Marmalade And An HOB Quilt!

Having been gifted with a plethora of citrus, it seemed necessary to do something other than eat them fresh and what do we do when life gives us citrus? We make marmalade. I think for most Americans it seems sort of a British thing, but we Antipodeans love it!

A batch was cooked up before our Colorado spring break jaunt, then yesterday another lot, but there are still more of these fruits in the fridge!

Several jars have already been gifted and this is what is left, way more than we can consume I think. It does make nice hostess gifts so perhaps some will make it's way to Boston next month.

I use whatever citrus is on hand, in this case mostly oranges a couple of lemons and a couple of limes. In this first batch the fruit seemed to sink a little in spite of all my stirring. Someone has already been into the jar on the right, [DH likes it too] it is yummy-if you are a marmalade aficionado!

The lot from yesterday appears to have better fruit distribution - after removing the pan from the heat the same suggested seven minute stirring was used with both.

They all set up nicely overnight, it's a soft gel set. That could be because I am usually more heavy-handed with the fruit than the recipe directs- all of my cooking is pretty much like that, I do what I want and the recipe is simply a suggestion, LOL.

The HOB quilt above stays in AZ., it was constructed by staff at ASU here in Phx. Loretta, the AZ HOB Coordinator, asked me to quilt it and it has been folded up awaiting the opportunity to hand off to her. We always have good intentions of getting together but the distance between Phx and Tucson seems to be more than we can overcome with our busy schedules.

This is the typical way I quilt most of the HOB's tops that come to me, having found after 10 years that it is the fastest way to get a nice result, I can stitch from one block all the way across without stopping. There are probably 25 tops here for CO. that require quilting and binding, just have not had time to do them but I will need to begin on them again because tomorrow the last two completed quilts will be sent off to bereaved families. These are the last of some half dozen from CO. guilds provided to me all finished, something that is so very helpful. The pics and details of the quilts and the recipients are on the CO.HOB blog.

I don't have Matthew tomorrow so after the gym and a haircut I must get back to the longarm machine.

Matthew really enjoys the swing GF attached to the big Ficus tree and will happily swing for a good half hour. It's lovely and shady out there, a peaceful safe place for him until the temperatures become unbearable.

And he loves Angry Birds game, I have a couple of old Droids with the game on them, his GF is now addicted to this game also and as soon as Matthew hears the music he comes running! It is a sure way to distract him from something else!

The little chap started preschool yesterday and it's going to take him a while to adjust to being part of an 8 child group instead of the adored only little grandson, the other two are 15 and 17-

their birthday party Sunday, note the ubiquitous teenage appendage attached to the ear!

At preschool Matthew has to learn to do things on the class schedule not just whenever he wishes it, a hard lesson to realize at the age of three that the entire world does not revolve around him!