Unlaborious Labor Day Weekend

Spent a marvelous few days at my older DS and his Significant Other's house for the Labor Day weekend. She LOVES to cook--can you imagine?? So I felt like royalty as she wined and dined us. One evening she made fettucine Alfredo--and made the pasta from scratch. Yum. One of the breakfast delights was a sausage egg casserole with a delicious fruit compote. Oh my, the list goes on and on. Needless to say, all four of us are dieting this week. They both love games so one evening we had a rousing game of Scattergories. Another evening we were glued to the TV for the Mizzou-Illinois game--go TIGERS--which we won! Such a great time, we hated to come home. We did manage, however, to squeak in a little quilt shop therapy. Omaha has one of my favorite shops, Country Sampler. The store is always jampacked with adorable samples and kits. Love it. Of course, when hubby is along, he always manages to find something for me to make (gotta humor him) and spends more money than I do, for Pete's sake. This time it was a cute Santa wallhanging. Thank goodness for cheaters' panels, huh?

He found this Dear Santa kit and just thought we "needed" to have it. Okay, dear, but don't expect it on the wall THIS Christmas!!!!!

I did find a Jo Morton book, Remembrances, that I couldn't live without. And this new issue of Quilt It for Christmas had some darling projects in it so it had to come home with me too.

In the Quilt It mag I found this little Christmas tree wallhanging that just looked so darn cute. And in Jo's book I found this medallion quilt called Second Hand Rose that looked like a great winter project for practicing my needleturn skills.

I also had a gift card from Linens & Things. All the L & Ts in the Kansas City area have declared bankruptcy and are in liquidation and would not honor the gift card. However, Omaha's L & T is still going strong so I was able to use the card. I have been wanting one of those ice cream maker thingies for a while and now I have one!!! In the photo the freezer bowl is missing as it has to be frozen for many hours before use. I want to try it out this evening (oops, there goes the aforementioned diet!) and found a recipe for Mocha Chip Ice Cream in the instruction book. My all-time favorite ice cream is jamoca almond fudge from Baskin-Robbins. Maybe this will be a close reproduction. Mmmmmm.......

Wa-a-ay Cute!

Shouldn't EVERY quilter have one of these adorable plants growing in her house or yard??? Found this at the grocery store this morning (yes, an impulse buy but how could I resist--I'm only human). The label says, "A unique, long lasting accent, prized for its multitude of vibrantly colored small berries. Native to Central America and New Zealand." It can be grown indoors or out. Oh, my!

The Cuteness Factor

Can you believe that these are all........

CUPCAKES???? While browsing through Borders yesterday--and with a 30% coupon burning a hole in my pocket--I came across this delightful book. Are these not just the cutest things ever? And you can eat them!!! The back cover of the book promises that no baking skills or fancy equipment are required. Hmmmm...even I should be able to make at least a few of them. I can just see platters full of snowmen or penguins for the neighborhood Christmas deliveries. Or how about aliens and owls for Halloween time? And the horses are just too darn adorable. Sure looks like fun in the kitchen to me.

And speaking of cuteness, isn't this wallhanging just precious? I found it in the Better Homes and Gardens 2008 Holiday Crafts magazine.

Looks like it wouldn't take too terribly long to finish... Yepper, I am starting to think CHRISTMAS ! LOL Although, my favorite season Fall is just around the corner and it may be time to haul out those pumpkin and acorn things... Also, it may be time to stay out of Borders.

Crazy, Man, Crazy!

Our regularly scheduled speaker for the guild meeting yesterday was unable to attend. But! Three ladies from the nighttime chapter of our guild agreed to fill in! And let me tell you, they were fantastic! They are all crazy-quilters and are pretty well known in these parts. They have taught crazy quilting and one has even had work accepted into the Houston Quilt Festival. I have never seen so-o-o many lovely pieces of crazy quilting and embellished works in my life. Boy, are they prolific. It was such a nice diversion. While I have taken a couple of crazy quilting classes, I never felt very comfortable with it. I know, I know, like every other skill worthwhile, it takes practice, practice, practice. The beading particularly caught my eye on several of the pieces. It was all so well-done.

They told about their many round robins and some of their unusual techniques. It was fun to see what all they used for embellishments. And the embroidered seams were so exquisite. Kinda glad the "regularly scheduled program" didn't show!!!

Anyone else out there in Blogland addicted to watching the Olympics? Makes for some pretty late bedtimes. I was so tickled to see the two American gymnasts take gold and silver in the all-around. And it was so fun to see Mary Lou Retton out there in the crowd. Hope Michael Phelps keeps on keeping on. He is amazing. And hope your weekend is equally amazing!

Hot Salsa Nights!

Remember this starry quilt? The one I started a while back before the summer lazies hit? Well, I've worked on more blocks this week. Yay, me! I decided maybe the push I needed would come from slapping a few up on the design wall to see if there really was going to be a star pattern emerge. By golly, I see stars! This is just 30 blocks but enough to believe it will, indeed, be a star quilt. As I was throwing these up, I couldn't stop singing, "Thirty blocks up on the wall, 30 blocks on the wall, take one down and pass it around..." I crack me up!

I have named this one "Hot Salsa Nights" due to the red-oranges and dark blues but also because I have been in a salsa-making frenzy lately so this kinda fits. I still have a heap o'blockmaking to do. There's a total of 118 blocks plus 44 partial border blocks. Then, of course, the fun of shopping for border fabric! I want to have it done by Christmas so I just might make it! Ssshhh...it will be a cozy-up quilt for DH.