Sister's Choice Quilts

Cooking Success and Failure, Cute Archie Picture

This is Archie in his dog bed at naptime. He likes to sleep on his back, and he has a favorite stuffed toy, a puppy, that he positions next to him. Notice he has placed the puppy on its back, just like he himself is relaxing. Sometimes he uses Puppy as a pillow, but typically he just has it in his bed with him to snuggle up with. He has loved this toy since Day One with us and sleeps with it always.

Eva is staying with us this week, and requested enchiladas when asked what dinners she might enjoy. I made chicken enchiladas with green sauce, which actually were quite good, if not somewhat labor intensive. I also made basmati rice, flavored with lime juice and cilantro, which I thought was very tasty and refreshing. It was a great accompaniment to a Mexican-themed meal.

My failure was the refried beans, which I made in my instant pot. My mistake was making them way too spicy. Too much chile powder I think. I used chile adobe powder, which was way hotter than the usual plain chili powder I typically use. I am going to try to make pinto beans in the instant pot again though. I soaked the beans for 8 hours ahead of time, drained them and cooked them for 20 minutes in 3 cups of seasoned water. Once they vented for 10-15 minutes, I mashed them and added chile powder and cilantro. Whew, it was way hotter than Eva's comfort zone. 

Using the instant pot to cook beans is easy and effective, and I will give it another try soon.

How about you? Do you make beans in your instant pot?

Moda Blockheads 5 Table Runner and Brownie Trees

I made some extra blocks when I was doing the Moda Blockheads sew along and put them into a table runner to give to my son Ahren. He has an orange couch in his kitchen/family room, and this will go perfectly.

I am sending it off to a new-to-me quilter who says he is all caught up and can probably finish it in time for Christmas. You never know, but Ahren will get it eventually.

Eva made brownies and decorated them to look like Christmas trees. Archie was a very enthusiastic assistant.

He's a bit of a pest, but she loves him anyway. Truth be told, she gets him pretty stirred up. It's like two little kids getting together for a play date and having to be told to settle down all the time.

And here are the results of her labors. I have been told next time to get darker chocolate more fudgy brownie mix and not the regular kind.

Hope you are having a great week! Goodbye November.

December Decor Coming Together

I am getting the holiday decorating done step by step. I try to switch things up a bit year by year, although some things bear repeating. This is a new arrangement with some snowmen I have collected over the years.

This is the same arrangement I did on my table in the foyer last year. Next year I'll have to switch it up.

This is my buffet in the dining room, where I have typically put my crazy snowman collection. I caught Archie starting to tug at one end of the dangling garland and could see the entire collection falling to the floor in ruins. I ended up moving the snowmen to my china hutch, which doesn't show them off as well, but what can I do?

I am not 100% happy with my decor this season, but my choices are more limited with Archie to be considered. In the long run, no one but me is going to know the difference I suppose. 

Eva came over after school yesterday and helped me with my Santa collection arranging. I will share that tomorrow. Her dad and step mom are going on a trip this week, and she will be staying with us, which will be great fun. She has already requested spaghetti and enchiladas, so I know what I'll be cooking. With any luck, our new Christmas tree will arrive and we can get that decorated.

Hope your week got off to a great start!

And the Christmas Season Begins!

Our Thanksgiving was small, but very cozy and lovely. It's funny isn't it that it is the same amount of work if you have four people or twenty four? We kicked things off with Christmas Cosmos, which were amazing. It is a regular Cosmo cocktail with crushed peppermint around the rim.

The day after recovering from our turkey coma, it was time to put away all the lovely fall decor. It is my favorite season to decorate, and I may have more items than strictly necessary to celebrate autumn.

That took a few trips out to our garage storage cupboards. Thank goodness we have a wagon.

I won't show you all my Christmas decor just yet because it is a work in progress. We spent the whole weekend getting things out and sorting through things to decide what we wanted where. Unfortunately, our main Christmas tree had an entire section of lights that no longer work. That tree cost a fortune and my husband spent hours trying to figure out what was wrong. I think we are going to have to come up with a new tree.

This is my dining table centerpiece. The glass trees are Waterford crystal, and are no longer made. I had a red one which I enjoyed for years and last year my husband surprised me with the clear one and the green one, which he found on eBay. When the light hits them, they glow as if lit from within. Truly exquisite. 

This small tree I put next to my reading chair in our front room/libary. Over the years we have collected a few Waterford Christmas ornaments and this little tree displays them all together. It is best viewed close up, so you may want to enlarge the photo. I truly enjoy this little tree so much. 

So far, Archie has not caused any disasters, but I did catch him biting the end of the garland on my buffet, which hangs down low enough for him to reach. If he had tugged on it, as I think he was planning to, many things that I have cherished for years would have ended up on the floor. We need to up our dog-proofing game. 

In other news, our son, as you know, lives in Dublin, Ireland. On Thanksgiving (which of course the Irish do not celebrate) there was a large civil disobedience occurrence (a riot) downtown. A city train was burned, a double-decker bus was burned, as well as at least one police car. As it happened right at commute time, Ahren was caught in the middle of things. He had to walk about 5 miles until he could find a taxi cab driver who would pick him up and take him home. What an embarrassment for Dublin, and Ireland as a whole. Disgraceful. 

Let's all hope for better things in 2024. Hope you had a great weekend! surrounded by family and good food on the table. 

Hourglass Log Cabin Blocks

I've made a good start on the log cabin alternate blocks for the Hourglass quilt. 12 are finished, 13 to go. They come together quickly and easily. This quilt top is going to be finished before I know it!

My homemade cranberry reilsh is done. It has oranges and Grand Marnier in it and is so good! Last year it was kind of soupy and I figured I hadn't cooked it quite long enough to set up. I made sure that didn't happen again this year.

Today Eva gets out of school early and we plan to make pies. A pumpkin and a pecan. For four people. Oh well, it's just once a year right? We can have two pieces.

I probably won't post again until next Monday. This weekend our plan is to get our Christmas decorations put out, so that will keep us busy. I hope you and your family have a wonderful Thanksgiving if you are in the US.

I wanted to give you all an update on my nephew, since being grateful is very much on my mind. He is home from the hospital after his cardiac arrest. The CPR he got while waiting for the paramedics to turn up caused him to have several broken ribs, so he is getting over that as well as the procedure to install a new pacemaker with a built in defribilator. I tell you, if that bystander had not been right there to see him go down and immediately started CPR, we would be telling a very different story today. So I am grateful for the kindness of strangers who step up and try to help in those first crucial seconds when it really counts. And also grateful for all your kind thoughts and prayers and for the grace of God to give my nephew another chance to live his life. We are counting our blessings this year.

 

 

 

Thanksgiving Week

I went to my father's house on Sunday to have dinner with the family. We hope to finish emptying out the house soon and letting the realtors spruce things up a bit to prepare it for selling this spring. The sun was shining when I woke up there Monday morning and I went outside to the backyard and discovered this large mushroom in the grass. Doesn't it make a beautiful autumn picture?

On Saturday I worked a bit more on the Hourglass blocks. I have completed months 1 through 8.

I am starching the fabric for the alternate log cabin blocks now and want to get a few made to get a better feel for the final look of the quilt. I think the "night and day" effect will be stunning.

The main body of Apple Sauce is together, and I am still working on the square in a square blocks that will form the border.

So nothing is actually finished, but I am getting there. It will be a full week though, so I am not sure just how much sewing will get done! I read somewhere that this is a great week because it is a short one that ends in pie and shopping. I have started my Christmas planning, but so far have only bought one thing for Eva. 

We will be a small group for Thanksgiving dinner, but that's ok. I like the quiet coziness of it, with the house full of good smells and a lazy evening after dinner is complete. Friday I suspect we will start the holiday decorating and get the tree up. No glass ornaments this year. I don't think Archie would mess with the ornaments, but he is still very rambunctious and we don't want to risk him breaking anything he brushes past.

I hope you all are having a great start to your week!

Going Into the Weekend

Going into the weekend I thought I would share with you a few things I worked on this week and a couple of great books I am enjoying.

This quilt block is the 9th in the Moda Blockheads5 sew-along. It is called Candy Stripe Holly Star or some such thing, but I call it Day and Night Star. It is paper pieced and was super fun to make and turned out spot-on perfect. I saw someone on Facebook had pieced four of the blocks and placed them in the center of a table topper so the stars formed a circle. It was stunning. I will sure be making more of these.

I nearly have all the rows pieced together for my Apple Sauce quilt and am still plugging away at the 80 square in a square blocks for the border. 

Not too long ago I got this Courthouse Steps table runner back from the quilter and need to put the binding on it. It will look great on my hall table, my coffee table, or my dining table this Christmas. I can't decide where I will use it! But it sure came out great. I used some reds and greens from a Bonnie and Camille collection as I recall.

Two more Hourglass BOM blocks. These are month 2. I am hoping to speed through making the blocks for this project and get to work on the alternate blocks.

Now for two really good books I am recommending:

Do you love a good mystery? Are you a fan of true crime? This book is fiction, but has such a different approach I think you might love it as I did. Murder in the Family by Cara Hunter is so original and it will keep you guessing right up to the end. I thought I had figured out "who done it" umpteen times and was wrong every time. You will feel as if you are watching a Netflix true crime drama unfold before your eyes as the story is told through the screenplay format of a cold-case crime documentary. It's a puzzle you, the reader, will solve along with the detectives and show producers.

Have the tissues close by if you read The Last Love Note by Emma Grey. This is so much more than your standard rom com. The author takes the reader through love, loss, heartbreak, and back again. Ultimately hopeful, with unexpected moments of humor. Love, hope, and a good future will prevail. This is really good.

Hope you all have a splendid weekend!