A few weekends ago at the farmer's market, we picked up this cool contraption.



You hollow out peppers, stuff them, stick a toothpick through them so they don't fall through, and bake them or grill them in this thing and they're delicious!  Yum!  Favorite thing this week is yummy treats like these.  :)

layer cake?

–noun

a cake made in layers, with a cream, jelly, or other filling between them.

Origin:

1875–80

Yesterday was possibly the best Monday I've ever had.  I met with a couple of wonderful ladies at Fabri-Quilt in North Kansas City, Missouri.  They contacted me a while back and wanted to "pick my brain".  I got to chat with them about projects, blogs, the KC Modern Quilt Guild, and their business.  I was also given a tour of their huge space and got to see a LOT of awesome fabric.  If any shop owners are out there reading my blog, I think you should check out some of the new stuff Fabri-Quilt has coming out.  I'm ...

Margherita Pizza

• 6 Roma Tomatoes
• Mozzarella Cheese
• ¼ Teaspoon Garlic Powder
• ½ Teaspoon Minced Dried Garlic
• ½ Teaspoon Minced Refrigerated Garlic
• 1½ Teaspoons Salt
• Olive oil
• Basil
• Pizza dough
• Corn meal  

• You’ll notice I use a variety of garlics in my pizza. I like the flavor the mix gives versus just using one type. Feel free to substitute my variety with whatever you have. 
• My version of the margherita pizza has a lot of garlic and a lot of salt. I usually don’t measure it, but just dump in ...

My favorite recipe for summer!  Margherita Pizza.



Check back tomorrow and I'll share the recipe with you.

Do you subscribe to Martha Stewart Living?  If so, pull out this issue.



It's the July 2010 issue.  Within it, there's a super easy recipe for raspberry sorbet.  All that's in it are berries, sugar, and water.  Simple! 

Jason and I have been making this tasty treat lately.  We've been substituting frozen mixed berries for the raspberries and leaving out the whipped cream. 



It's a super easy recipe.  As Jason's grandma would tell me, "even you could do it." 

We use our blender instead of our food processor.  Our food processor is too small ...

A jelly roll is a pastry, right?  Wikipedia says a jelly roll can be any of these things:

Swiss roll, a pastry

Jelly Roll Morton, a jazz musician

Jelly roll, a slang term for a lover, intercourse, or the sex organs

Jelly Roll (producer), in hip hop

Jelly Roll (protein domain), a protein domain structure of cylindrically-arranged Greek key motifs

Jelly Roll (battery), a cylindrical battery with layers of anode and cathode material, see battery (electricity)

Jelly Roll, an option strategy involving the buying and selling of forwards with differing maturities usually at a monotonically decreasing price

Jelly Roll, a ...

Just wanted to pop in and tell you all Happy Bastille Day! 

For those of you that may be curious about the Baby Bastille who I made this quilt for a few months back...

he came on Monday.  And he now has a real name.  Welcome to the world Logan!

And in case you're waiting for it... I'm still working on the quilt-along for this quilt and hope to have it up sometime relatively soon.  Like maybe next month.  I know I said July, but this girl got a little busy working on other projects.  So, look for ...

Have you seen this machine quilting website?  The website I'm talking about is called 365 Days of Free Motion Quilting Filler Designs.  It's awesome!  Each day (more or less) Leah shows you a picture of the new quilting pattern and explains a little about what it is a variation of or how she came to create the pattern.  Then, she gives you a short video of how she creates it.  She gives some tips on the level of quilter she thinks this is good for, where to use it, that sort of thing. 

I used the Echo Shell ...

I can't show it to you yet. 

I am participating in the July Mini QT Swap.  The theme for this month is Beach & Underwater.  How could I pass up the chance to make a mini quilt in one of my favorite themes?

Before I mail it out to my partner, I need to make a label for the back.  I have a really fun idea, but I think I should keep it a secret until my partner gets it. 

I can't wait to share this one with you.  It has all sorts of machine quilting.  I think you ...

I have my fabric all picked out for the DQS9.  What do you think, partner? 

Today is my 26th birthday.  I'm feeling like I'm over the milestone... probably because I'm not in my early 20's anymore.  Yikes!

So, here's a project I've been working on lately for myself.  I'm using up a bunch of my scraps to make these.  I have fallen in love with English Paper Piecing!  I'm not exactly sure what it will end up as.  We'll see how long until I'm ready for something new.

Robot Quilt Block #2.  I used a flying geese pattern I found online and used this tutorial to create the cirle.  Awesome, eh?




What do ya think?

This is the block I made for Nikki in the KC Scrappy Bee. 



I started by using this online paper-piecing pattern for the flying geese.

That was all going just dandy until I got about 7/8ths of the way through.  I ran out of the white fabric.  And then I couldn't find anymore of it anywhere. Oh, no!  What's a girl to do?  Raid her mama's stash, of course! I'm lucky she often has the same fabric I do. Thanks mom!

So, I finished the block and decided I didn't love it.  There was ...

I hope everyone is having a safe holiday.  The weather here in Kansas City is a bit wet today.  Jason and I beat the sprinkles this morning and went for an early fishing trip.  I caught 2 drums; he caught 7 drums and 1 little cat fish.  It was fun to get out in the not-so-hot weather and play with my new reel.  We had a lot of fun.

We also went and saw Toy Story 3 today.  It is very cute.  I ate way too much popcorn!

We were hoping to head to Parkville's carnival & fireworks, but we ...

Did you know there is a right way to thread a needle?  I didn't either.  I learned this trick at a recent guild meeting.  Want to learn it, too?  Read on....

Pull the thread from the spool.  Cut the thread to the length you want it to be.  Thread the FRESHLY CUT END through the eye of the needle.  Fantastic isn't it?  No more annoying fraying. 

So, why does it work?  It has to do with the way the thread is made.  There is one strand that acts as a core for the thread.  The other strand(s ...

What on earth is a charm pack?

A charm pack is an easy way to get a sampling of each fabric in a fabric line.When you buy a charm pack, you get at least one 5" square of every fabric that is included in the line.  It's a fun way to buy a little of a lot of different things that are already paired together. 

Here are a few fun charm packs:

Not sure what hexies are?  Well, they seem to be the hip thing to be doing right now.  Hexies is a quiltie jargon short for hexagons. 

What does dictionary.com define a hexagon as?

hex·a·gon?[hek-suh-gon, -guhn]

–noun

a polygon having six angles and six sides.

Origin: 1560–70; < Gk hexág?non.

Duh!  A polygon with 6 sides is a hexagon.  In the quilting world, hexagons are made using English Paper Piecing to create a block pattern.  Here are a few examples of hexies from flickr:

1. Munki Munki hexies, 2. hexie Art??, 3. hexy flowers ...

I love Jodi Picoult's writing style. She includes so many twists and turns. It's always interesting to get to the end and see if I had it right.  Just like every other Jodi Picoult book I've read, I had a hard time putting this book down to do anything else. 
The book is about an Amish baby who is found dead in a barn.  The police assume Katie, an Amish teenager is the baby's ...

Lily's Quilts is having a super giveaway.  The prize being given away is 22 fat quarters of Kona Solids in the colors shown below.  

When Jason and I were in Portland, we stopped into the Undercover Quilts shop in Pike's Place Market.  One of the things that I love about visiting quilt shops in other parts of the country is you get a taste of the local flavor for art and design.  One of the things that this shop carried was kits and patterns by Quilts with a Twist.

Quilts with a Twist takes this style and makes some awesome looking quilt patterns.  Here are some of my favorites:

• Orca
• Bass
• Hungry for Halibut
• Raven Salmon

I'm not sure if I've ...

Today, my favorite thing is my Dad.



Happy Father's Day, Dad! I love you!