Crafters November 22 through November 28

If I made a mistake in adding the recipe think its actually called Favorite Pecan Pie bars. Its a great recipe.

Hello Everyone - Hope you are all having a nice Thanksgiving Day

The furnace is heating again, but it's still not working right. The second technician changed the temperature setting so it would cut off at a certain point and then cool down and come on again. The problem is that it only runs for a few minutes and then cuts off, cools and then comes back on again about 5-6 minutes later. It just constantly repeats this instead of staying on continuously for an hour or so to heat the house.

It took all day yesterday just to get the downstairs temperature to 74 degrees and then the upstairs temperature was 84 degrees! I actually had a turn a fan on in my bedroom last night since it was so hot there

I'm going to call tomorrow and see about an appointment to get a replacement for whatever part it is that reads the temperature. I can't deal with this all winter. Needless to say I've been very frustrated.

I did get my two blocks made for the Fall Frolic quilt along and I think I've decided how I'm going to lay out these 2 quilts. I don't want to do the original layout and I want to try 2 different ones. There are only 2 more weeks left (2 blocks) and then all 9 blocks will be finished, so I'd like to start on the border and sashing pieces.

Take care everyone

Ruth, when I last made pecan pie bars I was making a meal for someone who had lost a parent and I made the meal with what I had here. Little did I know that pecan pie was a favorite dessert….and those bars were a huge hit. Hope Dh likes them… how is the progress on getting the bunny lovey done? I have never tried that particular fudge recipe, but if its only those 2 ingredients I do not see how it can work either unless its a lot of chocolate.

CJ- lets hope that they are able to make some sense out of your heater! If they have to send a third technician….well you have to hope that the third person is able to actually fix the problem. Do not blame you one bit for being very frustrated. Sounds like you are having fun redesigning the Fall frolic quilt to your personal taste. Bet it will look great.

Phyl how did your Thanksgiving go??

Sue. Hope that your day went well with all you have going on.

Had a pleasant enough time at DD’s- had fun with the kids and I did help out Dd as much as I could getting the meal orchestrated.its such a big meal….over with so quickly

See ya tomorrow.
Ginny

Well I didn't get here yesterday although I intended to several times. I was busy much of the day doing some cooking. We made calzones which take time with all the prepping on the fillings, making dough, rolling out the little balls of dough then filling them. Since we made a quadruple batch it took awhile to bake them all. Dh helped so that made it easier even when he was only keeping me company but he oversaw the baking part.

In the evening...late evening..I crocheted by not on the bunny because I left the yarn upstairs and was too lazy to go up and get it. Therefore I worked on another project.I do have until Christmas but that's coming up fast

Hello Everyone - Hope you are all doing well and having a good weekend

Ginny - I took one of those online driving classes a few weeks ago and enjoyed it. It refreshed my memory on a few things and also taught me a few new things. And I get a reduction in my car insurance for taking it.

Ruth - Calzones sound good, but a lot of work - I'm sure it's worth it when you eat them. I used to make Fantasy Fudge every Christmas, it was one of my few "specialties" and everyone at work and family parties always wanted it.

Phyl and Sue - Hope you are well.

I'm still having problems with my furnace so I called them earlier today and I'm scheduled for an appointment some time this weekend. I really prefer a set appointment since you never know when they will be calling to arrive this way. It's stressful for me since I have to be ready for someone to stop by all day. Also, I told them that I don't want someone coming here after midnight (since they come 24 hours a day). They told me if the person calls and I don't want them to come at that time, to tell them and then call back to get set up for the next day. I sure hope they can fix the problem this time. If not I guess I will have to go with another company, which will void my service contract with the current company.

I got up early this morning to turn up the heat and since I couldn't go back to sleep I worked on the other Fall Frolic quilt setting blocks. I needed to make 48 half square triangles and I have them made and then I just need to see 4 of each into a block - so 12 blocks in all. If I can get that done soon then as soon as the next 2 blocks come out I'll be ready to put the quilt together. Yesterday I worked on the setting for the first quilt and it's almost all together.

Take care everyone

CJ, I sure hope that they get your furnace fixed properly this time.Yes it is a worry when several different people come and they still don't get it right. And I know what you mean about the waiting. Even when they tell me they will be here say between noon and 5 I'm a wreck the whole time waiting for them to appear. Yes putting together all those half triangles sounds like a long procedure. Is there a shortcut way to do it. I know when I took the series of classes they were always showing shorter ways of doing various things, all of which I've pretty  much forgotten, and I've also seen "shortcuts" on the shows on tv. Since I know you're a very adept and experienced quilter I'm sure you know all those and maybe feel they aren't the best way.

Ginny, I love to look at quilts of all kinds. I'm usually very much in awe of the work that has gone into each one and especially those vintage ones that were done without modern conveniences. I know your daughter loves the ornaments and the other daughter will too and Jane will really love hers.

I don't eat the calzones myself. I never care much for things made with pasta sauce.I have seen similar things made with leftovers and dh has mentioned those to me in the past but I never have made any. Most of those I've seen have been made with more of a pie dough I think but for sure you could make them with this dough which, yes, I make it myself. In making it this time it brought back to me how much I love feeling dough while I'm kneading and while it's changing from a rough crumbly flour mixture to a smooth and pillowy feeling. Tomorrow I'm make cinnamon buns with similar dough.We were going to go shopping but realized it might still be very busy so we'll probaby go Wed instead

Hello

Ginny - The antique quilt show sounds like it was very interesting, I love looking at older quilts. It's just amazing what they could create without all the modern tools we have, and that those quilts are still around. I'll post the recipe for the Fantasy Fudge in a separate post below.

Ruth - Your baking sounds so good, hope the cinnamon rolls turn out. I'd like to try making a calzone sometime, and should consider buying that premade dough that Ginny's friend used.  Thanks for saying you understand how it feels to be waiting for a repair person.  Most of my family just doesn't understand the anxiety it causes me.  

I had to make those half square triangles in the 2 at a time method because they needed to finish at 6.5 inches each - so I started with two 7 inch squares to make two and then trimmed them down. I was limited on the fabric I had, so this was my only option and it worked fine.  I figured out this morning how I'm going to layout this quilt, so I hope that I can get working on the triangle blocks this week.

I've been buying digital quilt patterns this weekend. I didn't want to order anything by mail and I didn't get to go out shopping, so at least I'm buying something And the places I've bought them from had them on sale.

Warning - excess furnace info follows, read if you want

The guy came to repair the furnace last evening around 5:30 and he was here over an hour and half. He replaced the pump since he said it wasn't pumping the water into the boiler and the steam was making the boiler too hot and then it would shut down. He had drain all the water from radiators through the boiler and that's what took the longest. I was down in the basement with him at the beginning but then I went upstairs when he had the pump running. I'm glad I didn't stay down there because I heard him cussing a bunch of times about how long it was taking to drain the water.

Anyway, he said to wait about 30 minutes after he left and then to bleed all the air out of every radiator in the house. The furnace was running when he left but before the 30 minutes went by it turned off again, so I shut it off. I went ahead and bled all the radiators and waited a bit and turned the furnace on again and it ran again long enough for good heat to come out of all the radiators. This morning when I turned the heat up (I turn it down at night) it ran for about an hour and then shut off. I'm hoping it will come on again later. I think maybe it gets too hot and then shuts down even though the temperature on the thermostat upstairs hasn't been met. It never did this before, so I think something is still wrong with it. I do not want to have this same company come back again. I gave them 3 tries and that was enough. I'm just kind of over all of it right now

I did finally make my Tea Loaf this morning, which was what I'd bought the self-rising flour for and it came out really nicely. I baked it in a 9x9 pan instead of a loaf. Here's a link to the recipe if you want to see it:

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/262548/almost-fat-free-british-tea-loaf/

If you make the tea loaf in a 9x9 pan it doesn't need to bake as long so keep an eye on it.  I waited until a toothpick inserted into it came out clean.  This is a very dense cake.

I saw a recipe for a Date Loaf Cake that I might try in December. My grandmother used to make date filled cookies that were so good. I tried to make them from her recipe but they just weren't the same. I also used to love the Archway Date Filled Oatmeal cookies, but they don't make them anymore. Here's a link to this recipe:

www.allrecipes.com/recipe/25568/date-loaf-cake/

I doubt I'll do any actual crafting today, but I'll be checking out the blogs and facebook pages. Hope you all get to do some crafting and have a good day