Elsie, cinnamon buns, golf cart parade, Cookie & Elsie a duex, new patriotic quilt top continues

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!!!  We hopped up early Monday morning (5/30) to get the buns out of the fridge and ready for baking:

they rose beautifully overnight

Elsie was sleeping snuggly under one of our foot stools:   

We got the buns baked and iced 

and headed off to Paula’s.  Sun City has a golf cart parade on Memorial Day: 

Segway Uncle Sam always participates

an honest-to-God Rolls Royce!!!

and Paula is on the parade route.  She always invites a bunch of neighbors/friends over for coffee, mimosas and pot luck brunch items:

 The cinnamon buns were a big hit…we only came home with 1-1/2 buns.  When we got home, there was snuggling going on:

 Michael and I finally got the tomato plant that Paula bought us potted on the deck and I sewed for most of the rest of the day.  I did have to take an hour off to get out 2 sets of minutes that I was behind on…one for Machine Embroidery and one for the Volunteer Chocolate Event happening in October.  I finished up the last blocks from the first 5 strata I had sewn:

And began working on the additional 5 sets of strata I need to finish the top of this quilt.  I headed upstairs at 8:30 to watch TV with my honey and sort some fabric.

hidden wells started, Leila's quilt finished, cinnamon buns

I guess there’s some tropical storm that moved in on us overnight, so we awoke Sunday morning (5/29) to solid rain…no planting for me!  Well shucks….I was FORCED to head to the studio and craft all day long :~).  I worked all day on my patriotic blocks and I got 6 completed by late afternoon:   

final strata...all from Ginny's stash

Do you see the mistake in my layout???  Look at the top two blocks....I don't have the blue meeting in the center, between the red and blue block.  You have to be very careful laying this out!  

After that I dropped back to finishing Leila’s quilt and that was done by dinnertime:

 We had leftover stroganoff for dinner, then I put together dough for cinnamon buns.  I've never made cinnamon buns and plan to take them to Paula's for breakfast on Monday.  The dough rose for 2 hours, then I put the buns together:

beautiful dough rolled out to a 20'' by 18'' rectangle

laved with butter

sprinkled with brown sugar/cinnamon mix

heaped with pecans

carefully rolled up

voila....ready to rise in fridge overnight

 I hope they will be awesome...I'll bake them in the morning and then cover with cream cheese frosting.  After that it was TV watching, then off to bed.

garden planting, Leila's quilt started, start of patriotic strata

I have to give a big SHOUT OUT to Debbie & Claude.  Thanks to their timely delivery of an anniversary card, Michael and I realized it was our anniversary yet again :~).  We were hoping to do some kind of special dinner Saturday to celebrate, but it didn't work out that way...it doesn't matter...we had a wonderful anniversary anyway. 

Jan called me early Saturday morning (5/28) and we ran to Harris Teeter.  She bought 2 packages of oreo thins for me, and I bought 2 as well.  I asked Paula to buy 2 also, and that should be enough to get my through my icebox cake demonstration for SWEET & SAVORY in June.  When I got home, MIchael had already left for golf (eventually coming home with an 88, so he was pleased).  The sun hadn’t reached the backyard yet, so I headed out to get some planting done.  I got my 3 roma tomato plants in and my basil seeds planted…

I always plant basil seeds...it's so easy to grow from seed

By then I was hot and sweaty so I headed inside…I’ll do the rest of the flowers and herbs tomorrow.   

I have these pots plus a bunch of seeds

 I started quilting Leila’s quilt (she always picks the cutest fabric…I love this baby quilt) 

 and also pulled out some new fabric.  My friend Ginny had quite a bit of red/cream/blue in her stash and I plundered it to begin 2 new patriotic quilts.  Jan is teaching a class at quilting in July called “hidden wells”.  She hasn’t been able to find her old directions as yet, so I thought I’d do my 2 new patriotic quilts in that pattern, and take pictures of what I am doing along the way, so that she could use them if she needs to.  I headed over to Pat’s in the late afternoon, just to chat and was there for almost THREE HOURS!!!!  When I got home, Michael had already eaten dinner and was making popcorn.  Since Pat filled me up with cheese & crackers & spinach dip for MY dinner, I said yes to the popcorn and headed downstairs.  Michael watched a movie and I got a little bit further on my patriotic strata.   

Around 10 I wandered upstairs to watch TV with my honey before bed.