State of the Stash.

State of the stash.
I know mine is not the worst but it is pretty bad. It was organized at one time. I simply ran out of room, so stuff got stuffed.


What is the state of your stash?


I am really looking forward to getting my quilt shack done. We did get an estimate from the electrician. So maybe soon there will be progress.

Gluten Free?

Gluten free Banana Bread, Yummm. It is probably the best banana bread I have ever made. Rich and moist (The butter doesn't hurt either).

You may wonder why the Gluten Free thing? I do not have Celiac Disease. However, Last year I attended a post graduate seminar entitled Nutritional Influences on Neurotransmitters and the Brain.

One of the big take aways was Gluten Intolerance is rampant. It plays a huge role in suboptimal health. Maybe you are experiencing health problems and your regular medical doctor can't find any thing wrong. Or maybe they do find something wrong, like an auto immune disease that is fueled by gluten.

Gluten is the protein found in wheat, rye and barley. It is in so many processed foods. Members of my family and myself have tested positive for gluten intolerance. A blood test is not always accurate. A stool analysis is the best determining test. I use a lab called Enterolab. Does a great job, it even detects the gene for gluten intolerance.

I recommend that you all get yourself tested, or at least go off gluten for 3 months and see if all those health problems don't clear up. There are many websites to help you figuring out what you can eat.

If you want more information please email me.

Good Luck

Gluten-Free Banana Bread

Ingredients

1 stick butter, softened

1 cup sugar

2 eggs

3 large or 3 1/2 small very ripe bananas

1 teaspoon vanilla

1 1/2 cups white rice flour

½ c brown rice flour

1 tsp. xanthan gum

2 teaspoons baking powder

1 cup pecans, finely chopped or ground

1 cup Chocolate chips

Directions

In a large bowl, cream butter with sugar. Beat in eggs, vanilla and bananas. In another bowl, mix together flour and baking powder. Combine and beat until dry ingredients are moist. Stir in pecans and chocolate chips. Turn batter into 5 x 9-inch loaf pan. Bake at 325 degrees for one hour and 20 minutes or until toothpick comes clean out of center. Do not under bake

Color My World Yellow

Today I read THIS BLOG and THIS BLOG and decided to play along.

Double Delight Done

Here it is. The latest mystery by Bonnie Hunter at Quiltville.com. Double Delight started on New Years Eve and finished this week. I would have finished it a long time ago but got stalled in the quilting. It has flannel on the back and is thick and cozy. It did not want to go through my machine very well. It has a large meander nothing too creative.
DH thought he needed to record his lovely wife sewing with her cheaters on. Boy what a difference they make when the presbyopia sets in.


The kids thought they would make snow cones from real snow and Juice. So here they are I hope they were really carefull when gathering the snow.Once in a while I induldge in one of my favorites. Sweet Potato Fries. Yummm. I did share.

American Beauty Done

American Beauty Done. I love snow days when they are on a Saturday. I got time to finish this project.


It is American Beauty in Eleanore's book, Quilting Through The Seasons .

I stitched to binding while watching a marathon of "Lost".

DH and I are obsessed with this show. Well actually he is obsessed with MLB (Major League Baseball) and can hardly wait for April. We started watching season one and watched 4 episodes last night.

Another snowy day.


Another picture of our driveway. It must be one of my favorite subjects to photograph. Maybe because I dont have to tell it to smile, get your hands off each other...I digress.

Life On The Home Front.

The American Beauty is shaping up nicely. It goes quickly and there is visual progress. I am using Eleanore Burns method of applique with fusible interface. The points are not that sharp but good enough for me. I haven't done much paper piecing.


We did science experiments this weekend. My DS#1 was trying determine which beverages glow under a black light. Tonic water was the only winner.

DD#1 was trying to determine which ice cream melts the slowest. I think we determined that it does not matter which stabilizers are in it, but how dense the ice cream is. Ben and Jerry's win.
Here is a rousing game of operation. If we can get the small child to quit cheating all will be good. (It is good with a little cheating too.)

American Beauty

American Beauty is the name of this pattern in Eleanore Burn's book Quilting Through the Seasons. I have decided to make this my next project. I had a gentle reminder that we do not need any more bed coverings or couch throws. It is perfectly acceptable to make a wall hanging.
This is a fat quarter bundle DH bought for me for Christmas. He did gift me with two FQ bundles. Read about the other one HERE.


This is the lovely day I woke up to today. I love it when it snows, but I live where it melts as fast as it comes.

Is half quilted good enough?

Here is the progress on my Double Delight. For the last three Wednesdays I have worked on this lovely quilt. I have to remember that the quilt is beautiful and a whole lot of fun to piece. The quilting of it is going to kill me. I love this quilt I really do. I am finding that I am not enjoying this step of the process. I probably have 6 hours in on the stitch basting and quilting and it is only half done. I will not stitch baste again, I don't mind safety pins. I spend more time removing the threads than running the machine. I have broken at least 15 needles (I am not exaggerating!). I keep at it because I know if I put it away I will not come back to it. After I broke that last needle I decided it is time to get my machine serviced. Ah ha, an excuse. I promise to finish this quilt when I get it back from the guy.

Now I can move on to something else. I am trying to get caught up on my star BOM at Patchwork Times by Judy Laquidara


I am not sure which block this is, I have 9, 10, and 11 to do. It was easy and straight forward and very striking.

I got a new camera but more on that another time. Here is picture I took with it at church tonight. This is Eric and his friend Raz.