1/17/05

January is a great time to sew.  Can you think of a better antidote for cold and snow than working on a cozy quilt?  I finished a new one today; one that I have been working on for way too long.  It is amazing how much time can pass between the buying of fabric and the actual finishing of the project.  I saw this quilt sewn up in a little quilt shop in upper Michigan.  We always stop there on our trips to Minnesota to visit our family.  I like quilts that are made from fat quarters.  They allow me to take my time buying little bits of fabric over time instead of spending a lot of money all at once.

When I first saw the border fabric in our local quilt shop, I bought enough for the outside of a quilt.  It was the color I wanted for my bedroom and my husband has been urging me to make a quilt for our bed.  After seeing this Morning Glory pattern, I started to buy fat quarters that coordinated with it.  The pattern was free on the Moda fabrics web site.  Just go to www.modafabrics.com and click on the free patterns option.  Scroll to the bottom of the page and choose the archived patterns.  That’s where the Morning Glory pattern is.  If you choose to make this pattern, I would recommend being careful to choose only medium and dark prints; I think some of my florals were too light to give a good contrast to the stars.  When putting my squares together, I did have to completely discard some of my fabrics for this reason.  I think this would look nice with creamy stars and darker colors as well.  That would certainly give more contrast.  It is a very easy pattern.  All the points on the stars are time consuming but not difficult.  I had enough left-over fabrics that I cut squares for a lap top quilt from the scraps.  I will post a picture of that when I finish it.  I love getting a bonus quilt from scraps!

We read in an old book that at one time girls were expected to have a dozen quilts made before they were married.  We laugh about that a lot; I guess it was before heat when you used multiple quilts on each bed.  Do you realize how many children you would have to have before you could put twelve quilts to use in today’s world?  Nevertheless, our girls have attempted to build up a store of homemade quilts for their homes.  Two summers ago I was thrilled to visit a quilt museum in Virginia.  Most of their displayed quilts were from the mid-1800’s.  I was tickled when I saw two matching quilts made by sisters.  Each quilt had an embroidered number on the back, as the girls were keeping careful count of their completed projects, attempting to get their dozen quilts needed before marriage.  I guess it was really true.

1/8/05

This morning I was reading about the Israelites after they arrived in the wilderness and discovered they didn’t have any food.  They began to complain, saying, “If only we had died by the hand of the Lord in the land of Egypt , when we sat by the fleshpots and ate our fill of bread; for you have brought us out into this wilderness to kill this whole assembly with hunger.” (Exodus 16:3)  Reading this, my tendency is to berate them in my mind, thinking, “The Lord just delivered you from the Egyptians and parted the Red Sea and you are doubting His ability to feed you?”  Then I started thinking about how many times I may act the same way.

Matthew Henry, in his commentary on these verses, shares some interesting thoughts.  “It is no new thing for the greatest kindnesses to be misinterpreted and basely represented as the greatest injustices. . . But discontent magnifies what is past, and vilifies what is present, without regard to truth or reason.  None talk more absurdly than murmurers. . . When we begin to fret and be uneasy, we ought to consider that God hears all our murmurings, though silent, and only the murmurings of the heart.”

Often in our lives, especially as girls hoping to be married, our temptation may be to glorify, not the past, but the future.  We think that if we were only married, our troubles would be over.  But not so!  We must not fall into the temptation of “vilifying the present” and thinking our current lives are troublesome.  We must not forget to thank the Lord for His past mercies and remember that He doe not change.  He has truly delivered each of us from the Egypt of sin and death and is going to continue to demonstrate His loving kindness to us now and in the future.  At the present moment we may think we are hungering for something we don’t have, but that is only because we are not noticing the manna God is providing.

12-10-04

Every year, we find ourselves needing inexpensive gifts to give to neighbors, music teachers, friends, etc.  As many of you may realize, ideas for these kinds of gifts are not always easy to come by.  A couple of years ago, we came across these great recipes for simple-to-make spearmint, peppermint, and chocolate peanut butter bark.  It’s always gone over great at Christmas parties.  This year, we were hoping to give a mixture of the different kinds as presents, but we found something to make them a bit more special.  We were at the thrift store and happened across some glass dishes that were in excellent condition.  They were on sale for only one dollar apiece.  We quickly snatched them up and used them to put the bark in.  You can see what an elegant gift it makes.  You might want to try this idea too.  Here are the recipes:

Peppermint Bark

1 pound vanilla flavored candy coating

¾ cup crushed candy canes (about 5 oz.)

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper, and set aside.  Place candy coating on top of a double boiler or in the microwave and melt.  Stir until smooth.  Stir in all but ¼ cup peppermint candy.  Spread on cookie sheet.  Sprinkle remaining candy on top.  Chill until hard.  Break into pieces. (For spearmint bark, just substitute spearmint candies for candy canes.)

Chocolate Peanut Butter Bark

1 pound vanilla flavored candy coating

½ cup extra crunchy peanut butter

6 oz. semisweet chocolate chips

Place candy coating on top of a double boiler or in the microwave and melt.  Stir in peanut butter.  Spread peanut butter mixture in a jelly roll pan greased with butter.  Place chocolate chips in same double boiler and melt.  Pour chocolate over peanut butter mixture.  Swirl chocolate with a small spatula or knife.  Chill until candy hardens.  Break into pieces.  Store in an air-tight container.  

11/10/04 

I  had a desire to and after searching through at least a dozen knitting books I came across the perfect pattern that met all my qualifications. The pattern for these lovely little finger puppets (click on photo) can be found in the knitting book entitled Weekend Knitting by Melanie Falick.  The pattern originally called for Roros Lamullgarn lambs wool, but I was unable to find any.  In place of the lambs wool I was able to obtain a nearly perfect gauge using DMC Pearl Cotton. The weight I used was number 3 and I simply picked colors closest to the pictures in the book. The faces were embroidered using DMC floss because the Pearl Cotton would not lay right. There are patterns for 10 different puppets that are designed with the nursery rhymes "Old MacDonald Had a Farm" and "Mary Had a Little Lamb" in mind. With a little creativity and a variation on the colors one may come up with nearly endless possibilities for unique puppets. (I will create another post about finger puppets if I come up with anything worth sharing.) Personally I enjoy knitting small items on little needles and these fall right into that category because they are knit in the round with 4 dpn (double pointed needles) size 0. They can be slightly tricky when first starting, but if you are a fairly competent knitter and find them as adorable as I do, I highly recommend the project.

1/19/05 

In an effort to work on my cookie-making skills, I got a few books from
the library on cookie making. One of the books I got, The All-American
Cookie Book by Nancy Baggett, has a lot of really old recipes in it. One
recipe I made came from a 1902 cookbook. They were chocolate cookies, and
they actually tasted very similar to a boxed brownie mix--quite yummy!

Tonight I made another great cookie recipe. This time, it was a recipe for
oatmeal raisin cookies that used to be served at a bed-and-breakfast
before it closed down. (Martha said that wasn't a good sign.) They are
delicious! The only spice in the recipe is cinnamon, which gives it a
remarkably warm and homey taste. In case you wish to make these cookies
(belive me, you won't be disappointed by how they turn out), here is the
recipe.

Dairy Hollow House Oatmeal-Raisin Cookies

1 cup raisins
3 cups rolled oats
2 cups flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp salt,
2/3 cup softened butter
1/2 cup shortening
1 cup light brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease or spray with cooking spray several
baking sheets. In a small bowl, place raisins and cover with hot water.
Let set. Stir together oats, flour, cinnamon, baking powder, soda, and
salt. Beat butter and shortening in mixer until light and fluffy. Add
brown sugar and sugar; beat until fluffy and smooth. Add eggs and vanilla;
beat until well-mixed. Stir in all but one cup of the flour mixture. Drain
raisins and combine with remaining flour and nuts. Fold into dough. shape
into golf-ball-sized balls with lightly greased hands. Pat down gently.
Bake for 8-11 minutes, turning baking sheet around halfway through in
order to insure even baking. Place cookie sheet on wire rack and let stand
1-2 minutes for cookies to stiffen before placing cookies on wire racks.
Store in an airtight container for up to 1 week or freeze for up to 1
month.


I really think that letting your cookies sit on the baking sheet for a few
minutes after they come out of the oven helps a lot. When I make cookies,
they usually fall apart, but so far my cookie "experimental recipes" have
both said to let them sit. I think I have only lost one cookie to
crumbling so far.

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