Sweet Home Quilt Co.

TURQUOISE!

Each year The Pantone Color Institute selects a color based on its general sense of the world’s mood. Turquoise, while combining serene blue and invigorating green, evokes thoughts of soothing, tropical waters and an escape from everyday troubles, while restoring a sense of well-being at the same time.

“In many cultures, turquoise occupies a very special position in the world of color,” says Leatrice Eiseman, executive director of the Pantone Color Institute®. “It is believed to be a protective talisman, a color of deep compassion and healing, and a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky. Through years of color word-association studies, we also find that Turquoise represents an escape to many – taking them to a tropical paradise that is pleasant and inviting, even if only a fantasy.”

I’d say that’s a pretty accurate description of what most people would hope for in the new year – faith, truth, compassion – and an escape. Heaven knows I can’t afford a “real” tropical paradise escape, but a few yards of turquoise fabric – yea, that’s right up my alley!

At one point late Christmas Day the thought crossed my mind that I would get up early and go shopping today to see what sort of post-Christmas bargains I could find. At 6AM this morning I realized the folly of this idea, and pulled the covers back over my head!

So what did I do today? The bad news is that I’ve snacked my way through the kitchen several times! I love having the leftovers from Christmas, but nothing I ate seemed to satisfy me today! I can also say that I am now intimately familiar with the offerings of the Hallmark Channel, while reacquainting myself with a couple of long forgotten knitting projects. I actually managed to finish off two things – a funky little cupcake and a felted tote bag.

This little knitted confection was fun to make, but knitting the “icing” with that funky yarn truly tested my patience! Love how it turned out, though. This will be a gift for a friend’s birthday. The pattern can be found in the book Oneskein: 30 Quick Projects to Knit and Crochet by Leigh Radford.

This is my felted knit tote bag, and I love, love, love how it turned out! It is very large (it was twice this big before I felted it!) and will hold lots of stuff. I need to fashion some sort of closure for it – right now I’ve just used a shawl pin. I’ll probably just use a really heavy duty snap on the inside and add a large button on the outside to cover it. I don’t know why I didn’t think about it before I finished off the tote – I hate having my bags gap open! This tote will make a great overnight bag or carry-on for the plane.

In between eating and knitting and watching movies, I managed to do a couple of loads of laundry and did a little reading, too. A very relaxed and laid back day – exactly what I needed! Tomorrow it’s back to my “To Do” list!

Melisa

I’m hoping this post comes through ok. I’m trying out Windows Live Writer and still don’t quite have the hang of posting with it. Fingers crossed …

Wishing you and your family all the joy and wonder of the holiday season.

We get many Christmas cards each year from family, friends and business associates. I used to keep all of the cards, but it just gets to be too much after a while; so now I cut off the front pictures and donate them to a charitable organization that recycles the pictures into new cards. But every once in a while, we get a card that is a treasure unto itself and those I hold onto, to be enjoyed season after season.

This handmade gem is one that I will treasure for years to come. My friend Louise brought this to me at the shop several days ago. She made the card using cheater fabric that she ‘pieced’ together to make the top and borders of the tiny little quilt; the fabric is glued to the card stock and laminated.  The photo makes it look very large, but the card is only about 4″ x 6″! A sweet gift and wonderful reminder of our special friendship that developed through our love of quilting.

Seeing the joy and wonder on the faces of my most precious gifts – it just doesn’t get any better than this!

Christmas came early for us this year since it is the “Christmas at the in-laws” year for our grown children. We had our family Christmas gathering Sunday afternoon, and while I took loads of photos, those above capture the enjoyment of the day. My grandies range from an almost-four-year-old to a  thinks-he’s-grown-up-thirteen-year-old, and each one has a different approach to the joy of Christmas. The youngest is so serious, and wanted to stop and play with each gift he opened before moving on to the next. His obvious disdain for the new pants and shirt Grammie gave him led to much laughter, though. Note to self – clothes are not considered a “gift” by a four-year-old!

My seven-year-old grandson was a whirlwind, ripping the paper off each gift without really taking the time to enjoy it. His mother’s insistence that he read the gift tag of each gift out loud caused him much frustration – he didn’t care about the who, he was only interested in the what!

My only granddaughter was equally delighted with each gift she opened – it was just what she wanted! That smile says it all …

My oldest grandson was very careful to act grown up this year, but he was also the one who came around for sincere hugs and thank you’s afterward. I’m proud of him, but I miss that little boy Christmas joy!

I’m so thankful my family is close by so that we can spend time together, but it’s going to be a very quiet Christmas here this year …

Last week was the Batty Babes’ annual Christmas party, and as usual we shared many laughs and enjoyed ourselves tremendously. This is the one time of the year where we have a potluck meal (usually the host provides the meal for our gatherings), and we all have our specialties that show up on the menu year after year along with new favorites, too. We draw names for a gift exchange, and have a white elephant gift exchange that is always a hoot (more on that in a sec)!  A couple of years ago we decided that rather than give each person individual gifts, we would instead do a community service project. This year we each made kids’ pillowcases that will be donated to ConKerr Cancer through SHQC.  As luck would have it I had made arrangements to meet Lisa Rowell, our ConKerr Coordinator, the following morning to drop off the 171 pillowcases we collected during our Thanksgiving pillowcase drive at the shop, and I was able to add another 173 pillowcases made by the Batty Babes!  WOW! 334 pillowcases!  I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again — quilters have the most giving spirits and this group in particular!

Our Christmas gathering was hosted by Ardis this year, and her home was beautifully decorated for our party. Every nook and cranny held little Christmas surprises that made me smile. The table and buffet were beautifully set with china, candles and live greenery. We were ‘warned’ to watch out for little unwanted guests from the live greenery, which she had cut from her yard earlier in the day. Fortunately, none made an appearance during dinner!

I mentioned our white elephant gift exchange earlier, and it is absolutely one of the most fun things we do at Christmas.  There are a number of white elephant gifts that are truly dreaded — we’re talking hideous things, ya’ll — and we go to great lengths to disguise the packaging so the recipient won’t be able to “avoid” certain gifts. The rule is that whatever white elephant gift you get, it must be prominently displayed throughout the year whenever you host the Babes at your home.  Occasionally someone gets a white elephant gift that they actually like and in those cases they are allowed to introduce a “new” white elephant to the mix the following year.  Here are some of the highlights of this year’s white elephant gift exchange.

Jo Beth got the dreaded “head” this year. This is a ceramic Victorian Lady bust that has made the rounds of the Babes for years! No one wants to end up with this!

Liz was the proud recipient of the hideous felt Christmas card table runner this year. I had it last year, and in an attempt to disguise it I put it into a (new) pizza box tied up with a big red ribbon knowing that someone would be curious enough to have to see what was in the pizza box! It proved irresistible to Liz! This thing is hard to describe. It was made by Ardis’ mother years and years ago as a Garden Club project, I think. The backing is green felt and it has cut outs from Christmas cards glued onto it with some bling here and there, topped by white tulle netting and bound with gold braid and tassels. And it is BIG! It stretches down my dining room table end to end … ugh!

Everyone thought they were safe after Liz picked the dreaded felt table runner, but Ardis threw us a curve ball by introducing a matching bell pull!!! Lucky Deanna was the recipient as you can see. Oh Joy! Can’t wait to have my turn with this monstrosity!

Robin was the lucky one when it came to the Elvis Liquor Decantor! Remember these??? I’m a HUGE Elvis fan, but I draw the line at these – no way do I want this thing at my house! Robin actually seems quite pleased, doesn’t she? Maybe because that thing is still filled with liquor???

How many Babes does it take to untie a bow???

There are a few Babes who should have been politicians – they are masters at “appropriating” gifts for themselves! Here Deanna attempts to steal Ardis’ gift by hiding it under her sweater! And it actually took Ardis a minute to notice the “square” tummy – all she knew was that her gift was missing!

Shared laughter, good food, good friends and the sights and sounds of the season – Christmas memories in the making!

Whee! It has been a wild, wild afternoon here at Sweet Home! Apparently, a local business was robbed and the perpetrator (I just love using “cop speak”!) decided he’d hide out in the neighborhood behind us. We’ve had the doors at the shop locked all afternoon, and in between customers I’ve been mostly watching out the windows at the police activity in the neighborhood with an ear tuned to the sound of several helicopters hovering overhead. We even got to see the city’s newest officer, a bloodhound, in action! Unfortunately, the robber was not caught, which meant Mike wouldn’t allow me to stay at the shop by myself after we closed so I couldn’t get finished with this post. My son dropped off my granddaughter and grandson after work so I’ve been playing Go Fish (10,000 times!!!), sword fighting, and watching Prancer with them all evening. They have just gone home, so finally, a minute of peace and quiet to get this done!!!  It is still Friday, so technically, I’m not late yet!

The last Friday Favorite giveaway of the year was apparently not as popular as the other Friday Favorites – only 26 comments this time! I guess there aren’t many applique enthusiasts among my blog readers! That is good news for this week’s winner, though. The random generator thingy at random.org selected comment number 11 – Leiann (no blog)! Congratulations, Leiann, you’ll have some great designs in this book with which to practice your new applique skills.

I will begin First Friday Favorite giveaways in January so stay tuned. I hope you’ll stick around and keep up with what’s happening at Sweet Home Quilt Co. even without the weekly giveaways! I’m enjoying getting to know you all!

For months and months I’ve been searching for a recipe for Chicken Artichoke Pasta that I had made earlier this year. It is so unlike me to “lose” a recipe, especially if it is a keeper, but I’ve looked high and low and could not find this recipe any where! I have a major cookbook collection, probably close to 200 books, and I am an inveterate recipe clipper so there was plenty of recipe fodder to wade through trying to find this particular recipe. I’ve searched online recipe sites and badgered my friends, thinking that I must have shared it with someone since it was so incredibly good! No luck.

For some reason, the thought that the recipe came from a Thimbleberries book kept nagging at me, but it wasn’t in any Thimbleberres book that I had in my quilt book collection, nor was it in any of the Thimbleberries books I had in stock at the shop. I came really close a couple of times to contacting Lynette Jensen to ask if the recipe was hers, but I just never did it. I was almost giddy with excitement when I read a reference to the recipe on Carrie Nelson’s blog over the weekend. I knew it had to be the same recipe because Carrie acknowledged that it was originally from Lynette Jensen of Thimbleberries – see, my memory isn’t entirely gone!!! But Carrie didn’t repeat the recipe, just made a reference that she had posted it several months back. Thus, began the great dig through Carrie’s blog archives to find that recipe!

The last time I remembered making the recipe was in late February when I took it to Pat and her family after her knee replacement surgery; so at least I had a starting point. I started with December 2008 and worked my way forward, re-reading every post as I went. SUCCESS!  Carrie’s post from January 17, 2009 has THE recipe – oh my, I was doing the slappy, happy dance!  I have all the ingredients on hand, and it’s what’s for dinner tonight! Yummo, I can hardly wait!!!

Here’s the recipe, and I agree with Carrie, substitution of low-fat ingredients is the way to go.

Artichoke Chicken Pasta

3 cups cooked diced chicken or turkey
1 can artichokes in water ~ drained and cut up
1 tsp. minced diced onions
¼ tsp. Tabasco
¼ tsp. marjoram
1 – 10 oz. can cream of chicken soup
½ cup mayonnaise
½ cup sour cream
1 – 13 oz. can evaporated milk
1 cup mozzarella cheese, grated
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 – 12 oz. package bow-tie pasta, prepared according to package directions and rinsed under cold water
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
1 cup grated parmesan cheese

Mix all ingredients reserving ½ cup parmesan and 1 cup cheddar cheese.  Place in a greased 9” x 13” baking dish.  Sprinkle parmesan and cheddar cheese over the top.  Bake 30 minutes at 400 degrees or until hot and bubbly.  Garnish with paprika and parsley.  Makes 8 to 10 servings.

Photo shamelessly plucked from Carrie's blog!

I know this seems like an awful lot of trouble to go through for a recipe, and I admit I’ve had somewhat of an obsession with finding this exact recipe, but this dish is soooo worth it! You must try it – go now and get all the stuff to make it – I promise you will not be disappointed. And if you do try it, leave me a comment on how you like it, or if you think I’ve finally gone off the deep end!  Oh, and thanks, Carrie, for pointing me in the right direction; I will be forever indebted to you!!!

Our Holiday Open House was loads of fun, and although I had good intentions, we were so busy I had no time to take pictures! Except this one of Sarah all decked out in her Christmas finery – isn’t she cute!?!?!? We all loved her Christmas hat!

Mary Lou won our $100 gift certificate drawing, and when I called her this morning to tell her, the first words out of her mouth were “I never win anything!”  She can’t say that any longer!

If you missed the Holiday Open House, you missed a great BIG party! We’ll do it again soon (before next Christmas, I promise!) I hope your Christmas shopping and plans are all coming together. I think I only have one more gift to buy and I’ll be ready! Oh, except for writing the Christmas cards and finishing the decorating and making the cookies and candy and cleaning the house and … and … and … who am I kidding? I’m no where near ready for Christmas! I think I’ll go work on my mystery quilt …

I dragged Lou Ann out of bed at the crack of dawn early Sunday morning for a whirlwind trip to Paducah with Pat. You can tell from the frost on the window that it was a quite chilly morning here in Georgia – 27 degrees to be exact! Lou Ann complained the entire time that we should be headed south to warm, sunny Florida – what’s in Paducah anyway???

After collecting Pat and her 10 bags and 12 quilts (!), we were OFF! Pat offered to drive her car, but being the control freak that I am, I declined her offer and we drove my car instead. Pat brought quilts to bind and RAG QUILTS TO CLIP!!!!! I had my car cleaned and detailed the day before we left – 20 minutes after we left Pat’s house, you would have never known it for the threads and lint and dust all over the car and Pat herself! She even wore black, can you believe it? I can’t believe I didn’t get a picture to show you! Trust me, there was no doubt that Pat was a quilter every time she got out of the car!

There was much (TOO MUCH!) eating and snacking on this trip. We made it to the north side of Atlanta before we stopped to eat breakfast. Once again there was much whining and complaining from Lou Ann. You can see Pat lecturing her, and somehow Lou Ann ended up face down in the sugar bowl! It’s going to be a looonnnggg trip!!!

We stopped at Patti’s 1800s Settlement in KY on the recommendation of a friend. The settlement was closed for the season (brrr, it was COLD!), but the restaurants and gift shop were in full swing.  The gift shop was decked out in Christmas finery, and I couldn’t resist snapping a few shots.

The working water wheel is part of the settlement. See those icicles … brrr!  Wish we’d had more time here, but we had to keep moving – still lots to do!

For some reason, during the entire trip, Pat was unusually obsessed with looking for mistletoe in the tops of the bare trees alongside the highway. It is pretty easy to spot with all the leaves off the trees (most of the time!), and I offered to stop and shoot some down for her, but she declined??? What’s up with that? Anyway, I’ll let her ‘fess up to the Buzzards and Mistletoe story, so be sure to keep an eye on her blog for that scoop! I had to get out the tissues and I almost had to pull over because I was laughing so hard!

A long day was capped off with a yummy dinner at Olive Garden. We had our hopes up that Pumpkin Cheesecake would still be on the menu, and our server confirmed that it was – yay! Unfortunately, he was misinformed so we had to settle for a Chocolate Something-Something-Something! Lou Ann had her eye on the last couple of bites of my piece, but I beat her to it!

Day 2 was an early start, and somehow we ended up at Hancock’s of Paducah – just to check it out. We both agreed going in – no fabric buying! Yeah right! Pat won the prize, but I did some serious damage myself. After all, I can’t carry every possible fabric in my shop, now can I???

So what were we doing in Paducah??? Despite the eating and the foolery, this was definately a serious business trip! We were on a fact-finding mission. We’ve been kicking around the idea of sponsoring a bus tour to the AQS Quilt Show in Paducah in April 2010, and decided a trip was in order to check out accommodations, restaurants, and other venues before making a final decision.

Looks like we’re Paducah-bound in April, ya’ll! Mark your calendars – April 21-24, 2010 – and start gathering your friends for what is shaping up to be THE trip to take in 2010! Stay tuned for specific details in the coming weeks. In the meantime, I’m thinking this would be a FANTASTIC gift idea for Santa!!! Tell him to call me at the shop (678-413-1611) and I can help him make it happen for you.  Under the tree or in my stocking, either way, I’d be a happy camper with this gift, wouldn’t you???