Great LEGO Exhibit in Topeka, Kansas

I enjoyed having my nephews for a week while their parents were in Italy. I tried to come up with one fun thing to do each day to get out of the house. I didn't want them to be to bummed out about being with Aunt Amy and not in Italy with their folks. One day we drove to Topeka to the Mulvane Art Museum on the Washburn University campus. We went to "The Art of the Brick". There were 28 LEGO brick sculptures by New York artist Nathan Sawaya. He is a lawyer turned artist. If you have a chance to see this exhibit ....GO. Grab your kids, neighbor's kids or be the big kid. I think you will enjoy each and every sculpture. It makes me want to go out and buy some LEGO's! We couldn't decide on a favorite. Here are some of the sculptures for you to see how amazing they are.


This one above is called "Cracked".

The sculpture is building himself in the one below.

I hope you all have a wonderful 4th of July weekend full of great food, family and of course sewing! Amy

How creative!

My friend Rosie and also the quilter extraordinaire of all my quilts just sent me this photo of her sewing machine. SHE LOVES, LOVES, LOVES PURPLE! This photo doesn't do it any justice because it looks lavender and it is really a deep shade of purple. This is in her sewing space and don't you just love those walls! No wonder we get along so well. She just got done painting it and I wanted to share it with all of you. She bought it at a garage sale for $10.00 and it was painted a light blue. I just love paint and how you can change the look of anything. She may put her featherweight on top of it and wouldn't that look cool.

Look what I found!

Remember seeing one of these thingamajigs (stereoptic view finder) at grandma's house? I do. I just found two great viewer cards. I love to look for old sewing related antiques. Isn't this card great because the wife is sewing and the husband is taking care of the baby....as it should be right ladies?


This one the Mom better not miss a stitch or ouch!



I hope you all have a great weekend full of your own sewing projects! Amy

I just made the most delicious new recipe and it was so EASY!

This recipe was super easy because you do it all in the crock pot...my dear electric friend. I would rather sew then cook so I love recipes like this. I shredded the beef while it was warm and had it open face on bread for a hot roast beef sandwich. This is one of my favorite sandwiches. It made a lot of gravy and it tasted like Moms! What can be wrong with that. You can even start the rice cooker or serve it with mashed potatoes for the true mom effect. Next time I will use low sodium beef broth because I thought it was a little on the salty side. I will be serving this at the next Bradley get together and I will have two crock pots going of this recipe. Delicious! I hope you all like it!


Roast Beef and Gravy

1 boneless beef chuck roast ( 3 lbs.)
2 cans condensed cream of mushroom soup, undiluted
1/3 cup sherry or beef broth - (I will use low sodium next time.)
1 envelope onion soup mix

1. Cut roast in half; place in a 3 qt. slow cooker. In a large bowl, combine remaining ingredients; pour over roast.

2. Cover and cook on low for 8-9 hours or until meat is tender.

yield: 8-10 servings
prep: 15 minutes
cook: 8 hours

New Outfit For Rowan

My Mom just sent this outfit for my granddaughter Rowan in the mail. I just had to show off my Mom's handiwork and my granddaughter Rowan! She used the pattern IJ8270 Shoulder Tie Topper from Indygo Junction. http://www.indygojunctioninc.com/store/product_info.php?cPath=126_193&products_id=810 Mom said it was super easy. She used the Barnyard Buddies fabric line that I did a few years ago with Moda to make the outfit. Rowan is getting to the age where she likes new clothes and dressing up so Thanks Great Grandma Dorothy!

Road to Oklahoma Shop Hop

When Mom asked me if I wanted to go on the Road to Oklahoma Shop Hop I said YES. We have never done a shop hop from beginning to end and I thought it was about time. We had such a great time getting to see all eight shops. We did five shops Thursday and three shops on Friday. We made the BIG MISTAKE of not staying all night in a hotel on Thursday though. We spent most of Friday morning back tracking to where we left off in Oklahoma. Aaugh!! We took notes and won't be making that mistakes twice. We now have our sites on another state. My daughter Ashley wants to come next year to make it a three generation trip.

We started at Alva, Oklahoma at the shop Fabrics & More Etc. Mom visits this shop the most because it is the closest and absolutely wonderful!! We picked up our passport book and our first block. Each shop designed and sold a block pattern using Moda's Minnick and Simpson Charlevoix fabric collection to make a quilt. They then sold the finishing instructions and kit to make their unique quilt that used all of the eight different shop's blocks. We loved all eight quilts. How can you pick a favorite they are all beautiful! Here are the photos of each shops unique quilt design and the owners or managers of the eight shops.

This is a photo of Fabrics & More Etc. quilt in Alva, Oklahoma.

This is Sheri and Mary Ann owners of Fabrics and More Etc. above in front of the 2009 Moda University BOM quilt. I don't know how I didn't catch them smiling because they are always smiling! I think Mom and I were their first customers for the shop hop. It just shows our dedication to getting out of the starting gate early .... to buy fabric of course.

This is Liz and Gretchen a mother and daughter team above. Their shop is Quilter's Depot in Ringwood. They also put on a quilt show in a community building close by. They served delicious BBQ sandwiches with sides for a small fee also in this building. It was our lunch on Thursday and it was delicious. Super friendly shop!

Randa, above is the owner of Prairie Quilts in Hennessey. She has a wonderful big shop in a 100 year old historic building. She even installed a elevator to get up and down for classes and shopping ease. This is a great feature since we believe we have to pack our studio in order to take one class. Have I mentioned that all these stops usually included free cookies. The iced sugar cookies at her shop are worth mentioning....delicious! Randa is one of those ladies that can get a lot done and has a great shop to show for it.

We climbed into her front window to get this photo above. This is Terri in front of her quilt. She is the owner of The Quilting Post in Stillwater, Oklahoma. This is a college town and the home of the Oklahoma State University. I just love college towns they offer so much!

Above is Michelle, owner of Sooner Quilts in Guthrie. I love this town for antiquing also! Mom and I thought we couldn't possibly need more fabric and then we walked into her shop after buying in all the previous shops and started buying. What were we thinking that we didn't need more fabric!!! She had a Minnick and Simpson trunk show from the designers so it was an added treat for all of us traveling quilters.

This is Verlinda (the manager) and Toni of Oklahoma Quiltworks. They won my prize for most demos going on. They have also started a sign up for my new Merry Christmas quilt in their shop and showed me the first three blocks. They even ordered three different bolts of fabric to get the perfect fabric for the skin color. This was our seventh shop and we still found more fabric to buy of course!!

Above is Billie of Patchwork Place in Norman. She was actually talking to Sheri from Fabrics & More Etc. our first stop when we stopped to see her, our last stop. She had the perfect white on white fabric for my next project.

Above is Suzy of Completely Quilted, Ponca City. We missed meeting her daughter Nancy who co-owns the shop. I thought their quilt design looked like a modern day Navajo blanket. Very creative! Suzy does the quilting in their shop and it is beautiful.


At the end of the two day trip we had filled passport, more fabric, less money and memories to last a lifetime! I can't wait to go on my next one! Thank you to all these amazing shops and their employees who worked so hard to put on such a great event! You should all plan your schedules to go next year!