My Quilted Nest

Holiday spirit

2011-12-24T20:00:00.003-06:00

Saw this on the way home from church tonight and laughed the rest of the way home.

Christmas Eve Prayer

2011-12-24T10:43:00.001-06:00

Christmas Eve Prayer

Loving God, Help us remember the birth of Jesus,
that we may share in the song of the angels,
the gladness of the shepherds,
and worship of the wise men.

Close the door of hate
and open the door of love all over the world.
Let kindness come with every gift and good desires with every greeting.
Deliver us from evil by the blessing which Christ brings,
and teach us to be merry with clear hearts.

May the Christmas morning make us happy to be thy children,
and Christmas evening bring us to our beds with grateful thoughts,
forgiving and forgiven, for Jesus' sake.

Amen.

Robert Louis Stevenson

Fun stuff

2011-12-19T20:35:00.004-06:00

I have this old wooden bowl that I love that we found when we closed up my in-laws' house a number of years ago (I know the number, I just don't want to admit how many years it has been!). I decided to make some Christmassy rag balls for a decoration on the organ bench that we use as a table in our foyer. I think that starting with styrofoam balls is cheating a bit but it serves two good purposes: it makes the balls really round and you need less fabric.

One of our deans gave me cookie cutters for Christmas, so I threw them in the bowl as well. Fun, cute, fast and cheap. Four of my favorite things

Day four: Melissa's Delicate Mint Sandwich Cookies

2011-12-07T06:41:00.003-06:00

I love these. They are very similar to a cookie my sister-in-law Darlene made by the hundreds for my wedding reception in 1986 - 25 years ago this year!

I love anything that includes buttercream as a major player. These will be popular around my office - we are icing people.

Paula's Loaded Oatmeal Cookies

2011-12-06T06:53:00.002-06:00

These are delicious, but they're worth making just for the way they make the house smell!

Cookies and collaboration

2011-12-04T17:18:00.005-06:00

First, the cookies. These are Alton Brown's Gingersnaps and they are day two of the 12 Days of Cookies. They are very ginger-y! The recipe calls for ground ginger, fresh ginger and candied ginger. Next are loaded oatmeal cookies from Paula Deen. I may make them today.

And here's the collaboration. Grace and I were in Las Colchas one day this summer and they had a Charming Log Cabin by Threaded Pear made up with kits for sale. Grace asked Francine and me if that was something we thought she could make and of course we said yes. So, she pieced it this summer and I finally machine-quilted it this past week. The fabric is Tina Givens' Opal Owl line, plus some extras.

Machine quilting is not my strong suit, but she wanted only simple diamonds, so I plunged it with a lot of trepidation and false bravado. I really, really, really love hand-quilting, but I also really love having a quilt finished in a week's time!

The very best thing I did was to baste it a la Sharon Schamber. If you've never tried her technique I highly recommend it. I don't think I'll ever baste another way. The back stayed perfectly flat through the basting and the stitches were so secure. I have so many tops that stay that way because I hate dragging them, my batting the backing and supplies to church on a Saturday and setting up 6-ft tables and taping or clamping the back down, pinning the sandwich together and then bending over the quilt for hours basting. With Sharon's method, I basted the whole thing sitting at my dining room table.

See her Amy Butler gumdrop in the background? That was another fun collaboration.

12 Days of Cookies

2011-12-02T05:59:00.002-06:00

Yesterday was day one of the 12 Days of Cookies from the Food Network website. You can sign up to receive a different cookie recipe by e-mail every day for 12 days. Last year Dave and I decided to make a double batch of each recipe each day and take them to our offices and that would be our Christmas gift for all our co-workers. It was a big hit, apparently. People in my office have been asking me when the cookies would start arriving since October! I wasn't sure I was going to do it again this year but I think it's become a tradition.

This recipe is Ina Garten's shortbread and it is delicious and so easy.

Today is also one of my biggest days of the year at work. Today is our holiday brunch for all employees - and we have about 800! We also invite recent retirees and donors to the college. I am in charge of this event and it used to have me in panic mode for weeks in advance. It gets easier every year.

After today is over I have a small convocation event to plan for January, but other than that it's two weeks of office cleaning and catch up before being closed for two weeks for the holiday. It's the only "down time" we have in our busy office.

Design wall October 31

2011-10-31T05:33:00.003-06:00

Happy Halloween for those who celebrate it. We'll have a few trick-or-treaters tonight - fewer than 20. I bought our candy on Saturday. Yesterday my husband bought some more! I'm always afraid of running out.

On my design wall today is what was once a finished top. It's a Jo Morton pattern from her Jo's Little Women Club from a couple (several) years ago when Las Colchas had a club. I love it - but I decided I would love it even more if it were bed sized. So I'm going to use my new EQ7 to add "borders" to make it larger. I think it will be beautiful.

Go to Judy's blog to be inspired by more design walls.

Happy Wednesday

2011-10-19T06:03:00.003-05:00

EQ 7

2011-10-12T06:01:00.002-05:00

My birthday is a couple of weeks away and my family has been hounding me for hints. I mentioned a few things. Remember, I don't mind gifts with cords, so I suggested a stick blender. Not very romantic, but I'd really like to have one. I'd like a new camera, as well, but what I want is sort of off-budget for right now.

And then I saw it. The Quilt in a Day store posted on Facebook that they were having a smoking hot deal on EQ7! I hopped over to their website and found out what the price was and texted my spouse and child immediately, "I know exactly what I want for my birthday." Hubby complied (such a sweetie!)

I can't wait until it arrives. By the time I saw the deal and he called to order, it was already on backorder, so it will not arrive until close to my birthday. I love having something to look forward to!

Design wall 10-10-11

2011-10-09T18:14:00.004-05:00

Here's a quilt "revival" I'm working on. A number of years ago (ok, about 15) I bought this top at an antique store that was going out of business in Tyler, Texas. It was half price - I think I paid something like $40 or so. I don't know anything about its history. It looks like authentic 30's-40's fabric, but they're in absolute pristeen condition - the colors are so sharp and the fabric is like-new feeling. But I don't think they're reproductions. Any way, as you can see, it's unfinished. There's not enough of the border to go all the way around.

So my next project is to take the border off the two sides it's on, cut in in half lengthwise, put it on as a narrow border and then put a wider border on. I'm determined to use something from stash as I'm still on my quest to use what I have before buying more.

When I get this complete I'll have to count the number of tops needing quilting and then get serious about which are going to the longarmer and which get hand-quilted.

Days of the week

2011-10-09T12:14:00.005-05:00

I purchased a set of stamped dish towels to embroider at a recent quilt show. I finished the last one this morning while sitting on the sofa listening to the rain and watching Friday Night Lights on Netflix. I love to embroider. I started embroidering when I was about 7-years-old. Someday I'll post the very first hand-work I ever did (hilarious!), which I'm amazed I still have.

I love these. I wonder how something like this would do on Etsy. Are there enough vintage-lovers out there?

I'm about to make some white bean soup with gremolata. I didn't know what gremolata was until I read the recipe. It's lemon rind, parsely and garlic. Isn't that sort of like chimichuri?

Evolution of a design wall

2011-10-03T19:46:00.008-05:00

Like I said in my post this morning, I have been busy since spring. I've been on a mission to complete UFOs and use up fabric I already own. I really believe I could sew for the rest of my life with what I have in stash and scraps. Did I say that out loud?

So first, I saw a quilt on the cover of American Patchwork and Quilting a few issues ago and had one of those "I have to make that" moments. Kathie Holland designed the wonderful scrappy rail fence on the cover of the August, 2011 issue. (Note added 10/7: Funnily enough, I found her blog just recently, but didn't realize I had made one of her designs until she posted a comment on this post!) I went scrap hunting in every closet and plastic tub in my house and turned this:

into this:

which became this:

There are some truly ancient scraps in this quilt. It's really a fabric album. There are pieces of fabric from dresses my mom Grace sewed for me and from dresses that I sewed for my daughter Grace.

I also worked on the leader-ender double 4 patch that's been hanging around for a while (on the right in this pic):

I'm strictly leader-ender-ing that one, though, so it might be around for a while.

Finally, as I was digging in one plastic bucket I found a kit I bought in about 1999-ish and since it was a quick-to-finish kind of a thing I put it together a couple of weekends ago.

I think I'll spend the winter quilting.

Check out other design walls here, thanks to Judy.

Well, hello again

2011-10-03T04:45:00.007-05:00

Ok - it's now customary for me to go months without posting. I'm not even going to say I'm going to try and do better. We'll just see how it goes.

I have been busy since spring. I finished the restoration of a church member's grandmother's flower garden. All the flowers looked like this:

And now the whole quilt looks like this:

I was nervous to return it to her, but she loved it. I had previously replaced the binding on another antique quilt she has, a North Carolina Lily, and she was thrilled with that job, but this one's so much bigger. And this is her favorite quilt because her grandmother made it and she remembers sleeping under it as a child.

I did have to go a bit lighter on the gold fabric - but it's still in character, I think.

This project has really made me want to do quilt restoration as a side career. I would love that. I'd love to go to the workshops Nancy Kirk holds. Or at least purchase her dvds. But I think the next step is to find another quilt that needs restoration and restore half of it so I can have something to show people. Sounds like a good reason to go antique hunting!

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

2011-05-15T06:41:00.004-05:00

Here is my entry for the Bloggers' Quilt Festival that Amy at Amy's Creative Side is hosting. It's a Santa sampler from Bird Brain Designs. Las Colchas started it as a block of the month in, maybe 2008? The only thing is, I did everything completely different than was included in the block of the month. I used different fabric to embroider the Santas on, used a different embroidery stitch, and used a different color perl cotton than came with the kits. One day when I was in the shop picking up my kit for the month, I saw a fat quarter stack of these Sturbridge Village scarlets and knew I had to have them to set the Santas, so I did a completely different setting than the one that came with the pattern. So, I'm not sure I can call this a block of the month anymore.
The picture above was taken when the top was finished I finally finished hand quilting it last fall. I'm really happy with it and I'm thinking about entering it in the San Antonio Quilt Show this year. I've been quilting for many, many years but have never entered a quilt in a judged show. I would love to get a ribbon of any kind - "honorable mention" would thrill me to death.
Yesterday was graduation at the college I work at. More than 870 students crossed the stage (and more than that graduated, but chose not to be in the ceremony). It was chaos right up until the time of the processional, but after that it was perfect! My part of graduation is to help organize the "VIPs" on the stage party - our administrators, board of trustees, the speakers, soloist, etc., making sure they have their academic regalia on right, get lined up for the processional like they're supposed to be and get to the right place at the right time, etc. It's a wonderful ceremony and the students are so happy and excited, but I'm always so glad when it's over!

On my design wall today

2011-05-09T06:32:00.003-05:00

These 14.5 inch 30's reproduction blocks are on my design wall today - but they'll probably come down today, too. When I finished Southern Stars I started looking for another UFO to finish and these came out. I'm just not into them right now, though. I have no idea how to set them, for one thing. Also, I have somewhere in my stash muslin purchased at the same time to use in setting them, and I can't find it. I just have to wait until it shows up, I guess.

So, I think I'll put the double four-patches, which were a leader-ender-use-up-leftovers project on the front burner and see what happens.

Here are some more design walls to look at, thanks to Judy.

Lucky me!

2011-05-08T07:55:00.004-05:00

Mother's Day has been great so far and it just started! I'm that weird kind of woman who actually likes gifts with cords, so I'm loving this panini press. I'm thinking we're going to have paninis every night this week.
And who wouldn't love the gift of original artwork from their favorite and future famous artist who just happens to be my daughter!

Orange Dessert

2011-05-07T22:08:00.003-05:00

I like recipe blogs almost as much as I like quilt blogs, so I thought I might try to throw in some recipes every so often. I made this dish today which goes by the very unimaginative name of "Orange Dessert." I usually make it in one big dish, but two smaller ones fit in my freezer better. And as it turned out, it was a sort of serendipity that I made it in two dishes. Dave decided this morning to go visit a neighbor who cares for her husband who has Alzheimer's (who happens to be a retired pastor in our conference) and as he was leaving I handed him one of these to take with him. He also took her some Mother's Day flowers. He can be a pretty good guy when he wants to!

I got this recipe from Southern Living magazine a few years ago, so you know it's going to be good. I make it as low fat and low sugar as I can, as you will see.

Orange Dessert

1/2 cup butter or margarine, melted
60 Ritz crackers, crushed (I use the low sodium ones)
1/4 cup sugar (I use Splenda)
1 (14-oz) can Eagle Brand sweetened condensed milk (I use the fat-free Eagle Brand)
1 6-oz can frozen orange juice concentrate, thawed
1 8-oz container Cool Whip, thawed (I use sugar-free)
2 11-oz cans mandarin oranges, drained (I use the no-sugar-added ones)

Combine first three ingredients. Set aside 3/4 cup. Press remaining crumb mixture into a 13x9x2 baking dish and set aside.

Combine Eagle Brand and orange juice. Fold in Cool Whip and oranges. Spoon mixture over crust and sprinkle with reserved crumb mixture. Cover and freeze until firm.

I set it out a little while before I serve it. Just long enough so that the mandarin oranges thaw a little, otherwise they're like chunks of orange ice.

Enjoy!

Southern Stars top is done!

2011-05-01T16:23:00.002-05:00

Design wall - a bit late this week

2011-04-27T05:41:00.011-05:00

I took my own advice, sort of. After making a total of 450 3-inch four-patches, I decided to put them aside and finish the last two blocks of the Southern Stars quilt. I was so close to getting the next to the last block finished Monday morning in time to post at Judy's blog, but had sewn two of the half square triangles in backwards! I hate unsewing. I took the block to work with me and unsewed during my lunch hour.

And here's the very last block, ready to be put together. Then it's on to the sashing.

Anyone watching the royal wedding Friday? We plan to get up early to watch and make "wedding waffles" for breakfast.

Oh, I forgot to mention that the fabric on the ironing board is for the border of the quilt.

Happy Easter!

2011-04-24T05:20:00.006-05:00

What was Easter like when you were a child? I remember every woman and girl always had a new Easter dress, and usually hat, shoes and purse to go with it. I remember the excitement of hunting the Easter eggs first thing in the morning. If it was raining, the Easter Bunny hid them in the living room. My Easter "basket" was usually a new sand pail, for playing in my sandbox, one of my favorite activities. I would love to have one or two of those pails now! I think I need to check out eBay and see if I can find any.

Then came Sunday School, where we'd do a crafty gift for our parents like a new Bible bookmark, or something. My mom's Bible was stuffed with those bookmarks - typically a length of satin ribbon with a sticker at the top. Then home to family and a feast. My grandmother would bring me a shoebox full of flower transplants from her flower beds. To this day, the smell of stock takes me instantly to my grandmother's side.

My mom was born in 1915, and her childhood Easter egg experience was a bit different than the standard egg hunt. On the day before Easter each child (with my grandmother watching closely so she could "direct" the Easter Bunny later) found a secluded spot near the house and built a "nest" with leaves, twigs, grass, etc. Then on Easter morning they would go to their nests and find the colored eggs left by the Easter Bunny in the nest. Seems like this would confuse little ones - did the bunny lay the eggs? Did he bring a hen friend along? Oh well, these were country kids, they probably knew exactly where eggs came from from an early age.

Being a clergy family, my husband has always been out the door by 6 a.m. on Sunday (or earlier) for the sunrise service at church. We had to be creative if he was going to experience the fun of watching our daughter hunt Easter eggs. For the first couple of years we had Grace convinced that the Easter Bunny came to our house on Saturday evening (he has to start somewhere, right?). We'd also have our big meal then. If you don't know, Easter, and all of Holy Week, are exhausting for church staff. Joyful and emotional and stressful, but most of all exhausting.

When she was in about the 2nd grade, we were getting her Easter basket ready for the next day when Grace wrote a note for the Easter Bunny. At the end of the note she drew an "x" and line and wrote, "Sign here if you are real." So after she went to bed I sort of messily signed "Hippity" with my left hand. When she woke up the next morning she looked at the note and said, "Just what I thought, Dad's handwriting."

Hope you have a wonderful Easter Sunday, confident of God's sacrifice for you.

On my design wall

2011-04-18T05:35:00.006-05:00

Hello again! I can't believe I've gone so long without posting. Life is just so daily, as Mary Engelbreit says! I'm hoping to get back into the swing of things. Nothing major happened in these last few months. Work has been tough, but it always is. We're dealing with the same budget cuts every one else is. But as my boss (the college president) says, we can't control what the economy and the state government are doing, we can only control how we react to our circumstances. And one of my best ways to deal with stress is to sew!! (The others are pray and cook!)

And on that note, here is my design wall today. There are 10 blocks of Southern Stars by Pacific Patchwork and a bunch of double four-patches in a setting I love from a book called Triangle-Free Quilts by Judy Hopkins. Las Colchas did the Southern Stars as a bom a couple of years ago. (Hi Francine!). I started making the double four-patches a couple of weeks ago when I had a bunch of leftover 1 1/2 inch brown and beige blocks and strip sets from my sister's choice quilt. I needed a fairly mindless activity to occupy my hands and free my brain from too much junk, so I just kept making and making and making 3-inch four-patches. I thought I'd use up all my brown and beige fabric, then hunt for a block that incorporated the four patches and then I remembered the Judy Hopkins quilt. I did buy some new fabric for the bigger squares in the four patches. My small four patches are so incredibly scrappy I wanted some consistency in the large ones.

Please don't point out that in much less than the time it took to make the 200 3-inch four-patches I've made so far I could easily have made the other two Southern Stars blocks and put them together and had a finished top to show for it! That makes way too much sense!

Two great things that are happening this week: it's Sylvester's day to clean my house today (he comes every other Monday) and it's our second four-day work week in a row! So today is really my Tuesday! And I'm really busy at work, so time will fly by.

Time for Bible study/devotion with my pastor spouse. We try for every morning over coffee. It doesn't always work out, but most of the time it does.

Happy New Year's Eve

2010-12-31T06:58:00.003-06:00

It is definitely not snowing here in South Texas! We've had some rain this week, but I think it got up to the mid 70s yesterday. Not really wintry weather. We may be in for some real winter next week, I understand. It's very rare here to get anything too cold. I have one winter coat which I sometimes go a year without wearing. I miss snow. I went to college in Lubbock, where we could count on several snow events each winter - often five or more inches at a time. We lived in Birmingham, Alabama, for three years and I was surprised at how much snow we saw there. The first year we lived there it even snowed on Halloween! Even in the Dallas area where we have lived most of our marriage we typically had a much colder winter than here, just 300 miles south. It was mostly ice and sleet, though, not so much snow.

It's New Year's Eve. I'm thinking about resolutions for 2011. I generally make a few New Year's resolutions. Some I keep, some (most?) I don't. I have heard that when making resolutions you should not make general statements like "lose weight" or "get organized." You should be specific and have an action plan - like "join Weight Watchers" or "lose five lbs. per month by cutting carbs." Or, "spend one hour every Friday morning cleaning desk."

This year I'm thinking about changing up my resolution routine a bit. I'm thinking instead of year-long resolutions, I'm going to set monthly goals. That way, I won't overload myself with a lot of impossible-to-achieve plans, most of which I'll forget in a few weeks. I'm going to take a short-range approach to self-improvement and I'm hopeful I'll see some long-term results.

So...for January, 2011, I want to work on these goals:

1. Finish the restoration of our friend's antique Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt. I'm embarrassed to think about how long I've procrastinated on this project, but, can I say, it's boring! I need to finish it and I plan to this month. I can spend an hour every morning before work (the benefit of being an early riser) and several hours on each weekend. I should be able to knock it out if I do that and then I can work on my own projects guilt-free.

2. Lose 10 lbs. by limiting carbs and not eating between meals. Of course, I have many more than 10 lbs. to lose! But I'm thinking seeing 10 lbs. fall off will be a great motivator for the rest of the year. This is going to be tough. I work in an office where breakfast tacos, doughnuts, candy and cakes are plentiful, not to mention the numerous luncheons and receptions that are my job to plan and organize which involve lots of food!

3. Be faithful to a daily devotional time. Since I'm not teaching or taking a formal Bible study right now, it's so easy to let myself fall away from the Word. I have so many good resources right at my fingertips (I have a pastor husband, for goodness sake!), I have no excuse not to. Even if it's just the Upper Room devotional for the day, at least I can center my day around what my day is supposed to be centered around!

Okay - three specific goals are a good start. After all, I have a full-time (and then some) job, husband, house, child (mostly grown, but still), dog, cats, laundry, cooking, cleaning (not too much of that thanks to Juliette and Sylvester every other Monday - something I'm soooo thankful for), church, choir, prayer life, etc. If I can achieve these three, I'll be quite satisfied and ready to add a few more in February!

More cookies to share

2010-12-14T20:02:00.005-06:00

Tomorrow is the last day - the Twelve Days of Cookies are history for another year. I've been thinking about making this an annual event. People have certainly enjoyed them at the college. People I haven't seen all year just "happen" to drop by. I've seen a lot of smiles. One of our deans told me he's just heard of a new tradition - the Twelve Days of Martin Luther King's Birthday, followed by the Twelve Days of Valentine's Day. It's been really fun. These are raspberry cake bars and the ones above are turtle graham bars. I haven't taken pictures of all of them.

I haven't done any sewing in forever. I developed optic neuritis last year. It went away after a few months, but recently I developed it in the other eye, which is my much stronger eye. Oy. I've gotten to the age where something is either falling apart on me, my house, or my spouse!

Anyway, I hope to get back to the machine soon. Although it's in my stronger eye, it's a much milder case than last year. That's a blessing.

Glad to be nearly out for the holiday. We've had a rough semester and will enjoy the time off.

Twelve Days of Cookies

2010-12-02T21:10:00.004-06:00

It's December! Blessed Advent to all. I love the season. I think I like preparing for Christmas just as much (maybe more) than Christmas itself.

I always try to make some sort of gift for each member of our church staff. One year, when Dave served a medium-sized church with a staff of about 12, I made each person a cute cross-stitched small tote bag, like a gift bag size. For that same staff, the next year I assigned a different month in the next year to each staff member and on the first staff meeting of that month made a batch of muffins in their honor to share at the meeting.

Dave now serves a really enormous church with an equally enormous staff. In fact, I couldn't tell you the names of half his coworkers and that really bothers me. Any way, a couple of years ago I did those cute crisscross coasters Jenny B. Harris has on her blog and made a cute bag with a coaster, Christmasy mug and a couple of packets of hot chocolate mix or cider. I made an number more of them for the UMW craft sale and they sold really well. Another year we did cookie cutter fudge for everyone.

So this year, I was trying to think of what to do and at about that time the Food Network website started their Twelve Days of Cookies e-mails. I get those every year (you get a different cookie recipe every day for 12 days) but I don't think I've ever actually made any of the cookies! We decided that every night we would make a double batch of that day's recipe and each take half to work the next day as our co-worker Christmas gift. We are on day four. Day one was a Paula Deen recipe for Gooey Chocolate Butter Cookies. Didn't think to take a picture. Day two was Garam Masala Chocolate Gingerbread.

Today we took Coconut Macaroons (my favorite so far) and tonight we made Biscotti with toasted almonds and dried cherries. Also really delicious.

It's been a big hit at both workplaces so far. I work at a big college and we have a lot of people through our office everyday so a lot of people have gotten to share in the cookie-eating. Dave said when he got to work the second day there was a group of people in the breakroom just standing there waiting for him.

It's been a fun activity to do together, as well and Dave is learning all kinds of new skills! Yesterday he learned how to fold beaten egg whites into the other part of the recipe. And every night when we're cleaning up we try to guess what the next day's recipe is going to be. Doesn't take much to entertain us, I guess.

Voting Day

2010-11-02T05:42:00.002-06:00

It's voting day! Go out and vote if you've got a local election. We voted last week in early voting. My candidate for governor doesn't have a big chance of winning, but I'm still hopeful.

October

2010-10-17T17:02:00.000-05:00

It has certainly been a long time since I last posted - about as long as it's been since I last sewed!

We had a crazy summer at work as we transitioned to a new software system for registration of our 24,000 students. It was a nightmare! Nothing seemed to work correctly. Three full weeks of daily screaming ensued. Mostly, it was students and parents screaming at all of us in the administration building, but there was plenty to share around the whole campus. It was physically and emotionally exhausting. We've worked most of the bugs out, but I'm a little worried about spring semester registration which starts next month.

So while we dealt with a million emergencies, my regular stuff fell off the map and now I'm in eternal catch-up mode. Can't wait for Christmas break!

Speaking of holidays, Halloween is around the corner!

Life

2010-07-27T20:42:00.003-05:00

Thank you, Home and Heart! My thoughts exactly!

I love it!

2010-06-29T21:36:00.002-05:00

Isn't it adorable! My daughter did it - she's learning to do digital art. I think it's too cute. I'm going to put it on my side bar.

Happy Graduation!

2010-06-13T09:06:00.007-05:00

What a week we had! Our beautiful daughter graduated from high school a week ago yesterday. It was quite an adventure. I took most of the week off from work, and it was a good thing. Our good friend came in from Phoenix and from Wednesday morning on it was go, go, go. Actually, from Tuesday evening on it was crazy, because after picking Grace up on the last day of classes, we got in a wreck on the way home! We were just about to turn into our neighborhood when we were hit by someone who wanted to be in the same lane we were in! We didn't need the extra stress, believe me. No one was hurt, though.

Wednesday was graduation rehearsal and fetching our friend from the airport. We spent all day Thursday at a theme park! I'm not a roller coaster girl by any means, but our friend and our daughter are big time roller coaster-ers. My husband was out of town for the week at denominational meetings, but the bishop let him leave early on Friday for dinner here,

followed by graduation.

We're so proud!

As far as quilting goes, I'm hand-quilting my redwork santas. I've entered it in the New Braunfels guild's show in July! Yikes! I have to hurry! Good thing we're on four-day work week for the summer.

Design wall Monday

2010-05-10T20:15:00.003-05:00

Here's what's on my design wall today - a gazillion sister's choice blocks. I'm trying so hard to use up scraps and stash. It's a slow process. It's also a good thing I like scrappy quilts.I had this basket with a bunch of miscellaneous repro fat quarters and six or eight small (like 4 1/2 inch) 9-patches. Using the fat quarters, I made a bunch more 9-patches, but they were so small I decided to raid the beige and brown stash and scraps and turn the 9-patches into sister's choice blocks.

I think I like it. It's definitely going to be machine quilted - too many seams for hand-quilting.

Check out other design walls at Judy's place.

A lovely Mother's Day

2010-05-09T17:36:00.006-05:00

I've had a very nice Mother's Day and I hope you have, too. First, these tulips and irises arrived Thursday night. How nice to get an early start on the holiday!

This morning began with worship. Every woman present in worship this morning got a carnation. Pastor Mike explained that even women who have never given birth can be "spiritual mothers" to others they come in contact with. I agree. After worship, Grace and I took my carnation to a special place. Mom never got to meet her namesake, which makes me sad.

Then, I was treated to a wonderful lunch at a nice restaurant and the two nice people below gave me the beautiful bangle above. I've been wanting a bracelet with the fruit of the
Spirit (from Galatians 5) for years. Grace remembered and told Dave, "I've got the perfect gift for Mom this year, don't give it a second thought." Isn't that great! I love it and plan to wear it as often as possible to remind myself that the Holy Spirit inspires all those wonderful attributes in us - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I confess I do not exhibit all of those at all times! I wish I did. Sometimes I don't exhibit any of them.

Here comes the ring-bearer

2010-03-07T07:43:00.004-06:00

My oldest sister's oldest granddaughter is getting married this year - the first wedding among my sister's grandkids. My sister and brother-in-law celebrate their 50th anniversary this year. (That makes me sound old. Let me hasten to add that my sister was 18 when I was born).

Anyway, a few weeks ago she called me with a project idea. She wanted me to make a ring-bearer pillow for Randi's wedding - and she wanted me to make it out of her 50-year-old wedding dress!

I had some grandiose ideas of box pleats and set in piping at the beginning of the project but lucky for me she had a much simpler design in mind. She did want me to embroider the bride's and groom's names on the back. On my "draft copy" I tried that, but the chiffon top layer was too thin to embroider on and when I tried embroidering on the ribbon it made huge holes. So I used a gold fabric pen, which looks fine. When the next granddaughter gets married (there are 4 so far) I can add their names and dates if they want to use the pillow.

I hope she likes it.

Great quilting minds think alike

2010-02-28T08:37:00.002-06:00

Two quilters whose blogs I follow posted about the same pattern on the same day:This Schnibble is from Quiet Quilter.

And this belongs to Carol of Carol's Crafty Creations. Do you ladies know each other?

The sew-in was berry fun

2010-01-16T17:32:00.003-06:00

Last night, after feasting on some delicious vegetarian fajitas prepared by my clergyman spouse, I headed upstairs to the sewing room for some strawberries! I found the pattern a few weeks ago at Moda Bake Shop and knew I had to make some. I changed the recipe a little bit. I really don't care for sewing tiny, fussy little shapes, (and besides, I couldn't find my pinking sheers), so I used wool for the leaves. I'm going to put the berries on this little plate for a Valentine's Day decoration and then get them back out in a few months and put them in a green ceramic basket I have for just a summer display in the kitchen. I'm thinking of making a bunch for my sister for Valentine's Day. I have some red fabric with little swirly white hearts that I think will make some really nice berries.

I can't wait to travel around and see what everyone else did at the sew-in. Thanks to Heidi and Bobbi for gathering everyone together.

Friday Night Sew In

2010-01-15T05:45:00.003-06:00

Ok - I've decided to participate in the Friday Night Sew In sponsored by Handmade by Heidi. I usually don't sew much at night - early morning is my best time. But after a visit to my fave LQS during lunch yesterday, I have the cutest project from the Moda Bake Shop all ready to go. My clergyman spouse is off today, so he can be in charge of dinner and we have a 100 percent chance of rain today (we've already had two inches overnight!) so it's going to be the perfect sew-listen-to-Frank-Sinatra-and-Doris-Day-and-sip-hot-tea evening.

Pics tomorrow.

Finished!

2010-01-03T09:06:00.002-06:00

I really need a better place to take pictures of quilts. A better camera wouldn't hurt, either.

On my design wall (bed)

2010-01-02T11:39:00.002-06:00

Here's what I'm working on today. Christmas is not over at my house, apparently, because these redwork Santas just won't go back to the North Pole! I finished stitching the last one about a week ago. I bought a stack of Sturbridge Village fat quarters at the same time I bought the fabric for the Santas, which was about a year ago. The Santas were a bom program, but I changed up the setting because I wanted a bigger quilt. I can't decide if I'm going to put another border on it or not. What do you think?

It's back to work on Monday. It's been a great two weeks to be off. One of the reasons I like working in education is the time off at the holidays. It's better than vacation because everyone else at work is off, too, so nothing is piling up on my desk while I'm gone.

Have to run to the post office to mail a book I sold on Amazon. I ordered Flat Belly Diet in paperback back in October. I got it last week, read through it once and realized it was waaaayy to restrictive for me to stick to long term, so I listed it for sale and it sold in one day. I hope the person who bought it will like it.

Southern Stars number nine

2009-12-31T20:48:00.003-06:00

Here is Southern Stars number nine. My fave LQS is doing this as a $5 quilt, except they call it their "Weekend Sampler." I have managed to stay caught up this time - that's a first!

We're having a quiet New Year's Eve here. We'll have some wine and cheese about 10:30 p.m. here, then watch the ball drop in NYC at their midnight and head off to bed. No big plans for tomorrow, either. Maybe I'll get some quality sewing time in.

I've been thinking about resolutions. I could list a million things I'd like to do better in 2010 than I did in 2009. I do have some resolutions in mind. I'll share the quilty/needleworky ones:

Enter a quilt show. I don't have a quilt ready at the moment, though. I have about a fourth of a top ready that is different sizes of sawtooth stars in pinks and greens (all from stash and scraps). I may focus on finishing that so I can get it in the hand-quilting frame and get it finished in time for the next area show - maybe the New Braunfels show.
Always have some kind of handwork available to do when I'm watching TV.
Join one of the local guilds. Maybe. How about if I just say, visit a couple of guild meetings.
Finish one UFO per month.

Ok, getting way too ambitious here. Resolutions are supposed to be ambitious, though. I need something challenging to strive toward.

I wish for everyone a wonderful 2010.

Happy New Year's Eve

2009-12-31T10:56:00.003-06:00

Our new friend and family member

2009-12-17T19:18:00.003-06:00

This is our newest family member, Napoleon. We adopted him from a local shelter in October. Isn't he the cutest? Smart, too. He sleeps in the laundry "room" (more of a laundry hallway, actually). A few nights ago he learned how to open the pocket door from his sleeping area to the rest of the house. He was quite proud of himself. He's a shepherd mix, very tall and lanky. His favorite hobbies are chewing on rawhide and watching Dogs 101 on Animal Planet. Seriously! When the show is on he will sit in front of the TV the whole time, just watching the dogs on the screen.

A few nights ago he ran out the front door at the same time our neighbors had their three dogs in their front yard. The only way to get Napoleon back in our house was to have all four dogs come in! It was quite a scene.

The party's over

2009-12-05T18:59:00.003-06:00

I wish I could say that this is my house. It's not. It's an historical home on the campus of the college where I work. Friday, I was in charge of our College holiday brunch - about 600 guests! I had a great caterer and lots of help, so it went well, but standing on hardwood floors in heels for four hours is a killer!

I wanted to take pictures of all the tables and food, but the guests arrived the minute the preparations were complete, and then it was all over!

Just two more weeks and we're off for two weeks - I can't wait.

This creature was stirring

2009-11-29T09:58:00.008-06:00

There I was, Friday morning, happily puttering whilst the hubby and daughter slept off their early morning trip to Kohl's, when I heard a strange scratching noise in an otherwise quiet house. I thought one of the cats had gotten trapped in a bedroom someone closed the door of - it happens sometimes. As I crossed the living room to check, I glanced over at the fireplace and what to my extremely wondering eyes should appear, inside the fireplace (thankfully there was no fire going), but one of our thousands of neighborhood squirrels! And he was scratching and pushing on the glass fireplace door, trying to get out - I mean, IN!

Panic ensued between woman and squirrel. I roused my husband from what he thought was going to be his long winter's nap and dragged him to the living room to rescue me. Do you ever have one of those times when you're husband says something extremely, well, male, and you just have to bite your lip really hard? Husband says, "Take the cats in the bedroom and close the door and I'll open the front door, then, open the fireplace and the squirrel will just run outside." Well, sure, I think, that will work - if the squirrel has been in our house before and knows how to get from the living room to the front door, and if the squirrel intended to fall down the chimney all along, calmly thinking, "Okay, plan B if I can't get back up the chimney is to just run out the front door when the guy who lives here lets me out." Hubby read the look on my face and said, "I know, I'll call the chimney sweep. Get me something heavy to lean against the glass doors until he gets here."

A couple of hours later, my daughter woke up and came out of her room to see a sooty man with a top hat carrying a squirrel in a towel through our house. And, we now have a re-secured cap at the top of our chimney - which had been installed upside down, according to the sweep.

The dazed squirrel decamped, exclaiming, "Happy Day-after-Thanksgiving to all and to all, a good afternoon." Or something like that, surely.

Giving Thanks

2009-11-26T09:46:00.004-06:00

'Happy Thanksgiving, Americans, and happy day to all. In a few minutes I have to go back downstairs and see how the rolls are rising. We're having pork roast, cauliflower with cheese sauce, cranberry/orange salad, asparagus, homemade rolls and the apple pie pictured above, which I made sugar-free. There's also still some Shaker lemon pie - I think I'll have a little of each!

These two quilts are Jo's Little Women (Jo Morton) projects from way back. I altered the center of Cabin Corners, the one on the table. I inked "A cabin with plenty of food is better than a hungry castle," which I thought was appropriate for both a log cabin quilt and for Thanksgiving. The basket quilt is folded on a little towel stand I got on eBay.

I'm thankful for my husband and daughter, who keep life exciting, for my friends and family and for the love of God in our lives! Hope you have a blessed day.

Turkey Tracks

2009-11-24T08:20:00.002-06:00

These turkey tracks blocks make me smile! I don't know if it's the happy red and white fabrics, or the fact that I'm making turkey tracks blocks two days before Thanksgiving. The pattern is in the book, "Remembering Adelia." The pattern in the book only calls for four blocks, which are 6.5 inches unfinished. I made 9. I hope to get it all put together today. The borders are the same green as the cornerstones, making it very Christmasy. If the quilting turns out half-way nice, this may end up as one of my Pay-It-Forward gifts.

I have the day off today - am tying valiantly to put work completely out of my thoughts. Along with putting this together, I hope to get to the grocery store with my list for Thanksgiving. Now that my daughter is a vegetarian, we may "think outside the turkey." I'll still make a meat dish for my husband and me, but probably not a big bird.

Vintage Butterfly Quilt pictures from quilts photos on webshots

2009-09-20T18:52:00.000-05:00

Hi - Please read the post below these links before clicking on them! Thanks.

Vintage Butterfly Quilt pictures from quilts photos on webshots

Vintage Butterfly Quilt pictures from quilts photos on webshots

2009-09-20T18:50:00.000-05:00

Vintage Butterfly Quilt pictures from quilts photos on webshots

2009-09-20T18:47:00.000-05:00

Vintage Butterfly Quilt pictures from quilts photos on webshots

Who said I was never coming back?

2009-09-20T18:17:00.004-05:00

Wow! I never meant to go this long without posting. I truly have no excuse. Well, I could come up with some excuses: August is my busiest month at work...I've taken on some new responsibilities at work...We have a new puppy at our house...I can't find the memory card for my camera (I really need a new camera).

All of the above are true, but they are no excuse. But, since I can't locate said picture card, I will link to the Webshots page of mustbecyn. Back in 2005, I advertised my hand-quilting on eBay - and this nice lady sent me this vintage top to quilt. And then I commenced making her crazy by taking forever to finish her quilt. But I finally finished it, and she said lovely things about it. And I was happy with the way it turned out. Please take a look. If you'd like me to hand-quilt for you, let me know - but be prepared for a lonnnnnnggggg wait.

Hope to post much more frequently now that things have settled down. Ha!

On My Design Bed

2009-08-02T19:40:00.006-05:00

This is Building Blocks, designed by Bits 'n Pieces. It was the weekend sampler block at my LQS last year which I'm just now finishing. I have to put the last frame on the block on the right with all the flying geese and then cut my sashing and put it all together. All the fabric is Jo Morton, very different from what is pictured on the pattern cover.

Check out Judy's blog on Monday for more design wall inspiration.

Ready to Pay It Forward

2009-07-28T05:31:00.002-05:00

I'm so excited! I have my three Pay it Forward people. I can't wait to get started on their surprises.

I got a call from my sister's sister-in-law yesterday (also known as my brother-in-law's sister). She has four bolts of "fall-colored Moda" for sale (her description) for $1.00/yard. You know I'll be dropping by her house on the way home from work this afternoon.

Have a great day doing what you love.

Holiday Inn round 4

2009-07-23T05:59:00.002-05:00

I finished Holiday Inn just in time for my Jo's Little Women Club on Saturday. I started this one a little lukewarm about it, but now I truly love it and can't wait to quilt it.

I wish I had a design wall, or at least a better way to photograph quilts and tops so they lay all nice and smooth. I tried the floor, but wasn't happy with the result. I think I need a new camera, too. My pictures come out very washed out. Sometimes I can play with Picasa and get a better result, sometimes not.

Please see my Pay it Forward post below. I'd love to make something for you!

Pay It Forward

2009-07-21T21:09:00.005-05:00

Would you look at all of this adorableness! The lovely Carol of Carol's Crafty Creations just sent me the most wonderful Pay It Forward gifts. I got a Carol-made apron in a cupcake print fabric, a cupcake cookbook and a side-by-side cake pan set that makes a giant cupcake cake. The book was wrapped up in an adorable Holly Holderman fat quarter. My daughter and I are trying out the pan tomorrow night. I'll post a picture if we don't devour it first.

My husband brought the mail in this morning and I was late to work because of all the time I spent opening the box and oohing and ahhing over the gifts!

So now it is my turn to Pay it Forward! If you are unfamiliar with the process, it works like this: the first three people who comment on this post will receive something hand-made (and maybe a little something extra!) from me within the next 365 days. In turn, you promise to pay it forward and make something for three people who comment on your blog. It's way fun.

I hope you post a comment; please do! I can't wait to get started.

Seen in the sky

2009-07-18T22:07:00.002-05:00

The design bed strikes again

2009-06-28T18:29:00.002-05:00

A number of years ago - maybe 12 or so - I saw the most wonderful quilt consisting of embroidered baskets and alternate solid blocks. It was at the annual quilt show in Tyler, Texas. (Side note: My personal advice, based on my experience, is to try never to live in Tyler, Texas).

Anyway, the minute I saw the quilt I knew I had to put it on my "must make" list. I don't know if it won viewers' choice that year, but I think that it did; I know it got my vote. I stared at it forever.

There's something so special to me about simple embroidery. Maybe because it was the first craft my mom taught me, or because all of our pillowcases were embroidered and all our our dressers had embroidered scarves on them.

Fast forward to last year when my LQS featured Cake Walk by Sandy Brawner as a block of the month. It's not exactly like the one I saw in Tyler - in fact, I might like this one more. I was thrilled to sign up for it, and here it is, about a year later, ready to be put together. Well, almost. I've only done one corner setting triangle and one side setting triangle.

The picture does not do it justice. I know 30's repros are not everyone's cup of tea, but I love them.

Playing catch up

2009-06-20T18:33:00.002-05:00

Whew! I was way behind the rest of my Jo's Little Women group, but today I finally got caught up with Holiday Inn. We meet next week to work on the final installment of this four part project. Yes, that's 72 1.5-inch half square triangles and 48 2.5-inch hourglass blocks. I'm loving it, but I'm sorry for the less than beautiful picture.

Here's a Jo's Little Women from way back. It's my version of Cabin Corners, which I think was in Jo's Little Women I. I took liberties with the center block.

Having a nice pre-Father's Day. Being a clergy family, we usually celebrate Sunday holidays the day before. We presented the dad of the house with a new mega-capacity bird feeder and bird seed containers. He was pleased, I think. We'll take him out to lunch tomorrow after church.

A Friday Finish

2009-06-19T20:15:00.012-05:00

Here's the finished Black and White and Red All Over top that has been on the design wall, I mean, bed, for a couple of weeks. It's not a great picture I know but the wind was blowing and my holders quickly grew impatient. I can't wait to get this one quilted, but I still haven't decided how yet - hand, my machine, or the lovely long-armer.

My LQS is offering "Southern Stars" by Pacific Patchwork as their Weekend Sampler ($5 quilt). Here are blocks 1 and 2.:

And other than that, I'm working on the third round of "Holiday Inn" from Jo Morton for Jo's Little Women (series 8). It will probably be ready for picture-taking tomorrow. Didn't really think I'd be crazy about it, but the larger it gets, the more I like it.

Off to play Dogopoly with husband and daughter. Have a good weekend, everyone!

I'm getting there

2009-06-13T10:51:00.005-05:00

Here is Black and White and Red All Over one week later. During the week, I only get to sew about one hour a day - usually from about 5 - 6 a.m.

I like to put quilts together in quarters - not row by row. It's easier for me to manage a big quilt in "chunks" and I could be wrong, but I think it makes it easier to match up the seams.

I fixed the block with the half-square triangle that was turned the wrong way. I debated with myself about it for days. I really prefer leaving mistakes in place unless they're just completely distracting. When I was finished fixing it I was kinda' sorry I had - I couldn't really get the points to match up when I re-sewed. Of course, my eye goes straight to that block every time I look at the quilt, but no one else's will.

Here's a border option I'm thinking about. What do you think? Maybe when I get the top sewn together I'll take some pics of some of my other options.

Next decision: hand or machine quilt or send it to the long-armer.

On my design wall, I mean bed

2009-06-07T08:28:00.006-05:00

My LQS started a block of the month program called "Black and White and Red All Over" last year. The patterns are Moda University patterns and each month we got fabric for three 9-inch blocks. It was an eight-month program, so 24 blocks total.

I love this approach to setting sampler blocks and love, love the Windham fabric I found for the alternate blocks. Black/white florals always remind me of my grandmother, for some reason.

I had to add some extra blocks to the 24 to get the size I wanted, so I consulted Around the Block with Judy Hopkins for the perfect additions. They blend right in, because I had in my stash some of the same fabrics as we got in our block kits (see why it's good to have a healthy stash!).

Of course, you can see the downside in having a design bed instead of a design wall. Her name is Chip, because we were told at the pound that she was a he. Thinking that surely they knew what they were talking about, we named her before actually verifying the facts.

Isn't it funny how photographing something can reveal a mistake you hadn't noticed in "real life?" Can you spot it?

Visit Judy for links to more design walls and add yours!

Tip of the Week

2009-05-31T19:57:00.002-05:00

My eyes are not what they used to be, apparently. I've been having trouble cutting very dark fabric, especially when I'm cutting on the whole inch mark. I use my 5-inch square Omnigrid ruler a lot, but it can be really hard to line up the skinny black whole inch line on black fabric.

So, I came up with a solution that works on lots (but not all) black or really dark fabric:

Just turn the fabric over and cut on the wrong side, which is likely to be quite a bit lighter than the "right" side! Sooooo much easier to see. Like I said, it won't work for all black and dark fabrics - if your fabric is yarn dyed, like a homespun, you're probably out of luck.

I'm probably 100 years late in discovering this trick, but I thought I'd pass it along anyway.

The other wall

2009-05-27T06:01:00.003-05:00

This is the fourth wall in the sewing room, the one I haven't photographed before because nothing was on it until yesterday.

I've had the rack for years, but just had never put it up in this house until yesterday. I've talked about the Tennessee Puzzle quilt on the end before, here. I found the Fancy Dresden Plate in a trunk at my in-laws' house in Florida after my mother-in-law died. I think my husband's grandmother must have made it.

The kaleidoscope is just a top. I think my mom pieced it, or maybe my grandmother. I actually have two - I guess they were planned for twin beds. I hope to quilt them soon.

The little sofa is not centered under the rack for a reason - I wouldn't be able to get in the door of the room if it was! I'm really thinking of taking out one of the closets on the other wall and converting that space to either a cutting center or a sewing center. The latter is appealing, especially since the machine and its table would be up against a wall, which would be beneficial for supporting the quilt while machine quilting.

More new stuff and a finish

2009-05-16T08:55:00.005-05:00

First, the finish. I pieced this Quilt-In-A-Day table runner months ago and wondered when I'd ever have time to hand-quilt it. With my new Elna, I didn't have to hand-quilt it. I pulled it out last week and finished it in time to donate it to the silent auction for my daughter's choir this week. For my first attempt at "real" machine quilting, I'm super happy with it. I just hope someone bids on it!

I bought this cute pink bathroom shelf at the antique mall where I won the windmill plate. I love it!

This book rack is not new, more like new-ish, but until last week the sewing room wasn't clean enough to photograph it!

The local JoAnn Fabrics was closing and sold all their fixtures, as well. I bought this Leisure Arts book rack for a song. It takes up more room than I'd like, but I enjoy having some of my books out where I can see them, instead of on a shelf in the closet.

Something new in the sewing room

2009-05-10T19:31:00.008-05:00

I have a new sewing machine. I had no idea last week at this time that that would be a true statement. And no, it's not a Mother's Day gift, although I've had a lovely Mother's Day with gifts, flowers, lunch, ice cream, and best of all, hanging out and crafting with my daughter.

Last Sunday I noticed an ad in the paper for an Elna dealer and sewing machine repair shop that was going out of business due to the owner's impending retirement. They advertised new and old machines - a complete clear out of their shop. I ran over on my lunch hour Wednesday, thinking they might have some cute vintage machine that would be fun to own and I could pick up for a song.

And then I saw her. An Elna 6600 Quilter's Dream, 50 percent off. I test drove. I admired. I calculated. I checked the checking account. And then I left the store without her. Got back to work and called and said, "Hold it for me until tomorrow." Read online reviews, e-mailed a friend who has an Elna to get the scoop and consulted the hubby, who finally talked me into it and said he'd meet me at the shop at lunchtime on Thursday to seal the deal.

And now she's mine. Here's the progression from box in the dining room to pride of place in the sewing room:

The table runner is an Eleanor Burns design from years ago that I'm putting together for a donation for a silent auction fundraiser for my daughter's high school choir. All stash fabrics.

I'm very happy with my purchase, although even at half-price we'll be eating ramen noodles for a week or two. I have not done much (hardly any) machine quilting before. I think I'm going to love it.

And the winner is...

2009-05-03T16:45:00.003-05:00

...Me! I'm rather lucky when it comes to door prizes. I've won a brand new guitar, a large and beautiful watercolor painting, fabric and gift certificates at numerous shop hops, a Christopher Radko Christmas ornament that I gave to my sister, grocery store gift cards.... Today, one of our local (and last remaining) antique malls was having an open house and my name was drawn for this:

Isn't it cute!

Christmas in May!

2009-05-03T16:21:00.003-05:00

for the "Here Comes Santa" redwork quilt by Bird Brain Designs.

Bloggers' Quilt Festival

2009-04-23T22:15:00.003-05:00

It's the 11th hour (almost literally) and I'm joining the Bloggers' Quilt Festival organized by Amy of Park City Girl. I can't say this is my true favorite quilt, but it has to be one of my very top three. Or five.

The pattern is Cat's Cradle or Tennessee Puzzle, and I originally blogged about it here. After our mother died we found several tops in her house that our grandmother had pieced. Grandmother made quilts to keep her family warm, and all of the quilts that had been quilted had worn out! The tops were in pretty good condition. Mom had always intended to have them quilted, but never did. I had done a small amount of piecing at the time, and a stitch -and-flip-machine- pieced-and-quilted-at-the-same-time quilt but never hand-quilted. My sister took a couple of tops home and I took a couple, this one and a Bow Tie that I love. One day about 10 years later, I just decided to figure this hand-quilting thing out. I first quilted one of my sister's tops - a Sunbonnet Sue. Then I did this one. I was hooked.

Check out the almost 600 quilts in the festival. Amy promises to do another festival in October. I've never been in a "live" quilt show, but I'll bet lots of people who have been have never been in a virtual show!

A Garden Collage

2009-04-23T21:29:00.001-05:00

Tomorrow's Menu

2009-04-11T19:59:00.005-05:00

Cranberry-Orange Salad
Green Enchiladas
Pinto Beans
Mexican Rice
Mandarin Mousse

Ok, so it's not your basic ham and potato salad. The cranberry-orange salad I make for every holiday. I haven't made green enchiladas in years, but I've really been hankering for thems. If you are going to have green enchiladas, you must have rice and beans, right? And the mandarin mousse I can make nearly fat- and sugar-free, so that's a bonus.

The chicken for the enchiladas is boiling now and next I'm going to make the tomatillo sauce so I have less to do tomorrow.

Happy Easter, everyone!

Happy Easter, All!

2009-04-06T21:30:00.001-05:00

Chester 1995-2009

2009-04-01T18:33:00.005-06:00

We're saying good-bye to Chester tomorrow. He's been our friend, family member, pet and pet peeve (sometimes) for 12 years. For a long time I'll come in the back door at the end of a long day and wonder why he isn't running to meet me. I'll drop a French fry and no one will be there to grab it.

At the risk of getting all Marley and Me, I'll never forget how he...

...once got a little too close to a neighborhood skunk. The vet tried bathing him in tomato juice, but needed extra because he drank so much of it.

...with lightening speed, after watching my daughter open it once, moved across a room and in one motion opened the parakeet cage with his nose, snatched Jazzy from her perch and tore down the stairs with her in his mouth. Maybe tomorrow he'll be racing around heaven looking for her to play with, or maybe to apologize to.

...chewed through a chain link fence. So not kidding.

...snuck on the bed day after day after day, thinking I wouldn't notice or hoping I wouldn't care.

...stole sack lunches from the construction workers building the house across the field. Tin foil and corn husks (from the tamales) soon littered the yard.

...knew how to hug. Sitting close to him, you could say, "Give me a hug, Chessie," and he'd flop his head onto your chest and leave it there, now again lifting his head and making the kind of eye contact that says, I understand every word you're saying.

Which he didn't, of course, he was just a dog. But he did understand:

"Walk," and "Walk?"

"Leash"

"Go"

"Car"

"Cat"

"Do you want some food in your bowl?"

bu most of all, he understood

"Good dog!"

A Superstar Evening

2009-01-17T12:32:00.010-06:00

Last night we went to see the touring production of Jesus Christ, Superstar. My husband and I have a lot of memories of the show, being "children of the 70's" as we are. My dh once played Herod in a local production and I remember playing the Broadway cast albums over and over and over until I knew every word of every song from start to finish. When we saw it was coming to our town we decided to take our daughter, who has never seen it. Then when we saw that Ted Neeley was playing Jesus - Ted Neeley who played Jesus in 1972 - Ted Neeley who is now 65-years-old - I wasn't sure I wanted to go, but we did - and it was pretty good, better than I expected. His voice wasn't smooth, but it was powerful. Makes we want to hunt up my albums and play them.

On the stitching front I finished another of the embroidered blocks for Sandy Brawner's Cake Walk quilt that my LQS is doing as a BOM.

A little while ago I made this cute bird that I saw on Kama's cute blog this morning. You can find the pattern from these nice people.

Being Quiltbirdie I just had to make one! I made it for my DD, who loves home-crafted surprises.

Santa Number 9

2009-01-10T16:13:00.003-06:00

This is Bird Brain Santa number 9 for me and now I'm all caught up - didn't make it to the pajama sale last week, so I'll have to run over to the quilt shop on my lunch hour one day next week to see if any more are ready.

I'm very lucky because I have a quilt shop within walking distance of my job and a quilt shop within walking distance (.3 mile!) of my house! How many quilters can say that?

And here's another

2009-01-02T22:33:00.004-06:00

This one didn't take very long at all - I started it yesterday morning and finished today about 5 p.m. Considering the fact that we went shopping yesterday afternoon and today from 11 - 2, I think it was exceptionally fast. I wish the background fabric photographed better. It's a tone on tone which looks like baby blocks or stars depending on how you look at it.

This makes eight completed blocks - however, the label on this one's package said it was number nine, so somewhere in my sewing room is another one ready to trace. That leaves three still to be purchased as they become available at my LQS. DD and I are heading over there tomorrow morning for their pajama sale, so I'll see if they have month 10 ready to pick up.

Happy 2009!

2008-12-31T15:53:00.003-06:00

I understand that Christmas is over, but I'm still working on my redwork Santas (Here Comes Santa designed by Robin Kingsley for Bird Brain Designs). My LQS is doing these as a BOM, so I'll be working on them for several more months. Here's the latest:

I have no Christmas quilts, believe it or not, so I'll be happy to finish this one in a few months and see if I can get it ready for next year.

I need to run trace the next one so I can work on it tonight. If I don't have something to do with my hands I'll fall asleep waaaayyyy before midnight.

Have a wonderful 2009 - I hope it is everything that you are wishing for.

2008-12-20T05:23:00.000-06:00

One Word

2008-11-08T06:23:00.004-06:00

I've been visiting blogs for over a year now, and one reason I thought it would be fun to have one would be to participate in a "meme." Here's one that was on the Allsorts blog of Jenny B. I'm sorry I don't know how to link to her here in the post itself, but I think her blog is great and you can check it out via my "my blog list."

You can use only one word to answer the following questions. Here we go.

Where is your mobile phone? purse
Where is your significant other? bed
Your hair colour? grey
Your mother? missed
Your father? memory
Your favourite thing? quilting
Your dream last night? work
Your dream goal? quitting
The room you're in? chilly
Your hobby? creating
Your fear? poverty
Where do you want to be in 6 years? home
Where were you last night? home
What you're not? skinny
One of your wish-list items? remodeling
Where you grew up? Texas
The last thing you did? coffee
What are you wearing? pajamas
Your TV? off
Your pets? three
Your computer? essential
Your mood? peaceful
Missing someone? friend
Your car? cranky
Something you're not wearing? socks
Favourite shop? fabric
Your summer? complicated
Love someone? several
Your favourite colour? pink
When is the last time you laughed? meeting
When is the last time you cried? unknown

So give it a go, is what I say. It was fun.

Work

2008-10-31T02:38:00.006-06:00

This was my "to do" stack when I arrived at work at 8 a.m. Thursday morning.

Of course, that doesn't include the weekly report I had to write that was due at noon (got it done at 1:30) or the e-mails and telephone calls and walk-ins I had to deal with throughout the day.

Here's the stack at 6:45 p.m., just as I was about to leave the office:

Pretty good, I'd say. Until my boss, who was also working late, did this:

Baby Rose

2008-10-26T06:41:00.005-06:00

Here's my latest "finish" - the Baby Rose (yet to be quilted) from Jo's Little Women series 7 is done! Question: When you finish something, do you feel compelled to clean your sewing space? I do. It's hard for me to go directly from a finish to a start (or a restart as the case usually is) without cleaning the sewing room first.

I love the color variety in this. Haven't figured out how to quilt it yet.

My Favorite Job

2008-10-19T06:56:00.008-05:00

In 1993 we moved to Birmingham, Alabama. We stayed until 1996. It was a sweet time in our lives and I loved it there. Our daughter was two when we moved there; I was a stay-at-home mom; the part of town we lived in (Homewood) was lovely and friendly and I had some really nice stay-at-home mom friends. I was sorry when we left.

A few months after we arrived I happened to be in a quilt shop one day (where else would I be?) and saw a notice posted on the door that McCall's Needlework magazine was looking for stitchers to work for the magazine, bringing the designers' work to life for photographing for the magazine. I didn't even know McCall's Needlework was published in Birmingham. I wrote them a letter the minute I got home and sure enough they called me to come in and bring samples of all the needlework things I could do. They sent me home that day with a needlepoint project. This one:

Over the next three years I worked on a number of projects. In addition to needlepoint I did cross-stitch, counted thread work and embroidery. I also did some finishing work for them.

It was soooo enjoyable to sit on my sofa while DD was at mother's day out or preschool or napping, drink Diet Coke, do needlework, and watch tv, and then, get a check for doing it! And then get to see my work in the magazine! I absolutely loved it.

I have specific memories about some of the projects I did. The hunting dog needlepoint, for instance, took hours and hours of work. I remember that I watched the entire O. J. Simpson trial while working on that project!

And these little jewelry pieces caused me to need reading glasses for the first time in my life!

Credit where credit is due: Marie Barber was the designer of the two needlepoint projects. I'm not sure who designed the jewelry pieces.

A Recent Project

2008-10-12T08:34:00.005-05:00

Over the long Labor Day weekend I decided to go through over 15 years (yes! it's embarrasingly true!) of saved quilt magazines. Don't tell my husband, but some of these magazines have moved with us eight times. I wish I had counted them before I started - or maybe not. Anyway, this is the result:

I saved instructions for quilts I truly loved/might make/would be loved by family members; articles on quilt history; and articles about decorating with quilts.

The rest of the magazines went in the recycling bin. My sewing room closet is much neater now. Or, at least it was neater for a few days!

The interesting thing was that there were very few (like five or so) magazines that went into the bin intact. In every other magazine was at least one project I felt like saving. I had multiple copies of all the most popular magazines: American Patchwork and Quilting, Quiltmaker, McCalls Quilting, etc. By far, the magazine that had the most pages going in the books and the fewest going in the bin was American Patchwork and Quilting. None of those were discarded intact, and most of them resulted in multiple articles from any one issue being saved. Just a personal preference thing, I guess.

So did all that work (it really took me all weekend and then some) cause me to rethink my magazine buying habits?

Nope.

Quilt Restoration

2008-10-06T05:32:00.005-05:00

I've been trying my hand at quilt restoration. I'm working on a friend's grandmother's flower garden quilt. All of the yellow hexagons in the quilt are disintegrating. I read about this in a magazine article once - I think it's caused by a chemical in the dye.

So here is a before:

And an after - it's not the same block, but you get the idea.

It's not a perfect match, color-wise, but it works and after months of searching, it's as close as I could come. It actually looks a bit closer in person than it does in the photos.

Baby Whig Rose - Center

2008-10-01T20:57:00.005-05:00

Here's the center of a Baby Whig Rose, one of the projects in the 7th Jo's Little Women series. I've participated in a Jo's Little Women club at my LQS since 2006, and it's a high point of each month for me. Jo Morton, designer for Andover Fabrics, has created these patterns for small-scale quilts and designed a club around them. So fun. Check your LQS, they just might have a club going on, too.

My Day So Far

2008-09-30T05:53:00.004-05:00

It's been a busy day. I made homemade buttercream icing for and decorated a pineapple birthday cake (made last night) for a co-worker. In our office we mostly bring store bought cakes. I don't know if people laugh at me, but when it's my turn to provide, I bake. I don't really have anything against store bought. I certainly partake readily when offered. I just like to be different, I guess.

Then, I made some faux-Romanov sauce and de-leafed some strawberries for the same birthday party, and then I made two quiches. One has mushrooms, swiss and spinach and the other has mushrooms, pancetta and swiss. They are baking now.

And now, it's 6 a.m. and time to get ready for work!

Tomorrow is DD's birthday, so I'll be baking again tonight. Her choice: devil's food cake with homemade caramel icing.

Here's a quilt I love. My grandmother pieced it about 40-50 years ago and I quilted it about 10 years ago. She'd be so proud, and so would my mom.