Today is a cold, dreary day. We have had snow flakes spitting off and on all day. It is the type of day where you really don’t go outside unless you are really and truly an outdoors person or if you need to run and errand – like go exercise (which I did). Now though it is time to just sit back and enjoy the inside and hope tomorrow will be warmer. I will tune in to the Olympics sometime today or this evening to see how it is going, I haven’t watched it today yet.
Yesterday we ran to Little Rock to meet up with daughter and her hubby to go to the Arts Center – the exhibit was nice but much smaller than I thought it would be and no gold and glitter among these Egyptian pieces. All pieces were more of the ceramic and bead jewelry type of items and a couple of mummies. Everything was great to look at although my husband and I both thought that the cards all of the information was written on could have been larger – is age creeping in here 
I hope not!
When we got done with the exhibit we left the kids (kids to me – not to them they are in their late mid-30’s) and headed over to Sam’s Wholesale and Barnes and Nobles for a quick look before we left for home – wouldn’t believe the weather – snow flying everywhere – and it had been in the 50’s the day before – it was melting as fast as it was hitting the ground so no worries about travel.
At Barnes and Noble I always look through the quilt magazines to see what is new. Now and then they will have an overseas magazine and I always look through them to see what is going on in the quilting world away from the states. I found a great one from New Zealand — and the best – it had a quilt border in it that I love and I think I will use that one for the Little Brown Bird quilt instead of the one that comes with it as it is one of the main parts of the quilt that I thought was just a bit too fussy for my taste. (saying that I should actually mention although I love the quilt I find a lot of it a bit too fussy for my taste and I intend to change it a lot – when I get done it most likely won’t even look that much the same as the original as I am planning on substituting some blocks for others that I have found and making some of my own design also). The magazine I found is simply “New Zealand Quilter”.
this issue has such a simple quilt on the front of it I was surprised - most magazines tend to put something a bit flashier on the cover. I'm glad I opened it up to look at it and found the border inside.
The is the border I liked. It is from an award winning quilt by Margaret Matthews (2007) called "Roses for Me" and in the magazine it was the final of a 10 part series. I'm so glad I happened to pick this issue up, it has the pattern pull out included.
So that is news on the quilting part of my day (yes I have been busy with my applique border and I have 1 1/2 borders left to do). Today was a baking day also.
Blueberry, Banana, Walnut Muffins
1 cup of quick oats
1/3 cup oil (I use canola)
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 small carton of vanilla yogurt (6 oz)
1/2 cup milk
1 mashed banana
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
2 tablespoons ground flax seed
1 cup blueberries
Mix all ingredients together except the blueberries. Stir them in after all is mixed. Bake for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees. Makes about 21 small muffins (this depends on the size of your containers).
some of the muffins - as you can see I use a variety of containers, the ones in the back are the aluminum foil toss away and the red ones are microwave/oven proof silicon rubbery things I found these awhile back and wanted to give them a try and they work great. You kind of just pop the muffins out. I had six more baking when I took this picture and they are in a muffin tin. I have very large blueberries frozen from my little brother's berry farm as you can see in the photo - a couple berries and you have enough in each muffin! I have only about a cup of frozen berries left from the crop in June.
my afternoon snack - my very nutritious blueberry muffin and a cappuccino - of course I went and spoiled the nutritious part by having some chocolate afterward can't be perfect LOL after all I was hungry I had gotten in an hour of exercise after lunch!
I started making this coffee cake about 35 years ago! I can’t believe it but I have made it for every Christmas during those years. Sometimes by myself – when the girls were too young to help – then with the assistance of the girls. I believe there has a been a time or two after the girls got married that they sent their husbands in the kitchen to see how it was made and to help! Now here it is this Christmas the first time in along time that I have made it totally by myself once again. Mike was in and out of the kitchen taking photos for me as my hands were too covered with flour to do that too
This recipe if you do a search on line has many different versions. The recipe I use came with the first Bundt pan that I bought – it had a little booklet of recipes and I used all of the recipes for awhile – I used to make cakes a lot! This cake Potica is a Slovenian nut bread. It is pronounced “po – tee – zah”
The recipe:
Potica
the cake:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 packages dry yeast
3 eggs, separated
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
Filling:
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup milk
1 cup sugar
reserved egg whites
Heat butter and milk until the butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm (I use a candy thermometer to 110 degrees). In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water and beat in egg yolks one at a time. Blend in to the cooled milk mixture. Stir in the flour, salt and sugar. Beat until mixture is smooth and creamy. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. The following day blend walnuts, cinnamon, sugar, dates and milk in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stir until thickened. Let the mixture cool a little bit. Beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly add the 1 cup of sugar. Fold into the cooled walnut date mixture.
Cut the dough in half, dust with flour. Roll each out to make a 18 inch circle (or if you like a rectangle it makes no difference). Roll the dough thin – but not too thin! Top each piece of the rolled out dough with half of the walnut mixture and spread to within an inch of the edge. Roll it up jelly roll fashion. Place in the bundt pan one piece at a time and let them overlap. Let rise for 30 minutes and then bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees – bake for 45 minutes minutes.
step one, milk butter mixture cooling
getting the dough ready this morning.
making the filling
rolling the dough out
spreading the filling over the dough
rolling the cake jelly roll fashioned
place in the buttered and floured pan
the second rolled up piece on the opposite end of the pan and let it overlap if it needs to.
Baked for 45 minutes - the top will be a little brown but it doesn't matter as it is on the bottom when you put it on your cake plate. Yes sometimes by overlapping the two pieces of dough you get a little lopsided cake but I don't care - it is going to get eaten rather quickly anyhow! Let it cool in the pan for about 15 minutes when you take it out of the oven.
Put a light glace of frosting on the cake when it is still warm so it will drizzle down the sides - unless you really want frosting and want to cover the whole cake. I just like it light.
It looks like we will be spending our Christmas by ourselves this year – the first time since we spent our first Christmas together 37 years ago! The weather is undependable this year. We have had so much rain the past two days that there is flooding in some places of Arkansas so much so that some of the interstates south of Little Rock are closed in sections. Tonight the temperatures are dropping and we do not know if we will have ice or snow tonight. Right now the forecast is to have 1 to 3 inches of snow by morning. It is not raining or snowing right now. The roads are wet though who knows what kind of shape the roads will be in tomorrow. But because of the weather our daughter and son in law in North Little Rock have decided to play it safe and stay home. They – or we – can make the trip to see the other when the weather improves. I’ll just have to make sure that I save some of this coffee cake for them until we see them. I might have to put their cookies in the freezer to keep them fresh enough also!
I hope all of you have a very happy and safe Christmas. I have enjoyed so much this past year all of the friendships made through people stopping by my blog and leaving comments which lead at times to more mail being exchanged and look forward to more of the same in the new year. The weather is so bad this year in a lot of the county so don’t drive if you don’t have to!
Who can resist chocolate chip cookies! Be truthful can you eat just one I know I can’t. I’m trying the same recipe I always use this evening except half of the chips are mint. Well be a different taste – but one I am sure I will love. I use the recipe on the Tollhouse chocolate chip package. No changes just what is on the package. You can use a variety of chocolate chips – or butterscotch or whatever kind you like. I do add walnuts in mine.
A little work done has been done on the Christmas Baltimore Album quilt but not a lot. I have been working on too many things at once, once again. At least a little more is done but it is a long way from being done.
quilting on the Christmas Baltimore Album
I have the back of the sweater knitted – I might wait to post another photo of it until I am completely finished with it. No photo of it today. The Dutch Treat quilt is coming along nicely. A lot of my time has been spent on quilting it this past week. There are 36 plain blocks in it and 36 reverse applique blocks. Right now I have 19 plain blocks left to quilt and 20 applique blocks left. Just about half way finished!!
The Dutch Treat quilt
the quilting
Do most of you find that you work on more than one project at a time or do you concentrate on one project? I understand working on just one if you do this mainly for a business and have deadlines but if you do it just as your creative outlet do you have a hard time working on one quilt at a time?
I couldn’t believe the weather today – high 50’s! I came out of the fitness center and was so glad I wasn’t in a heavy sweater or sweatshirt – it was long sleeve t-shirt day – the sun was shining, no wind, a really nice day. Of course according to the evening news it will be 20 degrees cooler tomorrow!! Northwest Arkansas is already in the 30’s and here it just went under 50 and it is 6:45 PM right now.
I want to thank everyone for the birthday wishes to my mom. It was so nice celebrating 85 years with her. The years fly by don’t they.
Continue reading about Tonight is Chocolate Chip Cookie Night!
It is my mother’s 85th birthday on the 16th – today we had a surprise birthday party for her so we were away from home all day as it is a little more than 2 hours one way. We had a spectacular sunset on the way home. Here are a few photos of our day. We had a lot of the family able to make it to the party. Mom was surprised although my 7 year old niece tried her best to give the secret away the other day from what I heard! Good thing mom thought she was talking of her last birthday party given several years ago. We have many in the family and it was not possible for everyone to be there.
the cake
my mom and a couple of her great-grandchildren and the one in the gray shirt is the youngest of her grandchildren. They thought she needed help blowing out the candles. The generations over lap in our family. Mom had 12 children, if I have counted right she has 25 grandchildren and 21 great- grandchildren
the sunset
another of the sunset
one more of the sunset. I took these while Mike was driving, rolled down the window put the action selector on the camera and shot.
Continue reading about A 85th birthday party and a perfect sunset
Photos from Thanksgiving:
Melanie and I with THE QUILT
8 rows of the second Dear Jane quilt "Insanity Revisited" this one will eventualy go to my younger daughter Jessica
My family that I comment on from time to time on my blog - the most important people in the world to me. From left my hubby Mike, Melanie, Ric, Me, Jessica, Shane - in front Jessica & Shane''s kids Ciera and Utah
Ciera and Utah with Max their dog that came along for the family trip
And as if I don't have enough projects in the works - this is a new knitting project. Now that I have the knit stitch down pat I am working on learning how to purl so one side is knit, one side purl. This will be a shawl like thing - I say thing because I wonder if it will be more afhgan size when I am done? I am not following a pattern but just put 100 stitches on the big needles and going from there!
For now the Dear Jane quilt “Insanity” will reside on my bed. Melanie is going to hang it on a wall after I give it to her so I need to put a hanging sleeve on the back of the quilt still. I am going to make the sleeve in such a way that a bracket can go in the middle to give the weight of the quilt support as it is heavy. For now though the quilt is on my bed and it will remain there for about a year for me to enjoy. I put the Twisted Star quilt that I had on the bed so the back of the quilt which is a purple moda marble is on top, the Insanity is on top of that making the underneath quilt look more like a bed skirt. At night I will simply fold the quilt and lay it over the tall stool I have in the bedroom in the corner of the room so it is out of the way and then when I make the bed in the morning it will go back over it. I still need to design a label for the back of the quilt. I haven’t uploaded the program I use on my new computer but I decided to get a newer version of Print Master Gold anyhow so I will do that soon. I have Print Master 12 and I think it is up to version 17 or 19 now and have newer ideas for it with internet access. I’m sure plenty of new clip art also which I use a lot on my labels.
Dear Jane "Insanity" on my bed
My younger daughter-Jessica will be receiving the second Dear Jane “Insanity Revisited” sometime after that one is finished. I need to sew row 8 on to the blocks and then I will post a new photo of that quilt. While the grandchildren were here examining the quilts which they love to do asking what will be next I showed Ciera the “Little Brown Bird” quilt and told her that I was thinking of making that one – her words “that one will be mine”. (I told her maybe she would get it when she was 21 – she is 7 now – that should give me plenty of time to make it and enjoy it if I decide to do so). Utah spent one evening working on a design for a quilt that he wants me to make – he said it would be the quilt to use while watching tv in their basement family room which is a little chilly in the winter. Designed by Utah and made by Grandma – he specifically said that it had to have scraps of fabric in it from a quilt that I made him last year He had the big pad of drawing paper out, a square quilting ruler and colored pencils – he did a really good job but was only about a 1/4 of the way done with it when they left for home. He took the drawing home with him and said he will finish it and send it to me – I don’t know if he will keep his interest but if he sends it back I will see what I can do with it.
We just got back from our camping weekend. I haven’t had time to look through photos but I wanted to put a link here to my daughter Melanie’s blog where she posted photo’s of our Thanksgiving.
I will post again later if I get to it. While the kids were here visiting we got a photo of me and Mel holding up THAT QUILT that she has been waiting patiently for me to finish. Now she has had her first look at it and will wait awhile before I hand it over! She was drooling I will get one of the photo’s from Mike to post.
I don’t know about anyone else but I ate too much. We went through so many pumpkin pies – we love it. We eat it for breakfast, dessert, snacks – it is the only time of year I make it. We are bringing the leftovers with us.
We made use of our motorhome as we had too many people in the house the last couple days and when that happens it is very handy to have the motorhome next to the house. We make use of the extra sleeping space and the bathroom – it is heated and has water in the tank. But because we did use the bathroom and it is almost time for winter that means we must dump the tanks and then winterize the pipes. We decided the easiest way to do that is to go camping We will have fun, go hiking, enjoy nature and then dump the tanks and when we get home Mike will winterize the vehicle.
We will just be gone for the weekend – our last camping trip of the year – it will be a short trip but enjoyable. The campground that we are going to is a short drive - less than an hours drive from here. It is supposed to be in the 60’s this weekend although the evenings will be chilly.
While the kids where here we made use of the firepit that we had gotten for the stone area that Mike added to our deck. Here is a photo of the stone area and when Mike gets all his photos loaded on the computer I will put one on of the kids roasting marshmallows on Wednesday – they had fun and it made them feel like they were camping. We will be able to enjoy this fire pit almost all year round. It has a cover to go over it to protect it from the rain but most likely most of the time it will be put under the protection of the roof on the porch. There is a table top that you can put over the area that you put the wood in and then it turns into a table.
along the backside of this area Mike is building a rock wall that will provide extra seating if necessary (although most of the time it is just the two of us so plenty of room for the two chairs there) and maybe a bench on the side that is highest off of the ground (next to where the chairs are). It made for a nice area for a fire in the middle of a chilly afternoon. All this rock is from our land - we grow rocks pretty good in Arkansas! The flat stones though we had to buy - we hardly ever find any that flat in our yard
The house is full, the grandchildren are visiting here are some photos of my cuties having fun.
Wii game talent (Star Wars challenge)
Utah and Ciera working on a drawing
A Christmas tree all trimmed up and Santa peeking around the corner, gifts under the tree with their names on them
I am going to be out of town tomorrow for most of the day so I will do a quick announcement for the give away first thing in the morning before I take off. I need to drive to visit my mom and take her to a medical check up appointment. Little sis usually takes care of this kind of thing but she is under the weather and I’m her back up I had planned on visiting soon anyhow so this decided what day to go. Mom is two hours away from me and bad luck is that it is supposed to rain tomorrow so driving will not be fun – nor will getting the wheelchair in and out of the car! But needs to be done.
I managed to get 3 more blocks done last night – it seems like it is always 3 blocks before I quit! Maybe that means I can finish the last block and two triangles for Row K tonight? Hope so.
Row K block #'s 11 and 10
Row K block #12 - little blurry sorry about that.
I told you all awhile back that I wanted to learn to knit – well today after stopping by the library for a couple books I ran over to the knit shop to talk to the friendly ladies and see what they had. After talking to them I decided to make a simple scarf for winter first. I need to learn how to read a knitting pattern & instruction and just a general run through to brush up on knit, purl and get the technique going. I have knitted in the past but it was years ago (unless you count the one attempt I made about 3 years ago when a shawl kind of turned out looking like an afghan LOL – really). I learned basic knitting back in high school and we don’t want to remember how long ago that was!! Kind of getting close to 40 years — OMG — has it been that long LOL I can’t believe it, it seems like just yesterday!
the pretty blue variegated yarn and the supplies needed. Also with this scarf pattern are fingerless gloves, a hat and leg warmers -- people still use leg warmers? thought those went out years ago. Actually I liked a different hat that was displayed in the shop and if the scarf turns out I might give the hat a try.
Continue reading about Winner announced for the Give Away Thursday Morning
