My New BFF!

We (Scott and I) have discovered a wonderful new friend in our kitchen -

non-stick foil! Works great for most everything - no messy cleanups - easy to remove sticky desserts from the pan - you can wrap burger patties individually for the freezer and it just peels right off - terrific stuff!

Its place of honor on the kitchen counter. :)

Had to show you - I just had to plant pansies, it's so gorgeous out (we have had multiple days of 80 degrees here in the Chicago suburbs in March, unheard of!)!

And my latest creation just had to "pose" out by the "posies"! I made these two blocks for my NEW'BEE buddy over at 15 Minutes Play. She (Lauren) asked for blocks with an outer space theme, for her two young boys (2 and 4, adorable). The one block has a planet, starring a great (old) hand-dyed scrap; the other block is just made fabric, in the background request of blues and blacks - which Lauren requested. Hope she likes them!

Hannah in Disneyworld!

Happy Hannah!

Hannah is on a spring break choir tour with her college choir, and their ultimate destination was - can you guess? Disneyworld!

Hannah (left) and two friends - I love that Hanah is the Sorcerer's Apprentice Mickey!

This shot is my favorite - Hannah trying to pull the Sword our of the Stone - love it!

St. Pat's Day fun!

We have had record high temps here lately, in the 80s - totally crazy! We have a good friend who is a meteorologist, and she can't figure it out either! What does this have to do with today's post, you ask?

We were invited to our friends and neighbors, the Knights, for St. Pat's dinner tonight, and see the pics below - most of us spent the day outdoors, gardening or whatever, and many of us have sunburns! On St. Pat's Day!!

The handsome laddies - Howard, Scott, and Jim - cheers!

Peg made her mom's special recipe for corned beef - it was melt-in-your-mouth delicious! Like candy!

The lovely lassies - Peg, me, Louise, and Miki. What a great group of women I am lucky to know!

Miki enjoyed a black and tan, poured expertly by Jim. A good time was had by all!

And in closing - Scott and I sang the Irish Blessing, as sung by our church's high school choir each Sunday:

May the road rise to meet you, may the wind blow at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face.

May the rain fall soft upon your fields - and until we meet again,

'til we meet again,

May God hold you in the palm of his hand.

Quilting with my Friends

I decided to make quilted valentines for my family this year. After making valentines for Hannah and Emily - which both turned out cute, and will be in future blog posts - I set out to make Scott's, which gave me all sorts of problems! I knew I wanted to use a word - grateful - which is my Word of the Year. Scott totalled our car 3 days before Christmas, and walked away with nary a scratch, for which I am very grateful! :)

Rather than piecing the letters - as I have seen on many other blogs, like over at 15 Minutes Play, and in Tonya Ricucci's book - I decided to fuse them. Melody, over at fibermania, was doing a Quilt Along in February, teaching us how to fuse a small art quilt. I decided to use solids partially because of the great work of my friend, Sujata, over at The Root Connection. So - off I went, preparing my solids with fusible web and cutting out letters. It was all going so well! I laid all of the letters on a nice piece of solid gray fabric....

....and I hated it! My creative flow came to a screeching halt. I remade several of the letters (I hadn't fused them down yet), with different colors...still hated it! I hated all the letters in a row, the same size - even staggering them, still hated it.

So then, I thought it looked too dated, not modern enough - so I cut a piece of this great new black and white print. Fresh, lively, so much better, right? NOPE - still hated it, not right. I thought long and hard about what kind of quilts appeal to me, and I thought of the great scrappy quilts over at Nifty Quilts - and then it hit me!

I had just enough of the perfect print for the background - these adorable doggies! (sorry, don't remember the fabric designer) It was a modern print, but with a vintage feel - perfect! and it was perfect for Scott, because of his love of dogs.

This was looking so much better!

The quilting turned out great - lots of straight line quilting, inspired by quilting friends Victoria (15 Minutes), and many others. It took a few tries to find the right binding fabric, and am so glad I cut it on the bias (thanks for the nudge, Sujata), not my usual crossgrain.

So you see, I had lots of fun quilting with my friends - even though they weren't here! Thanks for all of the inspiration, friends!

The Best Night Ever!

Friday night was the best possible night! Scott, Emily, Hannah, and I spent the whole evening together in Chicago, to celebrate Scott's birthday. Emily found a nice place for dinner - Prime Bar on Wacker Drive, very near the Opera House. Dinner was delicious, and then it was just a short walk to see....

..."Showboat" at the LYRIC OPERA! We were all VERY excited for the show - we are all music people, who love musicals - and this was, did I mention, at the LYRIC OPERA? Well, it was everything we hoped it would be, and more! and while our seats were waaaaaaaaaaaaay up in the top balcony, the sound up there was glorious, and I can speak only for myself, but I got lots of goosebumps!

Emily and me at dinner. We had fun getting dressed up - I even wore a dress!

Scott and Hannah - so happy! Aren't they cute?