Traveling can be lots of fun – but packing is a job. I’m leaving for Pigeon Forge tomorrow and need to pack for 8 days and bring 7 quilts.

I travel with 2 not-so-huge bags and I keep them each under 40 lbs. to protect my arms.

In the first photo I have quilts in each suitcase. I’ve put them in XL ziplock bags so that, if my bag gets wet, the quilts will stay dry. As you can see there’s not much room left for clothes!

Luckily, these suitcases expand so I did manage to pack my clothes!

As I was driving away from my house today I realized that some of the trees in our neighborhood are leafing out! That’s little baby almost-yellow leaves on the branches!

My neighbor, Joan, has a plum tree in her backyard and there are white flowers all over it. We almost always have an Easter freeze and Easter is late this year. I don’t know whether she’ll have plums or not. I hope she does because Joan shares her bounty with us :-).

And my redbud is about to burst into full bloom! We’ve been bouncing between freezes and days in the 80s. The plants, however, seem to think that spring is definitely here.

The kids were over for dinner last night. Jack and Elanor came with sticky suckers so they were ushered directly to the back yard to finish them.

I grabbed the camera and very quickly snapped off 26 pictures. I still remember film cameras… I rarely took photos in the “old days” because I never had film and/or I didn’t want to waste film. Now I just snap away! I love it!

We have just posted the results from the 1st Ever Piece O’ Cake Block Contest on our site showing all of the entries, including the winners. (Oops – there were broken links that caused the images to be invisible. I hope I fixed it. Hit your refresh button if you don’t see them.) Two of the winners are Sarah Crumley who made this amazingly cute purse and Carrie Pippins who made a table topper with a lined prairie point edge!

Thank you to each and every one of you who took part in this contest! We have truly enjoyed seeing the creative ways that you used this block. In our mind, every one of you is a winner!

We hope that everyone enjoys seeing the projects made using this block. It is a reminder of just how much fun it can be to change a pattern to suit your own quilting needs.

Happy stitching,

Becky and Linda

On the Cup Of Jo blog a while back, Joanna Goddard wrote about a fun thing that she found on photographer Katie Sokoler’s blog, Color Me Katie.

In this post, Katie shows how she cut up a variety of photos of family and friends and planted them around her house. These guys crack me up!

I’ve cut up my own photos before. This is me with my oldest son, Chris, being held up in a magnetic photo holder that happens to look like a friendly alligator. But I know I need to put more of us throughout the house. Isn’t this a fun idea!

My husband, Steve, does all our cooking (except desserts, that’s me). This is a dish he cooks often that I told Mary (from New Braunfels) that I would share with you. It serves six; may be scaled for larger or smaller amounts:

Six medium sweet potatoes (if you can’t find medium ones, get two small ones per person or one large one for every two people)

About a tablespoon of olive oil (maybe a bit more)
2 tablespoons butter (optional)

Cut the ends off of the sweet potatoes. Peel using a regular potato peeler – you may have to give some areas of the sweet potatoes two passes to get them peeled properly. For irregularly shaped sweet potatoes, you may need to cut them into smaller pieces so they peel more easily.

As you peel them, put the sweet potato pieces into a bowl with water. Drain the water off of the sweet potatoes, and cut them into bite-sized pieces.

I cut the pieces in half longitudinally first, then slice transversely into pieces about 1/4 inch thick. This gives half-round pieces that cook evenly. For big sweet potatoes, cut them into quarters longitudinally and 1/4 inch slices.

While you are preparing the potatoes, heat a skillet that will accommodate the amount of sweet potatoes you are cooking. A wide and flat skillet works better than a rounded deep one, and a well-seasoned heavy-duty non-stick skillet works better than other kinds.

Heat on medium-low heat until warm. Add olive oil to skillet, swirl to coat (remember to scale the amount of oil to the amount of sweet potatoes) and add the sweet potato pieces. Swirl them around in the skillet to coat the bottoms with oil.

Adjust the heat so that the sweet potatoes cook, but so that they don’t cook too quickly – too much heat and they will burn. Allow to cook for several minutes, swirling a time or two to keep them from sticking. Turn with a wide spatula. Allow to cook several more minutes, browning the pieces slowly. As the sweet potatoes get more cooked, turn down the heat and turn the potatoes more frequently. When you turn down the heat, add the butter. Cook for several more minutes, and the sweet potatoes will become softer and browner. As they get more cooked, turn the heat down and finish them slowly. Overall cooking time is about 40 minutes for 6 sweet potatoes.

Serve with grilled salmon, Korean barbecued chicken, pork tenderloin, or just about anything else. I like them left-over as well. Enjoy!