Gratitude #77 Glimmers

Welcome to another month's list of things I notice pretty much on a daily basis, for which I am grateful. If you would like to write your own post, or read more of these uplifting posts, pop over to LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color.

Yesterday I learned a new word for these moments I note each month thanks to Mx. Domestic who reposted it from Tiny Buddha Official on Instagram.

1. I'm grateful for my library; I've loved loved LOVED libraries my entire life. The quiet, the smell, the knowledge-keeping, the worlds contained in the thousands of books, ahhh. I was in one day quite a few months ago, and Elaine, who is also a quilter, and in charge of the Artist of the Month display, asked me if I'd like to be the artist for September. I told her absolutely, and that that was fitting timing as I had a quilt coming out in Love of Quilting in the September/October issue! Well, here is the display that has been in the library all month.

Pop Rocks

This is my second project for Angela's RSC 2017 at soscrappy.  It is not yet in the flimsy stage because I am a bit perplexed as to what/how to get it there.
If you just want to see the Sunday Stash, scroll to the bottom ;-)

You may think so...just what is the problem, Sandra?

There are two more rows, a pink one and a brown one.  Again, so?

Well, it currently measures 60X84 with just these seven ROYGBIV rows.  A nice lap size.  If I add the other two rows, it will be 60X108 and that is just a very weird size.  So think on that while I show you the last two month's of blocks that I just finished.

Here is September's row which was reds with a pop of gold.

Remember I inadvertently began playing with moving from light to dark in both the main colour and the 'pop' of colour.  It was really fun and pushed me a bit to find 24 fabrics in my scraps and stash that would work.  Three of the blocks always got two very dark bars, usually in black with the theme colour on it.  This is a great black with red dots batik that I used in Brianne's wedding quilt.

Here is October's yellow with a pop of orange:

Sigh, I knew it was too good to be true to have three photos un-photobombed by Bella!  In her defense, this row is full of kitties!

In case you've forgotten, here is the pink row

and the brown row:

I want them both as part of the front of the quilt!

I thought I'd put the pink at the top, as it would come before red, since you add white to red to get pink.
Then I figured I'd put the brown at the bottom.  I love the teddies fabric, scraps from Dayna's first quilt I made her, the cows, from two runners, one for an aunt, and another for an uncle. There's a rayon challis floral fabric from which I made a skirt centuries ago for myself, and the middle pink 'ring' fabric is from my mum's 70th birthday quilt, another scrap from my niece's housewarming quilt...so you start to see the memories just this one row evokes.

Julie of Pink Doxies suggested (yesterday we met up down here in Florida, what fun!)

Food!! On the left is cake we had at The Bubble Room Restaurant -- MacGyver's hand is there so you get the idea of the MASSIVE piece you get!  On the right is a delicious dish I made this past week, Veggie Lasagna Zucchini Boats.

Okay I'm salivating...where was I? Oh yeah, Julie!  She suggested a rainbow-striped fabric to add to the left and right sides of the quilt so it extends it horizontally.  I like that idea; I had already thought about running the pink row and the brown row down those sides, but because the blocks are not the same size (one is 12" square, the other 8X12") that doesn't work and doesn't look right.

I also thought maybe I'd put the brown row on the back; I usually do interesting quilt backs anyhow.  That would mean the length would only be 96, and if I extended each side with a rainbow-theme fabric by 12" I'd have 84" across.

Your thoughts are most welcome.  One other question, what do you think about alternating the run of each row? i.e. row 1 goes light to dark, but the second row would run dark to light?  I will try that tomorrow morning perhaps in the early morning before the dogs get up!

Backing for RSC2016 project #1, perfect!

This arrived from Fat Quarter Shop, along with two zipper pouches, one free from FQS, the other 22c (yes!) from Moda.  Gardenvale by Jen Kingwell (on sale) is going on the back of my project #1 for RSC, Whirling Stars.  The other two hopped into the order, being Downton Abbey 'Downstairs' fabric, why not, and on sale, yes please!

Speaking of fabric, remember this lovely bundle?

All on sale at Pile o' Fabric.  You see, from top to bottom:
REcollection by Katarina Roccella, Art Gallery Fabrics
the next three are all Avant Garde by Katarina Roccella, Art Gallery Fabrics
Holiday 2015 by Melody Miller for Cotton and Steel (headed for a Christmassy cushion cover methinks)
Desk Job by fierce Mally for Windham Fabrics in blue and lime
Petal and Plume by bari j. Art Gallery Fabrics
Sherwood Plaid by The Henley Studio for Makower
Across them all lies 2 yards of Kona in Silver

All of these were $6 and under per yard!  If you'd like to have a chance to win $10 to spend at Pile o' Fabric then check out my previous post where I have three prizes up for grabs for the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway day.  Giveaway ends tonight, Dec. 11, and I will announce the winners on Monday.

If you haven't already got their email, or need some last-minute stuff for Christmas, Craftsy is having several sales, on kits and supplies, as well as on top classes.  They do ship extremely fast!  That is an affiliate link, and I wholeheartedly appreciate those of you who have clicked through to their site through me.  Thank you!  Now go put your name in for a chance to win one of my 3 giveaways!

Linking up with
So Scrappy
Molli Sparkles

Sunny Days

There has been a dearth of them around here of late...

Sometimes words pop into my head from who knows where (probably from a book I read) and I think, "Hmm is that really the right word?"  Enter Google, and yep, the brain was actually right: dearth means "a scarcity, lack."  So that might explain why I needed, like really needed to make this easy-to-piece flimsy instead of working on my Crafted Appliqué project for the hop that is going on right now! Click here for Lara's intro post and the schedule.  Thirty, count 'em, 30 bloggers are helping to promote her book!  And yours truly is one of them.  On the 17. And there are tons of giveaways of her book!

Today I have the companion to Blue Skies, which named itself before it came into being.

Blue Skies

I was sort of thinking baby quilt with Blue Skies, and then, hmm, blue for boy, what about girl, pink...love pink with yellow...bought that Windham fat quarter bundle in pinks and yellows (note this link takes you to a different bundle--which I think would look AWESOME in my or anyone's design--the one I got is no longer in stock), made that pink and yellow Three Quarter Patch Tote both items from Craftsy...

I added in a few more fabrics, because when it comes to fabric, more is always better.

Cut off a 2.5 strip of each, added in some LOVELY white on white from Connecting Threads, called Leaf Lines, and eventually had this flimsy.  I added one more row to make it rectangular because some people, (hello Jasmine!),  prefer rectangular quilts, and also to show another possibility.

First layout on the design wall

I liked the idea of sprinkling the yellows and pinks throughout the quilt.  However, I thought I'd just see what a little more order would do...

Nope...besides I'd have had to ditch 3 pink blocks and make 3 more yellow ones

Decided against the order.  However, this design would lend itself well to a rainbow effect n'est-ce pas?  Tuck that idea away for the future...  Tweaked a few spots as some of the really bright pinks needed separating a bit.

Final layout

Spent a little quality time sewing with my darling friend Tish on the weekend, okay and Bella too, who, shocker, loves this new quilt:

and then finished this up on Monday.

Love the shadows created by the Black Walnut trees, and some sunshine!

This will go in my Etsy store, which is almost open!!  Apparently I have to have at least one item for sale before it is official...but it has a name! Big reveal when the quilts are in the store.  This quilt is on the Avanté about a quarter quilted. :-)

And!  I am writing up the pattern for the quilt, in both size options, with two cutting options for the white background as well. It is perfect for jelly rolls.  I hope to have the pattern for sale (yes, this one I am charging for) in my Craftsy pattern store in the month of May for May Makers, see sidebar for button.  Both quilts should be in the Etsy store within a couple of days.  Eeek!

Another eek! The sales of Pocketful of Sunshine are up to 2121 as of today!!  Holy wow! (it's a freebie from moi for you, mwah!)

May is for Makers.  Great post on this concept, here at LR Stitched, one which I have LIVED. Basically, choosing NOT to look at Blue Skies and Sunny Days and say, "Ha, I can figure that out," (we've all, myself included, been there, done that) but support the designer who spends hours upon hours designing, making, and writing up a pattern (that makes this designer want to throw things, like the laptop, out the flippin' window at times).  Skip the Starbucks one day and spend those $$ buying a pattern from a designer.  :-)

had to sneak in another shot of those fab potholders ;-)

Speaking of making...I follow Pinch of Yum, and made this dish, Healing Bowls, on Monday, because I saw it that day on her blog, and was like, uh HUH! We have almost everything on hand.  I substituted spinach for the arugula, and fried, rather than poached, an egg in just a smidge of butter.  To DIE for.   Sweet potatoes, brown rice and quinoa, spinach, egg, lemony-herb dressing drizzled over and sprinkled with almonds.  I need to make this again.  Like now.
'k bye. (as only Brady can say so very well!)
Linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts who has a wonderful runner to show you that she created with Lara's Crafted Appliqué technique...and a giveaway!

Musings on Comments

Several of you commented to me that I've really been getting a lot done lately.  And I do think I have.  The main reason was that I stayed out of QBL for a week or so.  By that I mean I did post (4 that week I believe) but I didn't respond to the comments right away (some were 2 days later) and I didn't visit back the blogs right then either (those visits happened over the period of about a week, and I may have read a few posts in a row that I'd missed).  I've really been reflecting on this phenomenon.  We talked about trying to find a balance amongst the New Quilt Bloggers group I was a part of this past summer.  My good friend Julie of Pink Doxies recently wrote a great post on this subject and what she has done to find a better balance.

Here's my take, and do with it what you will.

What I did seemed to work for me.

Although I did have some angst about not being on top of the responses to your lovely and thoughtful comments, it was gone when I did respond.  I did not ignore one of you.  :-)  I visited you randomly and then I spent time visiting you these past 3 days in a purposeful manner.  Gosh that sounds rather like teacher jargon, but it's not meant to be.  It took me 2 hours just this morning to get completely caught up with visiting and commenting.  Okay, I spent about 10 minutes doing the banking thing I always do on Saturday mornings too!  Still. TWO hours.  Yesterday I spent many more, writing yesterday's post, and responding to all the comments from that Autumn-Coloured Glasses post, and getting my gmail inbox down to zero.

I've heard from several friends in QBL lately of varying degrees of angst regarding not posting enough, time taken away from sewing, not getting many comments, the volume of blogs they follow being out of control, stats of viewed posts, readership etc.

Here's the thing:
I don't really think about the number of comments I get, unless it spikes and then I think whoa, that resonated.  I don't expect each of you beloved commenters with whom I have a back and forth chatting by email/iMessage relationship to comment on each and every post.  If you miss a few, it's okay!  If you comment on a couple posts in one email or comment that's okay too!  If you don't comment on a few or several posts in a row that's also okay!  Life happens, as we all know.

So.

Here are two gifts from me to you:
In this week of firmly sticking to doing only what makes me happy and inspired, I want to tell you all to please, not feel you have to comment on every post. Start with this one.  Read it, if you do, and then leave.  It's okay.  I feel your reading vibrations here in lovely Kingsville anyhow. :-)

on the Chrysler Canada Greenway yesterday, the southernmost section of the Trans-Canada Trail

Don't be offended if I don't comment on every post you write either.  I am hereby giving myself permission to sometimes not.  It just means I'm finding ways to cut down on time taken from me and my Bernina. (cue "Me and My Shadow" song now in my head)

However, I do need to point out something I wholeheartedly and firmly believe:  comments do make the QBL go round.  That and only that is what has led me to form close relationships with, well, lots of you wonderful wonderful people.  You are my guild, my homies, lol.  I nearly put the exact number of my extra-special, in-my-heart blogger friends down, but no, we know who we are.  In all honesty, the number who I consider close friends is about a fifth of my bloglovin' followers. I'm not counting my friends and family in this group who rarely if ever comment! (Linda, you're the exception; you comment on each and every post, have done since Day 1, and I love you for it.)

I must say comments do increase the close relationships numbers, and I know that that number will most likely go higher because of them.  For example, I've recently met Janine Marie who blogs at Quilts From the Little House, through comments she made here and my visits to her blog.  We've discovered several things we have in common!

I rarely look at my stats pages more than oh, once a month.  I'm not doing this for the stats.  I just know I do love writing this blog, and it has taken off and improved my life in many ways, ways I could never have foreseen, and I am so grateful for all of the growth that has occurred and continues to occur through it.  I'm just tickled when I see how many people do read this blog, or how many followers I have on bloglovin'.

Therefore I want, make that I am going to always feel happy about my blog, about QBL and about the fabulously talented and interesting and warm and caring people I have met and continue to meet through mmm quilts.  Working this way, where I post, don't always immediately respond, and then visit blogs in chunks, actually has seemed to work a bit better.  I still spend too much time on here IMHO, but part of that is my own doing, as I (cough) tend to overthink things, and over-proofread and wordsmith my writing.

My second gift to you this morning (oops it's now this afternoon) is a terrific easy and so healthy recipe I made this week for company we had for dinner.

Roasted Beet Hummus

Happily displayed on a Thanksgiving runner I made circa 2002/2003 (no label, gasp, I know).  I know this because that fancy stitch was done on the Husqvarna I had for a few months before I traded it in on my beautiful Bernina.  Fabric pumpkins were made around that time too.

Roasted Beet Hummus
--taken from a great site that I've mentioned before, Blue Zones, you can find the recipe here.

Ingredients
2 medium beets (or 1 large)
1 16-oz can chickpeas (unsalted; I rinsed mine first)
1/4 c lemon juice
3 cloves garlic
3 Tbsp Tahini
1/4 c olive oil
sea salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1.  Rub beets with a small amount of olive oil, wrap in foil and roast (about an hour) at 375F until very soft.
2.  Cool the beets, slice and put in food processor (I used my blender).
3.  Add remaining ingredients and blend to desired texture.
4.  Serve drizzled with a little olive oil. (I added a sprig of parsley for decoration.)

We've had it with crackers, but it would be great on a wrap too.  Hey! It's after 12 noon, so that is what I am going to go and do this very minute (once I proofread this only once, wink) and then spend the rest of this rainy afternoon sewing.

Happy Saturday and weekend to everyone. <<Mwah!>> to you all.

A Little Greens For You

MacGyver found a great website, Blue Zones, a couple of weeks ago, after seeing Dan Buettner interviewed on Bill Maher.  Buettner is, among other things, a National Geographic writer who has studied people with longer life expectancies, who live in certain areas, called "blue zones". He has a TED talk I plan to watch. There are so many great, easy to make recipes on this site!

At my first perusal, I saw this salad and right away knew I had to make it.  I had everything except for an avocado in my fridge.

That was an easy enough fix, so we whipped it up in no time and was it ever good.  You can find the original recipe on Blue Zones here.

But here it is with notes as to what we did:

Quick and Easy Lemon and Dill Bean Salad

two 15.5 oz cans of beans, rinsed (equal to 3 cups) (I just used garbanzo, aka chick peas, as that was all I had)
1 medium tomato, diced
1 medium onion, chopped
4 celery ribs, chopped
1 T olive oil
1/2 T lemon juice
cilantro, dill and pepper, all to taste

Optional ingredients:
8-10 cups greens of your choice (I used spinach; they say also arugula or kale)
1 cup broccoli (I had none in)
1/2-1 cup blueberries
1 avocado
1/2 c walnuts (I used pecans)

Directions
1.  In a bowl mix together all of the main ingredients.
2.  Add in cilantro, dill and pepper, all to taste.
3.  Put the greens and any or all of the optional ingredients in a large bowl.  Toss in the bean mixture. Serve.

I've been a bit otherwise occupied for the past few days, so I haven't been sewing as much.  My daughter, Brianne, and my beloved grandson, Brady, are here from Alberta for a 10-day visit.  Yesterday we went cruising on the Detroit River in our boat.  What a great way to spend a few hours on a very hot and steamy sunny afternoon.  We were cool cats though... Brady especially.

Last Fall when I visited them, Brady "commissioned" this quilt:

Jack in the Box quilt

He studied several pages in my quilt magazine, American Patchwork & Quilting, spotted this, and asked me to make it for him.   So I collected a few Halloween prints over the winter in Florida at Alma Sue's Quilts.  They are the jack-o'lantern print, the purple owls (love this one) that you see below, and a white with black bats that I haven't used yet.

Tentative layout, evening of September 7

I added in some Halloween-coloured fabrics from my stash and found a few scraps of very old Halloween fabric to use for some alternate centre squares.  The red "Skulls on Fire" fabric is an Alexander Henry I also got this winter, a quilt for MacGyver in mind.  It's a tad scary for a 7-year-old, so I just put one in.  It's been on the back burner, with the wheelchair charity quilts pushing it even more aside since I have to do a demo at September's guild meeting.

Think I may have mentioned that I work well under pressure...

Here it is from last night; a few tweaks occurred:

I'm making it bigger, as it is only a 32" wallhanging with the 9 blocks.  I plan to add two or three borders so he should have a lap quilt about 40X48.  They are here for another week, but we are busy doing stuff every day.
Wish me luck!

Linking up with:

More Amish Country purchases

Seriously you didn't really think all I bought was the two pieces of Minky Cuddle and the lake quilt beach-themed fabrics?  I had just short of $200 mad money from covering extra yoga classes this summer while other instructors were ill or on vacation, and I spent every dime of it. :-)

The fabrics below are going into a quilt a wee bit further down on my list of quilts to make.  Again, I had not planned to shop for this quilt, but you know how it goes, they percolate on the back burner of your quilt inventory in your head.  Well, mine do anyhow.  The bottom green I just liked, thought it might go in this quilt; didn't realize until closer inspection that it says "meow" or "mrow" on it amongst the yarn.  Darned if that nice grey isn't the same line, 'Purrsnickitty' - great name, very clever.

Most of the feature fabric is hidden, as the person for whom this is destined reads this blog--mysterious, I know.  It's background reads black here but it is a delicious deep navy.

Set the Table

First things first:  I added a new member to my growing herd.  I just love looking at these cuties on my design wall. This is my April block for the RSC at SoScrappy.  I love how the yellow pansies just happened to fall perfectly in place on her blaze.  That purple body and ears fabric is pretty much the end now of Bonnie Benn Stratton's Quilt for a Cure fabric. The pansies, of which I have just a very few scraps left now, too, are from my daughter Dayna's Mariner's Compass quilt, under which she sleeps every night!

Chickpeas and Stars

I made this recipe, another one from Pinch of Yum, two weekends ago, and have been meaning to share it on the blog, as it was soooo delicious.

It is called Roasted Veggie Pitas With Avocado Dip. She doesn't often have a short and sweet name, but the recipes are often just that: short, as in easy to make, and oh so sweet as in delicious. This was no exception. I will type out the recipe below just so you have it in one place, and let you know what changes I made, but click on the link I provided to see that it turned out pretty much exactly as Lindsay's photo!

Thankful Thursday #8

Today I'm thankful for good times, memorable times, laughter-filled times, with good friends.

I talked with a dear friend from Alberta earlier this week on his birthday.  So glad, and thankful, that nowadays phonecalls are so reasonable (in our case, free, as we have magicJack).  When we lived here in the late 80s, it was incredibly expensive to call, so calls had to be timed and infrequent.  Now we have FaceTime, or Skype, both of which shrink the 2000 miles between provinces, or between countries, in the case of some of our American friends--

This past week we also FaceTimed with another dear friend who winters in Florida, but lives in upstate New York.  He was actually in Vermont at the time, so we got to see the campground where he spends the summer weekends in his 5th wheel trailer.  So cool that I can now picture him there.

Last night we had two other couples over for a BBQ.  We'd already been to each of the others' houses, so it was our turn.  And it was a great evening.

I was once again reminded of how very lucky I am to live in such a bountiful county, also known as the Sun Parlour, Essex County.  We enjoyed wine from Pelee Island Winery, from grapes grown on Pelee Island, 17 miles south of our house in the middle (literally) of Lake Erie.  The retail and secondary operation is just 2 km from my house.  Dangerous...

Bread from our bakery, homemade by moi tapenade

 Yep, that's an Alberta Wild Rose spoon in the tapenade, a nod to my home province.

I thought this was really neat - I will now be on the lookout for Lucky Stones!

We enjoyed a couple of terrific salads off pinchofyum.com, and finished off with homemade baked peach and raspberry cheesecake from an old recipe book.

Gotta love leftover cheesecake, yum!

The weather cooperated magnificently, as did Mother Nature with no bugs (I think fishfly season is over, fingers crossed) so we enjoyed everything from appetizers to dessert, on our patio, the labours of Joe's gardening green thumb to enfold us at one end and Lake Erie upon which to gaze at the other.

And just because I've had two suppers of terrific new foods, here's another Pinch Of Yum from tonight's supper (there was virtually no leftover salads from last night, which is, really, a good thing, right?)

Healty Pesto Baked Rigatoni

Good food, good friends, good wine, good times.  That's what really matters.  Tomorrow I'll show you what I've been working on over the past couple of days.  It's not amounting to much, sigh.

Thankful Thursday #3

As always, I have a ton of things to be thankful for today.  Here are a few:

The sun is shining and the sky is mostly blue with a few fluffy white clouds floating on by.

Very good friends, our next-door neighbours, are coming over for supper tonight.  We are having one of my favourite salads: Romaine, spinach, with fruit (today it's raspberries, blueberries and mango), sliced almonds, Vidalia onion, grated sharp cheddar, chia seeds, sunflower seeds, topped with Mango Chipotle dressing. . .

Before dressing

and spaghetti (long-time favourite dish of mine).  Two sauces, both of which have been slow-cooking all day:  meat, made by husband. . .

and marinara (or marijuana sauce, as Dayna used to call it when she was about 6!)made by moi. . .

Of course there will be a choice of fresh grated Asiago, or grated Parmesan and Romano to sprinkle on the spaghetti, and a baguette.  Dessert is apple pie (not homemade) and butter pecan ice cream!  Yum.

I am also thankful for my yoga teacher from Rosemary Court Yoga in Sarasota, Florida, with whom I keep in weekly contact every Thursday.  I do the Ashtanga Primary Series on my own here, sometimes the Full practice, sometimes Half Primary, and I check in with her to let her know I did it and how it went.  She is a wonderful teacher, good friend, and now my email "practice-buddy".

Most of all today, I am so thankful and ecstatic, to be honest, that my caption was one of two chosen in Fat Quarter Shop's first Caption This! Contest at Quilt Market this year!  I WON!!!!  I WON!!!!  Each day they posted an interesting photo, and asked blog followers to send in a caption.  I missed one of the days, but sent comments on the others.  You can see them all here.  This is the picture with my caption that won:

My husband used to say this to our girls, minus the "for potential quilt patterns" phrase if they caught him nodding off!  Since I've been meditating on a daily basis, one of the things I notice, is that sometimes I do see flowing colours on the insides of MY eyelids, so this just seemed a perfect pic to combine his saying with my experience.  Oh I'm sure I've left myself wide open for a sarcastic comment from my loving sister, Linda....

What do I win?  A Moda fabrics bundle of Miss Kate Flannels by Bonnie and Camille!  EEEEK!!  I am just a tad excited about this!  Cannot wait until it arrives!  I adore Moda fabrics, always have, so this means a lot to me.
:-)