Several weeks ago I entered into a give away that Deb over at Quilt Gal was giving and I won! My package arrived in today’s mail. I got a book that actually included a pattern ( photo on the right) that I have been looking at from the Piece O’ Cake people how cool is that. I had no idea the patten
was in that book. I also got some fat quarters and a little thingy to put clippings of thread in by the sewing machine or work basket. Thanks Deb for the neat gifts.
Tomorrow I will announce the two winners of my drawing that had been going on for most of the week so make sure you come to check it out.
Now I am going back to the living room to sit down with a coffee, a piece of my delicious cake 
and a book that I am almost finished with. The book is by Karin Slaughter – have any of you read her? I have all of her books. The one I am re-reading is “Blindsighted” her first book. I thought she had a new one out and I was looking for it today only to find out on a search on the computer that it will be released on July 14th! Her new book is called “Undone” and she is combining characters from the two series that she has into one book – I think that will make it very interesting. I will have to wait until Tuesday and then see if the local bookstore has it – if not that is ok, I will be visiting my mom again soon and there is a Barnes & Noble and a Border’s Bookstore in her area – I’m sure one of them will have it. Melanie we will be going to the bookstore when we visit
Before I write anything else I need to tell you that Judy over at the Green Fairy is having a give away. I signed up for her give away and said I would mention it on my blog and didn’t want to forget. You might want to check her out, she is giving quite a few fantastic prizes. She is also traveling to Romania soon on a mission trip. She will be bringing quilts to give away to people in need and is also trying to raise money to feed people while she is there. Check her site out. Besides having lovely prizes she sells fabric and things too.
I have had a productive day – although at the same time it was a lazy day if you know what I mean. First photo – I made an Italian Cream Cake today. It calls for 3 layers with a yummy, fattening frosting of course. I went ahead and made all 3 layers, but then I cut them all in half and froze 3 of the pieces – this will be cake for another day. We have half of a 3 layer cake — which for 2 people who love cake that is more than enough. I probably should have only made a quarter of a cake but that gets more difficult. I got this recipe off of the Pioneer Woman Cooks page. She sure does post good recipes. If you follow the link it will take you to the recipe. I have not made a cake in such a long time that when I saw her recipe I gave in to temptation!
I made progress on the border of the Christmas Baltimore Album and have two of the flowers done! Progress!
Click on the photo’s to enlarge as usual.
I’m wondering if others have the same problem I am having with my hummingbird feeders lately — Bees! they won’t go away, I have never had bumblebees at the feeders that I can recall and there are getting to be more of them everyday. Is there a way to make them go away – I assume I 
shouldn’t spray the area with insect spray as the hummingbirds might be harmed – they are so little. Also the bees of course are good for the flowers. Anyone else have this problem? In these photos you can even see them flying in below the feeder. So far they have not come close to us.
Two nuthatches have taken up residence on the tree next to the porch. They travel up and down the tree – at times upside down, and peck at bugs all day – I do not see the bugs, but I guess they are there!
Now that my husband has found out for sure that he is a contract worker again and 
started a six month job as of yesterday. Now I can start putting some more plants out on the deck and porch for decoration. I had held off on doing so because if we were traveling I didn’t want all the plants to have to be on automatic water system. Here are two baskets of flowers that I got the other day. I have a 3 tier plant stand off to the corner there and haven’t gotten anything for it, I might do that tomorrow after I meet two of my friends in the morning at the local bookstore/coffee shop to look at quilt magazines. We haven’t done that for awhile and thought we would do that instead of meeting to sew.
This area full of Black Eyed Susan, Purple Coneflowers and Tiger Lilies are next to this area of the porch. I spend a bit of my day outside. I have a work basket that I place my applique work in, the telephone, a book, the camera — and I bring out an icy drink and I am set for awhile until the heat drives me in! I have a radio out there and also listen to the birds, squirrels and the bees.
I did make sure that I went and got some exercise first thing this morning!! I have been bad and have gotten out of the exercise habit lately. I always get out of my routine when we take a long trip like we did in May. Then when we got home we had clean up from that storm and then started work on enlarging the deck – through the change in routine I started to skip the fitness center a couple times a week which lead to all week – to all month!! I am making a promise to myself to get back to the healthy life style (and of course I made the cake to prove to myself that I can have my cake and exercise too )
I have not shared any of my quilting photo’s for a little while and thought it was time to show that yes even though we have been busy with the past storm and clean up I have made a tiny bit of progress on the quilting front. I have not worked hard at any of my quilts though since we got home at the end of May.
I showed you all a week or so ago the completed “Berry Block” for the Christmas Baltimore Album. I have started work on the last block! It is called “Circle of Cactus”. I am once again trying something different with this block. The way I normally do is to cut all pieces out and glue baste all down and then needle turn applique. I know a lot of people only put down a couple pieces at a time – or one flower, one cluster of leaves ect. I am trying to see if I like doing it that way. This is what I have so far. I will glue baste some more of it tonight. What I have here in the photo is already needle turned appliqued.
I have also gotten a couple more blocks made on my “Insanity Revisited” Dear Jane 
quilt. The last photo I posted was June 4th and I had 4 blocks completed on row G (#7) here is what I have so far. It is not laid out straight but I didn’t notice until I had the pictures downloaded. This is still Row G (#7) now with 7 blocks. That block number six is a really hard one 
with the star in the star!! had trouble with it on the first quilt too, it isn’t perfect but I do not care!
I have also gotten a very little quilting done on the first Dear Jane quilt “Insanity” not much but better than nothing. This is still row F (#6) and I finished block #’s 3,4, & 5 and working on block 6.
This morning we continued with the clean up from the storm. We got firewood stacked and I got the grass cut while Mike was clearing out more debris in the woods. We have one more pinetree to take care of 
and we are heading into an unusually hot spell for this time of year after the temperatures have been so nice. Today here in the shade it was 86 with about a 90% humidity this morning and it did rain for a little this morning. Tomorrow and the next are both to be around 90 or more. We might wait to take care of that remaining pine tree until next weekend, the top of that one fell also but we are thinking of cutting the whole tree down because of where it is at. We will see. This amount of firewood is from the maple tree that fell down and the top of a large pinetree, the top of the pinetree also took down several small trees when it landed and a dead cedar tree so all of that wood is in here too.
For anyone interested in looking at more photo’s from the trip go to this link to see the photo’s that Mike has finished editing from our adventure at Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky last month. http://www.hawcreekoutdoors.com/Kentucky/MammothCaveNationalPark/
I had to get a new mouse pad as mine was worn out and see this pretty one that I found at this link. Look under gifts and you will find the mouse pads. I thought this one was so appropriate for me as I love the mountains and I love quilts – and there are even a couple Elk in the picture which of course I love seeing (and hearing – such a unique sound they make). They have some other “quilty” like cards, notepads, coffee cups, puzzles ect. Worth checking it out.
I have been busy today running around doing some errands, exercise, ect and then when I got home I got started on the next Baltimore Album Block called “Christmas Delight”. It is still in the – getting the pattern ready stage
— I will work some more on it tomorrow I think. Tonight I have to get back to quilting some more on the “Insanity” Dear Jane quilt. I did get two more blocks finished last night. I also spent some time getting more of the patterns ready for the second Dear Jane quilt “Insanity Revisted” I copy the patterns on to freezer paper with my printer/copier and had only one pattern left ready to use. I got one more row copied today so they will be ready to work with. I am going so slow on that quilt – I am only doing one block a week most of the time and at 13 blocks in a row — at this rate I am doing about 1 row every 3 months! That will take forever – I might need to force myself to get moving on this. Julie is working steadily on hers and she started out slow but has picked up speed and she just finished her 4th row and she will be ready to sew that to her already finished 3 rows. I am working on my 6th row and almost finished with it. Regina hasn’t been putting a lot of time in on her quilt either and I think she has 3 rows about finished – she also works full time and works on other projects as well.
When I get done with the Christmas Baltimore Album I might actually try another Baltimore Album quilt – I kind of like these. Last year when we stopped at the quilt museum in Paducah, Kentucky I bought a CD of patterns from a book called “The Little Brown Bird” - a Baltimore Album quilt by Margaret Docherty. I mistakenly thought all the instructions and everything was on the CD – like a book on CD – if you know what I mean – wrong – only the patterns. I think I will look for the book – a used copy will do for me, I want to see the instructions and the step by step tips of how to make it, the color choices, the layout ect. This is a very big step up from the Christmas Baltimore Album I am working on now. This is one of those types of quilts that may take several years to make – that much applique! Do any of my readers have this book and ready to make a trade? I have been telling myself not to buy more books!!! the economy you know, have to cut back on things. I did put out a request for a used book for trade on several lists but if it doesn’t come through I did find one for under $15 and one at $10.00 I will only wait a day or two before buying one, as I don’t want to spend more than that. Knowing me though I will get the book and then decide it is too hard and I will work on some other quilt instead!! I already have a different Baltimore Album pattern that I want to make – it is much easier than the one I just mentioned. Probably best to do that next and work my way up to the hard one LOL
Way too many patterns and not enough time to make them
I’m not ready to share a photo of the Christmas Cactus Wreath today – it will be done tomorrow. I finished the applique but I still need to do some embroidered French Knots. I will work on that tomorrow.
Today was a chilly, wet, end of March day – going out like a lion even though we still have 3 days to go. We started at 44 this morning, went down to 36 then back up to 39, back down again. Snow flurries, and rain. No sun to speak of. It was a day to be in the kitchen baking I thought I knew we would be cold today so in preparation yesterday I made a fresh batch of sourdough to be ready for some baking today. I found a recipe on line for a sourdough coffeecake which I changed up a bit and added some chopped apples and walnuts. Also I changed a recipe that Karen from the Dakota Country Kitchen posted on her site (thank you for getting me addicted to sourdough recipes Karen) for sourdough biscuits. I added some mashed sweet potatoes and deleted the milk, added some whole grains and call it mine now I am sharing my recipes and maybe you might 
want to change them up a bit also!
Sourdough Sweet Potato Biscuits
2 cups sour dough starter
2 cups white flour
3/4 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 cup oil
1 large sweet potato = cooked and mashed to equal about 1 cup
I pretty much just dump all the ingredients in my Kitchen Aide mixer and beat it up until well blended. The sweet potatoes add enough moisture that there was no need for milk as the original recipe called for. I beat it for a couple minutes. I let the dough rest for about 10 minutes while I was doing other things in the kitchen. Then I put a little flour on the countertop and roll the dough to about 1 inch or so thickness. Using a jar lid as a biscuit cutter (from a regular size Mason Jar cut out your biscuits and place on a greased baking sheet. Depending on the thickness of your dough you will get somewhere between 12 and 16 biscuits.
Let the biscuits rise for about 30 minutes in a warm spot. Heat oven to 400 º and bake for 15 minutes. If you wish brush melted butter over the tops – I forgot to and so in the picture mine have a little flour on them from when they were rolled out. We loved these. I make the whole batch and put the left overs in a zip lock bag and toss in the freezer and heat them in the microwave as we want them. (did you know that sweet potatoes are a natural anti-inflammatory, I didn’t until I read something about that recently)
Sourdough Apple Walnut Coffee Cake
1 cup sourdough
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1 cup chopped walnuts
2 cups chopped apples ( I used two large ones)
Combine the sourdough and the eggs and oil, stir well. Add the dry ingredients stirring well and then stir in the apples and walnuts. Pour into a greased square pan.
Topping:
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons butter or margarine
1 tablespoon flour
Mix these ingredients together, cutting the margarine into pea sized pieces.
Sprinkle the mixture over the top of the batter spreading to cover the whole top of cake. Preheat oven to 350º and bake for 35 minutes.
I no I have too many projects going as it is but after discussing the McKenna Ryan patterns the other day I wanted to try one out. So I got out my scraps and got busy. This is actually my first experience with fusible. Right now everything is just ironed in place and the background fabric needs to be trimmed before I add the border. I am running to Conway tomorrow to Hancocks to get thread. My Gutermann thread cabinet is missing some that I have used up and hadn’t replaced and I also need to get some of the monofilament thread to sew the fusible down on this wall hanging. That will be a new experience as well. I have never used the clear thread before. I will look for a woodsy border print as well as I have already looked through my scraps and have nothing big enough. Hopefully I can find something there – if not I will go back through my stash again and see what I can find. It doesn’t need a lot so I will be able to find something that will work.
I thought that the two McKenna Ryan patterns that I have will go perfectly in the small motor home that we have — we love the mountains out west and spend most of our time in national parks hiking and sightseeing looking for animals – so it will go perfectly on the small spaces available on my empty wall spaces (not a lot as cabinets & windows take up most of the wall space I have in it). I have not “decorated” the motor home and I always like wall hangings and photo’s ect and have just not gotten around
to it and would like it to have a more lived in look if you know what I mean.
Last night while listening/watching to ER I got a couple more Insanity squares quilted. Blocks C1 & 2 from right to left. I have time tonight to maybe work on one more – but I might read instead.
Nanci I have finished two of Harlan Coben’s books and I love them! I will keep my eye out for more – thanks for the tip on this author. Due to you and Mary Ann I have just about decided to take up knitting this fall. We do have a knitting shop in town and I am going to check and see if they give classes. I won’t think about it until the fall though – just too many projects right now. Yes we have a knitting shop but no quilting shop – go figure!
I think we all agreed we have too many patterns and not enough time to make them. After writing about it last night I got my basket back out and looked through them and put two of McKenna Ryan’s patterns out on my quilting work table and I’m going to leave them there for a little bit to look at them and remind myself they are there! Maybe when I get done with the applique on the Christmas Cactus Wreath I will decide to make one of them. They are from the Calling Me Home set of blocks. One is called “Bear Up There” and is only 20 x 25 inches and the other is “Glacier Falls” 22 x 16. Not large at all and surely it is something that wouldn’t take a lot of time to make. I will have to look at the other patterns too and start thinking about making some of them — mind you I say thinking about — not well do These two patterns are part of a set of 8 that can be made as individual wall hangings or a full quilt. I only have these two right now. I have several of her other patterns as well. Visit her site (I have linked her site to her name up above) and you will see some great quilts to be made from wildlife.
I did some more quilting on “Insanity” last night and got three more squares quilted! Moving right along. Row B will be 
done before I know it. Progress is being made and I like that feeling. I appliqued a little on the Christmas Cactus Wreath today – not a lot but a start, I got two of the corners finished of the mistletoe. I plan to finish each corner first then move on to the flowers – get the easy stuff out of the way first
I was not disappointed with ER last night, but I kind of wish it would have had a slightly different ending to it. I would have liked for “Doug & Carol” aka George Clooney and Julianna Margulies to have found out that the doctor in Chicago that received the kidney was one of their old workmates. I was kind of surprised that they got George Clooney to come back but pleased.
Tomorrow should be our last cold day and then back to the 60′s and 70′s next week. I’m glad about that. At this time of year even though 44 isn’t cold it is after you have enjoyed temperatures that are around 75! and night time temps where we actually left the windows open a couple nights!
First fresh bouquet of flowers from my flower beds — spring is here When I can finally cut this many daffodils then I think we can safely say it is spring even though we had a little snow fall just a couple days ago. I have leaves large enough to see on my hydrangeas now and on the rose bushes. The weather man says it will be in the low 70′s the rest of the week and 50′s at night!! I am so ready for spring. I put the flowers next to my computer in my sewing room as this seems to be where I spend the most time in the house so might just as well enjoy them.
I didn’t work too much on my applique design today as I was outside and also when I was inside I was baking biscuits for supper because my daughter made some the other day and posted photo’s on her blog From Scratch and that made me hungry for biscuits! She lives a little over an hour away so I couldn’t go beg some from her. I had the last of the sour dough mixture to use up so thought why not. I will start a new batch of sourdough in the future, but right now I have done enough baking for awhile and need to lay off or I will start putting on some unwanted pounds around the middle. I didn’t take any photo’s of my biscuits but they looked just like her nice fat ones and they tasted good too. I have enough left over to toss in the freezer and then pop in the microwave when we want them.
Besides working in the yard and baking biscuits I did do a little work on the applique 
design and took another picture so you can see the design growing. As you can see I mean it when I say I am not in any rush. This amount of work took about one to two hours to do and it is not even a complete quarter of the way done. I also did a little more on “Insanity” and gave the frame another crank and finished the the first border and will start on row A this evening. It is going great. For some reason a lot of Dear Jane people say they dread quilting this quilt – they like piecing it but do not want to face quilting it. I think the thought of all those seams is daunting. But I have found that there are actually a lot of places to quilt this quilt. I have bent several needles but that is to be expected and I imagine I will have some more bent needles before I am finished. Oh and before I forget I also did an hour quilting on the quilt guild challenge project – it is coming along nicely and I’m about 1/3 of the way done with it (wall hanging).
Come to think of it I really was busy today – we started off the day going to the fitness center and I walked two miles on the treadmill and rode 4 miles on the bicycle.
I belong to an on-line quilting group with yahoo and the list volunteer is always putting so many links to different things that are interesting that I thought I would start to share them with you all. Some of them I am interested in and some things I am not. One of the good ones that she shared today is free quilting patterns at this link for Quilter’s World. If you want some free patterns you might want to check them out. Normally you must download a file but you do not pay for it. Just follow the directions and then you can print out your pattern.
I sewed a few of the “Insanity Revisited” blocks together with sashing today but other than that didn’t do anything in the line of sewing or quilting. I will quilt again on my “Insanity” in a little while. I am about 1/2 way done with the first border so it is coming along nicely.
Reading the new John Grisham book the other day got me thinking of some of his other books and I am now started on the book that I read first of his. His second novel “The Firm” the very first book I read 2nd or 3rd. It seems it hadn’t done well until some of his other books came out and then it was reprinted and did well enough to be turned into a movie, “A Time to Kill”.
Tomorrow I am trying two new recipes. The sourdough pancakes that I got the recipe from on The Dakota Country Kitchen that we will have for breakfast and a new recipe that I found somewhere on line for sourdough rye bread. I will take pictures of the bread tomorrow and share the recipe after I make sure it turns out good I would hate to post a recipe that fails.
Moving right along on my “Insanity” DJ quilt. I got 3 more blocks quilted last night – I’m
getting very close to having the 7th row finished — which means 6 more rows of blocks and one more row of triangles — getting there! One day, maybe by the end of the year? The photo on the left is of # 10 & 11 and the photo on the right is block #12.
course this is not 
counting the 7 large shoe box size of small pieces or the large stack of big pieces. These photo’s show my selection of fat quarters or smaller that decorate my room at the moment!
the shelf except when I buy fabric for a quilt I always buy extra in case of mistakes – I do not live close to a quilt shop so have to travel or buy on line. I tend to buy fat quarters when traveling not large pieces. I don’t have a lot of storage room and also I’m never sure what colors I want until I choose a quilt to make and look at it a bit. I don’t like having too much fabric on hand because then it sits for a long time before I finally figure out what to use it for.
