Not so vanilla binding

I'm trying reeeeeeally hard to get a jump on some holiday gift making.  Starting with homemade Vanilla extract.  It takes a few weeks to cure (about 8) so I started it today, hoping to pour into cute little glass bottles for Christmas gifts.  I usually don't think of these things until three days before the holidays and then do a hand slap to the head, wondering why I didn't come up with it sooner.  This year I'm going to be smart.
So, besides feeling all smug about my smart self, here's what I did.....

Gather some 40% vodka,  (the cheap stuff is good here.  Save the Grey Goose for a dirty martini later, after you're done slaving in the kitchen), vanilla beans ( 1-3 beans per 4 oz. vodka), and a sterilized glass bottle with tight fitting lid.  You can even use an old wine bottle, just jam the cork back in there to seal.  Now split the beans open with a sharp knife.

Put the beans into your bottle, pour the vodka over them and seal tight.  Store in a dark cupboard for about 8 weeks. The first week or so take it out to say hello and give it a good shake.  If you open and smell it you will want to drink it.  Just ignore this and go get a piece of chocolate out of the drawer instead.
At the end of the curing time, decant into fancy little bottles and decorate with ribbon. Voila!

There are a lot of different websites out there with vanilla extract recipes.  Here is one, and you can also try here.

  I'm sewing binding on a quilt I just finished.  I know, it's totally unrelated to vanilla extract, and there was no way to smoothly transition from the kitchen to the sewing room, except that the binding is the same color as the vanilla beans,  but, will you just look at how this is sewn on.......

I think I squealed out loud when I saw the binding on this blog.  I have never seen this before!  If you have, then pardon my childlike enthusiasm, but I think this is GREAT!  It completely adds another layer of color and interest to your quilt.  I had already sewn my binding to the front by machine, so I flipped it over to the back, and sewed it down with pink Perle cotton.  You could even sew your binding down to the back of your quilt, then turn it over, and the stitching would show on the front. How fun is that? 


More pics of the quilt coming up later.  I'm going back to the kitchen now.  I'm pretty sure there was some vodka left over.  Now where did I put those olives? 
Linking to Tuesday at the Table.