Spring Fever and a WINNER!

I'm as restless as a willow in a windstorm.....I'm as jumpy as a puppet on a string........

Remember that song from the musical, State Fair? It Might As Well Be Spring!

A bouquet of Spring Fling!

Stormy skies over the prairie (Adams Co, WA).

Lily of the Valley, Snow Drops and the Promise of Easter.

Babies everywhere!

Easter Challah.....

....and spring salads.....

.....golden willows about to burst forth!

Clear days.

Girls with baskets of flowers....

....lovely quilts......

the whisper of summer, yet to come.

I know, I know. Spring isn't here yet but it is fleeting in our semi-arid corner of the world. So we have to catch it while we can....as early as possible and as long as possible. Isn't it great?

And now for the Winner of last week's pattern:

  !!!!!!!  Natureluvr57  !!!!!!!  

Please email me at prairiestitcher at centurytel dot net and I'll send you the pattern of your choice from the three offered below:

Thank you, everyone, for participating, for visiting and for sending me your thoughts on spring! (I know it's a hemispheric thing, so I hope you Australians and others south of the border are enjoying the seasonal changes.)

Next up - What's in the works for Easter Sunday?  I'll be sharing my picks for the feast ... the celebration of the resurrection of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Our Newest Patterns Out Now! AND A PRIZE GIVE-AWAY!!!

Great New Embroidery Patterns from Prairie Cottage Corner. Win one Free.....

Yes, we've been very quiet out here on the prairie! I've been drawing and drawing and drawing, which is why you haven't heard from me until now. I almost missed our February visit! See below for how to enter the give-away.

Look! Here are the results.....

First....

"Valentine Sunbonnet Sue"

Here's a close-up of one of the block patterns:

And "Prairie Pioneer Girls"......

And a detail from the patterns......

And, third, "Easter Egg Hunt"......

With a detail from the pattern set.......

These patterns are traceable and available on Etsy as physical or digital patterns and on Craftsy as digital. All are $5 each. They're good for embroidery, crewel, applique', fabric painting, needlepoint, tee-shirt art, quilt blocks and all kinds of linens.

To enter and win your choice of one of these patterns, just leave a comment and answer the question: 

WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE THING ABOUT SPRING?

I think my favorite thing is warm days and daffodils....well, that's two things, isn't it? There are more, actually, but I won't bore you with them here. Contest ends Friday, March 4th at 5 PM.

Let's celebrate! I'm kicking up my heels (so to speak....I can't really kick them up anymore, but.....oh well, it's all in the mind, anyway) !!!!

Crunchy Granola and.......the Winner is........

Before we announce the winner of the free pattern from Prairie Cottage Corner, I want to share my Crunchy Granola recipe with you. I used to make this all the time....but then we were having lots of eggs and meat for breakfast......until that became a burdensome process, when I added some extra client work and more pattern challenges. So, thinks me, I should go back to a quickie meal in order to jump-start the day. 

So here it is: Crunchy Granola. I love this recipe because it makes a tender, crunchy granola that stands up to the milk or yogurt extrememly well. The recipe is below, right above the ....shhhhhhhhh....winner of the free pattern.

Put your oats and Rice Krispies in a huge bowl and mix well.  Add the liquid ingredients and mix very well.

Chop some dried apricots and combine with raisin and craisins.

Add a teaspoon of while flour to them so they don't stick together. Some of the raisins are rather stubborn about that.

Set the fruit aside until later.

Spread the oats out into a 1/2" to 1" layer in as many containers as needed. Bake them for 10 minutes, stir, and bake another 10 minutes and stir. Bake a final 10 minutes and stir well. Turn off oven and let granola stand 10 minutes. Remove and return to the mixing bowl. 

See how golden brown it all is and how each kernel is coated with sweetness?

Add the fruit all at once....

and mix well, again.

You can add pre-roasted nuts now, if you like. I do. I avoid roasting them with the oats because they get too brown.....often, they burn. Keep the granola in the freezer or fridge to keep if fresh. Granola goes bad (rancid) very quickly at room temperature.

I serve 1/2 c. granola with added cinnamon and 3 Tablespoons of Yogurt. That's breakfast (with something hot like cocoa, or Pero Mocha Hot Drink (recipe below).

Recipe for Crunchy Granola 

(you can halve these amounts for a smaller batch)

Fills two 1-gallon ziplock bags

2/3 c. Stevia + 1 T. Molasses or 2/3 c. brown sugar

2/3 c. Vegetable Oil (NOT Olive Oil)

1 c. Honey

4 t. Vanilla

6 c. Rice Krispies Cereal or puffed rice

8 c. Old-fashioned Rolled Oats

2 t. Ground Cinnamon

3 c. cut dried apricots, raisin and craisins, tossed in 1 t. AP Flour

3 c. roasted, chopped nuts of choice (salted nuts are okay)

Mix Oats, Cinnamon and Rice Krispies together well. Place Oil, Honey and Brown Sugar in a 1 quart bowl and microwave until hot, at 1 minute itervals, mixing each time. DO NOT BOIL! When hot and well combined, pour over the Oats mixture and combine well.  Spread 1" deep in pans and bake 30 Minutes at 350 degrees F; stirring every 10 minutes and rotating pans, once. Stir the third time and let stand 10 minutes in the oven with the heat OFF. Remove from oven and pour back into the mixing bowl. Let cool until barely warm and add Fruit and Nuts. Combine well. Place in 2 1-gallon Ziplock bags and freeze until ready to use. Serve with milk or yogurt.

And on another note.......

Cats on the Shelf. 

What is there about a basket they cannot resist? This is how I TRY to keep them off my lap and out of my hair in the office. They are separated by a stack of scratch paper....so appropriate!

And, now, the winner of one of these patterns IS........

  

  

!!!!!Gran Chris!!!!!!

You can write to me at prairiestitcher at centurytel dot net and tell me which pattern you would like to have. Congratulations!

Pero Mocha Hot Drink

(Use a 16oz. Cup)

2 t. Pero (coffee substitute) or Instant Coffee

1 t. unsweetened powdered cocoa

2 or more t. Sugar or Stevia

1/4 t. Cinnamon

2 drops Rum Flavoring

1/4 t. Vanilla

Fill 1/2 full with very hot water.

Fill to within 1/2" of the top with milk, cream or egg nog

Microwave about 1 minute on high. Froth with a frother, small whisk, or stir well with a spoon. Dust with a smidgeon of ground Nutmeg.

Yum! Makes a great hot party drink, too.

I Think We Need to Cool Down a Little......and a Give-Away!!!!

Well, we had Christmas in July - now we'll have Snow in August. I didn't get these photos posted during the winter, so I'm posting them now.....hoping it will cool us down a little.....at least, in our imaginations!

Last year, we had our first snow just before Christmas.  It was the day we were to take gifts to some friends who were living rough while building a house. We had a basket of food and goodies as well as presents and supplies for them.

So we bundled into the Explorer. It was snowing heavily. I'll tell you our route through the sage brush along Crab Creek, as we go.

Here we are turning onto Laney Brother's Road from Coyote Heights Road. I love the names of the places out here. That's my forehead in the rearview mirror. It's been so dry out here (alright, I know it's semi-arid, but there are degrees of semi-arid and we have been hitting a mark close to zero rainfall for weeks on end.); the snow was definitely a  source for excitement.

No one else was out on the roads. Actually, we don't often see anyone on this road, at any time. In fact, in our little town, three cars at the main intersection is considered rush hour.

Here, we're approaching the high point on the road, just south of Sylvan Lake and just west of the big meadow where there's a dairy.

Okay, we didn't photograph the dairy. Don't ask me why. The road goes right through it between the house and the barn, so I'm always busy watching for cows, equipment, calves, ponies, dogs, cats and, most importantly, children. Now we're almost to the crossing of the creek. Up to the left in the next two pictures, are eagles' nests.

Bald eagles are quite common along Crab Creek where the palisades line the flood plain. I didn't see one on this day.

These palisades were formed progressively over thousands of years from massive lava flows and eruptions, three different times. The basalt that we see here, can also be found on the seashore at Cannon Beach, Oregon.

Many of the palisades are high and massive. Now, we've made the turn and are on the bridge across the creek. In the background are the palisades we just went past..

 And another view of the palisades.

Then, at the top of the hill coming up out of the coulee, we turn onto Lamona-Kramer Road. It's a primitive road with no warning signs and very little traffic, ever. One of our favorite parts of the short trip. It runs, here, through sage brush and pasture land.....no wheat right here, but plenty of it a mile or so to the south (to the right).

There's our friends' building project in the distance as we're turning onto Downs Road. 

The house is coming right along!

Well, have you cooled off yet? Feel any better? I know I do. I turned up the AC! That, plus the snowy landscape, did the trick.

Hey, you can win a free pattern of your choice by leaving me a comment and telling me 

HOW YOU KEEP COOL IN HOT WEATHER.

I'll draw the winning name on Monday, August 18, 2014,

 at 5 PM PDT.

Thanks for coming by and visiting. We love to hear from you!

DIY Hand-Dandy Quilt Binding Helper - And a WINNER!

This is my DIY Handy-Dandy Quilt Binding Helper - A Box of Kleenex......

....er......well......rather, a Kleenex box. You know how quilt binding can get all twisty as you try to sew it on? It's a mess, unless you take a few minutes at the beginning to carefully wind it into a roll. 

I start by winding the quilt binding, unfolded, onto a long pencil (not a short, stubby pencil). I don't fold and iron the binding lengthwise because by the time it's sewn down and turned to the other side to be blind-stitched, the fold is no longer right on the edge to be hand stitched......so why bother to iron it? Also, finishing the binding is easier without the fold (which is another blog post, altogether, which I haven't written, yet, sorry.)

Then I take my Kleenex box, which I've been using for the past FIVE YEARS....the one with the pencil-sized holes in each side about half way from every side of the box

I put the roll inside the Kleenex box (doesn't matter which way is up - it's not toilet paper!)

See?

I mark the end of the binding 12" from the end all the way across.

And I put a mark, wider than the binding about halfway along one side of the quilt.

I place the box on the floor next to my presser foot. And away we go!

Folding the binding in half, lengthwise and matching the lines, I back stitch a few stitches, and begin sewing the folded binding to the front of the quilt, raw edges to the right. I continue folding and stitching until I get about 1" from a corner.

Then, I measure and mark 1/4" toward the presser foot from the corner edge of the fabric and mark a line I can see. I stitch to the line and stop, lifting the needle and presser foot and pulling out about 5 " of top and bobbin thread but not cutting the thread.

Turn the quilt so you are ready to begin stitching down the next side. With the thread still attached, pull the folded binding straight up in a right angle to the side you just stitched, away from you, then fold it straight toward you, forming a square with the folded edge and right hand raw edge along the edge of the quilt.

Like this.

Then, place the presser foot on the very edge of the quilt and binding and 1/4" from the quilt and binding raw edge, back stitch a few stitches and continue sewing down the side. Repeat this technique for making squared corners at each turn.

On you go! Stay tuned for instructions on seamless binding ends......

Meanwhile, you just might win a prize!

And speaking of prizes! 

Our winner of the drawing for a Prairie Cottage Quilt pattern of her choice, today, is Sandi Timmons!

 Congratulations, Sandi! 

Thank you for all your nice comments and stay tuned for our new contest early next month. 

Meanwhile, back to the drawing board. 

New patterns are on their way to you!