The Amazing Race begins TODAY!

Let the GOOD TIMES ROLL…today is the first day of Quilt Sue’s Pick Four Book Tour!

 

I hope you are prepared to hop, skip and jump all over the globe in the hopes of WINNING your own copy of this wonderful book!  Geeze this is sounding a lot like the Amazing Race…and AMAZING it will be!!

Now go to the Box to see where your first stop will be…

Today you are off to Sunny England to visit Hazel at~Hazel's Quilts.  You will feast on tea, fancy sammies and little dainties!  Don’t forget to wear your best ‘visit the Queen dress’…oh and wear gloves (NO, not your free motion gloves!!) Sheesh!  You must perform your task, to the best of your ability, before entering her Give Away…and may the best quilter win!!

As you can see, it is going to be a VERY busy week for our contestants…skip down the list…to Aug. 31!!   Yes, you will be visiting ME in exactly ONE WEEK!!  YIKES!!

• Thurs 25 Aug     -     Quilt Hollow
• Fri 26 Aug         -     Silver Thimble
• Sat 27 Aug        -     Magnolia Bay Quilts
• Sun 28 Aug       -     Bejewelled Quilts
• Mon 29 Aug      -     Insights from SewCalGal
• Tues 30 Aug      -     Sew'n Wild Oaks
• Wed 31 Aug      -     Sweet P Quilting
• Thurs 1 Sep       -     Quilting Prolifically
• Fri 3 Sep           -     Cotton Cocktails

Hmmm…what will your challenge be??  Eating something gross…one of my meals perhaps?  Climbing my cedar tree and bungee jumping off?  Scooping doggie ‘doo’ from my backyard?  Where do your talents lie?…Only the strong will survive in this Amazing Race…

OK, Ok…so maybe I watch a little too much TV!  Now hurry over to Hazels…and don’t forget the gloves…mittens will do!  Oh…and good luck..You are going to LOVE ‘Pick Four’!

Have a Wild Wednesday and Happy Quilting!~P

Not Just Another Pretty Face…

The Postman came bearing gifts yesterday!!  It is SEW exciting to get a parcel in the mail…from a stranger!  It was a Give Away gift from a blogger by the name Pamina and she writes Quilts On the Way. 

If you know Pamina and her blog, then you know that she writes it half in French and half in English…but  no country is listed in her profile.  I have always assumed that she lived in France or Quebec…someplace very French and romantic!  How exciting to see a Swiss Postage Stamp!

AND even more exciting…look at what was inside the parcel…wrapped in a gorgeous fat quarter of Lou Lou Thi…

..‘Quilting from Little Things…’ by Sarah Fielke.  Now you may remember Sarah’s name…she co-authored two of my favourite books..EVER…Material Obsessions (which I own) and Material Obsessions Two (which I don’t own :o()  This book has the same artistic look, same sort of eye candy, same feel, same high quality to the paper and cover…

…oooohhh and do you see the Lindt Swiss Chocolate at the bottom of the page!!  YUM!! What quilter (and husband) doesn’t LOVE chocolate…I think it’s a given that they go hand in hand!

‘Quilting from Little Things’ is a little different from Sarah’s other two books, in that Sarah covers a showcase of quilting techniques.  She designed ten beautiful quilts ~ each providing a lesson in one or more of these quilting techniques.  By making these exquisite quilts you would acquire the practice and hopefully the skill in learning the method that Sarah is teaching… such as creating wedges, inset piecing, feather piecing and deconstruction piecing…YIKES there’s a lot to learn in this book!!

Ohhhh and the eye candy is out of this world…this quilt pattern will teach me all about bias appliqué…BRING IT ON!!

The photographs make me drool…LOVE IT!!!

Inset Piecing is what I will learn if I ever get up the nerve to make this beauty!!  WOW!!  AND Sarah does big stitch hand quilting!!  There is a whole section on Hand Quilting….

So as you can see this book is more than just a PRETTY FACE…it’s a teaching book…covering a wide range of quilting techniques…with the end result being GORGEOUS quilts…not to mentions that it is VERY easy on the eyes!  It is right up there with Material Obsessions! 

Thank you so much, Pamina of Quilts On the Way!  I love this book…the chocolate was yummy and the fat quarter will definitely find an place of honour in my stash!!

Have a Terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting!~P

Anna’s Rhubarb Cake…

What’s better than Rhubarb Pie?  If someone asked me this question YESTERDAY I would have thought long and hard to come up with answer because I LOVE Rhubarb Pie…you know the kind with the butterscotch filling oozing over the rhubarb…

Well if you asked me TODAY I would say without any thought at all…Anna’s Rhubarb Cake!!  

Here are the pictures to prove just how good it is…

What do you think?  Fresh out of the oven…go ahead, smell it…

Look at the rhubarb poking out of the crust…

But it’s the gooey filling that grabs you!!  See the crust on the bottom..has a hint of Almond flavour in it…then gooey rhubarb and on top a crunchy topping with coconut in it…DELICIOUS!!

Of course you are going to want the recipe…and I do like to share…

Anna’s Rhubarb Cake/Dessert

First Layer (the crust)~ mix together the following:

1 Cup margarine

2 Cups flour

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 egg

1/2 tsp. almond flavouring

Mix and put into a 9” x 13” cake pant, and pat smooth.

Second Layer~ Mix together

5 Cups finely cut rhubarb

1 1/2 Cups sugar

1/2 Cup margarine

1/3 Cup flour

2 eggs

Spread this mixture over the first layer.

Third layer~ mix together:

1 Cup coconut

1/4 Cup flour

1 Cup sugar

1 tbsp. margarine

1 egg

Mix together and spread over the second layer.  Bake for one hour (or longer if rhubarb is frozen) at 350F.

Hope you try it and enjoy it as much as we did!!

On the Quilting Front~

I can’t show you what I’ve been working on (SECRETS!!) so I will show you what our friend,  Kim…(the FULL TIME RVer from The Sands)…has been up to..BUT before I do that..Let me refresh your memory!!  You can read about Kim HERE.

This is a picture of Kim at The Sands..showing off her latest quilt…back in January.

Her and her husband, Don are expecting their FIRST grand-child in September so of course Kim whipped up a quilt (one of many I’m sure!)

Isn’t it sweet?  Love the satin binding…very tactile!  I remember how much my own daughters LOVED the satin binding on their “blankies”…loved them so much they rubbed them ragged!!  Babies love the smooth,cool feel of satin…which made me I wonder why we don’t use satin in our bindings more often!!  Anyways…good THINKING Kim!! 

I also LOVE the fun prints that you picked for this quilt…there sure is a lot of BLUE in this quilt…is there something that YOU KNOW and we don’t….???

Regardless of whether it’s a little girl or little boy…one thing is for certain he/she is going to LOVE this sweet little quilt!

Oh…and to The Sand Club House Quilters…Kim’s coming back and she is raring to GO!  Gwen, save a seat for Kim in the Quilt Mobile…Road to California HERE WE COME!!  ":O)

Have a Magical Monday and Happy Quilting!~P