Mimi Has the Last Word

One last post for Blogtoberfest 2012

"Meow.  Whatcha eating?:

It's ratatouille.  I made a big potful for dinner.

"Is it made with real rats?"

No!  It's a vegetarian dish.

"Oh, blech!  Ratapooie!  Meow!"

Halloween Dance!

Day 31. Last of Blogtoberfest!

I made it!

I spent the entire day at my DD's school helping out with the Halloween Dance.  Didn't spend much time in the gymnasium, but I did keep the popcorn popping and the drinks flowing.  Members of the Student Council sold cupcakes and other goodies.  

It was a long day and I don't know if I am ever going to be the same again.  The music was so loud that I had to stay in the kitchen most of the time.  And if I ever hear M J's "Thriller" again I think I am going to scream! It was played for every group that came down to the gym during the entire day. But the kids were terrific!  Only one drink spilled and a few popcorn puffs fell on the floor.  They all came in costumes and danced their little hearts out.  Here are some of the older students, my DD's grade 7/8 class.

The DJ was fantastic.  He had appropriate music for the entire school population.  Fun songs for the little ones and current music for the older group.  I sang and danced and made a fool out of myself!  But I had a blast!  And now I am home and I think I could sleep for a week, but in an hour or so the Trick or Treaters will be knocking at the door.  

Here is a photo of the cupcakes, cookies and muffins I baked.  The light orange iced cupcakes are the ones I made.  See that pumpkin in the background?  I brought that to school this morning and my DD's class carved it for me.  I am very grateful for that.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYBODY!

A Storm's a Brewin'

Day 29 of Blogtoberfest.

It is dark and dreary outside.  But it will get worse before the storm is over.  Environment Canada has promised us tons of rain, high winds and cold temperatures.  When Hurricane Sandy reaches landfall 'she' will combine with the two storm systems that are already over us.  The ensuing storm will reach a radius of 1,300km.  And we'll be in the middle of it.  It has already rained for 3 days and will rain for another 5 days at least.  Where is that ark when you need it?

I have bottled water, candles and canned food on hand in case the power goes out.  I am also prepping lots of hexies so that I will have something to do if I can't use my sewing machine.  I have put the would-be quilt on my design floor so that I can see which hexies I need to make.  Lots of white ones, darn!

I have also been playing with the witches' finger cookies.  I decided to give them fake nails.  Chocolate ones, glued on with more melted chocolate.  I think this will work!  I plan to bake another batch this afternoon, in green.

Scrappy Star Block and Lots of Baking

Day 28 of Blogtoberfest.

Busy sewing in the middle of the night.  Made this latest Scrappy Star block.  Then I went back to bed and slept in.  Half the day was gone.

I turned my kitchen into a bakery today.  Already baked 30 cupcakes.  They still have to be iced with orange icing.  Also made some of those creepy witch's fingers.  Still have some dough in the fridge to make some pumpkin cut-outs.  These are all for the kids at my DD's school for Halloween.  Nuts are banned in their school, so I had to adjust the recipes accordingly.  I still have to decorate the fingers with some sort of finger nails.  I think I will just ice them.

Scraps and Vomit

Day 27 of Blogtoberfest.

I spent yesterday afternoon in my sewing room, playing with fabrics.  I decided to make a few more Scrappy Stars, but after making only one, I realized how many 2.5inch scraps I have.  

So I looked for a quilt design that would use a lot of them and I found one - Scrap Vomit!  Each of these blocks is made up using 49 2.5in squares.  That would go a long way to clearing out my scrap bin.  So I made one of the scrappy blocks and one of the more organized ones.  

It was difficult to see the design in the organized block, so I thought a lighter fabric might work better.  I just placed the white squares on top of the purple ones.  Which block do you like better?

I'm still not quite sure what I will do with these blocks.  Continue or ?  We are having awful weather.  It is raining, a lot.  Supposed to rain all next week too.  Several storms, including Hurricane Sandy are coming together over us.  We will not get the worst of it though.  Not as bad as what is expected along the North Eastern Seaboard and Maritime Canada.  New York City is supposed to get snow!  Snow!  Isn't it too early for that?  Tell me what your weather is like where you are.

Clean Up and Free For All Friday

Day 26 of Blogtoberfest.

I made a total of 23 library bags for the kindergarten kids.  Took them over to the school yesterday.  Still have more to make.  I think I will do 2 per day.  But first I had to clean up my messy cutting table.  There was no room to work.  As you can see in the photo, I added some bag fabric to my stash.  Yesterday I ran out of thread, so DH took me over to Fabricland.  I found these wonderful fabrics on theit sales table and got about 3.5 metres for less than $10.   What a bargain!  One is a cute little Paddington Bear print.

Here is what my cutting table looks like after I cleaned up.  All of the scraps are in bins, sorted by colour.  I decided to reward myself for all my hard work with a little mindless sewing.  So I am working on my free-for-all blocks this afternoon.  Nothing more relaxing than that!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Sampler Blocks

Day 25 of Blogtoberfest.

Yesterday I exchanged several emails with Terry of Terry's Treasures.  I told her I had over 100 orphan blocks in a UFO bin.  She found that hard to believe.  But it's true.  These are the blocks that I made several years ago when I was posting and making the Friday Block Party blocks.  I did that for about 3 years, so you do the math.  I didn't make a block every single week and the ones I did make are all different sizes and colours.  I dreamt about these blocks a few weeks ago.  In my dream I couldn't find them and wished I had put them together.  I think that is what I have to do now.  They shouldn't be left languishing in the bottom of a bin.  Here are some of my 12inch blocks. 

 I have more of them!  Possibly enough for another quilt.  Maybe I'll put some sashing in between them.  What do you think?

One Flower Wednesday

Day 24 of Blogtoberfest.

An actual one-flower Wednesday because I only managed to make one hexagon flower this week.  I made a bunch of white hexies, but as far as flowers go, this was the only one.  

Only a few geraniums are still blooming in my garden.  It's cold today.  I smell winter in the air.

More Scrappy Log Cabin Blocks

Day 23 of Blogtoberfest.

It's Tuesday so I must show you my scrappy log cabin collection.  So much fun and so stress reducing!  I could make these things all day long.  So far I have 29 finished and 5 more in progress.  They are not arranged in any order.  I have just thrown them down on my design floor and I have no idea how many I plan to make in total.

Sorry if the colour is not true.  It has been raining all day and even the solarium is dark and dreary.

There's Gold in Them Dare Trees

Day 22 of Blogtoberfest.

The sun is shining.  The temperature for today is 18C.  I decided to go out and look for colour - fall colour.  The leaves will not last must longer.  The wind is strong and is blowing everything to the ground.  But it still looks like a forest of gold out there.  The ravine is beautiful.  And I was able to take a few shots of other trees around the neighbourhood as well.  

I found other things in colour too.  Some rose hips among the golden leaves of the rose bushes along the path.  There were also a couple of roses still blooming.  Some pretty white asters were growing along the side walk.  Then there were the urns outside of McDonald's.  Can you believe that?  So beautiful with their mums and ornamental kale, and right outside the hamburger joint!  .  

I could have taken many more photos, but my battery ran out.  Not the battery on my camera, but the battery on my scooter.  I made it slowly all the way home, but it died in my driveway - wouldn't even go up the ramp.  So now it is plugged in outside by my back door.  As soon as it is working again I will bring it inside.  

Tonight is our monthly guild meeting.  I think we are having a good guest speaker tonight.  Hope so.

What's For Dinner?

Day 21 of Blogtoberfest.

Sundays are usually busy around here.  Today was no exception.  No sewing got done.  But I did manage to go to the aquarium store and buy some more tropical fish - some algae eaters, four Angelfish, two New Guinea Rainbows, and two others that I can't remember the name of.  That should please Mimi.  And speaking of food...

I made ratatouille for the first time this afternoon.  This stuff is delicious!  Don't know why I never made it before. 

The tomatoes were from my garden - the last ones.  Everything has died out there after the few nights of frost that we had.  The plants have been removed and the soil dug over.  Now all I can do is look forward to next year. 

Some More Scrappy Log Cabin Blocks

Day 20 of Blogtoberfest.

I'm still hanging in there.  2/3 of the way through.

I can't stop making these!  It's like 15-minutes of play, except I can keep on going for as long as I like!  I made 5 more green blocks and 6 yellow ones for a total of 12.  I love the colours of these blocks.  They remind me of spring, although that is a long way off.  Like six months!  Yuck!

Book Bags

Day 19 of Blogtoberfest.

I volunteered to make some bags for the kindergarten kids to carry their library books in.  I don't know if this is a good idea or not.  They can still lose the bag, the books and all.  I made about 9 bags this morning.  Still have to put handles on a couple of them.  And I will make some more on the weekend if I have time.  

I am using all kinds of old fabrics and scraps that I don't want any more, like polyester/cotton blends etc.  This is a real stash buster!  I am not sure how many bags will be needed.  I guess I should have asked that question before I volunteered.

Fishing?

Day 18 of Blogtoberfest

I recently cleaned out my aquarium and am now in the process of restocking it.  Can you tell?

Give a cat a fish and you feed her for a day.

Let a cat fish in your aquarium and you feed her for a lifetime.l

A Few Flowers on Wednesday

Day 17 of Blogtoberfest

The top right inner border is finished.  I still have to do a row of dark blue hexies all around, but that will have to happen slowly.  Those dark blue hexies are boring, but not as boring as the white hexies.  If I had my way I would only make hexie flowers.

I have been experimenting with some other hexie shapes.  I want to make this quilt a bit bigger by adding another border once the inner quilt is done.  Those triangle flowers are what I have come up with.  

Busy Busy

Day 16 of Blogtoberfest

Too much to do today.  Just got home from quilt group, errands and volunteer work.  Dinner has to be made, but I just have to show you my scrappy log cabin blocks from the quilt-along that Jennifer at Ellison Lane Quilts is hosting.  

We were supposed to make 2 blocks per day.  This is day 7 and I have made 13 blocks.  That's pretty close, I think.  I have to make 48 blocks altogether.  I'd better get my 'log' on.  I started making different colour blocks at first, but then I decided that it would be easier to make all the blocks of one colour at the same time.  That way I don't have such a mess on my cutting table.  I have made 6 pink blocks, so I think tomorrow will be a blue day.  

This and That

Day 15 of Blogtoberfest

Some things I've been working on.  The first is a scarf made with Red Heart Boutique Ribbons.  It knits up easily.  One ball makes a scarf.  It isn't very soft though.  But I think my DD will like it.  

I also made one of these little gnomes.  So easy and sooooo cute!  The pattern is here.  I think I will make a few more.  They will make great Christmas decorations!  

I also made an extra block for Terry's Scrappy Stars. (look on her side bar for more info)  Here are all 9 that I have finished so far.   The one at the top left is my new block.

Mimi Has Nightmares!

Day 14 of Blogtoberfest.

OMG!  Meooooowwww!  I have to stop taking that medicine and eating that special food the vet gave me.  That stuff is giving me nightmares.  I just dreamt I was Hello Kitty!  Eeeeeeekkkk!

Mimi Approved

Day 13 of Blogtoberfest

Mimi approves of the scrappy log cabin blocks I have made.  

I  had a couple of hours this morning so I made a few more blocks.  OMG!  Mimi isn't the only one who loves these blocks.  They are so much fun!  I can't stop making them.  Here are the 7 blocks I have done so far.  I still want to do a few more colours, like pink, yellow and maybe grey.

A Friday Flimsy Finish!

Day 12 of Blogtoberfest.

The rest did me good yesterday.  I read a bit, napped a bit and sewed a bit.  And...  Yippee!  I finished this strippy quilt top that I have been working on since, well, I really don't know when.  A long time, that's for sure.

It was the first strip quilt I ever started and I didn't know too much about sewing strips together and ending up with bias edges.  So I decided to sew them onto pieces of muslin.  It worked, but the quilt top alone, is very heavy.  I don't think I will have to put a batting in it.  Maybe a very thin, light batting.  But I could probably just add a backing and quilt it.  Now I sew the strips to paper and that seems to work better.

I also started something new.  I know, I know.  Shouldn't be starting new stuff when I am buried in UFOs, but I couldn't help myself.  I saw this quilt-along and tutorial posted by Jennifer on Ellison Lane Quilts.  I am already several days behind, but I can catch up.  Only have to make 4 a day for a few days.  Yeah, like that's going to happen.  I really like this quilt though and I will work away on it, using my scraps, which I have tons of, until it is done.   Here is my first purple block.

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