Another quilt for the VA...

A few months ago a dozen pieced 12-inch blocks were donated to the quilt guild.

They were really well done. The fabrics are all civil war reproductions.  I added sashing and cornerstones to make a 9-patch secondary design and then added a border with 4-patch corners to camouflage the fact the border fabric had to be pieced!  (I even had some of the fabrics the maker used in the blocks!)

Now the to just needs to be quilted and then I can put it in the pile to be donated to the memory unit at the local VA.  I think the last count for our Guild is around 125!

So I think I deserve a piece of this banana cake with peanut butter fudge frosting!

Christmas fun in the Kitchen...

I know I should be stitching but instead I am baking!

or at least doing all the prep work for my upcoming cookie marathon!

Each year I bake a dozen different cookies and make up cookie boxes and trays for friends and neighbors.

First I decide on what cookies to make and gather the recipes.

Some cookies I make every years - Mint Snowtop, Christmas Biscotti, Coconut Biscotti and Molasses cookies.  Some every few years - Peanut blossoms, Almond Jam Slices, Toffee cookies, and Ellie's Butterscotch Cookies.  Then I always try a few new ones - Gingerbread biscotti, Pecan Cresents, Peppermint Candy sugar cookies.

Then I inventory the baking supply cabinet...I buy new baking powder and baking soda each year and also check the dates on all the spices.

Then I gather together the containers.  I usually buy the containers at the after Christmas sales but I also use some non-traditional containers like fun tea-cups or bowls that I find during the year.

Now how does this go with quilting you may wonder?  Well, I have stitching on Wednesday - will bring a tray of cookies.  I have bee on Thursday - will bring a cranberry pecan cake.  And on Friday I have a holiday get together with my Woolie-Woolie group and will bring home-made Stollen and some cookies.

Getting a lot done...

Things have been very busy around here...

The backyard had to have a lot of work done on it after the construction on the house...good news - we had a downpour last night but the sod and the plants all stayed in place!  Phew...

Also been working on the guild's next donation quilt...

above is our quilt for 2015...

and this is the one in-process for 2016.  Tickets for both of these will be available at our show in November.  Money raised goes to Camp Rainbow, a medically supervise camp for children with cancer.  Someone will go home from the show with the red and green applique.  (me I hope...I love this quilt and buy a few
tickets every time we sell them!)

I've also worked on a couple quilts for the VA...the guild is trying to make 84 quilts and has passed the halfway mark!  We should be doing a delivery soon...

New meds have made a bit of a space-case...slowly getting used to them but have done some dumb things...like burned a pot of chili and made a batch of chocolate chip cookies which may or may not have the vanilla in them!  duh!

Cool Weather quilting

As the weather is finally cooling down here in Georgia my guild had a "nature" workshop with Marilyn Walls.  A chance to do some fabric gardening!

My workshop project...sunflower!

Generally I'm not a big fan of fusing but I've always liked her large flower pieces.  Besides learning new techniques help me in doing my appraisals of nontraditional quilts.  Marilyn is a good instructor. I'd highly recommend her if you get a chance to take one of her workshops.   Likely I will finish my Sunflowers! 

Marilyn Walls class sample

Marilyn taking about choosing background fabrics...

 

On other fronts...I broke my beloved camera!  Ok, it was 8 years old and had a hard life but still...it was hard to decide to not repair and get a new camera body.  Still learning new one but so far so good!  I stayed with a  Nikon and it has kept the learning curve to a minimum.

Also, have started my fall cooking!  Out has come the pumpkin and apples...color me happy!  I made a pan of pumpkin cheesecake bars for the workshop...sigh.  Somehow they just taste better in the Fall...

Back to stitching

Finally, all is quiet on the pet front.  I can get back to stitching.

I saw this quilt over at a friends.  There is a long story behind it but suffice to say her Mom was hoping to be able to repair if for a family friends.  This would be a huge project and potentially could do more harm than good.  It is an interesting quilts. though.

Nice sashing/pieced cornerstones and interesting quilting.

I'm working on a large applique piece...nothing really to show and it is slow going so I allowed myself a few minutes of "play" to try piecing a new block.  I really like it!  Pulled more fabrics to make a couple more...

I also got the post-office and mailed off a bunch of boxes and some appraisals.  phew...nice to get a big check mark on the to-do list!  To celebrate I made two loaves of banana bread...

Life is getting back to normal...still miss Mac though...checked out the Scotty dog rescue sites...still a bit too soon.

Christmas baking - or Why I Will Fall behind on Quilting this week

Today officially starts my Christmas baking marathon...

My husband's office party is tomorrow so he needs a couple dozen cupcakes and three dozen biscotti...

Thursday is my Quilt Guild party...Ellie's chocolate Cake and a Stollen (we have a couple of members from Germany!)  I haven't made my Aunt Ellie's chocolate cake in years.  A few of you asked for the recipe earlier this week...let me to a trial run since the ink has blurred on the directions.

                          Last year's stollen (photo reminded me I need to find that platter.....)
Friday night a friend is having a large Christmas Party.  Instead of baking I making Spanakopeta, tzadziki, Keftethakia, and Fattouch.  So why is this Irish American making all this Greek food...the recipes come from  my husband's first mother-in-law!    (I do make a great Irish bread but that is for March....)  Also, amazingly enough, we do not have a Greek restaurant within 40 miles so I've had to learn to cook it myself.

                                                   One of last year's cookie trays....
Saturday and Sunday is cookie baking days.  Mint Snow-tops  Molasses  Christmas Biscotti, Coconut Biscotti, Chocolate Chip and a cookie to be named later.  (I like to try a new recipe every year and haven't made the final selection yet!)  These go to neighbors, work, and church.  It will keep me busy!

                                            Coconut biscotti....recipe from Cooking Light

I know this is generally a quilting blog and so far no quilts!  So here is a little quilt I made a few years ago.  It is a reproduction of a doll quilt circa 1880.  15 inches by 15 inches, had pieced and hand quilted. The madder fabrics I used came out in the early 1990's.  I wish I had bought yards of them!

The quilt now hangs in my sewing room.

Finally decorating for Christmas

A bit more baking and decorating this week.

Above is German Stollen which I make at least once over the holidays. I lived in Germany for three years. Two elderly German women that I met while walking my dog invited me over one Christmas and showed me how to make stollen. Since they didn't speak much English and my German was limited it was an interesting day...however I did get their recipe right! It was a favorite of my Dad and it reminds me of him.


Well I finally got my tree...little as it is...up this week. I only used a third of the ornament boxes.

I love the memories the ornaments carry with them. My sister Kay bought these white santas over 20 years ago and we both still hang them on our trees. The vintage ornament was on my parent's tree while we were growing up.

Also I hung up this little wallhanging that Tonya made for me (note Mac and one of the cats!.) Couldn't believe it when I saw the date on it...'01! Wow....time flies!

Mystery Saga Continues...

I started the next step of Bonnie Hunter's mystery last night. I still have 5 of the last step to do but I will do that in between sewing these small triangles onto the hst we made earlier. Even though I used over a dozen black fabrics in this quilt I am feeling the need for some more variety...where and when I wonder did I buy all these polka dots?!


This is the point in the mystery where I find myself trying to figure out where the heck this is going! I lay the pieces out on the table, flip them around, and scratch my head and sigh a lot. I have to admit Bonnie has me mystified!

I worked on my blocks in between baking cookies yesterday. (I am so thankful for oven timers....) In the time it took to bake a pan of cookies I could cut 40-100 triangles or sew about the same number of triangles to the hst. I'm having a more difficult time keeping track of how much I've cut or sewn (this may have to do with a cat-who-is-a-fabric-thief living in the house...she is stalking the piles as I type....) I'm sure I'll find the "lost" blocks when we move the furniture to clean after the New Year but for now it is just easier to make a few extra...

Cookie Marathon....

The past month seems a blur of traveling and doctor's appointments...neither leads to a real festive mood. Need to snap-out-of-it...so I am doing some marathon cookie baking today. Nothing says the holidays better than a house smelling of cinnamon, chocolate, and pecans.

On the list to bake are Christmas biscotti (pistachios, apricot, and cranberries), Coconut and chocolate biscotti, Chocolate mint snowtops, molasses cookies, and Linzer torte bars. Should keep me out of trouble for the afternoon. (The coconut biscotti just came out of the oven...they smell great!)

While they are in the oven I will continue working on my Orca Bay/Phynizy Swamp Mystery. I cut out the black triangles last night. Didn't do a great job of keeping count...duh. So I hope a basket-full will be enough!


On the quilting side of things...a few weeks ago I saw some photos of pinecone quilts on either blogs or facebook. Years ago a gentleman brought a quilt made by his mother back in the 1930's to our quilt-show.

This quilt weighed at least ten pounds...maybe more...and the "cones" were almost an inch high. The number of fabrics used was amazing. He remembered several woman working on these quilt blocks but wasn't sure if they went into this quilt or each of the woman were working on quilts of their own.

taking a break

Have you ever found yourself so unable to sleep that you just park yourself in your sewing room and randomly run things through the machine? Well that was me last night. I finished a quick table runner with the Christmas fabrics (nothing fancy but it will be covered by food dishes so...) and put the last few rows of a batik around the world...I finally took a break around 0300. Yikes.

Even Brownie was confused...not confused enough to stay out of the way though...
So today I took it easy. I did make some of the Father in law's famous potato salad...that is him above in "his" kichen. (for "his" put in any kitchen in which he is standing!) After ten years of being married to his son he finally gave me the secret recipe. Maybe at 20 years I get his recipe for biscuits and turkey hash?

And finally more peaches...this time of year they are just too good to leave at the farm stand...

Food Festival

It has been a pretty dreary weekend here. I could do with a full day of sun right around now...I worked a bit on the border for my around th world quilt. Goldie has claimed it as hers - but then she does that for every quilt!

We did go to a fun food festival in Tewksbury this weekend. Lots of organic stalls...though to be honest we only had some Old Spot sausages and some local beer. I think I was overwhelmed by the choices. My main reason for going was to see Paul Rankin, a TV chef, do a cooking demonstration. The demonstration tent was very crowded though and when I went to sit down I was body checked by a young guy who really wanted that seat. Only I could get a twisted knee at a cooking demo!

We bought some lemon yogurt so I can make my blueberry lemon pound cake today. That will make me feel like spring!