Good morning!

Look at all the contrails from the airplanes this morning!
Click on the picture to blow it up more.

Good morning Winter!

Beagle Lucie really hates her picture taken but loved walking in the new snow!

As Seen In: Cambridge Fabric Collection featured in two different quilt magazines!

 Fabrics included in these quilts are from the Cambridge Collection from Fabric Quilts / Paintbrush Studios by Ro Gregg.

#1  As Seen In: The Quilter Magazine
February / March 2012 - pg10

 Modern Romance 

This quilt was designed by Jean Ann Wright.
Square in a Square & Garden Fancy blocks were used to create a romantic lap quilt.

Finished size: 68" x 80"

Skill level: Intermediate

Kit includes all the fabrics pictured in this quilt 

(approx: 9 yards for top, borders and binding). 

Purchase your kit here for $99.00 + shipping: Modern Romance

#2  As Seen In: Fons & Porter's Easy Quilts
Spring 2012 - pg 56

Cambridge Starlight

 Bring the garden inside with this quilt designed by Ro Gregg.  

The beautiful floral stripe is a perfect frame for the center patchwork.  

Finished size: 74" x 86"

Skill level: Confident beginner

Kit Includes all the fabrics pictured in this quilt 

(approx: 11 7/8 yards for top, borders and binding).

Purchase your kit here for $130.00 + shipping: Cambridge Starlight

Yum Yum - January 24th is National Peanut Butter Day. Let's make cookies!

 What You Need
2-1/2 cups flour
1 tsp.  Magic Baking Powder
1 tsp.  baking soda
1/2 tsp.  salt
1 cup  butter, softened
1 cup  Kraft Smooth or Crunchy Peanut Butter
1 cup each: packed brown sugar and granulated sugar
2  eggs
1 tsp.  vanilla

Make It

HEAT oven to 350°F. Mix flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt; set aside. Beat butter, peanut butter and sugars in large bowl with mixer until light and fluffy. Blend in eggs and vanilla. Gradually add flour mixture, beating well after each addition.
DROP tablespoonfuls of dough, 2 inches apart, onto greased baking sheets. Flatten each, in criss-cross pattern, with tines of fork.
BAKE 8 to 10 min. or until golden brown. Cool on baking sheets 5 min.; transfer to wire racks. Cool completely.

Just Arrived: Cambridge from Paint Brush Studios by Ro Gregg

Cambridge features Romatic roses 
by Ro Gregg for Fabri-quilt / Paintbrush Studios.

Ro creates a gorgeous signature rose pattern. 

The stunning rose wallpaper stripe measures 11” and would be a fantastic border. 

The coordinate fret offers a tropical New Orleans influence in stark black and white or subtle pink or green. 

The pinstripes provide interesting contrast for the rosebuds. 

The ombre scroll stripe would make fabulous binding. 

 Quilt kit TOP Cambridge Checkerboard Quilt by Ro Gregg + FREE PATTTERN

Designed by Lacey J. Hill of Golden Thyme Designs
The Cambridge fabric collection's black/pink colorway has a strong floral theme. The combination of pink and black is always beautiful but none quite like Ro Gregg's designs. The scrolls, stripes, interesting piecing, and fussy cut border all enhance the quilt design and the results are stunning.
The four center blocks each measure 24” finished.

Finished quilt size: 101" x 101"

 Skill level: Confident Beginner
The pattern is written with lots if instructions and pictures!

Included in kit: 11 1/2 yards for top,borders and binding.

Purchase your kit here for $124.00 + shipping:  Cambridge Checkerboard

Texting for Seniors!

Since more and more Seniors are texting and tweeting there appears to be a need for a STC (Senior Texting Code). If you qualify for Senior Discounts this is the code for you.
Please pass this on to your children and grandchildren so they can understand your texts.
ATD:	At The Doctor's
BFF:	Best Friend Fainted
BTW:	Bring The Wheelchair
BYOT:	Bring Your Own Teeth
CBM:	Covered By Medicare
CGU:	Can't get up
CUATSC:	See You At The Senior Center
DWI:	Driving While Incontinent
FWB:	Friend With Beta Blockers
FWIW:	Forgot Where I Was
FYI:	Found Your Insulin
GGPBL:	Gotta Go Pacemaker Battery Low!
GHA:	Got Heartburn Again
HGBM:	Had Good Bowel Movement
IMHO:	Is My Hearing-Aid On?
LMDO:	Laughing My Dentures Out
LOL:	Living On Lipitor
LWO:	Lawrence Welk's On
OMMR:	On My Massage Recliner
OMSG:	Oh My! Sorry Gas.
ROFL... CGU:	Rolling On The Floor Laughing... And Can't Get Up
TTYL:	Talk To You Louder
WAITT:	Who Am I Talking To?
WTFA:	Wet The Furniture Again
WTP:	Where's The Prunes?
WWNO:	Walker Wheels Need Oil
GGLKI:	(Gotta Go Laxative Kicking In)

As Seen In McCalls Quilting March/April 2012: Along the Garden Path

pg 80 by Dorothy Ann Weld

Dimensional flowers add must-touch details to this lovely feminine quilt. 

Prints and floral from the New London collection by Faye Burgos for Marcus Fabrics bring a tea-in-the-garden feel to this lovely, feminine quilt.

Dimensional flowers are easy to make using Dorothy Ann's fun technique.  She used Steam-A-Seam 2 to partially fuse them in place and then use detail quilting to secure them permanently while keeping their 3-D whimsy. You'll need to purchase 2 1/8 yards of Steam a Seam 2 to do this.

Finished size: 84 1/2" square

Block size: 15" square
Skill level: Easy piecing and fun appliqueing

This kit includes: 14 1/2 yards of fabric for top, borders & binding and sells for $149.00 + shipping.

Purchase kits here: Along the Garden Path

Sneak Peek some U-taupe-ia Blocks

In March, kits will be ready for sale for the new Marti Michell U-Taupe-ia quilt. I thought you might like to see how pretty some of these blocks are!

Yum Yum Beef Stroganoff for a day like today!

When it looks like this outside:

You might want to make this:

Your slow cooker does the heavy lifting in our classic beef dish. Just prep some pasta while hearty beef and fresh garlic, onions and mushrooms simmer away.






What You Need:
2 lb. beef stew meat, cut into 1-inch cubes
10 oz. fresh mushrooms, halved
1 onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1 cup beef broth
2 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. salt
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream
2 Tbsp. flour
1 Tbsp. GREY POUPON Dijon Mustard
1 pkg. (16 oz.) egg noodles, uncooked
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

PLACE meat, mushrooms, onions and garlic in slow cooker. Add broth, paprika and salt. Cover with lid. Cook on LOW 7 to 8 hours (or on HIGH 5 hours).

MIX sour cream, flour and mustard. Stir into ingredients in slow cooker until well blended. Cook, covered, on LOW 15 min. Meanwhile, cook noodles as directed on package.

DRAIN noodles; place in large serving bowl. Add meat mixture; mix lightly. Sprinkle with parsley.
This recipe came from Kraft Foods!

As Seen In Quilt, Feb/Mar 2012: Flowergate Crossings

 

As seen on pg 31, Flowergate Crossing by Sue Harvey and Sandy Boobar from Pine Tree Country Quilts uses Cape Cod fabrics from Paintbrush Studios.

Careful attention to color placement is all that is needed to make the woven ribbon effect of this 106" square bed-size quilt. The piecing is deceptively easy with strip segments and diagonal corners. The soft florals are reminiscent of the well-loved fabrics of summer cottages.

The quilt kit includes 14 1/4 yards fabric from Cape Cod  for the top, borders & binding.

Purchase your kit for $149.00 + shipping here:

Flowergate Crossings

Fabrics used in this quilt: 

We made one substitution for the navy print and used this:

Just Arrived: Caroline's Collection, Free Quilt Pattern

Caroline's Collection from Red Rooster by Jennifer Chiaverini Jennifer’s newest novel, The Wedding Quilt, inspired this soft and romantic fabric collection. Classic wedding flowers – roses and callalilies – are set against a creamy, white ground to create the exquisite focal print. The thematic stripe combines wide bands of same flowers separated by narrow trellis-style stripes. What wedding would be complete without a touch of lace!  There is a softly, flowing lace pattern in tonal shades of cream, muted sage and pink. The Double Wedding Ring quilt is the quintessential wedding design! This fabric collection uses that pattern to create a striking, small scale print that combines rose and green rings against a snowy background. A sweet, tiny rosebud is centered within each ring. What a lovely fabric to consider using not only for quilt borders and binding but also for wedding gift bags, cover of a wedding album or guest book, favor bags, tablecloth for shower or wedding luncheon, ring pillow or to make a basket for a flower girl to carry!  Caroline's Collection includes 9 patterns/19 skus Caroline's Quilt + Free Pattern Finished size: 64" square Skill level:  Confident Beginner Laura Blanchard designed a striking, 64" medallion-style quilt that perfectly complements this lovely fabric collection. Windblown Star blocks are used to create the straight-set center of the quilt. Large setting triangles enable the rest of the quilt to mimic a Trip Around the World design. Color placement of the small squares lends lots of visual motion and engages the eye. Kit includes 7 1/2 yards fabric for top, borders and binding. Purchase this kit for $85.50 + shipping:  Caroline's Quilt

Yum Yum 3.2.1 Cake

Genius idea - makes 1 serving!

These individual little cakes are amazing and ready to eat in one minute! They are perfect
for whenever you feel like a treat without all the fat and calories that cake can have.

INGREDIENTS:

1 box Angel Food Cake Mix

1 box Cake Mix - Any Flavor

2 Tbsp Water

DIRECTIONS:

In a ziploc bag, combine the two cake mixes together and mix well. For each individual cake serving, take out 3 Tablespoons of the cake mix combination and mix it with 2 tablespoons of water in a small microwave-safe container. Microwave on high for 1 minute, and you have your own instant individual little cake!

KEEP remaining cake mixture stored in the ziploc bag and use whenever you feel like a treat! You can top each cake with a dollop of fat free whipped topping and/or some fresh fruit.

Helpful Tips:

This recipe is called 3, 2, 1 Cake because all you need to remember is:

"3 tablespoons mix,
2 tablespoons water,
1 minute in the microwave!"

TRY various flavors of cake mix like carrot, red velvet, pineapple, lemon, orange, etc. Just remember that one of the mixes has to be the angel food mix; the other is your hoice.

The flavor possibilities are endless!

NOTES:
The best thing is, you open both cake mixes into a gallon storage bag, one that 'zip locks' or 'self-seals', or a container that seals tightly, shake the two cake mixes to blend and then make the recipe. Storage of mix is simple, put it on a shelf. No need to refrigerate, since the mix is dry Always remember, that one of the cake mixes MUST be Angel Food. The other can be any flavor. The Angel Food is the cake mix that has the eggs whites
in it.

So, if, anyone is allergic to egg whites, you can NOT serve this recipe.

More Peeking at new fabrics coming in January

Maywood Studios

 

Whisper of Roses

Red Rooster

 

Caroline's Collection

Finally a little snow!

"As Seen In" The Quilter Magazine Autumn Haze

Seen in the August / September 2011

Autumn Maze
by JEAN ANN WRIGHT

Classic fall colors lend texture to this easy-to-piece bed quilt.

Skill level: Intermediate
Block size sewn into quilt: 18" x 18"
Number of blocks: 9 (5 Block A, 4 Block B)
Finished quilt size: 82" x 82"

Quilt kit includes 8 1/4 yards of Chestnut & Vine fabric from Marcus Brothers.

Purchase quilt kit here: Autumn Maze

Coming in 2012!

We are excited about all the new projects and fabrics coming this year! Our new fabrics will be happy, bright, soft and pretty, cotton and flannels!  Shabbies, batiks, florals, dinosaurs, fairies and more... Not only do we have fabrics coming from our favorite manufacturers like Moda and Marcus Brothers, but also have new ones coming from Red Rooster, Anna Griffin and Henry Glass! Here are a few of our new collections coming in January:

 
Henry Glass Butterfields


   Anna Griffin   Believe





We'll have lots of new quilt kits, starting with these:

Whisper of Roses

Caroline's Collection

March 2012 we'll have a new 
Block of the Month from  Marti Michelle U-Taupe-ia  

See you soon.  We are excited to start the new year off with these fabrics and projects.   We would love to help you get started with your next project!