Four-Patch on the Diagonal Top Done

I finished the Four-Patch on the Diagonal quilt top last week, and I really like how it turned out!  The pattern is by MaryQuilts.com and can be found HERE.

There is something very cozy feeling about it.  Maybe all those pinky-browns and earth tones.

It measures around 59 x 71 inches, which is a nice throw size.  

I'm not sure whether I will donate or gift it, but, ultimately, it may be a bit harder to part with than I thought it would be.  I guess that's a good thing!

Lost and Found!

We had a look around the garage a couple weeks ago to see if there was anything we needed to get rid of during our city's bulk waste pickup that happens annually in the spring.

One thing we unearthed that I had totally forgotten about was a 29-inch floor standing quilting hoop that had belonged to my late mother.  It was packed away in its original box and stored on a shelf in the garage.

I am not much of a hand quilter and don't foresee using this hoop, so I brought it in the house to take photos of it and post it for sale on Craigslist.

There was a large envelope inside the box with assembly instructions and other information for the quilting hoop—AND, surprisingly, a recipe booklet from my Aunt Inez that she must have given my mom in the mid-1990s!

How that ended up in the envelope inside the quilting hoop box is anyone's guess.  But my parents did move from Wisconsin to Arkansas in 1995, so I can imagine that in the chaos of packing, my mother stashed the recipe booklet in a "safe place" at the last minute.

I don't think my mom ever used the quilting hoop after their move.  She made a few quilt tops during the next couple years, but then she had a stroke that paralyzed her left arm.  She had all of her quilt tops longarm quilted a few years later and gave them to her granddaughters.

It was such a pleasant surprise to find my aunt's recipes some 28 years later!  Here are a couple pages from the booklet.  Having grown up and lived most of her life in Louisiana, it was fun to see a recipe for Crawfish Etoufee.

And recipes for some of my grandmother's cakes and pies.

This 1-2-3-4 cake sounds like something that would be good served with fresh strawberries and ice cream.  Strawberry season here is right around the corner.

There are so many other great family recipes in this little booklet, flavored throughout with my aunt's helpful tips, remarks, and admonishments.  It makes me smile!

I'm going to put this in its own three-ring binder and then on my recipe book shelf so I know where to find it from now on.

~Paulette