Happy Thermal Solstice Day!

Yes, it's Thermal Solstice Day once again. This is where we typically reach our minimum normal temperatures for the year. Here's one of the cookies my sister made to celebrate today. It's a lemon sugar cookie and probably very yummy (too cute to eat yet).


As promised, I took a photo of the Sister's Choice blocks. Although a few 9 patches actually match, most of them will be much more scrappy such as the bottom one.


Today, I've been tying the Diamond Scrap Quilt. Pretty much all day, it seems. All the ties are now tied and I'm trimming. Maybe I'll even do the binding tonight!

Knitting and Holiday Fudge

Today I went to the new yarn shop (less than 1 mile away). Wow, has it changed since they got settled in! I've already made some choices of yarn to buy when I get the next income check! In the meantime, she gave me some tips on working with nubbly yarn (I have Bernat Boucle), that might make things easier. I had to go down to a size 8 circular needle to match the gauge in the Banff sweater. I also bought some wool roving for the sheep slippers (Fiber Trends Pattern) that I would like to start soon. I'll still need a felting needle, but they were not currently in stock. Most of the roving I see for sale are very large quantities. I don't need much!

Fiber Trends Pattern: felted slippers

Here's a recipe that my neighbor gave me nearly 30 years ago. It's a widely used recipe and makes delicious fudge. Easy, easy, easy, even my brother, the non-cook can make this! And it is fast and not affected by rainy days (as is the case for a lot of fudge recipes). Please note: I copied and pasted this from the Southern Cooking section of about.com, but it is exactly the same recipe I've been using all these years when I need EASY and Fast fudge.

Quick Chocolate Fudge

3/4 cup evaporated milk, undiluted
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2/3 cup chopped walnuts or pecans
1 1/2 cups miniature marshmallows
1 1/2 cups semisweet chocolate chips
1 teaspoon vanilla

Combine evaporated milk with sugar and salt. Bring to a boil; simmer for 5 minutes. Remove from heat, stir in nuts, marshmallows, chocolate chips and vanilla. Stir until marshmallows have melted. Pour mixture into a buttered 9-inch square pan. Cut when cooled. Store between layers of waxed paper.

Yummy Stuff

I managed to finish all my exchange blocks today and did more on the One Line Afghan. Also went to get my Kona cotton fabric, but only the black came in. I should mention here that on several of the quilting boards, quilters have noted that some of the Hancock's are eliminating Kona and substituting a new solid line. There have been complaints about the new solid that it shrinks more and doesn't hold it's color. I mentioned this to the manager of my store. She plans to continue getting Kona, but is going to bring it up at a meeting about the color and shrinkage problem. I have not yet purchased any of the new solids, but don't confuse this with the other brand of solids. No problem with that at all (and is actually a better choice than Kona if doing applique because it's not at thick).

One of the advantages of having combined blogs is that I can also have non-related stuff without guilt. One of my non-needlework hobbies is trying new recipes. I don't really like gourmet food (although I won't say no to gourmet chocolate). My preferred cuisines are American, Cantonese and Italian. I started trying a lot of Southern and Southwestern recipes last year (yes folks, Texas isn't all about chili and hot peppers!). I'm most familiar with MN/WI cuisine and New England as I grew up on both these places. Anyway, today it was cool enough to bake, so I tried a pound cake recipe. Yum. Easy. And family sized rather than celebration sized. Keep in mind that if you have one of the new dark, colored pans, your baking time may be shorter. This isn't really a cooking blog, but when I come across something really easy to make, I'll post it for ya. Consider this Needlework Food.

Aunt Evelyn's Pound Cake

3 large eggs
1 cup sugar
1/3 pound butter, melted (do not substitute margarine)
1 cup flour
1 tsp. almond flavoring

Beat eggs well with 1 cup sugar. Add butter. Add flour and almond flavoring. Bake in greased and floured loaf pan in low 325 F oven for about 1 hour, 15 minutes. Set in center of oven on middle shelf. Remove cake from pan between 5 to 10 minutes after baking.

Recipe by Flo Hanwick (MN) from Our Redeemer Luthern Pre-School in Aquebogue, NY 1981.