Wanabe Quilters Christmas

I was in a great party mood for last Friday's annual Christmas party which included great friends and admittedly a few mimosas. One of my favorite secret pal gift exchanges came from Karon Cornell ( a wonderful oil painter ) to Janmarie Halliday. The subject :  Janmarie's then little girl/now grown woman Noelle .

Cute kid, eh?

Gift from Mary Lou Ripper on the right to Karon on the left. LOVE this pattern

Wool is in !

Carol Lundquist (Left) received this piece from Carol Brodie ( Right.) Carol B is an applique queen who loves Grandmothers flower garden.   Oddly enough, Carol L was Carol B.s secret pal . Her clever gift.... several  premade  frozen meals ready for the crock pot. 

I missed pics of some... including my own   Shame on me.   I have a mimosa excuse.

One last quilt to quilt for 2016

A couple years back, several friends from my Wanabe Quilters group took on an old Alex Anderson pattern  Christmas Quilt.... This is the second one finished by Hilary Field, ( my own version is one  of my "Quilts in Waiting" stack in one of those zipped plastic bags)  This is a good size quilt 78 x 93 ....  The mixed  black and white fabrics and multi colored Christmas trees called for a simple quilt plan... I used silver thread.

I was looking for a way to keep quilting cost down but knew edge to edge quilting would NOT look great on this quilt so I sought  a simple no need to mark motif for the dozens of trees. Settled on this continuos line swirl.

Playing President at the Beautiful Mission Inn

So much to do this time of year.... Had a lovely lunch with several friends at the exquisite Mission Inn in Riverside, Ca.  Here, good friends (  first Karon Cornell ) and Janmarie Halliday check out the chair built for back when U.S. President Taft.  It's big chair for a big man. Both friends felt sooo tiny in it!

and Janmarie

Definitely a place to visit in the holidays!!!!   ;-D

Ho Ho Ho Brownie Based Santa Hats

I've been M.I.A. for over 2 weeks  cruising the   heavenly Pacific Ocean ( someone had to  ;-D ). Now back and have a party  to attend this evening.  There will be lots of young people... so I wanted something fun to present.  These Santa hats take hardly anytime to assemble assuming you pre baked a store bought brownie mix.
here's the basics..
We're using a  circular
cut out brownie as the base
One could use a shot glass or round cookie cutter  ( I used a round clay cutter -shown below). 
Mascarpone cheese as a hat brim and top knot For 12 hats I used about 1/3 of the container of cheese placed in a bakery cone with a large round hole tip. 
A strawberry as 'the hat' 

Pretty simple stuff....
Squeeze mascarpone on top of the brownie base
Place  a strawberry on top

and add a squeeze of mascarpone at the top of the berry

pretty cute plate hat set! I think kids of all ages will like. 

If you've never purchased Mascarpone, you will usually find at a local Italian market. It's a dense cheese used in Tiramisu or the like so it will hold up well sitting out for a while.  Whipped cream wouldn't hold up so well if you were considering that as an alternative.  I have seen mock Mascarpone recipes on-line using cream cheese, a wee bit of sour cream, and very wee bit of heavy whipping cream. Google is our friend.  Party starts in 24 minutes so here we go. 

Post party update... emptied plate returned!