GOOD COOKIN' 19: MANGO SALSA

A couple of great recipes for mango salsa, a party plan for a quilting girls night out including the free pattern! Go HERE for all the goodies ...

GOOD COOKIN; 18: APPLE SPICE BREAD

Apple Squeeze Weekend ... and annual affair in Lenox celebrating community with music, craft booths, hay rides, face painting, and all that is APPLES ...

• apple pie
• apple butter
• apple cider
• carmel apples
• cider donuts
• and the much anticipated bags of Honey Crisp Apples - a treat beyond all imagination that says "It's Fall" like no other

RECIPE NUMBER ONE: I'm always on the search for gluten free recipes - somthing that tastes good, works for a quick on-the-go breakfast, and satisfies Mike's tastes for sweet. Nicole Hunn of Gluten Free on a Shoestring came to my rescue this last week with a wonderful recipe for CHUNKY APPLE MUFFINS. The verdict: yup, he likes them. This is a recipe that will become a definite Fall staple in the book of recpes.

Just click on the image to be linked to her site for the recipe.

RECIPE NUMBER TWO: This next recipe has been a favorite for several years ... unfortunately, not gluten free but it is bread machine friendly. When we lived in Oregon I taught a "Dinner Quilt" class on Friday nights. The gals would pack their car up with everything they needed for class that night before they went to work Friday morning and come straight to the quilt shop right after work for some wonderful "girl time" while quilting and being treated to a wonderful dinner. I fixed dinner, designed the pattern, and taught the class. It was time for them to be treated and pampered like the wonderful strong creative women we all are.
A Fall favorite in the dinner class line-up was PUMPKIN SOUP & APPLE SPPICE BREAD. Today we have the recipe for the Apple Spice Bread which can be made in a bread machine, and you can find the pattern for the quilt HERE. It is available as a regular pattern to be shipped (wholesale inquiries welcome) and is also available as an electronic download pattern ... an e-pattern. MQS 123E PUMPKIN SOUP

APPLE SPICE BREAD

(For a 2-pound loaf)

1 ½ cups water 3 tablespoons butter 4 cups flour ½ cup cut-up dried apple 3 tablespoons dry milk 3 tablespoons sugar 1 ½ tablespoons salt 3 teaspoons apple pie spice 1 ½ teaspoons bread machine yeast

Add ingredients as directed for your bread machine. Use the Basic/White cycle with a medium crust setting. Remove baked bread from the pan and cool on wire rack when finished.

SCRAPPY: PLANNED OR RANDOM

0910: black and white ... and a little bit of red ...

Structured piano lessons are starting for Colin andLuci this month; no more free exploring (random pounding - oh, did KK say that LOL) No more free explorationsounds a little harsh, doesn't it. We all need time to be adventerous stepping out on our own and exploring. Maybe the concept should be rephrased to directed, more purposeful and thoughtful exploring ??? This I know for sure: Everyone needs time to play.

 

That's what you will notice with several of the quilts in these pictures. Taking time to play with scrappiness. I like to choose a theme or color palette to work with when I do scrappy quilts. You would probably call mine more planned scrappy than true scrappy.

 

On occassion, I have pieced some quilts where I used the common trick of dropping all the patches in a paper back and pulling the next patch to be added to the block at random. I don't know about you, but I find it more difficult to go totally random with my scrappiness. Does that me I have control issues? LOL

 

I love the drama of black and white with a splash of red and have the quilts and fabric in my stash to satisfy that visual hunger. One of the most favorite quilts in booth displays at market was pieced with black and white with a splash of red ... especially appealing to the guys.

 

Some notes about the patterns featured here in the collage:

* a hand pieced red and white quilt top I found at a tag sale. I have always loved this pattern. It's a tricky one to keep all those bias edges square and straight. I will have to do some squaring and easing of fullness with this one before I can begin to think about how I would like to quilt it. I also need to decide if I want to try to find a coordinating fabric to finish out the borders or not. In the meantime, it's lovely to look at on the quilt rack just like it is.

* the quilt on the left is a pattern I developed for our anual December mystery quilt party using the stack and slash technique. The blocks and quilt were sized just to the right dimensions so the extra blocks could be used in the outer border.

 

* the quilt on the right is one made from a popular pattern/techniqe that we've seen lots of places in shops, classes and workshops, and across the internet ... STRIPS AND CURVES by Louisa Smith. I gathered my fabrics to fit my black and white color theme, added in the fussy-cut piano keyboard fabric here and there, and used a range of reds to round out the strip strata ... what a great way to play with color and practice piecing those curved edges.

And finally, the pattern for the quilt that was so popular in booth displays at market and quilt shows around the country ... MQS 126 QUEEN ANNES' LACE. This pattern was original included in the collection of designs in my book that is now out of print called Blocks That connect.

The book was written to be used as a manual for my beginning patchwork piecing classes and is chock-full of all kinds of tips and tricks to help you be a more successful quilter while having fun developing your skills and honing your craft.

 

I am in the process of re-releasing the patterns individually as e-patterns readily available for immediate download.

 

Queen Anne's Lace is designed to give a beginners quilt a more advanced look with the pieced border (which included secret fudge-factor tips making everything fit together perfectly.

 

Another feature is the optical illusion of the center appearing to be set on-point. But the best part: the patches used in the border are actually left-over scraps from piecing the blocks used in the center of the quilt.

 

Thanks for stopping by... be brave and play scrappy today - well, at least, take time to play!

PUMPKIN PATCH CLASS: DIAMONDS ON THE DOUBLE

Ah a day for petting the fabrics, playing in the scrap bins, and getting a little bit ahead on the cutting for several different projects while I prep for Saturday's class using my pattern called MQS 112 DIAMONDS ON THE DOUBLE at Pumpkin Patch Quilts in Lee. Here's what I worked on cutting:

... read more ...

PATCHWORK TEA ROSES

... read more ...

and HERE

STAR BOUQUET

One of the things I did while I was in Alabama visiting my daughter was to help her with her first real quilt. You'll remember me posting about the sock monkey quilt she wanted to make for her friend who is expecting her baby in October.

While Eryn worked on piecing blocks, I basted fabric hexagons to card stock forms which she will add using the hand-piecing English Paper Piecing technique to her hexagon quilt. She has been working on her hexagon quilt for about a year now but that story is for another post. Stay tuned!
Bottom line ... when I got home I realized how much I like revisiting this hand piecing technique. It's a nice change from sewing like a mad-woman at the longarm or piecing samples for classes and patterns as fast as I can make them on my home machine. So off I went to Paper Pieces to see what kinds of projects they had that might interest me.

To begin with, anything on sale will always catch my eye and they are currently running a special on all star patterns. Two patterns and four charm pack pre-cut shapes later I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of the mail. Tuesday was a happy day at our house.

But as I opened the package and looked inside my pattern I groaned. What on earth was I thinking! Yes, read the fine print on the pattern. I think ... no, I know ... when I was ordering I had a hard time visualizing just how small the pieces must be to make a quilt that finishes at ... look again, you read it right the first time ... 14" x 16". Those little pieces are smaller the my thumbnail!

The sides of the hexagons (that's how you measure hexagons) is 1/2" and the little six-pointed star finishes from point to point a total of 3 1/2". The good news is I now have a use for those tiny scraps in baggies at the back of the drawer.

I gathered up my red, white, and blue scraps and decided today was the day to tackle this project. After all, I only need to make 23 stars. I haven't even thought about the diamond shapes yet that are used to connect the stars. We'll just take this one tiny baby step at a time.

First step was to create a cutting template. I found with the hexagon quilt using a template with the 1/4" seam allowance added on makes a big difference when pre-cutting the shapes. I like to use the extra-thick template plastic from EZ Quilting. I trace the small finished-size card stock on the template plastic and then use a ruler to add the quarter inch. After I have one shape cut out from the template plastic, I put a piece of double stick tape on the back, stick it to the template plastic and cut out another layer. I usually end up with about 4 layers stuck together. Then I don't have to worry about trimming away the edges of my template as I cut my fabric shapes with the rotary cutter.

Then next step was to gather my fabrics. I don't need big yardage for this project - I just need a strip about 2" x 10" for the jewel shapes ... 11 different blues and 12 different reds. I can also cut the hexagon star centers from this yardage. Not making much of a dent in the stash but every LITTLE bit helps. I have plenty of patriotic fabrics in my stash. I absolutely love red, white, and blue, and, two years ago our small quilting bee traded fabric strips in country reds and blues at our annual retreat.

After the fabric shapes are cut I'm finally to the basting step and it was just as I remembered. Relaxing! Put in a movie to listen to and look up occasionally in the really good parts, sit back in the rocking recliner, snacks and beverages close at hand and enjoy the afternoon. (Opps, I think I forgot to tell you, I dropped my DH Mike at the airport early this morning to fly to San Diego. He is playing in a three day trombone fest with our son ... 76+ trombones in concert with the San Diego Symphony and Marvin Hamlisch in a big star spangled Fourth of July celebration firewroks and all. What a great sound! If you live in the San Diego area you'll not want to miss this concert. So, it's just me and the dogs for this Fourth of July holiday.)

Of course, after all those little pieces were floating around on the cutting table I had to think of some way to keep things organized. Hooray for me! So far I have two stars completely sewn together and all the pieced basted for two more stars. What better way to celebrate the Fourth!


Have a happy and safe holiday celebration.

BABY QUILTS & A FRENCH BRAID

I am always amazed at what a difference fabric choices make when we piece our quilts. Simple changes in color, value, and scale can make a quilt look completely different. My husband contends we could just make the same pattern over and over with different fabrics ad noone would be the wiser. I don't think I would go quite that far. I can barely stand to make more than two samples of each pattern I design. But I will confess to being pretty tired of a pattern by the time I've gone through all the steps getting it print ready.


Two of my friends used the free baby size Bebe Bears quilt recently for new babies soon to arrive in their family/neighborhood. I wanted to share their pictures with you today so you could see what I talking about.


What a difference the fabric makes! I love the softness of Ann's quilt. And Juanita chose to use just two fabrics and add two columns and two rows to her version because she wanted a larger crawling floor mat size baby quilt for her new great grandson. By the way, adding two rows/columns makes the quilt finish at about 45"x45".

Ann's expectan friends are lovers of horses and are using a "horse theme" in the nursery so I didgitized a rocking horse pattern to go on her quilt. Isn't this simple little rocking horse just the cutest pattern to go on a baby quilt! Rocking Horse is a new edge-to- edge pattern now available at the Mntop webstore.

What else has been on the machine? Sunday was a quilting day. I love it when I have time to devote to the quilting machine with no interuptions and Sunday just happened to be that day this week. Marilyn brought in her newly completed French Braid quilt. I used an elegant falling leaf pattern as an all-over pattern with a mustard colored thread. What a rich combinaton - the combination of the rich colors with this fabric line, her great piecing, and a beautiful quilting pattern in a wonderful thread. GREAT JOB MARILYN!

SPRING MARKET 2008

Another market season finished and a part of history ... what a grand time to meet up with old friends and make new friends. Market is a place where all of us with quilt related product come together in one large venue to offer our wares to shop owners and other people who do retail sales to the general public. Many of us who vend at shows see each other on a regular basis throughout the year "on the floor" at the various trade shows and quilt festivals. Cries of "see you in Long Beach" (for the new Summer Quilt Festival) were heard often as we packed up our booths and pushed our carts of product to our cars and vans yesterday afternoon.

My home for the last three days in booth 1506 was comfy being surrounded by my quilts. A new thing I learned was how helpful it was for people to see the same quilt in two different fabric styles. Sweet Nothings was hung in 30's with the batik sample right beside it. Wonderful contrast.

Sandra with Just Curves is now carrying all of my patterns that feature curved patch piecing - Cotton Candy Kisses, Picnic Party, and Asian Pinwheels. If you are still have trouble piecing curves using my quick and easy method, I suggest you try her Curve Master foot which is sized for all of the different brands of home machines.

On Friday everyone came to pick up all the literature they could manage to carry in their totes and bags from all of us vendors - many small pattern companies, the various batting companies, and the notions and ruler booths. To get to each of the smaller booths the show owners had to walk through the big multi-booth setups for all of the major fabric companies and get a quick peek at the new fabric lines. Saturday was a day of appointments with these fabric companies for most of the shop owners And Saturday and Sunday were also the days they came back to us pattern vendors to place their orders. I handed out lots of brochures, saw many familiar faces and repeat customers, and will be filling orders today.

In the big scheme of things, I think it was a good market; I'm looking forward to the retail festival in Longbeach this summer, and will have a booth in Houston for the Fall Market.