Oct 2011-Tortellini Soup,Best Dinner Rolls,Pumpkin Cookies w/Caramel Frosting

Corrie's daughter gives a speech on Modern Quilting to our group. She was so polished and only 16 years old. She also had samples of quilting styles she was talking about. We learned a lot.

Corrie's Ghastlie's quilt

Ghastlie's Peek A Boo zipper bag

More ghastlies

Jeri's skirt

Sherry's Halloween quilt

Rachel's hand dyed wool

Rachel's Halloween quilt-Buggy Barn pattern

Rachel's quilt-minky on the back!

Rachel's Christmas embroidery quilt

Close up

Rachel's purse

Rachel's BSU quilt-she designed it!

Lori's Santa wall hanging

Lori's pocket Christmas advent wallhanging

Pocket

Rachel's homemade luggage tags

Linda's 20 minute tablerunner. Sew 1/3 yard fabric to 1/2 yard fabric and make a tube.

Second step shown above.

Finished table runner with buttons

Linda's Halloween wall quilt

Mary's sling bag she made in Carolanna's Super Saturday class

Gift given to Mary--lucky.

Close up

Mary's raw edge baby quilt

Another raw edge baby quilt by Mary

Carolanna's reversible sling bag

Blessing dress made by Carolanna for Heather's baby-beautiful.

Blessing bonnet (above) and bloomers (below)

Heather's reversible sling bag

Heather's baby's Halloween costume-angry bird

Cindy's minky quilt-so soft-minky on front and back! This was done with the quilt as you go method.

Nancy sewed all our donation squares into a twin size quilt. Thank You Nancy!

Nancy's flannel baby quilt with wool batting

Nancy's flannel baby blanket

The back-all three fabrics are flannel-no batting

Nancy's spool quilt for her quilt room

Nancy's spray bottle cozy

Nancy's featherweight cover

Diane's diamond baby size quilt

Diane's jelly roll quilt

Another Diane quilt-works in progress fini!

Diane's Halloween trick or treat bag. We each got a fun treat from the bag!

Lori's tip for turning fabric tubes for purse handles, etc. using pvc pipe and dowel

Our project today. We made design boards using Bee in my Bonnet's pattern

Door prize won by Sherry

Yummy lunch- Tortellini soup, rolls and cookies. Thank you Lenette for hosting. It was a great meeting!
Here are the recipes:
Best Dinner Rolls
4 1/2 to 5 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1 pkg (1/4oz.)  active dry yeast
1 1/4 tsp. salt
1 c. whole milk
1/2 c. water
2 tsp. butter
2 eggs
1 egg lightly beaten
In a large bowl, combine 2 c. flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan, heat the milk, water and butter to 120-130˚. Add to dry ingredients; beat on medium speed for 3 min. Add 2 eggs; beat on high speed for 2 minutes. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a soft dough (dough will be sticky).
     Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 min. Place in  greased bowl, turning once to grease the top. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
     Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into 24 portions. Shape into balls, Divide the balls between two greased 13x9 baking pans.
     Cover with a clean, lightweight towel and let rise until doubled, about 30 min. Brush with lightly beaten egg. Sprinkle rolls with toppings of your choice.
     Bake at 375˚ for 10-15 min. or until golden brown. Remove from pans to wire racks.

                   Tortellini Soup                                   

1 lb. ground sausage (hot)

1 c. chopped onion

1 clove garlic, crushed

5 c. beef broth

1 c. water

14 oz. can stewed tomatoes(chopped)

1 pkg. 3 cheese herbed Tortellini 

2 T. parsley

1 c. sliced carrots

½ t. basil

½ t. oregano

1 14oz. can tomato sauce

1 ½ c. grated zucchini

freshly grated parmesan cheese

Brown the sausage with the onion and garlic-drain the fat. Add all the remaining ingredients except for the tortellini and zucchini. Simmer for 30 minutes. Just before serving, add the 3 remaining items. Serve with freshly grated parmesan.

Pumpkin Cookies with Caramel Frosting

(cookies)

2 3/4 c. flour

1 tsp. baking powder

1 tsp. baking soda

1 1/4 tsp. course salt

1 1/2 tsp. cinnamon

1 1/4 tsp. ground ginger

3/4 tsp. freshly grated nutmeg

3/4 c. (1 1/2 sitcks) unsalted butter, room temrature

2 1/4 c. packed light brown sugar

2 large eggs

1 1/2 c. canned solid-pack pumpkin (14ox)

3/4 c. evaporated milk

1 tsp. vanilla

Preheat oven to 375˚. Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg in a bowl.

Put butter and brown sugar in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Beat on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 3 min. Mix in eggs. Reduce speed to low. add pumpkin, evaporated milk and vanilla; mix until well blended, about 2 min. Add flour mixture; mix until combined.

Transfer 1 1/2 c. batter to a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2 inch plain tip (such as Ateco #806). Pipe 1 1/2 inch rounds onto parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing 1 inch apart. Bake cookies, rotating sheets halfway through until tops spring back, about 12 min. Cool on sheets on wire racks 5 min. Transfer cookies to wire racks; let cool completely.

Caramel Frosting

1/2 c. margarine or butter

1 c. packed brown sugar

1/4 c. milk

2 c. powdered sugar

Heat margarine in 2-qt. saucepan until melted. Stir in brown sugar. Heat to boiling, stirring constantly. Boil and stir over low heat 2 min. Stir in milk. Heat to boiling remove from heat. Cool to lukewarm, Gradually stir in powdered sugar. Place pan of frosting in bowl of cold water; beat until smooth and of spreading consistency. If frosting becomes too stiff, stir in additional milk, 1 tsp. at a time. Frosts two- 8 or 9 inch cake layers or one- 13x9 inch cake. 

Sept 2011

Our meeting this month was at Jeri's home. We had withdrawals from our pizza box exchange. It felt odd not bringing our boxes with us. Jeanie brought hers for comfort though. :) Not only did we have our regular show and tell, but we also brought some quilts that would give ideas for possible settings for our pizza box squares. We needed to see some of these as they were very inspiring. We also each brought a piece of "ugly" fabric in a brown paper bag. Each of us picked up a bag to take home and we will have 2 months to make something beautiful out of someone else's "ugly" fabric. For our Christmas meeting, we will wrap up what we made from the "ugly" fabric and it will be the present for the original owner of the "ugly" fabric. Can't wait to see what everyone comes up with!

Thank you Jeri for a wonderful morning!!

Robyn's quilt. Idea for block setting.

Another quilt Robyn made for one of her Young Women

A bag Carolanna will be teaching at her Super Saturday. The flower she added is very cute but got washed out in the photo. :(

Tablerunner by Carolanna

Crazy quilt by Carolanna

Quilt by Carolanna and also an idea for our square settings

Close up of the cute flowers in the corners

Idea for settings from Nancy. We can set some on point and some square in the same quilt.

Another setting idea from Nancy's book

Cover of book also shows a great idea for settings

Monica's quilt

Lori's reversible apron

Other side of apron

Lori's Halloween advent calendar. Each number is a pocket.

Lori's raw edge quilt

Lori's quilt

Lori's quilt that shows an idea for block setting

Kathi's quilt with another idea for block settings

Jeri's quilt showing setting ideas

Another quilt from Jeri showing a setting idea

Jeri's blocks with a plain square between pieced squares-an idea for block setting

Lori's personalized labels for her quilts and handwork

Diane's Baby Boy Bullseye quilt

Diane's doll cradle quilt using several flannel scraps

Diane's picnic tablecloth, made from our previous friendship block exchange

Jeri's delicious lunch-peaches and grapes

Peach torte

blueberry muffins

chicken salad

August 2011-Pineapple Coconut Bars,Teriyaki Chicken Pasta Salad,

Our August meeting was yesterday and although we had a smaller turnout, there were plenty of quilts to see, future plans to make and a delicious lunch. We finished our Pizza Box Exchange, all of us ending up with 16 blocks each to now make into a fun and memorable quilt. We voted to wait until January for our next monthly square project. 

In the meantime though, we also decided to bring 9 1/2" squares of fabric as donations for local charities. Each month we'll have a theme for our fabric donations and if the combined number of squares equal 80, we'll have enough to make a twin quilt.  Next month we will bring squares of fabric that look like civil war fabric, fabrics with muted tones. Nancy C. will let us know the fabric theme for each month.

We also decided to do something a little different this year for our Christmas gift exchange. Instead of bringing gifts, we will do an "Ugly Fabric-Brown Bag" project. Next month, each of us will bring a piece of our "ugliest" fabric hidden in a brown paper bag. Our name will be also inside the bag. The piece of fabric should be at least as big as a fat quarter. After putting all the bags in the center of the room, each of us will pick one bag (not our own), take it home and make something using that fabric as well as fabric from our stash. In December we will bring those projects back, wrapped as a Christmas present and given back to it's original ugly fabric owner. 

Thank you Jeanie for hosting such a fun meeting. We love coming to your home!

 Our breast cancer auction quilt for this year.

 Our quilt label.

 The quilting looks beautiful!

 Rachel's purse.

 Another purse made by Rachel.

 Rachel finished several quilts.

 Rachel was able to quilt all of these quilts this past month using Lori's machine while she was away.

 Rachel's quilt using just 2 charm packs and background fabric.

 Lenette's handmade blessing dress for her granddaughter.

 The beautiful hand smocking will be treasured in her family for many generations.

 Nancy's baby boy quilt.

 Maurene's charity quilt. This is the project we all did when we met at her house a couple months earlier. The quilt turned out great.

 Sherry's quilt.

Kathi's wallhanging.

Our wonderful summer lunch made by Jeanie.  Here are her recipes:

Pineapple Coconut Bars
Makes 10 bars
Crust:
1 1/4 c. flour
1/4 c. sugar
1/2 c. butter

Topping:
20-oz. can crushed pineapple, drained
1 T. soft butter
1/2 c. sugar
1 egg
1 1/2 c. coconut
    To prepare crust, combine flour and sugar and cut in shortening. Pat into 10 " pan. Bake for 15 min at 350 degrees.
     Remove from oven and spread pineapple over top. Cream together butter, sugar and egg.  Fold in coconut and spread over pineapple layer. Bake at 325 degrees for another 25-30 min.

Teriyaki Chicken Pasta Salad
6 oz. rotini or rotelle noodles
1/4 c. sesame seeds
1/2 c. salad oil
1/3-1/2 c. white wine vinegar
3 T. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper
3 c. cold shredded chicken
1/2 c. green onion
8 c. torn spinach leaves
1/2 c. parsley
    Cook noodles, drain and rinse. In frying pan, combine sesame seeds and 1/4 c. oil. Cook until seeds are golden, let cool. Stir in remaining oil, teriyaki sauce, vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper. Pour over cooked pasta. Add chicken. Chill 2 hours or 1 day ahead. To serve, add onion spinach and parsley. Toss lightly.