Stitchin’ Heaven Howdy

When I check my emails everyday, the first thing I look for aside from any Facebook notifications, are recipes.  Although, I’m not a seasoned cook, I love to watch the cooking shows, get cooking magazines and search online for new things to try.  One of the emails I recieve comes from MyRecipes.com.  The recipe I’m sharing with you today is from the email I got from them this morning.  They are doing this Cookie Countdown, where everyday until Christmas you get a recipe for a new cookie.  This one is the Hello Dolly Cookie .  Just click on the image to be directed to site for the recipe and nutrition facts!

Do you have a recipe you’d like to share with us? Please email me at nichole@stitchinheaven.com .  Thanks, Connie Cook for giving us your recipe for Banana Bread!  Her recipe is only 152 calories and sounds scrumptious!  So, that you aren’t scrolling through all the comments to find it, here is her recipe:

BANANA NUT BREAD

Mix in a bowl
3 Ripe bananas, well-mashed 2 eggs, beaten until light

Sift together
2 Cups flour ¾ Cup sugar
1 Teaspoon salt 1 Teaspoon baking soda
2 Tablespoons melted butter, optional ½ Cup nutmeats

Add the flour mixture to the bananas and eggs and stir well. Add to the bread mixture ½ Cup nutmeats, chopped

Stir well. Put in a buttered loaf pan 9 by 5 inches.

Bake 50 to 60 minutes at 350°F.until the bread pulls away from the pan sides and it is golden brown.

To vary:
Add also ½ Cup raisins for Banana Nut Raisin Bread

I’m just loving these weekly questions. Did you all happen to notice the abundance of Bonnie Hunter fans?  They really came through for her, huh!? Although, with 138 comments (how AWESOME) and the majority being for her, our winner this week chose Judy Niemeyer as her favorite designer.  It is so hard to chose just one, isn’t it?  Some mentioned a couple!  Well, lets all give a hearty Congratulations to our winner for this week:

Marsha Warren

Congratulations, Marsha!

You ready for this week’s Quilty Question?

Here ya go:  Describe in ONE word what quilting means to you.

Hope you all have a wonderful week! Please don’t be shy and stop by to say”hi!” often and don’t forget to leave your answer for this week’s Quilty Question for your chance to win a $25 Stitchin’ Heaven Gift Card, just like Marsha!  Also, we just had our after market party at the store on Saturday, so this week all the cool finds will be on the Hotflash! which is our weekly newsletter, so if you aren’t already signed up…what are you waiting for?! As, always, if you need anything you can call or email me nichole@stitchinheaven.com .

We just can’t help ourselves over here!  Like we really need another reason to post and talk to you, Deb’s was like “Let’s post recipes each week.”.  Well, why not, right?!  So, why not start today. Deb emailed me a recipe for the World’s Greatest Banana Bread to share with you. Ya know, and since it is coming to be the Holiday season, why not give some inspiration. Here’s the recipe:

(please note: the image is not the actual image, I took it off of Google, but I needed one for dramatic effect & to seduce your senses!!)

World’s Greatest Banana Bread

2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon Baking Soda

1 1/2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups shortening (Crisco)

3 over ripe bananas (the kind you would throw away!)

2 eggs

Topping (1/3 cup sugar plus 3 teaspoons of cinnamon)

5 tablespoons milk

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease two loaf pans.

Combine flour and sugar, then add all other ingredients except topping items and mix together. Pour batter into the pans and smooth tops. Bake for 10 minutes.

Sprinkle cinnamon sugar mixture over top of bread. Bake for 35 more minutes or until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean.

If any of you make this recipe, please let us know how it turned out. Got an even better recipe? Let us know!  Or if you have a  recipe definatley worth sharing, please email them to me at nichole@stitchinheaven.com . I’ll fit them in! We love pictures, too, so if you have an image to accompany your recipe, do send.

Fun, right? On behalf of us all….We always LOVE hearing from you and Thank You!! XOXO

It’s a new week, sorry I’m a day late, but I have our winner for last week’s Quilty Question!

Congratulations, Gretchen!

Gretchen is our random winner for our weekly Quilty Question!

I’ve really been enjoying getting to know you all through these questions.  They’re quite inspiring, humorous and informative.   Thank you all!

This week’s Quilty Question is: Who is your absolute favorite quilt designer?

This is kind of a tough one. I know for me it is.  I can name a few, although, I think I can narrow it down to my favorite.  How about you? Please leave a comment, I’m anxious to hear what you have to answer with.  Oh, and of course, you must comment for your chance to win our weekly $25 Stitchin’ Heaven Gift Card!

Hope you are all having a wonderful week so far!

This month, I’m off to San Francisco, California and off  to a late travel start.  I decided to stay a little longer with my favorite quilt shop friends at Stitchin’ Heaven.  That’s ok, though, they are always fun and always have something going on.  I watched at the shop the whole Monster Mash Mystery. A lot of fun, especially that the class was decorated and the students were all dressed up! 

I’m really looking forward to my trip to CA, not only for the beautiful valleys, but the awesome quilt shops!  I plan on visiting Britex which is 4 floors of wall to wall fabric, it’s right off of Union Square in the middle of all the action and with gorgeous fabrics of all textures. It’s also a couple blocks up Stockton from Powell BART/Muni station, the cable car lines & Market St. buses. Tha cable cars are awesome.  You just can’t go to San Fran and not hitch a ride on one of those, it’s the San Francisco treat..No, wait….that’s Rice A Roni! LOL   The Stitch Lounge is also a good one, that I have every intention of stopping by to see.  I hear they have some pretty new and inventive things going on as far a the fashionable ambitious.  Ooh, if any of you live in the area or are going to be in the area, I’d love for you to take a pic from a destination spot or landmark, send it to me and I’ll give ya a suprise. Fun, right?

I’m sure there are a million and twenty things for me to do and see and get into trouble with, so we’ll just have to see.  The project I chose for this month comes from the book Quilter’s Get Organized , I actually found this book laying around Stitchin’ Heaven right before we were headed to Market.  I found so many great organizational ideas using fabric, including a tote bag!!  Your project is the Trendy Tote Bag (so suitable for us, I know!) and we’re using Moda’s Nouveau fabrics. I just love this line, great fall colors and very “hip”.  It’s a really nice travel bag too.  Good for projects, clothes & shopping.  In between sewing time you can read the new Quilt Sampler Fall/Winter magazine included with your project this month. 

Well, I’m off to have an amazing lunch at The Cliff House : Set in the historic cliff house, high above the waves of Ocean Beach, Sutro’s at the Cliff House is a casually elegant dining spot where patrons enjoy spectacular ocean views with their fantastic fare. The menu at this critically acclaimed restaurant offers locally caught seafood and creative preparations of American cuisine. Headed by Chef George Morrone, the first Bay Area chef to ever receive four stars from the San Francisco Chronicle at two different restaurants, this San Francisco seafood restaurant is not to be missed.  Sounds yummy, right? 

Talk to you soon and please let me know what you’re up to! How are you going to use your Trendy Tote Bag?

Toodles ~ Perse

Woo hoo! Saturday was so much fun with the Monster Mash Mystery. Thanks to all of you who particpated, shared and commented! It was a lot of fun! 

Congratulations to:

Jane Waddel - Grand Prize Winner

Winners for the scavenger  & decoration hunt:

Julie Westbroek

Sharn Knarr

Joyce Michael

Shown are the prizes the winners won. The wallhanging is part of the Grand Prize and the bags of goodies are for the hunt winners! Thanks, again girls and to all who participated. Happy Birthday, again to Portia’s mom!

Week 2 Quilty Question Winner for the Stitchin’ Heaven Gift Card:   Pam Biswas

Congratulations, Pam!

For those who are just joining us, each week we will post a quilting related question and ask you to post your answer as a comment to be entered in our random drawing on Monday’s for a $25 Stitchin’ Heaven Gift Card! So, you have from Monday to Sunday each week to post your answer.

Quilty Question for the week of Monday Nov. 2 -11th is :  What sewing/quilting notion can you NOT live without?

It’s been busy around here with all the new stuff coming in from Market. Be sure that you are signed up for Hotflashes! Trish has a bunch to feature this week including Girl Scouts fabric!  The Holiday season is official, the stores are all ready with Christmas trees and decorations and “To Do” lists are growing by the minute. At least for me they are! We have a ton of great gift ideas and will be featuring them until Christmas.  So, be sure to check in with us first (wink)!

Thanks, again for always making my job fun! I love you guys/gals!