Merry Christmas!  Well, the last few weeks have flown by, however I am not that old that I can't remember as a child how long we had to wait for Santa's much anticipated visit.  It seemed that those first 24 days of December were the longest of the whole year!

Today I thought I would show you this last little Christmas project that we have put together using Marg Low's Deer Tree Pattern at a cost of $23.00.

If you are looking for a small beautifully packaged quilt in a tin, the next two projects in Moda's "Frivols" range are now in stock although numbers are limited. What are Frivols? They're a series of collectible tins. They're a new Moda precut. They're quilts and they are about having fun!  You can see another really neat way of using the tin on Moda's blog if you scroll down to the December 18 post.

 http://blog.modafabrics.com

Well, that is all from me this week and for this year.  Thank you all very much for your support, your emails and your friendship over the past year, and I wish you all a happy and safe holiday time with family and friends.

We will be open each day over the Christmas holidays with the exception of December 25, 26, 27 and January 1,  so if you are out and about it would be great to see you.

This week's recipe is definately health food, as it contains fruit and nuts (...and chocolate).  It is deliciously easy and can be adjusted to what you have in the pantry.

Fruit and Nut bars

• 3 cups of dried fruit such as papaya, pineapple, figs, apricots, prunes, cranberries, raisins and cherries (coursely chopped)
• 1 cup assorted nuts, such as almonds, pistachio, brazil and hazelnuts
• 3/4 cup flour
• 1/2 tsp mixed spirce
• 2 lightly beaten eggs
• 100 g melted dark chocolate

Preheat the oven to 150 C.  Put  all dried fruit and nuts in a bowl then add all the other ingredients and mix well.  Press the mixture into a greased slice tin and bake for 30 minutes or until firm to touch. Cut into bars when cold and store in an airtight container.

Take care,  happy stitching (and start the diet next week!)

Rachel

Annie's Country Quilt Store

(03) 3076 277

www.anniesquilts.co.nz