A quilt Guild Evening...

 I went as a guest to our city's quilt guild meeting on Friday... I used to be a member about 3 years ago... My gals are trying to talk me into joining again, so they took me as a guest...

Here are a few photos I snapped throughout the evening...

Wonderful quilts to see, and very talented ladies there....

 This quilt was done by a young girl of about 10-11...

with help from her gram... 8-)

Thanks for inviting me out for the evening m'ladies! I had a wonderful time, but I'll pass on the membership, and continue to enjoy our small, weekly gatherings... 8-)

 

Myra

SNOW!

 Snow, it all came last night... I think this is here to stay now... Yuck!

But the sun is shining today! Yay! Haven't seen it for about a week.

Mrs.Farmer was here last night. Here is the yummy Spinach Salad with Raspberry vinaigrette  we had... (plus chicken and Potatoes Romanoff...) Double yum!!!

 So colorful, when life outside is not right now...

Snow... a good day to stay inside and sew...

Myra

CCC Sew, Show & Tell...

  Here is a better photo (borrowed from Jr), than what I took at the retreat, of Ed's awesome Quilt. This gal does not consider herself a quilter... HA!!! She is a great "sewer", but only makes a quilt at our retreats... Ed is a quilter!!! Darn rights! 8-)

 This is Sg's table topper that she was trying out her machine quilting skills on... She did a wonderful job! 8-)

 Vh's creation from a Mystery Class she took on the weekend... Love the fabrics! 8-)

 This is Yn's from the same class.  Very Christmasy Y!!! Love it! 8-)

 This is Pg's creation from a class a month ago. Love it!!! I believe the choices were a purse, tote bag, or this table topper, with the same applique design... I think Pg will fill in the blanks in my comment box... 8-)

 One of 2 quilt tops that Sd and her husband made this past week... Very quick to put together she says... 

 ... well, if hubby is doing the cutting, and she is doing the sewing, it is bound to go quickly... And here is the second quilt top!!!

 Anyone want to know where you can find a "fabric cutter DH"? Wish mine were one!!! Lucky Sd!!! Looking good Sd and Dd!!! 8-)

Happy stitchings!

Myra

What I am up to this week...

I went to my Country Rose quilt group last night, we had a great time, but there was no show and tell to share with you today...

Going to my CCC quilt group tonight, so I may have something to share tomorrow...

Been working on row 7 of our Row Robin project... Sorry, I can't show you what I've been doing yet (secret)... I promise I will show you all 9 projects in February, when the group has had the big "Row Robin Reveal" weekend retreat... 8-)

A YouTube video, "The Vocal People"... Do check it out, and while you are there, check out this video by them also... They sound awesome!! 8-)

We had a light sprinkle of snow overnight,

but nothing that would stay just yet!!!

Myra

Easy Tasty Cauliflower Soup...

 First I have to show you what my my DH commented about today... 

"The middle of November, & I have a Dandelion on my front yard!!!"

 Normally we have at least 3-5 inches of snow by now...

 Now for the soup!!!8-)

I saw this cooked on the TV a couple of weeks ago, and have made it twice now. I started cooking up the bacon today and thought, "I should photograph this for posting/sharing later!" Especially such an easy recipe! 8-)

Right... 1/4 lb. bacon (I used 1/3 lb this time)

I'm not good with metric weight... sorry... 8-(

This is the other ingredients.

1 quart or 900 L Chicken Broth

1 onion

1 large whole cauliflower

1 Jalapeno pepper (I used 2 of them today)

 After frying up the bacon a bit add your chopped onion...

 Once onion is some translucent, add chopped Jalapeno pepper.

 Then add the Chicken Broth right away...

 ...and the large Cauliflower florets.

 Stir...

 

 Cover, bring to a boil, lower heat and simmer for 20-30 minutes.

 Cool for about 15-30 min with the lid off...

 Put through the blender (forgot to snap a photo), puree, and you have "Cream of Cauliflower Soup" without any dairy or flour in it. So, it is a great soup for those with allergies or stomach problems...

 Serve right away, or cool and reheat to serve later...

In bowls, top with some grated Cheddar Cheese... 

Nice and creamy! YUM!!! 8-)

Enjoy!

Myra

Wonky Bits Sew & Tell...

 First up, Kn's "Curved Piecing" sample place-mat (she was binding them) that Kn was tutoring us on...

 Es never uses her good fabics when trying something new..She just grabs a few pieces of fabric... Something I should do when trying something new... 8-)

 Es' trial finish... She did great! 8-)

 Jb was trying it out with Christmas fabrics...

 Jb did a great job too!!! Needs trimming up...

 I chose to observe as I am still working on the binding of Mr/Mrs.Rose"s quilt... plus I don't like dragging my machine around. I will do my trial some rime soon...

Es' D-I-L put together her first quilt top, all on her own.

I think she did a great job of piecing, and did wonderful with her fabric choices/combination!!! 8-)

Es was so proud of her that she just had to bring it along to show us Wonky Bits ladies... 8-) 

That be it for now...

Myra

Half-Square Triangles...HSTs

Peg's comment, "One of my bug-a-boos is those *** triangles - somehow they always end up out of square!! Got any tips?" 

Well, I don't think any of this is new, but I'll show you what I did for my November block. This may be new to someone...

I cut out two 2+7/8" squares of fabrics.

Then I draw a line, corner to corner.

Then I stitch a scant  1/4" seam from the line on one side...

... and another "scant"  1/4" seam on the other side of the line.

I end up with this...

I cut on the drawn line, and have two triangles...

It is very important to set the seams with the iron at this point. Doing this sets the stitch line into the fabric, which aids in a finished crisp seam. 

 At many retreats, I see a lot of quilters omit this step.

Then I open the triangle, iron a nice crisp seam, and I have one of two HSTs. I check to make sure I haven't ironed a fold in close to the seam, which would reduce the size of the HST.

Now I check to see if I've got the proper 2+1/2" finished HST.

 You can see I have a tad to cut off. This is because I used a scant 1/4". It is better to have some to trim off at this point, than to be short... I make sure my diagonal line on my ruler is on my seam line before I cut...

My trimmed HST. Oops! My ruler shifted when I grabbed my camera, and didn't notice till my photos were on the comp...

... and here is the 2+1/2" HST.

Sewing the two HSTs together... 

 I made sure my seam was just shy of a 1/4". When you have a lot of pieces like this in a block, you can easily loose 1/8" to 1/2" in your finished block.

Two joined HSTs... Measures 2+1/2" x 5+1/2"...

 

 In this sample I used two 2+7/8" squares, to end up with two 2+1/2" HST sections, like in my November block.

There was a lot of dense seams/intersections on that block, so it is equally important on how you direct the seams while sewing. and then pressing, so the block lays as flat as possible and hopefully end up the correct size... I lucked out on this block!

 In my September block, I started off with two 4+7/8" to get two 4+1/2" HSTs.

In this October block I started off with two 3+7/8" to get two 3+1/2" HSTs.

I hope this info is helpful to some of you quilting blog readers...

Happy stitchings...

Myra