Foster Friday

You know it's going to be a crazy Foster Friday when these things happen before nine in the morning:

Shortstack, Flapjack, and Cupcake find my box of gift bags and proceed to spread them out around the sewing room.

Buttermilk digs into the bottle caps I'm using for a Tutorial Tuesday project.

Buttermilk and Flapjack decide to dig into the quilts I'm working on for charity.

And what about Crepe? I found her in the garbage can. Guess I'll be hiding that.

Way too dangerous, girl!

Want to help contribute to the work I do with foster kittens? I have an Amazon wish list right here. These are the things I use again and again, year after year. With daily laundry and frequent cleaning, items have to be replaced often. I’d love anything you’d be willing to send my way!

They then sent Cupcake to apologize for it all. She did. And then decided to walk across my keyboard as I was typing on the computer.

Crazy Foster Friday.

Make a Watermelon Potholder - Tutorial Tuesday

For today's Tutorial Tuesday we are making yet another potholder. This watermelon one can be made for use or just for decoration. 

For this project you will need:

• wide strips of miscellaneous red fabrics
• white or cream fabric
• piece of green fabric
• piece of muslin
• piece of fabric for backing
• Insul-Bright 
• cotton batting 
• Basting spray
• Pins or Clover Wonder Clips

• Iron
• Sewing machine
• Matching thread
• Rotary cutter
• Cutting ruler
• Cutting mat

(Note: All fabrics need to be 100% cotton.)

Disclosure: Deb's Days is a participant in affiliate advertising programs designed to provide a means for me to earn fees by linking to affiliated sites. This means that, at no additional cost to you, I will earn a small commission if you click through and make a purchase. Your purchase helps support my work in bringing you new sewing and crafting content.

Looking for more potholder ideas? Check out these projects?

And the directions? The step-by-step how to tutorial for the homemade watermelon scrap fabric hot pad sewing project is right here:

Sewing for Good Sunday

While I haven't been posting on my Sewing for Good Sundays these last few weeks, I most certainly have been busy. I'm working on quilts for the assisted living center where our neighbor's wife is living, with my plan being to give one to every single resident there. That many quilts creates quite the mess. Fabric and backings and scraps and thread have been spread all over the place. But now I have five pieced and their backings added, and have one of them completely quilted. Good enough for a picture.

I still have umpteen more to go, and most likely another big mess of fabrics/threads/backing/scraps spread out all over the sewing room as well.

Dining at Share on the Ruby Princess

We recently took a California Coastal repositioning cruise on the Ruby Princess. Since it was a short five day cruise, there wasn't a Most Traveled Guest Party for those 40 passengers with the most days sailed with Princess. Instead we received a letter in our cabin congratulating us for being one of the most traveled and the option to eat one night at Crown Grill, Share, or Salty Dog for free. We've done Salty Dog a couple times before on this ship during past cruises, Crown Grill a bunch of times on several ships across the Princess fleet, but had never ventured into Share. So guess what we chose?

We had our dinner the last night of the cruise when the ship was docked in Victoria, Canada. Since many people were onshore we arrived to an empty restaurant. Nice!

Share was amazing! So much better than I had expected. The multi-course meal (6 courses!), the service, the atmosphere, the flavors, and the view? Oh, yeah.

I think the best way to give you an idea of the food is through pictures. Everything was delicious and the service was excellent. And don't get me started on the tasty bread. Oh. My. Gosh.

Course One: Starter

Charcuterie: ’Nduja is a spicy, spreadable salami that comes from the southernmost Italian region of Calabria. Cured from prosciutto, with prominent chilies and spices. Choice of beef bresaola, duck prosciutto, or fennel-infused finocchiona. (We chose beef bresaola.)

Taleggio Cheese with accompaniments

Course Two: Salad

Tomatoes and Burrata: A variety of local tomatoes paired with oregano oil and dressed fennel leaves 

Asparagus and Radish: Lightly roasted asparagus with arugula pesto, red bell pepper relish and

sourdough croutons

Course Three: Pasta

Ricotta Cavatelli: Roasted sunchokes, pickled beets and a Castelmagno espuma

Pork Ravioli: Green curry filling coated in lemongrass cream, and topped with crunchy chicharrones

 

Course Four: Sea

Lobster Bisque: Quick-seared cold-water lobster tail pieces with Madeira crème fraîche and fennel confit

Prawns “Baja Style”: Jumbo prawns simmered in spicy tomato water, roasted garlic and a black pepper frisée salad 

 

Course Five: Land

Brown Butter Berkshire Pork Chop (for 2): A hard roasted double-bone pork rack, with confit carrots, broccoli purée and a jus of whole grain mustard

Course Five: Dessert

Almond Marzipan: Warm cake paired with strawberry coulis, candied almonds and crème fraîche ice cream

Toffee Cheesecake: With a red wine reduction, homemade raisins and macerated grapes

Here is the menu in case you'd like to see their other offerings. Currently the cover charge is $29 per person.

We will absolutely try Share again. (OK, I've made myself hungry now.)