What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

The Great Backyard Bird Count has begun, and I’m doing a count every day through today. The first day of the count, the local squirrels made an appearance for the first time in a couple of weeks. I had stopped making sandwiches for them as they would run off when I stepped outside. But this time, one came up to the door, paws folded, looking cute. I decided he hadn’t been here in a while. So, of course, I got out the makings and made two sandwiches just in case someone else got the idea while I was ...

Some of the 2 day classes at QD do not have the serve-yourself tea and coffee table so I become a high-speed waitress, running about with cups of tea and plates of cake. I suppose it is good practise for the day when I open a beach cafe with a very limited menu. 

Later in the week I got some of my video equipment charged up and made a wee movie of my colleague, Karen, doing an Accuquilt demo for Ellen’s quilt group in Glasgow. I had great fun doing that and editing out the bit where she got ...

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Valentine's Day! We have plans for dinner out tomorrow to celebrate. For now, let's just talk about this new location and yesterday's drive, shall we?

There, he has a luxurious dust bath, and then sniffed around this orange tree. He sniffed, and sniffed, and sniffed. Obviously, some other critter has left its scent here.

While they were ...

Good morning, my friends, and Happy Valentine's Day! We have plans for dinner out tomorrow to celebrate. For now, let's just talk about this new location and yesterday's drive, shall we?

There, he has a luxurious dust bath, and then sniffed around this orange tree. He sniffed, and sniffed, and sniffed. Obviously, some other critter has left its scent here.

While they were ...

It was pretty busy this morning with cleaning and getting my Christmas Star Bread done. I was able to get a lot done. 

Then it was time to just sit and relax. So, I did. I watched the Seahawk's play and I stitched. 

I was able to work on this. I got a lot done. The right side is slowly getting the steps that I like working on. I did a lot of the white/light green area done. It was fun, but doing the same color for a long time does get old. lol 

When I got tired ...

Good morning, my friends. For as many times as we've visited Hoover Dam and the Memorial Bridge, it still leaves us awestruck every dam time. I'm going to post pictures from yesterday's visit, but I would also encourage you to visit two posts from previous visits. Since I'd taken pictures of some of the things we saw on yesterday's visit and posted them previously, I skipped over those things during yesterday's visit. (I have a bad habit of taking way too many pictures.) 

In this old post, we took the tour of the dam ...

Good morning, my friends. For as many times as we've visited Hoover Dam and the Memorial Bridge, it still leaves us awestruck every dam time. I'm going to post pictures from yesterday's visit, but I would also encourage you to visit two posts from previous visits. Since I'd taken pictures of some of the things we saw on yesterday's visit and posted them previously, I skipped over those things during yesterday's visit. (I have a bad habit of taking way too many pictures.) 

In this old post, we took the tour of the dam ...

 Sigh.  Every January for the past several years I've set some targets for the year ahead of me.  If you don't know where you're going, you will never get there, right?

• Lose 5 lbs.  ha ha ha ha ha...  To my credit, I DID lose 1.5 lbs.  However I have since located those pounds.
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  added by helen-mary 1 month, 2 weeks ago. under baking , cooking , guild , quilting , recipe , weather

It's good to hear from all of you, and I hear you about not knowing what the spring/summer will bring for those who are lacking in moisture this winter. I grew up in the prairies in Saskatchewan, and that winter snow was essential for growing crops! Fingers crossed that any further snow that wishes to fall will fall in your area, not ours! I'm done with shoveling! 

Although the anal part of me was out with a shovel yesterday, tidying up parts of the driveway. I know -- I must look crazy, but I hate when the snow ...

Another weekend of cold and dreary weather, with snow! At least not as much ice this time. Still, it is enough to empty out the stores of bread and milk, LOL!! Luckily, I had shopped earlier in the week. The birds have been here in big numbers all week. Ones I haven’t seen in a while, like a pair of towhees, are showing up now to get their share of the suet. Here, a cardinal on the left shares the seed with a chickadee. On the suet, a Carolina wren sits on top, while a downy woodpecker works on ...

 I've certainly been out and about lately, meeting up with friends.  Firstly with Louise and Robert who came down this way in their motor home to attend a country and music festival in Marton.  Then they had people to see, family to catch up with, and arranged to meet me for lunch too.  There was a communication breakdown about where we were meeting, as my text message didn't get sent, for whatever reason.  After a bit of telephone tag later in the morning, everything was smoothed out, and arrangements confirmed.   We went to a favourite of mine, Salt ...

I dropped off 2 quilt tops at Colleens and headed to moms. There were 5 of us. It was fun. Georgie and mom where working on QOV quilt stuff. I was working on my embroidery. I don't know why mom won't sit down and enjoy working on her applique instead of keeping busy with QOV stuff. 

 Today, I just played games in the morning. Wasn't in the mood to do much. I did get my floss and things for my cross stitching. So, I can work on it, if I can get my butt in gear. 

I checked the cinnamon rolls I did last night, to cook.

They raised really well! I used the cast iron skillet that I bought from Gerilyn. 

The came out awesome!! Really good too! 

Flipped them onto a plate and frosted them - not frosted here. They were so good! I will keep using the cast iron to make them!

We ...

I only worked a 3 day week so I could have 2 days off with Freya. She was working her job from home with Nessie’s help and it was so nice to have some company. She took Nessie for midday walks and cooked something delicious most evenings. We made a successful vegan apple cake and even delicious vegan Scottish tablet. 

It was great to have help to do some jobs that I had been putting off like hanging up some string lights (which have only come on once so far) and repotting some house plants. We had a blustery ...

Customer Quilt

This week I have been entertaining my 2 lovely girls, Freya and Nella. There has been a lot of washing up but plenty of helpers to deal with it. I made some genuine Scottish tablet which turned out perfectly but you can feel your teeth rotting!

I had another go at working out the best way of constructing a puff quilt and have decided that French seams are the answer. 

At work I reconstructed a table runner for B990 using Q-Matic. I also tried using its own built in jumbo stitches to embellish the project which I found ...

Do I miss proper snow? – certainly not;) There has been severe winter weather in Aberdeenshire since New Year’s Day and I can imagine how wet it will be in my workshop when that all melts. We had a mere sprinkling of snow in Tavistock and rather icy roads for a few days. A gritter lorry actually tipped over on the edge of Dartmoor, which is ironic. We had a red storm warning at the end of the week but it really landed in Southern Cornwall. In bed in my stone cottage I hardly noticed it ...

A few days of warmth have been followed by a really cold snap. The deer have been here several days looking for food. I think it is fine for them to eat the vines and weeds out of the hosta garden.

This gal did her part.

Three of them moved through, and I wish they’d stay a bit longer and finish off the weed removal. But, it is hard to find good help these days.

In the birdhouse, I thought I saw a bird sitting in the opening with its head looking around. I realized after taking several photos ...

A hot bowl of soup is a perfect meal on a cold winter day. Normally, when I have a ham bone to use, I make my White Bean Soup. But My Sweet Babboo didn’t want beans this time. I had a bag of potatoes in the pantry, and potato soup sounded good.

Start with a ham bone that has meat still on it. Add any leftover scraps to the pot too.

Here’s the recipe.
1 medium yellow or white onion
1 ham bone with meat, extra scraps of ham
2 cups water 1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ...

Good morning, my friends. It was another day of not-much-accomplished, but we had a really nice evening with our friends. They'd invited us for a "Friendsgiving" turkey on Thursday (tomorrow). But then my friend, Deb, was using a dry brine on the turkey, and it looked as if it needed to be eaten sooner. And, no problem. We don't have much of anything going on, so we're flexible. And dinner was wonderful. We haven't seen our friends since March of 2024, and so it was good to catch up. My contribution was this Thanksgiving Slaw. (I ...

Good morning, my friends. It was another day of not-much-accomplished, but we had a really nice evening with our friends. They'd invited us for a "Friendsgiving" turkey on Thursday (tomorrow). But then my friend, Deb, was using a dry brine on the turkey, and it looked as if it needed to be eaten sooner. And, no problem. We don't have much of anything going on, so we're flexible. And dinner was wonderful. We haven't seen our friends since March of 2024, and so it was good to catch up. My contribution was this Thanksgiving Slaw. (I ...