Beady Eyes

Yesterday included a little of everything. I managed to finish all the items on my list, and then I was able to get a start on the beads for Wind in the Whiskers. First on the list was to finish the top-stitching for the Alley Cats Quilt Guild.

All that was left was to sew on the buttons. There are buttons for eyes, and then another button in the center of each star. The cat with a black nose has yellow eyes like Sadie. The cats with pink noses have green eyes like Smitty.

Here's a close-up of one corner.

So now I'll toss that on the quilts to be sandwiched pile, and it'll get sandwiched with the rest of the quilts no later than next weekend. I now have 12 quilts (many of them small) to be sandwiched and quilted. Looks like Eliza's 2019 won't be a lonely one.

Next, I wanted to try a new recipe I found online for Cranberry Jellies.

(image source)

The picture on the Fine Cooking website was so pretty, I was helpless to resist giving them a try. I first needed to acquire some citric acid. The recipe told me I could find it in the baking section of my grocery store, but I could not. I checked with the canning supplies too, but no dice. So I inquired of my good friend Amazon.com and ordered some right where I stood while grocery shopping last Wednesday. It arrived on Friday. I know I'm supposed to be mad at Amazon, but I can't help it. I ♥ Amazon.

It says you can use it in place of lemon juice when canning tomatoes and that it doesn't affect flavor. Good to know. I suppose you could use it when canning anything when you feel a little iffy about the acid level. So anyway...onward. It took about 15 minutes and the jelly was made and into the pan.

The pan was lined with parchment so I could lift it out when it set up. The recipe advised this would take a minimum of 8 hours. Mine was cool and set up in about three. I worried a little about getting it out of the pan intact, but it came out of the pan slicker than hot snot on a doorknob. (Like that?)

Here, I could use a knife to cut it into squares, in which case, the yield would be about 60 pieces. Instead, and thinking of the pretty picture from Fine Cooking, I used this little star cookie cutter. It's about the size of a quarter, and that worked great.

Here's where the citric acid comes in. You mix a little with some granulated sugar and then toss the little jellies around to coat them.

And voila!

Pretty, huh? And then, I just continued on my merry way, cutting and coating. My yield was three dozen and a whole lotta trim left behind.

It's just like cookie batter, only you can't re-roll and use it again. There was quite a bit leftover, which I tore apart and coated. We didn't eat very much of it before we were icked out. The jellies are nice...just a little tart from the cranberries...but enough is enough. I tossed the rest. This was an experiment and I'll put these out when the family is here tomorrow evening. These were easy enough to make, and they'd be great as a food gift for any holiday. Cut them into a heart shape, and you have a sweet little valentine gift. I linked to the recipe back there, so give them a try if you like.

And then...peanut brittle, made using Mike's mom's recipe...which I think actually might be Mike's grandmother's recipe. Yum. Most of this will probably head off to work with Mike next Wednesday. We just wanted a taste of everything without actually eating everything, if that makes sense.

And I did my housekeeping chores, and by day's end, there was nothing left to do but head into the sewing room to start beading Wind in the Whiskers. You would not believe the level of help for this.

Everything was going along well...if you don't count the extra weight on things...and then...

my other helper showed up.

Whoa...beads? And thread? Count me in!

I've never done any beading to speak of before, unless you count a single bead here and there. I watched a few YouTube videos that were only mildly helpful. I'm not really "beading," but rather, sewing on beads, and they are not the same thing. I started with these beading needles, but found them too flexible to push through several layers of applique.

So then I switched off to these Milliners needles. They're more rigid, but too slender to hold up to the applique.

After just one bead, this one was permanently bent.

Nevertheless, I did get the beady eye of this chickadee sewn on.

So...what to do? What to do? Rifling through my needle box, I came out with these "Betweens." These were slender and shorter and a little tougher and they worked the best of the ones I've tried.

With those, I was able to sew the beads for the dogwood blossom centers. I won't be doing all the flowers, but about half. Here are two I finished.

The only problem I'm having now is that the needles, slender as they are, are still too big for some of the beads. My thinking is that I'll use the beads I can and just store the others away for another project someday...one that doesn't have several layers of applique.

So the only other thing I have to tell you is about the amaryllis. It's getting closer to opening. We're going to stake it up today to keep it from breaking its long stalk. I'm kind of excited to see what it will look like.

Today will be a kitchen day. I still have a couple of more candies to make, and I'm baking a cranberry cheesecake for our dessert tomorrow. Oh yes, and I'll be putting dinner in my slow cooker. There's plenty of kitchen action, and one housekeeping chore. If I can get all of that done, I'll get back to my beading.