Thanks Pam.. They have an emergency setup of large tarpaulines on frames that they can put over the carpets while they're working on them if it looks like it's going to rain. These pics are from a previous year. .. I don't know what would happen if it rained during the procession though LOL. I guess it must have happened at some time. I'll have photos of the procession in the next album of the flower petal carpets that they walk on to get to the plaza where the sand painting are. SharonCb

Good for you, debrak, it's a "go to" meal here and leftovers are always good for pot pie, for sandwiches, for a sesame chicken dip. There are lots of things you can do with leftover roast chicken. If you feel inclined, next time just take that carcass and plop it into your crockpot with a carrot, an onion and a stalk of celery, turn it on high and let it cook until the broth tastes good. You don't even have to peel the onion, just wash your vegetables, chop them into two or three pieces and put them in the crockpot. Add salt, pepper, a bay leaf if you like, plop the chicken on top, cover with water and let it cook. It'll take hours, I usually do it overnight and into the next day, sometimes 18 hours. When it reduces to about half and tastes good, strain out the solids and use up the stock or put that in the freezer, much less room necessary than the whole carcass. In the meantime, isn't it fun to try new things? I'm impressed with a 9 pound chicken too, now THAT'S a chicken! Before you know it you'll be watching Jacques Pepin on YouTube and deboning chickens. (grin) Annie

I can't say I've got the hang of curves, because I'm currently working on my first curved quilt, a Winding Ways pattern. This is also my first hand piecing attempt. So far, it's going pretty well. After I cut all of my pieces I had a few extra, so I tried sewing them together with my machine, just to see how hard/easy that would be. It actually went together very well. I watched the YouTube video below and it really worked out just like in the video. For what it's worth, when hand piecing I pin the curve at the beginning, in the middle, and at the end, but when machine piecing the curve I just pinned the end like in the video. However with my ending pin I went down, up, down, up, so I took 2 "bites" of fabric rather than just one. I read somewhere this was helpful in curved pieces so the fabric doesn't slip at all. As far as a technique that I would like to learn, I'd like to learn to hand quilt. I've never even tried! Here is a link that might be useful: curved piecing

qknitter - You are LUCKY! Can you shows us 'before' pics? The staples in this chair were incredibly hard to pull out. There was NO WAY I could get them out with even a less expensive tack puller. If yours come out with a screwdriver and pliers, I'm jealous. Many of mine broke as I tapped the tack puller into them. The 'real' upholsterer showed me that I had been using my tack puller incorrectly. I was just taking those sharp points and trying to wedge them under the top of the staple, and then prying them out. He grabbed a small hammer that I had in here and he used that to it the wooden handle of the tack puller and drive it up under the tack, then push on the handle to bring the staple up. 99% of them still needed to be pulled out with pliers or 'side cutters' that I have similar to what I linked below. The cutters are very sharp, so they sometimes cut the tack I was trying to pry out and the fun continued, but I was determined after making that back cushion and seeing the improvement. If your tacks come out easily, you're very lucky. The upholsterer saw my chair and said 'It's the worst type to re-do' and that's because of all the staples. I did spend hours removing them, but sewed in between sessions to rest my hands. Here is a link that might be useful: Diagonal Cutting Plier