I Like Thursday: Fun and Family

Today's the day to share the things I like and link up with Not Afraid of Color's I Like Thursday. 

I like arranging quilt blocks.  As you can see, I don't have a design wall, I have a design floor.

Random blocks are never truly random and take a while to get them looking the way I want them to.  I initially tried to put the shirt blocks in some kind of color pattern, but hated it, so random it was.  (And I like how it came out!)


I like my sister.  (Yeah, that's such a complete understatement... but let's just go with that for now.)  She's creative.  She paints things.  Years ago, she painted the family Dodge Omni with geometric patterns.  I inherited the car soon after graduating college and enjoyed it's uniqueness.


She's recently gotten around to decorating her current car.  Looks like ginko leaves blown in the wind.  I like that, too.

Sewing Shirts

This is the third charity quilt I've promised.  I've ripped apart five shirts, cut them all into squares and stitched them into a bunch of 9-patches.  If you look at the bottom row, you can see these blocks aren't exactly whole.  That's because I'm making disappearing 9-patch blocks, and when I ran out of fabric to cut 7" squares I cut 7x3.5" rectangles (or 3.5" squares) instead.

Turns out I had way more blocks than I needed for a throw quilt, but not enough to stretch it to a twin sized quilt.  Right now I'm in the process of scrapping together four more cut-apart blocks so that I can do a full 6x8 block layout.  There's a ton of smaller scrap, so the plan is to randomly piece that together, then see how much of a border it would make.  I'm thinking of filling the rest of the border with a cream fabric, or possibly sash the blocks.  Either would be enough to twin-size the whole shebang.

Not really the color scheme I go for, but this has been fun.  I'm liking how it looks, the fabric is so soft and I'm sure someone is going to love it.

Sharing with Linky Tuesday.

I'm Hiding

Poor Wedgwood.  She gets picked up every day, either because she's harassing Boadicea, or she's being whiny, or she's just too darned cute for her own good.  I put her up on my shoulder and go looking for Rob, so Wedgie can plead her case why she shouldn't have been picked up.  This time Rob had a camera.

Bacon Cheddar Whatever Quiche

We intermittently visit Seven Stars Bakery on Saturday mornings as part of our weekly grocery shopping routine.  I'm a sucker for their ginger biscuits; we both like the little mini quiches, too.

It kind of blends in with the counter top

They've recently swapped out the ham and cheddar quiche for bacon and potato.  Rob didn't find it as satisfying, and on Sunday morning he was hankering for bacon cheddar quiche.  Could I make one?

Sure, why not?

I've never made a quiche before.  I read through three or four recipes online for bacon-cheddar quiche and cobbled a recipe together.  As recipes go, it's kind of like pizza:  start with the crust and a base, then throw whatever you want in it.  I found some mushrooms in the fridge, so we added those, too.

It smelled delicious as it was baking.  Looked pretty when it came out of the oven, too.  And it was as tasty as it looked and smelled.  The recipe made about 5-6 servings.  I bet I could adjust it to make a couple of mini-quiches instead (although the leftovers reheated nicely).  I know I'll be asked to make this again!

I Like Thursday: Mostly Mailboxes

It's Thursday!  Time to join Not Afraid of Color's I Like Thursday lineup.


When I rode my bike last week, I remembered to bring the camera.  Captured some of the fun stuff around that I've mentioned in previous posts.

I like the mailboxes.  These ones I pass regularly when I bike to the library or the farmer's market.  The house is my favorite - look at those dormer windows!

Who's Missing?

Nothing quite like walking by the guinea pigs' cage and finding only Wedgwood.  Wait, what?  The gate was closed, the cozies were empty.  There should have been two rodents.  Where's Boadicea?

That paper bag wasn't quite as empty as it looked at first glance.  There's a butt back there.

What a Day

I had quite a day earlier this week:  running around, some highs, some lows, a bit of stress, lots of love and success.  Oh, and it was my birthday.

I took the day off for myself, then spent the morning cleaning house.  Crazy, right?  Good thing I did that early, because the plumber came unexpectedly to put in a filter for the well water.  So no water for a hour or two.  But yay!  it will be much cleaner water!

I biked to the library at lunchtime.  They had a fundraiser in which people purchased flamingos to bring home and decorate.  They held a contest last Saturday to award the favorites.  Get a load of the creativity:  a rhinestone Elvis, some kind of plesiosaurus-looking creature, Harry Potter, a clown, and one covered in print that makes me think of a secretary bird. Maybe it's a Librarian Bird?

Aren't they fun?

I Like Thursday: Veggies, Berries and Dopes

I like to visit the Farmer's Market during the summer.  We biked up there this Sunday.  So much to choose from!  I limited my selection to what I could eat this week and that would fit in my little string backpack.  I need to get a back rack for my bike so I can haul more home!

I bought the zucchini to make zucchini fritters for a Tea later that day.  I've made these fritters several times before; tasty, easy recipe.  Replacing the cornmeal with gluten free flour?  Does.  Not.  Work.  I tossed the first four fritters out when they failed to become anything other than lumps of wet dough (even after the edges burned).  I gave up on fritters, poured the rest of the batter into the pan all at once and attempted some kind of zucchini frittata instead.  Came out the consistency of pudding - tasted delicious.  It all disappeared.  What's there to like?  That it wasn't a total failure.  If I try gluten free again, I'd probably do better swapping with corn starch, or find gluten free cornmeal.