Monday, December 31, 2018

#2019PlanningParty -- My goals

2019 Planning Party

Yvonne (Quilting Jet Girl) has challenged us to plan some finishes for 2019.   I am linking up at her linky party here.

I have twelve specific quilts that I plan to finish in 2019.  Each month, Judy at Patchwork Times. will pull a number out of a hat.  The number she picks is the number quilt I will work on and hopefully finish that month.  Some of my projects have more to finish than just a few things. 

Here are my TWELVE for 2019:

1.  Fortune Teller (Started in 2014 for the RSC14.)



2.  Kite Girl (Also started in 2014 for the RSC14.)




3.  Go Four It scrappy 4-patch quilt.  This is also another RSC project in which I made many, many four patches in the color of the month.

 


4.  Little Letters QA Quilt (A RSC14 project).  I need to make a back for this quilt and quilt and bind it.  I just can't decide if I want to really work on the quilting on it, or just do an all-over quilting design so that it is finished.  I worked so hard to make the letter blocks to perfection.  I just don't know if I can slap a generic quilting design on it and finish it yet...  My last update was 11/3/14.



5.   Bonnie Hunter's Garden Party.  This quilt was another RSC project.  I started it 3.18.17.

 

6.  Soul Searching -- A dear friend, Julianne, and I decided to make Soul Searching blocks into a top and then swap tops.  This was an RSC top secret project that we did not post about.  The project has run on too long.  Julianne doesn't quilt as much as she used to.  Life happened to both of us.  I need to find the rest of these blocks and finish about two more.  I will then make a scrappy back, quilt, and bind it.  Depending on the time of year that this quilt is finished, it could easily be a charity quilt for my son's baseball league, my church, or H2H.  We'll see when #12 is drawn.  (Sorry, Julianne...  this projects has just sat idle for far too long...)  I think we started these in 2015???



I'm linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for the RSC18 today, here.

SoScrappy

Only half of my quilts are RSC quilts.  Here's the rest:

7.  Pat Sloan's, I Love to Make Quilts Sampler Solstice Challenge (Red & White finished top 2017).  This quilt needs a back made and to be quilted and bound.


8.  Catchin' Some Rays is a lap-sized quilt that was one of my Slow Sunday Stitching projects that I carried with me in my Sew-to-go bag.  The hand stitched parts of the blocks are done.  The rest of the blocks and sashing and border needs to be completed.  A back needs to be made.  It needs to be quilted and bound.


9.   I won this during the orphan adoption from Cathy who blogs at Cathy's CRAZY BY DESIGN.  It's the Dot Dot Dash Bag.   All the hard parts are already completed by Cathy.  The fabrics are gorgeous!  The bag was designed by Sara Lawson (of Sew Sweetness).   It's too cute to not finish!  




10.  Embroidery Bear with balloons and hearts crib quilt (Started July, 2017 for truck to-go bag.)  This was one of my projects started in 2017 for Slow Sunday Stitching.  All of the embroidery is complete.  I need to figure out what to use as a backing, quilt, and bind it.


11.  Sonja's Windows.  I made all these blocks 1.1.15.  There's a good chance that this will be my H2H (Hands to Help) quilt for this year.  It's a great charity.  Hopefully #11 will be picked early in the year so that I can promise it to H2H.



12.  Amanda Murphy Designs (ugly fabric quilt).  This quilt has been on my WIP list for far too long.  It's not ugly at all (it is made of fabrics that I got in a swap that someone else didn't like.)  That was way back in 2012!  It needs to be made wider and then a back made and quilted and bound.


Butternut Squash Soup -- Mmmmm!

On Saturday I posted about my butternut squash crop.  I started baking it then.  You can read about it in this blog post.  Today I had some time to finish it.  It turned out WONDERFUL.  I am already planning a huge row of butternut squash in my 2019 summer garden.

My sink looked like this for a few hours.  It wouldn't have taken that long if I weren't doing other things. 

 
I love my Ninja blender.  It mixes the butternut squash and broth base mix into very smooth texture.

 
I made 15 quarts (plus the big bowl I ate)  Yum!

 
I put these into Ball brand canning jars.  I didn't know until a few years ago that you could also freeze in the canning jars.  Next year I will research if butternut squash soup can be canned vs. frozen so that I don't take up too much of our valuable freezer space.
 
I kept perfecting the recipe.  At first it was a little too thick and it was a little much for the blender to handle the volume.  After I tasted the sweet soup I didn't want to waste another drop and made it thinner.  (Don't mind the remainder of my kid's chicken wrap on the tray.  LOL.)
 
My final recipe that worked the best for me was:
 
1 cup of baked butternut squash pulp
3 teaspoons of chicken broth base mix
dissolved in 1 cup of warm water
plus 1/2 cup of water
BLEND for about 20 seconds
Place into jars leaving 1.5" head space
FREEZE

 
Oh, and by the way... It only took about this many butternut squash to make 15 quarts.
 

I put all the ingredients in my Lose-It app.  It's only 71 calories for two cups of it!

Good Fortune Part 6 Linky Party!

I'm linking up today on Bonnie Hunter's blog for the Good Fortune Part 6 Linky Party.  Check it out at Quiltville's Quips & Snips!! here.  You may also follow this link:

https://quiltville.blogspot.com/2018/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-6.html

 
Do you see the vest pattern?  I LOVE using the instructions on printed project panels as neutrals.  And Tweety?  What's up Doc?
 
It started like this.  Look at all this fun!

 
This is a 30 gallon tote of neutral strings.

 
I keep searching for fun prints.  Look, a Statue of Liberty torch, a girl, a dog, stars, boats, strawberries, bugs, birdhouses, bees...  fun!
 
 
 
Of course I used my Accuquilt strip dies again.  I cut my Warm & Natural papers for the foundation so that I could get two sets for the crank of one.

 
It took me 13 minutes to crank them all through the dies.  (I was watching Rambo at the time.)

 
My mystery project bin is bulging.  I'm all caught up on the clues. 

 
It's going to get really exciting around here SOON!  The grand reveal is coming!

2018 Finishes (23)

The finishes for 2018 got off to a slow start.  Most of these finishes were done during the second half of the year.  My motto for 2019 is FINISH WHAT YOU STARTED.  Here's my 22 finishes for 2018:
















A mug rug...





And the costumes (Henry Hudson) (Abe Lincoln).



Here's most of the customer quilts I longarmed this year: