Merry Christmas
Thank you for your patronage in 2009 and
we look forward to inspiring you in 2010!

We hope that you have a blessed Christmas with family and friends.

"She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins." "The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel-which means, God with us."
Matthew 1:21 & 23

May you experience the Christ child this Christmas season.

~Cori & Myra

Quilts for all!
Well I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas break, it officially started here today! It is also the first day on winter today and here in Manitoba it is a beautiful winter day. I am ready for Christmas and looking forward to the kids having lots to do (no more bored em aloud after Christmas!!)

I just wanted to share this picture of our dog max. Even country dogs need quilts! This was one of my first projects. It has been an outside "blanket" for awhile already. It was coming apart at the seams (poor workmanship I guess !) So when the weather turned cold I gave it to max. He loves it - a little too much, now there is a big hole in the center of it. BUT, I often find him carrying it around the yard or he will be lying on it on the porch. He is so cute...when he is listening!

enjoy the winter day,

~c

Happy Holidays

As you know I have been doing some Christmas baking and well I came across this recipe and thought...let's give it a try. Biscotti, something I have never made, only had on maybe one other occasion, so I gave it a try and voila!! They turned out, I gave a few to a friend with their Christmas card and she just called to tell me she was REALLY enjoying them.

So I thought, I can't have a mocha and biscotti with all of you...well... maybe I can. Make yourself a coffee, mocha, cappuccino, hot chocolate or tea and make yourself a batch of Starbucks almond Biscotti...mmm good.

http://www.grouprecipes.com/sr/24389/starbucks-almond-biscotti/recipe/

2 1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/2 cup veg. oil
1 tsp baking powder
1 1/3 cup blanched slivered almonds, toasted
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 extra large eggs
2 tsp almond extract or vanilla extract

the above link has all the directions on how to make your biscotti.

enjoy!
~c

Christmas baking

Well it seems that last week got away on me, completely! I promised to put up a couple of recipes for you to enjoy and I am sorry that I am so late with it. It seems that between volunteering at the Canadian Prospects hockey game in Winkler, a few hockey practices of our own, ( not "my own" but my son's) finishing up the last of the Xmas shopping, working with Myra on some really cool stuff for the new year and a cold snap to boot, the week came and went before I knew it.

This is the last week of school before Christmas break, so I have to make the most of it. We have 3 days of school Christmas concerts to go to this week as well. The weekend will be full of friends and family gatherings and then the kids are home for holidays.

This year I made a new recipe. Well actually it is an old recipe, but one of my Mother in Law's Christmas baking traditions and my husbands favorite. Several years ago, my mother in law and her sister made us girls (daughter and daughters in laws) a cookbook of old family favorites. This year I strolled the pages to find some recipe's that I wanted to add to my list of Christmas baking.

Marshmallow Roll

4 squares of semi sweet chocolate
1 cup icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup glazed cherries, chopped
2 Tbsp butter
1 egg, beaten
mini marshmallows
1 cup pecan's, chopped

Melt chocolate and butter in a double boiler (I used the microwave). Mix all ingredients in order given. Make a roll shape on wax paper. Then roll the chocolate roll in sweetened, flaked coconut. Keep cool in fridge. Cut into slices. Freezes well. (that's if it makes it to the freezer!!)


Here is another easy treat.

Nuts & Bolts

3 cups pretzels
3 cups Shreddies
3 cups Cheerios
2 cups peanuts, cocktail style
1/2 cup margarine, melted
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 tsp garlic salt
1/2 tsp Worcestershire sauce

Put seasoning into melted margarine. Pour over dry ingredients. Put onto a cookie sheet and bake @250 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 min. Stir and bake for another 10 min. Cool and stir. Store in a covered container. (also freezes well.) This makes a great gift for neighbors and teachers!!



Back to sewing & quilting! By now you know that I could do every one of our quilt patterns 10 times over in different colors and fabrics. Well that is what I have been doing with a very simple pattern of ours - Chunky log Cabin. Myra had made the original sample for the pattern, so I thought I should give it a whirl myself. I have made a few log cabins but this one is bigger and goes together like a breeze!!

This fall on a trip to Ignace Ontario (shout out to our friends there!!) We made a stop in Dryden Ontario at a great fabric shop called A.J's fabrics. This shop isn't very big, BUT it has A LOT of fabric and when I say it's piled high...all the way to the ceiling!! I fell in love with this fabric collection Al Fresco by Michele D'Amore for Marcus fabrics. Myra suggested I make the chunky log cabin quilt and that is what I did the other day. I would love it to be quilted with a LARGE floral pattern (wink, wink K.G) If you haven't made this quilt yet, and need a fast and easy project for the new year, give this one a try.

Well I have rambled on long enough. I am staying inside all day today (-45 degrees with the windchill! Why do I live in southern MB?) so maybe I can get these quilt blocks sewn together!

Have a great day!
ttys,
~c

Here at last!

Here it is, the invitation! And Mrs. P was right, we will be whipping it up!
We have been invited to the "Creative Circle of excellence - A Celebration of Quilt Designers" by none other Than American Patchwork & Quilting! It is defiantly an honour.
The egg reads " We're whipping up tons of fun with a batch of the BEST quilt designers!

Does this other project look familiar? It was a free pattern in our last newsletter, tiny timber. I re-made it using scraps of Figgy Pudding by Moda. And yes, I machine quilted it my self, even a little free motion. Now, don't even thinking of enlarging the photo to check the quality lol. I have a lot of improving to do in the machine quilting department. That is why we have some amazing machine quilters on staff :)
For those of you who missed the free project - it will be on our blog as a free-bee in the new year. I better get back to the sewing machine...mmmm wonder what I am up to?! I also did some Christmas baking today, maybe I will share some recipes with you this week (haven't done that in a while hey? The baking or the sharing of it !!)

~c

Surprises
So Myra mentioned that we had received an exciting phone call this week. Well this is what arrived in the mail for us yesterday! And yes, it is related to the phone call and no, it's not an invitation to a cooking party either!! I will show you what was in side later on.

The other surprise we got this week was SNOW and lot's of it. So it looks like it will be a white Christmas after all. It is very strange for Southern Manitoba not to have had snow by November.

The third surprise is I forgot to blog about our latest photo shoot. This quilt has been finished for quite sometime now but we have been in talks as to what to do about it. It looks like the pattern will be released this spring. Astoria is unique and definitely different, therefore makes pattern writing and photography a challenge. This picture is taken in a small town called Rosenfeld (were my husband grew up) at their Lutheran Church. The other cool thing about this quilt is if you just do the center area, it is the perfect size for a baby quilt...neat hey?

I hope you have a great weekend, and remember to come back soon to see what's inside those envelopes!

~c

So we got a phone call...

Where have we been hiding? Deep under piles of fresh snow, stitching up the most amazing projects! I am waiting to share all of them with you...but a few people on my gift list tend to read this blog..so you will have to wait until after Christmas to see the most spectacular gifts. Trust me, it's worth the wait.

If you could see what Cori and I are cooking up for you in the new year, you would be wishing it was New Years Eve...but that too will have to wait.

We did have one REALLY hard job this week. We had to finalize our spring calendar, which ment we had to pick between two events that conflicted with each other. Would we go to New York, or Minneapolis? And then the phone rang, and a third option got thrown into the mix. The phone call informed us that we were receiving an invitation in the mail for a very special event. Now what do we do??!! We struggled back and forth, and in the end, we decided that we would be crazy not to accept the invitation that was being sent to us. As soon as it arrives, you will see it posted here.

Until then, stay warm and cozy under a quilt.

See you again soon.
myra