Christmas Eve

I hope you've all had a wonderful holiday season. It's been forever since I've posted and I thought I'd catch you up just a bit with what I've been doing with all this 'family time'. On Christmas Eve we had a big 'Thanksgiving' dinner because no one could come home for Thanksgiving and then we went to Temple Square in Salt Lake and saw the lights. It was an extremely cold night...probably only 5-7 degrees! We walked all around the Square and saw the beautiful lights and the nativity scene. It wasn't as crowded as I thought it might be and was a wonderful way to remember our Savior and feel the Christmas spirit. The above photo is all of us in one place...it's been quite a while since I got to enjoy this scene.
Salt Lake Latter Day Saint Temple

Jena and her boyfriend Greg.

Statue of Joseph Smith on the Square. If you ever get to Utah...you must take the time to walk around Temple Square as it's one of the most lovely places to visit.

Christmas Quilts Hangin' Around My House

I wanted to share with you my Christmas Quilts I hang up at this time of year. This one was one I did years ago in a couple of days. It is meant to be used to sleep under the Christmas tree. The large pocket in the right hand corner is where a child would leave their list for Santa and an elf will come and get the list at night when they're asleep.

This one is another quickie that works well with a print you don't want to cut up into very small pieces. There's a close up photo below.

I've used this one to cover a small bench by the bay window because it's not a quilt I like very much. It was a ton of work without the rewards. I would never make this pattern again. Don't we all have quilt patterns we'd say that about?!

This is a small wall hanging that I did years ago with my quilting buddies and I hadn't ever done applique before. Of course, the applique is by machine and a buttonhole stitch. It was the first time I learned to put fabrics together and make up something without a lot of coaching. I'm sure Nedra coached me some, but I was rather proud of myself.

I bid on this quilt at the Provo Quilt Guild meeting and was the highest bidder about five or six years ago. It was done by some really wonderful quilters with amazing applique skills. It's one of my favorites. Sometimes I don't take it down the entire year.

About 10 years ago we went on a trip back east and got to spend some time in Pennsylvania and I bought this quilt from some wonderful Amish quilters. It's also a prize. I wanted to buy something that I knew I'd never make myself. I don't enjoy hand work very much.

I actually made this quilt twice because after I completed it, the darling girl that was dating one of my sons (I nicknamed her "Miss Lolly"), wanted to make one for her mother. The only catch was, she didn't know how to quilt, so I coached her on some of it and made much of it myself. I know her mother loved it.

I was in the process of hanging this quilt the other day and my 17 year old said, "Mom, this is the ugliest quilt you ever made". Sad! What I didn't tell her is that I loved this fabric and pattern so much that I became obsessed and made this quilt in a matter of a couple of days because I didn't even want to sleep. It's one of my favorites, but apparently that's only a matter of opinion. Live Well this Holiday Season!

Girl Gang

Laurie is one of the talented women in our Girl Gang group. I love her work and her creativity. Can you tell that one of her backgrounds behind the trees is newspaper print fabric? So cute.

I LOVE the background for the chicken and flowers.

This is not the 'real' beehives in our quilt pattern, but she made up her own and it is so darling.

Here's a close up.

Judy D. makes the most beautiful quilts and this is a Christmas one she shared. The tree that Janice is pointing to is amazing.

Vicky C. told us the most darling story about this quilt she is working on for Christmas. She has a charming personality and told us how she is working on all the applique borders at the same time because she doesn't want the fabric that isn't being worked with to feel bad! She said, "You know how when you open a box of crayons you have to color with every single one of the crayons, otherwise the ones you don't use will feel bad? Well, it's like that with fabric." It was so cute! I'd never thought of that before.
She also told the funniest story about her daughter buying her a camera for her birthday and was bringing it over to the house for her, but Vicky wasn't home, so her daughter hid the camera in the barbque and forgot to tell her...so you guessed it...they heated the grill to make steaks for dinner the following night and the camera was cooked at 500 degrees and was a melted mess. Poor Vicky still doesn't have a camera. :( You must come to our quilt guild just to laugh!!

Bread Pudding

So let's get honest...you don't serve bread pudding because it's beautiful...you serve it because it's so good it causes your eyes to roll to the back of your head and your tongue to do cart wheels in your mouth! Today was our quilt meeting at Broadbent's and Janice suggested I make something Christmasy. So I decided to make bread pudding. Yummo! The above photo is the pudding before it went in the oven and the next photo is what it looked like when it was served. The recipe will be below.

This is a silly little Christmas book that I just had to have from Broadbent's today. You've got to try and find it in your neck of the woods as it will tickle your funny bone. I also had fun picking out fabrics for the Girl Gang quilt I'm working on. I'll show those tomorrow, along with some photos of the quilts that others shared at the meeting.

Bread Pudding Judi Style

For Thanksgiving I only had 7 people eating over which left lots of dough from homemade rolls, so I made the remaining dough into cinnamon rolls and then froze them after they were cooked. I took them out of the freezer on Monday so they would taste like 'day old'. 'Older' bread works best for pudding because it soaks up the milk just right. :) (just trust an old cook will you?) Use store bought cinnamon rolls if you want, otherwise you can make your favorite and use those.

Cut up cinnamon rolls to equal 8 cups

6 whole eggs

2 egg yolks

1 cup cream

1 1/2 cups half and half

3/4 cup sugar

1 T. vanilla

1 t. cinnamon (I use Pampered Chefs cinnamon blend. It's a blend of cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, orange peel, cloves, ginger)

(At this point you could add a cup of raisins and/or pecans)

Whip eggs, milk, etc. together and then pour over the chopped rolls and let soak for 15 minutes. Bake at 375 for 30-40 minutes in a 9 x 13 pan or custard cups in a water bath. Put the pan or the cups in a large baking dish and fill it with hot water until it is up the sides of the pan by about 2/3 of the way. Be careful taking it out of the oven as the water gets very hot. Serve with vanilla sauce

Vanilla Sauce

2 T. butter

3/4 c. sugar

1 T. corn starch or clear gel

1 t. vanilla

1 1/2 c. cream

Stir over low heat until sugar melts and it thickens slightly

I topped mine with fresh raspberries when I went to serve it.