……….. Pam brings in a Chef who serves us with style!

OK – enough is enough.  Pretty soon we will have to bribe the ladies to have Bee Day at their house.  I vote that next month we are served peanut butter and jelly sandwiches to get us back on track.  We have gone way, way too far.  I mean a Chef, Pam?  You have raised the bar way too high.  It’s time for a reality check, eh girls?  But I’d better start at the beginning.  Meet Chef Joyce!
 

Joyce and Pam were working hard in the kitchen when I arrived.  I got there as fast as I could and announced as I entered the kitchen, “Where’s my Cinnamon Dulce Latte?”  Pam, of course, was already on it and had it prepared in a jiffy…….

And it was just as yummy as ever!  I even had an iced one later in the afternoon – after everyone had left except Judy and I.  See what you miss when you leave early?  An Iced Cinnamon Dulce Latte could be my new favorite drink.  Especially during this hot Texas summer!  But I am getting way ahead of myself.  And I know you want to see all the food of the day!

 

This was breakfast!  Sugary scones and some fancy cakes….. and also these……

Ham and cheese scones.  I must have this recipe!  Actually Chef Joyce has promised all the recipes for us, but I’ll have to post those later.  In the meantime……

Don’t you want a bite?

I cleaned my plate.  It’s just the kind of supportive gal that I am.  Wouldn’t want to hurt the Chef’s feelings by not cleaning my plate.

A crowd gathered in the kitchen………. and watched Chef Joyce prepare all the goodies.  I think they were secretly hoping to get thrown the scraps.

Yummy strawberries….. and

…..all the ingredients for the crepes dessert.  Oh, my!

Here they are being prepared….. I can almost taste them just looking at these pictures again!  So sorry if you weren’t there to taste them too.

And here they are all ready to eat – except for a big dollop of whipped cream on top.  Can you almost taste them?  Wait until you see them on the dessert plate later!  I’m so sorry if you’re reading this before you have breakfast or lunch or dinner.  You’d better stop right now if that’s the case and get yourself something to eat before you continue.  Maybe Pam has some leftovers and you could call her real quick to whip you up a latte and serve you some leftovers.  Sounds good to me!  Maybe I’ll do that instead of writing this blog……. bye!

Sorry.  Got carried away for a minute there.

Betty enjoyed her breakfast a lot.  Can’t you tell by that smile on her face?

Sue has a story to tell……  a passionate story about headaches…. we hope she has solved the problem!

Not sure who this is, but she joined the party too.  I think perhaps when Pam is having a hard time understanding something, she puts this on and blames the color of her hair.

Recognize Pam in this one?

Pam and Susan remembered our days in Alaska.  Perhaps one day I’ll remember to tell you all about that adventure!

 

Cindy is always photogenic.  One day I’m going to take a bad picture of her on purpose and put it in the blog.  Alas, I think that is an impossibility.  She always has a great smile on her face!

 

Moms love to come to Bee Day and this day was no exception.  Here are Cindy & her Mom, Donna…… and Sue & her Mom, Gretchen.  Moms are always welcome in our Bee!

Lynn has a wonderful story to tell about Uncle Ed.  You must hear about it.  I just might have to take a blog trip to Lynn’s house soon to get pictures and explain the story of Uncle Ed.   Lynn is our Ebay Guru.  If you ever need to buy or sell anything on Ebay and need advice, Lynn is your gal!

We all got a tour of Pam’s house and that included her fabulous back yard!

Suzanne got to hear about Pam’s Adventure of Being Locked Out on This Balcony while the house was under construction……. before the railing was installed too – scary!  Thank goodness for Good Samaritan neighbor, Brian, who came to her rescue.

Remember how I told you the birds are well fed at Susan’s house?  Well apparently when they are done eating at Susan’s house…….

…. they can fly on over to Pam’s and get fed again!

Isn’t this a lovely crepe myrtle corner?

And another beautiful tree here too!

This basil plant played a major role in the lunch we had – you’ll see that later…..  Doesn’t this plant look yummy?  Well, it does if you’re a basil lover like I am!

 And these pretty candles adorned the dining room table for lunch!

But before we ate, it was time for Show ‘n Tell!
 

Karen started us off with this beautiful batik quilt that she just “threw together” AND had quilted (by Claudia) since last week!  It’s made with blocks from the Saturday Sampler at Quilter’s Dream last year and she only used 6 of the 12.  So she can make another quilt next week!  That Karen is one fast stitcher…..  and it turned out great!

Sue O showed us her quilt that she made from the challenge fabric last year.  But wait!

She made two quilts!  Apparently she just got them back from her quilter, so they weren’t in the exhibit we did at the Shop.  Not to worry…. you get to see them here on the blog!

Sue has also been working on a Baltimore Album quilt in a class with The Appliqué Society group.  This is one of her partially completed blocks.  Can’t wait to see this whole quilt, Sue!

Remember Susan’s obsession with wool?  These are her wool blocks spread out over her lap.  It’s tough to get Susan to hold up her blocks and hold still for a picture  She apparently needed to discuss these blocks with Lynn at the time of the picture.

See how blurry she is?  Remember what I said about holding still?  Just not possible.  And this is proof of her latest cotton obsession…. Cotton Theory – the quilt-as-you-go technique.  For those of you who asked on the blog after I posted about that class, we’ve added another class on Wed, the 30th!  Just call Quilter’s Dream if you’re interested in signing up.  Susan might even come and cheer you on!

What?  No quilts to show, Cindy?  Cindy’s Show ‘n Tell was her Mom – and she told of all the quilting classes she and her Mom have been taking together.  What fun to have her Mom here to take the classes with her and quilt together!  I know they are both loving it.

Sue H has sections of tumbling blocks that she’s been working on by hand since the hand piecing class she took.  She says it’s a great carry-along project to do on-the-go!  And if she wanted it to be even easier….. she’d use Inklingo to get the stitching lines on the fabric for stitching.  You can read all about that here (this link’s for you, Cindy!)

Betty made this one.  Doesn’t it look snuggly?

And this is the back…… it’s Trash to Treasure fabric!

Judy had some lovely pinwheels with great embroidery to show.

And I took this table topper right off my kitchen table to bring and show the gals.

I also showed this one, but I didn’t make it.  You’ve seen it before when Susan showed it.  When I pulled it out this time, Susan said, “What’s that doing here?”  I tried to convince everyone I had just whipped it up, but they weren’t buying it.  (And I’m stitching the binding for my friend, Susan – that’s why I had it along.)

Jules makes quilts that are just spectacular and way out of the league of some of us in the group.  But we can drool and dream, can’t we?

See?  Jules makes award-winning quilts!

Up close of some of those lighthouses……

Aren’t they great?

And this one was made from leftovers!  That Jules is a wonder!

Madelyn was working on this dresden plate with Kaffe Fassett fabrics……

That will become this big quilt in the book!

Suz showed her little quilt that she is donating to the Silent Auction for our guild Quilt Show in September……

….. and then everyone got in on the act to show all the quilts that Pam and Karen have collected so far for the auction!

Suz also made this fabulous batik quilt from a Bali Pop…..

…. and the quilting was quite wonderful!

Tracie’s show ‘n tell was not a quilt (pay no attention to blurry Pam as she breezed by in the background.  If I had photoshop, I’d brush her right out of the picture.)

What a cutie she is!!!!

Tracie also had this cute little pin cushion that she made to show.

Pam completed the center part of her project for the It’s OK Sampler class that some of us are taking.  Cute churn dash blocks surrounded by a double irish chain.  You should remember the irish chain blocks from the Bloggie Awards the other day.

But Pam was most proud of this little bag that she made with Karen’s help……

….. for her new iPad!!!!  Cindy wants to commission Pam to make one for her.

And now some quick pictures of lunch……..

Beautiful and tasty salads with fresh berries, bleu cheese and a yummy balsamic dressing.

But you needed to see it up close, didn’t you?

Baked chicken with basil cream sauce, rice and fresh green beans – YUMMY!

Excuse me while I go get a snack…….

And this was dessert….. cheesecake and one of those yummy fruit-filled crepes.  Notice I had to take a bite of the cheesecake before I could take the picture.

We were joined by…….

…… Jack   (Hi, Jack!)

And his new friend, Josh.

And I close today with Judy’s new fashion statement……..
 

Yeah, Judy!  You get ’em, girl!

And if you made it all the way to here, picture me right here applauding you!  (My computer may never talk to my camera again.  And you might be happy if that happens!)  I now remember why I posted the Bee last month at Suz’ house in two installments and I will be doing them that way again in the future…. with food in one posting and quilts in another.  Unless, of course, the next one is at my house where I will serve you PB&J sandwiches.  If you’re lucky, I might even grill them for ya!  And that will require only one food picture.

And now I’m off to California Pizza Kitchen to meet an old friend for lunch.  All that food made me very hungry.  And although it won’t be as good as yesterday was, they make a pretty mean Thai Crunch Chicken Salad.  If you haven’t had one, I highly recommend it!  And if you leave right now, I’ll see ya there!  But I guess right now in the blogging world is a relative term, isn’t it?

Happy Friday!
Barb