My Sewing Room Overfloweth

I've decided to get another table that will go in front of my current sewing table, which I used to call my desk. I need more room for my projects. From left to right on the wall they are: Mardi Gras quilt entered in the Guild quilt show the end of February (needs more feathers), appliqued hearts quilt (needs a label which I have already designed but not printed), blocks for the wedding quilt, block of the month (big star) for one quilt shop, my coffee cup quilt top and under the big star, my first applique block for a quilt. On my sewing table I have my hand quilting hoop. I took a class in that yesterday and really enjoyed it. The teacher did a good job of passing on her skills to us. There's a big roll of freezer paper between the file cabinet and my waste basket. It's perfect for applique. I also found out that blue painter's tape, especially the thin stuff, is excellent for making straight lines when you are hand quilting. It doesn't leave any residue on the fabric.

Thanks to all of you bloggers, my family and friends, I have managed to continue my birthday for almost an entire week. I got two more birthday cards yesterday via snail mail. My brother and his wife sent one of those musical cards. The song was "Age of Aquarius;" how perfect for an Aquarius.

It's another rainy day so I'm going to sew and quilt. Dinner is already in the crock pot; I love crock pots. It's filled with beef short ribs, chunks of banana squash (peeled), red wine, Worcestershire sauce, four cloves of diced garlic, chunks of onion and salt and pepper. When it's done I take the bones out and serve it over rice. It's a good rainy day meal plus it makes great leftovers.

That reminds me, we had our favorite meat market visit us on my birthday. We buy a lot of our meat from Bob at nearby Coffee Pot Ranch. He raises beef, lamb and pork without hormones or antibiotics. The animals get to live out their lives in normal conditions, not in a feedlot. Usually I get meat from him at various farmers' markets but in the winter there aren't many of them around so he called to see what we needed. We got a porterhouse steak which was big enough for the two of us, two packages of short ribs (one is in the crock pot), two packages of the yummiest bacon we've ever had, two packages of ground beef for Kerry's Super Bowl chili, and one package of pork chops. It's nice to have the meat market visit. He did confess during his visit that he has a Big Mac periodically even though he knows it's not good for him.

I've been meaning to mention a blog that I really like: http://www.dooce.com Heather Armstrong is the blogger; she lives in Salt Lake City but long ago gave up the Mormon church. She's funny and sacrilegious. Every month she writes a letter to her daughter (Leta is nearly four) about what has happened in her daughter's life during the past month. She has a picture each day of Chuck and now Coco (her dogs). Great photos. Give her a try.