Another quilt and a happy place

As promised, here is the other quilt I did for the other twin baby boy in the family. I'm pretty happy with this one, too. Very different from the little pirate one in my last post, but just as cute, I think. Close up - the colors for the sashing and the border were spot on. Those were lucky days at the quilt shop!


Well, here we are again, taking pictures of cookies. But I had to! And yes, I just had to buy this maccaroon, too! I'm not even a big fan of coconut but a few more of these and I will be! I went back to the Nantucket Bakery this morning for more bundukie and chocolate cookies with sea salt sprinkles and a couple of peanut butter cookies and I could not, just could not leave without one of these massive maccaroons....

And it's light, chewy, the chocolate is smeared all over the bottom so you get a little taste of chocolate in each bite. I don't know how well something like this would freeze so I just had to start nibbling at it and well, it's half gone now. The peanut butter cookies and the chocolate cookies with sea salt sprinkles are in the freezer. I take one out in the morning as I leave for work and it sits on my desk next to my tea and I nibble them through the morning. Just nibble.Well, maybe with the chocolate cookies I might take bites...

This morning the lady in front of me in line said, " This is such a happy place. You walk it, it smells wonderful and everyone has a smile on their face because they know they're going to walk out of here with something wonderful in their hands." Wow - she was spot on. I know I sure walked out with wonderful things in my hands! It's a very small place. The bakers are all right out in plain view, One small display case and a few bread racks but when you ask for something it seems to materialize. There are no donuts. Breads galore, about 8 different saucer sized cookies, muffins, scones, breads, they do some foccacia, and some pizza and bread. Pies, some but not many sweet rolls and oh, did I mention breads? I almost melted when I saw a fresh, beautiful golden yellow brioche held up for approval. I'm a cookie monster. I went in for cookies and didn't have a lot of money so I had to focus.

I had to go back this morning because we're packing up and returning home. For January and February we've been house sitting at my brother's in the city but it's time to go home. They are on their way back and we have to leave. It's been really nice during the worst winter months not to worry each night if we'll get to work in the morning or during work watch the snow fall and wonder if we'll get home. From home to here it's an hour drive. From this house to work it's 5 minutes. So, while here we've been visiting with friends, not worrying about commutes, saving lots of gas money and time, I've spent time with my girlfriends, browsed bookstores, gotten lots of quilting done, seen my grand-daughters more often, stayed up later and slept longer, visited Nantucket Baking Company and added hours to the day.

So, why don't we just move to the city and leave where we are? Because our home is at the end of the rainbow. A dream come true. And while we can, we're going to live in the dream.

Show and Tell

Something starting with "Y" is the Snappyfriends challenge this week and yellow came to mind. Everything around here is white right now....snow, snow, snow....so when I went with my daughter and the girls to the Children's Museum last week I was hit in the face with this brilliant yellow mosaic on the side of the building. I'm remiss in not knowing who the artist is and in not showing you the entire side of the building. Frankly, I had yellow on my mind. Either that or I was going to try to get Adelaide to 'yell' and capture that. She's all face when she starts the circus.
I've been in a self imposed/medical exile for the past six days and I had no more excuses but lots of deadlines for getting some children/baby quilts cut and boy did I get a lot accomplished.

This is an I Spy I made for Charlie - just the top, folks, one step at a time - it's a Piece O' Cake design and was in the Avalanche Publishing Co. 2009 calendar. I liked the look the minute I saw it and for over a year collected fabrics I liked. It was one of those pretty easy to assemble things, 3 inch squares, dark to light. I fished out the boy-ish ones for Charlie and have enough cut to do one for probably Adelaide next. I was never a big fan of I Spy quilts but I really liked this design and surprised myself on how much fun it was to find fabrics and now to look at it.

Just a few samples: He likes to fly a kite on the beach, is into airplanes and was a big Thomas the Tank Engine fan when he was little. The first book he bought at his school bookfair was Cat in the Hat (or was it Hop on Pop??) We have racoons living in our drainage ditch. When he was born his bedroom was decorated in farmyard theme...I could go on and on. This was surprisingly fun!

That yellow star on pale blue background is from a piece left from the very first baby quilt I made when he was just a month old. My Valentine for him is right next to it. We had to include sailboats because he loves to stand on the bluff and count boats out on the lake. He also was/is a pirate so there's a pirate ship.


This one I made for Patient Husband's cousin's daughter. She just had twin boys and I'm making two of the storybook quilts for her. I take those fabric storybooks and cut them apart and sash them for a storybook quilt. This one is a counting book. I'm in love with this one. These are very fun baby gifts.

First pages

Last pages - I found in my stash a small piece of boat/lighthouse fabric I must have won in a giveaway so I put a strip of boats along the bottom. These are pirates after all!

There is one more quilt for twin #2, but I didn't finish it today. It's sashed but not bordered. I ran out of steam. It will be done this week, and I'll show it to you later.

So! We are in the middle of another big storm, this one seems worse than the one in the beginning of the month, the one termed "storm of the century" because this one has lots of freezing rain and thousands of people are without power. We're lucky. But Patient Husband and I agree we're tired of the cold. We're tired of the snow. Winter is hard work.

Moon over Miami

Ok, I'm weeks late on the moon shots for Snappyfriends but it's been this long since we've even seen the moon. Clear skies last night and a full moon, too! While not the clearest shot I couldn't let it just sit there.

I went to the children's museum with my daughter and the girls. Adelaide was in the kaleidoscope tunnel and found herself surrounded by lots of little Adelaides!

I have been quilting, really I have, and soon I'll have a couple of things to show. Really.

Pretty in pink

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago and we spent the day exactly as I wanted, surrounded by my babies. Adelaide and Cecilia, pretty in pink. Adelaide is enchanted with the living breathing baby doll that comes to visit her. She is mystified that she can't get her dollies to wiggle, eat, cry and smile like her cousin. She gives nice pats on the head and points out to Cecilia where her eyes and nose and mouth and ears are.

This child has the biggest blue eyes I've ever seen.

Here's our Charlie, the oldest the only fox in the henhouse. He has a serious case of hat hair goin' on.

Chocoholic Elizabeth just couldn't believe this cake when we brought it to the table. She pulled up a chair, climbed on and could hardly contain herself. She shook with anticipation. She got about as close as she could - I think the distance between her nose and that cake are unmeasureable...they don't make numbers that small, do they? It is a pretty darned good cake.



And that brings me to this week's Snappyfriends challenge. In honor of Valentine's Day, I'm sure, the assignment was something brown. What else could you possibly think of but chocolate?? There's a shop in the city that makes their own chocolates and you would have to be a real grinch not to go crazy in this place. When you want something special this is where you go. When you want a treat this is where you go. When you think you deserve something just because...this is where you go.

Died and gone to heaven.

Vanasavana

Last night I sashed my half of the little dresses quilt Friend Marilyn and I are making for E's 4th birthday. We've twiddled along so long on this thing we're both a little tired of it but this past weekend we found a spurt of energy and trimmed, cut sashing, nine patched and joined our halves. I'm sending this over to her tomorrow to join top to bottom and put on the border. Then we start quilting in relay.

I don't want to be a whiny baby here, but it's pretty cold outside right now. I can't convert to celsius ( I don't even know if I can spell it) but here in Michigan we are 15F. So I'm not all that keen to go looking for animals for this week's Snappyfriends challenge. Sunday we were at my daughter's house for dinner and while playing with Elizabeth I realized I could go on safari right in the playroom and share her "vanasavana" as she calls it. So here we have it! Gazelles, and zebras and crows and giraffes and penguins all playing together at the watering hole.

baked good bonus

Ok, so how many of you go to the bakery, come home and take pictures of your purchases? I love a good bakery. I'll bypass a fabric store for a small bakery. That might explain my waistline, too, come to think of it.
This morning, because we are in the city for the weekend, I went to this small, wonderful place called Nantucket Baking Company and bought some wonders.
There was a gentleman ahead of me who bought half of this loaf. So I bought the other half. It's a three cheese garlic bread and it's heaven on a plate and it's still warm.....can you smell it?

But these cookies are what I wanted. They are a big as a saucer chocolate cookie sprinkled with sea salt on the top. Inside is a dense, chocolatey, soft cookie with flax and sunflower seeds and oh, I don't know what else, and I don't care. I went back this morning specifically for these.

Then, I discovered they had Bundukie this morning!!! They have them every Saturday but I was made to understand you had to pre-order them. But no! Get there early enough and you get the best eating you'll ever put in your mouth. These are a Lithuanian national treasure. These particular babies just came out of the oven so she couldn't even put them in a bag without a little smoosh. They are a sweet dough filled with bacon and onion. Everything is better with bacon in it. In, over, under, around and through if you ask me. Add onion? Ahhhh...

If I were on my last meal of this life I'd choose these.

A Feast

The other night Friend Marilyn and I got together to trim and place the squares for the quilt we are making for Elizabeth's 4th birthday. We each made 8 outfits.

After trimming and placing them, this is the order we're going to go with. I brought home the bottom two rows, she is going to do the top two rows. We'll sash them and then put them together. This is the part I have to go do right now. We're on a roll and I don't want to break the momentum.

snow day

We all have our after blizzard snow stories to tell today so I won't bore you with mine. It IS magnificently beautiful out there, though, today. The sky is absolute blue - the color you'd love to buy an entire bolt of, and the sun is so bright on the pristine clean snow it hurts your eyes. Would Snappyfriends count this as water???

We have another day off school today. This is the 'gift' day. On Tuesday at school I was saying to fellow workers that "a snow day Wednesday was a given, Thursday would be a gift." And here we are! It's possible to get out so where did I find myself when the doors opened? A fabric store! I just wanted to get out of the house for a few minutes, get some air and sniff some bolts. Wasn't gone long and didn't buy much, but what I did buy is already in the washing machine!

The air is very, very cold, driving is icy, residential streets have been cleared of one lane so you don't want to see someone coming at you. But the sun is working with the asphalt. And it truly is breathtakingly gorgeous.

water water water

We are in the midst of the monster. This snow storm is, apparently, a doozie. They say over 100,000,000 ( yes, million) people are affected by it, 1/3 of the population of the U.S. Everything is closed so people will stay off the roads.

Snappyfriends challenge this week is water. Well, around here, this is the only water you're going to see unless you turn on a faucet.

Here's another form of January/February water.

Today, I'm thankful for snow days, not losing power, warm banana bread,

and sweet little birds

I love watching the birds.