Dixie Guild's Opportunity Quilt

Every two years the Dixie Quilt Guild in St. George, Utah puts on the most wonderful Quilt Show.
We are already working towards our next event on April 22-23, 2011.
(*mark your calendar now. It's a must do!)

The Theme is "Redrock Festival of Fabric Art".
Pat Peters has been in charge of collecting Southwest blocks for the challenge quilt.

Members were asked to donate a 12" (finished) block.

The top is now completed and ready to be sent off to the quilter.
(excuse the threads, those will be cleaned up)

Our guild has over 200 members, and so many of them have such amazing talent. Pat had more blocks donated than she could use. The extras will be placed into wall hangings that will be up for sale during the Show.

The guild will sell opportunity tickets through out the next year, with one lucky winner in April 2011.

Fiesta Salad

One evening last week when I joined Rae Ann's group at their retreat, Jackie Thomas made a very delicious dinner: Fiesta Salad.
I came home and made it for my family because I knew it was something they would love.
I like to prepare meals in the winter that I can mostly pull from my pantry.

Jackie used this organic blend of rice as the base. I knew I had to run over to Costco right away and get some.

Look how pretty it is, even uncooked.

First line a buttered 9" X 13" pan with torn tortillas. (You can use either flour or corn). Jackie used corn Tortilla Chips and I think I liked them even more in the dish.

Cook the rice according to the directions, and layer on top of the tortillas.

Mix the next 7 ingredients and layer on top of the rice.

*I added a can of chicken in, also. I think this is a great recipe to use what you have.

Sprinkle with grated cheese and bake for 30 minutes at 325 degrees.

Comes out bubbly and warm and delish!

After the dish has cooled a little, place on top of lettuce, tomatoes. You can add a little more grated cheese and some tortilla chips on top if desired.

Yum! Thanks for the recipe Jackie.

This recipe is also good as a left over. My family liked it as much the next day, heated up and used as a dip with tortilla chips.

FIESTA SALAD

1 1/2 C. cooked rice

15 oz. can black beans

15 oz. can corn

1/2 C. salsa

(1/2) 4 oz. can sliced olives

1 C. sour cream

10 3/4 oz. can cream of chicken soup

1/2 C. red or green onions diced

tortillas or tortilla chips

grated mozzarella or Monterrey Jack cheese

Romaine lettuce

Tomatoes (diced)

Break of tortilla chips or tortillas in a 9" X 13" buttered dish. Place the cooked rice on top, and add the next 7 ingredients on top. Sprinkle with 1 C. cheese.

Bake for 30 minutes at 325 degrees.

Cool and place on top of romaine lettuce with tomatoes and grated cheese. Extra tortilla chips may be served.

We Can Quilt It!

Remember Rosie The Rivetar, the United States cultural icon from the 1940's?
Her motto was "We Can Do It!"

Fast forward to 2010: We Can Quilt It!

Rosie represented the American woman who worked tirelessly in the factories during WWII while the men went away to war.
Traditionally, women stayed at home to raise their families. If a woman chose to work outside the home, she was usually only accepted in a clerical, nursing or teaching position.
Rosie's were asked to take over what were previously male dominated trades.

Films and posters were used to encourage women to work, and support the war effort.
Rosie The Rivetar Movement proved very successful. From 1940 through 1944, there was a 57% increase in women entering the work force.

In 1942, a song written by Redd Evans and John Jacob Loeb popularized Rosie:
All the day long,
Whether rain or shine
She’s a part of the assembly line.
She’s making history,
Working for victory
Rosie the Riveter

I still think she looks more powerful with a rotary cutter in her hand.

Texture Magic Covered Hangers class

I taught a class today at my local quilt shop showing an easy way to use Texture Magic.
Quilted Works approached me a few months ago and asked if I had any ideas for using Texture Magic in a simple 1 hour class.

I thought Covered Hangers would work well in a short time period.

There are 7 strips of fabric sewn together to make the hanger front. I had the group put Texture Magic on 3 of them.

The strips are small and can be sewn with a wide variety of stitches and threads.

Two hangers can be made from one pattern, with enough Texturized fabric left over to make a few stuffed hearts.

This is a great way to learn how easy it is to stitch Texture Magic to the back of a piece of fabric, and to see how it shrinks when steam is applied.

When it starts to shrink there is always a lot of oohing and aahing was going on. We like to call that part the "magic".

Some were stitched with a 1/4th grid system, another on the bias.

One student used a decorative stitch from her machine.

This is a wonderful place to experiment with the stitches on your machine, and to try new decorative threads.

Look how pretty this strip turned out.

As the students worked with Texture Magic, they began brain storming all the many ways they would use TM in other projects.

*I'd love to see your ideas! If you have made a project with Texture Magic, please send pictures and a brief description to nedras@mstar.net

My Serenity Bag

A few days ago I showed you the Serenity Bag made by Annie Unrein.

This is an Annie original that she let me borrow for a trunk show.

I loved the fabrics she used: Cara Collection Serenity Taupe prints by Daiwabo.

This bag is just the right length to toss over your shoulder.

I just finished my own Serenity Bag.

I loved the fabrics Annie used, but even after an online search, the taupe line is no longer available. I had this green in my stash, and I thought it would mix well with Texture Magic.

To make the front flap, layer Texture Magic, batting and the focus fabric, and then stitch the pieces together. I followed many of the curved lines.

Apply steam and watch the magic begin. Once the fabric has been shrunk, the flap section is then cut out.

Annie's patterns are easy to make, and she provides very detailed, easy to read instructions.

The bag has an outside pocket on the back.

Texture Magic and the Serenity pattern can be ordered through Superior Threads web site.

Going To Market Quilt

My friend Ricci has finished her "Going To Market" quilt. Great job Ricci!
I love this quilt!

Going To Market by Diana McClun and Laura Nownes of From Me & You Designs.

Ricci made all of the baskets out of Kaffes. (my favorites)

Every part of this quilt was made out of Ricci's stash, except the handle fabric.

Diana and Laura show an instructional video on how to make the basket handles on their web site. It can also be seen on u-tube.

I REALLY, REALLY want to make this quilt. I have all the fabrics gathered, and have this in my line up of "to do".

The beautiful machine quilting was done by Linda Brown of St. George, Utah.

Ricci will be teaching this quilt up at the Bryce Retreat next month. Lucky ladies who made it into her class.

Star Crazy January Blocks Done

I have finished my Star Crazy January blocks.

I'm using Kona White as the background and pulling from my stash for the stars.

Better late than never! I realize it's still January, but I had big plans to have these done the first week of the month. Remember, I had all the half square triangles finished and then discovered my computer had downloaded the paper piecing sheets at too small of a scale.

I had to start all over.

I love the look of these colors with the star blocks.

I am also happy to have this much finished and am looking forward to next week when I can start on the February blocks.

You guys are doing great! Thank you so much for all of your contributions on Star Crazy Log.

Make sure to check our site meter. Since we started a few weeks ago, we have had over 1,000 visits (people looking at our blog), with 2,088 page reviews. As of this week we have an average of 67 people looking at our progress each day.

Dixie Diva January Day Meeting

On Saturday we met at Bev's for our Dixie Diva January day meeting.

Jan K. , Pat and Bev

Most brought hand work.

Verny and Ricci

Margaret, Jan J. and Melissa.

Some worked on aprons.

Pat is hand quilting what I know will be her next award winner.

I have to brag a little about our very own Pat Peters. She just got back from Road To California where her quilt "Birds and Roses" just won 2nd place for Traditional Large Applique.

Congratulations Pat! We admire your beautiful work so much!

(and to think, sometimes I get to sit next to her).

Bev is working on making more baskets. She thinks this is a great way to use up part of her stash.

Right now Bev is making baskets with Christmas fabric, and will use these for gifts later in the year.

I wanted to show you a technique Bev has created to make wrapping the cording a little easier.
She puts a towel on one leg, so her clothes don't get sticky as she applies glue to her fabric strips.

Bev also places a large paper clip on the end of her strips to keep them at a workable length, and to also provide weight as she flips them over the cording.

Eventually the wrapped cording will be sewn into a basket.

Bev is quite serious about trying to use up her stash, and has been making a lot of scrap quilts.

This is Bev's second quit out of this pattern.

She said she doesn't want to make any more half square triangles for a while!

We finished our day together with sharing a warm pot of soup made by Bev, and side dishes provided by everyone else.

Being a Diva is the best.