The last day of 2010........

It's the last day of 2010. I can't believe it's over. I can't believe it's 2010 and soon to be 2011. Sorry for this cliche.......but time flies too fast!! Only days ago it was Christmas Day and we were opening packages and enjoying time with our kids and grandson. This past week, I've shared a few photos from our Christmas gathering but not one of me. Since I write this blog, I thought I'd share this photo. I am smiling because there is fabric in that package............

It's the gift from my son and he chose fabrics I can use in my crazy quilting projects.....navy and black velveteen and red satin. They are perfect for some projects I need to finish. So right here ......and right now.......I am making a New Year's Resolution. Drumroll........My resolution is that by the end of 2011, I will finally finish the crazy quilt blocks that I began in 2000. They must all be done and embellished and ready to sew into a full size throw that will be finished by January 31, 2012. That's it. That's my resolution. I could resolve to lose weight (I have lost 8 lbs and do not plan to go in search of them and maybe I'll lose more but what if I don't?) or I might say I'm going to never buy anymore fabric (that would be a lie!) or I won't eat anymore chocolate (I gave up Coca-cola, how on earth could I give up chocolate, too?). I always make time to see my family as much as possible and more when it works out, and I make time to volunteer so I had to resolve to do something that I just can't seem to get done. My dream of a finished crazy quilt must come true. Yes, I need to go from "crazy quilt blocks in progress" to "Crazy Quilt is a finished project!" You heard it here. It will be done......January 31, 2012. I'll keep you posted, you know I will. :-)
Now, speaking of keeping you posted...............you will want to check in next week as I have a whole bunch of stuff that is going to be happening here on my blog and elsewhere. That's all I'm saying right now. All the details will be posted in my Monday morning "What's on the line?" post. I'll be posting this weekend but no clues for what's coming up until I see you all next Monday.
Hope you all have some lovely plans for welcoming the New Year.....even if it's just staying home to play games with the family or watch a movie and enjoy some snacks and toast the start of a New Year! Have fun whatever you do!
Sandi who is wishing all of you...........

Happy New Year!!!

Pumpkin Muffins gone wrong.....but they taste right!

Not everything turns out quite right even when we start with the best of intentions. My intention on Christmas Eve was to make some pumpkin muffins in this pretty pan......... My son, Devlin, gave me this awesome pan for Christmas in 2006, the year we moved out here to Henderson. I never seemed to remember to use the pan and yet I was the one who suggested it to him. Naughty momma. :-) So, I was determined to use the pan this year and make some cutely shaped stars, wreaths and poinsettia cakes that I could decorate. I had a package of Betty Crocker pumpkin cookie mix and I decided I would follow the alternate recipe for pumpkin bars. I figured bars are like cake and I could pour the batter into the shapes in the pan. I did just that. I poured batter in the wreaths, the stars, etc. Guess what?..............As you can see by the photo above, I poured too much batter into the stars, wreaths, etc. However, the pan is such an awesome pan, that all I had to do, was turn it over..........

and all the shapes fell out really easily. Only problem was that the shapes were not quite identifiable as stars, wreaths, etc.

Betty Crocker came to my assistance with her canned frosting. I opened it up, stirred it and then melted some in the microwave. I drizzled it over the muffins/cakes and look............

they look delicious and they were!! The flat edge that formed on each cake was kind of crispy while the cake mound was soft and the frosting added just the right touch. I should bake more of these. Even my husband liked them and he does not like pumpkin flavored foods! :-)

I have always loved to bake and am pretty good at baking cookies. You may remember that at Thanksgiving daughter, Collette, came over and baked cookies here that were for her staff at work. She even mixed up some cookies for me to give to friends. I'm really glad she did that because she got ideas for Christmas gifts while she was here. I had already suggested that a good Christmas gift for me would be two new cookie sheets and that's exactly what they (Daryl, Jacob and Collette) got me. But.......she saw the condition of my measuring cups, spoons, and spatula and bought me all new ones!!! Plus, I didn't have a cookie dough scoop, so she got me one of those, too (great for melon balls in the summer, if it ever comes again!). So, I am getting ready to try these out and see what cookie recipe I will bake up with good intentions and how it might not turn out like I think it will. Happens to me all the time, but they always taste good and disappear quickly, so in the end.......it's all right. :-)

On the quilty front........I sorted and untangled my spools of thread. I made another mug rug. :-) Stitching and organizing one day at a time. :-)

Have a great day!
Sandi

Love this gift!

Here's what Mr. Claus aka Random Number Man got me for Christmas............ I have wanted this book for a long time but I could always check it out at the library so I never bought it. Then a few weeks ago, when I checked it out for the umpteenth time, Kathy, our librarian said....."you should really buy this book, Sandi........you're about the only one who ever checks it out". I laughed. But I remembered and so I asked my husband if he'd go on-line and order the book for me. It could be a little Christmas gift while we wait to figure out the real gift he's going to get me which is a new computer. Ah, yes, my poor old computer is having some issues and soon it will be replaced. But, in the meantime, he wanted a gift for me so the book was it! I love this gift. I truly have checked this book out of the library more times than I can count and now I have my own copy to look at whenever I want!! I have several fabric dating books and other volumes for quilt and block identification, but this was missing........but not any more!

So, what did I get Mr. Claus for Christmas? Well, I had plans to present him with a quilted NASCAR quilt top that you can see in this photo. I made it for him about five years ago and thought about quilting it myself a couple years ago. Then I got the chance to have it machine quilted but then the quilter who was going to do it was too busy. So, I got the quilt back and was thinking I'd give it another try and do it myself before Christmas. Then I changed my mind again, and decided not to do that. I didn't want to mess up the top that I had spent so much time gathering fabrics for and then piecing it all together.

Instead, I'm taking it to Luci who works at Firefly Quilt Shop and has her own long-arm quilting business, too. She's going to do the machine quilting on it and can have it done and back to me in time to give it to Mr. Claus by opening day of NASCAR in Daytona on Feb. 20. He is excited about this!! But, while he waits.....I made him two NASCAR coasters with some of the scrap fabrics from the original quilt top. :-) I have a lot of scraps left so I could make a whole lot of coasters. LOL!

Next post........."How not to make pumpkin muffins". :-)

I'm enjoying these days in between Christmas and New Year's.......doing some sorting, a teeny bit of cleaning, and lots of sewing. Going out today to get some goodies for New Year's Eve because the weather here is going to get wet, rainy, icy and who would want to be on the road in those conditions if you don't have to be? Yes, we will stay home and stay safe!
Have a good day!
Sandi

Projects I made for Christmas gifts!

At last, I can show you some of what I was stitching on the two weeks before Christmas. I made a few things for my daughter, Collette, and my son's girlfriend, Stacia. First up is what I made for Collette. This is just a mat that could be a hot pad for a 9x 13 pan or a candlemat. The fabrics are Fruitcake by Moda.
I really liked the fabrics on the bolt but when I got the mat stitched and quilted I wasn't so sure that it was the colors my daughter would like. I only made a mat for her as I had the funny feeling there was too much green in this for her decorating. Plus, there was blue in it and I had the feeling that wasn't going to be a color she'd want either. Not that she's picky. I just had a feeling. It was good I "had a feeling" because I was right. She loved the design but not the green and blue so we're going to pick some other fabrics so I can make her a set of items like I made for Stacia in the coffee print fabrics I used for her projects.

In the meantime, Collette is going to use this one as a candlemat. Both girls liked the projects. Stacia was exceptionally patient with my stitching plans for the coffee fabric as I gave her the fabrics for Christmas two years ago and it took me this long to finally do something with them!!!!
The mat that Stacia is holding and that is in the picture below is for her kitchen counter so she can set her coffeemaker on it.......although, I gave her a candle, too, just in case she prefers to use it as a candlemat. I like options. ;-)

I also made her a "mugrug" from some of the scraps and even had enough to make one for me, too. I also made double-thick hotpads/potholders from another coffee-print fabric that I bought for her last summer. I really need to make some of these for me, too. I have some round hotpads but they don't accomodate casserole dishes very well. And then, I made coasters, too. They were fun and easy to make. I just cut circles from 5" squares of fabric and cut bias strips of fabric for the binding. I used batting in each coaster and had fun stitching the swirls on each coaster.

So that is what I managed to stitch and finish prior to Christmas. I started a couple other projects but they didn't get finished. Look for them in a future post. :-)

Let's see.....I think tomorrow, I'll let you know what I got from Mr. Claus. Nothing fancy but something I will really use a lot. My librarian, Kathy, gave me the idea and Mr. Claus took the hint. :-)

See ya on Wednesday!
Sandi

What's on the line?

Taking a break from quilty things on the line and instead..........I decided to show you what I hung from the stair railing on Christmas Eve.................
Yes, Mr. Claus and I hung the stockings and then filled them and all the while, Kaiser, the Wonder Beagle was sniffing with delight at the chocolate candies that were in the toes of those stockings. LOL! Luckily, they were hung too high off the floor for him to reach and he couldn't get his nose between the stair banisters, so the contents of the stockings was safe. :-) Stockings are my favorite part of Christmas gift-giving. :-) We don't put anything fancy in the stockings.....just little gifts, games, comic books, candies, etc. but they are just a fun tradition. My favorite stocking memory from when I was a young girl was the year my mother put a compact in my stocking. It was black with a gold design on it and was an Avon product. It came in a blue floral case that tied with a ribbon and I can still see it now. It's long gone but the memory of that "grown up" gift to a young girl is still very clear.

We enjoyed a really lovely Christmas day with our kids and grandson. I'll share some pics all this week and they will include a couple of the quilty gifts that I made and couldn't show you last week. For family and close friends who read my blog, I thought I'd show you pics that I took as we all sat down to dinner late Christmas afternoon. Here's Jacob, Santa Daryl, and Collette......... and here is Devlin and Stacia..............

and here is Steve who cooked the ham and for those of you have entered my giveaways........this is my Random Number Man............ :-)

More pictures tomorrow. I thought about taking a blogging vacation this week, but changed my mind. See you Tuesday!
Sandi

Have a Beary Merry Holly Jolly Christmas!!!

Merry Christmas Eve!

Good morning to those of you who are taking time to read on this fine Christmas Eve morning! If you celebrate Christmas, know that I wish you a wonderful Christmas. And if you don't celebrate Christmas, then just know that I wish you a beautiful day!
This is getting to be the norm here.......but snow is falling again and once again there could be about six inches of the white stuff by afternoon. I hope that shoppers and travelers will not have too much difficulty getting from place to place today. Yes, it will be a very white Christmas here in Minnesota and much of the country! To be honest, I wouldn't want it any other way. I remember one year when we had a "brown Christmas". Somehow, the shopping and the caroling and everything just didn't seem quite right without the snow on the ground. I love the sound of it when you walk on newfallen snow.......crunch, crunch, crunch. And I love to watch the flakes when they fall like glitter across the landscape. I'm not minding this snow because it's not accompanied by wind. And by later this afternoon, if all goes well, the roads will be cleared and folks can get to Christmas Eve gatherings and church services. :-)
Almost everything is ready for our Christmas Day gathering. Still just a few handstitches on that one remaining quilty gift and some stocking stuffers to wrap. I can't share those photos so I thought I'd show you what came in the mail yesterday..........
This is the candlemat that my partner Tina from Canada made for me. I still can't believe how lovely it is and that she put that holly in each corner. Holly is my favorite symbol of the Christmas Season. I wonder.....how did she know? It is just perfect and I am delighted with the fabric choices she made in making the candlemat. Thanks, Tina! A package also arrived from my sister filled with gifts for us to open on Christmas Day. They smell really good and Kaiser was a bit too interested in them so I have hidden them in the pantry. LOL!
This evening, I'll be heading down the hill to the church for the Christmas Eve Service. I'm going to sing a favorite song "Some Children See Him", a carol written by Alfred Burt in 1951. I was just two years old then and I can't remember the carol as a child but I remember that I was a young girl the first time I heard it. I love the lyrics and their message. To read the lyrics you can go here. To hear James Taylor's rendition of the carol, just click here .

May you all have a blessed and wonderful Christmas!!