Last night I baked my first apple pie of the season. The difference this year was that I made it with apples off our own tree! There's nothing like a slice of hot apple pie, from (literally) the fruit of your own land, with a small scoop of vanilla ice cream! Unless it's a cold slice of apple pie with a slice of cheddar cheese on it for breakfast! That's a nod to my Yankee heritage and Grandpa Wadleigh, who started many a day in Massachusetts, that very way. I miss him.

I also turned in my challenge quilt yesterday!!! Tomorrow is the challenge show at the guild meeting. I'm so anxious! I've learned that one sees far more faults in a project she's turning in for judging. Ugh. :) I will add a photo of this one. It's called "Alabama Checks and Balances" because of the pattern in the square blocks, which is called The Alabama, balanced in-between the Blazing Star blocks. The Blazing Star blocks look like their made up with a series of symmetrical "check marks", hence the name. The challenge was to do a patriotic/election themed quilt using the particular red fabric that is in the star. You also had to have at least one star and one stripe somewhere on the quilt. I think I've got that covered. I broke with tradition and used a silver metallic thread to quilt the piece, and *really* broke with tradition by binding the whole thing with silver lame (envision the accent mark over the e)! Crazy. But it was fun and I'm glad it's done -- off to bigger things....and bigger quilts!

Oh, and off to work. We are spending the night at the pastorium tonight, so it will be Friday, probably, before I'm at a computer again.

Adieu!

:)