Signing Off for the Weekend

This morning will be spent packing food, clothing, and unmentionables for our weekend in Seaside. We aren't going all the way to the Oregon coast, but we'll be close. We're heading off for an annual get-together with friends of many years. Many of us have known one another since before our children were born. Now, our children are adults...with jobs...many with children of their own.

Yesterday I spent a good part of the day in the kitchen. Traditionally, I provide food for the smaller crowd on Friday evening. This year I made Chicken and Artichoke Stuffed Pasta Shells.

Usually, I make this dish with ground turkey. When I was at the grocery store the other day, the butcher had ground chicken at the butcher counter and so I snagged a pound of that. I like this dish because it's easy to eat from a hand-held paper plate and because it makes enough for a crowd, and a bonus for us later on. There's another 8 x 8 baking dish stashed in the freezer. We'll take that when we go to Eugene next weekend.

After the stuffed pasta shells were finished, I went out for a walk. Stopping off at the greenhouse as I passed by, I harvested the first of the tomatoes. These are just the red ones. There are so many green ones still coming that it's downright frightening.

After a short walk, I came back and baked cookies. And that was the end of my cooking for the weekend.

Despite spending a good portion of the day in the kitchen, I still managed to get in some sewing time. I committed the latest free motion quilting design to my sampler. This one is called "swirling feathers"

Here's how the sampler is looking now. All the blocks are filled in and just the borders are left.

Also, I spent some more time stitching on the Hocuspocusville block.

The sleeve was added to the back of Seating for Two. 

And the label is sewn on now too.

Someone asked me about making these labels on a post recently. I make them by choosing an image to work with. Then I add text using Photoshop Elements. Most any photo-editing software has some means of adding text. Then I print on fabric. I don't like Printed Treasures because I've found it difficult to impossible to remove the paper-backing. Instead, I like a different product. You can see my blog post about it right here. Since writing that post, I've taken to adding a small border to the labels, and then backing them with fusible interfacing. You can see how that's done at this post right here.

The only other thing I did in the sewing room yesterday was to trace out Block #16 for the Bee-utiful quilt. This one has an appliqued kite. As a shout-out to the kitties on the quilt, my kite is made from kitty paws.

And I knew this one wouldn't take long to stitch. I stitched the whole thing in one sitting this morning. This one is called "Bee Sunny".

Now Block #17 is out. This one is called "Bee Happy".

And I'll bee happy if I get a chance to make this one up today. For now, as much as I'd love to sit here and chat with y'all, it's time to get packing.

I won't be blogging while I'm away, but I'll be back on Sunday for the Pets on Quilts show. Speaking of pets on quilts, the kitties are staying home with the house-sitter. It makes me happy knowing they'll be able to go outside onto their catio, day or night, while we're away.