The Great Bread Making Adventure: Granary Cob, Grant Loaves, Poppy-Seeded Bloomer and a Couple of Belated Mentions

 At one time, Silver Hills bread, my favourite store-bought bread, was available for purchase in town at all three of our local grocery options. I'm not sure why, but now only one of those stores offers it. And the price keeps going up. And I find most other store-bought breads doughy and unpalatable, with sometimes questionable ingredients. Since I'm now retired and supposedly have more time on my hands, plus the fact that I do own a Bosch mixer that has been standing mostly idle for years, not to mention a fairly new grain grinder (my daughter "inherited" my old one) and a store of organic grains, I decided that I really should be baking my own bread. It's just a matter of setting aside the time to actually get it done. I do enjoy bread making, especially when it turns out well. And I have found a recipe that makes a few loaves, which is what I want, but I'm still tweaking it. I haven't hit on the optimum amount of flour to add without it being incredibly sticky. As a result, I often end up with malformed, albeit edible, loaves. 

I will keep working on that however. 
Meanwhile, I was overdue for baking a batch of bread, and actually resorted to buying some Silver Hills bread at the only store in town that still sells it. I finally made the time to grind some grain, and was planning on using my "usual" recipe when I happened to pull out The World Encyclopedia of Bread. It's been a long time since I've tried any recipes from this book. 
After all of the reference material, the first recipe in the book is the Granary Cob, which calls for Granary flour or malthouse flour. Try finding that in Canada! Unless, I was prepared to pay a small fortune to have it shipped from the UK, I would have to find an alternate. Fortunately, I was able to find a UK vendor for malthouse flour that actually gives the percentages for the ingredients. Thank you, Doves Farm. I already had wheat and rye, but I had to find malted barley and malted wheat flakes. None of my usual grain vendors in Canada carried malted products, so I had to turn to a home brewing company, where I was able to purchase what I needed. The wheat flakes do not indicate that they are malted, so I bought malted wheat as well. Using the percentages from the Doves Farm website as a rough guide, I came up with my own blend for malthouse flour. 
I actually made the flour some time ago, but hadn't gotten around to making the Granary Cob. So, I decided it was time. 

In addition, I decided to try the second recipe, Grant Loaves, as well, in lieu of my regular bread recipe. 
The Granary cob has a pretty thick crust, especially on the bottom. I seem to have this problem with many of my bread experiments and will have to research how to remedy that. Otherwise good flavour and texture. This bread has no added fats or sugars.

The Grant loaf is a fairly dense bread, which was to be expected since it is not kneaded and only has a 30 minute rise. But it's flavour and texture were also good. I don't know if I will repeat this recipe, however, as I prefer that my bread be not so heavy and dense. It also has no added fats and only 1 tablespoon of muscovado sugar for the 3 loaves. I didn't have muscovado and all my brown sugars were hard as rock, so I used date sugar. 

I decided I wanted to make the Poppy-Seeded Bloomer as well, but ran out of time that day as this one requires a cool rise of 5-6 hours and a 2 hour second rise. As it turned out, however, when I made it the next day, in spite of being in the cold storage room, my dough only took a couple of hours for the first rise and an hour and a half for the second rise. I also added more water than the recipe called for and reduced the cooking time by about 10-15 minutes as well. I didn't slash it as deeply as I should have, but it turned out great. My daughter and grandson were visiting and we made sandwiches with it to go with our soup, and we all really enjoyed this bread. I will likely make it again. This one also had no added fats or sugars. 
Just a note regarding yeast: this book calls for fresh yeast (as opposed to active dry yeast) in most of the recipes, which I don't necessarily want to work with, even if I could find it in Canada. If you're interested in knowing how to substitute, you can find information here and here.
As I was preparing to write this post, I searched my blog to see when and what I last posted from The World Encyclopedia of Bread. It's been over 2 years since the last time. But when I was looking over the posts, I realized that a couple of recipes were missing. Good thing that I write the date that I tried the recipe on the recipe page in the book. 

One of the things I wrote about in a previous post was trying to find a pan for focaccia. I needed 2 - 10" cake or pizza pans. Well, fortunately, the Wholesale Club in Edmonton carries pizza pans of many sizes, including 10", and I was able to make the foccacia way back on May 8th of 2023. As far as I can recall, it turned out well (there's no big X through the recipe 😄).  And it certainly looks good in the picture. 

The Sesame-Studded Grissini that I made on June 6, 2023, also turned out well to the best of my knowledge, although I remember something about them getting too hard after cooling off... Not really sure, and I didn't make any notations in the book, other than the date and the conversion to quick rise yeast. And that is the last time that I made a recipe from this book. Until this week. 
I do find that sometimes it can be challenging to focus on more than one hobby. And occasionally I will go full tilt with one of my interests for awhile, to the neglect of the others. But I do enjoy bread making. I will endeavour to be more balanced in pursuit of my hobbies, and not leave The World Encylopedia of Bread for another year or two...

Sourdough Update

In the previous post I made about sourdough, I had pretty much given up on it. But somehow I managed to finally get my starter to start. And I have since reactivated it a few times. I refuse to keep feeding it daily, as I'm not going to make bread, pancakes, crackers or what have you on a daily basis. So, I keep it in the fridge and reactivate (take it out of the fridge and feed it until it becomes active and useful again) it when I want to make something with it. 

Because I used the sourdough instructions from the King Arthur Baking website, I have been using their recipes for various sourdough breads, only making them whole grain. One of my favourites is the hamburger bun recipe: no more scouring the grocery store shelves for whole grain and healthy burger buns. I can just make my own. 

Another favourite is the English muffin recipe. Unfortunately, I have yet to master the art of unformity in size. 😁 I suppose rolling the dough out and using a cutter insted of the alternate of just dividing the dough would probably help. I also haven't managed to achieve the typical bubbly texture, the texture of mine being more like regular bread. I'll have to work on that. 

The pancakes are a hit, but I have to plan ahead to remember to start the sponge the night before. And they use up some of the still abundant supply of discard in my fridge. 

I have also tried other "bread-speriments" with varying degrees of success. On the top left is the Whole Wheat and Rye Sourdough Bread. The recipe called for caraway seeds, anise seeds and cardamom. I don't like either of those seeds and cardamom just seemed like a weird idea to me, so I left all three out. I put this one directly into the freezer and I assume I have since eaten it, unless it has disappeared into the abyss (I really need to clean my freezers out...). The round loaf is Jeffrey's Sourdough Rye Bread, in which I again skipped the caraway seeds, and on the right is Sourdough Cinnamon Raisin Bread. Unfortunately, these last 2 needed to go into the oven at the same time, but at different temperatures, so I opted to use the Breville Smart Oven for the rye bread.

However, I neglected to account for the convection function on the oven and that is likely why the bread had such a thick, tough crust. Otherwise, it had a nice texture and flavour. After taste-testing, this rye bread, too, went into the freezer, never to be seen or heard from again.
As for the raisin bread, I didn't feel that there were enough raisins and I felt that they should have been mixed in with the dough, rather than applied to the flattened dough and rolled up. 

It had a tendency to separate where the filling is, which may be fine for a cinnamon roll, but not really workable for a loaf of bread, especially not if you want to put it into a toaster. Otherwise, the flavour was very good and the texture of the bread was fine.
I think the recipe for Sourdough Graham Crackers came up in my Facebook feed and I decided to give them a try, especially since they would use up more of my discard. I also repeated the Sourdough Crackers recipe. Neither of these turned out very well. Both of them were hard, not flaky like a cracker should be. And a lot of the graham crackers ended up scorched. Although the taste was still good and my grandson enjoyed them. The sourdough crackers were too sour and too salty. I think I might have been in too big of a hurry, so was too focused on finishing, not quality? And my supply of discard might be getting too sour? Is that a possibility? And I don't think I need to salt the tops of the crackers. 

I tried the Buttery Sourdough Biscuits, which tasted good, but were too crumbly and too high in fat. 

Sourdough crumpets don't work very well in the crumpet rings, and they scorch too easily if you're not careful. I haven't given up on these yet, though.

Sourdough pizza crust worked well fresh, but was a dud if the dough was frozen for future use. At least that was my experience - kind of like trying to make pizza crust out of playdough. Yuk!

I think this must be the Whole Wheat Sourdough Bread, which I don't remember anything about. But it looks good. I believe I also tried the Rustic Sourdough Bread, but I have no real memories of it either. I definitely need to try to blog about things closer to when they actually occurred. But the one I do remember trying was the Sourdough Pumpernickel Bread. Big disappointment! I have been trying various pumpernickel and black bread recipes over the years, trying to find one that actually replicates the taste of storebought pumpernickel. Because that is one store-bought bread that I actually enjoy. But none of them come anywhere close, this one included. Most of them just having the overwhelming flavour of molasses. And the store-bought stuff doesn't. I don't know what the secret is, but this recipe is not it. 
Thinking about why I don't use sourdough more often: 

• Many of the recipes are for only 1 loaf. If I'm going to make bread, other than specialty breads, why would I heat up the oven for only one loaf? I haven't figured out how to triple or quadruple a sourdough bread recipe. Or if it works best one loaf at a time. 
• Many of the recipes also call for dry yeast, so why don't I just use all dry yeast and forgot the hassle of sourdough? It seems inauthentic, like a cheater way of making sourdough.
• There are also many recipes where you make enough starter for that one recipe, which negates the need to maintain a starter (although they often use dry yeast as well).
• Many recipes also suggest or require the use of specialty equipment, like a Dutch Oven, which can be quite expensive.    
• It's a hassle. When I want to use it, I have to take it out of the fridge and reactivate it by feeding it and then having to figure out what to do with the discard. And the actual bread making process is generally more time consuming as well. 

I don't plan on throwing out my sourdough starter as I have found a few recipes that I like, and until I can find a good replacement for them, I will continue. Meanwhile, I do want to try the Naturally Leavened Sourdough Bread recipe, which doesn't require the use of additional dry yeast. And I still need to get my discard situation under control. I can put my fridge space to better use. 

 

Starlight Placemats

 

Placemats don't stay clean if they're being used. And that's what I made the Cat Chow Placemants for - to be used. But what was I going to use while they were in the laundry? I decided I needed to make at least one more set of placemats. Initially, I started making an appliqué set, but I had just finished making the Winter Magic wall hanging - and stitching down all of those snowflakes - so I decided to set that plan aside for now and make something simpler. 

I decided to try a new quilt block or two, so I pulled out this book which my middle sister got me for my last birthday. I love this book. It has been on my Amazon wishlist for years. It's out of print and any Canadian vendors on Amazon wanted a small fortune for it. Fortunately, I was able to find it for cheaper on the American Amazon, and my sister, who lives in the US, ordered it for me. It's in mint condition and still has the transparency grids in the back.
If you've been following my blog for long, you would be aware that I love trying out new quilt blocks and actually enjoy drafting them myself.

Drafting blocks for a different project, which I will finish eventually.

This is where the transparencies come in handy. 

But I actually didn't end up drafting either of the quilt blocks I used in these placemats. 

The first is New Star in the Heavens. I felt that the layout was simple enough that I could figure out the pieces needed without drafting the block. Though the appearance is the same, I did modify it in order to avoid Y-seams. I chose black as a more practical colour for the background than the mostly white background in the Cat Chow placemats, and decided to do one star in cool colours, and one in warm, using my stash of Michael Miller Fairy Frost. 

The second block is Star of Stripes. I was able to find this one in my BlockBase+ software, and printed out the templates. I only used them to help calculate measurements however, as once again I modified this block to avoid Y-seams. For the 8 striped diamonds composing the star, I used the template to determine the width of the fabric strips, which I cut of each colour, and stitched them in groups of three, with the ends staggered, and then cut the diamonds out of the strip sets. 
For the quilting I chose a rainbow thread and the Curvy Coil pantograph. I considered using one of my star pantographs, but I've used them all before, and I'm trying to use my other pantographs that haven't seen any use yet. I think this one worked well. 
These were both 9" blocks, but if I had to do it again, I would likely use an 8" block. I wanted to have a border on the placemats and with 2 - 9" blocks, that made for quite a large placemat, at around 13" x 20". 
I've thought that maybe I should start recording how I do these blocks so that other quilters who like to try new quilt blocks, but may not be as adept at figuring them out, can make them as well. Even with BlockBase+, it doesn't tell you how to actually assemble the block, even if you can find the block you want in the software. 

Anxiety, Fear and the Christian

Tulips and Daffodils in Muttart Conservatory, Edmonton

I just recently read a devotional entitled, "Fear Not". There might have been a time when I would have felt encouraged by this reading, and agreed with its sentiments. But that would have been before I was diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder (GAD). At this point in my life, I found this reading hurtful. Though I doubt it was the author's intention, I found some of the statements arrogant, demeaning and offensive: 

 "Fear is the opposite of faith. Therefore, fearfulness is the same as faithlessness. God warns us of the serious consequences of being fearful in the last days: 'He who overcomes shall inherit all things... But the cowardly...shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone...' " (Rev. 21:7,8).

"Fear is faith in the devil...

".... Satan has the right to attack us in the areas we fear."¹ 

Obviously, this author has no experience with anxiety. Fear is NOT the opposite of faith. Fearfulness is NOT the same as faithlessness. Being anxious and being cowardly and deserving of the lake of fire are in no way equivalent. All of these statements are just plain hurtful to someone suffering from anxiety. 
I did not ask for Generalized Anxiety Disorder. I have said before that it's like having an uninvited and unwelcome "guest" in my life, who will harrass me sometimes when I'm least expecting it and at my lowest point. I have asked God for healing from my mental health challenges more than once. But it hasn't happened for me, even though I have tried different solutions. And I have at times wondered if this is my "thorn in the mind", just like the apostle Paul had a "thorn in the flesh:

"And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me." 2 Corinthians 12:7-9 NKJV 

Living with it is not pleasant. But what's even more unpleasant is when I come up against the judgmental attitude that I must be doing something wrong, that I just need to trust God more, or like this devotional implies, that it is "sinful" for me to be anxious. There tends to be a lot more grace extended to those suffering from a physical ailment or disability than for those of us enduring mental health challenges. 
I was actually encouraged when I heard an evangelist I respect speak of the almost debilitating anxiety ("stage fright") that he experiences every single time he has to speak, no matter how many years he has been doing it. I genuinely appreciated this man's willingness to be so open and transparent. Is this man somehow sinful or cowardly or faithless because of his anxiety? I don't for a moment believe that. And I know that I am blessed by this man's ministry. Even more so now that I know what he endures in order to share his message with others. I totally understand that it would be much easier to not do whatever is causing the anxiety. And so, to me, it takes a lot more courage to actually do something that causes you anxiety than for someone who doesn't experience that anxiety to do it. How can that be cowardly? 
I also find encouragement from the experience of some individuals in the story, "The Pilgrim's Progress", particularly in Part 2, Christiana's story. The tale is related of Mr. Fearing, who was so afraid of not being accepted, not being good enough, but made it to the Kingdom at last and was welcomed into the Celestial City. Then there was Much Afraid, and her father Mr. Despondency. When the pilgrims arrive at the Delectable Mountains, the shepherds show special concern for these two and the other weaker members of the party, Mr. Feeble-mind and Mr. Ready-to-halt. I am so thankful that God inspired John Bunyan to include these characters in his book, because it reminds me that God understands my weakness and that He makes allowances for the differences in us as individuals. It brings to mind these verses from Psalm 103:

"As a father pities his children, so the Lord pities those who fear Him. For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust." verses 13 & 14

 God does not see my anxiety as faithlessness, or sin, or cowardliness. Rather He understands that in my frail human nature, I suffer from a mental health condition that can make my life very challenging at times, that I can lack confidence, that I can be very indecisive, and that sometimes it would be so much easier to just stay home and not deal with the world.  

¹ Smith, Dennis, 40 Days, Book 2: Prayers and Devotions to Revive Your Experience with God. Hagerstown, MD, Review and Herald Publishing Association, 2011.

 

Winter Magic

 

I don't know how long I've had the Winter Magic pattern. During my short stint as a director of care, I wanted to make it bigger and hang it on the wall in my office at work during the winter season. That was nearly 7 years ago and I never did get around to making it before I lost the job. So, I likely have had the pattern for at least 10 years, long enough that the pattern is no longer available from Patchworks Studio. And most, if not all, of the fabrics for it for almost as long.
I love bling and bling-y fabrics. So, I started collecting bling-y blue fabric to use in this project. All but the darkest blue have sparkles/shimmer. The white is a Michael Miller Fairy Frost with sparkles. I actually planned on saving that one for a different project, although I don't think I had a specific project in mind. 😁 But I decided it would look great in this snowflake themed wall hanging. After all, what is more sparkly than a new fallen snow on a sunny day?
But I am very thankful that I didn't decide to make it bigger. It was incredibly labour-intensive. I estimated that it probably took me 11-12 hours just to stitch down all the snowflakes. And that's not including all of the tracing, applying fusible web, and cutting. However, in spite of the fact that there are 40 snowflakes on this wall hanging, I actually only had to cut out 20. That's because this is a "Give and Take" appliqué project. I used this technique once before, in Celtic Ballad. 
Basically, it works like this: trace the design onto a piece of fusible web cut to the dimensions indicated in the pattern. Fuse it to the back of a piece of fabric the same size. Carefully cut out the design. I say carefully because you will be using both the original piece of fabric and the piece you cut from it, so no just snipping happily and carelessly into the fabric. Fuse the original to a piece of coordinating fabric of the same size, and the cut out piece to another piece of fabric as indicated in the pattern. So, all of the larger pieces of fabric (7" x 12" unfinished size) with the white snowflakes are actually the original fabrics to which the design was fused and from which the snowflakes were cut. These large pieces were then fused to 7" x 12" pieces of the white fabric, so that the white shows through. And then the blue snowflakes were fused elsewhere. There is a LOT of Heat'N'Bond in this quilt top, including in the seams! Ten 7" x 12" pieces! So it's very stiff. 
Then all of those snowflakes had to be stitched down, which was quite tedious. It's not like stitching down a nice circle or square. No, snowflakes have all kinds of points and corners and angles, requiring moving the fabric this way and that while stitching. It was bad enough with the snowflakes on the main body of the wall hanging. They could at least be stitched down on the individual pieces of fabric. But when it came to the ones that are in the border, I had to wait until the quilt top was finished before I could fuse and appliqué them. That meant moving around the whole quilt top while stitching! So those snowflakes took even longer. 

Finally that was finished and then came the quilting. I had determined to use a silver metallic for the quilting and the Deb's Snowflakes Meander pantograph. It's quite pretty, but it's 15.5" wide - really stretching the limits of the throat space on my Amara! I've used it once before, in the Christmas Medallion quilt, which is 60" square, but I wouldn't really want to go any bigger than that. So, I knew it was doable. I just had to have my starting point up tight to the back of the throat space. 
But the width of the pantograph wasn't the biggest issue. It was the metallic thread. I had used it once or twice before, but that was several years ago. And, other than knowing that the tension needed to be looser, I couldn't remember what else I needed to adjust. So I watched a Handi Quilter video and made adjustments as I saw fit. But the thread kept breaking. I suspect that the abundance of fusible web in the quilt top may have been a big factor. I was also using some anonymous prefilled bobbin, and after adjusting multiple other things, I finally decided to change the bobbin thread and switched to Glide 60. It stitched much better after that, but broke once more before finishing the row. Then I asked for advice in the Handi Quilter community group on Facebook and I got some hints, some worthwhile and some not so much. But I put a line of Sewer's Aid up the side of the cone of thread and didn't have another thread break after that. I'm not sure if it was the Sewer's Aid or the fact that my machine was liking the Glide 60 much better. But I finished the quilting last evening. Being a wide pantograph, it only took 3 rows (2 full rows and a part row) of quilting. It is a pretty labour-intensive pantograph, with all of the points, angles and straight lines, but I needed to go slowly anyways because of using metallic thread. 

It wasn't until I was working with the quilt this morning to put the binding and label on that I realized that there were a lot of loopy messes on the back. So, obviously my top thread was a little too loose. But I'm just not going to worry about it. It is a wall hanging after all, and the loopy messes will be facing the wall. The top stitching looks fine. And the wall hanging is mine, so I don't have to worry about gifting inferior work. And I guess I better not plan on entering it into any fairs! It will be my January wall hanging in my monthly rotation of wall hangings. But I have it up in my living room now so that I can enjoy it for awhile after putting all of that work into it, and not have to wait until next January. 
Now, I have to decide on a table treatment for January. I have some ideas, but that can wait until next time. 

Family

 

I very rarely make the same quilt more than once. To me, that would be boring. I like new challenges and different techniques. and I always sort of scratch my head when someone says that they've made X number of this particular quilt pattern. But this quilt has a very special purpose. And so I made 5 of them. 
My siblings and I have lost both our parents, Mom in 1998 and Dad in 2000. In 2009, we lost our only brother. And in October 2023, we lost our second oldest sister, Judy. She was the one who stepped into the matriarchal role once our mother passed away, and I can honestly say that she was everyone's favourite sister. It's been very hard. And most of us live quite far apart. My youngest sister is in Nova Scotia, two sisters in Ontario, one in Michigan and me in Alberta. In spite of the distances, we are still close. And we miss each other. So, when I saw this fabric during a sale in my LQS,

I figured it needed to be in a very special quilt. Mulling it over, I decided to make each of us remaining sisters a quilt, a snuggle-sized quilt with a minky backing, something we can cuddle up in when we're missing each other. 
I wanted to use everyone's favourite colour to represent them in the quilts. But first I had to find out what those favourite colours were. A few of us were easy: Dad's favourite had always been red, Judy's had always been green and mine has always been purple. When we were younger, my youngest sister Cindy's favourite had been blue, and my next older sister Janet's favourite had been pink. But some people change over time, and when I had asked for favourites for a different project, Cindy had said jewel tones and fire engine red, and for Janet, it was coral and aqua, while Therese (oldest) and Nancy (middle) had said something similar like red, blue and yellow. Or something like that. But I had had to have them narrow it down to one specific colour each. Cindy surprised me by picking dark purple. Janet went with aqua. Therese said sunshine yellow (had to be a very specific yellow) and Nancy said muted grey. Opinions varied on what colour should represent our mother. Pink, purple, fuchsia were suggested, and I settled on something that appeared to be a combination of those. 

But no one in the family could recall my brother, Bill, having a favourite colour. 

These are the colours I had come up with. I gave Cindy the option of which purple she wanted to represent her in the quilt: the medium dark second from the right or the ultra dark on the far right. She chose the medium dark. 
Nancy contacted our sister-in-law and I contacted my brother's son and daughter to see if any of them recalled Bill having a favourite colour. No one was aware of any. Since he was a big Toronto Maple Leafs fan, I suggested Maple Leaf blue and my sisters agreed. But I couldn't find exactly what I wanted in my LQS: nothing that was exactly the right colour and preferably in a tonal fabric. I didn't want really distinct patterns. Then I recalled the blue maple leaf print I had used in On Guard for Thee and I ended up having just enough for all of the blocks required. 
But before I got to that point, I had to actually decide how I was going to use all of these different fabrics. Initially, I considered using them all in the same block, or maybe just all in different places in the quilt top. Finally, I chose to use the Sister's Choice quilt block, a good choice, I think, since we're all sisters. 

For the background fabric in the blocks, I chose this fabric which features two hands being held in the shape of a heart. 

And I made a Sister's Choice quilt block out of each colour,

and since I had chosen a layout requiring 12 blocks, I used all 9 colours in the remaining three blocks. 

Once I had settled on a layout, I had to decide what fabric to use to fill in the squares between the blocks. I went back to the quilt shop to buy more of the word fabric, but there was a sale going on and they had already sold out. In hindsight, I think it's all for the best. I would have had lots of "fun" cutting all of those squares on the diagonal to keep the words going left to right. As it is, I thank God that I was able to get the words in the setting triangles all going in the right direction. However, that still left me with the quandary of what fabric to use for those alternate squares. I took home a metre each of two different fabrics that I felt pulled in most of the colours in the blocks to see if either of them would work. 

I didn't want anything to compete with the blocks, 

and wasn't really sure about either of these. So, I went back to the quilt shop and purchased a rose print that was from the same line as the word fabric. 

But it was very boring, and my family is anything but boring. So, I texted my youngest sister with the pictures of the other two fabrics. She chose the maple leaf fabric, and I agreed. The watercolour (or whatever you want to call the other print) is awesome, but it draws too much attention away from the quilt blocks, which are supposed to be the focus of the quilt. Besides, we're Canadian, so the maple leaf fabric is appropriate. 
While the quilt tops are identical, I chose to personalize each quilt, by using the fabric that represented the recipient in the quilt top as the binding fabric as well. Then I used that same colour for the minky backing, and the quilting thread. 

I did forewarn my sisters that I probably wouldn't get these quilts done quickly. I did, however, complete one relatively quickly just to see the overall effect. That one went to my youngest sister in time for her milestone birthday in March. That's hers at the top of the post. 

We nearly lost my oldest sister this summer to undiagnosed heart disease. She ended up having open heart surgery and is doing well now, thank the Lord. So her quilt was the next to go out in August, together with a Through My Window wallhanging as a get well gift. 

My middle sister also had a milestone birthday this year, in November. So I finished her quilt in time to send it with her birthday gift, my second Through My Window wallhanging. 

In late October, I finished the last one for my sisters, this one for the next oldest sister, that is closest to me in age, and got it shipped off. All that was left was mine.

But Christmas quilts, baking and cooking intervened and I didn't get mine finished until now - March of 2025. 

I chose the Hearts in Bloom pantograph for the quilting on each quilt.

Because Cindy and I both chose purple to represent us in the quilts, I used a minky dot for the backing on mine, so that there would be a difference in the backing.
And I don't ever want to make 5 of the same quilt again. By the time I got to mine, I felt like doing something goofy with the blocks, something to switch it up. But I restrained myself, because I did want us all to have the same quilt. It's just not likely to ever happen again. It's taken me about a year to get all 5 made. 

Cat Chow Placemats

Normally, my dining room table is covered with a quilted pad, followed by a tablecloth or table quilt. In the case of a tablecloth, it is then generally topped with a table runner or table topper. And finally, to cover it all, some clear plastic. While I admit that plastic on a table can be tacky, it does protect my table coverings from stains. However, I do find that a warm plate placed directly on the plastic can stick to the plastic a little bit. It doesn't actually melt the plastic because the plates are not hot enough - often just warm from the hot food placed on them, but it does tend to stick. So, I have been using a hot pot holder or trivet under my plate. But recently, I had been thinking that I should make some placemats - one for me, one for my daughter and one for my grandson for when they are here. A little more aesthetically pleasing than just using hot pot holders. I just had to decide on a pattern. Then one of my friends shared a picture to my Facebook wall of the Cat Chow Placemat and Coaster. I figured that was perfect, since all three of us love cats. 

But first, I had to find the pattern. I went to the original post, planning on doing a reverse image search on the photo. But I found that someone had already given the name of the book it was found in, and the author, in the comments. 
I went to Amazon and found that the price of the book was nearly $40. Ouch! That's a lot to just make 3 placemats, especially since I wasn't really impressed with most of the other patterns in the book. I'm really not into goofy, cartoonish-looking animals, which is most of what this book is full of. But I saw that it was an Annie's book, so then I went to the Annie's Attic website. And there I found that I could purchase a PDF download of Quilted Cats & Dogs for US$9.99. I was initially reluctant, again because I really didn't want the whole book. But when I googled cat placemat patterns and realized that it would cost me at least as much just to buy a single pattern as it would to purchase the whole book, and that I liked the pattern in the book better, I went for it. After all, I don't have to print out the whole book - just the pattern that I need. 

The pattern called for newspaper fabric for the background. I'm not really sure why, but I did happen to have cat-themed newspaper fabric in my stash of cat fabrics, so that worked well. I decided to do each cat in our favourite colours. Mine is purple, Sophia's is orange and Damian has a few favourites. Orange was his original favourite, but he has since added others, including teal. I used a fun, colourful fabric for the bows, leftovers from the Licorice Allsorts quilt backing. And I used heart shaped buttons for the centres of the bows. I had one red one, which I used on Damian's placemat, while Sophia's and mine got pink hearts. 
But getting to the finished product was a bit of a journey. My first issue was the tail. I had to cut two pieces from the fabric and one from the batting, stitch the fabric right sides together with the batting, and then turn the tail right side out. But when I looked at that tiny tail pattern, I knew that there was no way I was going to be able to turn it right side out. There just wouldn't be enough room. The tip of the tail pattern is only 5/8" across, and with a 1.4" seam on each side, it would be impossible. Nowhere in the pattern did it say to add seam allowance to the pattern, but that's what I had to do in order to make it work. 
The next issue was the fact that the placemats are made using the envelope method: stitching the three layers together with the backing and top right sides together, leaving an opening to turn. Then turn the project right side out and quilt. I know from personal experience that it's virtually impossible to get the quilt sandwich perfectly taut using this method, resulting in puckers and tucks when the item is quilted. I would prefer to quilt it first and then add binding. But with the tail sticking out of the side, binding was not an option. So I tried making the orange cat placemat using the envelope method. But the resulting quilting was so puckery. I try not to bring perfectionism into my quilting, but this just did not meet my standards of acceptability. So, what was I to do? I finally hit on the plan of using a false backing, something I've done in other projects that I didn't bind (Confetti Tree Skirt and Christmas Spice Blend table runner). So, I ripped out all of the stitching holding the first placemat together and redid it with a false backing. And I did the other 2 with the false backing, and quilted all 3. 
The third issue came with the cat's face. The pattern did not say to not include the mouth on the placemats. I'm not if they included it in the picture in the book, because where the mouth would be is covered by the bow. But in the pattern, it might look fine on the coaster, but it looks too large for the cat on the placemat. So, I left it out. I also had to figure out how to transfer the whisker pattern onto the placemat. There were no hints or tips for this. Fortunately, I had some gold tracing paper and that's what I used. And pinned the paper to the placemat where I wanted it, and stitched through the paper. The nice thing about this gold paper is that it's thin enough to tear off easily once the stitching is complete. But there also were no placement directions or measurements for the face or the eyes. No "1 inch down from the top seam" or anything like that. I just had to determine what I thought looked best. 
Finally, attaching the true backing to the placemats using the envelope method, I finished off by hand-stitching the openings and had my 3 Cat Chow Placemats. 

And this isn't the first time I've had a pattern with incomplete or incorrect instructions. It's frustrating. If I were not a relatively experienced quilter, would I be able to figure out what to do? Or just give up in frustration? Or just try to fumble and stumble my way through it?
But what about life? Life can often be pretty challenging and frustrating and puzzling. And do we just stumble and fumble our way through it, hoping we'll get things right. There are plenty of people out ther that are willing to tell us what to do. But who can we trust? It would be nice if we had a reliable guidebook for life. 
But we do. It's called the Bible. I know. There are plenty of theories and ideas out there that challenge its reliability. So, how do I know it's reliable? Is there any way to confirm its veracity? Let's see what the Bible actually says: 

Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure. Isaiah 46:9,10 NKJV

Essentially, this text is saying that by God being able to tell the end from the beginning, we can know that He is God. In other words, the fulfillment of Bible prophecy is a demonstration of the Bible's - and God's - trustworthiness. 
So, let's briefly look at a Bible prophecy. We find it in Daniel 2. You can read the whole story there, if you choose, but I'll give you a little background first. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and sent his army against Jerusalem. Some of the young men from the royal family in Jerusalem were taken captive to Babylon to be trained as "wise men" (advisors) to king Nebuchadnezzar. Daniel was one of these, and was a follower of God, while Nebuchadnezzar and most of his wise men were not.  
One night Nebuchadnezzar had a dream. When he woke up, he realized the dream was important, but couldn't remember it. None of his "senior advisors" (magicians, astrologers, sorcerers, and Chaldeans, as the Bible puts it) could tell him the dream or what it meant. He got very angry and threatened to kill all of his wise men, including Daniel and his friends. When Daniel found out, he asked what the problem was and then asked for time. And he and his friends prayed, and God sent the answer. 

Image by Jeff Jacobs from Pixabay

Nebuchadnezzar dreamed about a statue or image, divided into 5 sections, top to bottom, each of a different metal, with the feet being made of iron mixed with clay. As Daniel explained, each part represented a different kingdom and the kingdoms followed each other chronologically. The head of gold represented Babylon. While the remaining kingdoms were not named, we know from history that the silver represented Medo-Persia, the bronze represented Greece and the iron represented Rome. And that is exactly what happened: one nation ruled the then-known world after another. Until the fall of Rome. And that's when we come to the feet of iron and clay and we have never had a united world empire since. Men like Napoleon and Hitler have attempted it, but it has never succeeded. So this prophecy was fulfilled up to the feet, but there's a more exciting part of the prophecy yet to be fulfilled. A rock hits the image on the feet and totally destroys it, and the rock becomes a great mountain. That represents the return of Jesus, when life as we know it will end and He will make all things new and perfect. Most of the prophecy has already been fulfilled so I don't believe there is any reason to doubt the rest of it - that Jesus will return - will also be fulfilled. 
I know I've given a very quick and simplistic explanation, but I hope this fulfilled prophecy helps confirm for you the reliability of the Bible. If you want to look into it further, and other prophecies fulfilled and other reasons for trusting God and the Bible, here are some links to help.
The Millenial Man
Can God Be Trusted?

Is There Anything Left You Can Trust?