Cheese Bread

Baking is in my blood.  My grandpa and great grandpa were both bakers.  My uncle runs the family bakery now.  As a baby my mom would put me in a giant mixing bowl at the bakery while she decorated wedding cakes.  The smell of baking bread brings back so many good memories.  I enjoy making it too.  Last night I made this cheese bread.

I use my mom's bread stick recipe.  Roll it out and fill it with cream cheese, sauteed onions, ham and cheddar cheese.  Then I braid it.  My family gobbles it up and wishes I would make it more often.  But for someone trying to loose fat quarters it's not the best thing to be eating.  But it is gooood! 

A Little Decorating

At my quilt retreat here, I received this cute little quilt rack.  I've had hanging up on my hubby's to do list for a little while now.  Well, he got it done for me.

DD, my personal decorator, arranged some of my saucer collection on the shelf.  Next to fabric saucers are my favorite thing to collect.  Doesn't my granny square quilt look nice on it?  Please ignore the patch job on the wall.  With a house full of boys sometimes things get a little rowdy here.  Gotta love the men in my life. 

Happy Camper

I've always loved camping.  I have found memories of camping with my family when I was little.  I loved girls camp as a youth.  I had the best leaders. Vivian took care of all bug problems especially spiders.  Marge, who we lovingly called Marge the Sarge took us every year.  We backpacked in, dug biffies and fire pits, learned to start fires without matches and even went sledding one year on garbage bags.  As a mom I took my three boys and went camping.  They were so well behaved and true campers.  We had fun pitching our tent, making s'mores, and hiking.  So imagine my delight when Julie and Eric came up with their S'more line.

I love simply love it!  The cars pulling trailers is classic.  The owls, fish and leaves remind me of all my fun memories camping.  The colors are vivid; orange, green, yellow, turquoise, and brown.   They will make great camping quilts, or if your like my hubby and DD a cabin.

Plan B Becomes a Top

I had so much fun making this top.  I really enjoy this method.  It's like putting together a puzzle.  I love puzzles.  I picked out a back on Saturday and hope to sandwich and start quilting today.

What I really should do is clean up all the clutter around my design wall.  But that wouldn't be near as much fun and I know it will wait for me.  Heaven knows it never goes away.  

New Look

My dear friend, the one I am making this quilt for has helped me redo my website.  She has such an eye and is so much better at photography than I am.  She is also the one that took my family pictures.  I absolutely adore this picture of my Stellar Stars Caught in a Web quilt on her cute bench. 

And this fun stack of my quilts.

Go check out the new look and let me know what you think.

Plan B

On Friday the bottom feel out of my dear friends world.  I was feeling helpless as to how to lighten her burden.  I know eventually she will get back on her feet.  She is smart, resourceful, and very talented.  But how do I help her get from here to there?  I was finishing up Jonathan's quilt when an idea started to form.  In my Kaleidoscope class a few weeks ago I was inspired by a t-shirt one of the ladies was wearing.  It said 'Life is all about how you handle plan B.'  Well, my friend was in desperate need of a plan B.  And when my life falls to pieces I always make a quilt.  It heals me.  Maybe it would heal my friend too.  I've always wanted to do a 'Everything but the Kitchen Sink' quilt like Victoria's.  

 So I pulled out all my test blocks, orphans, scraps, and a few bee blocks that were made for me when I was going through chemo.  A place this dear friend sat with me for many hours. 

And got to work, which was really more like play.

It felt good to be doing something.

The ideas really started flowing and I know this quilt will be finished soon.  Because it's not going to let me sleep until it is wrapped around my friend giving her a little comfort, peace and hopefully strength to move forward.

Some of you may be here for the giveaway.  I just picked the winner I wasn't in the original post because I wanted to make sure I had everyone that wanted to enter.  Anyway the random # generator selected # 1.  Lynn said "I took in a stray kitty , it was just for a few days (I am not a cat lover) and a few days later we had a litter of kittens on our hands! I managed to find homes for them all and every one of them lived very long and happy kitty lives. I'd say she got more that she got more that she bargained for.  Our other winner is #8 Cherylj.  She said "I would love to try the gloves! Once I ordered some crushed walnut shells and did not realize it was in kg not lbs so I got a bit more than I thought that I was going to :)"  I bet she was able to make a lot of pincushions with all those walnut shells.  

Congrats to both of you.  Now if you ladies will send me your snail mail and what color your would like I'll get them out in the mail.

To The Point

You may remember this quilt from here.  Originally it was for my baby nephew, James, but his mom picked this quilt instead.  Because it was no longer to finish the quilt it hung on the clothes line.  Well, when my sister, Lori was here I realized I never made a quilt for her son, Jonathan.  I usually make a quilt for my nieces and nephews when they turn eight.  Somehow his eighth birthday slipped by me.  It was in November, bad aunt, I know.  Well needless to say this quilt came off the clothes line. 

I knew I wanted to do prairie points to go with the points in the star.  I found a great tute here.  I followed the cutting.

And part of the folding process.

But when it had me glue the points in the second folding process I became a bit of a rebel.  I folded accordingly but only used spray starch.

But because I like my points to nest I skipped the glue. Then as I folded the points into each other I lifted the flap of each one.

And basted them until I had enough to go around the quilt.

I love the effect these little points have on the quilt.

I sure hope Jonathan does.  It's on it's way to him in Cali as you read. 

Lend A Hand ~ Giveaway

At Costco recently they had garden gloves that have the grippy on the palm side.  These gloves are also useful when quilting a quilt on your home machine.  I thought there were 3 pair in the package.  I figured this was perfect; a pair for me in the garden, a pair for DD in the garden and one for in my sewing room.  Well, you know Costco, they have never heard of less is more.  So when I got home and opened the package I had six pair.  What was I going to do with three extra pair?

I gave one to a friend for her birthday.  That left me with two more.  Yes, I'm good at math, just not at reading packaging.  So I thought it's been awhile since I've had a giveaway.  I don't need or want the extra pairs so I'd thought I would share with you, my dear readers.  One pair is green as shown the other is purple.  I'll draw two winners next Wednesday.  The first can choose what color they would like.  To enter leave a comment telling me about a time you got more than you bargained for.

Good luck everyone!

Blackfoot Quilt Fest

I had a delightful time in Blackfoot this weekend.  Jenny did a beautiful job on the first ever Blackfoot Quilt Fest.  The trunk shows were fabulous.  Sorry no pictures, in my rush to leave I forgot my camera.  I'm not taking all the blame.  I had DD wanting her hair braided before I left and Neil was pestering me to hurry so I could drop him off at his friends on the way.  So I got a little flustered by my beloved children and forgot the camera.  Fortunately my friend Marilyn took pictures of my kalideoscope class so I can at least share them with you.

 Rosemary and her daughter, Barbara shared their scraps and had several lovely blocks to show when they were done.

Kristen shopped at her mother Leslie's and had the most beautiful batiks going in her quilt. 

 Leslie had the cutest dotty yellow as her background.

 Camille consintrating on getting her blocks just right.

 Alex chose beautiful browns and oranges.  Doesn't the black just set them off.

Everyone did a beautiful job.  I enjoyed meeting these lovely ladies, teaching and learning from them.

Creative Weekend

I met Ben Behunin last February.  He is a gifted potter and talented author.   

Maybe  you have read his books; Remembering Isaac, Discovering Isaac, Becoming Isaac, and Borrowing Fire.  They are delightful and full of little nuggets of wisdom.   

One of my favorites is; "The highway to happiness has many on ramps."

 My mom recently gave her potter's wheel and kiln to my boys.  All of my boys have thrown pots and enjoy playing with clay.  Especially my youngest son, Neil.  He is in his second year of ceramics in high school.  And over his spring break has enjoyed making a few pots.  

 Well this morning I took him to meet Ben.  We enjoyed perusing his studio.  Ben was so nice to take time to show Neil around and answer his questions.  If these images of Ben's work have wet your appetite you can visit his website here or watch this youtube video of a tour of all the tile in his home.

Now I'm off to Idaho to teach these classes.  I'm looking forward to meeting lots of quilters and enjoying their creativity.  What creative things will you be up to this weekend.  If your in Blackfoot, Id come say 'hi'.  I'd love to meet you too.

Many Hands Make Light Work

Recently Sarah started her Hands 2 Help for this year.  She kindly included my Happy Chemo quilts as a place to donate.  Yesterday the first quilt arrived from Kathy.  It is lovely.  Thank you Kathy.  Here is Kathy's quilt along with others that have been donated.  

On Monday Jan did a post for me about my quilty hugs for Happy Chemo.  She is helping me collect quilts at Quilt Walk in June.  I will be teaching there and I'm hoping to collect a bunch of quilts also.  I so appreciate her help in getting the word out early.

Thanks to these two wonderful women for there help.  And to everyone who donates a quilty hug.  I can't tell you how loved each one is.  I wish you could see the smiles, hear the words of thanks and feel the hugs I get as I distribute them.

April Fools = Flexibility

Happy April Fools Day!  I hope you have fun being silly today.  We will be having a flexibility dinner tonight.  Every April Fools I do something for dinner that throws my  family for a loop.  We've eaten with serving utensils, I've just thrown dinner in the middle of the table with no dishes and let them eat, they never know that's what makes it fun.

In my sewing room  I've been playing in my scraps doing a little mindless sewing.  Grabbing triangles for roofs and adding little bits and pieces for the rest.  

As I play I'm slowing forming a plan on how these quilty houses will become a friendly neighborhood.  A neighborhood full of flexible, friendly people willing to go with the flow.