Farmers Wife, Fudge and a Finish

I spent Saturday in the company of my lovely Farmers Wife Quilting Buddies (Claire, Val, Denise, Kris, and Tara) at the House of Loz. Much gossiping, eating and a little bit of sewing ensued.  My contribution to the day was my signature fudge because I figure if I'm going to get fat in my old age I'm taking my friends with me. By the way I didn't do a darn thing on my FW blocks. And as usual I forgot my camera.

Loz presented me with a stitchery that she made just for me. Isn't this one of the most darling things you've ever seen? Thank you Loz. I ADORE it. The quandary is whether I make it into a cushion nobody will ever be allowed to use , a wall hanging or whether I pop it in a frame under glass and hang it somewhere I'll see it often.

I finally rocked up to the post office for my tri-weekly pick up on Friday and the post office guy asked if I had a trailer to take home all my packages. He's such a comedian. Most of it was fabric that was ordered three weeks ago for quilt backs but in amongst all that was this package of selvages from the lovely Erin at My Patchwork Life. Thank you Erin. I keep worrying about running out of selvages and this will keep my concerns at bay for another 5 blocks or so. 

And Little Miss Sunshine donated to my Hometown fabric fund.

And she sent me some other cute stuff too...that I'm going to make into other cute stuff (eventually) 

I basted the jelly roll race quilt this morning. It's half quilted. Not a bad effort considering we went out for a large chunk of the day. 

Crinkly look courtesy of Little P who thought it was great fun to jump all over it just before I took this photo.

And while we were out for lunch today I managed to finally get the last  bit of binding down on the Contrary HST Quilt. My sister in law commented that it reminded her of Strawberry Shortcake and so the quilt gained a much groovier name than it's had throughout the production stage. This one is going to be gifted to a friend.

Yes- I have functioning oven again. No I haven't used it to bake a cake yet. But two hunks of meat have been slowly roasted in it and they were both wonderful. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the Mum's out there!

Cue the Rocky Theme Music

This whole weekend has reeked of ground hog day. I've been working on WIPS. The same ones I've been working on since about 1983.

But by this afternoon , I was feeling like this.

Because I can move mountains of unfinished projects when I put my mind to it. 

I whipped up 4 Farmers Wife Blocks which gives me a grand total of 8. I keep reminding myself it's not a race. (and wondering why no matter how carefully I cut and sew I end up with blocks anywhere from 6-7 inches when I'm finished) 

I knocked off  the last 20 Hourglass Blocks. I was doing the happy dance and fist pumping the air. I'm going to be so glad when this quilt is done because I cant wait to see how it looks!

And here's the finished pile. All 64 of them. 

I finished the last of the Rainbow Log cabin Blocks too...

And laid them out so I can sew the top this week ...Scrappy and bright really makes me happy. I LOVE the way this quilt looks. 

My flower garden hexagons got a workout  after being neglected for about two months.  3 more done and another almost finished. I still have 36 to go....Fortunately, I'm not in a hurry.

Chocolate tarts rose like a phoenix from the ashes. This was meant to be chocolate fudge but I screwed it up so badly at the heating condensed milk stage that  I had to improvise so as not to waste 400 grams (that's almost a pound ) of very nice dark chocolate. The tarts taste divine and it just wouldn't be right if I didn't manage to mess it up somehow. Just one question? Why does my pastry always end up looking like it has leprosy? 

So I'm a happy camper ...I can finally see some progress and light at the end of the tunnel with projects that have been lurking forever , and I'm enjoying sucking the chocolate filling out of those tart cases. I'd call that a successful weekend.