For Easter, I went to a remembrance service for my friend's mom at a Buddhist Temple. I got to listen to chanting in Vietnamese and sat for over an hour with my legs criss-cross applesauce. I don't care who you are--no one is supposed to do this. Then immediately after the chanting everyone was served a big bowl of Vietnamese mushrooms noodle soup! It was delicious! Sitting-- visiting with my wonderful friend and eating tasty food, it is was where I was meant to be. 

This quilt is a Joanna Figueroa quilt. She is the creator of the this pattern, a modified dresden plate, called Lollipops.

It's cute. And fairly easy. I took this class by Joanna Figueroa about two years ago. It's always two years ago with me, isn't it? Then after that class I had to go to Crafty.com to buy the class again so I could remember how to make it. Learning how to make this Lollipop turned out to be kind of expensive. But I completed six of them right away and tucked it away. I then received the news that my dearest friend, Ta, mom had passed away in March. I was able to have a good portion of a potentially demanding quilt all ready to go for this person that I care so much for.

Naturally, I wanted this quilt to honor her mother entirely-- as much as my talent and knowledge would allow. This is the quote that instantly came to me. I knew it was not my own thought that brought it to mind.
"Remember me in the family tree my name, my days, my strife. Then I'll ride upon the wings of time and live an endless life."

This quote is also used in the family history quilt I made. I wanted it to be in Vietnamese so I went to Google Translate to see if that would give me what I wanted. I thought the job Google did was good. I mean it looked fine to me! But Damon helped me to see that I shouldn't use google for this. So I ended up asking my friend to translate it for me. Ruining the surprise! But I was really glad that I did ask, because my friend changed a lot of the Google translation.

My friend's mother was born in the year of the rat.

And her mother's name means Golden Daisy. I made the golden daisy into a normal dresden plate because I really wanted it to stand out.

You can see the outer border pretty good in this photo above and I love this border. It rocks!

The label. Ta really loved that her mom's name was put onto the quilt. She was moved to tears. I was grateful that I could make something meaningful for her. I love you, Ta!

Also, I made 100 bars of soap for my ward's Relief Society birthday dinner.

It was a big deal.

 The bars of soap that I usually make (and love) have sugar in them; it's what makes them smell so sweet. But the sugar turns them a dark carmel color.  This event's colors were clean cut: white, lime, lemon, and grapefruit. So I couldn't use sugar. I bought synthetic fragrance for soap making called Sugar Lemon. Perfect! 

  Well, it seemed perfect until I got it home and found that it had a fragrance that strongly resembled cleaner. I all most cried! I just couldn't go out and buy more fragrance. I knew that. So I made a batch of soap with it, and it stunk like cleaner--Mr. Clean cleaner! Good things were not happening at that moment. I was devastated and sick. But I left the house and Damon made a batch. He added less of the Mr. Clean fragrance and that was the ticket! It no longer had a revolting sent. The aroma was nice and light and full of lemon. Phew!

 It was a blessing.