King sized quilt for me...and Mr. T too.

I have been working on this quilt for what seems like years, though it has only been about 9 months.

However, I have been saving fabirc pieces for nearly a decade for the "someday" quilt. Well folks, someday has arrived. This post is actually a few months overdue, the finished quilt has been on our bed for more than a month. I am a bit behind what with thefood preservation, garden cleanup, MAT's tonsillectomy, DOT's learning to walk, tattoo coloring, and other general life things. 

Anyway. This quilt has been slow going and a whole lot of fun.

 I don't have any pictures of the piecing, mostly because it was done in our dungeon basement and the light is no good there. But here is the finished top quilt, the bottom sheet (literally a king sized sheet, for $5 is far more durable and cheaper than quilters cotton at that with and length) and the batting is two polyester twin size blankets that are no in good enough shape for the boys to use but will be just fine once quilted. The coffee mug holds my fantastic curved safety pins. Ask me how much I love curved safety pins... SO MUCH. They are much easier for this big ole fingers to work with than straight ones.

Watermelon is my constant sewing pain in the ass helper. So much so I often have to banish her from the working area. She is super cute though.

To get started I cleaned out my kitchen furniture, swept the floor and laid the bottom sheet. Then I found tape, I was looking for duct tape but only found electrical, oh well still sticky. I taped the bottom sheet down.
 Then I laid my batting ( the poly blankets)

THEN I locked the cat in the basement, and RELAID the poly batting and then laid the quilt top over that and secured it with tape.




On to the pinning! PIN ALL THE THINGS!

After it is all pinned and secure some would hand baste.  I am not some. I do not have the patience for this. So I started folding. And then someone opened the basement door and this happened. It was still flat till the tornado cat decided to ball it up for a nap.










So once again Watermelon was whisked away to her room and I folded it up, and stored it in a bin in my workroom, for 4 months. Yes, thats right. Then 2 months ago I got the itch, about the time I did the receiving blanket quilts, I decided to hand tie this quilt too. I will most likely go back and hand quilt it since I now have a quilt frame, Thanks MOM!

So, its been a while from start to...mostly finished, but it is done-ish, and I love it. So does Watermelon.

How much do I love the Muppets?

SO MUCH.

If you do not have youtube.com viewing capabilities, so sorry. The basic concept of the video is a monster, dressed as a bunny, with actual Muppet bunnies, singing "Stand By Me", doing what monsters do best.

But to those of you who can watch it, right at 21 seconds is my very favorite part. I must have watched this 10 times and laughed out loud each time. I do love the Muppets, so very very much.

I also have a huge crush on Jason Segel, ever since "Freaks and Geeks", yeah, so... I can have a celebrity crush, and I adore him. And I bring him up because the new Muppet movie comes out at Thanksgiving and Jason co-wrote the new film and also stars amongst others...He loves the Muppets too, one more reason I adore him. Anyway. I hope you could view the song and if you couldn't stop by and I will play it for you, repeatedly.

Oh and go see "The Muppets" on November 23rd.

Thank you goodnight. You may now return to your regularly schedules day and avoid any more plugs from me.

A bit of helpful advice to myself

Note to self: Self, on the very rare occasion you clean windows both on the inside AND outside of our house, just a friendly reminder, clean the outside FIRST. Otherwise you will have to re-clean the inside windows when little helpers, children, dogs, and cats, decide to watch you and put their grubby adorable little faces and hands/paws all over the freshly cleaned inner glass. Work smarter not harder. Just sayin.

Secondary note to self: Remember THIS is why you NEVER clean the windows. It is much easier to have dirty windows and zero frustration toward adorable housemates than it is to be annoyed whilst re-cleaning an entire ground floors worth of interior windows. Please make a note of it. Love, Self.

Rhubarb custard pie recipe, as promised, 2 months ago...

Rhubarb Custard Pie (Grandma's Recipe)
1 1/2 C. sugar
1/2 tsp. nutmeg (I also add 1/4 tsp. cinnamon)
3 Tbsp. flour
1 TBSP. butter, cut in tiny cubes
2 eggs
3 C. chopped rhubarb, raw, washed, dried, and about 1/2 inch pieces.
2 layer pie crust

Combine first 4 ingredients, then add:
2 eggs, 1 at a time, and beat till smooth, and then your rhubarb.

Pour mixture into pie crust and add top crust, and BAKE 450 degrees for 10 minutes, THEN turn DOWN heat to 350 degrees for an additional 30 minutes.( I like to do a lattice because the custard bubbles up between the strips)
Remove and cool on rack.

Try: Cutting it hot and tossing a scoop of vanilla ice cream on it, it is insanly good, my boys thought it was apple pie and now, because of this recipe, will GLADLY try anything with rhubarb without even a thought. Enjoy!