Spring fever

Saturday was my birthday and we went to my daughter's for the day. This was my welcoming committee as I arrived.

Each of the girls got a hyacinth at the store that morning. Adelaide was loving hers to death. She carried it around all day, watered it to the point she left a dribble trail behind her as it leaked out the bottom. She had been picking at the flowerettes before we arrived. Elizabeth said, "Adelaide is loving her flower too much."

And at one quiet moment she sat in the chair and slowly, methodically started to pick the little flowerettes off.

She didn't look up, she didn't waver from her task. Slowly, slowly, one by one...

Until the little flowers that matched her eyes were all on the floor.

Bunny hop

As I'm plugging along on the quilting of Adelaide's I Spy quilt - and I'm almost finished -

I have been surfing some blog sites and found the purl bee
and I couldn't resist making some bunny finger puppets.

They are cute, easy, give my calloused quilting finger a rest and the grandgirls are going to love them.

Problem

I have a problem. I didn't even know I had this problem till the other day.
I'm ready and gung ho to quilt the I Spy for Adelaide. It's a ninepatch so there is a nice empty square in between each of the nines. I had an idea for quilting something nice for those patches. Usually for the kids' quilts I just go in the ditch or outline the motif on the quilt. Now, I want a nice template pattern and I can't find anything in the big city. I'm wondering if they even make hand quilting templates anymore. Everyone seems to be using a long arm service or doing machine quilting themselves but those of us who still enjoy the pace of hand quilting - well, it seems those quilting templates have gone the way of dinosaurs.
I suppose I could look online, but then there's the ordering and waiting part. I just assumed when I was ready to start I could go to the store and purchase a nice template, come home and begin. Silly me.
So. I've had to resort to circles. Any old pot lid will do in a pinch.

Too good!

This is the maple muffin from Sarah Beth's Bakery cookbook (see previous post.) We had them for dinner last night with wild rice soup and we each ate TWO. This is notable because while I could live in a bakery, Patient Husband doesn't eat baked goods hardly ever at all. I substituted the walnuts she suggested for pecans. Remember, I do substitutions when they don't affect the outcome. I'm sure walnuts are great but the pecans were scrumptious. This could be my favorite muffin ever! Real maple syrup, butter, eggs, milk, the whole house smelled wonderful. I think I'm really liking traveling through this cookbook. But I'm going to have to start sharing the bounty or I'll never get out of a chair again.

Sunny day

Years ago when I worked in a bookstore a fellow employee bought cookbooks by the armful. She said if she found just two recipes she would actually make, it was worth the price of the book. That's way too much shelf space given over to one genre in my house. I love to read cookbooks. I love watching the cooking channel on TV. But for me to spend a lot of money on a particular cookbook, well, it has to be special.
In the store I couldn't put this one down. Each page I turned I thought..."oooh. I have to make that." "This is one I'd love to try." "I've always wanted to learn how to do that." Going by the standards of my bookstore friend, this one would pay for itself in a week. I decided I could cook my way through this book.

So I bought it.

This morning I made the currant scones. I substituted dried cranberries for the currants. I believe in substitutions that don't hurt the whole. I also didn't cut them into rounds. Hers were so pretty on the page, but I sliced mine so there was absolutely no waste. These are flaky and light and moist and I ate one straight out of the oven with a tinch of butter that melted into the folds. What a way to start the day!

Until today

Years ago I took my first quilt class to prove to myself I wouldn't like it. I thought it seemed like a very slow process. Too intricate. Too mathematical. Well, surprise, surprise, I found I loved every part of the process. Every bit of it. Until today.....

Today I realized there is one part of the process I really don't like.

Pinning.

I don't mind the bent over back. I don't mind the carefullness. Until I think of some other way to get those layers together, I will pin.

But I do hate what it does to my fingers. Am I missing something here? Is this really how we all look after we've pinned? Or am I being incredibly dimwitted and just don't know there is another way? Has someone not invented another way? Something that doesn't involve a load of lumber in the garage or paying someone to longarm baste? Is this the price we have to pay for enjoying the rest of it? Ouch.