Boxes of Friendship Quilt

is finally finished and I love it!

I love the wavy quilted lines,

the pieced strip on the back,

that it contains fabrics from two friends I've made through blogging ( a big thank you to Amanda Jean and Suzie for the beautiful fabric you sent!),

that it has lots and lots of polka dots,

right down to the binding.

Best of all? I'm finished in time to use it through the upcoming cold season. ;o)

* The pattern for this quilt can be found in the book, The Modern Quilt Workshop

Not impressed

I thought I had found the perfect fusible interfacing for bag making. This stuff is too stiff for what I envisioned and my attempts to subdue it has left me totally unimpressed with the results.

The bag had been relegated to my "thinking about what to do to fix it" pile. I think I've figured it out. The ugly truth : the interfacing has to be removed. I will save that cardboard emulating interfacing for some other project. Perhaps in a design that isn't meant to be a shoulder bag (with the risk of personal injury this would entail... not to mention looking stupid trying to flatten it out when wearing it over my shoulder. ;o)

Weird is a good thing

apparently (see how empty this baking pan is?). What's so weird you ask? This is a recipe for orange/blueberry muffins and as you can see, my muffins are square. Square muffins are weird, right? Okay, maybe not too weird, but is it weird to include tahini in muffins? Yeah, tahini (sesame seed butter). My family is used to or resigned to me adding things like this to ordinary recipes. I'm always substituting and tweaking recipes. It's no longer strange to them. Actually, they have stopped asking what I put in - they just go by taste. Weird is normal around here and in our case, it's a good (healthy) thing. ;o)

Giveaway

Go here to enter Sheree's giveaway for a chance to win some gorgeous organic cottons from Harmony Art.

Decision made

I'm just giddy over the dotty fabric I found to use as binding for my latest quilt. I heart dots. I think it's perfect

to frame the whimsical wavy quilting lines I'm machine stitching my quilt with.

Lots and lots of dots with wavy lines. sigh.

The combination is making me smile and ever so eager to finish!

I can. Do you?

Yesterday, the house was filled with the biting sharpness of pickling brine and I went to bed with the smell of garlic and dill on my hands. I went to bed very happy with my day's efforts. Just look...

at how many quart jars I filled with 50lbs of dilled cucumbers.I didn't can anything last year due to our move and this time around I skipped this crazy sounding,but helpful step in my canning process. The cukes I bought this year had already been thoroughly cleaned, so they didn't need much more.

Canning is so rewarding and my family really appreciates it. The hardest part is patiently waiting for the cucumbers to become pickled. Every year I have to remind my sons that we need to leave those jars sealed for a good 6 weeks before they can start enjoying them.

Everytime I can produce, I love to just savour the look of all those jars filled with the season's bounty. I like knowing that I've contributed some handmade goodness to our pantry that we anticipate enjoying through the coming months. That's why I can. Do you?