A finished quilt and some bread baking

This is the quilt I started for Rebekah & Alex before their wedding.  She chose the fabric and it is a mixture of two lines from Bonnie & Camille for Moda called "Marmalade" (you'll love this one Anne!) and "vintage modern".  She also chose the design as she wanted something very simple (that's Bekah's taste).  I put it aside for a while with the upheaval of moving her stuff out and getting my sewing room moved upstairs.  But once that was done there was no excuse and I got stuck in again.

This is a large quilt and measures 95" x 95" and is made for a queen size bed as shown here on our bed.  It was way too big for me to quilt on my little sewing machine so I took it to the quilter and chose this scroll type design which is actually called "surf" (is that appropriate for our family or what?!)

I love the soft flow of the design and am very pleased with how it turned out.  I am trying to come up with a label for it.  In the past I have sewn on a label with a personal message in a permanent washable marker, but the time and money put into this quilt deserves something more and I don't know quite what to do. It also has a white plain background so I don't want to do something which will stand out too much.  Any suggestions from any quilters out there?

For our 32 years of married life we have tried to have some food storage put away in case of emergencies and use and rotate it.

For this reason, we store what we eat.

We have a large supply of wheat and basics as well as day to day food.

Throughout the years we have "inherited" wheat that has been given as people have moved or downsized.

As you will see here, we are using wheat from as long ago as 1978 (before we even got married!)  Wheat is a wonderful thing to store because if stored properly, it will last indefinitely.  So what do I do with all that wheat you may ask?

Well, I have a wheat grinder and I grind it into flour.

Then use it in my baking. While we don't eat a lot of bread anymore, I still love to bake it.  On Friday I did just that and thought I would take you on a step by step process. The kernels are passed through the grinder

To make this delicious flour.  If you have never smelled freshly ground whole wheat flour you are missing something special. Whole wheat flour has the most nutrition if used right away, so I only grind as much as I need.  If I do grind a little extra I will freeze it as that prolongs the nutritional value.

These little granules are lecithin and I use it in my bread dough. It has many uses but in bread dough it helps the even distribution of ingredients and is an enhancer to the dough.

I buy this in bulk and keep it in my freezer.

I love my Kitchenaid mixer for any baking, but it really comes into its own when making bread. Years back, I used to do all my kneading by hand and it was labour and time intensive.  This little beauty does the majority of the work!

When is comes out of the mixing bowl, I simply divide the dough

Shape it into loaves and let it rise for an hour

Then bake and enjoy the wonderful aroma throughout the house - not to mention the delicious taste!

There is something very rewarding about making bread.  It is a staple of life and being able to provide it for my family has given me great satisfaction over the years.