A Few Blocks

It was an easy-going day today. I spent the morning sewing the binding on the Salt Water Taffy quilt. I still have about one side to go. Mike may have to fight Gracie for this one because she's kind of claimed it for her own, finished or not.

When I'd done all that I could stand, I decided it was a good day to try my dear mother-in-law's peanut brittle recipe. When we went to pick out our Christmas tree the other day, they were selling peanut brittle in the gift shop. Mike was salivating over it, and so I told him I had his mother's recipe and that I would make him some. My mother avoided making candy like the plague, except for divinity and fudge, and so she never made peanut brittle that I can remember. I wasn't familiar with the ins and outs of it, and so when I looked at this recipe, I was a little confused by the "Add 2 T soda" part of it.

I put it out to my Facebook friends because it seemed weird to put a levener into peanut brittle, but it also seemed weird to put carbonated liquids into it. Everyone who responded agreed that baking soda was the right ingredient. One person told me that it made the brittle easier to break apart. I tagged Mike's sister who told me that she also thought it meant 2 teaspoons rather than 2 tablespoons. I did a search on the internet to see other recipes and found this one on the Better Homes & Gardens website, which is almost identical to hers. Indeed, it seemed that 2 teaspoons was the proper amount.

So here we go: Bubble, bubble, toil and trouble. It took me about 25 minutes to get it up to temperature.

When I poured it into the pans, it was a little worrisome because it was sort of poofy. Still, the recipe said "DO NOT SPREAD" in all caps, and so I resisted the urge. As it cooled it flattened out. 

My next concern was getting it off the baking sheets. I had buttered them well, but I was still concerned about having just poured fast-setting concrete onto my baking sheets. So then I called Mike and asked him if he remember how his mom got it out of the pan. Did she use a knife? A spatula? As he recalled, she just turned the pan over and "whammed it". Okay, whamming now. And, lo and behold, it worked like a charm. It came right out of the pan and broke apart. I just broke it into a little bit smaller pieces, and voila! 

Yummy peanut brittle just like my mother-in-law used to make. One of my Facebook friends suggested adding one teaspoon of vanilla, and I intended to do that, but then forgot. I think it would have added a nice flavor. I'll add it to the recipe, and I'll remember the next time I make it.

So with that accomplished, I headed into the sewing room where I found his master sleeping peacefully. He's been hanging out on his little bed during this cold weather even when I'm not in there. And by the way, I'm not in the habit of boozing it up while sewing. Those bottles in the background are unwrapped Christmas presents. Really. I'm not kidding. 

Today I finished up the last block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. There was no color chosen in December. This is my first year doing the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, and so I don't know if we always take a bye in December. I needed a color for the month, however, and so I chose turquoise.

And now all the blocks for this quilt are made!

I'm going to give it a sashing and a border before it's finished, but I won't do that until it comes up to be finished in April. I'm assigning months to all my quilts now so that I can keep up with my routine of finishing a top and quilting a quilt once per month. And I'm going to link up to Scraphappy Saturday!

So having made the last block for that quilt, it seemed like a good time to make the first block for a new one. This is my December NewFO project, "It's Raining Cats and Dogs," by Bunny Hill Designs. Here's what the whole quilt will look like when its finished.

For now, I'm just doing Block One. Originally, this was a block of the month, but I have the whole pattern.

As it turns out, this is going to be a great quilt for using some of my smallest scraps, and I'm trying to stick pretty close to those shown in the pattern. I saw this quilt made up at the International Quilt Festival of Ireland, and it was adorable. Today I made the background for the block. It ends up being fairly large at 16 1/2 inches. 

Tomorrow I'll start making the applique pieces. It was originally intended to be needle-turn applique, but I'm doing raw-edged fusible applique with a straight stitch around the edges.

And that was the end of my sewing day. My walking buddy Sue was having a retirement party this evening, and I got all dressed to go. I even put on mascara! Sadly, when I got out on the road, it was quite icy, and with it being an hour's drive for me, I felt it was ill advised to continue on. So I turned around and came home. I'm sorry to be missing Sue's party because I was looking forward to it. It's supposed to warm up overnight, and so I'm hopeful that the roads will be better in the morning. We are planning to meet up for our usual Friday morning walk, but time will tell if I'll be able to get there.

So that was my day. A relaxing and productive day it was. How are things at your end?