Pear Wine

Our grape wine turned out so well I decided to make some pear wine. A lady in our area gave us some pears to make preserves with, but they weren't the right kind for preserves. No one in the family wanted to eat them and we don't like pear butter. Wine was the only other thing I could think of to make with them.

I have the pears in jars fermenting, along with the yeast and water. It will be ready on November 20th, just in time for Thanksgiving. It's a small batch and should yield about 1 gallon. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Have a great day!

Blogging Neglect and Making Homemade Wine

As I feared I would do, I have neglected this blog. I have had some problems with a big space between my header and the posts and didn't know how to fix it. I am very blog illerate. LOL I finally went to Blogger help and found an answer to my problem. Why didn't I think of that before?!

On a lighter note, my husband and I decided to try making wine with some grapes he was given at work. I'm not sure, but I think they may have been concorde grapes. Our wine turned out well and is really good!

The recipe he was given by a co-worker had a little too much sugar for our taste (we tried some made with the original amount, too sweet!) so we used a bit less in ours. Below you will see the"winery".  LOL

                                   

The grapes were put into a blender and then into jars. The jars each hold 2.5 qts. We then added the sugar, yeast and required amount of water. A rubber glove was placed on the jars to allow the mixture to ferment without letting any air enter the jars. We cracked quite a few jokes about our "winery" with the gloves waving at us! : D

The fermentation took 30 days. We ended up with about 1.5 gallons of beautiful red wine. The grapes we used were such a dark purple that they looked black. The wine has a beautiful magenta color....the picture below doesn't quite do justice to the color.

  

Recipe For

HomemadeWine

5c. crushed fruit

5 c. sugar

1 pkt of yeast

Place all ingredients in a gallon jar and finish filling with water. Place a rubber glove over the top of the jar to allow fermentation without letting air into the jar. You might want to duct tape the glove to the jar. Let mixture sit for 30 days. The fermentation should be finished by then and the gloves will no longer be standing at attention. : ) 

NOTE: If the glove goes flat before the 30 days is up, replace it with a new glove, it may have developed a leak or become too loose.

Strain thru several layers of cheese cloth or other cloth of your preference. We strained ours a couple of times. After straining out the fruit let it sit for a couple of days, then strain and pour it into jars or bottles. If you are careful you can pour it up without having to strain it again until the last of it where the sediment is at the bottom. We used a clean white pillow case which, of course, is no longer white. : )

Your wine can be bottled or put into canning jars like we did. Ours is not sealed since it won't be around for long. We have given some of it away and have the rest in the fridge.

This wine is VERY potent!! I found out for myself the other night when my husband poured us each a glass to drink while watching TV. I've never been drunk, tipsy or even had a buzz til that night.

I got up from the sofa to go and do some laundry and found that I had to walk slowly since I was a bit dizzy. It took a minute to realize that it was from the wine. I only drank about 8 oz, but then I'm not a drinker.

We buy a bottle of wine 2 or 3 times a year, usually Boone's Farm Fuzzy Navel. Some people laugh when Boone's Farm wine is mentioned, but we don't care, we like it. I guess that's because we don't know anything about fine wines. : )

Ok, I'm off to work on drapes, baby quilts and other such things. Have a great day!

Project Quilting Challenge "Road Trip"

It's time to vote again on Project Quilting. The challenge this time was a fun one for those who entered. and also for those of us who love to look! What am I saying??!! It's ALWAYS fun!

Again the talent displayed in this challenge is top notch. The creativity and workmanship gets better and better with each challenge.

I didn't have time to participate this time, but those who did deserve much praise and applause from the rest of us.

Click on the title of this post to check it out for yourself and please vote for and comment on  your favorite!
Public commenters have a chance to win great prizes as well. Just follow the instructions posted after the challenge entries.

Project Quilting Judges' Critiques

I received my critiques from Kim yesterday. I've never been judged before, so I was excited about this part of being in the Project Quilting Challenge. Here's what they said, along with Kim's comments.

DownHomeDesigns
Judge 1: Very nice. I would have liked to see a colored border to frame it. It looks kind of unfinished to me. 8.5 **Kim’s Comment*** I think the back you show in your etsy listing is fantastic – I like how you made it reversible so the buyer can choose – I think if this judge saw that she would think it looked finished - jmho

Judge 2: Lovely hand painted fabrics. A simple, but effective design. Some quilting in the white area would really add to the look. 6.5

Judge 3: I love your hand dyed fabrics, great shades! Having a white binding is unusual, and I think it works for this quilt. There is definitely a light, tropical feel to it, which is very pleasing. 6.75
Average Score: 7.25
**********
I really appreciate their insight and hope to learn from these challenges. I sort of limited myself in what I could do with the binding. I challenged myself to use ALL of the fabrics we were allowed to use for this project. That left me with only white for the binding after doing what I wanted to do for the front and back.

I was back and forth about using a few of the leftover 3x5s in the binding...a little touch of color here and there as it went around the quilt. Then I decided to use those few colored pieces on the back across the top and bottom, seen in this photo. They sort of gave the design a stopping place. I guess that's why I should have used the this side for the front. I actually liked it better, but listened to someone else, who shall remain nameless : P, and used the more planned design for the front. I have since regretted that decision. Oh well, we live and learn, die and forget it all, as my dear MIL used to say. : )

Can't wait to see what the next challenge will be! I'm hoping to be a little more imaginative with my next entry. : )
You can see Tropical Rainbow in my Etsy shop where it is now for sale.

My Project Quilting Entry

"Tropical Rainbow"

The Project Quilting Rectangle Challenge is now up for voting.  My entry, "Tropical Rainbow", is shown above. It's actually reversible and will soon be for sale in my shop.

I had a lot of fun creating my wall hanging. I really enjoyed finally being able to use the beautiful handpainted fabrics in my stash. I might just paint more and put them in my Etsy shop.

Again the entries are just SO creative and very diverse. It's hard to make a choice and vote for a favorite. I have several favorites and really like them ALL.

Please take the time to vote on one of the awesome quilted projects that are entered in this week's challenge. Then, if you love to sew/quilt or know someone who does, scroll down to see how to enter to win a great prize to keep for yourself or give to a friend.

Be sure to follow the instructions carefully on how to have multiple chances of winning a beautiful  Miniature Cathedral Window Pillow Pincushion, handmade by WarmnFuzzies, one of  our generous sponsors this week. This is a $20 value! As a commenter/voter you have a chance to win this beautiful prize. You can see this prize on the Project Quilting website or go to WarmnFuzzies Etsy shop.

My Challenge Project

To begin my project I had to decide what form it would take. I started looking thru my quilting books and came upon Georgia Bonesteel's bargello method. As soon as I saw it, I knew that's what I wanted to do....a bargello wall hanging.

Then I had to pick some fabrics. I started digging thru my stash and found some fabrics that I had handpainted about 3 years ago and hadn't been able to decide what to do with them. The colors are so pretty and summery looking. I knew these were what I would use.

At first I thought about using black to make those colors pop, but then I decided that white would look so much better and really bring out the tropical feel in the colors.

I wanted to try to use all 50 rectangles (cut from my handpainted fabrics)and both 1/2 yard cuts that we were allowed to use. Boy! Has that been a challenge! I'm not sure at this point that I'll succeed, but I'm trying.

I decided to use a white on white print for the 1/2 yard cuts. I liked the back side of this better, so I turned it over and used the back of it for the right side.

I ended up with both the front and back being pieced and they are both pretty enough to be used for the front. I won't have pictures til it is finished, but I'll post them when I do. (if I can figure out how! : D)

Judging from the entries I've seen so far, mine won't be a winner, but I'm having fun! I'll also have something new and pretty to list in my Etsy shop.

Project Quilting Season 1, Challenge 1

I've been working on my entry for Project Quilting. I'm excited to finally be taking part in this fun challenge. I've been watching from the sidelines and voting on the entries.

The participants in the first two challenges were so amazingly talented. It is so much fun to see how each person interprets the challenge and how they keep to the rules that are layed out. Each partcipant has the opportunity to put their own spin on the challenge and come up with something unique and one of a kind.

I won't give any hints as to what my project is, except to say that I'm having a lot of fun designing it and hope you all will like it.

Take the plunge and enter your own piece, you might just win one of the great prizes that are being offered. At the very least be sure to check out the Project Quilting website (linked to the title of this post) early next week when the entries are posted for public voting.

Celebrating Mother's Day

Mother's Day at Applebee's
I celebrated a wonderful Mother's Day with my husband, our 5 children and their families. We went to Applebee's for supper(that's what we call the evening meal in the South) They couldn't seat us together, so I just table hopped and ate with them all...almost.
 
I had my appetizer with my dear husband, (hereafter known as my DH) and our middle child(second son). Then I had my steak with our youngest (I don't see her nearly enough, she'll always be my baby), her BF and our oldest grandson, who is the oldest son of our oldest daughter. : ) Follow me?
 
Then for dessert I ate with my oldest son's wife(the son, second oldest of all the children, had already table hopped to sit with his Dad and brother, the afore mentioned middle child). Am I confusing you? I'm getting dizzy just trying to type all of  this! LOL Also at that table was our #4 child and her DH and their adorable 8 month old baby girl. (I could eat HER up! Babies are soo precious!) The only person missing was her step-daughter. Wish she could've been with us. I missed her.♥

Our oldest daughter and her two youngest boys were at another table, but by that time I was out of courses to eat and I see her more often since they live about 200 feet down the hill from us. We've had some good mother-daughter time this past week, too. Besides, by that time she had table hopped to sit with her Dad and two brothers (no room for me). She bakes the most wonderful cakes from scratch you've ever put in your mouth. She brought an Italian Creme cake and brownies for our dessert. YUM!
 
I had a lot of fun and am so blessed to have children who are so loving to us and love and support each other.♥
The end. (Whew!)