Pumpkin Spice & Everything Nice

Not too much quilting going on these days so this isn't a very quilty post.  A bunch of people have asked to see the nursery so here are a few pictures.  The furniture hasn't been delivered yet, but here's what we have so far:

My husband loves giraffes :) The dresser and crib will go on the wall to the right of the picture.  We also hung  these cute moon and star decorations my mother-in-law bought us at a craft show.

I can't wait for the furniture to be delivered!!!

My friend picked up the baby quilt yesterday and, Hallelujah!, she loved it!  I've never know what to charge for quilts and hadn't heard what others charged.   What do you charge?  I charged her $120 and she paid me $140.  I was quite surprised with that! :)  I'm calling this quilt "Fabuland".  Does anyone else remember these legos?  I loved them.

 

 

And lastly, since I'm a pumpkin obsessed pregnant woman, here is another recipe I made today for pumpkin chocolate chip cookies.  Soooo yummy!  Here's the link to all recipes where I found the recipe.  The only thing I changed was I used 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon and 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice instead of 2 teaspoons cinnamon. 

Oh and I almost forgot!  Thank you for everyone's well wishes.  Some of you might remember that I was being monitored for a partial placenta previa.  Well at my last ultrasound, the placenta moved out of the way!! Now I'm cleared for a regular delivery and I won't have to schedule a C-section.  Life is good :)

Hmmm....how many cookies is it acceptable to eat today?

Pumpkin shortage?

I can't believe its been almost a month since I posted last.  I'm so behind on everything these days!  I apologize for being so behind on reading everyone's blogs!

I'm now 29 weeks along and I can't believe how fast time is moving.  We're still waiting on the delivery of the baby furniture, but we've made good progress getting the baby's room ready.  Its amazing how much money we've spent on this baby between baby monitors, furniture, etc!  And it hasn't even been born yet! Crazy!

The past few weekends we had company visiting.  One of those weekends my best friend came for our seasonal girly get together.  We had such a great time watching chick flicks, shopping, and sewing.  I got started on making 4 of these fall place-mats- I still need to get the binding sewn on.

I also made the second quilt top for the woman who is paying me.  I had originally picked out blue/green/red dog fabrics and she thought it was too boy.  Well she was right and her sister-in-law had a girl!  So off I went to the shop and found some new fabrics.  I requested she go shopping with me to avoid what happened last time, but she said she just wanted me to pick it out.  I sure hope she likes it!  Here's the top and the backing fabric.

I love the animals!! :)

Then I finished up my project pure quilt.  I was so flattered that Vickie at Spun Sugar Quilts was inspired by my orange/Pure combination and wrote a post about it!!

I went with a brown minkee dot border since I'm obsessed with the stuff.  I quilted the top to the batting to give it some dimension, then tied the top/batting to the backing which is also a brown minkee that has lines on it.  I was really happy with it until I washed it and the yarn I used to tie the quilt frayed into a mess.

So I cut the ties and redid it with a white yarn I had used in the past that I know won't fray (Patons Grace 100% mercerized cotton).  I was happy the ties didn't show on the back side at all.  I guess the minkee is plush enough to hide the white.

Now I love it!!!  It doesn't seem like tying is done all that often, but I really enjoy this method when working with minkee backs.  Here is my tutorial if you are interested in giving it a go.  Its my new favorite snuggle up quilt and completely puts me in fall mode.

The weather is gorgeous today and all these fall projects put me in the mood to bake pumpkin orange spice bread.  I thought this would be a simple task, but 2 grocery stores and about 10 phone calls to grocery stores later I learned there is a canned pumpkin shortage!  What?!  Apparently 2 years ago, there was a problem with the specific pumpkin used for baking.  Libby's, the main manufacturer of canned pumpkin, production is 2 years out so this year is the year where they can't keep up.  I finally found a store around here that had some and I bought 7 cans.  I suggest stocking up now for Thanksgiving (if you can find it)!! 

Here's the recipe if you'd like to make this delicious dessert like bread:

Pumpkin Orange Spice Bread
Ingredients:
1 3/4 cups flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons cinammon
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1 cup canned pumpkin
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup orange juice
1 egg
1 tablespoon orange zest
4 tablespoons butter
1 cup sugar


1) Preheat the oven to 350 deg
2) In a large blow, combine flour, baking powder, cinammon, baking soda, cloves, salt, and ginger.  Mix well and set aside.
3) In a medium bowl, whisk pumpkin, milk, orange juice, egg, and orange zest and set aside.
4) In a large mixing bowl, beat together butter and sugar until light a fluffy.  Gradually add flour and pumpkin mixtures alternating each, beginning and ending with four mixtures.  Blend until smooth.  
5) Pour into an 8" loaf pan that has been coated with non-stick spray.  Bake 1 hr or until a wooden toothpick comes out clean.  Cool completely. 

Well I hope to be back caught up soon in blogland!! :)