Monday 11 October 2021

Canadian Thanksgiving, Two New Quilt Ideas, Game Changer Bread Machine Buns, Slow Stitching

 I have to say how great it was to read all your dinner ideas in the comment section of the last post.  Quite a nice array and I will definitely be looking back at it for ideas. It seems I get tired of our usual fare and feel stumped from time to time. Quiltgramma (no blog) mentioned an idea for a slow cooker meal that would cook overnight. That appeals to me, the multi-tasker as you know.  Dinner cooking away while I'm sleeping, yes to that! I'm going to be good for this week though because we had our Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and I have loads of leftovers.

What's turning my head?? Two New(ish) Quilt Ideas

Right now and I guess it is because of the season, leaves are on my mind.  I subscribe to Leila Gardnia's site and she has been running a little SAL featuring scrappy maple leaves. 


Now sewing a quilt with maple leaves is something I've mentioned often here on the blog. You can read more about that here on her blog. So that caught my eye.

The other idea that has cropped up and keeping still with trees, is trees. In this case small ones. I loved what Diann made last year with her colourful trees she called her Rainbow Jungle.. And I've been following Marie, the Quilt Bee who has been hand stitching small tree blocks for about a year for a project appropriately called Little Trees. The original idea stemmed from  Anna Jantina who used mostly cheery pinks and reds for a stunning kind of look to a quilt she made to cheer herself up. These are small so one a day seems easy and another great little scrap project. A link is here.

I'm being really good though and going to let both ideas jell a little more while advancing my present projects.  This week I'll continue to remove the papers from my Courthouse Steps, trim them and get ready for the big stitching together! 

So yes I had family for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday.  It was wonderful to be together again. The menu this year was standard Thanksgiving fare...cauliflower casserole, carrots, sweet potatoes, snap peas, mashed potatoes, and homemade rolls. Of course turkey, gravy and cranberry sauce. Nothing fancy. Tony here eyeing the turkey while SIL was doing the carving.

For the rolls and for the first time, I made the bread dough in the bread machine and that is a bit of a game changer. The dough setting takes about an hour and half. 
It made enough for this pan of buns; they turned out fluffy and tasted good especially rubbed with real butter. I didn't take pictures because I was too busy gabbing. 
This morning I took Ned for a long walk; cloudy but warm and pleasant walking. I was on my feet a lot yesterday so I will relax today. After sitting by the pond with my camera, I'm going to content myself with some handwork.  I want to catch up with Flosstube favourites, Pam and Steph, a very popular mother/daughter duo. Here is a link to their channel, Just Keep Stitchin'.
My June bride is coming along and stitching in silk is sooo pleasant. 

Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Canadians and Happy Monday to everyone!

29 comments :

Karen - Quilts...etc. said...

I bet you had a nice Thanksgiving and so nice to be with family again isn't it. I love the quilt with the tree - the leaf quilt is nice too. I too run out of ideas for meals, it seems I make the same stuff all the time only vary it up a bit depending on the season using the oven more in the winter

Libby in TN said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you! Sounds like a delicious meal.

Jay said...

Love the idea of hand stitching those cute little trees. I need a new hand piecing project after making a lot of Manx blocks and not knowing what to do with them! I'm a fan of trees in pretty much any form, so these would be right up my alley. Thanks for the idea!

Bonnie said...

Yum! That turkey looks good. We have to wait another 5 weeks or so to enjoy a big turkey dinner. Don't know if we'll get together with family or not. Maybe if the kids get vaccinated before then. Happy T Day to you and yours.

Lisa said...

Happy Thanksgiving from BC! I discovered your blog about a month ago and have been enjoying your posts. We had our dinner yesterday also. My sister and family travelled from Alberta for a visit but left this morning, it had been almost 2 years since we last saw each other! Like you I plan to put my feet up for a while today although I am also hoping to get out for a walk as the sun is shining in a cloudless sky this morning and my golden retriever will enjoy an outing. I hope you are enjoying your day.

LIttle Penguin Quilts said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family, Jocelyn! It sounds like a yummy meal and so nice to have your family there with you, too. You are so sweet to mention my Rainbow Jungle - makes me think about how that quilt top is done, but needs to be truly finished! But a hand-pieced tree project - that's intriguing to me, too. I'll have to check that out!

loulee said...

Wow, you have so much going on. Lovely quilt ideas.
I love my slow cooker and use it all year round.

Jenny said...

As you probably know, we dont celebrate Thanksgiving here, so I've never had a Thanksgiving Dinner. Yours certainly sounded tasty, and I looked up some recipes for cauliflower casserole. We do eat cauliflower regularly, but this was a new to me idea, thanks for that.

Kim said...

Here's to always sleeping while dinner is percolating away. =) Your Thanksgiving celebratory meal does sound delicious! Those two quilts you are thinking about are lovely. I especially love those little Christmas trees. How nice to sit by the pond and enjoy a little hand stitching. It sounds rather perfect.

Deb A said...

I'm going to look up cauliflower casserole. Em loves it roasted but I'd like to try another way sometimes. Your dinner sounds yummy. I'll have to try the bread machine to make rolls sometime before the end of next month when we have ours. I'd have that turkey carcass in a crock pot making broth overnight =). Now to go search for those meals in the comments. Enjoy your week.

Brian's Home Blog said...

I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving and the food and rolls look wonderful.

Rosemary Dickinson said...

Hope you had a Happy Thanksgiving! I love those 2 quilts you're looking at. There are so many fun Sew Alongs out there. I have to keep myself from starting too many of them!

Jocelyn said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family. My daughter is in Montreal this weekend for work. She flies home tomorrow.

AnnieO said...

Love the Maple leaves. Glad your Thanksgiving dinner turned out well. We had backyard Thanksgiving last year and it just wasn't the same! I like to throw chunks of cut up turkey into the leftover fruit salad which is mostly apples, some grapes, walnuts and pomegranate seeds with a plain or vanilla yogurt dressing. Yum.
Hope stitching time is happy.

Linda said...

Loved the look at your Thanksgiving! Those rolls look yummy. What was for dessert? Isn't it funny that's the only day of the year I would even think about eating two kinds of potatoes - lol!
I enjoyed that link to peek at Diann's Rainbow Jungle again - such a cute quilt.
Now you've got me interested in making trees. I almost bought a maple leaf pattern yesterday. Still thinking about it, but I guess I should get on it because fall doesn't last forever!

Jenn Jilks said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you! We've so much to be grateful for.

grammajudyb said...

Your Thanksgiving meals sounds wonderful! I’m looking forward to turkey in a few weeks! If all goes well, we should be in California to celebrate with our son. Cauliflower casserole sounds div. I’ll have to look that one up! I’m in the market for new boots too! I dislike shopping for shoes online. My feet are picky about their shoes! I like the looks of those you mentioned. Cute! And sturdy looking!

Sherrie said...

Hi Jocelyn,
I know what you mean about new projects. I see so many pretty quilts while blog hopping...I want to make them all, but that's not possible, is it.lol So I take notes on fabrics used, colors and sizes...then one day I can make one. I really like your Log Cabin blocks. So pretty and colorful. Your Thanksgiving dinner looks so yummy. I've already started making a list of what to cook..our Thanksgiving is next month. Yours buns look so yummy! Your cross stitching is pretty, I've never used silk floss before, I'll have to give that a try. Have a great day!

piecefulwendy said...

Happy Thanksgiving to you and your family! I've missed a few of your posts, so I need to go back and do some reading. I'm seeing little maple leaf blocks popping up all over my feed lately. They are so cute! Little trees would be fun, too. Your morning walks sound lovely.

PaintedThread said...

Happy Thanksgiving! That photo of Tony eyeballing the turkey made me chuckle - his whole body languages says "I want that." LOL Meanwhile I'm drooling over those buns - they look great.

Judy Hansen said...

Both leaf and tree projects are tempting me, but I am trying to stick with finishing some UFOs first. Your rolls look delicious. There is nothing better than warm homemade rolls with butter. Happy Thanksgiving! Hugs, Judy

Jackie said...

Happy Thanksgiving a bit late. Like you we had family and it was wonderful getting together.

I love using my bread machine to make buns, like you say a game changer.

That small tree quilt looks interesting and I am going to have to check it out further.

God bless.

Cheree @ The Morning Latte said...

I can't imagine being without my breadmaker, though I rarely make bread now that our kids are all gone. It's definitely a time-saver when you have a large meal to deal with! I even use it to make pasta dough (but, again, we hardly eat that any more).

Linda said...

Just dropping in to say thank you for linking up with To Do Tuesday! And compliments of Diann who blogge3d about the Autumn Jubilee, I now have a leaf pattern. So the circle of squirrel is complete - lol!

Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

This post makes we quilters in the USA get our turkeys in the freezer before they all die off! Have a great week working on your Courthouse Steps quilt! Looking good!

QuiltGranma said...

Sounds like you got a feast with lots of variety of foods! Always good, variety, and many colors! Just like what we want in a quilt too, a delicious mix of goodies!

Magpie's Mumblings said...

I love those little trees - would be a nice project to work on over the winter and wouldn't necessarily have to be Christmas-y.
Glad you had time with family over Thanksgiving and your meal looks excellent.

Sharon Kwilter said...

I have never had cauliflower casserole before. I definitely need to go find a recipe and try that for our thanksgiving. Do you have a recipe you especially like?

dq said...

Thanks for sharing about your early THanksgiving in a lovely kitchen! We do an early THanksgiving as well so everyone can likely come.