Canadian Christmas Blog Hop--The End

Well, here it is, the last day of our first Canadian designers' blog hop!  I hope you've enjoyed meeting this amazing group of talented women and making their free patterns and recipes as much as I have.  So today it's my turn and I've designed a quick and easy project to use some of those extra pine needles you have after trimming your tree.  It's a little sachet called "Christmas at the Cabin" and measures 6 1/2" x 6 1/2".

 For my recipe, I had to share these Peanut Butter Balls.  I found the recipe in a newspaper about 35 years ago and have made them pretty much every year since.  A warning--they are highly addictive!

And as a little Christmas gift to you, I'm having a give-away--your choice of up to 2 yards of free fabric (sorry, not wool) from my website, www.countryquilts.ca.  This can be in any combination--2 yards of one fabric, fat quarters of 8 different fabrics, or anything in between, as long as I have the amount in stock.  All you need to do is be a follower of this blog (you can sign up today if you want) and leave a comment about the blog hop before noon Pacific Standard Time on Saturday, December 17th.  The winner will be selected at random and notified Saturday afternoon and I'll post the winner's name on Sunday, December 18th.  Good luck!

Have a wonderful Christmas and don't forget to go to the next page for the free pattern and the recipe!

Christmas at the Cabin Sachet

What You’ll Need

6” x 12” piece of light fabric cut in 1” wide strips (I used Primitive Muslin by Moda for a tea-dyed look.)
Scraps of dark fabric (green, rust, black) cut in 1” wide strips
Scraps of brown and green wool cut in ¼” wide strips
2” square of gold wool
Brown, green, gold thread
5/8” wide black rick-rack
7” square of osnaburg or other backing fabric
Pine needles or potpourri

Finished size: 6 ½” x 6 ½”

Please read through all directions before beginning.
All seams are ¼”.  Fabrics are sewn right sides together, unless otherwise indicated.

Log Cabin Blocks (finished size: 3 ½”; make 4)

From light fabric cut:
            (1) 1” x 5” strip
From green fabric cut:
            (1) 1” x 5” strip
Stitch together lengthwise.  Press seam toward the dark strip.
Cut crosswise every 1”, making 4 center pieces.  Discard excess.

Sew a dark strip to the center squares like this:

Trim even.  Press towards the dark strip.

Sew a light strip to the right and then to the top of the squares, trimming and pressing after each.

Continue counter-clockwise around the square, sewing 2 dark strips, then 2 light strips, and finally 2 dark strips to the square.  You should have 4 log cabin squares, each measuring 3 ½”.

Sew together in pairs like this:

Sew the pairs together like this:

Wool Appliqué

Cut the strip of brown wool to 4 ½” long and center it vertically on the block.
Make a running stitch with brown thread up the middle.
Cut the strips of green wool to the following lengths: ¾”, 1 ¼”, 1 ¾”, 2 ¼”, 2 ¾”.
Center the strips from shortest to longest across the brown strip. 
(Use the seams as a guide for placement.)
Make a running stitch with green thread across the middle of each strip.
Use the template to cut a star from the gold wool.

Use a simple up and down stitch with gold thread to stitch it to the top of the tree.

Finishing

Pin the rack rack to the right side of the block, having the outside curves just touching the edges.
Make little pleats at the corners.
Center the block right side down on the 7” osnaburg square and pin in place.
(I’ve made the backing square a bit bigger than the log cabin square to allow for shifting.) 
The rick rack should be sandwiched in the middle of the layers.

Stitch around the log cabin block, ¼” in from the edge, leaving about 2” open at the bottom.
Turn right side out through the opening. 
If the trim looks okay, trim the excess rick rack.
Fill with needles from your tree or your favourite Christmas potpourri.
Hand stitch the opening closed.

ENJOY!

Peanut Butter Balls

Makes about 150

1 cup margarine (softened)

4 oz cream cheese (softened)
4 cups icing sugar
1 pound smooth peanut butter
1 tsp vanilla
6 cups milk chocolate coating wafers (I find these in the bulk foods section of my supermarket)

Cream margarine and cream cheese together until smooth.

Add peanut butter and vanilla; mix until well blended.
Add icing sugar 1 cup at a time and stir until not sticky.
Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate at least 2 hours.
Take a teaspoonful of the mixture and warm in your fist.
Roll into a 1” ball and place on wax paper. 

(I like to make batches of about 2 dozen at a time—these things are just too tempting to have a fridge full of them!)

Recover the remaining filling and put back in fridge.

Melt 1 cup of the chocolate wafers in a small bowl in the microwave for about 2 minutes at medium power.  Stir until smooth.  Drop a ball into the chocolate and swirl with a teaspoon until covered.

Lift out the ball with the spoon and set it down on a wax paper lined cookie sheet, finishing with a swirl.  When the chocolate has hardened, place the cookie sheet in the fridge.

Enjoy as needed!