Romania September 2010

The first 3 photos are of Bucharest. This first one is a building inside a building. The old building was the secret service building before the revolution of 1989. I love the idea of "new from old." The bullet holes are still visible in many buildings. But Bucharest is a very vibrant city. Photo 3 is the marble floor pattern in one of the rooms of the Parliament House. Many quilt ideas from the floors there. 

 Here is Transylvania. The Royal family summer palace in the mountains, and the following pictures are from Brasov- lovely town; and the last one is Sibiu. There are many more wonderful places and a book could be written about each place in these photos. As a matter of fact, many books exist. So, before you go, just read a little and you will be so glad you did.

Vanity/Vaidade

These are my quilts and jacket hanging on the DOQ quilt show from October 22 to 24, 2010. The show is gorgeous. The talent of the quilters here is amazing. But this post is all about my bragging. Sorry about my lack of shame; but I am loving the ribbons in all of them. This is mostly so family and friends far away can see my work on the show. Enjoy.

DOQ Show Donation Quilt Challenge

This is my donation quilt challenge for our 2010 show. The members buy the required fabric (fat quarter)and make a quilt using it. The quilts will than be donated to the children hospitals in our area. Duke University and University of North Carolina children hospitals usually get the quilts. The challenge fabric is the black one with the airplanes on the picture on the right. I enlarged one of the planes for the "dream" cloud. The bunny inspiration came from a Japanese magazine with small bunnies. I just drew a large one looking at the pictures. I used polar fleece for the bunnies and cotton for everything else. The batting (wadding) is also 100% cotton. I hope some kid will be happy with this quilt.

Apple Cake

It is apple harvest in North Carolina. We are 7th in the country in Apple production. My friend gave me a whole lot of them and after I peeled and diced them I came to 32 cups. So did some freezing and shared some with friends. I have been making apple cake to take to groups. This is a very easy one to feed a crowd. I adapted this recipe from one found in a magazine. Sorry; but I don't know which one. Anyway, I change the amounts of the recipe to make it.

1 cup oil (250 ml)
2 cups sugar (I decreased this to 2 &3/4 since my frozen apples have sugar)
3 eggs
3 cups plain flour
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
3 cups diced apples (2 large)
1 1/2 cup chopped pecans (walnuts are also good)
1 tsp vanilla

Topping: (optional)
1 cup brown sugar
4 Tbsp butter (1/2 stick)
1/4 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven at 350 F (180 C) Mix ingredients in the order listed. Batter will be very thick until apples are added. Pour into a greased and floured 9x13 inch pan. Bake for about 45 minutes or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Pour the topping on cake while cake is warm.

To prepare the topping:
Mix the ingredients on a sauce pan and on medium heat cook it until boiling. Cook 2 more minutes stirring constantly. Remove form heat and add vanilla. Pour over the cake.

PS. I love cinnamon and it would be a good addition (1Tsp to the batter). The photo shows 2 pieces with the brown sugar topping and 1 piece plain. Enjoy.

Romania 1

Just came back from 5 days in Romania. I loved every minute of it. What is not to love about spend some time with great friends on a beautiful country? Photos in future post. Waiting on DH to do some fancy "stitch" with them.
On the right are some future crafts projects. Romanian fabrics, ribbons, and magazine. I love the ribbon with the colors of the flag. The white paper is from the Peasant's Museum in Bucharest. I bought small pottery items there (not on the picture) and my friend gave me the most gorgeous blouse from the gift shop. This is a must see museum.
When I travel I like to read the "Lonely Planet" guide books. They are very "cranky" on their reviews of everything. So you are prepared; but you also realize that, most time, it is not so bad. I also like Ricky Stevens guide books.
I am glad I did read the Lonely guide (thanks CH library). I am very ignorant on Eastern European EVERYTHING; and the book was wonderful to get the basics.
Just want to say: Romanian people, my hats off to you! Thanks for such great memories.

Donation projects done

Sorry about these photos. My camera will will not stay on. It turns itself off and it will not even close the lens. The batteries are fine. New batteries will not make it work either. So, these photos are all I can do for now. The crocus quilt and the clutch will be donations for the silent auctions at the DOQ quilt show October 22-24 on Bay 7, American Tobacco Campus in Durham, NC. Hours: 10:00-6:00; but on Sunday only to 5:00PM. Admission $5.
Both auctions will benefit cancer research.
The Crocus quilt is a pattern by Eileen Bahring Sullivan publish in 1998. It came from the estate of Shirley W. a friend that lost her battle with breast cancer in 2009. The donation for the sale of this quilt and others will go to breast cancer research.
The clutch bag is from Anna at noodleheads blog. She has a great tutorial. I love the pink zipper that you cannot see in this picture;-( Need to read the manual and see if I can fix this problem.

Modern Quilt Guild Challenge

This quilt in progress is made from a package of 40, 10" squares donated to us by the Robert Kaufman company. Thank you R.K. and John for getting the fabric to us. It is lots of fun to work on this quilt. The use of these fabrics in a project is our challenge for our October meeting. The fabric line is "Glam Garden." The light fabric I added from my stash of fabrics. I still have 5 squares left and I will make another small quilt with it. The blocks are 8" and the quilt is 40" x 40". This is the size that works well for the top of my stairs.
DH saw this quilt and said "India." He has been to India for work a few times and love the place and people. He said it reminded him of the colors of India.
Oh, the messy studio was organized after I saw these pictures and decided it was time to organize it :-)
In addition, I have to make a 12" block and it will be put together with blocks from other members of the guild for a donation quilt. Better get busy.