A New Bag and Help with Cleaning

I have to tell you, cleaning up my messes used to be a lot easier. Now I have this little helper who feels it is her job to closely supervise the process. As you can see, she is moving quickly to be sure all is done correctly.

I'm not sure how I managed before I had her very able help, but somehow - it used to be a lot quicker.

I made this little bag with Nanette's pattern as a jumping off point. I made the fabric strips shorter, narrower and more numerous, and the handle a bit wider. It is of course a smaller bag, and I think it turned out rather well.

It looks so bright and cheerful modeled by the hibiscus, don't you think?

As you can see, it has passed the Chloe test. She has given it her seal of approval. After all her hard work with fabric selection, cutting and every phase of construction, the finished product has her approval.

Whew! All this supervisory work has just worn her out. Time for a nap.

Hope your day is going well (with or without help from your pets)!

Hugs and kisses,

Thank You to a Generous Blogger!!!

I am just so pleased with this "Phoebe Bag" that I made tonight with artsy-crafty babe's free pattern which she so generously posted on her blog. Thank you, Rebeka! I just can't stop looking at it.Isn't it gorgeous? I had to show you pictures. I haven't even given it its final pressing. I just couldn't wait!Chloe had to be forcibly restrained from helping me with it. She was sure it would go together much better if she was sitting on the pieces.

Don't you love it when something goes together even better than you had hoped!

Have a great Sunday!

Hugs and kisses,

Watching

I've been outside already and done a little gardening. Now I'm back inside catching up on my bloggy friends. Chloe has been pretty intent watching everything (birds) happening outside. There has been a lot to see. I wish I could get good pictures of all the birds that have visited the seed and water stations. There is a family of blue jays that are mostly grown, but still look pretty funny since they don't have all their head feathers filled out yet, dozens of sparrows, a woodpecker who likes the suet feeder, and those pesky mourning doves who take over the feeder and won't let anyone else have a snack, and some grackles with their bright yellow eyes. The constant parade of visitors makes the expenditure for seeds and suet well worth it!





Hope you're enjoying your part of the world.



Hugs and kisses,

Squaring Up Those Disappearing Nine Patches

I've spent some time today squaring up the blocks I've been working on. Of course that left me with a pile of thin strips of fabric.

And I thought........ why not make a toy for Chloe with some of them?

Can I just say that she approves?

Have a geat day!

Hugs and kisses,

Salmon Croquettes, Part 2

Okay Karen, just because you asked. :)

As I said, Mama's recipe for Salmon Croquettes is extremely simple.

To one 14 ounce can salmon, add one egg and one egg yolk and mix well, being sure to break up all the salmon pieces.

Put the remaining egg white into a bowl with a couple of tablespoons of water and mix well.

In another bowl, put one sleeve (1/4 pound) of saltine crackers which you have crushed.

Form your salmon mixture into patties. One can of salmon will make four nice patties. Dip the patties, one at a time, into the egg white mixture, then into the cracker crumb mixture.

Fry, just until golden brown in a small amount of cooking oil.

That's all there is to it. And to think, I made up recipes that called for first making up a white sauce to mix with the canned salmon. Mama got a good laugh out of that one.

Let me know how you like this if you try it.

Hugs and kisses,

Family Ties and Salmon Croquettes

My Mom and Dad, his parents and Mr. Sweetie Pie's parents. These are some of the people who have made us who we are. I am so thankful for all the good things I learned from my family and for the values they passed on to me and to my brothers and sisters.

When I moved away from home I was pretty sure I knew most of what I would need to know and that I could find out most anything else from books or friends. At one point I very badly wanted some salmon croquettes. I didn't have Mama's recipe, but figured I could easily find a good one in a cookbook. I tried several recipes, in fact, and never found one I liked. So, I gave in and called Mama and asked her for her recipe. To my surprise, her recipe was much easier than any of the others I'd tried, and of course I liked it better - it was the one I'd grown up with.

And this is what a box of Kleenex looks like after Chloe has subdued it. Note the tiny little teeth marks on the inner liner and the shredded tissues. Of course it didn't help that the ceiling fan was blowing the tissues and making them SO attractive to her.

And here's a little peek at what I was stitching away on last night.

Hope you're having a wonderful day!

Hugs and kisses,

The Days of Wine and Roses

Here is my latest quilt - a gift for our daughter's friend Nikki. Nikki has been a good friend to our daughter for many years. They were roommates for a while and are still close. There was a birthday last week, and while I did not finish this quilt in time for that, I was close. :)

The front of the quilt is one of my favorite designs, Yellow Brick Road, but it is the back of the quilt that shows you the name I have given it. I call this quilt, "The Days of Wine and Roses". I don't usually name my quilts, but this one was singing its song to me as soon as I found just the perfect fabrics for the backing.

What do you think? Right name?

I'm really please with the way it worked itself into being. I hope she likes it!

I freehand stitched her name into the backing.

Unfortunately I did not get a picture of the birthday cake our daughter made for the birthday party on Sunday. Here's all that's left. I'm just glad she brought the remains home so I could have a piece (or two). :) It was delicious!

Speaking of perfect, these are some of my sentimental favorite houseplants - snow on the mountain. My sweetie pie grandmother had these growing all the time and I was so happy to have preserved these great-great-great (who knows how many?) grandchildren of her plants!

I love those things that make me remember happy times and places and people. I guess that must be why I love quilts so much!

Have a great day!

Hugs and kisses,

Birds, Kitten and Goodies in the Mail

Yes, I get these looks a lot! :)

Here's a little glimpse of some of the birds I've been watching lately. I can't tell you how much I enjoy seeing my private little aviary.

Miss Chloe enjoys watching the view from the window, too.

I was very fortunate to win a giveaway on Texan's blog recently - these very interesting looking quilting magazines. I've already dipped into a couple of them. Thank you so much, my fellow Texan!

I finished the quilt for our daughter's friend (and ours). Yippee. I think it turned out really well. I'll show you pictures tomorrow.

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

Hugs and kisses,

Another Lazy Summer Day

I have been "busy" all day watching the goings-on of the birds outside. It's so much fun to have my computer and my sewing machine right here at the window where I can look outside and see what's happening. :) Here's a blue jay enjoying some fresh sunflower seeds.

Here's another one up in the angel trumpet "tree".

Then I went to the back door and there were wrens - new ones without all their feathers yet - hopping around and having a wonderful time on the patio. Sorry, I couldn't get a shot of them. They're FAST!

Then along came this grackle to enjoy a little seed and water.

Poopers came running to see what he was doing, and the bird flew.

Leaving Poopers to quickly grab all the seed he had spilled on the ground. Poopers is my hippie chicken. She is a Polish chicken with the feather hat mostly obscuring her vision. She can see directly in front of and below her line of vision, which makes it really easy to pick her up, but leaves her blissfully oblivious to most of what goes on in the world.

I have my latest quilt all pinned up and ready to start quilting.

I'm just getting myself psyched up to start. :)

Meanwhile, Miss Chloe is everywhere, doing whatever she pleases,

and overseeing everything that is going on!

Hope your day is going well!

Hugs and kisses,

Who Knew?

I feel pretty dim right about now, but it never occurred to me that I could bake quick breads and cakes in my bread machine. What can I say? Here was my poor little bread machine languishing on the counter feeling neglected. Then today I decided to bake some bread in there and took the instruction booklet out. Lo and behold I discovered that not only can I bake regular baking powder/salt type quick breads, but it says I can even bake cakes!

I got straight to work and made a Cranberry Nut bread.

Can I just say, "DELICIOUS"! It came out very moist and tender, too. Yummy. It's not too sweet and the dried cranberries give it a nice tartness.

Here's the recipe is you'd like to try it.

CRANBERRY NUT QUICK BREAD

1 cup milk (room temperature)

1 egg

2 tablespoons cooking oil

2 1/2 cups all purpose flour

3/4 cup sugar

3 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup dried cranberries (the recipe says "coarsely chopped", but I didn't chop these)

1 cup chopped walnuts

Place all liquids in bottom of bread pan, then all remaining ingredients. Set the control to "Quick Bread", and that's all there is to it.

My kind of cooking on a hot summer day!

On the sewing front, I'm working on a new quilt for our daughter's friend Nikki who has a birthday later this week.

Said daughter was having a bit of a laze this morning with boyfriend's dog to keep her company.

And the cats - what can I say? They were doing what they always do - just as they please!

Have a great day!

Hugs and kisses,