There is a wonderful quilt shop in McKinney, TX, just down the road from me. Susan Allen, the proud inmate/owner, has a new block of the month that features blocks from our book Applique Delights.

Susan's blocks are embroidered (rather than appliqued) which is an excellent way to stitch these designs. She set them together with a cheerful flying geese border.

This BOM, called Meadow Circles, is available at the Quilt Asylum site. Click here for the details.

We are all very aware of Breast Cancer and if you are like me you donate to help find a cure. Men's health issues are not really on most people's radar. The Movember Foundation is working to change that. I have a husband, two sons, and a grandson and their health is important to me.

Movember is about raising money and awareness through the growing of mo's (mustaches). Movember Mo Bros raise funds by getting friends and family to donate to their Mo-growing efforts. The rules are simple: register online at Movember.com and start the month of Movember clean-shaven, then grow a moustache for 30 days. Last year, 255,722 men and women across the globe raised $40 million (USD) – all through the power of the Mo. Movember funds raised in the US benefit the Prostate Cancer Foundation and LIVESTRONG.

Our son, Jeff is growing a mo (he's looking a little scruffy here) and you can donate to support him and/or his team. Click here to go to Jeff's page.

Help spread the word and perhaps next year one or more of the men in your life will grow a mo for the cause!

GF – that's gluten free for those of you not used to looking for it.

I've been gluten free for 2 weeks now and I can now report that I've found a marvelous GF cookbook: Gluten-Free Baking Classics by Annalise G. Roberts. And I just found her website – oh happy day!

Baking season is here at my house. I've already make the yellow cake from this cookbook for Elanor's birthday and it got rave reviews. Not just 'gee, that's great for gluten free' but 'wow, that's a great cake!' If you are going to go to the trouble to cook from scratch those are good words to hear.

This cookbook is well written. The instructions are direct and short. If you follow the directions it's all good. I could not help myself, today I made chocolate chip cookies

In the past I've made cookies for Lorna and the grandkids substituting GF flour for regular flour. I know now why those cookies spread out too much and were crumbly. GF flours require changes in the ingredients. I gotta tell you, these cookies are just as good as regular cookies. And these are a little easier to make :-). Steve's going to makethe cinnamon rolls for me next weekend!

For those of you who are now very excited and ready to order the cookbook, also order some of the special flour mixes she recommends from Authentic Foods: Superfine Brown Rice Flour and Superfine Sweet Rice Flour. There are other flours you may want but this will get you started.

My DIL, Lorna, gave me an orange tree for mother's day this year. It's especially nice because she did it – not my son, Chris. It's rare that it is a married son who is in charge of this sort of thing – wives are more often in charge of gifting. I know my husband is not the one of us who shops. So I am thankful to have two wonderful DILs who cover for my sons.

  Anyway… the orange tree survived the summer out by the pool in a concrete pot. The grasshoppers ate a lot of the leaves in late summer before I figured out what was going on so the tree's short some leaves. I am not good with inside plants but I didn't want to just let the tree die in the first freeze so Steve helped me get it inside last week. It has/had several green oranges on it and I cut a few off this morning. They are little and very tart – not really edible at this stage.

I decided that the tree might not be loving the concrete pot it was in so I repotted it in a ceramic pot. I had to take the root ball down by about 1/3. I know that that is probably not the best thing I could have done, but I did it anyway (this could be why I'm not good with inside plants).

I have questions for those of you who might know how I can keep this tree alive until next summer:

It's in my studio with the day-light florescent bulbs and it's near a window but it isn't going to get direct light in my house. How often should I water it?

Should it get that blue water soluable fertilizer through the winter? How often?

There are still 4 green oranges on it – should I cut them off now? It seems like the plant ought to quit focusing on making fruit at this point and focus on being alive.

It's dropped a few leaves. Some are curling a little but so far it's not looking near death. If you look closely at the upper right quadrant you can tell where the grasshoppers ate the most leaves.

I appreciate in advance any advice.

Here's one last image… I liked this detail shot of green oranges!

The older I get, the more fascinated I am by faces. When I spotted this embroidered face in a booth full of antique quilts at market, I had to stop. And look. And buy all five of the face blocks.

Each one is different. I'm not sure how I'm going to use them so I'm only showing you this one so as not to spoil any surprises. Right now they are up on my design wall, and we are checking each other out!

That's the name of my quilt that just recently hung in the IQA Quilt Show in Houston. It won a ribbon – Libby Lehman chose my quilt for her judge's choice award. I am truly honored because Libby is one of my all-time favorite quilters! Here's the quilt – you'll see it next spring in our new Christmas book…

I'm especially proud of the design in the borders.