Coming for dinner?

First I gathered all the ingredients.

I took a short cut and used store-bought deep dish pie shells.  Because they come in pairs, I decided to make two quiches at the same time.  Mr. Painted Quilt likes to eat!  *wink*

Before…

And after.

Is your mouth watering yet?

I made two so there’s enough to go around.  Dinner will be served shortly.  I just have to make a salad and the rhubarb crisp is in the oven.

So are y’all coming?

Tomato Onion Quiche

• 1 unbaked pie shell
• 2 c shredded cheese (cheddar & mozzarella)
• 3 medium fresh tomatoes (thinly sliced)
• 1/2 onion (thinly sliced)
• 6 sliced mini bella mushrooms (optional)
• 1 t dried basil
• 1/4 t garlic salt
• cracked pepper - to taste
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 c milk
• 3 T grated parmesan cheese

Directions:

Sprinkle bottom of pie shell with cheeses then layer tomatoes, onions and mushrooms over cheese.  Sprinkle basil, garlic salt & pepper on top.  Then beat the eggs and milk together and pour over all.   Sprinkle with parmesan cheese.

Bake at 350F for 45-50 minutes.

NOTE: The above recipe is for one quiche.  If you’d like to make two as I did, just double all the ingredients.

On the medical front, I heard from my doctor late this afternoon, just after she received the biopsy results.  Both came back negative.  To paraphrase her words, she wasn’t sure if this was good or bad news.  I was told to wait at home while she called the resident oncologist and after speaking with her and reviewing my file, she called back to tell me that she would be turning my case over to her.  She (the oncologist) will be ordering additional tests from the current biopsy samples and will also be ordering a PET scan to try to determine the source of the cancer.  Evidently I will be hearing from her as early as Tuesday of next week with an appointment for the scan.  It’s the waiting that’s the difficult part.

And we’ve been keeping busy.  Today Mr. PQ and I worked outside for about three hours cutting the grass, doing some edging and weeding the flower beds.  We also planted an ornamental Japanese willow along with some hardy ground cover foliage under the maples where the grass struggles to survive. 

Whenever I could fit in a few minutes, I’ve also been working on my nine patch quilt and the entire top is now pieced together.  The weather forecast is calling for rain tomorrow and if that happens, I’m hoping to get the border cut and sewn on.

And now, it’s time for dinner!  Are ya coming?

Just picked!

From our garden and chicken coop, fresh this morning…

Not too bad for city-turned-country-folk, huh?

P.S.  Still waiting for some news from the doctor’s office.

Thank goodness that’s over…

Wednesday was not an easy day and I sure am happy that’s behind me.  

I am so grateful to have very caring and compassionate doctors who are genuinely concerned about my well being.  They have put a rush on everything and I’m hoping to have the results from the two biopsies by Wednesday of next week.  Thank you all for your kind words and support.  They are making my trip down this unknown road so much easier. 

You guys are the best!

In my last post, I had these grandiose ideas of being able to complete the piecing of a Civil War nine patch quilt before my surgery.  As you can see below, I did get a start on it…

and the rest of the nine patch and setting blocks were waiting patiently beside my machine for me to continue.   However, on Sunday…

Frankie…as in Frank Sinatra…AKA 'old blue eyes’…arrived!  

Everything came to a screeching halt!

Frankie is a three month old seal point Siamese kitten and he’s

E-V-E-R-Y-W-H-E-R-E!

Mac is being such a sport about it and apart from a few introductory swats and hisses, they are now co-existing really well.

Then, and in anticipation of my brother coming to visit sometime in August,  we decided that it was time we did something with the spare room. 

Until now, it has been used as a catch-all and a place to put everything that we just hadn’t found a home for…including the last 4 boxes that are still waiting to be unpacked.  *sigh*

Not only is it the smallest of the four upstairs bedrooms but because of the dormer and sloped ceiling, we decided to go with a single bed in order to be able to include some other furniture in there as well.  I made the quilt on the bed a few years ago which you can read about HERE.

We picked up the bed yesterday and the decorating has only just begun. 

There are still pictures to be hung, quilts to be piled on the bench, braided rugs to be scattered on the floor and a few other touches to give it a lived in feeling.

Oh, and the other distraction as to why my piecing was put on hold was because my new Bolivar wool cutter arrived!  Isn’t it a beauty?

So, while the little fur baby is napping, I’m  tip-toeing off to the studio to see if I can get a few more rows done.

Shhhhhhhhh!

 

Who doesn’t like to shop?

Yesterday, my friends Diane, Julia and I went shopping!  If your immediate reaction was, “Oh, oh!”, then you’re absolutely right!  Today, our wallets are much skinnier than they were when we started out.  You see, the three of us have three things in common…quilting, hooking and the love of antiques! 

Need I say more?

Our first stop was our local quilt shop, a short 65 miles away.  I really had no intention of buying any fabric but I just couldn’t resist the prices of these Civil War and reproduction fabrics.

My poor studio is a mess because I’ve just been piling stuff in there rather than putting things away.  I am hoping to start piecing a nine patch quilt tomorrow and if I can stay focused, I would like to finish the top before my biopsy surgery on Wednesday.  I am soooooo longing to sit at my machine once again.

After a wonderful lunch beside the water, we then made our way to our favorite antique shop.  Insert another, “Oh, oh!” here.

Did you notice the dough board underneath the fabrics in the above photo?  That was one of my purchases.  Here’s a better look.

I have it sitting on top of the stove to hide the ugly heating elements.  This stove came with the house and I can’t wait to replace it with a new one…and soon, I hope.

This next beauty might be mine, if Julia decides not to purchase it.  She is going to bring her husband back to have a look at it and if they don’t purchase it then it’s mine!

An Empire chest of drawers in wonderful condition!  Isn’t it a beauty?

We stopped at several other places and here is just one of the things I purchased for Mr. Painted Quilt.

He loves everything hot and spicy and this jelly just fills the bill.

What a wonderful day spent with friends.  We all had so much fun and can’t wait to do it again…but I’m not so sure that our husband’s feel the same.  *wink*

Introducing…

Rhoda, Ruby and Roxanne!

We brought the girls home yesterday morning at about 11 a.m. and left them alone for the better part of the afternoon to get used to and allow them to explore their new digs.  They were kind of jittery and did more squawking than clucking and each time we checked in on them later in the day, the squawking got less and less.  They seemed to be settling in.

The girls were three of several Rhode Island Red hens that shared a coop with two huge roosters who liked to have their way with them as you can tell by the lack of feathers on their backs.  We were assured that the missing feathers will grow back in about three weeks time and I sure hope so because bald chickens aren’t the prettiest sight.

When we checked in on them later in the afternoon, guess what we found?

A huge brown egg right in the middle of the floor on top of the wood shavings!  It must have just been laid because it was still shiny.  I guess they hadn’t found the nesting boxes yet.  We were told that it might take them as long as a week before they start to lay again on a regular basis because of the stress of the move.  Believe me girls, I know just how you feel…about moving, i.e.  *wink*

We’ve been doing our homework…

and have found that chickens love their greens.  We had a fresh salad last night for dinner and brought out the discarded leaves of lettuce and cucumber peels.  They ate every drop!

These gals aren’t the neatest housekeepers but I’m sure they’ll learn.  No quilts for them until they learn to take care of their digs!

A small update…

I just heard from my gynecologist and have a little news to share with you all.  The preliminary results from the pap smear came back as ‘abnormal’ and the gynecological oncologist who interpreted the results has requested that a second and more extensive biopsy be done in order to determine if this is indeed the primary source of the cancer.  So I am scheduled for a second bout of surgery on the 20th of July and at the same time, a urologist will perform a biopsy of my bladder…

Two proceedures for the price of one!

I have mixed feelings about the findings but am optimistic that if this is indeed the source, then let’s get busy and get on with it!  I have so many things to do, people to see and places to go, quilts to be made, rugs to be hooked and new designs to share with you all…and…on Saturday…

The girls are arriving!

Three Rhode Island Red laying hens are being given to us by a friend so Mr. Painted Quilt and I have been busy preparing the ‘coop’ area of the barn  in anticipation of their arrival.

There’s the barn in the distance with the rose garden in the foreground.  We started to lay the black cedar mulch to try to keep the weeds down and the moisture in but as you can see, it’s not quite finished.  Hopefully we’ll be able to strike that little job from our ‘to do’ list tomorrow.

This will be the girls’ new residence.

Mr. PQ installed three ‘roosting’ stations, two that you see above…

and this one in order that they have the option of choosing which of the three they like the best.  Mr. PQ also laid some plywood over the pine plank flooring to make it easier to clean out the soiled wood chips when necessary.  The carpeting…I mean the fresh wood chips…will be laid in the next day or so to cover the entire floor…as well as in…

The nesting boxes pictured above. 

Perhaps as soon as next week we will be collecting and eating our own fresh brown eggs!  

I still have to make some curtains for the window and install the television.  After all, I think the girls like their afternoon soaps.  *wink* 

And lastly, thank you all again for caring.  You have no idea how much you all mean to me. 

As soon as we collect enough eggs, you’re all invited for breakfast!