October at its end...already

Happy Halloween! Well club members, it certainly has been an honor to host the and to connect with all of you. Your October projects are gorgeous and I could not pick a winner even if I tried to; so in the next few days I will do the draw for two $25.00 gift certificate from Kelly at the TGIF yesterday and better still, the afternoon off, I was able to finish the next step

to my "Half Pint" quilt alongRemember to connect with Kelly to post your November projects and I will be looking forward to seeing all the "beauties" that are bound to come up for the Christmas Season on your blogs.

Happy sewing... Check here for the winners of the October draws.

Last October project

Well I am certain everyone will be glad to hear that this (Diamonds Are a Girl's Best Friend) project is finally finished. I know: I know: I have been boring you for so long about this piece but I am so glad to have done it and I could not have, if it hadn't been for my friend Karen
So here is my last October project:

The diamonds
Putting it together... The assembling of the diamondsThe stippling..
And voilà....under my Hollyberry bush...

I can't tell you how much this piece has given me confidence to attempt other challenges in my quilting; because I never dreamed I would sew a perfect "Y" seam...
Thank you Karen !

Quilt Along ♥Half Pint♥

Another sewing retreat with my sister.


After our weekend in Amherst Simone and I decided to have another week-end of sewing. "Jay" was gone for the week-end so it was girls only with time to sew. I planned the meals ahead and thank God for slow cookers everything was prepared in the early am and slow cooked on its own until dinner, allowing us to sew sew sew. People who came to visit were given a lint roller to remove the threads from their socks, pants and sometimes hair...it was flying everywhere....

But you see, I almost had a panic attack.....


When I opened my e-mail Friday and saw the Half Pint instructions, I realized I was way behind... (I missed a whole week in my mind...) When I read Kelly asking if we needed more time.... I thought; oh my! yes...


But the sewing retreat got under way and here is how it all unfolded....

This is Friday's sewingThis Saturday's sewing


And this is Sunday sewing....

Kelly asked if we were swimming in nine patch... I don't know if I was swimming or snorkeling?

But I am all caught up....whew....:)

Mini Quilt Swap

My mini quilt is all done and shipped I choose this pattern because :

....my partner had specified she loved "Kansas Troubles" (and so do I) ... therefore I made it with Vine Creek from my favorite fabric shop the Cotton Charm. She also stated she liked hand appliqué (which I love to do) and this "Posy Pots" pattern has appliqué which I hand sewed. Of course it was hand quilted by my friend Agnes.

Kris has finished her Mini Swap quilt and it is posted on her blog.. ADORABLE

Another gorgeous Mini Swap quilt finished by Cora and posted on her blog.

Log Canada Quilt

How exciting♥♥♥ ... Karen's "Log Canada Quilt" was in the Houston Quilt Festival. You can link on to the Festival through Karen's blog..and see the beautiful quilt with the red and white "Maple Leaves"...

Our CG friend's shoe

Liz sent us her shoe type....

Hi Joan,
Hope you had a great weekend.

I think I would consider me like the "hippie shoe".
I go for comfort and I'm most comfortable in a pair of
old jeans and a soft t-shirt. I would rather be barefoot
but these shoes are next best think. I love to listen to
music and just CHILL.

Peace!
Liz

I am having fun reading about your shoes styles....

♥♥♥Yummy recipes♥♥♥

Thank You so much; Charming Girls for the recipes. Thanksgiving is finished here but reflecting on gratitude goes on all year and I will especially remember to do just that as I try out your recipes. This recipe from our friend Liz..

Green Pineapple Salad

Dissolve: 1 pkg. (3 oz.) lime Jell-O

1 cup hot pineapple juice and let sit for a few minutes.

Add: 1 cup small curd cottage cheese

1 cup evaporated milk

1 cup drained crushed pineapple

1/4 cup mayonnaise

Pour into dish and let set for 8 hours.

At Christmas I put in some maraschino cherries.

You can view the following beautiful recipes submitted by our friends by connecting to their blogs:

Honey Roasted Vegetables from our Charming Girl Friend Anne:

Pecan Pie from our CG friend Michelle

Pumpkin Streusel Pie from our CG friend CJ

Tangy Cauliflower from our Canadian CG friend

Cranberry Salad from our french chef,and CG club leader, Kelly

The Lemon Cake from our CG friend Jeannette

......and the winner of the Thanksgiving/Fall Charming Girls Giveaway is:

Michelle would you e-mail me your mailing address? And the following will be forwarded to you. ♥♥♥Congratulations♥♥♥

Enjoy!

A surprise awaited me when I returned from Amherst... my tea towel from Carlotta for the tea towel exchange and the recipe for her mom's Bread Pudding.. The tea towel and a pot holder to match, are beautifully adorned with gingerbreads.......thank you Carlotta.

The names of the recipe entries will be put in the hat for Kelly's draw for the chance to win one of the two $25.oo gift certificate for Cotton Charm.

Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend

Wow! what a workshop!!! I was sitting at my machine for no more than 5minutes when I turned to my sister and we both had a look of total amazement at how much we had learnt in 5 minutes.
Karen is an absolutely "awesome" t e a c h e r.... her calm demeanor makes for a wonderful learning experience. She has faith in all her students from the get go and therefore it removes any fears or feelings of being un-teachable! Her encouraging phrase "you will be doing this (Y seam) procedure by the end of the day" and by "gosh" she was right... we did it... Watch it ladies I am digging out all the patterns I had stored away because there was a "Y" seam...
Needless to say the day just flew by and the whole conversation on the way home was how we wished Karen would move next door....(Problem with that is my sister lives at one end of the province and I live at the other end.) ????
This was the room where we had our class.. Beautifully set up for about 24 of us... Sis, Simone gets ready to cut those diamonds....Karen
always ready for a one on one...
Here we are the three of us and behind us is that gorgeous project we learnt to do....

I will have some pictures of mine soon.. I am so excited to finish it ... and yes ... make another one...
All in all it was well worth the 6 hour drive....both my sister and I have no sense of directions so we need to add another hour each day for all the wrong roads we took. hee hee...( can't admit that to men, though)

The Fibre Festival was full of wonderful displays and the people were so friendly it felt like home. Plans to be back next year is already on our agenda.

Tag for the Charming Girls

Charming girl friends you have been tagged!

****I love shoes**** and
Friends are like shoes....varity counts!♥♥♥

In case you cannot open this one and have difficulty seeing these: from left to right :

First row.. #1 the Hippie #2 the dancer#3 the sophisticated one

Second row...#1 the athlete one #2 the cute one #3 the cool one

Third row....#1 the practical one #2 the sexy one #3 the cowgirl

Fourth row...#1 the classy one #2 the young at heart #3 the easy going one

So which shoe fits you and why do you think so? Maybe you fit in more than one shoe so submit as many as you wish. Remember your name will be put in Kelly's $25.00 gift (2) certificates as many times as the number of entries you send....
Good luck Girls!

Send me notice via this blog you have posted your answer on your blog and if you have no blog send me an e-mail with your answers.

As for my shoe...I think the "easy going one" is the one that fits me the best. I like to keep things simple and not make too much of a situation accepting things as they come up... calm and unworried; relaxed and rather casual is how I see the shoe fits me.

Well today is the day I leave for Amherst for my workshop. It is The Fibre Arts Festival and Karen has pictures. I probably will not have time to respond to your e-mails/commments until Sunday; but don't let that stop you from connecting on my blog with your finished October projects. I will check those messages for sure:)

And thank you ladies for all the wonderful recipes.. I love to try new dishes and I especially like to receive new recipes from friends as it makes me connect with them in a special way. I will let you know the results of my taste tests as I make your recipes. I will post the links to the recipes that were sent to me so we can all go to our friends' blogs and enjoy the delicious dishes.
And, I will announce the winner of the "Thanksgiving" giveaway... when I return...

***So have fun with your shoes..
“If you want to forget all your other troubles, wear too tight shoes.”

A new recipe

This recipe from our friend Liz.
Sounds yummy.. I am definately going to try this ..
Thanks Liz. Your name goes in for the draw

Hello Joan,
I wasn't sure if I should email you or Kelly my recipe.
I have enjoyed reading your blog too.

The one thing my family has to have every Thanksgiving (and Christmas too for that matter), is
Green Pineapple Salad

Dissolve: 1 pkg. (3 oz.) lime Jell-O
1 cup hot pineapple juice
and let sit for a few minutes.

Add: 1 cup small curd cottage cheese
1 cup evaporated milk
1 cup drained crushed pineapple
1/4 cup mayonnaise

Pour into dish and let set for 8 hours.
At Christmas I put in some maraschino cherries.

Thanks for the time you are spending on all of this.
There is not enough hours in the day to do all the sewing I want to.
Also, a good book to read is the Guernsey Literary & Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer

Thanks for everything!
Liz

2nd October Project

......all done Molly's Meadow by Kim Dielh hand quilted by my ever faithful and talented friend Agnes♥♥♥Notice how green the grass still is here in Nova Scotia, something to be grateful for :)Today was a perfect fall day♥♥
Hope everyone had a good week-end and happy Canadian Thanksgiving. It was busy in my kitchen all week-end with Sunday the family Thanksgiving dinner and today dinner for friends. I did manage to get my quilt binded . This was my relaxing moments after everyone was gone and the house was quiet again with just "Jay" and I. The list of "gratitude" was very long this year because I had all my Charming Girl friends on it. Thank you girls for all your support and inspirations. "Merci beaucoup".

Happy sewing everyone♥♥♥

Cutting day

Yesterday was time to cut...

The first fabric I cut was for the workshop "Diamonds Are a Girls's Best Friend". It will be a Christmas tabletopper and I used the fabric by Holly Taylor called Birchwood Lane....

The fabric is packed and ready for travel ......to Amherst on Thursday...

The second cutting was for my "Half Pint" . I did not cut the sawtooth border because I am debating whether I am going to use the multi colors or just one color. I will know better when I have the centre of the quilt made.

Projects all ready to be sewn!!!! Just waiting for instructions♥♥♥

October Projects

I have been having so much fun visiting all the Charming Girls' blogs, I almost forgot to post my finished projects. As the host, I exempt myself from the draw, but I am enjoying the excitement of all the CG's participation.

This is the first project I finished . I wanted to see what it looked like before offering it as a giveaway.

She is definitely a happy quilter....
An an angel at that♥♥♥ It makes a cute wall hanging..(picture does not do it justice)
For my 2nd project... Molly's Meadow is back from the quilter, (Agnes) so I have the binding left to sew on and I will post it as a finished project.

So don't forget to post your finished October projects and your recipe and let me know on my blog or via e-mail

Special Giveaway for the CGQC

Thank you ladies for posting all your October projects. They are all wonderful and being the compulsive person that I am I would love to make one of each. I am looking forward to your posts of the finished projects. It is very important that you remember the CGQC promotes having fun, so don't feel pressured if you don't have time to finish them all in the month. There is always November and there is no Charming Girl's police :) who will knock on your door to arrest you because your project basket is not empty! Have fun Sewing.....

Now the excitement begins. The reason for this special giveaway is; as you know here in Canada Thanksgiving is in October. October 12 Th to be exact; so I thought it would be great to connect with the Charming girls before our special holiday and have you share your favourite Thanksgiving / Fall recipe with all the Charming Girls. If you have more than one then that is great too. (It can be desserts, entrées or side dishes, etc.) If cooking is not your forté but you have a favourite dish then maybe you can share that recipe from mom, grandma or friends. The recipes don't have to be of "haute cuisine" but something that is about you and your Thanksgiving/ fall traditions for example;( how to bake pumpkin seeds:)
I think it would be a wonderful way for us to make up a:

("Charming Girls Recipe Book ")

Thanksgiving is already this Monday here up North but I will put the deadline of special giveaway on the 15Th at which time I will post the tag.

So here is my favourite fall recipe:

Pumpkin Roll

Grease 10x15 inch jelly roll pan. Line with waxed paper.

3 Eggs

¾ cup Granulated sugar
2/3 cup Cooked Pumpkin
¾ cup All-purpose flour
1 tsp. Baking Powder
1 tsp. Nutmeg
½ tsp. Salt
Beat eggs until frothy. Add sugar and beat until thick and light coloured.
Slowly beat in pumpkin.

Sift next 6 ingredients over top. Fold in carefully. Pour into prepared pan. Bake in 375 degrees F oven for about 15 minutes until an inserted toothpick comes out clean. ( Do not over cook as it will be too dry to roll) Have a tea towel ready with icing sugar sprinkled over it. Turn cake out onto sugar.Immediately after removing from oven and you have peeled off the waxed paper, while still hot; roll from short side, rolling cake and towel together. Cool. Un-roll. Fill with the cream cheese filling below.

CREAM CHEESE FILLING
8 oz. Cream Cheese, softened
1 cup Icing Sugar
¼ cup Butter or margarine
½ tsp. Vanilla

Beat all together. Spread over cake re-roll.

At this point I refrigerate it so the Cream cheese filling will firm a little before cutting

Voilà!
This cake freezes well and handy to have on hand for all those pot lucks, sports events, hostess gift when visiting a friend or having friends visit you. Enjoy! ♥♥♥
From Joan’s kitchen.

Now for the exciting part. For every recipe you send me your name will go in for Kelly's draw of the $25.00 gift certificates but I will also put your name in for the special draw of this excellent quilt book by fellow Nova Scotians, Karen Neary and Diane Shink

And to make it more exciting I will have Karen sign the lucky winners' book when I go to the workshop given by Karen next week.

Along with the book I will send the lucky winner this kit for the Quilter's Angel. This is one of the selection I submitted for my October projects. (I wanted to make certain it was doable before giving it away.It turned out beautifully and I will post it soon.) It was designed by Terry Morberg for Applepatch Designs in Calgary Alberta Canada. So get those recipes out and post them on your blog letting me know you have done so via this blog (or if you don't have a blog send me an e-mail).

As I serve my Thanksgiving dinner and give thanks for all the blessings, you quilters will be on my list.

Happy Thanksgiving Canadians! and an early wish goes out to our American friends.

More entries for October Projects

These from Lucy,

Thanks for hosting this month, Joan. I have enjoyed checking out your blog a little more. :-)
I have the following projects ready to go:
1. Stack-n-Whack quilt top - that I cut out parts of years ago and never finished
2. Ladybug quilt top for a new granddaughter on the way.
3. BOM blocks for an applique quilt called Family Reunion.
4. BOM blocks for another applique quilt called Paper Dolls. (I am behind on both of these.)

If I have more time I will work on the 2 I didn't finish last month, but since I am traveling some this month, I thought I had better go heavy on the handwork items. My computer has problems sending more than 2 photos at a time, so I have included just the 2 quilt tops here. I could send photos of the block patterns I am doing in a different email if you want me to.

Again, thanks for doing this!

Lucy

Here is Elizabeth from Michigan's picks for her October projects :

My starts for October will all be Christmas presents except for the Half Pint which is the blue, yellow, and white.
The first picture is fabric for the pillow cases I'm going to make out of leftover fabric. I got one made already.

the second picture is a convergence quilt that I just made. I had so much fun with it
the third picture is fabric for 3 more. Not sure who is getting which one yet.

The green is a flannel I found this weekend. I'm going to do a Turning 12 throw for my sons girlfriend for her Christmas present.
Have to get it into the quilter pretty quick though.
Well, this is my plan for the month.
Thanks for all your time.
Liz

From Pam in Ohio
Here a few pictures of the three projects I'd like to finish this month.
Number 1 are some blocks I found that I was going to make placemats
out of about 5 years ago and I've decided to add shashing and borders to
make a quilt after I added several more blocks.
Number 2 will be my Scnibbles for this month.
Number 3 will be 4 blocks for the Thimbleberries BOM at my local quilt shop.

Thank you for sharing Pam ,Liz and Lucy. Looking forward to seeing the finished projects!