Monday, November 30, 2009

Show Offs Deux

Part two of the Quilt Parade from Retreat 2009----

I swear I'll nag Corrie Dawn until she gets this Jelly Roll Quilt instructions out to you!
The pictures here are done with honey buns. And they were SUPER fast and cute!~
The pictures are out of order and I've even lost a few. I don't know what the deal is with Windows 7 and blogger and MY pictures!!! But it's making me crazy. I feel right at home.
Enjoy~ And hurry home Corrie.





















Friday, November 27, 2009

Besides my two front teeth........


Someone
please

alert my husband


of this store.


Thank you.
Happy Black Friday to you.
I'm shopping from my bed.

Thursday, November 26, 2009

Proud Moment

I don't want to steal anyone's thunder...
..but my pies TOTALLY rocked
for Thanksgiving fare.
Thank you.
How do I know this???
Mine were the only EMPTY pie pans taken home.
Thank you.
Unfortunately, I have no leftovers.
It's hard to be this fabulous of a cook.
No, really, it's hard.
We're talking about me.
No one's salivating for my food contribution.
No one's dreaming of my pies.


Pies and I, we panic every November
wondering who will win the battle,
me or the pie crust.
Today, I conquered.
Thank you.


I used Pioneer Woman's
Perfect Pie Crust.
It IS perfect.

Bakerella/Nestle Toll House
Chocolate Chip Pie
(BIG hit) My pie looked ten times better than this picture off of Nestle. Look at Bakerella's. That's what mine looked like. Geez, now I'm just getting vain and obnoxious. What's new?

Paula Deen's Pumpkin Gooey Butter Cake
(BIG Yummy hit)

Now what are we going to eat tomorrow?

Happy Thanksgiving

We hope you are having a wonderful day with family & friends.
Don't eat too much.
Taffy Talk Thursday giveaways will resume on December 10th.
All of our stores are open for your shopping pleasure.
No lines, no pushing, no rising at the crack of dawn...

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Show-Offs


Corrie's off having "turkey on a boat" as my father puts it.
They are cruising to the Panama Canal.
Am I not supposed to say that??
I forget.
Am I supposed to pretend like you're home basting a turkey
instead of cruising the wild seas leaving home
to have Thanksgiving without you?
I forget.


THANKfully, (get it....it's almost Thanksgiving:),
she put some pictures on so I could ramble
on about our quilt retreat in 2007.
No, it was just a month ago, but it feels like years.

Take a little walk through some of the productiveness
that my posse came up with.

This is Stitch's focus on blue grey yumminess
for some lucky relative.
I'm ready to be adopted.

Marjeaney-Bikini has been quilting for awhile.

And if there's anything I love and adore
it's a girl with fortitude.
These are some OLD UFO's.
BUT cute!!

They've been around awhile and boy are we glad
she took the opportunity to finish them up.
I think the black star one needs to
come live in my home for winter.


One of two projects I actually worked on inbetween snacking.
It's a baby quilt and still needs a big pink
raw edge appliqued flower in the middle.

What am I doing here? I should be sewing.

Quick and fast jelly roll quilts were the recipe of the day.
Everyone had to make one.
Corrie has all the pictures and instructions
and......................hmmm...........where are they?
We. don't. know.


It's not rocket science
but there is kind of a 'too cool for school'
way to throw this quilt together.



Are you interested??
Peaked curiousity??
Tired of waiting??
Well, perhaps before Christmas!


Saturday, November 21, 2009

Book 'em Dano

Please love me even though it takes me 3 months to report on one weekend!!
Okay?
Thanks.
My love gift token from our retreat consisted of Little Golden Books that were spiral bound with blank pages inside.


It was super fun to shop for Little Golden Books along the way.
Picking out just the right one for each friend.

Whether she was a Burn Unit Nurse, a teacher or has a hypochondriac son named Tommy, I tried to capture her essence in the written word.
Wait, that's not right. Because one friend got Saggy, Baggy Elephant and she's neither saggy, baggy or elephant-like.
I just thought she would like elephants and I liked the colors on the cover. :)
I took my books to my local UPS copy store.
They cut off the binding.
I took them home and cut all the blank paper down to the size of the cover, after the cutting.

Placed the blank pages in between story pages. Took them back to the UPS store where they put that nifty little spiral binding on them for.......I think it was $3.50 a book.

I had some cute cards that I bought off of Etsy in a weak moment of frivolity and had NOTHING to do with them. Whew, good thing I had that weak moment because I think they made charming tags. Whew, good thing my daughter thought of that!
Also this same daughter whined for a good 3 days crying, "Can't I have ONE?"
No.
In the meantime I am looking for just the right book for her. Something like, "Moody Marsha goes to the Zoo". Let me know if you see it anywhere.

The journaling possibilities are endless......count with me
~Teacher gifts! SO much better than the thing I did last year!!!

~Baby journals SWEET!! If you really want a snazzy gift, individualize the pages. I'm all about snazzy! Not really, but I friends who are.

~Write down family recipes and pass on. Oh, I have this totally awesome vintage Disney cookbook that Corrie Dawn gave me and wouldn't I be the best sister ever if................

~Get acid free paper and you could put pictures and have a mini photo album, with the cute little photo corners

~Address book=make an original page w/lines for numbers and addresses and then photo copy the rest to insert inside. I SO need one of these!!

~For quilters.....put in grid paper for designing

~For artists....sketchbook paper

~Find one of the MANY Night before Christmas books and turn it into a special Christmas Journal/Photo album. Okay, THAT's my favorite idea!!

~Let the theme of the book dictate the type of book.....I have a cute little Cub Scout book that would be fun to put my son's old badges in. I could sew them to the paper!!! Since, I never sewed them on his actual shirt!!! I knew my procrastination would pay off. Are you catching the vision??!!
Let me know what you come up with!!
I might not sleep tonight.
I have more books to think about!


Tip: I used a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser to clean up the fronts/backs of some of the books. Sometimes they'll have a sticky sticker or grubby marks all over the front. Take this eraser and gently rub the spot. If you rub too hard, you'll take off more than you want. BUT, I did use it to rough up one of the newer looking books.

Thursday, November 19, 2009

Holiday Cheer ~ Giveaway Over

Update: Congrats to #62 NeedledMom...get out there, get cooking & shopping.
Today's post shall be short and sweet

The winner can pick a holiday fabric treat

Halloween, Christmas, Valentine's and more

You might receive if you do one little chore

Leave a comment, don't be shy

If you don't win, you can always buy!

Random drawing Friday morning. Drawing is for 1 yard or 2 half yards of any holiday themed fabric or flannel. Graphic & poem courtesy of my daughter - it made me laugh. She winterized my etsy banner & has some fun ones for the holidays.

Monday, November 16, 2009

The Amazing, Disappearing, Fractured, Quartered Nine Patch

A block of many names...it's been around awhile. I got to it.
Try it, you'll like it.
I was trying to explain this popular block to a gal at church,
so I thought I'd show her.
I started with 5" strip sets, but you could also use 5" charm squares.

You can do any size square.

Then cut the strips into 5" pieces.

Sewed my nine patch together, then cut it down the middle.

Then cut it again the other way -- now it's quartered.


Then rotated the two blue squares so they touch in the middle.


There's your block. It's out of planes, trains, & automobiles.





Piece of cake! Easy Easy


Cake reminds me of pie.

Pie...



We needed to look at that fabric again. mmmm good


Okay, back to it.


Made a crib size for my church humanitarian group.
Got it tied this weekend and it's off to a new home.


Made a goodnight monkey one at the retreat. Used a fat quarter in the middle.


zzzzzzz.....zzzzzzz.....

It's a fun, quick block.