I am so tired these days I am having problems doing anything with my quilting projects. Yesterday at the stitching meeting I worked on one of my little projects...how can a 15x15 inch quilt can take 5 years. How many months per square inch would that be? Too many...

The quilt at the top is an antique maverick. It is so ugly it is beautiful. I think I may have posted it when I first started blogging. It is still one of my favorite quilts!

Thanks for all the ideas on what to do this bank holiday weekend. I think we will make it up to Shrewsbury and take a few trips across the Welsh border. (I'm going to try and get him to Strokesay but he isn't a castle type of guy!) Another american loaned us a book called Cadfael Country which we will use as a bit of a guide. I'm just happy we don't have to deal with an airport this weekend!

MaggieART - Margaret Hunt: So we met ETV Roadshow and

I hope this link thing works.....My friend Maggie Hunt back in the states had a big day. A couple years ago she met a very talented artist that moved back to S.C. from NY. His art is primative but not...hard to explain but I love his works. He often has textiles in the paintings - quilts, clothes on the line....anyway a news magazine show featured both Maggie for her quilting arts and Jeff for his painting. You can see the taping of the show at her blog (make sure and go down to the second to last photo and check out the really neat chicken quilt!!! MaggieART - Margaret Hunt: So we met ETV Roadshow and

Anniversary

Today is my wedding anniversary. We have been married for 8 years. Boy has that gone fast. I was thinking this morning as I absorbed my caffine that in 8 years we have moved 3 times (including the most current one overseas!) DH has changed cars once, me twice and his son 5 times...(Ishould hear a big thank-you from Detroit on that one....) We have visited 8 countries (seems like that should have been more but there it is....) To celebrate we are going to a local Pub restaurant, The Hobnail, for dinner later this week. Tonight I am making him Youvarlakia Avgolemono (Meatballs with Rice in a lemon sauce) and Greek Salad. He is not a big dessert person so I am making some biscotti with pistachios, cranberries, and apricots.

Thanks to Calico Cat for the fun link that I made the photo at the top on...so easy even I was able to work it and that is saying something!

The photo above is another of the bed uncoverings...it is a 1930-ish crazy quilt. There are some fun fabrics in there with lots of peach and blue. It is hand quilted with a very thin batting. It came from the eastern shore of Maryland. Makes me think of the crumb blocks!

We are trying to think of places to visit over the long weekend coming up. Since I am a huge Cadfael fan we may go to up there for a day. I'd like to take a long walk around Broadway if the weather holds up.

I am at sort of a stalling point on my quilting. Too many projects at awkward phases. I just need to put them all on pieces of paper, toss it in a hat, and pull on out. Not very scientific but it may work!

Here is the recipe for the Meatballs.....

1 pound ground beef

1/3 cup rice

1 egg, beaten

1 clove garlic, minced

2 Tablespoons parsley, chopped

2 Tablespoons fresh dill, chopped (or 2 teaspoons dried)

salt and pepper

1/2 cup flour

Sauce:

1 cup boiling chicken broth

2 eggs, beaten

juice of 1 lemon

Combne meat, rice, egg, garlic, pasley, and dill. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Knead well. Shape into walnut size balls. Roll lightlyin flour. Shake off eny excess flour.

Place the meatball in a large skillet, pot or casserole dish that can be used on the stove top. (you want the meatballs to all be on one level) Pour in enough boiling chicken broth to cover. Simmer covered for 45 minutes. Add more broth or water is there is less than 1 cup of liquid left. Increase heat and boil a few minutes more, then remove pot from heat.

Beat the 2 eggs until frothy. Slowly add the joice of one lemon, beating continuously. Remove one cup of the hot liquid used to cook the meatballs. Slowly add this to the egg and lemon - beting continuously. (If you add it too quickly you will cook the egg and the sauce seperates.) Pour the avgolemono sauce into the pot of meatballs. Stir gently. Serve hot with lots of crusty bread! (makes about 24 meatballs. It should serve 4 but my DH and stepson could finish off the pot in very little time...)

Quilt Show

This has been such a busy week...can't do too many like this! Thursday I went to an auction preview to see another sampler. It was a good news/bad news: Bad news - the sampler wasn't anything I was interested in; good news - it made the decision on going to the quilt show on Friday easy!

I met up with some of the Fairford quilting group on Friday at the Quilt show in the Malvern Three Counties Showground. For several of the folks it was their first quilt show so it was fun to see their reaction to the quilts and the vendors. (And before I forget I got the most American-like hot doughnut at the coffee stand outside the showground...heaven!)

I was impressed by the show. Most of the quilts have a definate British feel to them. The best in show was a green wholecloth done with the Welsh/British designs. I loved this quilt! The quilting was beautiful. The photo seems to emphasis the color gradation a bit more intense than it is in person.

The second quilt also won several ribbons. I would be more specific about who made the quilts however as I ran to my car in the rain (surprise, surprise, surprise...) I must have dropped the show booklet. Must have been that mudslide I did for the last 15 feet to the car. Anyway back to the quilts...the blue applique was done entirely by machine. Now I do my applique by hand and admit to being a bit of a "hand stitch snob" but this quilt may have converted me! The holly block on the bottom orw second from the left was don so that the leaves looked like they were velvet. The stippling was soooo tiny and perfect.

I really like it when I see colors or techniques that I had turned my nose up at a show and find myself loving the quilt! The photo on the left is one of those quilts. She used the cathedral windows technique but used beautiful fabrics and then surrounded it by the flying geese. At the end of the day - a very classy looking quilt. (So unlike the cathedral window potholders I made in high school!)

I will post more photos later...blogger is being tempermental and taking its own sweet time with the photos. I volunteered to help at the British American social groups table at the boot sale this morning which ment and early wake-up only to get the whole thing set up then the rain came pouring down (seems to be a theme here.....) I got home drenched and cold. I went right back to bed to restart the day.....

Rainy and tired...

It has rained, rained and rained some more. This is getting old. I just haven't had the engergy to do any quilting...or much of anything for that matter.

So you are getting some more photos of my long day of folding quilts...those of you who viewed earlier posts will notice that we are now one level down on the same bed from the maryland applique!

I love log cabin quilts. This one isn't in the best shape but it has some great fabrics and I love how the center block is split dark and light. It also has a very funky red and green border. I am wondering now if I am going to bother putting these all back on the bed anytime soon....

Maryland Applique Quilt

My niece and nephew have gone back to the states and the house feels very quiet. Even the pets are fast asleep.

I thought I would post a few photos of my Applique quilt dated 1864. Most of the signitures are from Maryland however there are two from Pennsylvania. It makes sense since the towns listed are all on the border of the the two states.

The blocks are about 17 inches. The fabric that now reads blue would have been green. The dye process then was to over dye the blue with yellow to get green. Unfortunely it didn't stand the test of time!

I saw a few blogs that quilters were listing their fantasy or dream quilt. This would be mine. I've had it for over 12 years and each time I take it out I wonder why I have waited to start making the blocks! They are not overly complicated. Many are so "wonky," like the flower and berries above, that I could almost applique it freehand! I just need to sit down and start. I think I have collected enough fabric to make it ten times over.

Family tourists

I've seen more of England the past few days than I have in the past several months! My niece and nephew are visiting and we have put a lot of miles on the car and worn my legs out!

Friday we to several villages around my area then headed up to Stratford on Avon. My niece is an English major so I thought this would be a good fit! I was amazed at the number of Americans that were there! I also didn't realize just how big a town it was...lots of shopping available. The guide at the Nash house was particularly good. The photo above is of the garden there.

Friday we headed up to Warwick Castle. It was a good choice. I had no idea my nephew was that interested in medieval armor! You could easily spend a day there...it took me almost that long to walk up the narrow steps to the top of the turrets! The gardens there were beautiful too. Later we walked around the town - lots of interesting antique shops that I need to go back and investigate! On the way back we stopped in the village of Broadway and later went to Hailes Abbey. A pretty packed day. I made dinner that night, chicken with eggplant, then we went to a thatched roofed pub in Prestbury for an ale. It also gave me a chance to retell the ghost stories I learned from some of the locals! (It claims to be the most haunted village in England!)

We had a great rainbow too. You could see almost the entire arch and as we were trying to take photos of the very base of the rainbow another rainbow started to form. Very fun.

Today unfortunately was very rainly. We dropped my nephew off at the busstation so he could make his way back to Heathrow and then on to San Diago. My niece is here for a few more days. She and I went into Tewksbury and saw the abby but after getting soaking wet decided that going home and putting in a few movies was a good idea. She has been traveling for weeks and was pretty worn out. So today we watched "Good night and Good luck," and the second Harry Potter, "The Chamber of Secrets." We also made Tacos and brownies. Good comfort food.

I have tried several times to get through to my Mom to wish her happy birthday but so far no luck - just the answering the machine. So frustrating.

Piles of quilts

I only have time for a quick post this morning. My niece and nephew are coming to visit and still have bits of quilting and needlework covering too many surfaces! Part of the getting ready for them to visit however was taking my antique quilts off of the spare bed. I store them there flat on the bed wih a sheet inbetween each and a sheet on the top (to keep Goldie hair off of them!) It took a long time...it was sort of like meeting old friends.

I wanted to show a photo of the one on top because I noticed that one of the members of the blog ring was using these blocks in a quilt. (sorry I can't remember who...Dh was talking the entire time I was blogging!)

Good news on the stitching group front. I found a group on a village only a few miles away that meets every other week in the village hall. It is a nice group. Several of them are in a patchwork class together. I did some hand applique for the first time in ages!

Flowers and other things

The past two days have been more seasonal here...cool with bits of rain. We needed it. I also needed to stay in and ge the hosue ready for my niece and nephew's visit later this week. It is so hard to do laundry and dust when the sun is out! Note how british I am becoming - I automaticly start talking about the weather! Anyway, the showeres hasve also given me time to work on the little needlepoint bag I bought at the gardensale the other day (1 pound for two unfinished bags.) There are some very tiny beads on this that started to fall around me like bits of hail the moment I took it out of the bag. I think I got most of them back on...enough for me anyways! I'm going to try my hand at putting one of them together this week. I am going to run over to the Beckford silk and get some black for the inside.....Before you ask -I have no idea what I will do with it when I am finished. It will remain impractical and pretty - there is space in the world for that no?!

I noticed a lot of flower photos as I cruised the blogs this weekend so I decided to post a few from my village. On the left are the lilacs I see from my front door. The cottage across the street has a beautiful front garden with a half a dozen different types/color lilac bushes. I feel a bit spoiled since I get to enjoy the view of a great garden without any of the work.

At the top is some queen Anne's lace. The sides of the road are just covered in this right now. It reminds me of my family's cottage by the beach...we made small bowls from clay and pressed the Queen Anne's lace flower into them for decoration. Then we buried the pot in the hot sand and let them bake. The things moms come up with to keep kids occupied during summer vacation!

We walked up to bluebell woods on Breedon Hill last week and glimpsed the end of their blooms. Next year I will plan better and see them at their peak. It was still worth the climb. It has a very Tolkien/elfen feel to it...old trees, quiet, small running brook, lots of low dark green undergrowth. Can you tell I really like it there!

Unfortunatly to get to the Blue bell woods I have to go through this...the dreaded rapeseed blooms. It feels like they are everywhere. A few weeks ago I was going on and on about how pretty and bright they made the hills look....now I can barely open my eyes wide enough to see!

Finally a photo of a huge (ok about 3 inches long) snail that has taken up residence in our garden. I know they eat the plants but he is so cute! I just keep meoving him over to the blackberry canes that we want to get rid of anyway....

Call me sneezy

I've lived in some areas of the US. that are renowned for pollen (for instance Georgia where you have to brush the yellow pine pollen off your car in the morning so you can see out the windshield!) however I have been fortunate to never really having a problem with allergies...that is until now!

About three days ago both my husband and I started to sneeze, sniffle, and generally wheeze. These hillsides of blooming orchards, hedgerows of white hawthorne, lanes of queen's annes' lace, front yards full of lilacs, and field upon field of who knows what is killing me! Poor MacBeth (my black scottish terrier) comes running out of the fields looking nuclear - there is so much pollen on him he glows!

On top of this I did a really stupid thing. Hearing me sniffling the woman at the organic farm stand suggested I try some of the unfiltered local vegetable oil. She said it would help me build up an immunity to the new pollens. Sounded good. When I got home I tasted the oil. Tasted good. So I poured some on my salad thinking I was helping my body defeat the allergies. A few minutes later I could feel my throat closing and was having troupble breathing. Not good. Fortunately we had lots of Benadryl on hand. A few of those, drank lots of warm water and wore steamy towels around my neck and I am still here to write about it...what an idiot I can be!

I know some of you will say that the field in the photo above is not supposed to cause allergies. My only arguement to that is a) the amount of rape grown in our area has increased 5x since the studies were done b) a major reason given for it not causing allergies was the seed is too heavy to be blown far by the wind...I wonder if they really checked the wind streagth coming off our hills and if they considered the effect of a small blcak terrier running through the plants (it took a bathtub full of Dawn detergent to get the sticky stuff off of him.... (by the way ours is the hill on the far right in the photo which was taken from halfway up Breedon Hill.)

Enough whining (or sniffling)...on to fabric and fun stuff. The photo on the top is the second basket with my quilting group. This will be the first bit of applique for them. The photo on the left is of another block (hidden star I think) that we will do. I'm not sure if I like this one very much but I don't dislike it enough to make it over in different fabrics! Besidesit may be one of those blocks that looks better when joined up with the others in the sampler quilt.

Craft Trail

Growing up the Adams house, which was built by John and Abigal, was only a couple miles from our house. Everytime we drove by my sisters and I would say, "some weekend we should go tour the house." To date I still have not visited it. Now this comes to mind because this is a bank holiday weekend and my friends are all talking of going to Holland, Poland, Italy, Turkey, Spain....my DH and I are going 10 miles down the road to a food festival then are going to do the craft trail around Breedon Hill which you can see from our front door. We've decided to be local tourists.

The photo at the top is of a local potter's shop, Toff Milway's Conderton Pottery. His work is beautiful and he and his wife are two of the nicest people I've met in England. His workshop is one of four that make up the Breedon hill craft trail. My DH hasn't been to any of them so this weekend we will make the curcuit and find a anniversary present for us!

Today I have to focus and get some blocks and directions made up for the Fairford group. Tomorrow we are doing baskets. Below is the Harvest Basket. We will also so the Scrap Basket and the Stamp Basket. Of course I have the directions written up for the last two which I haven't made a sample yet. The Harvest BAsket I have made a sample but have not written up the directions....focus, focus, focus! (it is a great day for a walk though.....)

Signs of Spring

The past few days the weather has been "brilliant" - one of my favorite colloquialisms!

The village next to us has a large asparagus farm so for the last week we have had asparagus for almost every meal. My favorite way of making it is to bake it at 450 degrees F covered tightly with aluminum foil. Before baking add some some real butter with pepper and Old bay seasoning. So easy and so good. We have also had it blanched with Garlic dipping sauce, Stir Fried with sesame oil, stuffed in Chicken with artichokes, and - of course - asparagus soup.

It inspired me to dig through the quilting books and uncover one of those "someday" projects. There is a great asparagus block in Ruth McDowell's book that I am going to try and tackle in the next few weeks.

Saturday I went to the Spring Garden Fair at Highnam Court Gardens. It was a really nice event. I bought a few Iris from a plant stall, a small butter press and a beaded purse. The picture below is one of the plant beds that I really liked the colors. Unusual colors for me...I took lots of photos of it for future quilting inspriation.

I think what I really love about it is I can differentiate the red and the greens...now that may not seem like a big deal but my last episode of MS/optic neuritis left me a bit color blind. I was having problems with shadows and for once lots of food looked very unappitizing. I also couldn't tell when meat was cooked...very odd. Anyway, took some tests (reminded me of going into the army...what do you see?) and didn't see the numbers when others could. Long story short - it really freaked me out to think I may not be able to see fabric the way others could or the way I used to see it. Anyway, it seems to be getting better! I'll just stay with the brights and the red, white and blues for awhile.

Silk to play with

Today was supposed to be a quiet day but instead I had a bit of an adventure.

One of my neighbors had planned to go on a hill walk with some friends. Unfortunately her car had to go into the shop this morning so she called me to see if I could drive her and come on the walk. She has helped me out so many times how could I say no? Besides I love learning new paths and walks in our area.

We went over to Leckhampton Hill which is about 45 minutes away. The view of the area from the top of the hill was beautiful. There is also a rock formation (?) pile called the Devil's Chimney that was very interesting. The photo of the chimney is on the top. I think we were able to see the towers of the Tewksbury Abby...I may need to make the climb again when the weather is better!

Since I was already out...I decided to drop by the Beckford Silk factory. This is only a few miles from my house but I keep putting off going there...today was the day. It was great! The picture above is of the man screenprinting the silk. They mainly do pieces for museums...ties, scarves, and some clothing. The best part is the seconds area...they sell the scraps in small bags - a few of course had to come home with me!

Then again Brownie immediately claimed them as her own...gbv (wopps...Brownie typo...)

Village view

Only have a few minutes to post today. Yesterday we walked up the hill in back of our village and this time I remembered my camera. There were bluebells everywhere and Breedon hill across the way had so many fields of rafe in bloom it looked like someone had slashed it with a flouresant yellow high-lighter!

Every time I come close to starting a quilt inspired by the colors of the fields around me the fields totally change colors! Mother Nature is so much faster with the paint brush than I am.

I am also excited because I found a Quilting and needlework shop up in Evesham which is only 15-20 minutes away on a very easy road. I was able to get the linen I needed for the sampler and picked up a teacozy kit as well. DH was with me so I didn't have too much time to look around. I think I may head up there in the next week to check out the town.

Multi-generational quilts

Don't you just hate it when your memory fails you?! I was cruising through the blogs the other day and saw where a quilter was blending repro fabrics from the 1930's and 1900. A few hours later I rummaged through the quilt room and unpacked my quilt that has 4-patches from the turn-of-the -centruy and setting squares from the 1920's-30's. (I always pictured that a woman had extra blocks -leaders and enders? - that she found in her sewing basket and she put them together. I bought it as a top so she never did finish it...a woman after my own heart!)

Anyway, back to the story of this week. The next day I put the quilt out on the line and took some photos. (that is little brownie in the corner trying to figure out why I would be taking a photo of the quilt when I could be taking them of her?!) Today I finally moved the photos onto my computer, but can I remember who posted the quilt I wanted to respond to? Uhggggg.....

So after an hour rummaging through blogs I decide to just post the photos and whoever is working on the other quilt will see it and say - that reminds me of the little quilt I am working on....

This is one of my favorite quilts. I love the little fruit fabric she used in each corner and how well she distributed the yellow across the quilt. Who ever put it together had a good eye.

No more progress on the sampler (s.) Life is invading my quilting and fabric time. We have bees coming down the chimney and a backed up sewer system. So far no word from the rental management agency on when they will be fixed. I sort of feel the need to hang around a bit so I don't miss their call. At first the cats chased the bees around...now they just ignore them. During the day it isn't as bad but at night there are a half a dozen zooming around and I am constantly opening the windows to let them out!

Finally I am finishing with my favortie lamb photo so far this season. It has been warm the past two days so they have been laying down in the shade near the fence. This little lamb is so tiny! At night we can hear them calling to one another...

Addicted to news

This week I've been glued to the television and I'm hating it! I find myself talking loudly to the commentators...the only effect being the cats raising their heads to see what the fuss is about and occasionally Macbeth with bark in sympathy. The generalization of America as a "gun culture," a phrase they keep repeating, is bit foreign to me. When I joined the army I had never touched a gun. I had never seen my Father or my brothers handle a gun (though my brothere later became a police officer and he did wear his gun into the house while in uniform but I also remember my Mother asking him to lock it in the book cabinet in the front hallway...it made her nervous to have it in the kitchen.) My husband, who is retired from the Air Force, is vocally opposed to gun ownership. So where is this gun culture?

They had an american journalist on mid-morning yesterday. He was trying to explain how big the campus is and how gun laws differ from state to state. In the end the newsreader just gave him a blank look and said well, that doesn't make sense. I want to reach through the TV and shake him! Anyway, I am stopping now...this is a quilting blog after all....

So what have I worked on while playing the angery couch potato....I finished the next block for the Fairford quilt sampler. We did 4 six-inch maple leaves. The top photo is of a very, very old UFO. (think early 90's!) The photo on the left is how I will lay them out for the sampler quilt. The next blocks are a pine tree and a basket. Some of the quilters in the group are really coming along with some nice quilts.

I have also successfully removed the sampler from the frame...not an easy thing. The glass was touching the sampler so I decided not to wait getting the sampler out. First, there were dozens of tiny metal brads holding the back of the frame which took hours to carefully dig out. Then came a rather nasty surprise - when it was framed years and years ago they used one of those sticky mats that hold the needlework flat but in the long range are nasty for the piece. I was at a standstill. Fortunately one of my fellow dog walkers in the village knew a woman who had completed an embroidery guild apprenticeship. She came over for and helped me very carefully and very slowly remove the sampler from the backing. My fingernails may never recover since they were the only "tool" I got to use! We also removed some rather bad bad repairs. It was fun to see the colors on the back which are much brighter...there are some corals, several greens, and a darker blue that have all faded on the front of the piece. Here workmanship is very good, the back is almost as neat as the front! There was also a little family tree handwritten on paper that showed who she married and the next two generations.

I've ordered some acid free mounting board and today am going to the store and try and find some linen that matches the sampler. (The sampler is linen with silk threads.) My neighbor is going to come over next week and walk me though mounting the sampler and then I am going to drive her up to a fancy farm shop she has wanted to visit (she not longer drives.) Now I just have to figure out the frame part...

Cash in the Attic

Yesterday I went up to the auction house to check out some quilts and a sampler they had listed in their website. Two of the quilters from the Fairford group were also there for their first UK auction. I was also surprised to see the the film crew from one of the BBC shows Cash In the Attic set up in he corner of the showroom! It was fun to watch them filming...brought back some memories of working with a TV station back in the states. (for those in the U.S. the show a commentator and an expert go to a person's house and helps them select items to go to the auction to raise money for a specific cause like a new garden shed, a charity, a holiday, a new violin, a quilting room -just kidding on the last one!)

Back to the auction....the quilts ended up being really in bad shape. The design on one was very Kaffe Fasset like - soft colors with blended blocks around a centeral plain blue woven square. It was in terriable shape though and still went for 80 pounds! There were some beutiful kimonoes that went for 100's of pounds and several lots of lace that were stunning - a collector was on hand and she bought most of it.

There had been a lot of folks looking at the needlework sampler during the viewing. Since the earlier textiles were going for what I though was a lot of money I was counting myself out of the race. I have wanted an antique sampler for a long time. Prices in the U.S. can get crazy for them so I've been hoping to find one here. The last few I've seen at auction were either in really poor shape or had very depressing sayings on it (don't want anything about the "wrath of God" - or pretty much anything from the old testament - hanging in my sewing room.) I've tried to sew one mayself but my eyes just aren't up to that type of work. Well the good news is I got the sampler for 10 pounds under my limit! I'm ont going to tell you how much I paid since after the bidding the camera crew did a quick interview on why I bought the sampler....I may be on TV!

I would like to reframe the sampler but am unsure if I should do that here or wait until I get back to the states. On the practical side I'm worried the matting isn't acid free. On the less practical - I hate the metal frame on this. Just anothere project to add to the pile! Anyone with suggestions?

Weather-wise it continues to be beautiful. (sorry to those of you one east coast...I don't mean to rub it in!) Last night I was able to get a bit closer to the field of lambs on the edge of our village and get some more photos. These are the sheep that belong to Mr. Gardener who is a professional gardener, lives in Rose Cottage, and has a black and white collie named Lady. What a children's book they would make! His sheep are more like pets than livestock. His daughter raised the first couple as a school project years ago and now they have about 20!

DH is off to play gold this afternoon so I am hoping to get some blocks done for the Fairford group and post the directions for them sometime today...

Spring Fever

We could not have asked for better weather than we had this past Easter weekend. We did lots of driving around the local villages and took MacBeth on lots of walks. Knowing that it is cold and damp in lots of the U.S. I will stop there...

I have been slowly trimming Mac's hair for summer. He hates being groomed and has to be wrestled to the ground and then bribed with lots of treats to stop his sulking afterwards. Anyway he is slowing looking more like a scotty than a wild dog.

The eyes are still a bit wonky. I've spent a lot of time just making random blocks....lots of sewing scraps together and not amounting to much. I was going to post photos of the mess but DH plugged in the TomTom into my camera's port so I'll have to wait until he comes home to crawl under the desk and re-attach it!

Ever since I read Anne on Quilting Bebbs post about her daughters Lemon Curd I have had a craving for lemon...anything! This morning I broke down and made a pan of Lemon Bars to bring to class tonight (good excuse no!) A woman I worked with in Georgia gave me this recipie and I love it...unfortunately DH hates lemon so I have to find excuses to make a pan....

Forida Deluxe Lemon Bars....
2-1/4 cups, flour, divided
1/2 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 cup butter

1/2 teaspoon baking powder
4 eggs lightly beaten
2 cups sugar
1/3 cup lemon juice (fresh squeezed really makes a difference in this recipie)
powdered sugar

Combine 2 cups of flour and 1/2 cup powdered sugar. Cut in butter. Firmly press into a greased 9x13x2 pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Combine the remaining 1/4 cup flour and paking pwder -s tir well. Combine eggs, sugar and lemon juice then stir into the flour mixture. Pour over prepared curst. Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until set.

Let cool in the pan. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into bars.

Now I am off the bake the spice cookies that I get a craving for whenever I think lemon curd...that posting could put a couple of pounds on me!

Playing with blocks

My eyes right now are wonky at best which makes me crazy. A few more days and I should be able to safely operate a rotary cutter and a computer screen but until then I will remain a bit scarce on the blog.

I did finish a few more blocks for Clare and her Leukemia Quilts. I took out a few fat red and white fat quarters and decided to try use them up making the 8-inch blocks for her project. These became the "loaves and fishes" of fat quarters! They just would not go away! Anyway, after 8 blocks there are only a few scraps left of my favorite fabric and I am calling it quilts for now. I did use the blocks with the group of new quilters to start the discussion on setting blocks. 8-1/2 is so much more fun to work with than the 12 inch blocks....

Spring is finally here for real. Yesterday we got to put the top down on my DH's little Mazda and drive through some of the villages in our area. It was a bit fragrant at times (this is a farming area!) but fun none the less! I am determines to get a good photo of a lamb while I am here. The little guys are everywhere and are just too cute. It is however difficult...they run. Also, when the sheep are near the fence it always seems to be on a road that is just to busy to pull over! So for now I only have some distant pictures...like this one on the left. If you look carefully there are some lambs and sheep in the second field back. They are very loud for such little creatures!

I'm also going to slip in another few photo from Barcelona.

At the park tha Gaudi designed there were lot of mosaics that gave quilty inspirations. These were part of the wall just as you enter the park.

The next photo is of the dragon fountain. Obviously a major Kodak moment for thousands of tourists! There were some workmen doing repairs on the mosaics the day were there. It was interesting to see them work. (Set two pieces of mosaic, smoke a cigarette, break a tile, smoke a cigarette, mix some mortar, drink some coffee...)

The park is one of the best bargains in Barcelona...free! We spent about three hours there and could have spent more. It looks like a lot of locals go there as well. The climb to the top was a lot of work but well worth it for the view of the city.

The next photo is one that I have printed in an 8x10 and am contemplating doing in fabric. I love the lines of this ceiling. This is the attic in the apartment building that Gaudi designed. (the one with the melting icecreams on the roof!) These arches are made from bricks of varying widths. It has a beautiful feeling.

Well, off to walk Macbeth.....