This post is in response to the Calico Cat’s inquiry. The quilt on the chesterfield or couch in the previous post is my son’s Christmas Quilt. The quilt is lap size–47 1/2″ x 71 1/2″ and was made as a Christmas present for him in 2002. The pattern is Cobblestones. You may know this pattern by other names as it has certainly been in the public domain for a very long time. This was a fun scrap quilt to make using up all sorts of bits of leftover Christmas fabrics. This picture was taken on Christmas morning in 2002 of my son and his new quilt.

That same year I made my daughter a Christmas quilt too. Her quilt is the Chinese Coin pattern and it too was made from the same Christmas fabric scrap bin as her brother’s quilt. This is a picture of my daughter on Christmas morning in 2002 with her Christmas lap quilt.

This is the recipe for the cookies that my daughter is shown baking in the previous post. This cookie recipe is “no fail” and has become one of the favorites of our family.

Smartie Cookies

1 cup margarine, softened
1 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
Smarties or M&M’s for decorations

Cream butter and both sugars together. Beat in eggs 1 at a time. Mix in vanilla.

Add flour, baking soda, and salt. Mix well. Drop by spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet.

Press Smarties or M&M’s on top of cookies using 3 or 4 per cookie. Bake in 375 degree F oven for 8 to 10 minutes until golden brown.

Makes 4 dozen.

It is definitely starting to feel like Christmas around here! My daughter looked after the baking of some Christmas cookies while her brother and girlfriend looked after decorating the tree.

A favorite cookie in this household has always been “Smartie cookies”. The cookbook calls them Frog Eyes but we have renamed them Smartie cookies. Since the kids were small we would make these cookies decorating them to reflect the season. You can buy Smarties and M&Ms coated in colours to match the seasons–Valentine’s Day, Christmas, Easter, etc.

This my daughter baking Christmas Smartie cookies.

This is my son and his girlfriend decorating the tree.

Another shot showing the “supervisor” of the operation–Dad!

According the recent Quilting in America 2006 survey sponsored by Quilter’s Newsletter Magazine the dedicated quilter is:

* Female
* 59 years old
* Well educated (72% attended college)
* Affluent ($87,026 household income)
* Spend on average $2,304 per year on quilting
* Quilting for an average of 13.5 years

I am much younger than the dedicated quilter and I know that $2,304 in quilting supplies, classes, etc. does not get you very far! This survey tells me that the dedicated quilter is likely retired or close to retirement which means I have many more years of quilting ahead of me! Yahoo!

Something else that I found interesting the survey is that the average dedicated quilter owns an average of 2.6 sewing machines and 24% own more than 4 machines! If I count my retired Kenmore, my antique Singer, my Bernina that is used for piecing, and my APQS long arm, I own 4 machines!

Finally, 4.7% of all quilters are dedicated quilters and account for 88% of total quilting industry expenditures. That means that if the remaining 95.3% of the quilters out there started to spend anywhere near what the minority or dedicated quilter spends on quilting, there would be an explosion to the quilting industry!

Check the survey out yourself; it is an interesting read: http://www.quilts.com/home/news/index.php?page=announcements/index