Monday, March 22nd, How Green Was My Valley

My profile picture was taken in Indiana University's library a few summers ago and the Oscar statue that I am holding was John Ford's. It was earned in 1941 for the movie "How Green Was My Valley". It swept the Oscars that year and even though I had heard of it, I had never seen it.

I recorded the movie last night and watched it this morning. What a truly great film!!! A 3-4 Kleenex job, but I am home alone, so no one to see me.

Monday, March 22nd, Breakfast just for me.

One of the blogs I subscribe to is www.tongue-n-cheeky.com. She is such a creative writer and she loves to bake and make all things sweet. Her recipe today was healthier than usual because she found that she had gained 10 pounds in the 15 months that she has had her blog.
Today's recipe was for whole wheat banana pancakes with coconut syrup. I used Splenda in the syrup and all the ingredients were totally healthy. It was just such a treat!!!

Wednesday, March 17th, A bit of the Irish from Colleen McTindell!

Once a year, I turn into an Irish lass. I love Celtic music, fiddling, dancing you name it. I have taped a ton of Celtic movies, PBS shows and have listened to Celtic music on Pandora ad nauseum in the past week.
Tonight, Chuck and I made our usual boiled dinner. I just love this meal, so easy and so delicious!!You will notice that the cabbage is separate because Chuck doesn't like cooked cabbage. We had a Soda Bread mix, but it turns out that it was old and the leavening was dead, so I will have to make a loaf to go with the left overs.
The best part of the meal was a pie I bought on a whim at Aldi today. An Irish Cream pie....oh my, oh my....it was absolutely to die for. With a little taste of Bailey's.....I relished every bite. I would say it rivals the pies from Baker's Square!!!

Tuesday, March 16th, Brown bag auction

I really wanted to get this stash under control before our guild brown bag auction tonight. The last of the people that wanted to go through the books and patterns came on Monday and then I packed up the remaining books and patterns and notions that I didn't have a use for and brought them tonight for donation.
I assisted in the auction and by the end of the evening, I was totally exhausted from running around.
There were only three things I really wanted and I purchased 50 tickets and stuffed the three bags with my tickets.This is fabric from Holland and no, I'm not Dutch, but Candice goes to Hope in Holland, Michigan and there is a ton of Dutch influence there. Who knows what I will do with it, because, yes, I did win it.I really, really wanted this John Flynn rail quilting system. I have been eyeing it at quilt shows for years and even got the web site for directions to have Chuck make me one. This is brand new and has never even been opened. The majority of my 50 tickets went in this bag and I was extremely disappointed that I didn't win it. The lady that won it didn't really want it and gave it to the other gal that was helping with the auction. I am trying not to be greedy or sour grapish, but I am still a little stung from this one.

These are absolutely pristine birch quilting hoops and I bid like crazy for this one. The gal that won it put one ticket in the bag and has only hand quilted once. Now, where's the justice in that???? I even have the callouses to prove my perseverance at hand quilting!!!

All of this to say, do I really need more stuff???? No...the basement is full as it is!!! I must be happy with what I already have!

Tuesday, March 9th, I wanna dig in!!!

I know, it has been ages since I have posted, but I have been busy....with what? I don't know, but much of my busyness has been due to this enormous stash in the basement. I have sorted, folded, had friends come over to pick what they want.... I think it is getting more under control.
I want to start using it, but I can't justify it until some things are finished that are in process. This particular piece: has been on my design wall for about 6 months. Straight line seams do not appeal to me, as it is so boring, but I really like the way it turned out. This was from a Jelly roll from Cherrywood fabric that I purchased with a Christmas gift certificate from Celia a few years ago. I literally used every bit of it, the remaining pieces were too small to even put in my scrap stash. The inner and outer border is a hand dye from the inherited stash and this:is what I am going to use for the binding and the backing. I also bought some variegated thread at JoAnne's last week to quilt it.
OK, that means I can move that from the column, "in process", to "to be quilted".