Yum! Peanut Blossoms

It wouldn't be Christmas without these delicious little morsels! Taking out this recipe each year is so heartwarming because the recipe is written in my mother's handwriting. I modified it from it's original Crisco shortening to butter but I've found that using a combination of butter and margarine gives the cookie a more solid base.

Peanut Blossoms

1 cup butter or margarine
1 cup peanut butter
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons vanilla
3 1/2 cups flour
2 teaspoons soda
1 teaspoon salt
14 ounces chocolate kisses

Cream together the butter and peanut butter, gradually adding the sugars.
Mix the egg, milk, and vanilla and add to the creamed mixture.
Sift together the flour, soda, and salt and blend in thoroughly.
Shape by rounded teaspoonful into balls. Roll balls in granulated sugar and place on parchment paper.
Bake at 375 for 8 minutes. Remove from oven and place kiss in center, pressing gently so that cookie cracks around the edge.
Return to oven and bake 2-4 minutes longer.

Yield: 6 dozen

These taste so good when the chocolate is still creamy and soft but they are equally as delicious once they've cooled. Good for me that they freeze well because they are now safely out of sight in the basement freezer!

Finally, Some Progress

Seems like there was a short break between getting the loom threaded and actually weaving. I was just about ready to cut off this warp. Not because I didn't like it or that it was too difficult but what I really love about weaving is to be able to sit down and just throw the shuttle. I haven't had time to finish rehabbing the Gallinger loom and I don't get the relaxed, zen feeling when I'm weaving on my table loom.

I have the warp wound for some shawls and baby blankets. By the time I finish painting the warps I hope to be finished with these two runners. School is closed for election day tomorrow so the plan is to sit down a weave for a couple hours.

Trick or Treat

I had a custom order!



A little guy I know picked out the designs for both the front and the back



Both designs are from Designs by JuJu's Stix Kids Trick or Treat set

Just What I Needed!

A new toy!



I've made a few blocks.



Jacobean flowers



Birthday blocks



These are for a table runner that I'll keep for birthday celebrations. As you can see there is some puckering. I didn't realize that some heavily stitched designs might need more than one layer of stabilizer. Since they will be quilted I'm not going to worry.



You can also do cross stitch designs. I wouldn't have stitched this but it was included in the machine's memory and I wanted to see what it looked like. While I never say never ... I don't see this in my future!

It's so much fun, but like any new craft there's a bit of a learning curve. I'm taking an embroidered applique class at Quilt University. Here's a little demo:

So, As I Was Saying ....

"He that is good for making excuses is seldom good for anything else."

~Benjamin Franklin


So we'll just leave it at that! The last couple posts were about Disappearing Nine Patches and my new machine. Here's the Tranquility quilt:



I quilted this using my new Elna with its IAF (Integrated Adjustable Feeding, the same as Janome's Accufeed). Diagonal lines through the blocks and a soft winding figure-eight in each of the borders.

I also finished Piper's Hushabye quilt,



but never took a picture after the binding was sewn on. I'll have to ask my nephew to shoot a picture. I guess we'll see how it held up to a year's use!

Over the winter, while completing yet another certificate (this time for online instruction), I researched the hell out of free motion quilting. Watched Patsy Thompson's series on The Quilt Show, bought two of Dawn's Pajama Quilter videos, and watched Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting tutorials. Now it's time to put all my video watching and reading to the test.