OCTOBER, 2013
October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month.
Please take care of yourself and have a mammogram!
You are very important to many people, especially to yourself.
You have lots of quilts to still make!
In celebration of the memory of a wonderful mother, I rerun this October recipe bouquet
as a tribute to my Mom and apple pie!
Enjoy and take care!!
The beauty of Autumn is all around me in my New England home. Along with the beauty of the fall foliage for serenity and inspiration, I also enjoy the delicious beauty of the fruits of spring blossoms, most especially apple blossoms. These delicate spring time blossoms have become a wonderful variety of apples. What a wonderful way to celebrate fall than with Mom’s Apple pie! Actually, this is not Mom’s apple pie, but rather her recipe for the pie crust. This recipe is over 100 years old and was given to my Mother by a pastry chef when my Mother was a cook in a Retirement facility. “Mamie” was one of the residents and enjoyed coming into the kitchen every now and then to make a treat for her friends in the home. This recipe makes a foolproof, flaky and delicious piecrust. You can add any filling of your choice for a really delicious pie. I hope you enjoy it!
Mamie’s Pie Crust Recipe
From Orania Samaras and “Mamie”, Manchester New Hampshire
It is a foolproof recipe and makes a very flaky and delicious pie crust.
I hope you enjoy it. Faye Labanaris
Makes Four - 9” pie crusts. Cut recipe in half for just one pie.
5 cups flour
2 ½ cups Crisco sticks
1 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1. Cut Crisco into flour and salt with a pastry cutter until it is in small pieces.
2. Add milk and handle just enough to hold together. (Too much handling makes the crust tough)
3. Wrap with plastic wrap and chill about 1 hour.
I like to remove the dough from the bowl and wrap in piece of plastic wrap before chilling.
Mold the dough in the shape of a flat ball.
4. Flour a pastry cloth lightly (or use a clean linen dish towel) and roll out to the desired thickness.
5. Remaining dough stores in refrigerator for 1 week. It also can be frozen
No matter what pie filling you use,
you will always make a delicious pie with this wonderfully flaky crust!
Please Enjoy It and Share It
SEPTEMBER, 2013
September is Back To School!!!
While we no longer have to get on a school bus or walk to school,
our learning experience never stops!
As quilters, there is so much to learn about … new projects and techniques.
Research has proven that our minds need to be
exercised and stretched to keep them sharp and alert!
So this month try a new project out of you comfort level. Stretch yourself!
I am doing just that. As a hand appliquer, it is quite a challenge for me to be making a queen size machine piece autumn leaf quilt for my niece’s wedding present.
So many pieces and so many precise points…. A true challenge!
I marvel at my skill whenever points come out perfect.
I will finish it, but I will still be a hand appliquer at heart!
PS: Here is the finished quilt!
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It took longer than I thought and grew larger than planned.
Ellen Peters machine quilted it. The bride and groom have received this quilt in time for their first wedding anniversary in October.
Title of the quilt is : A Perfect Autumn Day
AUGUST, 2013
...lazy, crazy, hazy days of summer!!!
With this HOT summer weather, we are spending a lot of time indoors with wonderful AC staying cool. But if a little cabin fever is setting in, I have a suggestion to keep you busy for a bit. Pick one of your "museum" sewing drawers, a shelf or the mysterious plastic bags full of stuff...EMPTY & SORT!
If you are like me, you have several of these drawers that are chock a block full and you haven't a real clue as to what they contain. EMPTY & SORT! This is quite an adventure! You become reacquainted with long forgotten stuff! Sort into 3 piles - KEEP, TOSS & SHARE!
The end result is a drawer that now should have more potential storage space. You have rediscovered some old items you have long forgotten about and you have recycled and passed on those items you no longer want or need.
Enjoy the adventure and stay cool!
JULY 2013
ALOHA from Hawaii!
JUNE 2013
With summer upon us, take time to smell the roses!
Every day is precious!
With that thought in mind, I ask you this month to say prayers for Libby Lehman and her family. Libby is very ill and needs all our positive thoughts. She is a shining star in the quilt world, and is a most wonderful person in addition to being an extremely talented quilt artist and teacher. She is my friend.
MAY 2013
After a long Winter, Spring is at last with us!
Everything is bursting into bloom and I hope you're enjoying it!
My website store is also bursting into bloom with month with French Wired Edge Ribbon Medley Collection packs. These are a great way to build up your ribbon collection for making lots of beautiful ribbon flowers. You can never have too much ribbon, fabric, or chocolate!
As a celebration of the Month of May - FREE SHIPPING on all of your orders during MAY! We now accept credit cards. As always, contact me for special requests. Keep checking for more items being added. Thank you for visiting!
APRIL 2013
April Showers Bring May Flowers! Or in this case a spurt of creativity!
Nothing is more exciting to a quilter than a reason to make a quilt and the fabric to do it! With new babies and several weddings in the near future, I am going to be making lots of quilts this year. I am just like you and have lots of fabric. I know you are going to say you don’t need any more fabric as you have enough for a lifetime of quilts to come. However, YES! you do need new fabric to enliven what you already have on your shelf. Old fabrics do get stale with the passing of time and need new yardage to spice them up. If you have no room for new fabric, then it is time to thin out what you have and won’t ever use because your tastes have changed. There are lots of groups who make charity quilts and gratefully use your fabric donations. You will be blessed with room for more fabric to have fun with, either sewing or just enjoying as you touch and look at it.
The second thing that helps with creativity, especially for me, is a clean horizontal work surface. My sewing table is very inspiring when it is cleaned off of previous projects. I have clean slate to design and play with fabrics. It really works! I am not distracted by piles of “debris”. However, once I am IN a project, the horizontal surface becomes a mountain range of creativity and that makes me very happy also!
Have fun AND HAPPY Spring, at long last!
MARCH 2013
You know what they say about March … In like a lion, out like a lamb…
Well, I hope it means more than just weather. I am energized and excited after returning from the Elly Sienkiewicz Applique Academy in Williamsburg, Virginia during the week of Valentine’s Day. As a vendor, teacher, and Baltimore Album quilter, I am full of inspiration for new projects and new ideas to better my website contact with you, beginning with my on-line shop. Keep checking on a regular basis as we are adding more items each week.
I am pleased to offer the exquisite Hanah Silk in 3 collections for each of 7 color ways. As an introductory special for the month of March – the collection of Earth Tones, will be $5 off the Embroidery Hanks and Treasure Box sets and $10 off the Limited Edition set. Also part of the month long introduction – free shipping on any order.
Visit Silks in The Shop for more details!FEBRUARY 2013
This is the month of Love!...and I am just bursting with it!!!
We are blessed to be the proud grandparents of our first grandchild –
a beautiful baby boy, Nicholas, born January 3.
Life is new again!
I have plans in my head to make lots of fun quilts for Nicky!!
My second love is Roses! I have been making beautiful roses out of vintage designer
neckties. I can’t stop making these beautiful corsages!!! Too much fun!
I have posted a selection for sale in The Shop.
Take a peek and see what I've been up to!
I wish you a month of love and of course, chocolate!
JANUARY 2013
New Year’s Greetings to you!
May it be a good year full of good health, peace & happiness!
May you enjoy each day with some special time to yourself for stitching, even if it just 15 minutes!
Relax and enjoy wonderful feeling we share of working with fabric.
I love the promise of a new beginning offered with the new year!
It’s fun to feel free with the idea of a clean slate.
Begin new projects as a treat to yourself, but don’t worry about old unfinished projects.
You probably didn’t finish them because you didn’t like them.
Get them out of your house!
Instead of that negative energy on the old unliked projects, pursue your new projects with pleasure.
Someone in your guild will love the challenge of your UFO.
Treat yourself to the gift of doing whatever you want this year – at least for the month of January!
Enjoy yourself, you are special!
And don’t forget to have some chocolate, too!