Overview of a Great Weekend...

Quote for the Day:

"Fun is good."

Dr. Seuss 

Wow!  What a mixture of events this weekend held!  

I started out Friday and Saturday by working on some quilt blocks.  First, I made about 30 scrappy log cabin blocks to add to my collection...trying to use up some of the 1.5" strips from the box that exploded.  Here's just a sample of what I made...

I now have a total of 93--6.5" scrappy log cabin blocks.  I don't know what size quilt I'll make with them, but I tend to do queen-sized bed quilts.  So a quilt that size will take approx. 200-225 of this size block.  

Now I can get the lid on the 1.5" strip box!  LOL

Much neater now!  :)

I also made 5 blocks to add to the Craftsy BOM quilt that I'm making in pastels.  These blocks are 12.5" unfinished.  I think I figured out one time that I will need 39 blocks to finish this quilt, so I now have 18 of them done.  :(  I need to working on more of them to get this finished up.

In the process of all of this piecing, I finished 5 of my Maverick Star blocks that I am doing as a "leader/ender" project.  The points and centers of all of these Maverick Star blocks are made from leftover pieces of fabric that I have cut off of other blocks I've made...what many people would just throw in the trash.  But, oh...not me!  LOL

On Saturday, our area had a "Tire Amnesty Day" where you could bring in old tires to be discarded for free.  There was a 10 tire limit unless you got special permission.  I had called, told them the circumstances, and that we had found 28 tires dumped on the property...and got permission to bring them all in.  So Andy loaded them up and took them in.  The pile of tires is now G-O-N-E!!!

Since we are currently in "Fire Season" here in West Virginia, you can't have any fires until after 5 PM.  So Saturday evening at 5 PM SHARP, we went out and started burning brush and construction debris again!  

Our neighbor who lives on the other side of our new property has come out and helped us both Saturdays now that we've been burning.  She is very nice, probably in her late 60's, and boy, can she work!  With 3 of us feeding the fire, it doesn't take long to get the piles cleaned up!  So far, we've burned or gotten rid of between 1/3-1/2 of the crap that was discarded on the property!!  I really need to get out and take new pictures to show how great it is looking now!

Andy doesn't even seem to mind that it is increasing his work by increasing the area he has to mow!  :)

Sunday was Mother's Day here in the US.  Happy Belated Mother's Day to all of the mothers out there reading this!  

We had some friends over for dinner.  Since I didn't take pictures of the dishes we served (bad blogger that I am...actually, we were all so hungry that we couldn't stop ourselves from digging right in!  LOL), so I'm going to give you the links to where I got the recipes.  They were DELISH and I highly recommend that you try them!!

The main dish was "The World's Best Chicken"...and I can vouch for that title!  I've made it three times now, it is that good!  :)   To go with the chicken, I thought I'd try a recipe that I saw on Facebook.  Now...we all know that that can be risky.  Somethings just don't turn out the way that they look/sound online, but this one turned out SUPER GREAT!  You MUST go try it!  It is called "Roasted Red Potatoes".  I can't find the link so I'll just give you the recipe.  :)

It calls for 10-12 baby red potatoes.  I had about 6-7 large russets, so I used those instead, peeled and slice thin.   Spray a baking dish and spread the potatoes out in the dish.  Sprinkle with one package of powdered ranch dressing mix.  Sprinkle with 6 slices of bacon, crumbled.  (I used one package of real bacon bits.)   Dot with about 5-6 pats of butter.  Cover with aluminum foil and bake at 400 for about 45 minutes.  Serve with a dollop of sour cream!   OMG!!!  Heavenly!

Okay...so that's the recap of what's been going on around this ol' homestead, lately.  I hope all is well in your part of the world, too.  :)

Loretta

A Saturday with the Ladies...

Quote for the Day:

" A glass pitcher, a wicker basket, a tunic of coarse cotton cloth. 

Their beauty is inseparable from their function. Handicrafts belong to a world existing before the separation of the useful and the beautiful."

~Octavio Paz 

When I get the chance, I like to spend some time on the third Saturday of every month with a group here in Grafton called LEFA (Loose Ends Fiber Addicts).  It is a gathering of people, all women at this point, who are interested in crafts and hobbies that use "fiber", ie, crocheting, knitting, spinning, weaving, quilting, etc.  

It is a loosely organized group in that there are no "officers"  and no "dues",though we do have a Facebook page!   You can visit it here:  LEFA

We meet in the banquet hall of one of the local churches and basically exchange ideas, information and fun stories!  :)  We all bring something to work on while visiting, and if you have a completed project to share, you bring that, too!    I usually bring something to hand quilt on, but others may be crocheting or knitting, and there are a couple of ladies that bring their portable spinning wheels!

In the last picture, Susan is seen using a hand-operated carding machine.  I don't know all of the correct nomenclature, but basically she feeds washed wool into the machine while turning the crank and it cards the wool into batts that she can then spin into yarn.   Today she was carding alpaca wool from alpacas that one of the other ladies raises!   



On a different note, I wanted to share a recipe for crockpot pumpkin oatmeal that Susana and I came up with when they were visiting.  

Crockpot Pumpkin Oatmeal

2 cups milk

2 cups water

2 cups steel cut oatmeal

4 tablespoons brown sugar

2 tablespoons butter 

1 1/2 cups pumpkin puree

2 teaspoons cinnamon 

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon EACH of nutmeg, cloves & allpsice

Grease crockpot THOROUGHLY!  Place all ingredients into crockpot and stir till mixed.  Cook on low for 7-8 hours.

That's it!

We had leftovers so I put it in the fridge and have been heating up individual servings since Wednesday morning, when we originally served it.

 I had to add a bit of sugar to it just before eating, but my sister added maple syrup as her sweetener!  :)  Get creative with it!  It is DELICIOUS!!!

Loretta