I’m having friends over this morning for a holiday brunch. Yes, I know the holidays are over, but we just couldn’t find a day in December that worked for all five of us, so we settled on January 4th. Soon winter vacations will start and then we miss the opportunity to get together. And I think that is the most important thing, not the date. I left my Christmas decorations up and we now have some snow and every twig on every tree, bush and pine bough is covered with light frost that is glistening in the sun that is breaking through. All in all, a good day for a holiday brunch.
I pulled out placemats and napkins made from some of my Thimbleberries holiday fabric collections. Now that you have time to spend doing things other than preparing for the holidays, you might want to stitch up a few from your scrap stash either for yourself or for up coming gifts. You know they will always come in handy. The napkins are reversible with a contrasting fabrics, giving them nice weight, interest and very versatile. Check out the instructions for these placemats and napkins from the project books Christmas Punch and Pine & Rose Cottage, if you have these books in your sewing room library, or download the FREE patterns from the Reminiscing section.
The placemats are not pieced using the small squares that you see here, but rather they are a printed patchwork fabric that was in that collection. You will notice when you check out the instructions, they are technically the back side of the placemat that is simply pieced using two fabrics. I use both sides, depending on the dishes I am using and the occasion. Something to think about when choosing your fabrics. You could actually have one side with fall fabrics and one side with holiday fabrics and get two sets of placemats for the same effort and half the storage space.
Today I’m serving Brunch Egg Souffle’, Mustard Roasted Potatoes and a mixed green salad. The recipe for the egg dish is a staple for many family brunches and came from one of my co-workers at Thimbleberries a number of years ago. It’s always fun to find new recipes, but some of the older ones seem to be the ones we count on having regularly. I promise, you will be making this one often. The Mustard Roasted Potatoes are from Ina Garten and always a great hit and so easy to prepare. They really make the house smell great.
You can find more great recipes on YUM!
