Photo Friday

These are two fused glass pendants I made at the Wow Factory while we were visiting family in West Virginia. I just entered the one on the left into the Alaska State Fair. The fair starts in two weeks and I'm always anxious to see all the crafts, quilts, livestock, giant giant veggies, and flowers that are entered. My husband on the other hand is less than thrilled about going to the fair and says "it seems like we were just there!" but he is nice and goes along anyway.

More posts coming soon!

I'll be back to posting soon . . .we've been on vacation visiting family in West Virginia. We're having a great time and REALLY enjoying the weather. Alaska is having a cold, wet summer so we are enjoying ourselves in the WV heat!

I hope to get back to posting soon, maybe as soon as this weekend. See you soon!

Hoe Cakes

Tonight I made hoe cakes for the first time. My husband has been asking me to make them for the (in August) 13 years we've been married. The recipe came from his great grandmother in Philippi, WV. You serve the hoe cakes under roast or stew with gravy (didn't get a picture of that part).

Hoe Cakes
1 cup + 2 Tbsp yellow cornmeal
1/2 cup a.p. Flour
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp each of baking powder, baking soda, & salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, lightly beaten
4-5 Tbsp milk
2 Tbsp oil

Mix together dry ingredients. In a small bowl combine wet ingredients. Make a well in the center of he dry ingredients and pour in liquids. Stir to form smooth batter. Drop scan 1/4 cup batter onto hot greased griddle. Flip after bubbles appear and brown other side. Serve under roast or stew with gravy.

Can also be served for breakfast with butter & syrup.

Cooked cakes can be frozen.

Spicy Spring Spiral

This week I completed another of the Spicy Spiral table runners. This one is for an "Ugly Duckling Challenge" that I'm participating in with the Country Roads Quilt Guild in West Virginia. (the guild there voted last summer at their annual picnic and chose "the ugliest fabric" for this challenge. It's the lime green with orange dots fabric in my project - and I love it!) Nope, I'm not in WV, but my gracious mother-in-law has offered to submit it for me at the May meeting. This one is different from the blue & green table runner I made because I used only 4 fabrics and repeated them, rather than using 8 different fabrics.

Down the center I've placed dimensional appliquéd flowers that I made using the flowers from the outer fabric print and stuck them together with double-sided iron-on adhesive (the ladies here in AK affectionately call it "lick & stick" although there isn't any licking involved). After the flowers are stuck together you simply cut around whatever shape you have (for me it was flowers) and then tack them down somehow. You want the edges to curl up on their own a bit.

This is also the first project that I have done any free motion quilting. Luckily I'm not including an up-close photo so you can't see the variations in the stitch lengths. I will definitely need to practice with a steady foot and steady hands on the free motion quilting.