JUST HAVE TO SHARE THIS

Interlocking Seasons big blocks--about 23 inches each of the blocks.  Will make four sets like this and then quilt each set then sew them together and add borders.  Not sure exactly what those will be.  Anyway...just wanted to share this for now.

PAELLA--OLE!!!!!!!!!!!!

Challenge from Daring Cooks was to make paella.  Something I'd always wanted to try but seemed daunting.  It isn't!  Mine isn't as fancy--pretty simple with just shrimp and sausage, but very delicious.

Whole family was here, so made two pans.  In one I put white rice, in other brown. Brown took longer to cook and rice was a bit chewier--which I loved!!

Mise en place for paella.  That's just kielbasa sausage that was sliced and fried up.  

Generally, paella includes seafoods--clams, mussels, shrimp, some sausage, sometimes chicken, sometimes lobster tails.  It can probably be just about anything you'd like and even vegetarian.  There are all sorts of recipes and many youtube type videos out there.  Mine included what's shown above and shrimp.  Best we could get here were frozen.  It usually also includes saffron but the challenger said we could use paprika, so that's what I did.  There is a special pan "paellera" that can be humongous as in one video online, or much smaller.  I used two different type of pans--one is a wide, curved side 12" skillet, other is a large saute pan.  I'd like another 12 inch skillet if I were doing two again, or the gorgeous copper paellera I saw--it was "only" in the three hundred dollar range!  Whatever, it all turned out deliciously and was enjoyed by almost all--a bit spicy for a couple of my little girlie girls.  

You really should try this--I know you'll love it!

Blog-checking lines: Our Daring Cooks’ September 2012 hostess was Inma of la Galletika. Inma brought us a taste of Spain and challenged us to make our very own delicious Paella!

BEJEWELLED--triangles are a girl's best friend!

Couple weeks ago dear hubby came home with Bejewelled runner pattern
by Karen Montgomery and a strip set to complete it.

Back of runner showing quilting.  Started with the idea of following the seams, but I'm just not too good at that!
As it turned out,  just love the sort of haphazard way the designs worked on the triangles
and the sort of crazy quilting on the black.

Cute hubby taking above picture of the runner for me while
trying to not get his toes!

All pieces done in strips.  As it turns out I misunderstood the way to press the seams. It's diagrammed on the pattern, but will pay more attention next time!.  Because of how it's sewn, you can't change the direction after compiling each strip--unless you pick it all out (NOT happening)  It made for thick seams.

DD and DGD picked out 20 lovely batiks from my stash for me to make one for their home.  Lovely colors and anxious to see it come together.  The pattern shows batiks in purples and greens, but any colors would be nice.  It's 60 degree triangles out of twenty 2 1/2 inch strips.  I think any combination of colors and fabrics would work out well--maybe not too large designs, but who knows?