A Finish (CGQC) and a Winner

I hope you all had a delightful Thanksgiving. We sure did. Are you still using up your turkey leftovers? Here is a quick and delicious soup recipe, sure to cure whatever is ailing you.

Dandy's Turkey Soup recipe

Ingredients:

1/2 c chopped onion
1/2 c chopped celery
1/2 c chopped carrots
2 cloves chopped garlic
1 TBSP EVOO
8 cups chicken stock
1 medium potato (golden or red), chopped with skins on
2 handfuls of your favorite small pasta
2 c chopped turkey
1 TBSP dried parsley
1/4 tsp pepper
salt to taste

In a large stock pot, saute the first 5 ingredients until tender. Toss in potatoes and add stock, bring to a boil. Add pasta, cook according to package (mine was 7 minutes). Turn down heat, add turkey and seasonings. ENJOY!! Freezes well, too.

In other sewing news, I finished the quilting and binding on both snowmen. Although my machine started acting up a bit on mine. Mine has the red binding. I was brave enough to try some star quilting on mine, and pretty pleased with my results despite my machine's attitude. Mom's is in the blue. I still need to find buttons, but I am hoping to catch them on sale. Let me know if you see any good sales, girls! But, I consider these done. I promise to show another shot of them with eyes on.

Oh and finally, thanks to everyone who entered my 200th post giveaway for a good cause! There were a lot of entries and I am very appreciative to all of you who entered. A special thanks to those who contributed to my kettle. My kettle so far has $20 in it. I know we are going to add to that sometime in December, so I will keep it up until Christmas. The winner was Jen of Punkie Pie! Congratulations to Jen. I will get that out to you soon.

Giveaway time at Spun Sugar Quilts

Head on over to Vickie's and check out her big giveaway.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Look what I have been working on

I had a fun afternoon yesterday shopping with my MIL. We had a nice salad/sandwich combo for lunch and then we went to several stores. We were gone most of the day and then I went grocery shopping. So I started sewing around 9:30 and found myself making a lot of mistakes, I think I was tired. I knew I should hang it up. But, I did get a lot of this second snowman finished. I am hoping to finish it and get them quilted today, but I suspect life might distract me. LOL. A girl can dream though.

Next up is a Table topper I made my friend for Christmas using a Cotton Way pattern and a Cotton Blossoms charm pack. I like how it turned out. It took some getting use to the raw edges, but I do like it. I love the circles, and then the inner colors.


Let me tell you about the other saga in my sewing room. I went to personalize an apron for my nephew the other day. When I went to pull out my compact flash card and adapter, they were not in my machine. This is the first time I went to do this since it spent a month in the shop. I know you are thinking...ut oh. Ut oh is right. So, I call the shop and they did say they looked for it, but they followed up with that they never keep them and that they must have sent it home with my husband. I said that they most certainly did not send it back in the paper bag of accessories or it would have been in the bag (where I kept everything and put it all back in my machine when it returned). Furthermore if I had the card, it would be in the empty case that is sitting on the floor next to my sewing table. Anyway, I didn't like the gals attitude, she was quite rude to me. It made me want to add that I can see why all of their business is going across town to buy their machines in the newer quilting shop than to deal with them. BUT, I refrained. I just know where my next machine will come from. First they had my machine for over a month and then they lose my flash card. I will never make the mistake of leaving it in my machine while in the repair shop again. A mistake that ended up costing me $36. Ouch.

Fall Mini Quilt Swap Parade

Kelly and I thought it would be fun to parade the quilts that were swapped in the Mini Quilt Swap of the CGQC. It is always fun to see all the quilts that were made for other people.

This first one up is especially special to me, Michelle made this quilt for me! Isn't this disappearing 9 patch darling? It is the perfect size for me to cuddle up in my chair with. I just love FALL as it is my favorite time of year. Michelle used the Gobble, Gobble collection. Her quilting is wonderful and her stitches are so even. I just love how perfect it is. A big thanks to Michelle. If you haven't checked out her blog, she is full of inspiration. I just loved how she tagged this one.


Next up on our parade is this wonderful tree mini quilt made by Cora. Doesn't it put you in the spirit? Cora made this one for Esther. I thought the buttons were a great touch.


Carol's mini quilt is next Carol sent this autumn beauty to Susan. Susan wanted something special to hang on her door, and I bet this did the trick. It is gorgeous quilting, too.


Susan was in the Halloween spirit and she quilted this cute little pumpkin quilt for Cora. Isn't it great??? I just love it. Look at that great stitchery!


And finally, I made this Schnibbles pattern for Sara. I really loved the smaller blocks. Sara collects mini quilts and she seemed quilt pleased with it.


I think this swap was a success! Don't forget to head over to Kelly's for the rest of the parade.

November CGQC tag

This month we were suppose to post about what we are thankful for. I am thankful for this little face who lights up my life daily, for my marriage and thoughtful husband, for the health of all of our family members, for the Lord who provides for us, for Mr. Dandelion's successes at college (have I mentioned he has all A's and is top in one of his classes), and for my wonderful job, and for all of my friends, who make like fun.

Fall Quilt Swappers

Hey everyone,

I have tried to check in with everyone (via blogs) to make sure that they have received their quilts. Please let me know if you have not received your package yet, so that I may follow up on them. Since we are well into November, I would think all packages have had plenty of time to arrive. Thank you.

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas (CGQC)

I had a fun weekend. My mom and I both took sewing projects to our friend's house. We stayed up late both Friday and Saturday evening sewing, during the day we did a bit of shopping and enjoyed a meal out. I worked on my Isn't Christmas Jolly quilt kit. I do LOVE the end project, but I had several snags as I sewed along.

First, I wasn't fond of a replacement fabric in my kit. It was for this checkered interior border that I did make (but when you read on, I ended up ripping it off). I did not realize they had changed the fabric when I bought it. I wanted red. I had bright yellow. You know how I love red!

Then when I finished all of those awful geese, my geese were too short on every side to line up properly. So I ripped off the green.yellow.checkered.border that I didn't like in the first place.

Luckily, my friend was VERY helpful. Figuring math and changing a pattern is not always a stronge point for me....let me say quite loud and clear, had it not been for her I would have stuffed the dang project back in the UFO bin where it was clearly destined to be. We managed to salvage and I do say salvage the scrap green and white fabric from around the panel piece to make a smaller border to allow the geese to fit perfectly.

I HATE geese. Correction, I like the look of flying geese, but I hate making them. My hat goes off to Mary who recently made that huge geese quilt. I have no intentions of ever sewing them again. I think they are very boring and tedious. All I can say is...those geese about flew south. That's all I am saying.

I had a few other uneven sewing problems. THEN at the very end, right when I dared to think "THANK GOODNESS THIS IS ALMOST OVER"...I ran out of border fabric. WHAT YOU SAY? OH yes, I did. Luckily, I had some scraps left...enough to make some cornerstones and it worked out okay. I am so glad that it is done and I do love it, I think all of the changes I had to make do compliment it well.

What a saga. Good thing Santa is so cute.

More to come later this week...I have to post my wonderful quilt from our quilt swap...just wait to you see the cutie that Michelle made for me!

Is it really November already? (CGQC)

Okay, this month is going to be super busy, so I am keeping these goals short.

First goal- Back to these snowmen quilts...
I have one top done, so I am going to finish the second and quilt them.

Second goal- I started this quilt last year at this time (don't judge me). My goal is to finish the top. I got tired and frustrated with all of the flying geese. And, to be truthful, fearful that it isn't going to line up well. We will see.

Don't forget, there is still time to get in on my drawing.