Best of My World

It's been forever since I've posted a link-fest, mainly because my recreational Internet time has been greatly reduced in favor of weeding? cleaning? sewing? I don't really know Maybe some of all of the above. Anyways, here are some links I've enjoyed lately!

CRAFTINESS

• Project 13: Blankets for Tornado Survivors - If you have the time, please consider making something for this cause! They're not picky about the types of blankets they receive. 
• Strawberry Fields Forever - I love the whimsical look of this fabric paired with this pattern!
• The Moda Fabrics Archive - this is where you go to download jpgs of all the prints in their various collections if you want to load them into EQ or a similar program. I don't have such a program, but it just seems like a good idea to grab what I like before it's not there anymore. Hi. My name is Megan, and I hoard fabric (jpgs).
• 2-Square Quilt Tutorial - This pattern is so elegantly simple. Pardon me while I go dig through my stash of jelly rolls for the perfect fabric. 

FOOD

• Jalapeno Popper Grilled Cheese Sandwich
- And the heavens opened up, and all God's children said, "Amen."
• Lemon Blueberry Pancakes - Lemon + blueberries is one of my favorite flavor combinations. How did she know?
• Double Chocolate Cake with Buttercream Frosting - Nothing novel or fancy. Just good clean fun. 
• Mashed Potato Pizza - I'd really like to try this, but I'm not sure if I'd survive the post-dinner carb coma. 

LIFE

Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ratatatratsy/5394750775/

• Turning Twenty-One - I love lists. I think information is much more easily absorbed and relateable in lists. This is one of the best I've seen in quite some time. 
• Clara's Weekly Photo Project - Dear Husbatron, If you're out there reading this, just know that we will be doing this with our children after they're conceived, born, etc. because it's cute. And because I like any good excuse to buy some fabric. 

Catching Up

Sweet readers, I pray you haven't abandoned me or moved me to the "Inactive" category of your feed reader! I feel like the past few weeks have been quite busy, but I'm looking around and trying to pinpoint what exactly I have to show for my busy-ness. It makes me wonder how I'm really spending my time.

(Let's not talk about everything on last weeks' To Do list that still hasn't gotten done, hmm, okay?)

I've been trying to make the most of my "sit-around" time and have fabric ready to cut while we watch our small handful of TV shows. (Is anyone else rooting for Kelly Kapoor to be the next Dunder Mifflin-Scranton manager?) I figure that if I'm going to let the TV suck me in, I might as well try to be productive while I sit there. Even if it means I'm technically starting new projects, at least I'm putting my fabric to work somehow, right? Currently, I'm cutting fabrics for my H2H quilt, and I might break it into 2 quilts in order to get things to look the way I'd like them to AND to use up all the fabrics. You see that grayish print, second from the right? Yeah, it's not playing well with the other fabrics right now.

I've decided I'm going to make this HST quilt from the stack of French General fabric that Vicki sent. I've supplemented it with a couple of subtle green and blue prints from my stash. By the way, see this link for a bunch of other awesome layouts for HSTs! I always forget how versatile they are.

All my prints have been cut. I just need to finish cutting the solid fabric into squares. Then I can embrace the glorious tedium of HST (half-square triangle) construction. I'm not being facetious or sarcastic. I really am convinced that some repetitive and mindless piecing is just what the doctor ordered for me right now.

I've also been cutting fabrics to make scrappy versions of my Double Diamond 4-Patch pattern so I can eventually have some charity quilts on hand. My charm pack scrap box has gotten pretty out of control, so hopefully, these projects will alleviate the congestion in those stacks of squares for a few months.

(Those are my scrappy charm squares there at the front, bursting out of their box.)

I'm particularly smug that ALL of this fabric, even the yards upon yards of tonal background, came from my stash. I didn't have to buy any of it. Hooray for "free" quilt tops! It's not my usual palette of fabrics really, since it's not all that matchy-matchy, but I'm not going to argue with free-ninety-nine.

If you're here for the food, here's what we're planning to eat this week...

Mother's Day Dinner @ the In-Laws - Fajitas! I made homemade flour tortillas.
Penne Pasta with Vodka Sauce, Roasted Cauliflower
Black Bean Soup, Corniest Corn Muffins
Thai Green Curry, Steamed Broccoli
Pizza!

Check out other menu plans at OrgJunkie's Menu Plan Monday.