Plugging away ....!

I'm going back and forth between machine appliqueing baskets and working on the Beauty All Around BOM.

I now have Block 4 ...

And ... Block 5 completed ...

Catch you all later! Cheers!

Eggplant Parmesan ...!

I love eggplant parmesan! But not cooked the traditional Italian way.  Most restaurants cook it in lots of olive oil and the eggplant acts as a sponge soaking the oil up .... yuk!  I like to bake mine and it comes out nice and crispy on the outside!

Baked Eggplant - The ingredients

1/4 cup plain bread crumbs (you can use Italian seasoned)

1/4 cup freshly grated pamigiano-Reggiano cheese

1/4 teaspoon pepper

2 tablespoons parsley flakes

1/4 cup skim milk (you can use cream)

1 egg beaten

1 Eggplant - Sliced 1/4 inch thick.

Mix all the dry ingredients in a bowl.

Beat the egg and milk/cream together in another bowl.

I tend to prick my eggplant slices before I dip them in the egg and milk bowl.

Dip

Coat

Place on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.  I just love King Arthur Flour pre cut half sheets parchment paper!

Bake at 350F for approximately 40 minutes. In 20 minutes, turn the slices over and place back in the oven for another 20 minutes or until done. I use the bake feature on my oven, as I find that convection does not brown as well.

They are now ready to enjoy!

They freeze very well. I tend to buy a large eggplant, and place the left over in a container and pop them in the freezer. It truly makes sense to make a large batch. 

As for the left over bread coating ... I bag it and place it in the freezer for the next batch.

Time for dinner ... Enjoy!

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

On the hand work trail ...!

I'm still plugging away at the Trick or Treat basket quilt by Blackbird Designs. As much as I enjoy machine appliqueing, it gets a bit monotonous to be doing the same thing over and over again, interspersed with thread changes to match the basket.  Yawn!

We are presently experiencing a weather surprise!

Not sure how much we are expecting, but it "should" be all gone by tomorrow ... we are expecting rain!

On another note, my left forearm is doing much better, so I can actually do some hand work!

In between baskets, I'm working on the Beauty All Around BOM that I started back in ... OMG, I never wrote it down! Thank goodness for blogging! I blogged about it on January 11, 2015.

This is the second UFO that wasn't written down!!!! Another added to the UFO list of 2015. Oh well!

I saw the quilt at the 2014 Fall Internal Quilt Market in Houston, Texas. It was a wool BOM offered by Fibre Junction in January 2015.

I do have all the sashing done except, don't ask me why, one block! I will always remember what Professors Ladd once said, "Carole, somethings just cannot be explained!" That's one of those "things".

And ... I worked on Block 2

And ... Block 3

A nice break from machine applique!

Thanks for stopping by! Catch you all later! Cheers!

Reading break ...!

Vicki from Colorways by Vicki Welsh had blogged about an audio book she found interesting, Spaceman by Mike Massimino.

Some may or may not know this, but I'm a big space history buff. I just love reading about the space program, mainly during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo era.

I thought perhaps it would be good for me to pick up Mike Massimino's book and expand my knowledge to the shuttle era. I'm certainly interested in the Hubble Telescope, which he serviced.

I wasn't disappointed! What a great book. I can certainly see a difference in writing style between this era of astronauts and those of the 1960's.

Massimino made it real. He was candid and honest about his experience, the mistakes he's made. He wasn't afraid to tell it like it was for him, how he worked through some issues to become a better human and in turn a better astronaut. There's a human element that I hadn't read in other biographies (Deke Slayton, Alan Sheppard).

I highly recommend this biography. A lot of what he writes about is applicable to everyone, and not just those seeking a career in space travel!

Cheers!

Focus baby, focus ...!

Well, despite Stella's demands, I've completed hand stitching the binding on the Scrappy Trail quilt.

I love, love, love that binding fabric. The fabric is from Sew Cherry 2 by Lori Holt! It is so perfect for binding.

My next UFO project is called Trick or Treat and is from the book When the Cold Wind Blows by Barb Adams & Alma Allen of Blackbird Designs. The project was started back in May 2010. I know this for a fact because I blogged about it. Certainly NOT because it was listed on my Project 2010 sheet! Oops! Thank goodness for project bins and blogging!

I organized what was in the bin, put on a documentary and busied myself with turning some edges in.

So far, I have 155 basket ready to be machine appliqued.

I need 291 basket blocks! I better get quilting!

I sense that this will not me a quick quilt to get done. But ... it will be stunning when it is pieced and machine quilted.

So, what are you up to these days? What project are you working on?

Thanks for stopping by! Cheers!

In the meantime ...!

Thank you to all those who offered their opinion on the completion of Pick a Peck of Pretty Patches quilt.

As I think about my options, I continued working on hand stitching the binding on Wish Upon a Star.

It is now fully completed! Yeah!

As for my next quilting UFO, I was looking at my 2017 project list and couldn't believe how little quilting I did. Despite the few numbers of projects started, there were not many completed.

I usually average 29 projects a year. In 2017, I started nine (9), which is unusual and ... to have so many unfinished! Not a good statistic! Oh well!

Moving forward, I decided to pick up Scrappy Trails a pattern from Lori Holt, which is published in her Scrappy Project Planner. 

I started this quilt back in March, 2017. The blocks were all done, it was just a matter of piecing the quilt top. Ta dah!

It is such a happy quilt! It has since been machine quilted and I'm presently working on hand stitching the binding ... A task that is now becoming challenging!

Oh well! Challenges are good ... sometimes! ;)

Thanks for stopping by my littler corner in cyberspace! Catch you all later! Cheers!

The mistaken quilt UFO ...

I originally blogged about this quilt back in February 2007 when I first joined Stashbusters and it is still not completed!

Here is the original photo of the quilt top. Our handsome model is the late Mr. Bud.

The quilt pattern is called Pick A Peck of Pretty Patches and is from McCall"s Quilting magazine October 1999 issue. This quilt was started sometime in 2002 and completed in 2003.

The main reason why it has not been fully completed is that I have more than half of the main blocks hand quilted.

Sadly, this was at a time when my knowledge on batting was none existent. I used Warm & Natural! Now, don't get me wrong, I do like Warm & Natural but NOT for hand quilting. Today, I would choose differently!

The issue is: How do I complete this project without doing a lot of hand quilting?

I am thinking of just loading the quilt on Penelope (my longarm) and cross hatching the nine patches using the white squares. This would stabilize the smaller rectangles in between the nine patch blocks. Hum ... what would I do in the larger rectangles?

As for the main blocks, I guess I could bite the bullet and just continue with the hand quilting. I certainly do not want to tear out the stitches! For the record, I did consider it and decided it was insane ... that's a lot of hand work! Besides, I'd like to give historians something to debate! ;)

What are your thoughts on how I should complete the quilt top? Any suggestions would greatly be appreciated.

Thanks for stopping by and assisting me with the custom machine quilting on this quilt top!

Cheers!