Counting Down to the New Year

Good morning, my friends. Some of you probably still have your Christmas decorations out. Ours are all put away, and we've moved into winter mode. On the dining room table, I've added the Icy Blues table runner.

That was a free pattern from All People Quilt.

On our breakfast bar, I added the quilt I call "Whose Woods are These."

That one was a free pattern from Patchalot Patterns.

Finally, a Scrappy Snowflake wall-hanging for the short wall between our kitchen and dining room.

And that was a free pattern from Lake Girl Quilts. So, come on, Winter. Hit me with your best shot. I'm decorated and ready. 

To be honest, I'm really hoping for a good snow storm. We purchased this snow measuring device last winter, but then never got to see it in action. We skedaddled out of here when a big snowstorm was headed our way. We had an April solar eclipse on our minds, and we weren't planning to miss it.

So the snowman measuring device has been planted outside for more than a year, but it still hasn't done a single thing to earn its place in the garden. Maybe this will be its year, and we'll be home all winter to keep tabs on it.

As I'm writing this morning, I'm trying a new recipe I saw on Facebook. These are Bisquick Sausage Muffins. They'll be finished before I am, and so I'll be able to give you the exciting conclusion of this recipe test before we're finished chatting this morning.

But let's catch up on our sewing first, shall we? Sadie was ready for sewing. We'd taken a few days off while I prepared a feast for Christmas. She thought it was high time we got back to work.

First off...if you've been following for a while. You might remember the saga of my favorite blue jeans. I don't know about you, but it's hard for me to find blue jeans that I like. When my dream jeans developed a hole last year, I was inspired to try patching them in a way I'd seen online. And I should have made that original patch larger because they developed another hole while we were traveling last spring. 

We were spending the night in Las Cruces, New Mexico, and I found these little flower patches at a nearby quilt shop. Being a child of the 60's, these seemed perfect for patching my blue jeans.

It was hard on fingers, but I managed to hand-sew one of the flowers over the hole, and then I patted myself on the back knowing that Mike isn't the only one who can make repairs on the road.

But then...loud sob, long moan...they developed another hole recently. Honestly, I asked myself if these jeans were done for, but then I started taking it on as a personal challenge. Just how many times can I patch these jeans. Can I keep them in one piece long enough to be buried in them?

And this is actually a serious question. They've also developed holes at the outer seam near the pocket.

There's one on the other side too. I believe this is the area where the fold happens when I'm sitting down, and it's just caused more wear in those spots.

Okay, and so I found my packet of flowers, and I added another one where the first one is. It was much easier to sew on by machine. Also, it fuses like an applique, and so a hot iron fused it to the fabric and held it in place while I sewed.

For the side seams, I decided to go with a blue variegated thread and just did a wide zigzag stitch up and down in those two spots to give it some reinforcement.

And you know I'm always trying to figure out a way to get into the Guinness Book of World Records. Maybe I can get in for the most patches on my jeans...or maybe even the oldest pair of blue jeans on record...or maybe the most determined to keep wearing my blue jeans until the day I die. There's gotta be something, right?

Okay, so I gave myself an attagirl for saving the life of my jeans one more time. From there, I went to work on the "Seasons" quilt. If I play my cards right, I might be able to finish this quilt top today.

The first step was to add a black border to all the pieced blocks. These all started at 12-1/2 inches. I added a 1-1/2 inch border all around to bring them to 14-1/2 inches.

This winter block was the only one that didn't start at 12-1/2 inches. I added a background border to bring it up to size before adding the black border.

When all four were finished, they looked like this:

From there, I needed to bring the embroidered blocks to the right size. These were already 14-1/2 inches wide, but I needed them 14-1/2 inches tall as well. That was accomplished by added a 2-1/2 inch border all around. When they were finished, they looked like this:

Next, I added a "spacer" block. I didn't want the quilt to be too big, and so I made the spacer block 10 inches wide. When each season was sewn into a row, it looked like this:

And then I used a polka dot to sash the rows together. These rows are 42 inches wide.

I was getting kind of tired of sewing by then, and so I stopped for the day. Today I'll add a polka dot border to each side, and then I'll finish off with a border from the sunflower fabric on all four sides. I'm hoping to get that finished today, but I don't know if I'll have time.

Also, I'm making progress on the "Bicycles and Lace" block for the Girls' Getaway quilt. I stitched enough of the yellow bicycle to move my hoop to the right. I needed to add some crayon in a couple of places, and so I did that. Then, it was heat set to make sure that color doesn't transfer.

I'm nearing the halfway point with this block.

I decided to switch to a larger hoop so that I won't need to move it as often. It can also capture the whole design from top to bottom. I prefer a slightly smaller hoop. It fits my hand better, and it also fits into my shoebox-sized project bin. This blue hoop is too large for that, and so I have it in a zip-lock bag for protection.

And that's where I'll start today. Despite being a long piece and kind of awkward to work with, I'm having fun stitching these. I love all the different floss colors.

Okay, and now for the exciting conclusion of the Bisquick Sausage Muffins. When they came from the oven, they looked like this:

We each had one along with a half an English muffin, and that was plenty for our breakfast. They'll keep in the refrigerator for 4 days, and they can also be frozen up to 4 months. From the refrigerator, they are wrapped in a paper towel and then microwaved for a minute or two to warm them up. If they're frozen, they should first be thawed in the refrigerator before microwaving. Here's the recipe as I saw it on Facebook:

I used Jimmy Dean sausage in mine, and they took 25 minutes in my oven.

Okay, so today we're going to need to go into town and run some errands. We'll have five stops to make, and we'll probably end up getting some lunch while we're out. I'm hoping to get back to my sewing this afternoon, and hoping even harder that I'll have a finished quilt top by day's end.