Placemats finished!

   

I can't believe it!  I put in the last binding stitch a few minutes ago in the last placemat and will  be leaving in about an hour to meet up with Jo and turn them over to her. And the 4 matching napkins as well.

Yesterday I found directions on how to make continuous bias binding and struggled with that for an hour or more before I figured out how to stitch the pieces together.  And then I cut the strips with a scissors.  That was a disaster! When I took the bias strip to the ironing board to press it in half, I saw how irregular my cutting was.  And I also realized that there were a lot more seams in the binding strip than I'm used to dealing with. Trying to fit the binding around the corners without having the seams there was a challenge.  And when I had two of the placemats bound, I realized I'd miscalculated the length I needed and I'd have to cut more.  Needless to say, I chose to cut the remaining binding on the straight grain!  That was a lot easier and quicker than the bias binding.  I don't think I'll be doing bias binding again anytime in the near future!

However, I still need to put the final border on Allietare, shown here, partially finished.  This was Bonnie Hunter's Mystery Quilt last year and it calls for a scalloped border.

I've been wanting to make a scalloped border for some time now and I thought I'd try it on this quilt. But that bias binding is going to be a challenge!  Well, maybe not so much as it was for the placemats.  I'll be cutting from a larger piece of yardage so the seams will be farther apart and There will only be 4 corners instead of the 16 in the set of placemats.  So maybe it'll work out better.  Yeah, I guess I'll go ahead with that scalloped border after all.

Yesterday, I managed to roast a fresh ham we had in the freezer, and Oh My Goodness!  It turned out so well! Flavorful, moist and tender.  I cross cut through the fat and rubbed in a mixture of salt and pepper, cumin and thyme, and a few red pepper flakes.  The whole thing roasted for half an hour at 425F. then I cut the heat to 325F, poured a cup of white wine and 1/2  cup of water into the bottom of the roasting pan, and then covered it with foil.  Roasted it for another 2 hours and then let it sit and cool before I began shredding it.  

We made Cuban sandwiches with it for supper--They were sooooo good!  Mine didn't look as nice as this one made by Tyler Florence, but it tasted amazing!  

I bagged up the leftover pork to take to Jo for BBQs or Cubans, whatever she likes, and there's still enough left over to make a roast pork dinner for Don and me.

I didn't get to the Beef Bourguignon but I'll get that done either tonight or tomorrow .  I also plan on baking more loaves of Cranberry Orange bread and take them around to the neighbors tomorrow. Then I'll be able to move on to another quilting project like finishing the embroidered needle cases 

 

and the embroidered Christmas pillow.  When I'm in Eau Claire next Monday, I think I'll pick up some of that bobble trim to use on my pillow.  Cute!

Wow!  After reading what I wrote about things to get done in the next few days, I'm looking at a lot of work!  But it's "fun" work and that makes it okay. I enjoy cooking and baking and of course, I enjoy working on sewing projects, so it doesn't seem like work at all.  

But now it's time to get ready for my trip to see Jo and to give her the food and the placemats.  Enjoy your day, everyone!