The neatest card

I just love the good bye card I received from my former colleagues.

Retreat Quilt

In the fall Kim and I went to the annual quilt retreat put on by the Quilter's Cottage in Stonewall. Fun, fun, fun. Quilt all day, party all night, with an interesting, hilarious group of gals.

Kim and I took the Bent Pieces class. It is free style cutting and after one practice round, I was good to go. This lap quilt used 16 fat quarters. The fabric for the blocks is cut and the leftovers are used for the inner border and binding. Once the blocks are sewn. they are trimmed and the leftovers used for the outer border. Viola, top done.

I quilted in the ditch between the blocks and then followed the curves in the blocks and went across.

An easy, fun quilt.

Greetings from Texas

I hope y'all had a wonderful Christmas. It sure is different without the white stuff!

We had a traditional Christmas dinner with 3 other couples. We had to scramble a bit to find the tools, pots and dishes that were needed, but between us all we managed except for the disposable pan we had to buy to cook the turkey.

Christmas Eve day, Margarita and I made mushroom turnovers for our Christmas Eve Happy Hour.

Here is the recipe (if you want it in word format, let me know):

MUSHROOM TURNOVERS

9 oz (250 g) cream cheese, softened 1 egg, beaten
1 1/2 cups sifted all‑purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon thyme
1/2 cup butter, softened 1 teaspoon salt
3 tbsp butter 2 tbsp flour
1/2 lb (20 med) mushrooms, minced 1/4 cup sour cream
1 large onion, minced

In a large bowl, with electric mixer at medium speed, beat cream cheese, butter, and 1 1/2 cups of flour until soft dough forms. Wrap dough in wax paper, and refrigerate at least 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 450° F.

In 10" skillet over medium heat, add 3 tbsp butter. Saute mushrooms and onion until tender, about 5 minutes. Stir in salt, thyme, and 2 tablespoons flour until blended. Stir in sour cream.

On floured board, thinly roll out half of the dough. Cut into 12 circles with 2 3/4 inch cookie cutter. Roll dough scraps into a ball and refrigerate. On half of each circle, place a teaspoon of mushroom mixture.

Fold edge over filling to meet bottom edge. With fork, press edges together and prick the tops in 3 places to let out the steam.

Place on ungreased cookie sheets. Repeat with remaining dough and filling.

Brush turnovers with egg. Bake 12 to 15 minutes or until golden.

Makes 24‑30 appetizers. May be made ahead and frozen.

Long time no post

I can not believe it has been over 6 months since I last posted on my blog.

Blaine worked at the golf course this year. It started off poorly as they are on the river and some holes were under water. When his boss was over in July, he mentioned that they were down over 70 percent because of all the water. But in the end, they broke a record for the latest golfing, almost up to December!

I kept busy working a few days a week at a non profit healthcare insurance company a few kilometres away. Most of you know I was the Office Assistant and did whatever they needed me to do. When the advertisement mentioned spreadsheets and powerpoint I was a bit nervous, as I used to have others to help do those for me. But I managed. It was odd leaving the office with no work or worries, that is for sure. Even though I was in only a few days a week, they treated me like one of their own. My contract was up yesterday, but I am hoping when I come back I can work there again. And keep us (them) in mind if you work for a healthcare group, because they work with their clients instead of against them when it comes to providing services and insurance.

I also volunteered a few days a week at the local hospital. Mondays I helped deliver water to all the rooms (actually I was the dirty jug remover - can't touch the clean jugs) and delivered free newspapers to all patients. The local newspaper, The Winnipeg Free Press, donates the papers. If you are going on vacation for a short time, you can ask them to donate your papers for that time period to the hospitals. I tell you - the patients love getting their papers, so please help if and when you can. Tuesdays I delivered the papers and if one of the water people didn't show up, I did those too.

I grew attached to a few of the patients. Mr. M is from Germany and has a brain tumour and is not expected to make it to Christmas. The grandmother of one of my best friends made a song famous in Germany during the war, so when I mentioned this, his eyes lite up and he smiled and talked a bit. His daughter was shocked he spoke! Since she can't come on Mondays, after my shift, I bring him a bagel and feed it to him and we chat.

Another patient has been in isolation for over a month but he likes the newspaper. I have to leave it outside his room, but I can stand in the hall and do what I do best, talk, to him telling him what it's like outside, what has been going on in the world, etc.

And I saw a few acquaintances and former colleagues in the hospital. One was in the oncology department and was a total shock. He/she mentioned that no one from work knew, so please don't tell anyone. It's like Vegas, what goes on in the hospital stays in the hospital. I respect confidentiality agreements.

This is a funny story relating to that. When I was at ISM/IBM as the contract at Air Canada was winding down, I was the most senior management employee left. My boss was a contractor and could not sign formal documents. One of my very good friends was leaving and I had to sign his termination papers. He was told not to tell anyone. So I knew he was leaving but he couldn't tell me and I couldn't tell him. He was shocked when he received his termination papers and saw I had signed them!

Okay enough rambling. Blaine is up and ready to boogie.

I leave you with a picture of my first finished quilt/wallhanging. It was all hand cut and hand pieced right down to the binding. I had it professionally quilted by Jacquie Pohl. At the Manitoba quilt show, it won second in its category (hand pieced/professionally quilted) and best overall for the quit show theme! My first and only quilt show submission.

Eat Pork

Suffice to say that I am working on a contract at the piggies again.

Since this H1N1 flu has been going around, the pork prices have gone down, down, down.

These poor pig farmers barely break even and now they are taking a loss. They can't continue to raise piggies if they are losing money.

Do you want your pork from Thailand or China? If not, I encourage you to get out there and buy some pork - lots of it!

Did you know that in Texas, the gulf shrimp fishermen are being driven out of business by the shrimp imported from China and Thailand! Yes, that is what the local big chain supermarkets carry. We do support the local fisherman - you can't beat the taste.

Sure beats the shrimp from the rice paddies. Think about it please - and buy pork!

UFO 5 - Christmas Row Quilt

This quilt is all cut and pieced by hand, so it took a long time. For some stupid reason, I decided to machine quilt it myself. I say stupid because I am not a good machine quilter.

I was going to rip it all out, but after reading an article in Mark Lupinski's quilting magazine, Quilter's World, I decided to just finish it. It may not win any awards, but it will be finished.

My goal is to finish it, binding and all.

UFO 4 - Thoughts of Barbados

Last year while we were in Texas, Sue wrote to see if I wanted to go with her to Barbados on her special service airline pass.

Of course I jumped at the chance!

We had such a good time - first class travel, great travelling buddy, beautiful beaches, fun, fun, fun!

She was over one day and liked the flip flop quilt I have in my quilt room. So I am making this one as a thank you (she knows - no worry).

My goal this month is to have all 9 blocks and hopefully the quilt finished.