December 2011 Archives

It's cookie day today. That is, it's cookie day today if I can ever get myself in gear. I hope to make several family favorites that aren't what you normally think of as Christmas cookies: sugar crisp, brownies, spicy nut slices, and peanut butter cookies. If there is time, and the body is willing, I'll make Raspberry Ribbons, and Russian Tea cakes. The raspberry ribbon is a lovely sugar-type cookie that is rolled out in tubes, and a depression is made lengthwise in the tube of dough to hold raspberry jam. After it's baked, you drizzle glaze over the tubes and cut them into one-bite diamonds. SO yummy!

Tomorrow I plan to cook brisket for "Mom's Barbecue." We've been invited to share Christmas Eve with my oldest sister and her family, and she was willing to let me make the barbecue that we've had on Christmas Eve for the last twenty years or more. While the brisket is cooking, I'll be wrapping gifts. Dear Husband assures me that we have all the gifts on our list, so the shopping is done.

I hope you're all enjoying the holidays. What's the purpose of all the preparation if we don't enjoy what we are doing? Merry Christmas!

...the goose is getting fat. Please put a penny in the old man's hat!

No, I'm not ready.

I have several baby quilts that need labels and two need bindings. I plan to be on the couch hand sewing for the next couple of days, to get most of my gifts finished in time for the family Christmas party.

I got my hair cut yesterday, and Dear Husband and I visited with our granddaughters and their mother in the afternoon and evening. This morning I made a breakfast casserole, lead exercise class, and then went to the class Christmas brunch.

I'm going to finish some things in the office, make a pot of Minestrone, and then blitz the labels and bindings! It's cold out. Having a quilt on my lap for the next two days will be no hardship, believe me!

Then......beginning next week, I think I'll make Christmas cookies and wrap gifts.

As Dear Husband say when I fret about getting things done, "In a hundred years, no one will remember it didn't get finished!" I'm taking his advice to heart more and more.

Merry Christmas!

Well, you know that I have twenty others in the works, some of which will be finished in the next two days, but a quilter can never resist starting something new even when she is in the midst of other quilts.

One of the ladies at bee showed a lovely quilt she had made. I was looking at the block and realized it would be perfect for a child's quilt, using the bright scraps we had been given for Scraps on a Mission. So, I interrupted finishing several baby quilts in order to make up some of the blocks. I wanted to be sure the pattern would work before I blabbed about it to one and all! *G*

These blocks will be sewn together with white sashing, but the flannel board behind the blocks gives you and idea of how it will look. I think I may make several more of these, one in teal, one in red, white and blue, and possibly one in red and black and white.

The idea for the block came from the blog "Film in the Fridge.". Here's a link to the tutorial the blogger created:

http://www.filminthefridge.com/2010/10/20/rectangle-squared-a-quilt-block-tutorial/

The dimensions in the tutorial are for cut sizes. The block turns out to be seven inches square (6.5" finished).

So there, Cop Car! I followed through. What do you think of this? Is it a good way to use up scraps??

Yup.....the retention ponds had a light layer of ice on Sunday morning. It was supposed to be in the 40s today, so that ice didn't last long. I think we're supposed to have colder weather later this week, so the ice was just a taste of the coming winter.

I hope that winter has not shifted by a month. By March I'm really looking forward to warming weather to go along with the longer days. If January and February are supposed to be really crumby, then I vote for Spring to return early!!!

We have a store nearby called "Farm & Fleet." It's one of a chain of stores, and we used to have to drive all the way to Ottawa to shop at one. Dear Husband looks for tools for work, and things from the hardware section. I've purchased boots and gloves, and work pants for DH. They have cleaning supplies, and a big Santa's Workshop in November, but the thing that drew me to them today was bird seed.

I had two-thirds of a bin of seed and wanted to stock up while it was still on sale. I bought 100 pounds of black oil sunflower seed, and several mixes of seed. There was a Golden Harvest Blend that was heavy on cracked corn, and one for Songbirds. I bought one bag of nyger that will carry us through the winter, and a "Midwest" blend that looked just right for the birds we hope to attract. I also bought two bags of shelled peanuts. When it was all mixed into the bins I ended up with three and a quarter bins plus the nyger and a dozen suet cakes.

I'll have to go back. If we have a tough winter, this won't be enough to fill three feeders on a regular basis. I'd rather buy a little more, now, while it's on sale, than risk running out and having to pay much higher prices, or not finding any left to purchase.

I've cut back in a lot of ways over the past year, but I'd like to keep feeding the birds.

I haven't really considered Christmas cookies, and it's the 10th of December!

I've made one recipe of the Sugar Crisp that my family considers a holiday treat. My youngest sister was coming for Thanksgiving and I wanted to be sure to have a box of them to send home with her. (Her husband found the box first and tried to make off with it!)

I think every family must have cookies that speak to them of Christmas. In addition to the Sugar Crisp, Russian tea cakes, Thumbprints, Holiday Raspberry Ribbons and peanut butter cookies with a Hershey's Kiss seem to be cookies that we make every year. I rarely make cookies that need to be decorated. One of my nieces makes the best iced sugar cookies I've ever had, so I leave it to her to supply the family.

For Dear Husband, I might make the spicy nut slices that we talked about in November. Those are his particular favorite, but I don't usually think of them as a Christmas cookie.

I can see that it's time to browse my cookie recipe collections tonight. Perhaps that will get me in the mood to bake.

Why is it that I'm never close to the computer when I have a thought I'd like to share?
Mostly those thoughts are just worthy of a line or two, so a bunch of them might make a post. I'll see how many of them I can remember.

This has been the warmest Fall on record for those of us on the outskirts of Chicago. We FINALLY had our first measurable snowfall on Thursday night, and it amounted to less than 1/2 an inch. We have been known to have snow as early as the end of September, or into October; definitely by November, so it's quite a surprise to have waited well into December for the first white stuff. Dear Husband would like me to be quiet and quit tempting fate.

Thanksgiving went very well. As usual, we had plenty of food to send home with everyone, and we ate leftovers on Friday. It was a joy to have not only sisters and nieces and nephews, but some of their in-laws and pets as well. I was thankful that so many of us were able to gather.

The Sunday following Thanksgiving I was invited to do a short trunk show of some of my quilts for the Empty Nesters at church. The theme for the pot luck which followed church was "Leftovers," which seemed fitting following Thanksgiving. I made a raspberry pretzel salad to share, one of my favorite salads/desserts. I'm usually lucky to have just one piece a year, and this year I've topped out at more than FOUR!!! YEA!!!

The trunk show was fun. I started out by saying that I was NOT showing all my quilts. I showed enough quilts to fill about 25 minutes, and was gratified when one of the men told me that he found the presentation interesting.

I've been watching the birds at the feeders, thinking of how my Mother loved to watch them. We have the usual suspects: blue jays, chickadees, juncos, mourning doves and a host of other small birds (mostly sparrows, I think), but my favorites are the cardinals. They are truly gorgeous against the snow.

The house is chilly now. I've been considering using a space heater in the studio when I'm working in there, and I'm rarely without a quilt over my lap when I sit to read in the living room. I don't know whether I just need to acclimate to the lower temps or whether I need to get more exercise to warm myself up, but I'm not fond of the cold. I can appreciate how much DH must dislike having to be out in it most of the day!

Midweek, as the temperatures were dropping, a skim of ice was beginning to develop on the retention ponds. I'll be watching tomorrow when we go out to see if they are totally covered with ice.

I've started a new quilt for Scraps on a Mission. A friend at quilting bee showed us a pattern that I thought might use up scraps. After the next session at the sewing machine, I'll have 25 blocks done. I've used bright children's fabrics, and the blocks will be set with white sashing to a finished size of 40x40.

My plan for the coming week is to finish labels for baby quilts that I plan to give just before Christmas. I'm using "Printed Treasures" to make the labels, adding a picture of the baby to the inscription. This is the first time I've added pictures, so I hope they turn out well.

I'm sure there are lots of other short thoughts that have gotten away from me. Perhaps it's just as well that I've forgotten some of them, or you'd be here all day! *G*

I hope you are all enjoying the preparations for Christmas, are well, and have good weather. Merry Christmas to you all!