Party Time! Excellent!

The "I've received all my swap blocks" emails are arriving...it's such a relief that post office isn't letting us down! Please email me when you have received all your blocks. I've added "DONE!" by your name in the right column if you have shipped and received all you blocks. I still haven't heard from a couple of people about shipping, and a handful of you let me know you'd be shipping late...so in case you are still waiting for blocks from:
Chelsye -- shipping late
Jenifer -- shipping late
Sandy -- shipping late
Shannon -- shipping late
Wendy S. -- shipping late
Melissa G. -- Melissa, I know you've emailed me about receiving blocks, but I can't find an email about shipping.

The charity blocks have continued to arrive as well, and I've updated the list of participants to indicate charity blocks received. My sewing machine has been in the shop the last two weeks but I heard today that it is ready. Yay. Now I can get started assembling our charity projects.

In the meantime, I received two fun packages this week.


I finally spent my gift card to Pink Chalk Fabrics. I decided on yardage for dining room curtains and a holiday magazine. The magazine was a "must have" after a saw Kathy's Christmas tree blocks. I think my Christmas quilt might be wonky stars, swap blocks, and these trees.

And you might remember how I had to wear depends whenever I saw flashes of this fabric. I became obsessed...to the point that I sounded like this:

And so now it is. Mine.


The Riley stripes were on sale so I had to get those, too. I was shocked at the size of the pattern on the main fabric. Here's a business card to show scale.


Which means I will never be able to cut into it. *sigh*

And I was at an impasse deciding which cute picture of Jaxon to post, so you get them both.

Mr. Safety pretending to sell me this postcard. A good salesman always shakes hands!

Potty training can get boring without a little music!

The swap continues....

I am still waiting to hear from about 20 of you about your shipping status. The 80-some of you I have heard from so far have either shipped or plan to by the end of the week, so check your mailboxes! I know this is a busy time of year with back-to-school preparations, but please don't disappoint your teammates!

Since the last time I updated, I have received charity blocks from:

Andrea
Bridgid
Lin
Bobbi
Merumo
Wendy R.
Lisa
Rafael's Mum
Maria
Nicole
Celine
SophiaAster
Amy W.
Robin
Greta
Jessi
Cindy

Thank you so much! We are almost to 50 (!) charity blocks. That's a lot of quilts and tree skirts!

As of this weekend, I had a basketful of charity blocks and my personal blocks had started arriving...and now the blocks are almost overflowing!

What I am currently loving.....

Purple (!!) vintage coat for $8 at the thrift store...

Spoonflower's free swatch day (with a donation to Heifer International)...I'm not quite ready to reveal my design (project coming) but I can't remember the last time I felt as giddy as I did when I opened that envelope...Spoonflower gift certificates will comprise my Christmas wish list this year!

Discovering Jaxon's photos when I download from our camera. Any guesses what this is?

Visiting all the end-of-summer festivals that take place in our neck of the woods with this guy. He calls this look "good boy" and does it whenever we tell him to be good.

Beth's Peanut Butter Cream Ganache Brownies That Will Kill You. You've been warned.

For the brownies:
1 boxed brownie mix for an 8 x 8 pan (if you can only find 9 x 13, double the recipe)
1/2 bag peanut butter chips

Prepare brownie mix as directed, adding peanut butter chips to the batter. Bake as directed. Allow to completely cool before next step.

For the Peanut Butter Cream:
1/4 cup cream cheese, softened
1/4 cup peanut butter (preferably natural because it tastes stronger, I use Krema Crunchy because it rocks!!)
3 TBSP. heavy cream
2 TBSP. vanilla instant pudding mix or custard powder
1 - 2 cups powdered sugar

Beat cream cheese and peanut butter together. Add cream and pudding mix and continue to mix. Add powdered sugar to taste. I lean more toward 1 heaping cup because these get sweet fast! Spread over cooled brownies.

For Ganache:
4 oz. good quality semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 cup heavy cream

Heat together using your favorite method (I microwave, but be careful not to burn). Pour or spread over peanut butter cream. Refrigerate until served.

YUMMY!

Today's the day!

Today is the mailing deadline for the Scrappy Christmas Block Swap!

Please let me know if you are not going to meet the deadline. I've had a lot of you emailing me to let me know you've sent/received (thanks!), but a lot of you have also been posting at Flickr -- and your usernames don't always match -- so I'm a bit confused. I've tried to keep track of who has sent what *but* it would help me a great deal if you could email me when you have received *all* your team blocks and your swap is complete (how's that for a run on sentence!). Over half of you have emailed me to let me know you have shipped, so we are well on our way!

I am so glad we have been able to share a little Christmas spirit. This swap includes participants from 33 states in the US (including Hawaii and Alaska!) and 9 countries! That's amazing!

I will continue to post on the charity projects, and ask your help to finish them. I would like to suggest that we auction the projects and donate the proceeds to charities to fight hunger. It's a terrible thing to not be able to feed your family -- particularly at the holidays when so many of our family traditions center around the shared meal. I think it would be wonderful if we could split donations between Feeding America and the World Food Programme.

I'll be looking for donations of sashing and backing fabric, binding, and batting, and of course, your help! We can keep the Christmas spirit going from August right on through to the New Year!

I'll return to regular posting shortly (lots of stuff to prep for next week's start of school!), with planned posts on my first Spoonflower fabric, a trip to IKEA, and Jaxon's photographic experiments, and lots of sewing room renovation. Stay tuned!