yarn fun

Love love love the feel and look of this scarf I just finished. It's drying after a quick dip, and feels like "buttah"! This is a yarn and pattern I found at Knitter's Palette Yarn Shop. The yarn is Misti Alpaca Hand Paint Baby Suri Silk (color 11) and I have not used it before so this is a pleasant result. The pattern was a free handout from the yarn shop when I purchased the yarn, it is called the Chevron Scarf and was displayed in the shop made with Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn. This Misti Alpaca is a DK weight yarn, so a little heavier than the sock yarn, but with the right size needles (US 5) it turnedout great. If you area knitter, I highly recommend you give this a try! Now back to my quilts! And the orange brownies I just baked!

in pursuit of the perfect brownie

My brownie baking has reached a new level! I am trying to solve the problem I have with baking to perfection, or not. I am plagued by brownies that seem to be done but turn out to be crusty hard around the edge of the pan and gooey mess in the middle. Now, I don't mind this if it is just me and the brownies at home alone, but it bothers me when serving up my brownies for others. So I found one of those brownie edge pans and tried it out, with somewhat better results. I was going to show you what they looked like, but when I took out my camera this morning and uncovered the pan, this is what I found:

I forgot that Bob was taking them to work today and left home before I hit the deck. But you can still see the pan and the crumbs he left for me! And here's a look at the 1/2 pound of melted bittersweet chocolate in the double boiler, I wish I had smell-o-vision for you!

After all this talk of brownie goodness, I have to show you that I found a new pair of boots for hiking around in Rocky Mt. National Park in a couple weeks. Trying to walk off a few brownies! Seriously, the last time I was there I had a bad ankle sprain and don't want to repeat that mishap. The shoes I was wearing then weren't "high tops" so that is what I am going to wear this time.

Today I have been working on a quilt made of some great fun retro holiday fabrics. It is called the 12 Joys of Christmas by Sheri Berry Designs for Lyndhurst Studio. The pattern is Lady Fingers by Cozy Quilt Designs. It needed to be done in a hurry, so I used a pantogram that I rely on for this type of circumstance because it goes quickly and looks good on a lot of fabrics.

This will be hanging at the store in a couple days and will be a class this fall. It was a fun quilt to work on.

Varying between sunshine and rain today after the second night this week with thunderstorms and heavy rain (~2" so far). I'm thinking about Ben and Brita at the MN State Fair today, hope they are staying dry. Ben had not attended this fair before, so Brita was adamant that she would take him as part of his MN citizenship test. I wonder if they will get to the animal barns to see the giant hog? He weighs 1450 pounds! That's a lot of bacon!

progress

In a recent post I showed you the project I was making with all those triangles that needed trimming. I am using Martinique, designed by 3 Sisters for Moda. I have made it to the point of joining all the blocks together, and I just barely have room to lay it out on the floor. Would be nice to have a design wall, but haven't made that happen yet. In the meantime, this works, and I use my handy dandy digital camera to help me. This is my tip for you---use your camera in place of a design wall! This gives me the perspective to view the overall color and block placement in a way that escapes me when I am looking at block-by-block.

Right away I can see that I need to reposition those 2 light blocks on the left side for starters. And maybe a few other changes from there. We'll see. With my camera I can get instant viewing either on the little camera screen or my computer screen without having to print anything. It gets 2 skinny borders, rick rack and a wide border yet to come.

Next up-- a quilted Fire Escape by Terry Atkinson, made by Debbie E. from patriotic prints.

I experimented a little with lots of swirls and curlicues and think I like it. This closeup looks awful yellow, the larger picture is more true to the color. I've been noticing this happens with my new camera and I haven't figured out how to avoid that or what I need to change with lighting, settings, etc. Any clues out there?

Next to be quilted---

Also made some really tasty brownies yesterday so I have to share that with you! I first will introduce you to Natalie of the Olive Grove. I met her 2 weeks ago in Molly's backyard where she showed up with these yummy Orange Brownies. Her recipe using her olive oil from her store! So began my quest for Blood Orange Olive Oil, bittersweet chocolate and ground almonds. Which resulted in good things in the oven, which I highly recommend to you! And this leads to a good quote:

"I am not a glutton--I am an explorer of food." ---Erma Bombeck

So long for now, the brownies are calling!