During my day with Lori Holt we stopped in to see the new location for the Quilting Cottage in American Fork, Utah.
Just last weekend the store moved next door. So it is still located right by the library. The new shop is full of light and everything is organized really well. They are still getting things situated but it will be great. You can see it was a lovely day to be shopping with Lori.
My wonderful friend Suzanne manages the shop and does a lovely job. It was fun to be greeted by her friendly face and shown around the store. Suzanne is such a great example of a strong optimistic person. I love her.
They still have a great selection of fabric including my favorite 30s. I always see fabric here that I've missed in other shops.
I had fun peeking into each room. We ran into the girls from Riley Blake while we were there, too. Darn no picture of them!

Remember I won a generous gift certificate from The Quilting Cottage over Shop Hop this summer. So for Fabric Friday I need to show you some of the fabrics I picked. I love Bliss by the wonderful Bonnie and Camille at Cotton Way for Moda. This pattern is such a great timeless design. I had to have it in 3 colorways.

Lori and I both got some of this sweet daisy.

And we both got some of this red dot on orange. I couldn't pass it up. It just spoke to me.
And this brown dot tulip spoke to me too. Love the vintage pattern and colors.
I also got some of this timeless green dot. This is a re-buy for me. I've had this fabric before and it makes such a great neutral and binding fabric. I was glad they still had it.

On top of the green dot are my new business cards. They came in the mail yesterday so I was excited to open them up and feel them and look at them. The colors don't show exactly how they really are in this picture but I am very pleased with them.

Maybe I'll have time to bind and work on some works-in-progress this weekend. Hope so.

-nanette

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The famous, talented and lovely Lori Holt and I have planned a date together for months. Both of us have very busy schedules and it was challenging to find time that worked for both of us. So it was with much anticipation that we got together yesterday.
Here is Lori in my sewing room. We didn't have anyone to take a pic of us together. And believe it or not I forgot my camera when we went on our adventure. So go to Lori's blog to see some of the places we visited. We went to a few shops around locally and mostly just window shopped.Lori brought me the sweetest present. Chicken fun for my kitchen and some scrubbies. I have a big rooster sitting on my kitchen table. I don't think Lori even knew that. But we do really like the same things.This was my purchase of the day. I bought it for a special gift for someone. Friday I'll show you the fabric I got at The Quilting Cottage with my gift cert. After shopping Lori and I came back to my house for lunch. I made a Taco Cornbread Pie with a green salad and cupcake. It was pretty good and it was fun to relax and talk to Lori about life.I thought I would share my recipe with you. It is easy and I was able to make it ahead. I got to write the recipe down on my new recipe card! I saw the idea on Simple Daily Recipes but I changed it up to make it my own. However, when I made it for Lori, I forgot to put the corn in it. Oh well. You might not be able to read the recipe from the card so here is the recipe below:

Taco Cornbread Pie:

2 lb. hamburger

1 green pepper

1 onion

mushrooms (or whatever veggies you have on hand)

1 can pinto or kidney beans (drained)

1 cup frozen corn (how could I forget this when I made it for Lori?)

1/2 tsp garlic powder

1 tsp chili powder (or more, depending on your desire)

1 tsp cumin

1 cup salsa (I used mine)

salt and pepper to taste

1 package corn bread mix

Brown hamburger, saute vegetables, drain. Add salsa, corn, beans and seasonings. Mix together. Pam spray your baking dish and put the mixture in the baking dish. Follow package directions for cornbread mix (I used Krustez) and then spread cornbread mix on top of the taco ingredients. Bake at 375 convection for 35 (plus or minus, depending on your oven) minutes. Serve with a salad and top with sour cream.

I had a great time with Lori. She's such a great girl.

-nanette

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I can't say enough about the machine quilting in my projects for International Quilt Market in Houston next month. Most of you know I am making projects for RJR's latest "Everything But the Kitchen Sink" fabric - 30's fabric line. I showed you a bit of my table topper already, done in an edge to edge pattern called feathered flowers by Wendy of Eagle Mountain Quilting. She did perfect job for the table topper.
My custom quilter Wren of Sew Small Sitches just finished my main market quilt. I can't say enough about Wren's skills and the attention to detail in my market quilt. I can't wait for you to see the whole thing. But of course I can't reveal until market time. But I can show you some sneak peaks. Above in the pic is the border for my quilt titled "Happy Homemaker - Everyone needs a Chef" I'm not finished hand stitching the binding down yet. But I love my giant rick rack and how it goes with Wren's border stitching.
There are 10 blocks with applique in the quilt and 6 blocks cut from a panel. Each applique block is quilted uniquely.
Each block has an individual personality.
And I adore each design.
This is the back of one of my blocks. Can you believe the crazy detail from Wren's quilting?
Here is another showing the back side of the quilt. It is really fantastic. If you are going to quilt market you must drop by the RJR booth and see Wren and Wendy's work.

Well, and mine, too ;-).

-nanette

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You all know I have the very best friends. They are all so kind and generous to me. I have to show you some of the thoughtful things my friends have done for me.
Sunday my friend Laura brought us her famous carrot cake. I was glad my family was there to share it or I might have been tempted to eat it all. It was so delicious. Thanks Laura
I was surprised by Jodi of Pleasant Home last week with this darling personalized magnetic pin catcher. It is made from a magnetized parts dish, clever, huh. Jodi painted it for me with a hive and bees! It will be right next to my sewing machine. Thank you so much Jodi. I will love having it be deep enough to hold my sewing foot when I switch to machine quilt.
I love Karen's (of Messy Karen blog) wavy wipers. Love. I don't know what yarn Karen uses but it might as well be a stress reliever, too. It is stretchy and fun to play with as well as wipe up counters. It is cute and a perfect size. Even Allison loves to play with them.

Sandi of A Legacy of Stitches is a dear heart. She's so thoughtful and serves so many people. She made me a card holder with a sweet bee fussy cut right in the center along with a personalized card, a pattern and piece of vintage novelty fabric. Thank you Sandi. I just ordered new business cards with my new logo on them. I can't wait to put them in my new card holder. There are lots of uses for a little holder this size. Sandi puts dollars away here and there to save for fabric trips. Good idea!

I am spoiled!

-nanette

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My weekend was spent sewing Quilt Market projects for next month. It is fun to make progress but difficult to not be able to show photographs of what I'm making. But I'm going to cheat just slightly and show some tiny peeks.
My market projects will have jumbo rick rack int he seam of the binding. Under the binding is the back my table topper. I really like the quilting pattern.
This is one of my faux buttons from the fabric I showed last week. I put it on the center of a block in my table topper.
This little poodle is from my stash of embellishments. I stitched it on the skirt of a little dress. I can say one of my market projects is a baby quilt from my "All Dressed Up" quilt pattern using the new "Everything But the Kitchen Sink" fabric.
Another little dress embellishment above. My hands are a little sore from all the applique and binding I've been doing. I also finished the binding on Wendy's trade quilt from "Freda's Flowers". Maybe I'll show pics from that tomorrow. I also got some cute stuff in the mail I will show this week and I got my "Jelly Roll Sampler" quilt back from Wendy to show you (if I get a chance to bind it).

It is another busy week!

-nanette

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Buttons! We all love them, don't we? Buttons and fabric just go together. So if you combine the two, you get button fabric.
This is a favorite piece of fabric and I've been hoarding it for a while now. I have some ideas for ways to use it but I won't let myself until I finish some of my poor UFOs. This fabric really is a fussy cutter's dream. There is so much cuteness to look at.
This is another sweet button fabric with vintage cards. And it has snap cards, too. So cute.
This one is a French themed button fabric. I don't speak French so I'm not sure what it says. But who cares. I like it.
I have it in this colorway, too. I know you can't see the exact green from the photo but this is one of my very favorite shades of green. It is really beautiful.
This is another French fabric with labels. But it also has button card/labels. I also just love writing on fabric. All these fabrics give the eye so much to enjoy.

Soak up the last few days of summer. It was cold here yesterday!

-nanette

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I think we've been making salsa nearly every fall for the past 25+ years. Mr. Hive loves to grow a garden and it is a great way to keep a taste of summer with us all winter long. For years we jarred enough salsa to give out at Christmas.
Here is my recipe for salsa below. The recipe is originally from a neighbor, Ann, that lived by us more than 20 years ago. Over the years we've changed it somewhat. I will say the real key to making fabulous salsa is taking the time to slow boil the mixture down for several hours so when it is bottled, it has a huge punch of flavor. I 4x the recipe for each batch. Sometimes I use whatever peppers we happen to have in the garden or market. We like a mix of sweet and hot peppers. I think the most important part is simmering the salsa for several hours before bottling. Have plenty of chips or crackers on hand, it is good. We always keep some salsa aside to eat fresh for a few days after all the chopping and preparing.

2 1/2 quarts chopped fresh tomatoes
1 onion chopped
2 large sweet peppers (green, yellow, red), chopped
2 banana peppers, chopped
1 med to lg. jalapenos, chopped (use gloves!)
1 4-oz jar chopped green chillies
1 T salt
3/4 tsp cumin
2 T lemon juice

Fill jars. Water bath boil for 40 min.


-nanette

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