Christmas Lunch and Cookies

Prepping for the excitement

The final products

Fun...

...And games

The main event.

The peaceful calm, afterwards.

Cookie Recipes

The family secret is decorating with red hots, but we were always limited to 3 per cookie.

 

Cultural Weekend

 I teach at a Karen school, so I thought it would be good to take a cultural tour, to learn more about this Northern Hilltribe. The marked photos (Three at the end of this blog post) were taken by Khun Samart, the proprietor of Spicy Villa.

The main event was a weaving class.  K. Nan and I worked to make this cute little purse.

We didn't stay with a local family but at Spicy Villa.  The food was great and they always made more than enough.  They did a great job incorporating vegetables and fruit into our meals, which is always a concern of mine, as Thai food doesn't have lots of veggies.

My room complete with mosquito net.

We also took a cooking class

The next two pics were taken by my friend, not me.

My friend taught us a highly addictive strategy game called Splendor.

We hiked to this lovely waterfall.  The idea is that you can go swimming, but it was a little too cool for that.

During our hike, we had to step aside to let some cows pass.  Probably the same ones in a pic further below.

Here is an authentic local house, to compare the rest of the pictures to.  Wouldn't you love to have that view!

Here's our accommodations.

They have an organic farm that is part of the Royal Project, which is a huge agricultural project started by the late king.

water buffalo

Cooking

Weaving

Thanksgiving

 If you have been following my blog, then you know it is my tradition to make a thankfulness tree.  We write what we are thankful for on leaves and stick them on the tree.  Next year, I will edit them, before they are added to the tree.  Who knows what the other teachers will think, when they see some of the errors. ;)

We ate ice cream, pumpkin pie, deviled eggs, and sausage balls.  The favorite was the sausage balls.

We hung up some traditional decorations.

We also made the ice cream in class.  Here they are, hard at work, measuring out the ingredients.

Quilting

 My bed comforter is over ten years old.  It is starting to tear in a few places, and I felt it was time to change it out.  While there are some good options, at the store, I decided to make a replacement, rather than purchase one.  Here is my Bargello quilt, Cosmic Twist, as outlined by Eileen Wright's kindle book.

The hardest part was selecting the fabric.  I didn't have a lot in my scrap pile, so most are new selections from the local day market.

It took 23 selections in all.  Not pictured are the two I used for edging and the backing.

It was helpful to make a chart to remember the order of the fabric

Step one: you cut the fabric into long slices. 

Then, sew them together two by two.

Then, four by four

Then, eight by eight

Until, you have a large panel like this.

Then you slice the panel into their individual rows.  The hard part is making sure it stays straight.  Dalia is helping me check the angle.

Here, she is nodding off for a quick snooze from loaf position.

Then, you line up your rows and start sewing them together.

I found it easiest to work in groups of twelve.

There was definitely a lot more ironing, than I had anticipated.

Dalia probably added to the ironing that needed to be done.

The edge I made up on my own after viewing a bunch of google images.

Perfect it isn't, even with all of Dalia's quality control inspections. However, it is made with love.

Updated later, to include pics from basting.

Step One: Wash and iron the back.

Step Two: Lay out/stretch out the back, batting, and top.

Step Three: Put in the pins; lots and lots of pins.

Step Four: Roll it up, so it will fit in the sewing machine.

Step Five: The sewing begins

And keeps going

Step Six: create a throw with the left over scrap pieces.