Apples past their prime and quilting incentive

I love apples ... nice crisp tart juicy apples. Nice crisp tart juicy apples are hard to come by this time of year. I bought apples a few days ago, but when I decided to eat one yesterday, they had already started to get soft and wrinkly. What to do with soft and wrinkly apples? Peel them (can you peel an entire apple in one long strip without breaking the peel? Inquiring minds want to know!), chop them up, and make APPLE BREAD of course! Unless you're in the mood for apple pie ... I was in the mood for APPLE BREAD. So I thought I'd share my favourite APPLE BREAD recipe with y'all. This recipe makes 2 loaves. First, peel and chop up 3 cups of apples. Set this aside.Second, in a large bowl, mix together 3 cups flour, 1 1/2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1 teaspoon baking powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 1 teaspoon cinnamon. Set this aside.Third, in another bowl, beat together 2 eggs, 1 cup applesauce, 1/3 cup vegetable oil, and 1 teaspoon vanilla.Stir these wet ingredients into the dry ingredients until JUST incorporated together. Lumps are fine. Lumps are fine when you're making muffins too. In fact, this recipe can be cooked up as apple muffins.Fourth, fold in chopped apples. I like walnuts in my apple bread, so I folded in about 1 cup walnuts with the apples. Feel free to leave the nuts out if you prefer.Fifth (or is that sixth? I've lost count!), spoon into 2 loaf pans. I bought these cool miniature non-stick bundt pans at Christmas, and I've been using them instead of loaf pans for something different. Bake at 325 to 350 degrees F for about 50 to 55 minutes -- or until a knife blade "tests clean". Remove from pans to cool. At this point, you can sprinkle powdered sugar over them to make them fancy, or even drizzle with a bit of cream cheese icing.I prefer my apple bread warm from the oven with a (generous) dab of unsalted butter. Mmm mm mmm! Yummy! So that's what you do with apples past their prime. Now here's the quilting incentive story. I've long admired a BEAR CLAW or BEAR PAW QUILT BLOCK ........ but could never quite picture the right combination of fabrics to make me a BEAR PAW quilt of my very own. The BEAR PAW is a very special personal symbol to me. Over the years, I've collected numerous bear and bear paw images ... mostly aboriginal designs ... and each unique piece is truly a treasure. Naturally, any BEAR PAW quilt that I might create would have to be made from very special fabric. Y'all can't begin to imagine how excited I was to receive an unexpected parcel containing this fabric ...... aboriginal BEAR PAW symbols ... and this fabric ...... aboriginal sun symbols WITH BEARS! As well as THIS fabric ...... MORE BEARS, including grizzlies! There's about 3 yards of each fabric! WOW! Now if that isn't great incentive to get my tipsy coffee cups ...

... and Country Kids quilting projects finished, I don't know what is! However, because I could easily have a serious relapse of FEBRUARY FEVER, I am NOT prewashing this fabric ... that would just make it too tempting to start measuring and cutting pieces for quilt blocks. Instead, I've got it draped over chairs where I can see it (touch it, dream about it, plan it ...) every single day and hopefully become motivated to FINISH MY OTHER PROJECTS!!! I'll keep y'all posted ...