saying goodbye to "sweet hearts"

Sweet Hearts was my second pattern ever. It was the design that made me decide that I'd really like to be doing what I'm doing now.

It has sold very well...but it's pretty old now, and it's time for Sweet Hearts to retire. As of the end of this month, it will disappear from my website.

Pam, as usual, came up with a cool idea. She thought it would be fun to send Sweet Hearts out with a bang. So that's what's going to happen!



She came over today and we got out some fabric...LOTS of fabric, actually, and played around with the motifs from the pattern. We ended up using the medium sized heart and the small one...and a couple of stems and leaves.

And here's the result!



That bigger heart is made from one of my favorite vintage napkins...and gotta love the big pink rick rack peeking out over the ruffle.

Best of all, I've got enough of everything left over to create FIVE kits. That's it--only five. Each kit contains a Dunroven House tea towel, all the fabric needed to duplicate my towel (including a piece of that awesome vintage napkin fabric), the pink rick rack and of course the pattern, and instructions for finishing the towel.

The price of the kit is $20, and that includes shipping. If you'd like a kit, please email me at latebloomerquilts@yahoo.com. If you're one of the first five, I'll email you back with full ordering instructions. It's a super fun project and it went together pretty fast too!



I'll be hanging my towel in the kitchen any day now. I'm determined to actually use it. Well, probably.

All kits have now been sold. If I can come up with the materials for more, I'll let you know. Thanks, everyone!

wanna see some quilts?

Just click here...and you'll be amazed by the gorgeous quilts that are on display at The Quilt Show's special exhibit at Road to California.

If you keep going, you might see a quilt that's a little familiar...
I'm quite humbled to have one of my "work quilts" among such amazing pieces.

I blame quilt market

Let me start by admitting that I'm really not a cook. It's not that I'm bad--I've never made anyone sick with my cooking (to the best of my knowledge), but it's just not my thing.
In my humble opinion, cooking takes too long, makes too big a mess, and the results are never adequately appreciated.

If you were to have corn muffins at my house, they'd have come from a mix.

Until today.

When Pam and I took our trip to Houston quilt market last fall and stopped in Fredericksburg, we ended up having lunch at Rather Sweet Bakery.

The name didn't ring a bell but as soon as we went inside, I realized I had heard of the place and the cookbook, but again, I'm not a cook.

What Pam and I ate there so enchanted me that I asked for the book for Christmas. A gift my husband was glad to provide!



First up? "Rather Rich Corn Muffins". What sold me on this recipe was the amount of butter and whipping cream it called for. That's right--3 cups of whipping cream, people!*



I will admit that shredded cardboard would taste good with enough dairy goodness thrown at it, so this seemed like a good recipe to start with.

I simply cannot express how amazing these muffins are. The smell, the texture, the TASTE (and the batter--believe me I licked off that beater).

There are a couple left if you want one--but they're going fast.



*I only had a pint of whipping cream so used milk for the rest of the liquid and that sure seemed to work.

please excuse me while I show off my loot!

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes. It was an awesome day...now that my sons are pretty much all grown up it's great to get together for dinner--it just doesn't happen that much anymore. So that's what we did--had a delightful dinner at the San Leandro Marina.

If you follow me on twitter, you'd have heard about the ever so romantic gift from my husband--a Ped Egg. Yup, that's right! He also included a box of 100 Calorie Snickers bars so I guess his heart's in the right place (?) I am a sucker for gadgety things, so I did have to try it out. And without getting too graphic, it does do a great job but eww, so creepy.

The highlight of the afternoon was when Pam came over. She is the absolute master of gift-giving. It's so hard to shop for her because it's impossible to even come close with a gift for her--it's terribly intimidating. She always knows exactly what I'll love--and manages to find things I can never find on my own.

Check out the vintage breadbox. It's perfect! The photo isn't great but I wanted you to see how it looks with the valance nearby.


And this milkglass pot in my very favorite shade of pink...with a miniature rose inside.

As a decal-obsessed person I'm always looking for vintage examples. Garden girls seem particularly tough to find. Look at this girl on the tin!


Finally, I about hit the floor when I saw this letter "E". Pam bought it from our pal Becky, who always has the very best stuff (I think I have something from Becky in almost every room of my house!)

I hope 2010 continues on in such a merry way--while I'm grateful for a friend like Pam I'm also so blessed to be able to enjoy time with my family. I don't think I'll ever get used to hearing eldest son order a margarita in a restaurant tho...how did he get old enough for that to happen???

Happy New Year!

With the beginning of a new year, I'm hoping we can all enjoy the old...

Look forward to playing with the new...


and continue to inspire each other to create new things.

As a quilter, I'm hoping the new year brings vintage roses, lots of polka dots, and happy colors. How about you?