Silk Scarf and I spy quilt finished

There's so much going on that yes, I had to do 2 blogs today.

Earlier this week, after getting advice on how to handle this gift of silk fabric, I decided that I would not use it in a quilt. I will make decadent scarves to go under a winter coat with it. On this first scarf, I pressed under the seams twice and did a machine hem all around. This fabric was indeed delicate but it's so nice to wear and I feel like a movie star wearing it. I might go buy a coat to match the scarf. I'll be gifting this actual finished scarf back to the girl who gave me the fabric soon. She will be surprized. I'll be making myself another after Christmas.

Another finish today is an I Spy quilt for Aurora. It really wasn't intended to be a Christmas gift, but it's so close to Christmas, I might just wrap it up. I don't know what I was thinking when I made it. I intended for it to be a small quilt but my math was all wrong. Because I used 4.5" I spy blocks with alternate plain color blocks, it is 36 x 48". I didn't intend it to be a bed size quilt, so my plan "B" is to just leave the borders off. This quilt was done using this quilt as you go method and I used a slightly wider strip (2") on the back seams so that I could finish the seams on the back by machine rather than by hand. I only started putting blocks together on Wednesday evening, so it went together super fast.

Won't Aurora have fun on Christmas day when I say to her... "I spy with my little eye, where is Santa?"

Red Lobster biscuits

Have you ever had the cheddar biscuits at the Red Lobster restaurant. We don't have a Red Lobster in our area and it's almost a year since we've eaten at one. The one thing I look forward to is there, is their biscuits that they bring you when you order an entree. They're so buttery, salty, cheesy and tasty and light.

Last week we hosted a dinner party for friends and seafood was on our menu. I thought about those Red Lobster biscuits and nice it would be to have those to compliment the seafood casserole that I made. I did a quick search on the Internet and guess what? I learned that the Red Lobster biscuits are the most googled for restaurant recipe. I found many link for their recipe, but I used this recipe. I and was so surprised that they are made out of Bisquick. This recipe comes from the book Top Secret Restaurant Recipes 2 and they shared the recipe with ABC news.

Really, if you like the Red Lobster biscuits, you must try these. They were really remarkable and light. I got many compliments on them at the dinner party.

Pure Silk!!

Does anyone know how to use or sew with pure silk fabric?

A friend gave me the most beautiful piece of pure silk fabric. She's had it for many many years. She told me who gave it to her, but she told me as she was handing me the fabric, and I was so overwhelmed with the beauty of this fabric that I didn't hear a word she said. Then in the next instant I realized she GAVE me the fabric because she said she'll never do anything with it.

The fabric is blue and gold and has a holographic look to it. One way you look at it, it's all a beautiful deep blue. You look at it another way, and just the flowers are blue and the rest is gold. The black of the fabric is a solid gold color.

There must be 4 yards of this fabric and it's about 24" wide. I decided I would take a 24" square of fabric and try to fashion a beautiful scarf to go under a winter coat. The fabric is very delicate. I lightly ironed up a small double hem on each side and have it pinned.

My question is, should I use a sewing machine to sew the four hems, or should I do it by hand. Should I use silk thread, or another kind of thread? Has anyone had experience with silk?

Blue Quilt Thursday - Week 3 of 4

This week 3 of my 4 weeks of making the blue scrappy quilt for St. Dunstan's.

I bet you have wondered how I get so much done from time to time. Well, here is my secret. I sometimes have a quilt helper.

Caitlin was here this afternoon and she took on the single job of laying out my quilt. While she was laying out the quilt, I was finishing the last of the square in a square blocks and I was giving them to her one by one at the end. I have all the blocks done and next is to sew the diagnol rows together.

I turned the quilt on my bed upside down and this is what she's laying out the quilt blocks on. Here she is, with almost all the double nine patches strategically placed.

Then come the blocks with the square in a square. Then the last to get placed on are the side triangles .

She arranged and re-arranged so that there wasn't too many dark blocks beside one another or too many lights. She primped and primped for quite a while.

She did a lovely job don't you think.

I've come to the realization that I won't get this done before Christmas but I'm very pleased with my progress so far. I ran into a snag and I need to get a quilt expert opinion before I can move on. Just the same, all the blocks will be packed up and will come out again after the New Year.

So watch for the finishing of the Blue Quilt which should be around January 10th.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's getting fun now. We're shopping, cooking, making lists and preparing for next week.

The garage smells like Christmas because our freshly cut tree is in there relaxing in a pail of water. Within a day or two, it will be dressed for the season.

The wrapping and mailing of Christmas presents to my sisters household is done and on the way.

On Sunday, we are going to a Christmas Concert at St. Dunstan's church and we'll have Jessie and Emmie with us. Then we're all going to see Caitlin's syncro swimming exhibition. If that doesn't put us right in the Christmas spirit, I don't know what will.

Jess and Em are staying for a few days and I have a very busy agenda planned for them for Monday and Tuesday. I hope they're resting up. Watch for daily blogs about our activities. Then Baby Aurora is coming on Wednesday. It'll be fun this year with her because she already knows it's a fun time of year. Just wait until she realizes that Santa will be bringing her presents on Christmas Morning.

Coloring 101

Baby Aurora is here for a visit this weekend. She's almost two and she talks a blue streak. She repeats everything you say. She loves the Sesame Street characters and she has an obsession with my pencil crayons that I keep in the family room. Up until now, she just takes them out one by one, and then puts them back in the box. Over and over and over. But this weekend, was special. We started to color in a Sesame Street coloring book with her and she loves it. She'd stay there all day to color and talk.

Also, she's doing really well with her potty training. She's even trying to potty train her bear just like her mama is training her. She's reading a story to her bear so he won't get off the potty.

She loves to wear her outdoor hat indoors. Even when it's too cold to go outside.

She's just a delight to have around.

Eye Spy with My Little Eye

Do you remember that little game? All my grandkids are really good at playing it. Even now, they're good at it. Too good sometimes...

I've been collecting I SPY fabrics for about a year now to make Aurora a quilt. This past week, I took some time to decide on a block size and cut out some 50 blocks. Since she is talking up a storm now and loves to repeat words, she is ready for an I Spy quilt. I'm hoping to have it in time for Christmas.

As you might imagine, the I SPY blocks are from various fabrics and are every color under the rainbow. Since I only have 50 I spy blocks, I'll be setting alternate plain fabric blocks which are shown here and then the quilt will have a good size border that is made out of a fun kid print.

I can't make up my mind which border print I should use. I have 2 selected.

The first one is a fun flowers and bugs fabric. The second option is more of a mod fabric, but still really cute.


Do you have an opinion as to what I should use for a 2 year old?

Blue Quilt Thursday - Week 2 of 4

Last week I had set a goal of having my 30 double nine patches done on St. D's quilt. Here is what the 150 9-patches looked like before they were sewn into more 9 patch blocks. They look big but they are only 3.5" big.

And here's what they look like when they're all sewn into the double nine patch and ironed.

I'm on to the next step now which is sewing the 20 inner blocks and the 18 side triangle blocks. I hope to be starting to sew them in the diagonal rows by next Thursday.

It's looking good for getting this done before Christmas.

Gingerbread 2009

Grace, Mitchell and Caitlin had a blast rolling out the gingerbread cookies. Then we cooked them and decorated them. Thank goodness Grampie did the dishes. They loved the new letters that are in my cookie cutter collection. My friend Lee gave them to me earlier this year. Thanks Lee

A week of Christmas Cooking.

I'm in the holiday cooking spirit. This is going to be a week of cooking. Last evening, I happened to be going through a couple of December magazines that have been on my coffee table for a week or so. Just looking at all the festive recipes has got me in a cooking mood.

This morning I tried these Coffee Sugar nuts out of the Canadian Living magazine. I like anything that is coffee flavored. These are sweet and addictive. Next time I would add a bit more coffee. The recipe calls for instant espresso, and since I didn't have any, I used instant coffee. They are still yummy.


I also made these ginger sugar cookies from the Better Homes and Garden website. I loved the picture in the magazine and I did happen to have some big sugar on hand. The recipe is called Giant Ginger cookies, but I used my standard 1/8 cup scoop and made regular size cookies. I made half the recipe and it made 45 cookies. That's lots for us to both freeze and keep in the cookie jar this week.


On Wednesday afternoon, the triplets will come over for our annual gingerbread cookie decorating. I'll be making and chilling the cookie dough Wednesday morning. I bought really nice Wilton snowflake cookie cutters to add to my collection. So in the afternoon, the kids will roll out the dough, cut out their cookies, then decorate them. Watch for those pictures. I promise they will be fun.

Thursday, we are having friends over for a supper party. Hubby and I have the menu made and we are looking forward to have a fun evening with friends.




EDIT: Here is the recipe for the Canadian Living Coffee Nuts from the January 2010 issue.

Coffee Sugar and Spice Nuts

1 egg white
1 tbsp water
3 cups unsalted nuts
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3/4 tsp each of cinnamon and instant espresso powder
1/2 tsp salt
pinch of nutmeg

In a bowl, using a for, beat egg white with water. Add nuts stirring to coat.
Combine sugar, spices and salt. sprinkle over egg white mixture and stir. Spread on greased baking sheet
Bake in 275 degrees oven until nuts are toasted, about 1 hour. Break up clumps. Let cool completely on pan.

Last Dance

Last Dance class of the year, that is. Grampie and I attended Grace's dance class yesterday. The parents and grandparents were allowed to attend because it was the last class of the year. Grace is in the class with 2 of her best friends, Erin and Alexandra. In this video, they are demonstrating how to do cartwheels to music. First is Alexandra in the purple shirt, then Erin in the white shirt, and finally, Grace. The class was too cute.

Blue Quilt Thursday - Week 1 of 4

I had an unusually fun day today. I attended the annual Christmas Turkey lunch with the Triplets at school today. What a busy day for the cooks in the cafeteria. All those extra mouths to feed. We got to sit away from the noisy crowd so it was fun just to sit and have lunch and chat with the kids at their school. I never even thought to bring my camera..boo hoo.
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After that, I made a visit to the Stepping Stones Senior Center's Craft group. I had a nice coffee break with a dozen ladies who were working on various stitching projects. I told and showed them of three projects that I had on the go that might be of interest to them. I showed them my crazy quilted socks and they really liked them since they are all stitchers of one sort or another. I also showed them my "Quilt as you go" quilt that finished not very long ago. I love that technique and I have 2 more of of these quilt as you go projects on the go right now. I also showed them the " I Spy" squares that I've been collecting for a year now. I cut almost 50 squares to exactly 4.5" last week and I hope to have Aurora's "I Spy" quilt done by Christmas. They thought it was a really fun idea. And I never even thought to bring my camera again...boo hoo.
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So today is Thursday. I'm going to report in on the progress of the St. Dunstan's Blue Scrappy quilt each Thursday before Christmas. I told you about it in this blog post previously. I picked Thursdays since these ladies meet on Thursday afternoons and my ultimate goal is to have it done by Christmas Eve!
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Right now, I'm working on the 30 double nine-patch blocks. This is going to be 150 small nine patches all together. I have the nine-patches done for one block done. For about 15 blocks, I have the first strip sets sewn, ironed and sub-cut, and now waiting for the final sewing of the nine-patch. For the other 14 blocks, they are still in long strips, some ironed, and some not. By next Thursday, I'll have the 30 blocks completed.