This Week's Blocks

Civil War Block 20--New England Block

1800 Sampler Quilt Block 20
Uneven Nine Patch on Point

1880's Sampler Block 19 Puzzle Block

Dutch Treat Flower Basket

Dutch Treat Flower Pot

Dutch Treat Flower Tag

Dutch Treat French Urn

Which completes row five

This will be the start of the second section when I begin quilting.  But here it is just laying beside the first four rows

I haven't quite kept the pace I wanted.  It's been six weeks since I started Dutch Treat #3 and I had hoped to do a row a week.  Still five rows isn't bad considering.

The sun is finally shining today.  Yesterday it rained most of the day and the sun didn't come out until it was nearly time for it to set.  Seemed like a good day for a pot of soup.

My version of Pasta E Figoli

And some yeast corn bread to go with it.

Today I made some banana cookies. 

 Not too bad but I think I'd rather have banana bread.

Row 1 is Done!

One week and row one of Dutch Treat #3 is done!

 Yesterday and today I finished three more blocks.

Border Crossing

Brooch

Blue Bells

This afternoon I sewed the first 14 blocks together to make row one.  This time I'm going to sew my rows vertically to get better control over the long vertical sashing and keeping it straight.  I'm using the dark brown fabric I initially bought thinking it might be the foreground fabric.  This one is going to be so much fun!

 I also made a big pot of bean and ham soup this afternoon along with a couple loaves of NY rye bread and some nutty spice cookies.

Yum..time to go eat!

New York Rye Bread

Here's the recipe:

NEW YORK RYE BREAD
2 pkg. yeast
4 tsp. sugar
2 C. warm water
2 C. buttermilk
½ C. honey
2 T. vegetable oil
2 T. salt
2 tsp. cider vinegar
2 C. rye flour
8 ½-9 C. flour

Dissolve yeast; let stand 5-10 minutes. Stir in liquids and salt; add rye flour. Beat in white flour ½ cup at a time. Knead 5-10 minutes. Let rise double (about 1 hour). Knead 30 seconds. Divide in half and shape into desired shapes. Place on greased baking sheets. Cover; let rise until almost double (about 45 minutes). Brush loaves with water and slash tops. Bake at 400º 35-40 minutes.

Note: I usually make ½ recipe at a time. This will still make 1 very large loaf or 2 smaller ones. I use my mixer to knead the dough and I brush with butter upon removing from the oven

A Little Bit of Everything

No particular theme to today's post....just lots of pictures to share.

Over the last two or three days days I've completed four Dutch Treat blocks to bring my total to 164..slowly but surely I'll make it to 196!

Window Musketeer

Flower Pot

Earrings

I've received three new siggy blocks...

From Chris in Belgium

Ann in France

Angelika in Germany

Thursday we drove over to Parsons for a short retirement get together for Tom. He received this plaque from his team members.

This certificate signed by the governor.

And a great first edition Kansas history book also from his co-workers.

Friday we drove to Grove, OK for the Grand Lake 'O The Cherokees Biennial Quilt Show. As always there were some great quilts...like this blue ribbon winner.

You can see the rest of the pictures I took here.

Saturday I baked some rye bread. This recipe is called New York rye and it's one of my favorites. If anyone is interested, let me know and if enough are I'll post the recipe.

My hoya is putting on a fantastic show....8 blooms at once! Lately it pretty much blooms non-stop with at least one bloom at a time..sometimes a lot like now.

Sunday the quilters at church posed with my finished quilt.

A productive and enjoyable few days.

Snails, Pears, Fennel & Oranges

Two people contacted me yesterday to say they'd like to swap siggy blocks. So I had to get some more ready.

Then the mail came with two more siggys from people on the list. It is such fun to see all the different fabrics and designs.

Gerry in The Netherlands put a lot of work into hand appliqueing this beautiful pear because she lives in an area with many fruit trees.

Renate from Germany did a wonderful job on this cute snail siggy.

Then, even though our air conditioning was struggling to keep up with the high 90's yesterday, I decided I needed to bake some bread. I pulled out a recipe I hadn't made for awhile, but one of our favorites. The ingredients are a bit unusual but it has a wonderful flavor and texture, especially toasted. I didn't have fresh orange peel so had to use dried, which works, but isn't as good as fresh.

If you like to bake bread, give this one a try and don't be put off by the white pepper. It gives a nice zing to the flavor.

ORANGE FENNEL LOAVES

1 pkg. yeast
1 C. warm water
1 1/4 C. milk
1/4 C. butter, melted and cooled
1/4 C. sugar
1 1/2 T. grated orange peel (fresh is best, dried will work)
1 T. fennel seeds, crushed
2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper (if you have it, otherwise black is okay)
6-7 C. flour

Dissolve yeast in water and let stand until foamy. Stir in remaining ingredients, adding flour last. Let rise in greased bowl until double (1 1/2 hours). Divide in half (or fourths like I do) and form into loaves. Let rise until almost double (1 hours). I like to cut a cross or other pattern in the tops just before baking--suit your fancy, but you need to pierce it somehow to allow for expansion. If you just snip a "plus" sign on the top it looks pretty.

Bake about 25-30 minutes for smaller loaves or 45 minutes for larger at 375 degrees. Brush with butter after taking out of oven (of course!)

Be sure and try this toasted!

New Siggie & Easter Pics

Yesterday I received a new siggy from Lucienne in Belgium. It has the cutest little 3-D flower.

And I had to share a couple of pics from Easter. Our little church was full to overflowing..what a joy! We normally only have about 100 people on any given Sunday and feel really good if we have a dozen kids for children's sharing. This Sunday we had approximately 175 people and look at this bunch of kids.......40 of them!!

Wouldn't it be wonderful if it was like this every week?

And especially for Chris at A Day In the Life of a Deputy's Wife. Here are some of the rohlicky I baked for our dinner following church. I like mine to rise into each other so they have soft sides. The traditional way (according to my mother) is to make them into crescents with sides that don't touch. My family likes them this way.

So Chris...have you tried making them and/or kolaches again?

Blocks & Rolls

It sure smelled wonderful around here early this morning. I baked 4 dozen crescents for a funeral luncheon. Here's the first batch cooling.

Didn't save a single one for us to accompany left-over chili tonight. Partially because we are still enjoying these rye herb rolls I made last Friday. They've really kept well and were a nice change of pace.

Finished one Dear Jane block yesterday. It's I-7 Mac and Muff. What names Brenda came up with!

And last night I completed another Dutch Treat block. It's called Paper Planes. Almost as strangely named.

Hope your Monday was productive.