Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Holiday Lane Pillow Blog Hop with Madame Samm and Pauline

And a Give Away

  
Thanks to Madame Samm  for putting together such a great hop and thank you to Pauline for coordinating the hop. Thanks also to Jill from Jillily Studio for the fun pattern.
 
 
I chose a sweets theme. When I sewed together the house blocks I wasn't very excited about
the 2 brown houses. I felt there wasn't enough contrast with the sky, and they sort of got lost. But then I started embellishing:
 
 
I love it.
 
 
 I am going to use it as a wall hanging for my cookie exchange party, and it will also be a big hit on gingerbread house decorating day with the grand kids.
 
 
Before you hop on over to the next blog, leave me a comment. I will have a drawing on Dec 1 for
2 pounds of California pistachios grown right here in Fresno county.
 
Here's the list for the rest of today's blogger.
Wednesday November 28
Mary Jo - that other blog
 
 
 
 Jaxie's new bed from the Black Friday sales. He loves it. He lived at a rescue shelter for over a year; he's been living with us for 6 weeks now. He's a very good boy. We can't save them all, but we can save one.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

WINNER

Congratulations to Kathy, from Just Quilt It; she won my drawing for 2 yards of Patriotic Stars fabric. Thank you to everyone for the kind comments you left about my little purses.
 
I'll be participating in next weeks Holiday Lane Pillow Blog hop. Take a look at my post - there will be another give away.
 
Maybe Malone needs a holiday pillow.

Monday, November 12, 2012

Cooking for a group

  No sewing last week because Stan and I did the lunches Friday and Saturday for the church Holiday Boutique. We made meatloaf for 96.
We make the food in our home kitchen so we do it in small batches. We do it assembly line style and it goes real fast.
we have the butcher package the ground beef in 6 pound portions

Recipe meatloaf for 24

6 lbs ground beef
6 eggs lightly beatened
1 1/2 cups chopped onion
3/4 cup chopped bell pepper
1 TB dried minced garlic
1 TB salt
1 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1 TB dry yellow mustard
3/4 cup milk
3/4 cup catsup
3 cups oatmeal
4 1/2 TB horseradish


Mix the eggs with the meat (use your hands)


then add everything else and mix together with you hands.


If baking later, put each batch in a
2 1/2 gallon food storage bag and refrigerate until cooking time. Can be made 2 days ahead of time.





To cook: Divide mixture in half. Shape each half into a loaf and place on a foil covered RIMMED cookie sheet. Spread 3/4 cup barbecue sauce on each loaf. bake in a 390F oven for 1 hour or until internal temperature is 170F. When cooking for a group we always check internal temperature.
Made four batches of meatloaf in 1 hour total. Including cleaning up the kitchen.

Serving crew at the church

Stan also made a vegetarian version. He boiled one pound of lentils; after cooking and cooling he ground them up  in the food processor and used them in place of the beef in the recipe - THE RECIPE WAS REDUCED TO 1/3 QUANTITY OF ALL INGREDIENTS.
No vegetarians this time, so we brought it home; it tasted pretty good!





Tuesday, November 6, 2012




 
Day 3 of the UR Priceless Blog Hop And A Fabric Giveaway
 
 
A big thank you to Madame Samm for the great pattern and clear instructions,  and to our great cheerleader Katherine for all her time to get us all organised.
 
I've made lots of purses and bags but never used a sew-on frame before - once I figured it out, it was fun. I did some iron-on machine applique on the first purse I made; I wasn't too happy with it because after I put it on the frame I realized that the applique should have been smaller.
 
 
 
 
I used an old leftover upholstery sample for the second little purse; I didn't use fleece because the fabric was thick enough on its own. Cuteness improving.
 
 
 
 
I think that I liked using cotton fabrics with fleece better. There are so many great prints - coins for coin purse, chickens, diamonds, stripes - all great fun.


 

THIS WAS A LOT OF FUN!!
 
 
  the pattern is now available for $7.50 at Madame Samm's Craftsy pattern shop
 


A day after election day give away

Leave me a comment
and I will have a drawing on November 13th for 2 yards of Patriotic Stars fabric
 

And now hop on over to today's other bloggers