Client Quilts

I longarm quilted a black and white quilt for a friend who will donate it to a PKD charity event. I'm always happy to help her complete her projects for this annual event. 

Now that we've come to the end of the harvest season here in Wisconsin, I thought I would try my hand at making a batch of chicken stock. I read an article from America's Test Kitchen about how homemade stock is healthy, easy and more economical than buying it in a carton from the grocery store. So using ATK's recipe I made a batch. It was definitely easy but not so cheap. I buy organic chicken stock by the case from Sam's Club for under $10. Just the chicken parts for this recipe cost me $18 at our local meat market.  

I got 5 quart jars of stock. The one thing I did not prepare for was the freezing part of this recipe. I had to make lots of room in the freezer for the large jars. I just hope I remember to plan far enough ahead to thaw a jar when I need to use it in a recipe. 

A client asked me to longarm her king-size quilt. I wasn't so sure I wanted to take on such a big project for more than one reason. I had other obligations to get out of the way first and there's been lots of issues with her projects in the past. Sometimes she gives me a chunk of fabric that needs to be made into backing and sometimes the backing she made isn't big enough. 

With this project, the backing wasn't big enough. It was a wide-back piece that wasn't long enough. It was so wide that I could have cut some of the width down and stitched it to the bottom but the fabric was directional so it would look really dumb. So she asked me to buy a bigger piece from the shop where I work. I had a co-worker help me choose something we both liked. It turned out nice when it was done.