Fair Premiums

 Another successful fair year here in Canbyland.
This foxy pieced pillow earned Class Champion. Woot!

 I made this Monopoly table topper many years ago and decided it was time to move it on. You can buy it here in my etsy shop. This was my successful effort at making a square from obviously printed off-grain and off-kilter fabric from Joann's. I had to do some strange manipulations to get the three fabrics to behave. I also made the tassels on the four corners.

 This airplane tote won a blue ribbon

 As did this Bella Wallet

 My chickie hotpad won second in the potholder class.

 All seven of the items I entered.
I won ribbons on five.

 So much fun. They are all listed in my etsy shop, RunningWithNeedles. When I sell these handmade items, I include the fair ribbon.  A little touch of fun-ness.


So - work stuff: Getting my time off - thanks to the union. Supervisor is still wanting to argue it, but seriously - so not my problem.

We are probably not going to Madras this weekend. Not only do we have forest fires (smoke) to contend with but there is another long-range forecast for rain - which may or may not happen. {{no rain in over four months except for piddly drops here and there that evaporated before they hit the ground}

I'm fine with this. I got to go flying last week and it really lightened my load. I am so zen in my head right now.

Oh - yes! I won $16 in fair premiums this year. Double WOOT!

Mail Count Half Over

Flying airplane with chickie pilot - Love it. Looks like our old Cessna 170A.

Fukuoka:  Special postcrossing postcard for different regions in Japan. Vintage castle postcard.

Scandanavian Crocheted Heart - you can find how-to directions on the sidebar of Teresa's Blog:

A fellow Postcrosser: Over 4000 cards sent and she lives 20 minutes from me!!!

Benta sent a fabric postcard for my mail carrier too!

Fumikou - Japanese letter sachets. I can make my own now.

Sweet pile of February fun.

Today's outgoing mail

Taking photos today of some of the postcards I've received. So far.

My carrier is super happy with how much mail volume she has received. Normally, during count, mail volume vanishes. ** As in, everyone suspects the PO of holding back the mail, somehow. Not this time. Lots of packages, lots of hours, lots of first class. Three routes are being counted out of six rural routes for my city of Canbyland. We have five city routes which get figured differently (I know!). So complicated - it's the government at its best. I love being a federal employee (sarcasm!).





I came up with a giveaway for everyone who reads this blog - you can tell your friends too.
To win this chicken pot holder, all you have to do is send me a postcard (or a letter). It must be postmarked between Feb 7 - 24, 2015). My address is in the original giveaway post.

This helps out my amazing mail carrier with more mail volume. I will draw randomly - seriously- the best postcard photo, the best joke, the best drawing, it will be my favorite card.

International peoples are welcome, I will post this chicken hot pad to the winner at the end of February.
Rural mail count goes from February 7 - 28, but I chose to end this giveaway on the 24th so I can receive your entry during mail count.

***You might get extra points if you state on your postcard or in your letter how many other stamped pieces of mail you sent out during this time.
***Or maybe you know some good chicken jokes.
***Or, you can sketch flying airplanes, with chickie pilots.

Red Thread Stash Busting

 I am notorious for not changing thread.
Not because it's hard to do.
I'm an amazingly lazy person. I will sew Red until I am out of red projects. It's quite amazing how nice red looks on yellow.

My serger is threaded with neutral thread cones. Most of the time - Black or White. And it's an easy machine to thread too.

 However, I made a New Year's resolution to completely use the fashion fabric before I moved on so chickens were hatched.

The remains of that yellow chickie material are in tiny pieces in the scrap basket.

 Do you know what I dislike even more than changing my thread? Making flocks multiples. I can easily cut out ten but by the time I get to the fourth one, I am done. D-O-N-E. Time to move on.

I have little enough time to sew, and way too many projects percolating in my head. Sewing the same project over and over leads  to . . .

Can you sew in multiples or do you like unique projects more?

  There is a particularly difficult place to sew on these chickies. I wasn't getting my bias tape just right here. I must have sewed over it four times before I realized I had emptied another spool. I was just making needle tracks.

Underneath shot where the eggs come out. lol    Looks like a baseball mitt here.

The Chicken Pot Holder giveaway is still open through the end of the month. All you have to do is send me a postcard or a letter. My address is on the original post. I've already got some really cute postcards, including an embroidered airplane.  I'll post those in a couple of days.


This morning dawned bright and sunny - no fog!  I went out with the dog as he started on his morning patrol. As I came around the kitchen window hedge, I got dive bombed by some snarky hummingbirds and the wrens and finches were making angry chirping songs. Their feeders were empty.
While I waited for the sugar syrup to cool, I lucked out on making this video of the poor staving hummingbird.

Do you make your own hummingbird syrup? It's easy: One part sugar to four parts water. Red food coloring optional for most.

In my household, I have to add red coloring because, helpful hubby sees the 'water' in the pan and dumps it, scours the pan, and then throws it into the dishwasher. Coloring it red means I don't have to re-make it.

Have A Cup Of Tea With Me

 Chicken, Chicken,  who wants a cool pot holder??
Got a giveaway going on here through the month of February.
All you need to do is send me a postcard/letter.
International peeps too.

 A customer recently sent me a surprise package with some insulbright for me. I sewed up some hot pads right away and then recalled that she had bought a couple of hot pads already so I went with my patented "Have a cup of tea with me" idea instead as a thank you.

 And then, that same week, Pencil Girl sent me a happy package as well. She's famous because she helped sew the giant lion that appeared in the super bowl half time show. I almost watched the game for her. Almost.

Still figuring out what to make her. I caught a head cold that is very drippy.
Did you notice how well the zips matched the fabric -- maybe not -  as the color on the computer twisted them. But they match the pretty green (yes) of the fabric plus some extras in my colors of aqua/turquoise.

I love getting mail. I hope you will enter my giveaway and send me a postcard or a letter this month.

Chicken Giveaway

I dumped my tea kettle for this very efficient water kettle. It boils water, like in 2 seconds (lol). My chickie doesn't really care for being perched so high.

Much better on my Desert Rose teapot.

I came up with a giveaway for everyone who reads this blog - you can tell your friends too.
To win this chicken pot holder, all you have to do is send me a postcard (or a letter). It must be postmarked between Feb 7 - 24, 2015).

This helps out my amazing mail carrier with more mail volume. My address is below.
I will draw randomly - seriously- the best postcard photo, the best joke, the best drawing, it will be my favorite card.

International peoples are welcome, I will post this chicken hot pad to the winner at the end of February.
Rural mail count goes from February 7 - 28, but I chose to end this giveaway on the 24th so I can receive your entry during mail count.

You might get extra points if you state on your postcard or in your letter how many other stamped pieces of mail you sent out during this time.
Or maybe you know some good chicken jokes.
Or, you can sketch flying airplanes, with chickie pilots.

I told you it would be a random pick.














***For the next three weeks, my rural postal route is being counted (Feb 7 - 28).
 
I have the best carrier and I like to support her so I will be posting extra letters and packages this month from my home to help her out.
Counting rural routes determines a carriers salary - an evaluation.
Mail volume has re-bounded since the recession with first class mail up over 1.5%.

Her route has not been counted in four years so she should see a huge boost in salary for the long days she has been putting in. She starts her day at 6:30/7am and ends it around 5/6pm. She generally works five days a week with a sub on Saturdays.

I've written about mail count before:
1. How your rural carrier gets paid.

2. Letter Writing.

3. Who to write to.

A lot of rural routes are being counted this month, not just mine. Whether you live on a rural route or know someone who does, I would like to encourage you to write more snail mail, especially this month.

Chicken Hot Pads

I had a productive rainy day Sunday sewing time.
And I needed to change my blog post photo from the last one. Eewww.

Everyone I know was watching the super bowl but me. I've never been into football that much, can't drink the beer {Glutens, barley, hops :'( }. I almost watched it because Pencil Girl helped make the giant lion who made an appearance at the half time show.

   

I have a friend who is dire need of replacing her chicky hot pad so I dug out the box from where it had been stored for a few years and found that I already had some chickens cut out and ready to sew. I used to make these for holiday bazaars.

The wings are pockets for your hands. She keeps hers sitting/nesting over the teapot handle.

My zips came in so I was able to finish using up my laminate and I also used this free 'suede'  sample swatch from Spoonflower. Just the right size to make this Dumd Valentine Pouch.

This one might be my favorite. Soft airplanes.

I tried top-stitching on the vinyl laminate with a dull sewing machine needle and the backside is cruddy with skipped stitches. I am contemplating tossing this one or doing a giveaway. I spent about two seconds thinking about ripping out the top stitching and hand stitching around the heart instead with a thicker thread (the holes in the laminate are permanent). It might have to go into the time-out closet.

For The Chicken Who Has Everything

My friend Janine (Crafty Tokyo Mama) favorited this item on Etsy.
{I squawked.  I cackled.}


The Seller/Creator says, "This sweater features a full back, straps that fasten with a snap behind the wings and an 8-inch turtleneck and was designed for chickens whose neck feathers are missing. This particular half sweater is hand-crocheted from 100% cotton as Addie lives in Texas where it is very hot."

I think this bit of randomness sums up my life this week. We're in the middle of a heat wave here and trying to work in it - hoping it will cool down enough at night to cool the house down for the next round.

Too many hours at work covering vacations.
The sewing has been at a minimum.

I did sew a maxi-skirt for the 4th of July but I need a couple of photos of it first in order to post.

Chicken Curry - Mulligatawny Soup

Two weekends ago I made a new soup.

I found it in a Susan Wiggs book. It might have been The Apple Orchard. Or not. I was reading a couple of Wigg's books at the time.
There were various recipes at the start of each chapter.

It's a pureed soup with plenty of veggies.


Onion, Apple, Celery, Carrot,Tomato, Bell Pepper. Diced.



Used up my vintage Curry Powder and bought Garam Masala spices at my local Thriftway.



This is such a great soup. Perfect for Fall. It can be easily changed up - if you want it vegetarian - just use vegetarian stock and leave out the chicken.

Mulligatawny Soup
from a Susan Wigg's novel.

1 whole boneless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces
salt & pepper
4 Tbsp. butter (separated)

diced fruits & veggies, including a whole onion, whole apple, stick celery, a carrot, a tomato, a bell pepper.

1 clove of garlic, minced
1/4 cup flour (Rice flour)
1 Tbsp. Curry Powder
1 tsp. Garam Masala
4 cups chicken stock (I used beef stock because we are out of chicken)
1 cup cream or plain yogurt (Coconut Milk)
Cayenne pepper to taste

Season diced chicken with salt & pepper. Warm two tbsps. of butter over medium-high heat in a wide, deep pot. Add chicken and saute until golden; remove chicken and keep warm.

Add the rest of the butter to pot and reduce heat to medium. Add diced veggies and garlic and saute until mixture starts to brown.
Sprinkle in flour, curry pwd. and garam masala.

Add the chicken stock and stir to combine, then simmer until veggies are soft. Puree with your immersion blender or in batches in your counter-top blender.
The soup doesn't need to be perfectly smooth.

Add cream/yogurt/coconut milk. Season with salt & pepper , cayenne. Top with unsweetened coconut flakes.

Kathy's notes:
I only used half an onion as I have problems with onions. I used 1 1/2 apples - using up the rest of my lunch-time apple -- don't. The sweetness is interesting - keep it to one apple.
I also would use more chicken. One chicken breast was about 12 oz. This could be due to the size of my veggies - creating more soup. For instance, I used two stalks of celery, not believing one was enough.
My big substitutions were rice flour and coconut milk. Great tasting soup; leading me to believe you could substitute whatever is in season as long as you have the curry powder and garam masala spices.
This is a great tasting soup to add to my repertoire.

added: Once pureed, the soup is a light tan color - forgot to take photo. Had unexpected company. They agreed - Great soup.