Friday, November 30, 2007

Soup for 50?!

As most people know, I am a lot more comfortable in my sewing studio that I am in the kitchen. So how in the world did I get roped into making soup for 50 ladies at our Winter Wonderland Brunch? I suppose it all started at Bunco a couple of years ago. I made a Pistou Vegetable soup from a recipe on the internet and it was a huge hit with my friend Brenda. Everytime the subject of what to make for something comes up she mentions this soup! We are both on the Women's Ministry Board and in the planning for the December event it is decided to make soups. So I volunteered to make this soup (and Brenda is making chicken corn chowder). We have to feed 100 so we are both making soup for 50 at the church this afternoon. I spent all evening yesterday cooking the beans, chopping the vegetables, and thinking "I sure hope this soup comes out all right!" Of course if it doesn't, I will never be asked to do it again! The other thing I hope is that we don't have so much soup left over that I have to eat it all next week - too much of a good thing you know!

I am officially caught up on my sewing for hire. The only project left is a wedding gown to hem and I will be getting that finished this weekend. (after the brunch!). I even finished the latest quilt I was working on. An absolutely wonderful pastel quilt with scalloped edges. It is really a beauty. I forgot how long it takes to hand sew a binding, I have done all of my binding strictly by machine lately. It does make a very nice finish though to do them by hand. The scallops weren't too bad to do. I think the hardest part was figuring out how large to make them. Once I had that figured (kind of a lowest common denominator type of figuring - good thing I remember a bit of algebra!) all I had to do was find a curve that fit the measurement. A dinner plate fit the bill quite nicely.

I have some pot holders to finish up, then I'll pull another quilt top out and get busy. I'm glad that I have got backs for the next couple, then I think I'll have to dig a little deeper in the UFO pile and finish up a top that needs a couple more borders. I'll need to buy some fabric for this one, but that's always fun!



Here's another quilt I finished recently. I call it Northern Lights and it is for sale in my Esty shop. I had a lot of fun trying out a new quilting design on this, and was very happy with the results. I think for Christmas I am going to make my friends a little design book of quilting designs. Two of them got a new Bernina machine with a stitch regulator and one just bought a Juki like mine to quilt on! I think they would enjoy it, especially if I do a binder that they can add their own designs to. See how one thing just leads into another! This is how we are in this house - start talking about one thing and end up in a whole other topic.

Got to get ready to cook soup - wish me luck!

Monday, November 26, 2007

Thanksgiving

So many things to be thankful for, even through the ups and downs of life. I am thankful for all 5 of my lovely daughters. Thankful that they are as beautiful on the inside as they are on the outside. They are considerate and kind. They love God, and are (mostly) respectful of their parents. They are wonderful!



I am thankful for Buster who seems to be doing quite well with only one eye. We had a bit of a set-back when he developed and abscess in his eye socket. He has been off antibiotics since Friday, and I am keeping an eagle eye out for any swelling, and so far so good.



I am thankful for my house. It is looking better than it has in years, and we hope to have our new upstairs windows installed very soon, which will make it much warmer, and hopefully put a dent in our electric bill.



I am thankful that despite the fact that my work hours have been cut, I have been getting enough work doing alterations to make up the difference. It's not easy being in the middle class, and truly we do live hand to mouth, but God provides for all our needs, and a lot of the wants, too!



I am thankful for my life. It's interesting, not overly stressful, and full of love and laughter and goodness. I don't want ever to take for granted the fact that I feel well most days, my kids are healthy, and I am surrounded by beauty every day! God is good to me, that is all I can say right now!






This is Christmas Rose. It is one of the samples I have made for the quilt shop that I quilted, and have listed for sale in my Etsy shop. I am working on a pretty yellow, green, and pink quilt with scalloped edges right now. I love the edges, but have to sew the binding by hand which isn't quite as quick as my usual machined bindings. After that I have two more quilts to quilt and I think I will be pretty much caught up on my tops! I am going through my quilt magazines lookig for quilting ideas for them. A basic meander is a nice quick finish, but it gets a little boring if you do that all the time.

My next quilt project will be a Roman Shade for my sewing room window. The sunny afternoons are nice, but the sun glares off my sewing machine and desk, leaving me half blind for quilting. A Roman shade would allow me to have the view out my window, but block the sun when I need to also. I have an inspiration for it, a quilt I have had on the edges of my mind for some time now. Actually I'm not sure I want to use this great idea for a window shade, but maybe the window shade will be the trial run and I will make a second quilt after I get that done. We'll see!