Here in India there is a limited supply of food items, I managed to get a hold of some ground sirloin (no hamburger here) and I made a meatloaf yesterday. I thought I would share the recipe because it was so simple:

3/4 c Applesauce

1- 1 1/2 pounds of Ground beef

1/4 catsup

1 Tablespoon Parsley

1 Package of onion soup mix 

1 egg

1 cup oatmeal

combine well, bake in a loaf pan at 350 degrees for an hour and there you have it.

Now since I couldn't buy applesauce I made my own:

6 large apples

1 cup of water

1/2 c sugar

1 t lemon juice

1 cinnamon stick

Place all ingredients in a saucepan, bring to a boil, turn down to simmer about 20 minutes until tender, remove cinnamon stick and then mash with a potato masher.  It tasted great and couldn't be easier.

Pinks and Browns Triangles

920 Pink and brown half square triangles

One of my last UFO's.  I have been carrying this quilt around in my many moves since 2005.  I started it in Barrington, Illinois at Touch of Amish Quilt Shop.  It uses Triangle Paper 2 1/2" half square by Quilt Time. Each page yielded 24 squares.  I will be assembling them in 6 x 4 row blocks and them putting the blocks together to make a quilt.

 I used assorted pink and brown fat quarters as well as fat quarters of off white back ground fabrics.  To use the paper I ironed one pink with one off white right sides together and then ironed the triangle paper on the wrong side of one of the fabrics. I also added pins to help keep the paper in place.  I then stitched on the the dotted lines until  done.  Using my rotary cutter I cut them apart and watching tv peeled the paper.  Then I pressed them all open towards the dark fabric. About this time we moved to Utah so they went in a shoe box and there they stayed until now.  I spent the last week, sorting and pressing and deciding how to assemble them in a pleasing pattern.  I hope to have them assembled by the time we head to the US for Christmas.

my new sewing machine, I purchased it here in India.
I didn't want to risk my much loved Bernina 1230 on the
strange currents here in India.  So far so good, it sews a nice even stitch.
It does make a lot of noise though.

my next project Dresden Star

My recently purchased Indian fabric.

In keeping with a tradition I started when I started stashbusters, I am patiently waiting to start my next project "Dresden Star" until I finish a UFO.  With only 3 more UFO's to go after the pink's and brown's I am very excited.  I am going to make it with fabric purchased here in India.

Navratri Festival

A huge festival in town and the noise was incredible. The festival was Navratri which means nine nights, it honors the Mother Goddess-Divine Shakti.  She destroys evil and grants boons to her children.
Here of pictures of the sea of humanity that walked by our apartment building on the way to the festival.  It is estimated that 800,000 indians came to town for the festival and it turns out we live on the main entrance to town.  They walked passed us at all hours of the day and night. Lots of music, loud speakers encouraging the pilgrims as they walked along.

They played music and danced until all hours of the night, and they didn't stop during the day.  Making it very difficult for us to sleep. I understand that there is a lot of dancing and beautiful traditional clothing worn. Dave of course had no interest in heading into the sea of humanity for a closer look and so I can't attest to that being true or not. : > )!

 Dave needed to travel to Mumbai for business so Tim and I joined him.  We stayed at the Suba Galaxy hotel near the airport.  All three of us stayed in the same room on 3 twin beds, Tim's was a pull out chair.  The hotel had very good air conditioning and was clean.  The beds were thin mattress on wood so think very hard, no give at all.  But it was nice to be in Mumbai, it afforded us with a chance to attend church and to hang out with other Americans.  We played charades for the first with two other American families, the Williams and the Dickens.  It was wonderful to be able to talk and share ideas with others who are having a similar experience.  Although I was struck by how different the vegetable markets were in Mumbai, there was a much greater variety of vegetables and of higher quality than we were able to get in Bhuj.

A Muslim Mosque 

We had a wonderful driver by the name of Robin, who worked for Only Friends.  He spoke English and took Tim and I to see the various sites in Churchgate.

The Mosque is a beautiful site on a peninsula. The walk way was filled with people heading to and from the Mosque.

 I love this plaque in the Hanging Gardens.  Good health really does bless the generations.  It's interesting I did a life clock.  If I live in the United States, I will live until I am 79 years old, but with changing nothing other than the fact that I now live in India it cuts my life expectancy to 67 (only 17 more years to go).  Which is funny because my housekeeper says Americans aren't healthy and we need to be more like the Indians, but then she also says her bread is healthier because it's made with wheat?  Gee, since we are using the same flour to make both the breads, her comment just doesn't make sense to me.  After all, wheat flour is wheat flour or is it. ; > ).

Here are some more wonderful pictures we took.  This the view from the Hanging gardens down to the beach.  I think the thing that struck me the most was
how clean everything was in Church Gate.  Unlike
the rest of Mumbai there wasn't trash littering the park or the beach.  I loved looking at the incredible buildings.

The gateway to India

SeaLink Bridge

Monkey Around the Yard Quilt Pattern

Here is my latest design.
Monkey around the yard.  It uses five different fabrics, one yard each.  The pattern can be found here :

http://tiny.cc/h29w5

If you make the quilt please be sure and share a picture.  I would love to see how your quilt turned out.

We have been quite busy adjusting to India,  I had a major success in making food like home this past week though.  I made scalloped potatoes with cheddar cheese powder and real bacon bits!  The boys loved it.   I did a typical scalloped potato recipe with with potatoes, milk, onions and flour.  To that I added 1.2 c cheddar cheese powder (which I purchased at Walmart, when I was in the United States) mixed with 1 cup of boiling water.  I layered the potatoes, milk, onions, bacon bits and cheese and baked at 350 degrees.  It turned out great and I will definitely cook it again.