ticker tape parade

I can finally show you my finished ticker tape quilt! A whole year of work and I love it!

Today we had a "ticker tape parade" at The Quilt Asylum. All of us who had finished our quilts brought them to share. We looked at all of them and voted for our favorite. That was HARD! They are all so beautiful, and, once again, very different.....

 In the end, Lois won the vote with this gorgeous quilt!

Oh, there was another prize too. Every month, if you didn't finish your blocks, you paid money into a kitty (actually it was a tin with Joan Jetson on it. Do you remember the Jetsons?) If you DID finish your blocks, you got to put your name in the drawing. Well guess who won Joan Jetson? ME! I was shocked!

What a fun project. We've started on our next monthly challenge, a row quilt along. I'll share that with you as we go. Congrats to Lois, your quilt is so awesome!

Kaffe swap block show and tell

What a good time I had at The Quilt Asylum today, seeing everyone's Kaffe quilts. It's hard to believe we all started with the same stack of blocks (basically!). I love love love to see how everyone puts them together differently. Bonnie said this is the first time she's done a pieced back (top right) and I think it came out just beautiful. Amazing what different sashings, setting blocks and borders can do to create totally different quilts. So much inspiration!

We're taking a break from our block swaps until after the first of the year. I'm so glad I got involved in this group this year. It has pushed my creativity one step farther!

a new love...

Look what came to live at my house!

 It's a Janome Memory Craft 6600 that has been well loved and cared for by a friend of mine. She is getting a different machine so she put this one up for adoption (ok, she's selling it, but doesn't putting it up for adoption sound kinder? Maybe?). She was nice enough to let me take it home yesterday to take it for a test drive and I'm in love. I've decided to keep it! Aren't I lucky?

 Today I made another church ladies apron, my first project on my new machine.

 Look! I even tried out one of the fancy stitches on the pockets...

 This will be hopping in the box with the stockings I showed you the other day.

I'm feeling very very lucky right now! Happy weekend everyone!

Christmas stitching

First off, I never showed you the beautiful potholder I received in the swap at The Quilt Asylum. Thank you Lois! This is a wonderful addition to my Christmas decorations. I will think of you every year when I hang it for the holidays.

 I have been working hard to fill orders for customers (who also happen to be special friends!) I made these to send to Sue....

 They were fun to create. Maybe I will actually make new stockings for my family this year?

And look what my sweet hubby brought me back from a business trip to Germany! A gorgeous porcelain thimble. Love that man! And my thimble too.

Are you doing any Christmas crafting yet?

a fabulous dinner....

 Check out the new cookbook I found yesterday...

Can you see who the authors are? Jilly Lagasse and Jessie Lagasse Swanson, Emeril's daughters. I never knew he had two daughters who are gluten free. Can you imagine being the child of a great chef like Emeril and not being able to eat a lot of what he makes? Yikes! These two gals have put together an awesome collection of recipes, many of them gluten free recreations of their dad's favorite dishes. I had a wonderful time leafing through it today and marking many recipes that I want to try.

First up, beef stroganoff. Remember when Emeril used to say "I wish you had smellovision so you could smell how good this is"? Yeah, that's how I feel right now!

This dish was not hard to make, but took a little time. I did cut the amount of onions in half & there were still plenty. I also learned about "creme fraiche" a new to me ingredient (kind of like an upscale sour cream). Oh, and I left out the peas. Peas in beef stroganoff? No thanks.

Here's mine, served over gluten free noodles. I should have taken a picture of my empty plate. And hubby's empty plate. And Ally's empty plate. A win! We'll be making this again.

winner!

The traveling stash box is ready to move on! So I turned to my friend the random number generator this morning....

Random number between 1 and 8:              5

#5 is Barb! Congratulations Barb! Barb said:
Wow! Look at how stuffed that box is. How fun! I've just learned about the traveling stash boxes this morning, and that sound like a lot of fun. Would love to play along. This week I'm working on a Halloween wall hanging - for myself!

I have emailed Barb and will ship the box off to her before the week is out (as soon as I get my car back from the shop. sigh. don't ask)

The good news is, without a car I am stuck in my sewing room... not a bad thing! 

fusion blanket... FINISHED!

Wow. This one took longer than I expected. But my fusion blanket is DONE! It ended up being about 34 x 46 inches, perfect baby size. 

 and the other side...

 I decided to put a ruffly border all the way around and I'm really glad I did. It just finishes it off. All I did was put 4 double crochets into each stitch all the way around (8 in each corner) and it ruffled itself up nicely. I had one of those giant skeins of baby sport yarn and I ended up with 12 inches left at the end! Talk about planning (or luck!)

Check that off the list....

Have you entered my traveling stash box giveaway? There's still time!