We had a lovely Thanksgiving yesterday. Giving thanks began Wednesday afternoon when my friend, Sue, and I spent the afternoon in rainy downtown Portland. Her son and my son were coming in on the same train from Klamath Falls, and so we wandered around window shopping for a couple of hours before heading to the train station to pick them up. A nice woman sitting beside us took this picture of our little reunion.
Thursday I was up bright and early to check on my thawing turkey. It was a 19-pounder, which is probably the largest turkey I've ever made. I had taken it out of the freezer on Monday, but it was still fairly solidly frozen in the center. I pulled out all the giblets and other grotesque stuff and let it sit at room temperature until noon, when I put it in the oven. I expected it to be ready at 5:00 or 6:00, but at 6:00, a probe with a thermometer indicated it still needed quite a bit of time. We ended up eating around 7:00. I gave our stuffing some extra time in its own hot oven just to be sure. (Yes, I do stuff the bird. That's why it's called "stuffing".) And, not one to take chances, I nuked it for good measure.
Everything was delicious, especially because we were all famished by that time. Mae brought green bean casserole made from scratch (as opposed to the kind made from cream of mushroom soup in a can) and not one, but two, desserts--pumpkin cheesecake and a delicious apple tart. We all had a wonderful evening together, and--bonus!--no one died. (No one dying is always a good indicator of a successful meal.)
I was a tired pup by bedtime, although my load was substantially lighter with Mae's help. It was such fun. Is there anything better than spending an evening eating a good meal with one's family? I sure can't think of anything I'd rather do.
So today, after all the china and silverware was put away, I went back to my sewing and finished up my November Doll Quilt swap. This little quilt needed quilting and binding, and I was able to finish that up so that I can put it in Monday's mail. This is going to my swap partner in England. I'm calling it "Field of Dreams". It measures 18 x 23 inches.
You can see that I quilted radiating lines in the fields. I stitched in the ditch around the inner border, and I quilted little rudimentary barns and haystacks in the outer border. The dark green thread I used doesn't really show up in an image.
Also, I stitched a barn door onto the barn and some clouds in the sky.
There are still several days left in the month before I need to get started on my December UFO quilt. I'm going to use the time to make a swap block and two blocks for two different blog BOM's I've been doing. I still need to quilt and bind my table runner, but I've kind of set a deadline of December 10th for myself. For now, I'd like to get some of the smaller projects done.
The December UFO is another quilt I've been working on for about two years called "Home is Where the Heart Is".
I still need to finish the bottom three blocks and then the log cabin border. This was another BOM that I fell behind on while we were traveling last winter. When this one is finished, I'll be caught up on all my UFO's! As you're aware from all my wailing and whining, I'm very tired of doing applique, however, this one should be much, much easier than the Checkerboard Flowers were. I'm actually looking forward to finishing this one up. My plan is to free motion quilt it, and if I follow through, it will be the largest quilt I've attempted to quilt on my domestic sewing machine.
How did your Thanksgiving go? If you enjoyed yours as much as I enjoyed mine, you should be a very contented camper right about now.
Thursday I was up bright and early to check on my thawing turkey. It was a 19-pounder, which is probably the largest turkey I've ever made. I had taken it out of the freezer on Monday, but it was still fairly solidly frozen in the center. I pulled out all the giblets and other grotesque stuff and let it sit at room temperature until noon, when I put it in the oven. I expected it to be ready at 5:00 or 6:00, but at 6:00, a probe with a thermometer indicated it still needed quite a bit of time. We ended up eating around 7:00. I gave our stuffing some extra time in its own hot oven just to be sure. (Yes, I do stuff the bird. That's why it's called "stuffing".) And, not one to take chances, I nuked it for good measure.
Everything was delicious, especially because we were all famished by that time. Mae brought green bean casserole made from scratch (as opposed to the kind made from cream of mushroom soup in a can) and not one, but two, desserts--pumpkin cheesecake and a delicious apple tart. We all had a wonderful evening together, and--bonus!--no one died. (No one dying is always a good indicator of a successful meal.)
I was a tired pup by bedtime, although my load was substantially lighter with Mae's help. It was such fun. Is there anything better than spending an evening eating a good meal with one's family? I sure can't think of anything I'd rather do.
So today, after all the china and silverware was put away, I went back to my sewing and finished up my November Doll Quilt swap. This little quilt needed quilting and binding, and I was able to finish that up so that I can put it in Monday's mail. This is going to my swap partner in England. I'm calling it "Field of Dreams". It measures 18 x 23 inches.
You can see that I quilted radiating lines in the fields. I stitched in the ditch around the inner border, and I quilted little rudimentary barns and haystacks in the outer border. The dark green thread I used doesn't really show up in an image.
Also, I stitched a barn door onto the barn and some clouds in the sky.
There are still several days left in the month before I need to get started on my December UFO quilt. I'm going to use the time to make a swap block and two blocks for two different blog BOM's I've been doing. I still need to quilt and bind my table runner, but I've kind of set a deadline of December 10th for myself. For now, I'd like to get some of the smaller projects done.
The December UFO is another quilt I've been working on for about two years called "Home is Where the Heart Is".
I still need to finish the bottom three blocks and then the log cabin border. This was another BOM that I fell behind on while we were traveling last winter. When this one is finished, I'll be caught up on all my UFO's! As you're aware from all my wailing and whining, I'm very tired of doing applique, however, this one should be much, much easier than the Checkerboard Flowers were. I'm actually looking forward to finishing this one up. My plan is to free motion quilt it, and if I follow through, it will be the largest quilt I've attempted to quilt on my domestic sewing machine.
How did your Thanksgiving go? If you enjoyed yours as much as I enjoyed mine, you should be a very contented camper right about now.
3 comments:
Your doll quilt is so lovely. I love the perspective on it and the simple and effective quilting.
Not dying is indeed the mark of a succesful meal. This year my brother in law decided to fry a turkey for dinner. So far so good!
Love quilting you did on the doll quilt.
Enjoy the rest of the holiday weekend.
Your doll quilt turned out beautifully and your quilting is the perfect accent. I look forward to seeing your completed December UFO - what a cute design.
Glad to hear that your Thanksgiving was such fun. Ours was small but quite wonderful too.
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