Category Archives: and Other Stuff

Bread Pudding

What could be better than warm bread pudding with buttery rum or whiskey sauce on a cold day?

 

Bread Pudding:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees or 330 if convection

2 cups milk
2 Tbsp butter
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp clove
2 eggs beaten
6 slices of bread cut into 1″ pieces
1/3 cup raisins or dried cranberries

Butter a 2 qt. square baking pan.

If the bread is frozen heat it in the microwave until warm.  Heat stale bread in the microwave with a damp paper towel.  Soft bread soaks up the pudding mixture.

Place bread pieces in pan and mix cranberries in.

Heat milk, butter and sugar in saucepan on medium hear until butter melts. Add vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and clove. When mixture has cooled add the two beaten eggs.

Pour milk mixture over bread. Bake for 40 minutes or until set. For convection check at 30 minutes to see if set.

Serve with Whiskey or Rum Sauce. Reheat leftover pudding and sauce in the microwave.

Whiskey Sauce

3/4 cup half and half
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup whiskey

Heat ingredients in a sauce pan on medium heat until butter and sugar have melted.

or, if you prefer …

Rum Sauce

Rum Sauce

3/4 cup half and half
4 Tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup spiced rum
1 tsp vanilla

Heat ingredients in a sauce pan until butter and sugar have melted

Pour over bread pudding.

Aunt Virginia’s Plan

This is a follow up to the blog posts about the Butterfly Treasure Quilt.

As I mentioned in my Butterfly Applique Post I gave the Finished Bow Tie Quilt to Pat.  If you recall, from the Quilting Treasures Post, she gave me that quilt top and the Butterfly Blocks ,which she found when she was cleaning out her mother’s house because her mother had moved to an Assisted Living apartment.

Pat had said she would give the finished quilt to her mother, Lydia, for Christmas and when she did her mother remembered the quilt top and told her the story behind it.  When Lydia was 13 years old in 1930 her Aunt Virgina gave her the quilt top and butterfly blocks with the thought that Lydia could improve her sewing skills to impress a young man that Aunt Virginia had in mind for Lydia to marry eventually.

I guess Lydia was not very interested in the young man because she never did finish the quilts!  So Aunt Virginia’s scheme did not go as planned.  But Lydia did keep those quilting treasures all these years for Pat to find and give to me.

I am glad that Lydia had the opportunity to share this bit of quilt history with her daughter Pat, because the day after Christmas Lydia fell and broke her hip.  The fall was because her heart was so weak, and she passed away on January 4th.  Lydia was 97 years old.

My heart goes out to Pat during her time of grief and I will always remember Lydia and her Aunt Virginia’s plan when I snuggle under my Butterfly Treasure quilt.

 

 

 

Holiday Cheer Gift Bag

Here is a quick pattern for a Holiday Gift Bag.  This little pouch is a good size for a bottle of wine or perhaps a bottle of Pear Vodka for your Hairdresser! Debi was VERY happy with her Pear Vodka.  Start with two coordinating pieces of fabric each 15″ x 18″ and one 20″ piece of ribbon.  Place the two pieces of fabric right sides together and sew a seam across the short edge on one side.

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Open up the two pieces with the seam in the middle and fold in half lengthwise, right sides together.

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Now sew seams as follows:

Start on the fabric you want on the outside edge about 4″ or so from the first seam sewn.  The starting point can be adjusted depending on the length of the neck of your gift bottle. Sew from this point towards the inside (lining) fabric and continue along until you get around the first corner.  Then STOP!  Leave a gap of a few inches, so you can turn everything right side out, and start sewing again until you get to the folded edge, and then stop.  Start again at the fold by the bottom of the outside fabric and continue towards where you first started, but STOP before you reach that point to leave an opening that is large enough for your ribbon. Don’t forget to secure your stitches when starting and stopping.

My stitching is a bit messy because my first ribbon gap was too high!

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Now, reach inside the opening and scrunch the tube up until you reach the other end and pull it through so your tube is now right side out.  Adjust the corners and press the opening closed.  Sew along the bottom edge to close the opening.

 

 

Fold the lining inside of the bag (it is now a bag!). Find the ribbon opening on the side seam. Pin a safety pin to one end of your ribbon and run it through the hole, around the bag and out again.

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Put your bottle in the bag, tie the ribbon and clip the ends. Debi said she liked the gift bag, too!

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This pattern can be adjusted as needed to accommodate any gift!

Happy Holidays and Cheers!

Pilgrim Roy Quilts

I finally made it to the Pilgrim Roy Quilt Exhibit at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. It was quite exciting to see the quilts exhibited in the Museum. There are an amazing number of quilts on display and they are all amazing to see. I took quite a few photos and am sharing some of them here. But, you must try to go and see these quilts, and quickly because the exhibit is closing on July 27.

After soaking in all of the quilts I also took the time to wander over to see some of the Art of America, Contemporary Art and European Art.

 

Poor Neglected Jane

After many moths of neglecting my Jane quilt I finally got some blocks put together for the July meeting.

Here are each of my blocks.  The Star block was a bit of a challenge, but the method we used for the center was to fold a little square in half which worked out wonderfully.

c9 E-8

L-6 G6 b13 I-1

I did have a bit of a hard time getting one of the background pieces lined up correctly when paper piecing the star.  After ripping out three times I grabbed a 6″ width of fabric strip, placed the paper on top off that and ran it through the machine.  Plenty of room and no wasted fabric  after I trimmed it … how’s that for a new paper piecing method!

paper-piecing

 

 

A different kind of Muffin

Spelt Blueberry Muffins

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F, grease and flour 12 muffin tins.

Dry Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups spelt flour
1/2 cup coconut flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 cup brown sugar or organic sugar

Blend above together in mixing bowl

Wet Ingredients:
3 eggs
1 3/4 cups milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 Tbsp olive oil

Mix above together in separate bowl

Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients

Stir in 1 1/2 cups blueberries

Spoon into the muffin tins and Bake at 425 degrees for 17 minutes, or 400 degrees for 15 minutes in a convection oven.

Extra milk is needed to add moisture for the coconut flour. If not using coconut flour use
2 1/4 cups spelt and only 1 1/4 cup milk.

These muffins have perfect texture and a rich flavor.  The coconut flour adds fiber and the spelt flour adds the richer flavor.  I love these muffins

spelt-muffin

the Patrice Cross Body Bag

I do believe that I promised to write a pattern for my cross body bag.  If you make the Kerryn Bag with two 1 yard pieces of quilted fabric you will have enough fabric left over to make this bag.  But, if not you will need 3/4 of a yard of quilted fabric, and a yard of non-quilted fabric as indicated in the pattern.  The pattern is for sale in my Craftsy Store.  Make the bag as indicated or add a strip of ribbon to jazz it up a bit!

 

Merry Christmas

I had the most wonderful Christmas this year with my family and friends.  I spent some time making bottle covers.  This is a photo of one of the Santas that I made next to the Snow Man that my Mom made some time in the late 50’s.  I recently reBlinged it … I was pleased to find the same type of sequins available at a local craft store!  Some things don’t need to change!

santa

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Autumn Splendor

Well, the splendor of autumn has past, and now we are faced with bare trees until Spring.  I really did enjoy the change of the season this year and was inspired by all of the bright autumn colors in the trees.  Also, one of my Block of the Month projects fit right in, because I chose the Harvest Road color scheme for my BOM that I am doing at Quilter’s Common.harvestroad

So, for one last bit of autumn inspiration in my quilting I put this table runner together for my friends who were kind enough to invite my husband, his Mom and I for Thanksgiving Dinner.  I picked three of the block patterns from the BOM and stayed close to the colors that Antoinette chose for two of them, but decided to go with green instead of yellow for the center block.

fall-table-runner

Now I am going to have to be inspired by the colors of the Holiday and also the ice blue skies of winter.