I hadn’t had chocolate cake in so long – I really had a craving for it so here it!

Mexican Chocolate Cake

1 (8 oz) package semisweet chocolate baking squares – melted
1 cup butter, softened
1 1/2 cups sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 1/2 cups flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 cup strong cold coffee
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup chopped walnut

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Microwave the chocolate squares to melt in a microwave proof bowl – about 1 1/2 to 2 minutes.  While this is melting beat the butter at medium speed until soft and light.  Gradually add in the sugar, add the eggs – beat until soft and lemon color.  Stir in the chocolate and vanilla until well mixed.

Combine the dry ingredients and mix with the wet – adding the liquids gradually.  Stir in the chips and nuts.

Bake at 325 for 1 hour then check to see if it is done, if needed bake longer.  Let cool for 10 minutes and then turn out onto cake plate.  When cool frost as desired. (well be like a brownie texture to this cake)

EDITED:  I was disappointed with this cake after trying it – it was kind of dry if you make it you might want to try more buttermilk – maybe 1/2 cup coffee, 1 cup milk?  also make sure to check to see if it is done after about 45 minutes – the time might have been wrong for it -

I will pay for this I am sure – I will need to work out longer for the rest of the week – if you want to cut calories you could leave off the frosting   lol  I should put some of it in the freezer to eat at a later date – otherwise I know us it will be gone by Friday.

This much left to do!  10 inches wide by 100 inches long – and then this quilt will be ready for the binding – what more can I say about that   I worked for 45 minutes this morning and was able to finish that last section before rolling her on down for the last sections.

I hoped to do more on Joseph’s Coat last night – but what can I say – it was season finals on the two shows I was watching, my eyes were more on the tv than the piecing one more season final tonight that I watch – Criminal Minds – then it will be back to reruns and getting more work done.

This morning has been busy already – watering outside plants, doing laundry, put everything in the crock pot for baked beans and the smell is going through the house already – they smell so good.  Got the 45 minutes of quilting done and now it is time to read, then lunch, go work out and back home to sew some more.  And read!  Jonathan Sandford’s new book  Stolen Prey was released yesterday – I had pre-ordered and it came to my Kindle right away – that is one author that I spend the money on – I think I have reread every single book of his once or twice – I love his stuff!  It will be hard to pull myself away from his book and sew!

While thinking of what color scheme I wanted when I eventually make the Sedona Star quilt I decided on a white background and bright colors.  The white will be where that light and medium blue background fabric is – way too much of that color in there for me – the white might take the place of that purple also.  Aren’t these colors in this bundle wonderful!  I am waiting until all the instructions and the patterns are in at the end of the year before starting this quilt – but in the meantime when I saw this fabric I couldn’t pass it up – I got more than the one bundle shown – I made sure I got enough to do the whole quilt!  This fabric is Andover Dimples (jewels).

Check out Ladyfingers Sewing Studio – wonderful fabrics and some of them are lower in price than others I have seen. Judy over at Patchwork Times sent me to her.

Star Crazy moving along -  when this stretch is done I can give another couple rolls on the crank and will be on the final stretch – I don’t know if I will be able to reach the whole thing – it is 10” deep, might have to work on 5 inches  in depth and give it a crank down and then work on the final 5.

A little more work was done on the scraps – more stacking upon the table, progress is slow going – maybe it will be done by the end of the year LOL

This evening is being devoted to Joseph’s Coat – I have 3 hours of tv tonight – the season final of NCIS and the final of NCIS Los Angeles which is a 2 hour show tonight – maybe I can get a good amount of work done while watching/listening to these shows?

More progress on Joseph’s Coat.  Someone (I think Cathy) said they thought I was moving along quickly on this quilt and I thought no I hadn’t been – I started it last July I believe or was it August?  But then I remembered I was gone in September and October and hadn’t worked on it for 2 months, I was gone a week at Thanksgiving and it stayed home.  I ran back and forth to see my mom so many times when she was in poor health in January and February I lost track of how often I worked on it then – it is almost done – I guess I moved faster on it than I thought I had.  I think if I was actually counting days up it would total a good 7 or 8 months of hand piecing work.

I got another diagonal row cut out last evening and pinned in placed, stacked up and sewed one segment together – moving right along!  Laying in place.  Another person-sorry I lost track of who asked “how big is the quilt” – it will be about 104 x 104 inches I believe.

A closer view.

When the quilt is folded in half lengthwise you can see what is left to do – keep in mind the above row that was laying on the floor is now pinned and stacked up so that part is in your imaginations for laying over some of the orangey colors – what is left is not a lot is it!

Almost done!!!

I will show how Star Crazy is going later – I actually worked on it a bit yesterday also.

What am I doing today?  Hopefully working on all three projects!!  Head on over to Judy at Patchwork Times and see what everyone else is working on too.

First off work must continue on Star Crazy – final border – lets see how much of this quilt gets done this week – the end is near and I want to get it finished!

Joseph’s Coat – the row is sewed on – let the work on the circles begin!

A little more work on the scraps was done yesterday – I intend to add to this pile during the week.

Did you all have a good mothers day?  We had a nice fairly lazy day at home.  I helped Mike with a few things outside and worked on my quilts a little bit.  In the evening we lite a fire in the fire pit outside and enjoyed a glass of wine while watching a couple hummingbirds come to the feeder.

Don’t you just love these tiny little birds – love those beaks – reminds me of a needle.

The sun going down – looking out through the trees.

If we don’t get rain pretty soon we won’t be able to use our fire pit – it is very dry – we – in my little spot of Arkansas that is have had very little rain since the beginning of April.  It seems to be missing us – we barely had enough the other day to get the porch wet, I have been having to water my plants already!  I hope a burn ban doesn’t come into affect soon.  We have dry patches of grass – the hollyhocks were so dry this morning – I had forgotten them – the stalks of buds were drooping – I watered them and they perked back up but I shouldn’t have to water plants so much at this time of May.  No rain in the forecast for this week – please tell me we are not heading towards a drought.

To all the mothers out there – have a nice lazy relaxing day doing what you feel like doing!!

I got started on the final border of Star Crazy this morning. It is going quickly as I thought it would so I will have to be reminding myself to take breaks –otherwise I sit too long and get stiff!  Quickly is a “relative” term I guess –from the edge and inwards took 30 minutes

Someone asked for a close up of stitches – Sara? I’m not sure if it was you or someone else – no my stitches are not always even and my rows are not always straight, I really do not pay attention to sameness, I try to be consistent but it doesn’t always work out that way – overall I am normally pleased with the results, if I really hate a section I unstitch, re-thread the needle and do over – but not often!  That is why I do not enter into shows – image the stress of trying to get your quilt absolutely perfect! That would stress me to the max! I do admire those that strive for perfection in their quilting – it just isn’t me though.

The “Hunger Games” was a great movie I thought!  It really followed the book closely and I am looking forward to seeing the next two movies – we have both read all three of the books and loved them.

Have a great day everyone

I have all the pieced sections of Star Crazy now quilted!  Straight lines from here on out.  I will do 3 lines on the side border here shown and on the blue sashing then I give it a couple cranks and will be on the final borders.  Such a nice feeling – I don’t think I can get done with the quilting by the 18th as that would have put me at 5 months of quilting – but it won’t be much past that before I am done and ready for binding.  If I hadn’t spent so much time running back and forth to help my mom out in Jan/Feb and if I hadn’t run to Paducah for 3 days, if I hadn’t run back to NW Ark to visit family last week — well if you count up actually days spent quilting it is more likely close to 4 months of quilting – that sounds much better LOL

All of the scraps that had been on the table are now in their boxes and a new small pressed pile is sitting here waiting for me to start.  And another small pile is waiting by the few clothes that need pressing from todays laundry – I will add them to this pile tomorrow.

If you look at the last photo of the wicker basket – and compare it to –

this – I think I can see a little progress made.  I think though that I will need to take the photos at the same angle from now on though to see progress for sure!

But now break time!  We are going to finally see the “Hunger Games” this afternoon and supper out!!

In case anyone noticed – construction is being done on the blog – my webmaster DH – Mike has been tweaking some on the sidebars.  I will be adding and deleting some from the  blogs read column – that doesn’t mean I am taking you off of my google reader, I will still keep up with you  – I have just so many things on the side bars of the blog that I didn’t like the look of it  – also took a few categories off of my tags.  Comments are now closed after a week – I have been getting so much spam lately something had to be done – if you wish to comment on something older than a week just get in touch with me through my contact page.

I must admit I have been really taking my time on this section of the Star Crazy quilt – no excuses – been reading a lot lately.  Slowly though I have been chipping away at this last section of the pieced area.  Finally the last of it before I give it some more cranks down to the final border.  Maybe I can get this section done tomorrow – I think it is going to be raining off and on all day – most likely not an outside day.  Hopefully once I get to that final border where I am just doing a straight quilting stitch every one and half inches the time will fly by and it will be off of the frame!

I decided – for now – changing my mind does happen that I will keep a small pile of pressed scraps on the cutting table and here and there – the minutes do add up – I will walk on over to the table and cut a few pieces – surely I will start to make a dent in that wicker laundry basket!!  I put this pressed pile on the table yesterday and I have gotten some pieces cut here and there over the last 48 hours – not a lot – but a little at time – right!

Anyone else making any progress on their scrap organizing?

I am done with all the segments for this lot of colors and ready to attach the row.  The circles are made – needing less and less of them as these rows get shorter as well – only 13 needed this time.

The  next two colors

My lovely big hydrangea bush is in full bloom and this year like last year has an array of colors on it where as it used to just be bloom.  I know my soil must be changing but I have never gotten around to testing it – I’m not that serious of a gardener.  All of these off of the same bush.

The vase – picked up in Pennsylvania years ago.

I worked really well on my scraps when I got started doing that over a month ago – then I got side tracked as I assumed I would.  I have a lot done, but tons left to do.  This much left to work on – plus one box full of white scraps – I decided to keep that box separate for now.  A summer project for sure – maybe a working on for a year project

The box of whites

All lined up looking at from above.

A box of 5 inch charms and 4 inch charms

3 1/2 inch charms and 3 inch charms

2 1/2 inch charms, 2 inch charms, and 1 1/2 inch charms – I didn’t intend to cut so many different sizes of squares but I was finding a lot already cut in those sizes so I decided to go with that.

1 box of strings full, second box of strings started – one box of odds and ends of patchwork blocks leftover from projects.

They all fit on the top shelf for now – by time I get done with the basket who knows how many boxes – I might end up combining some if the boxes are not full.

Do I regret starting this chore of organizing scraps – yes I do right now – but I have a feeling I will be glad I did this when I start to use them!!