Christmas is over and we are relaxing. Liz, the new mother is napping, the 2 babies are napping. The 'boys' Granddad, Ryan, Jeffrey, and Andrew are ice climbing! No, no one is making them they are doing it for fun! I baked a pear pastry and am nursing a sore throat.
Laptops are difficult to get used to.....
I hope they come home with pictures.

my knitting

I can knit in the car. Haven't done much of it in the car though. Here's the project I'm working on for Austin. I knitted mittens for Carter (his are similar to the one's his older cousin is wearing at the snow fort) and worked on dishrags. I finished the binding on this quilt and did the applique for Tyler's 'hristmas' books. (he already has Merry C). I've almost finished all the 'kits' I'd brought to work on. I also brought a couple of books but I can't read AND knit. :(
We've been traveling for 7 days and driven 1,673 miles and slept in 5 different beds! We have 1,998 miles to go and only 3 more beds.
We have visited with 22 relatives and have 8-13 left to visit. WE're excited to see the latest addition to our family, Landon! We were looking forward to seeing all of our kids but Melissa isn't coming to Idaho this year since Austin broke his leg! What a sad experience this has been for them. I hope it will all seem like a bad dream in a short while.
It's time to pack for the next leg of our 'trek'.
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas.

Christmas tree skirts

This is the latest project to come off the long-arm. This one is heavily quilted but due to the dull day it isn't showing up. So, since I was using up bits of thread left in bobbins you can see the quilting in some of the back. I love the heart quilt pattern but it takes a lot of time so the second one got the words to Silent Night and O Come All Ye Faithful quilted on it. I figure you'll never even see the skirts, let alone the back side.

After quilting and cutting them out it took 35 minutes and 2 packs of bias tape to make each one.

The fabric is evil...I paid .25 a yard for it 4 years ago. Last year I did a pantograph on the same stuff and washed it; it faded very badly and shrank, but it still made an all right tree skirt.

Orange Candy

My daughter sent me a link to this fabulous candy. But I have a problem; I followed the recipe and used 3 oranges and I SHOULD have used at least 10! Very good; at least the adults like it. So it's a keeper; if you try to make it increase the oranges but the liquid doesn't need to be increased.

So how many of these should be dipped in chocolate?

What would you do with the left over sugar and orange syrup?

• I brought to a boil thinking it should be thicker...but turned it off immediately it is still very thick.
• We're going to try it with pancakes,
• tonight though we tried it on cornbread...delicious!
• Would it work with club soda?

Inquiring minds want to know.

• 
  

My books

I started this project before Christmas last year, using ALL wool found at thrift stores and then felted. I committed to making a book a year for each grandchild for Christmas...but only until they are 14. Each year they get a tiny book, with 8-12 pages, that has one letter on it that they or Mom is to write a brief record of the year in. Include a picture if they want. Melissa wanted all of them, which is a good idea then I don't have to keep track of which letter to send Austin. The plan is to get all of them done ahead but I failed....The top row goes: Liz, Landon, Carter, Tyler and James. (Liz begged for one for herself for each year she is married...sorry no one else begged; the other 2 had also been married longer so it would be harder to go back journal wise to get up to date.) I blogged about it last year and Saturday.

The embroidery got a little fancier this year (notice the top row capitol C) so if Melissa doesn't write a name in the books she gets this year she can intersperse the fancier ones with the plain ones for her next kid.

Drum roll please

This is my little sister's first quilt! Nice job, Lynn. I waited to quilt this until after my classes at Quilt Festival and then it had to be fitted around customers quilts. Since it was so busy I felt comfortable trying some new things...the mistakes wouldn't show as much. I treated it as a series of borders; the only true border got peacock eyes, then feather flurries, then crosshatching, contouring and the center 8 blocks is feathered hearts. Lots of quilting.

I rolled the quilt along quilting and the quilt ended 1/4 inch before the end of the back! A little to close for comfort.

Makes me want to get mine made....not this year.

projects

I'm nuts. I counted the number of books I need to make to finish this project that I started last year. 4 grand kids times 14 (1 for each letter of Merry Christmas) = 56. Landon will be born next week, we hope, and that will make it 70. If my children do as well as my parents' did I could have 24 grand children, then I'll get to make 336 of these guys! I'm on my way and should finish this years batch by Monday. I timed one of them 40 minutes if I have all the stuff at my fingertips and do NO clean up, so I figure an hour each.

I also FINISHED a quilt since the camera is at camp with the Scoutmaster I have to wait for the photo. It's my sister's quilt that is similar to this one that we both started last year:

Mine hasn't progressed past this point.

Nativity

I have many nativities but this year I only got one out; my favorite was a gift, in the raw cut out of wood form, from my sister. I painted it. The quilts are actually in a drawer under the figures.

I like to have a nativity very close to the front door so everyone will get a glimpse of what we believe when entering. This year I just moved my needlepoint nativity there since I have glitz on Grandma's sewing machine.

Oops, the blocks got knocked over and buried but they need to be moved to a less glitzy spot anyway.

This is the before picture.

firsts

The first time someone used a picture on their blog from my blog, with my permission. Go over to Barbara Jean's blog and check it out. I'll still add some beads to my cage if I happen to see some really cheap.

bird cage not birdhouse!

Eventually we all go Christmas shopping, right? Well, I went today and bought these snowflakes; I have a weakness for snowflakes.

I went shopping for my boys but found myself some great deals. Coldwater Creek had 35% off everything; I bought myself a polar fleece jacket, (I've been living in my husband's) I also bought myself 2 t's. I could have easily spent $200. more; but how many jackets does a person living in Houston need? Maybe I'll find something tomorrow for someone else.

4 stores

I NEEDED some small matchboxes for a project I'm planning on working on next year. My daughters and I are doing an exchange. Inspireco inspired us; if you scroll down to her Dec. 2nd post you'll see her line-up. Check out this advent calendar, and this one, and this one, all using the same little bitty box. Anyway, there are supposed paper mache boxes out there but our 2 craft stores don't carry them; neither does WalMart. I found the matches at a nicer grocery store near me. Now what to do with these;

decorating continued

The letters J,O,Y were a fun Family Home Evening project. The J and Y were done by pretty young kids...I love the roughness of them; the background isn't quite as smooth as the O and they look better. I considered changing the pictures for our 'Santa' pictures but haven't had time.

Have I mention NO Christmas shopping yet? Oops, I did pick up some things for the grandsons; all 4 of them.

Decorating Finished!

This is a bird cage I bought to decorate at Melissa's wedding it has had white roses and a few thrift store china birds in it since. I was inspired by another blogger, Barbara Jean, and found the tinsel in the top of the Christmas closet then Jeffrey and Roger chose the silver balls while at WalMart. Since I did not want to dig out the Christmas stuff I limited myself to opening one box from the house; not getting in the attic...at least not yet.

The Nativity is a needlepoint I did years ago. It moved from the hallway to the entry above the bird cage. The angel is always there. I'll post more tomorrow.

quilt guild

I just got home from Baytown Area Quilt Guild; I'm sorry I didn't take my camera. There were 57 people there and 28, 28! Christmas quilt tops that were given away! All different, the blocks were made throughout the year by the guild members and if you made a block your name went in the pot. Obviously 4 blocks was not enough to win a top since that is how many I made. :( Really, I was amazed. How is anyone going to be able to take over that job? Twenty years ago I thought having 2 tops to give away at the quilt Christmas party was fabulous; I won one then.

This is the one I won in 1993. My first experience with having a quilt long-armed.

labels

I've been collecting labels for ages... My daughter-in-law said that would be the ugliest thing....if I made I made something out of it.... so check this out... the ugliest quilt... NOT!

Candied oranges

It's been a week and this is what my candied oranges look like. They will eventually look like this. I Just took these out of the oven; ready for breakfast tomorrow. So easy and my house smells divine.

Road to Oklahoma

 Guess what I found in the Christmas closet? I think this is my largest quilt and was quilted hastily on my domestic years ago and it needs more quilting. The stars and chain have diagonal lines throughout. The border? Nothing. It's a problem trying to decide on a quilt pattern that can coexist with the diagonal lines already there. Looking on the web didn't help; Bonnie's quilt has an E2E pantograph on it. Lynda tied hers with interesting red X's. Cheryl showed an interesting color change but no quilting. So I'm on my own with this one.

Finished bag

I finished my winter bag; it's not very dark and it is VERY BIG. I used leftovers from the quilt I made Liz for her 20th birthday. I've made 1 quilt, 1 scripture bag, this bag and still strips left.

I made 9-patches for the inside pockets. and a 4-patch outer pocket for the cell phone and keys. Designing it piecemeal is a pain. I added the pocket on the end for a water bottle after it was mostly made so had to do most of it by hand.

After using it for a day I realized it needed a clasp so added this magnetic snap. Some of my favorite fabric in the strips ended up on the UNDER side of the snaps; I'd thought the snap would be upside down and the brightest fabric that I'd chosen to not show, do show.

It'll hold a bunch of stuff! The kitchen sink comes to mind.

snow!

Yes, that is SNOW coming down. Largest flakes I've ever seen; they hit the ground 1" across.

decorate?

These are the spots I thought I'd fill with Christmas this year.

The customer comes first though, and I have a quilt to whip through today...(that's a joke; it's impossible to whip through a quilt.)

I think it I put stuff on top of the table the inside can stay. The lamp will find a home somehow; it doesn't get used there, it's just parked for the time being.

Notice the new glass cover to an old, dusty, cake stand. I looked for 2 years to find one of these to cover an embroidered angel and now they are all over the place. But what should I put under it?

I tried a new recipe this morning; shocking I know, but the name pulled me in. Years (1993?) ago Melissa had to sell some mint melt away candies for a school fund raiser. I bought most of them over the month period. Later I found Russel Stovers French Chocolate mint candies or candy bar...can't find it anymore. So I tried it this morning. It was really easy, the chocolate melted while I drove kids to school; I heated the cream in the microwave and I didn't use a thermometer; it still turned out.

Melt Away Chocolate Mints

Good Housekeeping Illustrated Cookbook, 1980

16 ounces semi-sweet chocolate

2 tablespoons shortening

½ cup heavy cream

1 tablespoon peppermint extract…(2 teaspoons was too much; if I'd used the amount the recipe called for it would have been horrible-next time use even less.)

Cocoa

1. Line bottom of 8” x 8” baking pan with waxed paper; set aside. Chop chocolate into small pieces. Place chocolate and shortening in double boiler top. Heat water to boiling in double-boiler bottom; remove from heat THEN put double-boiler top over the hot water. Melt chocolate to 130 degrees.

2. Immediately discard water and refill with cold water. Set top over cold water and cool, stirring until chocolate is 83 degrees.

3. Meanwhile in small saucepan heat cream just to boiling; remove from heat.

4. In small bowl with mixer at low speed, beat chocolate, cream, and extract until blended. Increase speed to medium; beat 2 minutes, occasionally scraping down sides.

5. Pour mixture into prepared pan; set aside until firm, about 2 hours.

6. To serve; with metal spatula loosen chocolate mixture from sides of pan. Invert pan onto cutting board; discard waxed paper. Lightly dust sharp knife with cocoa; cut into diamonds or 1-inch squares.

Notes; used 2 teaspoons peppermint extract…try different next time

Used 3- 4oz. semi-sweet and 1 bitter-sweet Ghirardelli's chocolate.

Substituted butter for shortening

The verdict;

Too pepperminty-Laurie

Too dark chocolate-Andrew

Pretty good-Roger

They're all right-Jeffrey

Not an over whelming love, was it? I want it to be wonderful; Next time I'll make a half batch and try all semi-sweet chocolate and mint extract.

Button protectors

Are you wondering what those black things are?

Button protectors made from Velcro. Cut a slit in the hook side to slide behind the button.

Cover with the loop side, then wash and your button doesn't get damaged.

This is the linen bag I made months ago and this is it's third? washing; I really feel like it's time for a darker bag. So this one will rest in the closet for a few months. The Velcro button covers will live on the washing machine in case I need them again.

I need to finish a new bag...today!

thread

AAAccck (frustrated scream) I've lost a spool of thread, of course it is the spool of thread I need, 20 minutes ago. SOOOO, some good is coming of it; I have to stop quilting and clean house, at least until the spool of thread shows up. I'm wondering if my husband hid it?