Finish it up Friday: the one with the British accent

Funny story about scones:

When I was about eleven, I was getting ready for the 4-H breakfast competition at the county fair. I wanted to do scones. I found a recipe, but the recipe writer ridiculously advised you to bake them. Pshaw, I said.

Anybody who knows anything knows you deep fry them.

See, I'm a Mormon. And our church ran a food booth at the fair and sold scones. You made them with a donut like dough. They are similar to elephant ears, but a bit thicker and you eat them (well, I ate them) slathered in honey butter and fresh blackberry syrup. The taste memories I have of those babies!

So I mixed up the scone dough, but fried it instead of baked it.

It was a catastrophe. My mother, bless her heart, choked one down but later kindly advised me to do something else. I didn't know what I'd done wrong.

Flash forward to 2000 and Hyde Park, New York. At the CIA (the Culinary Institute of America, not the Central Intelligence Agency), Jennie is finally properly introduced to a scone. Don't know what I was thinking, making a scone without a proper introduction.

We're friends now. My Southern roots just tell me it's a triangle biscuit and we get along just fine.

Today's scone is lemon. I'm eating my second one while I type this.
And my finish is this loverly (My Fair Lady) scone cozy. Because scones should be cozy. These ones had to come out to be glazed though. But I've got a recipe for brownie scones that should be quite happy in there. I know. I had you at brownie, right? Me too.

The ridiculously simple instructions are found in this book. I aspire to be a Farm Chick. At least I want the farmhouse without the farm. Can you do that? I'd have a really big garden, which is close enough, right?

The sky is blue, the sun is shining and we're going out in search of spring this afternoon. And I have a chess game to play with my biggest boy.

Have a lovely Friday and a wonderful weekend. I've got three rows of my granny square quilt sewn together. Going to try to get that one all finished in time for Monday.

Linking up with Amanda whose rainbow log cabin is coming along beautifully and Sarah, who has the cutest whirligig flimsy with a border I love and will buy the pattern just because of the border.

ETA: for those interested in a rainbow charm swap, I just joined another one (yes, yes I did). Here is the link on flickr - it looks like it's only about half full. And it's brights only - no icky batiks or muted stuff. Sorry if you like that sort of thing, but I don't. Which is why I joined.

Finish it up Friday: the one with lots of rain

I'm not going to complain about the rain. I love it.

Gene Kelly and I are crazy like that. He's crazier than I am though. He's out dancing in it. I'm just inside making awesome soup and rolls.

Rain makes me think of Christmas. I spent my childhood on the Southern Oregon coast, so it was always raining at Christmas. Well, it was always raining, but that's not the point. Rain = Christmas.

So I made myself a couple little Christmas, er, late birthday gifts.

I didn't need a new bag. I certainly didn't need two. But need vs. want are two different things. And this Now We're Goin' Places print and I were MFEO (movie reference - do you know it?). My first car, the one I bought for myself, was a 1973 VW Superbeetle. Orange.

Yeah, I love this fabric.
And my poor little smartphone (did I have a dumb phone before?) needed a protective covering. So she got one too. Tutorial/pattern found here, although you should measure your phone first and adjust accordingly. I didn't and now my daughter has version 1.0.


And I'm loving this pattern - the Bow Tucks Tote. Might be my new favorite. And it has pockets. Glorious pockets. For keys and gum and phones and pens and fishy crackers and, well, you get the idea.

I like it so much I made another in some of my favorite Pam Kitty Morning prints. A matching cell phone sleeve is forthcoming because, well, it HAS to match. Silly.

There may or may not be another one in the works. Okay, there is, in more PKM (blues and yellows). It's darling and almost done. These bags are super fast. The instructions are very clear with good illustrations so you don't get lost. And one will be designated my playdate project bag so I can take some embroidery or crochet along to playdates to keep my hands busy while we chat - win win for me. I can't stand just sitting. Can't do it.

I'm up to 50 Dresdens now. No end in sight, but I can get 10 done in one day and wipe my weekly goal off the list. This stack makes me a little lightheaded, they're so pretty.
And I'm up to 30 Sew Cherry granny squares. I think I need something like 56 or a hundred. Can't remember. But these are fun and the challenge of mixing up the colors and not making the same block twice is good for my brain.
Tomorrow is a cutting day - listening to General Conference (see previous post for explanation if you need one) and cutting out a whole bunch o' fabric for several different projects.

Linking up with crazy mom quilts again (love her log cabin pillow - my couch needs some pillow goodness like these), and Confessions of a Fabric Addict. Sarah has some lovely feedsack blocks and a quilt top up for auction (proceeds to benefit her quilt ministry). If that's your schtick, check it out!

Have a lovely weekend. If you have sunshine, be sure to be grateful for it and think of my soggy self (who might get sick of it if I don't see the sun soon).

It's around here somewhere . . .

My motivation is gone. Bye-bye, see-ya.

Yeah, can't find it anywhere. It's been replaced by a cold. And a five-month-old with a cold. We're hunkering down.

Oh I've got projects to work on. Just don't feel like working on them right now. I'm bugged at my mom's serger - I really wanted to get clothes for my girls done. A big ol' grrrr for that.

This might be all I get done this week:

Source: duringquiettime.blogspot.com via Jennie on Pinterest

I got a new phone for my birthday. Well, that's not entirely true. My husband got a new-new phone and I got his old phone. So it's new to me. But it needs it's own little sleeping bag. And a cute one at that. So I'm diving through my stash this afternoon.

While I sit and snuggle the sick baby, watching the snow/rain fall outside, I'm making a list o' things to prep in the coming weeks. Wanna see?

Even if you don't, it's my blog, so I'm writing them here to keep myself accountable:

1. Piece back for strawberry pinwheel quilt
2. Finish cutting fabric for Richard Scarry quilts (these are going to be SO cute!)
3. Cut PKM fat quarters for pinwheel quilt
4. Cut Ruby flannel FQ for quilt
5. Sew at least 20 Sew Cherry granny squares
6. Sew at least 20 Dresden plates

How's that for ambitious? And fix the *$%@ serger so I can get those spring dresses sewn for my girls.

Have a lovely Spring Equinox!

Finish it up Friday: all quilted out

I almost did two posts last Friday, because this beauty got finished Friday night. But I didn't want any icky inside pictures - my pictures are amateur as it is - didn't want to add bad lighting to the mix.

So my Indian Summer quilt is finished. I used this pattern from the Moda Bake Shop and I loved how it turned out. I didn't love it when I was in the middle of it, but I love it now.

And look Mom - I pieced the back with the leftovers. I was sorely tempted to cut them into 2.5" squares for a granny square baby quilt but I resisted. I'm already neck deep in granny square stuff. Don't need to add to the problem.

And I'm all quilted out. I did this one in wonky flowers and they were fun. But I'm out of batting and I can't buy more for a bit. I'm sewing together granny squares, but after today, I'm in clothes sewing mode. More on that in a minute.

I finished these two bags this week. They were both supposed to be for me - the big one is my church bag. What with a lesson manual and crayons and snacks and baby toys and diapers and such, I needed a big springy bag. The smaller one was a scripture bag, also for me. But my 8-year-old saw it and loved it so much I said she could have it.

And now on to clothes sewing. My mom is visiting me this weekend (dad too!) and she's loaning me her serger for a bit. I've got jammies to make for my husband, a robe and jammies for my oldest girl, dresses for both my girls, summer skirts for my oldest - a whole bunch, basically. So the quilts are going to the back burner while I whip out these sewing projects and cross them off my list.

Oh, another finish! I almost forgot! Last Saturday was my husband's birthday. He's been wanting me to make this for him for a really long time. He fashioned one himself many years ago, but it wasn't really working out. So I bought some obnoxious yellow duck cloth and measured his old one. We sorta worked on it together to get it just right.
But now he has a place for his wrenches. At the last minute, he asked me to stitch on his NRA Life Member patch. As he's just been asked to be in Cub Scouts at church, I think I'd better polish my patch sewing skills.

So, happy Friday. Linking up with crazy mom quilts again, because she's awesome and her book is coming out soon. Next week is spring break for my law student, so we'll see how much sewing time I get out of the deal.

Have a lovely weekend!