Menu Monday

I like to have a basic idea of what my family is going to eat during the week. This works for me because if I don’t have a plan for meals we usually eat out.  That gets expensive really fast for my family of 6 adults. I am also a list girl.  I like to see what needs to be done and more importantly I like to cross stuff off with pretty colored markers J  I use to make my menu’s according to days of the week but this got complicated for my OCD brain when I didn’t want to make spaghetti on Wednesday; now I number them J  I also like dessert so most dinners have one but I don’t plan for breakfasts or lunches.  My kids are older teenagers and young adults, I just have to keep enough staples on the shelves to feed them at grazing times.

The weather has turned a wee bit chilly here in Texas which is perfect time to make some soup and bread.  I will also toss in some comfort foods that are perfect for chilly nights.

1.    Sausage and tortellini soup with toast with misc. cookies and ice cream

2.    Fried chicken, mashed spuds, veggie with cream puffs for dessert

3.    Split pea and ham soup with grilled cheese sannys with caramel cupcakes to completely over stuff yourself

4.    Breakfast dinner, French toast, sausage and eggs.  No dessert on breakfast nights

5.    Chicken casserole using up leftovers from the fried chicken and salad with chocolate mousse cups for dessert to make it special

6.    Meatloaf night, ick, but everyone else eats it and hubby cooks it can’t argue with that. Hubby has requested baked spuds and salad to go with this feast. I will make a chocolate pie to round out the night

.

7.    MIY night!  Clean out the leftovers or  Make It Yourself

I know it's not New Year's yet but I can no longer put of getting my act together.  I lack organization.  I really need to address this problem and for me it has gotten to the problem stage.  To tackle this I have gotten myself a Life Planner with some snazzy Sharpies.  Normally, I would my Ipad but because I have a first generation Ipad the software isn't compatible with the planner apps you can get.
After HOURS of trying to decide what I wanted out of a planner and what I wanted to do to "bling" it up and make it mine.  I went with The Ultimate Planner from The Nifty Planner  I like that it has a month long view followed by a weekly view with a spot for my notes. I haven't gotten to the menu planner or the task manager yet but I can't see how I would be displeased.  I do want to get a few more colored markers and some sticker to join this party.

I made my list last night when I seem to have my plan for the next day going thru my head so that today I just had to look down and BAM I am telling me what to do.  It will help me stay on task with all things that swirl around in my head including weekly blog postings :-)  

Gemini Quilt top done :-)

I am really trying to get the quilt kits that I bought on shop hop done before Christmas.  Might use a few of them as gifts but really want to get them into my store so someone else might be able to snuggle up under one of my creations.  This is another kit that I got from Stitched With Love, if you are in the McKinney/Dallas area I really, really recommend you go spend some time in this store.  The ladies are wonderful and super helpful plus, there shop is bright and inviting.

This quilt is going together really fast.  I am falling in love with the patterns from Villa Rosa Designs.  They look fantastic and go together without much fuss if any fuss at all.  I hope to have it all put together tomorrow so look for pictures of the done top soon.

Finally Finished

Only thing left to do with this quilt is put the binding and the label on:-)  T-Shirt quilts can be difficult for me because I can spend way to much time on the thought process of how it should be laid out.  In this case my customer wanted the pink shirt to be centered.  I quilted it in a general large meander so to not take away from the shirts.  This will definitely wrap someone in memories :-)

Sashings and Center of T-Shirt Quilt

I have decided to use grey sashing and maroon corner stones for this quilt; seemed to blend nicely with the all the shirts.  The blocks will be 11 1/2 inches before sashing then I will add 2 inch sashing and the center is roughly 35 inches.  I am not set on my final design yet but I have a pretty good idea in my head how it will look :-)

Here are the sashing colors before cutting, you can see I am going to be using my Accuquilt cutter with the 2 inch strip cutter.

And here is the center all sewn together

These are the small pocket prints that were on some of the front's of the shirts and I hated not using them.

Tomorrow will be squaring up the rest of blocks and adding sashings and hope it works out like the plan in my head :-)  

Will keep you updated :-)

A T-Shirt Quilt

I have been commissioned to create a T-Shirt memory quilt.  I spent a better part of the day cutting and ironing but I am really happy with the progress that is happening.

Some shirts had backs as well so it took some careful cutting but after a few hours and The Mummy for background noise I was left with these

Tomorrow I will cut the sashing and the corner stone and I should be totally read to start sewing on Monday :-) 

All Done :-)

This quilt certainly challenged my math skills or should I say my lack of math skills :-)  I am so happy that it came out as well as it did.  I spent way too much time with the seam ripper.  I will put her up on the frame next week but first I need some time to think of how I want to quilt her.

The pattern is Atlantic Avenue by Sassafrass Designs