Quilt History Challenge..........

Civil War quilt BOM 

These Snowballs Won't Melt!

Temecula Quilt Company has the coolest

pattern for a snowball quilt!

and these snowballs will definitely not melt!

Thes quantities listed will make a 52" x 60" finished quilt.

This is an easy quilt to make larger by making more 

blocks or adding a border.

But on the other hand, these snowball cookies will melt ~~

in your mouth!

Ingredients

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups finely chopped pecans

1/4 cup sugar

1 cup  Butter softened

1 teaspoon vanilla

How to make

1. STEP 1
   Heat oven to 325°F.
2. STEP 2
   Combine all ingredients except powdered sugar in bowl. Beat at low speed, scraping bowl occasionally, until well mixed.
3. STEP 3
   Shape dough into 1-inch balls. Place 1 inch apart onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake 18-25 minutes or until very lightly browned. Cool 5 minutes; roll in powdered sugar while still warm and again when cool.

So Many Stars....................

I love Star blocks!  This one came from 

From My Carolina Home--

great tutorial to use your Christmas theme fabrics.

And how about these fabulous stars!?

Such a cool way to create star points

This comes from Cluck Cluck Sew

I can see Christmas 2018 in my future---

Christmas Season Recipe

Sorry--I didn't post the recipe for my Christmas cookies!

This recipe is at least 40 years old--don't remember

where I picked it up or found it--

I have such miss shaped cookie cutters--the kids had a 

big laugh trying to figure out what shape they were eating!

Oh, well--  here is my 'old' recipe:

2 cups shortening (I know! but don't use butter!)

3 cups sugar (sometimes I use a little less--or maybe

I'm not so precise in my measuring)

4 eggs

1 tsp nutmeg (fresh grated is the best!)

1 tsp vanilla or almond flavoring--I think the almond over powers

the nutmeg

6-7 cups flour

Beat sugar and shortening together till creamy!  Beat in eggs, add vanilla

now add dry ingredients--flour, nutmeg, vanilla

Add flour till it forms a stiff dough--form into a ball, wrap in

plastic wrap and chill at least one hour!

But, in my case, I chilled a week--forgot about the dough..........

roll out and cut into shapes.

Here is my little secret--I use powdered or confectioners sugar

instead of flour to roll out--

bake at 400* 8-10 minutes, but each oven is different.

And don't forget that last batch in the oven

like I did!

Let the Baking Begin........................

Somehow, and don't ask me how, I got in a baking mood--

didn't matter that the house is a wreck--workmen coming 

and comiing--

I decided to make my Christmas cookies! and

the best part of the recipe is the fresh grated nutmeg

Just something about that little bit of nutmeg that adds to

the flavor, also could be the bourbon aged vanilla that added also.

Dough is resting in the refrigerator--these are cut out cookies

Yum!  Yum!  A plate goes to our grandson!

Another saved recipe that I found in the bottom of

my shopping bag is one that I'm recreating too.

This recipe comes from one of our award winning

local bakeries--Ooh La La--Oatmeal chocolate pecan

cookies!  Delicious!  

We took a plate to our grand-daughter's office as

they have been slammed with all the Hurricane Harvey

damage remodeling.  They deserve a cookie break!

One Year Long Challenge-----Completed!!

Finished!  My year long challenge for Elizabeth Ravenwood's Estonian Lace Scarf (found on Ravelry) is finished!  

Every year Elizabeth has a new challenge--I try to have handspun

each time--I used this wool/silk blend

I had already spun--you can see the bits of brown

and then when it came time to spin up more, I decided

I didn't want the brown so took our the brown areas to get a

nice clean look with blues and greens

I like to use beads, although the pattern calls for nupps

too--I just replace the nupps with beads

Another year long challenge is complete and ready to wear!

Dishtowel Weaving Adventure Continues

AT November monthly weavers study group meeting, we enjoyed

looking at handwoven towels from our past to learn about

our future weaving.

We continued our conversation about hems.  Interesting how each

weaver approaches the task of hemming our handwoven items

Here is one way to put a decorative edge--hem stitch and then turned

up to finish the hem

Hems are all sizes

Here is hem stitched towel for great look--this technique

is done on loom

Here is an extra wide hem

Hem that is embroideried after hemming

An example ofa really bad hem, done on the sewing machine

No care was taken on finishing--don't let htis happen to you!

Neat hem sitched down with needle and thread

We looked at many different types of woven towels

to learn about techiques that would give us a good

hem

How do you decide on the width of the hem?

should it be narrow?

Or wide?

Skinny?

Some hems include hang tabs woven in 

How will you handle the next hem on your handwoven towel?

Two more samples of woven in tabs.

Our next discussion will be on warp setts and fiber content.