Plain Vanilla

Every year my sweet nieces sell magazine subscriptions as a fundraiser for their Christian school.  This year I decided I ought to subscribe to Martha Stewart Living again.  It has been so very long.  Needless to say, I have a whole stack of unread magazines.  Yes, they are lovely, but after a few issues I realized how far Martha's path and mine had diverged.  Were they ever really even close?

I find myself thinking how hard it must be to work at the Martha Stewart Magazine company.  I mean, really, these people have to work to keep digging up new stuff for these articles.  Sometimes I am not sure where they find it all!

I do not forsee myself baking tarts for Bastille Day, inspecting my beehives, or placing straw under my pumpkins (?). 

Anyway, I digress.

The true purpose of this article is really about ice cream.  Yes, ice cream.

Now, first, let me warn you we are ICE CREAM PEOPLE.  You would fall over backward if you really knew the amount of Blue Bell flavors we have at this or any given moment.  In fact, we really only keep the important stuff like ice and ice cream in the kitchen freezer.  The other less important items like beef, chicken and frozen veggies get to hang out in the freezer in the laundry room.  Priorities.

This evening I was rather pleased to see there was an article in the latest issue of Living about ice cream.  Perfect summer time article.  Ice cream.  Actually, perfect anytime article.  Anyway, I flipped to the article, read a few photo captions, and seriously, burst ought laughing.  I guess I have been a Blue Bell fan for far too long (nah).  I know I am prejudiced and I am very OK with that.  But, even so, I am just not sure my delicate palette can handle the flavors the article was suggesting I should make for our summertime enjoyment.

I am not sure which I will try first: Avocado Cilantro Sherbet or..... Sweet Corn and Basil Ice Cream.  You?

How about some Cucumber, Celery, and Gin Sorbet?

Oh, wait.  I know.  I think I am going for the Strawberry Aperol Sorbet.  What's an Aperol?

The Cantaloupe, Tarragon, and Vodka Sherbet might be a hit with the kids.

And who really puts roses and lavendar in ice cream? If you want to dress things up you can always just add Hershey's Chocolate Syrup!

I think I will remain a die hard Blue Bell fan.  I feel like I can trust them.  Count on them in my need.

How about some Homemade Vanilla?

PS - Next time I order magazines, remind me to stick with quilting ones.
PPS or PSS (whichever) - If you are surprised that I could write this extensively about ice cream, just remember my freezer!

Quilting Advancements

I am so excited about this quilt!  First of all, it was really fun to play with another one of Bonnie and Camille's fabric lines, Happy-Go-Lucky.  Such a precious bunch of fabrics.  I love everything they create!

It was also a lot of fun to make all these half square triangle and then come up with a design.  I really love how it turned out.

Once I got the quilt top finished, it was screaming, "Quilt me differently!"  Every time I looked at it, I kept feeling like it needed something different than one of my usual all over quilting designs.  It seemed like it might be a good time to try something new, especially since I have a block of the month quilt which will definitely need some special quilting!

I have had this book for a while and have used it to try some designs every once in a while.  It is a great book!

 

Then I bought the Kindle version of the following book after thumbing through it at a bookstore and liking what I saw!

Both books were super helpful in helping me think about the design for this quit and then put it into action.  It felt weird to quilt it all at a much slower speed.  I was able to adjust my speed higher after a bit, but never wanted to go too fast and lose control.

In hindsight, I wish I had flipped the designs on the patterned fabric to the white areas and vice versa.

Quilting this was such a huge learning experience for me and did a lot to build my confidence in working with other free hand designs.  What fun!

So here is the finished quilt before washing.  Yes, I am washing it as usual.  To me a quilt that is going to be used isn't a quilt until it is washed and dried and soft and snuggly!  I am interested to see how it looks post wash and dry.

 Here are a couple of up close front photos.  In the center white square is a fun flower.  Love this part!  In each of the patterned triangles I quilted a loopy flower looking fan thing (technical name, yes).  In white areas I did double circles.

Honestly, my favorite part of the quilt is the back!  I love how well it shows off the quilting design.  Stunning.  Makes me want to do a solid color quilt just to play with quilting motifs!

I am so excited about doing this and learning all I did!  Can't wait to get it out of the dryer!

Thanks for bearing with all my quilty gushing!

Andrew's Birthday Quilt!

I finished this over the weekend!  The top and the backing were done for his birthday, but I had to wait to quilt it until my machine came back from maintenance and cleaning.  

He loves his quilt!

Quilts and Such Added to my Etsy Shop - Celeste Creates

 All of the following items have been added for sale in my Etsy shop, Celeste Creates.

Go take a look around!  Tell your friends!

And.......

Have a blessed day!

Andrew's Birthday

 Opening presents before breakfast.

 Opening a new game that has been very popular the past several days.

 Chocolate chip pancakes for breakfast!

 Playing Stratego.

 Pool time!  Andrew's big jump into the deep end!

 He was so excited that we go to get out the blow up pool for his birthday!

 Hanging with Daddy!

 Getting ready to blow out his candle on his Chocolate Eclair Cake!

Staying up with dad for a movie night to watch Star Wars for the first time.