Post Birthday

Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday wishes yesterday! I really enjoyed my day off work. Trevor was also off work yesterday and we spent a great day together!

After a nice sleep in, we headed out to Cora's for breakfast! They have fabulous breakfasts at that restaurant. From there Trevor took me shopping and spoiled me! I got a new Wilton cake pan with fancy scallops all over it, two nice tops from Old Navy and a nice smelly diffuser with the bamboo sticks from Pier 1. Last night, I met up with Mum and the sewing gals and FINISHED!!! Yes I said FINISHED the Double Irish Chain quilt!!!!!!!!!! wooooooo hooooooooo it's DONE!!!!!!! Snoopy Dancing!!!!



I put the quilt on Mum's bed last night to take a photo. She has the best bed to take photos of my quilts!

After the sewing, we all sat down to chocolate cake and tea. The perfect way to end the night!

This morning I headed back to work, only to find that my co-workers raided my little office cubicle with Saran Wrap! Seems if they find out you have a birthday and you take the day off, you are the prime target for their wrath!!!!!!! I my case they saran wrapped many things on my desk! And I tell you it was wrapped WELL!!! Here is what I saw when I got to my desk this morning!

They wrapped up my phone and headset!


My stapler, ink pads, and some of my files folders. One photo I forgot to take was how they also wrapped up my overflowing IN box!


More file folders wrapped. OOh and that disturbing photo was something they found on the Internet, had it blown up and laminated, then signed all their names and birthday wishes to me! They figured I would think him a hottie with is big hairy chest and Speedos... Uuuughhh I'm feeling queasy just writing about it!!! Seems they chose that photo as I was joking around with a fellow co-worker who is heading down to the Dominican with his wife and child and there were comments of how scary it would be if he was wearing speedos and how lucky it was for us that we don't have to see that! This was his way of pay back!!! Yep this is the mentality of the crew I work with.... I wouldn't change them for the world!


They even wrapped my SHOES!!!!!!!


I was warned that something could potentially happen to my work space when I was gone, but I had to take the risk!

Tonight I don't plan to do very much. Since the Double Irish Chain quilt is finished, I can get back to doing some more of my other projects that were put on the back burner. Tonight I will take out my Grandmother's Garden blocks and fabrics, and perhaps get a few more templates ready for hand stitching. I now have 12 blocks complete!! I'm offically at the half way mark!! wooo hoooo!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

So Stuffed!!!!

I just got home about a 1/2 hour ago from a cooking class. Myself and another gal from work go once a month to a cooking class offered by one of the big chain grocery stores here in the city. Tonight we learned some French Cooking!!!!!!!!! Ooooooooohhh MERCY!!!!!!!!!!

For an appetizer we had Salad Nicoise, for the main dish we had Coq Au Vin, and for dessert.... hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm we had......... are you ready for this???? Profiteroles with a Chocolate Sauce!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ahhhhhhhhhhhh... ooh and they gave us a glass of red and white wine!! Hey what is French cooking without the wine!! ooh some of the wine went in the food too ! hee hee!

I have made the profiteroles before several times, but I have to say I looooooved the recipe we had tonight! When I came home I told Trevor I will have to make this food for him some evening. When I do I will post some photos!

It is just after 9:30pm here now. I think I might spend another hour doing some binding work before getting settled to bed. I think I might read my book for an hour before heading off to la la land. I am not working tomorrow. I decided to take the day off from work for my birthday. I plan to have a nice relaxing enjoyable day. Trevor is off tomorrow as well. He said he wants to take me out for breakfast first, then a bit of shopping. :) Later in the afternoon I am house hunting. I am viewing a house not far from where I live. Tomorrow night is our weekly sewing group down at Mum's place. I will enjoy the evening with my sewing friends. I was chatting with Mum on the phone a few moments ago. She just took out a homemade chocolate cake from the oven an hour ago. She said she will make the chocolate frosting tomorrow afternoon.. hmmmmmm chocolate!!!!!

Well I have no photos for this posting. All that food tonight has me too tired to think straight! I will post more soon.

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

A Night of Binding

I managed to slip stitch 3 feet of the binding around the Double Irish Chain last night while watching 24. (What a great show!!! And I'm not much of a TV watcher!!!)

Tonight I am on my own as Trevor is doing an overnight shift. I decided to get back to the binding again. I sat down to the couch with my Ott Light, needle, thread, thimble and scissors and of course a movie.





I managed to get a nice bit done. But it's still not finished. My goal is STILL to have it completed before February 28th!!!

I know I won't finish it tonight, so since tomorrow night my friend from work, Simone, and I are doing a French Cooking course, there will be no sewing for me. I will probably end up taking it down to Mum's place Thursday night during our sewing group. I WILL finish it then. Thursday is also my birthday. I am taking the day off, so who knows, perhaps I'll have a nice sewing day planned and work on it that day.

I also managed to finish the first two months blocks from the Country Calendar BOM!!! All I had left to finish was embroider the names of the months! Woo hoo!! FINISHED! Bring on March!



So on that note, I will end this post here. It is 11:15pm and I have work in the morning.

Til Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

A Quiet Weekend

I kept low key here at home this weekend. I am not feeling all the best the last few days. I really hope I am not coming down with anything to nasty. I been just taking my time doing things, but finding that I have got quite a bit accomplished the past couple of days.

Before I get into what I have been doing the last few days, I just wanted you to know about a new friend I made through blogging. Her name is Anita and she recently joined my PIF. She is now trying to find people to join her with her PIF. She is involved in several blogs, but the one she has her PIF logo on is not all quilting related. I wanted to let you know she is very excited about this PIF and is anxious to make pretty homemade gifts to send to someone special. I really hope you can help her out.

I can now say the Double Irish Chain is ALMOST done!!! I have the binding sewn on, and will sit down tonight for a little bit to start slip stitching it in place while watching the second part of Oliver Twist on PBS. I just need a couple hours and I should have it done and ready to give to Trevor's parents! Here is what it looks like on the back. I will show you the finished product before the end of this week. I added a nice green fabric for the binding. I am amazed how much quilting I did on this quilt. I think this is the most machine quilting I have ever done on a quilt. I am really happy how it turned out!



I am sooooooooooo excited!! I received in the mail my first installment of my 'Hot Chocolate" snowman BOM this week! I just couldn't wait to finish the Double Irish Chain quilt, and HAD to open up the BOM to see all the pretty fabrics and choose the rayon threads to go with them. I spent part of the weekend playing with my first little snowman and just finished making him and the first tree connector block a few moments ago!!!!!!! I LOVE how he turned out!! The only thing I have left to applique on is his fishing pole. I realized after I started machine appliquing that I should have put some stabilizer to the back of him. I had none, and when I went to pick some up at Fabricville, they had none left (BIG SALE this weekend). My block is not lying as flat as I would like, but I will manage. I WILL make sure I have stabilizer for the next month.





I also received my order from Connecting Threads on Friday. Now that I am addicted to this free motion quilting, I ordered a book all on Feathers!



I also ordered this cute little pattern from Bunny Hill Designs to make these adorable little jelly bags! I think I might try one of these next weekend! I have a little something to send to a new friend of mine overseas, and I think she might like one of these.



I am also hoping to complete the two blocks for January and February for the Country Calendar BOM and have them posted. They are almost done!

If I am feeling up to it, I might do a bit of baking this week. There is a new muffin recipe I want to try using the "Summer Berry Fruit Dip Mix" from Epicure. A woman I work with is an Epicure Consultant and I have ordered many delcious herbs and jellies and such from her.



Well I suppose I should end my post here. I want to clue up a couple more things before I sit down for the rest of the evening to tackle slip stitching some binding.

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Snow Day!!!

Finally we got a snow day here on the Avalon Peninsula!! By the time it is all over we will have about 25cm of snow and ice pellets in between. The winds will be around 100km/hour!! Typically storm for here. These photos were taken earlier today as it was changing from snow to ice. I'm looking out the window here now (around 6:15pm) and looks like it is still ice pellets. It is to change back to snow later this evening.

Looking out through the living room window. There is a big Lawtons Drug store being built out in front of us. I think it opens up next month


The snow is about a foot up the side of the patio door. I have photos from a snow storm last year where it was 5 feet high! I'll have to post them here some day

Looking over over the patio

I woke up around 7am to the sound of the alarm. I pulled back the curtain to look out and could barely see out the window from snow sticking to the window pane. I could hear the winds and knew the storm had arrived. I turned on the radio to hear if our office name would be announced for a snow day.. Lo and behold by 7:20 the office was closed!! Yipppeeeeeeeeeeee.. I turned off the radio, schoochied back down under the quilts and hibernated for another few hours. I think I finally crawled out of bed around 10am. It's been a while since I had a good sleep in. Trevor had to go into work this morning so I would have the condo to myself, as he wouldn't get home til 9-10 tonight.

I decided to get back into the Double Irish Chain and get this baby quilted. Last night I picked up the border pattern I wanted to put on the quilt. So far I have 1 3/4 sides complete. I am hoping by the end of the night to have it all quilted. I want to be able to take the quilt with me down to Mum's tomorrow during our Thursday night quilting group and take my time removing all the paper and basting stitches. My goal is to get the binding sewn onto the quilt this weekend. I will then take the following few days to complete the hand slip stitching of the binding to the back and add the label to the back. I want to complete this quilt before Feb. 28th. I know I can do it!

Here are a few photos of my progress. I took them last night.

All the celtic knots are quilted. Now I am working on the borders. Take a look at the left side border. I have the adhesive chain pattern in position ready to go.


A close up


The paper I am using is from "Quilting Made Easy". There are many patterns there I want to try.


Close up shot

So I think I will make myself a little supper, then get back to quilting again. Later tonight I will break out my all time favourite candy, wine gums and quilt my little heart out!


I still have one more opening in my PIF if anyone is interested!

Ohh one more thing, check out Ginny's beautiful purses she sells on Etsy. She is also having a purse giveaway too!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

End of Yet Another Weekend

The weekends go by way too fast for my liking. You work all week long anxious for the weekend and when it finally gets here, in the blink of an eye another one is gone!

I hope everyone out there had a nice Valentine's Day. And for those of you that do not have a speical sweetie in your life, I hope you pampered yourself!!! Hey you gotta love yourself too right!

For my sweetie, I made him a little cover bag for his wireless keyboard. He asked me ages ago if I could make some kind of covering, but I had been so busy with the Double Irish Chain, all my other projects and plans were put on hold. (I took a few days break from that quilt btw, just to do a couple other little projects including this bag for him)

Thursday night during my sewing group, I decided to pull out my little featherweight that I bought last Fall and make the bag. I had to be sure it was going to look "cool" enough for him. He is a manly man, so now flowers for swirlys for that bad boy!! LOL
So here is what I came up with.




He loved it and yes... it was "cool" enough for him. Now he wants me to make him some kind of 'cool' wallhanging for him. He wants something that looks 3D. I am thinking something along the lines of Bargello for him.

Trevor just loves homemade desserts and one of his favourite berries is the Partridgeberry. A lady I work with had a local recipe book at her desk the other day. It looked very familiar and when I went home I realized I had the same book. I found a recipe for partridgeberry/apple tarts. Last night I made them for him. I am not a big fan of partridgeberries myself as I find them a bit tart, but I found these to be quite delicious. There are 2 cups of sugar in this recipe, but I think the next time I make them I will cut down on some of the sugar. I thought I would share this recipe with you. I seemed to have gone with a red theme for Valentine's this year (and why not!!! :) ) Between the red/black keyboard bag and these tarts.

For anyone here in Newfoundland, the book is called "The Treasury of Newfoundland Dishes". Go to page 62 for the recipe. For those of you not around these parts, here is the recipe.

Crunchy Partridgeberry Apple Tarts


2 cups apples, finely chopped
1 cup partridgeberry sauce (see recipe below)
2 Tbsp Flour
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
12 pkg Tenderflake tart shells

Gently mix apples and partridgeberry sauce. Stir in flour and spices together and mix with the partridgeberry mixture. Spoon into unbaked tart shells.



Partridgeberry Sauce:
4 cups partridgeberries
2 cups granulated sugar

Cook together slowly without adding water.

Topping:
1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup butter

Sift flour and sugar together. Cut in butter until mixture is crumbly. Sprinkle over tarts. Bake 10 minutes in a 350º F oven for 15-20 minutes or until pastry is nicely browned.

Enjoy!

I hope to get back at the Double Irish Chain again this week. I am anxious to get it finished now and work on my other little projects. I did manage to finish and start another Grandmother's Garden Hexagon quilt. I recently joined this fabulous Blog where you can chat about Hexagon quilts. If you are working on one, I highly recommend checking out Robyn's blog. I posted some photos there today of my quilt blocks.

I also almost have the January BOM for the Country Calendar BOM block complete. I just have to embroider the word "January". I also have a good chunk of the February Month applique complete. I worked on that block during my quilt class yesterday. I figured hey it's Valentine's Day, so it's the best day to applique hearts!

I hope to post photos of those two blocks this week.

Well I'm off to cut a few more hexagons while watching Oliver Twist on the PBS Masterpiece Theatre. I think I need a bit of culture!! LOL I actually enjoy watching those Masterpiece Theatres shows on Sunday nights.

Oh, by the way, I still have lots of room in my Pay It Forward if you are interested in joining with me! I have started looking at ideas of little projects I want to make and send in the mail. maybe it could be you!

Til Next Time!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Pay It Forward

Over the last couple of months I have reading about people making pretty little handmade gifts and sending them along to fellow quilters, even if they have never met them! Quilters tend to be very generous people and thought I would love to get in on the fun. So here it is. Please see the instructions below


Three people join in my PIF.
I will send a hand made gift to 3 people on my list within 365 days.
In turn, the 3 people who have joined my PIF must also host their own and ask for 3 people to join.
They then must send a handmade gift to each of their 3 players within 365 days.
And on and on it goes, spreading the goodness around.
There is no set time to send the gifts, just as long as they are sent within 365 days of hosting your PIF.

If you are interested in joining in on this PIF, please leave a comment.

There are so many little projects I have seen in my magazines and books that I would LOVE to make and this is a great chance for me to do just that!

I had a massage appointment this afternoon. I left work early to go to my clinic, now that I'm home again, I thought I would take a teeny tiny break from the Double Irish Chain to work on a couple other little projects.

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

The Weekend News

Before I start this post, I just want to say I am thinking of all those in Australia who are affected by the devastating fires. I have made many wonderful Aussie friends in blogland as well as other quilt related sites, and my heart is full of sadness from this terrible event. I cannot begin to imagine something like that happening here. My thoughts and prayers are with you all.

I mentioned some time ago that I started a Double Irish Chain quilt class on Saturdays. The course will run for 9 weeks in total. This past weekend was class number 2. I told them that we would be stripping in this class! Yeah, so ummm I got a few weird looks after that remark. It's fun to play with their heads sometimes, especially the newbies and they are not sure what I am talking about!!! Anyway, once they knew what I meant by "quilt stripping", I think they felt a little more relieved! LOL. Some of you messaged me that you were looking forward to some photos, well as promised, here are the first photos our their quilts.

Joanne is pretty in pink with her quilt! She is using three different shades of pink.



Getting ready to cut all her hard work of sewing all those strips together.


This is Shirley. She is keeping a close eye making sure she keeps her 1/4" seam allowance. She didn't have a 1/4" foot at the beginning of the class, but luckily her loving hubby went to the sewing shop to pick up a 1/4" foot and dropped it off to class. Shirley you got yourself one great hubby there!! Looks like he is a real keeper!

Here is a close up of her brand new foot! Needless to say she is one happy quilter now!

These are the colours in Shirley's quilt


This is Madonna. She is a new student this season. She has made many quilts before, but she informed me that this is her first time going by a pattern. I think she is going to do great!

These are her colours


Next week I will take a few more photos.

After class, Trevor and I had to go to a birthday party. Trevor's nephew Gavin turned 2 years old. He is such a little cutie, and a hard one to keep still to take a half decent photo. I kept my camera on for most of the afternoon to try to get a couple cute photos. Of the pile I took, here are two of my favourites

He was just walking along, stopped and decided to stick his tummy out! Silly little boy!

Gavin is a HUGE fan of Thomas Train. He is fascinated by trains. This is part of a large track he has belong to the Thomas Train. The train runs on a track that can go all over the room. The train is run by batteries, and Gavin adores it! He sets the train on one end of the track, then he runs to the other end, gets down on the floor on his belly and watches the train as it chugs by! He will do this for hours! His Mum says he has a track in the rec room that has alot more parts to it. One of these days we will go over to see him play with the full track.


Well I am off to try to get a few more celtic knots quilted on my own Double Irish Chain. I am anxious to get back at my other projects now. I love free motion quilting this quilt, but lately it is all I have been doing. I have to complete it before the middle of March, as Trevor's Father is giving it to his wife for their anniversary. I am hoping to get it done in the next couple of weeks.

So off I go. Hmmm perhaps I should make myself an Irish Coffee as I sew along to get me in the mood!!!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Still Quilting

I haven't forgotten to post here, just haven't had much of anything new to post about.

I am still working away on that Double Irish Chain quilt. I am past the halfway mark now to getting all the Celtic knot blocks quilted.

Once this quilt is finished, I hope to get back at some of my other projects that are put on hold. I really want to get back to working on my crumb quilt again and some BOMs that I want to do. I printed off the patterns for them today and yesterday, but I have to put them aside til the quilt I'm doing is done. I am hoping to have it finished in the next couple of weeks. I haven't had the chance to really do much sewing on it the last couple of days as my evenings have been filled with other things.

For instance, last night my friend, Simone (a fellow co-worker) and I attended a little Seafood cooking class that was offered at one of our local grocery stores. Every Wednesday the store offers cooking classes. Well we don't do the cooking, but we watch chef cook various recipes and we learn how it is made. We get to sample the food and then take home the recipes so we can make it again! Last night we got to enjoy bacon wrapped scallops in an Asian dipping sauce, homemade seafood chowder, and finally Shrimp Linguini in a curry sauce. It was all very tasty. We plan to take the next class on the 25th of the month when we will do a bit of French cooking!! Oui Oui Oui!!!

Tonight would have been our weekly sewing group night at Mum's place, but the weather is not that fit to be outside. We are having a crappy night of freezing rain and ice pellets. It is not the safest to be on the streets driving, so we called off the evening. This is the second Thursday night in a row we have missed now due to bad weather. The quilting gods are just not in our favour lately!

I have no new photos to post as I haven't been able to work on anything other than the Dbl Irish Chain. Hopefully I will post a progress photo by the weekend.
Also I will be teaching Saturday morning, so I just might take my camera along to show you the fabrics my students are using for their Double Irish Chain quilts!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea

Stormy Sunday

The snow actually started last night. It was falling so quietly and pretty. But by the time I woke up this morning the wind was blowing a gale and the snow was piling up! I believe we were forecasted to get 30cm of the white stuff and I believe from what I see outside we definetely got that. It finally stopped snowing just after lunch but the wind has continued.

This was the perfect day to hibernate at home and get started on quilting the Double Irish Chain quilt. I started the free motion quilting around 2:30 this afternoon. I stopped for about an hour to get supper on, to eat, then clean up and get back to it again. I think I have about 7 blocks quilted with a nice celtic knot design. This is also the first time in a long time I am quilting without using invisible thread! I am feeling more confident with each block I make and my stitches are improving. I'm so excited!

I love using the pre-stamped designs. You just sew on the lines following the arrows. Then just tear away the paper


I think I have 24 of these to quilt in all.


I like quilting on the dining room table as I can spread out the quilt better, not to mention be able to watch a movie in the living room at the same time


The results of my first stitched Celtic Knot. Not too shabby! :)


I also realized that I haven't posted a recipe to my blog since before Christmas. This morning I decided to make myself and Trevor some homemade Belgian Waffles!! I took out the waffle maker and hunted through my recipe books for a nice topping. This is what I made! They were sooo yummy! I want to share the recipe with you all! Every now and then it is fun to make something a little more different for breakfast than the usual bacon and eggs! I found the topping recipe from a free recipe book called "Inspired" that a local grocery Store, Sobeys, hands out every season. This one came from the Fall 2008 book. I have made a few recipes from this booklet and we have loved them all!

Let me know if try these out!

Homemade Belgian Waffles with Warm Carmamelized Apples


Waffle Recipe
2 eggs
2 cups all-purpose flour (or whole wheat flour)
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1 3/4 cups milk
1 Tbsp brown sugar
4 Tsp baking powder
1/4 Tsp salt

Heat the waffle baker. In a medium bowl beat eggs with a wire whisk until fluffy. Beat in the remaining ingredients until smooth. Pour abou 2/3 cup of batter onto center of hot waffle baker. Bake about 5 minutes or until done. Remove waffles carefully.

Will make approximately 10 waffles (freeze any waffles you don't use right away)

Caramelized Apples (Seving for 2)

3 Spartan or Northern Spy apples, peeled and cored
2 Tbsp salted butter
3 Tbsp 100% Pure Maple Syrup
1/2 Tsp cornstarch
1 cup apple juice
1/4 cup brandy (optional) or additional apple juice
1/4 cup dried sweetened cranberries
4 Waffles
1/4 cup whipped cream, 35% (optional)

Chop one apple and thickly slice remaining two into wedges. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium-high heat until sizzling. Spread apples evenly in skillet and brown on one side. Flip apples over and drizzle with 1 Tbsp maple syrup. Reduce heat to medium and sauté until apples are browned but not scorched, about 2 minutes. Transfer to a plate and reserve.

Stir cornstarch into apple juice, brandy (if using) and remaining maple syrup; pour into skillet, add cranberries. Increase het to high. Boil mixture until thickened and glossy, about 5 minutes. Return apples and heat through, tossing to coat.

Place 2 waffles to a serving plate and top with apple mixture and whipped cream!

YUM!!!!

Well I am going to get going. I want to try and get a couple more celtic knot blocks completed before the end of the night!

Quiltingly Yours
Andrea