Oscars 2010

Image from http://oscar.go.com/

I love movies.
Can’t wait to see the glitz and glamour at Sunday’s Oscars.

Who’ll win Best Film this year?  Avatar or Hurt Locker?

Will Jeff Bridges win Best Actor for his role in Crazy Heart?  I hope so.  I have enjoyed him in so many films over the years.  Gonna have to watch him in Starman again.  Starman is on my list of movies that I have to watch over & over again.

Hope Sandra Bullock gets Best Actress for The Blind Side.

My daily newspaper, the Sun-Sentinel, has a link to a one page ballot.
I printed one off for me and one for DH.  I wonder who will get more right, DH or me?  I wonder what the prize will be for guessing the most winners?

Here’s a link to a page that the Oscars has for Twitter.

I want to try Wolfgang Puck’s “Black Truffle Chicken Pot Pie” and Pastry Chef Sherry Yard’s “Baked Alaska” at the Governor’s Ball.  I want one of the Goodie Bags that they give to the stars.

But, I will just have to be content watching from my living room.  No fancy food or swag!  I binged “swag” and it said it was an acronym for “stuff we all get”.  Well, then, where’s mine?

Beef Taco Skillet

Don’t you just love it when you find a recipe that’s quick & easy and tastes good?  Well, this one fits the bill and since DH preferred noodles instead of strips of tortillas, there was no chopping!

Here’s a link to the recipe at CampbellKitchen - Beef Taco Skillet 

Changes  --
3 cups dry extra wide noodles for the tortillas.  Cook the noodles while hamburger is browning.

Future Changes --
Next time, I will add more salsa.  Will use 3/4 cup of salsa, instead of 1/2 cup.  Used a favorite salsa from the Deli.

Served with a salad and a nice crusty Sour Dough French bread.

I look forward to the leftovers at lunch today.

Reading Pillow Cover

Read on and you will see what I did with the fabric that gave me the scraps in the previous post.

I have some things that help to keep me "on track" when I quilt. Sometimes I use little patterns drawn on Freezer Paper and ironed on to the piece being quilted. Let me show you how I make ‘em.

I am using a block I found in Fons & Porter’s Love of Quilting magazine, Jan/Feb 2010, page 92, Star Rosette block by Nancy Mahoney.  I drew the block in EQ6.  I like to draw interesting blocks in EQ6, it gives me practice.

I use EQ6 to create quilting stencils --

Since I like to draw the stencil directly on the block, I need to bring the block back into EQ6 as an image that I can trace on. Use the "Export Image" tool and save the image (block I drew) to a Directory where you can find it. I created an IMAGES directory right off the EQ6 directory and put images in there that I will be using for tracing, etc.

Make a new block for drawing stencil motif
Block > New Block > PatchDraw Motif
Block > Import image for tracing (the quilt block I drew)

Using the Freehand tool on the Appliqué layer, draw out a design directly on the block. You will probably need to tweak it up some. Save to sketchbook.

 Here's block with tweaked freehand
design drawn on it

Saved drawn appliqué without
the block image underneath it

If I were using multiple quilt blocks in a quilt, I could then place the saved drawn appliqué onto each block in the quilt, to see how it would look on the finished quilt.

The repeat in the  drawn appliqué is 2 sizes of teardrops.  Convert the drawn design into guides – Block > Convert to Guides and then draw a template of a teardrop for each of the 2 different sized loops
Save to sketchbook.

I then printed a 10" block of those 2 teardrops
Print > Templates

I could've printed the 8 teardrops templates onto Freezer Paper, but I was being conservative and find it easier to print one of a needed repeat and then trace it, staple it to layers of Freezer Paper for additional copies, having only to cut the template shape once.

Plus, I get to use up scraps of Freezer Paper.

Smaller teardrop traced to Freezer Paper
and stapled to sheets of more Freezer Paper

 Teardrops cut out

Teardrops ironed onto quilt sandwich,
ready to be quilted around

Another favorite guide for quilting lines
is Contact Paper.  It is repositionable
many times

And here’s my completed Reading Pillow, waiting in my Reading Chair.  I use the pillow to prop up my book.

FYI, I always have a book in progress.  I just finished “Just Take my Heart” by Mary Higgins Clark and will be starting “Promise Me” by Harlan Coben.

Monday is one of DH’s & my movie nights.  We will be watching “The Painted Veil” from Netflix this evening.

To pitch or to keep

It’s always a tough decision for me when it comes to the smaller pieces of fabric left over after all the patches for a project have been cut.  Do I throw them out?  Do I keep them?  What’s considered small enuf to throw away.  When you do PaperPiecing, the decision is more difficult as you can use really small pieces of fabric.  How small?  Now, that’s the question.

The scraps in the pic above are from a project that I will be blogging about in the next post.  The spool of thread is there to show scale.

I already have a small drawer with small scraps of fabric in it.  I don’t go into that drawer very often, so that should tell me something. 

I have made a decision that I will no longer keep small pieces.  Anything under 2-1/2” hits the trash.  Starting with the scraps in the above pic.  And also the scraps in the small drawer.

Now, watch – next week I will be needing one of those scraps that I threw away this week!  Don’t you hate it when that happens?  Well, if it does happen, I’ll just have to take a trip to the fabric store!  ;-) 

Bags under ironing board

Sunnie from Patchwork Pie left a comment on my post yesterday --

How big is that cute bag?
Could you leave it hanging under the ironing board and keep spray starch, etc. in it?

The Little Georgia Tote Bag stands at 9” tall.
Here’s the bag holding a can of Spray Sizing.  I could probably put a small spray bottle of water in the bag, too.  Don’t think it will be too heavy for the bag.  The other bag was made long ago for an item I no longer own.  I put the packaging from the various feet I have (& will) purchase for my Janome 6600.  The package always has some sort of necessary info I might want to refer to.

Even though it’s not a full-sized ironing board that I have in my sewing room, there is lots of room under there to hang bags from metal shower hooks.  And I’ve got more bags and can always make bags I might need.  So, I’ll just keep my eyes open for things that could be put into bags and hang them under there.

And the convenience of that space – I just swivel around in my chair and have access to all the hanging bags.  And since I never fold up the ironing board, this makes quite the nice storage area.  And I get to look at all the various bags a-hangin’.

Little Georgia Tote

I followed PlanetPatchWork on Twitter during Houston’s Quilt Market 2009.  They took pics of a lot of the new products and it was fun to see what they saw.  Lynn Holland wrote a review of the trip and said that Pat Sloan's Georgia bag class seemed to be most in demand on the “class wanted” board.

So, of course, I had to go to Pat Sloan’s website and see what Lynn was talking about.  I thought the tote was just the cutest thing and I had to order the kit.  This particular kit had all the items necessary to complete the tote.  Decorative threads were even included. The appliqués and rick-rack were already fused to the fabric. All the pieces were cut to size. And the bottom part was stitched to the front.  Most of the grunt work done – all I had to do was start the fun part. 

I had a good time choosing the various decorative stitches to hold those appliqués in place.  And the background was a nice place to practice some quilting motifs.

I haven’t yet decided what purpose this bag is going to serve, I just like the looks of it and all the bright colors used.  Right now it is hanging from a metal shower hook that is hooked under my ironing board.  What a convenient, out of the way place, to hang things.  And when I swivel around in my sewing chair, I can admire The Little Georgia Tote!

Cold Winter

Around this time of year, the temperature in my hometown is the envy of my northern friends.  They all wish they could be here to enjoy the balmy breezes of South Florida.  Well, this year my temps are on par with a northern winter!  37, 41, 44 – those are not numbers we usually see on our thermometers in South Florida.

It is supposed to get up into the 70’s tomorrow (Thursday).  Now, that’s more like it.  BUT, then another cold front is supposed to come through for the weekend.  Well, at least we don’t have to get out the snow shovel !