Ground Beef and Spinach rice

Ingredients
1 lb ground beef
1 pack fresh or frozen spinach
3 cups basmati rice
1 medium size onion sliced fine
2 tomatoes chopped
1 two inch stick cinnamon
3 cloves
1 black cardamom or 3 green cardamoms
1 table spoon grated or pureed ginger
1 teaspoon grated or pureed garlic
fresh cilantro to garnish.
3 tablespoon oil

Boil the rice in plenty of salted water and cook till its 3/4 done. strain it and keep aside.
Heat oil in a pan big enough to hold 3 cups cooked rice.
Add the cinnamon, clove and cardamom and saute for a minute.
Add the sliced onions and saute till golden brown.
Add in the ginger and garlic and tomatoes. Saute till the tomatoes disintegrate.
Add the ground beef and salt. Saute till the beef gets cooked and any liquids from the beef is absorbed.
Meanwhile microwave the frozen spinach for 2 minutes and squeeze out the water.
Add it to the pan and mix well with the beef.
 Now add the rice and gently mix. Cover the pan and cook for 10 min in low flame.
Garnish with fresh cilantro and serve.

Goals for 2016

I have so many quilts that I wanted to do in 2015 that didn't get done. At the same time I am ending the year with just one UFO. So for this year my goal is to focus on making a lot of quilts in smaller sizes mostly baby, toddler and art quilts/ Here are my quilting and quilting related goals for 2015:

Make

1. Herringbone quilt
2. Circles quilt
3. Bias binding applique quilt- stained glass style
4. A red heart quilt 
5. Open an Etsy store to sell quilts and like items
6.  Cozies for kitchen appliances
7. an ironing board cover
8. Learn about pattern making via Meadow Mist Designs's pattern writing series.
9. blog regularly
10. Participate in atleast 3 linky parties regularly.
11. more art quilts and wall hangings.

I am more confident now than ever before to get this list completed.. Linking it up with Quilting Jetgirl

Painted quilt

I finally finished the calla Lily art quilt from one of my craftsy classes. This is my first fusible, first art quilt and very first painting project on fabric. It took me a long time(3years) to finally add the paint. I had so much fun painting it and also mixing colors, I think I'll definitely try painted quilts more. Here it is:

Cute Coasters

                              

Front

                              

Back

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Linking up with Let's Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts

Black and white Quilt

The black and white quilt top I planned to make a couple of years ago is finally made and now I am in the process of quilting it. I used Christa Watson's "Modern X" quilt pattern from the MQG website. I added a couple of extra columns and made the blocks from 10"x10" precuts. I am so glad I bought the precuts which saved me a ton of time and energy.

Pieced backing 

The backing for this quilt is my original design. I wanted it to have some color but not ruin the essence of a male quilt. I loved how the backing turned out, but forgot to take pictures before pin basting it. Will soon add pictures of the backing and hopefully the finished quilt.

Chevron style Hexagon quilt.

I finally completed the Hexagon quilt I started following Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts's quiltalong. Well it took me this long to finish it. First of all cutting the hexies took more time than cutting any other quilts(not many) I have made. Then the sewing, it was fun until sewing the y seams. That's when my carpal tunnel syndrome kicked in. Because of that I could only sew a few hexies at a time/day. But I kept at it and so glad I did.

From this

After I completed the top I did this pieced backing. And then it took me a while to make the quilt sandwich. When I tried a couple of times, my then crawling baby was all over it. So I put it away for a while. 

Here it is completed.

Tablet Sleeve

I made this tablet sleeve(#1 on my FAL list) for my daughter's tablet using Kaffe Fasset fabrics. She chose the fabric from my stash. I tried to center the beautiful medallion prints on the fabric for both front and back of sleeve. Used velcro for closing. The tab is not centered. I need to fix that when she is home next time. Overall its sturdy and protects her tablet in her bag.

This picture is really blurry. I wanted to highlight the embelishment I did around the small flowers using Sulky Holoshimmer thread in green. It adds a little bit of sparkle.

The lining is also from  Kaffe Fasset collection. I love these fabrics, had these for a while and finally had the courage to cut it.

Bubble Dress

I have decided to join Project Run and Play's January Challenge, which is a bubble dress or skirt. I am not sure what I want to make whether its a skirt or dress but I have this material picked up for it right now. 

 I made a bubble dress not just skirt. It took a while to decide on the top fabric. First I wanted to use an red or yellow solid fabric, then I found this multi colored dot fabric in my stash and couldn't resist. So here it is. I couldn't get a picture of this dress on my baby, she can't stay still.

This is one of many pictures I tried to get when she was wearing.

I used a knit fabric as the lining for the skirt and sewn a ribbon around to hide the seems. This could be worn inside out too if you choose because there are no visible seems inside or out.

2015 Finish Along Goals

These are my goals for Finish Along Quarter 1

1. Make Tablet Sleeve for Daughter- Done.

2. Quilted, just need to be bound.

3. Dress for little Daughter- in progrss

4. Outfit for myself.

5. HST Table runner

Green and Black Dresden Mug Rug set Finished.

#4 on my Q4 Finish Along goals

I followed the wavy lines on the backing fabric as my quilting design.