What Have I Been Doing Lately?

Beside searching the world over for amusing things to share with you, I've managed to get caught up on my Hometown Christmas quilt sections. First, I finished the "wrapped gifts" section. Since I first saw this quilt, this has been my favorite section, so I was happy to finally get to it.

Then I made another section that goes on the opposite end of the same row. I changed this section a little bit. I was bothered that there was no dividing sashing between this section and the center piece, and I thought the long side piece on the house where the chimney goes was a little too long, so I made that part shorter, which gave me just the measurement I needed to add in the dividing sashing. Here's mine:

Now here's the original from the book:

I like the contrast of the darker windows in the original but I wanted the windows in my houses to look like someone was home--of course, that means less contrast on this one in particular. I'm not sure if I'll do anything to "fix" that--I guess I'll think on it a bit.

It's been raining here in Northern California all week long, and we have more to come. Perfect weather for a nice, hot bowl of soup! If you've been reading my blog for a bit, you probably know I'm very much in favor of cooking super-easy meals that taste great, so when I was making some "homemade" soup tonight, I thought maybe I'd share this with you for those nights when you don't want to cook much. Here are the ingredients:

Yep, that's it. It works just fine with tomato soup if you can't find or don't like the tomato/red pepper soup. I just dump a container of that into a saucepan and add a can of diced tomatoes (with liquid). We like the ones with Italian seasonings best, but you can just use plain diced tomatoes and add whatever else you want for flavor--or nothing. Then I cook up some pasta in a separate pot. Tonight I had these mini raviolis to use before they were past the "use by" date, but I've made this many times with bow tie pasta or corkscrew pasta. Anyway, once the pasta's cooked, just add it to the soup. Sprinkle with Parmesan or other hard, grated cheese. Cooking this dinner takes maybe 15 minutes at most. I usually toast an English muffin to go with it, but tonight my hubby and I split a grilled cheese sandwich. Yum!

For the last few weeks, I've been taking projects to work with me to work on during my lunch hour--stitching down binding or doing a little applique is perfect. This week I've prepped another applique block for my Sunbonnet Duck quilt--I talked about this one before some months back. I want to make a total of six blocks and this is the fifth. Sorry the photo is so dark--you know me and my photography skills! I just have all the applique pieces basted and pinned on for now, but I'll probably start sewing them down this week.

On Tuesday during my lunch hour I didn't sew. Instead, I went to my local quilt shop. Yep, I braved the steady rain and ventured out because in my purse was a 15% off coupon for the new Thimbleberries spring line, Gardener's Touch. I'm not sure what I want to make with it, but here's what came home with me:

And here's a better photo of the focus fabric. I think I want to use the flower squares as the centers of blocks, but I don't know what kind of blocks I want to make. I'll have to think about it and look through some patterns and books. I do know that I don't want it to just look like a panel that's been cut apart and had sashings added, which would be the easiest thing to do of course.

I don't know if I'm just getting tired of all this rain or what, but I'm really starting to think about spring. Last night, I was online looking at bunny patterns, and then I dreamt about making a really cute bunny quilt--I just wish I could remember what it looked like now so I could REALLY make it! Do you ever dream about quilts? Sometimes I just dream about individual quilt block patterns. Crazy, isn't it?! I wonder what deep meaning it has? Somehow, I kind of doubt I'd find "quilt blocks" listed in one of those dream interpretation books, but then I admit I've never looked.

And speaking of dreams, it's time for me to get my beauty sleep, so I'll have to say good night. I have a few other things I wanted to show you, but they'll have to wait until tomorrow. In the meantime, thanks for stopping by!