Madeleines and Quilting

Happy Monday.  Ha.  Did you have a good weekend?  Mine was quiet — with a little baking and a lot of quilting.  Perfect.  When I made my first batch of madeleines years ago, I thought I’d found the perfect recipe.  Light and crispy on the outside and soft and tender on the inside.  Then, I promply lost that recipe.  In the years since then, I’ve searched through my cookbooks and elsewhere for a decent recipe, but they’re always tough and heavy like rocks.  (Sorry Martha, I didn’t like your Madeleines.)  Over the weekend, I decided to try the Madeleine recipe from the book Laduree: The Sweet Recipes.

They were pretty darn perfect, crispy and light, just like I think they should be.  I know you’re probably thinking that I burned them.  And what are those funny humps?  Well, that’s how they’re supposed to look — see, here’s the picture from the Laduree book.  (I still might take them out a bit earlier next time though.)

If you’d like to try them, you can find the recipe here .  They’re really best eaten the same day that they’re baked.  They still taste good today, but the crispness is gone from the exterior.  (Any tips or hints to keep them crispy on the outside?)

Hey, wanna see MeMum’s little teacup up close?  Isn’t it cute?

I also machine quilted this weekend.  A Lot.  And my arms are sore to prove it.  I worked on the foundation quilt for all the yoyos.  I finally got up enough nerve to try it and the quilting went well.  Look Ma, no walking foot!

I do love my little Hester. Viking has an even feed feature on some of their machines (maybe all of them for all I know) and it makes quilting SO much easier. More on the yo-yo quilt in the days to come. The machine quilting is done, but she’s still a long way from being finished!

XOXO,
Anna

Checks

Sometime before Christmas, my lovely invisible friend Brigette and I were chatting about all the gazillion quilts we want to make before we die.   The conversation turned to Pinterest (as they do) and we ended up discussing this quilt.  We decided that this quilt would be perfect for gifts that we both needed, so we decided to make versions of it.

I started mine before Christmas but didn’t get very far — too many other things demanding my time.  But, it really wasn’t a time consuming quilt and it proved to be a great project for lazy January weekends.

This quilt is big — weighing in at 95″ x 95″.  I’m not necessarily a fan of square quilts, but it just worked out this way.  I started out to make it 90″ x 95″ (based on the amount of drop and tuck in that I wanted for a queen sized bed), but I didn’t like that one edge had the gray and white block row.  The quilt just looks better when it’s “framed” by black and gray rows all around.

Each of my squares is 5″.  Now that I’ve made this quilt, when I look back at the original, it looks to me like maybe she used 4″ squares.   I probably would have liked the smaller squares, but since this quilt is so big, this is fine.  I chose to bind my version in the lime green too, which I really like.  I think this quilt would look great bound in most any color.  I used Bella Solids White (98), Black (99) and Silver (183).  I backed the quilt in the silver, so, between the front and the back, I used almost 9 yards.  Well worth buying the bolt!

It was snowy this morning and I had fun traipsing around taking a few pictures.  I couldn’t find any place tall enough to hang it.  BigDaddy’s old swingset was as close as I could get but it’s about 10″ too short.

This was a fun, quick and easy quilt to make.  My version is for a male, but Brigette is going to make one for a female (bound in hot pink — how cute!).  Most importantly, making this quilt proves a point:  All that time spent on Pinterest hasn’t been completely wasted! ;-D

XOXO,
Anna

Seeing Stars

Well Hello. Are you keeping good and busy? MyDadLovesMeBestSister and I have been so busy with hospital etc., that we’ve forgotten our names. It’s ok though — we’re here to remind each other. We seem to have a pretty good system of coordinating all the things that need to be done, but what, oh WHAT did we ever do without iphones?  I can’t imagine our daily tasks without them.

Before the big heart event, I had started to hand piece a few stars. It’s my first foray into hand piecing and I’m loving it.

The first star (the green one for inquiring minds) didn’t work so well, but I soon figured out the technique that works best for me. And see that star in the bottom right corner? I was so careful to fussy cut the little blue and green flowers, but then I didn’t space them every-other-one. Grrrr. So. Not. Unpicking. It!

I haven’t really been working on them in the hospital as the light levels there aren’t always the best. I have been gift knitting there though, so you’ll just have to take my word for it that there has been craftiness happening.

Hey — before I forget to tell you, Ali is starting a fun new game that you might want to play over at The Compound Word Project. It looks like lots of fun!
And, finally, I thought you might like to see how we bring a little cheer to a hospital room. My CrazyMomQuilt has been having a lot of fun keeping BigDaddy warm.  I’ve loved looking at all the fun fabrics in this quilt all over again.

Ok, must dash. It’s my afternoon off — must get some errands done so that I can have a hot date with Daniel hubby tonight.

Have a great weekend!
XOXO,
Anna

The Children are Hot

Hot enough for ya? I know you ladies down under are jealous of our Hotter than Hades temps here in the midwest USA. 105F (40.5C) is probably just a cake walk for you guys, but dang — it’s Hot! In our ~25 years of living here, I don’t remember a temp this high. Close, but not 105. I feel a case of the vapors coming on!

Blogging must go on though, so, I’ve braved the heat and taken a few pics of the Children. The quilt top is finally put together. I stayed in the shade — thus the mottled light and the green grass.

The big stars are 8″ blocks and the little stars measure about 3″ wide.  I debated whether to put a border on the quilt — you don’t see a lot of borders being used with more modern quilts these days.  But, my first love in this fabric collection is that little hopscotch print and I really wanted bigger pieces of it — thus, the border.

This quilt top is baby quilt size — roughly 49″ x 58″.  Don’t be getting any ideas about babies around here though, the only baby around to enjoy this quilt is BabyDoll.

She’s wearing her muslin slip to beat the heat.  (She’s also wearing her muslin slip ’cause I can’t remember where her clothes are — Bad Mommy!)

I’ve decided not to quilt this top now.  The quilting will depend upon the intended recipient, and for now, that is unknown.  So, Children at Play will be the inaugural quilt top in the baby quilt top stash.  I’m sorry, it had to happen.  I love this fabric so much and I just had to play.

(BabyDoll is comparing the size of her hand to the little star — in case you were wondering.  ;-) )
Ok, off to fan myself and get BabyDoll out of the heat!
XOXO,
Anna

Quack Quack

Hidy Ho Neighbor! Thanks for all the May Basket love — you guys are the sweetest. Did you have a good weekend? It was beautiful here in ThimbleannaLand. And pretty busy — that’s what happens in the spring — lots of yardwork to do.

So, no real quilting to speak of. I’ve been hankering (yes Barb, that’s my inner Ellie Mae speaking LOL) to start a new quilt project. Something that will be portable and fun. But I can’t seem to make a decision. I finally decided this might not be a great time to decide — maybe I should wait and see if something strikes me at market. So, I dug out the old yoyos and figured out how many I’ll need to make a quilt. I’ve made about 750 so far and I’ll need about 810. Not too bad — I should be able to whip those out in no time — I just need to sneak into the dungeon and cut up some fabric.

I also managed to bake a batch of cookies for BigDaddy. This weeks choice was a recipe I found on Pinterest. They’re Biscoff Oatmeal Cookies. They’re sort of crunchy and dry like the original Biscoff cookies, but with oatmeal in them. They’re perfect with a cup of tea. Or Diet Pepsi. ;-D

And finally, our ducks are still hanging around this year. I love it when they show up every year ’cause I know spring has truly arrived.  They’re usually only here for a week or two, but it’s been 5 or 6 weeks this time. About three weeks ago, we found a nest with broken eggs tucked up under the ugly tree. I think they’d been nesting in there and something got the eggs.  Nasty Critters. I was really sad, ’cause we’ve never known them to nest here — they sort of hang out and then leave. So I’m wondering if they’re confused by our long spring or lost nest or something. Three days ago the hen was wandering around quacking like she’d lost the drake.   Then, the last two days, he’s been wandering around quack quacking like he’s lost her. It’s kind of sad. I’m hoping there’s a nest somewhere and they really know where the other one is and they’re playing decoy.

So, now that I’ve psychoanalyzed the ducks, it’s back to work. Have a wonderful week!

XOXO,
Anna