Kids and Cats

My son's computer. This picture he drew is on his desktop. His "nickname" (although I've never heard anyone but him use it) is Ghost, and that's what is spelled above. I know it's kind of hard to see, but he's drawn many variations on the theme, and they're all kind of fun. The G is that lighter green piece on the left side; the S is white--you can probably see that one fairly well.

Of course, I've been referring to my son as Soccer Son for years now, but there's some news that might change that. He's recently started playing for a men's semi-pro football team called the Warriors. As a kicker, of course! He was a kicker in high school too, but his best friend, Jim, had the better foot and got more playing time. This should be interesting to see!

Soccer Son, by the way, admitted to downloading that virus; hence, his willingness to let me borrow his computer for the time being. The virus "thing" is called Personal Security and looks much like Windows security--similar graphics and colors. It tells you it has detected a virus and prompts you to run a scan, then it installs itself and blocks you from getting on any site that can help with downloading something to clean it off. I tried several different things, but none of them worked. And, of course, it wants you to pay to "download" their program, although even that doesn't get rid of it.

On the quilting front, I haven't done much this week because of poor health and a general lack of enthusiasm and energy--I hope that changes soon. I DID finish this little scrappy quilt though--at least the top. The colors still look weird and washed out here, and I don't have any version of Photoshop on this computer, so I can't even try to adjust it. And, by the way, I haven't heard from Lurking Linda, the scrap winner--Linda, please email me your address, so I can send you some goodies!

I've been asked whether Stitch is getting big. Well, yes, he IS, but he's still skinny enough to fit under the acrylic sewing table extension. Here are a couple photos of him, learning to sew.

Hubby was commenting the other day that all of the cat toys seem to have disappeared, so I bought some jingly balls at the grocery store, and gave one to Stitch. First thing he did was to bat it under the hutch in the kitchen. When I went to scoop it out, look at what I found!

He's always been a little kleptomaniac, especially when he was a kitten! And Spike used to bat around tea bag wrappers and steal Hubby's hard candies, and there were quite a few under there. Believe it or not, that's not even the entire "booty"--I kept pulling more and more out!

As you may imagine, I'm very anxious to get my own computer back, but it's nice to have a "loaner" at least! Since I have no "favorites list" on this computer, I'd appreciate it if you could leave me a comment so I can follow the links to your blog and see what you've been doing! Happy weekend everyone!

Surprise!

No, my computer isn't back from the shop yet, but as it turns out, Soccer Son had a computer he wasn't using, so he brought his over this a.m. for our use until we get ours back. It feels a little like wearing someone else's clothes. The keyboard is hard for me to type on, he has a different operating system installed, and of course, none of the links to the blogs I read are in my favorites!

As it turns out, I haven't had much to say anyway. Between one thing and another, I've continued to feel crummy all week, and so far the weekend hasn't been any better, although I've decided to make myself get busy DOING something. The staph infection? Slightly better but still there. I'll see my doctor on Monday--it may be the "bad" kind of staph, MRSA. The antibiotics seem to be making me nauseous. During the worst pain after the root canal, I took prescription Tylenol with codeine, and for the first time, the codeine made me sick too. Thursday and Friday were extremely busy and stressful days at the office, and between one thing and another--mostly, though, the fact I wasn't feeling well--I was in tears by the time I left the office on Friday--which is why I wasn't able to write a blog post.

Gosh, what a lot of grumbling, huh? Sorry! I DO hope I feel better soon and get back to normal. I really hate not feeling well and I'm not a very good patient either.

Next Saturday is my wool class at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks, so I need to spend time this weekend preparing kits and getting ready. I'll also need to type up notes and patterns, although without my own computer and word processing program, that might be hard to do. I'm sure I'll manage, though.

Time, now, to see if I can negotiate my way through Blogland without a favorites list to rely on! It's good to be back, even if it's only halfway!

Hanging In . . .

Gosh, I feel like I'm all alone on an island. Not having a computer is terrible! I'm going to have to do a lot of catching up in Blogland once I get mine back.

The root canal . . . well it was a ROOT CANAL, so what would you expect? Yeah, my jaw hurts. I have drugs. Unfortunately, I have to work and can't take as many as I'd like! Once I got to work after the root canal, the day was CRAZY BUSY and I still have to make a run to Fed Ex, but I wanted to take a minute to let you know I'm hanging in here. Oh, and still no contact from the computer folks. ARGH!

Last night I finished piecing that scrappy quilt you saw--the mostly brown and blue from Old Primrose Inn. I'll show you a picture once I have a computer to upload photos to. Tonight I have a couple other projects I might work on--like adding the borders to the Cindy Lou Who quilt top. Maybe by the time my computer gets fixed, I'll have lots of show and tell!

I hope you're all keeping busy in a happy sort of way. Thanks for all the good thoughts you've been sending my way.

Hey, it's me!

No word on the computer, so I'm checking in from work again. The staph infection seems to be getting better but taking the antibiotics is no picnic. No horrible side effects that would make me stop, but I haven't felt too great either. Everything's a trade off, isn't it? Between feeling a little icky and having no computer, I went home last night, ate dinner, went to bed to read, and was asleep by 9 p.m.--and I'm a NIGHT OWL! So that's about four hours earlier that I'd normally go to bed. Maybe tonight will be more productive.

Since I wanted to pick a winner of the scraps tonight and Hubby isn't here to pick a number, I asked one of the gals I work with, Brenda, to pick, and she picked 32. Comment 32 is from Lurking Linda, who's quite the little poet!

"I'm out of lurkdom to say please include me in your giveaway! I love scraps as well!! Lurking Linda"

Linda, please email me your mailing address and I'll get these scraps mailed out to you--thank you all for playing and being so willing to help me out.

My "lucky streak" (yes, as a matter of fact, that IS sarcasm you detect!) continues tomorrow morning with a root canal. ARGH!

The Bad News and the Good News

I'm writing from the office. My computer is in the shop, and they told Hubby it would take four to seven days before they'll have it fixed for me, so I'll be mostly "away" for a bit. I WILL draw a winner for the scraps Wednesday night from all entries submitted (on that post) by 5 p.m. Pacific time, and I will post it to my Thursday blog. Sorry for the lack of content--I'll be back when I can, and I suppose it couldn't hurt if you all keep your fingers crossed for the four-day side of that repair estimate!

Infected!

Everything seems to be infected. Ever have one of those days?

I've had a sore on my arm for a couple months and recently it's gotten worse. I got it when Stitch was a kitten and stuck a claw into me. Yes, I know that most "normal" people would have gone to the doctor weeks ago, but I kept putting it off because of my essentially optimistic outlook on life--I figured it would get better. It hasn't. My general health philosophy is that everything will either get better on its own or it will kill you. But now I'm just getting tired of trying to out-wait it, so I finally booked an appointment with my doctor--the first available appointment was next Monday. In the meantime, my friend Teri took a look at my arm and diagnosed a staph infection.

Well, that was kind of interesting. It never really occurred to me that it was infected, because there was never any--how do I say it without making you throw up your cereal? How about "exudate"? That's a word you don't hear often, so it probably doesn't conjure up icky images--I hope. Anyway, when Teri said "staph infection," I hopped on the internet and searched for images of staph infections, and sure enough, I gave myself a second opinion and concurred with Teri. After that, I emailed my doctor and (no doubt knowing how skilled I am at self-diagnosis) he called in a prescription for antibiotics. So, hopefully it will soon go away! (By the way, I realize there's a lack of photos in this post--be glad. Be very, very glad!)

Maybe my staph infection will go away faster than my OTHER infection. The other one's bugging me more though. Tonight I got on the computer and found that sometime while Soccer Son was here today, a nasty malware program downloaded itself, and it's obviously one that's smarter than me, because I can't get rid of it. (No, I'm not pointing fingers, assigning blame, or naming names here, but Hubby can work a computer about as well as he can fly a space ship, and I was at work when it downloaded. Okay, I take it back. I AM pointing a finger right at Mr. Idunno. I'm not saying which finger though.) I've checked internet websites for instructions, but this malware persists in blocking everything I try. ALL EVENING LONG. Sadly, I think my computer might need to go into the shop. So--I might be away from my blog for a couple days. I really have no idea how long it will take to fix. I'm going through withdrawals just thinking about it. ARGH!

Time for me to post this before something happens--this malware was blocking me from my own blog (or any blog, for that matter), but I snuck in the backdoor through Blogger. If I'm able, I'll check in and possibly post from my office, but if you don't hear from me for a couple days, either the computer's in the shop or the staph infection finally killed me.

Another Fine Mess . . . .

The overwhelming majority of you told me I really should keep my scraps from the Schnibbles Winter White/Old Primrose Inn quilt. So I did. And I made four patch blocks with them. Today I went to the quilt shop to buy a few more pieces so I could make something out of the scraps I'd saved. Are you starting to see a problem here?

So I pieced four patches into nine patches and made little stars and cut fabric all day and used some of my scraps. I didn't get the Winter White quilt pinned as I'd planned, so I didn't start quilting it. Nope, I messed around with scraps. And at the end of the day? I have a pile of scraps that's just as big as it was when I started. Now are you seeing the problem here?

This is what I have so far up on the design wall. I need to make two more blocks and then sew it all together (the colors seem kind of weird here--I'll get a better photo when I finish it):

And this is the pile of leftover "stuff" I have--including a full charm pack I thought maybe I'd need (and bought today) but I didn't.

So now I'm thinking about what I can do with THESE scraps. Do you see the problem here? I'm afraid that for the rest of my quilting life, I'm going to be sewing projects out of Old Primrose Inn scraps. THEY WILL NEVER DIE. Unless I take drastic measures.

So here's what I thought I'd do. Leave a comment on this blog post telling me you really love scraps and I'll put you in a drawing for these leftovers. I'll pick a winner on Wednesday night in a random drawing and announce the winner on Thursday's blog post. I've GOT to get these things out of the house! Thank you for your assistance.

Thanks!

Today I finished the Schnibbles Winter White top--I'd like to pin and quilt it tomorrow. I wasn't sure about this line of fabric when I first started, but I think it's really softly pretty, don't you? It's Old Primrose Inn by Blackbird Designs.

Thank you all for your dinner suggestions! I surely could have made most of them given a big enough appetite and the ingredients needed, but because I was trying to cook using the ingredients I already had in the house, I had to eliminate several yummy possibilities and tinker with the recipe of the one I finally picked, Pam's suggestion of Salisbury steak--or at least that's what gave me the inspiration for what I ended up cooking. I didn't have any Lipton onion soup mix, so I mixed some dried minced onions and powdered beef bouillon into the ground beef. I made patties and covered them with a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. Then I put them in the oven at 350 degrees to bake. While that was baking, I sauteed mushrooms and onions and topped the patties with those things and a little Parmesan cheese and let them bake all together a little longer. Yum!

And while I was checking out Pioneer Woman's meatball soup (definitely a meal for another day!), I came across a recipe for potatoes, so I made those to go with the ground beef dish, and I steamed some broccoli. All of it turned out to be just the thing for a chilly winter day!

Of course, for dessert, a cup of hot chocolate with one of Hubby's Valentine sugar cookies was perfect!

And see those little four-patch blocks? Yep, I took your advice about the leftover scraps too. I want to get some of the chocolate brown fabric from this line to set the four patches with, I think. Maybe an excursion to the quilt shop is in order for Sunday!

I hope you're having a fantastic weekend! Thanks for visiting.

Chicken or Beef? The Post in Which I Pretend This is a Food Blog

Remember the rubber chicken banquet I attended Thursday night? Millions of you asked for a follow up on this year's chicken, so I thought I'd oblige. In two words? "Not bad." Well, not good--not really; but not nearly as horrible as it normally is--or I was hungrier. Here's a photo:

What they did this year was to stuff it with cheese. Really, you could probably put cheese on waxed paper and I'd like it. Oh, and the BIG thing? Bacon. Or panchetta. Or something like that--smoky tasting pork product. Yum! So, yeah, add cheese and bacon-ish ingredients to dried shoe leather (or chicken breast) and it's pretty tasty.

Tonight I had chicken again. I remembered about half way through dinner to take a photo--and then it came out so dark, it looked like I was dining in a cave rather than at a nice little restaurant called Ettore's. I ran it through Photoshop and lightened it up quite a bit but it's not the best photo.

Grilled chicken breast on a foccacia-type roll with some other good stuff crammed into it and pasta salad on the side. Gran met me after work and we had dinner together before hitting the highway south to meet up with Orcsmom Pam and No-Blog Colleen (and Colleen's daughter) at Starbucks for a bunch of quilting girl chat. Spending the evening with friends was a great way to start the weekend!

So, there's the chicken. Now I bet you're asking yourself, "Where's the Beef?," aren't you?

Last weekend I was cooking stuff--like that chicken soup I gave you the recipe for. I remember thinking that if only I had a pound of hamburger, I could make something or other. I checked the freezer--no hamburger. A few days later, when I was at the grocery store, I remembered I'd wanted hamburger--I didn't remember WHY I WANTED HAMBURGER, but I knew I wanted it, so I stuck it in my basket. I figured I'd remember what I was going to do with it at some point. Now, I really need to cook it tomorrow, but I'm still mystified. Gran and I even discussed it on the drive back to Sacramento. I know I wasn't going to make hamburgers because I don't have any buns. And I know I wasn't going to make chili because I just made chili a couple weeks ago and we still have some in the freezer. What would YOU do with a pound of ground beef when it's chilly outside and comfort food is on your mind? (Or what little is still LEFT of your mind?) Any assistance you may provide is greatly appreciated!

Who Would Like to Play . . .

a little game of Simon Says?

So, Let Me Ask You This . . .

Weather-wise, it was a crazy day in the Sacramento area--probably most of Northern California, in fact. At the office, our power was out for about 40 minutes this morning, and we were hoping to be sent home; no such luck, though, because the power came back on just as we were starting to think it never would. Streets flooded and trees came down. Crazy!

Tomorrow night I have to attend one of those dinner banquet/seminar things for work. I attend this one every year, and I'd say about three years out of five, we're in the middle of a big storm. In fact, a few years ago, several of our speakers from nearby counties couldn't make it because of flooded roadways. By the way, last year I posted a photo of the chicken dinner and compared it to psoriasis--someone commented, suggesting I was putting the "ick factor" in psoriasis. And yep, I ordered chicken again this year. When will I ever learn? Still, I've had their beef and it's terrible too. Oh, well, I'm not going for the food, that's for sure!

I didn't think I'd get any time to sew this week, but I've managed to do a little bit, working on a Schnibbles quilt. This is the pattern called Winter White and I'm using a line called Old Primrose Inn by Blackbird Designs. Darlene used the same line last week for another Schnibbles pattern called Two Bits. Want to see what I have so far? Keep in mind that this is just roughly slapped up on the design wall and I still have over half of the geese left to piece:

At first I thought I wanted the positions of the brown and blue geese reversed, but once I got these pieces up on the wall, with the brown next to the center squares, I decided to switch them. The border fabric I'll use is a blue from the line, so I thought keeping the blue geese toward the center of the blocks would balance better. Who knows, though? Sometimes it's hard to visualize until everything's done and up on the wall. What do you think about the position of the geese?

But no, that's not the question I wanted to ask at the beginning of this post. Here's what I was wondering: Do you Schnibble and, if so, what do you do with your leftover charms? Stuff them in with your scraps? Work them into the back of the quilt? Something else? Of course, we COULD make Tuffets, but I kind of like them made with the happier, brighter fabrics rather than these softer, darker ones. It seems that with most Schnibbles patterns and most charm packs, you end up with several leftover charms.

And that brings up another question: Do you do anything with the leftover PIECES of charm squares? Again, Tuffets come to mind, but not with these fabrics--at least, not for me. For this pattern, 45 charm squares are cut at 3-1/2", which leaves about 1-1/2" to be cut off each square around two edges. Those little strips could add up to SOMETHING, but I couldn't think what, so they're in my trash basket. Of course, I could pull them out if anyone has a good idea to suggest. I have enough scraps, though, so I hate to keep them when they're that small unless I have a purpose.

Thanks for stopping by to visit!

I've Been Schnibbed!

I don't know what else to call it--what word best describes this compulsive obsession with Schnibbles quilts? Sure, I've always liked them--they're a nice way to take a fabric line for a test drive without investing too much money in the fabric or time in the quilt making. They're a quick fix. They're a sometimes-needed break from longer projects. Yep, I've made some. But now?

I dream of Schnibbles patterns. I scour quilt shops for charm packs. At home, I obsessively match charm packs to patterns, and just when I think I've decided what pattern goes with which charms, I change my mind and start all over again. My sewing desk is littered with little piles of charm packs and Schnibbles patterns. No, they won't stay paired up that way--they're just resting for a few minutes from the nearly constant whirl of indecision.

That basket? In the front, there are MORE Schnibbles patterns. Lonely. Unmatched with charm packs. Sad, really.

In my never-ending internet search for more and more charm packs, I stumbled upon a honey bun. On sale. I couldn't pass it up. See it there on the desk? But what to do with it?

Searching the shelves of the quilt shop last night for potentially hidden charm pack treasures, I stumbled upon this:

Why does the soundtrack from the movie Jaws play in my head when I look at this book and think about honey buns?

I Take it Back

That thing I said yesterday about maybe having sewed a little too much? I take it back! There's nothing like a visit to the quilt shop to re-energize a quilter--not to mention the fact that the quilter may have come home with a bag containing stuff for about 20 more projects! Oh, and you know what's the biggest sewing motivator? The realization that the quilter won't be home to quilt any night this week. ARGH!

So, it's back to work in the morning and another four days until the weekend. What did I spend my last day off doing? First thing, I got up and baked a cake. Simple stuff. See the photo below? You lightly beat the eggs, add the cake mix and cherry pie filling, and pour it into a lightly greased 9" x 13" pan. Bake for about a half hour at 350 degrees. You can frost it when it cools, but we like it as is.

After that, I added the binding to this Valentine's Day wallhanging--just a quick, simple little project to fill a blank wall in the master bathroom.

And after that? Shopping for wool garments at two Goodwill stores--everything was 50% off in honor of the holiday. Next, a trip to the grocery store ensured that we now have enough food in the refrigerator and pantry for the coming week.

This evening was our monthly Knot-Y Ladies embroidery class with Gran, and on the way there, I stopped at a third Goodwill. My car looks like I live in it with all the bags of wool in the back seat! I still need to unload the bags, but I'm not in a hurry. I'll do that sometime this week. Unloading means sorting and deciding what's what and I don't want to take the time for it tonight.

During class, we started talking about the Tuffets I recently made, and I wanted to answer a couple questions people had that you may have too. First of all, Tuffets is a Schnibbles pattern--there are actually TWO Schnibbles patterns for Tuffets. I used the patterns for the first few I made. Most Tuffets measure around 5" x 5" or so, so they're fairly large--think about the size of a charm square. One of the Tuffets I made measured 5" x 7", so before I sewed it all together, I decided to make it into two Tuffets because it was so large. The last two tuffets I made weren't from the patterns but were simply similar and made from the scraps I happened to have on hand. I've stuffed my Tuffets with a combination of ground walnut shells for weight and polyester stuffing for loft. These smaller ones I've made are great for pincushions--the larger ones can be used as pincushions also although they seem a little large to me. Any size can be used to fill a bowl as decorations though. And speaking of that idea . . . .

Along somewhat similar lines, I recommended that the ladies in my class check out the blog Notjustnat. I found Natima's blog through the Friday Night Sew-In; she makes stuffed hearts, as you can see in her blog header. And not only does she make fabric hearts, but she embellishes her hearts with buttons, stitchery, etc. AND sometimes she buys embroidered items from the op-shops (thrift stores), cuts them up, and makes hearts from them. Cool, huh?! Great Valentine's decorating idea!

Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Too Much of a Good Thing?

I forget sometimes that too much sewing makes me cranky and edgy. Quilting is such a crazy obsession.

It's Sunday night and I've been sewing for a good part of three days. That's probably about a half day too long. Friday I stayed home from work, sick with a stomach bug, and I slept and rested until late afternoon, but then I got started on the Friday Night Sew-In, and the rest is history. The stomach bug continued to annoy me on and off the rest of the weekend--enough, anyway, that I didn't feel up to going out and doing anything. Add to that the fact that Hubby slipped and fell in the kitchen Friday night and ended up with a torn meniscus, and you can imagine that neither one of us has felt very motivated. Hubby DID manage to go to a movie with his brother today, but most of the weekend, he's been taking pain medications and then sleeping them off in his recliner while I sew.

Now I have cabin fever. Tomorrow's a holiday from work--Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. I think I'll get out of the house and run some errands. I have an embroidery class with Gran too. Part of me just wants to stay home and sew some more--is that crazy, or what?! Of course, the other part of me says I should get out of the house, take a break, and DO something else. So I will. And I'll probably sew a little too--because I must. Quilting, the new crack. Yeah, I think that's what it is.

Another Day in Paradise

Is that a bit of an exaggeration? Perhaps. What I mean to say is that I spent the day in the Sweat Shop and it was good. Better than good. Maybe not Hawaii, but it was better than good. And what did I do there? Well, I worked on the Cindy Lou Who quilt top a good part of the day, but unfortunately the extra fabric for the border didn't come, so I wasn't able to get the top finished. I DID get these two tuffets done to add to the collection. More about them in a minute.

In yesterday's comments about the Cindy Lou Who quilt, a couple of readers complimented my ability to put colors together. While I had some fabric out and handy for photographing, I thought I'd pass on a couple color tips. This one makes picking colors really simple--it's almost cheating! If you can find a border fabric you like, take a look at the selvage edge. See those colored and numbered dots in the photo below?

To pick fabrics for your quilt, try to match the colors in those dots. Make sure you get a nice contrast--in other words, pick colors that match light, medium, and dark dots. Note also that the dots are usually kind of arranged that way, with the darkest dots on one end and the lightest on the other, although they also arrange them by color, so they're not in a strict dark-to-light progression.

Here are more--this is my border fabric for Cindy Lou Who:

By the way, when I picked fabric for this project, I actually stayed kind of close to the colors in the original pattern. I substituted pink for the red in the pattern; a light yellow for the deeper gold in the pattern, and a light blue instead of the green in the pattern. Similar colors, but in each case, lighter than the pattern model.

My second tip has to do with neutrals. Quilts usually have a neutral colored fabric, and most often it's white or cream, depending on the tone of the other colors. Black can also act as a neutral, and it looks best with brights (like red) or light but saturated colors. It's also very dramatic. When putting colors together, consider black as a possible neutral. Keep in mind that it probably won't work as well if there's too much white/cream in your other prints. It will also act to draw the eye rather than recede into the background, so be careful what you use it for.

Now, about those tuffets. Yesterday when I was working on the snowball blocks for Cindy Lou Who, I sewed a second seam on the corner pieces, and when I cut off the excess, I had extra half square triangles.

Do you ever save yours? Sometimes I save them from flying geese blocks too. I'm conflicted though--part of me thinks it's a waste of time and a bother, but the other part of me kind of likes having these little pieces to play with. With this project, I liked the black, light blue, and pink fabrics so much that I decided to take the time to make these half square triangles. Now I have a HUGE pile that need trimming.

Most of the time, I'm able to trim these little guys to 1-1/4". I have no idea what I'll do with all of these, but they'll provide me endless hours of amusement, I'm sure. And they're perfect for the tuffets!

Tomorrow's plans? More of the same sort of fun, I think, although I'm not sure what project I'll work on. Hubby has plans to go to a movie with his brother and I suspect there might be football on, so that leaves my day free for sewing!

Chicken Soup for the Quilter's Soul

I think the most frequent answers to my question about the "image" on the outside of the pot were either Elvis or an alien. That's really funny because I was originally thinking it looked like an alien wearing a stand-up collar like Elvis. Great minds, huh?!

Anywho, several of you asked about my chicken soup recipe. It's really simple and there are a variety of ways to make it. I'll recap the ingredients at the end but be aware that some of this isn't very specific as far as size or amount.

I start with a chicken. (Yeah, I know--seems obvious, doesn't it? But read on!)

The chicken might be a naked, raw, whole bird. It might be what's left of the carcass after we've eaten a roasted chicken dinner. Or it might be what's left of a STORE BOUGHT roasted whole chicken. Whatever kind of chicken you have will probably work. Even pieces. Whenever we end up with a chicken carcass, chicken soup is sure to follow!

When I roast a chicken, I fill the cavity with cubed up onions, carrots, and celery. For your soup, you'll want those things too--one large onion, a few ribs of celery, and a handful or two of those little carrots in the bag that are already cleaned and peeled (or clean and peel your own--you'll probably want about two carrots). If you're starting with roast chicken leftovers and the cavity is stuffed with the veggies like I do it, no need to add more--just dump the whole thing in the pot.

Put your chicken in a pot large enough to hold the bird comfortably. Throw in the veggies. Add about two cups of water and one LARGE can of chicken broth--or an equivalent amount of chicken broth in the paper cartons. One way or another, you'll want around 40 to 50 ounces of chicken broth. The liquid should cover the chicken carcass.

Simmer all that together, uncovered, on a low or medium low heat, for about an hour to an hour and a half--long enough for the chicken bones to start to fall apart easily. Strain it all to separate the broth from the other "stuff" and return the broth to the pot. If the broth seems to have oil floating on the surface, spoon it off, although I don't usually end up with oily broth unless I start with a whole chicken with the skin on--then I might need to spoon off oil. While the other "stuff" cools, heat the broth to boiling or near boiling.

Whisk in 2 cans of cream of chicken soup (you can use low fat, salt free, or plain old regular cream of chicken soup--whatever you like)--just open the cans and add the condensed soup. Add some seasoning--I have a seasoning made by McNess called Soup Pot that I like. I'm not certain what's in it (they just say "herbs"), but if you don't have this seasoning, add some dried parsley, salt and pepper, dried rosemary, and a little sage--or you could add some dried parsley, salt and pepper, and some poultry seasoning. Taste it every now and then to see if what you're adding tastes good and is seasoned enough.

Also at this point--those veggies you cooked and removed? You won't be adding those back. So if you want veggies in your soup, dice them and add them now. Simmer the soup until they're cooked. Add veggies you LIKE--you know what they taste like, and that's pretty much what they're going to taste like in a soup. Softer veggies that don't take much cooking or may already be cooked, like frozen veggies, can be added at the end before serving. Sometimes I add veggies, but most of the time I don't. Also, if you don't think you have enough meat left on the carcass, you can add chicken at this point. For the batch I just made, I tossed in two chicken breasts and after they cooked, I pulled them out and shredded them, then I returned the meat to the pot.

Now, if you want to add pasta of some sort, you'll need to cook it separately from the soup. I like a pasta that's kind of substantial and will hold up but won't overwhelm the soup. Bow tie, Ziti, egg noodles--like that. Don't overcook the pasta because it will continue to cook after you've drained it and added it to the soup. Add a little less than you think you want because it will also continue to expand and soak up soup. I tend to forget this part!

By around this time, all that "stuff" you separated out has had a chance to cool enough to start to handle. Remove the meat from the bones and add it back to the pot. Throw the rest out.

Sometimes I'll add some Parmesan or other cheese to the soup. For instance, this time I grabbed a handful of shredded cheddar we had in the fridge, tossed it in, and stirred until it melted. Parmesan is best, though. You can also just sprinkle some on when you serve it. Or don't add cheese--it's really not necessary.

So that's about it. Not very exact, but it usually turns out tasting just about the same every time I make it except for the variation on veggies. Here's a recap of the ingredients to have on hand, not including the seasonings:

Chicken (something with bones--that's where the flavor comes from)
"Extra" chicken if there's not enough meat left on the bones
Carrots
Celery
Onion
40 to 50 ounces of Chicken Broth
2 cans of Cream of Chicken Soup
Pasta (probably about 8 ounces uncooked)
Veggies--if you want, what you want
Cheese, maybe

Really, it may sound like a lot of work, but it's super simple--most of the time, I'm busy quilting between each step and it seems like the soup practically makes itself. If you have any questions, please leave a comment and I'll be happy to answer--if you're "no-reply" I'll also post a comment to answer your question. Happy eating!

Friday Night Sew-In

I had fun! If you played along, I hope you enjoyed yourself too! There was something about planning for it ahead of time that made the Sew-In feel special.

What did you work on? Now I can show you what I've been preparing for. I decided I wanted to make a Valentine-ish version of the Cindy Lou Who Schnibbles pattern. I had a half yard of some border fabric that I used in picking fabrics for the pieced center. I also ordered a little more of that border fabric on line but it hasn't arrived yet. No matter--I'm not ready for it tonight anyway.

First things first, though. Yep, the chicken soup was yummy and I'll have to tell you how I make it--but not in this post because it will be too long already! And yep, Hubby made his famous honey wheat rolls.

Once my inner self was well fortified with chicken soup, I sat down to concentrate on the pattern and to make sure some of my favorite quilting "tools" were within reach.

You might recall that I couldn't stand the wait last night and started making 9-patch blocks ahead of time, so it didn't take me too many hours to get to this point--which is nearly all of the center part of the pattern.

Now, I had to decide--did I want to make it larger? I thought I'd have a little snack and ponder the quilt top so far--and then I cut more fabric.

The quilt top grew and grew throughout the night. Quite a rigorous task that required regular breaks for food and drink to ensure energy levels did not flag.

By a bit after midnight, most of the center of the quilt was complete.

Now the center blocks are all sewn together, and only the outside row is not yet sewn. After I sew these tomorrow, I'll add half blocks to finish the design of the points on the pink blocks and the blue blocks. Then I'll add the borders--and wouldn't it be nice if the postal person brought that yard of border fabric tomorrow? I do owe her a debt of gratitude, though, for bringing a package of thread today--just when I needed it!

Time for bed. I want to get a good night's sleep before my Saturday Sew-In!

Getting Everything Ready . . .

Technically, it's Friday, although it's not much past Thursday night and I haven't gone to bed yet. Still, it's time for the Friday Night Sew-In--or it will be tonight. (Gosh, is there a TIME to start?!) I'm ready; are you?!

I came home from work and cleaned house. Most of the time, I speed clean--whatever's not done in two hours isn't going to GET done. Tonight, though, I was cleaning at warp speed--1 hour, 20 minutes. Nearly unbelieveable and quite possibly a new record. Hubby and I are fairly neat and tidy people (because our house is so small, we'd be thought horders otherwise), so when I clean, there's not usually a lot of straightening up and putting away that needs to take place--I can just dive right into the whirlwind cleaning.

Once the house was clean (and I ate a little Chinese fast food for dinner), I made some homemade chicken and pasta soup for tomorrow night's dinner. Hubby was nearly drooling at the chicken-y soup aroma wafting throughout the house, and in a weak moment, he offered to bake homemade honey wheat rolls to go with the soup. Yum! It's been awhile since he baked bread! So we have that to look forward to when I get home from work tomorrow night!

(There's what looks like a bit of spill residue there on the outside of the pot--can you see what I'm talking about? Do you think it looks like a holy image? Can I sell tickets to view it and make money for fabric? Yes, I know I'll probably be stricken (struck?) dead for my irreverent sense of humor someday--I just hope it doesn't happen for 40 years or so.)

What else did I do tonight? Well, I just couldn't resist. I started the project I planned to work on Friday night. While watching The Mentalist and a re-run of an MI-5 episode, I pieced the 9-patch blocks.

Time now for bed, because the Friday Night Sew-In isn't going to arrive until I've slept, gone to work, and come home again to play!

Thimbleberries Club

Tonight was the first meeting of the 2010 Thimbleberries Club. Looking at the pile of stuff I brought home, I think I might have tried to make up for not joining and buying Thimbleberries last year! Seriously, I didn't do too bad--I was kind of proud of the fact that everyone ahead of me in the check out line spent more! The kit on the left is the fabric for the first few months--and I can't remember if it's split into three or four month sections, but in any event, I have what I need for now. Plus a Twice the Charm roll. And a magazine.

At club, we have show and tell, and one of the ladies showed us a smallish quilt she made from a pattern in the magazine (the quilt is called Kyoto Star) so a few of us thought we NEEDED the magazine too.

One of the things I enjoy most about club is coming home and being pumped up and enthusiastic about quilting and all things Thimbleberries, and tonight was no exception--as you can see, I already made my two blocks for the month!

During the 2008 Club year, I heard several complaints about the quality of the fabric from RJR, but from what I saw of the fabric so far this year, it's fine! I don't know if they've changed manufacturers again or not, but I don't have any complaints.

As has been the case in the last few years, this year Thimbleberries is offering three colorways, and our club group is large enough to make it possible for the shop to order all three. I've selected the "Dawn" colorway, which is made up of lighter shades--think 30s pastels that have been grayed down just a touch. "Dusk" is more the typical Thimbleberries tones that we've come to know over the years, and most of our club members have picked that one. Finally, there's this colorway, which I think is called "Midnight," although I like to refer to it as "Night Stalker"--can't you just imagine some pervert out roaming the streets, peeking into windows at midnight?

No? Okay, maybe it's just me--I'm the weird one! But we all knew that, didn't we?! The quilt in that photo above is an alternate layout--the "regular" quilt has the blocks scattered more randomly rather than laid out in rows; I think I like these rows a whole lot, so I'll likely lay mine out like this one.

By the way, if you had the slightest interest in the Thimbleberries Hometown Christmas quilt that I talked about a couple years ago but couldn't find the series of four pattern books--well, the pattern has been reprinted in a new Thimbleberries book called Block by Block to Beautiful Quilts. Somewhat sheepishly I'll admit I haven't finished mine yet, so it's not too late to join me!

Do you realize the Friday Night Sew-In is almost here? I'm thinking about cleaning my house on Thursday night so I can start sewing after work on Friday and keep going all weekend! How about you? Will you be joining in on Friday?

New From the Sweat Shop--

My students at my wool class in February will have a choice of kits to make--yep, that's what it says in the newsletter, I think, so I guess it must be true! Besides a kit, they'll also get the PATTERNS for ALL the kits. So I figured I'd better design a second one--the bunny was the first. I planned to make three, and I think the third will be something other than a pillow, but I don't want to design a penny rug or candle mat--there are quite a few patterns on the market for those already. For myself, I've been working (slowly) on a wool eyeglass case, so maybe I'll make that for the third project. Or a stuffed something or other--I really love the little bunny I bought as a kit and made last spring. Or both! But at least I now have the second project done!

And, for something totally unrelated to the wool class--Boy Boss called today to let me know they'd picked a name for their brand new daughter--Nora Marjorie. Different but really nice, I think! He sent a photo from his cell phone and of course she's adorable--but then, what baby isn't?

Oh, and Stitch is home from the vet, seemingly none the worse for wear. He seems slightly less energetic but that may just be my imagination because he's still running around and wrestling with Spike--who seems happy to have him back home!

Tomorrow night (Wednesday) is Thimbleberries Club--the first meeting of the new year--and after not being a member last year, I'm really looking forward to rejoining my friends for the new block of the month project! Time to get to bed so I don't fall asleep during club! Thanks for stopping in to visit!

Palindromes and Reproduction

What do palindromes and reproduction have to do with one another? Well, Monday's date was a palindrome of sorts--01/11/10. (A palindrome is something--word, number, etc.--that reads the same forward as backward.) Kind of cool, huh? And 01/11/10 is the date of birth of Boy Boss's third child, a baby girl! Woo-hoo! His poor wife was in labor forever--so much for the idea that by the third baby, labor proceeds quickly! But everything turned out nicely in the end. They haven't picked out a name for her yet--when they had their son a year and a half ago, it took them a couple days to pick out his name too, so it's not unexpected.

And somewhat coincidentally, perhaps, 01/11/10 is the day on which Stitch's chances at reproduction came to an end, poor baby! Hubby took him to the vet for his second series of shots and talked to the vet about scheduling a little surgery, and the vet said, "Hey, why not now?!" So Stitch stayed for an overnight visit--and I didn't even get a chance to tell him what was going to happen and prepare him ahead of time. He'll be home on Tuesday, but I suspect it might take him a day or so to get back to normal, what with whatever soreness he has and working the anesthesia out of his system. Spike, who seems to be his best buddy now, has been wandering around the house much of the day, looking for him. Their favorite form of play is to roll around on the floor, wrestling; I have a feeling he might not be up to much rough play for a couple days!

And what have I been doing? Something that has absolutely nothing to do with palindromes or reproduction!

I stopped by Carol's Crafty Creations Sunday evening and saw she'd been cutting some fabric to get ready for the Friday Night Sew-In. I was a little envious, so I hunted down a pattern I thought I'd work on, pulled fabric from my stash, and did a little cutting too! The HARD part, though, is going to be NOT SEWING ANY OF IT UNTIL FRIDAY! I want to use the heart fabric (Sweethearts/Benartex) in the border, and I only have a half yard, so I ordered a little bit more. And I'm thinking about possibly making the quilt a little larger than the pattern calls for. Hummmmm. Maybe I'll just keep cutting more and more fabric pieces between now until Friday! This is going to be so much fun! Have you signed up yet?

Little Miss Muffet Ate Cherries!

Another little Schnibbles project--tuffets! I've used a charm pack of Oh Cherry Oh! fabric for these, and I think they look quite cheerful. Tuffets can be used as pincushions, or they can be made just for decorative purposes to fill a bowl or basket. Tuffets were the December project of the Year of Schnibbles group. I'm planning to make a few more when I have a little time between other projects.

I wanted to tell you a couple things about making the Madeline quilt, but it was just too late last night this morning. I was having so much fun, I guess, I never even felt tired, so I was up until after 4 a.m. finishing the quilt! And thank you for the compliments, but I have a secret or two to divulge.

First, when I was making the blocks, I decided to do something different from the pattern. The pattern instructs us to add the setting triangles to the four sides of the star blocks--instead, I decided to treat those as separate blocks, similar to the broken dishes or quarter square triangle blocks. You can kind of see in the photo in the upper right quadrant where I've pulled a couple of the blocks away from one another on the design wall.

Some people have a hard time putting together rows of blocks on point, but that's never bothered me, so I thought it would be a good method. I think this way of doing it makes all the corners intersect better. I ran into a problem though. I pulled two star blocks off the design wall to measure them so I could figure out how large to make the quarter square triangle blocks. Unfortunately, as luck would have it, the two blocks I randomly picked ended up being just a tad larger than the rest--a little more than 1/8" larger. And because the decision to make quarter square triangle blocks came after the pieces were cut and I was using charm squares, the outside edges of the quarter square triangle blocks were bias edges. The result of all this was that when I sewed the blocks together, I was doing a lot of easing and stretching--and in the end, the quilt top didn't lay as flat as I would have liked!

Now, here's why I'm telling you all this. I'm pretty sure just about all of us make a mistake or two in quilting, right? Before I'd had as much experience, I think I would have been so frustrated with a quilt top that didn't lay flat that I would have just put it away at that point and forgotten about it. The thing is, though, that there are usually ways to fix mistakes--as there was with this one.

When I layed out the quilt for pinning, I tried to make the lines that draw the eye as straight as possible and I pinned at the intersections of seams. If that meant the top puckered a little here and there and didn't quite lay flat, I didn't let that worry me too much. Then, when I started quilting, I stitched along the lines I KNEW would look square--right outside the star blocks. And where the fabric bubbled a little in the quarter square triangle blocks, I used swirly free motion quilting--it tends to take up the loose bits of fabric and helps fool the eye into seeing straight seams.

By the time I finished, the quilt was laying nicely. DON'T, however, take a really wonky quilt to your long-arm quilter and figure she can save it for you--I've heard lots of horror stories about that and she's more likely to baste and stitch YOU! But if it's something small like this and you're quilting it yourself--try it and see! It turned out so nicely that even I was surprised!

Sadly, the weekend has some to an end, but I've had a nice time in the Sweat Shop and I've gotten a few things done. I hope you've had a great couple of days too!

L'Amour Madeline!

Ladies, Start Your Machines! Let the Weekend BEGIN!

Woo-Hooooo! The weekend is HERE!

Work at the office has been WAAAAAAY stressful for the past few weeks--one rush project after the next. And just when I think it can't get any busier, it does. It's hard to complain when I work at such a great place; and hey--these days, just HAVING a decent job is a blessing! But still, by the time Friday comes, I'm much more than happy to get home, put on my comfy clothes, and head into the Sweat Shop.

Tonight I stopped at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks to visit for a few minutes with Gran and several other ladies who were there for the monthly meeting of the book club--this month's book was Happiness Key by Emilie Richards; have you read it? Good book! Anyway, just stopping to look at, smell, and touch fabric for ten or fifteen minutes is an excellent way to decompress after work--I highly recommend it! And seeing friends, even if only for a little bit? Icing on the cake!

Once I got home, Hubby ordered pizza, and while he went to pick it up, I changed my clothes and made a cup of tea. A little later, tummy full of combination, thick-crust pizza-licious wonderfulness, I made good on my escape to the Sweat Shop. Within an hour, I finished appliqueing the 4th of 13 basket blocks, slapped it up on the design wall, stuffed the freezer paper template pieces into a plastic bag, shoved thread and needles aside, and reached for the L'Amour charm packs. Ahhhhhhhhh! THIS was what I was waiting for!

Yes, as a matter of fact, I DO feel a compulsion to make something that will match my new blog background. Or maybe I picked the new blog background to match the L'Amour fabric? Well, one way or the other, pink is happening here at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure.

So here's the plan: Saturday morning, I'm going to sleep until I wake up. And when I do? I'll stumble out to the kitchen and get myself a red and white polka dotted cup of fresh brewed Starbuck's Christmas Blend. Next, I'll sit down right here and visit with you for a little bit. Before long, though, the pull of L'Amour will be too strong to resist any longer and, still in jammies, perhaps with a refill of my red and white polka dotted coffee cup, I'll head to the Sweat Shop. Ah, YES! HEAVEN!

I love weekends!

What Do You Think?

Feel like you're stuck in a bottle of Pepto-Bismol? I kind of like it! (The background, that is!) It seems happy to me. But is it hard to read?

Temporary Fix

A couple of you--including ME!--came to my blog and saw some type of boxed notice about exceeding bandwidth. Turns out that had to do with the site that hosted my blog background, so I've changed the background. I'll have to look at the background options later when I have more time, but isn't it funny I was JUST talking about computer issues and had something pop up? Literally?!

One Thing Leads to Another . . .

Sometimes Blogland reminds me of dropping a pebble in a pond and watching the ripples spread out. You know what I mean, I think--you visit one blog and that leads to another blog and that leads to another blog and before you know it, you've traveled quite a way and gotten interested in all sorts of other things--it's kind of weird, in a GOOD way!

So I was doing that--blog hopping, which kind of started with the Schnibbles thing--when I hopped onto Heidi's blog and found her Friday Night Sew In on January 15th. Basically, those of us who want to play along commit to settling down that Friday night in front of our sewing machines and doing some sewing. On Saturday, we show a couple photos on our blog of what we did. On Sunday, there's a chance we might win a prize. Cool, huh?!

Seriously, I sew nearly every night anyway, so why not join the Sew In? You can check out Heidi's blog post about the Sew In HERE. Sign up and join us! This will certainly be a good excuse for me to plan a "special" project--like maybe one of the Schnibbles quilts? (And, of course, a really excellent excuse to drink some "special" hot chocolate in a red and white polka dot cup with a few marshmallows and a candy cane because--you know--it IS a "special" night!)

By the way, this month's Year of Schnibbles quilt is Madeline--

I'm quite anxious to start it. And I have the Rouenneries charms. But do I want to make it with those, or do I want to get a little crazy and use Valentine's fabric? And do I want to work on it for the Sew In or do I want to get out another Schnibbles pattern the group's already done and work on IT? Decisions, decisions!

A a couple of you asked about joining A Year of Schnibbles this late--like me, you thought it was closed. Well, you can email Sinta (Pink Pincushion) or Sherri (A Quilting Life) and ask. I'm pretty sure they'd be happy to have you join, even this far into the year. I remember when I figured out what was going on back in September--late to the party as usual!--I thought the group was closed, too, so I didn't ask; besides that, I remember having too many other things going on at that time. Now, though, I'm really excited to start!

Finally, I wanted to touch again on some computer/blogging problems. Sinta is having problems with her blog--she has an issue with not being able to see her photos as she's composing her posts; also something in her layout has thrown everything from her sidebar down to the bottom of the page. If any of you think you might be able to suggest a solution, please go over to her blog and leave a comment. I have a feeling it has something to do with the photos in her post from a few days ago, but I'm not sure what. Can they be too large, pixel-wise, maybe? (EDITOR'S NOTE: SINCE WRITING AND POSTING THIS, SINTA SEEMS TO HAVE FIXED THE SIDEBAR ISSUE.)

Another thing--my mention yesterday about the comment concerning my blog jumping? "Anonymous" commented again today and apologized for any implied criticism of my blog. Seriously, I didn't take her comment as criticism at all and that's not why I posted the question--I truly want to find out if anyone has some insight that could help. You see, I knew in talking with Pink Flamingo Dianne that she had some problems with my blog before, when I had the countdown to Christmas posted, but she was able to get it to work okay by logging out of Mozilla and into IE--so if anyone has that kind of tip that would help, I'd be happy to share it. I COMPLETELY understand wanting to read a blog but not being able to because of computer issues--for some reason, I can't read Gran's blog and she's one of my best friends! She's on a Mac forum, and I think my computer doesn't have enough memory or just doesn't like it for some reason, because it takes about 10 minutes to load and I only have a one-minute attention span! (EDITOR'S NOTE: Someone commented the problem with my blog may be the falling snowflakes--do you think that's it? I could take those off easily!)

I'm sorry Anonymous thought her comment upset me in any way--it sure didn't. In fact, I appreciate it! I know you all take time out of your day to stop in and visit, and I want my blog to be worth the effort you take--and making it easy for most people to read is one of my goals. So if you have a problem, please let me know and if it seems reasonable and if there's a way to fix it, I'll try. I enjoy it when you visit me and leave comments--after all, it's why I blog!

ADDENDUM: Carol and Amanda are having a virtual quilt retreat on Saturday, March 13th, with games and prizes. I signed up for that one too! I hope you'll join us--you can check it out at their blogs!

Random Stuff

So I was wrong about the number of comments yesterday. I think you all did that on purpose! Ha! You made me laugh, though--especially Lady of the Cloth with her John Wayne toilet paper!

I wanted to follow up on a couple comments before I forget. First, Ruth S. left a comment on an old post about Kaye England's Progressive Patchwork, but she's no reply--Ruth, if you're reading this, please get in touch with Lindy at Bearpaws & Hollyhocks and she can help you find what you need for that program. Lindy will be away from the shop until around the middle of next week, but she said you can contact her then--just click HERE to get to the website with contact info.

An anonymous commenter mentioned my blog "jumping" around and hurting her eyes. I'm not sure what that's about except that some operating systems aren't very compatible so maybe that's where the problem is? All I know is that it doesn't do that for me at any of the computers I use. That reminds me, too, that I had another anonymous commenter who complained a couple times back in the fall about my "green" background color--at that time, my background color was actually a light brown/tan. The color I was using for the text (which I think was black) didn't show up well on the "green." I don't know if this might be a similar type of problem or whether it might be as simple as adjusting the color on the monitor, but I thought I'd mention these issues. Do any of you know what might cause them or have a solution to suggest?

For whatever reason, Gran has gone off on a Schnibbles tangent and dragged me along with her. You've probably seen the Year of Schnibbles group here and there across Blogland, haven't you? Well, Gran and I are getting in on a little Schnibbles action too--Sinta has said we can start with January or, if we're really industrious, we can go back to September and catch up with the rest of the group. I've put the logo thingamabob in my sidebar; now I just have to get busy making some little quilts!

If you've read my blog for a bit, you probably know that I'm fascinated by Schnibbles quilts and I usually make one every now and then. I've been thinking it would be fun to "teach" a Schnibbles club at the quilt shop and have the group meet every month or two. I think it could be a little like the Jo's Little Women Club, which also makes small quilts, but I think it would bring in quilters interested in more than just the 1800 reproduction fabrics. What do you think? Do you think quilters would be interested on a local quilt shop level?

And speaking of quilt shops, I've hinted that I've done a little fabric binge buying lately, right? When I came home tonight, Hubby mentioned I'd gotten a few packages in the mail. Want to see what I got?

First, a little Sherri Berry Holiday goodness!

I thought this fabric was cute before Christmas but I couldn't figure out what I'd make with it. Then I saw a quilt someone else made and I KNEW I NEEDED SOME. So, after Christmas, I found a bunch on sale and placed an order, but they didn't have any of these focus fabrics; I ended up buying these pieces "full price" to go with the other fabric I ordered.

Then there was this from the Fat Quarter Shop:

I can't remember the name of the line, but it was with the Christmas sale stuff. I just think it's a terrific fabric for a Valentine quilt with all that red and pink and green! It doesn't look at all Christmassy to me!

Finally, the L'Amour fabric I've mentioned recently as well as another piece of Valentine fabric there on the bottom. I think I need to get some serious sewing on!

BUT--tonight, I'm trying to get to bed a little early. Because you know what? Besides the fabric packages, I had a couple BOOK packages too! Yep, it's reading time! Thanks for stopping in to visit.