FISHIES, PANSIES, LADYBUG, OH MY!!!!!

Two latest finished creations are staying at our home. Stained-glass one just screamed "Eileen" when I saw it since it's got the ladybug and pansies, which are one of my favorites and in colors I adore. http://www.bearpawproductions.com/store.php?cat=3 It was a pain to make...not because of directions or pattern, but because basting glue I used just didn't work well. It was a different glue than she suggested so that might make the difference!! To do another stained-glass pattern I'd use fusible web. Made bias because just couldn't see paying money it would have cost to get iron-on type. Of course, for ease, it would have been a lot easier. Someone posted about a glue stick something like lapel stick and might try that another time. Ended up buying one of those bendable lights for my machine and an open toed foot as my old eyes just couldn't see what was going on for sewing bias. Love both of them for other things, too and got a pretty good deal on light at a local sewing machine store. Batiks were used for both of these projects. The fish one was a birthday present to dear hubby...who picks out most of my fabrics for me!! He loves it and it was ridiculously easy!! It's a Ryan Mckenna design. I used corner triangles for hanging it:
http://www.embtreasures.com/articles/QuiltSleeveTriangles.htm shows how to do it. My dear sil hung it up in hall, then cute grandson Trey, made sure to take Boppa out to see it...had to walk him by it a couple times before he noticed it!!

They're similar in size...about 24 x 32.

EVERYONE LOVED THIS BREAD!!

PULL APART ORANGE BREAD (oven 350)

2 Tbl. yeast

1/4 c. warm water with pinch of sugar

1 c. scalded milk, cooled slightly

2 large eggs

1/4 c. sugar

1 1/2 tsp. salt

1/4 c. shortening

finely grated zest of 2 oranges

3 1/2 c. flour

For icing:

2 1/2 c. powdered sugar

5 Tbl. butter, melted

2 Tbl. freshly squeezed orange juice

Sprinkle yeast over sugar water in mixing bowl; let stand about 5 minutes. Add milk, eggs, sugar, salt, half the zest and shortening. Slowly add flour, mix until combined. Knead until shiny and elastic--3-5 minutes. Place in oiled bowl; cover with plastic and let rise until doubled, about 1 1/4 hours. If wish to make dough the night before, you can let it rise in fridge overnight. Preheat oven after risen. Make filling by combining remaining zest, 1/2 c. of the powered sugar and the butter. On floured surface, knead dough a few times then roll out to 18 x 14 inch rectangle, flour as needed. Brush bottom half of dough with about 1/3 of filling, then fold over dough. Brush about 1/3 more of filling over bottom half of dough and fold over again to enclose. Let rest about 5 minutes, then lightly roll out to 12 by 8 rectangle. Brush half with remaining filling and fold. Cut into squares and place in pan, with edges facing up. Let rise about 15 minutes until doubled. Bake until golden brown...30-35 minutes. Remove from oven, let rest 5 minutes in pan, then transfer to cooling rack. Make a thick icing by whisking together remaining powdered sugar and orange juice. Drizzle over pan.

This isn't my recipe but can't for life of me remember where I found it. And did it differently as is my wont to do!! I apologize for how recipe shows up on here...can't figure out how to format my posts :( In the 1970's we were stationed in Germany and I found a wonderful little cookbook with German recipes but in both German and English. My favorite recipe is her pound cake. She used zest and lemon juice for her cake, but after years of making it, I decided to pulverize a whole lemon in Cuisinart (take out seeds first) and put it in instead while adjusting flour to make a good cake batter. I did it this recipe after first zesting an orange somewhat. It ended up a very nice dough and filling wasn't as zesty but rest of the bread made up for it. Also, just added water for icing. Additionally, can't find any loaf pans after a remodel a few years ago!! So used 8 and 9 inch springform pans for a triple recipe--ended up higher than if I do it again, but such a hit. Bread rising

COLOR BREAK

Needed a break from black and white!! This is the June block for Starry Night Mystery BOM at Wish Upon a Quilt. It's really much brighter than this and one of my favorites so far. Major fan of purples and yellow is it's complement, so works beautifully. http://www.wishuponaquilt.com/cgi-bin/Store/store.cgi?cart_id=2763892.19987.s0&product=Block_Of_Month1&productid=starrynight_cool&keywords1=starry+night&sales=0&lastmenu=

BLACK AND WHITE SUPERNOVA

These are the first two blocks for a supernova quilt I'm making. Here's a site with a tutorial and a hot link to a bunch of photos on flickr: http://freshlypieced.blogspot.com/p/supernova-quilt-along.html I spent a lot of time cutting out every block in advance then put them in labeled baggies as she suggested. Her directions are wonderful, but I'm working in black and white and it was just not making a lot of sense to me how to sew what I call half square rectangles. The first two were sewn AND CUT incorrectly. So...to make a lot of work for myself but save my sanity, I made small mock-ups of every square. Crazy, crazy, crazy, but it made sense to me and now when sewing they help me orient everything ok. Here's a few of the baby quilt blocks--gotta think of something to use them for! Maybe laminate them and let grandkiddos play with them for matching games.
This is the back showing the ironed-open seams she suggested and think works well for these blocks. Each block is 45 pieces and takes awhile to sew and press. They were done in an assembly line way. She suggested laying out your strips in gradations for each block and I did that for the first two, then just started putting things together in ways that seemed fine to me. There will be 25 blocks and I decided each one would have a different center and the two outside "point" fabrics would be different for each block. On fabric.com I found a LOT of fabrics I thought I could use. And ordered a bunch :) !!! Several came and are wonderful prints but the fabric is more like canvas so will be used for something else. Two I thought were cute had ants on them but when they came they made my skin crawl to think about sleeping under those very real looking ants, so they'll be made into something for picnics!! Food and ants...now there's a concept!