Tip Tuesday!

Welcome to

"Tip Tuesday!" - Spend Time in the Sewing Room, Not the Kitchen

I love learning new things and then sharing that knowledge with my quilting friends. So, every Tuesday I'll provide some tips, hints, tricks, tutorials, shortcuts, etc. that I've learned over the years and share them here on the blog. 

"Tip Tuesday" will be a collection of information about a wide variety of subjects garnered from a large variety of sources.  I am not an expert by any means and do not take credit for being the great wizard behind all of these hints and tips. I will gladly give due credit whenever possible.

These tips will be archived and accessible to you just by clicking on the "Tip Tuesday" tab above. 

Read, enjoy, and be inspired! 

This post may not seem like it has much to do with sewing and quilting, but it really does. I promise!

Since I've been working anywhere from three to five days most weeks (and I don't always know the night before that I'll be working), I've lost quite a bit of sewing time and I really needed to find a way to get that back. 

Besides some basic reorganization of things around the house and simply making some different decisions, I knew that I really needed to adjust the time I spent in the kitchen. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not a chef and I don't spend hours preparing meals, but I felt like I was spending way too much time in the kitchen and not enough time in the sewing room. I really needed to change that.

A couple of years ago, Lynn and I spend an afternoon putting together freezer crock pot meals. 

Most of the meals were ok, a few were really good and a few others were not too good at all. It was a trial and it was pretty successful.

Now, jumping back to how this all relates to sewing and quilting...

Even if you only cook with a crock pot or other methods of "start it and leave it" recipes once a week or every two weeks, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how much time that frees up for you. You can choose to cook your entire meal in the crock pot or just a part of it. No matter which way you go, you can't go wrong. 

Here are a couple of my favorite slow cooker websites/blogs to help you get started.

http://stephanieodea.com/


http://www.365daysofcrockpot.com/

Now, to do this effectively, planning is important. 

Decide which recipes you want to try and make a list of the grocery items you'll need. 

Cut up veggies and other items right away or they'll probably spoil before you remember that they're in the drawer in the the kitchen.  :-)

Put everything in the crock pot, go to work, sew or whatever and spend the time creating and not fretting about what to cook for dinner.

See, I told you it would relate to sewing!

Design Wall Monday & More

I haven't posted in a while, but that sure doesn't mean I haven't been busy. I have lots of different things on the design wall today so let's take a look.

Here's the back to a chenille blanket that is ready for cutting the channels. I picked up the fabric for this Saturday afternoon and my plan is to have this in the washer this evening. YEAH!! I think that's a pretty darn good turn-around time for fabric.  :-)

I decided to make the back a bit interesting so I pieced it using a strip of the fabric from the front and the pink fabric that will be used for the binding. I like how it turned out and I know you can't really tell in the picture, but I like what the diagonal quilting lines does to this.

Actually, I'm making a small version of this blanket also, as these are a gift for a very special young girl. She and her baby doll will have matching quilts! Happy birthday Sadie Jane!!  :-)

Here's a close up of the doll chenille. You can probably see the quilting lines better if you click on the picture to enlarge it. I simply used the edge of my walking foot as my guide for keeping the stitching lines straight. It sure does eliminate a lot of time marking lines.  

It's funny but I seem to go in spurts when it comes to making chenille blankets. I hadn't made any for a few years and them I made a couple last year, along with a few chenille rugs; and this is the fourth one I've made already this year. Go figure!

Chenille Update: They are in the dryer as I type this! I also forgot to tell you that the print fabric is a Riley Blake Design - Enchanted Gardent by Samantha Walker. It is so fun!!

I still have the Gateway to Paradise on the wall, but all of the blocks are sewn together and I'm ready for borders. I have the first narrow black border ready to go. See it to the left of the quilt? I hope to get to this yet today, but well see.

I just finished an embroidery order for the Remembrance Center and that is the second one this week. I like to stay near the machine when it's running, so I'm working on the binding for Kare's quilting samples. Don't you love multi-tasking?

This past Friday, Lynn and I spent a little bit of time (less than 2 hours) freezing some crock pot dinners. We put together 9 meals each and now we're ready for some of those busy days ahead when we know we'll be getting home late and just not have enough time (or energy), to fix a decent meal. YUMMY!!

Oh yea, I picked up the fabric I need for my Totally Groovy Quilt Along Saturday and I'm really excited to get working on that! I'll keep you posted on that progress.

Check out what other quilters have on their design walls today.

Go to Judy L's Patchwork Times.