Giraffe Quilt & Life/Housekeeping Update

These patterns by Laura Heine are collage.  This giraffe was fascinating, as far as how the maker put the fabrics together.

She requested straight line quilting, with some decorative elements added.  Here I've quilted in the shrubbery this hungry guy is eating.

 Here you can see the sun and pouffy clouds.

I was sooo in love with the back.

Now, the Life & Housekeeping Story.

I told you last month many tales of woe.  Things are mostly starting to recover, but not completely.
The latest Oh-For-Crying-Out-Loud is my diagnosis with Pityriasis Rosea. It's a virus that I just have to live with for about 12 weeks.  It started around Thanksgiving (ha ha, very funny Universe!) and should be gone by mid January.  Yay, I get to look like I've been boiled in oil over Christmas.  How fun is that?

Some of the good news is that DH hounded our fireplace insert company until they finally replaced our unit under warranty.  So I can stay warm this winter.  Happy, happy!
And on Friday our new fridge FINALLY arrived.  Although we had to remove two banks of cupboards to make it fit in the kitchen, and now we're having some, ahem, discussions about the necessity of a kitchen renovation.

In the Almost Finished category is the quilt guild.  One of our members passed away and bequeathed her sewing room to the guild - fabric, books, magazines, thread, notions, batting, stuffing, ribbons & trims, ufo's, etc., and she named me as the person in charge.  So far I've spent three full days working on that stuff, along with some wonderful helpers.  Our first sale will be this week with another one a week later.  Proceeds will be going into a separate fund for, I think, a quilt teacher.  I will be really glad to see that job tied up.

On the housekeeping front, since we will be renovating the kitchen (hee hee 😚) I thought I should do some shoveling purging in the pantry.  Out with 30 - yes 30 - years of Milk Calendars.  I had to page through every.single.one.  I needed to pull some recipes out, and it was fun seeing the funny notes my s.i.l. used to write on there when we were dog-sitting for them.

CALENDARS GONE BYE-BYE!

 That recipe for a fruit flan is delicious.  Once I get it into a plastic page protector and into the binder it should be much easier to find.  I think the last time I made it was three years ago.  DH and I were out for a walk and we scavenged pears from a wild tree growing at the side of the road.  My lovely neighbour Sophie provided the apples.

RECIPES I HAD TO SAVE

 Lord.  Instruction manuals for FOUR microwave ovens were in this pile.  We only have one.  The others have all gone to the landfill.  How sad is that?  I feel sorry for the generation that will have to clean up all that shit after we're gone.

MANUALS FOR APPLIANCES.

Canada - Still Celebrating, and Celery Soup

Yes, we are still celebrating this great country of ours. 💗

Celebrating our luck  to live in a wonderful place (and for most of us it IS just luck), especially with such a beautiful view...sunshine in spite of the threatening skies.  Sights like this give me a moment of absolute rapture.  I know that sounds a little theatrical, but I swear it's true.

Now, on to the sort of depressing story.  This was most of the end of the garden produce.  Sad.  I had to go back out and dig ALL the celery, then figure out what the hell to do with it.  Rachel Ray has a good soup recipe.  I doubled the 'guts' so it would be a nice, thick, hearty soup.  I've got my adapted version at the bottom of this post.

The last jalapenos were chopped and frozen.  They will warm my belly during the winter.

And my fall front porch table will need updating.

Helen's Bastardized Celery Soup Recipe:

CELERY SOUP (about 5 generous servings)

§  2 tbsp butter

§  2 tbsp olive oil

§  4 cups chopped celery

§  1 cup diced onion

§  2 cups diced potato

§  1 litre /2 pints of light chicken/ turkey or ham stock

§  salt

§  black pepper

§  1 cup heavy cream

Stew the celery and onion gently in the butter and oil in a covered pan for 10 minutes.  

Add the potato and stir to coat well with butter and oil.   Don’t let the vegetables brown.  

Add the stock.  Bring the soup to the boil and then reduce to a gentle simmer for 30 minutes or until the celery is very tender.  

Blend with your favorite food chopper/whizz-a-whizzer.  

Add the cream and rewarm the soup.

Taste and add salt and freshly ground black pepper.