Holiday Happenings

Good morning, my friends. I'll be tying on my apron in a little while to make ahead some dishes for tomorrow's dinner. I'm imagining you or someone in your household is doing the same thing. So let's just talk about what went on yesterday for a bit, and I'll share some recipes with you while I'm at it.

Of course, I started with my slow stitching. This is Tiny Treasure #21. This one has stem fill, straight stitch, satin stitch, and French knots.

After that, I took a walk on the treadmill. I'm watching Ken Burns' documentary about The American Revolution as I'm walking right now. I'm enjoying it very much. I'm still on the first episode, and already I've learned so much I didn't know. As an example, one historian claimed the revolution might never have happened had women not banded together to weave cloth, thread, and yarn. The colonists were boycotting textiles from Great Britain, and so they had to start doing more for themselves. If you're interested, you can read more about these women right here.

After lunch, I got busy with the day's cooking assignment. Before I tell you about the cranberries, I wanted to show you this bowl I have from my grandmother. I can recall my mom saying that my grandmother loved pretty dishes. That might be true. What I remember about her were her beautiful quilts. But when I got this bowl out yesterday, it reminded me of my travels in Ireland many years ago. (If you've been reading for a long time, you might remember that trip.) This is my grandmother's bowl. It's cut glass.

Here's a better look at the side.

And the bottom.

When I was in Ireland, I watched this man cut something similar at the Celtic Crystal Factory.

When he was finished, he proudly held it up for our group to admire.

Okay, and after all that, I ended up using a different bowl. The one above was too small. This is Cranberry Cherry Marmalade. I make cranberries in many different ways. This one happens to be my favorite. You can find this recipe and the many other ways I've made cranberries at this post right here.

Today I'll be making our family favorite Sweet Potato Crunch. You can find that recipe at the link above too. Also, I'll assemble the classic green bean casserole today...you know the one. I'll hold off with the French fried onions until I'm ready to put it in the oven tomorrow. Just before I sat down here, I helped Mike get the turkey in some brine. He'll be smoking the turkey tomorrow's.

So, there's still much to do to be ready for dinner, but let's talk about what was accomplished sewing-wise. I'm ready to make the third of six rows for the Stair Steps quilt. This is what I have for that quilt so far.

Recall that these blocks have a diagonal line of color running through them. The third row will include the first purple block. I started by cutting all the common color pieces and the neutral squares and rectangles.

For the first block, I needed 32 more scrappy patches.

It's time-consuming doing all that cutting, and so I didn't get anything sewn together yesterday. When I quit for the day, I had all the patches laid out for sewing together. That's where I'll start this afternoon.

From here, I'll just be cutting scrappy pieces for the remainder of the blocks. 

I hope all of your Thanksgiving preparations are going well, even if it doesn't include cooking. I'm just looking forward to having the family all together. We'll have eight at our table, including two of Matthew's friends and Mae's mother. And as long as I'm going to cook a big dinner like this, the more the merrier, I say. So that's it from me today. The kitchen awaits my return.