Just One or Two... and a Leap Day Giveaway!

(photo borrowed from Fat Quarter Shop)

Well, because I was out shopping... on-line, scouting for 

a new project or two...

I decided that I couldn't pass up this quilt along.

Crossroads.

I know... I know!

Just ONE more sampler... Just one MORE quilt along!

But... it's Strawberry Fields Revisited fabric.

I have NO self control!

Absolutely NONE!

Another project that came arrived on my doorsteps was

this one by Fig Tree and Company...

(photo borrowed from Fig Tree and Co.)

I think it's d-r-e-a-m-y.

I will be  starting in on this one soon!

I was sick with a cold and feeling yucky all weekend.

What a waste of a holiday weekend.

I couldn't even watch my grand daughters on Valentine's Day 

like we had planned for fear of infecting them with what

THEY had infected me with!

But I am feeling better...

and it feels good to have a new plan... even if it's the middle of February.

Oh, and here is another project I intend on whipping up soon...

I love Acorn Quilt Company! 

I am so ready for Spring and nothing depicts Spring more 

than Brenda's sweet floral fabrics...

so Shabby Chic... so me!

Check out Brenda's blog to see a photo of this made up on the table!

Once I spied it... I had to have it!

I made this one as a sample for Fat Quarter Shop last Spring.

So, Who is your favorite one or two Fabric/Pattern designers?

Let me know... and 

you will have a chance to win a

little Polka Dot bundle from the Fat Quarter Shop!

Because everyone loves Polka Dots right?

A winner will be picked and announced next Monday... and you could have this fun bundle
 in your hot little hands 
by the 29th, 
Leap Day!

Out of the Sewing Room and Into the Kitchen!

One of my favorite things is my Pioneer Woman

butter dish.

It makes me smile just seeing it on the counter in my kitchen!

Between my DDIL and myself...

we have the entire collection of Ree's cookbooks.

So, at Christmas we vowed to

get together once a week in

2016 and plow through the recipes.

Tonight will be Week 4 for us.

We have grown from the four of us  (plus grand children)

to six, plus.

We each take a recipe...

one person makes the main dish, someone makes the 

side dishes and someone makes the dessert.

The first week we had the 

Pork Chops with Wine and Roasted Garlic

Roasted Carrots with Vinaigrette

and Stove Top Mashed Potatoes.

Tonight... Chicken Marsala

Peas and Carrots

Risotto

and

made from scratch... Vanilla Pudding!

Each and every recipe has been amazing!

I am making notes on each of the pages...

and there isn't one that I wouldn't make again...

and I wouldn't change any of the recipes either.

You can go to her site for fun recipes too.

I have been spending a lot of time in the kitchen lately!

I did that test run on Saturday for 

my soon to be DIL's birthday/wedding cake.

She turned 30! Woohoo!

My cake was basically one section of what will be the wedding cake...

in April.

Here is what we are really aiming for:

I had "too much" frosting on the test cake.

I have to remember that they call it a Naked Cake for a reason! lol

So, from now until the middle of April I will making layers of

sections and freezing the cake. I

blogged about it last week but I just wanted to talk out my plan to

"divide and conquer"!

These are some more of the Pioneer Woman 

dish collection.

I think I am obsessed!

The Lives We Share and Celebrate

I have a little mission that requires my 

attention...

so quilting is taking a backseat this week.

It will be my soon-to-be DIL's birthday this Saturday

and my plan is to use the occasion as an excuse to make a trial run at 

her (their) wedding cake.

Have you heard of Naked Cakes? 

That's what they want for their wedding.

We have a lot of birthdays between now and April...

so I have a feeling I will have it all mastered by then.

This was the wedding cake requested by my DDIL 5 years ago.

It turned out exactly like the photo.

But

I 

am 

telling you

... I was stressed out!

I was certain that I was going to have a heart

attack just getting it to the site!

I'm anxious to play with this naked cake...

On a much sadder note...

we lost my husbands sister a couple weeks ago.

She was an angel. 

In life and now.

She will be dearly missed.

I want to share a photo that her daughter

took upon leaving her house to return to 

the hospital.

I hope you can see... 

maybe enlarge the photo more...

It just takes my breath away.

(do you see what looks like a dove at the top of
the photo over the sun)?

Checked-in and Checked-off

Well, I made it through... 

through the first month of this year and

I actually completed my BOM rehab for January!

I have my first two Yuletide block of the month's completed!

It's kind of fun to be working on something "holiday" related...

I do like prolonging holidays!

This block was fun to make and so much easier than

the Coastal Lily block on my other quilt.

I did get to do a little embellishing on 

the wedding invitations for my son and soon to be DIL!

And I got them all in the mail today!

At first I but everything together like a left-hander.

Then I realized it... when I was half way through...

I un-assembled by work and put things together

as if I was a right handed person opening the 

invitation... 

you wouldn't think that there was a difference but there really is!

Instead of the flower part of the card exposed at the top...

the writing of the names were showing.

I have been working on my Bees Knees blocks too!

My group is making the main block and for everyone

that I get back in the mail I am making the alternate block

that will go into the quilt.

I now have 7 main blocks and 8 alternate.

And speaking of block of the month's...

I evidently signed up for one and perhaps,

 had forgotten about it. 

I am in the Fig Tree Mystery II BOM that

should be in my mailbox this week!

What a fun surprise!

(I seriously don't know how that happened...

maybe I was on a waiting list)?

Lucky me!