Not Meant to Be

I think this baby quilt is possessed!


Baby quilt #1 is done and delivered - have yet to hear if they liked it or not - I asked Todd if Matt opened it at the firehouse - nope he took it home cause his wife would kill him. Ok then.


So I start in on baby quilt #2 - and am not getting ANYWHERE with it. Pulled it out of my stash last week - not very big - all I had was the center section done. I still have several yards of several of the firetruck prints, start putting a border on from one of the prints. It just didn't look right - too busy. So my seam ripper and I became good friends. Found the plain red - which I believe is leftover from Tyler's quilt. Much better. I think I have enough of the red, so I make the borders extra wide (I like baby blankets and quilts to be BIG - so nothing tiny comes out of this house! - this quilt is going to be about 51 x 58 when done).

Oops - I am out of red for the backing. And I don't have enough of the firetruck fabrics to back it in one of them. And I'm loath to use all of my firetruck fabrics as I'm in the midst of making a whirlygiggle bed quilt for Tyler out of the firetrucks.



So I cut the batting - and hopefully either tomorrow or Thursday I'll get to either the quilt shop near where I work or a JoAnn fabrics somewhere to buy something for the back. This baby's father is a firefighter and a cop - maybe I can find some yardage of policeman fabric to put on the back????

The fire department is burning down a house on Saturday - for practice. My hope is to have it done by then so Todd can take it with him. If not, it will get to fire practice next Tuesday.

Wonder what else I can get done tonight since my plans to finish this one have been shot all to heck?

Have a great evening!
Kris

Sunday silence

Yesterday I had no kids in the house (they were off bowling with their Uncle, Aunt and nephews), no hubby (he was working on a neighbors farm) and nothing to do other than some laundry.

So I got LOTS of sewing time in. After working on my Bears in the Farmhouse blocks, I started putting this quilt together:

Within an hour I had it to this point:

1 more row of colored blocks, and the outer borders and the top will be done. Very quick, very easy - my kind of project. Of course, I had to try it out on Jessie's bed to make sure it would end up the right size. And realized that a mostly white quilt might not be good for on her bed - as Midnight likes to lay on her bed and nap the day away.

Oreo is staying clean - and the last of the mud and poop balls have rubbed off him in the nice clean straw in their pen.

Jessie did want to wash him again yesterday, but it was raining so hard and in the 50's - I didn't want her (or the calf) getting sick. Then she ended up going bowling, so that worked to keep her mind occupied!

Have a great day everyone!
Kris

Bears in the Farmhouse - Step 3

I'm plugging right along on this one. Managing by the skin of my teeth to keep up. If we hadn't had a sunny, 70+ degree day with a steer calf that needed washing, I'd have had this step done a day earlier! Fortunately the kids were gone yesterday and we had a monsoon - so I had hours to get this step done!

But I'm loving my color choices. And once again, Todd has asked that I make it king size so as to fit our bed.

Not a chance of that happening!

Kris

2.5 hours

That's how long Jessie spent washing her steer.

Let's just say that the winter has been hard on him. And hard on his pen. So while Todd used the skidloader to clean out the steer pen, Jessie spent some time washing/scrubbing/picking at Oreo.

He's still not perfectly clean but.....he's better. And with her first steer show only 6 weeks away, we figured a 70 degree day was a good day to start. Plus, Oreo was shown as a calf last year, and is very tame. So he is a good one for her to gain some confidence on.

Of course, when Todd was done cleaning out and bedding up the steer pen, we had to walk both of her steers back to the barn.

This was Jessie's first time leading Oreo this spring - you can just see her legs and arms.

Next up for a good scrubbing - "Red Man," which if the weather holds, both him and Oreo will get baths tomorrow...

Have a great evening!
Kris

Mindless Fridays

I am so glad the week is over!!!

With weather in the high 50's yesterday, the chickens were in rare form. And we are down to just 3 roos now:( Both of our Rhode Island Reds passed on - which in a way is a relief, as they both were the more aggressive roos. But stilll.

Our Barred Rock Roo looks pretty funny since he lost the top of his comb to frostbite. Those single digit days did his comb in. And Angie, I was NOT up to putting vaseline on his comb and wattles to keep them from freezing (I did mention it to Todd that perhaps we should do that, and all I got was rolling on the floor laughing cause this roo is HUGE and does not like to be held).

I'm working away on my Bears in the Farmhouse and another baby quilt:

Slow goings due to the nice weather but......I'll get them done here shortly. Well, I HAVE to get the Bears in the Farmhouse done by Monday and the other one.....I think the baby is due the 13th of March.

Jessie's 4-H calves are growing - but slowly. We are planning on separating them this weekend so that the one who needs to gain a lot of weight (the red one - aka psycho calf - but we've been working him and he is doing much, much better) can eat to his heart's content, and the one who needs to watch his weight doesn't pig out. Yes, their pen is a mess. We have to get new tires on the skidder before we can even think of getting in there to clean it out (hopefully this weekend new tires will be brought and put on it). And as I told Todd in the case of the steer pen, the pitchfork DOES NOT fit my hand.

Thank you so much for all the wonderful comments and visits! I've enjoyed reading every one and trying new menus and planning all the wonderful foods we have been eating. I do have a bunch of awards that I have received recently - I haven't forgotten but I'm trying to figure out who to pass them on to - decisions, decisions. So I'm hoping to get that done here in the next couple of days.

And for those of you who have asked, here's some recipes:

Cheesy Broccolli and Rice Casserole:

6 cups rice, cooked according to package directions (I used 1/2 white and 1/2 brown)

2 cans cream of mushroom soup (I made my own, recipe to follow)

2 packages broccolli florets, steamed and thawed

3 cups cheddar cheese

1/2 tsp. salt and pepper

Mix rice, broccolli and 1 cup cheese, pour soup over top. Top with remaining cheese. Cover and bake 30 min. at 350. Uncover and bake an additional 15-20 min. until top is brown and crunchy.

Cream of mushroom soup:

1 lb. mushrooms, chopped, diced or sliced

2 Tbsp. butter

1 Tbsp chopped fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 bay leaf
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
2 cups heavy cream
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 Tbsp water

Melt butter in saucepan, cook mushrooms until all liquid is absorbed. Add salt, pepper, thyme and bay leave. Add chicken stock and heavy cream. Simmer 20 min. Add cornstarch and simmer until reaches desired thickeness.

I didn't have any thyme, so I omitted it and it tasted just fine. And I didn't cook mine until really thick - I wanted it a little runny since it was going in the rice. And I don't think I used exactly the same amounts of salt and pepper......

Enjoy the nice weather if you're having it, and if you're not - I'll try and send some your way shortly!

Kris

Cutting it close

On Tuesday I was able to use some comp time - but I stayed at work thinking I could pin baste some quilts.



Talk about cutting it close with this one - it is this close on both of the long edges of this quilt:


But the back is all one piece. I think it will work.



And then I brought this one, which has been in top done only stage since last August or so. This one is going to my Mom:


The only problem is I never pieced the back. I washed it, dried it and ironed it, but never pieced it (what you are seeing is 2 layers of backing and the quilt top folded in half). So I wasn't able to get as much done as I thought I was going to. Oh well.....there is always another day! Guess that will teach me to check before loading everything up to bring down here.

Speaking of basting - does anyone use the sprays to baste with rather than pins? How do they hold up? Does the quilt shift? Does it gunk up your needles. I have a rather annoying problem with running over safety pins, but hate to mess up my machine......

Guinnea Pigs

Before work Tuesday morning, I spent some time online looking for recipes (at the UNEARTHLY hour of 5:30 a.m.). I wanted to find a GOOD recipe for ranch salad dressing, cheesy broccolli and rice casserole and cream of mushroom soup. So when I got home from work (after stopping at the bulk food store to buy some of the ingredients to make these items) I got busy in the kitchen:




Todd and the kids are my guinnea pigs. The waffles are all gone, the muffins are all gone, the saucy pork chops were a hit. So I'm guessing that so far, this new way of cooking is becoming a big hit with them. Todd is of course complaining that I am feeding him to well. My response.....give me a chance to get some of the leftovers into the freezer and you won't be tempted.....




It was a little labor intensive (in that I had no cans of cream of mushroom soup and had to make my own from scratch before making the cheesy broccolli and rice casserole - but I'm sure the homemade soup is much better for us. And I froze the leftovers immediately into quantities that I can use again in recipes) but it was oh so worth it:



Yes, it takes a little more time (especially as I am a very slow cook) but.....it's oh so much yummier than buying the stuff ready to eat from the store. And you know it is a good day when Tyler eats broccolli, rice and cheese all together. On the same plate, in the same pile. And says he would be happy with the exact same meal. Every. Single. Day.


I think I need to come up with something new for tonight though. Todd may revolt if I feed him chicken 2 days in a row:)

Kris