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.

Beach Bumming

We had a fun sewing day at Cocoa Beach Saturday. My guild buddy has a gorgeous place on the beach. It's paradise. I wish I could win the lottery. A beach house would be high on the shopping list. Being at the beach is so relaxing. I love everything about it. Maybe I should actually play the lottery.

We sewed in the rec room. Break time was a stroll on the nearly deserted beach. The water was a little too cool for a dip, but the weather was exquisite. We finally had a perfect spring day. April has been a steamy scorcher. It was like we went straight to summer. This weekend was cooler.

Alejandrina made a huge spread of gourmet goodies. She has the largest collection of cookbooks I've ever seen. I could spend weeks browsing through her cookbooks. I love how they're all on a wall in her kitchen. Lunch was falafel with tahini sauce, meatballs with tzatziki, chicken salad, roasted vegetables with vinaigrette and a spinach and cheese strata. Oh my word! Everything was so good.

I chose an easier project as we get talking and anything complicated gets messed up quickly. I've made this jelly roll quilt before and I remember it being fun and easy. And I loved the results. I think it's the only pattern I've ever duplicated. It was a last minute decision as I threw my stuff into the bag before leaving.

The fabric line is "Ashton Road" by Valori Wells. Jelly rolls are fun sometimes. Not a lot of thinking since it all kinds of goes together. I made 20 of these strip sets.

Then sub cut them today into 3.5" sections. Here they are all stacked up and ready to be paired into blocks. That will have to wait until my next sewing session. This laundry ain't doing itself.

Someone was no help. Note fabric scraps on carpet. How did those get way over there? I can't disturb Mr. Bones with the vacuum cleaner, so they stay. Well that's my story and I'm sticking with it. Have a great week.

Sunday Stash #89 - The Easter Edition

Happy Easter! You eating ham yet? Me neither, but it's in the cards. Did you have a nice April Fool's Day? Did you get pranked? Did you prank someone? I always enjoy the holiday. I made these signs for the front and back doors at work. I fooled a few people. It made them cranky, but I think they were cranky anyway.

I made this ad for Tony Roma's Facebook page. No one inquired about purchase.

Paper pieced bunny Peeps. I LOVE having an automatic thread cutter for paper piecing. It makes production go much quicker.

I made this little quilt top based on a favorite T-shirt by Patchwork Threads. The squares are 3".

A new pimento cheese recipe. It's yum and involves roasting red peppers and pickle juice. Delicious.

No neon orange here. They must add food coloring to store pimento cheese.

Here's the recipe from The Roosevelt restaurant in Richmond, VA.

Pimento Cheese
2 cups Cheddar cheese, grated
1/2 cup Mayonnaise
1/4 cup Red Peppers, fresh, roasted, minced
2 Tablespoons Pickle juice
1 Tablespoon Hot sauce
1 Teaspoon Mustard, grainy

Stir all ingredients together and refrigerate until needed.

Not sure if I showed these fabrics before. The MQG Riley Blake Designs Challenge. The challenge is to make something quilted that you've never done before.

April's Canton Village Quilt Works Kona solids were shades of grey. Very pretty. I was plumb out of grey solids.

Here's the stack of Kona solids so far. I wonder what color comes next?

I worked on these Easter-ey colored blocks over the weekend. I'm using reproduction fabrics that I've had in my stash for years. This is a variation on the Single Wedding Ring block and it's fun to put together.

I'm off to sew until I have to cook. Quiet Easter this year. Everyone is cruising, vacationing, working. I like quiet especially when it involves sewing and ham. Have a great week!

800!

800 blog posts. Wow to the wow. I'm such a yacker. Just wanted to say I enjoy each and every one of you. Those comments make me smile and I appreciate all of them.

I stumbled across this hilarious collection of Tumblr posts about family. This one made me LOL. I love a fun family.

How about a giveaway? Why not? I have stuff you might like. I might buy you something. Or make you something. It'll be a total surprise, but if you're game for something free in your mailbox that isn't junk mail, just leave a comment below. If you're a "No Reply" blogger, include your email address so I can contact you.

St. Paddy's Day is Tuesday. I like to celebrate with corned beef and cabbage. The Inspector likes to celebrate with Guinness drinks. We stocked up on all things Irish yesterday. We're not Irish, but any holiday that celebrates a saint who drove snakes out of Ireland, is a holiday right up my snake magnet alley. It's almost snake season, ya know.

I'm making this One Bowl Fudgy Whiskey Chocolate Cake today. That's the ganache melting above. If you're not into corned beef, boozy cake or beer, here are some green recipes I thought looked delicious. And they're healthy to boot!

This is a grandmother's flower for Eleni. I've followed the Stitched in Color blog for years. Rachel recently gave birth to a little girl who could use some special thoughts and wishes. Jodi at Tales for Cloth has organized a flower gathering to make a quilt for this sweet family. If you have a minute and like to EPP, maybe you can help the quilt grow. There's also an auction going on this weekend over on Instagram: auctionforeleni. I love the loving and giving nature of quilters.

Bones needed to go out while I was writing and this little guy was out on the pool deck. Did you hear my snake scream? So I guess it's officially snake season. Let the games begin.

Sunday Stash #85

College Boy is trying to kill me. Like I don't worry enough as it is.

Tried a little curved piecing with Sew Take a Hike's undies block. I need to make more of these.

I think I got my fill of the pineapple block. Fun, but not all that exciting. Maybe I'll come back to them.

I had a little fun at my LQS. They always have the best sales.

Happy November! Turkey Day is coming up. I made a turkey breast last week to have sandwich meat. I brined it first and then roasted it. It was really good. Our favorite sandwich is turkey, cranberry sauce, and mayo on toast. We call them "Uncle Eddie" sandwiches because guess who told us about them?

Have a great week! I'm off to sew!

Weird Weekend

Never a dull moment around here.

Saturday, Inspector Gadget saw a hawk dive bombing something across the street in our new neighbor's yard. Turned out it was a Green Amazon Parrot. He called me out and we spent 20 minutes trying to scare off the hawk as he swooped down and tried to attack the parrot repeatedly. The crows were up above cheering on the death match. The hawk was not very afraid of us. During one swoop, I was close enough to feel the air move from his wings. Aaack! I hate birds about as much as I hate snakes. And that hawk was huge and relentless. Apparently parrots are a delicacy.

I brought Bones' crate out to see if we could lure the bird inside so the hawk would go away. I brought crackers too, but the parrot didn't seem to be in the mood for a snack. The hawk did get a poke at the poor parrot at some point. Finally, the parrot hopped on the crate and we dragged it across the street to our house.

That's the Inspector with his snake stick and crate riding parrot. Note the hawk gloves. I think the Inspector is afraid of birds like I am. I played parrot decoy while we transported birdy to our covered pool deck.

She hung out by the pool until we located her owner (our new neighbor). Apparently, he thought the bird would be fine in this backyard while he ran an errand. Guess he hasn't seen all the birds of prey around here. The parrot is only six months old and says "hello" and "uh oh." Uh oh, is right! It had a gash in its leg, but wasn't bleeding a lot. I think she'll make it.

And then this morning, we're drinking coffee at 6 am and a car alarm goes off. A band of idiot thieves hit our neighborhood and robbed several cars. The Inspector's truck window was smashed and they snatched his GPS before they took off. We ran out just as they were pulling away. I guess our local law enforcement is on the case as these idiots have been making the rounds. We think they left their cell phone in one of the cars they robbed. Dumbos.

I made the Inspector herbed buttermilk biscuits and sausage gravy after the car break in, but I had a healthier breakfast yesterday. I'm going to continue the sausage theme and try this sausage, squash, and kale soup tonight. Squash and kale aren't big favorites with the peanut gallery, but I'm serving it anyway. I'm also going to try this fraudulent easy sourdough bread recipe. The haters can have ramen if they poo poo my soup.

I've been working on a pineapple block using Crazy Mom Quilt's pineapple block tutorial. I'll add a few more rounds to get it to 16" square. Fun and easy! Let's hope the rest of the weekend calms down. Hope yours is going along swimmingly!