finally done!

I've been working away on Shawn's row for awhile but progress has been slow with everything else that's going on in life. Well now I can officially call it done and get it in the mail to her so she can see all her beautiful rows. Her theme was fairies and dragons and since she all ready had lots of fairies I thought what she really needed was a baby dragon-that way her quilt will never run out of dragons! Mama dragon laid a whole passel of eggs and one little dragon is well on his way out of the shell!

Row Robin flies home...

I got my row by row round robin back the other day and have been dying to get pictures so I can show it off.

I intend to separate the rows and mix them up like a jigsaw puzzle so I told the other ladies in the swap that any size of block was fine and it didn't have to add up to 48 inches exactly. Then they just basted the rows together so they'd be easy to separate.

Aren't they gorgeous....drool...lol-I'm so glad they're mine!



There are my leftover scraps from the fabric I sent along and also some bits that I bought while my rows were traveling around getting all pretty. I'm planning to make some more stars to make the quilt bigger-I'd like to end up with a large lap or full sized quilt.

Broken Heart

I've not been a very productive quilter the last couple weeks but finally I've got something to show you.

This Broken Heart block is for Margaret-one of the August birthday girls in the birthday block swap.

This little block just didn't want to go together for me- I ripped and sewed, ripped and sewed and finally got it right. Lol-but I don't think I'll be making another one anytime soon!

I've also been working a little on Shawn's rows for the row robin swap and hope to have them finished this week so they can go home to here-I'm sure she's anxiously awaiting them!

Salted Peanut Chews

As requested here's the Peanut roll recipe-they are so good and easy. I can't take remember where I got the recipe but I can't take credit for inventing it-just enjoying it-over and over, and over...

Salted Peanut Chews

Base:

1 yellow cake mix

1/3 cup butter, room temp

1 egg

3 cups mini marshmallows

Topping:

2/3 cup corn syrup

1/4 cup butter, soft

2 tsp vanilla

1-10 oz pkg peanut butter chips

2 cups crispy rice cereal

2 cups salted peanuts

1. Heat oven to 350. In large bowl, combine cake mix, 1/3 cup butter and egg. Beat on low speed until crumbly. Press in bottom of ungreased 9x13 inch pan. Bake at 350 for 12-18 minutes or until a light golden brown.

2. Remove from oven and immediately sprinkle with marshmallows. Return to oven for an additional 1-2 minutes until marshmallows just begin to puff and melt. Let cool while preparing the topping.

3. In large sauce pan, combine all topping ingredients *except cereal and peanuts.* Heat just until chips are melted and mixture is smooth, stirring constantly. Remove from heat; stir in cereal and peanuts. Immediately spoon warm topping over marshmallows. Carefully spread to
cover. Refrigerate 1hr or until firm. Cut into bars and store in covered container.

busy, busy

There hasn't been much happening on the quilting front this last week. Dd had a friend come over for a slumber party Monday and Tuesday nights. We went swimming Monday, went to the Science Center Tuesday and went swimming twice, and Wednesday we swam for a bit and then the girls played until friend's mom came to get here. Lol-do you all get the idea they like swimming? I think the pool is the one thing we'll miss most when we buy a house someday.

This weekend is the big family reunion on my dad's side. That branch of the family is pretty big and there's lots of kids in DD's age range so a good time is pretty much guaranteed. I made salted nut roll bars and cornbread salad to take for the meal and DD and I picked up a bunch of glow sticks for the kids to play with. (Just have to keep DD convinced that she can't bust into them until dark tomorrow.)

Next week they'll be some major butt busting on the quilting front so I should have updates galore for you.

Two more birthday blocks and my secret shame

This blue block is for Diane-she requested vibrant blue stars to make a quilt for a friend who lost her home in Katrina. It's the Florida Star pattern from quilterscache.

This sleepy little kitty is for Nell-she requested pet blocks-won't that be a fun quilt!


Ok-now brace yourself-I'm about to show you something ugly, really, really ugly. This is what my sewing space looks like right now.

You may be asking yourself-how can anyone even sew in that disaster area? Trust me you can't. I can't find anything and every time I try to do something I end up knocking something over. As you can see it's even spilling over onto the floor.

This weekend DD is going to her Grammy's house with Grandma so I've resolved to get my quilting space tidied up. Wish me luck!

Speaking of luck send some Itty Bitty's way-we're going to try to release her back to the outdoors this afternoon.

Morning glories

This is the block I made for Christine in round 2 of the birthday block swap. Her theme was "In my Garden." I absolutely love appliqué so I couldn't resist this lovely morning glory pattern.


The pattern finishes at 7 inches. I always cut my background fabric a little larger and I decided not to trim this down-Christine doesn't have any size preference so I figure that leaving it untrimmed will allow her to pick a size for it to end at and give her a little more flexibility when she puts her quilt together.

I also like to have a hand piecing project to take with me when I'm on the go-usually something fairly brainless so I don't have to do to much thinking and can just slap my patches together and sew. My new hand piecing travel project is a Thousand Pyramids quilt-I have no idea how big this will be-I'll just work on it until I'm sick of it and see what I end up with. I haven't got much done on this-I took it to my mom's house over the 4th but didn't spend a lot of time piecing.


It feels like I've cut a million triangles for this quilt but I'm sure there's going to have to be more scrap bin raiding before this is over. I've been scrounging for lights in my scrap bin- some of my lights are actually darks flipped over to the back because I'm definitely lacking in lightness.

Hopefully tomorrow I'll have another completed birthday block to show you however DD wants a quilt for her stuffed T-Rex and is rather insistent that I work on it so I may be showing you something else entirely.