Such a lovely evening...

I just wanted to add these pics I took at the Tropical Dinner at the Firths with my little Sony point & shoot. What a lovely evening. Thanks again Leisa & Mark. Perfect setting, gorgeous table!

Island Dinner

Once a year we try our best to find one night when we can all get together with our sweeties and have some time together. This year Mark & Leisa hosted an Island Dinner and everyone brought delicious food to share. What a fun night we had. It's always so nice to nice to squeeze in some down time to get together and catch up and enjoy the sweetness of summer and good friends.
We really missed Linda & Nathan.

Tropical Island Dinner Menu

Hot Mango Chutney with Brie
on Toasted Tortilla
Fruit Platter
Rolls
Green Salad
Yellow & Green Rice
Shredded Pork
Garlic Peas
Citrus Shrimp Kabobs
Ginger Peach Chicken Kabobs
Key Lime Pie
Lime in the Coconut cookie
Lemon Mousse
Chocolate Covered Macadamia Nuts

Our happy little faces enjoying dinner

Thanks everyone for such a lovely evening.

A Spring Lunch with Kris

The Purple Cats met this week at Kris's home for a beautiful, delicious and fun-filled afternoon. We are all madly stitching to finish up for the upcoming trunk show at the HMQS Conference next month.

The lovely Kris prepared a beautiful luncheon with attention to every detail.

From the dishes to the daffodils to the homemade lemon curd, she left nothing out.

And look out those beautiful filled strawberries.

And chocolate puddle cookies...just as good as they look.

Homemade lemon curd...also just as good as it looks! I tried mine on toast...mmm!

Miss Carol spent the afternoon trying to keep us organized and on task. It was hopeless. We did finally get through all the business of the trunk show and we should be just about ready.

Leisa was so sweet to help sew the binding down on my quilt.

And then there was Ronda who also helped sew down binding. But oh what a treat she was today. We giggled at Ronda all afternoon...she was really on a roll! We learned that she must have had her children when when was in the 3rd grade as she is so young.

Linda is putting the finishing stitches in one of her Baltimore Album applique blocks...almost there Linda...you can do it!

Beautiful hands doing beautiful work...Purple Cats at their finest.

Ronda's hands are so sweet and have so many stories to tell.

Jill joined us a little late, but still just in time to have a few giggles.

Thank you Kris for hosting. It was such a delightful afternoon!

Christmas with the Cats

Better late than never? Here we are at Elements for a delicious lunch and even more delectable gifts! We always have such a fun Christmas gathering and exchange. Being the Christmas Nazi has it's challenges...like coming up with themes: favorite Christmas carols, ABC, colors or other themes. This year someone came up with a truly inventive idea...why not draw names? So we did...last December. About October, 2 of our members just couldn't quite remember who they had, but we got it all figured out and we were back on track!

Can I just say the gifts were all so thoughtful, so individual and so much fun! Lisa gave me DISHES (who knew?) and a fabulous cookbook which I shall be cooking from when my turn for lunch comes in March. Then there was Linda's painting of Jocie that brought tears to everyone's eyes...and handmade ornaments and on and on. What a treat to be with the CATS!

January: This is one for our personal record book. While we were having lunch at Jill's, her daughter was in the hospital just a couple of miles away giving birth to a brand new grand-daughter (that Jill really, REALLY wants to name Autumn). She didn't act worried or panicked....she just served a fabulous lunch of MS macaroni and cheese (which I have been craving for months!!!), a gorgeous salad of arugula and fennel, anti pasto(sic?) veggies and finally a warm lemon pound cake with fresh black and strawberries topped with whipped cream. What a woman!!!

We also figured out that each of us have a lot of sewing to do before May as we ARE a trunk show. Oh, how about adding the Civil War quilt...even though it was a guild project, it was created by our own member(s) and several of us did it. Just a suggestion.

LET IT SNOW!

A Trip to Finland

Last week we enjoyed a sweet afternoon together at Carol's beautiful home. She "presented" a beautiful home cooked meal straight from the Lap Land. Linda's cute Trevor is currently serving a mission there and it was a real treat. Hopefully she will have recipes for us all to enjoy. The meal was wonderful! Thank you for being such a sweet hostess, Carol.

On to some business .... :)

Next year we are celebrating *T E N* years of wonderful togetherness! Isn't that great? We have been asked to present a trunk show in May at the Home Quilters Convention in SLC. (Correct me if I have that wrong, Carol!) So we will be busily completing as many of our projects as we can. It is fantastic motivation for all of us!

Ladies ~ You are all checked as admin. on here now and I am awaiting two email verifications. (That would be JM & RP) Let me know if there are any problems. I'm not voting to be in charge here. :) If I have left off any of our creations, please add on. I will now attempt to add the blog links! See ya soon!

Halloween at Ronda's

I believe that Ronda just might be the queen of Halloween. It was such a treat to have lunch and spend a beautiful Fall afternoon in her home. Thank you for having us.

When I grow up...can I be Ronda?

There are many hidden friends in Ronda's house.

A signature Ronda creation.

My favorite! Just loved his sassy attitude.A beautiful table set for guests.

And of course she springs a lovely surprise on us. Thinking it was going to be the beginning of a project... we wanted to know how long we had to finish it.

Jill...who did not have to turn anyone into a toad.

Purple Cats rock!

The surprise...penny rugs for all. Ronda you are absolutely amazing!

And those beautiful creative hands say it all.

New Quilt Block -- Are We Playing?

Hey Everyone,

I've designed a quilt block inspired by the Split Pea Soup recipe by Julia Child. It should be an interesting quilt year. Can you guess what it is? Let's play the game!

Split pea soup is one of those wonderful hearty soups of winter. Made with dried "split" peas, and cooked up with a flavorful, smokey ham hock, it's warm, filling, and satisfying. This split pea soup recipe is based on one written by Julia Child years ago for a Parade Magazine article. It's a shortened version of the split pea soup recipe in her book, The Way to Cook.

Split Pea Soup Recipe

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups green split peas
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 large leek, chopped
1 large clove of garlic, halved
1 herb bouquet*
1 or 2 well-rinsed ham hocks
Salt and Pepper
Optional garnish - small toasted croutons

*Herb Bouquet: Tie 3 cloves garlic, 4 allspice berries, 2 bay leaves, 1 teaspoon thyme, 8 sprigs parsley in washed cheesecloth.

Method
1 Pick over the peas and remove any stones. Wash and drain peas. Place in a 4 quart pan with the vegetables, herb bouquet, ham hocks and 2 1/2 quarts of water. Bring to a simmer. Skim the scum off the top of the soup for several minutes, until the scum ceases to rise. Cover loosely and simmer about 1 1/2 hours, or until peas are tender, stirring occasionally in case they stick to the bottom of the pan.
2 Remove bones, and herb bouquet from soup, discard. Either purée through a vegetable mill, or purée in a food processor and then pass through a sieve. Correct seasoning.
3 Reheat, taste again for seasoning. Ladle into warm bowls and garnish with croutons and or sautéed ham.
Makes 2 quarts. Serves 6.