Hexagon Hoot

Well here is the result of one of my outdoor cooking experiences last week.  Have you ever heard of pie irons?  We use them every time we go camping and every so often when we build a fire in the fire pit in the back yard.  They are great for making dessert after dinner.  In the past we have only made "pie" in them.  Here is our standard recipe:

• Butter a piece of bread and sprinkle with cinnamon
• Insert it into one side of the pie iron, butter side down
• squish the bread down so you can make a hole for your fruit filling
• spoon in the fruit filling of your choice -- we usually stick with can cherry or blueberry filling
• butter another piece of bread and sprinkle with cinnamon
• Insert it into the other side of the pie iron, butter side down
• close the pie iron and lock down the clasp on the bar
• cook for about 10 minutes, flipping sides every few minutes to toast bread evenly
• Peek to see that it is done, if not close and cook longer
• If golden brown,  pop it on a plate,  let it cool down and enjoy!

This trip we tried new recipes --- most with no trouble.  We made blackberry pies with fresh fruit and crescent dough for the crust.  Even though the ended up delicious---we were quite concerned when the dough started bubbly out the side of the pie irons.  What remained inside cooked up great.  What spilled out was fuel for the fire. We made cornbread--- it actually turned out awesome and never overfilled the iron. We could only fill one half of the iron and it raised great.  We also made grilled ham and swiss cheese sandwiches that were delicious.  With each of these recipes the KEY is to check and make sure you don't burn the what you are cooking.  Here is where I ran in to trouble on the trip.  I stopped to check that I wasn't burning what I was yearning to eat and here is what happened when I wasn't using my noggin'

I laid the pie iron on the empty chair next to me and the chair cushion instantly melted away.  Oops...My husband loves these chairs.  What to do???.... As it happens I had brought some extra fabric with me because I have always wanted to learn to make hexagons but had never taken the time to learn.  Since I thought it would be a great car ride or campfire filler I brought the instructions and some paper hexagon patterns with me.  I found this great free template download by Abi over at Snippets and Blabbery and I promptly cut out a few and was surprised how quickly I could put a whole flower together ---even though I was a complete newbie to this.  Must have been the added incentive of needing to fix my Hubby's beloved chair.







Yep that patch was going to be the perfect size to cover my
"Boo Boo"
So I just starting stitching that baby into place and 'Tada' all fixed and beautified!!!

Now I think I need to add a few more to really
max out the girl power on this chair.  You know this chair is permanently "mine".  Not sure if I want three or five of these on here to really cherry up this chair.





Here is a picture of the pie iron.  This is when we cooked cornbread to go with our Sausage and Bean Dutch Oven Stew. We thought we should go low heat and slow with these so we started out on top of the grate but ended up holding them below the grate to get enough heat to cook them.  They were delicious.

Keepin' it together --- do the same

Progress in Paradise

We spent the last week camping up on Mt Rainier at Cougar Campground and hiking up at Paradise Inn and at Sunrise on the Northeast side of the mountain.  The sub alpine meadows are in full bloom.  We saw deer but thankfully no bear or cougar.  Wouldn't you agree that these are pictures of Paradise for sure? It was great being unplugged for the week and relaxing. The sky is really that blue up there. I also got a lot of hand sewing done with two of my UFO's getting completed.  They now smell like a campfire but a good washing and they are going to look great on my tables.

This is a table runner that I started over six years ago (when my kitchen was still red ---it no longer is).   I put off finishing it because it had inside corners to bind. I wasn't confident I could do that so I set it off to the side.  Come to find out inside corners are easier than outside corners and now I wish you could design a quilt with only inside corners. They are that easy. Here is a picture of the finished project.  I couldn't even find the pattern I used for this one but I think it had buttons in the center of the blocks for the flower centers so I put three in the middle of each flower.

I had another table runner that I had started about two years ago which at least matches my current decor.  It has lots of flowers sewn on it and each is hand quilted around the edges, as are each of the many leaves.

The flower centers are buttons covered with fabric and I LOVE how this turned out. I am doing a happy dance just looking at this makes my heart sing.  Check it out. Isn't it gorgeous?

I also had time to embroider one more garden step block on the drive up to Sunrise.  Which I am glad I had in the truck because the road is a series of switch backs climbing the mountain on cliffs with no shoulders on the road and I wasn't enjoying the view out the window like I should have.  It was almost too scary. I would love to do more hiking in that area but I don't really want to go up that road again any time soon.

I also took along some fabric to give making hexagons a try. I had the opportunity to give it a shot and will share that outcome later in the week. I got my see saw swap block back from my partner while I was gone for the Halloween See Saw Swap and will share it's progress soon, plus I won a fat quarter bundle from Bea
at beaquilter.  She just gave birth to a beautiful baby girl, Sonja, and I guessed her birth weight right on the nose and was closet to the right time of day she would make her arrival. Big thanks to Bea and all the Staff at Connecting Threads for Sponsoring this fun giveaway and the opportunity to put this fat quarter bundle of Pearadise to good use.  Hey maybe it was my being at Paradise that brought me the good fortune to win some Pearadise.  Just a thought...