Mini Cheesecake Easter Baskets

 I hope everyone had a wonderful Easter today.

After church services we went to our daughter's home

where she treated the family 

to the most 

delicious meal

of Cuban food.

For my part of the celebration,

I was asked to bring 

dessert.

 Our family loves cheesecake

so I combined a few recipe ideas together

and made

Mini Cheesecake Easter Baskets

 So easy to do.

 I saw this recipe

Philadelphia 3-Step Easter Baskets

The fam does not like coconut, but I 

liked the idea of using 

shoestring licorice for the basket handles.

 Then I saw this recipe for

Philadelphia 3-step Mini Cheesecakes

and combined the idea 

for the base.

 Instead of using the traditional Nilla Wafer cookies

they suggested

Oreo's 

for a chocolaty bottom.

First, fill a muffin tin with a 

paper lined cup

and drop a cookie in.

 Mix up a batter 

using cream cheese,

sugar, vanilla and eggs.

 Add a dollop of the cream cheese mixture 

on top of each cookie,

 and bake.

Yes, it's that easy!

 I could not find shoestring licorice at the grocery store,

so I improvised and used sections of

 Pull N' Peel  Twizzlers

 They pushed softly into the sides of the muffin cups and stayed in a bow shape.

I also used frozen raspberries and 

blueberries

which kept the mess down.
The berries thawed quickly
and were ready to eat by the
time we arrived at our daughter's house.

 Within about 10- 15 minutes,

Mr. Cactus and I had 

assembled an entire tray.

Add a little decorative toothpick

for a fun Easter treat.

These could also be used for

any Spring Buffet

or even 

a baby shower.

Rabbits Prefer Chocolate Quilt

 With Easter

 coming a little early this year

I'm happy to have finished my

Rabbits Prefer Chocolate

quilt.

 The pattern by 

Bunny Hill 

came out a while back.

The original pattern (see above)

can be found on 

Bunny Hill Designs web site 

HERE

For me, the top was a 

work in progress

over several years.

Once I met 

Pat Roche (Pat's Just Quilting)

I knew she was the one

I wanted to do the 

long arm quilting.

She did such a wonderful job,

and I am sooo pleased!

 This post is a little picture heavy, 

but I wanted you to be able to see each

appliqued block,

and especially 

how Pat's quilting really

really enhanced each space.

 One of the fun parts of this quilt

was adding the extra embellishments

of colorful ribbons and buttons.

I went through my mother's old button jar,

so there is a little bit of 

family heritage within this quilt.

Enjoy!

Chocolate rabbits 

always were my favorite candy

in my basket each year.

Happy Easter!

Midnight In The City Quilt

 I've always had a fascination with

Log Cabin Quilts

The simple

"picture frame"

style of block 

is usually easy to spot,

and I've seen hundreds of variations.

 That's why I was 

taken by 

delightful surprise

when I had an up close view

of 

Midnight In The City

by Linda Matteotti

at the

AQG Show

 As I approached this quilt, I was first drawn to Linda's 

impressive machine quilting

and bright color combinations 

set against the black background.

 And then, as I looked even closer 

I noticed the entire quilt was composed of

Log Cabin blocks!

Can you see this repeated image in the quilt?

Well done!

Even the stars in the sky

are set at the edge of the 

Log Cabin square.

Linda wrote:

"Inspired by *Flavin Glover,

this quit is made up of 224 blocks.

I designed it using EQ Software.

Each log cabin block is 

foundation pieced."

*Flavin Glover

is known for her 

pictorial Log Cabin quilt designs

that often feature homes. 

And Linda's original design

won an Honorable Mention ribbon.

Whole Cloth Quilt

 It's not very often that 

I see a 

Whole Cloth Quilt

that has been machine quilted

win a ribbon at 

a Quilt Show.

 Kaufman's Radiance

by Gerri Smit

was beautifully quilted

and won a blue ribbon

in the 

"Other Category"

at the AQG Quilt Show

We've come a long way, baby

I remember the day

(not too many years ago)

listening to heated debates on

whether we should allow machine quilted quilts

 to be judged at quilt shows.

Purists felt that only hand quilted quilts

were were true quilts.

Fortunately those days are gone,

and we now give credit to the 

TALENT

involved in machine quilting.

 The quilting was quite impressive,

but what especially caught my eye 

was Gerri's stunning binding.

 Gerri wrote:

"This whole cloth is made using 

Kaufman Radiance fabric.  

I stitched it with APQS longarm with IQ attached.

The binding was a technique by 

Sharon Schamber."

Shari's Quilt Blocks

I am part of a monthly

Quilting Bee Group

called 

The Bee's Knees

Every month we make a block

(or two)

for one of the 12 members.

 February was

Shari Butler

of 

Doohikey Designs

month.

(I'm a little slow in getting mine completed)

 Shari sent each of us fabric scraps and asked 

that we make a

9.5 X 9.5

 house block.

 A little improv piecing was required,

which is always a bit of a challenge

but, the end result

turned out fine.

 The 2nd block was quite easy

using pre-cut charm squares.

Time now to get them off in the mail to Utah.

 You may be familiar with Shari's 

Doohikey Designs 

fabric and patterns 

 One of my favorite's of her fabric lines

is Hoo's In The Forest

with Riley Blake

It's pretty fun being a

Bee's Knee

and working together 

each month.

Bumble Bees In Flight Quilt

 It must be Spring

because I have been drawn 

to quilts

sharing the theme of

bumble bees

lately.

 Bumble Bees In Flight 

by Clarene O. Smith

was on display at the

Arizona Quilter's Guild Show

 I really like Clarene's use 

of yoyo clusters through out the quilt.

Very striking  

3-D effect

 set against the black background.

 Clarene wrote:

"This quilt is scrap yo yo's, 

miscellaneous squares,

and leaves, 

and my first attempt at machine track quilting"

 I think another reason I really liked this quilt

is because the layout is very unique

and quite different than anything I've seen before.

 The yo yo's along the bottom

form a hexagon shape.

A very original look.

I'm not sure how Clarene came up with the name 

for her quilt,

but I can tell you that

as I stood there viewing her work,

I kept humming

parts of

Flight Of The Bumble Bee