Stollen Day

Monday was Stollen Baking Day.........I have the official old recipe from Johns' Grandmother.
It is whole day affair.
The counter starts off clean with all the utensils and containers - for mashed potatoes, milks and butter/sugar.......... When you add all the flour and the fruit - red, green cherries, pecans, almonds, coconut, golden raisins - it becomes a LOT to knead. My arms got a good workout!!!
First rise is all that dough in the metal pail - passed down to me from the originals.

While I have had time anticipating my new sewing machine I have been cleaning out in my sewing room. Old books, patterns, etc have gone..............

I sorted thru many baggies of block templates - from years of block exchange and my own designs.

Note the trash bag is almost full. I have already taken out a large black trash bag yesterday. I have a large bag of goodies and a box of books to take to quilt guild for sharing.

I do have my Featherweight machine to do some sewing.

Kneading time again - 7 times!!!!!!!!!!!!

Another rise and then finally bake time.

The house smells wonderful............

John went to get a grinder at Mancinos as the second baking was just getting done.

When I returned from an evening meeting and stopping at my parents house, my house had that sweet smell of Christmas!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I noticed it when we went to bed - and it was still there this morning.........

Jingle Bell 5K

This morning was the Jingle Bell 5K - over 450 women signed up. It was about 20 degrees outside - the sun was shining - GREAT day for a race!!!!!!!!!!!

I walked a personal best - 36 minutes 10 seconds!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not cold at all - even a little too warm!!!!! Gloves came off half way thru and coat was unzipped. I was really pumping my arms and going fast!!! I kept Jill (a really fast walker) in my sights!!
Some of the neighborhood streets were a little snow covered - not slippery, just thick and you needed to be careful walking - or running. I did not want to fall!!!!!!!!!

It was great to hear encouragement from my walking buddy, Leslie. Encouragement was also heard from the Baker family and Jamie from baby story time. Little Rowan was there all bundled up in his stroller.

This is my last race of the year. The jingle bell award will hang on my tree.

I started these 5K's last year at this time and have come a long way..............and will continue in 2010.

Early December

Early December and my Christmas Cactus is blooming - right on schedule!!! This afternoon I picked up Ruth F and headed to Terry's to quilt and eat. Ruth D, Daisy, Bonnie, Carol and Lisa were there too. Some had been to a play at the Williamston Theater earlier.

Terry had made three soups - Fish, Tomato Tarragon and Potato Leek - all YUMMY!!! Her husband had made bread - also YUMMY!! With a calorie free dessert, we all ate well.

Thanks Terry , for having us.

Bonnie had worked hard (extra hard) to make this look great - she had a little issue with wavy borders. Don't we all sometimes?????

Another of Bonnies' creations - she is very creative..........

Ruth D made this for a friend - Beatles fabric with lots of black/whites.

I returned home (about 8:00) to a dark house - thought it was kinda wierd. No lights outside, no lights inside. Went downstairs to find John on the floor - so called 911..........LOVE my Delta Township paramedics!!!!!!!!!!!!! Glucose and time and he came around. We did not go to the ER this time - not required.

John remembers seeing 5:00 and maybe 5:15 on the clock, trying to sit up and nothing more. The coffee tables were moved 6-7 feet away, phone was over the back of the couch, his bent glasses on the floor at the end of the couch ..........signs of struggle.

He did not get his dinner - I'd left a steak and salad for him!!!!!!!!!

Recovering from a reaction like this takes time - getting some food in his system and bringing the blood sugar back up. He was covered with sweat ( clothing wet) , cold and shaking all the while. All that passes with time........but it is kinda scary. He went to bed early and I stayed up to make a salad for Lunch Bunch tomorrow.

This is the second quilt for Allison. I got it on the floor ready to baste this afternoon.

I'll do that in the morning...........

Right now I am having a stiff drink!!!!!!!!!!

Quilts

Allison got to see - and lay on - her quilt. She absolutely LOVED it!!!!

I have outline quilted the blocks and borders and put the binding on. Next is quilting in the blocks.

I also have a smaller quilt for her - with the leftovers from the leftovers that are on the back of this one!!!!!!!!!! But I need to purchase backing for that one.
When Allison went to bed after seeing this she told me that when she closed her eyes she could see the blocks in her quilt.............goes right to my heart!!!!!!!! This is Nelda's Orb. It is machine and hand quilted with some beading.

Close up.

Closer up. There are some "things" in the pinwheels - buttons, baubles and beads. I am open to more of those - just keeping my eyes open.

Sunday we got our Christmas tree up - never so early, but we both had some time and used it wisely. I put more decorations around the house today. Gets me in the spirit!!!!!!!

I'm off to Grand Rapids tomorrow as my sewing machine needs attention at Smith Owen. I call ahead and bring peanut butter cookies and Brian will work on my machine while I am there.

I hope to find a large pink floral (?) for the backing of the smaller quilt for Allison.

I'll also meet Pat and have some time together. Looking forward to that........

Update - my sewing machine is really sick. There are 2 little motors and one is shot and needs to be replaced, which will take awhile. I'm not happy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have my Featherweight to sew on, but the machine quilting is not going to get done. Oh well.......I'm sure I can find something to do!!!!!!!!!!

Thanksgiving and a little more

The turkey brined in the bucket for almost 24 hours. Ginger, allspice, peppercorns, cloves and cardamon were in the brine. It smelled good - but looked AWFUL when poured out.

Ashley was pleased with her pumpkin pie made from fresh pumpkin and embellished with leaf shapes of pie crust.

My parents and brother, John, came to dinner.

Alexander enjoyed that pie. As well as the turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes ( his request), squash, corn casserole, cole slaw (Allison's request), two kinds of cranberry sauce, spinach salad, and pecan pie. Andrew had requested drink yogurt - he had 2, maybe 3 of them. He also discovered he liked turkey - "It's just like chicken!" - which is one of his staples!!!

The squash was from my garden - YUM!!!

No one went hungry!!!!

And Allison enjoyed the pie, too!!!!!!!!!!!!! What seefood!!

After dinner we sat around - the books always seem to come to the table!!!

Since the weather was kinda warm ( can't use the garage as a frige!!) , Ashley and John deboned the bird - we can have turkey sandwiches and turkey soup and turkey noodle and turkey lasagna and....and....and.......

I have plenty of Cosmic Cranberry Sauce, too. I froze some to have with turkey sandwiches next spring!!!!

Friday morning we went to Great Grandmas' house to make gingerbread houses - a long standing tradition. John had put the houses together beforehand and had everything set up for the kids to start decorating. Thanks, John.

Alexander getting started - the "icing" that was used to hold the candy on is NOT really edible - lots of shortening!!!

Allison working on a front walk.

Ashley used the "squirter" and Andrew placed the candy wherever he told her to put "glue."

Allison and her finished house.

Alexander and his house. He is such a kind boy - he left HIS house to decorate MY house.

Thank you, Alexander.

Three kids with their houses.

The kids had a little while to play a game with their Uncle John.

Friday evening, Ashley, Allison and I went to Wharton to see The Nutcracker. Allison had not seen the ballet. When we got home, we showed her pictures of when Ashley and I were in Nutcracker at Wharton!!!!

The kids left this morning and I went to work this afternoon. The library was pretty busy for a holiday weekend.

There is NOTHING on my calendar for Sunday........a day for ME!!!!

Key West

I machine quilted Key West yesterday and got the binding on it. Sewed it down while watching MSU basketball last evening. It radiates sun and warmth!!!!!!!!! I think I'll hang it in the family room this winter!!!!



The batiks came from my friends Mel and Karen - Karen lives in Key West and Mel was visiting her. She brought back a packet of batiks to me. Thanks you two. I also pieced this little quilt with the last of the jelly roll that was given to me a couple years ago. I pieced a quilt top for Ele's Place while on quilt retreat (in the to be quilted pile!) - and used the leftover pieces on this one.

This will go to the Mountain Baby Quilts after I get it quilted. I will try to practice some free motion quilting on my machine.

I have tried to copy and paste the link to Mountain Baby Quilts on my sidebar with no success.

Try going to http://rachelcox.blogspot.com/ The link is on her sidebar.

Mountain Baby Quilts

I just shipped off these two quilts to Mountain Baby Quilts - providing quilts to Appalachian teen moms. I saw the sidebar on another blog and used some gifted fabrics to make these. I will be making more of these.......or similiar.