Quilt Progress

Between stocking our storm shelter and dodging tornadoes I was able to squeeze in some sewing time this past weekend. I finished the first two quadrants of my cosmic quilt! I'm pretty happy with the way it's coming along, though I find myself wishing I'd chosen different fabric. But, I could probably say that about any project I've done. I think I just get tired of looking at it after a while. Oh well, there's no going back now.

Here's all my squares cut up:

Here are quadrants 1 & 4 completed:



Still trying to decide about the center block, I might have to get creative with the fabric I've already got.

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And last week I finished up the top of the baby quilt I've been working on:



A close-up:



I am so proud of it!! It's the most complicated quilt this beginner has ever attempted and I'm really happy with it. I first saw this design when a friend made it for another friend who then posted the picture of it on Facebook. I fell in love with it and tracked down the pattern. I especially love those triangular "prairie points." You know how babies love playing with little labels & tabs, makes it a perfect little play quilt.

Here's the backing fabric I found for it:



I plan to get this quilted & bound soon!

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Linked to:

Greener...

I am subscribed to receive daily devotion emails via Proverbs 31 Ministries. I'm quite awful at leaving them unread and waiting until I get a quiet moment with my thoughts to read them. Hardly ever happens, so they tend to pile up in my inbox :(( I did manage to read a great one this morning. It included a wonderful quote:





Particularly fitting since everything is so green here, so I don't have to look far to appreciate the green-ness. It's a good reminder to cultivate the good and weed out the bad instead wishing for things to be different in any area of life. I think I may need to frame it.

Easter

We had a wonderful Easter! We celebrated with dinner and an egg hunt a day early on Saturday evening, since the in-laws were leaving town Easter day. The meal was pretty casual, my Mom brought some ham and a yummy fruit salad. I made some sides & dessert, tried some new recipes, nothing too difficult or fancy, but everything turned out great.

Here's the run-down on what I made. (I didn't get many pictures since I was scurrying around trying to cook, get the house ready and corral the children.) The day before I made some pickled carrots, the recipe of which I cannot find now, online or on paper, so I will continue to hunt and share it later because they were fabulous. Also, the day before I assembled a potato casserole. I ran across an old Taste of Home clipping while cleaning last week and I figured it was fate that I make them for Easter. They were delish. And very nice that they can be made ahead of time. Here's a picture of the recipe since I'm too lazy to type it all out:



Next up is the Green Bean Casserole. I googled "healthier green bean casserole" and found this one. Pretty much the standard recipe but with lower fat/sodium mushroom soup and "frazzled onions" that took the place of the French's onion rings. The frazzled onions were so good, I think I should've just made a huge bowl of those!

For dessert I made a Strawberry Pie that my friend shared on her blog. I increased the recipe by 1.5 and made it in a 9x13 pan. It was delicious and a very pretty dessert too.

And the one picture I did get was the hot cross buns that I mainly made for Easter morning breakfast. I used this recipe from Allrecipes and they turned out great. Probably the softest, lightest dough I have ever had the pleasure of kneading. Here they are:



We had such nice Easter. A good meal, good company, perfect weather, and happy kids with candy.

Quilting Along

I've decided to join in on a quilt along done by my friends at Distant Pickles. For those of you who don't know, a Quilt Along is a step by step instructional guide to creating a quilt. Every week or so there's a new post with instructions on what to do next and everyone quilts along together. Fun! This is my first one ever and I'm very excited about it. The quilt is called "Cosmic Burst." I've chosen my fabric and it's not exactly bursting with color but I think it will (hopefully) turn out nice. I've never been good at choosing fabric, but here it is:



(It's much prettier in person) I still haven't found something for the "fussy cut" center, but I stumbled across this giveaway at Heartstrings & Heirlooms and I think that butterfly/floral fabric would be perfect! So, I plan on winning that. I should probably come up with backup plan in case I don't...I'll worry about that next week I guess.

Teriyaki Pineapple Chicken Sandwiches

I totally forgot about these sandwiches till I found a picture of them while sorting though the gazillion pictures that I've taken recently but haven't had time to edit & order. I made these during spring break week and they were wonderful. The original recipe is here. I found it, of course, via Pinterest.

Here's a quick summary of how I made them. I did them a little differently since I didn't have a working grill, other than the Foreman. So, I put a couple boneless skinless chicken breasts in the crock pot with some teriyaki sauce, soy sauce & a little sesame oil. Cooked that until they were done then shredded them. Meanwhile, I took some sliced pineapple and some fat slices of red onion and grilled them in the George Foreman grill till they were cooked and nicely striped. I made a batch of my favorite bread but shaped them into rolls. I ran a bit short on time and they didn't rise as much as they should've but they still worked fine. We piled everything up on them and they tasted great.

Here's one of our sloppy sandwiches-



I'm going to make them again very soon!