Sweetness squared

OMG, Stitched With Prayer, I am so happy to have made you do a happy dance! I got your e-mail and your prize is on it's way to you. Thanks for the hug, you are sweet.
In fact you were all such sweet and gracious guests.
I wish I could share a cup of tea and the ginger snaps I made with all of you.
I will at least share some sweetness by sharing the recipe with you. As a matter of fact, several of my friends have been after me to give it to them so they will be happy to see this post... and I won't get scolded anymore. LOL
These really are great ginger snaps. I found the recipe in an old Wisconsin Electric Power Company Christmas cookie recipe book that my Mom gave me. There is no year printed anywhere in the book but the photographs on one of the pages show the women in the kitchen wearing high heels!
Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha. Don't know about you but I liberated myself from high heels a long time ago.
I used to wear them every day - yikes. Now I can only handle a few hours at best and it has to be for a darn good reason. How about you?
Anyway...here is the coveted recipe....enjoy and share the sweetness.

Ginger snaps
3/4 cup butter
1 cup sugar
1/4 cup dark corn syrup
1 egg
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground cloves
1 teaspoon ground ginger
(extra granulated sugar for rolling)
Cream butter: add sugar gradually. Blend in corn syrup and egg.
Add in dry ingredients and stir together.
Chill a few hours.
Shape into 1 inch balls and roll in sugar. Place 2 inches apart on cookie sheets. Bake @ 375 degrees for about 9-11 minutes. Cookies become crisp when cooled (unless it's really humid out)
Makes about 5 to 6 dozen.

Hint ~ I use the air bake cookie sheets and they turn out really nice on them.

winter giveaway winner

Sorry I made you wait all day.....I couldn't tear myself away from the studio.
Thanks so much to everyone for all the kind comments and I know some new friends will grow from this. Thanks also for the birthday wishes and Happy Birthday wishes to Kate, Linda B and Laurie as well - celebrate!
I wish you all could have won. I don't want anybody to be cold but the lucky winner of this giveaway is...........
Stitched with prayer - congratulations!! At least I know you'll be warm and toasty.
I'll send you an email to get your address so I can get your gift sent right out.
Thanks again and I hope you all (y'all) don't make yourselves strangers. Stop by and say hi and who knows, maybe you'll win the next giveaway.
Thanks again to Quilt Hollow and Splitting Stitches and all of their friends that stopped by.

BFF's bundle up

It's getting chilly outside and so the BFF's now have their new winter/Christmas wardrobe!
Here is the newest BFF paper doll quilt pattern. It is up on my site so you can order right away.
This pattern not only has delightful winter/holiday outfits and hairdo swap-pliqués to mix and match but it has oodles of fun festive holiday trims to decorate the quilt with. All of the appliqués, even the trims, are removable swap-pliqués so you can change them around anytime and they fit any BFF quilt.
Here's a peek at some of the swap-pliqués.



More shopping.......
I just found out about a brand new online shop called Inch worm fabrics.
They carry Kona Bay, Seattle Bay and Moda fabrics. Check them out when you just have to have fabric!
Don't forget to post to the Nov. 19th post to enter the giveaway. Monday is the last day to enter.

delicious with a capital D

I harvested the first bunch of pole beans 2 days ago from my earthbox. They were plentiful, ginormous and delicious with a capital "D". I only planted about 6 or 7 seeds and at this rate they are going to swallow the neighborhood! I love it! There may be enough to harvest again by tomorrow for the green bean casserole for Thanksgiving Dinner.
The bell peppers are running a close second I must have about 9 or 10 peppers so far. Fajitas are going to be on the menu soon. Probably turkey fajitas - LOL

kindness from Quilt Hollow

Thank you to all of the kind visitors from Quilt Hollow and of course to Mary of Quilt Hollow for posting my Winter giveaway on her delightful blog. She has some scrumptious looking brownies on a recent post along with the recipe of course.
Also, to clarify....you can keep posting to the Nov. 19th post to enter in the giveaway. The deadline to enter is Dec 1st, which is the day I will be drawing the winner.
Now I am off to the kitchen to start the grocery list for our Thanksgiving meal and to decide on the holiday desserts and then to dust off my collection of salt and pepper shakers. I know I have some with a Thanksgiving theme somewhere......

new winter giveaway

It's my birthday and to celebrate that plus the new release of my BFF Winter Holly Days paper doll quilt pattern I'm posting a new giveaway for you!
This one will prepare you for the chilly months ahead. There's a colorful pair of festive socks to keep your tootsies warm, a happy snowman mug to fill with flavored coffees, (peppermint, chocolate caramel, chocolate cinnamon almond) and a felt basket with some FQ's of flannel to add to a winter stitching project.
As with most giveaways post a comment to this post Nov. 19th. and you'll be entered but...... if you link my site www.thistledownquilts.com to yours (and tell me where to find it) you'll be entered twice.
I'll be announcing the lucky winner December 1st. Good luck and keep warm.

Hera today - gone tomorrow

First, you need a tool called a Hera marker. Google it and you'll come up with a gazillion results but more than likely your local quilt shop has it.

Just in case you haven't seen this simple technique I wanted to share it with you. This works best on a quilt that is already sandwiched. What's nice about this is that the creases fade away eventually (depending on fabric and humidity) unlike pencil marks.

On the quilt I want to mark, I want straight quilting lines that don't follow a seam line. In fact the quilting will cross the seams. (see pic 1)

Use a long acrylic ruler and place the edge where you want your line of quilting. (pic 2)



Run the Hera marker across your fabric sandwich using the edge of the ruler as your guide. The marker will leave a crease in your fabric.
(pic 3)



You can then quilt along the creased line. If the creased line fades before you finish (hand quilting) then just re crease with the Hera marker. I am machine quilting this quilt and so the lines lasted throughout the quilting process. I have used this easy method for a long time with great results. Give it a try and pardon the bad pun :)