Blanketeer Delivery to the USO at DFW Airport

After lunch on Sunday, Rachel, Rhonda, Brandy, and my husband & I met at Macaroni Grill to form a convoy to deliver baby blankets and kid's books to the USO Reading Room at DFW Airport.
One of our Blanketeers made four little ducky hats to match four adorable ducky fleece blankets. We just couldn't resist trying them on.


Here we are with Yolanda, a USO volunteer, and all 80 blankets and 442 books. We totally filled up the USO storage room with blankets and books! We had a goal of 50 blankets and 100 books, but we blew through that like a hot knife through butter. The Blanketeers want to thank everyone who donated books, blankets and time to make this effort such a success!

Virginia's Yummy Pumpkin Roll Recipe

Virginia brought this pumpkin roll to the last Blanketeer Bee and was it ever good! She brought vanilla and pumpkin ice cream too, so we had it ala mode. Yum-oh! I would have taken a picture of it, but it disappeared too quickly - lol.

Pumpkin Roll
Serves 10

Cake:
¾ cup all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
½ teaspoon ground cloves
¼ teaspoon salt
3 large eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
2/3 cup canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie filling)
1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional - the one we had at the bee had no nuts)

Filling:
8 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
6 tablespoons butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grease a 15-by-10-inch jellyroll pan; line with wax or parchment paper. Grease and flour paper. Sprinkle tea towel with powdered sugar; set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, cloves, and salt in small bowl. Beat eggs and sugar in a large bowl until thick. Beat in pumpkin. Stir in flour mixture. Spread evenly into prepared pan. Sprinkle with nuts.

Bake 13 to 15 minutes or until top of cake springs back when touched. Immediately loosen and turn cake onto sugared towel. Carefully peel off paper. Roll up cake and towel together. Cool on wire rack.

Beat cream cheese, powdered sugar, butter, and vanilla in small bowl until smooth. Carefully unroll cake; remove towel. Spread cream cheese mixture over cake. Reroll cake. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate at least one hour. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.

Notes:
I usually make 2 at a time and divide 1 can of pumpkin between them (this would be a heaping 2/3 cup). A tea towel is a towel that you used to use to dry dishes, but it is not knobby (it is like linen). I either use Watkin’s Vanilla or real Mexican vanilla. I think it adds more taste. When I didn’t have either, I doubled the amount of vanilla (but I have not tried that with this recipe). I prefer parchment paper to the waxed paper. I have never remembered to sprinkle the roll with powdered sugar, we are usually too busy cutting it for consumption.

Two Minkee Backed Quilts Completed

I just finished these two quilts yesterday. I tried the new style binding too, using single fold binding instead of double fold. The jury is still out on which I prefer, though the walking foot is a must with the Minkee.

Look how velvety soft the Minkee backing makes these two yummy quilts! They got even softer after I washed them.

There is so much more drag when pushing around the Minkee; I really needed all my upper body strength, but I was able to stipple much larger than usual because of it. Fortunately the quilts only took about an hour apiece to stipple, which is good because I have four more to go. I'm all out of the yellow Minkee, but I have some pink, pale green and turquoise left.

A Dolly from my Secret Pal gets a new Hairdo

I got a sweet little doll from my secret pal last month, only she was bald. She seemed... unhappy about this hairless state, so one of my missions in Houston was to find some hair for Sally Ann (the first dolly I've had in about 40 years, BTW). I had no idea I would have so many choices. A helpful vendor steered me to this lovely ragamuffin remnant, which for only a dollar, was able to provide her with a thorough coiffing. I dug out my hot glue gun, which had been resting for about 10 years, and voila! Sally Ann has a new 'do.



Another cool thing that happened in Houston was that I got to meet the daughter of Roxanne of Roxanne International Thimble fame. I had always wondered if the size 3 1/2 thimble I had purchased was too small for me since it's very snug. Roxanne's daughter fitted me for a thimble and assured me that I had purchased the correct size. She was very surprised because "Everyone who tries to fit themselves ends up getting too large a thimble." I told her that I was an engineer and followed the instructions "exactly". "Ah, an engineer", she said, "that explains it. They're the only ones who actually follow the instructions." 8)