Relaxing Weekend

For all the hubbub that goes into Thanksgiving preparations, I always like the Saturday and Sunday that follow. At our house, they tend to be pretty laid back. I did a lot of work on the Wind in the Whiskers quilt block on Saturday. On Sunday, I just took it easy. I still have work to do on WITW, but I gave myself some time away from it. It meant a fairly pleasant day of just puttering in the sewing room.

But before I did that, I made some biscotti. It's another in my recipes-to-test-out-as-potential-gift-items, but this one was for Mike too since he loves orange, and he loves biscotti. In truth, I love biscotti too.

I actually think I found this recipe as a part of a Ghiradelli chocolate baking chips ad, but you can find it right here. It was so easy...no mixer required. I just mixed it up right in the bowl. The biscotti was nice and crunchy, which is sometimes hard to accomplish. Also, if you want to know how to cut biscotti without breaking it, read my blog post right here. Honestly, when I read these recipes that tell you to use a serrated blade and to saw, it makes me wonder if these folks have actually tried that. 

Also, I dipped mine in some melted dark chocolate. Just get one of those fancy dark chocolate bars, break it into pieces, place it in a glass baking dish, and melt it in your microwave. Keep it shallow by using just one chocolate bar, then just dip the edges of the biscotti into the melted chocolate. Lay them on wax paper and let them dry. Nummy.

So...let's see...what else did I do yesterday? Oh yes. Well. I'm fresh out of handwork since finishing up the latest Quilting Snowlady, so I made up the next block for the Vintage Tin Quilt. It was tempting to change that license plate to read "Oregon", but then I was just too lazy.

Besides, I wouldn't have liked it unless I had also added the Oregon tree. Oh, and then I would have had to add the Oregon mountains, and that just seemed like too much effort. I was relaxing, remember?

So I was satisfied giving Washington billing on the quilt, and moved on to making a sleeve for the Snow Birds quilt.

When I posted this image at the beginning of November, I was musing about possibly entering it in the Stitches in Bloom quilt show at the Oregon Garden this coming January. Then, I received this nice comment from the Oregon Garden:

Well, good grief. Massage my ego, and I'll do anything for you. In fact, I'll even make a sleeve for my quilt:

And a label!

That pinky gray stuff is just me blotting out my address and phone number, but hey, massage my ego, and I'll even give that to you! I'm easy. 

So then, I pulled the fabrics for my personal chosen color of turquoise so that I can finish off my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt. My next little ladies will be dressed thusly:

And then, as long as I was pulling fabrics from my stash, I decided to pull fabrics for my December NewFO project, the "It's Raining Cats and Dogs" quilt by Bunny Hill Designs.

This is another baby quilt for my non-existent grandchildren. I saw this quilt made up when I attended the International Quilt Festival of Ireland in June of 2012. It was so cute. I would have purchased the pattern right then and there, but they were sold out. I waited until I got home and then ordered it (and probably paid less, if the truth were known). So yesterday, I started pulling fabrics and ended up with these:

I had to order small amounts of gray and cream solids, but otherwise, everything came from my stash.

Aside from that I just took time to get reorganized. My "helper" cat was helping, of course.

And the "helper" cat took time to clean up his nether regions as well. Cleanliness is next to godliness, you know.

When he came around to Gracie looking to get a mouthful of her (she's so delicious!), she just gave him the ole' stink eye.

"Back off, Buster!"

And that was kind of it for the day. Oh my word!

Just now I looked out the window, and look what I saw! It's snowing! Yesterday's weather forecast said:

"Portland, OR weather forecast -- Epic winter weather is en route to Oregon, 

with the first burst due late tonight."

Well, we did get substantial rain last night, but this morning when I woke up, the sun was shining. I was not impressed with the "epic" part of the forecast. But there you go. Never say never. It's supposed to get very cold later on in the week, with high temperatures below freezing. Friday was supposed to be our best chance for snow, but there you go. That's Oregon for you. The bad weather never fails to arrive eventually.

So that's it from me today. I sat down here this morning just to do a few things, and now, three hours later, I'm still sitting here. But with snow falling, I'd say it's a perfect day to wear sweats all day, and that's what I'm just about to do. Mike and I both agree that wearing sweats is like staying in your pajamas all day, but you don't have to be embarrassed to answer the door. Right?