Fun For Friday - Mega Fun

Happy Friday!

This week I changed my snowman quilt in the hall for this fun free pieced house quilt I made in 2005.

I bought Mega ball lottery tickets on Tuesday - that was fun.  I didn't win.

I made Ba-Hanna bread to send to my daughter at college.  Hanna loves banana bread, so I've renamed it in her honor at our house.

We've tried a lot of recipes but this one is our new favorite.  It's from All Recipes.com (which has a wonderful iPad app) click here for recipe.  I decided to make 2 loaves.  I use 2 bowls to keep things straight.

I think the secret is the fact that the bananas are sliced, not mashed and it also has sour cream - delicious!

Since I was making 2 loaves, I decided to try one with Splenda baking blend for me.  It is a blend of sugar and sweetener.  The batter looks the same.

But wait; it didn't bake the same.

After a few minutes of cooling, I had a big sink hole in my loaf.

I carved around it and I have to say that it tastes great.  I lost quite a bit of loaf in the middle, but the rest was good.

It was fun to buy flowers for a vase that I won at the White Elephant exchange at the retreat.  It was my friend Margarets, which makes even more special to me.

For mega fun, I bought another set of mega lottery tickets for tonights drawing.  You have to play to win, right?

Have a fun weekend everyone!

A Finish and A Start

Hooray, I finished my Olympic Star.  I started this in the Summer of 2008 to commemorate the Olympic Games in Beijing.  I thought the date worthy of commemorating.

here is a close up of some of the hand quilting

The back; need to make a label!

The quilting.  Almost looks like a white work quilt from the back.

I had a great time playing with my red and white fabric on the retreat.

Here I am playing with my new strip stick that I purchased at the Lancaster Quilt show.  You can read more about it and see a demo by clicking here.  It's called a strip stick and it works great and it's made by the nicest couple.  I highly endorse it.

So, I finally started Hanna's first Miami of Ohio Red and White quilt.

I drafted the house in 2 sizes, 9" and 10" finished.  I decided on the 9" house block.  I'm using 1 and 2 chimney versions.

Under construction.  I finished one block to make sure that the paper pieced roof section would fit the other strip pieced section.  Hooray, it works!

And here is an example of sewing it to the wrong side resulting in a backwards roof - doh!  I used it to rough cut the pieces for the others.

And I guess that the old adage is true; the early bird does get the worm....or a quiet sewing room.  This was our work room. We had about 30 women on the retreat and it was so FUN.

Hope you all had a great weekend too!

Fun For Friday - Playing in the Dirt

My mother used to say "it's a beautiful day.  Go outside and play!"  so I did.

I love pansies and every year I make an effort to get some planted and potted up.  I do this before I start the yard clean up.  I find doing a little beautification first, helps with the later.

Here is a new pot I got at Home Depot.  I really looks copper from a distance.

I use these window box liners on my stone walls by the back gate.  Look at coco waiting patiently for me, what a good pup.

All yellow pot - I love these mini daffodils.

I think blue pansies are my favorite.

Here is a redo that started last fall.  I had Andrew pull out the ground cover that was in this bed.   I intend to plant it with annuals.  It is a tough spot, dry and shady.

before:

After.  I suppose I should endeavor to take the photo from the same spot, for maximum effect.  As my dear friend Mary B. would say "that's a nice improvement".

I even played with my wagon, a real back saver.

The herb garden loved the mild winter.

I was so delighted to see this primrose that Pauline gave me last spring.  "Hello gorgeous."

I'm off to a guild quilting retreat this weekend on the Delaware River at the Shawnee Inn.

I'll be working on 2 red and white projects (among other things),  which prompted this last bit of fun.  I turned these:

Into these:

I think these are great retreat treats for the following reasons:
60 calories
zero fat
no sticky fingers
hard crunchy outside
sweet chewy inside
"How many licks does it take to reach the center of a totsie roll pop? The world may never know".

And finally, I had Mr. Random Number Generator choose a number for the Lancaster CD giveaway at it is:
#31 which is Regan of Floating on a Quilted Cloud.
Congrats.  Send me your address and I'll mail it out first thing Monday.

Whatever you find yourself doing this weekend I hope you make it FUN!

Easter Cupcake Crafting

The cupcake crew got together recently for a little Easter craft project.  Here is the prototype that Jill brought.

Before crafting, it is important to take nourishment.  Starbucks makes the best scones.

We received an unexpected package in the mail from our Illinois friend Mary Beth - how exciting.

So many nice surprises in cute handmade bags.

She sent 2 egg coloring books and we each received a wonderful project bag, candy, kleenex and a wonderful note.  Thank you Mary Beth!  We wish you were here with us.

After all that excitement we needed more nourishment, lol.   Susan made cheddar cheese soup and served it with bacon, cheese, and broccoli - delish

On to crafting.  We wound fuzzy green yarn around hard green styrofoam wreaths.

We then decorating them with plastic and candy eggs.  Jill made these cute picks on the computer, how clever is that?

This is Jills.  She is going to use it as a candle wreath.

 

Here is mine.

Thanks Jill for a fun craft project.

How about wearing it as a hat?  The Easter Parade is coming to town.

Here is mine on my front door.  Let's pretend that is not me in the robe, lol.

I briefly reported last week that poor coco had a belly ache.  After not eating for 2 days, she was kept in the hospital and re-hydrated and put on antibiotics.  They don't know what she got into, but it was bad; and she had it good (bad).

After a couple days of this:

Hooray, she's back to her old self.  I'm so grateful.

You still have time to enter my giveaway for a CD of the quilts of the AQS show in Lancaster; click here.

See you Friday!

Show Report - Lancaster 2012

Well friends, I'm afraid there is no pictorial show report.
It is against their rules and I am honoring them.

As a consolation, I am giving away a CD of the show.  No hoops to jump through, no promises to make, just leave me a comment.

I will be picking a winner at random on Friday - Good Luck!

On the way to the show, we stopped at Poole Forge, a lovely historical museum.

Here are some of the antique quilts they had on display.  I am sorry for the poor quality, I was using my phone.

Wow, these are almost the exact colors I used in my Mother's Garden quilt - love it.

I'm in love with this one; toile' love

I thought the pink was a nice change from the usual green in this Grandmothers Garden.

Simple block to block construction - just a nice quilt.

I wanted to take this opportunity to thank 2 women that I have never met who helped me finish my Mother's Garden Quilt.  Mary Jo and Joyce of Michigan sent me pink fabric and  without their generous gift, I could not have made this quilt.

Before you sigh in boredom and disgust, I swear this will be the last and final shameless promotion of this quilt.

Photo credit to Pauline - thanks pal!

Don't forget to enter the give away to see all the quilts of the 2012 Lancaster show.