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

Hump Day

Funny how this is my first day back to work this week, and already it's Hump Day! hee hee only two more work days to the weekend!!!!

I managed to get in another good productive sewing day yesterday. I managed to quilt up and machine bind two more tree skirts. The end is in sight for these tree skirts. I now have 2 1/2 tree skirts to finish the hand binding.

I also managed to work on two of my other Christmas gifts. Sorry still can't say any more than that. I know these girls check this blog out from time to time and I would hate to ruin the surprises!

I have also decided to get back into the doll swap I did last month with my halloween dolls. This time it is for Christmas. I will hopefully cut out the doll body patterns tonight after supper. I think I have an idea how I'm going to festively dress them and embellish them. I will post photos upon their arrivals to their new homes. I have to have them ready to send by the end of this month.

Tonight after supper I also plan to try out yet another new recipe. I had some pumpkin left over from another recipe I made recently and thought I would put it to good use. I will be making Pumpkin-Cranbery Muffins. The photo in the recipe magazine looks awesome! I'll post the recipe soon. If anyone is interested in knowing where I got this recipe, it is from the "Betty Crocker Fall Baking" magazine Volume 16, Number 7. It is displayed in stores until November 4, 2008. This magazine is PACKED with lots of yummy-looking-gotta-try recipes!

So has anyone out there tried any of the recipes I have posted yet? Just curious!

This is short post compared to what I have posted before, and no photos (sorry), I will post soon.. Actually I will be going to my weekly sewing group tomorrow night and I plan to start working a bit more on my crumb quilt. I have the filler fabric washed and ready for cutting and assembly. I'll take some photos tomorrow night.

OOh, also, check out the right hand side bar here on my blog. I added a link to a great blog where she is giving away 3 quilts!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Who wouldn't like a chance to win a free quilt!!! I certainly put in my name! The quilts are gorgeous too! Or you can also just click here

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

In Fond Memory

I had planned to start this blog this evening on a happy note, but unfortunately, that is not the case. A lovely lady who has been in several of my quilt classes passed away yesterday. She was only 63 years old. Her name was Clara and she was a sweet funny lovely and talented woman. She lost her battle to breast cancer after only knowing about it 6 weeks ago. She made the classes so much fun and had so many hilarious and funny stories to share of her life with her fellow classmates.

We will especially remember her drive to New York with her best friend Edna (another former student of mine) and how they got lost in the middle of the city on the freeways. And of course the time she came into class with her finger wrapped up in gauze because she sliced her finger with a rotary cutter. She told us of her night at emergency and the colourful events of the people in the waiting room sitting around with her. And then who could forget the time she took a crazy silly hissy fit in class cause her pieces wouldn't fit!! I remember having to take her pieces from her before she hurt herself! LOL. I spent the following week at home fixing up her blocks so she could complete her quilt. She was close to giving up. But we all encouraged her to stay and I am so glad she did. What a beautiful quilt she made! When she wasn't in a course of mine, the students that did know her wished she was with us in those courses. There were days we would be practically on the floor rolling around in laughter from her stories! She will be deeply missed.













These photos came from one of the last quilts she did with me. We made the Blackford Beauty Quilt. Some of her quilting class friends and I will be attending her funeral this week. You could not help but smile in her presence.

Tonight I spent another productive evening working on one of my Christmas gifts. I got a nice bit of it done. I have some embellishing to do before I start assembling it together.

Tomorrow I will kick myself to get back to quilting up a couple more tree skirts.

As I promised the other day, I am going to post two recipes I made this past week. First of all the Baked Cod Fillets

Cod Fillet Dinner

1 lb cod fillets
1 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp Tex Mex Spice
1 Cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup bread crumbs

Cut fish into serving size pieces and place in a greased baking dish. Make cheese sauce and pour over the fish. Top with bread crumbs and bake 35 minutes at 350º F.

Cheese Sauce:
Melt butter and blend in flour and Tex Mex spice. Gradually add the milk, stirrring constantly until the sauce is thickened. Add grated cheese until melted.



And then for dessert try out this cheesecake! It is one of my favourites to make and to eat!
Mandarin Orange Cheesecake

2 pkgs of cream cheese (250g each)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup cornstarch
3 eggs
2 tsp vanilla
2 cans mandarin orange sectiosn (10 oz)
1 cup liquid (mandarin syrup plus orange juice)
1/4 cup sugar
4 tsp corn starch

Crust:
Spray spring form pan, combine 1 cup graham crumbs, 3 tbsp sugar, and 1/4 cup melted butter. Press on bottom of pan. Refrigerate.

Preheat ovent to 325º F. Combine cream cheese, 3/4 cup sugar, 1/4 cup cornstarch, eggs and vanilla.

Drain 1 can of mandarins; add 1/2 cup syrup to cream cheese mixture. Blend 1 minute or until smooth scraping down sides once. Chop drained mandarin sections; stir into filling. Pour onto crust. Bake 50-60 minutes or until set. Turn off oven, open door slightly and let cake cool in the oven for 1 hour. Remove to a wire rack and cool completely. Remove sides of pan.

Drain remaining can of orange sections. Add enough orange juice to syrup to make 1 cup of liquid. In a small saucepan combine 1/4 cup sugar, 4 tsp corn starch and syrup mixture. Bring to a boil over medium heat stirring constantly, simmer 2 minutes. Spoon half of mixture over top of the cake. Arrange orange sections on top and spoon remaining mixture on top. Refrigerate at least 4 hours.

Enjoy!

Well its past my bedtime again. Tomorrow I plan to get more sewing done before I head to my class in the evening.

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

My Extended Long Weekend Plans

I decided to make this an extra long weekend for myself. Since Tuesday is Veteran's Day and a recognized day off from work here in Newfoundland, I decided to take Monday off work as well to enjoy a nice 4 day long weekend.

I started my long weekend with meeting up with Mum for our bi-weekly "Friday night girls night out" with dinner and a movie. Since Remembrance Day is around the corner, we decided to see the Canadian film "Passchendaele" starring Canadian actor and drop dead gorgeous Paul Gross. It was a very moving true story of a man from Calgary, Alberta who served in the First World War. There was no "Hollywood" theatrics or glamour to this movie. The movie really portrayed what it must have been like for the men who fought in the war and the nurses and doctors who were there close to the front lines. I enjoyed it very much even with the gore and body parts flying. Hey thats what happened, so no sense in sugar coating it. At the end of the movie while the credits were showing, old video footage played of soldiers taking time out to be filmed, being silly in one scene, running and shooting through the trenches next scene and carrying comrades on stretchers to the hosptial stations. Singer Sarah Slean sang this gorgeous song that was written for the movie. I felt myself getting so caught up in the lyrics and wondering if any of the men in the video footage managed to come home after the war. I was very moved and could feel the tears begin to form. I think of what these men and women did to give us the world of freedom we are so lucky to have now. I highly recommend anyone to see this movie. I know you will be touched the same way I did.

This morning, I got up at my usual Saturday morning time to get ready to head to my quilting class. Today was the last day for my Crazy Patch Quilting Course. They all did a fine job of their quilts. Some of them really enjoyed making it, while others felt they preferred a more structured quilt design. They promised me though they will finish their quilts! I'll want to see proof girls!!! :) Here is a photo of them showing off their beautiful quilts!

From Left to Right are Ginny, Shirley, Glenda, Marsha (my sewing buddy and good friend), Susan, Joanne, Shirley, and the gal on the far right is yours truly!


You will be seeing more of Ginny and Glenda and Shirley in the weeks to come as they are also signed up for my Christmas Tree Skirt and my Table Runner courses.

This afternoon after class, I met up with Mum to head out of town to Whitbourne to go to a little shop out that way that sells beautiful fabrics one tiny corner of their general store. The fabrics are beautiful and the prices are fantastic!! So I ended up buying 10 metres! Here is a photo of my little haul!

I have plans for pretty much all these pieces except the two orange fabrics. I was running low on brighter oranges in my stash and so I took the remaining 3/4 metres that were left of those bolts. I know they will come in handy for Fall projects down the road. The rust/brown piece to the left I thought would be a nice fabric to put into a quilt for Trevor. I told him this evening I got it for him and so he says he would like to choose the quilt pattern himself for me to make. I'm good with that! The beige on the left and the rose on the far right, well sorry I can't tell you what those are for as its a secret.. shhhhh.... It will be going into a Christmas gift. And I can't say what I'm making yet as I know this girl visits my blog from time to time!! I will take photos of it when it is done, but will show you the finished product once she receives it.
As for the cream tone on tone, it has a beautiful little design in it, and I will use this as the plain squares I intend to sew between each of my crumb blocks. I will be putting that quilt on the diagonal, so I made sure to get 3 metres of it.

Every now and then I love to play with the super macro feature of my camera. I just love how you can see the grain in the fabrics in this shot! I want to do more macros of my sewing notions and fabrics soon. I am thinking a close up of my threads would be really cool to try.


Thursday night past, I took my Christmas Mystery Table Runner to sew at our Thursday night sewing group at Mum's place. I am happy to report.... IT'S FINISHED!!!! WOOO HOOO!




Tonight, Trevor is back to work another overnight shift. I do miss him when he is gone at nights. But saying that I also get to mess up the place a bit with all my fabrics, patterns, ironing boards, notions etc. in the living room, dining room and spare room/computer room! LOL.. Poor fella, he reads my blog too from time to time. He likes to see me working away on my projects. He often asks me if I ever get tired of sewing or buying fabrics... I turn to him and ask him if he evers gets tired of surfing the Internet or playing video games.... Same answer as me.. NOPE!!! .... He really likes a neat and organized home, but sometimes I just throw him off his neatness grove will all my sewing stuff everything!!! I even take over the computer room too when he is gone, even the computer table has stuff on it!!!! He would never be able to play his games or sur or sit in his chair.. yep that too sometimes has stuff on it!!! LOL. So the nights he works over night, I just break out all my stuff into a big quilting frenzy!! Hey.. it's organized chaos to me!! Love you sweetie!!! There is another quilt in your future!!! :)

Well I had hoped to share with you two more recipes I made this week, but I have babbled on long enough here this evening. So I will post them tomorrow night. So that being said, I see by the clock on the wall it is 11:45pm. I think I'm going to schoochie down under some quilts and head off to bed. Tomorrow is another fun filled and productive day!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Halloween Fun

We didn't have many kids come to our door this year. I think I might have answered the door 5 or 6 times. We didn't have many kids come last year either, so this year I made sure we just had one small bag of candy. In the end I still ate more of the bag than gave out to kids LOL.

I decided to get a little creative this year again and made a little treat to take to work. I baked one of my favourite decadent chocolate cakes in the shape of a pumpkin. The crew I worked with did justice to it, and I don't think there was even two crumbs left!

Here is my first experience decorating a pumpkin shaped cake. I added two sliced pieces of black jube jubes for his eyes. I meant to take a photo of the cake with the black eyes, but got caught up with something at my desk and by the time I got to the cake, half of it was gone!!! LOL


Here are a few of the characters I have to deal with at work!!!
Left is one of our housing officers, Ed. Although I kept calling him Billy Ray all day long!! He is hanging out with our corporation's chairman, Len Simms who decided to come as Willie Nelson. What you don't see in the photo is a little child's guitar he has strung around him. He kept singing "To all the girls I loved before"! Too too funny!


Gale is in her Captain Morgan outfit. She is our receptionist and good friend of mine at work. Standing next to her is another one of our Housing Officer's, Rowena Bugden.


Here is Wayne Follett in his 80's mullet hair fashion. Nope those are not real tattoos, but arm bands that go right up his arms. He has his arm around another fellow Housing Officer, Nora Hanlon, who I think went as Morticia from Addams Family!


Sipping her morning witches brew!


Hopefully next year I will dress up. I had hoped to this year, but had an outside meeting in one of our housing neighbourhoods. When I got back from that, I wasn't at my desk 15 minutes but left again for a luncheon for a gentleman in our company whom we gave a retirement party for. He worked 38 years with the NL Housing Corporation. That afternoon there was a big reception party for this man and our Minister of Housing with the provincial government was there to celebrate and give his speech to the retiree too. I had planned to go as Little Red Riding Hood. I keep my fingers crossed that next year there are no appointments or meetings on Halloween!

Well I am off to get a little Wii Dance Dance Revolution workout in and then going to try hand binding the table runner I seem to have been talking about for ages and still haven't shared any photos with you all!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Monday Night Quilting Class

I just got home a little while ago from my Monday night quilting class. We have one more class left to the course. Next Monday I plan to show them some last minute things they need to know about finishing their quilts, proper care of their quilts as well as a small sewing machine maintenance 101.

Here is a group shot I took a couple hours ago of the class showing off their beautiful new quilts


Of course a quilt is not good unless you cuddle into it!!
From left to right : Joan, Debbie, Maxine, Beverley, Dawn, Janice, Glenda and Melive


I also managed to take a few more shots of my Saturday morning Crazy Patch class the other day. Here are a few of them layering and basting their quilts for machine quilting. They will be doing that this coming Saturday morning.

Here is Glenda basting her very colourful scrappy quilt!


This is Susan's quilt. She kept with beautiful shades of rose and pinks. I love how she decided to add a black sashing. It really made her quilt stand out!


Here is Shirley. She went with beautiful Fall colours. These are some of my favourite colours. I have a thing for earth tones


Here is Shirley #2 showing off her beautiful quilt. She is in the process of machine quilting hers when I took this photo. She chose a gorgeous brown to compliment her patch blocks


Here is Marsha and Ginny looking through one of Marsha's favourite Thimbleberries quilt books. I think they are choosing their next project! Ginny is working on embroidering her blocks here. Marsha said she had a little more quilting left to do on her quilt before giving it to her grandmother as a gift. She is working on another quilt top here.


I hope to post a group photo of my Saturday morning class this coming weekend as it will be their last class.

I will be starting up a couple of Christmas classes toward the middle of this month. Once again, I will be posting photos.

Well it is after 11pm here now and I should head on to bed. I have to get up early for my day job in the morning.

I hope to post again tomorrow evening. I will post some photos of some people I work with during Halloween and the costumes they wore. I also made and decorated my very first pumpkin shaped cake. I must say I am quite happy how it turned out. Stay tuned!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Resting and Relaxing

It has been a few very busy days for me and so I haven't had a chance to post anything here lately. I haven't even had the chance to read some of my favourite blogs lately. I am face and eyes into my tree skirts as I want them completed by mid November. I counted what skirt tops I have left to layer and quilt and I have only 4 more to go. I plan to layer another two today.

Along with the skirts, I also managed to machine bind the Christmas mystery table runner, so I will slip stitch the other side in place this evening. I hope to post a photo of that one sometime this week. I love how it turned out.

Lately I can't seem to stop getting involved in more mysteries! I found another mystery to do this week. This time its a Thanksgiving Table Runner. Although here in Canada our Thanksgiving has come and gone, I still want to make it and I'll have it ready for next year. There were three installments posted when I came across it, so I printed each one at a time so not to spoil the mystery. I have all three parts done and I think the next installment comes out on Tuesday. I can't WAIT!

I never did get back to my crumb quilt as I had hoped to on Thursday night past at my sewing group, instead I pulled fabrics for the Thanksgiving mystery runner, made a little signature block for a friend online who is having a baby this month. All her online quilting friends are each making a block for her to make a little baby quilt when ever she gets the chance to make it. We are also having an online baby shower for her. We will be sending our gifts to her and she will open them at a set date in our chat room.

Well I will be taking off for now as Trevor suggested we go out for breakfast this morning. Every now and then we love to get up on a Sunday morning and go out to breakfast. I will post more photos soon!

Have a great quilting day this Sunday!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea