had enough turkey?

So...... just how many turkey leftover recipes have you been cooking up?

 I hope that everyone had a blessed Thanksgiving with family and friends. We had half of my DH's step family and his older step brother had the other half. No....there's no bickering, just making the size of the gatherings a little easier for the hosting families. The family has grown with nieces and nephews marrying and adding wee ones and moving closer. It was a great day, the weather was nice and it was good to get together to count our blessings and share our thanks around the table. The down side was I so missed sharing the day with my family up north.  sob, sob , sniffle, sniffle :(
I am so grateful to Alexander Graham Bell so that at least I can hear their voices over the miles. Texting is great and convenient, but there's still nothing like hearing the voice of your loved ones.
Of course it goes without saying that we ate our fill of the Thanksgiving feast and yet as always there was leftover turkey. Last night we had turkey enchiladas and we'll most likely have turkey sandwiches again for lunch today.  We're also working our way through the leftover apple pie.

I promised on facebook the other day that I would post a soup recipe and it's NOT turkey soup.
So here is my recipe for meatball soup...it's easy and it is a favorite of ours on chilly days.

Meatball soup
1/2 cup chopped onion
1 clove garlic - minced
2 T olive oil
4 cups water
 2 cans condensed beef broth
1/2 can of 6 oz. tomato paste (3 oz.)
1 cup coin sliced carrots
2 cups cubed potatoes
1 egg beaten
1/4 cup snipped parsley or cilantro
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/8 tsp. pepper
1 pound ground beef
1/4 cup long grain rice uncooked
1 can black beans drained

In large pot, cook onion in oil until tender but not brown. Add the garlic and cook about a minute. Stir in water, broth and tomato paste. Bring to boil and add potatoes and carrots. Simmer for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile combine egg, cilantro or parsley, salt, oregano, pepper, ground beef and uncooked rice. Form into small 1 inch meatballs and add a few at a time to the simmering soup. Bring soup to boil again. Reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes or until veggies are tender. Add 1 can black beans and simmer another 10 minutes.
yummy ~ yummy
If you have any leftover freeze it for another day that begs for warm and hearty soup.

By the way, sorry I have not been posting as frequently. Now that I am working in the outside world I have been working on juggling up my free time between, designing, blogging, stitching and all the other aspects of my pattern business and life. Bear with me, I am also working on the next post for the tortoise paced stitch -a-long. At least you've been able to keep up LOL

something's missing....

OMG - I am so sorry. The blog post for assembling the quilt blocks did not post as scheduled and I guess that could make this stitch-a-long a bit challenging, don't you think? Thank you so much Penny for calling it to my attention. Now I have to go wash the egg of my face.

Here is the missing post for assembling the blocks and sashing:

Now we get to put the rows and sashing together and it's going to start looking like a quilt.

Make the block rows as follows...
There are 2 row settings,

Row 1 setting (make 2 of row 1)
Row 1 uses 2 of the single 4-patch blocks, one of the double 4-patch blocks and two of the 8-1/2" strip pieced blocks.
Set them together as shown below and pay attention to the placement of the dark (red) squares.

Row 2 setting (make 2 of row 2)
Row 2 uses two of the double 4-patch blocks, one of the single 4-patch blocks and 2 of the strip-pieced blocks. Again, pay attention to the color placement.

Stitch the rows together beginning with row 1 . Add a sashing strip, but note the placement of the 4-patch placement in the sashing. (circled in photo)

 

 Add a row 2. Continue adding rows and sashing alternately and note the position of the squares in each sashing row (circled in photo).

TA-DA! ....the quilt top is assembled and next we will move on to adding the borders.

now back to our quilt....

Okay, enough goofing off - here's the next steps for the Stitch -a-long  with Linda. So far we have made all the blocks, the sashing and the most of the borders. Now we can start putting put it all together. Kathleen is keeping right up...... check out her progress at welcome to my world

Border 1
The first border that gets added are the 4-1/2" x 34" print border strips.
Add one to each end of the quilt. They will be wider than the quilt top so after stitching they will get trimmed.

stitch un-pieced print borders to the ends of the quilt.

Trim off excess border fabric, even with the edge of the quilt.

Piano key borders.......
you may have been wondering what we were going to do with the rest of the strip pieced sets.
It's for the next border on the quilt.
Cut the remaining strip pieced units into sixteen 4-1/2" segments.

cut sixteen 4-1/2" segments

Make two piano key borders by stitching together 8 segments for each.
Press seams in one direction.

Make 2 piano key borders

Stitch the piano key borders to the border you just added on each end of the quilt. 
Press seams to the print.

 

 Side borders....
On to the last border!
Remember the border strips that you put together in the  October 28th posting .......
Stitch one to each side of the quilt, matching the seams of the border with the sashing seams at the middle of the quilt.

Match seams of border piecing with sashing seams at center of quilt

The ends of the borders will be longer than the quilt so you will trim them even, as shown below......

okay ~ there's the borders but wait we're not done yet.........

groovy!

Hahaha
.... if you actually used the word groovy, along with 'far out',  'dig it'  and truckin'  extensively at one time, you're gonna love these snaps! Enjoy a stroll down memory lane :)

Far out!

groovy!

 by the way.... those are vintage suede boots, suede belt, tie dye t-shirt, headband, tank top and some of the jewelry - the hair is new LOL. I'm waiting for the snaps from my friends camera. I didn't have one with us at the downtown festivities. Shame on me, but I know she got some good ones. I'll share soon.

I'll also be posting more of the Stitch-a-long in the next day or two. If you want to see it from the start go to the September 20th posting.