At the beginning of the month I listed 4 things I wanted to accomplish in my quilting:

• Bind the 2006 Retreat Mystery quilt
• Make TNBC block using Faux Applique technique
• Complete the center of the Eeyore quilt
• Work on the Double Wedding Ring Quilt

I didn’t get them all done, but I think I’ve figured out why.

There were the 11 books I read.  Outlander , Dragonfly in Amber, Voyager and A Leaf on the Wind of All Hallows by Diana Gabaldon; The Union Quilter and The Wedding Quilt by Jennifer Chiaverini; The Enchanted Land by Jude Deveraux; A Highlander in Her Past by Maeve Greyson; Victorian Dream by Gini Rifkin; A Matter of Class by Mary Balogh and Crystal Gardens by Amanda Quick. The ones not pictured were read on my Kindle.  They were either free from Amazon.com at the time I downloaded them or I borrowed them from my library through Overdrive.

I was in the kitchen trying new recipes using spinach, cream corn, and tofu.

A couple of new projects were started and I finished the first section of Just Takes 2.

I processed the pile of shirts I bought from the thrift shop (I haven’t done a thing yet with the box of shirts I was sent.)

My husband and I joined a gym and I’ve managed to get there 8 times so far.  At the moment we are primarily using the walking track to get us out of the elements. Baby steps toward fitness.

Later I’ll figure out my 4 goals for Judy’s Getting It Done. Who knows, there’s still a few more hours left in the day.

In the meantime, I’m linking up to a Lovely Year of Finishes.

Edited to add February’s Getting It Done list.

• The “B” block in Dorothy Young’s BOM
• The next set of blocks for TNBC
• Visible progress on my DWR
• The center of the Eeyore quilt (isn’t this a repeat)

I’ve linked up to Judy’s Getting it Done over at Patchwork Times.

When Judy said the ingredient for the week was tofu, I thought no way I was going to participate.  I suppose her challenge about not wanting to be the only one who posted a tofu recipe goaded me into looking for something that might work.

I started with Tasty Kitchen.  I typed in tofu and tons of recipes were returned.  I didn’t even look at them if they didn’t have a rating of 5 mitts.  I found Tofu Meatballs, which lead me to La Casa de Sweets, which in turn led me to Amuse Your Bouche which  I sort of followed.

• 1/4 cup breadcrumbs
• 14 oz (when drained) extra firm tofu
• 1 cup of shredded cheese — I used Marble Jack
• 1 egg lightly beaten
• 1/2 teaspoon Tony Chachere’s Original Creole Seasoning
• 1/2 teaspoon black pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

I drained the tofu and then “pressed” it to get the remaining water out of it.   Once drained, I mashed up the tofu using a potato masher — I suspect running it through the food processor would be better and then mixed in the rest of the ingredients.

I rolled about 20 balls and placed them on parchment paper sprayed w/cooking spray. Baked for 15 minutes at 375 degrees and then turn them over and bake for another 15 minutes.  Let them cool  a few minutes.

I told my husband and young quilting friend they were cheese balls.  My husband asked what was in them.  He didn’t want to find spinach like the last time I asked him to eat something new.  Listed out the ingredients, skipping the tofu and he ate one.  He had two comments — hadn’t I made these before and they were a little dry.  My young quilting friend gave them a thumbs up!

That’s when I told them they were made with tofu.

As for “making them before” we decided it must have the sausage balls I made around Christmas — the ones you make with sausage, Bisquick and cheese.  They were dry as well.

I’m not going to rush out and make these again, but I won’t say I’ll never make them again.

For other tofu recipes and the next ingredient of the week check out the links over at Patchwork Times.

Sunday I mentioned that I received two boxes.  The smaller box was from my cousin.  It contained pictures of her step-grandfather, my great-uncle, and some of his family.  This morning I pulled a couple to scan.

These are Grandpa Pete and Grandma Ruth.  Grandpa Pete served in the Spanish-American war — something I didn’t know until I read a newspaper clipping which was enclosed with the pictures.  I never knew my grandfather’s parents.

This was another picture found in the box.  This was taken January 8, 1960.  That’s my mom on her wedding day with two of her uncles.  Uncle Bob on is on the left. It’s his step-granddaughter who sent me the pictures.  Uncle Bob was mom’s escort down the aisle. (Mom’s dad was lost at sea July 1941.) Uncle George is on the right.

Another fun note. My mom met my dad at Uncle Bob’s.  Uncle Bob rented his garage apartment to my Dad who was from Mississippi.  Mom was visiting Uncle Bob in Houston from California.  I think it’s only fitting that Uncle Bob walked Momma down the aisle.

Well, not much has changed this past week on my design wall.  Piglet and the bass are still at the same point they were 2 weeks ago.  I’ve added a few shirt string geese – which are not part of the Eeyore quilt.  I’ve been reading, so no quilting is getting done.  My young quilting friend came over this weekend.  Even she fussed at me, so I guess I need to get doing something.  I wonder if it’s because this is her quilt?

Oh, that blue on the bottom?  That’s the start of a wall hanging for one of her teachers.  Next week she is going to frame the squares in yellow from my stash and then sash them in red.  I don’t know if she’ll get it quilted or not.

But how is this as a sign she’s a quilter.  Her cousin asked for a quilt.  She’s willing to make her one and when I asked what her favorite color is, she said red.  I commented that I didn’t have much red in my stash and the young quilter said “she’ll get what I make her”.  But I guess first we need to get this wall  hanging done before she moves on to the next quilt.

Check out other design walls over at Patchwork Times.

Friday was an exiting mail day.  I saw the mailman walking past my front window and thought I sure hope he doesn’t have to go far.  Immediately followed by the thought of how is he going to drop my mail off carrying those two boxes.  I got up and headed to the door and never heard the mail box.

Turns out the boxes were for me!

The top box is from a cousin who sent me some old family photographs.  My great-uncle, my great-grandfather and if I understand the relationship correctly, my great-grandfather’s brothers.  I really need to find my box of genealogy stuff and photos and try to get names to the faces.

The larger box is from a quilting friend.

Shirts — missing the backs.  She said she just wanted the shirt backs and would be happy to send me the rest if I was interested.  Naturally I said YES!

Reds, yellows, browns, greens, blues and neutral.  A great addition to my shirts which tend to be on blue side.  I can’t wait to finish processing these shirts and then make some great quilts.

In addition to these wonderful shirts, I dropped by the fabric store and picked up 2 yards of fabric for my young quilting friend.  She says she wants to make 2 more quilts.  This goes in her stash and doesn’t get counted in mine.

Fabric Added Since Last Report: 31.444 yards
Fabric Added to Date:  53.944 yards

Fabric Used Since Last Report: 0 yards
Fabric Used to Date: 0.663 yards

Net Used for the year -53.281 yards

Other stash reports can be seen over at Patchwork Times.

Yes, these are wonky string geese like the ones that Bonnie are making.  Her pattern can be found HERE.

It was not my intention of starting a new quilt. (Isn’t that what we all say?) But since I have this basket of shirt tails to deal with, I figured I could play with some of the resulting strings.

I keep telling myself that I don’t have yardage in my stash – but then I find exactly what I need. Admittedly I knew I had 2 or 3 yards of the yellow — I bought it to use as the background of a stack-n-whack with the Halloween Micky Mouse.  Yellow skies weren’t my first choice  I thought they would be too bright and in your face.  My first choice was scrappy dark green — scrappy on the theory that I “don’t have yardage in my stash”.  I was surprised to find 1 1/2 yards — exactly what I need for 125 – 3 x 6 geese.  Except it’s not.

The yellow is the best choice.  And there is plenty of it so I can make a bigger quilt if I desire.  I’m thinking 150 geese.

My first thought when Judy announced that Cream Corn was this week’s ingredient was to make “Sue’s Corn Casserole”.  Sue was the woman who my friend Patti had gotten the recipe from.  I in turn passed it to my mother who made it a staple of the Thanksgiving dinner and now my nieces and nephews all think it’s “Nana’s Corn Casserole” — they also think that about the chicken and dumplings I taught my mom to make after I got the recipe from my mother-in-law shortly after I got married as well.  But I digress.

I couldn’t find my copy of the recipe — it’s not in my cookbook, my recipe box or mom’s recipe box.  Knowing my husband wasn’t a fan, I decided to do something else.  Mexican or jalapeño corn bread.

It’s been a while since I made any, so I started with an internet search.  I ultimately settled on THIS RECIPE with modifications.
Turns out I don’t have any corn meal.  I like sweet corn bread so I make my corn bread with a box of Jiffy Yellow Cake mix and a box of Jiffy Corn Muffin mix.  The only time I make corn bread from scratch is when I need it for turkey stuffing.  Don’t use sweet corn bread in that!

Anyway, I had a box of Jiffy Corn Bread mix so I just needed the jalapeños.

Here’s how I made my jalapeño corn bread.

• 2 3/4 tablespoons shortening, melted
• 1 box Jiffy Corn Muffin mix
• small can of cream corn (I used 1/2 of a large can)
• 2 eggs beaten
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 4 oz can of chopped chilies
• 1 cup shredded cheese

Mix everything together and pour into an 8 x 8 inch greased pan.  Cook at 375 degrees for 30 – 35 minutes.

The cornbread is good — sweet like I like with just a little kick from the jalapeños.

To see other Cream Corn recipes follow the links over at Patchwork Times.  Now I’m off to debate the merits of Tofu??!!

Now to trim these into usable strips and strings.  It could take a while.

I can’t say that I’m finished — only that I can easily get the big bucket of shirts closed.  It’s amazing how little space a shirt takes up once you rip it down to flat pieces of fabric.  There’s a small laundry basket of cuffs, collars, button plackets and shirt tails/strings which still needs to be dealt with.

It looks like there is a blue quilt in my future.  At the moment I’m leaning toward something like this — only made from the shirts.  Each block would have a light and dark blue fabric, but not all blocks would be the same.

The blocks would be made from 2 1/2″ strips, so I’d end up with bonus HST squares from the pinwheels.

I’m not sure when I’ll start cutting fabric.  There are a couple of things ahead of this.