I almost forgot that I have to post the prizes for the second Project QUILTING Challenge!  My girls are both in a basketball tournament all day today so I’m technically writing this on Friday night.  I know you’re all jealous of my crazy Friday nights!  I want to be sure help get you super excited for the 2nd Project QUILTING Challenge of Season 8 by showing you all the prizes up for grabs!  The challenge will go up tomorrow at NOON CST (aka Wisconsin Time)!  Everyone who enters per the guide lines of the challenge will have their name put in a hat.  If you do multiple projects your name will still only go into the hat one time.  My girls will randomly draw the winners once the challenge closes.

Prize 1

Home in My Heart Quilt Pattern with full color diagrams, color way options and coloring sheet from Jacquelynn Steves.

Prize 2

Mixed Bag Charm Pack from Moda!

Prize 3

One of these mini spool sampler thread collections from Aurifil!

Prize 4

This lovely Liberty Headband from Pointelle Design!

Prize 5

“Quilting Gift Certificate” for $30.00 off the Quilting on a Baby size quilt or larger. (Baby, Lap, Twin. Full, Queen, or King) from Marcia’s Crafty Sewing & Quilting.
The Gift Certificate will be good for 4 months starting one month after the challenge ends.  Excluding the Month of December for using the gift certificate.  The quilting gift certificate is transferable to another person, so you can share it with a friend, if you’d like.
Marcia will do an estimate based on the size of the winner’s quilt top, quilting choices, thread choices, and batting and if they would like to purchase backing fabric from me. Winner can send backing fabric and batting with their quilt top, but I do have it available. This way the winner will have a good estimate of the value of your quilting prize.

Prize 6

Marcia would also like to giveaway to a separate winner a prize of one of her original patterns(value $8.00).

Prize 7

The pattern “Star Crossed” from Color Girl Quilts

Prize 8

“Uncle Joe’s Ties” pattern from Perkins Dry Goods!

Prize 9

Product Prize from ThermoWeb!  I love everything Thermoweb so I’m sure this will be fabulous and I can’t wait to see what you win!

Prize 10

Sam Hunter of Hunter’s Design Studio is giving one lucky winner a PDF pattern of their choice!

Prize 11

A mini charm pack plus a surprise from me (Persimon Dreams)

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Recipes of the Week!

Secrets Of Slow Cooking: Mastering The Braise

Just keep them coming!  We can never have too many “go to” meals!  I asked for slow cooker meals this week.  You get them started during the day and it’s all ready by mealtime! 
This past week I made a pork tenderloin … I made 3lbs of pork tenderloin.  Needless to say I had 2.5lbs of leftover pork tenderloin.  So – I made Carnitas.  They were amazing!  We had a friend over on Wednesday night who helped eat up most of it but my hubby and I had the leftover leftovers as sliders for dinner tonight.  Basically 3 meals for 1 prep! 

Anyway – here’s what the folks from the Challenge Quilt group shared:

From Erin Zee: 
skinless boneless chicken breasts – your fave BBQ sauce. cook all day. shred. put on hamburger bun at dinnertime. delish!

from Deb F:
3-4 skinless boneless chicken breasts, 48 ounces chicken broth, 1 can cream of chicken soup, 1 can cream of chicken with mushroom soup put all in crockpot on low 6 hours. Take chicken out and shred then add back in crock pot and add a bag of home style noodles. Cook until noodles are done. I have started this on high for a couple hours then turn down to low to finish.

from Jen M:
Pulled Beef and dip sammies – 2 lb chuck roast – add 1/2 cup soy sauce, 1.5 cups water – some garlic powder and onion powder and cook on low for 8 – 9 or HI for 4 – 5 – when it is done, use a fork and tongs to pull the beef apart – throw away fat and connective tissues – use a separator to get the fat off the dipping sauce and slap into a bun and enjoy!

from Denise B:
Whole chicken. One cup water mixed with Lipton herb soup packet (sold 2 in a box)… Pour over chicken. Cook on low for 6-8 hours.

from Jo B:
Crock Pot Cranberry Pork
INGREDIENTS: 
1 (16 ounce) can cranberry sauce
1/3 cup French salad dressing
1 onion, sliced
1 (3 pound) boneless pork loin roast
DIRECTIONS:
1.In a medium bowl, stir together the cranberry sauce, salad dressing, and onion. Place pork in a slow cooker, and cover with the sauce mixture.
2.Cover, and cook on High for 4 hours, or on Low for 8 hours. Pork is done when the internal temperature has reached 160 degrees F (70 degrees C).

Slow Cooker Balsamic Chicken
INGREDIENTS:
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, or more to taste
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 onion, thinly sliced
4 cloves garlic
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon dried rosemary
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
2 (14.5 ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
DIRECTIONS: 1. Drizzle olive oil into the slow cooker. Place chicken breasts on top of oil and season each breast with salt and pepper. Top chicken breasts with onion slices, garlic, oregano, basil, rosemary, and thyme. Drizzle balsamic vinegar over seasoned breasts and pour tomatoes on top. 2. Cook in the slow cooker set to High until chicken is no longer pink in the center and the juices run clear, about 4 hours.

The Everyday Gourmet: Essential Secrets Of Spices In Cooking