Sister's Choice Quilts

Jan's Famous Cherry Jello Salad

This dish of yummy fabulousness is Jan's Famous Jello Salad. Yes, I made it for Thanksgiving. What a hit. It has a base of cherry pie filling and a cream cheese/whipped cream crushed pineapple topping. Gelatin salads are so retro, and really get a bad rap these days. I used to love them with just about any meal, especially on holidays or hot summer days. I am going to copy Jan's story below so you can all enjoy it and get a good laugh. Who knows, if you make it, you might get famous for it too! It may be too late to make it for this Thanksgiving, but it sure would be great as part of your Christmas dinner.

Jan's Story

The Cherry Jello Supreme story is…we live across the country from family so celebrate holidays with our friends’ family here.  Everyone is related except us & we love being included in their holidays.  There will be 20 of us at our house on Thursday with lots of laughter & teasing.

These are always meals where the host provides the meat & a side dish or two & everyone else brings a side dish, rolls or dessert.  Our first year as a guest I took the Jello salad that is from a recipe in a Methodist Church cookbook from South Florida.  For some reason I’ve been expected to take/serve that salad at every holiday meal for the last 25 years.  

 

I didn’t think much about it & one year asked the grandmother (90+ years at that time) of the family to bring a salad to our house for Thanksgiving.  “WHERE’S THE CHERRY SALAD???” was blurted out at the dinner table. " Really?  This strawberry Jello salad your grandma made is pretty tasty with pretzels on the bottom.”  Back to my boring salad, then after a couple more years passed I asked our friend to bring the salad.  He knew about reaction the last time we diverted from Cherry Jello Supreme & made a beautiful red salad.  Again, “WHERE’S THE CHERRY SALAD????” was heard at the table despite a delicious fresh cranberry & Jello salad.  He was embarrassed & I felt awful for having asked him to fix the salad.  

 

I’ve given up.  I’ll be making 2 pans of Cherry Jello Supreme so there’s plenty for 20 at dinner on Thursday plus enough to send home with leftovers.  Here’s the recipe in case anyone wants to give it a try.  Be warned that you’re on your own if you have to make it for every holiday for years to come!

 

 

 

Cherry Jello Supreme

 

‘The Burnt Offering’ cookbook (circa 1972), Christ Church, United Methodist, Ft. Lauderdale, FL

 

Use a 9”x13” pan.

 

Dissolve 1-3 oz. package of raspberry Jello in 1 Cup of boiling water.

Stir in 1-21 oz. can of cherry pie filling.

Allow to set up in the refrigerator.

 

Dissolve 1-3 oz. package of lemon Jello in 1 Cup of boiling water.

Beat 1-8 oz. cream cheese & ⅓ Cup mayonnaise until smooth.

Gradually add lemon Jello to the cream cheese & mayonnaise.

Stir in ⅓ Cup crushed pineapple & 1 Cup Cool Whip (or real whipped cream).

Add 1 Cup mini marshmallows.

 

Pour on top of set up raspberry/cherry layer.  Allow to set up in the refrigerator.

 

Serves 12.

Resurrecting a UFO from 2018

I was digging around in my sewing room, looking for something to do this week. Which is of course what one does on Thanksgiving week, when one has work deadlines, cranberry relish and pies to make, and a house to clean. And did I ever find a project. Back in the summer of 2018, I signed up for a weekly block kit from Primitive Gatherings. They called it "Star Studded Event". Of course it features teeny tiny pieces, which Lisa Bongean of Primitive Gatherings is known for. 

At the end of the project, you were to end up with 240 six-inch quilt blocks. Super scrappy of course. And each block has a 2 1/2 inch center star.

Here is one 2 1/2" center star. It is tiny all right. The flying geese units are 1" x 1 1/2". Good grief, my yellow rotating mat is a mess. My friend Thelma sent it to me eleven or twelve years ago and it has gotten good use, obviously. I can't bear to replace it though for some reason.

I had already finished 120 blocks, so yay, half way through. As I started going through the weekly fabric kits, I felt (as I often do with scrappy kits) that many of the fabrics were (to put it kindly) not to my taste. So that led to much rummaging around in scrap bins and me cutting more strips to make blocks more to my liking. You should see my sewing room. To say it's a mess doesn't quite sum up the complete chaos. 

This is how you assemble the blocks. You get four blocks out of a fabric strip assortment for one color story. Five color stories per weekly kit, so 20 blocks a week. Evidently I forgot the instructions not to combine duplicate fabrics within a block. No problem I have about a hundred more blocks to make.

The blocks really are awesome. I need to finish this project. I think it will be an heirloom. I will keep you all posted.

In other news, if Jan gives me the ok, I will share her Thanksgiving Jello Salad story tomorrow. I think you all will get a kick out of it and be able to totally relate to it! 

Hope you all are getting more done this week than I am. I still have all the cooking and house cleaning to do today. How smart of me to have procrastinated and left everything for the last minute.

I Needed Another Christmas Table Runner....Not

Sometimes the creative urge cannot be denied. I have had this sweet pattern for a Buffalo Check Christmas table runner for a year or two, and have been meaning to make it. I used scraps from my stash and yardage of a white, taupe, and darker tan. The pattern is by Carried Away Quilting and was easy to follow. I did have to press all the seams open, and let me tell you, I was very tired of doing that by the time I finished the project. I don't know what it is about pressing seams open. I know things turn out better and lie flatter but I just resist it for some reason. 

Here is a close up of the two units that make up the top. The trees were easy peasy. So was the star for that matter. The only caution I have is that you have to have your wits about you or it is easy to put the wrong color neutral in a place where it doesn't belong. And if that happens, you lose the checkerboard pattern. My seam ripper and I got reacquainted while I made this little project. 

Busy week for me, how about you? I am meeting up with a friend this morning, then I need to go home, work on a writing assignment, and then make cranberry relish. My husband has been so excited about having pumpkin pie, and came home from Walmart with two jumbo cans of Libby's pumpkin. Each can makes two pies. I guess I will make those on Wednesday, along with prepping my dressing. I am going to try something different this year. I will make my dressing as usual, then put it in the crock pot to finish cooking. It will free up the oven, which is a plus.  Have any of you ever done that? One Thanksgiving I made my mashed potatoes in the morning, and put them in the crock pot to stay warm. It worked great! I only have one oven, which is a problem when you need to cook sweet potato casserole, keep the turkey warm, and cook dressing. How do you all manage all the dishes on Thanksgiving? 

Sewcialites Week 5 and a Fun Notion

I've been having fun with the 2022 Sewcialites Sew Along sponsored by the Fatquarter Shop. This was week 5, and the block was pretty difficult. I am making two different block sizes (in two different fabric collections) for this sew-along. The blocks above are my "extras". I had tons of leftover Christmas Morning fabric (Lella Boutique) from a previous sew-along and thought it would be a good idea to try to use it up if I could. So I am making the six-inch blocks with it for the Sewcialites sew-along. And they are quickly becoming my favorites, over my main blocks!

This is the actual fifth block in the sew-along, designed by Carrie Nelson. This is the nine-inch size in Flower Pot fabrics (Lella Boutique again). This was a challenging block, but if you go slowly, starch your fabric, cut accurately, and trim to size things will turn out pretty great.  I would not, however, want to make this block in a smaller size. 

Kimberly suggested that if you wanted a simpler block with a similar look, that you use a basket block from Sewcialites 1, which I did for my six-inch Christmas Morning block.

Here are all my nine-inch blocks. I am really enjoying this sew-along. On Fridays, Kimberly does a live tutorial where she makes the week's block on YouTube's Behind the Seams channel. I put Kimberly on in the background on my laptop and stitch along with her. 

And this is a fun new notion I got recently. It is called a Slap and Wrap Peel, but I call it a "slapper". Eva has had bracelets that curl up like this when you slap them, and a ruler too. In this case, it is used as a holder for the triangle papers Fatquartershop sells. You could use it to hold any bundle of papers in a roll. It comes as a straight flat strip. When you slap it against something it curls up and holds it tight. 

Hope you all had a great weekend. We put our Christmas trees up but didn't decorate them yet. We are hosting Thanksgiving for Sara and her husband Jeff, and Eva, and I don't want to rush the day too much. There will only be the five of us and we are looking forward to a feast. Jeff is a former restaurant owner and Culinary Academy graduate and his specialty is grilling. You know our turkey will be something special. 

On Black Friday however, we will be hitting the road full tilt boogie and getting those Christmas decorations up! This is a first, I am nearly finished with my holiday gift shopping!

Have a great start to your week!

 

Winter Village

These are all the blocks I have made so far for the 2015 Designer Mystery BOM. Five buildings and four snowmen blocks. Several people have asked about the pattern and where they can get it. It is available on the Fatquartershop for $59.98 for the twelve building blocks and the finishing layout/blocks pattern. 

This is the layout I am doing. Except, I am making the quilt wider and putting the top and bottom borders on the sides. I'll do the top as well if I have enough fabric. I prefer my quilts to drape over the sides of the bed.

These are the four alternate snowman blocks. I will probably embroider eyes and mouths. The pattern calls for button faces, but I am not sure that's a good idea.

This is how I wasted spent the morning yesterday. I just had to have a new holiday mug rug. No pattern, I just kind of made it up. The tree section does measure 6" finished.

I drive past these trees several times a day and decided to stop and take a picture before the leaves all fall off. Isn't that the most gorgeous juxtaposition of colors? It makes me so happy to see it.

Friday, yay! Hope your weekend is splendid.

Snowman Village Coming To Life

My snowman village is coming alive! I only finished two of the four snowman blocks yesterday, but the remaining two are ready to assemble. I think I will do little French knots for their eyes and mouths. Each block has two strips of trees and a snowman in a hat, scarf, or sweater. They are so darn cute.

I cannot recall when I have had so much fun working on a quilt! 

Several of you asked what fabric I showed yesterday in my post about wanting to make a Christmas quilt. The background and red fabrics are mostly from Primitive Gatherings latest collection "Garden Gatherings". They are a beautiful clear Christmas red. The dark greens are from that group also, and the lighter greens are from Jan Patek's latest collection for Moda. 

Oh my gosh friends, if you like to bake but can't ever finish (or don't want to eat it all) a whole cake, this book will be perfect. Each recipe makes an 8-inch round, an 8-inch square, or a loaf cake. Eva and I made the Pumpkin Spice Cake with a Maple Glaze, and it was truly outstanding. If you aren't big on pumpkin pie, this could be an easy and delicious Thanksgiving dessert. Flavorful, moist, and that maple glaze was brilliant. My husband said, "This is the best cake I've ever had". I put a green post-it flag on some of the recipes we want to try and practically ran out of flags. 

Snowman Village Quilt

My fifth building in the Snowman Village quilt is the library. This one was pretty easy, although it did have a ton of pieces. Those little Alphabities labels are a big help in keeping them organized.

Here's the entire village so far. Someone was asking me if there will be a quilt shop and there will be!

Today I am going to switch things up a little. My navy border and alternate block fabric arrived and I starched a yard or so of it yesterday. Today I think I will make my four snowman blocks, which fill out the setting layout. They promise to be super cute and I can't wait to get them done. Compared to these buildings, they will be a cinch. 

My head is so full of ideas for projects I want to make! I mentioned that I have been buying fabric, and this is some of it. Look at those beautiful reds and greens! The pattern is called Christmas Kaleidoscope and is available as a pdf download from Gigi's Thimble. The darker greens form a strong diagonal line, with the. lighter greens forming kind of a shadow effect. The reds are the star blocks, which are so fun made in different prints. I am looking forward to plunging into this project during the holidays. 

Hope your week got off to a good start. Eva and I usually bake on Tuesday, and this week we made a recipe from a new book I bought "Snacking Cakes" by Yossi Arefi. All the recipes can be made using just one big mixing bowl. You can bake the cakes in a round pan, a square pan, and even in a loaf pan (some of them). Our first effort is a Pumpkin Olive Oil cake with a Maple Glaze. We threw in a handful of chocolate chips because that's how we roll. I took the photo before we put the glaze on.

It sure smells good!

Snowman Houses and a Blast From the Past

To say I am enjoying making these houses from the Designer Mystery 2015 BOM sew-along is an understatement. Each one of these blocks is a little work of love. Top row: Grandma's Cottage and an Apartment Complex. Bottom row: Post Office and Sweet Shop. If they look scroogey, it is because I did not lay them straight on the design wall, they really came out pretty good. Anyway, so much fun! I am really pleased with how well the mail box turned out. That scalloped edging on the Sweet Shop block was so hard!

Here is a bit of fun. My sisters were going through our dad's bedside drawer and discovered an undeveloped roll of film. Kate took it to be developed and found a bunch of photos from 1999 that my dad had never had printed out. The picture above is of my mom at her kitchen sink washing lemons she had harvested from the lemon tree on the sideyard. We have no idea what she was planning to do with them, and even Sara, who was pictured in some accompanying pictures where she was assisting my mom, had no recollection of what the plan was. What a blast from the past this was. At the time, Sara and Ahren and I lived less than a mile away and were hanging out at my parents' house all the time. This picture is a perfect example of what life was like back then. There was always some project or other going on at their house that we all pitched in on. It makes me miss them so much.

Hope you all had a great weekend. I spent part of it with my sisters and it was so nice to be together. 

Weird Weather and Product Review

Honestly, we are getting some weird weather. It seems like a few weeks ago it was in the 90s. On Tuesday night it hailed, and then snowed! We might get snow at our altitude, but in early November it is pretty unheard of. And my goodness is it ever cold. Like you don't want to forget your jacket when you run out to the store or to pick up the kid at school.

Eva was feeling well enough to go to school, so that is good. She still has a bit of a sore throat but is fine otherwise. 

I am making progress with the square in a square blocks for the Family Reunion quilt. I will be glad to wrap up this project. Not much more to go. 

I have a product review for you all. I am always looking for seam guides I can attach to my sewing surface to help me keep to a scant quarter inch seam. I have tried several with good results and recently saw this advertised somewhere.

So, I didn't really care for it. I will tell you why, but if any of you use it and like it, please explain why in the comments. My problem with it was that even with the little positioning tool I was not able to line it up properly. Also, the sticky strip guide was too short for my way of thinking. It is hard to see in the photo, but there is a pale blue plastic thing with a hook you wrap around your needle when you position the sticky strip guide. I must have been doing something wrong because I could not get it anywhere near a quarter inch.

This is Lori Holt's Seams So Easy seam guide. I like this one. See how long the seam guidelines are? That's a plus. The cutesy flower petal shape serves no purpose, but that is what Lori Holt does. The cuteness factor is important to her.

This no-frills seam tape by Cluck Cluck Sew works great. It is inexpensive and you get a lot of it. I've used it and once you position it as shown in the photo above it is a great success.

Do you use a seam guide? It is especially helpful when you have to make a lot of half-square triangles and don't want to draw dozens of diagonal lines on your fabric. I use mine a lot and think it is a time saver and leads to better accuracy.

Please share your thoughts on seam guides in the comments!

 

 

Too Many Projects?

I admit it, I have a few projects going on. For some reason, I have always loved doing multiple things at once. I typically am reading three books at a time, I can work and eat lunch at the same time, and I could do housework and fix dinner while nursing the baby.  And as you may have noticed, I am constantly starting some new quilt project before finishing others that I have started. It doesn't bother me in the slightest.

I do finish things, but often get distracted by something new and shiny. These are some of the block projects I have going on at the moment. My Sewcialites 2 9-inch blocks are in the upper left corner of the design board. My five Nantucket Summer, Designer Mystery BOM 2022 blocks are on the right. On the bottom left are 6-inch Sewcialites blocks, which I plan to turn into a runner or lap quilt.

Did you notice something new? This is the first block in the Designer Mystery 2015 Snowman Gatherings BOM. I think it is called "Grandmother's Cottage". It turned out super cute and was very fun to make. Tons of pieces. I used all my A-Z Alphabities plus some numbers just for this block. I am going to need to square up the block units constantly because with these small pieces, things can go sideways fast.

On the large design wall I have the Family Reunion quilt. This quilt is in the book "Rollin' Along" by Moda Bake Shop. I have started making the border square in a square blocks. I need 68 of them. They are kind of boring to make, so I am pushing myself to make at least 10 a day. 

I think I mentioned that Eva is with me this week since her Dad is on vacation. Wouldn't you know she came down with a sore throat? I kept her home from school and she's been drinking gallons of tea, and eating soup. It was pouring rain all day long so it was a good day to stay inside under an afghan.

Hope all is going great with you!