My Cornbread Problem

I liked cornbread when I was a kid.  It was served fairly often for the school lunch program.  I don't remember what they served it with, but I remember the cornbread.  They either always made too much, or there weren't that many kids that did like it (this was Iowa..not the deep south), because there was always a lot left over for the next day.  When this happened they would put it on a side table that was an "all you can eat" offer.  And I would eat a lot of it..smothered with white Karo syrup.  (I know..yuck!)  We didn't have it often, if at all, at home, so I took advantage.

One evening, after a day of eating lots of cornbread for lunch I got  sick.  I'm sure it was probably just a flu bug or something, but I always blamed the cornbread.  And for years I could barely look at cornbread.  I still can't eat it often, or much (and definitely not with Karo syrup).

Do any of you have associations that put you off a particular food?

I said all that to share this........one of my new favorite  breads.  I found this recipe for a yeast cornbread in a Taste of Home magazine a year or so ago.  It has enough cornmeal in it to please Tom, and not enough to trigger my bad reaction.  It makes wonderful toast too!  The recipe can be found on the link above.

I made a loaf last night.  Yum!





 
It's setting on the beautiful table runner I won on Stichingquilt.  It came yesterday and I love it.  Thank you, Elaine!
 
 
Update to the temperature issue.  Tom recalled that I turned the thermostat down when our grandson was putting in the new kitchen floor.  Being young and healthy and working hard, he was feeling like he was in a sauna.  Guess we never turned it back up.  No wonder I've been complaining about being cold so much lately! 
 
Additionally we don't have water.  Had it when I got up and made coffee, but now we don't.  Before I panicked and called a plumber, I called the neighbors and they don't have water either, so apparently it's a city problem.  Hope it doesn't take too long to fix.

Is It Spring Yet?

Definitely not here!  Woke up to -6º this morning.  Our house is well insulated but the furnace is still struggling to keep up.  Somehow the thermostat got turned down to 68º and when I crawled out of bed I at first thought the furnace had quit.  Amazing how much difference 4º can make in the way it feels.  We normally keep it on 72º all year round.    We seldom have  below zero temps  here.  Don't even have that much freezing weather in a normal winter.  If I didn't have so many quilts in my head (and on my shelves) wanting to be finished I'd get back in bed and stay there until at least mid-March. 

On the other hand..the forcast is that we will actually be in the 50's by this weekend.  So maybe I'm over-reacting..ya think? 

Why I Should Straighten Up My Stash More Often

Remember how I was in the process of straightening up my stash and incorporating the new fabrics given to me by a friend?  And I got sidetracked  when I found a bag of Christmas fabric strips and decided to make some log cabin blocks

I cut and pieced and used every little bit I had .  Ended up adding a few strips of a a couple fabrics I thought would blend in and not be noticed to get these many blocks made.

So today I decided it was time to add borders and get this quilted (it's way past time for a finish in 2011). 

The blocks are 40" square, so I cut five inch border strips to make a nice size for a lap quilt or even a table topper.  I had 2 of the strips when I happened to glance down at one of the bottom shelves of my stash. And I saw a corner of a zip lock bag that looked suspiciously familiar.  Pulled it out and ....

Oops..... apparently I filled two baggies with strips that day!  So not only would I not have needed to scrounge for a way to finish about the last 5 blocks, but I could have made at least a twin size quilt.

But the borders are cut and 2 are sewn on.  I have enough of the border fabric to use for a back too and it works perfectly with the blocks.

It's actually flowers, but it looks like snowballs with a bit of distance and the color is perfect.  I wouldn't have enough to back a bigger quilt.

So I guess there is another little scrap quilt in the future from these strips.  And maybe I'll finish straightening up my stash!



You'll Either Laugh or Cry

Or maybe both.  Check out the post on Stash Manicure today. 

I was feeling so good about myself...hadn't succumbed to buying even one of the items mentioned.  And then she came to the magazines.  When we were putting in the new floor last month I had to move stacks and stacks of magazines out of the kitchen where they'd been quietly multiplying for years. 

A VERY small part of them

Hard to believe how many I have.  I'm still trying to sort and get rid of them.  But of course that means looking through each one because if I get rid of it without doing that...well you know that the ONE, FANTASTIC QUILT THAT I JUST HAVE TO MAKE, will be patterned in it.  Right....Or worse yet, I might wake up some morning and realize I want to make a quilt and  have absolutely no patterns on hand or inspiration available.  Right? 

It's snowing again here this morning and I'm trying hard not to think that we could be in Hawaii right now if I'd saved the money spent on all those magazines!  Seriously!!!

Aside from the mags, my one serious gadget blunder has to be the John Flynn Frame.  Anybody else make that mistake?  Or perhaps there are some of you who bought it and loved it.  I bought it..never used it and never will.  Definitely a "what was I thinking" purchase precipitated by watching him too many times on Simply Quilts.

So what are your biggest gadget mistakes?


Edited to clarify Feb 8:


When I said I never used it, I meant I never quilted a quilt with it. I did try it out.

1880's Sampler

I am so weak!  For the last month I've been drooling over the little blocks being offered by Cheryl.  I kept telling myself I already have too many irons in the fire.  With all the hand work I've been doing lately (which I dearly love), I've also been missing doing some machine piecing.  So yesterday I caved.  And I'm now caught up with the six blocks Cheryl has offered to date.

Cheryl is an expert at precision machine piecing of little bitty blocks.  These finish 5"..just slightly larger than Dear Jane.  All of these were rotary cut and pieced..no paper piecing, which is a relief for me as I really don't like paper piecing all that much.

So mine are far from precision pieced.  But I kind of like them and that's all that matters! I'm having fun!



Diagonal Lines





Cornerstone





Tudor Rose



Block 15 (not the 15th one..that's the name of her block for now at least)



Pennsylvania Block





Block 10 (ditto)

 My seam allowances are there..I've just cropped the pictures as best I could to give the appearance of a finished block. Quite a few missing points..don't look too close!

It's not to late to get in on the fun.  The button for the patterns is on my sidebar and also here