Tuesday, 5 March 2024

Two You Tube Quilty Stars, Stitching Tiny Blocks

I park at the edge of parking lots and one day I went behind the little mini mall to park. Look what was there waiting for me. Usually here on the property, to see 3 deer together is a big deal. I counted 9 spread out amongst the trees. It was early morning so they may have overnighted there. 

I roasted a large chicken (I now buy the largest one I can find these days) that I stuffed with a bread stuffing.  It made meals most of last week, well, for three days anyway.
 Finished it with cooking the carcass and making chicken soup as usual. This one got a tin of tomatoes added to it. We tried these Ritz cracker chips and liked them. Quite crispy. 
I like reading Jackie's In the Land of the Living Skies Monday Menu posts as they always give me ideas for meal plans. And I borrowed Ree's 2019 book from the library. 
The pasta section is quite good. We both really like pasta and I'd love to learn how to cook more dishes...I'm so basic in that department. What about you?  But I don't want anything else just drying out and taking up space in the cupboards either. You know what I mean? 
Two Youtube Stars

I'm slowly stitching the 3 inch Tiny EPP 9 patch blocks.

 Kind of feeling like I need to speed up the process so I did a little research and found a video by Teresa Down Under sharing how she stitches 9 patch blocks using FPP.
 It led me to her Etsy Shop, Sewn Up Patterns, where she has the PDF downloads to make this quilt, a tiny quilt made up of 9 tiny blocks. 
Amongst them was the pattern for the 3 inch 9 patch so I bought them. I love all the tiny blocks and it would be a neat quilt to make. I've downloaded the pattern and we'll see how it goes. Fingers crossed...faster. 

For years now Teresa has generously maintained an amazing bank of free quilt patterns...HERE.

 I don't know how many of you may have caught Karen's -Just Get It Done Quilts- amusing post where she counts her fabric stash...yes, digging deep into boxes, drawers, closets and cupboards and pulling it all out. And measuring every piece. It reminded me of some of the places I have cloth put away that I forgot about. The final figure is astounding to me but she stitches a lot of quilts.  

 Our weather smashed all the records with +15C on Monday so we took Ned to the nearby Shady Branch trail and had a wonderful walk in mild sunshine. Heard two woodpeckers but no camera. 
And now I'm off like a herd of turtles, as Spinster Stitcher says. Hope your day is equally calm and there is time in it to do what you love.

21 comments :

The Cozy Quilter said...

I saw Karen’s video and I saw her at QuiltCon. I sewed with her at a quilt retreat years ago before she became a YouTube rockstar! I don’t have as much fabric as she does…but I am not going to count it. I will keep working away at using it up. Your chicken and soup look delicious. I like cooking that way too…cook once and feed us for a few days afterwards or put it in the freezer for later. We see deer on our street sometimes. Lots of ravines in our area. What a cute mini quilt. I’m looking forward to seeing your version.

Susie H said...

A whole chicken serves the 3 of us quite a few meals too. I also cook up the carcass for a delicious soup. My husband likes chicken & dumplings but his dumplings have to be the biscuit type as opposed to the noodle dumplings. Your 9-patches are adorable!!

Julierose said...

WOw I thought my stash was large-ish!! Oh ho--not so-- at all...but for me, just being a sometime fun quilter and not in the so-called" business" in any way--I think my stash is pretty good sized.
And Noooooo, I am not going to count the yds--;0000 no way, jose!! hahahaha
hugs and thanks for the link to this fun video...

Jenny said...

Counting up your fabric stash is rather like counting your UFOs, that's always scary too! But I must admit that joining in the Chookshed Challenge should help get some of those UFOs under control.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

How neat to see the deer in an unexpected place! I loved the video showing how Teresa makes her mini 9 patches, too. That looks doable to me. Your roasted chicken looks yummy! I'm always looking for ways to make meals that last more than one night. Hope you're continuing to have Spring-like weather!

Jackie said...

We love pasta here so if you find some new recipes in that book please share.

Nine deer, wow. The most that attacked our bird feeder out front was four.

God bless.

Wendy Ouellette said...

Hello! I have just found your blog. I am a quilter and cross stitcher as well as knitter, reader and embroiderer. I now live in Ontario after a 45 year stint in New Brunswick. Oh I am also a blogger. I kind of got away from it for a while after moving back to Ontario; have considered starting a FlossTube but it seems like a lot of workYou are so right about the crazy weather we have been having here in Ontario. actually the whole country has had a very different winter.I have been wanting to take up the 9 patch challenge but I am head and ears into wedding projects for our grand daughter right now so my flights of fancy have taken a back burner. Looking forward to nosing around your blog to some of the archive posts. Happy stitching.

Melisa- pinkernpunkinquilting said...

What a treat to see so many deer.We have a farm down the road from us that we often see deer in the evening. The stuffed chicken looks so yummy ; how wonderful that you were able to get so many meals out of it plus had soup as well. Have a wonderful week, Jocelyn. Hugs

Rosemary Dickinson said...

I watch Pioneer Woman on TV a lot. I don't usually make her recipes. I just like watching her! I love your tiny EPP blocks. So cute!!

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I love roasted chicken and it reminds me I haven't made one recently it too gives me about 3 meals or 1 meal and then sliced chicken for sandwiches for lunches. I counted at least 6 deer run through the back yard last week I was lucky and just happened to be standing at the kitchen window when it happened. Love your little nine patches.
I love pasta but pretty basic here too

Linda said...

My mouth is watering looking at that chicken - looks fantastic! How interesting to see French on your Ritz box. Most of our packaging comes with Hispanic versions printed as well as English. Your walk with Ned sounds wonderful. I wish our malls had such a lovely park with wildlife behind them - lol - they are usually drainage ditches with no trees.

PaintedThread said...

A roast chicken is so much work, but I love all the leftovers! Yours looks great. Itty bitty 9 patches - they're cute! Oh, that yardage! I can't imagine having that much in the house. I bet I'd be surprised at how many total yards there are (although I don't think I have more than a few 2 yard cuts and nothing longer than that).

audrey said...

I really like a lot of Ree's recipes. She uses ingredients that are familiar to us! Loving the courthouse step blocks from the previous post and your little patchwork blocks.:)

Jenn Jilks said...

What fun seeing the deer!
They don't stay put at night, BTW. They hang out in gender-specific groups in winter, then disperse when food is available. They will bed down in the snow and chew their cud, and get up and move in a couple of hours. This is for protection I think.
We had 22 in our yard one day.
Good cooking!
Great sewing!

cityquilter grace said...

love your tiny blocks! and mm chicken looks good...being a single i never roast a whole one but it is versatile...

Robin said...

I enjoyed watching Karen Brown video. She certainly has a lot of fabric. My stash seems quite meager by comparison and I have quite a bit. I have noticed the more room I have for storage, the more apt I am to fill it with sewing related things. I'm trying to limit my quilting hobby paraphernalia to my small sewing room. But, it's unrealistic because of needing a place for all my batting, and my floor hoop when not in use, and my tracing light unit etc. So I keep my fabric and machines in my sewing room and everything else is in a closet downstairs. I enjoy Pioneer Woman's recipes. They are often loaded with calories but they always taste good.

Magpie's Mumblings said...

What a wonderful sight to see all those deer and good that you had your camera with you.
Counting fabric stash - isn't that akin to watching grass grow? My goodness, I can't imagine doing that!

Jackie said...

By the way, thanks for the shout out. I should have been on the ball and thanked you before.

God bless.

Jill said...

Just the other day I was thinking of roasting a chicken. Leftovers are the best part. OMGoodness on Karen's stash of fabric which I viewed recently. I appreciated her honesty as not many would show photos of our stash. Lol. Nine-blocks are a favorite.

Jennifer Fulton Inquiring Quilter said...

Amazing to see an entire flock of deer at a shopping mall! I love those teeny tiny blocks too. Don't think I would ever make them, but they sure are cute! Thanks for sharing on my weekly show and tell, Wednesday Wait Loss. https://www.inquiringquilter.com/questions/2024/03/06/wednesday-wait-loss-370

Denise said...

Great post . Now let me go add a roasting chicken to my shopping list, lol. Thank you for linking up to Put your foot down.