We're Off to Camp

We are leaving for camp this morning up to Cedar Mountain!!  I hope it is cooler up there and we are going to have a great time!!  See ya when we return late Saturday afternoon!!!

Chocoholics Beware!!! Incredible Dessert Up Ahead!!!

I have been playing around with this dessert recipe for several weeks and I think it is finally perfected!!  I have tested all the variations on my cute niece and her darling family.  They all agree that this final version is the very best!!!  A dessert to die for!!!  :-)  And if you like chocolate - umm, umm, umm!!!

I thought you might all like to try this VERY decadent, rich, rich, rich dessert for your family and friends!!!  You really do only need a small piece and of course, a glass of milk or ice cream to attend the bar!!! 

Enjoy:

Gone to Heaven Fudge Bars

1 cup unsalted butter (do not use a substitute)
2 cups brown sugar (firmly packed)
2 eggs
2 tablespoons real vanilla
2 ½ cups sifted flour
1 tablespoon baking soda
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 small can sweetened condensed milk (15 oz.)
2 ½ cups chocolate chips
2 tablespoons real vanilla

Bar - Cream butter and brown sugar. Add eggs and 2 tablespoons vanilla. Add sifted flour (very important to sift before measuring). Hand-blend flour into the butter/sugar mixture with a wooden spoon. Then hand-stir in oatmeal. Lightly butter the bottom and sides of a 9” x 13” pan (I use glass). Put all of the oatmeal mix into the pan and pat out evenly. Place pecan halves across the top of the oatmeal mixture as thickly as you like (I leave some room between each pecan half). Let this sit while making the fudge.

Fudge – Melt chocolate chips with the condensed milk and 2 tablespoons of vanilla over medium heat until melted and blended. Pour hot mixture over the oatmeal mixture and spread evenly. Add more pecan halves on top of the fudge as desired.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. This makes the bar chewy and the fudge top just yummy. If you want the bar to be cooked a bit more, add an additional 2 minutes to the baking time.

These Gone to Heaven Fudge Bars are dedicated to my darling

Nielsen family, who love them – even Lily!!!

Celebration of Pioneer Day in Utah

Pioneer Day (also archaically called the Day of Deliverance) is an official holiday celebrated on July 24 in the U.S. state of Utah, with some celebrations in regions of surrounding states originally settled by Mormon pioneers. It commemorates the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into the Salt Lake Valley on July 24, 1847, where the Latter-day Saints settled after being forced from Nauvoo, Illinois and other locations in the eastern United States. Parades, fireworks, rodeos, and other festivities help commemorate the event.

In addition to being an official holiday in Utah, Pioneer Day is considered a special occasion by many members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church). On Pioneer Day, some Latter-day Saints walk portions of the Mormon Trail or reenact entering the Salt Lake Valley by handcart. Latter-day Saints throughout the United States and around the world may celebrate July 24 in remembrance of the LDS Churches' pioneer era, with songs, dances, and pioneer related activities.

While the holiday has strong links to the LDS Church, it is a celebration of everyone, regardless of faith and nationality, who emigrated to the Salt Lake Valley during the pioneer era, which is generally considered to have ended with the 1869 arrival of the transcontinental railroad. Notable non-LDS American pioneers from this period include Bishop Daniel Tuttle, who was responsible for Utah's first non-Mormon schools (Rowland Hall-St. Mark's) and first public hospital (St. Mark's) in the 1800s. The Intertribal Powwow at Liberty Park in Salt Lake City honors the rich cultural heritage and contributions of the area's American Indians, helping Utahns to gain a deeper understanding of the region's history.

Oh, Oh, Another Mess on My Hands!!!

Or as Sharon V. would say, "look a pile of potential!!"  Can you guess what this pile is going to become??  Stay tuned!!!  :-))

And the Winner Is . . .

July 21, 2010 at midnight was the end of  the Moda "Prayer Flag" Charm Pack by April Cornell giveaway for the 5,000th visit to The Quilting Garden blog!!!  This morning I put all the names in a basket and jumbled them all up and the name chosen is Nancy from the http://tatteredgarden.blogspot.com/!!!

CONGRATULATIONS, NANCY!!!

And thank you to everyone who left a comment (or two) and to those of you who are now followers!!  I'll have to find another reason soon for another giveaway!!!

I Never Tire of These Gorgeous Fabrics!!!

I just got a new shipment of Kaffe Fassett fabric this afternoon!!  I couldn't get too many bolts this time but they are all so beautiful!!  I just never tire of Kaffe's designs and the brilliant colors!!!

International Siggie Swap Will Have Its Own Page

I love getting real mail and, like today, I received 5 new International Siggies in my mailbox!!  Since I am receiving so many, I have decided to give the Siggies their own page.  So, starting tomorrow if you would like to take a look at the fun, fun Siggies in my collection, you can go to the International Siggie Swap page found at the top of my blog under the heading.  I even got one from the Czech Republic today!!  Stay tuned for the new Siggies!!

The "Mess" Turned into a Strip*ity Do Da Quilt!!

Remember on Friday I teased you (SewCalGal's words) with a pile of fabric?  I called it a mess but Sharon V. said she didn't see a mess - instead, she saw potential!!!  Well, Sharon was right.  This pile of fabric just became a new Strip*ity Do Da quilt top this morning:

The quilt top is made from 40 different fabrics cut into 2 1/2 " strips, using the whole width of the fabric.  The choice of fabrics was totally random and thats what makes this quilt so fun!!

Each strip is sewed to each other on the diagonal to give the quilt a little more interest.  The finished quilt will measure approximately 50" x 64". 

The top is on its way today to Summit Creek Quilts in Smithfield Utah, where it will become even more fun with a great overall pattern that Sue will chose to make the quilt top extra special!!!

This is the fabric I chose as the backing:

Stay tuned to see the finished quilt some time next week!!! 

Fun, Fun Quilt Wins the Prize!!!

In the Carol Doak Yahoo Quilting Group that I am a member of, the members were challenged in February, 2010 (before my time) to make a round robin quilt.  The name of the round robin was "Your's Truly Round Robin."  On July, 2010, Carol Doak chose a winner at random.  The winner is Cat Thompson and her quilt's name is Stars Over Chez Nous:

It was so much fun watching this quilt grow round by round.  I especially love the crooked little house.

The instructions for this round robin quilt were:

Round 1:  Make a center using any number of paper-pieced blocks (Carol's designs) in any size in any number of colors.

Round 2:  Should contain only two colors and must include at least one Carol Doak design. You can use different fabrics containing different shades of the two colors, but only two colors should be used in this round. One color fabrics can be solids or tone-on-tones. Or you can use a print fabric that contains only your two colors or shades of your two colors.

Round 3:  Second Border: should contain one or more paper-pieced rectangular blocks. Now this round can contain other paper-pieced blocks, however at least one rectangular block should be included. You can put two square blocks together to create a rectangular unit.

Round 4:  Should contain paper-pieced corner squares. This means this round must contain paper-pieced squares in the corner of a border or in the corner of a setting triangle. There can be other paper-pieced squares in this round if you want to use them, but you do not have to.

Round 5:  This round should contain paper-pieced blocks with points. Now, this means this round must contain at least one paper-pieced block with points. There can be other types of paper-pieced squares in this round if you want to use them, but you do not have to.

Final round:  Should contain paper-pieced patchwork in the middle of each side and the corners and use all the colors (not necessarily all the fabrics) used in the center round that began your round robin.

These are Cat's comments about how she created such a fantastic quilt: 

"It was such a fun project, so unlike anything I've ever done before. This had many "firsts" for me. First medallion quilt, first time I've ever worked with red and purple as featured colors. First time I ever made a house quilt. And I decided on the house, because everyone was doing stars for their center blocks. I definitely wanted to make something that was very different from the others. First time I've ever set anything askew. I decided to further challenge myself on each round beyond what Carol challenged us to do. First time I ever used Quilt Pro to assist me in designing. And the center round with the Seminole piecing reflect the quilt's Florida origins.

Never made a quilt from the inside out (a medallion quilt) before. And I don't work with those colors normally. After that first center block, I couldn't pick out two colors to feature, as Carol said to do. So I wrote colors on pieces of paper, put them in a bag, and drew two. First red. Then purple. Uh.......

Those are two colors that I use to accent things, but have never featured as solo players in a quilt before. But heck, I had decided to truly challenge myself. It started to take on a life of its own as I went along. Each round "told" me what it needed."

Cat, congratulations on a gorgeous quilt and for winning the challenge!!!  And, not only does Cat get a fun, fun quilt, but she gets some goodies for being the winner!  Hoo! Hoo!

What in the World . . .

is this mess???

For now it is a secret but come next week, it will no longer be a secret and you too will be able to own one of your own!!!  Stay tuned!!!  :-)

5,000 Visits!!! Wow!!! Thank You All!!!

I am having so much fun with this blogging, that the time has just flown by!!!  Today we hit 5,000 looks!!!  Thank you to everyone that supports me and all that I am able to share with you.  In order to say thanks, I am going to give away this Moda "Prayer Flag" Charm Pack by April Cornell.

In order to qualify for this darling Charm Pack you, here's what I would like you to do:

- Post about this giveaway on your blog, feel free to use my image above.

- Become a Follower of this blog.

- Please leave a comment, not an email, and tell me what you like about my blog and what you think I could do different to make it more fun to visit.  Please be sure to include your email address if it is not available in your blogger profile.

Thank you so much and good luck.  I will put all names in a basket on July 21, 2010 and pick a winner!!!
 

YOU ARE ALL THE BEST!!!  :-)

The Hills are Alive

My nephew, Brandon, and I left left the house here in St. George at 5:30 this morning to go pick apricots at the Church orchards in Hurricane.  Amazingly, it was already 90 degrees that early in the morning as we left St. George.  The orchards are a bit higher in altitude so it was a bit cooler up there as we parked and spent an hour plus picking fruit for the Church cannery.  I was astounded at how much fruit was on each tree!! 

After we finished picking for the Church, we were able to pick for ourselves from the trees where the fruit was too ripe to can.  We were each allowed 100 pounds!!  That is A LOT of apricots!!  Apricot jam, dried apricots, fruit leather, canned apricots, fresh apricots, apricot pie, apricot cobbler . . .

This is about three-quarters of what we picked for ourselves.

After we were done picking, Brandon had to go up to Springdale, which is a darling little town at the mouth of Zions Canyon National Park.  He is the supervisior on a gorgeous home being built up there.  And the views were incredible so I thought I would share them with you.

Can you imagine living in a home that has views like this EVERYWHERE you look??  It was an incredible morning!!!

And this is my nephew, Brandon.

Pat - The Best Aunt Around!!

This is my Aunt Pat!!  She has the best sense of humor and she sent this cute little paperdoll of herself to my Dad awhile back.  This is how she looked when she was a young woman.  It is so fun, I thought I would share it with you!!

Aunt Pat also sent me this darling doll "just because" she knew how much I love quilting!!

And then she sent me this purse that is made out of a bunch of zippers. It's hard to see the individual zippers but I would say there are about a dozen zippers sewn together and the strap is a zipper.  Its very clever.

There is a lady in one of my quilting groups that saves zippers. I have tried to find the emails from all the women who sent her zippers but for some reason I am not finding them. If anyone knows who the Zipper Lady is, would you email me or leave a comment so I can send this purse to her??

Quilt Size Reference Chart

I was trying to decide today what size I should make the new quilt I have in mind and thought, wouldn’t it be nice to have a reference for all the quilt sizes. There are lots of places on the Internet that have the basics but as I was perusing the different sites, I noticed that there a really lots more sizes than just the basics. So I put the following reference chart together and thought I would share it.

Many new mattresses are thicker than the older mattresses, making the top of the mattress further from the floor, thus the range of sizes for some of the quilt sizes. I think it is best to measure the bed you want to make the quilt for and decide how much drop you want. Use this chart to get a feel for the sizes folks are making and know that almost anything goes!!! Remember, it is your quilt, make it your way!!

MINIATURE: Usually less than 36" square.

WALLHANGING: Any size can qualify.

BABY: Usually between 36" X 36" and 52" X 52". This size can depend on whether the quilt will be used in a crib.

CRIB: Usually between 36"x 46" and 36" x 60".

TODDLER: Approximately 42" x 60" for a comforter; approximately 46" x 70" for a quilt. A toddler bed most often uses a crib mattress, however not always, so it is best to measure first.

PREEMIE BABY QUILT: Usually between 24" and 36". No longer than 40". It is best to call your local Neonatal Intensive Care Unit for measurements to ask about their specific specifications. Most NICUs require that a flat batting be used and, of course, no embellishments (such as buttons, lace, or even a "tied" quilt)

WHEELCHAIR LAP QUILT: Approximately 38" x 47".

LAP: Usually between 52" - 68" wide and the length can be from about 52" - 78".

TWIN: Usually between 63" - 72" wide and 86" - 96" in the length.

BUNK: Usually between 66" x 89" and 74" x 103".

FULL: Usually between 70" - 88" wide and 88" - 100" in length.

QUEEN: Usually between 88" - 99" wide and 94" - 108" in length.

QUEEN WATERBED: Approximately 76" x 104".

KING: Usually between 94" - 108" wide and 92" - 108" in length

CALIFORNIA KING: Usually between 100" x 98" and 114" x 117".

KING WATERBED: Approximately 72” x 88" wide and 84” - 94" in length.

Hope this information is helpful!!!

More New International Siggies Have Arrived!!!

This swap continues to be such fun!!!

This first Siggie is from Kristine Zerfuss who lives in the very northern part of Germany at the Schlei, which is an arm of the Baltic Sea.  She writes that since the Bronce Age, an ancient trackway from Denmark, the Ochsenweg (Ox Road), which was primarliy a trade road, passes through her village.  She also tells that the Vikings built the first and largest medival city in Northern Europe and that one can still see the famous earthen defensive walls and that there is a Viking Museum.

Kristine has invited me to come visit if I am ever lucky enough to be in her area!!  This swap allows for friendships to grow all over the world.

A last note from Kristine is that her Siggie is kind of a joke about her family's last name which means something like "strained foot" in German.  Thank you, Kristine, I love your Siggie

This next Siggie is from Lilo Kreuzer who lives in Switzerland. 

Lilo's note is all in her language so I do not know what it says, but her Siggie is darling and the Church, along with her name is machine stitched!!  Thank you, Lilo, your Siggie is wonderful!!!

Need a Laugh??

Well, today has been one of those days where I needed a good laugh and my friend sent me some great cat pictures that made me laugh out loud.  So, I thought I would share them with you, just in case you needed a laugh too!!!

Happy 4th of July, One & All

The United States of America USED to be a great country!!

The United States of America STILL is a great country!!

And the United States of America will ALWAYS be a great country as long as Americans continue to love their country and work toward keeping it great!!!

Pray for our leaders and pray for the military men and women who are devoting their lives to keeping our wonderful country free!!