In the Works

Busy weekend.  Glad I took Monday off to catch my breath!

I worked on my Two-Colour Mystery quilt.  Week five consisted of mitered blocks.  Following the assembly instructions produced a small stack of triangles, so I made a tiny stack of 1¾-inch squares.  Don't know what I'll do with them, but I'm sure I'll think of something.

Easter Candy!  This year I swapped out toffee (I've been struggling with the recipe lately) for caramels (some with pecans, some plain).  Last year I tested out chai spiced cookie dough truffles as well as coffee buttercreams.  Both were such a hit I kept them this year.  I overdid the amount of chai in them this year (oops) but the coffee was perfect. 

This year's try-outs were lemon buttercreams and dipped black and white paves.  The recipe for paves shows them dipped, but the first time we tried that, they seized the chocolate.  My notes clearly state:  DO NOT DIP.  But I after I finished all the other chocolates I still had some tempered chocolate, so I took the plunge.  Beautiful! 

I updated my notes.  Next year: try dipping the lemon buttercreams in white chocolate (or maybe milk chocolate).  The dark chocolate overwhelmed the lemon.  I will certainly try dipping the paves again.  And to ease up just a bit on the chai spice.  Maybe try to cube up those caramels?  They weren't supposed to be so thin, but I kind of like them like that.

I'm still trying to visualize a quilted sweatshirt jacket.  I went from an Irish Chain pattern to strings, figuring I wouldn't need to line anything up.  I like the colors and the overall look, but I'm still tinkering with orientation and if I want to make anything pop.  I'm hoping to work on that some more this week.

Next scheduled project is a throw quilt (a pattern called Feather Bed).  I've done two small versions of this pattern.  I just finished buying fabrics for this one:  sage green and blues.  I found a background fabric that's faintly silvery white.  It's a somewhat scrappy quilt.  My trip to Paper City landed me a few fabrics I wanted; the Textile Company rounded it out.  As usual, I bought way more (like twice as much) than I needed.  Some was because I liked the colors and will keep the leftovers in my stash.  Plus sometimes fabrics that look great in the store don't play nice once they're on the design wall.  A few extra quarters now save me from another trip in the middle of the quilt.  Or at least I hope so!