Amish Quilts

I joined a swap to trade miniature Amish quilts. This Amish Abstractions book is the bomb. The quilts are breathtaking.

It just so happened Beth was giving a paper piecing demonstration at Sew Day and the pattern she offered had a little Amish look to it.

Ta da, one finished Amish mini quilt.

The big winners from the giveaway are: Pam, Barb, and Michelle. Congratulations ladies. I'll get your goodies in the mail this week. Thanks to everyone for playing.

A Title Would Be Nice

Crock pot rotisserie chicken was pretty good. I prefer the oven method, but it's hard to beat a crock pot recipe if you forget to marinate. I highly recommend that oven method, which is also unattended for a long time, but in the oven. Make two chickens while you're at it. You can freeze the meat successfully, or just eat it up all week long.

Because I'm half French, I drained off the drippings and made a sauce with capers, wine, and lemon juice.

I've always wanted to make Hasselback potatoes. Luckily Google understands me because I typed in Hasselhoff potatoes. I'm not sure the Baywatch life guard has a recipe for potatoes. Ya never know.

I made a quick mug rug for someone who loves orange and blue. I wonder if she's a Gator fan?

Other stuff:

• Don't forget about my giveaway. Just leave a comment on that post.
• I colored my hair yesterday. It's fuschia.
• It's not yet 10 am, but I've walked into two spider webs this morning. Let's just call that my workout.

Graduate in the House

We have a graduate in da house. My baby graduated from high school. Sniff, sniff. Where did those years go? Like her older brother, she decided not to walk with her graduating class. She spent her senior year attending only one high school class and completing her freshman year of college with dual enrollment. We did a ghetto photo shoot with my bathrobe, her cords from the Law Magnet program and my Omnigrid cut and press tool as her mortarboard. Creative bunch, aren't we? Too bad we were both cracking up so much during the shoot.

Anyway, it's summer for the Smoothie girl. She'll be working, but I'm sure she'll find time to goof off and enjoy the summer before she starts her sophomore year. I may make her unload the dishwasher too. You know what fun that is. I couldn't be any prouder of this girl. She is smart, funny, and beautiful.

On another note, did you see all the giveaways for Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day? I may or may not have wasted an afternoon set aside for sewing to see all kinds of new blogs and enter a zillion giveaways. I don't usually win, but it has happened. Wish me luck. But in the meantime, I found a bunch of fun new blogs and inspiration galore. The quilting industry is bigger and better because of us.

You can enter my part of the giveaway here. Comments close Friday, May 25. I'll choose a winner after that date. I hope you win something if you've entered any of the giveaways. And keep your fingers crossed for me too.

Do you Zentangle? I first got into these drawings when I was active on Swap-bot. They're fun, relaxing and kind of remind me of quilting designs. You can find tons of ideas and instructions at Tangle Patterns.

Jackie at Canton Village Quilt Works had the opportunity to see Pat Ferguson who does Zentangle quilts. They are amazing! Go see.

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.

Still Swapping

This Pin Pouffe was fun and easy to make.

This potholder was another swap item. We used this tutorial. If you want to make it, cut your binding strips at 2" and you'll be much happier! Lots of layers to wrap.

Color me caught up with my swaps! I'm not signing up for any more until I get some holiday projects accomplished. Now to get to the post office.

Happy Halloween!

Catching up on some swaps. I signed up for too many. I still have a potholder to make. And something with owls. I need to get busy with work so I can have more time to play.

 

Look at the pretty seafood! Although I often wonder about the first person who ate an oyster. What was he/she thinking?! I wrapped some of the shrimp with jalapeno and bacon and grilled them with a butter and tequila sauce. We lightly grilled/steamed most of the oysters, but a few of these biggens I made into Oysters Rockefeller. 

Happy Halloween! My friend Jane mailed me these. They're my favorite.

I thought this commercial was funny.

I made it through Blogtoberfest. I'll shut up now.

Swap Out Friday

♫ They call it Beefaroni. ♪ Remember that jingle? I loved this stuff as a teen. My mom wasn't a big fan of prepackaged foods, so getting a TV dinner or a can of Beefaroni was a real treat. A trip to McDonald's would bring me to my knees. On a whim, I bought a can of Beefaroni thinking one of my skinny kids would scarf it down. Not a chance. I don't get it. It's like low-maintenance Hamburger Helper. Pop the top and nuke the contents. They love Hamburger, ick, Helper. Now I'm going to have to eat the stuff.

But first, I'll eat the fresh stuff. It is hurricane season, so having canned goods on hand is probably a good thing. If our power goes, I'll be eating delicious Beefaroni warmed on the grill. The kids can split a can of chick peas. Anyway, I love making Tuna Salad Nicoise, but Inspector Gadget is not a big fish fan. I had leftover chicken breast, so I offered a salad bar for dinner last night. I put everything but the chicken on my version. Peppery arugula, tomato, red potatoes, hard boiled egg, avocado, red and green bell peppers, radishes, cucumbers tossed with a fresh basil and lime creamy vinaigrette. There was enough leftover for lunch too.

This lily zentangle is for a swap. I haven't done zentangles in a long time. They're very relaxing. I still need to trim it down, so most of the art on the edges will bleed off.

More swap items. Spool quilt blocks and pink coasters. These small projects are just what I need between boring work projects and paper work.

My first pull for The Love of Solids swap. I think I may edit a few of these shades out of here, but I really need to start something, time's a wasting. That top color is really a maroon. It looks like a plum in the photo. I think I like that. I'll have to find a plum and audition that. I need to chop chop and quit messing around.

Here's Dotty's latest selvage quilt creation. She sends me on of these beauties every month! They're really fun and they always remind me to play with my selvages. I plan on doing that tomorrow! Happy weekend.

Not So Manic Monday

I sewed my Kaffe Fassett birthday charms (thanks again, Rene') into HSTs on Sew Day and promptly put off trimming them. Trimming is so boring, but it sure makes things line up easier. Ask me how I know. Don't be alarmed by my neat piles. I was just counting blocks and decided to be neat for once. It'll pass. I'm sure it already has.

Now what can I make with the trimmings? I see an orange dog ear triangle in there. I'm kidding. This is trash.

So 81 trimmed blocks later, I'm playing with a layout on my design floor. I love it. I may try another layout now that I've picked them up off the floor, but I sure like this one. The solid is Kona Charcoal, my current love. I want a bolt of that stuff.

It was a whirlwind weekend as usual, but I did sneak off to a rummage sale at our local Catholic church Saturday morning. They usually have some goodies in the linens and crafts room. I found this vintage doll panel featuring Little Red Riding Hood, Granny and the mean wolf. The vintage illustrations are so adorable.

I joined a swap to exchange "Lemon Meringue" fat quarters. You send your partners white and yellow fat quarters. Then I decided to try to make a mug rug in the same theme.

Tuna pasta salad for dinner. I whipped this up yesterday between trying to keep cool on a boat ride and in the pool. My pool is a refreshing bathtub-like 92 degrees. The 1960s-esque salad features penne pasta, tuna, tomatoes, scallions, celery, green olives, hard boiled eggs, lime juice, mayo, mustard. I'll serve it over spinach leaves for me and iceberg for the picky. The kids are both working, so hopefully I can talk Inspector Gadget into a cold dinner. I'm making a huge fruit salad to go along with everything right after someone turns off the internet. Happy Monday!

Block Party

There was some block production going on around these parts.

Brenda at Scraps and Strings is celebrating her birthday blogland style! She's having a Big B Birthday Bee. Send her best wishes and a "B" block. She's going to put them together in a quilt.

I used the talented Tonya's Word Play Quilts book for the "recipe." I think everyone has heard of Tonya and her UnRuly quiltiness, but if not, you must check her out. I've been a huge stalker fan of hers since I started quilting.

Speaking of Tonya, her wonky houses are really fun to make. I made these three house blocks for a swap. I never tire of making house blocks and I'm always game to dig into my scraps. Do those things breed in the night or something? It seems like I can never put a dent in my scraps.

Every party needs refreshments. I couldn't decide to be bad or good, so I was both.