Heaven Under Glass

Much to my delight my trusty rhubarb plant had one last good harvest in it before it was done for the season, which allowed me to take advantage of this FABULOUS cake recipe that Jane found online this summer.

How does this sound? Lemon Buttermilk Rhubarb Bundt Cake. Let that sink in for a minute - lemon, buttermilk, rhubarb. What's not to love? All my favourite flavours (except maybe for chocolate) wrapped into one totally delicious morsel.

Someone was on their game when they created this recipe because it is just SO good and the texture is perfection. I didn't think that I could love a cake this much - you have to give it a try. If nothing else, take a read of the recipe because it is quite entertaining.

The only thing that I would change would be to reduce the glaze by half as I found there to be more than necessary. The recipe also suggests glazing the cake as soon as you remove it from the pan but I think another time I'd let it cool a bit more so that more of the glaze firms up on the cake rather than drips to the plate.

I made it last weekend and had a little supervisor visiting and carefully watching every step, or so I thought. Guess she nodded of once or twice. There was enough rhubarb to bake the cake and put a bag in the freezer so I'm going to try this again with frozen rhubarb to see how it works.

And then I decided to play with fabric a bit. The last thing that I need to be doing right now is a new project but for a couple of years I've been toying with making something for fall so I've been collecting bits of oranges and greens and a bit of black, and I like what I've got. I have a pattern in mind but need to stay focused on getting things done up for the Holly Bazaar first, given that it is only a month off. Focus. Focus....M

It's Football Season Again

Now that the boys are back on the gridiron for the season in the cooler autumn weather I have picked up work on Stephanie's Confetti quilt again while we watch the games on Sunday afternoon/evenings (and the odd Monday night game too).

I've been trying to do at least half an hour every day so that I get into the habit, in the hopes that some day it will actually come off the hoop and get onto her bed!

I've been making good progress, and the other day when I went to shift the quilt I laid it out to see how much more there is to do (or how much is done). Much to my surprise it's about half way there. I thought it might be closer to a quarter finished, but I'll take a half.

There's still lots of thinking going in to the potential border design and I think I've come up with a plan, but I'll spend more time quilting to see if it really settles in as the best option. Because the main quilting is very plain - it basically follows the stitching lines so that the squares puff a bit - I'd like the border to have a little bit of interest to it.

In the meantime, I get to enjoy the beautiful fabrics that she chose. Love, love, love Moda fabrics!...M

On The Wing

Last weekend I decided that since the geese are starting to fly south (just in little bits so far, mind you) that it was time to spend some time with my Fly Away Home quilt, so I cut several more reds. As I sat down to sew I looked at the bowl that is sitting on the floor that holds the scrappy strips for this little triangle quilt, so I zigged a little and decided to make a few, just to get it out of my system.

I also wanted to play around with layouts so I tried this:

and this:

and finally a spiderweb:


I took photos so I could see the options beside each other to help me make up my mind but I'm not sure that I'm there yet.

 I like the spiderweb but somehow can't see myself doing it in Christmas prints. I also like the first layout but I think the alternating blocks need to be a richer colour - maybe a gold/ochre print so I'll see what I can find on that front. The second choice is nice too but do you think that it's too busy? Anyway, after making 4 more triangles I returned to the business at hand - flying geese.

Over the space of 2 days I made about 84 more, so the reds are well on their way. I think I'll cut more greens and see where I end up with those; a few more fat quarters might be needed to really make it scrappy but it's a tough green pallette to match so I might just have to work with what I have.

At any rate, they are coming together nicely an I think I'm soon going to be in a position to string together a full row.

This particular combo reminded me of dad's hankies. During the week he used the more casual red polka dot styles and for dress he always had a fresh white hanky. Amazing how your mind works, isn't it?...M

Sweet Surprise

I love being able to surprise someone, I mean really surprise them, and today I got to do just that.

A few months ago my good friend Jean sent through an email asking if I had any quilts for sale - she has a very special niece getting married in October and was looking for a gift. I was at a bit of a loss at first because, while I have lots of quilt tops to be quilted, I hadn't really made any of them with the intention of letting them go. One thing lead to another and I eventually suggested that she might like the Neighbour's Fence quilts or, if I really got my act together, I could try and make a new one.

The long and the short of it is that she really liked the batiks and, after a few more notes back and forth decided to take BOTH of them! You could have blown me over with a feather. I was totally not expecting this. The only condition was that they would need to be machine quilted because at the rate I quilt her poor niece would be celebrating her 50th anniversary before she received her gift.

Linda S had mentioned a gal that she has used for machine quilting, and when Linda M seconded the motion I gave her a call. Her name is Roberta Krueger, her studio is called Cocoa and Quilts, and not only does she do fantastic work she was more than accommodating with my deadline.






The larger of the two has a red backing and the second is backed in a green batik. They are each quilted with a pantograph, but in different patterns. I really liked them before I had them quilted but I totally love them now.

They are both bound in the same green that is just a tad lighter than the green border and I think they turned out really nicely. For a while there I could have been crowned Queen of The Binding because it seemed like that was all that I was doing, but that's a good thing because to me it means that lots is getting finished off.

So today I had lunch with Jean and a few other friends that I've known of for years and arranged for the handoff. She thought that I was just going to have the wedding quilt ready but I had managed to get them both quilted and bound (aren't I the coy one?). I wanted to surprise her with two because the second one is an anniversary gift to Jean from her husband, so that deserves a little surprise, don't you think?

I'll miss them because they have been kicking around the sewing room for about 8 years now - crazy how the time flies - but it's nice to know that they are off to good homes. And I have more of the black & white stripe for the border trim so I've already started looking at new batiks...

Happy Anniversary, Jean!