really random Thursday

I received an email the other day from Sally who used the Ben bread recipe (with a few tweaks) to make a prize winning loaf of bread at her Village Show...in England!!! How cool is that?

Speaking of Ben bread....when we moved, I discovered that I didn't bring the recipe along. I had accidentally left it taped inside the cupboard door in our previous house. I was so disappointed until I realized that I had blogged the recipe. (What a relief! Blogging is so handy sometimes!) I've since copied it and taped it inside the cupboard door in our new house. :) It's definitely a keeper!

(By the way, I'm curious. Do you have a favorite recipe taped on the inside of your cupboard door? Our previous house came with the recipe for rice krispie treats taped inside the cupboard. That always made me chuckle.)

This summer is flying by, as it always does, but we are soaking up every minute of it! We've been doing a lot of fishing and we have caught some pretty big fish out of the lake. My older son is HOOKED. (I may be, too! I learned how to fillet fish. On my 38th birthday. Out of necessity. Never thought I would be doing that!)

I LOVE the look on my daughter's face in this photo. We were all a little bit shocked that she caught such a big bass on her little pole. She was ecstatic.

My kids joined in the quilting fun this week. It's just too hard to resist, apparently.

My 10 year old has become quite good at sewing a 1/4" seam. SO much better than last summer. It's not like he was practicing or anything, he's just become much more coordinated and careful in the past year. I may have to put him to work!

Here is the start of his slab quilt. He's planning to make it big enough to use on his bed. I've been helping him cut some pieces and I've been squaring things up, but I'm trying to let him pick most of the fabrics and the arrangement. I do suggest and steer him along a bit (because I just can't help it!). For the most part he's doing the bulk of it and he's doing a great job!

This is my oldest child's quilt. He started last year (or maybe 2 years ago?) with the purple block. He drew up a sketch and came up with a great plan to make it into a larger quilt. It's going to be fabulous! He's using the Go! baby to cut the pieces, which is so much safer than rotary cutting! He's eager to get sewing.

Here's the start of my daughter's quilt. She is designing her second abstract quilt (and already talking about the next few in the series)! You can see her first one here. This should be fun to sew up. (I'm serious!) She's so creative and I love seeing her run with an idea. If she had her way, she'd design all day! I'm totally going to have her iron all these pieces while I sew.

This is the state of my scrap basket these days. Before retreat a few weeks ago I dumped the majority of them in here. It's just a tad full, huh? I've got a lot of sewing to do!

Last but not least, we've been picking our fill of raspberries. We have a large patch in the back yard that have been producing like crazy. What a treat!

I'm linking up with Cindy for really random Thursday.

Happy August to you!