Sampler Quilt

I have been working on this sampler quilt for Tiny Stitches beginning machine piecing class. I am going to teach this for the first time and need to have the sample done for Saturday. It is from Alex Anderson's Start Quilting Book. I think it is important for the students to have a book that they can refer to.

Max (Yorkie) is getting his hair cut tomorrow morning so we will be up early. Petsmart offers early morning appointments for older dogs. I don't want to have him put in a cage and have to wait. This way, we go before the store opens at 7:00am and they immediately take care of him. They charge extra for this but it is well worth it.

After we get home, I will complete the sampler, put the borders on it and get it quilted so I can take it in on Saturday in time for our new Saturday Sampler block of the month. The first Saturday of each month is the busiest day of the month with all the people coming in to pick up their free block. Since this is the first one of the year, they actually pay $5 this time but get the rest of the blocks free if they complete the one and bring it in.

This year we are doing blue/yellow or county colors. I haven't done the blocks for the past couple of years, but I do like the blue/yellow so might start them.

I am also working on Bonnie's mystery quilt using them as leaders/enders while doing the other blocks. I am still only on the 2nd clue and the 5th one came out today. Actually, due to misreading the clue, I am on the 3rd one but still have #2, 4 and 5 to do when I finish these. The blocks are looking good and I will try to take a photo of them tomorrow when more are done.

I did manage to make a coconut cream pie for Bill today. Someone at his work told him about this receipe so I made it. I hate coconut so it was a true labor of love. Besides, I made a mistake and added cream of tarter instead of cornstarch. Of course, that required another trip to Publix to get the cornstarch and start over again. Anyway, he said it was very good. I topped it with whipped topping from the store instead of meringue because he asked for it. He ate a large enough piece so it must have been good.

Making the pie reminds me of when my sister and her husband got married many years ago. They decided to get married in Hawaii and I went with them, along with a friend. They both worked for IBM and a wonderful gentleman from IBM helped them make arrangements. The wedding was beautiful and we had a great time. The IBM man went out, climbed a coconut tree to get a fresh coconut, and made a beautiful coconut cake for the wedding. My sister, her husband and I all have the same feeling about coconut - we HATE it.

What do you do? We each ate a piece of coconut cake! Smiling all the time! When we were asked if we would like a second piece we each said the same thing - it was wonderful but I don't think I can eat any more. It was a miracle that we were able to get the first piece down. That is the only time I have ever willingly eaten something with coconut in it - probably the same for Robin and John. It is a great memory of a wonderful wedding, as long as I don't have to eat coconut cake again.