Independence Quilt Show

I just love the fabric flowers

Sun and an auction

Well not picture today. Spent the day running back forth between home and an auction in the next block. Temptations was there I think they had like 7 treadle sewing machines and a lot more old phonographs. Including one or two that play the round cylinder style. They were in excellent condition but none of them came home with us. I did a starter bid of 10 dollars on a high boy type dresser and LOL it came home with me for that price. It was not in great shape but it is usable and has a mirror that is in good shape.

 

I am thinking about painting it white. The veneer is not in good shape it is chipped so will need to have some woody putty to fix it up and one of the drawer bottoms is not in great shape. I guess for $10.00 what can you expect.

 

Tomorrow I plan on going to a quilt show in Independence Iowa put on by the Calico Cut up Quilt guild. Since the weather sounds like it is going to turn cold and wet and yuck you a good way to spend the day.

Snow

Okay who ordered the snow I wake up this morning and find white stuff on the ground

Looking out the window as I go downstairs at the neighbors house.

 

Picture taken out the front door before I head off to work.

it spit white stuff all day nothing that stuck to the ground more then this but still not a nice day.

Progress on the wall hanging

Moving forward on the outside border! Sure hope it fits.  Sorry not a very clear picture

I must of had the shakes

 

New Project

To day I have every thing gathered to work on a new wall hanging. I picked this pattern up in the Amanas last fall.  Found this fun fall panel to use with the pattern.  The today's project is to put borders around the panel that look like a lattice so I'll try and post more pictures as the day goes on. Something fun for a rainy day

3 panels done

Last night I finished the third panel off through the woods to grandmother's house wall hanging now I need to dig up that pattern and work on the block. that go between the embroidery. Nice to be finished with this embroidery.

Yesterday I was able to pick up the backing for the Sun Bonnet Sue quilt.  Today I need this so that together and maybe get it to the quilter. Time will tell what gets done.

New Bag

This bag pattern came to me from Kristy of ONE BLOCK OVER quilt shop. We are going to use this pattern for 4H Sewing group. The closure is rather interesting you use sections from metal tape measure.

Banana Bread

Well that's a minute decided to try a new banana bread recipe. This recipe takes cream cheese along with a banana I need a dish in added fourth of a teaspoon of Cardamom and teaspoon of cinnamon. It's now going in the oven to bake around an hour I set the oven for 45 minutes. And turned on my convection oven so will see how long this really takes to bake.

Sunbonnet Sue

The center of the quilt is completed now to add a piano key border. The challenge has been to find the fabric set aside for the border. It came up missing so I have been going through many boxes trying to find it.

Late afternoon today I finally came acrossed the box I was looking for. So now to cut a group of 2 and a half inch wide by 12 inch long strips to make a piano key border to finish the top.

Then it will be off to the quilter.

Snowy day

Well the drive home from work could of been worse snow

Quilt moving forward

I have been working on this top for a couple weeks. This is the second top using these Sun Bonnet Sue blocks. I had hoped to be further along on this project but life seems to be getting in the way.

Found a new project to think about doing

I was at One Block Over a quilt shop in West Union and saw a store sample being worked on that I am really in love with the pattern comes from this book

One Fabric wonder quilt

You use a border print and cut out larger half square triangles and put them together into 4 patch kaleidoscope type blocks.

Do I need a new project nope do I want to start this as a new project sure do. So I need to get busy and work on some of the older projects so I can justify starting a new one.

Pineapple Fudge

I heard a recipe on a radio program Saturday WMT 600 AM the program is Open Line the were talking about a recipe called Pineapple fudge I did not get it written down so I went on line and did a search for it and found it or what I thought was the recipe I heard. Remember I am doing the check of ingredients by memory.  I found this one on  Open Line Recipe listing. The recipe is about half way down the page.  I am going to put the actual recipe here along with this picture of a piece of this fudge.

 

PINEAPPLE FUDGE

3 cups sugar
1 tablespoon light corn syrup
1/2 cup well drained, crushed pineapple
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
2 tablespoons butter
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup English Walnuts, coarsely chopped

Combine sugar, syrup, pineapple and cream in a well buttered heavy saucepan. Bring to a boil over low heat, stirring constantly. Continue cooking, stirring occasionally, until candy reaches soft ball stage (236°) on your candy thermometer. Remove from heat, add butter, but do not stir. Cool until saucepan feels lukewarm. Add vanilla and beat until candy begins to thicken (starts to turn white). Beat in nuts, spoon into buttered eight by eight inch or nine inch square pan. As candy firms, it will lose it's slick look and become creamy. Cool and cut. Makes about three dozen pieces. Can be frozen. (Sandy Klingenberg, Bloomington, Illinois)

I pretty much did what the instructions said sorry no pictures of the process. I was also making some Chocolate fudge using the recipe on the jar of Marshmallow crème and was not thinking about taking pictures.  I did have to mix/stir this fudge quite a bit I assume so that it did not become sugary

Other Whoopie Pie Filling

Hmm I typed this up once and set it to post a day later and it did not post and I cannot find what I typed up. Wonder what I did wrong.

Creamy Peanut Butter Filling

3/4 cup creamy peanut butter

1/2 cup softened butter

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/2 power sugar

In a medium bowl, beat peanut butter, butter and vanilla at medium speed with a mixer until smooth. Gradually add power sugar 1/4 cup at a time beating until smooth.

Impossible Good Coconut Cream Filling

Makes 2 1/3 cups

Make sure you add the butter before the marshmallow crème , or the food processor may have trouble incorporating everything.

1 cup sweetened flaked coconut

3/4 cup butter, softened

2  7 oz. jars marshmallow crème

3/4 cup powder sugar,

In the work bowl of a food processor, process coconut for about 30 seconds or until finely ground. Add butter; pulse until  combined. Add marshmallow crème; pulse until combined. Gradually add powder sugar 1/4 cup at a time pulse until smooth after each addition.

Sweet Fudge Chocolate Filling

Makes 2 cups

1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cup semisweet chocolate morsels

1/2 cup butter, softened

3/4 cup powder sugar

In a small saucepan, heat cream over medium heat until steaming. Stir in salt. Place chocolate morsels in a medium bowl. Pour hot cream over chocolate; whisk until smooth. Cool completely.

Add butter to chocolate mixture; beat at medium speed with a mixer until fully incorporated. Gradually add powder sugar, 1/4 cup at a time; beat until smooth.

These filling ideas come from Cooking with Paula Deen July/August 2011 issue.

I have made the coconut cream filling and it is very good. 

I played with EQ the other day

 

I saw an idea something like this so I got out EQ and played and came up with this. Not sure the colors are great but was just messing around.

Pumpkin Whoopie Pie Cookies

 

Well I needed a special treat to take to a meeting yesterday and I had gotten a couple cans of pumpkin the other day so my mission was Pumpkin Whoopie Pies.  So I did an internet search and found this recipe for  Cookie recipe

Now the filling did sound good on this site but I really wanted to make the filling that I found in a Cooking with Paula Deen magazine July/Aug 2011. Yepper I made the Pumpkin Whoopie cookies from above though I did put in the spices a little bit differently (I know always messing with something) I used the cinnamon 2 Tablespoons as the recipe said then I went and got out some nutmeg, cloves, cardamom, and ginger and put in about 3/4 of a t of each.  My cookies looked a little darker then the ones pictured on the site above but they tasted pretty good to me. 

No the filling I used is this one

Luscious Caramel Filling

it makes 2 cups.

1 cup firmly packed dark brown sugar

6 Tablespoons heavy whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

11 Tablespoons butter softened

1/2 cup confectioners sugar

In a small saucepan, combine brown sugar, cream and salt. Bring to a boil a over medium heat; cook for 1 1/2 minutes, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and cool completely.

In a medium bowl, beat cooled brown sugar mixture and butter at medium-high speed with a mixer until smooth. Gradually add confectioners sugar, 1/4 cup at a time  beat at medium speed until smooth.  I think I ended up adding an extra 1/4 cup of confectioners sugar to the recipe to get the thickness I wanted. 

Coffee Biscoff spread cupcakes

Servings: Makes 15 cupcakes. Frost with Biscoff frosting.

Coffee Cupcakes

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 1/4 c. cake flour
• 1 1/4 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 c. vegetable oil
• 1/2 c. milk + 1 tsp. vinegar (or 1/2 c. buttermilk)
• 4 tsp. espresso granules OR 8 tsp coffee granules*

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 15 muffin cups.
2. Microwave the milk until hot and stir in the coffee granules. If not using buttermilk, add the vinegar at this point. Set aside and let cool to room temperature (you might have to refrigerate it).
3. In a small bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Set aside.
4. In the medium bowl of an electric mixer, beat the eggs until smooth. Add the oil and sugar; mix well. Add the vanilla.
5. On low speed, sift in half the flour mixture and mix just until combined. Add half the milk mixture and mix; repeat with the rest of the flour and milk.
6. Pour into prepared muffin tins and bake for 12-13 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.

Makes 15 cupcakes. Frost with Biscoff frosting.
*If you use espresso granules, the batter will be much lighter than how it appears in the picture (I used coffee granules).

Biscoff Spread Frosting

INGREDIENTS

• 1/4 c. (1/2 stick) butter, softened
• 1/2 c. creamy Biscoff spread
• 3/4 c. powdered sugar, sifted
• milk, if needed

INSTRUCTIONS:

1. In the medium bowl of an electric mixer, beat the butter and Biscoff spread until smooth.
2. Sift in in the powdered sugar and beat until light and fluffy.
3. If the frosting is too thick, add milk a tablespoon at a time.

Frosts 15 cupcakes.

Recipe and photography is owned and created by Caroline Fisher

http://biscoffblog.com/recipes/coffee-cupcakes-with-biscoff-spread-frosting/

Working on another bag

I had a friend ask me to maker her a bag like mine. The professional bag I made myself to carry my computer around and all of its trappings well I got the fabric a month ago and have been working on it on and off the last month today I got the outside shell done on the bag and thought I would share how it is coming along.


The front and back sides of the bag and don’t ask me which is the front and which is the back LOL I don’t know. I really like the butterfly fabric and the handle fabric. Plus I found some leather like fabric for the bottom and think it does make the bag look nice.
So not I need to go put the inside together and merge them into one bag. This pattern is one of the best patterns it is very well written and has clear detailed instructions and nice drawings and pictures to explain each step.

Quilt Show

This last weekend was our guild quilt show.  I spent all day Friday the 19th at the judging of the quilts we have two kinds of entrances for the show. One is for items that you as a member just want to display and the other is for items that you wish to have judged. I have not hand anything judged for a while now. Usually it is just two hard to get it there by 8:00 in the morning when I was working the Bakery and asking someone to take it for me just was not what I felt like doing.

I had done it in the past but I have not had that done for a while now. Well this year I took 4 things to be judged.  Unfortunately 2 of them were in the category with the most items and this was the winner in that category and it definitely desereved the prizes it won it was spectacular.

It not only won a blue ribbon in large quilts, group made it also won best of division and Best of Show. It was made by guild member Ruth Ann Hunter.

Now I had my camera with me Saturday when I was at the show but did not get any pictures taken. So I asked hubby if he would go and take some pictures for me as he was going up to help with take down and pick up my quilts that were taken.

So he did and he took some of these pictures for me. LOL not as many as I would of taken but then I will not complain I had my chance.

		NEIQG QUILT SHOW 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

Sorry some of these may come up sideways.

Power cords and recliners

Well do I have you wondering about the title of this posting?

I was sitting in a recliner with my computer on my lap I set the computer off to the side and had the foot rest go back under the chair to get up. Well if your power cord gets caught in the metal folding mechanism it is not a good thing.

Yepper you then only have what ever battery life is left in it to run it and that is not a good thing right before the quilt show when you need to update the show web site.

So let’s say the computer got shut off and I then went on a search for a new power cord. Using the other computer in the house that hubby uses my old lap top that I have reformatted so none of the programs etc. that I use are on it. I went on line searching for a replacement.

Well I called Dell the maker of my computer and that power cord was around 50 bucks.  Ouch not happy so decided to do a little more looking. I found the same power cord on line at a computer store I found a replacement for 25 dollars. Yepp that is better but I wondered could I find one even better. So onward the search went. Yep I checked e-bay not much better then what I had found the for some reason I checked Amazon yep the power cord I needed for 10.00.  Now each of these places had shipping but if I placed an order for 50 dollars or something like that I don’t have to pay shipping well that was not really a problem I needed ink cartridges for my HP printer. 

Now I placed my order and waited patiently for it to come (NOT) I saved what battery I had left on the lap top for my update of the guild web site that I needed to do last week. It all worked out and I now have a new cord and am back up and running.

I got a new desk and it is a mess all ready or still

Over the weekend I found a new desk to house all those things that computer require to store and have and deal with. I let my granddaughter have my camera for the weekend so I did not have a real camera to take a picture with but my computer has a camera so I used that it is not the best photo but it will do for now.

Ok here it is in all its messy ness. Add to this my internet went down today late afternoon and I ended up with a tech here to fix it. I cannot complain about timing he was here in like 15 to 20 min from when I called in with the problem.

So after several things I had my modem plug into the wrong side of a filter/splitter and then after that was fixed it seem like something was wrong with the modem so he replaced that too. Now I am up and running and no problem.

Then I was having book marks printed for the quilt show and the print shop copier went down this afternoon fingers crossed he will have it fixed tomorrow morning or I will be making a run to a print shop somewhere else. Life is only fun if you are busy right.

Yesterday was a clean day

  I spent most of yesterday cleaning some shelves in our bed room I hate to admit how much dust had accumulated on the shelves and things on the shelves. So now it is all clean up and I found some sweat shirts that hubby pulled out to get rid of in a pile. Plus 3 old clothes hampers that were plastic and broken on the sides and just needed to be gotten rid of.

Yesterday was trash day so I got things all clean up and put in the appropriate piles and out the door. After getting that done I started doing a bag called a professional tote

I got all the pieces cut except for one  the two side panels the fabric I got for the out side of the bag was only 40 inches wide and the pattern yardage was for 45 inch wide an so I am short the two side panels.

I checked with several of the local shops of coarse I got this fabric down in Kalona and that is like a 2 1/2 hour drive one way. No way am I going to do that kind of run for this.  So of coarse no one I called carried that line or had that fabric. so I called the shop in Kalona and asked if they could send me some.

The person I was speaking to was looking around the shop and not finding the fabric. I am like thinking great no fabric now what am I going to do but she did find it the last of the bolt had been cut up into some fat quarters thank goodness the pieces I need are only 15 inches and the fat quarters are 20 x  so I was saved. I gave her my credit card number and ask to have it sent to me. I am hoping it is in the mail today.

Then I can work on getting this project under way there is some sewing of pockets and parts before I get to the side so that is on the agenda for today and then checking the mail to see if what I need arrived yet.

So time to get at it. Hope you have a great day.

Busy Labor Day weekend

Well I had to work on Friday and it was a slow day no ambulance calls but I did get two Sock Monkeys done.
 
I had stichted up the body parts and had them ready to go with me Friday morning and so I spent the day stuffing the different parts and sewing on the arms, tail, mouth and ear’s. I then brought them home and Saturday was able to put on the button eyes and stitch the mouths in. They each have a humbug bag to go with them out of sock monkey fabric.  They went to the Fayette Community Library for the Friends of the Library silent auction.  Then after I had them finished up I had cut out some fabric to make three bags. The same pattern just different lay out of fabric stripes.

It is a messenger bag and with a zipper top closer

It did come out pretty well. I do think the curve on the front pocket is a little off but then I guess that makes it hand crafted.
So that was yesterdays busy work I really need to do something today.

The adventure is on

Hmm let see the weather is really really HOT!!  We are now in a burn ban for the county not surprising though it is still green out things are not soggy that is for sure. 

Now on ward I am going to be done at the Bakery in the near future. I have found a new job with Tristate Regional Ambulance Service. They have purchased Northeast Iowa Medical Transport and I had the chance to be hired full time there.  It was sort of a hard decision but the pay is better and has benefits. So even though I do love my bakery job it is time to move on to something new.

Now if we could only find someone to take over some of the Bakery operations so it does not totally close. That is a posibility and time will only tell what will happen with that. For now there are three of us to take different days and either clean up what is in the freezer or maybe train someone to take over.

I have been working on my Farmer's Wife quilt top and decided to not go any further with hand piecing the blocks. It was interesting to do that but I kind of think I am more of a sewing machine quilter then a hand piecer. The top is done and off to the quilter. I have a friend that worked on this quilt and stop with so many blocks. I really liked how here quilt came out so I decided to copy it Go see her Farmer's Wife quilt here http://karensquilting.com/blog/2012/02/10/  I did the same thing but instead of hand quilting it the project is off to the machine quilter.