My new friend

I recently replaced a vital piece of kitchen equipment - my crockpot.  The previous version had given up the ghost - it was no longer cooking properly.  A pretty inexpensive replacement, we got a new crockpot and all is well again.

While we had a truly marvelous family Thanksgiving dinner, it was not at my house and I missed out on any leftovers.  So Sunday morning I threw my Mexican Beef Stew in the crockpot and drove my family crazy with the amazing smell all day while I went to work at the quilt shop.  But then I was able to come home to this delicious meal!

My MIL and I have talked for years about creating a family cookbook of all our favorite recipes.  I have a pile of loose recipes and I'm constantly digging through them, searching for this one or that one.  I went searching online and found several websites that help you create and publish your own cookbook, so I'm trying Tastebook to create a recipe book for my family and perhaps a couple more for gifts.

If you are interested in seeing my family recipes, comment here and I will send you a Tastebook invite.  It's free to join and allows you to share recipes with friends and family.   You can also order a published cookbook, but that's entirely up to you, no obligation!   I hope you don't feel like I'm promoting this website - I really have no personal stake in it at all, I just thought it would be a fun thing to do and I would love to hear any of your family favorites - I am always on the lookout for yummy new foods to try!

With a chick chick here...

I haven't done any embroidery for years and years, but when I saw these Buttermilk Basin Chickens thru the Year patterns, I just had to have them.  I will be piecing these stitcheries into a quilt in some manner.  I'm waiting on the teeny black buttons I ordered to use for the chicken eyes, but here is my first stitched block!

So you don't lose all interest...

We've all been working on a family project for school with my two 6th graders, so not a lot of quilting has been accomplished here this month.  I did, however, receive this beauty back from the quilter and wanted to share some pictures, although my pictures really do not do the quilt justice.

It's made with one layer cake, background and borders from the Simplicity collection, and the pattern is called Star Cakes.  It makes a huge (85x85) quilt with almost no effort.

I will always have fond memories of this quilt because I started it in April when I made my first trip to California to visit my dear friend Nicole.  In fact, I think I might call it California Dreaming.

I absolutely adore the beautiful free-form feathers that my quilter did on it.  It's certainly a breath of spring on a cold fall day!

Here's wishing everyone a very happy Thanksgiving!

Sorry to disappear!

I was so busy getting ready to leave for retreat, I didn't even get a chance to blog that I was going!  I just spent the last 5 days at my guild's fall quilt retreat - food, companionship and lots of time to sew, uninterrupted by family demands.  Heaven on Earth, I must say.  Our guild is large, and this retreat hosted 85 quilters.

I feel like I got a lot accomplished - I bound a quilt that I just got back from my longarm quilter, pieced the backs for 2 quilts to get them ready to send out for quilting, and then I completely pieced 15 of the 30 blocks needed for my Starring Repros quilt, and got the second 15 blocks about halfway done.  Now that I'm home I can arrange and rearrange them on my design wall, which is hard to do at retreat because design wall space is very limited.

Since I don't have any photos of my own to show, let me share with you something that inspired me at retreat.  One quilter, Pam, was working on this Midnight Silhouette quilt, and another retreater had the finished top displayed on the wall in her room.  This beautiful quilt by Blackbird Designs is definitely going in my "future projects" file.  The first photo shows how Pam reduced the size of the quilt by 25% and added extra pieced stars, which I think I would like to do when I make the quilt as well.  Beautiful, aren't they?  Now, if I could only master applique!

Teamwork

In an incredibly short amount of time, the gals at my quilt shop all made blocks, one of them put all of the blocks together with sashing, a former employee who is now a fabulous longarm quilter quilted it, another gal bound it and Thursday evening, we presented it to our coworker Faith in time for her to have it with her during her first chemo treatment.  There wasn't a dry eye in the house as we presented our gift to Faith - a beautiful combination of pieced, appliqued and stitched blocks in the soft Lecien fabrics that she loves.  She will be in our thoughts and prayers through all of her treatments.

Yahoo!!!!

It took FOREVER, but I finished my Web Sampler quilt!   Putting it together was a bit of a challenge, as I have heard from others who have had problems with their finishing kits.  I think the reason is that these finishing kit patterns were generated in EQ6 and there aren't really full "published pattern" instructions.  That's my personal theory, anyway...  I know I struggled with mine, and you can see the wonky points in the outer border.  There is no instruction for dealing with those.  I think I may have it quilted first, and then decide where to trim it off.

Anyway, I am glad to be finished, but also very happy with the result.  The quilt measures approximately 72x72.

Just in the nick of time!

This project has certainly been languishing.  I never thought I would finish the blocks, and of course I still have the sashing to assemble, but I'm FINALLY finished with my Web Sampler Celebration blocks.  If you are familiar with the project, you might notice I have a couple of different blocks.  I had a real struggle with accurately piecing a couple of them, so I picked 2 other 12" blocks and did my own thing.  I love how these blocks turned out, and when it's put together with the large paisley sashing and black setting triangles, I think it will be stunning.

I finished just in time to start Web Sampler III.  I swore I wasn't going to sign up for another one of these projects, but the fabrics were just calling to me.  I love the Judie Rothermel Vicksburg colors of blue and brown.  The blocks started to roll in yesterday, so after I finish assembling the first sampler, I'll likely dive into the blues and browns next.  Nicole is going to join me on this one, but we're not putting any deadlines on ourselves this time.  I don't do well under pressure!