my best pizza so far

One of our favorite meals is homemade pizza, and we usually have it as a go-to meal on weekends, most likely Sunday night.  So last night found Bob and I settling down with some slices and Olympics. We don't do real fancy, but have found success with a basic formula.  First, the pizza stone is a key element since we like a thin and crispy crust.  This stone has been well-tempered over quite a few years.  I think I bought it at a home party for some company, feeling a need to select something from the catalog offered by a friend or neighbor.  You might have found yourself in that spot sometime, not wanting to say "no" to the invite nor all of the products, but wanting something not purely decorative.  That's how I ended up with a lovely Longaberger wastebasket!  Which turned out to be a good choice, as well as the decision to buy the pizza stone.  We really don't use the stone for anything else, although I am told that it can be used for cookies, etc.  Anyway, back to the pizza!  I used to make dough from scratch, but now I pick up a tube of pizza crust in the refrigerated section at the store, and that works just fine.  Last night I even used store-bought pizza sauce, although we often use red sauce that Bob makes and freezes from our own tomatoes.  My half of the crust is vegie and soy, Bob's half is sausage, pepperoni and lots of mozzarella!  My usual ingredients are chopped red onion, black or kalamata olives, artichoke hearts, peppers and whatever else is handy!  Last night I had the inspiration to top it off with sweet corn cut from the cob, and it was fabulous!!  Toss on fresh basil from the garden and soy cheese, and yummo!

 I have been in a mood to experiment with some fabric and rulers this morning, and by cutting table is getting deep with inspiration!

I know that I have seen lots of patterns for quilts made from tumbler blocks lately, so thought I should jump on the bandwagon.  I already used a great Creative Grids ruler for tumbler block placemats.  Then I encountered the Marti Michel tumbler template and wanted to try that out.  The beauty of this template is that it is sized for 2 1/2" on up to 6 1/2".  The little piece on the left is cut from 2 1/2" leftover strips from quite awhile ago.  I'm playing around with ideas for what to make from it.  Right now it's looking like a tabletopper but that's open for discussion!

 Next I experimented with this odd-shaped ruler from Creative Grids, it's much like the TriRecs rulers that I have used before but with a twist.  This is all in one unit, and the sizing guidelines are very easy to read and understand.  It can be used for strips from 1 1/" to 6 1/2".

 There are numerous setting options for these shapes, but I was drawn to this one that looks sort of like a flower.  If a circle is appliqued to the center it looks even more flowerlike.  I made the large size, a 12" block, and then smaller and smaller--

 The littlest one is 2" square, and while it was a good thing to try, I'm not going to be whipping out any more of those!  There's more fabric in the seam allowances than what's showing in the finished block!  I did sit down with EQ6 (Electric Quilt) to play with some sizes and colors and layouts on paper, there could be some potential there.

Yesterday I finished quilting a sample quilt of Jelly Jive for the store, the fabrics have the kind of shabby chic look.  I have made this pattern before, it is perfect for a "jelly roll" (40 - 2 1/2" x 40" strips) plus binding and backing.

And making more progress on the hexagons--

 I have all the rows sewn together and started putting in the blocks around the edges.  I am writing this as I go so I can share and teach it for a class at the store.  I picked a light blue to fill in the outside blocks and then a brown floral for a border.  I am having to engineer the blue block shapes from the other basic shapes in the quilt.  I am doing this because I wanted to continue those light colored triangles that make star points around each hexagon, instead of just finishing off with a straight line at the last hexagon.

A fun week ahead with a trip to San Francisco with Ben, Brita and Ian!  B&B will be attending a wedding while Ian, myself and Jan hang out in the city.  I hope Ian is ready for some fun!  From this little video, it looks like he is learning some new moves!