Tap, tap, tap...is this thing on?

Oh, hi! I've missed the blog world so much. Miss reading blogs, miss writing blog posts, and recipe and quilt "research." And you! Not in a stalkier way either.

I made an ugly table runner from selvage blocks. These were part of the trimmings I mixed with white and I really like how they turned out, so maybe I'm on to something. I'm still rich in selvages, so plenty of projects in my future.

These Raspberry Kisses blocks were a guild BOM. Aren't they darling at 4.25" unfinished? I'd love to make a baby quilt with the little cuties.

Improv blocks for our guild's Quiltcon 2016 charity quilt. I saw the quilt getting bound yesterday at Sew Day and it is exquisite! I want to copy these blocks too! So many projects for the new year!

I had a little fun carving a pink eraser into a stamp.

More BOM blocks. I don't usually get to go to the meetings because of real job, but I do love doing the BOM. More improv on these little trees.

I finished this little mini on our quilt retreat in November. What a fun time! I can't wait until next year.

I had some time off work during the holidays and was able to sew, cook, visit, and binge watch TV. I've seen Transparent and Nurse Jackie to round out my inappropriate television viewing addiction. They're both really good if you haven't seen them.

Recipes to Remember

How to poach a dozen eggs at once. I'd love to have a brunch party. Eggs Benny, Bloody Mary bar, biscuits, scones, bacon, ham, scrapple, etc. I have so many good recipes pinned for brunch. After never eating breakfast as a child, it has become my favorite meal. I prefer savory stuff, and you can put a runny egg on it too! Are eggs expensive in your area? There's an avian flu that is causing prices to rise. They still have to be the least expensive protein.

My first co-op box of the summer arrived. Those porcini mushrooms were so good. I used them to make these Easy Creamy Mushrooms. I substituted half and half for the heavy cream. Mainly because I didn't have any heavy cream. They would be even better with heavy cream.

I made caponata with the Japanese eggplants and peppers. It's delicious!

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild's block of the month. This was a fun one! Curved piecing is a bit intimidating, but I love the look of it. These gentle curves aren't too hard to accomplish.

This smoked salmon dip is no looker, but the taste is out of this world. I could make it again this weekend. We were eating it on bagels and crackers.

Anyone binging on the new season of Orange is the New Black? Me either. *cough*

Simply Saturday

I thought this Try The World food subscription service was kind of cool. My first box features foods from Argentina. I'm a sucker for home delivered items. Makes my day to get a package in the mail or on my front porch. I miss swapping when I received stuff all the time.

I also joined a spice blend of the month club. Too much time on my hands, obviously. That's really not the case, but I do tend to get easily distracted between projects at work.

Here's our guild's June block of the month. It was a fun one, even if I did mess up in the beginning. I love seeing all the blocks that everyone creates. Maybe I'll win this time!

The Inspector and I are proud parents of two college graduates! I was so happy they were able to graduate together. They both earned business degrees from UCF, my alma mater. So proud of these little boogers. I guess I can't call College Boy, College Boy any longer. Hollywood will always be Hollywood!

It's salad caprese time! My basil plant is thriving and the tomatoes are getting good. No one is happier about caprese than Miss. Hollywood. Buy stock in mozzarella.

I finished my jelly roll quilt top. Such an easy and fun pattern. I love how the white on the blocks create the look of sashing. It's time to gather some tops to send to the longarm quilter. I'm going to do the little quilts myself, but I need help on these larger ones.

TV is so boring over the summer. I did catch two good movies that are at RedBox. Gone Girl and Big Eyes. Now I'm cruising NetFlix for a fix. I highly recommend Grace & Frankie with Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin. I just started watching Between. I need some books on tape or fun shows/movies if you have any recommendations.

Have a happy weekend! I'm off to sew.

Guild Blocks of the Month

I'm caught up with the OMQG's block of the month. This friendship star is April's block. In dreamy blues with low volume background(s). I need more low volume fabrics. I had to use plain ole white this time.

This Circle of Friends block was fun to make. This was the March block, but I didn't have time to do it before the meeting. I'll have to see if Marge needs another block or add this to my pile of orphan blocks. I thought it was too pretty not to try. It's a bit wonky, but loveable.

I received my first (and only) Kickstarter product. Can't wait to try it out on cold butter. It grates the butter to make it spread easier. Genius, right? I also love the peeps that just keep butter on the counter. Apparently, it doesn't need refrigeration. I'm not brave enough, but I want to be. Eggs can be kept on your counter too. If I implement these practices and we all die, you'll know why. LOL!

This improv is getting larger and wilder. I may call it a day and surround it with big solid borders. And pass out sunglasses. It got a bit out of hand. You should have seen the wild cuts I made at Sew Day. Like drunken cuts. Elbow city. I bet you know what I'm talking about.

Sew Day & QuiltCon Swag

Saturday was Sew Day. After a week at QuiltCon and work, I really needed some time behind my machine. I made this cute house hot pad from this tutorial. The "Glamping" fabric was a gift and I've been hoarding it for a while. I was happy to find a cute use for it.

Then I used my huge bag of selvages from the Cotton & Steel line to make a couple of potholders.  They gave the bags out at QuiltCon and I think it was my favorite swag. The tote bag is stuffed with selvages. And they're really cute selvages.

The freebies were numerous at QuiltCon. This was just the stuff in my QuiltCon tote.

These goodies I received on the vendor floor. There were plenty of vendors to visit.

Many of the attendees traded buttons. I had  some made for my blog and collected a bunch. Some of them are hilarious and inappropriate. Those are my favorites!

I bought a few things too.

My cookie jar isn't full, but I did make blueberry muffins. I missed cooking while I was away. More on QuiltCon later. I took the coolest classes.

Victoria from Bumble Beans!

Pay it Forward Quilt  by Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Bumble Beans was one of the first blogs I started following religiously when I began quilting in 2007. Victoria (V) is a talent to be reckoned with. She quilts with such speed that her projects are endless. Her use of scraps and color, ah-mazing! She has always been an inspiration to me. I've done 15 Minutes of Play, a fabric self portrait, block and quilt swaps, charity quilts, etc. with V. I even have a quilt she gifted to me years ago for a Pay it Forward act of kindness. That's it above and it hangs in my studio.

The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild was fortunate enough to snag V for a couple of classes this weekend. Yep, that's V's hand flying so fast my camera can't focus. She really does sew fast! No wonder she makes so many beautiful quilts. We took her "15 Minutes of Play" class which teaches you how to make fabric. You use your made fabric to make more things. It's a fun process. V had all kinds of tips and tricks to share along with some of her amazing quilts.

One of her Double Wedding Ring quilts won Best of Show at Quiltcon 2013. Th gorgeous DWR above is the cover of her latest book. Double Wedding Rings -- Traditions Made Modern is available for pre-order right here. After making a quilt for the Modern Quilt Guild's DWR challenge, I'm eager to get Victoria's book and make something bigger. She showed us how to handle those curves with precision.

My table at the workshop started out neat. Look, there's a wiener mascot! Judy brought me Frank. He's really cute. That neat pile of fabric to the right was a big pile of mess minutes later. Red, my Janome is now my travel machine. I still love her. I just realized she's seven years old.

Here's some of the fabric I made during our sewing time. Now to hack them up and make something else! I could make fabric all day long. It's really fun and relaxing.

A group of us went to dinner with Victoria. The restaurant was next door to a wig shop. Is it just me, or do these wig heads give you the creeps? My uncle owns a wig shop and I've never been inside it.
The restaurant was Greek and we had flaming cheese! Opa!  I've been wanting to try Saganaki forever! It was so delicious. I want more! Maybe I can make it at home.

Speaking of creepy, the elves have come out. That's my vintage one on the left and the new (and improved?) version available today. I think I like my vintage elf better. The new elf went off to live with Hollywood's charge who is kind of creeped out and thinks the elf will come alive and mess with him while he's sleeping. I love to give gifts that keep on giving. Ha!

Let's eat, grandpa

So many recipes to try. My Pinterest boards are crying uncle. Catching up on magazine reading by the pool last weekend, I tore out five new recipes to try. These refried beans are vegetarian and couldn't be easier. I threw some chili powder in them for zing. They cook all day in the crock pot and then you mush them.

I was trying to make refried beans without the lard and preservatives I see in the canned versions, but look at these refrieds from Trader Joe's. Doh! I should have just opened a can and saved myself the trouble.

Bones was helping Inspector Gadget feed the carp grass clippings. Our new neighbors think the carp are gators. Bones hopes they are not.

I fit in a few more spider web blocks last weekend. Hoping to get a few more sewn this weekend. I love playing in the scraps.

Even the trash is colorful.

I won the block lotto at our monthly guild meeting! Woo hoo! Only four blocks this month, but I will have fun making more. I think these Wagon Wheel blocks are so cute. A big thanks to Rene' for bringing my block to the meeting and sending me my winning loot. I love them!

Happy weekend! I'm rushing through my chores and office work and plan to play my weekend away. There will be cooking involved!

Across the Finish Line

You know what they say about us crazy quilters. Find some fun fabric, chop it into pieces and then sew it back together. It's not as futile as everyone in my family thinks. I really liked this collection. Very retro and the colors were right up my alley.

I really didn't think I would finish the Michael Miller challenge before the deadline, but I made it! I even quilted it myself. There were hurdles. I didn't photograph them. Did I mention I hate the quilting part of quilting? I do.

Look how close the binding was. Not even enough binding to do a mitered seam. No biggie, straight seam it is! The backing striped fabric matched pretty well and I found it in my stash right away. Bring on a new project. Oh wait, I have seven million works in progress going on. No shortage of projects around these parts.

Happy Monday!

I finished all my blocks for the Michael Miller fabric challenge. Using my design table, I threw them together mostly haphazardly. Anything would go with these scrappy blocks. I loved the print that had the big flower motifs, so I left those without chopping them up. We only had fat eighths to work with , but I still had two pretty flowers to feature.

I sewed the blocks together two by two and then in rows of four. For smaller quilts like this I stitch continuously to keep everything straight.

I even press the rows while everything is still attached. It makes it easy to press the block seams opposite ways so they sandwich when you sew the rows together.

I added some solid borders to increase the size a bit. The finished top is 42" x 44". Now to find something for the back and get this baby quilted and bound.

Cool selvage! Love me some orange.

Our guild's BOM for August. This one was fun. It's a traditional wagon wheel block. I love seeing all the blocks of the month that everyone creates.

Oh my gosh, I got caught up in "Botched" while I was sewing Sunday. I usually watch "Snapped" but it appears I've seen too many episodes and I hate repeats. Have you seen this "Botched" show where they're trying to fix botched plastic surgeries? *shudder* Yeah, I watched two entire episodes and tapped the prime time show that aired Sunday night. I'm pretty sure spending all my plastic surgery money on fabric has been an excellent decision.

As usual, we're starving around here. It's downright pitiful.