Home Cooking

My Mom brought her recipe book (iPad) with plenty of Rachel Ray recipes to keep me well fed for the next month. Tonight she is making artichoke and bacon pasta, and french bread.

Addalyn's Diamonds

In preparation for the arrival of Addalyn in early November I decided to make a baby quilt to welcome her to the family. I tried to consider the family she would be born into and picked colors and fabrics reminiscent of her Mother's love of France and vintage yellow, beige, and creme.  I also considered that her Father would want to build a blanket fort with the quilt so it had to be larger than 'baby sized' and would definitely need to cover her legs as she grew.

 I considered that Addalyn would become the center of attention for many of the family, and in turn the family would become the center of attention for Addalyn so I picked a pattern called Square in a Square. The above quilt shows technically correct but rather bland design.

After walking past the quilt for about two weeks I realized the setting was entire all wrong, the perfect quilt for Addalyn is not a Square in a Square, so I repositioned the quilt blocks then cut off the extra fabric on all four sides to reveal a quilt set on point.

I call this new quilt design Diamond in a Diamond. As you can see, Addelyn is in the center of each block in a variety of colors: pink, blue, green, yellow, tan, beige, and black. Encircling the center block is a row of smaller blocks in various colors and patterns, these represent the numerous relatives she will share her life with. The third row repeats the center block and represents Addalyn encircling her family. Finally, blocks representing the family then connect each one of Addalyn's blocks.

Corner detail of striped stop border, outside border and binding.

European Vacation

I've sent a travel itinerary and hotel confirmations to my family and significant others so I won't repeat them here only to say that I will be updating my blog via my written journal when I get back later in the month. Look for an expanded version of this schedule.

Day One: Morning departure with a short layover in Washington Dulles Airport (think Die Hard) then overnight flight to Rome, Italy (I wonder if they have Roma tomatoes)

Day Two: Arrive in Rome, check-in to hotel, relax or explore the city.

Day Three: Rome sightseeing, see the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, see ancient Rome including the Forum, Colosseum, and Circus Maximus.

Day Four: Rome at leisure, perhaps the Vatican?

Day Five: Rome to Athens transfer

Day Six: Athens sightseeing, see the Parthenon on the Acropolis and other important ancient Greek buildings

Day Seven: Athens at leisure, perhaps a cruise to the Greek Islands?

Day Eight: Athens to Istanbul transfer, shopping at local bazaar

Day Nine: Istanbul at leisure, perhaps explore some ruins?

Day Ten: Istanbul sightseeing, see the Topkapi Palace, explore St. Sophia's Basicila

Day Eleven: Afternoon departure from Istanbul, Turkey with layover in Denver, Colorado then arrival in Salt Lake City early evening.