Merry Christmas One And All!!!

Merry Christmas everyone!

I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas Day yesterday. I think this was the busiest one I had in I can't remember how long! Growing up as an only child, I didn't experience alot of the whole sibling Christmas of everyone opening their gifts all at one time and the noise and happy screams of excited children all at once. Mind you I did do a bit of my own shouting during my childhood over some amazing gifts my parents and Santa gave me :)

Trevor and I got up around 8:30 that morning, brewed up some coffee then sat down to open our gifts to one another. He gave me a gorgeous watch, Guitar Hero guitar and the World Tour game for the Play Station 3 (yep I have a little bit of rocker wanna be in me )!!! LOL. He also gave me a beautiful black wrap around blouse, the movie Moulin Rouge, some chocolate and smelly stuff for my bath and much more!







ooh while taking these photos a moment ago I took a little photo of Trevor playing one of his PS3 games and relaxing on the couch


After we unwrapped our own gifts, we got ourselves ready then headed to his Sister's home for Turkey Dinner #1. It was delicious. From there we exchanged more gifts. Trevor got a gift certificate from American Eagle (one of his favourite clothing stores), and I got a gorgeous blue and brown bowl for my kitchen and pretty pair of brown knit gloves. By 3:30 that afternoon we were off to his parent's home where more gift exhanging went on, and the grandkids opened their gifts. His parents gave me a huge tin filled with chocolates, truffles, shortbread cookies and more!! whew I'm gonna be fat by the end of the holidays LOL

Then from there we headed to Mum's place for Turkey Dinner #2 !!! Whew.. by the end of that meal I felt like I was stuffed like a turkey!!! Then, yep that's right, more gift giving! Mum and I normally spoil each other crazy over Christmas. Even Trevor was amazed over how many gifts we had for one another!

Mum is not one to get her photo taken so Trevor had to sneak a few photos in... so those of you that know Mum.. shhhhh don't tell her we got some photos!!! Here are a few photos of us opening our gifts. I will take more soon as most of the gifts are still down to Mum's place. We are going down there again for supper this evening, so I will try to get a few more pictures.


Mum gave me a gorgeous 3/4 length tweed coat. She also gave me a beautiful shirt and jacket set for work. Mum has great taste in the clothes I love and she knows all my favourite shops!! She and I have such wonderful times shopping together! We can't WAIT for the sales after Christmas to come!


Again, Mum hates her photo taken, so she hid behind her knew jacket I gave her!


Me by the tree, stuffed from two big turkey dinners!


In my stocking I got this great machine quilting book


We give each other a recipe book every year, this is the one this year all on meat and wine! ooh and these gorgeous spreaders came from my friend Marsha. THANK YOU!! I also love the coffee cup sleeve you made me. We had a great laugh over that one! I'll post a photo soon!


I especially love this stocking stuffer and it will be going in my future sewing room for sure!


Well I wanted to post a few photos of our day yesterday. I will post more over the next few days! I have to go get ready for another great meal down to Mum's.

Until Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

If You Can't Stand the Heat, Get Out of the Kitchen!

Yep... so I'm taking a break from the kitchen for a few minutes to post this thread. I decided to take the full day to make up some casseroles and more cookies and another batch of jam for the holidays. So far, I just took out a big pan of lasagne, and I have a big pot of chili simmering on the stove. Once I clean up the next stack of dishes, I will tackle the jam. I am hoping tonight to have my jam ready to decorate in their packages and ribbons so I can give them out tomorrow to some friends and family.

So far, along with the jam I still plan to make hermit cookies (those are one of Trevor's favourites), mice cookies, and biscotti. I have never made biscotti before, so I'm anxious to start it!

It is good to have the computer back after a week without it! The computer tech guy said the dust around the fan caused it to seize up, so we decided to get it cleaned. Actually a new and better power supply was installed. It is good to be back among the cyber world again! I was starting to get withdrawls!!! LOL

But I kept myself busy and managed to finish up sewing the rows of my crumb quilt. My next step is to sew the rows together. I might take a day over the holidays to work on it again.

I received a beautiful package from my Secret Santa this weekend. I still have no idea who sent it to me as there was no card in the package. I would have loved to have sent an email to my Santa to say thank you. Here is what my Secret Santa sent me!







I will have to make up something very pretty with these beautiful fabrics!

On Friday night past, the sewing girls got together to exchange gifts with one of our friends who left yesterday to spend Christmas with friends and family in San Antonio, Texas. I hope she got out of the airport when she flew to Toronto, they had nasty winter weather up there the last few days resulting in cancelled flights. Anyway, she gave all of us these adorable little tea cup ornaments as part of our gifts. She said when she saw them it reminded her of us and how we always stopped for tea and dessert after our night of sewing! We all received the same ornament except each one was a different shape. Mine was square!



We put our tree up last Sunday and I thought I would share a photo of how it looks right now.



I can't believe Christmas is this week coming!! The time has been flying by so fast! I still haven't wrapped any of my gifts, but I hope to get a start on that either tonight or tomorrow night. The big thing for me tonight is making sure all my jam jars are ready and decorated. So with that being said, I best to get back into the hot kitchen to turn the stove off as my chili has been simmering the last hour. Next is to cut up all the fruit for the jam. Once that is done I start in on the cookies and biscotti! I'll be posting photos of my kitchen adventures soon!

Til Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Short Delay

Hi all

I am sorry I haven't posted anything this weekend, but the computer died. I think its the fan. Anyway, we hope to have the computer back this weekend. In the meantime, I am using a friend's computer, and I can't seem to be able to upload photos. Sigh…

Since last week I am filling two more tree skirt orders. I hope to have them completed by middle of this week. I promised my two customers that they would have their skirts in plenty of time for Christmas. When I came to work this morning I had another individual wish to order one. I told him I couldn’t have it completed before Christmas as I was filling a couple other orders, and well I still have a few more things to complete for Christmas myself. He was fine with that.. whew!!! So I’ll get a start on it right after the holidays.

Tonight after supper, I plan to attempt making biscotti. I have never made it before, but if it turns out edible, I plan to give them as little gifts to attach to some of my gifts. Not to mention my Mum loves biscotti and I would love to make some for her to add to her stocking.

Can you believe there are only 9 more sleeps to Christmas!!!!!!!! Where has the time gone at all!!! Trevor and I put the Christmas tree up in the living room yesterday while watching the Santa Claus parade on tv. We didn’t bother cooking supper, and instead ordered out to Swiss Chalet. The tree is up, the place is looking a little more Christmasy.. I hope to start wrapping gifts in the next couple of days. I really want to finish the tree skirts first.

Well lunch is over and its back to the office I go. Hopefully the computer will be back and healthy again early this week, and I will post more photos! And if the biscotti recipe turns out alright, I will post that too!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Blowin' a Gale Outside!!

I better batten down the hatches here tonight and make sure I have a good supply of candles on hand. The wind is blowin' a gale tonight! No rain, no snow (thankfully) but the wind is sooooooo high! How high you say? Well I'm sitting here and I can feel my chair shake from the wind! But then wind is a part of living here on an island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean! I'm just glad there is no snow or we would be snow bound for days!!!

I am happy to report that all my Christmas gifts are completed! wooo hoooooooooooooo!!! This is the first time this has ever happened. Usually I keep telling myself I will start my gifts earlier and still I manage to find myself completing the last of a gift Christmas Eve. One year I even found myself wrapping a gift in the back seat of the car on the way to my friend's house only to have the gift opened 10 minutes later! Now I am thinking okay.. surely I am forgetting something or someone and need to rush at making another gift! NOPE!! I am in shock and two weeks from Christmas Eve too!!!

So Trevor decided to get me feeling like I need to have SOMETHING finished by Christmas so he suggested we have a new set of placemats made for Christmas! He would like something with stripes in it. Since I have no stripe fabric in my stash, we will be heading to the fabric shops this weekend to find a funky cool stripe for his placemats.

In the meantime, I continued to work on my crumb quilt again. I managed to get a few more rows completed Sunday night. I also got back at my Victorian Grandmother's Garden hand stitched project. I should have block #7 of 25 completed by tonight!

I also had two other people at work ask if I had any more tree skirts to sell. I sold out of what I had made, but realized I still had two more tops not layered or quilted. So I will take them out and work on them over the weekend. I hope to complete them by next week. Hopefully they will still want them by then :) Otherwise, I will just hang on to them until next year.

I managed to get another batch of Christmas jam made last night. I now have 16 jars of jam. I am thinking I might want to make another batch, as my list is growing. I plan to get down to Michaels in the next few days to hunt for some nice organza ribbons to decorate my jam jars. Also if time permits I will make up my tags. I am also going to attempt making biscotti this year. My Mum loves biscotti and I would love to put some in her stocking this year. hmmm I'm starting to think its a good thing that my gifts are made.. my list of things to do before Christmas is starting to grow more and more LOL.

Last night I also made up a big carrot cake for the annual Christmas potluck at work. We have over 250 employees and needless to say there is ALOT of food. I remember seeing it for the first time last year and oooooooh the spread of food. The cake turned out really nice. I am just waiting now for the cream cheese to come to room temperature and then I will make the cream cheese frosting. When it is done and frosted, I will take a photo and post here with the recipe. This is one of Mum's recipes and its a delicious one too!

Well I should post this now (sorry no photos tonight) I want to make sure this post goes through just in case the power does go. I will post here again soon!

Also for those of you who were interested in what pattern I used for the Turtle pincushion, I will post that soon too. I will go look for that pattern again as I put it away with the rest of my patterns. I do know it is either a Simplicity or a Butterrick pattern.

Happy Quilting!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Another Productive Day!

I have to say I was on a good roll this weekend with completing projects and getting a little baking and making jam!

Today I managed to finish another Christmas gift. I have one more to finish and all I need is another hour or so to complete the binding and that one is done! I actually even managed to get three more rows of my crumb quilt sewn up.

Last night I mentioned how today we had our Secret Santa gift opening on www.quiltingboard.com well this is what my Secret Santa gave me!

The fat quarters are very pretty. I will have to find something really nice to make out of these. The snowman card actually plays the song "Holly Jolly Christmas" by Burl Ives


I love snowmen!!! This little darling measures about 12" high. I will have to find a nice spot to play him over the holidays


I will eventually make this panel into a wallhanging to put up to the summer cabin.


I haven't heard from the girl I was a Secret Sister to, so hopefully her little gift arrived safe and sound.

I was involved in another Secret Santa swap, but I haven't received any parcel yet. Once I do, I will certainly share with you all what I received.

So I woke up this morning, looked out the window to a winter wonderland. There wasn't much snow down, and I thought I would take a little walk this afternoon to take some photos. After lunch the rain began and it hasn't stopped. In fact, the rain has got alot heavier. We have been getting so much rain here lately. It seems all it ever does these days is rain. Last Saturday over 90 millimetres of rain fell. Trevor's sister and husband had close to $20,000 in damage to to their basement. His Brother in Law went to his waist in water. All their kid's Christmas gifts were hidden down there too. There was a lot of flooding everywhere. The rate this rain keeps coming down we are going to have a green Christmas this year.

Well it's back to work in the morning, so I best be heading on to bed.

Til Next Time! :)

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Getting Ready for Christmas

Its been a busy weekend so far. Last night the sewing gals met up at Mum's for our annual Christmas shopping excursion downtown St. John's. Every year we meet up around supper time where Mum makes this AMAZING supper for us and then we all pile in the car and head downtown to look stroll in and out of all the nice little specialty stores. One of my new favourite stores is called Posie Row. They have the coolest and stylish hats in there. Not to mention awesome bling!!! yep I love jewelery! I found this sweet little red stone ring and it was calling my name!!! So of course, had to buy it!


I also found some really nice stocking stuffers for Trevor's. I can't say what they are right now, as he has been known to visit my blog from time to time.

So we haven't put the tree up yet and it won't be this weekend either. This is Trevor's weekend to work 3 overnight shifts in a row. When he gets home he tends to nap for much of the day and just relax before having to work again. He will be off next weekend, so more than likely we will start setting up the tree and decorating. I can't wait to get the place looking Christmasy!

But I did start making my Christmas jam tonight. I make this really yummy jam every Christmas to give out as little gifts to co-workers, and close friends and family. I made one batch tonight and got 8 1/2 jars out of it. We will keep the 1/2 jar for ourselves. I will try to put on another batch sometime this week. I don't really have a recipe for it as I haven't looked at the recipe in years and don't even know where it is anymore! I tend to use my own measurements in my head and it hasn't failed me yet! There are only three main ingredients, strawberries, cranberries and the biggest navel orange I can find. I chop up my fruit and let it boil in a pot for a while until the fruit begins to mush and then I throw in some sugar til I get it the right sweetness I like and the fruit pectin. They are now cooling on the counter in the jars. Eventually I will decorate them with pretty Christmas ribbons before giving them away.





I also made another batch of my cheese/herb scones to have for breakfast in the morning. Trevor loved them so much the first time I made them, I thought I would surprise him with some for his breakfast when he gets home from work. I posted that recipe last month sometime. We love them and I know I will be making them many many more times!

During our sewing night Thursday night past, I never got to stitch a single stitch. I spent the evening sitting on the floor with the two quilts that I'll be teaching after Christmas and writing out the fabric requirements for each project. I had to have them typed up with photos attached to pass into the city community centre as registration begins on Monday, Dec. 8th. So for any of my students out there reading this, don't forget if you wish to get into either of those classes, registration is Monday! You know how to get in touch with me by phone or email if you have any questions!

Anyway, so as I laid the quilts out on the floor to take measurements and count squares for fabric yardage, THIS is what I had to put up with!!! Lil Miss Mew just has to have her paws into everything, quilts especially. She is of the understanding that all quilts are hers!!! She gives her paw of approval on every piece I make! She turned 15 back in September and she is a spoiled old cat! She is the queen of my Mother's household, and Mum is her main servant! She is a tiny little thing and light as a feather. She is not one to be picked up, in fact she hates it. But we do manage once in a blue moon to get her in our arms.









This little girl has to be in the middle of it all when it comes to quilts! And of course you can't possibly take a photo of a quilt without her stretched off! Lil Queen Sheeba herself!!
Ohh, this is the Double Irish Chain Quilt I'm teaching.





I plan to post again tomorrow evening. Tomorrow I get to FINALLY open my big parcel from my Secret Santa! I have had this package sitting looking at me for about a week now. Although I managed to save myself from some insanity as I left the parcel down to my Mother's home therefore the temptation wasn't too much. I knew I would just tear that sucker apart! I took the parcel home with me tonight after spending the day grocery shopping and other errands. I have to wait a few more hours until we all meet in the quilting forum I go to, www.quiltingboard.com, where we all open our gifts from our Secret Santas together!! I'll be taking lots of photos!

So until then, its now just after 1:30am and I am dead dog tired. Not to mention I think I stood for too long in the kitchen tonight and my back and neck muscles are screaming at me to rest them! I should listen to my body! So I'm off to bed for a few hours. I also hope to get in a few hours of sewing Sunday.

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Tired of Taking Med

I am having another bad day of pain in my right shoulder and arm. Yep all from the accident! This will be a shorter note today as typing is a bit difficult, but I knew I probably wouldn't get another message on here for another couple days.

I felt the pain coming on yesterday, but just took things slow at work and continued working through all the paperwork and pushing papers from one pile to another pile. I felt okay this morning on my way to work and seemed okay working away. But by lunch time I could feel the pain getting a little more intense. By end of day I was in agony.

When I did get home, I was at the kitchen sink fillin it up with water to clean out a couple messy dishes from this morning, then went to drain it.... seems the pipes decided to stop working. I had to clear out everything under the sink and clean up all the water dribbling down from the pipes in floods! Needless to say, it hasn't been a good day. :(

I plan to put some heat to this neck and shoulder after this posting and take it easy tonight.. That means no pulling out the sewing machine or any hand stitching.. sigh..... I'm pretty much up to speed on my Christmas gifts and only have 1 1/2 left to complete. After that I can just sit back and get back to working on my other projects including my crumb quilt.

Last night I taught my last quilting class for the season. My students were working away on their Christmas tree skirts. Two of them managed to get their quilting and binding sewn, one gal managed to layer hers and then decided to start making a second one. My other two girls were still sewing their skirts together. They had a couple slight hiccups, but they are back on track again and working away happily on their tree skirts.


I thought I would also share with you the classroom I teach from. I work with the City's Recreation Centre. I have been teaching with them for the last 4 years, and lovin' it. After everyone left, I took some photos of how my classroom looks. I put away all the ironing boards, irons, cutting mats and electrical extension cords, so it wouldn't look so messy. I also took these photos so next year someone will be setting up my classroom before my classes as there will be other courses going on in this room next year. I am unable to set up the classroom myself with an injured back and neck, so I will send these photos to my supervisor so she knows how I like to have my room. Anyway, here it is. We can sit about 10 of us quite comfortably. Each person has their own 6' table to work on, and we also have a little tea/coffee station set up for anyone who wishes to take a little break.






oooh I also managed to finish this little cutie. I decided I am going to make a different and cute pin cushion for Mum's stocking every Christmas. I thought I would start it out with this little turtle pin cushion. He was so much fun to make!



He is about5-6" in length. He also has a cute teeny tiny tail!

Well as much as I would love to ramble on more about what I have been doing in my projects, I will have to keep it for another post. Right now my shoulder is screaming at me to stop typing and rest! I had a very productive weekend past and finished a couple more gifts including this turtle. I hope to be back to my sewing very soon again!

Til Next Time!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Rainy Saturday

I swear the sky is falling today! We have had heavy heavy rain all day today. I headed to my class this morning and the rain was just pelting down. It is now 8pm and the rain just hasn't stopped! The roads outside the condo windows are filling up with more and more water. Some drivers are just not taking any precautions and just flying down the street. There is one main road outside our window.. well once you look past the drug store you can see the traffic. It is a fairly busy road any time of the day. I have seen cars flying down that road all day spraying up so much water you can't see the cars! They are practically on water skis than tires!

So yeah, today my girls who were making the Christmas table runner finished their last class. What gorgeous runners they made too!! Take a look at their great work!

Here is Virginia. She is still working on her sashing and borders.


Next is Gloria. She didn't have a quilting foot for her machine, but she used her regular foot, opened out the stitch length a bit, and she did a great job for her first time!


This is Cathy's runner. She is a bit camera shy, so she jumped out of the photo before I took it. She had a gorgeous colour combination of fabrics for her runner. Very dramatic!


This is Debbie. I just love how she used a beautiful mottled Christmas green for her background fabrics to make up this gorgeous runner


This is Marilyn. She decided to make her runner reversible. Marilyn added a very pretty Autumn fabric as her backing. Smart girl! She will now get more than the Christmas season from this table runner


Here is Glenda machine quilting her pretty runner. She used some very sweet and festive prints to make her runner. She says she is cutting out more of these runners to make up as gifts.


And of course the group shot. From left to right:
Gloria, Marilyn, Glenda, Debbie, Cathy and Virginia. Great job girls!! Hope to see you in the new year for more quilting!


Thursday night during our sewing group, I managed to get back to my crumb quilt. I managed to get the other two remaining crumbs made up. I mentioned some time ago that when I put all the blocks down on the floor I was short by two crumb blocks. They are now finished and I started sewing the rows together. I have 4 rows sewn up, and I think I have another 10 more to go.
Here is what I have done so far.


After we all finished sewing for the night we always stop and have tea and dessert before we all head home. This week Theresa offered to bring dessert and ooh dear mercy what a dessert she brought!! Get a load of this bad boy!

This was a three layer chocolate cake with filling between each layer. Theresa said the frosting consisted of cream cheese, white chocolate and REAL butter!! so not fattening at all right!!! LOL


The topping consisted of pecans, dried apricots, dried cranberries, raisins and orange slices. These were all boiled in a delicious syrup then decorated on the top of the cake and along the sides!!! We all had generous slices, and all needed stretchers to get us out from the table!


A running joke now with our sewing group is that we have to bring back slices to our sweeties at home. Trevor now asks me before I even go to sewing what dessert will be this week and if I'll be bringing home a slice to him. This week he told me not to come home unless I brought him home dessert!!! He even joked that he wanted the first slice to be his and placed in a container to take home. So me being silly made a video of Mum cutting the cake and making sure the first slice was put to the side for Trevor! But by the end of the night, once we had our slices and everyone brought home slices to their sweeties, there was still a nice chunk of cake left. Mum took a piece and then she gave me the remaining quarter of the cake to take home. When I got home, poor Trevor, still sick with the flu, did manage to find the strength to eat a slice of the cake and just loved it. I told him I wanted to come home again and since Mum didn't want to me to be sleeping out on the street that night, she gave me the rest of the cake to take home. He smiled at me and said "You did good"!! LOL What a nut! Trevor just looooooooooves homemade desserts! He loves Mum's cooking and baking!!! He joked with her tonight on the phone that she should make him up a big turkey dinner since he was soo sick! Good thing she doesn't take him serious!!! LOL

Poor fella, I hope he gets rid of this cold soon. He is getting so sick of being sick. He is also getting a serious case of cabin fever. He has no appetite and he is so tired of his runny nose and having no energy.

So tonight, I plan to get back to my Christmas gifts. I plan to get in some good sewing/quilting tonight and all day tomorrow, Sunday. I did manage to get another quilting foot this week, so I'm not so frantic about not getting my gifts made in time. So tonight I shall relax, sew away happily, put on a movie while I'm working away and enjoy a nice glass of red wine I picked up today. One of my favourite wines is Shiraz. I picked up the Australian Yellow Tail, one of my favourites!

So on that note, I shall publish this post and then get back to my sewing machine. I want to feel somewhat productive before the end of this weekend!

oooh Marsha, don't forget to post anytime now that I mentioned how to do it! Marsha is one of my very good friends and Thursday night sewing buddies! A challenge we have decided to do together first thing in 2009 is start up our full size Trapunto quilts.!!! Can't WAIT!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Over the Hump

ahhh alas it is Wednesday evening.. over the work week hump... I swear my job is getting busier and busier with each passing day. But you know I LOVE IT that way! I love the chaos and the workload and the work I do. So all is good. But mind you I do look forward all that much more for the weekend and to relax. So 2 more sleeps to the weekend!

So tell me, what is it with men? When they get a cold, life as they know it is over! The world is falling apart, they are on their death bed and ready to take their last breath! Trevor felt a touch of a cold last night. He had the sniffles and was just feeling blah. He went to bed early (which right there I knew he wasn't feeling well... he always stays up late). When he got up this morning for work he was still feeling crappy. I figured once he had his shower and headed to work he would be okay. When I came home from work, I figured I would be home alone until 10 tonight when he would finish his work day. He was home on the couch with his pillow and quilts wrapped up around his neck. Seems he can't talk to me either as he has a very sore throat. So he communicates to me by first knocking on the coffee table and then playing charades cause he just can't talk! I tell you it took me the longest time to figure out he wanted a plate of nachos for supper!!! LOL So for the next few days he will be on his 'last leg', and once he gets his voice back whining cause he is sooooooooooooo sick!!! For now though I will enjoy the silence and will jeer him on!! :) Yes I really am a loving girlfriend to him, but we do love to get each other on the go whenever we can for some good fun!

Now as women, if we get a cold, we have to still get up, get ready for work, get the kids ready (if this applies to you.. I still don't have kids), get breakfast, get to work, put in a full day, come home make up supper.. take care of kids homework (again if applicable), and pretty much take on the world!! We dont' have time to whine and moan!!! Not fair I say!!! :)

So I had hoped to give you some photos of some finished projects I had planned to do this week but I had a little hiccup.. well at the time it was a HUGE hiccup! I broke my quilting foot! I began to freak out!! Poor Trevor... he thought I lost my best friend... actually yeah I kind of did!! I have about 4 weeks to get my projects completed to before Christmas and can't be without my quilting foot!!! And to make it worse, we don't have a Husqvarna dealer here in the city anymore! I was getting frantic. Out of complete desperation, I got in touch with my Singer dealer contact (I send alot of business his way with my students) I asked him if there was any possible chance of finding this foot for me and how soon he could get it in. I called him Monday morning. He said he could have it for me by this Friday...oooh I sure do hope so... I really need that foot to finish some work.. In the meantime I managed to complete those two Chistmas dolls... They are no longer naked and have hair now! LOL I will post photos of them once they have arrived to their new owners in the swap I am doing. I also managed to sew up a Turtle shaped pin cushion. I have to get some stuffing for him. Once he is made I will take his photo. I decided this year was the year I would start making a different pin cushion to put in Mum's stocking every year!

Well its after 6pm here and I best get the nachos on for supper or poor ole Trevor will not only be sick with the cold but starving to death :) LOL

Quitlingly Yours
Andrea

Sunday... My Favourite Day of the Week

I just love Sundays! One of my favourite things to do when I first wake up after a nice long sleep in is to stay in bed for a little while to read my book. I have been doing this for years now. To me Sunday is my day of rest. No work, no stress, just relaxing and enjoying things around me for a few hours before starting up the hectic work week all over again Monday morning.

This morning after reading another chapter of my book, I got up heated up one of the remaining two savoury scones I made last week (recipe is a few blog posts ago), with a cup of joe. I began checking my emails and THEN....ooh then I went to the Connecting Threads website. $100 later my order is now processing and I'll received some more goodies in a couple weeks time. Mum told me the new Connecting Threads catalog arrived in the mail and she thumbed through it choosing some things she wanted to order. So between her order and mine we got some really nice goodies coming. One thing I CAN'T wait to make is this bad boy! This will be the perfect bag to take back and forth to my classes. I'll be able to hold alot of STUFF in this one! And if I can't fit everything in it that I want, then there is something seriously wrong with me LOL

Today I am going to my friend's Home and Gift party she is hosting at her place. I have never gone to one of those parties. I have been to the Epicure parties, the Party Lite parties, and the Pampered Chef parties (heck I was a Pampered Chef consultant in my other life)!!! Remember... my other passion is playing in the kitchen. I had to find a way to get as many kitcheny gadgets as possible! I have heard of things that are with the Home and Gift parties, so I'm sure I'll find something. Perhaps I'll look for something Christmasy or if they sell kitcheny things, perhaps I'll find a gadget or two I don't have but GOTTA have!

Speaking of kitcheny gadgets, while shopping with Mum yesterday afternoon we went to one of our favourite shops, Paderno. sigh..... ooh the things I would love to have from that store! I saw some GORGEOUS cake molds of different shapes, themes and sizes! I saw beautiful dishes to display out while entertaining, funky gadgets, stone ware, and and and... sigh... me thinks I'll need to put the bee in Trevor's bonnet to head over there for some Christmasy gifts or nice stocking stuffers... Trevor I know you read my blog from time to time (such a sweetie.. I love him to bits)!!! HINT HINT..... Nudge Nudge!!! :) oooh and and Gift Certificates from Connecting Threads would be nice too! I know you don't know what I have or need, so an online gift certificate would be very cool!!

Okay, enough of the arm nudging.... I taught my second class of the Table Runners yesterday morning. I meant to take my camera along. I had it laid out with my other bags and gear to take to class, but while running out the door late, the camera stayed on the couch. :( Next week is their last class and I'll be sure the camera is the FIRST thing to go in the bag. Their runners are looking FABULOUS!!! Yesterday they added the sashing and borders to their blocks. Next weekend they will layer, quilt and bind their runners. They are really excited and enjoying their class.

Tomorrow night is my 2nd class of the tree skirts. They are still in the assembly mode, but by next week they will be ready to layer and quilt those too.

This evening after the Home and Gift party I hope to take out the sewing machine and start working on completing one of the gifts I am making for one of my friends this Christmas. I have all the embellishing work done, now its time to put all the pieces together.

Well I best get my day started. Its 12 noon, I am still in my pjs and need to grab a shower and start putting away and cutting up all the meat I bought at Costco yesterday. WE have food again for another couple months. The fun part will be figuring out how to strategically place all the meat in the fridge freezer and keep the door closed!!! sigh.. I miss my deep freeze. :( After that its off the Home and Gift party, then home, grab some supper and set up the machine for a productive gift making evening!

Til Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

A Very Good Day

I sold 5 tree skirts today!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woooooooooo hoooooooooo!!!!! I took 5 tree skirts to work today. I sent off an email around 9am. By 10am I had 4 of them sold!!!!!!!!!!!! When I came home this evening I got an email from a contact in California who will be paying for hers this weekend! I'm sooooooooooooo excited!!!!!!!!!!!! You know what this means??? huh huh???? YEP you got it! More mad money to put towards my addiction... hmmm now shall I buy fabric? kits? or put it towards the embroidery machine I want in the Spring, or maybe towards renovations to my future sewing studio when I buy my house??.. oooooooh the possibilitieshmmmm... Connecting Threads website is calling my name though. LOL.. Do I have the will power to hold back??? This will be a challenge. I received the latest Connecting Threads catalog in the mail this week and oooooooooh the Eye Candy!!! The new Indigo fabric line does look delicious!!

Here is a photo of the first one that sold this morning!!


This week I also managed to finished the hand embellishing on two of my Christmas gifts. I will start the sewing up of them this weekend.

Last night was our weekly sewing group. I worked on two more dolls as I decided to get involved in a Christmas themed doll swap. I managed to get the bodies made and the faces embellished. I managed to get one jumper outfit sewn together, but I still need to sew on the contrasting collar. The bodies are still very naked and hairless LOL. Soon the little darlings with have clothes and keep warm..ooh and pretty hair :)


Since I was off with a spasmed out back this week, I took it easy and never even took out my machine!! Yes I am going through some serious withdrawls, BUT saying that, I did do some hand stitching work. I took out my Victorian Garden Quilt Project and counted how many blocks I have finished and I have 6 completed. I have 19 more to make. I decided to set up the dining room table with my stuff and cut out more templates, fabric pieces, etc. Here is the results! :)








I am in no rush to finish this quilt, but I tend to take pieces to sew up over my lunch hour when I'm working. This quilt is going to be sewn completely by hand.. Yep I know... I'm NUTS!!! but I know there are others out there who be up for this challenge too, so I not alone in my looney bin!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Taking It Easy

As much as I wanted to get here sooner and post I have been laying low. Not by choice, but I have had to do some resting and mending. Two years ago, August 10, 2006, I was involved in a very nasty car accident along the Trans Canada Highway here in Newfoundland. The four of us that were in the mini van were heading out to be camp counsellors for a children's visually impaired camp. We had a four hour drive ahead of us to get to the camp. It was a nasty old day with heavy rain, and not the best for driving on the highway. The driver of our mini van took her time making sure not to hydro plane. We didn't care if the four hour drive took us 8 hours instead of the 4 just as long as we got there safely. Well at one point we came upon a construction area. There were no flagpersons posted, so we figured it was safe then to drive through. Sadly mistaken. There was a huge red dump truck along the right hand shoulder of the road heading west (the same way were heading). Our driver decided to drive in the passing lane so not to be in the way of the truck driver should he decide to move out into that lane. We had two other carloads of people driving with us to camp as they were not sure how to get there. All of a sudden the truck decided to make a quick left turn out into traffic. He was now to be perpendicular to us. We later found out from the truck driver that he was getting himself into position to back in to the shoulder to unload the piles of heavy rocks into the ditch. Well as he was getting himself into that position we realized he didn't see us. Our driver tried to outbeat him and pressed on the gas in the hope that we would get out of the way before he possibly would hit us. Unfortunately that didn't happen. We were t-boned by the dump truck. He pushed our van into the east bound lane and only a foot or two from going down into a ditch.

When the paramedics and RCMP arrived on the scene they were all amazed we were all alive. The truck tore the whole side out of our mini van. Picture if you will a large can opener opening up the whole side of a van! We were all wisked away by ambulance anyway just to make sure we were all okay. We learned later that the flagpersons that were supposed to have been on duty and stopping traffic were on the side of the road smoking their cigarattes and drinking their morning coffee. The truck driver after realizing what he did came to see us after the initial impact to see if we were all okay. He came right out and said to all of us "I know I was at fault. My flagpeople are suppose to have been on duty. I had no idea what I hit as where I sit I am so far up"!!!!!!!!

Well the short story of it is I had injuries to my neck, back and shoulders. I have been getting therapy on my back since. Over the weekend it flared up for no apparent reason and hasn't lessoned yet. I tried going into work on Monday and teach that night, but I didn't help matters. I decided to take today off and rest. So I spent the day propped up on pillows reading or napping as my loopy medication I have to take knocks me right out and I feel "stupid"!! LOL

I did manage while propped up to finish my tree skirts and get them all binded and the buttons added to them!! Woooooooooooooo HOOOOOOOOOOO!! I'm happy they are done! Now I can focus more on my Christmas gifts... And to think I only have 6 weeks left til Christmas. Arrrrrrrrgggggggghhhhh!!! NO pressure... Noooooo pressure!!! (rubbing my temples... find my happy place... find my happy place)!!!

I did manage to make my herbed cheese breakfast scones and my cranberry pumpkin muffins.. and oooooooooooohhh la la... YUM!!!

So, here is the recipe for the scones!!!

Cheese and Herb Scone Breakfast Sandwiches

In a bowl combine:
3 cups flour
3/4 cup sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt

Cut in:
3/4 cup butter until the mixture resembles a coarse meal. Pea sized pieces of butter should still be visible in the mix.

Remove to a large bowl and stir in:
1/2 cup grated parmasen cheese
1/2 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 finely minced garlic clove
1/2 tsp coarse black pepper
2 tsp of your favourite dried herbs (I used the Epicure Foccocia spice blend)

Make a well in the center of this mixture and add:
1 cup soured milk

Pour into the well and mix only enough to form a dough ball.

NOTE: I found I needed to add a little more flour than what the recipe originally called for

Roll to 1/2 inch thickness and cut out scones with a knife or biscuit cutter and place on parchment lined baking sheet. Brush an egg wash over the tops if desired. Bake at 375 degrees F for about 25 minutes or until an evenly light golden brown. Best served warm. Makes about a dozen large scones.

Warm scones if necessary for a few seconds in the microwave or in a foil wrap pouch in the oven for a few minutes. Split scones and fill with:
Scrambled eggs
Bacon
Roasted red peppers

YUM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ooh they are also great with homemade spaghetti. We had them again that night for supper. I split the scones in half and spread garlic butter on them. Then wrapped them in foiled and warmed them in the oven!!!

Pumpkin-Cranberry Muffins

2 cups flour
3/4 cups sugar
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/4 tsp salt
1 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
1 cup sweetened dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped pecans
Decorator sugar crystals (optional)

Heat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a 12 regular size muffin pan with shortening or cooking spray or line with paper baking cups.

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, ginger and salt. Stir in pumplin, oil, eggs, cranberries and pecans until dry ingredients are moistened. Divide batter evenly among the muffin cups. Sprinkel sugar crystals evenly over the batter in each cup.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove the mufins from the pan to a cooling rack. Serve warm.

Well thats it for another evening. I feel the loopy pills taking affect, so I think I'm going to head on to bed. I am going to see how things pan out in the morning and then decide if I will attempt going into work. Wish me luck!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Fun and Relaxing Saturday

I started up a new quilt course this morning. My students have a three week Christmas Table Runner class. Today they cut their fabrics and started to construct their blocks. They have each picked out some gorgeous fabric combinations and I can't wait to see how they are going to turn out. I told them I will be bringing my camera to the next class to get photos of their blocks. Next week they will sew on the sashing and outside border. Its funny how time flies so quite. I start my classes at 10am on Saturday mornings and with the blink of an eye it is 1pm and the class is over for another week!

I have always found the weeks from Sept 1st to Dec. 31st just fly by. I noticed the other night we have about 6 weeks left til Christmas! Aaaaarrgggghhh!! I'm not ready!! I still have... hmmm counting5-6 more gifts to make for gifts, a couple more tree skirts to bind, Christmas baking, a bit more Christmas shopping to complete (at least I always start that nice and early). I just have so much to do! I have decided tomorrow to hand cuff myself to my sewing machine and spend the entire day of Sunday sewing and quilting and hope to get a few things accomplished or even finished!!!

After class, I came home, but it was too sunny and beautiful of a day to stay inside (yes I know I mentioned above I have 6 weeks to finish up alot of stuff, but the sun was out!!!) The temperature was a bit cool, but if you dress right for it it doesn't matter. Trevor and I decided to take a stroll downtown and visit some of the little specialized shops. We also had a nice lunch in one of my favourite little restaurants, Bagel Cafe. They have since expanded their shop and ooooh I just love their bagel sandwiches and homemade cream cheese. My favourite dish down there is the California Bagel. I have a multigrain bagel toasted with a nice breaded chicken breast with lettuce, tomato, cucumber and their yummy Sun dried tomato cream cheese!

When I came back I was in a baking mood. So I decided to make the pumpkin cranberry muffins (as seen in the photos here of me in the kitchen) and I also attempted some herbed cheese breakfast scones. Tomorrow morning I will make up some scrambled eggs and bacon and make our own little breakfast sandwiches. I managed to get 14 scones out of the dough mixture. I can't wait to try them in the morning! If they both taste good, I will post the recipes!





As for quilting related, I did manage to lay out all my crumb blocks the other night on the floor to see how they would look. I cut out cream tone on tone blocks to go between the crumbs, as well as the HSTs and the QSTs. As you will notice in the far right corner, I am missing two crumbs... well it seems I am short two crumbs, so I have to go back and make two more. I will put those together this week sometime, and hopefully by next weekend I will get a start sewing up the rows to get it looking more like a quilt top.




I still have many more borders to add, including more crumbs but a smaller size, and also some machine applique. I'm figuring I will be working on this for the rest of this year. But that's okay. One of my challenges was to see how far I could complete the quilt before the end of the year. I'm just loving making crumbs, and I want to make more. My students have even started giving me their little end pieces they know they won't use. I have plans for making other scrap quilts in the new year. I started one about a year and a half ago, but put it aside for a bit. I will pick it up again in 2009.

Sigh.. so many quilts to make, so little time. sigh..........

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea