Whew! Finally have the Around-the-World quilt laid out again, four rounds larger and two rows wider this time, and it is looking nice. The center is a rainbow hot air balloon in a blue sky, to represent traveling over all of the exotic places around the world. The next two rounds are light blue, then gradating out into black, dark blue, bright blue and greens. The corners are each American flag fabrics, blending into light colors, tans, then into yellows and orange. Total of 135 different charms in a 9x15 layout of 6" squares (49.5"x82.5"). I think it will be just the right size for a twin bed when I add borders.

A few steps forward, and then a restart. That's OK though, it will turn out to be a better project in the end. I got all of my 6" squares together to layout the Around-The-World (both pattern and theme) I-Spy for my globe-trotting 7-year-old niece. I have charms from a "Where I'm From" Yahoo swap, from the ongoing "Anything Edible" swap that I ran, and from I-Spy swaps here on the forum. I also had two other Around-The-World I-spy quilts already planned months ago, with the squares carefully arranged in the concentric colors onto a flat sheet and then rolled them up to store until I was ready to sew. The idea was to get them all planned and then quickly sew all three similar projects at once. That way I'd have all three completed by the holidays. Hah. Starting this one (let's call it Quilt C) with an actual theme of world travel (not just the pattern name), I remembered that Quilt A had a great square right in the center with a pyramid and camel, and Quilt B had several amazing ocean scenes with whales and otters and dolphins. I unrolled each laid-out but not sewn yet quilt on a sheet, and swapped out the squares that were just perfect for the other project. After all, Quilt C has a theme and the others did not, so mixing it up would not be noticed. Then I started seeing more squares to "borrow" from one project to the other... and totally took the first two quilt layouts apart to start building the third one. Re-stacked 400+ squares and will start again some day, that can be another goal for another time. Sticking to getting one perfect quilt layout completed this week (and trying to forget that I un-did two of them). *sigh* No worries, I enjoy the puzzle aspect of it all, and will still have three quilts in the end. Now to clip the corners and start some laundry for my backing yardage.

Holy cow! I was out in the garage and heard something outside. A lot of garage doors around here (including ours) has a screen across it and works on tracks similar to a sliding glass door. I went over to look out and out of nowhere came an armadillo who casually walked across our driveway and laid down under the downspout next to the garage. Then, here comes another one. Geez, Grand Central Station for the aramdillos around here today. Anybody have a recipe--haha! Mary, gear up--we're all coming for dessert (and maybe some mac and cheese if you have any leftover). That cake sounds delicious. Shirley, your mac and cheese sounds good, too. I'm not too crazy about stuffed peppers but I do like stuffed cabbage. That's a good idea! Jasdip, you really scored on the pork loin. Even $1.88 would be a bargain around here. You can get a lot of meals out of one when there are only two people. Linda, funny you mentioned that Georgia salad with the salmon. I was talking to my sister on the phone this afternoon and she was telling me about a restaurant they went to for lunch one day last week and described that very same salad all the way down to the bacon dressing. They live in Indiana, so I guess they'd have to call it Indiana salad :-) It sounds delicious!

patti, I changed up the recipe to suit me so here tis: My version of cranberry sausage balls l pkg Maple Flavor Jimmy Dean Pork Sausage 2 cups all purpose baking mix 2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese 1 tsp ground allspice **I made my own: 1/2 tsp cinnamon, 1/4 tsp cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg 3/4 cup or less of chopped dried sweetened cranberries 1/2 cup chopped walnuts/pecans Preheat oven to 350. Mix the baking mix, cheddar cheese and ground allspice first, then with your hands mix in the sausage, cranberries, pecans. It takes a while to work in the cranberries and pecans. Shape into 1 inch balls. Place on ungreased baking sheet, ***I use parchment paper and recommend your using. They baked in my oven 20 minutes and came out perfect. Bottoms will be browner than the rest. Note: Cheese Balls may be prepared ahead and frozen uncooked. To bake from frozen: thaw on cookie sheet 15 minutes; bake in preheated oven 20 to 25 minutes