Happy Easter!

Happy Easter!  And I actually had some time this morning to finish the last little bit of connecting all the little blocks together!  And we have a quilt top.  This has been almost a year in the making and I really will be happy to have it completed.  Sashed with a pale yellow cotton which I repeated in the borders.  Tomorrow morning, I will take the time to make some decisions about the quilt back and get this puppy sandwiched.  I have selected the binding already.  It will be the same small green print that I used for the connections in the borders and the little cornerstones.    This has grown into a VERY large quilt!!!!!  I left it on the line for awhile.  It was quite breezy and the wind helped blow a lot of loose thread bits away.  I am most hopeful that those threads will find their way into some bird nests this spring.

In other quilt news, I will be putting together a baby quilt for clever son's lovely girlfriend to give as a gift.  Yellow, green and possibly monkeys was the request.  Sounds like fun!  And after such a big, beastly quilt, a baby quilt will be a dream!

Taking the time to admire the trilliums blooming in our big woods.  I have been stalking the plants for the last week and today these ones were wide open.  So lovely.

Linking up with Judy's design wall Monday because the Farmer's Wife quilt is the only thing on my design brain at the moment!

Flea Market Finds on a Sunny Saturday

This is just so fabulous!  Mum found this for me on one of her thrift store adventures.  It is amazingly wonderful milk glass.  So exciting!  We saw a gorgeous milk glass cake stand today at a thrift store but the store has placed it in their silent auction stuff and I can never be bothered to attempt to win items that way.  I am just tickled to find things serendipitously!

And a lovely stack of vintage sheets.  Mum happened upon a bag sale.  You know.  Stuff a bag full for $5 or something.  So she did.  She found some really lovely ones, including ones I have not seen before.  The brighter the flowers on the sheets, the better they are in a quilt.  Super wonderful!

Linking up with Sophie at Flea Market Finds!  Maybe even Apron Thrift Girl's Thrift Share Monday!  Happy Easter!!!

A Good Friday Finish...

I finished a pillow for my Mum.  That's all.  Nice and simple.  When I let Mum know it was for her, she told me that she had been trying to figure out how to tell me that she wanted it.  She saw it on the design wall.  Clever me.  I remembered that when I made one like this before Christmas for a friend, Mum had admired it.  Clever me.  He he he.

So here are all the details.  Neutral, brown scraps.  3" squares.  With a pop of green ones in the mix for fun.  Inspired by a picture of a pillow on Heather's design wall at A La Mode.  Heather makes fabulous pillows.  She really does.  I did a simple envelope back.  Quilted with Aurifil 40 wt. with the walking foot on either side of each seam.  It just makes me happy.  What made me even happier was Mum sitting there at the big old harvest table while I sewed.  She made lots of encouraging, appreciative, happy noises while I stitched away.  And now the pillow is in her lap as she reads a quilting magazine and drinks her tea.

Smiling.  Happy.  A good day.

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday.  Check it out.  I am off to do just that.  

He's baking up a storm!

He just keeps on baking.  Isn't that just the most beautiful bread?   YUMMY!  Husband is baking up a storm because it's Easter and Mum is coming to stay.

And Mum arrived.  She always brings a car load of treasures and today was no exception.  Not only did she bring me a old recipe book of my Great Gramma's with hand written recipes and pasted recipe clippings but she brought me a BAG of vintage sheets!!!  Woo hoo!  I have yet to take pictures but believe me when I say... AWESOME!

So there.  Now to visit with my mum.  Have a lovely evening!!!!

Hot Cross Buns

I love Hot Cross Buns.  I love all the dried fruit and the cinnamon.  MMMM.  Just so yummy.

So here they are.  Compliments of the best bread baker I know.  My husband!

1/2 cup of warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon of dry yeast
1 cup milk
1/4 cup margarine or butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten
5 to 5 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons cinnamon
3/4 cup raisins or a combination of raisins and mixed dried peel
1 egg yolk with 2 tablespoons of cold water
confectioners' sugar frosting

In large warmed bowl, dissolve the sugar in the warm water and sprinkle with yeast.  Let stand 10 minutes and then stir well.  Meanwhile combine the milk, butter, sugar and salt in a pan and heat over low heat until the butter is melted.  Cool to lukewarm and add liquid mixture to dissolved yeast.  Add cinnamon, beaten eggs and 1 1/2 cups of flour.  Mix vigorously.  Gradually add enough flour to make a soft dough. Turn onto a floured board and knead about 8 to 10 minutes.  Place in a greased bowl, turning to grease  the top.  Let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.

Punch dough down and turn onto a floured board.  Knead in raisins.  Divide dough into 18 or so pieces and form buns.  Place on a well greased pan. Combine egg yolk and water and brush the buns.  Let rise until doubled again about an hour.

Carefully cut a cross on the top of each bun with a sharp knife.  Bake at 375 degrees F until done about 20-25 minutes.  Remove from pans.  Cool and frost while warm.  Enjoy.  Great toasted.  Yum.

Edited to say:  Husband then informed me that he substituted some ingredients.  Because I am on a no fun food diet, he replaced the 1/3 cup of sugar with home made applesauce.  He used lemon juice in the confectioners' sugar for the frosting.  They are to die for.  Just saying.  


Linking up with Debbie at the Quilter's Table!

A Pillow Top For Fun

So after all my fiddling around and endless sashing of the Farmer's Wife quilt, I started a pillow top just for fun. This is inspired by a photo of a pillow over here.    Heather makes fabulous pillows. This one caught my eye on her design wall before Christmas.  My interpretation.  Really simple.  3" squares in lots of neutrally browns with a pop of green.  I made one like this for one of my buddies just before Christmas and I still had some of the squares cut.  It was pretty easy to get this one sewn together last evening.  I have not yet decided if it needs a border.  But for now, it clings to the design wall.  Untrimmed and unfinished but it did allow me to sew in my happy space.  Especially after a tough slog of farming all weekend!

Have a super lovely evening.  I am planning to RELAX after a super busy but really great day at school!

Famfoozled!

(Said in my Grinchiest, most Seussical voice)

I puzzled and I puzzled and I puzzled some more.  I puzzled until my puzzler was sore!  Then I thought of something I hadn't before...

 I needed two more stinking little Farmer's Wife blocks because of the way I have laid out the blocks.  ARGH!!!!!  But on the other hand, I have spent some quality time sashing all the little blocks and I have actually put almost half of the top together.  Then I got to the point where I had to count blocks and try and figure out why it was not working on two of the corners.  Finally, and this is where I thought of something I had not before, I realized I was creating a square quilt not a rectangle and I needed two more blocks to make it work.  I felt it was easier to make two more blocks than switch up the layout.  I made two easy blocks.  Economy and Puss in the Corner.  Just like that.  And now I am back to sashing.

On an unrelated to quilting note, we woke up to SNOW on April Fool's Day!  And we were not joking!  The snow covered the ground for most of the morning.  It is all gone now but Husband planted a bunch of herbs yesterday including some tarragon and rosemary plants and then it snowed!!!!!!  Tarragon and rosemary are not the hardiest of herbs.  EEK!

I will link up with Judy's Design Wall tomorrow because really this is all I have done all weekend!!!!  It takes forever!