2009 April 14 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Using Eggs

April 14, 2009 · by JudyL

For those who asked about what I’ll do with all those eggs . . we eat them! They will last 3 – 4 months in the fridge. Do you know that it can take up to 30 days from the time an egg is laid before they get to the grocery store? Here’s some info. We use at least 2 dozen eggs per week so the eggs I showed earlier are in no danger of going bad before we use them. With breakfast, cooking and baking, eggs don’t last long around here.

As far as freezing eggs, I’ve never done it but here’s some info on that. When my chicks start laying, if I get more than I need, I’ll probably give them away to friends. No need to freeze them as long as I have plenty more coming in. But . . we’re not to that point yet!

· Filed Under: Cooking · 4 Comments

Too Many Cooks

April 14, 2009 · by JudyL

Last week I bought 2 dozen eggs from my local quilter friend who sells eggs. That same day, Vince was out of town and while traveling the back roads coming home, he saw a sign in a yard for “Fresh Eggs” so he bought 4 dozen.

The back 4 cartons are the ones Vince bought and those are some huge eggs! Some of them weigh over 4 ounces each! Yep, I know because was so astounded at their size that I weighed them on my kitchen scale. I do need a life, huh? They are some of the biggest eggs I’ve ever seen.

· Filed Under: Cooking · 19 Comments

New, Improved or Just Different

April 14, 2009 · by JudyL

When I’m writing a pattern for publication, instructions for half square triangles are written to cut the squares 7/8″ larger than the finished size of the HST. If I’m doing half square triangles for my own project, using this method, I cut my squares 1″ larger and trim them down.

Half square triangles (and lots of them) seem to make their way into almost every quilt I make. A while back, I wrote a blog post about making half square triangles. Michele from Quilting Gallery suggested I try Triangulations for quarter square triangles. That has changed the way I make quarter square triangles. Unbelievably easy and perfect!! Really perfect! I love the Triangulations software so much, I’ve added it for sale on my website. I am really sold on this technique.

In the next stash project, there are lots of flying geese. No half square triangles though! Since there are many flying geese and some are larger than average, I didn’t want to waste a lot of fabric, even though I’d end up with a bunch of half square triangles from the ends I cut off the flying geese, I went with the “no waste” method.

Patti Anderson has a great tutorial for making flying geese using this method. Please review her method and if you’re going to do the next stash project, try it and see what you think. I’ve made a whole stack of flying geese using this method and they’ve all come out totally perfect and pretty darned quick!