String Quilt

Do not adjust the color on your computer!

There is no color : )

Well, sort of a color.

Mud?  Sepia maybe?  

Not black, not brown but somewhere in between.

I like the name "putty".

Done with the squares, done with the horizontal strips.

Just need to put the strips all together, make a quilt sandwich, quilt it, bind it and 

get it off to my son and new daughter-in-law...

I better get to work!

Oooo, pretty!

Look what came in the mail today!!!

Modern Affair Mango Flower Blast and Modern Affair Olive Fizz by Patricia Bravo for Art Gallery Fabrics and,

Amy Butler's Soul Blossoms Cilantro Laurel Dots and Soul Blossoms Lemon Daisy Paisley

Two of my daughters were just here in D.C. visiting, and carrying an over the shoulder purse while navigating the metro, visiting the Smithsonian, the Capitol, the "Mall"AND walking 500 miles for a Georgetown Cupcake cupcake (a.k.a. DC Cupcakes on TLC) is nonsense! It adds at least an extra 20 pounds to your shoulders and always needs to be adjusted and monitored. We decided that a small cross-body purse is the solution. Soooo, I'm going to try to make a couple out of these lovely fabrics. Any ideas out there?

Happy Birthday, Karis ... part 1: The Cake

Turns out, there is one thing our girl who loves all things edible doesn't like. 

Cupcakes. 

We had a little birthday celebration for Karis while we were in DC with my parents and bought Karis a genuine DC cupcake complete with ganach and pink frosting.  Karis was very excited to see it! And, she loved everyone singing happy birthday to her.  But then, she got a taste of the frosting.

She gagged. Then signed, "all done, all done, all done!" (I'm pretty sure the raising of her hands like this means, "Get me away from this cupcake RIGHT NOW!")

So for Karis' real birthday, we decided to do something a little different.

(Can you believe this girl is ONE?!?!)

An adapted version of Southern Living's Strawberry Swirl Cream Cheese Pound Cake. 

Made gluten free and with less sugar. 

3/4 stick of butter, softened

1 cup of  sugar

4 oz cream cheese, softened

3 eggs

1 1/2 cups gluten free flour mix (I used Pamela's bread mix.)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup berry glaze (recipe below)

1. Preheat oven to  350.  Beat butter and sugar together.  Add cream cheese.  Add eggs, one at a time.

2. Gradually add flour to butter mixture, beating at a low speed.

3. Stir in vanilla extract.

4. Pour one-third of the batter into a greased loaf pan.  

5. Make the berry glaze by heating berries over medium to high heat with a few tablespoons of water, add a few tablespoons of sugar if needed.  Continue to heat until syrup forms. 

6.  Pour a few spoonfuls of the berry glaze into the batter of the loaf pan.  Swirl with a knife to mix batter and berries together slightly.

7. Add next one third of batter and repeat.  Add remaining batter and repeat.

8.  Bake at 350 for one hour.  

We topped the cake off with the remaining berry glaze mixed with powdered sugar. YUMM!!! 

(Karis was more fascinated by the candle than the cake.)

And she was REALLY sad when we wouldn't let her touch the candle.

But, she LOVED the cake!

And, since no one year old should only have one or two birthday parties, we celebrated with some family and a few friends on Saturday.  For this birthday party, we decided to do strawberry shortcake.

Success! (Although, to be honest, the strawberries were a success. Karis wasn't overly fond of the shortcake or the whipped cream.)