christmas goodies

The cookie exchange yesterday was a success.  Only 5 of us total, but this time of year, that's pretty good!

Pretty good loot, no?

And when I arrived home, the candy-making commenced.

3 batches of peanut brittle, 2 batches of fudge and 1 batch of truffles.

Each of my hubby's 21 employees plus my boss and our secretary will get a tin like this in the coming week.

And, as promised, recipes!

Microwave Peanut Brittle

Mix in glass bowl:

1 cup sugar

1 cup raw peanuts

1/2 cup white corn syrup

1/8 tsp. salt

Microwave 4 minutes.

Stir.

Microwave 3-5 minutes more, until light brown.

Add:

1 tbsp. butter

1 tsp. vanilla.

Stir

Microwave 1 minute.

Add:

1 tsp. baking soda

Mix thoroughly.

Spread on lightly greased cookie sheet (or aluminum foil).

I've made this dozens of times and it always comes out well.  And as for that 3-5 minutes, in my new 900-watt, .9 cubic foot microwave, 4-5 minutes was about right.  I have a 4-cup Pyrex measuring cup and that worked PERFECTLY for this...the handle was a lifesaver!

Fudge

1 1/2 cups (3 sticks) butter or margarine

6 cups sugar

2 cans (5 oz each) evaporated milk (or 1 1/3 cups)

2 packages (12 oz each) chocolate chips

1 jar (13 oz.) marshmallow creme

2 cups chopped nuts (optional)

2 tsp. vanilla

In 4-5 quart heavy pan, mix butter, sugar and milk.  Bring to full rolling boil on medium heat, stirring constantly.  Continue boiling 5 minutes (or until candy thermometer reaches 234F), stirring constantly.  Remove from heat and add chocolate chips.  Stir until melted.  Add remaining ingredients and mix well.  Pour into TWO lightly greased 9x13 pans (or 3 9x9 pans).  Cool at room temp.

I've made this for years and my mom has made it for longer and we NEVER use the candy thermometer and we've NEVER had a bad batch!  It originally was on the container of one of the ingredients (marshmallow creme?) but no longer is.  It's delicious and creamy.  I've made it with peanut butter chips and with white chocolate chips (plus a little Kaluha!) and it's also yummy.  Semi-sweet chips give a darker fudge than milk chocolate, but both taste fantastic!

This is also a good recipe to have a big strong man help with, as stirring in those chocolate chips and marshmallow creme wears my arm out!

The truffles recipe can be found here.  It's super easy and I made about 75 and still had dough left over.  (Maybe I made my balls a little small?)  I rolled 1/3 in powdered sugar, 1/3 in cocoa powder and 1/3 in chopped pecans.  Well, the hubby rolled them in sugar and cocoa, if we're being honest here.  :)

And since we're talking about Christmas goodies, I tortured my hubby to get a photo of the whole, finished Christmas quilt this morning.  (You know, biddy stuff can kill a man, right?)  It's a grey day, but with the snow, the lighting was much better outside!

It's called "Trees for Sale" by Pieces from My Heart.  I used the same fabric as the original pattern, Crazy Eight by (I think) Sandy Gervias.  And no, that border is not pieced...it's printed (because one of you asked). 

And the back, because it's too cute!

The colors don't quite match the front, but it's a cozy flannel and perfectly whimsical for my tastes!

And now the hubby had to run into work, so I'm going to haul out his quilt and hope to get that binding finished!

Happy quilting!

Katie

has it been that long?

I should be ironing clothes for work, but it's been a crazy week (much like the week before and the week before that, etc.) and I decided to just sit down and catch up on blog reading for a little bit.

And posting.

I've been bad about rememering to photograph things lately, but here are some things I do have photos of!

This Thursday was the Christmas party at my quilt group.  We were instructed, if we wished, to bring a $10 homemade gift to exchange.  It had to be homemade by us or someone NOT in China.  I think I shared the little stocking I was making (that I never took a finished photo of - I kept forgetting and had all of 10 minutes at home between work and the party that night...), but here's the unfinished project and you get the idea.

It's felted wool I got by raiding my mom's stash.  It's about 6" tall and the little berries are about as big around as a pencil eraser.  Probably not the best way to start wool applique, but since noone told me, I didn't know any better and did just fine.  I think.

And in exchange, I got this:

A felt mushroom needle holder.  The stump (?) is actually a pocket that housed the needles and cute scissors and under the cap are a few pieces of felt that can hold needles.  Very cute.

And it's just a little strange to me that the gal who made my gift - her mom got the one I made! 

There were lots of great things given and so many ended up with exactly the perfect person, though all were wrapped and anonymous until opened.  One of the other gals who LOVES purple got a purple throw.  Our president is probably more patriotic than Love (if you can imagine) and she got a flag coin purse-type thing.  One gal got a wall-hanging-size quilt in the same pattern as a throw she'd hugely admired when another quilter made it.

It was a lot of fun.  We had pot-luck dinner, lots of good conversation, there were door prizes and we'd all submitted a favorite recipe that the gal in charge photocopied into a little booklet for each of us.  (I bet the hubby is thrilled to know he'll be a guinea pig again soon!)

And then yesterday was our montly sew day.  Well, it starts on Friday but for those of us who work, it starts on Saturday!  My sister-in-law came down to join us and she finished a quilt top (Carpenter's Star - the big single-block throw) and started another.  Me?  My project was a bit more involved (and not half-done when I arrived)...

These arcs (8 of the 24 I need) are the start of my Christmas Pickle quilt.  I only had to rip out three seams, but there were at least a dozen more I ALMOST sewed wrong.  They're paper pieced and that whole process is so backwards to me, it takes a while to figure each piece out.  And when you're talking...takes a bit longer!

I'm really excited about these arcs - they're going together nicely, but the rest of the pieces that make these arcs into a square are templates and I'm scared of those!  There are a few gals in our group who took a class and are making similar blocks, so I'm going to pick their brains when I get to that point and see if I can get these together and have them lay flat AND be square!

I wanted to come home and keep sewing, but I was exhausted and have more pressing things I need to get done.  There are a few more sewn projects I'd like to get done for Christmas gifts, but if they don't, noone will know!  We'll see.

Today was spent making a lot of goodies.  The hubby is planning to hand out 14 tins of goodies to his employees this year (down from 23 last year - new department he's in charge of this year) and he wants it all on Thursday.  So I whipped up a batch of fudge, a batch of peanut brittle, a HUGE batch of caramel corn (new recipe) and a batch of caramel (new recipe - a lot of it boiled over into my microwave...oops!).  I have caramel (or something) stuck on the leg of my pants, the floor of my kitchen is almost sticky enough to pull off your shoes and I'm probably on a bit of a sugar high from taste-testing, but other than a bunch more batches of peanut brittle and getting it all into the tins, I'm nearly done.  I'll try to remember to get a photo when I'm done.

I would have had help, but the hubby has the "crud" and took nighttime meds on accident.  He was rather zombie-like this morning and I couldn't figure it out.  I know he's not feeling well, but this was just ridiculous, so I went to look at the box.  Yep, nighttime.  I told him to just go to bed, but he fought it for a few hours and then gave up.  He was so out of it, he was no use to me and might as well just sleep it off.

Here's to hoping I don't catch it.  I wash my hands about 1,000 times a day (job training spilling over into home life!), so I'm truly hoping that helps.  He also has his own bedroom (might as well if we work opposite shifts, right?), and I'm sure that helps.

I just hope he feels better soon.  He's NOT a good patient!

I also sent the puppy quilt on its way without a photo.  I wanted to get it to the local domestic abuse shelter before the holidays, as I'm guessing this is the time of year when they most need things.  And I'm going to make it a goal for the coming year to donate at least one quilt a month.  I may not make it, but I'm sure going to try!

I was also informed at our last quilt meeting that the shelter likes donations of "other household items" and a list was read.  They like to do "birthday boxes" that contain a cake mix, frosting and cupcake papers.  You can bet I'll be watching for sales on cake mixes because I LOVE that idea.  Way better than mops and deoderant, no matter how much more useful those items might be!

Time to get back to the real world.  Ironing clothes.  Making dinner.  (I can find my kitchen - I washed dishes while the caramel corn baked - so at least I have that!)  Bleh.

Happy quilting,

Katie

still not much quilting

It hasn't been a very quilty week around here.  I worked more shifts than I wanted last week and made a lot of fudge and peanut brittle and then there was shopping that needed to be finished...  And then I tripped over a toolbox at work and fell smack on my hip.  Thankfully nothing was broken (not even the phone that was in my pocket and I landed on!), but I was quite sore for a few days and preferred to get comfy and just stay there!

But while I was waiting for the pain to subside, I got notice that the cat toys arrived!  With photos!

First up was Isabella, who was had her catnip radar going and was onto me before the box was even opened...

Samantha is reported to have brought the two toys with her and claimed the box...

But both were super happy with their gifts!

(And you may remember these two, as they were featured on Becky's quilt a few months back.)

And then there was Ivan...

(who has had a rough month with bladder issues and is currently testing out new foods to thwart those troubles)

...and sister Cleo...

...who both slobbered the toys into oblivion, as per reports from cat-mom.

The third friend also has two kitties, but she only let me know the package arrived and thanked me.  No photos, but her kitties are equally cute and beautiful and cuddly.

I still have a few left (trying to figure out how to surprise a former coworker with some of them, but don't have her mailing address...), but the holiday is not over yet!  (I AM however, currently out of catnip!)

Not to worry.  I made sure the kitties living here had ample fun.

Wednesday, after falling, I knew continuing to move was the best choice.  Even standing still to run the cash register allowed things to start freezing up.  So I kept busy at work (the clothing department is an awful mess, so with the blessing of my manager, I spent hours tidying and organizing...of course, it looks like crap again because no one puts anything back where they found it and wads it up in a ball before leaving it somewhere random - store looks a mess?  thank your fellow shoppers! - but it IS a little better than before I started) and then decided to keep going when I got home.  I first cleaned the bathroom and then decided I would do the dreaded task of running the vacuum once the bathroom task was completed with minimal trouble.

But first I have to pick up a number of things.  Stray cat toys, boxes (also known as cat toys) and the Christmas tree is little, so move that.  Hmmm...I've inserted it into the cat tree before...

It took a bit before they came back out of hiding from the scary monster, but this was a novel idea and they took to it quickly.  Of course, they were already chewing on branches and generally getting into mischief before it was in the cat tree, but it's not plugged in and it is what it is.

(There were no pain meds in my system to make me loopy.  This is just how I work.)

I left it there overnight and the next morning, had this:

I don't know about you, but where Finn is sitting does not look very comfy.  (I, on the other hand, was comfy as could be, snuggled under a quilt in my reclining sofa with my achy hip just right.)  But they were still having fun, so I let it roll.

The next morning...

...well...

This morning (day 4), it looked the same and I decided it was time for a reset.  It is back upright in the cat tree.  The skirt that goes under it is folded up with the pile of quilts.  And presents don't get wrapped until the last minute because *someone* will unwrap them.  (And by *someone* I mean all of them.)  So it's not like our tree functions like what you see on holiday cards...

I DID manage to get some sewing in.  And then some unsewing because in my excitement to have time to sew, I managed to not notice there were sashings between rows...

But!  I finished the Christmas-ish quilt I started just a few weeks ago!  I think it was Love that teased I would have it done by the holiday and I laughed.  I never expected I WOULD!  I mean, it's not a quilt-quilt yet, but here you go:

Apparently I'm a little crooked today, but in my defence, I was out there without a coat and it was spitting sleety snow at me.  So I was trying to hurry.

And now it goes to the Rack of Shame.

Speaking of the Rack of Shame...  I had an idea to keep me motivated with new projects each month for 2021.  Sort of keep me on track and not just starting new stuff willy-nilly.  And I bought some craft supplies.  (I was out shopping for other, actually needed items, and these just fell into my cart as I...um...detoured over in that direction...)

And then today, since the year is so close to being done, I needed to get rolling on that actual project, so...

I'm not entirely happy with how poorly that paint is covering the wood, but I'll be heading back to do a second coat soon - first coat is drying while I blog.

Toby helped, but I was too busy shooing him away to get any photos.  (He is definitely trying to fill those big Emma-No shoes lately!)

The plan is to have projects, sorted by colors, on the sticks and each month I choose one stick of each color for my goals.  I made four categories: new quilt, leftovers, new technique and longarm.

New quilt are things like "from a pattern I own" or "using acrylic templates" - basically working from what I already have as far as patterns and ideas.  They may or may not be finished within the month, but that's okay.  Maybe 2022 will be the year of the UFO?

Leftovers refer to things like strings and bonus half square triangles.  The plan here is to figure out how to use some of them.  Or decide to pass them along to someone who will use them.

New technique doesn't necessarily refer to quilting, but more things like learn to use that sock loom or watercolor pencils.  Again, things I have at least some of the supplies to do, but just never got there.  This is kinda like giving myself permission to NOT make a quilt for a bit!

And finally the longarm section is just that.  Trying to reduce the Rack of Shame.  Not that the first category isn't going to increase it, but hey, I gotta start somewhere, right?  (And I gotta make room for the new quilts, too...)

I may kick myself for this by March.  But I also know if I have a specific goal in mind, whether it be a deadline for a birth or an online challenge or whatever, I flounder less and put down the phone more readily and get to work.  So we'll see how it goes!  I promise to blog about it at least every so often!

And lastly, while plopped on the couch (that gets less comfy with each passing day, but that might just be me getting antsy?), I took my Pinterest uploads and did some fun data analysis with them (using free apps, of course) and found my top nine posts of the year:

(Funny that this year and last, my top posts were from quilt-alongs!)

As well as what is called the "year of color":

The color one was difficult for me - there are dozens of different combinations of layouts and number of dots and all sorts of things, so it made Science Katie feel a bit like she was skewing the data in her favor...  But I decided to just play around until I found something that looked pleasing and rolled with it...statistically accurate or not.

Remember, these are Pinterest, which only covers a small number of the photos I share here.  I don't know if there is an app to look at blog post colors, but this is always fun to see.  Even if I seem to have a fairly large number of more blah colors in there.

But my hip is feeling much better (pretty much normal today), so I have few excuses to not go do something productive today.  (The excuse I DO have is that I have slept poorly the last two nights and kinda want a nap...)  I will go add a second coat of paint to the sticks and then see where the wind blows me.  (See what I mean?  No deadline, no project in the works and suddenly I'm adrift!)

I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas, or whatever other holiday you celebrate.  I hope you and your loved ones all stay healthy.  And I'll be back for one more post before the new year!

Happy quilting,

Katie

lately...

I think most of the packages have made their way to where they're going, so I can let the snowmen out of the bag...

I made quite a few of these little guys and had a lot of fun doing it.  The free pattern/instructions came from the blog Then She Made...

I changed mine a little and used regular stuffing to fill them and rocks to weight them instead of rice (don't want to tempt the critters while they're in storage), but next time might try something a little different because my snowmen are rather hip-less...or something...  But by now you know me...I can't just read the instructions and follow them...  (Funny that I do exactly that at work every single day!)

Regardless, I had fun, though it was hard to cut up those amazingly cute socks.  Maybe I should have bought two of each pair - one for me, one for the snowmen?

This morning, I dragged myself out of bed with the knowledge that there was a sink full of dishes to be washed and a kitchen to be tidied (the aftermath of tin-stuffing) and Christmas presents to be wrapped.

Of course I didn't get a good photo of the tins that went to work with the hubby, but I did just take this one...

I posted the recipes for the fudge and peanut brittle a few years back.  This year, the caramel corn was a new recipe I found on Southern Plate blog.  I kinda tweaked it, as I didn't have a proper pot to pop popcorn or a hot air popper - so I made 6 bags of "light" popcorn (because everything else in the darn store had SUPER BUTTER on it) and used butter instead of margarine in the caramel and didn't use any butter flavoring because the popcorn claimed to already be somewhat buttered.

Anyways, it came out well, though a note: do not call to dispute an incorrect charge on your credit card while making caramel corn.  It will take longer than you expect which means you won't be able to properly stir said caramel corn, resulting in it being much harder to remove from the pans.  And the hubby will comment that it got "kinda broken up" - of course, he got the bottom of the bag there - wouldn't want his employees getting the bits, right?

I also tried a recipe for caramel - just plain caramel - in the microwave.  It didn't come out well enough to use in the tins - thus the caramel corn.  Now it's not quite spoon-caramel, but it does kinda flow (slowly) to fill the hole where you cut a piece out to munch on while making dinner.  Probably just needs another minute in the microwave, but I'll save that overflowing-the-bowl experiment for another day when I have more patience to clean up the microwave again.

So anyways, what really got me out of bed this morning was this:

Yep.

I went to JoAnn's after work yesterday.  Decided I needed to start a new project.  I bought three things that weren't on sale.  One was 50 cents, another $1.49.  The third I used a 50% coupon on.  The gal at the fabric cutting counter told me that if I signed up for text messages, I'd get a coupon, via text, for 20% off my total purchase today.  So I did and while I finished shopping, the text came through.  So I paid full price for nothing yesterday.

But this is not one of those see-how-I-screwed-the-company-with-coupon-use posts.  I also had $50 in gift cards that were all about a year old and they're included in that "savings" calculation.  They kinda got lost in my purse.  Nice surprise to find them, right?

So my total purchase price was $19.78.

What did I buy?  Odds and ends to fill a sewing basket for a niece for her Christmas present, batting, and these beauties:

What will they be?  Darn it but too many people read my blog now!  I've been found and followed and I want to show more and tell more, but I can't.  So you'll see it when you see it.  Sorry.  :(

But this will be the last quilt I start in 2012.  Maybe, with any luck, I'll finish it in 2012 too?  I have to work Christmas Eve and the day after, but in exchange, I get New Year's Eve and the 2nd off.  So I'm debating about a Sew Into the New Year party at my mom's.  Or maybe just here at home by myself - depending on the roads and the hubby's plans...and whether my desire to hibernate until April gets strong enough to keep me home!  (That nasty blowing, wet snowstorm we had Friday got it started nicely.)

So what have I done today?  Well, I washed the dishes and tidied up the kitchen.  Folded the beauties I photographed above.  Made the last homemade Christmas gift.  And as I was finishing that, the hubby got up (remember he works 3rd shift) and decided he was hungry.  And needed to go to Wal-Mart.  THE last place I'd like to be this close to Christmas (though it wasn't as bad as it could have been).  So I ate lunch out.  Twist my arm.  Then home again to wrap ALL the Christmas presents.

And in all that, it derailed my train of starting something new.  Or maybe it's just the knowledge that I need to IRON (four-letter word) all that fabric I just washed before I can cut it up.

So I read for a while.

And now I'm stalling more - blogging, etc.

I think it is the ironing.

Ah well, there's always tomorrow.

Happy quilting and Merry Christmas!

Katie

cookie exchange

Tomorrow I get to go to a cookie exchange!

(Isn't that plate cute?  More on how I got that in a minute.)

I'm taking Caramel-Filled Chocolate Cookies.

They got a drizzle of melted white chocolate after they cooled.  Ooh so pretty!

And also White Chocolate Chip Cranberry Oatmeal Cookies (that one of my APQ blogging friends posted a while ago and I can't remember who - I'm sorry!)

(Yikes what a color difference in those photos!)

In addition to cookies (which we're only supposed to bring one kind, but I LOVE to bake and noone turns their nose up at extra cookies!) we're supposed to bring a white elephant (gag) gift for an exchange.  It's always a good laugh.  One year I took a bowling ball!

So two years ago, I got a set of dessert plates and mugs.  You see one peeking out from the cookies above.  There are 4 and they're all Christmas-themed old baking advertisements.  I can't believe someone brought those and didn't want them!

And if all this baking isn't enough, my microwave died tonight!  I put the white chocolate in to melt and it make a popping noise and I smelled electrical burningness.  Then it made some wierd buzzy noises and the light inside flickered.  That's when I pulled the plug!  Thankfully that's all it did, but tomorrow we'll be out getting a new one.  10 years of less-than-(probably)-average use is a good lifespan for a microwave, right?

(And after the one my parents had while I was growing up literally lit itself on fire when it decided to die, I'm even more thankful that this one gave me fair warning.)

But melting chocolate in the oven (I don't have a double-boiler) was an experience I don't want to repeat.  :)

This is the season for baking, right?  Well, yesterday I made a Cranberry Bundt Cake to take to a holiday potluck at work today.  I was a little worried about turning my coworkers into guinea pigs, but it turned out well.  The tartness of the cranberries was perfect and I'm not sure if I should be proud to have outshined all the other desserts or feel a little guilty...  (Sorry no photos of that one...poor planning on my part.)

And my kitchen isn't done yet!  First I have to get a new microwave, but then I'll be making peanut brittle in the microwave as well as fudge and truffles for the hubby to give his employees for the holidays.  I'll post those recipes and photos (if I remember them) when we're done with that madness.  (Yes we...the hubby doesn't get 21 tins of goodies for nothing!)

I know I've promised a photo of the Christmas quilt...working 8-5, I don't see much daylight, so I'm hoping this weekend I'll find time between making batches of sweets to get that photo to share.

Is it bedtime yet?

Happy quilting,

Katie

not much - quick update

I haven't been sewing much these past few weeks.  I just haven't been inspired.

When I'm there, I've been mostly working on these:

Heating pad covers for the cat rescue.  This is a set that will cover each of the heating pads they have and once I have some feedback about the sizes (my first test was too small - I didn't realize how thick they were going to be!), I'll set about making a second set so they have one to use and one to wash.

I also got myself motivated to quilt the wedding quilt.

It was a windy day and probably not the best for longarming (power outages can be savage on something like this), but I was excited to do it and it didn't take long.  I realized their names (Anne and Ben) are quite easy to create in cursive, so the whole quilt (minus the white heart) says "anne and ben and anne and ben and anne and ben".  The heart has "love love love love" through/around it, as does the very bottom row of the quilt since I started with Anne and ended in the second to last pass with Ben, I thought it would be nice to end there.

Saturday I sat down and bound it, but don't have any photos yet.  The wedding is new year's eve, so I have a bit yet.  (Also it needs a label.)  But the hardest parts are done!

You may remember a while back I had a stash of kitty kicker toys that I was making for coworkers.  Those were given out this past Tuesday, but first I had to bundle them in groups of two and add the little tags.

Lily helped.  So did Salem and Freddie and Toby and Finn.  I just got a photo of Lily.  They were stealing them out of the box, grabbing them out of my hands and generally being crazy.  It's my own fault - these contain some potent home-grown (from a coworker) catnip and I did it out in the open instead of locking myself in a room.  The hubby tried to help with the laser mouse, but they were not fooled.  Not all of them at the same time at least!

The toys were well-received at work and the few that I sent to friends further from home also have sent videos and notes of thanks.  Now to start thinking of what to make for next year?!

This past week I made seven batches of peanut brittle, three batches of fudge (recipes here) and two batches of caramel corn (recipe from a book, so no link) to put into 36 tins for my hubby to give away to his employees, managers and whatnot at work.  Many of them have been there long enough to expect this and a few have even been so bold as to start asking.  I'm just glad to have my kitchen back.

Now for the calm before the storm of holiday celebrations.

And just in case I didn't have enough once all of that is done, I joined another quilt along.  The Tall Poppies quilt caught my attention from the start and I'm excited the designer is running a quilt along that starts after the first of the year.  I've got my pattern already, but need to decide on what fabrics/colors I'll be using.

The other quilt along, Bramble Blooms, is on hold for a bit, as the host of that project is dealing with a sick hubby.  I wish him the best, but this gives us all a bit of breathing room to get through the holidays without a project hanging over our heads.  I mean, we signed up for it, but still nice.

Happy quilting!

Katie

mostly hammocks, but almost done

This week was another busy week of sewing hammocks.  Among other things...

I teased you last week about the pink plaid.  It did not photograph well, but here you have it:

It really is more pink than this.

This one is like a lightweight oxford.  (So lightweight, in fact, that you can see my funky ironing board cover through it!)  It was about 60" wide, so I used the blue stripes for hammocks and the wider, thinner side stripes for a few more curtains.

(I don't think they're actually crooked?)

And some Christmas fabric!  Not what I might choose, but not awful either!  And though I had washed and dried all of these, this one, when hit with a hot iron, smelled a bit of a vet office.  I wonder where it lived before it came here?

This fabric was actually two pieces.  The first was about a yard.  The second was about eight yards!  And it is about 60" wide.  So that means the 15x30" hammocks are easily possible (not so thrifty when the fabric is 40" wide, so this is nice to make those longer hammocks).  And it is an odd fabric.  It feels like a woven, but when I got up close sewing, it looks to be a knit.  And it dried like crazy fast.  It was half dry just out of the washer.  So it got me wondering if this is actual military grade?

The selvedge wasn't immediately helpful, but good thing for the internet!  I actually was also curious about the fiber content, but only found this fun PDF:

(Image from the Milliken website)

It is used to diminish your thermal signature, so heat-sensing cameras or whatever kind of technology, have a harder time seeing you.  And yep.  Military.

Nine yards yielded 19 hammocks, so LOTS of ties/loops needed to be sewn.  I do this first, as they need to be pinned into the sandwich, and it turns out nicely, as this fabric does NOT like my traditional Coats & Clark thread - fair warning that a problem is imminent - before the real deal of sewing.  But throw in a slightly lighter weight longarm thread and it sews beautifully.

Bonus?  I'm using up bobbin ends and not caring much about the matchy-matchy of thread.  I'm currently working my way through the pile of these 19, and red is currently the color of choice.  I still have some orange and light blue and then a fair amount of light grey and white shades.

And then, I will move on to my last fabric!

Another camo, and I expect this one might be military as well.  Always an adventure, but I'm learning some tricks for challenges that quilting cottons don't provide.

Oh, also in the mix were 18 more ironing board covers, which yielded 9 long, skinny hammocks.  I sewed those with purple thread, so it shows a lot - they're off-white!  (But not very interesting to photograph, so I spared you that photo!)

No other sewing again this week, aside from these, but I can see the bottom of the box!  That means the floor of my sewing room will get bigger!  (Because the box will go away.)

Toby doesn't mind, so long as his poof-bed is available.

I turned around to find him like this, happy as could be.

Finn and Freddie take turns in the extra "executive" desk chair in the room.  But they are also not as present as this guy.  He seems to follow me around a lot.  He doesn't want pets or love, he just wants to make sure he knows where I am.

Once the hammocks are finished, I have a lot of "D"-shaped ends cut off from the ironing board covers, and now that I have also been given the sheets of batting-like-stuff that was the innards of the covers (they were long ovals of fabric with a draw string and then a sheet of batting to go under it - not like the covers we buy today that are all sewn together with an elastic edge), I will see if I can figure out how to piece those together (I'll trim them into even-sized rectangles first) to make some kennel mats.

The adventures never end.

I just hope that these hammocks (I'm up to 108 now and that final camo piece will add at least a few more) will keep the rescue group well supplied for a while and I can take a break.  It's been fun, but I've had over 70 yards of fabric to work with, so it's been a little overwhelming, too.

Today I'm going to take a break, though.  At least this morning.  The catnip fishies are in need of rehoming, and my intention was they would go around Christmas.  So I've found some holiday-themed cellophane bags and will work on packaging those up shortly.  Between rounds of stirring caramel corn in the oven and making batches of peanut brittle in the microwave and, when the hubby gets home, more fudge.

(By January, I'm going to need a holiday to recover from this holiday!)

Happy quilting!

Katie