Tag Archives: Daily Happenings

This Jacob’s Ladder quilt seemed perfect for a batik stash job. I didn’t like their method of assembling half-squares that wastes a fair amount of fabric, so I reworked the pattern slightly and that gave me the opportunity to try out this no-mark method as well. I pulled 18 pairs of batik fat quarters but I  sewed a test square first to be sure I’d crunched numbers correctly before cutting into my fabric. Each fat quarter pair will yield 4 blocks. I really liked the no-mark method. I used plain paper 1/2″ wide which allows me to see through to the fabric beneath to line it up easily.

Apple picking time is also coffee cake time. I like to use a variety of apples when I bake. For this coffee cake I used Crimson Crisp, Honey Crisp, Shizuka, and Macoun.

Fresh Apple Coffeecake

1/2 cup butter, softened
2 cups sugar
4 eggs
2 cups flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
5 cups apples, peeled and chopped
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 1/2 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon, ground

Beat butter at medium speed.  Gradually add 2 cups sugar and cream together.  Add eggs, one at a time, beating well  after each addition.
Combine flour, baking powder and salt.  Add to creamed mixture.  Stir in apple and vanilla.  Spoon batter into a greased and floured 9x13x2 pan.  Combine remaining sugar and cinnamon; sprinkle over cake batter.  Bake at 350 F for 45 minutes or until a wooden pick inserted in center comes out clean.

Baby Honu is all ready to be quilted!

We did an awful lot of shopping but I think we were both pretty good about shopping for upcoming projects we had in mind. Packing up the luggage dolly was interesting. Before heading for home we also stopped in at the Wisconsin Sheep and Wool festival where Fiber Optic gradient roving was a huge hit with both of us.

For the diehards, the full set of photos is here.

Yesterday, instead of Farmer’s Wife class, I had a “perfect piecing” class. Lately, I’ve been the only student there for the daytime class so I get a one on one class. For Farmer’s Wife class that’s great but I think it introduced some error for the piecing class since I wasn’t really looking at the pattern, just sewing what was handed to me. I had to rush off a bit early to get Gabby to the vet so I’ll have to finish this up later as I’m headed out of town today and will be away all week. Obviously, what I’ve sewn so far is far from perfect but I got many great tips that I hope will improve my piecing. Her best tip was to do the math for the blocks you are working on and check the size of each unit before assembly then check the final block size and square up units and final block.

The new dishwasher is all ready to go and the bonus is that he also installed a reverse osmosis system another plumber refused to do. It’s wonderful to be rid of the old leaky dishwasher. Because we’ve had two cats with kidney issues the vet things we have a high calcium content in our water so having easier access to filtered water could benefit us as well.

We make pizza pretty often but I always forget to take pictures. There’s always at least one pepperoni pizza for Daniel and the rest is fairly variable. Last night I used the last of my garlic scape and chard pesto along with goat cheese, mushrooms, serrano peppers and a sprinkle of asiago grated over top for a killer pizza. Jason cooks them on the Big Green Egg so the crust gets wonderfully crispy and in summer the house stays cool. Win win!

Sourdough Pizza dough

1 cup sourdough starter

1 cup warm water

1 teaspoon honey

2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast (1 packet)

3 or 4 cups bread flour or enough to make a dough that pulls away from the mixer bowl

2 teaspoons salt

Combine starter, honey, water and yeast in the bowl of a mixer and let stand about ten minutes or until yeast begins to bubble. Add salt and 3 cups flour and knead with a dough hook, adding more flour as necessary until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Knead with the dough hook in the mixer for 5 minutes. Turn into a large bowl coated with olive oil and cover tightly. Let rise an hour. Roll out 1/3 of the dough at a time on a floured board. Add desired toppings and bake at 450F until edges are golden brown.

Last night we started the dishwasher and shortly after Daniel came upstairs and reported water coming down through the ceiling into the basement. Jason took the baseplate off and reported water leaking rapidly out and down through the hole for the wiring so he promptly shut it off. The plumber says it’s a badly cracked pump housing which is an expensive piece to replace, especially for a dishwasher that’s never really been that great. I asked the plumber for some advice on which brands he likes and we’ll be getting a new Bosch next week.