Stockings update, and other stuff......

We went for a lovely, if short, drive yesterday, to pick up our meat order. I really didn't know what to expect, since we've never done this before. There is a lot of meat in a quarter of a cow. This should keep us going for a long, long time. It took quite a while to figure out exactly how we were going to store in in the freezer, so that it would be at least semi-organized, rather than just dumped in there. I finally decided to put the things that are the same into large freezer bags together, and label the freezer bags. The meat is already labeled on the freezer wrap, but I thought there might be a chance of it getting smudged over time, so re-labeling it couldn't hurt. Everything got put into freezer bags, while still wrapped in the freezer paper, to give it added protection from freezer burn, since there is enough there to last us a lot longer than just a couple of months. I can't believe how excited I was, and still am, about this whole process.

I was talking to my dear friend and sister in the Lord and kindred spirit, Susan on facebook chat the other night, and we got to talking about the Christmas stockings I'm doing up for the kids, and how far I've gotten, so I said I'd take pictures and show her. Matt's is finished, or at least the front of it is.

I was going to put his name on it, but then I figured that it is obvious whose it is, and that it would be an unnecessary step. The golf clubs in the bag actually sit in there, and can come out!! This has been so much fun to do. I've gotten a start on Becca's, as well, and it is going a lot faster than Matt's did, simply because I now have a better idea of what I'm doing.
 It will be a manger scene when it is finally done. These stockings have taken over the time I used to spend doing applique and knitting, but it will be so worth it when the kids see them. I hope they love them as much as I think they will.
And now, I have lots of stuff to do. I was waiting for a shipment of bobbin threads to come in, so I was stuck for doing any more machine quilting. The threads finally got here on Monday, so today's task is to take my Rose Log Cabin off the machine, unfinished unfortunately, and get working on the customer quilts I have waiting to be done. Christine's goes on first. I also want to do something about getting some asparagus done down for the freezer. And then we are going for our first camping weekend on May 17th, which also happens to be Avery's first birthday, so there is some work to do to get the trailer ready, and packing done. And then Laurie has asked for some more all in one diapers, and I'd like to have them done before we go up to see them so that I can give them to her then. And, somewhere in there, I have to fit in 2 shifts at the hospital over the weekend. Whew....... I'm tired just writing all that. If I'm absent for a while, this will be the reason.

What I did today.......

After I wrote this afternoon's design wall monday post, I went into the kitchen and, other than for very short periods of time, spent up until now in there. But man oh man, does the house smell wonderful!!! In our continuing pursuit of economy, I decided to put our bread machine to work. There are 2 loaves of white bread, twelve multigrain rolls, and 6 focaccia rolls made from this recipe here. I couldn't believe how easy that recipe is!! Mix it together the night before, and let it sit for 16 to 18 hours, during which time it rises. Divide it up the next day into rolls, let them rise and bake. So very, very simple, and the instructions, and the pictures that go with them are so easy to follow. And they taste so good, which is why there are only 5 rolls in the picture, instead of 6. We had to try one. It is definitely a keeper recipe
One of the loaves is left out for our use and the other is in the freezer. I separated the 12 grain rolls into packages of 4, so that we aren't taking out more at a time than we'll use, since there are no preservatives in this bread, so it goes mouldy faster. I am loving having a freezer again.

Design Wall Monday May 7, 2012

 There's a couple of things up on the wall today. I have half of Avignon Picnic sewn together, and the second half is now taken down, and sitting by my machine waiting for me to have a few minutes to work on it. The hardest part of this quilt was arranging it so that no 2 colours were touching. There are a couple that I couldn't avoid, no matter how hard I tried, so it is going to stay the way it is. Over all, I'm happy with the balance of colour in it. I have yet to decide about borders for this. I have Judy Laquidara's book 60 Pieced Borders, so I'm sure I can find something in there.

And then there are the NYB's. This is the last week of the NYB sew along. Past this point, I'll be doing blocks from EQ7. This is the general idea of the layout I think I'll use. I'm trying for a balance of colour, but also for the seams to be staggered, so that there isn't a lot of matching up to do and not a lot of thicknesses at any one spot. As usual, I'm linking to Patchwork Times where Judy hosts the Design wall Mondays.

Stash report week 19

Just a small amount used this week for 4 New York Beauty blocks. I'm figuring 4.5 inches of fabric per block, given the amount used for the paper piecing that needs to be trimmed after each piece is added, and the amount it takes for the curved pieces.

Used this week:                       .5 yards
Used this year:                     46.5 yards
Purchased this week:                0 yards
Purchased this year:           99.25 yards
Balance:                          52.75 more yards in than out.

As usual, I'm linking to Judy's Stash report Sunday at Patchwork Times

On another topic, we're making great progress on our cost cutting measures. Scott and Matt picked up the freezer on Saturday. And the meat grinder arrived as well, this past week. So Matt and Becca treated us to a guest shopping excursion at our local Costco. We used to have a membership there, but found we didn't have enough self discipline to go in there for just what was on our list, and nothing else. We'd see all the great "deals" and "bargains" and come home having spent way more than the savings we were trying for. This time we managed to stay focused. We picked up quite a few large cuts of meat which we then came home and cut down into smaller portions. We had 2 largish center round cuts of beef that we used the meat grinder on. In the space of about 30 minutes, start to finish, there were 12 approximately 1 pound bags of ground beef. Not a bad investment at all. And we've been in touch, thanks to Jannette, with a beef grower in our area to purchase a quarter of a cow. And my daughter-in-law, Laurie, has suggested that we try the Freshco food store, rather than the Loblaws, or the NoFrills, as a more economical grocery store. Ellen sent me a link for this site http://budgetbytes.blogspot.ca/, which had a couple of recipes that immediately caught my eye. Who could have thought that blogging would end up saving us money, as well as being a fun thing to do.

Cost cutting - stage one

In a post last week, I talked about some changes that have been happening in our lives, and some things we were going to do to try and cut costs to accommodate those changes. One of them was to stop using commercial laundry detergent, and to make our own from a recipe found here. We did it, or should I say, Scott did. From the time he started grating the bar of sunlight soap, to the time when all of it was mixed and poured into the containers took 20 minutes. Twenty minutes, to save the cost of 3 containers of laundry detergent purchased at the stores. The bars of sunlight soap cost about $4.00 for 2 bars, and we only used one. So for maybe a total of $3 to $4 dollars, we have the equivalent of about $21.00 worth of laundry detergent. It is very concentrated, and uses only 1/4 to 1/3 cup per load. This was most definitely worth doing..

Today's accomplishments

It's just past midnight, so technically, it's no longer today. But I got done what I wanted to. Four more New York Beauties. Two in last month's colours, and 2 in this month's. What I am finding so interesting, is that all of the colours from the different palettes are playing very well together. This month's, which are the top left and the bottom right, are a bit brighter than the tones I've used so far, but they still all work. I don't have the time, or the energy, right now, to put them all up to see how they all look together. Maybe in the next couple of days.
It was my original plan to see if I could get even more of these done, but I got side tracked by some gorgeous weather, my comfy swing in the back yard, and a good book on my ereader. It's supposed to be even warmer over the next couple of days. Maybe I'll get my first morning coffee out in the swing soon, something I always look forward to each spring.
Good night.

April Colour Challenge

Here are the results of the April colour challenge. Six more New York Beauty blocks. There were supposed to be 8, but life got in the way. Oh well...... I must say, I am having fun doing these, in fact, I think I've said that before. And looking at these in making me want to get back to doing more. Maybe that's what I'll do today.....

The palette for May was posted yesterday, and it has such bright and happy colours in it. I borrowed this picture of the palette from Judy's post about it here. These colours, and I have lots of them in my batiks collection, I'm sure, are a lot of fun, and should make up some great NYB's. Yep, this decides it, I'm playing with bright candy coloured fabric, and paper pieced blocks today. Maybe, I'll write a post later on today, and show what got done. I'm linking up at Judy Laquidara's Patchwork times linky for the Showing of the April's colour challenges. There are some fun things to see there.