All Wrapped Up for You

Stashes and Anniversaries!

I thought I would throw in a few tips from over the years about organizing my stash!

I always kept a bushel basket beside my cutting table and all my scraps would go into the basket (for me a scrap was anything I could not easily cut into anything else with ease. So left over parts of 2" strips etc).  That basket was fair game for my children.  They could use anything in the basket that they wanted.  (All my girls are sewers today because of that basket). I love string quilts so when the basket would get to full, I would randomly grab scraps to make a block, when I had enough blocks I would put them all together to make a quilt. I loved the book Liberated String Quilts! What's great about these is if you have different types of fabric you can have baskets for each type and when you have enough make a quilt.  I used a lot of flannel, cotton and corduroy.

As far as my stash was concerned, the best for me was to organize it by color. My colors would go from light to dark.  It made it very easy if I was designing a quilt for a class at midnight to find what I needed for the quilt.

I have always shopped my stash first then added what I needed from the quilt store! 

But my stash grew because there was always something wonderful coming into the store that I had to have!

I found a great article on the net for working on your To Do List 

http://www.ivillage.com/managing-your-do-list/7-b-309711?nlcid=hh|01-04-2011|

I also found a great recipe I thought that I would share with you for brownies, it's called whatever floats your boat.

1/2 cup of butter melted

1/2 cup of coco

1 cup of sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons of vanilla

1/2 cup flour

1/4 teaspoon salt

1-2 cups of chocolate chips (or vanilla chips or butterscotch etc)

Combine butter, coco and sugar until the sugar dissolves.  Add eggs one at a time.  Stir until combined, stir in vanilla, flour and salt until just combined (don't over mix) at this point you can add nuts, toffee chips, whatever you like.  Pour into a greased 8" square pan and bake at 350" for 25 minutes.  You can double the recipe for a 9x12 pan and bake 30 minutes.

You can find the recipe and more yummy goodness here:

http://www.food.com/recipe/whatever-floats-your-boat-brownies-32204

My husband had an interesting experience yesterday at work.  A mouse ran up the inside of his pant leg and tried to burrow under his sock!  It was the first time he was wearing his new hand knit 100% wool socks, that I made him for Christmas!

 Today is our 28th wedding anniversary.  Seems like only yesterday we were heading to Washington DC to get married! We have lived in 18 homes, 6 states and 2 countries.  Though it all I am so glad that he is the one sharing this journey of life with me.  Back when we have been married 3 years I wrote him a poem and find that it applies even more today then it did then.  Here it is:

"I don't crave mansions of silver or gold,

Or worldly platinum and wealth untold!

For they soon tarnish as they grow old.

A wealth far greater that I cherish,

It rises with me when I perish,

A wealth far greater that I hold,

Each time my husband I behold!