More giveaways and Sunday baking

Friend Sheryl had sent a link earlier this week to a free scone recipe book at Amazon for the Kindle.  Alas, I’m not a Kindle reader, I’m a Nook girl, but there was a free recipe below the reviews of the book for Apple Scones.   I figure if I can find a good basic scone recipe that gives me the texture and dryness in the scone I want, then I can go from there to add in whatever I want.

 So back to the apple scones — they have an apple grated into them.  It may be the type of apple I used – which was not the kind I would normally use for baking but was the only kind I had on hand – but these just did not taste like apple!  They had cinnamon sugar on top but I think I would  add some cinnamon into the dry ingredients  too but if I’m putting apple in it, I would expect at least a slight apple flavor.  So as an apple scone, disappointing, but as a plain scone, they weren’t bad and  I may use the basics of this recipe (sans apple)  to try with my orange chocolate chunk and see what I think.

One very good tip that was one of those “DUH, why didn’t I think about that” moments — rather than cutting in butter into the dry ingredients, freeze the butter and then use a cheese grater to grate it into little pieces.   So easy and quick – I’m going to use that trick for other recipes as well.

So now that I’ve had my coffee and scones, I have to decide whether to clean, sew, or knit.  Amazingly I think the cleaning may win out since I need to straighten up all the sewing and knitting stuff scattered about.

I was playing a little bit more this morning with the  ice cream cone wreath.  I previously donated my original Frozen Delights quilt from a past free BOM on the blog to the silent auction for a Komen fundraiser golf outing.  I’m told it went over big.  So I think I may make a wall hanging as one of next year’s auction items of this Tutti Frutti Waffle Cones design and think this one I’ll do all in batiks.

And check out the Electric Quilt Blog user spotlight.  I knew it felt like there was a spotlight shining on me yesterday! LOL

Now, did I mention a giveway?? Yes I did.  As I was putting something back in the closet this morning, I found two more Stitchin with Justquiltin mouse pads — hence, another giveaway.

So in order to enter

(1) you must live in the US (2) you must not have won one of the mousepads before (3) IF you meet the first two criteria, leave one and only one comment on this blog post with the answer to the question below and I’ll post the names of two winners sometime on Monday.  Winners are those coming closest to the answer without going over; in the event of a tie, the first one leaving the response will win.   If you have never left a comment on my blog before, it will be held in moderation until I approve it.

So the question is this — here’s one of my knitting projects in the works — please put your guess for the number of stitches currently on the needles in this photo in your giveaway entry.   Good luck!

Cinnamon Rolls and Crayons

Yep – both are nearly finished.  I decided I needed something good for breakfast tomorrow so mixed up some sweet roll dough.

   One cinnamon raisin and walnut  (rectangular pan) and the other two are pecan sticky rolls.  Just waiting for the oven to preheat so I can stick them in.  My co-workers in my area of the office will be vary glad I baked when I take them the leftovers on Wednesday for breakfast.

 

I also now have a pile of crayon blocks all done.  Just finished pressing the last ones so now I can start assembling them into blocks.  But I think I’ll save that for tomorrow.

 I think I may need to go make a fresh pot of coffee because I just ‘might’ need to taste test one of those rolls when they come out of the oven.  

Time for a bit of knitting I think.

Baking Bonanza

  The freezer is going to be full and some of the coworkers may be treated to coffee cake on Tuesday morning at the office.  From left to right there’s coffee cake with struesel on top, one with toasted coconut and struesel, round one with just toasted coconut and a little loaf of cinnamon swirl bread using the last of the sweet dough.  The the rolls (which have darker brown spots on the top — why? because the little buggers were getting too brown on the bottom and not done enough yet so I flipped them over).  Not pretty but they’re just for me and I tasted a bit of one and they are yummy wheat rolls for those leftover ham sandwiches.  Then there’s a loaf of wheat bread and lastly, it’s pineapple casserole waiting to go in the oven in a few minutes.  The ham is in there now and since I’ve gotten through the day on half a grapefruit and coffee and a few crackers — just too busy to eat — I’m starting to get hungry smelling that ham baking.

The coffee cakes still need their powdered sugar icing drizzled on top to finish them off.  All that took longer than I planned but I still made a small dent in the sewing room — and lived to find my way back out again.  The table is now cleared off, which is good.  Especially since I may need it to pile other stuff on as I move furniture around in that room.

I still can’t decide where to put the tv.  I may sacrifice the top shelf of one of the fabric shelving units and set it up there out of the way but need to pull the tv out and put it together to see if its too wide to go there or not.  If not there, then I need to unload the entire bookcase so I can move it to a different spot, away from in front of the window, so I can put the tv on top of that.  In the meantime I’ll continue with a bit more cleaning while I contemplate the possibilities.  Plus I need to take the legs off the slate table (which is outside on the patio in the summer) since I need room to move the treadmill back into the sewing room.  Unless the smaller table fits next to the design wall since I don’t need the little tv that’s in that spot anymore and it would be handy to have a table right next to the design wall to lay stuff on.  Hmmmm….. decisions decisions…time to get back to the decluttering – or maybe put the tv base on it to see how wide it all is and how large a surface the base needs.

Oh and a final decoration photo — my icicles.  It would be much prettier with a little snow to reflect off of but that too will come soon enough.

 

Ain’t it embarrassing

But I’m going to show you anyway — the current state of my sewing room.  With everything being so busy for the last month or so around here, any project I was working on got tossed on the sewing table in various stages, hmmm and I see that’s where the rugs I had washed and was looking for the other day ended up – on the corner of the table.  Mystery solved! LOL

   Yes more playing with the camera. 🙂  but after a short coffee break I’m going to work my way into this room!  If several days go by without a post — please send the national guard (or a bunch of savy quilters who know there way around a messy sewing room) to pull me out!!  But I have not just been playing with the camera.  There’s a batch of whole wheat rolls which  are nearly through the first raising – think I’ll make one loaf of bread and the rest into rolls – and a batch of sweet dough is rising too.

So first a fresh pot of coffee to make, get the wheat dough shaped and rising again, and then with my trusty trash bag in hand — into the breach   sewing room I go!

A treat

Yep – decided when making bread that I’d also make a treat so no boring white or wheat or rye bread but instead a loaf of cinnamon raisin and a pan of sweet rolls, which are swimming in icing (they were still a bit too warm when I drizzled it on).  So now I’m just waiting for them to cool enough for a taste test!

Got the corners on all the border blocks for Wreaths & Garland so now to sit and trim the excess layers so I can get the other three border strips finished off.  I may get them all finished off tonight yet …. or not. 🙂

One more day of vacation tomorrow so I might have to think about doing some boring stuff like laundry… or not…

100 Blocks…

No, not the upcoming Quiltmaker issue 🙂 — but I’ve finished making all 100 spikey arrow blocks.

  They are trimmed up, as evidenced by the haystack pile next to them, and I just need to do the final paper removal and then I can start laying them out.  But time to find a late dinner – it’s been a busy day of sewing.

In the middle of sewing I stopped to make a batch of oatmeal craisin mini chip cookies to take to work but they were very disappointing and won’t be fed to other unsuspecting people. 🙂  All oatmeal is not the same – even all quick cooking oatmeal.  I used the store brand and even looking at it the flakes look more powdery.  It gave the cookies a wierd texture and they taste blah.  Won’t be buying that again. Wonder if the birds will eat oatmeal mixed in with their seed?

Sunday’s Sewing Progress

The sashings and cornerstones are now added and rows sewn together.  But I decided I really hate sewing 1-1/2″ wide sashing and cornerstone sections. LOL  There’s supposed to be a row of them that goes around the whole outside of this center but I may opt for just a plain fabric to go around it.  Will have to think on that.  But it was great to actually get some sewing done.  While doing that I baked a batch of  chocolate chip cookies to sustain me.  I may need to go make some coffee to go with them.

I may try to get some of the pinwheel pieces cut tonight yet and then I need to get that hanging sleeve done for the other project and make a label.

And I need to play in EQ for a while to come up with an idea for the submission for the next 100 Blocks project.  I need to come up with a plan so I can get busy stitching it.

 

While cleaning up all the yarn mess yesterday, I ended up with these two baskets of leftovers.

 Most of that yarn is left overs from socks — so that represents a whole lot of socks since there’s also a large mason jar lamp that has the base full of little balls of left over sock yarn too.  Once of these days I’ll do something with them but for now, they’ll just fill the baskets.

Densie

Sunday Stashbusting and other stuff

Unfortunately once again I haven’t had much time to sew lately so nothing new to add to my stashbusting numbers.  I do hope to get a top in progress done on this long weekend so will at least have some movement in the stash report next week since I haven’t added any of those numbers in yet.    First I have to go clean up this mess

 Most of these fabrics covering the table and ironing board are for Frozen Delights so I just need to gather them up so I can get some more pieces cut.

I did make great progress yesterday on the yarn mess I was cleaning up.  All those piles of yarn in the photos are now neat and tidy and put away.  I did also in the process of cleaning discovery another basket of projects in progress and a bag that contains the pieces done so far on a summer sweater I was knitting.  Needless to say, won’t be wearing that sweater until next summer since I don’t think I’ll get it done soon.  I’m now in “winter” project mode.

What was in that basket I found…. well I think I have the socks wardrobe well in hand if I get all the second socks make.  Four more different socks in progress in that basket.  These are a little farther along, one yarn has both the socks done about half way — I was afraid I would run out of yarn so was working on both at th same time in case I need to make the toes a different color.  Another one has one sock done, except for weaving the toe and the other cuff started.  Another has the cuff of the second sock started and the last the first sock is 3/4s done.  So no starting any new socks until some of these are done!

And when I emptied out the “bright” basket that was in my sewing room I found my Camp Loopy 1 Project that was finished (I had wondered where I stuck that) – the pink/flower scarf, along with three other scarfs (yes there will be no cold necks around here this winter either if I get these all finished).  And miraculously, the one I wanted to use as a gift is done except for blocking and burying the ends so that’s very handy.  The patterns have been all cleaned out and sorted and now I just have to find a home for the pile of knitting needles and crochet hooks.

And made myself a treat yesterday as a reward for all that hard work — pineapple casserole to go with dinner.

 Yumm I love this stuff.  Tommorrow I think I’ll get rid of the rest of the bananas in the freezer.  I picked up some chocolate chips today so think Tuesday at the office we’ll have banana chocolate chip muffins.

Don’t forget to go to my blog post about EQ Boutique to get a chance to win a $10 gift certificate to spend there. 🙂

On to the sewing room to straighten up the fabric mess!

Denise

 

Saturday’s Happenings

After a slow start to the day, I finally got busy in the kitchen.

  Two loaves of banana bread – of course I had to taste test one of the loaves to make sure it was safe to take the other one into work on Monday.  🙂  Yummm – so moist, I love banana bread.

Then there were those peaches.  The majority of them ended up in a pie.  Some friends dropped in just as I was taking it out of the oven so I sent them home with a couple of slices.  The peaches were delicious – I was taste testing as I was cutting them up.  They were locally grown as one of my bosses gets produce each week from a crop share garden and he gave me these.  I was up to my elbows in juice as I was cutting them.

I haven’t actually tasted the pie yet but that’s something I’m going to remedy real soon as soon as the coffee is ready to go with it.

While this stuff was in the oven, I cut out a triple scoop and double scoop cone for Frozen Delights (which made me wish I had some vanilla ice cream to go with this pie but no such luck!) and started appliquing on those.  Once they are done, I’ve got just two more of those to make and I’ll have all the blocks made for the center of my quilt.

Also made a dash to the grocery store (too bad I didn’t think about the ice cream then!)  and then feasted on steak, acorn squash and salad for dinner.  The first real meal I’ve made in a week or so since I’ve been busy so it tasted extra good.

Finally just finished writing up a quilt pattern I needed to do so I can mark that off my list.  Just need to print it all and proof it later in the week.  So that’s day in a nutshell.  Time for that coffee and pie break and then on to some knitting.

Denise

Stashbusting Report

Okay I admit it – I was at the fabric store yesterday and if you read yesterday’s post you saw what somehow leaped into my possession. (I know, you are gasping in shock – I can hardly believe it myself). 🙂  And dang, I earned another gift certificate to use at the shop so I’ll have to go back. Oh the horror of it all.

So…something like 23 fqs for the Posey Pinwheels, backing fabric for that one (couple of yards), another 2 yards or so that was the end of the bolt for my asian fabric quilt.  I’ll get it all tallied and added to the spreadsheet later.  Oh well that’s the way it goes some days.

   This is the peacock I bought yesterday.  Isn’t he cute.  His head and tail feathers bobb in the breeze.  I’m debating if I really want to leave him outside.  He looked rather good standing sentry duty inside next to my front door.  I love his little “jewel” decorations.  But for now he’ll stay outside.  He needs some flowers to bright things up around him but haven’t made my trip to the greenhouses yet for spring flowers – maybe next weekend.

So far today I haven’t gotten to any sewing but that is going to change soon.  I’ve been busy baking and cooking up a storm in the kitchen.  Made some more orange chocolate chip scones, and then I had some rhubarba a coworker gave me to do something with.

  Lovely long thick stalks.  One of those stalks is more than a cup of rhubarb.  So I made a large pan of Ruby Razz Crunch — my favorite and a favorite of my coworkers – a rhubarb rasberry crisp with “crisp” on top and bottom for double the yumminess.  But still had some of the filling left over so mixed up some more crumb stuff and made a smaller pan I’ll stick in the freezer.   Then I had a bag of vidalia onions I had bought so have a batch of french onion soup simmering on the stove.   So much time has been spent messing up and cleaning up the kitchen but one final clean up, the crisp is nearly ready to come out of the oven, and the soup is nearly done simmering so I can get that in the fridge and freeze some (and maybe have a bit with a scone for a late lunch) and I can finally get to sewing.  

Never did get to cleaning out the closet but oh well – I resized the Posey Pinwheel block and figured out the the size of the pieces I need so I’m anxious to get a block made to see how it looks.  I have my priorities – and I’d better get busy.

Denise