Happy Thursday

Life has been super busy and will be until at least after Christmas.  

In the past 2 days I have made 8 pounds of fudge, 6 dozen buckeyes (peanut butter balls) 3 pounds of chocolate covered peanuts, and I'm about to make my first ever batch of something called Christmas Crack. I have never had this said Christmas crack, so if I don't return by January, you can probably assume that I have passed on from a sugar overdose.  It is only 9 am here and I'm already on a sugar high, which is probably not a good thing LOL.  

I also have 4 no sew fleece blankets to prep, lots of gifts to wrap, and I'm still not done quilting my daughters quilt that she is getting for Christmas.  

I hope everyone has a wonderful rest of the week and a great weekend,  I'm guessing I won't be posting much.

To my prize winners,  You should be receiving your packages in the next couple of days.  I did get them mailed out on Tuesday.

Giveaway Winners!

Yes, I said winners!  Since in the midst of the Quilt Gallery's birthday giveaway I surpasses 100 followers I'm going to give away a second mystery prize to someone!


The first prize of the Basic's charm pack goes to, Vicki who said,

 vickiDecember 15, 2012 6:35 AM

My favorite birthday presant was the dog my dad got me--a cockapoo I named Kate. I follow via GFC thanks vickise@gmail.com

Prize number 2 Goes to...Laura who said,

LauraDecember 10, 2012 2:15 PM

My favorite birthday gift was the emerald ring my grandmother gave me on my 16th birthday. When she was 16, her grandmother gave it to her, and she wore it every day until she passed it down to me!

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  I was busy working on my daughters quilt.  It is taking a lot longer than I thought it would.

It is hard to see but I did some echo quilting around the main Dresden Plate. and 1/4" on the inside of each strip of color.

I'm using a matching bobbin on the back and here you can see the detail of the quilting.  

On the woven blocks I have finished the pink, blue, and purple.  I still need to do the Dresden blades in the purple.  I hope to get the green and yellow done today.  If total insanity sets in I am going to to 1/4" on the white in the woven blocks as well for more contrast on the back of the quilt.

Have a great day everyone.  If you won a prize please be sure to respond to my email by 11:59 pm EST on December 19th or your prize will go to someone else.   I would really hate for that to happen.  So if anyone knows the winners personally please tell them to check their email!

Debbe

I need your votes.

I hope everyone has had a wonderful week.  Mine seems to have been extra busy, running lots of errands and doing a bit of Christmas shopping.  I'm getting close to done, but I still need to finish my daughters quilt.  I keep running out of hours in the day.  

I entered my 'Frosted Stars' quilt in this weeks quilt contest over at the quilting gallery.

I would love for you to take a minute and go cast your vote.  

If you haven't entered my giveaway you still have time, you can find that here.

I hope everyone has a great weekend and just a reminder I will be posting the giveaway winner on Monday.  

WIP Wednesday

Welcome everyone!  I'm linking up with Lee at Freshly Pieced again this week for the W.i.P. Wednesday.  If you're looking for some inspiration for a quick holiday gift or even an ongoing project you should check it out.  Just click the picture below and it will take you there.

For those of you visiting and my new followers I made this quilt for my 4 year old daughter as part of a quilt along.

Melissa from Sew Bittersweet Designs and Jenna from Sew Happy Geek came up with this Sew Intertwined pattern.

I was able to sit down for about 90 minutes yesterday and this is what I completed in that time.

I still have 3 corners to finish around the center Dresden and then I will start on the woven blocks.  

If you haven't entered my giveaway for the Quilting Gallery's birthday party you can do so here.  There are 170 bloggers participating with giveaways so check out the Quilting Gallery for a list of them all!

Test Kitchen Tuesday

Before we moved 2 years ago there was a pizza joint called Pizza King in our area and they had the BEST Stromboli Sandwiches.  I have been craving them for a while now.  No I'm not pregnant nor do I have plans to be anytime EVER. lol  So I turned up the super taster and  have attempted to create my own.  

You will need:

French bread (any crusty bread with do)

ground sausage (I like italian)

Green pepper and onion finely chopped

Tomato paste or favorite thick sauce

Minced garlic or garlic powder

Italian seasoning

In a skillet, combine onion, green pepper and sausage with a bit of water (1/2-2/3 cup) to make small crumbles.   When the sausage is cooked strain off the water.

 To make your own sauce, empty one can of tomato paste into a bowl, then add crushed garlic or garlic powder to taste (about 1-2 teaspoons), 1/2 teaspoon sugar and 1 tablespoon of italian seasoning. Mix this well, I find a table knife actually works really well for this.  Add about 1/3-1/2 tomato paste can of water to thin it out.  Take a little taste and see if there is anything else that you think it needs and 'doctor' it up to your liking.

 Now, slice you bread length wise to make the top and bottom of your sandwich.

Then pile on your sausage mixture, sauce and cheese.  You can bake this at 400 for about 10-15 minutes or place under the broiler for just a few minutes (2-5 depending on how close to the broiler your sandwich is) to melt the cheese.

Once your cheese it melted put the top on your sandwich and enjoy.   If your bread is soft, you may want to put it back in the over so the top of your sandwich gets a bit crusty.

Enjoy!

You can add other toppings if you like.  I have seen pepperoni, salami, and ham on these as well as (choke) dill pickles.  I love pickles, but they do nothing for me on a Stromboli.  I have also seen them made more like a calzone by using pizza dough instead of a crusty bread.   The sky is the limit here.

If you haven't already entered my giveaway you can find it here. If you have, thank you and good luck.  I am trying very hard to reply to everyone's comment.

Come back tomorrow and see if I made any progress on quilting my daughters Christmas present.

There's a Party going on!

Now, do you have the song running though your head?  For those of you who haven't visited me here at Pieces to love, welcome.  I love to quilt!  I also do some cooking, stop in for Test Kitchen Tuesday, where I share a tasty recipe.  I also make some cute dresses for my 4 year old daughter.

I mentioned a party. The Quilting Gallery is turning 5 and to celebrate Mishka is hosting a Blog Hop Party with giveaways!   What a way to celebrate.

There are quilters from around the world participating in this party with giveaways.   Mishka, has a list over at the Quilting Gallery with all the participants so please go check out the Quilting Gallery, and be sure to visit as many of the blogs listed as you can, because they are all giving something away!

I have chosen a charm pack of Moda Basics, by Basic Grey.  

So here are the rules.  

1. Who is eligible   Anyone who has an address :o)  I am willing to ship international! The only catch is, you must be a follower of my blog to enter. 

2. If you are a no-reply blogger and I have no way of contacting you, then if your name is drawn, how will I be able to tell you?  So, please leave your email if you are a no reply blogger.

3. Leave 1 comment telling me what your favorite birthday gift you have ever received was. 

4.Voting will remain open through December 16th.  I will post the winner on Monday, December 17th, 2012. I will notify the winner via email after voting has closed.  You will have until midnight on December 19th to respond with your address.  If you do not respond, then I will choose another winner on December 20th.

Please go and check out Quilting Gallery's page, there are so many things going on over there.  Weekly themed quilt contests, Block parties and more!  I don't know how Mishka does it all.

**Winner/s will be chosen through a random number generator.   

Good luck everyone!

WIP Wednesday

Good Morning friends,  I hope you all are having a wonderful day. If you are visiting from W.i.P. wednesday at freshly pieced, welcome.

It is a bit chillier here today than it has been upper 30's vs. upper 50-60's.  It is starting to feel more like Christmas weather wise at least, but it is still pretty warm for us at this time of year.

I have been busy doing swap gifts and I have 2 different ones to show you today.  They are not finished yet so they are still works in progress.  One of them has to be sent out no later than tomorrow.   Normally I wouldn't share a full shot picture of the gift, when I don't know if the person/s they are going too even read my blog, but since there are 2 I figure that I can get away with it and they can only stalk to the mail carrier to see which one they get in the end.

I hope everyone has a wonderful day and I hope to finish these off and make it to the post office today.  Next on my list of things to finish up is my Sew Intertwined quilt so someone can have it for Christmas.

I've linked up with WIP Wednesday with Lee over at Freshly Pieced, if you have some time or need some great project ideas I strongly encourage you to go and take a look at all the great stuff that is linked up.

Test Kitchen Tuesday.

Hello everyone!  Sorry I haven't been around for a while.  I have had way too many irons in the fire combined with doctors appointments and running a sweet little 4 year old everywhere I haven't had much time for myself.

The quilt guild that I associate with is having their Christmas party tonight.  While it is nothing too special, they have a cookie swap, so I am to bring 2 dozen cookies.  When I'm told to bring cookies to something I get all happy because it is a great excuse to try a new recipe.  I guess you can say I'm that person in some aspect, but honestly why not try something new?  If it doesn't turn out to your personal tastes, you get to get rid of at least 2 dozen of the suckers and whether or not they get thrown in the trash mere hours later you will never know so you don't feel guilty, right?

As I was flipping through my cookie cook book last night I came across Lemon Cardamon cookies, and though those sound really good.  Now, I have never used cardamon personally  (until today) I had seen it used in several recipes from soups and stews to cookies.

So, today after lunch, the girl and I stopped at the grocery store and picked up a bottle/jar of cardamon (it is with the rest of the dried spices if you have never heard of it) and a few other things that I needed.

When we got home I realized I didn't get a lemon, or lemon extract, great now I had to find a plan B.   Pinterest here I come :-).  I came across orange cardamon cookies,  here is where I got all excited because I do have oranges! so I clicked on the picture, crap there is no recipe attached to the picture.  Look out google here I come!   First on the list was a  recipe at Epicurious.com, so I looked at the list of ingredients to make sure I had everything, and just buy luck I did.  I'm sure I could have used regular milk in place of heavy cream, but for some strange reason I had some heavy cream in the fridge.

Instead of copying the recipe you can just click HERE to find it and print out your own copy.

I didn't follow the refrigeration instructions as printed.  I was in a hurry so I didn't refrigerate at all, I just dropped on my cookie sheet and flattened them to about 1/4".  You can chill them and use cookie cutters if desired.

I will though show you a picture of these very fragrant deli-sh cookies.

I couldn't find a recipe I liked for the orange frosting, so I winged it.

WARNING!!! Amounts of some ingredients may vary, lol

1 Tablespoon butter or margarine.
1/2 teaspoon orange zest
2 Tablespoons orange juice (add just a little at a time as you need to thin it out and for flavor)
1-2 cups powdered sugar (start with 1 cup and then add more as needed to get the consistency you want)