Full-Spectrum Quilt & Textile Show

Sign Of A Mild Winter?

We had several storms blow through our area yesterday with lots of thunder, lightning, rain, hail and wind. Storms like that are quite uncommon for our area...especially this time of year. Have you ever heard the saying "thunder in fall, no winter at all"? I can only hope that it's true!

Design Wall Monday

Nope, no design wall, no fabric, no pattern, no nothing...in fact there is hardly anything at all in my sewing room! I spent last week cleaning out, rearranging and reorganizing and I managed to empty half the room! Why? To make room for something new! Can you guess what I am going to put along that empty wall? (Read this post if you need a hint!)

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!

Quilt Show Fun

Fall seems to be the time of year for quilt shows around our area! This weekend the Endless Mountains Quilt Guild started off the fun with their "Quilts and Friends - Bound Together" quilt show. There were lots of beautiful quilts on display that were made by guild members as well as several traveling exhibits including the God Bless America and the Hoffman Challenge exhibits. All of the quilts were artfully displayed, but the two paired in the photo really made me chuckle...it looked just like the cats in the quilt on the left were watching the birds in the birdbath quilt on the right!

Among The Gum Trees

Among the Gum Trees is a blog shared by a group of nine Australian designers who are offering a FREE Christmas-themed design every Monday through the months of October and November. Then beginning in January, on the 7th day of each month, there will be one free design from each designer. Not only that, but each member of Among the Gum Trees is having a giveaway to kick off the start of this great new blog. Stop by Among the Gum Trees for all the details about the giveaways and to see why this group of bloggers has the quilt world talking!

Friday Favorites

It's official...quilting season has begun! Here in northern Pennsylvania quilting season will last for the next 9 months, which means there is a lot of time for trying new patterns and ideas! For this week's Friday Favorites, help me to plan this season's projects and post about your favorite quilt block or quilt pattern and be sure to tell why it's your favorite!

My favorite block has always been the basic nine-patch. I love it's simplicity, but I also love that it is such a versatile block and can be used in so many ways...especially when it is cut into quarters and used as a disappearing nine-patch!

Leave a comment telling me what your "Friday Favorite" is and if you want to play along on your blog, just post about this week's favorite and leave a link to your post in the comments section.

Read about other Friday Favorites at the following sites...
Prairie Moon Quilts

Odds-N-Ends

I've been cleaning out my sewing room and I have found that I have lots of yarn left from past projects that is taking up quite a bit of space. I find it is much easier to use up fabric scraps than leftover bits and pieces of yarn. These are all different weights and blends, so they can't really be used together or can they? How do you use up odds-n-ends of leftover yarn?

Easy Whoopie Pies

This is a high calorie, non-diet friendly recipe and eating these whoopie pies will make your behind bigger and jeans tighter. Consider yourself warned!

Easy Whoopie Pies

1 package dark chocolate cake mix*
2 eggs
1/3 cup vegetable oil

Pour cake mix into a large bowl. Stir in eggs and oil until well blended. Roll dough into balls about the size of a quarter, place on ungreased baking sheets and flatten slightly with the bottom of a glass. Bake at 350 F. degrees for 8-10 minutes. Let cookies stand on cookie sheet for 5-6 minutes before removing them to cooling rack. After cookies have cooled, put cream cheese frosting (see recipe below or use one can of pre-made frosting) between two cookies, putting bottom sides together.


Cream Cheese Frosting

1/2 cup butter, softened
4 ounces cream cheese, softened
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 1/2 cups confectioners' sugar

Beat together butter and cream cheese at medium speed until completely smooth. Beat in vanilla. Beat in confectioners' sugar until well blended.

*Other flavors of cake mixes work as well. Spice or banana cake mixes are very good with the cream cheese frosting, but in my opinion, it's hard to beat chocolate!

There Has To Be A Better Way!

There has to be a better way to store fabric! I keep mine in plastic totes stacked in the closet and normally that system works pretty well and the fabric stays organized, until the tote is dropped on the floor! It took me a good hour of precious stitching time to refold and organize this fabric after I dropped it on the floor yesterday. No, I didn't go to the extremes that Anya did a few weeks ago (see her post about fabric folding HERE), but my scrap box looks much better now (even better than it did before I dumped it), but there still has to be a better way to store fabric!