my diet. But it was an experiment, I wanted to try to make it more than I want to eat it. I'll have a slice and that will probably be it.

I am also make arroz con pollo with no recipe. I'll tell you what I did later. Right now I need to go stir.

Not Having Fun

This is the quilt that I am beating my head against. I'm so attracted to the idea of the color shifting thing, but I find it so difficult to do. I'm not subtle enough, perhaps.

Well, after studying Carol Taylor's quilt, I decided to start mine out with pink as the pastel instead of yellow. And I already knew I didn't have any white, but I have a grey scale I ordered online a while ago, so I thought that would be good. But as I worked, I just felt so doubtful.

I guess seeing what I did yesterday, in pictures, makes a difference. It looks a little better than I thought it was. Next I will make some red and orange squares with less grey. As you can see, I was fooling around with connector blocks: the squares with little squares. It's hard to get them all the same size, or it was for some reason.

I wish we were together for this one.

sketch-o-mania

I gave myself a large blister on the ball of my right foot after my walk this morning, so instead of doing the grocery shopping, I decided to stay off my foot and I did some sketching.

You know how sometimes when you look at a word long enough, it starts to look like maybe it's misspelled? I had a similar experience with my sketches. The more detail I put into a sketch, the less it looked like something I wanted to make. And then I would come up with another idea and sketch that, and I would get to that same point again. So I wanted to let you see them, and see if any of them look like something to you. Keep in mind that these are in various states of completion. And they are all based on the bubble shape I used in the last quilt, and the ones before it.









These last two are two, not one quilt, and I was just disgusted at this point.

My new window covering

I found a bigger piece of styrofoam in the garage and cut it to fit snug in the opening, against the glass. Then I cut batting, lining and the pink and made a covering. I had to hand stitch it closed because the pink was so skimpy. I was lucky I had just this little piece left from covering my headboard last year. I pinned the little Stawberry Street quilt onto it. Dopey but better than plain. It really keeps out the light from the streetlight at night.

Then I switched some end tables and now have a table next to my chair for my remotes and the laptop when I use it in my bedroom. Where I am now.

I have no ideas for quilts or paintings but MUST DO SOMETHING CREATIVE SOON.