Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm

Chickens and books are two of my favorite things and when the two are together, boy I am full of giggles. Last month there was a Blog Hop and giveaway of this book, The Chicken Encyclopedia by Gail Damerow. Well I entered all the blogs I could trying to win this book and when the giveaway was over and I did not win I figured Ill just go and get my own.. But that's not the end, here I was ready to go and get one of my own when I received an email from  Daricia at A Charlotte Garden  to let me know that the first pick was unable to reach so I was second pick. Yippee I did win. Thank you Daricia, and do yourself a favor and check out her beautiful blog on gardens of the Charlotte area in N.C. And if you are interested it is a very informative book, one that should be in every chicken raisers library. It's published by Storey Publishers.

The beginnings of a quiche.

I just love asparagus!!! My asparagus is growing like crazy in the beds I had planted 9 years ago and seeing how it is over 3 years established,  I can harvest spears for 3 weeks. I have a bed that is 25' long and 2.5' wide with 20 plants/crowns. I have been harvesting the spears for a week now and in this first week I have harvested 5.5 lbs. So as you can see I have a bunch, a big bunch to do something with. Yesterday on our local TV channel they had a great soup recipe that sounded wonderful. We tried it tonight and  "the man of the place"  loved it, even thou it was healthy. It was very good. But I had more asparagus than what the soup called for so I froze the rest.  I used the spears to freeze and the stalks for the soup. To freeze them cut the ends off and leave about 5- 6" spear tips. Cut the stalks into 2" pieces. Need to blanch the spears for 1 - 2 minutes and then put in ice water. Dry and freeze  in freezer bags, jars for freezing or

You know that saying "When life gives you lemons, you make lemonade" Well I change that to "When family and friends give you yarn, you make African Flower Hexagons"   You see today I cleaned out the hall closet, I should of took a before picture so I could do a before and after but I didn't think about it. So what I did do was take a picture of the worsted weight yarn I have.  That's to say I have other types of yarn not shown.  Pitiful   Two of the large containers came out of the hall closet. If you crochet or knit, maybe this happens to you too but I have family and friends who will give me yarn. And as you can see I can not say no to free yarn. I realize I really need to start using it and giving some away because it has just been too much. Decide to go online and find a new pattern (easy). I've done granny squares in the past and wanted something fresh. Love hexagons in quilts so this pattern just spoke to me. I found ve

This is an egg I made by covering Styrofoam eggs with Yo-Yo's.  They are so cute. You make a lot of Yo-Yo's and I did used the Clover Yo-Yo maker. I really like using it because to me it is easier and faster. So when making a lot of these it helps. Then you attach them with straight pins. I did not try a hot glue gun, because I could not remember if you can use hot glue on Styrofoam.  Overlap the Yo-Yo's  Now you can add small buttons when pinning the Yo- Yo's on like this one. This is how all of these are done. I love eggs, you think. Kat

So here it is Monday again and doesn't seem I was able to get much done in the quilting department last week. Still working on The Little Birdie blocks but I took them down to put up April's UFO Challenge #10. Little dark, sorry  My 10 is a taupe sampler that was a BOM of the month a couple of years ago. I was able to get half the blocks completed but stopped. So down it came off the shelf and up on the wall. Poor thing hasn't seen the light of day in ages. Have to say it keeps the color better if doesn't. The piece of the fabric at the bottom of the picture is the fabric I'm going to use to set in it.  I have so much going on right now with the garden and my daughter (twins) not sure what is going to get done. But if time allows, I will do all I can. My piecework is a pleasure and comfort to me so when time's get rough, I, like a lot of us, go to stitching or needlework of some form for an outlet.  I glad I have it and always felt it as a blessi

Baked Scotch Eggs Ingredients: 1 pound bulk pork sausage 6 hard cooked eggs 1 cup fine dry bread crumbs, purchased or home made, plain or seasoned or cornflakes crushed 1 egg 1 tablespoon water 1 teaspoon prepared mustard Sauce: 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons flour salt and pepper to taste 1 teaspoon chopped parsley 1 to 1 1/4 cups half-and-half 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard Preparation: On a sheet of waxed paper, divide sausage into 6 equal portions; wrap 1 portion around each egg. Roll each wrapped egg in bread crumbs. Beat egg with mustard and water; dip sausage-wrapped eggs in beaten egg mixture. Roll in bread crumbs again; place on a rack in a shallow baking dish. Bake at 400 degrees for about 35 minutes or until browned, turning once during baking. Cut into halves lengthwise; serve hot with Dijon sauce or sauce of your choice. Serves 6. Dijon Sauce: In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter. Whisk in flour; cook for about 1 minute,