skip to main |
skip to sidebar
I haven't been getting much done on my quilted shower curtain. Just too darn much to do during a day's time. In the evening, I've been plopping my tush down on the couch and watching some of the Olympics. I can't sit there with idle hands, though, so a couple of days ago I took some time to sort through the jumble of bags and baskets in a corner of my quilting room to find some handwork to do while watching TV.
My goodness! Who knew I had so many unfinished projects in that heap of yarn and patterns?
I decided to work on this scarf which I finished last night . . . hooray!
It's a cotton yarn so the scarf is meant to be worn more as an accessory (although not necessarily with this gray sweatshirt I have on today!) than something to keep my neck warm.
I like this pattern because even the back, or wrong side, is attractive. (In this picture the right side is on the right, flip side on the left.) It's called the "berry" pattern. I've used it to make a scarf once before, but this one I think I'll keep for myself. It is orange, and we all know orange is my color!
Happy Valentine's Day to y'all! We're celebrating by doing some snow removal. I just came in from shoveling off the front deck. The piles of snow surrounding the deck are so high now that it's hard to throw the snow over them without it tumbling back at me. We got around 6-8" yesterday but had winds that caused a bit of drifting. Papa Pea shoveled a drift away from the door before I could even get out to the deck. Hope all of you who are experiencing some winter weather in the south and east are warm and safe.
I know there are many different ways of "preserving" eggs for future use. The way I've had luck doing it is super-simple and works for me.
Our hens usually go into a molt and stop laying eggs around the middle December. (Just before I plan on using more of them than usual for holiday baking, of course.) Knowing this lack of the beautiful, oval orbs is on the horizon, I start stockpiling my eggs about a month before that time. We don't sell our eggs, but do give them away to friends and use them for barter. This comes to a screeching halt at that time.
How do I "stockpile" them? Simply by storing them in our spare refrigerator.
When the eggs come from the hen house, I don't let them sit around at room temperature. I clean them, put them in egg cartons, label them and into cold storage they go. Jiffy quick.
I realize many sources say you should never wash your eggs in water because the shells are permeable and will absorb water. (I also know that commercial egg factories submerge their eggs in hot, soapy [yuck] water to insure they are pristinely clean when they appear in grocery stores.)
Supposedly you can rid your eggs of any dirt by lightly sanding them with sand paper. (Hmmm, if the egg shells are porous enough for water to get through to some degree, wouldn't the dust from rubbing them with sand paper penetrate the shell?) I've tried sanding and I can assure you it does not do a good job of removing dirt, manure or whatever else those sometimes muddy little chicken feet deposit on the eggs shells.
But I don't submerge my eggs in water to clean them either. I put them in a dry sink, turn the faucet on to a low stream of tepid water, moisten a paper towel and clean each egg before placing it on a clean cloth or paper towel to air dry. Then the eggs are put into egg cartons and go in the refrigerator. I try to make the time from chicken house to storage refrigerator as short as possible.
Each filled egg carton is labeled with the date so I know which eggs are oldest, which are newest.
I think by the first part of this past December, when our hens squeezed out their last egg before going on hiatus, I had about 18 dozen eggs squirreled away.
I have read that eggs may be as much as two months old when they are purchased from a grocery store. I just used a carton of eggs from our birds that was 2-1/2 months old and all of the eggs were just fine.
When using "older" eggs, I do put them through a bit of a test first. And this does require submerging them in water. Briefly.
~ Put the eggs in a bowl of cold water. Water should cover eggs by an inch or so.
~ If the egg remains on the bottom of the bowl, it's still fresh.
~ If it sits on the bottom with a slight tilt or angle, it's still fresh and fine to eat.
~ If it stands on end on the bottom of the bowl, it's still safe to eat but is best used for baking.
~ If it floats off the bottom, it's stale and is best discarded.
In the picture above, you can see the white egg on the right is tilted up. (These were eggs from a carton marked December 31st. And it's quite possible the tilted egg was older than that because at that time, we were getting very few eggs a day so it took a while for me to fill a whole carton of twelve eggs.) I cracked that egg into a separate bowl this morning and found it to be A-OK so I used it in a baked egg dish.
Of the many dozen eggs I stockpiled this winter, I still have two dozen "old" ones to use. I have no fear of using them, especially after I run them through the float test. Out of all the eggs I saved and have been using in the past couple of months, I had only one that floated to the top of the water. I cracked it open, and although it looked and smelled fine, I chose not to use it. Granddog Tucker was happy to have it as a mid-morning snack.
My method of storing eggs certainly wouldn't be as good a method as dehydrating or freezing for a long, long length of time. But it works for me for the period our hens go into their molt and quit laying during the darkest days of winter. I think the thing is if you take proper care of your eggs right away when they come from the chickens, they will store very well in a refrigerated temperature for a couple of months . . . or even a smidge longer.
One morning last week we lost two chickens to what we believe was a big owl. (Apparently, Mr. [or Ms.] Owl thought the first chicken tasted so good, he/she came back for one more.)
For the past couple of months, our chickens have been on their annual no-egg-laying vacation, and if it weren't for the fact that I stockpiled enough eggs, we would have been on a sad, eggless diet during December and January.
Now I'm beginning to think the owl attack has scared the eggs right out of the hens, because for the last several days we've been getting a good number of eggs.
One hen (proud producer of that biggie on the lower right hand corner) seems to be trying to make up for lost time. And bless our little bantam hens (eggs in top row). Even while everyone else was on hiatus, we continued to get one, sometimes two, bantam eggs a day. We love our little banties!
My spring shower curtain project is progressing.
One appliqued "flower" panel is done, and I'm working on the second one. There are four of them in total.
The flower panels are fun to do because I can see the progress in a very definite way as I go along.
I find myself wanting to do the applique work by hand instead of by machine ('cause I MUCH prefer the way it looks) but know it would take for-EVAH. That's fine for a nice piece that will be enjoyed and taken care of for a long time, but my shower curtains get washed at the end of each seasonal period of use. Plus, the bathroom window (facing south) is at right angles smack next to the shower stall in our small bathroom and all of my shower curtains get faded . . . which means I feel the need to replace them every few years.
Lots on my list for today, but with luck I'll get to spend at least some time in my quilt room. At least no snow to shovel and/or remove in the last week. Just continued cold weather and even some bright sunshine now and then. Old Sol is definitely getting higher in the sky. Life is good!
Yesterday, Linda over at Multilocus wrote a post that struck a chord with me. She talked of taking the time to make eye contact and share a smile with another person (or people) with whom we have casual contact during a day's time.
Her post reminded me of something I wrote shortly after I started blogging in 2008. I looked it up and decided to repeat it here today.
Years ago I made an embroidered sampler that hangs in my kitchen. It says, "I Know I'm Efficient. Tell Me I'm Beautiful."
An acquaintance of ours, who was a talented and well-respected physician (the last I knew he was running an AIDS hospice in the middle of New York City), stopped in briefly one day to pick up a part for his wood stove that we had ordered for him. (We were dealers for Jotul wood stoves at the time.)
As he was standing in the doorway, I could see he was looking across the kitchen and reading my sampler. He got a little, half-smile on his face, nodded his head slowly and said, "Ain't that the truth."
This was not a vain man who needed constant reassuring in regards to his physical attractiveness, but a well-established, highly intelligent, professional person who one would assume had all the confidence in the world. And yet, the basic need for appreciation and reassurance of one's "beauty," be it of physical body or soul, was there just as strongly as in any of the rest of us.
Much of the time we are all too willing to loudly and frequently make fun of imperfection in body shape, grouse about personality short-falls or voice our irritation regarding the habits of those around us.
But how often do we take the time to pay someone a compliment? "You have such gorgeous eyes." "You have really beautiful hair." "You have the most attractive smile." "Your delightful laugh is so uplifting." When wouln't it make any of us feel wonderful to be given an honest compliment?
If we would all make a conscious effort to give a compliment to one person each day for one week, I have a sneaky suspicion it would not only make a lot of people feel a momentary warm glow . . . but more likely make them feel pretty darn chirky for the whole day.
It's those "little" things that can mean so much to each and every one of us. We get so caught up in our lives, the hustle and bustle of our sometimes too busy days. Yet it takes so little time to make eye contact, share a kind word and a warm smile.
So go ahead now, and tell me I'm beautiful. (Oh, wait. I don't suppose it counts for much if one asks for the compliment. Drat.)
Gosh, in the dim recesses of my mind I seem to recall a TV show (this was way back in my childhood) called "You Asked for It!" People wrote in with weird questions and the show presented answers to the inquiries. Anywho . . .
In answer to multitudinous two requests, here's a little more info on the spring shower curtain I'm making.
These are a few (not all of them) of the strip sets I made to begin construction. They were set together on the diagonal.
And formed these eight vertical strips.
Next they had to be trimmed . . .
. . . which left this pile of triangles.
Of course, I couldn't toss them (gadzooks, no!) so put them in a baggie and then into my special box of scraps that I will probably never someday dive into and create unbelievably magnificent quilted pieces that will end up at the Smithsonian Recycling Center.
The strips all trimmed up.
Then I cut the alternating panels on which the appliqued vines and flowers will go. I didn't yet cut the plain panels to size because applique work tends to pull a piece of fabric up/in/smaller and these panels will probably be a tad bit shorter when the applique work is finished. There will also be 1" wide strips of a blue fabric between the colored panels and the appliqued ones, but I won't cut them until the panels are completed.
Cutting out and constructing the applique pieces takes a lot of time. Yesterday I got all the bias stems made . . .
. . . and some of the flowers cut out. Next the leaves and then I'll be ready to start the applique work fun!
