Courthouse Steps and quilted purse

I met my goal for Jan of piecing 2 different squares in a month.  Earlier this month I made Framed Squares, and yesterday I made Courthouse Steps.  I made four complete squares, at this rate I will have many quilts to make at the end of the year!

They turned out quite well, I need to square them down to 12 inches, I will be doing that after I get a larger Easy Square.
I also finished my purse, which was another goal.  I still need to make a makeup bag to accompany it.

Grandma Nancy, right

I am starting to work on my project for my First Aid/Cpr class.  It involves writing about a disease/condition of your choice.  After some thought, my first inclination was something pregnancy related, I decided on the topic of brain cancer.  It is so hard for me, I am coming up on the 7th anniversary of my dear grandma Nancy's death from brain cancer on Feb 8th.  She fought so hard and had beaten lung cancer, but it spread to her brain and by the time the diagnosis was made, it was too late to do much about it.  The anniversary is approaching and I recently found out that a friend's mother was recently diagnosed with brain cancer after beating breast cancer.  Before they knew it, she was placed in hospice, and life is forever different for them and their young children.  I so longed to say something, offer words of comfort, anything, but words are cheap, and never enough in situations such as this.  As I sat there in the room with this person, I was on the verge of tears.  I still have dreams, and lately they have been frequent.  Seeing my dear grandmother, telling her how much I adored her, and trying my best to make her well.  I know they are dreams, but it sure is nice to spend those moments with her, and to tell her things that were never said, do things that were not done.  I think right now, this project is about trying to work through these feelings, more than any sort of grade I may receive for it.

Ohio Quilt Finished

I finished my Ohio State & Ohio Stars Quilt today.  I am pretty happy with how it turned out.  There was some puckering with some of the more stretchy material, luckily not too much.  The binding also went well.  I know that I still have more to learn, but I am having fun getting there.

Ohio State square

Ohio Star

Border

Binding

I decided to forgo quilting on the white areas, it just didn't look right, I think it turned out better this way.  The contrasting gray on the red looks quite nice.

I'm Back!

It's taken me a while to post again, I have been very busy with school and life in general.  I am very happy to say that for the last two weeks I have written up menus and grocery lists, and I have not been to the store nearly as much, and I get through it quickly when I am there.  That is saving me a lot of precious time that I desperately need.
I also got a lot of studying done this week, and I plan on getting a little ahead.  It really helped with the short test we had in First Aid class this week, I knew the answers!
I was going to make mac & cheese alone with some bacon for meat, but then I saw these lovely thin ribeye and I could not resist.

Mac & Cheese became the side dish, LOL.  That really stretched the steak as the kids ate a lot of mac & cheese.  I will not make the baked kind next time, it tasted too doughy, I prefer boiling the pasta, then mixing the ingredients and cooking for 30 minutes. Notice the brown bits on the casserole dish, the Pyrex combined with a scraped made cleaning very easy.

Finished  meal, It was as good as it looks

 I also made Oreo Cheesecake Cupcakes.  It was very easy in terms of prep, and they were yummy even before the suggested four hour rest time.

I have been on an poached egg kick lately.  Two of the jumbo eggs in the package had double yolks.  Enjoy!

Going back to school

My wonderful 5 month break from school is officially over.  I started Nutrition online on Monday, and CPR/First Aid in the classroom on Wednesday.  I like my classes so far.  I really like the nutrition format, all online, so I can work at my own pace, work ahead, etc...  My CPR class is also nice.  I really think that the information I learn here will prepare me for nursing school in the fall.
The CPR class is held in Cambridge, so I drove up there, was 30 minutes early.  I looked at the college map, and saw no rooms that matched the number given to me on my schedule.  I began to worry that I might have signed up for a class in Coon Rapids, my college's other campus.  I went into the bookstore and asked, and luckily a girl was also in my class and told me it was in another building across the street.  WHAT???  I had never heard of this even though I had taken other classes in Cambridge.  Luckily it was not that far, and made it just in time.  I was not the only one that had been confused.  Apparently, the college rents classrooms and the gym from the National Guard.  I only wish that this would be made more clear to students.
On another note, I was in Cambridge, which houses the office that accepts the nursing program applications, so I dropped off my packet Wednesday evening.  I am so glad to have that checked off my list.  Wish me luck that I get accepted into the Cambridge evening program for Fall 2011.

More Ohio State quilting

Hello to all of you out there,
I have been off a little this week, school started again for the preschoolers and myself, so I was busy with those tasks.  I did get some sewing done this week.

Squaring up to 3 1/2 inches

Quilt top assembled

Ohio Star quilted

quilted Ohio State block

My pink strips, I will produce much with these

I was able to see, and photograph, snowflakes! Truly awe.

My cuties loving the fish.

Ohio Star and Ohio State Log Cabin

I bought some red fabric at Joann so that I could start piecing the quilt for our newest nephew in Ohio.  I ordered the Ohio State fabric from an Ebay seller.

Top two rows

part of bottom row

Ohio Star detail

Ohio State Log Cabin detail

I still need to make two more Ohio Stars.  The rows are not sewn together, they still need to be ironed and squared up.  The blanket without borders is 27 by 36 inches.  I may need more fabric, eek!
Cynthia made dinner tonight as well, goat cheese and herb chicken, sides of carrots and pasta.  The dessert was cherry cobbler with vanilla ice cream.  Sorry for the poor quality of these photos.

Framed Squares

I made the first of many squares that I plan to make this year.  I planned to make four of them, but ran out of fabric just before I could finish square 4, enjoy!

Kaitlynn & Matthew also made fruit salad today, apples, oranges, bananas, and grapes.

Matthew cutting apples

Part of another goal, a bag for Kaitlynn.

The diet went well this week, too.  I managed to stay under my calorie limit every day, and I don't feel that I deprived myself too much.

Cynthia makes manicotti

Cynthia needed to make manicotti as a requirement for her cooking class, so the ingredients were purchased, Cynthia made the list, and she made it this evening. 

Ingredients gathered

Adding mozzarella cheese

mixing the cheeses and pesto

getting ready to pipe cheese

piping cheese into manicotti

covering with pasta sauce

after baking

"It's yummy!"

It turned out really well.  We piped the cheese rather than spooning it into the shells, The process went much easier that way.  Time management was also utilized.  For example, while the shells were boiling, the cheese was prepared.

This afternoon we had Kaitlynn's school readiness screening, and she did fantastic.  I never had a doubt.  Now we are waiting for LILA's lottery on Jan 15 to find out if Matthew gets into the Spanish immersion program.  I can't believe my baby Matthew will be in Kindergarten this fall.  Time flies.

More Progress!

Today I was up early to get the kids off to school, and I had a dental appointment at 10am, so I decided to be busy this morning.  I cut pieces for project 6 in my quilting book.

I had a so-so dental appointment, and then I returned home to piece this.  I've been doing this so much lately that the piecing process whizzed by and before I knew it I had this:

I only made two mistakes that I had to rip stitches, yeah!  I am so proud that I got so far on it today.  I just need to baste, quilt, and bind it now.  I think I may make this into a wall hanging, it is a happy piece that would help to brighten a room.  I of course had my trademark slightly off work in the middle as you can see here:

I'm still happy with the way it turned out.  I do really need a 1/4" foot, I have been eyeballing it and that just does not work as well.  I plan on doing an outline quilt in yellow for the top and blue thread for the bottom.

Progress on New Year's Goal!

Since I have a list, this will be so much easier this year.  Tonight I finished project 5 in my quilting book.

I even had it done in time for dinner.  Jason was a little late tonight (first day back) so I busied myself with this.  I am going to finish Kaitlynn's diaper bag next, and meanwhile I need to find scarlet and silver fabric to go with the Ohio State theme quilt for the new baby.  I think I have enough projects to keep me going this year.
Here is the lovely cookie jar hubby's mom Cindy got us for Christmas, I am a fool for personalized stuff!!

Busy Day

The first day back to school went well.  Cynthia got off on her bus at 6:45am.  Then Daisy couldn't find her boots at the last minute, so she missed her bus.  So, we got to drive her into school rather than hang out here on Jays last day off.  We dropped her off and ate a yummy breakfast at Keys Cafe here in Forest Lake. 

 

We also went to the library and checked out some fun books and movies.  There are so many gems there.  I found a cake decorating book, a cupcake book by Martha, and a quilting book.

After that we went to WalMart to print some pictures for the relatives, and ourselves.  Then it was off to the clinic for my allergy injections.  We then picked up Daisy and Cynthia from school and went to Bracht Chiropractic.  She really got me back to normal after all of that bed rest with the horrible infection last week.  Lastly we went to WalMart again for groceries, we really loaded up.  I made catfish for dinner, it was pre-breaded but not cooked.  They turned out quite nice and they were very easy to make.  We rounded it out with a side of veggie medley and Alfredo noodles.