Recipe Swap ............

............. OK, I'll show you mine, if you'll show me yours.  I thought it would be fun to all post a Christmas recipe, so I'll tell you how to make my gingerbread men/snowmen/blobs.

Gingerbread Men:

Ingredients

350g plain flour

100g butter

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

2 tsp ground ginger

1 egg

4 tbsps Golden Syrup

175 g light, soft brown sugar

Method

Preheat the oven to 180 C/350 F/Gas Mark 4

Put the flour, butter, bicarb and ginger in a bowl and mix to fine breadcrumbs

Add the egg, syrup and sugar and mix to a firm dough

Chill for 30 mins.  (I meant the dough, not you.)

Dust your surface and rolling pin with flour and roll out to about 5 mm thick

Cut out shapes of men, trees, blobs or whatever you want, and put them on a baking tray, leaving room for them to spread, just as I did as I got older

Cook for 10 - 15 mins

Cool them on a wire rack, and decorate as you wish.

This makes about 15 men.

Mr Bossy Boots Linky is 2 posts back now.

No comment .............

Sorry, I should have said that Mr BossBoots Linky is on the previous post.

Take a break ..............

........... and have a go at this quiz.

and when you've done that, why not go and have a look at what everyone else has been doing.

and definitely go and have a look at what Midge has just posted.

Email the answers to me, and I'll have a draw for a little prize and announce the winner tomorrow.

Christmas Quiltalong Quiz

1. What Christmas Ballet is the most famous of all?
o Rudolph’s Surprise
o The Nutcracker
o Frosty Goes to New York

2. Where was Mommy kissing Santa Claus?
o On the Corner
o Under the Mistletoe
o In a Dark Alley

3. Who wrote the song "Here Comes Santa Claus"?
o Michael Jackson
o Gene Autry
o Percy Douglas

4. What does Alvin want for Christmas?
o An iPod
o A Bottle of Rum
o A Hula Hoop

5. What should little children leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve?
o Milk and a Biscuit
o Chewing Gum
o Cheese

6. What is Frosty the Snowman's nose made of?
o A Carrot
o A Potato
o A Button

7. Who is Ebenezer?
o The Milkman
o The President
o Scrooge

9. Which reindeer's name starts with a "B"?
o Bart
o Burt
o Blitzen

10. Which reindeer does not belong below?
o Dancer
o Roger
o Dasher

Would you like a gingerbread man?

I know, they don't look like gingerbread men at all do they?  That's cos I couldn't find the right cutter, so I used a snowman one instead.  Don't anyone tell me they don't look like snowmen either, I know they don't, but they taste very good.

I was going to give you useful(?) Christmas facts here, but blogger isn't playing very nicely at the moment, so I'll try again in a little while.

What the ....................

........... "does she think she's making Christmas decorations?" you're all asking.

Nope.  I'm making these.  Aren't they pretty?

Lunch time ...........

......... so I've just been to see what everyone else is working on.  Nosey?  Yep, that's me.  Don't forget to go and visit everyone else.

Ready .............

I'm going to try and Move Mr BossyBoots Linky every time I write a new post today. Keep your fingers crossed that it works OK.

Decision made ......................

All that's left of a jelly roll ....................

All nice and neatly cut and ready to go ...............







I should also add that I have got a few fun (well I think, anyway) things planned for later.  I'm just trying to give those of you who's time is behind British Summer Time a chance to get stuck in first.

It's Christmas .............

 ............... well actually it isn't, but it is Christmas Quiltalong day.

Mr Linky is going to move each time to the latest post - I hope.  If you put your name and blog address in there, then this clever Mr Linky produces a list of the names for us that we can click on to go visit each other.  How clever is that?
By the way, you don't have to leave a comment if you don't want to, even though Mr Bossy Boots Linky tells you too.

Are you ready ...........

.......... for some fun tomorrow?

I have one or two little surprises as we go through the day, which will require some audience participation.  Of course, you don't have to join in the games, but I'll sulk if you don't.  Oh and I'll keep the prizes, so there.

You'll all be pleased to hear that I have decided what I am going to make, and I don't even need to go shopping first.  Of course, the same may not be said for next month!

Now I'm off to make sure my camera batteries are charged up.

I hope you will all post during the day and I will put one of those clever Mr Linky things on here tomorrow, so anyone who's taking part can put their blog address, and then we can all visit each other during the course of the day to see what everyone's been up to.

I've got a problem .........

....... yeah, yeah, quiet at the back there those of you muttering "we KNOW you have".  No, my problem is regarding the Christmas Quiltalong. I can't decide what to make. I've got loads of different ideas in my mind, and they're all jumping up and down shouting "pick me, pick me!" and I can't make up my mind.  Most of them aren't "Christmas" quilts, as such, but whatever I make will be a present for my sister.  Has anyone else got this problem, or are you all so well organised that you know just what you're going to do, and have got all the fabrics sorted out and so on?

It's nearly time ....

...... for the Christmas Quiltalong

Helppppp .........

...... as some of you know, my daughter (aka Mrs Nomad) is in Florida on holiday at the moment.  Now I have somehow conned persuaded her that there is nothing she would like more than to go shopping for me.  Fabric shopping, that is.  The thing is, I'm no good at geography (failed it 3 times at O level at school!) so I know she's in Kissimee, but I don't know what quilt shops there are that are fairly near her.  Is there any one out there who could tell me where to tell her to go?

It's nearly Christmas ...............

...... well OK, it isn't actually, but, I wanted to share this with you in plenty of time.

Last year SewCalGal organised a virtual quilt show, which was great fun, with loads of gorgeous Christmas themed quilts for us to look at, and loads of prizes too for entrants and viewers.  I entered a quilt and in the unlikely event that you've forgotten it, you can see my entry again here. 

Anyway, this isn't about me (for once) and my entry, it's about the fact that SewCalGal never learns, so she is planning another show for this Christmas.  The good news for us is that anyone who takes part in the Christmas Quiltalong will get an additional entry into the prize contests.  So come on everyone, lets all get cracking on our Christmas quilts so we can show them off to the whole bloggy world in a show where our quilts won't be juried or judged, just appreciated by like-minded people, and where we might win great prizes too.

It's nearly time for the festivities to begin.

So I spent some time this afternoon getting ready.
Festive fabrics?  Check.
Festive threads?  Check
Festive music?  Check.
Festive candles?  Check.
Festive food?  Not yet.
Festive pattern for the festive fabrics?  Well, yes and no.  I have designed something, but I'm not sure if I'm going to use it yet.  I may well revert to Plan B instead.

Who else is ready for some festive fun at our Christmas Quiltalong next Saturday? 

The benefit ........

......... of having an uncle who is an ice-cream man!

Little Person and his Mummy and Daddy have been here this week.  We've also had The Professor and Chatterbox here as it is school holidays.

Little Person and family went home this morning, and the Nomads went off to Florida for a 3 week holiday today, so it's going to be a bit quiet here for a while.

I might even go and do some sewing today.

I must also start getting my things ready for the Christmas Quiltalong.

Thank you ..........

..... so much to everyone who triedd to help me find the pattern I was wittering on about.  I have now found it.  Whooppee.  I have a lovely little collection of batiks in bronzey-browny-yellowy colours that I just thought would be ideal for this.

Wanted ............

.... I have been trying to find a copy of Quiltmaker Magazine, Sept/Oct 2002, which has a pattern in it called Turning Leaves, which is a positive/negative type of block. I've seen pictures of the block and of quilts using it on google images, but I can't show you cos of copyright, so I've tried to do a picture to give you the idea.

You have to use a bit of imagination here and imagine the central diamond shape is really a leaf!

I have tried the magazine's site, but they don't have it. I've tried googling, but can't find it there. I've tried Ebay, but can't find it there either. So I wonder if anyone out there in blogland has a copy they would be willing to sell?  Please?  Pretty please?

I've done it! ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

....... I've created a Christmas Quiltalong button. Do you like it?

If you do, you can easily add it to your blog too and help to spread the word. All you have to do is ucopy the code in the box underneath the button, go to your blog design page, choose the "add a gadget" option, then choose "add HTML" and paste the code in and save it. With a bit of luck, you'll then have a nice button on your blog too.

Now, where was I? ..........

.......... oh yes, I remember, I was having a good idea wasn't I?  Would you like to know what it was?  OK, here goes.

From comments made on my giveaway post, it seems that I am NOT the only person in the world who is full of good intentions in January about starting my Christmas projects early this year, and then finding myself in December rushing to finish things.  Soooo............

Why don't we have a Christmas Quiltalong?  

What's a Christmas Quiltalong?  It's where we get out our Christmas projects and all set aside one day each month, (I thought maybe the second Saturday, would be good,) lock the doors, cook the meals in advance, tell everyone that you are not to be disturbed, and take yourself off to your sewing area, take out your Christmas projects and cut, sew, press, sew some more, press, cut .... well you get the idea.  We could then post on our blogs a couple of times in the day to say what we are doing and maybe include photos, and then we could all visit each other to see what's going on.   

I'll even design a little button for everyone to put on their blogs saying we've joined the Christmas Quiltalong.  (Finding out how to do that is what I have spent all morning doing.)

If we started this in August, just think how much we could get done before Christmas.  How about it?  Anyone going to join me? 

I've had an idea ..............

...... when I was on the committee of  Tuesday Quilters, the other committee members all used to groan when I said that.  They just knew that somehow it was going to involve them in some work.

Well, anyway, I have had a really good idea.  Come back tomorrow and I'll share this idea with you.