Lap Quilt Finished!

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A while back, I showed you a pile of fabric during a winter storm we were having and I had decided to dive in and make a quilt.....seeing that being cooped up in the house was beginning to drive me mad. 

 

 

I did  have time to finish it and I LOVE it.  It is just the right weight.  A quilt's weight is very important to me.  It has to be just right to feel cozy.  Rag quilt instructions can be found all over Pinterest but I always followed my old standby from Jubilee Homespun.

 

 

One afternoon while the snow was falling and the wind was howling, I set my sewing machine up on the kitchen table in front of the bay window and sewed away while enjoying the view and pots of tea. 

 

 

This is the first rag quilt I decided to add binding to the edges rather than leaving them frayed.  I like the look of it....it seems more finished.

 

 

 

Although the weather is finally starting to turn pleasant, I will be enjoying the quilt in the fall when the weather turns cold once again. 

 

 

Happy sewing and remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Now That We Are Into Our Second Day....

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Where is it?  Spring I mean.

Mother Nature has been a little nasty this year.  Either that or we have been spoiled in years past.  I am not sure which one it is. 

I remember as a child having snow well until May and actually I remember one year on April 30th celebrating with my brother and his wife on my brother's birthday while we barbequed steaks in a snow storm! 

photo credit

So maybe we have just been spoiled in the last few years and it seems that spring is taking a long time to get here.

photo credit

Whichever it is, I hope to see snow melting, robins returning and green grass soon.

Did you do anything special on the first day of spring?  I hope you enjoyed the day, some sunshine and warm temperatures! Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

What to Do When the Snow Won't Stop

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Another winter storm moved in the other day which buried us again in more snow so the only thing I could think of to do that would lift my spirits was fabric ..... and lots of it.

Watching the snow swirl out the windows yesterday, I chose some greens .... that reminded me of green grass (I hope we see some this year!) and a couple of flowered prints.  Digging out my rotary cutting blade, I  got to work slicing.  Slicing for a rag lap quilt.  I figured that if I started a quilt this late in the year, spring would surely come and it would then end up in the UFO basket where it would sit until fall.  That's okay though this time, as it would mean that spring had arrived!

Since I didn't have any medium weight batting on hand and I didn't want to head out in the snow, I found an old flannel flat sheet that once belonged to a set.  The fitted sheet had long since retired to the rag bag so I decided it would be a perfect replacement.

I spent the afternoon measuring and cutting 6 inch cotton squares and 4 inch batting squares.  I chatted with hubby as I cut since he decided it was the perfect day to bake some homemade bread ..... go for it my dear!

Finishing up all the cutting after a couple of hours, I set to work with the sewing.  That didn't last long however, as after a dozen or so squares, I realized it was time to get dinner started. 

Well at least everything is cut and ready to go.  I even had time to plan the layout on a grid.  I am sure I will finish it before all this snow melts.  That will be a while, I think!
  

 

  

Have a wonderful day and remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Hibernating

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I am in the hibernation mode.  March in Minnesota can either be beautiful or it can be nasty ..... and well it has be NASTY.  One day at the beginning of the month there was a brief glimpse of spring but since then Mother Nature has decided to rear her ugly head ..... albeit pretty one. 

 

So while I have been watching this out my window .....

 

 

 

I have been enjoying some of this indoors .....

 

 

 

Just what I needed.  Another cowl to keep my neck warm when outdoors. This pattern is very easy and oh so lovely.  You can find it here if you wish to give it a try.

 

I hope Mother Nature will soon decide to lighten up a little on the snow and give us some sunshine.  It won't happen today however ..... the snow is starting to fall once again. 

 

Hoping you don't see any snow out your window wherever you are and please think of me as you are frolicking in the sunshine!  Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Cinnamon Coffee Cake

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Cooler weather gets me in the baking mood.  Having flurries for a couple of days the nesting instinct surfaced.  I needed to clean our home, light some candles, bring out the knitting and do some baking.

I have been searching blogs for new recipes and have been trying quite a few of them.  I am a bread lover....banana, lemon-poppyseed, zucchini, cinnamon, chocolate chip....many, many flavors are my absolute favorite so my recipe box is full....time to try one!

Cinnamon Coffee Cake ...... yummmmm just the name conjures up a warm slice with a hot cup of tea on a blustery day reading a book.

Off to the kitchen I went. 

Molly made this coffee cake look so delicious with her pictures, I just had to try one for myself.  Apparently it originally comes from the Taste of Home cookbook...which *blushing* I own a copy and it sits among the other lonely cookbooks on my shelf.

CINNAMON COFFEE CAKE

1 cup butter

2 3/4 cup of sugar (divided)

4 eggs

3 cups of flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

2 cups sour cream

2 tsp vanilla extract

2 tablespoons cinnamon

Using a mixer, cream butter in a large bowl.  Add only 2 cups of the sugar (set the remaining 3/4 cup aside) mixing well.  Add eggs one at a time, beat until creamy.  Add flour, baking soda and salt.

Add sour cream and vanilla extract.  The sour cream is what makes this coffee cake so delicious (in my opinion).

Mix the cinnamon into the sugar that you set aside.  Stir until it looks like cinnamon sugar.  

Using a bundt pan.......I apparently don't own one....I thought I did so I used a spring-form pan which turned out to be too small and I had a huge albeit delicious mess on the bottom of my cookie sheet (I had placed a cookie sheet under the spring-form pan in case of overflow which is exactly what happened).

After greasing your cake pan, add a layer of batter, then sprinkle generously the cinnamon sugar.  Repeat this process two more times ending with cinnamon sugar on the top. 

Since my pan was too small I used a small loaf pan for the excess.

Place in a 350 degree oven for approximately 50 minutes then begin checking it.  The cookbook says 60 to 65 minutes, Molly said 53 minutes and mine was around 55 minutes.  It needs to be watched carefully to prevent it from burning.  My little loaf pan was ready in about 45 minutes.

After devouring all the little bits that had overflowed onto the cookie sheet, (I just couldn't resist!!!)  I waited for it to cool enough before cutting into the big cake......oooh, delicious!  

Smearing on some butter and pouring a cup of coffee, I sat and enjoyed the warm cinnamony goodness while watching the leaves spin off the trees in the wild wind.

Take the time to bake up some yumminess soon....you won't be disappointed.  Remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Sixty-Five Degrees in Minnesota in March?!

Pin It The temperatures the last few days have been amazing.  Can you imagine 65 degrees in March?!  I want to pull out the shorts but something keeps holding me back ..... it just doesn't seem right ..... something is wrong .... either that or Mother Nature is playing a really mean trick on us and will plunge us back into winter soon.  I sure hope not!

Since she has decided to treat us kindly, I have been enjoying the days outside.  I have been picking garbage that always seems to pop up in the spring .... where it comes from, I have no idea ..... checking the flowerbeds, garden for winter damage and dreaming of when I can get my hands dirty again, and sitting on the deck with a cup of coffee soaking up the rays.  What a treat!

I took the following pictures of our old garden tiller two days ago and then again today.  See how fast the snow has melted?! 

These flowers were a gift from my Mom and they are enjoying the warm sun ... they love it when I place them on the windowsills in the morning.

Whatever Mother Nature's plans are .... I have decided that I am going to enjoy the amazing weather she is giving us.

Lazy Sunday

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Well, we woke to more snow this morning...very frustrating! We have had such a mild winter this year and now Mother Nature has chosen to be a royal pain in the butt in March when we should be enjoying spring like temperatures!

Once the plowing was done, I decided to try and finish the knitted block blanket I started back in January. It was a pattern I found on Ravelry....http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/color-block-blanket-2

The technique is to knit each block separately and then sew them all together.....NEVER again will I make a blanket like this! I did NOT enjoy sewing all the blocks together and I do not care for how it turned out....but it was a valuable lesson.

I do not like to have unfinished projects laying around and I do not like to just stop working on them. I prefer to finish and donate them to Goodwill if I do not care for the end result....that is what I will be doing with this little lapghan.

While I struggled along trying to finish this, dear hubby was in the mood to play 'chef'.... I LOVE that!!! While the sun was setting we all enjoyed his 'concoction' of wild rice, beef and red peppers.....delicious!

Off to enjoy my pot of tea and work on the next project.....have a great evening everyone and remember to give your loved ones a hug!

Snow Day!

Pin It A snow day! Yep, the kind of dreary day where the clouds hang really low in the sky and you can almost see those flakes dancing around inside them waiting to drop on unsuspecting people....us!



The flakes were huge and what a mess that type of heavy snow makes. We had to dig out the insulated coveralls (a must around here), winter boots, hats, gloves...everything.

Look at the size of that snowflake...right in the middle! They were soooo big.

The roads became slick and dangerous as it had rained for hours before the temperature dropped and the snow began to fall.

Then Bob and Luke just had to take out the four-wheelers to slip and slide around like the crazy guys that they are!

I could just envision broken bones, flipped wheelers and lots of mud.

They did arrive back safely though....while dragging in mud, grass, snow, wet clothes... just in time to eat a hot dinner.

Off to clean up the mess they made when they walked in the door....now to find enough registers to put the boots, hats and gloves on. It is going to be a loooonnnng winter.

P.S. Give your loved ones a hug! =)

Snow, Nasty Roads and Canada

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Saturday morning I woke up to this.......

SNOW!!! The worst part wasn't the snow but the ice that had accumulated on the roadway over night. Very slippery.

I wasn't looking forward to the three hour drive to pick up my Mom in Canada but it had to be done.

Rock cuts along the way.

After I gassed up the car, cleaned off the windows and bought myself a cup of coffee, I turned the radio to my favorite channel.... National Public Radio and off I went.

You can see the layer of ice on the roads in this picture...travel was slow for about an hour. Then the roads began to get better as up north they didn't receive as much precipitation as we did at home.

Don't the evergreen look pretty?

After driving for three hours, I reached the Canadian border. Here I am passing from the United States into Canada! I have crossed this bridge about a million times in my lifetime....nothing special for me. =)

My Mom was already packed and waiting for me when I reached her house. We loaded up the car up and headed back right away. We chatted all the way to try and catch up on the gossip. Dinner was ready in the crock pot when we walked in the door and were ready to hit the bed after our tummies were full of roasted chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy and veggies.