Cupcakers Take Two

Two meetings within two weeks? Unheard of!

It was a school holiday, so we took advantage of it and met at my house last Monday.

We played LCR with blues and Susan won - again! It was funny because she forgot her fabric and played with IOUs, which didn't matter since she was the big winner again. This fast, fun dice game is perfect for FQ fun.


We played my new board game, Quiltopoly, which is exactly like Monopoly but with a quilting theme. Very fun and cute.

The game was taking so long, we had to have a little snack.


Mary gave me these crackers at Christmas. They are incredible! They can be purchased at Whole Foods, for a pricey sum, but are worth it. We enjoyed them with cream cheese and hot pepper jelly - yum!


We endeavored to re-start our hat box project. Susan has come up with a unique way to incorporate vintage hankies in her design - oh yea.
You can see in the lower right corner how cute her little scaled down blocks are going to be.

Here are Jill's blocks - beautiful Jill!


I have the same two I did last time, but I pulled together two more to sew together soon.


For lunch I prepared sauerkraut and sausage. Being a good Polish girl one quarter, anyway, I love the lower east side tenement house smell of simmering cabbage wafting through the air. It was good comfort food.

Jill made delicious deep chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter frosting. I thank you, my husband thanks you, my children thank you. My thighs do not thank you :)

Thanks, Mary, for the cute cupcake pics! We missed you - again!

I'm so grateful to have quilting friends who can come over and play.

Cupcake Christmas

Last week we met at Susan's house for Cupcake Club. It was Hat Box Day. Not our current group project, the Hat Box Quilts, instead we covered Hat Boxes. We were delighted to see this project on Alma's blog; Blackbird Designs and we knew we had to try it. I hope Alma find this post, I wanted to send her an email, but can not locate an address. Her blog provided us with the instructions and inspiration!

Here we are getting our supplies ready.


We went to work on the box lids.

Here are views of Jill's lid. She used this pretty pink fabric and sweet bird paper for the lining which was copied from a file folder.



Susan used a copy from a childrens book.


Here is mine. I decided to use this George Washington fabric. I used a piece of scrapbook paper for the lining.


With the lids finished, we broke for lunch. Susan made beef vegetable soup, rolls and a delicious cucumber salad. How cute are Christmas cupcake napkins?


For dessert I brought gingerbread and Susan added Madeline cookies. I was in such a rush to dig in that the photo is out of focus, sorry.


After lunch we started the bottom of the hat boxes.

Here is Jill's:

And Susan's. She used a crazy quilt paper for the sides and a Swedish children's proverb on the bottom.


And I used copies of old photos. Jill and her friend, Mary Beth got me collecting this "homely" women photo cards. They are so funny. I think it's quite sad that they show up for pennies at flea markets. Who are these women?


And here are the hat boxes finished. Jill's is on top, mine on the bottom and Susan on the side. It took us most of the day, but we all feel it will go more quickly next time. I think they turned out beautifully!

I'm quite pleased with George and the ladies and look forward to filling it up. Maybe I'll store my old photo collection inside.

While waiting to get started, I took pictures of Susan's decorations. Her sun room looks so cheery with the icicle lights. She and her husband made all the wooden decorations on the windowsills.


Here are Susan's Mongolian Hats, from Mongolia, and a quilt in her front hall.

Susan's award winning quilt over a door.

And my favorite, these kitchy vintage door knob hangers - so cute!

And lastly, for no particular reason this hawk came for a visit in my Dogwood tree. I was talking to Mary at the time and took this photo through the back door. What a nice holiday visit, I see it as a good omen.

New Cupcake Project

New Cupcake Project: Remember this from PA quilt show? Well, we decided we needed to make it.



Here are Jill's blocks so far. Jill is planning an original and unique border for hers, I can't wait to see how it turns out!

Barb's:
Susan is going to make a smaller version for her sewing room. Here she has traced the size on plastic.


I don't think Mary is going to participate since she'll be setting up household in Indy. Jill's friend, Patty, started this quilt years ago and here are her blocks:



She is considering this gorgeous plum toile' for the borders.


The best part of the new project is that the fabrics are luscious. We're swapping fabrics so that we achieve that wonderful scrappy, busy, blended look that works so well for this quilt.

This is a project that will be ongoing. I'll do an update when we are a little further along.

In the meantime, I'm going to be very busy getting things ready for the Brownstone Quilt Show. Yesterday was quilt take in and if you live anywhere near Northern NJ, I recommend that you come to this show. I am amazed at the width and breadth of the talent that will be on display.

Happy November.