Zucchini Patties

What is your favorite way to cook zucchini? Normally my answer to that question would be to put it in bread or cake (with lots of cream cheese frosting), but that was before I discovered zucchini patties!

Zucchini Patties

2 cups grated zucchini
2 eggs, beaten
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
salt to taste
2 tablespoons vegetable oil

In a medium bowl, combine the zucchini, eggs, onion, flour, Parmesan cheese, mozzarella cheese, and salt. Stir well enough to distribute ingredients evenly. Heat a small amount of oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Drop zucchini mixture by heaping tablespoonfuls, and cook for a few minutes on each side until golden.

Quilt Odyssey - Part 3

Quilt Odyssey - Part 2

Quilt Odyssey - Part 1

Nothing Could Be Finer

Nothing could be finer than to be in Carolina in the morning! That's right, it's vacation time and we are on our way to spend a week with the lil' cowboy and his mommy and daddy! It's been much too long since we last saw them, so I'm really looking forward to spending time with them all, taking in some of the beautiful sights of North Carolina and eating seafood until it comes out of my ears. I have no doubt that it's going to be a great trip!

Cowboy Cookies

Cowboy Cookies

1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 cup butter
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 cups flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 1/2 cups rolled oats
2 cups chocolate chips

In a large bowl add, sugar, brown sugar and eggs. Melt butter and pour in bowl with sugars and eggs, mix well and stir in vanilla. Add flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt, mixing well. Stir in oats and chocolate chips. Drop dough by rounded tablespoons about 2" apart onto an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 10-12 minutes or just until the edges of the cookies begin to turn golden brown.

Quilt Magazines

I admit it...I'm a quilt magazine addict! I find it nearly impossible to walk past a newsstand without looking through the quilt magazines and I almost always walk away with at least one in my shopping basket. They are less expensive than the average quilting book (which I also find hard to resist), but the cost does mount up at $7 or more per publication. The other day I was discussing the cost of my addiction with a friend and she was quick to point out that the average quilt pattern costs over $8 for just one pattern, so if you figure that the average quilt magazine has about 20 patterns, its value would be over $150! I love a good bargain more than anything and that's a deal that's too good to pass up! I guess I won't be swearing off the quilt magazines after all!

No Power? No Problem!

The power was out for a few hours yesterday, thanks to a faulty transformer up the street. Have you noticed that everything you want to do when the power is out requires electricity? I thought about dusting the living room or mopping the floors, but then I remembered the bag of 30's reproduction fabrics that I bought a couple weeks ago and decided to cut them up. I now have all the blocks cut for a disappearing nine patch quilt and "lucky" for me the power was out long enough so I could get some cleaning done too.

Front To Back

I don't normally piece quilt backs, but because I was trying to use up scraps with this project, I thought I would give it a try and I'm glad that I did! I think I like the back of this quilt just as much as I like the front.

Snippet Basket

Isn't this a cute little basket? A friend of mine had one that she was using to put her "snippets" into at our last stitching get together and she was kind enough to show me how she made it, so I could make one for myself. I was surprised at how easy it was to make and how quickly it went together. It honestly took me longer to decide what fabrics to use than it did to make the basket. Not only does it make a great snippet basket, but wouldn't it be great to hold candy, jewelry or cosmetics? Maybe a larger one to be used as a bread basket? Oh, the possibilities are endless!

Quilt Trail Of Western NC

Design Wall Monday?

I bet you're wondering what this photo has to do with "Design Wall Monday", aren't you? The answer is absolutely nothing, but it's more interesting to look at than a blank design wall! The weather has been fabulous here (at least that is this summer lover's opinion), so I haven't been spending much time stitching. There are showers predicted for the rest of the week though, so maybe I'll have something new to show next Monday.

Be sure to stop by Patchwork Times to see what other quilters have on their design walls this week and add your latest project to the list too!

Queen Ann's Lace

The Queen Ann's Lace is absolutely beautiful this year and seems to be everywhere you look. All of the roadsides and fields in our area all look as if they are bordered with little lace doilies. It's a bittersweet sight for me though, because I know that we only have a couple more weeks before blooms fade with the end of summer.

I'm Not The Only One...Right?

I was quilting right along on the cowboy quick strippie quilt and everything was going great until I stopped to make a few adjustments and I realized that this had happened!?! Argh! Someone please tell me that I'm not the only person who has done this.

Those Darn UFO's!

Remember way back in March when I said that I was going to get this top basted and quilted, so it wouldn't become a UFO? (Click HERE if you forgot about it too.) True to my word, here it is (only 5 months later) all basted and ready to quilt! Just how long does a project have to sit around before it's labeled as a UFO anyway?

First Flimsy

I just had to show off "my student's" first flimsy finish! She used a disappearing nine patch pattern, but set the blocks a little differently than the usual setting. Didn't she do a wonderful job?

Houston, We Have A Problem

My new fascination with fabric dye is creating a problem...it's growing the fabric stash that I have been working so hard to trim down! I think I need to plan some projects and do some stitching before my next dyeing session. How quickly do you think I can use up 7 yards of hand dyed fabric?

Color From A Bottle

No, I didn't use grape juice to dye these fabrics, but I did use the bottle to dye all of these colors at once! I put a water soaked white 100% cotton fat quarter in the bottom of the bottle and covered it with a red procion dye, followed by a soda ash and water mixture. The process was then repeated with more fabric, blue dye, soda ash mixture, another piece of fabric, yellow dye and more soda ash mixture. The fabrics were allowed to sit undisturbed for a few hours. The dye was then poured off and the fabric removed. Believe it or not, all three of these beautiful fabrics emerged from the murky mess!

Fun With Shaving Cream

Yesterday I spent the day with a few of my dye hard friends experimenting with some different dyeing techniques. Oh yes, this dyeing thing is fast becoming a new addiction! For these two fabrics, I put the dye on the first piece, then covered it with shaving cream and smeared it around, after that I put another piece of fabric over the shaving cream and pressed it down to make a print of the first fabric. I love the results! These fabrics make me wish that I liked to applique...wouldn't they make wonderful fall leaves?

Sudden Urge,To Splurge!

I got a sudden urge to splurge yesterday, so Anya and I headed off to the farmer's market in Lewisburg, PA and then on to Verna's Farbrics for a day of shopping. Both places were over flowing with great deals! I came home with all sorts of fresh fruits and veggies and this bundle of red, white and blue 30's reproduction fabrics. I have a feeling that I will be eating peaches, cherries, zucchini, lettuce, tomatoes, corn and cucumbers until they come out of my ears and goodness knows that I already had enough fabric...yes, it was a splurge kind of day!

Dyeing To Try This...

Brownie Bites

If you don't like nuts in your brownies you can leave them out or use mini chocolate chips instead of the pecans for an extra rich brownie bite!

Brownie Bites

1 cup butter, melted
1/2 cup cocoa
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
3 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 cup flour
1 1/3 cups chopped pecans, divided

Heat oven to 350 F. Line mini muffin cups with paper liners. Blend melted butter, cocoa, brown sugar, sugar and vanilla in large bowl. Add eggs; using a wooden spoon, beat well. Add flour and 1 cup pecans; stir until well blended. Fill prepared mini muffin cups with 1 tablespoon of batter; sprinkle a few of the remaining pecans over top of each. Bake 10-15 minutes or until tops are beginning to crack.

Experiment Gone Wrong Or Right?

This quilt top is the end result of my experimental block project. It's not at all what I had first envisioned. I wasn't happy with how all the different blocks looked next to each other and I really didn't want to add sashing, so I decided to jumble the pieces and let them fall as they may. The arrangement wasn't horrible and reminded me a bit of a maze or a tetris puzzle, so I left it as it was. It isn't the most beautiful quilt that I have ever made, but it was fun to play with and I'm sure Project Linus will be happy to accept it once it is finished!

Sun?day

It's another rainy summer Sunday here in northern Pennsylvania. I'm sure the flowers are loving all the rain that we are having this summer, but I'm starting to feel a bit soggy and a little depressed from all this wet weather! Oh summer, where art thou?

Knitting With Chopsticks?

Isn't this little bag adorable? I just love the chopstick handles and the fancy green tassel and the oriental kitty fabric is just too cute! Jean of Jean's Page was holding a mega bag giveaway last week and I was fortunate enough to win this wonderful little bag. I told Jean that I thought it would be perfect for carrying a small knitting project and I even found the perfect project to carry in this bag...sushi anyone?