Red Aqua

In trying to keep up on my desire of getting old projects finished, I pulled out my swapped red/aqua disappearing 9 patch blocks. These are from a swap that Jane hostessed a few months ago. Not sure what I am going to end up with but here are some of the ideas I have had. I am leaning towards #4 but maybe that is just because it is still on the design wall and would be easy to sew together. It has been hard trying to decide what to do since some blocks had the aqua in the middle and others have the red. Some blocks are not even in the colors either they used. It's definitely going to be a bright quilt no matter what I end up with!
I like the blocks having the red on the outside but I don't have enough of these blocks to make the quilt very big.

Red blocks on the outside and aqua on the inside.

Red, then aqua blocks.

A mixture of both colors in each block.

It might not be winter here.......

....but with other parts of the Nation getting hit with the white stuff, I felt an urge to finish this flannel quilt instead of waiting until next winter. The flannel fabric is Riley Blake.  Our LQS seems to be adding more and more fabric from this designer.
This quilt will head to the cabin after it is quilted.
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One Down.....

I decided to try to finish some quilts I have had unfinished for a few weeks. Forgive the wrinkles---it's a bit hard to put a whole quilt, even a wall hanging size quilt, on my design wall without getting some poofs in it. This is a Quilt in a Day from Eleanor Burns called Day and Night. It's an easy one but after I took the class I just never put the borders on it. Now it is ready for the quilter.  I think this one will go to the cabin to hang when I get it back.  Now to finish the flannel lap quilt for the cabin----I should get on it now that winter is almost over!

I hope to get over my slump soon!

http://izzynivydesigns.blogspot.com/ 
Have you seen this pattern yet?  Or better yet, have you made it?  I saw this a couple of weeks ago in a shop in Heber and had to have it.  They had several hats made up but I didn't even think of getting my camera out of my purse and taking pictures.  They are soooo cute in person!   I hope to get one made soon.

Here is my first BOM for January.  Haven't gotten to the
stitching yet.  I use to love to embroider to but now that I am of a "certain age" I have a hard time doing hand work.  My eyes don't/can't focus correctly, even with my reading glasses.  I know...probably time to see the eye doc again.

I am probably the last person on earth that has never had a mp3 player.  But I do now!  It's an early Valentine's gift.  Suppose to be from the Honey but I bought it.  The Honey started talking about Kindles, books of tape, converting his cd's to something, etc, etc, etc, and I started thinking....."Hey!  He is going to get some music player before I do and THAT'S NOT FAIR!"  (Yes...I can be that way at times!)  So I came up with the good idea of buying each of us one and it being our Valentine's gift to each other.  hehehehe!  Smart, huh!?!  Got it Friday and have been trying to play with it.  Wish I had a teenager still in the house....where are they when you need them?!  I don't have the patience to read an online manual.

Today was this lil' man's blessing at our Church.  You can see what he thought of all the commotion!  We had a houseful of friends and relatives this afternoon to help celebrate the occasion!

Hopefully this week I will get back to some sewing.  I have just not been in the mood for several weeks.  Middle child is coming over tomorrow to sew and I hope I can be productive too.  Wish me luck!

Weekend in Snow

We spent Friday night at the cabin.  As the sign says, we went to RELAX.

Right.

What really happened?

The snow was so deep that we couldn't get up the driveway.

The shoveling began.  I was lucky that my daughter didn't bring her snow boots and she wanted to help her dad so she borrowed mine.  I helped by taking pictures.  hehehe.

One thing about heavy snow.....it sure can be beautiful!

No More Excuses

Yesterday, after 11 years with the old treadmill, we updated to a newer, more QUIETER model. Oh happy day! Dear Honey wakes up at 5 a.m. and runs on the treadmill for an hour. The old one was so noisy that the tv would have to be up full blast just so you could hear what was being said. I like my sleep but was always awake when Honey was awake. This a.m. I woke up but not to noise.....I think it was more from habit. I had to listen very closely to even hear the treadmill. Yes! When it was my turn to excercise, I was ecstatic that I didn't have to turn the volume up on the tv to 99% and worry that I was going to blast out the speakers. In fact I had to turn the volume down to normal. This is going to be great having a new machine. (Can you see my lil' muscle man on the wall? That lil' one is now a big 3. He sure use to be a roly-poly. So cute!)

 

Thought I would also show my quilts in our gym. I love this red and white quilt. I bought it years ago on ebay for very little money. It is all hand pieced, hand quilted and very old. It is one of my favorite quilts! The other one I made years ago. I use to have a "red" room in our old house and it hung near my red checkered couch. I changed our colors in this home but decided I needed to have a happy, bright workout room (to make me want to go in there) and I think the yellow paint with the red quilts do just that.

 

Success!

And I don't even have any pictures to show for the fun night I had last night! I was so busy trying to talk over the girls chatter that I didn't even think of pulling out the camera to take pictures of the yummy muffins they made. I do want to post the Master Mix recipe and the recipes we made last night though.

The girls were so fun. They loved their aprons I made them. Two girls weren't there and I guess I didn't count correctly since I only have one apron left so I will be making one more so I can give them both an apron on Sunday.

Here is the Master Mix recipe I used:
A-B-C Muffin Master Mix
18 cups all-purpose flour
5 cups granulated sugar
2 1/4 cups nonfat dry milk
6 tablespoons baking powder
2 tablespoons baking soda
2 tablespoons salt
3 tablespoons ground cinnamon
3 teaspoons ground nutmeg

Store in a large airtight container labeled with the date and contents in a cool, dry place.
Shelf life: 6 to 8 months. Makes enough for about 5 batches of 24 muffins each.
If desired, sugar can be omitted then stir in 1 cup honey for every 24 muffins as you make them.

To make 24 regular size muffins:
Heat oven to 400 degrees F.
Coat muffin tins with an oil/lecithin mixture, grease with shortening or butter, or spray with cooking spray.
In a large bowl, beat:
4 eggs
3 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 cups water
1 cup vegetable oil
Stir in 5 1/2 cups muffin mix and any additional ingredients just until moistened. The batter should be lumpy.
Fill muffin tins 3/4 full. Bake for 18 to 20 minutes, or until muffins are golden brown.

Then I divided the girls into 3 different groups so each group could make a different version of muffins from this basic recipe.

First group made a sinful, chocolaty muffin. It was almost like a cake and OH SO GOOD!
Kisses and Hugs Muffins:
1 1/2 cups cocoa
1/2 cup granulated sugar
After filling muffin tins 3/4 full, drop one Hershey's kiss into the center of each muffin, pushing down slightly until kiss is covered. Ice cooled muffins with confectioners' sugar and water glaze.

Next group made a healthy muffin. I was worried that the girls would turn their noses up at this recipe but they dug right in on grating those zucchinis and carrots!
Garden Fresh Muffins:
1 cup grated carrots
1 cup grated zucchini
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves

Last group made the basic muffin with a filling. Again it was delicious!
Streusel Topping for 24 Muffins:
Mix together:
1 cup granulated sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2/3 cup all-purpose flour
Cut in 1/2 cup cold butter until mixture is crumbly.

We ate each muffin and tried to critique each recipe but that was hard for the girls to do. Each muffin seemed to taste better than the first. Finally by a show of hands (and since the noise level in the kitchen was getting crazy), the Garden Fresh Muffins were claimed to be the winner out of the 3. I was quite surprised. Nice to see the girls like to eat healthy!

You can go to this site and print out the rest of the different versions of muffins you can make from the basic mix if you want. It's a great one to have on hand for the family!