Progress on the sailboat quilt

 I'm making good progress on the sailboat quilt. I have all the boats sewn but they will get a border around each one to tilt them to the left or right.

I like this pattern...quick and easy to sew!

Some quilters have a flannel wall panel to hang their blocks on while creating their design.  I have been laying mine out on the floor for so long that I will just stick with this method. But Puss enjoys walking around and mixing up my layout,  so I snapped that photo to remember my arrangement of boat colors.

Here is another small project I was trying to finish before Christmas, but didn't get it done until now.

It was a printed panel of fabric designed to make a wall hanging.  I can't remember where it came from. Either it was in a pile of fabric a quilting friend brought in for give-away or something I bought from a quilter who was selling her stash for a dollar per yard.

I just layered it and quilted around the shapes printed on the fabric. Sort of messy because it seemed monotonous to work on.

I put it away with the Christmas stuff but unless I grow to love it next Christmas, I will donate it to the thrift store.

I also quilted this little mat that I had sewn from leftover scraps from a small quilt.  It was fun to do because I like that print fabric together with the blue.

 Nice cool crisp colors for January.

 Well, now back to work on the sailboat quilt!

starting a quilt

 I learned there is a new(ish) baby boy in the extended family that I hadn't  even heard about.

A good reason to make a new quilt!  It's always more fun to sew a quilt when there is someone to give it to.

I paged through my "Big Book of Baby Quilts" and chose a pattern with sail boats.

I wanted to use fabrics from my stash and I had plenty of colorful scraps for the boats and even some fabric with a wave (water) print to surround the boats.

I thought it would be cute to use the fish print as alternate blocks. Now I need to choose one more fabric.  I like the yellow print above but it's pretty busy looking.

Below, this blue print is calmer and matchy, but it's sort of "bleh" looking.

This gold print below is like a lot of little suns shining on the boats, but again, very busy.

I'll keep rummaging around in the closet and hopefully find something suitable.

I've made a couple if sailboat themed baby quilts in the past. Different patterns though.

This one made around 2008.

This one in 2017.  I like these sailboats best, because of the little flags, but I think they were tricky to sew...paper piecing.

The weather forecast shows a string of wet, gloomy, cloudy days ahead.

A good time to be inside at the sewing machine!

Cooking for a few meals

  Cold salads and sandwiches seem so unappealing during these winter months.

I've gotten into the habit of eating hot soup for breakfast. It's quick to heat in the microwave and stays nice and hot while I'm eating it. 

So, here is my soup for this week...

Celery, carrots and onions then later add broccoli, yellow squash,shredded cabbage and a bag of frozen lima beans.

Then added some leftover turkey from the freezer and a big box of chicken broth and some seasoning.

It came out pretty good.  The limas are a bit starchy for a lower carbohydrate way of eating...but with all the other veggies in the soup only a few limas end up in each serving.

While the soup was simmering I turned on the oven and cooked a pan of Italian sausages with bell peppers and onions.

That gives me a few days of meals to microwave too.  

Looks like it will be easy kitchen clean up this week!