Yum

We had a group meeting at work over the summer where our people form around the world came to Chicago for meetings. I work on a floor that's known for it's mass quantities of food available on any given day, so I don't bring things to work too often,  but when I do, I pull out all the stops! I get all Martha Stewart in my set up, and people really appreciate it. People that I didn't even know resided on our floor show up.

To have a proper display for my treats, I used one to the vintage table cloths that I got at the sale at the beginning of the summer. The fruit salad blue Tupperware bowl doesn't really go, but everything was already so heavy I just couldn't do a ceramic bowl for that too.

I was only going to make one coffee cake, but you know, once you pull out all the stuff to make one, you might as well make 3! (This is kind of my theory of quilting and bag making as well. Although part of that is because I can't do math and usually end up accidentally cutting out enough pieces for 2 quilts.) All of the recipes are from Williams Sonoma. I've said it hundreds of times before, and will say it hundreds more, I have NEVER had a WS recipe not turn out or taste anything less than fabulous.

The Peach Streusel Coffee Cake.

The Blackberry Sour Cream Coffee Cake

The recipe was for raspberries, but I used fresh blackberries from my vine.

The Brown Sugar Macadamia Nut Coffee Cake.

I toasted the macadamias first for a nuttier flavor.

And this was exciting! Did anyone get the latest Restoration Hardware catalog? They have repros of the vintage lights I bought at the garage sale last month! Only mine are white and cost at a minimum $252 less, each!!!

Theirs:

Mine:

Yeah garage sale find!!!

Bag central

It's been a productive couple of weeks, mostly thanks to my quilt guild retreat last weekend in Rockford.
I made yet another Late Bloomer Sweet Simple Tote for Ashley's birthday (which I gave to her that night, so I don't have a photo. I'll have to have her send one to me).
I love that pattern so much that I've been cranking them out. I love how beautifully it show cases larger print fabrics. I made two chocolate themed, a fantastic black/white/hot pink from the Michael Miller Dress Forms fabric and am in process of a purple glittery bag made from MM's Antiquity collection.

The inside pockets:

The inside w/pockets

 

I also finished 2 king size and one regular pillow case from some of the Moda Chocolat wovens, which are amazing. If you have never had the chance to pet the Moda wovens, I recommend doing so immediately! They are sooooo soft and silky. I just love them. I have a really poofy pillow, and the cases I made fit them so very much better. I can actually get them on and off with out a major wrestling match with my pillows!

I also finished a Terry Atkinson Happy Holidays table centerpiecehttp://www.atkinsondesigns.com/patterns/ which seriously only took me a total of two evenings, start to finish! I used a combo of Anna Griffin's Georgette Christmas, MM Fairy frost and a random paisley that we had at Tammy Tadds.  I quilted it with holly leaves and berries in metallic thread. Since I can't draw, I just blow up the fabric motif on the copier then use my handy dandy non-marking technique to quilt it. It's a sample for the shop as well as a Christmas present for Mom!

I've also spent some time working on the look of the blog, what does everyone think?

The Stash Sale Continues!

It's taken me waaayyyy longer than I thought it would, but I've finally gotten started to get my stash sale online. I'll be updating as fast as I can photograph and measure the fabric fabulousness.
I've started w/Fall and Halloween fabrics and kits and will work my way through the seasons. If there is something in particular you are looking for, please let me know and I'll see what I have available for you.

Click here  http://buggletquiltsstashsale.blogspot.com/ to see what's available.
I'll have a cute little button on the side bar as soon as I can figure out how to do that.

Where did the month go?!?!?

I've been crazy  busy lately, so I haven't had much time to do the blog thing. I'm hoping to catch up on blogging and sewing in the next couple of weeks.
I've been slacking off in the sewing dept too. I haven't done squat about starting those 4 baby quilts I need to make.
I've been making Sweet Simple bags instead. I've been in need of instant gratification projects, and that bag is totally instant gratification!
Of course I totally forgot to take a picture of them before bringing them into Tammy Tadd Designs for sample display, so I'll have to show you all them this weekend.

Here's some fun I've had in the last month:

 I found this package on my front porch when I got home from work a few weeks ago. I totally wasn't expecting it, so receiving a surprise package was really exciting. The Royal Mail postage could only mean one thing, some lovely things from my friend Anne in the UK!

Yup, I was right! Great tea and sweets, what more could a girl want? Other than Colin Firth squished in the box too, not much.

My favorite tea, Whittards! I want to use the herbals to make jam and sorbets and tasty treats like that. And Anne sent me a lovely new white tea to try out. Yum!

I ate the Aero bar right away (it was an 'I need chocolate' kind of day that day) and used the Lush Emotibomb in the shower the very next morning. It smelled great! If you haven't experienced Lush, you should. The products are fantastic and the literature hysterical. They are all over the world these days. I first discovered them in Edinburgh years ago where I purchased the Buffy the Backside Slayer exfoliating bar. 

The green tub contains mint Humbugs. I just love that name. It sounds just so British to me. And since I l.o.v.e. chocolate mint, I love the Humbugs too.

Emily and I went the Bucktown Art Fair the Sunday before last. It was a wretched hot day, so I whined a lot. It's not pretty, but it's the truth, I'm a big whiner when it gets over 82 degrees F.  I tried not to spend much, and did a pretty good job of it. I only bought a ceramic soap dish and tumbler for my bathroom and a couple of necklace charms from Soda by Amy. Totally cute! Of course I didn't take a photo of those either. Bad blogger Vicki!

There are a ton of garage sales around the art fair, so we stopped at a couple of those. I did take a photo of what I bought at the garage sale though.

Check these babies out!3 vintage enameled light shades in primo condition for a mere $20!! Score!!! According to the lady who I bought them from they are from the 1940's, but I have no clue if that's true or not.

After the fair we went to dinner at Terragusto, which I highly recommend. They make their own bread and pasta. It's heaven. I did take pictures of the amazing food, but they are on my phone, which is in the car and I'm too lazy to run out and get it right now, so I'll show those at a later date.
I also made wine slushies, completely by accident, but it was a disgustingly hot day, so it worked out just fine.

Lesson learned, don't forget you put a bottle of wine in the freezer!

Ages and ages ago I went to a massive rummage sale in the North Shore area (where the wealthier citizens of the Chicagoland area live) and found the most fabulous vintage linens and fabric. It's all pristine too, no staining or rips. I was told they get rid of the ones that aren't in great condition.
We figured since we got there at 7am and it had been raining torrentially for 24 hours and the streets were flooded that it wouldn't be too crowded. Boy were we wrong! Apparently people come by the bus load for this sale! It was worth getting up at 4:30 in the morning to go though, since I found fabulous fabric treasures for cheap.

Some lovely vintage sheets:

Can you believe this barkcloth?!?! I think I see bags and/or purses in it's future. 

Tartan wool, I'm in heaven! That thing at the top is a sleeve presser ham.

These cute animals are from a set of Bozo sheets. I'm not a fan of clowns. I, like Kramer, find them creepy, but I grew up watching the Bozo Show on Channel 9, and have a soft spot for him.

And because I love all things autumnal I couldn't resist this cornucopia table cloth:

The best part of the trip? I spent a total of $35 including the entrance fee and was at work by 9:30 in the morning. Oh, and I ran into a guy I went to high school with. He was one of the police officers guarding the check cashing station. Go figure.

Well, that's all for now. I need to get back to sewing. Bags and quilts to make and time is a ticking!