Sunday, March 31, 2013

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
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
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.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

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 
came out a while back.
The original pattern (see above)
can be found on 
Bunny Hill Designs web site 
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!

Friday, March 29, 2013

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."
is known for her 
pictorial Log Cabin quilt designs
that often feature homes. 
And Linda's original design
won an Honorable Mention ribbon.

Thursday, March 28, 2013

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."

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

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 
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.

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

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