Cathspennies is having a giveaway!

I was just visiting cathspennies which is a wonderful little blog. She is having the sweetest giveaway! I shouldn't be spreading the word because I really like this little pillow! But I thought I would share it with you. Happy Holidays!!

Hamburger-Vegetable Soup

MMMMmmmm!!!! I smell it cooking right now!

I forgot to take something out for dinner tonight. Ooops! Oh, what to do, what to do??? Aha!! I have some frozen hamburger in the freezer!! Now I know what to do for dinner. Whenever I get myself into a dinner pinch this usually does the trick! I will make some Hamburger-Vegetable Soup! It's cold outside tonight anyway! Perfect! Here is the recipe that goes pretty quick. And if your like me, you almost always have the ingredients on hand!

Hamburger-Vegetable Soup

1-1 1/2 pounds hamburger

3-4 cups of water

3 medium carrots, chopped (about 1 cup or more if you like carrots)

2 medium stalks celery, chopped (about 1 cup or more if you like)

1 large potato, cut into 1/2 inch pieces (about 1 cup or more if you like)

2 medium onions, chopped (about 1 cup or more if you like)

1-2 teaspoon salt

1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of pepper

1 bay leaf

1/4 teaspoon dried basil leaves

1 can (14.5 ounce) Diced tomatoes with the liquid! ( or 2 cans if you like)(or a 28 oz. can will do)

Cook and stir hamburger in Dutch oven until light brown; drain. Stir in remaining ingredients; Heat to boiling; reduce heat. Cover and simmer just until vegetables are tender, about 20 to 30 minutes. (Depending on how small you chopped your vegies!)

Serves about 6, but in my household any leftover soup keeps for lunch the next day!

As you can see you can vary this recipe to your liking or to what you have in the fridge! Works for me and my family! I hope it works for yours. Enjoy! :o)

Jo Morton Club meeting

Today was Jo Club Day! I have lots to share with everyone. This is an apple core tablemat. finished with the blanket stitch. Very cute!
Here is a gorgeous log cabin and houses. Each house has a different block inside of it. Nice warm colors were used. I was sorry I couldn't get a full length photo of this quilt.
Here is a Figgy pudding Christmas stitchery. This is really adorable!
Here is an up close shot of one the the stitcheries. A "sweet" gingerbread house. :o)
Some really fun Tea towels! I just love these!
A partridge in a Pair tree!
These were really cute! They are wool hooked rugs.

A Signature block quilt top from Jo Morton pattern.
Another Apple core table topper. This one has ric rac around the edges of the apple cores. Such a creative finish! Really neat!
Here's a close up of the ric rac. As you can see there is also a bit of blanket stitching in this one! Really nice!
I had a totally unexpected surprise today! While at the Jo meeting I received a special package from one of the members. Guess who it was from! Mary! From over at Quilt Hollow!!
There was a yummy candy cane ornament. A very cute handmade little zipper pouch out of fabric with sewing essentials on it!! :o)
Inside the pouch was a Mary Englebreit package with all sorts of needles in it. I can always put those to good use! As well as some thread! Oh yes, a package of cinnamon spice tea. Yum! I will definitely enjoy this as I am a tea drinker.

Thank-you Mary!! You are so sweet. I had no idea that I would be a recipient of one of your wonderful gifts! Let the Christmas Joy begin! :o)

Yesterday was Quilt Bee Day!

Yesterday was my quilt bee meeting! Time to share some "show n' tell". Here is a cute little Christmas tree. I don't know if you can see them or not but there are tiny red buttons on the tree so ornaments can be hung.
I thought this fabric was really cute. It's the back of the next quilt.
A fun Kim Diehl quilt. (And yes Mary, that is a tuffet!)
A Tinker bell apron which is reversible. Shhh!! It's a Christmas gift for someone special!
Look!! Tuffets!! Aren't they fun?!! I think they look great! :o)
Here is a beautiful Cathedral Stars quilt which is from a Bonnie Hunter pattern.

Hope you enjoyed the show! :0)

Half square triangles

I am currently working on a project which has half square triangles in it. Of course I loaded the pictures in reverse! LOL
I was trying a new product being passed around as a trial.
It's called "Stitching Lines" by Marin & Colusa. Here is there website. www.marinandcolusa.com if you are interested.
Usually I just draw a straight line from corner to corner and then sew a quarter inch away from each side. I then take my rotary cutter and cut the triangles apart on the line that I drew. With this product you lay the "Stitching Lines" paper over the diagonal where you would normally draw the line. You then proceed to sew your quarter inch away from the marked line, then cut as normal.. It just saves you from having to draw the line.
If you are confused, just start by looking at my last picture first! Like I said at the beginning of this post, I put my pictures in reverse order! Ooops. LOL

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!!

Wednesday's Bee meeting

Wednesday was my quilt bee meeting. I remembered to take some pictures of Show and Tell to share with you!
These first four little quilts will be donated to a charity.


A beautiful star quilt. The picture doesn't do anything for it, but up close and personal it is really neat. Check out the corners of the outer border!
Here is another beauty! I really liked this one. Lots of triangles! Again check out the border on this one.
A Christmas table runner. I believe she said it was made from some left over blocks from a previous project. Very cute!
Ohhhh!! This is one gorgeous block! I really like this one. This bear paw is a hand pieced block. There will be more of these in the future. I would like to do this one! For some unknown reason I have been wanting to do a bear paw quilt for the longest time. For one reason or another I just have never gotten around to doing it yet!! One day! :0)
Another gorgeous hand pieced block! This is only one block of about 12 that she brought in to show. This one came from a Fons and Porter magazine. An article about an old quilt which didn't have a pattern for it. She just drew up her own pattern and "Wha-La". A replica of an old quilt!!!! All for herself!!

I am going to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving now, because I may not have a chance to check on blogs during family time. I am very thankful for all the new and special friends I have met since I started this blog! I never knew there were so many wonderful friendly people out there sharing a common hobby, until I started blogging!! I am also very thankful to have friends and family who have stayed by my side through many hardships in my life. The good as well as the bad.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my very special friends, both new and old, and all of my loving family!!!!! :0) (0:

Jo Morton club meeting

I have been having problems with trying to connect to the internet and staying connected! Ugh! Otherwise I would have posted this sooner! Hopefully that has been straightened out. This past Tuesday was Jo Club Meeting. I thought I would show some pictures of what was shared at the meeting. This is an "Apple Core" quilt which was hand pieced and hand quilted.
A signature block which was finished as a pillow covering! I hadn't thought about doing that.
A very pretty two color quilt.
And an awesome Cake stand baskets.

Two Inch Strips and a Jo

I had a box full of 2 inch strips which was over flowing. They are all from leftover projects or of that last bit of a fat quarter or yardage. I felt the need to thin out the box, and use the strips for something. I got the itch! To try something new.
Here is my box of 2 inch strips. I put them all together and made a huge ball of material. You can see a small version of the ball when I first started the project. I wanted to see if I was going to be comfortable with crocheting fabric. I was just fine with it. It was a bit awkward when I first started, but I soon got the knack for it.
I made a rag rug using the pattern. "Get Hooked" designed by Ann Lauer. (www.grizzlygulchgallery.com) Pretty cool Huh? And I was recycling those leftovers! Yahoo!
I put it here for now, in front of the fireplace. I had intended on putting it in front of the guest bed, but my kitties seem to really like it where it is. When I turn the gas fireplace on there is always a least one of them on it. Getting warmed up! LOL :0)
Here is the Jo Morton top all finished. I had shown it to you when it was still in rows and not sewn together. My next Jo meeting is this coming Tuesday. I'm ready! :0)

A Finish!

This is a web Sampler I did a few years back. Of course, my kitty wanted to be in the picture to I see! It's been sitting in my closet with the top finished for a while. I've been trying to get some of my unfinished projects completed. With the help of Mary from over at Quilt Hollow blogspot I am beginning to put a dent in my closet!
Here is a close-up of some of Mary's wonderful quilting! Uh, I'm so happy this is done!
The fabric I used in this quilt was from a Jo Morton line called Coventry.
And the back of the quilt. I just love it! Mary did a superb job!
The patterns for the quilt blocks are I believe designed by Paula Barnes Her blocks look complex, which is something I really like, but are really easy to put together! :0)

Mail Call!!

Today is the day that my 5" charm squares arrived! This is so exciting! This is the first swap that I've had a return on so far from blogland! I had participated in a Jo Morton fabric swap back in September. Dawn over at Spring Water Designs was holding this swap.
She sent me a nice card with hearts on it, along with the 5" charms.
I had sent her 13 sets of 8 blocks each of different fabrics. That means I should have 104 different charm squares if there were no repeated fabrics! WOW!
Dawn asked me in her note to share what I intend to do with them. Well here is what I have in mind.
I've already got a few started. :0) I would like to use them for this "Apple Core" charm quilt by Cindy Blackberg. She uses a stamp to mark the design onto her fabric! I thought that was kinda neat and had never heard of using stamps before. So I thought I would give it a try. This is a hand piecing project. A Good project to work on in the carpool line while waiting for my daughter to get out of school!! :0) If I have any charms left I will use them in one of Jo Mortons tiny basket quilts. I just love baskets!! Actually, I might just pick out a few of my favorite charms right now for either the "Betsy's Baskets" or the "Beth's Baskets" pattern! :0)