Well, I hit the first big snag in my quilt top assembly last weekend. It all started out with a lot of fun. My sister, Kristine, and my niece, Stephanie, came for dinner Friday evening and we made a favorite recipe. I think I'll post it one of these days - the BEST chicken salad sandwiches! We had planned a slumber party with crafting, dinner and a movie on Friday night then something fun for breakfast and more crafting on Saturday. I was going to cut out the lattice pieces for my quilt top when I discovered that I'd done a really dumb thing when calculating my fabric needs. I'd been spot-on for the fabric I needed for the squares but had purchased exactly half as much fabric as I needed for the lattice pieces and the backing.

I made a run down to the Golden Quilt Shoppe on Sunday for more fabric. I was able to get what I needed for the backing but they were sold out of the fabric I'd originally purchased for the lattice work. I had to select a new fabric. It's not exactly the same but it's from the same collection and I think it will work as well. I was also able to get another yard of sock monkey fabric for Valerie so she can replace the cap she made for Sam, my grandson, that was lost a couple weeks ago (the cap was lost, not Sam.) Here's Sam in the original sock monkey cap - isn't he just the cutest little guy?!I also decided to get some fabric for a hand-piecing quilt top project. I found pre-cut batik squares that I really liked and bought the background fabric from a bolt. I was doing some laundry this morning and thought it a great opportunity to pre-wash the new quilt fabrics when I hit upon a dilemma... what to do about the pre-cut squares? I called my sister to ask if she'd ever heard any wisdom on whether to wash or not wash pre-cut fabric. She hadn't run into that question before, either, but we decided that the fabric had probably not been washed prior to being cut. If I want the quilt to be washable when finished, I'd better wash those little buggers, too. I never did get around to washing them today. I guess I'll get to have that fun - and the ironing of them - this Saturday. Although I do want to start my garden seeds this Saturday, too.

Here's a photo of the batik squares and background fabric. There are 28 of those little buggers in each pre-cut stack. The ironing part should be REAL fun! NOT


This next part would have definitely shocked my sister, Kristine, if I hadn't already talked to her on the phone today and told her about it. She'd be thinking "Dang - what's with my sister and all these vegetables??" I'm not a big veggie fan (unless they're breaded and deep-fried) but I've decided to make a concerted effort to get more of them into my diet. I have two absolute requirements and one requirement that's not always possible to fulfill up here in the mountains. The first one is that they be organic and the second is that they taste good to me. That has sent me on a flurry of recipe searches. The third goal is that they be as local as possible but, when the snow is still covering the rocky ground, the chances of finding local veggies are pretty impossible. The closest I was able to get at my organic store was shipped in from California for this week. If it's organic meat, then I also want it to be local and raised/ processed in a humane manner. Here's today's take for the dinner I prepared tonight:

• leeks
• carrots
• rainbow chard
• golden beets
• Italian parsley
• baby spinach
• yukon gold potatoes
• a lemon
• an onion
• one organic chicken - raised in Canada and processed in Boulder, CO. The label says the chickens are "free range" but the small print on the back says they're raised indoors "for their protection" but they have a door so they can go out in the sunshine and enjoy their chickenness. I'm going to do a bit more research on Maverick Farms - I'm not totally sold from their label description.
  

I tried three new recipes that sounded good on paper: Leek-Potato-Spinach soup, roasted golden beets and Chard with Champagne vinegar and olive oil. I sprinkled some sliced almonds on it, too, and that was a nice texture contrast. I roasted "Cynthia's Chicken" - a great recipe that's never-fail. I figured even if all the veggie recipes failed, I'd have good meat :-)

I invited my co-workers to come to dinner so there were Kris, Stephanie and myself to enjoy all the good food. Julia isn't eating regular food this week for other reasons so she didn't join us. Every recipe was a success and the dinner rolls were extra good with goat milk butter. We topped it off with angel food cake, strawberries and whipped cream for dessert, accompanied by coffee. What a pleasant evening!