Star in the Cabin

My mother in law has a lot of great quilts, but this one was my favorite from our visit. What a great pattern! The whole quilt reminds me of Christmas. Not the colors, but the qualities. The star in the log cabin pattern reminds me of the star of Bethlehem and the manger.


It's super heavy and made of all heavy corduroy. Reminds me of cold weather and snuggling around the Christmas fireplace. Must have been hard to piece! By machine, I'm sure. I wouldn't want to try it by hand!


Even the backing is all corduroy! This thing weighs a ton but is very soft and snuggly. Do you like it?

Winner Winner Chicken Dinner!

Well I had a heck of a time figuring out how to get this random number generator to show up (thanks Sarah!) but here it is. Congrats to Lucky number 12: freeindeed! She wins the straight quarter of American Jane. Thanks all for playing, i'm going to have more of these in the future.

Do You Love American Jane?

While we were up visiting my MIL for Thanksgiving, we stopped in the local quilt store in Paris, Texas. Here's what I got! Love American Jane.


I also got these guys - love the soft colors in the big dots and the gradations of pink in the small.


And guess what? I picked up a straight quarter for you! Above is Peas and Carrots American Jane and it's all for you. All you have to do is subscribe to my feed and leave a comment. If you already are a follower, just leave a comment saying that. That's all! I'll pick a winner on Monday at around 2:00. Good luck!

Purrrrrrrfect

Almost done! I just need to get to the quilt store to add some green to the top and bottom to make it a bit bigger and more rectangular. Like it?


This heart's for you. Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Sweets!

Yum! I love baking from scratch and I had lots of fun making all these with my older daughter last night! Here's what we made, with recipes, so you can make them too!

* We made the strawberry cake in the front for her friend's birthday today.
* The chocolate truffle cake on the left is soooooo thick and rich. More like a brownie. You really need vanilla ice cream with it.
* That's a tiramisu in the back. I should have taken the springform off so you could see all the little soldiers standing up in a row. I used the new instant coffee Via from Starbucks to soak the ladyfingers. It was really good! It's the new thing for when you need coffee flavor in baking.
*And finally, that's a sugar and spice pumpkin pie on the right. I had never made it before so I can't tell you if it's good yet. It had a ton of spices in it, including black pepper!


Enjoy your day!

Edited to say: What is it about pumpkin pie? It always tastes the same, no matter what you put in it. The pie was very good, but no better than any other pumpkin pie from the store or homemade! I did think, however, that it needed a 1/4" layer of bitter chocolate over the top - that would have made a flavor splash!

The Orange Baskets of Doom

Happy Thanksgiving ya'll! Hope you're enjoying the day with love and family.

Today for your viewing pleasure I have the famous, dreaded orange baskets of doooooom!!! My mother has made these every year for what, like 25 years now? She fashions the baskets from a whole orange, puts sweet potatoes and marshmallows in and bakes them. We've teased her about them our whole lives, mercilessly ragging on how awful and horrifying they are, and how much we dread seeing their little faces appear on the Thanksgiving table, but she continues to visit them upon us as a form of torture for making fun of them. Oh, the humanity!

(Actually, I kind of like them, despite an aversion to orange peel. Shhh, don't tell her.)

She sent me this photo to fill me with dread as a preview of dinner. I have no clue what's going on in that third basket, maybe she'll comment and tell us. It might be blackberries, but knowing her penchant for torture, it's probably stewed prunes. Yeah. Definitely the prunes.

Bella

And last but not least, we have Bella. She's the same pattern as Gabby, but I built her facing the opposite direction. Bella was described as a brown and grey stripey tabby with green and gold eyes and a brown collar. You know, as a former Milwaukeean, I can't stop thinking that her eyes are exactly Green Bay Packer colors!


Meow! Which was your favorite cat of the five?