Thread Painting on FMQ project

My son Ryan and I had a great time on my visit to his place this week. We spent most of 2 days catching up on Doctor Who season seven as we're both fans and I don't get the channel they're on. I was a fan years ago, but hadn't seen the new releases. Netflix has the first six seasons available on their streaming site, so I got through those at home. Ry saved season seven on his DVR so we could watch when I got to his place. Now we're both all caught up! We also went shopping to get the rest of his Christmas present--a new pair of shoes! He not only found shoes, but also got himself a pair of jeans, several t-shirts, and a new winter hat. For someone who doesn't like to shop, he did extremely well and we had fun to boot!

This morning early I woke up to a weather alert on my cell phone--Winter Storm Advisory with ice & snow expected all along the path from Ryan's house back to mine. I love winter, but I don't relish driving in winter weather events. Well, I packed up and headed home, and made it before anything hit the ground. By the end of the day there was only a dusting of snow and no ice, thank goodness. Other parts of the midwest weren't so lucky, but I'm grateful just the same that I left early and didn't have to drive on icy roads today.

When I got home, I jumped back in on my Express Your Love FMQ project. All of my outline stitching is completed and now I've filled two of the breath wisps and really like the way it's looking! So far I've chosen,
       "Be the change you want to see in the world" and
       "We are all connected in the great circle of life."
I will fill all of the breath wisps with words as there are several other favorite phrases that I want to include. Next is to decide how I want to do the echo quilting on the world in the center--that's the next piece Leah Day demonstrated on her FMQ Project blog on Thursday. I'm thinking about adding applique of green & blue for the land and water pieces and then echo stitching them down. That's a decision that will wait for tomorrow.

To get ready for the upcoming week and to use up the salad making ingredients I bought and hadn't used yet, I put together another round of salads in a jar so they're ready to eat each day without lots of prep time. It's all done in advance and layered in the jars. I bought a flat of pint jars and found they are plenty big for a single serving.

My daughter Ali found the "recipe" on Pinterest and we tried it. So far we've figured out that we can layer tomato (better to use the little grape tomatoes rather than diced--less moisture), diced cucumber, shredded carrots, diced bell pepper, garbanzo beans, kidney beans, sliced olives, corn, and washed & chopped romaine lettuce, put the lids on and refrigerate and they keep for at least a week. I do try to keep them on a middle shelf as the ones on the top shelf that I pulled out last, the lettuce had froze and spoiled. While I'm babysitting little Jacob, Ali comes over for lunch during the week, so I made enough for both of us. When we're ready to eat, we just put them on a plate, add dressing and crunchies--Ali likes croutons and I prefer french fried onions, and we're ready to eat. If we want to take a little extra time, we also add sliced avocado, mushrooms, hard cooked eggs,  or other favorite ingredients that are more likely to spoil and so get added at serving time. It's nice to have something easy to take out of the fridge and eat without having to spend lots of time preparing, especially when Ali is here on her limited lunch hour. Before when I bought a head of lettuce, it would often spoil before I got to it. This way I can wash and chop the whole thing and put it in the jars with my favorite extras and there's a lot less waste.

The day is winding down and I'll be shutting down momentarily. The KU Jayhawks men's basketball team won their game against Texas Tech today. The San Francisco 49ers beat Green Bay to advance to the NFC Championship game next Sunday, putting them one game away from going to the Super Bowl. And I got in some great quilting time on my project. All in all, it's been a great day!

More snippets from the sewing room soon,
Liz