Lots of Sewing

There was plenty of time for sewing yesterday. I had a couple of small housekeeping chores on my calendar, but I ignored those and spent the day working on my projects. First, I spent an extra long time on my morning slow-stitching and finished up this section of the tree and leaves:

This morning, I'll link up to 

From there, I headed into the sewing room to quilt the snack mat sized Bee Brave quilt. There wasn't much room for quilting on this little piece, and so I stitched a flower on the right and left side of the center block.

Then, I quilted some honeycomb hexagons in the honeycomb border.

And then, a leafy meander in the outer border.

While I was doing that, Sadie was lying on the floor beside the ironing board, awaiting her chance to be helpful.

She helped me hold the quilt down so I could sew on the binding.

Then she helped me finish off the binding ends.

And with so much help, I had that binding sewn on faster than you can say "Bob's your uncle."

Sadie needed a nap after so much helping. By that time, she was 'zhausted.

The mail was delivered while I was working on that. Happily, the hot fix nailheads I was awaiting arrived. I ordered the little packet on the right from an Etsy seller, and the little package on the left was included.

Some time ago, I ordered a mixed assortment of hot fix nailheads. They came in all colors, shapes, and sizes. I've never been able to find a mixture like it again. I have an idea it was a seller going out of business and getting rid of overstock. Whatever the case, I've picked over it so much that I don't have a very good mixture any more. I went in search of more colors when I ordered these new ones, but the best I could do was this assortment of yellows ranging to reds. No matter, I had enough different ones to finish off the cats in the Never Enough Cats piece. 

If you're wondering about these, they're applied just like hot fix crystals. I've used a craft iron to heat them before, but ended up scorching one of my quilts that way. I bought the applicator wand at a quilt show one year, and it really is the correct tool for the job. You can find the one like mine right here. 

I note that the newer ones are a different shape, but they all come with interchangeable tips. Some of the tips have a flat end, but some are indented and make it possible to pick up the crystals using the wand, which is very handy. 

After sorting through the available colors, I went to work. Sadie's cat got some amber eyes.

Smitty's cat got some green eyes.

The rest of the cats were finished off with as many different colors as I could find. And then my quilt top was finished.

Now it's sandwiched for quilting. I'll pack this up as a take-along project and try to get it finished up when we head south this winter.

From there, I headed upstairs and hand sewed the binding on the Bee Brave quilt. And that makes a little finish. It ended up at 13 inches square.

Here's how it looks from the back.

That was the end of my sewing day. 

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, I had a turkey breast in the slow cooker. I wanted to try this recipe for Sausage-and-Apple Stuffing Bites. These were easy to make and pretty darned tasty. The recipe makes a lot. In the future, I'll make just half the recipe, which will work out better anyway. The whole recipe required two of these little mini muffin tins, and I had just one. Once you have the mixture stirred up, there's a short waiting period. Then, they're loaded into the mini muffin tin and baked for 20 minutes. (I used my toaster oven.) When they come out, they look like this:

I used a plastic teaspoon to get them out of the tins. Then, we just picked them up with our fingers and ate them. Yummy. The apple and sausage together gave them a nice flavor. Also, I skipped the first step in the recipe that called for cutting bread into cubes and then toasting them. I had some stuffing mix in my freezer, and so mine were pre-toasted.

I have a bunch left over, and I'm not sure how well they'll keep. We'll find out soon enough. I think these might also be good for breakfast. For sure, they made a fun little side dish, but they'd also make a good appetizer for a holiday gathering.

Okay, so before finish off today, I want to point you in the direction of my right side bar where I've added some new and used patterns for sale. Please take a look and email me if you see something you like. 

Now, go enjoy your Sunday. I hope you have lots of time for sewing. I'm off to make our Sunday morning Blueberry Oatmeal Pancakes. I should have time for more sewing today. If I'm feeling particularly industrious, I might actually do those housekeeping chores I put off yesterday.