It's Dazzling...It's Delicious...

It's a...


It's Lemon Angel Pie.
And even I can make it. And have made it...many many times. And I highly recommend that you do the same.

Here's all you need:



A graham cracker crust, a can of Eagle Brand Sweetened Condensed Milk, 6 oz. frozen lemonade (partially thawed), and an 8 oz. container of Cool Whip.

OK, are you ready? First step:

Dump the lemonade into a mixing bowl.



Next add the sweetened condensed milk.



Fold in the Cool Whip...



Doesn't look all that lemony, does it...
Well, since we've already gone to this much trouble, let's pull out the secret ingredient...


Oh, look! A bird! With a flowered wing!

Sorry. Where was I...
Oh yes. Yellow food coloring! That's the ticket!



Much better. Now just pour the filling into the pie shell. And go ahead and lick the spoon!



OK, now you'll need to put the pie in the fridge for several hours.



Taa Daa! Here we go! (Note: I did not wait as long as I should have. Had to make sure I got a nice slice before anyone in the house discovered it...) And unlike my previously mentioned chocolate sauce, this pie does thicken up beautifully.



Now what's all this?



I'm pleased to give you a couple of sneak peeks at Late Bloomer Quilts very first block of the month pattern. It's called "Flight of Fancy" and is made entirely of gorgeous LakeHouse fabrics.
It's getting ready to go to Quilter Extraordinaire Diana and when it comes back I'll show you a bit more.
It will be available as a pattern this fall!

Get ready...

Presley knows what's coming...


Even Rosie and Willard know.


It's time to rest up so we'll be prepared for Friday...when a Dazzling Dozen Delicious Desserts begins! I don't know about you, but I'm quite sure I'll be wanting to make (and eat) them all!

Who are we to argue...

If Romantic Homes is gonna talk about "Fabulous Fall Shopping", then Pam and I have to oblige. Even though it technically isn't fall and it's still way too hot.

I really did need some more vintage lace--remember the pink and aqua Christmas quilt? Well, those ornaments need some trimming. I'd seen some lovely stuff in a shop fairly recently and who knows why I didn't buy it at the time. Crazy. So it seemed like a good reason to go back to Niles--and Pam is generally quite willing to go on trips like that.


First stop was one of our favorite shops--My Friends and I is always lots of fun...plenty of vintage stuff and their goodies are always arranged in color coordinated vignettes. I'm sorry I didn't take any pics of the inside of the shop, but I did find a darling embroidered pillow case, a cute little button card and a vintage birthday card--all of which you'll soon see.


Next came Mary Margaret's Antiques, which is a wonderful feminine paradise of stuff. And I made up for lost time with the pictures...
Everything in the place is pretty. Look at all the crocheted pillowcase lace! I love love love crochet--partly because I can't can't can't do it.


There's a section of kitchen stuff and even much of that is pretty as well.


Wish I had a reason for the "lettuce" and "radishes" bags...how adorable are those? But at our house salad comes in a plastic zip-lock and we don't buy radishes. I think the guys in my house would find vintage embroidered bags of produce too confusing and instead of eating healthy, they'd be back to grabbing for the poptarts.
Anyway. Where was I...
Yes. A shop chock-full of beautiful stuff.


Here's an area where the colors are more to Pam's liking...and I went back the following day to get her something she'd been admiring--it's impossible to sneak a purchase when you're with Pam.


Anyway, here are all my goodies from both shops. The pillowcase will be turned into a pillow for my family room sofa--and it's funny--you can see that the person who made it ran out of blue embroidery floss so she improvised with a totally unrelated shade of blue. Could you do that? I sure couldn't. Yet somehow, maybe because it's old, I find that it adds to the charm. Go figure.
I've got several options for decorating my aqua and pink ornaments now and can't wait to get back to that project.
You'll need to get ready to become thoroughly sick of hearing me moan about getting ready for Quilt Market...but I'll try to intersperse my complaining with some sneak previews of what will be in my booth.

Have a great week everyone!!

Quilt Labels (yes you really should!)

OK, tell the truth--how many of you always put labels on your quilts? We all know we should, but it's a step that is so easy to ignore--especially if the quilt wasn't made for some "special reason".
All quilts are special and all should have a label. And honestly? I used to be really bad about it myself.
But there are ways to have fun with label making...here's how I do it.

First, I don't wait until the quilt is finished to make the label. Odds are, once that last stitch is put on the binding, a needle will never come near it again. So at some point during the making of the quilt I do the label.



I really recommend the HP Custom Quilt Label program. It's inexpensive and very easy to use. If you've got the computer skills necessary to read a blog, you can make gorgeous labels.
While the program does come with clip art, I'm not a big fan of their selections. So here's a really good reason to pick up a few of those nifty books-with-CDs that are out there.


I love finding just the right vintage image to go with my project. And border/background colors are practically unlimited. As are the fonts you can use.

You can get 4 small labels on one sheet of Printed Treasures, or one large label.


Yes, Printed Treasures is pricey, but the cost per label isn't bad. And there are always sales.

So have fun making some cool labels and impress the heck out of the recipients of your quilts!

To your health!

Every so often we all need to stop and take stock of our lives. And figure out how many of our habits are good and how many are not so good.

--Quilting 12 hours a day: Hmmm. Good? Bad? Doesn't matter, that one's not gonna change anytime soon.

--Spending darn close to 12 hours a day in sewing chair: Definitely not good. Will work on moving the body around a bit more. Hauling the dirty clothes of a family of 5 down the stairs will do for today.

--Eating habits: Those have been slowly improving for awhile now. Nothing like having trouble fitting into that favorite pair of jeans. But the diet soda habit CAN'T be good. Too many horror stories connected to that stuff. But a good replacement will be needed...how about this stuff? "Life Water". Sounds awesome. Antioxidants? Check. Vitamins? Check. Ester of wood rosin? WHAT?????

Well, Happy Labor Day, everyone!

This will be quick

It seems that Pam has tagged me for the Middle Name game...I've got the most original middle name EVER:

A---Applique? go Antiquing? Wanting to go Antiquing while doing Applique?

N---Nervous Nellie. I'm scared to fly...and riding in an elevator makes my skin
crawl.

N---Nerd. At least that's what my family would tell you--especially after I made a
big deal about seeing this on the freeway the other day (and yes, that's Pamela
Marie also attempting the shot)


What an awesome biker dude!

Dunno if she's been tagged yet, but I'm tagging Holly!

As promised...

I do believe that Becoming a Good Photographer would be an admirable goal for next year.
In the meantime, as promised, here is a glimpse of the darling, super-adorable pink prints from the "Sweetest Gifts" line designed by Jackie Clark for Windham fabrics. Yes, those are some leftover blocks--so tough to just throw blocks in the trash.

The fabrics are all so adorable it was quite tough to narrow the choices down. Oddly enough, my favorite print is the white on white that is covered with hanky-type motifs. Speaking of hankies...check out the print on the border of this little baby quilt! So much fun!!

Pam has done a wonderful job quilting the boy version...and I'll post a photo as soon as I get the binding put on. I'll probably be quilting the pink one myself.

Is there anything quite as much fun to make as a baby quilt?

Out of my element--for spooky fun!

It may be

to be thinking "Halloween" in August, but that's exactly when American Harvest transforms into an amazing Halloween wonderland.

When I got the invitation to their Halloween party, there was a bit of panic. See, the invitation mentioned wearing a crown, tiara or "fanciful hat". I don't have any of those items. Plus American Harvest happens to be a place where if you
do need a crown or tiara you can find something lovely there. Like this
for instance--just one of the beautiful items made by Donna O'Brien.


It just didn't seem appropriate to go and purchase something for the event. Much as I'd love to be a paper/mixed media artist, I'm not. I'm a quilter. So my hat had to be cloth-based. I started with a Butterick pattern for a historic medieval-type hat. I measured my head and according to the pattern, I'm a size large.
Uh, turns out I'm actually an XXXL, but more on that later.


It had been YEARS since I'd used a tissue paper pattern. And cutting something out with scissors? How bizarro was that.

Wanted to use black and cream, so I went to my stash and decided to sacrifice some of my favorite LakeHouse pieces. Gotta love anything with letters/words all over it, so that became the base of my hat. The pattern called for buckram--had to first find out just what buckram is...oh, and I had to blanket stitch WIRE all around the base as well. You know, so that it could form to my head. This was becoming quite a production. A soon to be rather ironic production, but again, more on that later.


Looks more like a dunce hat at this point, but at least it's time for the fun part. Time to make a big 'ol mess on the table and dump out any possible embellishments.

The tulle didn't work out--which was a disappointment 'cause how often does a gal get to wear tulle? But plenty of things made their way onto my hat.

I used rick rack, rayon seam tape, vintage millinery flowers, antique lace...transferred a vintage postcard image onto Printed Treasures fabric for the front--and finally got to use some of my glitter! I made yo yos in 2 sizes (those Clover yo yo makers are AWESOME, by the way) and made a little paper "boo" tag and a bird tag as well.
Here's the back:


So here we are at the party...Sandy in her clever crown made from an American Harvest bag, Sharon looking lovely as usual, Pam in her MISSING hat, and finally, me, in the hat that WILL NOT FIT ON MY APPARENTLY FREAKISHLY LARGE HEAD.

But it was quite fun and anytime spent at American Harvest is a good time!

Driving Pink!!!

We're all used to thinking pink--and quilting pink. But what about driving pink?
That's what I got to do today and I had a BLAST.



It's called the BMW Ultimate Drive and it happens every year all over the country. You get to test drive brand new BMWs and for every mile you drive, BMW donates $1 to the Susan G. Komen fund.

I'd first heard about it thru eldest son Eric--the car guy. He works at East Bay BMW and that's where the event was held today.



I took my dad with me and I drove six different BMWs--they had a total of 17 cars for the event. I drove two convertibles and it was perfect top-down weather! The traffic sort of cooperated as well...I mean what's the point of driving a BMW if you can't jump on it a bit!



It's great that something that's so much fun is also for such a great cause. If you're interested in having this experience for yourself (come on, you KNOW you want to!) go to bmwusa.com/theultimatedrive to see when the event is coming to your area.

What a way to start the weekend!

First Day of School!

Ah, it brings a tear to a mother's eye to see her baby take off for his first day of school.
Even if the "baby" is 18 and school is the local community college.

What's with the car? Not really sure. I asked Nick just what are "man points" and he tells me they're "what you get when you do something Manly." I asked him what he did to deserve those points--"I dunno."

Who painted the window? Insert some random girl's name here...

Big, Quick and Easy ??????

You may remember this project...there it is mocking me from the safety of the ironing board. It was supposed to be an EASY quilt for wonderful big prints. It's positively overflowing with wonderful big prints. And it's cursed.

It originally had 3 borders but the first one just never seemed right. Pam suggested that I remove it. Well, she offered to do the removing for me, so that seemed like the best decision ever. I don't enjoy sewing long borders--removing them is just an invitation for my head to explode.

So naturally ALL of the borders had to come off. Because that's the way life works. So today I decided it was high time to get this baby finished. So I painstakingly measured...double checked my measurements...and started adding borders. When I got to the big print outer border, I noticed that I was getting some really cool swoopy action in the corner! How neat! And why didn't I have that going on last time?



Well, that would be because I stitched both side borders on backwards.

Saturday Sewing

Normally I'm a rather methodical person. Robotic, at times even. Somehow, when it's getting-ready-for-Market time, all that changes and I'm flitting about from project to project as I get stuff figured out.
Pam's busy blanket stitching chickens for me...I don't really feel like fusing crows right now, so it seemed like a great time to figure out something for the box of darling fabric that arrived on my porch a week or so ago.

I met Jackie Clark and her sister Tamara in Salt Lake City at the spring market. They had the most darling booth...with the most darling things...and come to find out, Jackie has her first line of fabric! Which I am the blissfully happy recipient of TWO boxes of. And as you can see, it's beautiful! Well, all I'm showing you are the BOY colors. Because that's all I'm allowing myself to look at right now. Get me going with the pinks and you'll never see me again.
If I were a better photographer you'd really be able to see how sweet it all is...there's a wonderful toile, some neat plaids...just all so perfect.

And yes, that's one of Jackie's patterns. I saw that baby jacket in her booth and decided right then that if I ever came across the pattern purely by accident, it would be a sign that I could buy it. Because I have NO NEED for a baby jacket pattern and certainly do not want to tempt fate. But isn't it the cutest baby jacket in the history of baby jackets? Yes, it is.

So anyway, today is Boy Baby quilt day. I've pretty much got it figured out and it should be so much fun to work on. Not as much fun as Girl Baby quilt day will be, but that's something to look forward to later.

Since you will all want to find some of this fabric for yourselves, it's by Windham Fabrics and the line is called "The Sweetest Gifts". Oh, and just WAIT until you see the pinks!!!

Quick Escape!

It had been awhile since Pam and I had gone on any outings together, and yesterday seemed like the perfect opportunity to escape for just a bit.

Pam had forwarded me some blog links awhile back (which I'd share, but can't find) you know, super talented people and all the fun they have--with each other and the art they create. In some of the photos was a very familiar face--and that would be Sharon from American Harvest.

American Harvest in Pleasanton has been one of my favorite shops for YEARS. I've purchased big things there (antique hutch) and small things (tiny vials of glitter) and many, many things in between.


Here's Pam with Sharon--and if you look closely you can see a taste of what makes that shop so special.

What a great afternoon break! I love all my new goodies and feel totally energized so I can go back to cutting out and fusing chickens.
Yes, chickens.

24 years ago today...

...was a big day for the Late Bloomer and her groom.




And here's a bit of trivia for you--that darling baby I'm holding? She was the recipient of the very first quilt I ever made.
It was a Sunbonnet Sue quilt from a 1980 issue of Quilt World magazine--you had to have several issues in order to get all the blocks and I had just the one and did not plan on waiting. So I pulled out all my super-cool polyester gingham, picked up a few pieces of pastel calico and went to town with my giant hearts. Sadly the photo doesn't manage to capture the quilt in its entirety, but trust me--it's for the best.



Also the best? These last 24 years!!

The theme continues...

Theme? What theme? Well, that would be the way boxes of gorgeous fabric periodically show up on my front porch. And just to warn you--this will not be the last post on that particular subject.
Yes, it is wonderful--just like Christmas when I get to open a box that I know has new fabric inside. But along with the thrill, there's PRESSURE. Pressure to come up with a project that quilters will find appealing, and that shows off the fabric so that those same quilters will want yards of it for themselves. So that this wonderful cycle can continue.
So anyway, actually it was a couple of weeks ago I received this big box of fabric from Lake House. I'd been dying over this line since I saw it in Salt Lake City. Holly suggested I come up with a block of the month. Well, sure! Why not?

Well, being an avid Harry Potter fan, I certainly wish I'd thought to grab a hunk of Anne's hair when we had lunch together last month so I could make some Polyjuice potion and get her to do the math for me. Because she's the absolute MASTER of the block of the month format.

I do know this much...all that black fabric means these guys will have to return. Only this time...they'll be naked. Sorry, but no more hats or vests. They can't always be going to a party, you know.


So the pressure is on! This fabric really is yummy--if you've been checking out Holly's blog lately she's been posting terrific photos of projects that have been made using La Belle Rose.

So I'll be finishing up the drawing and getting stuff fused so Pam can do the blanket stitching for me.

Needless to say, Presley is the only one around here who will be getting enough of these...