Finally Finished!

At long last, my "Birds of A Feather" Mystery Sampler has returned from the framer.  Oh happy day!  

"Birds of a Feather"

Designer: Brenda Gervais

(With Thy Needle & Thread)

Just love the house and cute sheep!

It has been rather humid here this week, even though the temperatures were in the 70's.  I didn't feel much like stitching very much most days, but did manage to make some progress on Jenny Bean though, and hope to finish her up this weekend.

 I enjoyed stitching the flowers and these darling little bees!


Ah, for the cool, crisp days of autumn....puts me right in the mood for making a nice crock pot of my favorite soup and some muffins, and settling into my "stitching nest" for some quiet hours of stitching.  


This is one of my favorite soup recipes:  "Eggplant Minestrone". (Too Many Tomatoes, by Burrows & Myers)          


2 Tbsp. olive oil                                            
1 Large chopped onion
1& 1/2 pounds ground beef
2 cloves minced garlic
1 medium eggplant (diced)                            
3 diced zucchini
3 diced carotts                                                                                   
2 diced stalks celery
1 large can of diced tomatoes                     
 1 tsp. dried oregano
1 & 1/2 tsp. dried basil
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
4 cups beef stock
1/2 cup small elbow macaroni   
     
*Saute 1st 5 ingredients in large soup kettle until tender.  Stir in remaining  vegetables, beef stock, herbs, sugar and pepper.   Cook in kettle  slightly covered for 1-2 hours until vegetables are tender. 
Add macaroni in last 20 minutes.
If cooking soup in crock pot, after sauteing 1st 5 ingredients,  put into crock pot with all other ingredients, (as above).  Simmer soup all day on "low" for 8-10 hours.   Add macaroni in last 30 minutes to crock pot and cook on "high".      
                                                                                      
When our youngest son, Nathan was little, he proclaimed this to be "the best soup you ever made in your whole life, Mom!"  Such sweet memories....


Apparently, here in New England, this weekend, we are to have one of those gloriously cool, but sunny autumn weekends here!  Sounds like I had better gather in supplies for my soup!  Wherever you live, I hope that you have a lovely weekend and some time for stitching.....what else!!


Crossing in Stitches Again With You!

WON'T YOU PLEASE JOIN ME FOR A SAL?

Since my last positng, I have heard from several of my followers, who suggested to me that they thought I should consider stitching "My Lovely Stitching Tools", as my next stitching project because they loved this design too!  This led me to start thinking that a SAL might be fun, since it seemed that there were others that might like to stitch along with me!  As I mentioned in my last post, this is  a current Mystery Sampler design being offered through The Gift of Stitching.  So dear friends,  I would like to extend an invitation to you, to consider joining me and a few other stitching friends ends for a SAL! 

This wonderful Mystery Sampler is offered through The Gift of Stitching's online monthly magazine.  Part I of the sampler is in the August 2011 issue.  If you are not currently a subscriber toThe Gift of Stitching, monthly issues can be purchased at their website (http://www.giftofstitching.com).  

 I chose Weeks Dye Works and Sampler Threads instead of the recommended Valdani threads.

If you don't have a blog, and would like to participate, please email pictures of your Mystery Sampler progress and I will be happy to include them with updates of our SAL on my blog so that we can all share in the fun!  I will also post a link on my Facebook page so that pictures can be posted there as well.  More fun!  Hope that you will join us for a wonderful SAL!