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Just look at this yumminess that arrived the other day!
Art Gallery Oval Elements
Modern, geometric blenders that are perfect by themselves or added to that favorite project. I was surprised to find that they coordinated well with many of our existing fabrics.
This is Golden with Plum Victoria by Anthology Fabrics.
And Crocus with a Wrenly fabric, Ingrid in Gypsy.
We bundled them in 1/2 yards and fat quarter stacks. I may have to sneak this one into my personal stash:)
Have a great weekend everyone!
The food.
I thought you might enjoy some of the recipes we shared this weekend.
Paige made her yummy Cheese Tortellini with Pesto. I can’t get enough of this stuff. It’s delish hot or cold from the refrigerator the next day!
Frozen Cheese Tortellini
Pesto Sauce (or homemade)
Grape Tomatoes
Shredded Parmesan
Salt & Pepper to taste
Roasted Pine Nuts
Cook Tortellini, drain.
Mix in Pesto Sauce. Add a little at a time to Tortellini until coated then add a bit more to taste.
Toss in Tomatoes and Parmesan.
Salt & Pepper to taste.
Serve at room temperature.
I made Brownie Bottom Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
You must try this. It’s a no-fail cheesecake. And even if it does crack, you get to add a topping so no one will ever know:)
3-8oz cream cheese softened
14oz Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk
1Pkg of fudge brownie mix
3 eggs
2tsp vanilla
1/2 C. Mini chocolate chips
Cool Whip
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease bottom only of a 9″ springform pan. Prepare brownie mix according to pkg. directions. Spread evenly into springform pan. Bake 35 min. or until toothpick comes out clean. Meanwhile in large mixing bowl, beat cream cheese till soft and gradually add in Eagle Brand. Add eggs and vanilla. Mix well. Stir in chips. Pour into pan. Reduce temp. to 300 and bake for 50 minutes or till center is set. Chill overnight. Remove sides and garnish with cool whip and sprinkle mini chips on top.
We had Chicken Enchiladas, Black Beans, & Rice one night. This is a recipe I’ve made twice now and it’s so good!! It’s Tyler Florence’s from the Food Network found here.
Ham or turkey and provolone Paninis, salad and veggies.
Are you drooling over the muffins in the pic? Those are Banana Muffins with Mascarpone Cream Cheese Icing for breakfast..or dessert:) …found here.
Margaret has some really good dip mixes that she makes from scratch and I can’t wait to get some of those. She made us a spicy mexican dip and also provided the homemade pesto for the tortellini…it was yum!
And if you have this salsa in your grocery store…buy it. If you live in Chicago, it was purchased at Caputo’s. It’s Chuck and Dave’s and it tasted so fresh. Look for it!
Thanks for sharing our retreat weekend with us. We hope you enjoyed it:)
Welcome back to our weekend in pictures!
Margaret worked all weekend on a tuffet made from plaids. Doesn’t it look so cozy? Like it belongs in a cabin or beside the fireplace.
Karen V. worked on Cubs & White Sox quilt blocks, and also finished a soft flannel baseball throw.
Paige worked on getting the sashing made for her row quilt. It’s going to be hexagons machine appliqued on the sahsing between her rows and its turning out so cute! She worked on something else too but I don’t want to show it until it’s finished:)
And lastly, my projects. I finished attaching all the embellishments on my Snowbound quilt.
And also worked on some projects for the TeaBuddies Flickr group. July’s theme is the beach and our 1st project was a sunglasses case. Becky and Liz provided us with the easiest tutorial found here. I made mine from flip flop fabric and added a cute daisy button.
The other project for the month was a binder cover for a quilt journal and I used the Moda Bake Shop tutorial for this one. My fabric choice was Sanibel by Heather Mulder Peterson. It looks summery.
Check back tomorrow for Part 3….the food!
Happy Monday:) I hope everyone had as great a weekend as I did!
Paige’s longtime friends and quilt group were in town this weekend for some sewing and quilting. Ok, there was also some eating involved too, but we’ll get to that later:)
The SewMod studio was put to the test. We always ask ourselves…How many can comfortably fit in there? Will one ironing and cutting station be enough? etc, etc. All those questions a good quilt hostess asks. There were 6 of us, but I can honestly say that we were cozy but comfortable. I think quilter’s just enjoy being around each other, showing off their latest achievement, and getting advice from other quilters. Give us a needle and thread and watch us go, no matter where we are.
Now go grab your morning coffee and come see what we were up to!
And don’t worry, Daisy also had friends to keep her company…here are Wilson and Daisy beggin’ for snacks.
And Sophie and Daisy beggin’ for snacks:)
How about we start with a bit of show ‘n’ tell. This is a batik New York Beauty made by Karen S.
She made this quilt called Square Dance from Heather Mulder Peterson’s book, Livin’ Large, in Meadowsweet. I’m’ drooling over this!
Here’s some bright and happy quilt blocks that Margaret had been working on.
Since Paige and I have already “shown” our projects on the blog, I’ll show you what Karen V. brought me. The prettiest sunflowers I think I’ve seen. Fresh flowers always brighten the home.
And look what the girls surprised me with. The border fabric to the Anna Griffin Christmas collection. That was sooo sweet! Thank you:)
After show ‘n’ tell, it was time to get busy. Take a look at the seriously cute appliqued monsters Karen S. worked on.
She made us each a cute little sewing pouch.
And then whipped up a miniature quilt. She was super productive!
Check back tomorrow for Part 2 for more pics from our retreat. See you then!
Joel Dewberry’s latest line, Heirloom arrived in the shop this week!
Pieces from the Amber collection.
And the Sapphire collection
I love that sky blue one…so pretty!
Also new patterns, including the ever so popular Swoon, by Thimble Blossoms, and a new one from A Graceful Stitch called Sparkling Starbursts, so head on over and check ’em out!
We’ve had several phone calls over the past couple of weeks asking if SewMod was a brick and mortar or an online fabric shop. To answer that question, as of right now, we are an online boutique. But if you’re in the area and you want to come by and chat, see the studio and pet the fabric, then just drop us an email. We would love to meet you!
This weekend Paige’s sewing friends will be gathering in the studio to catch up on projects and have some fun so expect lots of show ‘n’ tell next week.
Let’s pray for cooler weather next week…jeez. I’ve been away from my home state of Oklahoma so long that I’d forgotten what hot meant till this week in Chicago. 100 degrees, I’m done with that. I’m spoiled to the mild weather up here now. I think it’s even too hot for the mosquitoes!
Any hoo…have a great weekend everyone & stay cool!
I’ve been working on some things this week. Cutting kits for the show, cutting fabrics, trying to come up with a cute baby quilt for the Hoo’s In The Forest line…but I swear, every time I get up or move from my spot, this is what is in front of me.
Guilt. She’s just too cute. I think this is her plan..and it’s working. I think that ball is permanently attached to her mouth!
I did manage to stitch up 2 tea towels for Paige. Retro Kitties.
He thinks he’s a cool cat and she’s teasing him…meow…pfft…as if:)
I hope you like ’em Paige!
This weekend Paige and I visited the Batavia Quilt and Textile Show.
Here’s a pretty New York Beauty with lots of quilting design.
I love this interpretation of the American flag…so pretty with the florals and Ohio stars.
A wool appliqued garden
A cactus sunset
And this one totally cracked me up and made me want to revisit one of my favorite shows… the X-Files. I want to believe:)
And look who we ran into, Patti and Wendy from Quilter’s Destination!
Always a favorite booth of mine because they carry all of my favorite Crabapple Hill patterns and they do such an awesome job with their displays and samples. It makes you wanna buy everything:)
I didn’t buy everything, but you know me, how could I pass up Christmas fabric! They had Anna Griffin’s Isabelle Christmas Collection. I’ve been stalking that on Etsy for a while now and seeing it in person sent me over the edge. It has a beautiful vintage look to it and comes in 2 color ways. Of course, I bought both.
The only one missing is the border fabrics, which are available in her store.
Isn’t this pretty? Now I just need to figure out what I want to make and take a trip to visit them before it’s gone! I can’t imagine a fabric line this pretty hanging around too long..I’d better hurry:)
We placed a fabric order last week for Bespoken by Art Gallery Fabrics. This line is due out in September.
I love everything Art Gallery comes out with. Pat Bravo is the designer and you must check out her blog. Lots of inspiration and ideas.
Look at his cute bag pattern she has available.
And I’m seriously considering also putting an order in for theses bolts of blenders called Oval Elements. This pic is from Jeni’s Flickr page over at In Color Order. I want these!!!
It looks like most of these would fit perfectly into the line we just ordered!
Have a great weekend everyone!
Paige was on vacation the week of the 4th so we sewed, and sewed. We’re trying to get some of the samples and kits ready for the NSQG quilt show that’s coming up in September. It will be our first time vending…exciting! I loved every minute of playing in the new studio. We were super productive and I had no problem getting motivated. Projects finish fast when one person sits and sews and the other pins and irons!
We finished the Pick A Bunch and the Fluttering Butterflies quilts. We made 2 table runners. All will be kitted for the show.
North Garden Dresden Table Runner
And Which Witch Table Runner. The purple comes off really blue in the pics but it’s really a perfectly matched purple to this line. This turned out sooo cute!
A couple of Gumdrops …A couple of friends joined in on the Gumdrop fun. Kathy made hers from the Artful Home fabrics. We love how she fussy cut the green daisy for the top.
And Janet and Paige both picked the Groovy Bugs fabric with aqua Ta-Dot tops…fun, fun fabric!
Several last touches on patterns…all available soon in Etsy.
Summer tweets, which we showed you a few weeks ago.
Fruitcakes
And North Garden Dresden Table Runner
And we had countless ideas and brainstorming sessions and planned out this weeks projects. I’ll be working on the Hoo’s In The Forest quilt. I see a cute appliqued deer and big appliqued strawberries for this project so I’m looking forward to starting this one. Of course that all depends if we can keep the power on in the neighborhood. Lots of outages here..:(
We also had our 1st SewMod meeting in the new studio. It was nice and relaxing. We celebrated a couple of the girls’ birthdays with some wine and I made a cheesecake….I forgot to take a pic…I wish I had though because it was beautiful & yummy! They’re always yummy, but not always beautiful:)
Paige will probably be mad at me but….. everyone wish Paige a Happy Birthday today!!
The month of June in the Flickr Tea Buddies group was a butterfly theme. So I searched Google for some inspiration and found this cute pattern by Black Mountain Quilts called Fluttering Butterflies.
Paige thought that the Anthology Fat Quarter set, Folk Life would be pretty made into this. The line has a French, scrappy, flower garden feel to it, so we’re calling our version, French Flea Market.
With the advice from our talented SewMod group, we added a navy flange around the center square to separate the border. That was a great addition to the quilt. That’s what is so awesome about meeting with quilty friends. Everyone has something to share and learn.
We also made a scrappy border from the leftover pieces of the FQ set and I hand embroidered the butterfly antenna instead of machine stitching it. If you haven’t figured it out yet, Paige and I have a hard time leaving well enough alone when it come to quilting, me with the visual and her with the designing. But I’ve always been like that. It’s part of the process of making something your own work of art.
We then pieced all of the remaining scraps and added them to the backing. We used every bit! This quilt was quick and easy just like the pattern says and pretty cost efficient when you think that the majority of it was put together with 12 fat quarters…I love that!
Thank you Gail & Kate for hosting the month of June. July’s theme is the beach. I hope to not be late with this months project:) Wish me luck. I may need it.
SewMod