Happy Holidays!

Wishing you a very Merry Christmas

and a blessed New Year!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

May your blessings be multiplied, just as this rainbow.

TWO pots of gold are better than one!

Enjoy a lucky day!

Quilting in October

The local ladies of the quilt guild have been busy! It's been six weeks since there was a group sewing day, so the "show & tell" was filled with many projects for the October meeting.

Chris shared instructions for making pumpkin decor for the holidays. Super simple and super cute! All you do is wrap a roll of paper towel or toilet paper in pretty, seasonal fabric. Tuck into the top of the roll. Then, add a stick and some silk leaves. Wah-la. A pretty and colorful centerpiece or vignette piece is the result.

Of course there was a lot of talking as friends caught up with one another.

Our "block of the month" charity quilts are all done now. As a group we made more than a dozen of them. Each is quilted and bound now and ready to give away. This was an amazing group project!

There were many seasonal quilts shared at the October "show & tell". Chris shared her Halloween quilt. She is an gifted quilter!

Judy showed us her Halloween table runner. She is our "paper piecing" expert, and this runner did not disappoint! She gives each project she completes such fine attention to detail.

Louise shops at Tuesday Morning shop for fat quarters and jelly rolls at discounted prices. She shared two table runners she made using Halloween themed fabrics.

And Roxy showed us her current project; a hand-quilted table runner. She used silk leaves from the Dollar Store for the center of the runner. She said to remove the plastic "veins" so just the silk leaf remains. Then applique onto the fabric. Oh, so very pretty! And what a great idea!

Lee made several pretty quilts using panels as the focal point. Toni machine quilted them and the result was "wow"!

Froggy shared the rag quilt she made for her new grandson. Cheerful!

Judy showed us her Seahawks quilt! Timely!

And Chris shared her amazing "basket quilt". So many tiny triangles all stitched together!

Friendship. Sharing. Sewing. Lunch. Community. It's amazing what can result when those who love quilts are bound together by common purpose.

Happy Birthday, America!

God Bless America!

Happy birthday to our country --- land of spacious skies, golden fields of grain, and purple mountain majesty. Be blessed on this 4th of July!

Patriotic Tea Towel

I stitched this patriotic tea towel for an exchange partner in Florida. It is definitely primitive and quirky! The pattern is by "Pieceable Dry Goods" and has a tea and a patriotic theme. Since this exchange was for the 4th of July, I thought the design appropriate. The pattern was originally designed to be made into a sampler, stitched on tea dyed muslin and embroidered in brown. Because I was stitching on a pure white tea towel, I decided color would be nicer. I started with a red, white, and blue theme, but quickly came to the conclusion that I needed to make the stars yellow. Everything fell together from there. Although this tea towel is not technically 'color appropriate' for the holiday, I decided it would do because there are many colors, including yellow, exhibited in the magnificent fireworks of July 4!

Bourbon Vanilla Rooibos & Blueberry Crepes

Crepes are a favorite family food. And since the family is altogether for Father's Day, it's only natural that crepes are on the menu. Although the menu sounds fairly traditional, it wasn't without its unique variations. 

I keep a can of coconut milk in the fridge door. It's chilled through and ready to be made into coconut milk whipped topping at a moments notice. It's easy enough. Simply open the can, spoon the mixture into a bowl, and whip with an electric mixer {Kitchen Aid} until creamy. I happen to like the little globs of coconut fat solids, so I don't whip it until it is completely creamy, but you can if you try this yourself and would prefer it. I added a 1/2 tsp. of stevia for sweetness and some of our homemade vanilla.

Pear sauce is another simple filling for crepes and could be used for filling or topping. Our family enjoys this even more than applesauce. We use home canned Bartlett pears and put them in a blender {pears and juice} and blend until creamy. Tasty!

U-picks at the blueberry patch down the road start this week, so I need to use up as many of our frozen berries as possible to make room for a new batch. Usually I heat the frozen blueberries in a kettle with water and stevia or with fresh apple juice. 

This time I decided to try something different, so went to my tea cupboard to find something that I thought would be flavorful with the blueberries. I chose a tisane of bourbon vanilla* rooibos that I steeped and then added to the bluebeerries. They were sweetened with 1 tsp. of stevia and thickened with a cornstarch slurry.

Homemade crepes {gluten free} filled with pear sauce and rolled. Then topped with warm blueberry sauce and coconut milk whipped cream {it melts into the warm blueberries upon contact of cold with warm}. Delicious and just right for Father's Day! 

The china is Royal Doulton Carolyn from the Romance series. 

*From Wikipedia: 

• Bourbon vanilla or Bourbon-Madagascar vanilla, produced from V. planifolia plants introduced from the Americas, is the term used for vanilla from Indian Ocean islands such as Madagascar, the Comoros, and Reunion, formerly the Île Bourbon. It is also used to describe the distinctive vanilla flavor derived from V. planifolia grown successfully in tropical countries such as India.

Remembrances

Your silent tents of green

We deck with fragrant flowers;

Yours has the suffering been,

The memory shall be ours. 

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Victoria Day

The online tea group, Afternoon Tea Across America, conducted a card and tea sample exchange for May and chose the theme Victoria Day. This day is a Canadian holiday that is celebrated during the same week-end as Memorial Day in the USA.

The Victoria Day week-end is a statutory holiday in Canada that commemorates the birthdays of all ruling British monarchs, including the current queen. Although each monarchs' actual birth dates are varied, this holiday was established as overall recognition of the sovereigns' birthdays.

Victoria Day is often referred to by Canadians as the May Long Weekend, a family celebration, lots of good food, and spectacular fireworks.

I received each card with anticipation, as each was unique and represented the personality and creative skills of each sender. It was fun discovering what was in each envelope.

From home-crafted, stamped cards to especially ordered cards from England, each was different and selected according to the interpretation of this holiday by the one who sent it.

Crowns, teapots, and the Union Jack were a common theme.

It's likely that every home that has been decorated in a Victorian-style has a pair of teddy bears somewhere --- and they are sure to have their own china teaset. Just like these!

The maple leaf, fireworks, and words that remind us to celebrate!

And crowns. Lots and lots of crowns! Happy Victoria Day! And a special shout-out to the Canadians who are Afternoon Tea Across America group members!

Happy Mother's Day

Lots of Christmas Cheer

There's More to Christmas

There’s More to Christmas…

There’s more, much more to Christmas

Than just candle-lights and cheer;

it’s the spirit of sweet friendship

that brightens all the years;

It is thoughtfulness and kindness,

It is hope that is reborn again,

For peace, for understanding

And for goodwill to humans.

Author unknown

Opening Shut-up Hearts Freely

I have always thought of Christmas time as a good time; a kind, forgiving, charitable, pleasant time; the only time of, in the long calendar of the year, when men and women seem by one consent to open their shut-up hearts freely.

Charles Dickens

Mother's Steamed Christmas Pudding

During my teen years, mother decided that she wanted to start a Christmas tradition that was unique to her heritage. After much time spent going through food magazines and cookbooks, she used her skills in recipe adaptation to create a recipe for steamed Christmas pudding that the entire family could eat. Dairy-free, egg-free, and gluten-free; it met everyone's dietary needs. Not only that, but it was delicious! As grandchildren joined her family they enjoyed helping her make the pudding and prepare it on the stovetop, as it was steamed instead of baked. At serving time, sugar cubes were soaked in almond extract and brought to the dinner table in high flame. The children loved watching the flames slowly die as the extract was burned off. And how fun it was to eat something that had been presented with so much charm! Here is mother's recipe for you to enjoy as well.

Steamed Christmas Pudding

1 cup sugar

1/4 cup amaranth flour*

1/4 cup sweet rice flour*

1/4 cup garbanzo flour*

1/4 cup tapioca starch*

3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon cloves
1 cup grated raw carrots
1 cup grated raw potatoes

1/4 cup raw grated apple
1 cup raisins
1 cup nuts, walnuts

1/2 tsp. fresh lemon zest

1/2 tsp. black walnut extract

Mix all ingredients together until moist. Place mixture in a prepared Pyrex bowl and cover with foil until secured. Put in a kettle of gently boiling water and cover with lid. Water should be 3/4 of the way up the side of the bowl. Steam for four hours, adding more water as necessary. Additional steaming is okay, but will result in an even darker pudding.

Serve with apple gravy (thickened apple juice concentrate with cinnamon added). To flame: soak sugar or sugar cubes in pure almond extract. Working quickly, place on top of pudding and light with a match. Take to table while flaming for a beautiful presentation.

*All-purpose flour may be substituted for the gluten-free flours given.