Saturday, April 30, 2011

Hyggeligt Fabrics

 I'm so excited I found another fabric store here in London!


Hyggeligt Fabrics is a great store that carries all modern fabrics and has a HUGE collection of Kaffe Fasset. Chantal also has Liberty of London prints and organic fabrics.
You can find her on Facebook as well.
It's at 515 Richmond, in the plaza, you have to go through the walk way in the middle to find it.

Chantal is the owner and she is just such a wonderful, fun and nice person. I've gone in there and talked to her for hours. Which just tells you how much patience she has!
She's also the one behind starting the London Modern Quilt Guild! Which makes me happy!

We're going to be starting a Modern Block of the Month quilt program. probably in the fall. I'll give you more details when I have them.



I'll also most likely be teaching a few classes on techniques.

I'm so happy that I've finally found one of those awesome, friendly local quilt/fabric stores that so many people seem to have and just love.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Inaugral meeting of the London Modern Quilt Guild!!

Tuesday we had the first meeting of the London Modern Quilt Guild and it was a great time! There were about 15 of us, all different ages and background, and I am so excited!
Like us on Facebook!

We talked about wanting to be an open, friendly and teaching/learning guild, which is awesome.

Huge surprise I did a lot of talking!!

I can't wait for the next meeting!!

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Canadian Quilt of Valour Update

I've received lots of blocks so far!
I can't wait to get them put together! Thanks so much everyone!
I have 14 with stem, 10 without, and 8 plain blocks!

Thanks Michele, Sandra, Elizabeth, and Trisha!!

There's still time if you want to contribute! I will make up as many quilts as I get blocks and make up the difference.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

1 Choice 4 Quilting Giveaways!

I don't normally post about giveaways but thought you need to know about the ones going on at 1 Choice 4 Quilting!

The first one is here. And is for a kit to make one of the quilt's out of Amy's Modern Basics, and you have 3 fabric lines to choose from! They're starting up a Quilt Book Club! Isn't that awesome?

The second one is on the Quilting Book Club's site here! You could win a kit in Sherbert Pips and there are 2 copies of Amy's book being given away!

Requested Recipe, Gluten Free Chicken and Dumplings!

 Before I post the recipe I wanted to wish a Happy Easter and  Shalom Passover to my friends celebrating this weekend/week. And blessed day/s to those celebrating other faiths that I'm not as familiar with.

I posted on twitter that I was making Chicken and Dumplings and had several requests for the recipe so here it is.
Like so many recipes, especially from the South measurements are iffy, and there is a lot of substitution with what's on hand, preference etc.
When DH first had me make it we did it without any vegetables in the broth, because that's how it was made, well that's not how I wanted to make it so I of course added vegetables. After admitting it was better this way we've played with the recipe pretty much everytime we make it.
All ingredients are optional, well I guess not the chicken or dumplings! lol

Ingredients
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into chucks
broccoli stalks, chopped into chucks
Asparagus stalks, (the part you normally throw out, I just keep them for this)
cremini mushrooms, sliced or whole (these act as a bit of a gelatin so it won't be quite as creamy)
sm-med onion peeled and cut into quarters or eighths.
2-4 Bay leaves
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped fine
1 whole chicken, about 1.5-2 lbs, or a package of thighs, and one of breasts.Or fancy it up and use quails, or duck!
1 container of Chicken Broth - depends on how much evaporates if you'll need it, or if you need to stretch the pot.

In a large pot, the bigger the better, saute all of the vegetables for about 5 minutes, just get them cooking a bit, place your whole chicken right ontop of the vegetables, make a well if you need to in the center so the chicken can be covered by water.
Cover with water, about 12 cups. If a bit of the chicken sticks out of the water it's ok so long as you can put the lid on the pot. Just flip the chicken over about half way through.
Leave the lid on the pot and simmer on low to med-low heat for as long as you can, at least 1 hour, but 4 or 5 is better.
Prick the chicken and make sure the juices run clear.
Remove the chicken from the pot and put onto a platter or baking dish. Be careful! It's very hot and the broth will be...ummm...in it.
Let the chicken cool while you drain the pot through a sieve/colander into a large bowl. If you don't have either a large enough bowl or colander just use a slotted spoon and scoop out the vegetables and make sure you get those bay leaves. You can actually throw the mushrooms back in the pot if you like them, they're still good to eat, if you don't then don't.

My dogs absolutely love eating these left over vegetables. To you and me they'll taste like crap because they're so incredibly over cooked and mushy, but to them they're chicken infused heaven.

If you have someone to help, have them separate the chicken now. Or you can do it if the chicken is cool enough. Get as much meat as you can off the carcass being careful not to get any little bones or cartilage. Shred or chop up the meat so it's small enough you can get it and a dumpling on your spoon at the same time and put it back in the pot. 
If the pot is only half full at this point you may want to add the chicken broth. It will make it a bit soupier then you may be used to but it also doubles the servings.

Now it's time to make the dumplings, which are really just biscuits cut up small. Now don't panic if you can't make biscuits, these don't have to be perfect because they're being thrown in the pot, so no worries about crumbly or heavy here. No such thing as over worked dumplings. Have the kids help with this part and make it a real family dinner.

Ingredients
2 cups flour, I use my Namaste Perfect Flour blend, which is gluten free and awesome
1 TSP salt
3 TBSP margarine or butter
3/4 c milk (you may need a bit more or less depending on your flour and altitude)

Mix all the ingredients together until they're well blended. You want the consistency of play d'oh basically. Wet enough to roll, but not so sticky that it sticks to your fingers or rolling board.
You can either roll long thin rolls of dough and use a knife to to cut your dumplings, between 1/2"-1" depending on your preference, or just grab and toss in bits as you go. Kids can help with this part and they think its great fun.
You can also roll out the dough and use tiny cookie cutters to make fun shaped dumplings.




  So put the dumplings in the pot and let them cook on a gentle boil, about 15-20 minutes. Give one a taste and if it's too chewy just cook them a bit longer. The broth will become creamy looking as some of the flour from the dumplings melts into the broth. It will also thicken up some more once it's off the heat and cools some.


Salt and pepper to taste.


Enjoy!


Want to add some more vegetables to the final product? Add about 2 cups of chopped spinach, or some frozen vegetable mix when you add the dumplings.
You can also add some herbs, either to the broth or to the dumplings, I'd recommend sage, thyme or parsley.
 
Because I'm impatient I have to add crushed ice to my bowl before putting that first scoop of steaming hot yumminess into it or I guaranteed burn my mouth.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

London Modern Quilt Guild!

Tuesday April 26th will be the first meeting of the London Modern Quilt Guild and you can bet I'm going to be there!! I'm so excited for this new guild which I think will be a super friendly place. It's not been decided on what direction we will go in terms of being a teaching guild or what but what I can promise is it will be a place where Quilt Police are not allowed!!

The meeting will be at the Talbot Center Mall, 142 Fullerton at Richmond, in the conference room, and since the building is actually closed it's bring your own coffee for now. The meeting starts at 6pm and probably will go to about 8pm.

If you go early, before 5, you have enough time to drop in at Hyggeligt Fabrics, and visit the lovely Chantal who will also be at the guild meeting!!

Saturday, April 16, 2011

The online social world

I have to say I've met some of the nicest people online. Really.
I now count some of my best friends as people I've never actually met. I talk to them all day, pretty much everyday. If I'm offline for a few days they email to check on me. We talk quilting, kids, work, spouses, hobbies and pretty much everything you can think of.

While I met a few from my blog I met most of them through twitter. It can be a great place to meet and chat with people, and the biggest names in quilting superstars are there too.
You can see what they're up to, get to know the person behind the designs, fabrics or books.

Twitter isn't scary, it's easy to use and I promise you can have a lot of fun. Sign up for an account, give a few people a follow (like me!) and get chatting!

And remember every Tuesday night from 9-11pm EST I host a chat over there that has awesome prizes, and tons of fun.
All you have to do is add #talknt to the end of your tweets to be involved. Since it can move pretty fast I suggest following it in tweetchat, http://tweetchat.com/room/talknt You can change the speed of the refresh and everything.
The first Tuesday every month is sponsored by Fat Quarter Shop.

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Gluten Free Donuts

DH made me the most delicious gluten free donuts and timbits ever. Mine were coated with cinnamon and sugar and tasted like those Elephant Ears you get at the fair! My absolute favorite, have actually eaten even though I get horribly ill treat.

We use Namaste All Purpose Flour blend, which a totally gluten free mix made in a dedicated facility. I use this flour for everything and it works as a straight substitution. Everything I've made has turned out wonderfully and DH and Little Bit eat it without noticing a difference.
I seriously recommend trying this blend if you or someone you know needs gluten free. It really is awesome and makes life easy and yummy.

The only thing with these donuts is they do get dense after sitting out for a day or two, which means store in an air tight container if they somehow manage to last that long. Ok they actually make a lot of donuts so maybe freeze some, or be like me- a total glutton and eat them all!

The recipe can be found here. We substituted 1 cup apple sauce for the sweet potato, you don't taste the apple sauce. Oh we, this is the royal we by the way, used our little deep fryer, and drained them on a wire rack over a backing dish.
We also did some with sugar and cinnamon sprinkled on, some plain, and some with blueberry icing. Basically something for all of us.

Friday, April 1, 2011

The Naked Bed Challenge

 If you are a regular on Talkin Tuesday you may have heard a few weeks ago about the Naked Bed Challenge...it was just thrown out there but THE Sarah Fielke has taken it and made it into a reality.

We discovered that several quilters did not have a quilt on there own bed! Kinda like the cobbler's children going shoeless.
The thought of all those poor beds naked, unclothed, cold and without love.



  So to change all that and get your beds covered up we're issuing a Naked Bed Challenge. You have 8 weeks to make a quilt top, it doesn't have to be quilted, for your bed. Upload the pictures to flickr and add them to the group and you will be entered to win-

1 of 3 $30 gift certificates from Fat Quarter Shop,


or

1 of 3 $50 gift certificates from 1 Choice 4 Quilting!!

And because we know how generous quilters can be we're going to hold a raffle! You could win a kit to make Sarah's quilt in the upcoming Down Under Quilts from Above All Fabric!

All you have to do is donate at least $10 to the Red Cross, and leave the receipt number on Sarah's blog post. The raffle will be open until 3pm, Saturday April 16 Sydney time

To help you out both Sarah and I are providing a free pattern for you! You can use our patterns or any one you choose or design for your challenge quilt. Sarah is providing Bless You, which comes in three sizes,

and I'm providing Chain Link.
 

AND, not only could you win great prizes, but the fabulous folk at Fat Quarterly are going to do our prize draw for us, and publish pictures of the
winning quilts on their website.

If you enter the competition using YOUR OWN DESIGN (That means you
made it up and didn't take measurements, settings or drawings from someone
else's pattern. If we find that you did, the quilt will not be eligible for
the prize), Sarah's lovely friend Deb at Down Under Quilts Magazine will pick
her favorite quilt from the original quilts entered and publish the quilt
and the pattern in the magazine. AND, she will pay you $300 AUS for the
privilege. Holy smokes!

The rules are:

1. The quilt must be made expressly for the Naked Bed Challenge, not
previously made.

2. It must be for YOUR bed. No cot quilts, wall quilts or dolly quilts. We
do not believe any of you are mice.

3. When you post to Flickr, MAKE SURE you leave your name and a way to
contact you, the name of the designer of the pattern you used if
applicable, and note whether you wish to be considered for the Down Under
Quilts prize.

That's it. We aren't very big on rules around here.

And here's a little button to put on your blog if you are so inclined:

use this code without the brackets (http://thelastpiece.typepad.com/the_last_piece/2011/04/announcing-the-naked-bed-challenge.html)


What are you waiting for? Get those beds covered up!