More Ways to use Your Harvest

What do you do with the bounty from your garden? Find new recipes to try.

 I was reading Beaquilter and she mentioned she was going to make a squash and zucchini quiche. I asked her if she would share the recipe. I decided to try this recipe from the web site she shared. I added a cut up green pepper to it. It was really good and my husband liked it too.

I am still getting blueberries from our plants so I made these Rustic Blueberry Basil tarts from a magazine I just picked up at Sam's warehouse store. The magazine is called Good & Fresh. There are a lot of recipes in it that I am going to try out.

Have a great weekend and stay cool!
With Passion,
Carrie P.

It's Coming!

The Red, White, and Blue blog hop that is!

 Here is a sneak peek of my block. I will also be having a little giveaway. My day is July 7.

You can see the whole list of participants on Jane's Fabrics and Quilts blog. It is going to be fun. 

With Passion,

Carrie P.

President's Quilt

A new year is starting in my quilt guild. I have been the Vice-President for the past year. I have just been elected the President for the next year. As Vice-President I was responsible for getting blocks or a quilt top made, with the help of guild members, for the outgoing President. At the beginning of the year I asked the President what colors she liked. She gave me some swatches of fabrics she used in her home. 

Our guild president mentioned she liked baskets. I knew when I saw this pattern from the McCall's magazine, July/August issue 2011, it would be perfect. The pattern itself was designed by Holly Holderman.  So I got busy prepping the pieces. One month I took the baskets so that the ladies in the Applique Addicts bee, who are also in the guild, could help me sew them onto the quilt blocks. Next came the leaves and then the flowers. So with their help we had the top done in no time. This top is 53" x 53". I hope she will bring it back when she gets it quilted.

 Our president also collects sheep. I decided to make her a pillow to match the quilt too.The "Summer Frolic" design was from Anni Downs. The pattern was published in a Country Threads magazine.

We presented it to the President at our guild meeting this month and she really loved them both. Thanks Applique Addicts for all your help.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Finished FMQ

I finished the last of the four corners of my free motion quilting challenge from Insights from SewCalGal. This challenge was brought to us by Cindy Needham.

Here is the whole piece all full of thread. I went through four bobbins working on this practice. That is a lot of thread. You can see my other posts here, here, and here.

I took this photo the other day just because I thought the little bottles with one flower in them were cute. Once I posted it I was looking at the screen in the background and it reminds me of free motion quilting.

I wonder what will be next for us. I think I might be ready to start quilting a small quilt sometime soon.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Sewing and Quilt Expo

This past Thursday my husband and I took a day trip to Raleigh to the Original Sewing and Quilt Expo. There were several quilt displays put on McCalls's Quilting, Fons and Porter, Gammill Longarm Artists, Quiltmaker, and the Art and Science challenge. Here are some of the quilts in the exhibits.

 Quilt Alliance Auction Quilts. After traveling, these house quilts will be auctioned on ebay in November to support the projects of the Quilt Alliance.

 Quilts of Valor display

 NYC Metro Modern quilt guild display

 Here is Sir Walter Raleigh all dressed up and no place to go! This statue is outside the convention center.

 One reason I really wanted to go the expo was to see the Primitive Gatherings booth. I know I walked around that booth for thirty minutes. I didn't want to miss a things. I bought some fabrics and thread. I also bought this wool quilt kit . You were only allowed to take a picture of a sample if you bought that pattern. I did take a picture but you can just see it on her web site. All her stuff is much prettier in person. I just wish I had a bigger budget. There were so many things I would have liked to have bought. This was probably the closest I will ever get to the shop since it is way up in Wisconsin.

You can read more about the expo here. Maybe you have one coming near you sometime soon.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

More Quilting and Canning

Yesterday I worked on another corner of my free motion quilting challenge.

 One more side to go.

 We have some sweltering hot weather here in North Carolina but I had to go out in it today to pick all the beets and half the carrots. I froze the carrots and pickled the beets. A lot of work goes into preparing the veggies for preserving them but it is worth it.

 Mr. Bluebird stopped by for a minute and I was fast enough to get a picture. You might remember me showing you some bluebird eggs here. All those babies hatched. A few days later I noticed that the parents were not visiting the house so I went to check on the babies. They had all died. Not sure why. But this bluebird has found a mate and they are in the process of building a new nest in the house. Hopefully the babies will make it this time.

Some of you had asked about the recipe for the Chocolate Zucchini bread. Here is a link. I have the cook book and it is filled some really great recipes.
http://www.ourbestbites.com/2009/08/chocolate-zucchini-bread/


With Passion,
Carrie P.

My favorite things

Quilting is one of my favorite things. I can say that Free Motion quilting is becoming one of my favorite things. I worked some more on the SewCalGal challenge which was brought to us by Cindy Needham. You can see the technique on the SewCalGal blog. Cindy's quilting is amazing.

 The quilting I showed the other day began with me drawing some squiggly lines with my blue water erasable pen. Then I filled in those spaces with different kinds of quilting. The next time I decided to wing it and just have fun quilting whatever I wanted to quilt.
The center quilting designs were from the previous two lessons. My plan is to now fill up the other two corners with  whatever comes from my mind and hands.

My other favorite thing is gardening. As you can see things are starting to take off. This cauliflower was cut and eaten the other night. I made it like mashed potatoes with lots of good seasonings and butter. My husband really liked it that way.

 Here is another one growing which will be on the dinner table in a few weeks.

 I am picking zucchini and beans every day. I made some chocolate zucchini bread that was really yummy. It was gone in a flash.

 The blueberries in our yard are ripening and I pick them every other day.

 I made this blueberry bread with almond flavoring in it. A really nice combination. It is perfect for breakfast.

 With some of the surplus I made some of my first freezer blueberry jam and canned some sweet zucchini relish.

 I have also been pulling up some onions. Here are two different kinds. The one above was picked several days ago that is why you don't see any green leaves. The other one I picked today.

We love blueberries so much I went to a farm today and picked 12.5 pounds. These all went in the freezer for us to eat during the winter time. They are so juicy and sweet.
Tomorrow or Wednesday I am going to pull up all the beets.  They are not doing so well in the hot weather we are having. So I think it is time. My plan is to pickle them. Another first. What should I plant next in that bed? I'll let you know.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Practicing My Free Motion Quilting

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Doll Quilt Swap

I am a member of a Modern Quilt Guild. I joined in a doll quilt swap. We were assigned partners which was a secret. I knew who I was making for but did not know who was making one for me. My partner, Kim, likes turquoise, green, orange, and birds. So this is my little creation. I didn't take the measurements but it approximately 12"x 16". Of course I had to do some applique. The bird and flower design both came out of the volume 4 of the Quiltmakers 100 blocks magazine. I used a technique for the background from a quilt that was in the June 2012 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I also did some big stitch hand quilting. You will notice that there is not any binding. That is because I tried something new. It is called knife edge binding. Kim seemed very pleased when she opened her package with this little quilt in it.

Ania is the person who made my quilt. The only request I had was that there be some green fabric and it be a 12" square. I wanted my little quilt to hang on my table topper hanger. It fits and look beautiful. Thanks so much Ania.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

Christmas Through the Year

If you follow my blog you know that I am making a pillow cover a month for my son and DIL. Marina figured out that this was one for the kids. This is the pattern from Kay's new book, Scrap Applique Playground.

Here is the rug that is my inspiration for the pillow covers.

Don't forget to go over to Erin's blog to see more of what is in Kay's book. Good luck in the giveaway.

With Passion,
Carrie P.

And the Winner Is...

Sheryl from Scraps from Sheryl. Congratulations! to you.
Thanks to everyone who entered.
Don't be discouraged that you have not won yet because there are still five more chances. Check out Susan Brubaker Knapp’s, Blue Moon River today for a chance to win a book. 


Thanks for stopping by my blog. It was nice to meet new bloggers. I tried to visit everyone's blog to see what you like to do. Lots of talented quilters, for sure.


With Passion,
Carrie P.

My Day in the Book-A-Round and Giveaway

 Welcome! My day has finally arrived to participate in the Book-A-Round. I was so excited when Kay Mackenzie asked if I would participate. When I got the book, Scrap Applique Playground published by Martingale, I read it from cover to cover. There are so many great patterns in this book. Like you, I keep a place for all my scrap fabrics which sometimes just sit because I don't know what to do with them. When I saw this pattern called Pop Beads I knew I had to try out this technique. So let's play in the scrap-applique playground!

There are several Scrap-Applique methods Kay features in her new book. Shrinking Strips, Building Bits and Bobs, Lay Down and Fuse, and Crazy Patch which I used for my project. You can see here how I started out piecing my scraps with a flip and sew method. This technique uses a fusible interfacing on the underneath side which is completely illustrated in the book. I am a visual person and all the methods are thoroughly described with great illustrations.

                                             My scrap-applique circles are ready to be fused.

Next I pieced the background.

Then fused and sewed the circles onto the background. A fun and quick completed project. 

I had fun playing in the Scrap-Applique Playground. There are eight projects in this book. I plan to learn more of the techniques so that I can use my scraps to make some more of Kay's projects.

If you would like a chance to win a copy of this book, be sure to leave a comment and a way for me to contact you. I will reveal the winner tomorrow morning.

Unfortunately the giveaway is only open to the U.S. and Canada due to the cost of shipping.

Don't forget  Book-A-Round continues until June 16 where Kay will finish the tour.

With Passion,

Carrie P.

Flowers

When you have only two pennies left in the world, buy a loaf of bread with one, and a lily with the other.  ~Chinese Proverb

 What joy flowers bring to us. Even a Chinese proverb states the importance of a flower. Flowers make us smile. I have some gardenias blooming and their scent fills the air which makes me smile.  I enjoy how each flower is so different. Flowers! Enjoy Them!

 Flowers are featured in this Clover and Violet block I just finished.

 I found this little embroidery technique book at a book sale a couple weeks ago. I thought I would try one of the stitches.

You can see I used the rope stitch on the leaves of the tulips. It gives the leaves a little bit more dimension.

Another day of the book-a-round at Maria's Quilt Scraps. She made one of my favorite patterns from the book. I hope you are taking the time to go see the blogs that are featuring pages and projects from this book. Tomorrow come back here to see my post about the book. I will also be having a giveaway. Until tomorrow...



With Passion,
Carrie P.

Next Stop In the Book-A-Round

Sew Joy Creations! Go see what she made.

With Passion,
Carrie P.