Christmas Bake-apolooza 2011!

I've planned for many weeks to take several days this week and start - hopefully finish - my Christmas baking.  Several years ago, my sweet MIL mailed us a box of home-made goodies and we enjoyed them so much that I started doing the same thing for my girls.  So each year I make about 12 dozen cookies, some cakes, and a boat-load of fudge and I send each girl a 'goodie' box.  And each year I ask if they really really want the goodie box this year, and of course, "MOM!  Yes!  We want the goodie box."  The daughter living out of country told me that her office workers are already asking "When's your Mom going to send you the goodie box?"  

So, today was spent baking chocolate chip cookies, oatmeal cookies, date bars, and Holiday cakes ... with another round scheduled for tomorrow afternoon and on into Monday.  Then we can ship the goodie boxes!  And that's the main part of our holiday, getting the goodies off to where they belong.

 

So here are a couple of pics of the Bake-apolooza that we are experiencing here in GA!

Story about the cookies:  For years my girls loved me making my 'secret' chocolate chip cookies.  They were in awe of how delicious they were ... and would pester me and pester me for the recipe.  I told them "one day... I'll share the recipe with you.  One day ..."    Time marches forward and several years ago one of my daughters came to live with us.  She had time on her hands so last year she agreed to be my kitchen helper during the holidays.  I was making the chocolate chip cookies ... she looked at the Nestle's Tollhouse chips bag in my hand, and burst out laughing:  "THAT'S YOUR SECRET?"  Yep, good ol' Tollhouse Chocolate Chip Cookies!  So now OUR secret is that we're not telling her sisters!  

The cakes are truly a secret.  My mother made these cakes every Christmas since 1960 or so. And when I got the recipe I continued the tradition.  We call it a "It's not a fruitcake" Holiday Cake!  I make between 15 and 20 of these every year and give them as gifts.  

More pictures tomorrow as the Bake-Apolooza continues.  And next week back to quilting!

An Eyeful of Trifle ...

Yesterday was a busy one.  I had the small church stitching group here at my home for our Christmas Luncheon.  And I served, for the first time ever, an English Trifle!  Oh my!  Was it ever good!  I did the pound cake, and the real pudding, and then layered with raspberry preserves, strawberries, kiwi fruit, and blueberries, with a sprinkling of crushed biscotti cookies and slivered almonds.  Geez, could I get another item in there, you're thinking?  Nope, it was over the top, literally! 

Mr. Dancing Bear was my Sous Chef** for the day and he did an excellent job!  I was able to sit and chat with the ladies and not worry about the clean-up.  

**And what is a Sous Chef, you ask?  Well, here's what I found:

A Sous Chef is second in command after the Executive Chef in a professional kitchen. This means he or she answers to the chef.  It’s important that a sous chef be intimately familiar with all the activities of the kitchen and be prepared to do them in a pinch.

It doesn't say anything about 'clean-up duties' but Mr. Dancing Bear took the initiative and kept the kitchen all cleaned up!  

I'm working on another vintage quilt and when done I'll post pictures.  

Feathered Fibers Feature

Carla Barrett of Feathered Fibers is having a free blog giveaway and Carla is holding another Quilt Whisperer Class on January 9, 2012, a creative class on quilting design for all levels of quilters.  She is so talented and is offering up a choice selection for the winner to choose from - and I want the personalized cartoon!  How fun!

To Register for any class, just go to the SteponPins.com and click on the Courses button (shown at the top).  Click the name of the class to register.   Details are provided about each class on the right hand side of the page.  Create an account so you will automatically be added to the class.

So go check out her classes at StepOnPins.com and visit her Feathered Fibers site:

http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com/

OK, Carla ... am I gonna win this one?

I'll be registering for the Quilt Whisperer Class soon.

A Thimbleberries Beauty

Cathy got back her Thimbleberries beauty today so I get to post pictures.  This is a huge quilt!  Somebody's gonna be real happy Christmas morning!!  I did a swirl and leaf on this one.  The fabric is such that quilting doesn't really show up plus I chose a green thread for the top (which really blended...) and a gold thread for the back.  You can do that, right?  Different threads top and bottom?  LOL!!  No quilt police around my house, that's for sure!

 The quilt is so big that it doesn't fit my hallway bannister.

This is the backing.

Close-ups.

Dear Santa, I can explain everything ...

Have you talked with Santa yet?  I did!  And all I want for Christmas is ... wait for it ... a Wacom Intuos4 tablet so I can draw potential quilting patterns on quilts before I get them on Max and then totally wig out with "What do I do now???"  

Carla Barrett at http://featheredfibers.wordpress.com is giving a class in January called Quilt Whisperer and a class in February called Tablet Design.  I can't wait!!


Mosey over to Carla's site and take a look.


Thanks, Carla!

Inquiring minds want to know .... about thread storage

Inquiring minds have been asking about my thread storage, so here are some pictures.  Mr. Dancing Bear made these for me right after I got Max, and it seems that no sooner did he get them finished and up on the wall that I filled almost every dowel with a thread!  You'll even see some that are upside down ... those are my "second" cones.  Sometimes I buy 2 cones of the same color - one for the top and one for the bobbin.  Just depends on how much I'm ordering and the size of my pocketbook!

As I'm looking at these pictures I realize that they were taken some time ago.  After I run some errands today, I'll take some newer ones and post them. 


IT'S ALL EYE CANDY!!


 

Vintage #3 - Road to California

This is Bobbie's 2nd vintage quilt that she gave me to quilt for her.  It is called Road to California.   We believe that these particular vintage quilts were done in the '50s.  Again, think of MeMaw sitting and stitching these blocks together without the use of our modern tools. Didn't she do a great job! 











Since this is going to a boy/man for Christmas I chose to do a non-floral/feather motif, but something that would give it some swirl and curl.














The 3rd picture down shows the backing that we chose for this quilt.  It picks up both the blue and the red from the quilt top.  Yummy!

Is it a Christmas Cactus or an Easter Cactus? Maybe both?

 





These beauties were brought in about a week before Thanksgiving and look what they did!  We keep them outside during the spring and summer and they do great, even in our brutal heat of summer.  But when I see buds developing I bring them in and put them in the foyer for a while and lo and behold!  Cacti flowers. 

Now the question is:  Are they Christmas cactus or Easter cactus ... because these beauties will continue to develop blossoms and bloom from now until Easter.  

Some Vintage beauties

I may be a geek/techie but there's another part of me that is a traditionalist and in this vein I truely love anything vintage.  I've had the wonderful opportunity to quilt several vintage quilts recently and here are a few.  Just sit back, enjoy, and remember "MeMaw" sitting and piecing these wonderful quilts.  Remember that MeMaw didn't have all our wonderful rulers, templates, patterns, etc.  She probably used newspaper for her patterns, and a pair of scissors that may have been used by everyone in the house, and a canning lid for a template for making circles.  So give reverence to these wonderful piecers who moved us to where we are today.  OK, now off my soapbox ...

Bobbie had me do this one and it is called Double T.  It is a BIG quilt!  I did Swirlz on it and it came out great.  We decided to piece the back with a blue/red/blue piecing and these two fabrics were found at Kiwiquilts in Powder Springs.  Thanks, Tracy!  Isn't it a beauty?

Kim came with this quilt and several others.  We were laying them out and found that one of the quilts was paper-pieced with newspaper and all the paper had not been torn out.  We searched and finally found the dateline of the newspaper - April 1948!  So we figured that all the quilts she had stored in a cedar chest were probably made in the same time period.  This is a big quilt also, and I didn't get a full-size picture of it but even from this small photo you can get a sense of this oldie-but-goodie.  Look at the randomness of the rectangles!  Just so cool!  I did a Baptist Fan on this one, trying to keep with the vintage look.  I'm kicking myself for not taking a picture of the back.  It is a vintage  small floral in red/blue/yellow/green/white backing and it is absolutely perfect for this quilt.  I had a great time quilting this one.  Thanks, Kim!

Hooray!  Kim sent me a picture of the quilt with its backing folded over the top.  It is just so perfect!  You really have to see the whole quilt top to fully appreciate just how perfect this backing is for this quilt.  A big Thank You to Linda at Little Quilts here in Marietta for helping to choose this backing.  


It's just so pretty ....
















I have to give both Bobbie and Kim wonderful credit for taking such good care of these family heirlooms.  I believe both kept them in cedar chests/closets, out of plastic bags.  They came to me in wonderful shape which made my job so much easier.  

So remember to pass on to your customers/quilting friends the importance of storing your quilt tops properly.  And I know you have some quilt tops laying around, right?  Don't we call those UFOs??  Keep them out of that plastic crap - wrap them up in a clean pillow case, so that when your daughter/granddaughter pulls them out for her quilter to finish up, she'll be proud of YOUR work.  

Have a great evening!  

7 days to baking frenzy!  want to join me? 

It's Cyber-Monday so what else are you reading other than a computer screen? LOL!

I'm doing a lot of quilting this week, but for relaxation (? huh?  i thought quilting WAS relaxation!) I read and I tend to read a lot.  I don't do the Danielle Steele stuff ... read 1 or 2 of that and you've read them all is my opinion - I'm allowed my opinion, you know.  Anyway, I've gotten entranced with what I call the Icelandic genre.  It started by coming across the books by Karin Fossum.  I absolutely love her books because the stories are so interesting and the characters well fleshed out.  The subject may be strange but I like books and movies that sort of grab you by the collar and shake you up a bit.  My newest author is Ruth Rendell - A Sight for Sore Eyes - and The Vault.    And an old favorite is Henning Mankell - the Det. Kurt Wallander series.    Just go to Amazon.com and type in Icelandic mysteries and a whole list will pop up.  Go with those that have been reviewed by readers and have at least 4 stars.  You can't go wrong!

And just this past weekend I finished Rules of Civility by Amor Towles which tells a story of 1938 Manhattan.  I love New York and this book didn't fail me.  Great story, great characters.  Wish I had been there!

So I've been giving my K-Fire a good workout this past week.  I love that I don't have to have a flexible light on it - it is backlit like your computer so no extra lighting is needed.  So I just cuddle down into the covers and read away ... 

Ok, back to Max.  I have another vintage quilt on the machine and its so pretty!  Pictures at a later date.  

Happy Cyber-Monday!!