What's Cooking Apr 15 - 21 and a Theme-a-licious Progress Report

I am not sure we followed last week's meal plan at all this week - between scheduling issues and silly stuff like forgetting to take down meat to thaw, along with a dash of just not feeling like it, most of what we ate was more spontaneous than planned.

Here's what we actually ate:

Monday, Apr 8

Main Dish Veggie Salad with Leftover Chicken

Tuesday, Apr 9

 Gulaschsuppe (German Beef Paprika Stew)

Grain-Free Coconut Flour Biscuits

Wednesday, Apr 10

Ground Beef and Veggie Stir-Fry

Cauliflower "Rice"

Thursday, Apr 11

 Homemade Pork Sausage and Sweet Potato Hash

Fried Eggs

Friday, Apr 12

Main Dish Salad with Sauteed Shrimp

Saturday, Apr 13

Salad

(we weren't hungry otherwise)

Sunday, Apr 14

in Baltimore all day

Ate Out

Our plan for this week is very short - we will be out of town during  the latter half of the week, attending Trillium Spring Gathering. (yay!)

Monday, Apr 15

Fend for Selves 

Tuesday, Apr 16

Roast Chicken

Veggies

Wednesday, Apr 17

Leftovers

Thursday-Sunday

Apr 18-21

Trillium Camp food!

Meanwhile, it's also time for a Theme-a-licious status report.  For "Amazon April" we were challenged to "Dip your needle into the vast swath of fabric dedicated to your BIGGEST projects!"

I did pull out 3 or 4 large projects to work on this month, but I have actually only stitched on one - a Quaker freebie graph I can no longer find the original designer of.  This is where it was at the start of the month: 

... and here is where it is now - I'm almost finished! Just that last medallion in the lower right corner left to go.

Since this is so close to finish, I'll be getting the last of the stitches put in before I switch to something else.

Most of my time this past week was occupied with getting these two pieces framed, in preparation for our UU church's annual auction:

Spring Sampler

Gentle Arts

DMC threads

54x58

This was an unfinished frame Michael painted for me - I think it really sets off this little piece and makes the stitchery 'pop'.

The second piece had a near disaster - this is one I actually stitched over a year ago and then tucked aside.  When I rinsed it before ironing, I was horrified to see that the threads bled!

This was a mere day before it was due to be handed over for the auction, so I was in a place of having nothing to lose - if I couldn't fix this, it was too late to find a Plan B.  I decided it couldn't make it worse if I tried to tea-dye the linen, thinking maybe it'd cover up the blotches and hoping it wouldn't just suck the rest of the color out of the non-colorfast threads.  

I brewed up a very strong cup of tea, poured it into a bowl and let it cool, and then wadded up the offending bit of stitcher and shoved it into the tea for about an hour.  Holding my breath, I pulled it out - and don't ask me why this worked, but the dye stains were gone,  the cloth was a slightly deeper shade of tan that was prettier than the original light brown, and the threads were still vibrant and, if anything, brighter  than they were before.

I don't get it - I can't even recommend it because I don't understand why it worked.  But.... it did, so I was able to get it into a frame and delivered for auction:

Joys and Sorrows 

(part of the Valentine Booklet)

The Stitcher Girl

Threadworx floss

This month's Theme-a-licious ornament challenge is Santa or Elves - I haven't made any start on that yet, but I will once I get back after Trillium.

Shared with:

Amazon April Theme-a-licious Check In

and

Gluten-Free Weekly Menu, Menu Plan Monday, Monday Menu Plan, On the Menu Monday. 

as well as

Busy Monday, Clever Chicks Blog Hop, Craft-O-Maniac Blog Hop, Frugal Crafty Home Blog Hop, Homemade Mondays, Made By You Monday, Make It Yourself Monday, Make Your Home Shine Linky Party, Manic Monday, Marvelous Monday, Mix It Up Monday, Monday Funday, Mop It Up Monday,  More the Merrier Monday, Mostly Homemade Monday, Motivate Me Monday, Motivated Monday, That DIY Party.  

Anti-Procrastination Tuesday, Backyard Farming Connection Hop, Eco-Kids Tuesday, In and Out of the Kitchen, Time To Sparkle, You're Gonna Love It Tuesday.      

Creative Spark, Down Home Blog Hop, Fluster's Creative Muster, Party Wave Wednesday, Show and Tell Wednesday, Two Girls & A Party, Whatever Goes Wednesday, Whimsy Wednesday, Wicked Awesome Wednesday, Works For Me Wednesday, Wow Me Wednesday. 
Creative Juice, DIY Accomplished, Eat-Pray-Love Linky Party, Fabulously Frugal Thursday, HomeAcre Hop, Hookin' Up With HoH, Showcase Your Talent Thursday, Transformation Thursday, Thursday Favorite Things, Thursday Treasures.