What I've Been Doing While I Should Have Been Doing Something Else

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task. –William James

Have you ever asked a child to do something they don't want to do? They fuss and whine and complain and drag their feet and try everything they can think of to get out of it. And after all that time and energy they put into not doing the thing, they could have done whatever it is three times over. I do that sometimes, too. I think that is why it is so frustrating for me when the Not-So-Little Bugs do it .

I've been dragging my feet on the quilting on P.'s beautiful String Ring Dresden for a while. Now don't get me wrong. It's not that I don't want to do this project. I volunteered for it, after all. It's more that I'm scared that I'll mess P.'s quilt up. It is intimidating to quilt for another quilter. I'm a bad, bad friend and she has been very patient with me. The quilt has been at my house for nine months. For the first five months, I ignored it. When I couldn't ignore it any longer, I broke down and started quilting. I got almost to the half-way point and then I lost my mojo. In trying to get it back, I pulled something else out that I thought I'd just work on for a bit. But it turns out that this project was bright and shiny and oh-so-distracting, so I worked on it for just a bit more. After six weeks, I decided it was time to put it away. But I didn't quite. I was the perfect covert dragging-my-feet opportunity and I took advantage.

I kept the little embroidered labels out to work on when I have a few minutes of sitting and waiting. I knew that Grandma Week was coming up and they'd be perfect for when the adults all sat around and talked after the kids had gone to bed. And because I knew Grandma Week was coming up, I decided I didn't want to get in the middle of quilting and have to stop. I embroidered all of the block names and the quilt name in their reds and blues.

After I finished the block titles, I knew that I couldn't work on filling in the details, because that would look too much like avoidance. I decided to keep that "get out of quilting free" card for another time. But except for that really dry spell for the last three weeks of June, I sew almost every day. I needed something else that would get me out of quilting, but not be too obvious. I puttered around with some half-square triangles. And then, just to break up the monotony, I started a completely new quilt. I think that might have been an outright tantrum against finishing the quilting.

Fabric Auditions

Call Backs

Final Casting

Rehearsals

Dress Rehearsal

The performance has been put on hold, though. I stashed the project away to be finished after I finish P's quilt. I finally got up the gumption, put on my big girl Machingers and am quilting again. With any luck, I'll be finished in a week. Photos coming soon. Unless I decided to procrastinate again.

Also, I am officially out of places to stash projects, which {hopefully} means a few more finishes. Soon. Ish.

You Don't Know Beans

Baked beans were always the only fashionable meal for Sabbath noon in Massachusetts. A minister who is a very correct mathematician, and a bit of a wag withal, has computed that he preached regularly every Sabbath afternoon to fifty-five bushels and three pecks of baked beans, while their owners were asleep. –From a nineteenth century magazine as quoted at The Old Foodie

During the last few days before school began, I went to two different barbecues. I've now eaten my quota of hot dogs for 2013 and got to make my two favorite pot luck dishes. I took potato salad to one barbecue and my favorite baked beans to the other. These are the best baked beans you'll ever have. My aunt brought them to family gatherings and I loved them so much that when my mom planned out a little family lunch after I got home from my mission in Brasil, she asked her sister {the aforementioned aunt} to bring her baked beans. But after eating beans and rice every. single. day. for 16 months, I couldn't look another bean in the eye. Not even the best baked beans ever. It actually took a full year for me to like beans again.

While I was cooking up a big dish of beans for the barbecue {a double recipe}, I snapped a picture of some in a dainty little china dish I inherited from a neighbor to entice you to try this tasty dish. Trust me. You don't know beans until you try these beans.

Linda's Most Excellent Baked Beans

8 strips bacon
3 cans {15 oz. each} pork 'n beans — about 5 cups
½ cup ketchup
¼ cup molasses
¼ cup brown sugar
1 tablespoon mustard
½ cup onion, finely chopped
½ of a green bell pepper, seeded and chopped
½ teaspoon hickory flavored liquid smoke
¼ teaspoon pepper

• Cook and crumble bacon.
• Combine pork 'n beans, ketchup, molasses, brown sugar, mustard, onion, bell pepper, liquid smoke and pepper in a 2-quart casserole dish.
• For quick beans, cover and bake for 30 minutes; remove cover, stir and bake for an additional 30 minutes at 350˚.
• For slow cooked beans, cover and bake for 2 to 3 hours at 225˚, stirring every 30 to 45 minutes. Raise oven temperature to 350˚, uncover and bake for an additional 30 minutes.

I'm a Mormon: Jeff Decker — Motorcycle Sculptor

I'm a sculptor. I love motorcycles. And first and foremost, a family man.

I can't find anywhere in the Bible that says that I can't love motorcycles.

I believe the best dinner conversations are with those who don't agree with you.

I believe in having friends that pray to a different God than I do. I think that they should be able to worship to the dictates of their hearts and I hope that they respect my right to do the same.

I believe that every one of us is a work in progress.
–Jeff Decker, Motorcycle Sculptor for Harley Davidson

While I don't know him personally, Jeff and I live in the same little Utah town. I passed him on the way to drop LadyBug off at school the other morning. He and his wife own one of my favorite restaurants and when I go downtown, I drive past his Harley shop with that first sculpture shown in the video displayed out in front. It's kind of cool.

A Stitch In Time: August Finishes Giveaway Winner

Ambition can creep as well as soar. –Edmund Burke

Thank you to everyone who linked up in August! Having the month start on a Sunday kind of threw a wrench into my blogging cogs, as well as my work schedule, so I apologize for the delay in posting the August winner. I also apologize that I haven't commented on your wonderful finishes. I did click around to all of you and was so impressed. I will get comments done {which is something important to me and is part of being a gracious hostess, I think}. In the meantime, thanks for participating. I love to see your beautiful works of art. I'm excited to announce our August winner, drawn by LadyBug, who picked #4.

Congratulations to

Kelly

at My Quilt Infatuation

Kelly will receive a 7" stacker of Gracie Girl by Lori Holt! Lori designed this fabric line with her daughter, Kassidy Grace and named it after her. Visit Lori's fun post to see Kassidy with the new fabric line and read a little about how they came up with the colors for this design. Lori and her daughter have also finished one quilt with the new line, Candy Beads, and have given us a peek of a second, Shuffle, with the promise of more! I couldn't be more excited for Kelly to get a chance to play with this fun fabric. I know she'll do something fabulous with it. She's a very infatuated quilter {as her blog name suggests} and linked up three other quilt finishes, #15 — Going Camping, #19 — Preppy Plaid Chevrons, and #30 — Serendipity. Make sure you click on over and check her blog out. Her enthusiasm is catching! And if you haven't already, make sure to check out some of the other fun finishes in August!

The September Finishes Linky Party is open, so you can link up as you go throughout the month. Remember to include the September Finishes button {code found in the August post} somewhere in any post you link up. Code for a button for your sidebar can also be found at the bottom of the September post. This month, The Fat Quarter shop is giving away a $15 Gift Certificate!

Today's post brought to you by:

A Stitch In Time: September Finishes Linky Party

Success isn't a matter of being the best and winning the race. Success is a matter of handling the worst and still finishing the race. –Ritu Ghatourey

Once again, you all have amazed me with the beautiful things you finished and linked up in August! Wow! Just, wow! I've been all over the map lately, puttering around with one project and then skipping to something else. I not just hope but plan to finish a few things this month. September is going to be a really stitchy month. Let the linking begin!


To participate in this month's linky party:
• Your project must be completed sometime in September, 2013.
• Once you've got your project finished {as in done, finito, nothing more to add, ready to use/display/give away} with some sort of stitching in it, blog about it or post a photo of it on Flickr.
• Scroll down to see what other bloggers are up to and link to your own finishes.
• Please include the September button in your blog post. Copy the code in the text box below and paste it somewhere in the post you link for this month's finishes. The button is a link to this specific post, so that other bloggers can find their way over and link up too. If you'd like a button for your sidebar, the code is at the bottom of this post.
<center><a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-stitch-in-time-september-finishes.html" target="_blank" title="September Finishes"><img alt="September Finishes" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0DJO463NAHpcz2dXZfofEn5VFuLy1jU5VOfliSaKOoYrTN7NViSTW2v5SzaydU44RREbHdxBDxaBugPXqV31bWT8Dvgikz4Apnm-3fUM2o4EO_vRZZK0h0n4Dpvv_BOm7K2nKImQRcg8o/w165-h255-no/A+Stitch+In+Time+2013+9.jpg" /></a> </center>
• Each time you link up a finished project, you're entered to win the September giveaway, a $15 gift certificate from The Fat Quarter Shop!

• Thank you to The Fat Quarter Shop for sponsoring our giveaway!


The Fine Print {which might be boring but you really should read}:
• Your project must be completed during the month you are linking to.
• Projects must include stitching of some sort. For example: appliqué, crochet, cross-stitch, embroidery, knitting, practical sewing {garment construction, bags, curtains, etc.}, quilting.
• Projects must be completely finished. As in done, finito, nothing more to add, ready to use/display/give away.
• You can pick something new to do, but projects do not have to be started during the month. If you pick up a UFO, Ph.D, WIP and finish it during the month, it counts.
• Finishes must be completed during this month, but you have until noon MST on the 1^st of the next month to link your post.
• Post about your finish and then link your specific post {instructions here} above. Links to your blog and not the individual post about your finished project will be deleted.
• Have more than one finish this month? Great! Post about each finish individually and then link the specific posts up separately. Each finish, and therefore each link you add, counts as one entry for this month's giveaway.
• If you've already posted about a finish for this month, there's no need to do a separate post. Just add the button to that post and link up.
• Please copy and paste the code below to include this month's button somewhere in the post {not your sidebar} you link up for this month.

<center><a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-stitch-in-time-september-finishes.html" target="_blank" title="September Finishes"><img alt="September Finishes" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh0DJO463NAHpcz2dXZfofEn5VFuLy1jU5VOfliSaKOoYrTN7NViSTW2v5SzaydU44RREbHdxBDxaBugPXqV31bWT8Dvgikz4Apnm-3fUM2o4EO_vRZZK0h0n4Dpvv_BOm7K2nKImQRcg8o/w165-h255-no/A+Stitch+In+Time+2013+9.jpg" /></a> </center>
• Don't have a blog? You can link from your flickr account. Just post a picture, include a little note about your finish and a link back here {code included below} in the description. Then join the linky party.
<a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/2013/09/a-stitch-in-time-september-finishes.html" target="_blank" title="September Finishes">A Stitch In Time: September Finishes</a>
• Want a button for your sidebar? Copy and paste the code below into an HTML gadget for your sidebar. This button is a link to the main A Stitch In Time Linky Party page, which always has the current month's finishes and links to all previous linky parties.
<center><a href="http://emsewandsew.blogspot.com/p/a-stitch-in-time.html" target="_blank" title="A Stitch In Time Linky Party"><img alt="A Stitch In Time Linky Party" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg3ZUqnmB6necy2Gd3KS_n1ayAOXnnDALFBCWnG2u4QKgrxh1gJaWIeYGBf9Z4NQRmn5eHPnu3ZT6nlkM9tgtZV-zgjDM2mqSPjc9J-qnFI-qNjTFieKnX5T8HzSwrGdINdVX7TYNCJWz-A/s255/A%2520Stitch%2520In%2520Time%25202013%2520Sidebar.jpg" /></a></center>
• Make sure to visit a few of the other links and leave them some love {ie, a comment}. A good rule of thumb is to visit two links for every one you include.
• Winner of the sponsored giveaway will be drawn randomly from among the links and announced by 8:00 pm MST on the 3^rd of the following month.
• Instructions for making an index page to your finishes can be found here.
• Kindly consider changing your comment settings to the pop-up window option for faster and easier commenting for visitors to your blog. Instructions can be found here.