2013 January 16 — Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara

Quilt Guilds

January 16, 2013 · by JudyL

Are you in a local guild? If not, have you ever been? Do you love it? I don’t love our local guild. I’m not sure why I feel the need to be a guild member because since leaving the group in Louisiana, I’ve never been thrilled with the guilds where we’ve lived. I’m sure it’s me — my stay-at-home-be-alone personality. The guild in Kentucky was ok but I never got involved and that’s probably why I never felt a part. The guild in MO had a lot of older ladies (I know . . I’m no spring chicken!) and it seemed like a few of them came the guild ready for a disagreement, no matter what was talked about.

The guild here – the meetings go on and on and on. There’s rarely anything to discuss that they can’t drag what should take 5 minutes into a 20 minute discussion. In the almost year and a half that we’ve been here, I’ve been to either 3 or 4 meetings and they tell me that it’s only when I’m there that the meetings are long. OK . . I can definitely solve that problem! I’m sure it’s me and not the guild but still, it’s just not for me.

Yesterday was my turn to bring the block of the month and this is the block I made.

Summer Wind Block

It also happens to be the block that goes into this quilt!

Summer Wind Quilt

The quilt will be a Quilt of Valor to send to Alycia but in order to get the quilt to be the right size, I’m having to use 11″ blocks. That makes for some very weird sized pieces — you know . . those 3/8″ or 5/8″ cuts and I knew better than to present that to the guild so the block they’re making will be 12″. You can get the file January Guild Block if you’d like to make any of those blocks in the 12″ size.

It’s a pretty block and easy to make but it doesn’t look so great with the other blocks on my design wall!

Wrong Block!

Two more full bear paw blocks to make and those will be done. Then I’ll tackle the setting triangles and save the easy chain blocks for the last part of this puzzle.

· Filed Under: Quilting · 68 Comments

What’s Cooking – Week 3, 2013

January 16, 2013 · by JudyL

I can’t wait to see the spinach recipes that get submitted. Even though spinach is not one of the foods that I LOVE, I like it ok and the nutritional value keeps me using a lot of it.

If you haven’t checked out the recipes submitted, if you like to cook or like new recipes, you might want to spend some time on these recipes. Over the weekend, I made Jo’s Gingered Carrot Soup recipe, though I changed it just a bit, and it was delicious! I have some still in the fridge and I’ll heat it up to go with our hot dogs for lunch. And I made Cassandra’s Carrots and they were so good! If it warms up a bit, I’m going to go dig more carrots and fix those again tonight. They were amazing! They were good, they were quick and they were easy. I’m thinking that even someone who is sure they don’t like carrots would love these.

Today we will share our spinach recipes in the link box below.

The ingredient for next week is:

Cream Style Corn

I don’t like it! I don’t even like to look at it but if I can disguise it in a recipe, I use it. Don’t ask me why I don’t just forget about it and not use it but for some reason, I seem determined to make myself like it. After all these years, you’d think I’d give up.

· Filed Under: Cooking · 12 Comments

Weekly Sock Posts

January 16, 2013 · by JudyL

My good buddy, Judy, who listens to so much of my whining and my crazy ideas and she still loves me . . she suggested that I add a link box for the socks we’re wearing. How fun!! And we’ll see how long it takes this link box idea to get copied and show up on someone else’s blog! Yes, that has happened to me and no, I am not happy about it.

Beginning tomorrow, on Thursdays, I will post a “Show Us Your Socks” post and you can link up to your blog. You do not have to show hand knitted socks. They can be cute socks that you bought. They can be socks you’ve had for 10 years and they’re full of holes. They can be cute socks that your friend is wearing and she allows you to take a picture of her feet. The only rule is – the socks have to be on your feet when the picture is taken. Or, they have to be on someone’s feet. They cannot be socks that you see in the store (unless you stop, put them on and take a picture — and I’m not suggesting you do that!).

There are quite a few folks who go through the links on link boxes. Linking up and consistently having something to show is a good way to get traffic to your blog.

Sounds like fun! Thanks, Judy, for that idea!

· Filed Under: Knitting & Weaving · 3 Comments

Arctic Qiviut

January 16, 2013 · by JudyL

This morning as I was going through my email, I had one from Allison at Simply Sock Yarn. Even though I don’t need any sock yarn, when those emails come in from the yarn stores, I feel obligated to read them because someone took the time to write them and I never want to be rude. In Allison’s email this morning, she mentioned the newly stocked supply of Arctic Qiviut. I had to read it because . . well, it’s real hard for me to see a “Q” without a “u” behind it. I should not have read about it for several reasons:

It’s warm! My feet would be so happy if they could get warm. I slept in socks last night!
It’s durable!
It’s pretty!
It’s hard to get! That automatically makes me want it — anything that’s hard to get. I’ll spend half my day watching their website and when it’s all gone, I’ll be so happy I got some. I think that could be my hoarding ~~skill~~ illness rearing its ugly head.

I normally wouldn’t pay half that much for a skein of sock yarn. But for all the aforementioned reasons, and for the fact that my dad takes blood thinners and his feet are always cold, I ordered a skein to make him a pair of socks and for the additional fact that I’m not making him a pair of socks unless I have some for my own self, I ordered a skein to make some for me.

I think I’ve reached my yarn buying quota for January but . . you never know what might happen!