Sunday Stash #57

I was gifted this fun Mardi Gras fabric by Rene's sister Michelle. Rene' started the Orlando Modern Quilt Guild which I adore being a part of. She also got Michelle into quilting. I want to adopt both of them as sisters. They're both very talented quilters. I love seeing what they make.

I unearthed this fabric attempting to clean up my studio. Not sure I've shown it. I like having pictures of my fabric. It's fun to go back and see what I have in my stash.

Our Friday night dinner consisted of steak fingers with gravy, roasted sweet potato planks, and watercress salad. Notice Inspector Gadget poured gravy on everything. At least I got him to eat sweet potatoes and watercress. Progress.

Then he bought these little peppers and requested I stuff them. I used cream cheese, feta, sun dried tomatoes and herbs. He loves these peppers.

I used the leftover cheese mixture to stuff halved jalapenos. We have so many jalapenos on our bush, I'm running out of ways to use them. I wrapped these in bacon and roasted until the bacon was crispy. During the last few minutes of baking time, I swabbed them with apricot jam I loosened with a splash of vinegar. They were yummy. Even College Boy tried them. He's the jalapeno king around these parts. Roasting the peppers removes the heat. They're barely spicy after roasting. These are good on the grill too.

Tonight I'm grilling chicken thighs that have been in a tequila lime marinade. I hope I don't go up in flames. Looks like I'll be grilling in the rain. Happy Sunday!

Dog Days of Summer

I was thrilled to get my paws on this long coveted Moxie the Doxie pattern by Bad Skirt. I've followed Amy's blog for a long time and she makes the coolest stuff. To celebrate a million page views, she is graciously sharing her doxie pattern through September. Here's the dear pup in pieces. I must make a bunch of softies, because I'm almost through my second bag of fiber fill. That stuff makes me itch.

Meet Spot, the colorful dachshund. He'll have to live with an older kid because of the buttons. I thought he turned out pretty cute and the pattern walks you through each and every step. With pictures. My kind of pattern.

Someone forgot to buy lettuce at the market, so we've been eating a lot of tomato, avocado, radish, and fresh herb salads. I don't even bother with a dressing. Just a drizzle of balsamic, salt, and pepper. I picked up some lovely watercress yesterday, so we can go back to salads. Inspector Gadget is not a fan of watercress, but when I see a good bunch of it, I have to buy it.

Another quilt for AAQI. Our guild challenge for September was to make AAQI quilts. There were so many cute ones. You can see them right here. I never tire of making these little quilts. I'm looking forward to a rainy weekend with lots of cooking and sewing.

Sunday Stash #56

Fabric.com had some nice quilting fabrics for $3.95 a yard. I picked up a few things. Love those simple line drawings and funny kid sayings. I really need to start a black and white quilt. I think I've collected enough black and white prints by now.

I try to avoid sugar, but these two confections are sitting in my studio taunting me. Hey, at least I didn't make these Take Five Candy Bar Brownies by the Noble Pig. Those sound dangerous.

Speaking of taunting me, I made a vat of my mom's potato salad for the holiday weekend. I always have to ask her if she puts onions in her potato salad (she doesn't). There's no actual recipe but I know how she basically makes it. Mom would decorate would sliced hard boiled eggs and a gentle dusting of paprika versus me spilling a large amount of paprika.

The ladybug flimsy is finished. Yay! It's about 60" square. I just need to find and make a backing and get this baby to the long arm quilter. This was my first quilt top made from a kit. There was plenty of fabric leftover. Kits kind of worry me; I'm not the most accurate cutter. I was careful and ended up with plenty of leftover fabric.

We Survived

We survived Tropical Storm Issac. Our bored Florida meteorologists get so worked up. Poor people never get any snow, blizzards, earthquakes, etc. Even hurricanes are few and far between. That's why we're the Sunshine State! We didn't get much rain or wind. Bones was brave and weathered the storm like a champ. As long as there's no thunder or heavy rains, Bones is cool.

The rainy day put me in a baking mood, so I whipped up October Farm's butterhorn rolls. I halved the recipe. Inspector Gadget can only eat so much bread and the kiddos started back to college so I have no idea when I'll see them again. An empty nest is awful when you like to cook. I may have to open a restaurant or rent some children.

To go along with the rolls, I made this basil lime chicken. Yep, I was out there grilling in the middle of a hurricane cloudy day. Ha ha! My produce market had purple potatoes, which I've never seen in person or eaten. I have watched a Chopped episode that had them as a mystery ingredient. I simply boiled them and tossed them with fresh parsley, butter, sea salt, and pepper. I wonder if the purple variety have a lower glycemic level like sweet potatoes? They tasted like regular potatoes. The chicken was spectacular.

I try to make a salad every night. Takes the guesswork out of a side vegetable. If I'm in a fancy mood, I'll toss the fresh vegetables rotting in my crisper and nuke frozen vegetables.

Some basil and peppers from the garden. I neglected everything and my jalapenos turned red. Wonder if that makes them hotter? I know the tan markings mean a hotter pepper. I'll have College Boy test them out for me. He likes them on quesadillas.

I made a little quickie pouch from this tutorial. Fun and easy. I used 5" charm squares and a CD for the template.

Rainy Day

Tropical Storm Issac is a little closer than this model, but the image made me laugh. I always loved The Love Boat. We're just getting a bit of rain from the outer bands.

I made a little progress on the ladybug quilt. Hand embroidery was involved.

Another little AAQI mini is finished. These little quilts are perfect to practice my free motion quilting skills.

Here's Issac this morning. I think it's going to rain in central Florida today. Hunker down Louisiana.

Yep, It's The Weekend!

Anyone getting excited about the Modern Quilt Guild's first conference? QuiltCon is being held February 21-24, 2013 in Austin, Texas. And yeehaw, I'm going and bringing my boots. The block challenge for the conference yielded over 375 creative blocks. The Orlando Modern Quilt Guild is represented. You can see some of the blocks right here in the Flickr pool. They are all really cool. Go Modern Quilt Guilders! The blocks are being used for a raffle quilt and the balance will be made into quilts for a children's shelter in Austin.

My cousin was looking for a cross stitch project, and I found this pretty poppy kit the other day. I'm hoping it will cheer her up and help pass the time when she's not feeling well.

I bought a somewhat matching embroidery hoop and put everything in the failed netbook case. See, I knew I could find a use for the case. It's always nice to have a project bag to keep everything contained. She can tuck in scissors, extra needles, and a needle threader. Actually, she got the good eyes and probably doesn't need a threader. I hate being the eldest, creakiest cousin.

My daughter watches after a little boy when she isn't blending smoothies, attending college, making me laugh, stealing my car, eating, and shopping. That kid stays busy. I showed her these Angry Bird hooded bath towels and she asked me to make them for the little one. He's only three, but crazy about Angry Birds. She bought the towels and I whipped them up. I thought they turned out cute. I even added a tuft of black feathers on the head of the yellow bird. She said the kid is going to flip.

Yumi and I are still making quilts for AAQI. I unearthed a little ladybug block and added some picnic gingham. I just need to find some tiny black buttons for the ladybug spots. I have buttons galore, but no tiny black ones.

For this one, I was just playing with scraps to make a pumpkin. The deadline to mail quilts to AAQI for the International Quilt Festival display is August 31. They're doubling the amount of quilts they usually bring, so Ami put a call out for more quilts. The festival starts on Halloween, so I thought a pumpkin mini might sell.

Just look how this grass roots organization is growing. Ami, you and your volunteers are da bomb! And I know a lot of quilters who really love making these little creations. You all rule too. I enjoy seeing all the creative quilts made by enthusiastic and talented quilters. If you'd like to learn more about this organization, this video is informative. I hesitate to say this, but I think all of us will be directly affected by Alzheimer's disease sometime in our lives. Whether it's a family member, friend of a friend, admired movie/sports star, we're going to hear about this disease. Doctors and scientists are working hard to find medicines to combat this disease and possibly cure it. This little organization provides funds to help those minds work. Something we may even benefit from.

Sewing on Saturday

For once, I prepared a project for our monthly guild Sew Day. It was a kit I bought on sale some time ago. The kit was so inexpensive, I thought if I only used the fabric it would still be a deal. I opted to make the quilt.

I made a little progress. I also read my new quilt book, Sunday Morning Quilts, ate the entire day, drooled over gorgeous projects, and yakked with my sewing homies. Those gals are a hoot.

I love these animation stamps. Hollywood thought they were cool too. She said to me "you should save them and not use them; or is that just stupid?" I guess stamp collecting has gone out of vogue. She had no idea people collected stamps. I still have my collection my dad and I started when I was little. It's probably worth millions. Ha.

Last night's dinner. Barbecued chicken, sun dried tomato and roasted red pepper risotto, pink beans and salad. My love affair with risotto continues. College Boy and I are the only ones who really love it. The other two put up with it. Bones eats anything. The kids have hardly been home for dinners this summer, so I've been making stuff I like. Then they come home and say "what was for dinner?" and I tell them lobster and caviar. Or Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and Cosmic Brownies. I'm mean that way.

Another odd breakfast. I'm out of sardines, so I had turkey and Gorgonzola on Triscuits and half a plum. The fruit has been really good this summer. We've been enjoying cherries, grapes, stone fruits, and melons. I hope everyone has a fun and productive week. Or a relaxing one. Your choice. College starts next week for my not so littles, so it will be quiet around here.