Colorado Quilt Retreat, ETC!

Thursday of last week three of us set off from Phx. on an eight day, 1300 mile adventure!

The first night Lauren, BJ and I spent at our mountain home, then on Friday morning we drove down into Montrose to begin our three day retreat with the San Juan Quilters.

The retreat was held at the Hampton Inn and the theme for the San Juan Quilter's this time was Western/Cowgirl.

Around thirty quilters all told, gathered at various times over a three day period.

We took over the inn's convention room and hospitality area for our events.....

and we gathered each evening to share a meal, first offering thanks for our blessings.

All day we munched our way through a variety of delectable home made treats, never lacking for caloric sustenance!

Each year Roena is the fortunate recipient of a handcrafted undergarment made in the theme of the retreat.

Note the thoughtful addition of the gun holster...............

and although Ro has quite an impressive collection now, we have yet to see any one of these divine undies actually modeled.

In spite of the distractions, on a more sedate note Roena managed to work on these batik blocks.

BJ learned to make a lovely ornament, now she has to teach it to the AZ Huggy Bunch Quilters.

A Christmas tree skirt.........

and a handy tote bag.

A thread catcher......

a very clever Halloween hanging by Lynn..........

and her adorable Fall door decoration - I have one almost finished, it was just too cute to resist!

A beautiful table runner from Pat from Log Hill

and a black and white quilt top from Pat from Montrose!

Jean pieced together these blocks donated by various members for a Quilt Of Valor for a Wounded Warrior.

Norma pieced this top...............

and began working on another project!

This is Elma's bright and cheerful quilt............

and one from Wendy-who does not make any small quilts!

Wendy bravely quilts her tops on her domestic machine.

Monica's been busy, this is the first of two tops she completed over the weekend........
as well as this original design.

An eye catching quilt by Leatha.

More blocks for a sampler quilt.

I made this top from a set of fabrics in a kit "Olivia The Pig Exercises". I had purchased it at a show a few years ago because it was cute, but when I read the directions I decided that it was waaaay too much trouble!

Feeling the need to get it out of my stash I concocted a different plan and this went together much better, so now it is ready to quilt and some lucky Olivia will want it, right?!

Lots of small scraps of 30's repros also needed to make their way into a quilt and turned out very sweet when combined with a lovely Marcus Brother's WOW gingko leaf design fabric.

There's more to report of our excellent adventure to Colorado, but that's all for tonight and I am a weary wandered now off to bed!

G'night!

Sweet dreams of fabrics and quilt designs to delight a quilter's heart!

Retreat Preparation And Home Made Tonic Water!

On Thursday BJ, Lauren and yours truly leave for the Montrose San Juan Fall Quilt Retreat, yippee! We will have three days retreating with the San Juan group and three days at our mountain home. We have all three been deciding which projects and how many to take, remembering that we have an entire week to sew and only my small SUV to carry us and all our gear, including sewing machines and some clothing!

Saturday BJ and I kitted up a couple of quilts each, all cut and ready to be pieced. I think I have maybe four projects ready, it's best to have them cut because there is a lot of chatter, laughter and other distractions at the retreat [e.g. 28 other quilters' projects in progress] and the likelihood of cutting errors is high!

Everyone is encouraged to bring "snacks" to share during the retreat so this evening after young Matthew went home I made up a pan of caramel brownies [they have home made caramel baked in the middle] that are already packed away................

and a double batch of my Grand Marnier/orange/cranberry biscotti. if you'd like the recipe leave me a comment and I will post it. It is super simple and inexpensive, you can make an entire batch for the price of one Starbucks biscotti!

That way there are plenty to take, some for JW and some to leave for DH.

When I bake I usually try to make several things so there's only a one time mess to clean up-that's the worst part of cooking, I need a Sous Chef or maybe just a personal dishwasher!

Since I was on a roll and had some citrus that needs using I decided to make a new batch of my tonic water mix. Some time ago I rebelled against the commercial tonic water- either you get a neuro- toxin [aspartame] or something that messes with your metabolism [corn syrup].

We like gin and tonic occasionally and the store bought tonic water also has an off taste that does not compliment a good gin.

On an internet search I came across this website, with lots of info on home made tonic water and other drinks like non-alcoholic ginger beer a favorite from my childhood when my Mum kept a "ginger beer plant" on the kitchen window sill and made the very best ginger beer I ever had. It was a major refreshing treat, on a hot Aussie summer day, cold, sweet and strongly gingery.

I have yet to try to duplicate my Mum's ginger beer, but it's on my "to do" list!

Here is my tonic water mixture simmering away and filling the air with the delightful scents of orange, lemon, lime, cardamom, and allspice, what's not to like. Everyone who has tried a G and T at our house with my homemade tonic mix has pronounced it excellent and way superior to the commercial tonic.

In case you are interested in trying it, here's how I make mine.

4 cups water

3 tsp. dried lemon grass[or one large stalk of fresh]

2 Tblsp. cinchona bark powder[see below for ordering this, it's the origin of quinine]

2 oranges, zested

2 lemons, zested

2 limes, zested

1tsp. whole allspice berries

pinch of cardamom

2 Tblsp. citric acid

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Zest the fruit then use a reamer to squeeze out most of the juice. Place fruit, zest and juice in a large saucepan, add remaining ingredients and water and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain out fruit and allspice etc with a colander, then pour the liquid through coffee filters- it takes a long time to strain because the cinchona powder is dense. I just leave it overnight then if necessary pour it through fresh filters and leave it again. It may still be a bit cloudy if like me you get tired of waiting for it to filter, but that doesn't affect the taste. You can also run it through a French Press.

We make our G an T's in a tall glass, using two-three tablespoons of the mix, depends on how much bitterness you like, two-three tablespoons of agave syrup, about two fingers of good gin and top off with plain soda water. You can add more or less agave syrup too if you like it more or less sweet. I like mine very citrusy so I add a wedge of lime to serve. That's another really good thing about making your own tonic mix you can adjust the flavoring to your personal preference.

I bottle mine and keep it in the fridge for months.

This is very bare bones info. so please check Jeff's blog for everything you ever wanted to know about mixing drinks including places to purchase cinchona bark powder. Many people have made adjustments to Jeff's original recipe as I have so it's interesting to see what others have done with it.

I just ordered another 5 ozs. of cinchona bark from one of Jeff's sources, Tenzingmomo.com in Seattle.

More Quilts Of Valor

This past week these two scrappy QOV's were completed.

They were pieced by Nancy in Montrose, CO. Nancy's DH requires full time care so she uses her home bound time well, piecing quilts, many for missional purposes such as the outreach to our heroic wounded warriors.

To save some time these two tops were loaded on the long arm together after joining their identical backings with a basting stitch.

The tops were not quite the same length but that did not matter and a single piece of batting was used for both tops to keep it all even and smooth.

The quilting is the easy and fast freehand peacock feathers but they still need labels before I mail them off to Alycia for distribution through the military hospital chaplains.

Today another CW replica memorial quilt is going off to the mother of CW4 David Carter, one of the pilots of the Chinook helicopter that was shot down in Afghanistan in August.

There is a post and pics. on the HOB blog here.

White Chocolate Mud Cake.....Happy Birthday BJ And Lauren!

Today was our AZ Huggy Bunch sewing day and this past week BJ and Lauren each had a birthday so I am making them a cake, from a very "naughty" recipe called White Chocolate Mud Cake. Naughty as in heaps of calories............

lots of white chocolate and butter, sugar, eggs and some flour! I used wholewheat white flour so maybe there is a little more nutritional value!

All covered in a white chocolate ganache and I am adding strawberries for extra pizzazz because all white sounds a bit boring, doesn't it? And don't we need some fresh fruit to make it nutritionally acceptable? And aesthetically pleasing?

Here's the recipe, if you dare.

White Chocolate Mud cake

250 gms. butter

150 gms. white chocolate [use the good stuff, Ghiradelli is the better choice]

2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

1.5 cups all purpose [plain] flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1tsp vanilla

2 eggs lightly beaten

White Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup cream

300 gm. white chocolate

Grease a deep 9" round cake pan: line base and sides with parchment paper.

Combine butter, white chocolate, sugar and milk in a small saucepan over low heat until smooth and combined- do not boil. Transfer to a large bowl and cool 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to moderately slow [320degrees F].

Whisk flours into liquids and stir in vanilla and eggs. Pour into lined pan and bake one hour. Cover with foil and bake about another 30 minutes. This cake is moist and dense, not light and fluffy.

Leave cake in pan for 30 minutes then turn out onto a rack. When cooled spread with the ganache.

White Chocolate Ganache

Bring cream to a boil in small saucepan, pour over chocolate stirring until the chocolate melts. Cover and refrigerate until thick enough to be spreadable, stirring occasionally.

Ann's Sampler

No posts for over a week, sad, I have been laid low with a virus that segued into an asthma episode and asthmatic bronchitis. Still have the cough and some wheezing even on the steroids and the terribly windy weather today here is kicking up all the stuff that makes me wheeze! But I managed to get through this quilt taking it a little at a time! I simply cannot do nothing, not in my DNA!

This lovely and rather large quilt, 92x102", is custom quilted.

Sorry about the sofa back , the quilt was too large to avoid it!

Hannah helped her sister Ann from FLA. to construct it while Ann was visiting Hannah during surgery recovery.

Lots of feathers here and there and in the borders, that seems to be my default quilting these days!

The thread is Signature 100% cotton in cream on the top and a slightly darker shade more tan, in the bobbin.

The batting is Hobbs, a lighter choice for the FLA. weather and a bit more definition.

Backing is a tone on tone Moda wide back.