Don't slurp your soup.

I have a lunch guest. This is King Theodin, who completely lost his head when he tasted the soup and found out how good it is ;)

Soup is a favorite standby in our house at the moment. Fantastic winter warming food, and the kids adore it. Yesterday, at their Grandmother's house, they had a choice for lunch: soup or pie. They chose soup!
Today’s recipe: take the water from boiling the corned beef last night, add a couple of left over potatoes cooked in the same water, a cup of dried split green peas, some frozen chicken stock, chopped fresh pumpkin (the kids won’t touch it normally), a few big spoons of leftover spaghetti bolognaise mince and simmer for a few hours till mushy. Add extra water to the thickness you like and serve.  Leftovers make the best soup.
After lunch, the first job is to find some glue to re-attach Theodin’s head. The second job is making loads of bias tape for my big blue and white quilt and the third job is starting to appliqué the signature blocks onto the 21st quilt.
Thank you all for your thoughts on whether the 21st quilt is big enough. I’m still undecided, but leaning toward leaving it just as it is. So I figured I’d work on the back until I’m sure.

The back of the quilt so far - you can tell we are having lovely weather this afternoon!

How big is big enough?

A while ago I started a 21st Birthday Signature quilt for a friend's son.  I had planned to put all the signed blocks on the front, but lots of them were too rude.  So I decided to applique them to the back (they all ignored the seam allowance too) and make a nice top instead.  Today I finished the top as I had planned, he's a hunter so I think he'll like it.  However, I'm now thinking it's not big enough.  It measures 50" square - get out your tape measures and tell me what you think.  My hubby thinks that it's big enough - it could be a wall hanging, a lap quilt, or an accent on a bed.  I'm not sure and want more feedback - put your two cents in!

However, I'm not asking the advice of this crazy looking monkey!  Miss Wild Hair got into my bag and found lipstick and mascara - and she knew exactly where to put them.  She just needs to learn to look in the mirror during application ;)

Comments

I think I've got the commenting problem sorted out.  If anyone else is having trouble leaving comments on other people's blogs - try deleting all your cookies, they might be corrupted (Corrupted Cookies, now there's a recipe I'd like to try!).  There is more info if you go to Blogger Help. 

Memories

The thing about a blog is that you can pretend.  You can make your life seem as perfect as you want.  Your house can be clean, your children cherubic.  But in reality, we all have our fugly bits.

But I'm happy to announce that in the week just been, one of Windyhill Farm's fuglier bits got towed away to become someone else's treasure.

 

The caravan served us well.  First as a shelter and cup-of-tea making place when we first owned the land.  Later it became a storage shed when we moved out here.  But now (finally) it has been emptied and all that's left is a mark on the ground.  Next spring there won't even be that.

In that caravan was a whole pile of junk, lots of stuff that has already been shipped off to the op shop and a few boxes of memories.  I've spent the weekend periodically immersing myself in my teenage years.  The above picture was my sixth form ball photo.  Taken in about 1995.  Can you guess which one is me?

I've burnt the scary love letters, thrown out all the really terrible photos and the birthday cards from people I can't even remember anymore, but there is still more to sift through.  So much of it makes me cringe - as a teenager I was boy crazy, incredibly self-centered and terribly superior.  I really wonder how my parents put up with me.

On TV recently there has been an advert for a program about parenting teenagers.  The psychologist says,"Teenagers - they're not right in the head!  And judging by my diaries and letters, I'd have to agree.

Consequently, I've also been spending a bit of time this weekend watching my kids and imagining them as teenagers.  If karma has anything to do with it, then in a few years I'm in for a rough ride.  I'm guessing that there will be plenty of fugly moments.  Wish me luck!

Been busy quilting

During the week just past, I was fortunate enough to attend a Bernina 440 refresher course, run by Itch to Stitch, the Bernina and quilting shop in Whangarei.  They came up to us in Kerikeri and put us and our machines through our paces. 

I bought my Bernina about five years ago to replace my 30+ year old Elna that I had got from a garage sale.  I'm not a fanatical Bernina fan, but I did like the solid feeling of the machine, the great warranty (five years on electrical and ten on mechanical), and the BSR (Bernina Stitch Regulator), which keeps your stitches even when you free-motion stitch.  Funnily enough, I prefer not to use the BSR now as I'm pretty good at keeping my stitches even anyway and I feel it gives a jerky look to my quilting.

Over five years I had forgotten so much of what they showed me when I first picked my machine up.  We used our memory functions and our pattern start and stop buttons, we played with mono-filament thread and the stitch that looks hand done, we learnt how to elongate our eyelet stitch to make really cool oblongs and we learnt great tricks for appliqueing.   I'd recommend the course to anyone (who owns a 440 that is!).

And then because I was enthused, I broke out the Machingers (the best quilting gloves ever) and got quilting.  This is a troublesome quilt that I'm doing for a friend.  She had to take the borders off and is going to put them back on once I've finished - hence the huge bits of batting you can see around the edge. 

I've found the best way to set up my machine is to use my Sew-Ezi table (a small portable table that the machine sets into for a flat surface) and push that up against my desk and a trestle behind it.  That way I have lots of table top to support even a big quilt.

And with the help of Radio New Zealand archives playing in the background, I got the thing finished.  Yay!  Another one off the to-do list.

The pattern I designed is a meander with a rose, a loop, a curlicue and a leaf.  I hope she likes it.