8 p.m. and coffee break time as I clear away the last of my fabric scraps. Yum the cookies turned out just the way I like them – crispy outside and bendy inside – and I had to taste test them before taking them in to the office.
The final border is on the quilt so I accomplished pretty much all I set out to do today.
Hopefully this week I can find some backing to use for this in the stash.
Funny how much I can get done if I just get started on something.
The last of the cookies are cooling.
The applesauce – about 10 cups of it – are in the freezer with this one left out in the fridge and my two veggie drawers in the fridge are now finally free of apples. And the apartment has a wonderful cinnamon smell.
The pasty is baking and is smelling pretty darn good too — note the use of the swirly edge picture frame which effective blocks the inside of my oven from view since it’s in dire need of cleaning. 😉 Another 10 minutes and it should be perfect.
The Christmas tree storage tub is pulled out of the closet but I think I’ve done way too much work today to bother pulling it out tonight but we’ll see how I feel after dinner. I may just go for some quality knitting time after dinner.
And the first border is on the quilt I need to finish so I just took a break to stare at it on the floor a while to try to decide which fabric I want to use for the border.. One more border to add and hopefully I’ll get it layered one night this week so I can start quilting next weekend.
Now to figure out what else is for dinner.
I had to fill in just the basic spaces around the trees and mess with the trees a bit. And yes – I am still working on all those other things I said I wanted to get done today – but it was lunch break time (and warm applesauce was ready just in time for a lunch taste test) 🙂
Goodness when I opened my email after posting the first preliminary drawing, there were 9 or 10 emails asking if I’d share the pattern. I glad people like it but you do realize don’t you that just because I had a partial drawing does not mean it miraculously becomes a pattern all on its own and asking for it so you can make it for Christmas, well yes I was laughing out loud and feel free to call me Scrooge, but you have to realize that simply won’t happen. Right now it won’t even print as a paper piecing pattern because although you can’t tell in this image, the lines are not all in the right places to allow it to do that.
Will it ever be a pattern? I don’t know at this point since it’s fighting me trying to correct the lines. I haven’t decided what next year’s free project on the blog will be yet – maybe I’ll incorporate one of these trees if I can get them to play nicely into it and do a winter or Christmas themed project – only time will tell.
Lunch break is over. No rest for the wicked. Applesauce is done and just needs to be packaged up after it cools and stuck in the freezer. Gingersnaps are mixed and have chilled so I can bake them now. Mexican Wedding Cakes are waiting for another weekend since they’re not worth making if I can’t make at least a double batch for the office and not enough butter here. So change a load of laundry, put away a few dishes and time to get my quilt borders cut.
Did you celebrate St. Nicholas Day growing up. We did.
We always seemed to just miss the seeing him – he was just too quick. There would be a knock at our front door, which we never used in the winter time because the porch floor got too slippery with snow, so we always knew it wasn’t one of the usual friends or neighbors coming to call if the front door was used since they all used the back door.
Anyway, there’d be a knock on the door and by the time we’d get it unlocked there would be nothing there but footprints in the snow and goodies left for us. Usually some candy and just for good measure, to make sure we were on our best behavior leading up to Christmas, a stick or piece of coal (charcoal briquette) to keep the four of us in line. 🙂 Of course it was many years before any of us realized that Dad was no where to be seen when St. Nicholas happened to be knocking at the door. 🙂 Good memories.
Yesterday I spent doing some boring cleaning (and taking more and longer breaks as the day went on) and a long time staring at my living room in preparation for cleaning and moving furniture to try to decide what needed to get moved in order to make room for me to put up the Christmas tree. Thank goodness I got a really skinny tree last year so it does not involve having to move furniture to a different room anymore.
In the process tho, I cleaned out one of my bit knitting baskets and the cabinet where all manner of knitting and sewing tools just get swept into a drawer when I’m done with them. At least one little cabinet is reorganized. I also found the Holiday DVDs that had been stashed away so my plan was to get up early, do some baking, and get the tree out and work on that quilt I need to get finished.
Well, I did get up early, I’ve been sipping coffee and been on the computer ever since. I needed to look up in EQ the border sizes for my quilt and of course had an idea for a holiday quilt and just wanted to try drawing the tree. Yes, you know I tend to get lost in EQ once I open it up.
It’s just a partial design. The trees are quite large and since I don’t love doing paperpiecing, making three of them would be a bit of a stretch but I may fill in the rest of the blank spots of the design and it would be cute printed on blank greeting cards to make my own Christmas cards.
But, I have my border measurements for the quilt I need to work on so no more EQ for today.
It’s a bit chilly in the apt today (tho it’s warmer in here than the temp I usually keep the thermostat at) but the air feels damp outside. But, that will be cured soon once I turn the oven on which will warm up the kitchen and living room. I’ve got some Mexican Wedding Cake cookies to get mixed up and maybe some Gingersnaps. I decided it was a comfort food kind of day so in addition to making those cookies, I’ve got hamburger defrosting to make Cornish Pasty for dinner tonight and when I’m making pie crust for that, I may have to make a bit extra since there’s fruit in the freezer that I could use to make a little pie. Also, time to use up the last of my apple supply from my Aunt’s apples so I think I will make applesauce with them to stick in the freezer.
My apt should be smelling good and toasty warm by the time I get done with all this. So time to get some baking started so I can get to the quilt sewing (and hopefully get the Christmas tree up and I’ll enjoy it for a few days with just the lights on it before I get around to decorating.)
Justquiltin with Denise Russart 