Art Challenge

I posted this photo on Facebook and got a lot of comments. Most of them were suggestions on what to add to the painting to make it better. Boats, fog, Gilligan's Island, and tigers were included in some of the comments. It was a lot of fun.

Now the challenge: Leave a comment with a link to a photo of original artwork by you. Please, no photographic art. I know tons of photographers and I would like to challenge them as well as local friends and family members to do something they feel a little less comfortable doing.

And the prize for participating: On Friday, April 13, I will have a drawing (I need to find a random number generator.) for a $5 KMart gift card. And no, KMart has nothing to do with the contest. I just happen to have the gift card.

Did I cover all the details? If not let me know and I'll update this post.

Can't wait to see what you can do. It's all fun. No critiquing.

Wordless Wednesday

Teresa's Craft Room is participating in Wordless Wednesday.

Adventures in Gluten Free Pasta

Today's post is more Teresa's Kitchen rather than Teresa's Craft Room. But that's ok, too.

I started with the Gluten Freeda's recipe. It's really simple and easy.  At least the making the dough part, anyway.  Just make sure you have plenty of eggs on hand.  The pasta machine part isn't hard, either.  Just follow all the directions and allow plenty of time till you have practice using it.

The pasta machine, well floured.

Hanging pasta, waiting to be cooked or dried for storage.

Pasta in the pot.

Garlicky cream sauce.

Ready to eat! We added a little cheese and tuna to make a quick lunch while the BBQ pork was cooking.  But that's another post.

The pasta was absolutely delicious! It was so much better than store bought.  We will be having pasta a lot more often now.

Polar Bear Plunge Cake Competition

I love impromptu adventures. That's what we had today.  My husband interrupted my Netflix viewing to make me watch a segment on Delmarva Life on WBOC.  I'm so glad he did! The winner of the first season of Cake Boss: The Next Great Baker, Dana  . . . . can't remember his last name  . . . .  would be at the Rehoboth Beach Convention Center with five other contestants from season one and two from season two to have a 'Cake Off'.  I immediately looked up the information and made plans to go.  Not long after I posted on Facebook that we were going, my older step-daughter called and asked if she could go with us. Of course, she could!

DH and I left at 7:00 am to pick her up, head south, and find breakfast before going to the convention center.  I'm not sure what any of us expected, but we were all pleasantly surprised and had a great time.  I thought we would check in, see what was going on, leave to get lunch, then go back for the finishing up.  Instead, we stayed, took lots of photos, and watched every step of the cake making and competition.

One of the very best parts was the competitors interaction with the audience and answering audience submitted questions. It made the time pass quickly and let us get to know the competitors.

Each team started quickly building the basic structures.

I took a look around to see what else was going on.

Desserts by Dana had a vendor table set up with goodies and souvenirs for sale.

There were some sweet volunteers at the Kids Cupcake Decorating table.

For the most part, the security team did a good job of politely keeping the guests from standing in the aisles and in front of the seated audience.

But not always.  And some people are just oblivious to their surroundings.

This was the crowd at 11:00 am.

And this was the crowd at 1:00 pm.

I want one of these 30" sheeters - and kitchen that will hold it.

Time is ticking.
The display cakes are 'dummy' cakes from Dana's shop.

DH can't resist a girl with a crown and a sash.

There were lots of bits and pieces of 'rice cereal treats' and cake left from the carving.

The following are photos of the nearly finished cakes.

Dana's team finished with about 12 minutes left of the 6 hours of the competition. Jay's team was finishing up, but the audience started gathering at the front of the convention center and I couldn't get a good shot of the cake. We left at that point. Hopefully, there will be photos of the finished cakes elsewhere on the internet.

Thanks for stopping by and taking a look at my photos.  I really enjoyed the day. Now I need to figure out how to get on The Next Great Baker. Who knows. Maybe in a couple of years, I'll be competing with them.

Links:
http://www.sode.org/fundraisers/polar-bear-cake-off/
http://dessertsbydana.com
http://www.jayquallsinc.com/about.html
http://www.sugarplumbakerykingston.com/
http://pamcakediva.com/
http://cakelush.com/
http://jazzycakesla.blogspot.com/
http://www.facebook.com/www.thecakefather.net?sk=wall
http://www.keshajobakes.com/
http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/tv/next-great-baker

Quilts for Grandchildren

This is what I've been working on recently on my days off from work. With the arrival of the Holiday Season, I have fewer days off and fewer hours off on the days I work. That means I'm now squeezing in sewing/quilting/etc. in the bits of time before and after work.

The Robyn quilt was my first real attempt at Free Motion Quilting (FMQ). It was a disaster.  You can't imagine how much machine stitched quilting I ripped out and re-attempted.  You won't be seeing close up photos of the back of this one. It still looks pretty rough. Hopefully my granddaughter won't care and my daughter won't mind repairing it when needed.

This photo shows the machine stitched Prairie Points border.

I had learned a trick or two about FMQ by the time I got to this one.  I really enjoyed this one.  There was not nearly the amount of frustration that accompanied the Robyn quilt.

Detail of machine stitched binding.

I haven't advanced past the basic random loop-ti-loop. Perhaps I'll try something different when I finish my current project.

I'm currently working on a crib size quilt made with "Little Apples" from Pink Castle Fabrics.  I wasn't to sure about the fabric combinations till I got the top pieced. Now I love it! Hopefully I will have it finished and ready to photograph by this time next week.

Red Dresden Plates

Another quilt from the Quilt Show.

*Just a reminder. These photos aren't my quilts. Just my photos.*

And a Triple Irish Chain:

Quilt Show: One Of My Many Favorites

I made a similar quilt once. Mine was just the sun/star block in the middle-left, repeated and turned, and in similar colors. I gave it to friend as a baby gift. I thought she could appreciate it. I want to make another one for me.