And, he licked the bowl clean!

It's a little late for a Thanksgiving story, but it's the one I "enjoyed" the most. I spent the morning making my family's famous (scratch) chocolate pie. The crust was ready, I had everything I needed (I always do), so I jumped right in.

Now, the magic of this recipe is that you don't put meringue on top. You fold it into the pudding! So, once the pudding thickens, you just stir it occasionally while you make the meringue. No sweat. I put 1 egg white in the bowl of my (new) mixer, and was dismayed to discover that the whisk DIDN'T EVEN TOUCH THE EGG WHITE!! And it's a Kitchen Aid! I tried whipping the egg white by hand – but that, clearly, wasn’t going to work. I finally added a second egg white and that did the trick. Once the whites were frothy, I grabbed the little jar of cream of tartar - yup, it still had the seal on it. That thing must have been attached with super-glue. I couldn't pull it off, and had a terrible time finding something that would penetrate it enough to be able to pry it off! Grrrr.

Finally, I got the egg whites the way I wanted them, and turned my attention back to the pudding. I yanked it off of the stove in the nick of time. The final preparation for the pudding is to add some butter and vanilla. Guess what I discovered about the vanilla. Yup, it too, had an in penetrable seal! But, ultimately, stronger wills prevailed and the pie was cooling on the counter.

The trick with this pie is to stop whipping the meringue just short of "firm peak". All of the delicious goodness will fold into the pudding smoothly and lump-less. Anyway, the good news is with 2 whites, there was lots of meringue, and I was quick to put extra in the pudding. Amazing stuff. Listen, when made right, this pie is so good, your eyes roll back in your head, your heart will leap with joy, and drool will cause you great embarrassment. Of course, the DH made sure the pudding pot and the meringue bowl were "clean" before they went in the dishwasher! 

Oh, the crust. You need to make 2 crusts for my chocolate pie. The crust is simple, easy, and wonderful. The secret? It has an egg and sugar in it! Why 2 crusts? Well, how else are you going to have enough left over dough for cinnamon and sugar pie crust cookies?

News from the Studio

Dawn's Quilt 

Don't you just love Arlene's quilt? It is so  beachy and happy! The Wave on Wave pantograph worked beautifully on it! I hope Dawn loves it as much as I do!

Wave on Wave Panto

 Christmas Heart Song

Here is Joyce's version of the Christmas Heart Song quilt. So bold and happy. It just makes your heart sing. Again, the Trumpet Vine pantograph looks great on this quilt, and the shiny gold thread pulled it all together. Great job, Joyce!

Trumpet Vine Panto

Piano Key Heart Song

Trumpet Vine Panto

This is the 4th Heart Song quilt I've made this year! SO easy and quick. I had enough left over fabric for the star and first border, but not for the outer border. So I cut up all of the leftovers I could find and made a piano key border. I used the ever popular Trumpet Vine panto. The pattern for the version with a standard outside border is now available on Craftsy. Just click here: Christmas Heart Song Pattern.

AHQ Opportunity Quilt

The Appalachian Heritage Quilter's "opportunity" quilt which will be given away at the April quilt show, is a "pinwheel chain". What a sweet and gentle quilt. Save up your money! Soon you will be able to purchase Hershey Kisses and be given tickets to enter the drawing!

Wave on Wave Pantograph

The Wave on Wave panto  adds a little bit of "whimsical" to it, don't you think?

Heart Song Workshop

I mentioned in the last post, that I was preparing for a Heart Song Workshop. Well, we had a great time. Everyone made great progress on their quilt tops. It's amazing to see how different they are!
 

 

 

Great job, everyone!

Have a blessed and joyful Christmas! And, here's to a happy and prosperous New Year!

Now, let's go quilt something!

Follow the Leader

It's been too long since my last post, but there hasn't been much to report until now. A couple of weeks ago, at the Old Town Guild meeting in Jonesborough, we were treated to a pictoral report of the 2016 quilt market held in Houston several weeks ago. You can look forward to lots of great new patterns and fabric lines for 2016!!

Opportunity Quilt for Appalachian Heritage Quilters, Gray TN

A couple of posts ago, I showed you the Opportunity Quilt that the AHQ guild will be giving away at our annual Quilt Show in April this year. The quilt is 80" x 100" and is now finished. Tickets for the drawing are now available. When you buy Hershey Kisses from the guild, you get tickets to put into the drawing for the quilt.

Contact any Appalachian Heritage Quilters guild member to find out how to get tickets.

News from the Studio

 

New Quilt Patterns on Craftsy

Jacks on the Porch - Easy!

Starry Nights

Recently I published 2 new quilt patterns on www.craftsy.com. Just search for "deming" and you'll find all of my patterns. Just click on the caption to see the pattern.

A nice straight leader

Leaders

Icky wavy edges

I have developed a deep personal relationship with my canvas longarm leaders! Longarm leaders are pieces of cloth or canvas fabric attached to the rollers. The edges of my leaders had become stretched an ripply and needed some maintenance.

So, I marked locations for "hem-lines" and "stay-stitch-lines" placed well behind the ripply area and onto nice smooth, flat canvas.

New hem line placement

Then I pinned the leaders together, adjust the pins to get a nice smooth surface, and stitched a straight horizontal line for the new folded edge of the new hem, and a stay-stitch line to prevent fraying after I cut off the ripply edges (no pics of this).

My big challenge was hand basting on the zippers that I had removed previously, so I could secure the folded edges together, so I could stitch the hem in place. That hand basting was a "do-over-and-over" task until I got the canvases to be smooth and flat under tension.

Now I have to leave the zippers off for a few quilts to let the canvases settle in to their most aligned positions. Then I'll remark the centers again and permanently re-attach the zippers. They really make my life easy. I miss them.

Learning for the week

Do you suffer from "winter blues" like I sometimes do? It's a challenge to get yourself up off of the recliner, get dressed, warm up the basement, and go do some sewing or organizing or something in the studio.  Sometimes, it just feels like work, not fun. But as you know, when we force ourselves to just go to the studio and find something to do, we always feel much better.  The good news is that the doldrums will pass, and we  will be motivated again and eager to get busy. Meantime, get out of the house and go to guild meeting! Smile and hug everyone, and be inspired by the beautiful projects you'll see at Show & Tell. All that love at guild meeting does wonders.

Now, my dears, let's go quilt something!!

Where is Sherlock When You Need Him?

See? No Self-threading needle

Our big adventure this week was a fruitless search for a lost needle. I had just used a self-threading needle to bury thread tails while quilting on the longarm. I had laid the needle down on the quilt in order to pick up scissors to clip the tails. When I reached for the needle to secure it in the little piece of fabric where I keep it, it was nowhere to be found. Nowhere. The DH and I searched for it on the quilt with lights and by feel. we checked every nook and cranny. You wouldn't believe all the likely and unlikely place we searched.Thankfully, since we examined the quilt thoroughly and meticulously, we are convinced it is not on or in the quilt. We are just baffled.

News from the Studio

In Tennessee, if you hold a "raffle" you could wind up in jail. It's illegal. So, how does the guild "raffle" off a gorgeous Opportunity Quilt that has been made as a guild project to make money for charity? Well, we sell kisses. No not that kind, Hershey Kisses. You buy kisses with real $$, and are rewarded with a tickets that you can enter into a drawing for the quilt. We donate 100% of the proceeds to our charities.

This week, I finished quilting the Opportunity Quilt, and today another guild member came by to pick it up so she can put the binding on. I'm hoping she has time to finish the binding in time to show it to the guild at our upcoming Christmas party.  It is a queen size. The drawing will be held at the end of the Appalachian Heritage Quilters annual Quilt Show in March.

New Pantographs Now Available

Bolero: It is the one shown on the Opportunity Quilt.

Star Dance: I mostly use this on Quilts of Valor.

 

Learning for the week

Duh! Don't let go of the needle until you've put it safely in it's proper place!

Now, let's go quilt something!