Block of the Month

I have started a Block of the Month at my local quilt store - A Touch of Amish in Barrington.  It started last month and Friday night I was furiously trying to finish the first block before the next class.  I followed the directions and used the material they provided on the first block. 

This is my first block.  Pretty house, isn't it?





This is my second house.  I decided to change from pretty houses and make a quilt for Halloween.  I love decorating for Halloween.  The only fabric I kept the same was the bricks on the house. I think I am going to keep the fabric I have for the sky consistent with all my blocks.  I need to redo the first block.  I also need to figure out if I am going to make two quilts, one with the houses normal, and one with Halloween houses....

Giveaway Notice

Please check out Rosa's blog...she is giving away some adorable items for Valentine's Day.  I have to admit that I LOVE LOVE LOVE the crotched heart.  I have always wanted to learn how to crotchet...

http://godgiventalents.blogspot.com/

So, being one month into 2012, I thought it would be good to relook at my goals for the year and see how I am doing with them....

1.  For Goal #1 - I have been working on the other bird quilt, and have been posting my progress.  Woohoo!!!  I will hopefully be quilting tomorrow night with my good friend Karen...

2.  I have picked up cross stitch...granted I have only stitched about 3 times in the past month, but that is still a HUGE improvement.

3.  Olaina's room is almost fully decorated.  I need to make curtains, but not sure if I want to have solid color curtains, or go with the Zebra stiped theme.

4.  I read 2 YA books in the past month and a short story by Stephen King. 

5.  Ok..haven't been blogging once a week, but I am improving over last year  : )

6. The only training I have done so far is from the sofa to the kitchen and back....Need to work on this one. 

7.  I have successfully made vanilla french macarons...and I successfully ate almost all of them.  I think I may have given each of my children one of them.  So, while I made some great cookies for my kids, I wasn't as good at sharing them.  Maybe that should have been the resolution!!!

8. I went to see a movie with my girlfriends this past month.  We went to see Joyful Noise...great movie if you need an uplifting movie to see.  My friend Karen and I also started going to a quilting class.  It meets once a month and they give you a new house block to work on.  I will post my completed blocks.....

So, hopefully I will make some more progress on my goals....signing off to read The Hunger Games....

Kitchen Redesign

This fall we put in a new furnace...which means my hubby is also redoing all the duct work in the house.  So, as he is slowly going room by room and ripping out the walls, it is giving me a chance to rework some of the areas that we didn't like.  I am also using this as an opportunity to redecorate each room.  I came across this in a magazine.  I have decided I am going to redecorate my dining area and kitchen to go with the painting....I absolutely love it!!! 

Macarons - Yummy

This is my second attempt at making French Macarons.  I wanted to make them because they are cookies my children can eat (gluten free) and I just love love love love them!!!   My first attempt was a complete disaster!!!  I ended up throwing them out they were so bad.  I followed the intricate recipe very carefully, but they flopped. 

My second attempt came out pretty good.....light, airy, but the filling was a little too sweet...But, don't they look pretty????  The recipe was much simpler and I wasn't as careful......

I bought a book at Barnes & Noble with 30 different macaron recipes...I think I am going to make them all (even though there are a few that don't sound good - I mean who wants a Rose Water Macaron???  - Bleck!!!)

Here they all are waitng to go into the oven.  I think what I messed up on the first attempt was not letting them sit long enough before baking them.  They need to dry out.  It is very important that when you touch your finger gently to them, the batter should not stick. 

I need to work on getting them of uniform size....

Ok...so not all of them worked perfectly....there were a few mistakes....

But they are yummy....this was the vanilla macaron with vanilla filling.  Well, the filling wasn't quite vanilla like it was supposed to be.  I accidently grabbed the almond extract instead of the vanilla.  But it still tastes good. My daughter has requested that I make the chocolate ones tomorrow. 

If these continue to work well, I will post more elaborate instructions....

Flying Chirpers Quilt

I went over to my wonderful friend Karen's house Sunday night to quilt.  Pulled out a quilt that I had been working on maybe a year ago and put away because I had sewed a bunch of sqares incorrectly.  Well, I pulled out all the sewing that I needed to and worked on it again.  I finished setting up the first row of my flying geese....

As you can tell by looking at them....these geese are brown nosers  : )    The points of some of them (ok ok....most of them) are not there.  It's too late to correct this problem on this quilt, but I need to try this again and see if I can get the beautiful points that I should have. 

Once I complete trimming my squares, I will be able to finish the rows of geese....but I have lots of trimming left to do. 

Picked Up a Needle - Finally

I finally picked up a needle yesterday and did some cross stitching. Sad thing is I had to get one of my bright lights directed at the linen and I had to put on my cheater glasses....I decided to start working on a simple project, one that I am hoping to finish before Valentine's Day. I am not sure yet if I am going to frame it or maybe make it into a pillow. The pattern is by Bent Creek - Wedding Row.  This is what it looked like when I started.  

Bent Creek - Wedding Row

I will be posting updates to this every other Monday.....(or sooner if I make some good progress)