From Tiny Quilt Blocks Mighty Green Trees Grow

Yesterday's sewing was a mish-mash of finishing things up. Of course, nothing was actually finished, but a few projects moved on to the next position on the playing board. Of course, nothing is ever accomplished in the sewing room without my trusty assistant.

My first task was to finish sewing together November's blocks for the Garden Sunshine quilt. First, the cherries,

and then the pumpkin.

After that, I went straight to work on December's block.

There are still two blocks left, which are supposed to be released in January. Something is bothering me about this layout though. (You do want to know what's bothering me, don't you?) I was trying to find the image of the whole quilt on Quilt Doodle Doodle's blog, but wasn't able to find it. You'll have to take my word for it that I've copied the final layout in the image below.

But check out that second block from the right in the bottom row, marked with a pink arrow. It bothers me that the tulip is lying on its side. What's up with that? I'll admit my tulips like to fall over when they grow in the spring, but at least their foliage is standing upright. There's an easy fix for this. I took the block in the next row up...marked with a blue arrow...and rotated it 90 degrees so that its geese were flying in the right direction and placed it where the tulip block is.

Then, I took the tulip block...

And took it apart at the center seam, flipped the geese over so they're flying in a different direction, and then sewed it back together. This took all of about two minutes.

And this is the layout I came up with.

Now...isn't that better?

Okay, so I was able to move along and finish the last Tiny Tree block...this one:

The finishing instructions were a little light on the "instruction" part, but I got this all figured out and trimmed into a tree.

The trunk was added last. Somehow I missed the memo that told me the trunk block was supposed to be done in browns. Mine is going to be green. It's one of those trees with hairy pine needles on its legs. (And who doesn't appreciate hairy legs in winter?)

And then I sewed the sides together. The background fabric was used as the quilt back on the Snow Globes quilt...still not finished...still waiting...many months from now it will be finished...I swear on my grandmother's quilts I will finish it someday.

Then, I sewed a green border around the whole thing. I neglected to take a picture, but actually, I think Smitty took his place on it so quickly I didn't have time. I'm disappointed that I managed to cut off the corner tip on the left side there. After studying it and giving it some thought, I think I can fix it.

Now I'm considering the layout and how to incorporate the embroidered twelve trees around The Outer Limits. There we go again...I can't seem to escape the macabre this month. But it was getting late in the day by then, and math was involved. As I've said many times...I'm too old for math, and so I just walked away at that point. I'll get back to it and figure out what to do today.

It was time to make dinner, and I made this up a couple of hours ahead of time to be heated in the oven later. This is an Easy Tex-Mex Shepherd's Pie. Despite the name, this is technically a "cottage pie." A "shepherd's pie" is made with lamb, while a "cottage pie" is made with beef. This one is made with ground sirloin, and I've linked to the recipe back there. It makes a lot, and I made just half the recipe. If you make the whole thing, it's made and baked in a 12-inch cast-iron skillet. It was easily scaled to half (in other words, everything was easily divisible). I cooked it in a larger skillet to give myself some elbow room, but then I assembled it in an 8-inch cast iron skillet. (I used a regular nonstick pan for the cooking portion.) When it came out of the oven, it looked like this.

Now Mike is not a picky eater, but he is suspicious of anything new. And I make traditional cottage pies as a favorite dish of his. Cottage pies are a great way to use leftover mashed potatoes, and when I make mashed potatoes, I make a pile so that I can turn the leftovers into cottage pies. And mashed potatoes...what can I say? If there's a win-win in cooking, it has to be mashed potatoes. So anyway, traditional cottage pies are a near-perfect recipe (link back there a few lines), and so he was suspicious when I tried to change them up to make this Tex-Mex version. Nevertheless, this turned out to be delicious, and he gave it two thumbs up. Here's how it looks on the inside.

Aside from cutting the recipe in half, I made a couple of other changes. I used 1 cup frozen corn in place of a half can of canned corn. I just think it tastes better and has a better texture than canned. Also, there's the half-can of beans. I used a cup from the whole can, and I'll save the rest to make breakfast burritos. Also, I used regular tomato salsa in place of the "pico de gallo." And, honestly, isn't "pico de gallo" just a snotty way of saying "salsa"? Finally, I mixed the salsa verde, cilantro, and green onion into the mashed potatoes rather than adding it after baking. And instead of spraying the top with cooking spray, I sprinkled just a little more cheese over the top. So yummy.

Today I'll get back to the trees, try to fix the cut-off corner, and try to figure out how to finish it off. Hopefully, my kitty pals will be there to add their opinions. Next week is going to get very busy, and so I'm going to enjoy this last calm day before the Christmas storm.