April Baby Quilt

Good grief, halfway through May but at least it's a finish!

• The quilt measures 38 x 44".  
• Pattern is Charming from Gotham Quilt
• 100% cotton batting

All from the stash.  :-)

Donation

I sent a box last year to Kat who has started a charity called Covered in Love.  She works in a hospital in Texas and while she doesn't call it a hospice floor, that's what it sounds like to me.

The box had the finished quilt top and an abundance of coordinating fabric to piece a back.  Kat finished it off, she added some squares to top and bottom for more length and was able to use some of the fabric to finish another quilt as well.

Win, win, win.

Yahoo!

Here is a link to her website...http://katandcatquilts.blogspot.com/2016/05/mans-best-friend-susans-quilt.html

2nd Year Creeping

Flowers and shrubs are blooming in the front yard and while the flowers bloomed last year, the shrubs were still sleeping.  All of the plantings made it through the winter and it's very exciting out there.

I do not know the names of most of these plants.  Columbine, of course, and possibly the shrub with the white flowers is Spirea.  There are also three small purple flowering plants, low to the ground.  They bloomed last year and then when it got blistering hot they died back.  Happy to see them again!

In the first picture you can see that the mulch is a darker brown between the edging strips.  That's new this year.  Initially they laid down darker mulch around the plants and then a medium color everywhere else.  I will refresh around the plants with the dark mulch and then just pull out the edging strips and add a thin layer of additional medium colored bark around the rest of the yard.

B&A

Just opened, 64 brand new Crayons!

Sheila and I have each started a new embroidery project that includes adding color with Crayons.  We do the color tinting before we embroidery but of course after we have traced the pattern with a permanent brown Pigma pen.

Yesterday I read a tip on The Quilt Show's Monday email that seems so simple yet it will make the coloring project so much easier.

V.1.0

And, of course...

V.1.1

Most likely not the final iteration.  :-)

Small & Very Small CPPs

Hahaha!  Individual chicken pot pies in a wide mouth 8-oz. canning jar!  Easy to do and not very long in the oven.

This was a first for me so I did a little research on Pinterest after reading a blog post from Pots and Pins.  She made cherry hand pies in the lids!  I did not think the lids would work as well for hot pies so I did them in the jar.  I only put crust on the top because that seemed like enough to me and it was.  I was concerned about the baking time because there was such a variety of temperatures and times out there.  I settled on 400 degrees and it worked out well with my oven.

As a basic guideline, here is what I used:

2 8-oz. wide mouth canning jars plus one ring and lid
1 store bought package of pie crust, which contained 2 deep dish crusts
1 1/2 cups of diced cooked chicken
1 oz. cream cheese
1/4 cup diced carrots
2 tablespoons diced onion
2 tablespoons diced celery
1/4 cup frozen peas
2 tablespoons shredded parmesan cheese

Sautee' carrots, onion, and celery until softened, about 8 minutes on medium heat.  Remove to a bowl to cool.  In the same pan make a thick white sauce.  I used 2 tablespoons of butter, melted it over medium high heat then added the cream cheese and whisked until it melted.  Whisk in a tablespoon of flour.  Salt and pepper.  Cook about a minute but do not brown.  Stir in 1/4 cup of cream, add more to desired consistence...thick.

Add chicken and peas to bowl with vegetables pour in sauce and stir to combine. Add parmesan then taste for seasoning.  Fill jars to just where the threaded part of the jars starts.

This made enough for 2 jars and one tart.

Flatten out one piecrust then use a sharp knife to trace around the ring adding 1/2 inch all around.
Set this piece on top of the chicken mixture and press up to the rim.  Repeat.  Turn the ring piece upside down, add the lid with the metal side up and press some of the remaining dough into the bottom and up the sides of the ring.  Use a fork to poke holes in the bottom so it stays flat.  Once the tart was constructed, I added some of the leftover crust pieces to the rims of the jars.

Bake jars and tart on a cookie sheet at 400 degrees for 15 minutes then check for brown-ness.  I kept mine in for 5 more minutes.  Those jars are HOT and awkward.  I removed them and then filled the tart and put it back in the oven but turned the oven off as it was to share for "seconds".

These turned out very well but if you didn't want to bother with the white sauce, I am pretty sure you could use an undiluted can of cream of chicken and get a good result.

To remove, push pie up out of the ring, then slide off lid.