A Variety of topics today

Yesterday I spent the whole day home.  I did manage to go to the fitness center 3 times this week so that is a start at trying to get back into a good routine.  I have to work harder at it thought – because – this is baking season in my house.  I can’t seem to control myself – I say I am not going to bake as much as I used to for the holiday season and then once I get going I start making more.   I am doing good though here it is December 12th and I have only made my second batch of cookies.  Some of these cookies are put in the freezer and will be put in a decorative Xmas tin for sharing with someone special who has no time for baking this season – (yes Mel they are yours – enjoy)

Ginger Cookies - nice and crunchy, rolled in sugar.

Ginger Cookies

4 1/2 cups of flour
4 teaspoons ground ginger
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 cups shortening
2 cups sugar
2 eggs
1/2 cup molasses
1/2 cup sugar put aside in a bowl

In a large mixing bowl beat the shortening on low speed until it is softened.  Add the sugar, eggs, and molasses.  Add the dry ingredients and mix well.  Shape into the size ball to make small, medium or large cookies. For instance if you want giant cookies use about a 1/4 cup of mixture.  If you want smaller cookies like the ones I have pictured above make walnut size balls or a little larger.

Roll the balls in granulated sugar and place on greased baking pans.  Bake at 350 for about 14 minutes – check for browness.  If you over bake the cookies will be crunchy, I did some for 16 minutes to have crunchy cookies and some at 13 to 14 minutes to have chewy.

The walnut size balls will give you about 4 to 5 dozen cookies.  Large will give you about 2 dozen.

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Last night I got another of the “Insanity Revisited” blocks finished.  This was an easy reverse applique block that only took an hour to complete.  I am not doing daily work on this quilt and lucky if I do one or two blocks a week.

Dear Jane, "Insanity Revisited" block 5 in row 9

I was asked by several people about the quilt pattern that I mentioned the other day that is located at Bunny Tails shop – the one with the yo-yo’s –why did I say I would applique circles instead of making yo-yo-s?  The only reason I can give you is that for some reason I just don’t like yo-yo’s!  I don’t mind making circles and applique especially when the circles aren’t super tiny.  We all have our likes and dislikes

I finished my Christmas Tree skirt yesterday and put it under the tree.  I don’t think I ever want to work with velvet again!  Velvet looks pretty and feels pretty but I don’t like working with.  I don’t think you can really see the stitch work from the photo – my Janome doesn’t have a lot of fancy stitches as it is a lower end model.  I just picked one of the zig zag type of stitches and used a yellow variegated thread on the top.

Christmas Tree Skirt -- still needs binding around the outside edges and I will do that before I put it away with the decorations.

My sweater is growing – the back of it that is.  Actually the back is almost finished.  I had found an easy boxy type of sweater on the internet and have been following the pattern pretty much and also using one of my own sweaters for measurements.  I found when the pattern had told me to start decreasing for the under arm area would have made the sweater too short for me as I am long from the back of my neck to waistline.  I didn’t think it looked long enough so before I started to decrease I got a sweater out of the closet to measure it and went with 2 more inches!  Good think I checked.  I will do that for the sleeves to.  In the photo the sides have rolled under a little.  I have used big needles so this is not a real tight stitch.  We normally only have short cold spells in Arkansas so I didn’t want to make anything real heavy that would only be used now and then.  This is a loose knit that I will have a tank top under it to keep the cold air out if needed.  This is regular cotton I think, I know it is not wool – I would have to look back to the package to see.  I can’t wear wool for more than 30 minutes or so before I start to itch.

Back of sweater. So far it looks good to me - but what will it be like when I finish it! Will I ever wear it - we will see how it fits in the end.