Book Review: All for a Song by Allison Pittman

I recently read the book All for a Song by Allison Pittman.  This book was awesome.  The style of the book is sort of a flashback.  The main character, Dorothy Lynn, now in her elder years and ailing in her health, remembers a time in her life when she chased after what she felt was God’s plan for her.  Growing up in a rural setting in what seems like the 1920’s, Dorothy Lynn embarks on a journey across the country travelling with a well-known evangelist.  Dorothy Lynn goes against everything she’s ever been taught, and as she does, she learns some valuable lessons about life, faith, and herself.

I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves to read period type novels that integrates faith and living.  It is the type of book that captivates you and is very hard to put down.

Here are the links to the Allison Pittman’s bio and questions and answers.

To comply with new regulations introduced by the Federal Trade Commission, please mention as part of every Web or Amazon review that Tyndale House Publishers has provided you with a complimentary copy of this book.

What Am I Working On?

Besides working on my #scrappytripalong quilt, I started another quilt too.  And yes, this one is for me too.  I know, I am soo selfish.  But last year I made over 12 quilts, and only one was for me.  So…this year, I am making a lot of quilts that I have been wanting.  So…here are some of the blocks I made yesterday.

It’s a 16 patch made out of 2 1/2 inch squares of Moda Jubilee fabric.  I love it.  I love that it’s pink, blue, purple and grey.  The blocks are 8 inches finished.  I am debating if I want to do the whole thing in 16 patch blocks or alternate with solid fabric from the Jubilee collection.

Linking up to Plum and June.

Keep Simply Delighting!

Yumminess Everywhere!

Tonight for dinner, I made homemade barbeque chicken pizza.  It is Super Bowl Sunday, after all.  Believe me, it was incredible.  I dipped it it blue cheese dressing and it was just like I was eating some wings.  AMAZING.   Here’s how I made it:

1 package of pizza dough mix (prepared as the directions say)

1 1/2 cups cooked chicken, shredded or chopped (mine was the left over cornish hens from Christmas that I had in my freezer)

1 cup barbeque sauce (mine was homemade)

1 cup shredded cojack cheese

Homemade BBQ Sauce:

1 1/2 cups ketchup

3/4 – 1 cup brown sugar

1 cup water

1 teaspoon each of garlic powder, onion powder, salt, pepper, and chili powder

Heat until comes to a boil and sugar is dissolved.  Let cool and thicken.

Put it all together and bake.  It was fabulous.

 

I made more #scrappytripalong blocks today.

These blocks come together so quick.  I love it.

My favorite block so far.  I love those little porcupines.  Aren’t they cute?!!?

I started another quilt today as well, and made several blocks, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.  I had to stop sewing because I became engrossed in Downton Abbey that I had DVR’d….it’s my first season but I am hooked.

Keep Simply Delighting!

Snowy Saturdays

Happy Saturday ya’ll!

This is a picture from my bedroom window.  I know it doesn’t look like a lot of snow, but it has been snowing since last night.  And it’s supposed to continue to snow all day and night and all day tomorrow.  So, I figured it would be a good weekend to stay inside and sew!

I started working on my 2 inch #scappytripalong quilt.  I am kinda methodically in how I sew.  I use (and reuse) little zipper top baggies to put my blocks in.  So, before I even started to sew any strips together, I put together all my blocks individually in bags. That way, if I wanna just grab a few and do some, I don’t have everything laying out.  Anyway, all of that to say this, I made 5 blocks today.

On my living room floor design wall

A close up

My blocks are truly scrappy, but I am loving the way they are turning out.

I also found a recipe for homemade refried beans over at Sewfrench.  It is her friends recipe, which you can see her blog post about the recipe here.

I followed the recipe, with the exception that I added a whole jalapeno, not just a 1/2, and mine were done in like 4 hours, but my crock pot cooks fast.

Pre-mash

Post-mash

This made nine 1/2 cup servings.  I froze most of them individually.  They are delicious and so much more flavorful than store-bought.

Linking up to Confessions of a Fabric Addict, Crazy Mom Quilts and TGIFF!  I am counting my blocks that are finished as a finish, and my beans!

Keep Simply Delighting!

I Won!

I am so excited to announce that I won the next round of the Traveling Stash Box #2!  I am currently waiting for it to arrive from Deb, who blogs at Quilting & Other Craft Therapy.

Part of the rules when you win is to blog about what’s in the box.  Be looking for it soon.  Meanwhile, you can hop on over to Deb’s blog and read about what she posted about the box here.

Be sure to check back this weekend to see some great projects I am working on!

Keep Simply Delighting!

Book Review: Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert

I recently read Wishing on Willows by Katie Ganshert.  I loved this book.  It was easy to read and was hard to put down.  The book is about a widow that runs a cafe, and her journey of healing and new beginnings.  She meets and slowly falls in love with the representative of the development company that is looking to purchase her cafe and tear it down to build some condos.  Through tragedy, triumph and relying on the Lord, they both come to the place where they are able to move past their individual pasts, and look towards a future together.  This book is perfect to read in a weekend, on a trip, or the beach!  I highly recommend it.

I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

 

 

 

 

More Love in the Mail!

Yesterday, I received some more love in the mail!

Some fabric I got from Katie at Swim, Bike, Quilt!

A jelly roll of Amy Bulter fabric, a charm pack of Benartex Curiosities fabric

and a mini charm pack of Moda Jubilee fabric.

I am going to make a postage stamp quilt with the fabric from Moda.

A devotional to review and a new Sak purse that was on clearance online for $22.

Keep Simply Delighting!

Wednesday Work In Progress

Don’t you love getting packages in the mail?  This is what I got yesterday:

Once again, I am apologizing for the picture quality.

I purchased this fabric from Connecting Threads for $2.96/yard.

I purchased 7 yards for $18 roughly.  Where do you find a deal like that?

Only at Connecting Threads.

It is the back piece for my niece Gabby’s quilt.

I think it’s gonna look fabulous!!

I also think Gabby’s quilt is my favorite quilt I have ever made.

Linking up to Freshly Pieced.

Keep Simply Delighting!

No Reply Blogger

Just so anyone who cares would like to know…because I use Word Press as my platform for blogging, I am automatically a No Reply Blogger. So…if I comment on your blog post or enter a giveaway on your site, please have enough courtesy to at least leave me a comment on my blog or email me to simplydelighting@yahoo.com. 

Thanks!

Strips are cut!

Yesterday, I finished cutting the 2 1/2 in strips from my stash/scraps into 16 inch lengths for my #scrappytripalong quilt.   All together, I have 241 strips!!!!  That’s enough to make over 40 blocks.  But I love this pattern and I love scrappy quilts so I might make a couple from my strips.  Or…I may just make it big enough for my bed, which is a queen.  I know I said just last week that I will never make queen size quilt again, but, we will see.

Today, I am going to spend the day catching up on my reading (and maybe DVR…we’ll see).  I subscribe to several magazines and I need to get them read and ready to pass on.  My Mom and I swap magazines.  The only ones I don’t pass on are my quilting ones.  Although, I am thinking about letting some of them go as well, as I feel like there isn’t a lot of quilts I have made from the magazines I have and with all the blogs I subscribe to, well…I have MORE than enough inspiration.  Here is the stack I have to read today.

On a side note, here are my reading companions for the day.  I couldn’t resist snapping a quick picture with my phone.

And one more thing.  I downloaded to my phone this cool app called Photo Grid.  You can take your photos and make them into a mosaic.  I have been having fun doing that with all my different pictures on my phone.  Here is one of some of the quilts I made last year.

They are across the top left to right:

1.My Mom’s winterscape quilt

2.Pam’s Calico Candies and Sweet Shoppe quilt

3.Brianna’s quilt

4.Shortcake quilt

5.Shannon’s Tuxedo quilt

6.Maxton’s baby quilt

7.Chelsea’s quilt

8.Gabby quilt

9.My Pink quilt

Linking up with Plum and June.

Keep Simply Delighting!