Distressed!!

Last night while in a shopping frenzy, I couldn't find the crucial ingredient to my cranberry sauce recipe. After much searching (what did I do before the internet), I discovered that the company is out of business. How could that be? I thought the nice grocery store stocking man was mistaken. I scoured the internet for the recipe. I found a recipe, so I am going to give it a try. This recipe is untested without the Indian Trail sauce, but I am confident it will taste the same. I am often asked for this recipe, so I am passing it along:

Cranberry Salad

Orange Cranberry Relish: Grind with with food grinder (food processor would work also)

1 pound fresh cranberries (or one bag)

2 oranges quartered with seeds removed (with peel)

3/4 - 1 cup sugar

Let drain; refrigerate or freeze (this makes enough for 4 batches)

In large bowl Dissolve 1 large box Cherry Jello (Raspberry or Strawberry will work also) with 2 cups boiling water

Add:

3/4 cup Orange Cranberry Relish (formerly my friend Indian Trail)

2 cans whole berry cranberry sauce

1 can mandarin oranges

1 to 2 cubed apples

1 cup seedless grapes halved

1 can crushed pineapple drained (20 oz)

1/2 cup walnuts (optional)

Pour into trifle bowl to look extra pretty or a 9X13 container and let set overnight. My kids like to have this year round. I am not a cranberry lover, but I love this recipe.

Selvage Obsession

I think I am starting to have a selvage obsession. I was at a friends yesterday and I started digging in her trash to pull out selvages. I am always looking for new ways to organize mine. What is your best method? I have mine sorted by color and strung like fish on a thread. Is this nuts or what?? I found out yesterday that I didn't have any pink selvages. I actually thought really hard about running to my stash and cutting some. Thank goodness I came to my senses before that happened! I can't post pictures of my most recent creations yet, because they are Christmas gifts. Have you started saving selvages yet?

My Humble Studio

Subee asked me some time ago to post pictures of my studio. I felt even more compelled to do so after she revealed all the bolts of fabric she had in her possession. I hope you enjoy the tour. I did clean up before the pictures, but It still has that lived in look. This is the view as you enter my studio. The room is approx. 16' x 28'. I love having the glass doors to let in additional light from the main part of the basement. This is the view to the right of the doors as you are looking in. You can see that my large design wall is full and inviting me to finish a few things. The pink and red pattern is a mystery pattern that Bonnie Hunter hosted. I kept up with the mystery (2 or so years ago), but the quilt has been in rows ever since. The larger portion of my studio houses a second design wall a cutting mat, my Accucut, and the every important "resource center". It is a walkout basement, so I do get natural light. The last picture is what I have stored under my Gammill. All the drawers are labeled and sorted with various projects and lots of "scraps"

This is about as clean as it gets. I can never seem to manage to get all the piles organized at once. If you have any questions or design suggestions please let me know. The flooring is a remnant of carpet from another room. I am still undecided after 5 years on what I want for my flooring.

Great Givaway

Click on over and check out the great giveaway at Canton Village Quiltworks. I haven't won anything on a giveaway yet, so this would be a great time to start. She has some great quilt market photos to view while you are there.

Scraps, Scraps, Scraps

While talking with Subee, she mentioned that she has all her bolts of fabric from before scrap quilting. I began to think about whether I would ever emerge from scrap quilts. It all started when I found Bonnie many years ago. I don't know if I can go back!! At first it was a goal to use up all the fabric that I had organized in my scrap bins. Well folks, I have been sewing with only scraps now for about 5 years. I don't see my scraps depleting any and I am OK with that. When I look at planned quilts, they generally don't appeal to me. I may emerge from this at some point, but I don't think it will be any time soon.

I have been pondering something Bonnie said about keeping the scrap bin "fresh". I was failing miserably at this one. There were some real "ugly" fabrics in there that I never seem to grab when making a quilt. These were mostly from my pre-quilting days and before I discovered the wonderful feel of quilt shop fabric. I decided it was time to purge. My children already took care of purging my 1 1/2" bin, so I moved on to the 2" bin.
This is what my 2" strip bin looked like before I started. It was organized, but it was full. It was full of fabrics that were given to me a very long time ago. There were also a lot of fabrics from my rescue mission that I blogged about some time back.





This is the bin after I went through and pulled out all the "what was I thinking fabrics" and "gee where did this come from" and the"wow I don't think I can cut this small enough to be pretty" It is hard to see a reduction even after I pulled out the "not so pretties". Does it look any emptier?

Next I went to my tub of fabrics that I had pulled from my stash.

These were leftover fabrics from previous charity quilts, fabric purchases from before I really knew what I was doing, and perhaps some clearance items that didn't work out so well. I know everyone has these whether they want to admit it or not!

I took this yardage to the cutter and cut it all into 2" strips. Have I mentioned how much I love my Studio cutter!! There was at least 10 yards in this pile. It is amazing how things add up. I decide to make a toothbrush rug with my 2" strips to replace the rug in my kitchen that is starting to show some serious wear. I don't know how far these 20 yards of fabric will take me, but they weren't doing me any good cluttering up my scrap bin. I like to have something portable to do when I am playing taxi mom (currently 6 days a week). At some point this rug will be too large to be portable, but I have it started! Sydney commented that she thought I was going to make a "pretty" rug. Her idea of pretty is color coordinated. Maybe I will be able to convert her someday! I think it will look fabulous in my kitchen. Here is the start. It may take me a year or so to get it completed, but the one I made with my 1 1/2" strips went really fast. I don't want my rug as large as the current kitchen rug. This rug was given to me by my sister when she remodeled her kitchen many years ago. It has had a long and good life.

One 40" strip does about 6" of length on the rug. I'm not sure how far this yardage will take me, but I am sure I can find more to cut up. If I was buying yardage for this rug, it would be quite expensive.

I feel confident that everything in my 2" bin is now usable.

I'm glad it's Friday

Even the dog is ready for Friday! He is guarding the monkey hoping that someone will come after it and initiate a chase.

I don't know about you, but this week has been really long for me. I think it was the lack of sun that made me tired. My blog has been really boring lately because I haven't found the time (or energy) to turn on the sewing machine. I did try a really good and semi-nutritious smoothie for lunch. My daughter brought the recipe home from school.

Pumpkin Yogurt Cheesecake Shake

1 14-ounce can pumpkin chilled
3 ounces reduced fat cream cheese (I used regular)
1 6 or 8 ounce container low-fat vanilla yogurt
2 cups milk
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/8 tsp nutmeg
graham cracker crumbs to sprinkle on the top!

Dump everything into the blender and process until smooth. Pour into glasses and sprinkle with graham cracker crumbs . (It would be tasty with whipped cream added before the crumbs, but that sort of defeats the nutritional value)

Plenty of vitamin A, Calcium, protein, and Fiber. It was a big hit with all the little people at my house today. I will be making these again. Let me know if you try these. I am curious what you think!

Interesting Blog

Well I happened upon another great blog that I thought I would pass along. If you browse around you will find some nice tutorials and a daily shopping special. Take a look and see what you think. If you need some more fabric, check out the daily special they post on the deal a day button.

http://blog.missouriquiltco.com/