Weekend With Friends

Jane was up to Betty's for the weekend and brought some hand stitching with her so I couldn't resist the invitation to join them for a bit. I worked on binding mom's Dresden Plate, which you saw last time, but it also gave me a chance to get some pics of projects that both of them are working on.

Earlier this winter one of Jane's nephews was left homeless after a fire destroyed his home. Thankfully he was unhurt, but all that he owned is gone, so she and Linda have started a Broken Dishes quilt for him in beautiful, rich paisleys and plaids.

The blocks are the same size as the baby quilt that I just finished but she is hand stitching hers. It is stunning!

How's this for a happy quilter?

Is it all that gorgeous fabric that makes her so happy, or the thought of the Hummingbird Cake that I made for dessert? Me thinks it might be a tie. I used the Cream Cheese Icing from the Silver Palate Cookbook instead of the one mentioned in the recipe and it was delicious - that hint of lemon really came through.

Betty has been busy quilting another amazing quilt and I've got some pics to share with you next time....M

Unfinished Business

Sometimes we get lessons when we least expect them, and today was one of those days.

A few days ago I started to bind the Dresden Plate that mom made. It's been sitting patiently for almost a year waiting to be finished (yes, it can take me a while to work up to binding a quilt!). This one is huge but 434 inches later as I was happily looking at the finished product I realized that there was a little unfinished business to deal with - one corner was missing a flower. After practicing avoidance behaviour for years it was time to step up to the plate and try my hand at appliqué.

I remembered seeing the pieces for the blossoms all cut and stored in a little zip lock baggie somewhere, but a thorough rout of the sewing room produced nothing. Maybe I was just remembering seeing them from when mom was working on it...

Actually, I shouldn't say I found nothing. I found the box that mom had been using to store the quilt while she worked on it and there was everything in there except the blossoms - a copy of the pattern, tons of extra leaves, more sashing strips, extra fabric, and even a little spool of thread.

It was quite touching going through the box and it left me a little wistful. Mom had left notes and instructions and just seeing her handwriting again was very comforting. And it brought back great memories as well, including the fact that we had decided to change up the border (which explains all of the extra sashing); the sketch on the left is one that I had done up for her and I remember helping her lay the borders out shortly after we moved into our new home.

Still, despite all these treasures there were no blossoms cut and ready to sew. What to do?

I found the yellow that she had used for the flower centres and two pieces of the pink floral in the sashing so I ripped them out and sewed them together to create a square big enough to cut what I needed, but despite several digs through bags and boxes and shelves I could not produce any of the blue for the second layer. I finally found a close substitute and plunged head first into needle turn appliqué.

It took me a while and it's not perfect, but I think it came out quite nicely (mine is the bottom blossom); I now see why some find appliqué so addictive. This opens up a whole new world. YIKES! Can you imagine how long my TO DO list is going to be now?

Maybe it went so well because my little visitor for the day was there for moral support...

Anyway, it felt like it was meant to be and that, in some small way, mom was there guiding me through the steps. Maybe, maybe not, but it's a nice thought, and timely too; tomorrow is the anniversary of her death.

I gave the quilt a little test drive this afternoon and snuggled under it for a snooze on the sofa but now it moves to our bed for the summer. Such a long time coming....M

Basket Case

Remember those HSTs that I've been making from the Hugs & Kisses trimmings? Well, they are proving to be perfect for making lovely little baskets.

I started pressing the seams on the smaller size and, of course, that meant I had to lay a few blocks out to see what they might look like.

And, since the white fabric was so close by, I cut a few strips for the edge pieces...

and before you knew it there were three lovely little blocks. I cut yellow triangles to finish off the top row of the basket and might play around with adding additional colours to the mix - not sure yet.

I also need to figure out what to do with the top half of the block. If I add a handle I'll need to split the seam to tuck the ends in, but I'm thinking that it might be fun to appliqué (eek!) something in them instead. Or maybe yo yo flowers? I'll need to ponder this a bit.

Finished, the HST blocks are 1.25" and the entire block is about 8" in size. Sa-weet!....M

Something Sweet

It's been years since I've made Bread Pudding but I recently came across this recipe and thought it sounded too good not to try; the Bourbon Sauce was the clincher.

It's based on a recipe from the famed Bon Ton Café in New Orleans and goes together really quickly - you just have to remember to begin macerating the raisins the day before.














To say that the sauce is loaded with bourbon is an understatement - and apparently the Bon Ton sauce has even more bourbon in it, which I cannot imagine... It is delicious but another time I would start with half the amount and see if it needed any more; I didn't see the 'to taste' notation until it was all in the pot. I think I'd also cut back on some of the sugar.

I'm not a bourbon aficionado so the final criteria for selecting one to use was the look of the bottle. How's that for sophistication?!

Not sure if the rows of quilting will be straight after a snack of this, but we'll give it a try....M