Rainy Day

Boring Photo of Leftover Marinara Sauce

I gave this slow cooker marinara sauce a try. I halved the recipe because I probably have a vat of spaghetti sauce in the depths of my freezer. I didn't have crushed tomatoes, so I used diced. Crushed would be better. And I left out the brown sugar. I always leave sugar out of my tomato sauces. The balsamic vinegar was a neat addition. I've never thought to add that before. I added a splash of white wine too because the mixture looked kind of thick. It was an easy recipe and the sauce is pretty rich for having no meat. I love finding new blogs and Budget Bytes is a really good one.

The Florida quilt is finished. I hope to get it in the mail this week way ahead of deadline. I hope my partner likes it.

I had some fun with the label. That's Mickey Mouse in case you can't tell by my graphic rendition.

A spool block for our guild's monthly block lotto. I might have enough gray to make another. The block was engineered by the talented Krista (I have one of her quilts!) and is featured in the Modern Blocks book. It's a small quilting world, isn't it?

Tooling Around

College Boy thought mama had bought him an expensive new lens for our camera we share. Elf on a shelf is sitting there wondering when I'm going to put away the Christmas crap. I was trying to find little elves to help me with that task, but it looks like I'm on my own. Maybe I'll leave all the red ornaments on the tree and call it the "Valentine's Day" tree. Glad it's a fake tree or it would have caught fire by now.

See, it's just a coffee cup. Bad mama to tease like that.

I had to have these $2 tweezers I saw at the fabric shop yesterday. That girl needs a cheeseburger!

Told you I was going to have make the mouse pincushion. I wish I had done the eyes differently. Maybe closer together. He looks a little wide eyed. It was still a simple and fun pattern.

Finally started my Florida quilt for the doll quilt swap I host. January has an optional theme of "Show Us Where You Live." I think flamingos, fruits, flip flops, space ships, oranges, tropical fish and frogs describe our state very nicely. Oh, and of course the ever present road signs as our roads are always under construction. Note I left out snakes. Even though I'm a snake magnet, I do not have any snake fabric.

For my 2010 Florida quilt, "Tacky Tourist." I had a bit of fun with applique. Note socks with sandals. It's a common site here. I just noticed the tourist has a tattoo on his arm! I forgot all about that. Wonder if it says "Mum." We get lots of British tourists.

The 2011 "I Spy Florida" quilt with more novelty fabrics. I have a never-ending supply of that dang green frond fabric.

My partner sent me a California surfing quilt. Love that pink poodle surfer chick. This was her first doll quilt swap and she said she had fun making the little quilt. Her sewing group is making doll quilts too, so she's looking forward to making more. They are quite addictive.

Chilly and Chili

It turned chilly this weekend. Low 60s. Brrr! Just in time for my friend's annual Chili Cook-off. Inspector Gadget made our entry. He used habaneros from our garden. I felt like I should have put a warning on the stuff.  The picture is leftovers of it on yellow rice. I had to tone it down!

There were 18 different kinds of chili to sample. I thought they were all very good. It was hard to pick a favorite. The winner's chili had Dr. Pepper in it, but I couldn't taste it. There were some white chili's, vegetarian, one with peanut butter and plenty with lots of heat. The party is always fun. Last year's winner bought containers of Wendy's chili and put it in an old-fashioned crock. Wendy's does have good chili!

Photo from AAQI. Shamelessly stolen from Facebook.

Here's the infamous Carol Doak, who taught me how to paper piece. Well okay, her books did. She's standing at the AAQI booth at the International Quilt Festival. Look over her right shoulder. That's my hedgehog and mushroom quilt. I paper pieced the hedgie. And it sold too!

Someone made me selvage potholders! I needed new potholders badly. They're almost too cute to use, but I'm going to be careful with them.

And here's the doll quilt my swap partner made me. Those triangles are 1-1/4" on each side. Wow! She titled the quilt "The 80's Revisited" and used scraps from that era. It's an amazing quilt!

I've always loved the Skip to my Lou blog. She has the cutest content. On Mondays, she hosts Made by You Mondays which features links to all kinds of crafty and cooking goodness. It's how I waste Monday. Now somebody turn off the internet.

Trying to Catch Up

Sew Mama Sew announced the Lark Doll Quilt Contest today. The deadline to submit photos is November 14. There are prizes! I have their new book Pretty in Patchwork Doll Quilts on my wish list.

Credit: Noble Pig

I found this crab cake recipe on Pinterest. Oh. my. I must make these for a Chili Cook-Off party we're going to next week. Inspector Gadget said he wanted to make the chili with his habanero peppers, so I'll bring an appetizer. I was going to make Chasen's Restaurant's famous chili. My mom has made this for years and it's really good. Elizabeth Taylor obviously liked it:

"The chili is so good. All gone now. Please send me ten quarts of your wonderful chili in dry ice to 448 Via Appia pignatelli. - Love and kisses, Elizabeth Taylor."  - Elizabeth Taylor, on location in Rome, 1962

Ten quarts, Liz? I guess she was feeding the entire crew. My friend is expecting 15 pots of chili at the cook-off, so I should really talk.

More painting on fabric. This is for a Swap-bot swap to celebrate their 100,000 swap. Ernie (the Swap-bot happy envelope mascot) had to be featured in some way. I decided to make a Ernie mug rug for my partner.

I'm loving soybeans lately. You can get them in the frozen food section and some stores carry fresh soybeans, but they're a little pricey. The frozen variety are reasonable. This salad was so simple, soybeans, radish, red pepper, feta and a simple vinaigrette.

Dotty's lastest selvage creation, "A Cup of Kaffe." I love me some Kaffe!

It was a good mail day. Someone sent me this book of 19th century doll quilts. The quilts are darling.

It's Monday

My latest doll quilt in all its crinkly goodness. I just need to make a label and pop it into the mail for my partner.

Photo: Jonny Valiant/Woman’s Day

I made this crock pot chicken pot pie yesterday. It was really easy and really good. I used two boneless, skinless chicken breasts instead of the thighs. You could easily serve this with crusty bread if you didn't want the butter-laden puff pastry. I'll give you one guess to what I went with! ;)

Sunday Stash #35

I love this adorable chicken and gingham print someone sent me this week. I've always been a sucker for red gingham.

And I received some lovely selvages from my guild buddies. That's it on the fabric front this week! I was even in my favorite fabric shop Wednesday, but I didn't buy a thing. There's hope for me yet.

This little nine patch top is done. It's for a swap. Now to quilt it.

Because it's Tuesday...

My Love Shack top is all pieced together. Now to add some colorful borders. Or maybe a funky black and white print. I'm still noodling border ideas. I think this will be a colorful little baby quilt.

I was going to make these tiny courthouse step blocks into Artist Trading Cards, but I decided to take another direction for the cards. Into the orphan block they go until I can figure out something to do with them.

Finally got this mini finished. Meh. I had grand ideas of decorating the machine some way, but ended up just adding a button and some silver bugle beads for the needle. I did practice my free motion quilting on the busy background print. Now it's off to my swap partner.

I have a container of old buttons that are fun to look at. Love that red one. It looks like white candies suspended in red gelatin. I wonder what era(s) they're from?

How about a giveaway? My fellow Kaffe lover Julie designs the cutest sewing and craft patterns. Her company is La Todera and you can find her fun patterns here. Julie also makes some of the coolest quilts I have ever seen. Her newest pattern features these darling Cream Puff Christmas Trees. Aren't they cute with the Snow Babies? These fabric trees would make great holiday pin cushions for all your crafty friends.

Julie was kind enough to give me a pattern for a giveaway. Just leave a comment if you'd like a chance to win it.

All Dolled Up

Look at this beauty I received from my July Doll Quilt Swap partner! Love the colors and the quilting is so fun. My partner did the quilting on a circa 1950s Husqvarna Viking machine.

Here's the doll quilt I'm working on for August. I sorta drafted a sewing machine. I wish the spool of thread would have been a bit more contrasty, but maybe the quilting will help. I've begun the quilting process, but that step always stumps me. Wish I could quilt like the gal above.

The weekend was such fun. Pool day on Sunday and lots of barbecuing and cooking all weekend long. I didn't fit in enough laundry, but I'll get to it. I made this tomato sauce last week and flavored it with a bit of lamb. Gigantic meatballs baked in my filthy oven was dinner the first night. The leftovers made awesome calzones another night and I smushed the last bit of sauce and meatballs for spaghetti bolognese for a quickie dinner. I think I've conquered my red sauce fix for the time being.

I've tried this chicken roasting recipe several times and it's always delicious. I could drink the sauce and I'm usually a Southern gravy girl. The leftover chicken is great for sandwiches, soups, quesadillas, and salad. Then I use the carcass to make stock. The lemon addition is wonderful in the stock.

Bon Appetit!

Go Endeavour!

From NASA's web site.

I couldn't see yesterday's lift off because of the clouds. Space shuttle Endeavour (my dad's favorite shuttle) is delivering an Alpha Magnetic Spectrometer to the Space Station. Sounds like a Jetsons or Back To The Future thing, doesn't it? This is the second to last of the shuttle shots and Endeavour's final voyage. I guess the Space Station scientists will have to call someone else for delivery. So sad to see it all end. I was very fortunate to benefit from the space program while growing up and I know my dad enjoyed his career there.

Just need to add a label to this little doll quilt. Hope my partner likes it. Those honey bun strips seem to be multiplying in my scrap drawer.

After weeks of heat, Spring has sprung here. It's been in the low 80's the past few days and the mornings are downright chilly. Perfect weather for getting outside and sucking in some pollen. Plus, it's too cool for snakes. Those butterflies are freaky though. I wish they would quit dive bombing me. Happy Spring everyone!

Here Comes Peter Cottontail

I couldn't resist this cute bunny pattern by the Quilted Cupcake. I thought he needed a little quilt too. I used Carol's single fold binding tutorial, which is just perfect for little quilts.

I finished this little quilt for my swap partner. The roofs of the houses are prairie points. I might add some buttons or other embellishments to jazz it up a little.

I'm hoping to find some time for those April UFOs this week if I can recover from last week's massive to-do list. It's only 9 am, but I need a nap.

Modern Relief

Go check out the first installment of wonderful quilts our fellow quilters have made to contribute to Modern Relief. You could win one of these beauties! Raffle tickets are only $10 each and proceeds will be given Mercy Corps to help with relief to our neighbors in Japan.
Edit 4/10/11: The raffle has been canceled. I forget how many rules there are for raffles and sweepstakes.

I don't know about you, but I am loving the red and white quilt fever this spring. From the Infinite Variety show in New York, to stunning examples in blogland, these striking quilts are everywhere. Check out these red and white doll quilt (miniature) quilts from my swap on the Quilting Board. The ladies did an awesome job with the optional red and white theme.