Tasty Chicken

I've heard for a long time about "Beercan Chicken" but never knew anyone that made it. While we were at my brother's last weekend, the two "Howard's" decided to make it. (My DH and brother are both named Howard.) For one they used a hot sauce mixture in the can and for the other a balsamic vinegar. It was so yummy and moist. They also cooked about 45 pounds of Boston Butt for bbq and then chopped it and put it in the freezer to have later in the winter. Of course, you can use any aluminum can you have, soda, beer, juice, or whatever and use whatever liquid you want for seasoning. They even have cookbooks out just for beercan chicken. They look so cute sitting up there that I'm thinking of seeing if I can work that into a quilt somehow.

On a quilting note, I did get to one of the quilt shops in Knoxville yesterday, Mammaw's Thimble. If you like '30's fabrics, this is the place to go. They have the largest selection I've ever seen in one place. I went for batting and wound up getting a dozen FQ's of the 30's to use in the graduation quilt for one of the DGD's. I just found out that she is going to be graduating a year early so I now need two graduation quilts in May instead of one. One wants a rubber duck theme and the other wants SunBonnet Sue. Better get busy.

Confetti quilt

Here's a photo of my "Confetti Quilt" that I made from fabrics that I bought in Florida. We were visiting my DH's family in Cocoa at the time. They have a nice quilt shop there. This was going to be a class and I fell in love with the sample. Since I wouldn't be there for the class, they showed me the book the pattern was in and of course, I had to buy it along with the fabrics to make it. In the book, it just has a plain binding on the edges. It's large enough for a throw or small child's quilt. Not sure if I want to leave it this size or add borders and make it larger.

New vaccum cleaner

I have a new vaccum cleaner. Went out this morning and found the perfect cannister vaccum for me to use. It's powerful but still light enough for me to use and it has a "bag". I've had a baggless one before and absolutely hated it. It cleaned well but emptying it was a real pain. It built up a lot of static electricity so that when you took out the container of dust to empty it, it got powder fine dust all over the outside of the vaccum cleaner and the surrounding area. For someone with allergies, that was totally unacceptable. I kept it and used it for several years until I couldn't take it any more and got a cannister with a bag. Now that one has died so in comes the new one. I was surprised by the colors available. In this model, I had a choice of white or blue. I took the blue one. It's not a navy, it's "Carolina Blue" for those of you from the south. Now those dust bunnies had better watch out. I'm coming after them.

This is a wallhanging that I taught for a group of friends at a retreat back in March. It's the Buckeye Beauty from Eleanor Burns book, "Quilts Through the Season". I think it came our very well, especially the stripe fabric in the border. It sure makes it look like I worked really hard to get all of those strips to miter when it's only one strip of fabric. Sometimes, a stripped fabric is your best friend.

A New Experience

This is a very new experience for me. I've never considered myself to be a computer nerd or even close to one but blogs hold a certain fascination for me as a way to share the things that are important in my life with others. Will see how this goes for now. It may be a good thing and it may not. Will just have to wait and see. I have a lot to learn.