More On Basting

I received a lot of questions about basting after Sunday's "Basting Up A Storm" post, so I thought I would elaborate a bit on my basting method. About a year ago I was introduced to Sharon Schamber's Pinless Painless Basting and I haven't considered basting a quilt any other way since. Even though it's probably the fastest and easiest way to baste a quilt, I have never cared for pin basting. The pins are always in the way and they just don't seem to hold as well as thread basting. Before finding Sharon's method I always thread basted the "old fashioned way" (on the floor crawling around on my hands and knees with a needle and thread) which worked fine, but it also meant that I wouldn't be able to walk for two days after basting a quilt! Sharon Schamber's Pinless Painless Basting method involves a table, two 1x4 finished boards, a spool of DMC cotton thread and a needle and no crawling on your hands and knees! You can learn more about this method by watching the instructional video at the Sharon Schamber Network. http://sharonschambernetwork.com/free_area/videos/basting/index.html

Warm Up?

I am sure I heard the weatherman say that the temperatures in northern Pennsylvania were going to warm up this week, but apparently I missed the part about it getting really cold before the temperatures start to climb. I braved the 26 degree record low temperature to take this photograph this morning (yes, that is frost) and that's all I'll be doing outside until the thermometer goes above 65 degrees. I may get in some quilting time this week after all!

This Week's Quilting Forecast

Be prepared to see flower photos instead of quilt photos for awhile, because this week's quilting forecast isn't looking very promising. The weatherman is calling for sunny skies all week long with temperatures climbing into the 80's by the end of the week. My kind of weather, but that means that I will most likely be spending most of the week outside working in my flowerbeds rather than inside at my sewing machine.

Basting Up A Storm

Northern Pennsylvania doesn't usually see a lot of severe spring weather, but every once in awhile we get a day like yesterday when we have thunderstorms all day long with an occasional tornado warning thrown in for good measure. I would have loved to have spent the day with my sewing machine, but the idea of having my foot on a metal pedal that is attached to an electric outlet during a thunderstorm made me just a bit nervous, so I opted to do some hand basting instead. It was a day well spent, because I now have three crib quilts basted and ready to quilt!

New Zealand Wellington Quilt Exhibition 2009

Success!

Success! I managed to sew the pinwheel blocks that I made on Wednesday into this beautiful crib sized top. Even after all of the trouble I had with it, I still love this pattern and am very happy with the final results. I will definitely make this pattern again...I will just make sure that I don't have any distractions when I do!

Concentration Abilities

Yesterday was our monthly sewing day at "the lake house" and I thought that it would be the perfect opportunity to try the Kwik Pinwheel/Flower pattern that I bought last winter in North Carolina. It was a good thought, but probably not the best idea to try out a brand new pattern that was going to require a bit of concentration. You see, if you were to look back at any of my old report cards from grade school somewhere on the card there would be a phrase something like this, "Susan is distracted easily. When she improves her concentration abilities, I know her work will improve." Apparently that is still the case, because I proved today that I cannot talk to my friends and piece a top without making mistakes...lots and lots of mistakes! My first mistake was not making sure that my fabric was all right side up when cutting the pieces for the pinwheels. Now I could say that the light was bad or that white on white print is hard to see, but the truth is that I only skimmed the directions and missed the note that specifically said "All your fabric should be right side up." My second and biggest mistake was made when I "squared up" the blocks. Once again, I wasn't paying attention and misread the measurements for centering the 9 1/2" ruler on the block which resulted in a pinwheel that had two long sections and two short sections which meant that none of the seams were going to match up. All was not lost though, I would just trim the long sides to match the short sides...easy! Wrong! Can you believe that I trimmed the short side of not one but two blocks before realizing what I was doing? I tried to keep the cursing to a minimum and the spectators did a pretty good job at containing their laughter, but it was at that point that I decided to pack the whole mess up and call it a day. Once I got home, I surveyed the damaged blocks and realized that I could re-re-square them and the blocks would still be large enough to make a nice sized Project Linus quilt. Just a few distraction free cuts with the rotary cutter and I now have twelve perfectly uniform pinwheel blocks. Granted, they are an inch smaller than they should be, but at least all of the seams should match up once they are put together!

Crock-Pot Almost Minestrone

My diet continues, so you'll be seeing healthier recipes while I try to stay away from the desserts. This is one of those "dump" recipes that changes a little each time I make it. Use this recipe as a base and use what veggies you have on hand, add kidney beans or spinach, substitute ground turkey for the ground beef or leave the meat out altogether...whatever you like!

Crock-Pot Almost Minestrone

1/2 pound lean ground beef
3 carrots, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 large onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 small zucchini, quartered and sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried parsley
salt and pepper, to taste
1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 (32 ounce) can beef broth
3/4 cup elbow macaroni

In a large saucepan, cook ground beef until well done. Drain the ground beef and put into crock-pot. Add carrots, zucchini, garlic, onion and celery. Season with basil, parsley, salt and pepper. Stir in tomatoes with juice and beef broth. Cook on low for 4-6 hours. Add the macaroni and turn crock-pot to high 30 minutes before serving, stirring occasionally.

Comment Help Needed

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Edited to add that the problem has been solved! I am using the Mozilla Firefox browser and for this comment format to work properly you have to accept third-party cookies. Tools>Options>Privacy>check box "Accept third-party cookies".