Cooking and Sewing

Good morning, my friends. If you're cooking this year, then you're probably busy today. I'm not even cooking, and I'll be busy. I did some cooking yesterday. On today's agenda is to bake some bread. After that, my Thanksgiving contributions will be finished. Once the bread dough is mixed up, it ends up being a lot of setting of timers and waiting, and so there will be plenty of sewing time today as well. It's a chilly day, but sunny. Mike has already said he's going to get out and rake up the last of the leaves today. And then...it's just a couple more weeks until we're into winter proper. It's already feeling fairly winter-ish here. And I happen to know some of you (us included) have had some snow. 

For yesterday's cooking efforts, I first made some Cranberry Cherry Marmalade. It's among my favorite ways to make cranberries.

Also, we happen to like the jellied ones that come in the can. For one thing...no seeds. But I just like the way they taste. And besides, Thanksgiving isn't complete without those ridges from the can.

Also yesterday, I made up my Sweet Potato Crunch recipe. It isn't completely finished until I can add the streusel topping that gives it a nice crunch after it's baked. This is a favorite of Erik's. When they do they cooking, I'm always asked to bring the sweet potatoes. 

The recipe for these was originally published in Cooking Light. It's made with unsweetened applesauce and egg whites to give it some volume. Also, I recommend using the regular sweet potatoes with tan skins and yellow flesh as opposed to yams. The sweet potatoes have a stiffer consistency that is preferred in this dish. You can find the recipes for the sweet potatoes and the cranberries right here.

Okay, but before I did any of that, I spent some time slow-stitching the names and places for the newest Shop Hop quilt. Probably next week sometime, I'll make the first blocks for Shop Hop 4.0. With this embroidery finished, I'm ready to go.

The placement on the piece works out so that they're just slightly above center. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I cut the pieces to 6 x 10 inches. Trimming them to the required 3 x 10 inches leaves me 3 inches of fabric that can be cut and used in other places in the quilt. I needed the extra width for my embroidery hoop, but I was trying not to waste fabric in the process.

And then I went to work top-stitching the applique for the third Merry, Merry Snowmen block. It's hard to see in this image, but the top-stitching is finished.

Here's a closer shot of the top-stitching.

I left the black for last, and then machine embroidered the band for the earmuffs. The snowmen faces are done with hand embroidery. He'll have some arms embroidered on by machine and then he'll get three buttons for his snowsuit.

Also today, I'll machine embroider some window panes.

Probably, I can embroider this "Joy!" by machine as well. If not, I can do it by hand. Machine is preferred when stitching through applique since those extra layers of fabric and fusible can be hard to needle through.

If I can finish this block today, I'll start making four more blocks for the Scrappy Plus quilt. The blocks are enough to drive me crazy, but I love how this is looking.

Also, I'm going to take the first stitches on the 7th block for Grandpa's Bridges.

If you read my post from a few days ago, you might remember I'd considered using this fabric I picked up in West Virginia to finish off Grandpa's Bridges when I get to that point.

Well. I have looked high and low, in every drawer, in every project box...three times. I cannot find this fabric anywhere. I made a quilt block for the Shop Hop 3.0 quilt from it, but I know I have more yardage left. In my post I even said, "I purchased enough of this fabric to make a larger quilt. It went along with a panel I picked up at the same time." 

I can only think it got stuffed down under other fabrics in a drawer. Admittedly, some of my drawers are a bit overstuffed. So, I'm committing to reorganizing my fabrics and going on the hunt for it. If I can't find it, then I'll have to believe some intruder has been in my stash...which is unlikely, but it's better than blaming my demented brain for being unable to find things I had in my hands a year ago.

So there's plenty on my plate today. Bread-baking, sewing, sorting fabric, and a walk on the treadmill. If I'm going to get through all of it, then I'd better get busy.