Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 4

With Christmas less than a week away Bonnie was kind with this clue.  Four-patches!
To do mine I didn't use Inklingo but just cut strips sew them into pairs then used my June Taylor Shape Cut to cut the strips into segments of 2 inches which I joined into pairs and then I had four patches.

So in the Art Bin Satchel you see all the clues so far

 While I was stitching away outside we were getting snowfall.  The birds were busy at the feeders  mostly Finches although I get Buntings, Chickadee and Gross Beak on and off. 
Stay warm birds!

Scottish Celtic Soltice Clue 3 with Update

It's the day for clue 3 in Bonnie Hunters' mystery and I was pretty happy to see this clue to be pinwheels from HSTs
As usual I am using Inklingo for my quilt and Linda and Monkey have a great way to make them easy peasy!  You are able to print a page 7.75 x 10.5 and get 24 HSTs so by printing 8 sheets plus a small 5.25 x 5.5 sheet for 8 more and you have the 100 needed by layering the printed fabric with an unprinted fabric and stitching a grid.   No special rulers, no drawing lines and no removing paper!
Genius!
So after binding a Christmas present lap quilt and making a special pillowcase I started

 Fabric printed and ready to stitch

 After stitching, cutting into triangles and ready to press

Pressed and ready to trim dog ears and create 25 pinwheels and the rest we are to save for later...
I love that things went so well today although I need a major clean up of the bathroom and floors of the kitchen and living room but in my defense Mr Creative has been hard at work creating a train display in the living room for our tree and I have put off disturbing his "stuff" until he is done but that is going to have to happen as the floors are atrocious!

Monday Dec 16
Clue 3 Finished  with a couple of rejects...sew-er's error...Not as much contrast with my sandy tanish brown and yellow/gold but looks good to me

Scottish Celtic Solstice Clue 2 Finished

Yep, clue 2 is finished...this one took some brain power for sure!  
There are 100 chevron blocks that measure 3.5 inches square.  Many aren't even close to perfect  but I will make a few extra now that I am much better at making the blocks after making 100.
I think I have plenty of contrast so far and Bonnie says that is more important than colors.

Update on Belle she did well but is scratching at the surgical site so I had to tape a sock to her rear foot so that her nails can't cause more irritation.  I will post a picture soon.

Scottish Celtic Soltice Linky Day 2

Here it is Clue 2 Linky day for Scottish Celtic Solstice
Friday was clue 2 release and of course it ended up being a busy busy day so Saturday was the first day really get

to going and then DH Mr Creative needed help on and off Saturday with his Christmas train set up under the tree so not even a real sewing day for me.
So by Sunday night I managed to finish a bit over 40 units.
I am hoping to get them all done before Clue 3 but who knows.

Took our dog Belle to the vet for some surgery this morning so I will have time while waiting to hear when I can pick it up.

Stay safe little girl!

Scottish Celtic Soltice Clue 1 Finished

These are my original choices but I took out a few and added some others as I began.
My theme is Scotland, where many of my ancestors came from
to
North Carolina, where my family (except me ) live now and I did much of my growing up.
Yellow for the Gorse in Scotland and the sunshine of NC
Green for the trees and bushes of Scotland and NC
Blue for the Flag of Scotland, the St Andrew's Cross and the beautiful blue skies of NC
Tan for the peat that kept my ancestors warm in Scotland and the wonderful beaches of NC
White for the sheep that give the wool for kilts of proud Scotsmen and women and the Dogwood flowers at Eastertime in NC

So clue one is finished!
That is 92 units with sand colored triangles and 96 units with white triangles and the same green smaller triangles...I think Doreen Speckman called the smaller triangles Spike and the larger triangles Peaky.
I finished the last 36 or so on my Singer 27-4 treadle and it was a good way to get some experience.  I am not a very smooth treader and hope the more I use it the better I will get.
Now the wait is on for Clue 2 next Friday morning!
Oh, and the Inklingo part went smoothly it's the sewer who is at fault for the mistakes! LOL
You can see many other quilters who are reporting in on Monday Dec 2 for the first Linky Party at Bonnie's Blog
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2013/12/celtic-solstice-mystery-monday-link-up-1.html

Scottish Celtic Solstice day 2

Too tired to upload my finish last night so here it is as of Sunday Dec 1, 2013
I ended up printing some extra fabrics since I think I had discarded a fabric or two because the lines just weren't very visible...not because the fabric was too dark all over but because the backside had too much of the colors showing.  Lesson learned look for backs that are less busy!  LOL
I have about 36 more to finish up with clue #1. 
I tried a few on my treadle but I am not experienced enough to control how the pieces feed when I have to stop add the next pieces and then start again.  I think maybe the belt has stretched again and Mr Creative will need to shorten it once more. 
I am hoping to get the last bunch done today because I may be called to babysit my grand daughter since my DIL has a newly broken bone in her foot and maybe hand too...sigh it must be very hard to be about 6  1/2 mo pregnant and dealing with a toddler and a broken foot.  Luckily she's had her DD C there to give her a hand this weekend but she will need to go back to school on Monday.

I'm Back!

Been so neglectful of my blog for months and months but because I need to do a link to a blog for Bonnie Hunter's annual mystery I am repenting for now!  LOL
It's just too easy to post pics and comments on Facebook these days but I do miss my blogging world so I will really try to do a little of both now.

Thanksgiving was Thurs and we had D's family at our home for dinner.  I is ready to bite into the turkey!  LOL  D says we should make it a tradition to do the outside Christmas lights on Thanksgiving day so I told them GO FOR IT!  As you can see the Moravian star is up and the simple tube lights are around the house.  Now I need to get the timer set correctly.
We ended the day with a game that big A taught the kids and it's nice that I can play the games  with everyone since he is now 6. 
A wonderful family day

necklace test pic

 

Dance Festival Time Again

It's now been 31 years that Mr Creative and I have been attending the yearly Dance Festival and field day at Forbes School.  Starting with oldest DS D and now his oldest child I.
With no knowledge of where I would be dancing I tried to find a central spot to take a few pictures.  Yeah,  didn't work out so well  LOL  He was way on one side.
So...do you see him?

OK maybe this will help...

The kids danced to Under the Sea and Who Let the Dogs Out and did quite a bit of choreography.  They had lots of fun and looks like with his little sister only one yr old, we will be attending this event for a whole bunch more years!

Time to Mow

Actually I don't mind mowing the grass as long as it isn't too hot and today was the perfect day for that.  I wish someone could fix the auto-start LOL

Outfit for Today 5-12-13

Doing a bit of experimentation with my "look" 
For today I went for the brown/khaki/ combo with a cute polka dot scarf for my yuck-o hair.

Can You Make Pickles....

...with zucchini?

So, if you have a whole bunch of zucchini...and if you planted zucchini you will...like me can you make pickles?  It turns out that YES YOU CAN!
You make them pretty much like you make them with cucumbers.  Unless you harvest them very small (one inch in diameter) then you make them  into "chips".
I found a few recipes that specified zucchini but they were pretty much the same as any other recipe so I felt pretty good about making them.

Here they are after soaking and in the seasoned brine.   

TA-DA!  dill zucchini pickles!  I only did 4 pints as with just 3 of us in the house it seemed that would be good for now.
Before I made the dill I also made a recipe that my mother used to make and I remembered it fondly...Chop Suey Pickles

I also had to experiment with using Stevia/Truvia to replace the sugar as well but in the end they taste wonderfully similar to the original recipe.
Next up...dill relish!  Why not?  LOL

A Foodie Post

When you are inundated with zucchini anything new or different is worth trying  LOL
Here you see something that is both...Zucchini Chips Low Carb Style

Very yumm-o when warm but kind of "ok" when cooled off
The original recipe called for bread crumbs and which I subbed out for Parmesan cheese.  I also added a bit of smoked paprika and Italian seasoning to the mixture and it was great.
Then youngest son A has gotten all the supplies to make his own sushi, which he loves, and did some rolls Friday and Saturday.  This is is first attempts

Now, to find something new to make with the remaining 100's of Zucchini  LOL

Lot's of Progress

I thought it might cheer me up to layout my in-progress Victoria's Friendship Quilt to see where I am either behind or lacking.  Having it all together so that I can see the progress it so wonderful for me.  I tend to be a streaky crafter and a typical Magpie who is looking for the next "shiny thing" and will leave projects languishing for years at a time  LOL
So except for a block I need to re-make I think I am caught up strangely enough. 

Garden Update

Mr. C did a bit of harvesting on Saturday...he was excited to pull up some carrots...he hasn't been too successful with carrots in the past.  LOL  You can also see our first little mini pumpkin, purple beans and more beets.  Of course there have been more and more squash and tomatoes not in the pictures.

36 Years as Husband and Wife

Mr Creative and I celebrated out 36th Anniversary, or as he says 3 dozenth, of marriage.  He always asks me if I would "do it again" and I always say of course.  LOL
But this year he asked what was the hardest time of our marriage...that one was kind of hard but I think he was reassured that I didn't remember those early years as being so awfully bad...I think he agreed when I told him what I thought...not gonna share that one but I often think that I have been very blessed and just plain lucky that my decision to marry Mr Creative at the age of 20 has remained one of my very best over all my ups and downs of life.
Thanks dear!

First Smiles

Our little K is starting to smile....she has just passed her 3 month birthday and I knew it was coming any time.  I love her little crooked smile and bright eyes.  she looks sweet in her blue summer outfit and bow.

August Garden

As you can see the garden is coming into the best time of the year for the veggies.
Above Mr Creative shows off his birthday present from DD B and her family.
He is really enjoying the garden seat to pick the beans and pulling weeds.  He wanted to show his grsons A and T that it makes a great "pillow" when he gets tired from bean picking 

Abover you can see l to r
cherry tomatoes in a pot, volunter tomatillos
summer greens and sunflowers

Last of all in our three sisters garden the first mini-pumpkin has ripened a bit early!  It's a bit small even for that variety of pumpkin but it's great to see them do well.  Along with the pumpkins we have started harvesting spaghetti squash and ate the first one last night along with beans and more summer and zuchinni squash.
Still waiting for the rest of the tomatoes but hopefully we will be seeing them sooner rather than later.

Keeping My Hands Busy

 Do you remember these?
Way back at the beginning of July I finished this set of arcs for my All Mixed Up NY Beauty blocks

 Ah, but these are new!  The second set of arcs for those NY Beauty blocks.  As you can see nothing orderly about them at all!  LOL

 This is what they are on the way to becoming, sort of.    I am loving all the different fabric combinations that are showing up as I try really hard to NOT make any that match or for that matter have the same fabrics in the same block. 
While I have been glued to the Olympics on TV I made most of the smaller arcs and have now begun piecing the quarter circles and last arcs together.  After they are done I will lay them all out again and choose the last piece that will be used to finish off the corner of the blocks. 
Congrats to all the winners but I have to admit to a bias for all the team USA and especially the women's gymnastics team! 

At the Bird Feeder

Yesterday Mr Creative noticed a new visitor to the feeder.  We think it is either a Pinion Jay or a Mountain Jay.  No crest on this bird and it is pretty dang big compared to the finches and Chickadees that usually are at the feeder.
It's always fun when we get a new visitor and hope they will come back often.