Ros-the-quilter

Andee's Latest Schnibbles

2012-01-26T22:07:00.000-08:00

Today, January 26th. is Australia Day, so G'day mates!

I had some Vegemite this afternoon with a nice cuppa!

Andee has been waiting patiently for this, I usually don't take so long to get to her quilts but life has been a bit unusual the past month.

A soft white thread seemed best, and some feather wreaths with Line Dancing for the little houses.

Next I need to complete a baby quilt for a little boy, and perhaps I can get to finish a few of my own flimsies then.

Two Finishes

2012-01-25T21:36:00.000-08:00

These two quilts came from Cathy in Denver- I received them the week or so before Christmas and hoped to get them out sooner but I sort of lost my mojo for a few weeks with my Dad's death. This week I determined that I needed to get back into gear. Being the rather OCD person and easily guilted by any failure of my own to follow through, I promptly quilted them and mailed them off to Cathy.

The first is large, 77"x92", quilted in an all over leafy design with separate leaf border. The thread is King Tut, a variegated green/yellow from Superior that still doesn't show the quilting until you see it in person. This is the second of the same BOM design that I have quilted, as Carol and her friend Linda both made these blocks in similar batik colors, you can see how different Linda's version looks if you click here. I used the same KT thread in a variegated blue for the first quilt, and custom quilted the whole thing, which almost made me blind-it's so hard to see the quilting on these batiks, which is why I decided to use an all-over design on Cathy's. In order to have the quilting show up more I would have had to use a bright gold and I was afraid that would not be as pretty, too intrusive.

The small wall hanging has 3D Flying Geese blocks and needed only very simple quilting, the piecing tells the story. I used mostly a warm brown Sew Fine thread [except for the sky] also from Superior. Do you get the idea I use mostly Superior threads?!

Saturday AZ Huggy Bunch

2012-01-23T20:29:00.001-08:00

Alissa and BJ, came and sewed, I forgot to get a pic of Alissa's project a very cute Halloween quilt. No orange in sight which is probably why I like it.

BJ was working on her Orca Bay blocks, this is one of them.

The block below is one BJ made with the January design from an online BOM that uses a 12" square and some 2" strips, very fast and simple so I think I might try it and if I do I will post the directions. It is very easy, made like a Stack and Slash.

Last week January 18th. was 10th. anniversary of the death of my nephew and godson, Todd. he was 18 years old and has a twin Wesley. I had made a quilt for my brother and decided to add matching shams and this pillow, because it will all be used in a guest room that would have been Todd's room. I used a solid black to frame the photo and make it fit a 12" pillow form, then added the 2" flange in the same fabric I used to trim the shams. The pillow and shams will go by off airmail to Australia this week and I know that my SIL and my brother will love them.

What a joy it is to be able to make things that bring others joy too.

I think this was Todd's HS prom photo and it was taken only a month or two before he died. The tragic loss of a lovely young man, a delight to all who knew him.

DH and I have an even closer family bond with my brother and SIL, having also lost a beloved twin son our Matthew, for whom our youngest DGS is named.

Our two families' lives have been forever scarred by these losses.

May their souls and the souls of all the faithful rest in peace.

Kitchen Renovation Finish!

2012-01-19T11:24:00.001-08:00

As promised here is the "before and after" post upon completion of our kitchen/dining transformation, as of yesterday it is complete. Wow, how long has it been? I had to look back at last year's posts to confirm that the first day of demolition was November 12th. so two months for a complete "gut" of this area is not bad. DH accomplished a marathon job in all the hidden work, demolition, trenching, plumbing, lighting, electrical, tiling etc, replacing a window with French doors, and actually everything but the cabinets and the granite! I helped with repainting.

The vision was mine and the search for and acquisition of all the "accoutrements" [at the best price of course] was also mine. We had a very talented carpenter, David Kobe from "Wood You Want" in Tempe A.Z. whose ideas enhanced the cabinetry design and ergonomics, and that of the island, and Jesus Ortiz from "City Of Stone" also in Tempe, whose stonework created the beautiful island top and counter tops. Each of these talented craftsmen deserve high praise for the quality and ethical professionalism of their work.

David also "built in" the wine fridge and our small freezer so they are incorporated into the cabinets and the island. The cabinets are a soft white with caramel glaze, the island color is a cherry blend stain. The appliances are fairly new so we chose not to replace them at this time, saving thousands of dollars.

No more messy, unfriendly shelves in the lower cabs, but lots of drawers for pots, small appliances etc. The drawers are "soft close", what a difference!

Together we took a small, inconvenient and dated area and transformed it into a fabulous, roomy, convenient space with more useable cabinets and counters, two ways in and out of the kitchen area, an extra "prep sink" and comfortable seating for ten people. And on a fairly tight budget too, monitored by yours truly!

What follows are before and after comparisons, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words!

Before........

after.

Before...........

after.

Before..........

after.

Before...........

after.

Here is a view of the corner where by moving the stove 12" to the right, David was able to give us a fabulous corner with a lazy susan underneath, appliance garage on the counter and a huge corner cabinet above, which before was all empty useless corner space! A gain of about 15 cu.ft. in cabinet space here.

This "garage" hides the toaster, stand mixer, coffee grinder and some utensils that I use daily.

I chose dentil molding, more work for David, but he is so obliging, and it is the icing on the cake, sets off the lovely, simple cabinetry perfectly.

The rain glass I love too, and it will be even nicer when we have lighting installed. I have ordered many feet of LED lighting for under cabinets and eventually under the edge of the island granite. More work for my very patient [long-suffering he would probably say] DH.

An unexpected surprise from Jesus, a cutting board from a piece of the counter granite. He carefully planned the cuts for each area to maximize use of the color and "movement" on the granite slabs. About 95% of two entire slabs of granite was used for this renovation. The island granite is "Misty Mountain" and the counters are "White Spring" both from Brazil.

It looks, feels and lives much larger and I am a very happy camper you can be sure, you may hear my yips of glee from where ever you are! I do like to cook and have family and friends around and it's so much more fun now.

Thank you, thank you, David Kobe, Jesus Ortiz and my hard working husband.

Monday Quilting Report

2012-01-16T22:18:00.000-08:00

Huggy Bunch met here Saturday, BJ, Lauren and I sewed and visited and shared lunch.

It's a good idea I have found, to sew simple things when you are chatting and can be distracted, so I looked for some easy projects for HB and found orphan blocks that needed to be made into tops. The log cabin blocks above are those left from the KS quilt I gifted to my SIL [picture here]

I am not sure if it will get a border because I don't have sufficient of any of the fabrics.

The other project I worked on is a collection of 6.5" squares left from a long-ago quilt, long since sold! You can see I got as far as two of the stop borders,

and this will probably be the final border.

Now I have two more child/baby quilt tops that will join my collection of un-quilted tops, sigh, therefore upping the ante on my self-proclaimed 2012 goal to quilt all of my flimsies! I guess I need to count them and put the total on the side bar so that there will be accountability!

But enough of my projects.

Lauren is working on construction of four scrap quilts from clothing, mostly denim, using the pockets zippers and everything possible. Above are a few of the 100 or so blocks she has so far.

BJ worked on her Orca Bay quilt and you can see from the blocks above how far she has advanced, almost ready to sew the blocks into a top. I can't wait to see the finished quilt, I will probably get to quilt it so I will have vicarious pleasure since I wasn't able to do Bonnie's mystery this time.

A few weeks ago I showed the finished commission quilt, now I can say who it was for, didn't want to let the cat out of the bag and purchance spoil the surprise for Helen's sister Sue.

Here she is receiving her gift, which was a huge surprise.

Helen and I are both very pleased that Sue is thrilled with it and that it fits right into her plans to refresh her bedroom.

My Dad's Memorial

2012-01-08T18:46:00.000-08:00

The family gathered today in our "almost-finished" kitchen/dining area to say our goodbyes to Dad/ Grandfather/ Great Grandfather. We said prayers and committed his eternal soul to The One who is our Creator.

We had made a short slide show from a few highlights of his life that we ran on the TV screen and enjoyed reminiscing about the times we shared those events. If you click on the post title you can see the slide show.

It was helpful to all of us and especially to me since I did not attend the funeral in Australia on Friday. My Dad is responsible for the existence of 30 humans, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren. His and my Mum's DNA is in all of us and we are blessed!

We sat around the rest of the afternoon and played Mexican Train dominoes, which Dad enjoyed when he was with us in Colorado.

Here are a few pictures from today.

Mexican Train Dominoes, it's a great game for both kids and adults to play together. Our grandsons have played since they were eight years old, it's a good exercise for their brains, strategic planning and math.

We are still missing the doors and shelves for the island and the glass cabinet doors.

This week I am hoping it will all be done, hoping!

AZ Huggy Bunch

2012-01-07T21:33:00.000-08:00

BJ and Andee came to sew today, they both worked on Bonnie Hunter's Orca Bay Mystery.

BJ made a long string of these, I am not sure which clue they are....................

while Andee's box is filling up!

These are her boo boo blocks, needing to be un-sewn and re-sewn correctly. Andee you look way too happy to be anticipating the frogging of these blocks! There are always a few of these in Bonnie's mysteries it seems, there are so many tiny blocks with multiple tiny pieces it is very easy to be distracted!

Orca Bay is not on my schedule, too many other irons in the fire like the binding on this quilt, finally done!

Today I discovered that I needed a quilt for another baby boy, and remembered some blocks left from the last baby boy quilt. With some additions they sewed up fast and this will be cuddly comfort once it has a minkee backing quilted on.

My Dad, 100 Years And Seven Months

2011-12-28T23:02:00.000-08:00

May 18, 1911 - Dec.29, 2011

Requiescat in pace, Dad.

A well lived life.

Four children

Fourteen grandchildren

Twelve great grandchildren.

His beloved bride-1942

His firstborn

His first grandchild, his parents - and me.

At 90

Four generations in AZ.

100th. celebration.

Five descendants missing from the picture, three grandsons and two great grandsons.

Christmas Day Family Picture

2011-12-27T09:40:00.000-08:00

My friend BJ told me she wanted to see a picture of the family in the newly almost-completed renovated kitchen/dining area at Christmas!

So, here it is BJ, not the greatest pic of everyone because the other ones had to be rejected when a couple of adult males decided to act the clown. Thanks guys!

Now I can get back to quilting and I have about ten days while DH is in Colorado with the older DGS's for snow sports, I can sew and quilt to my heart's content, no meals to prepare etc!

Woohoo!

Merry CHRISTmas!

2011-12-24T23:02:00.000-08:00

Wise men seek Him still...............

The Rwandan Nativity.

Then, just for fun..........

'Twas The Night Before Christmas........

Aussie style!

[Translation-"Rusty old Ute”-not an Indian but an old pick up truck or “utility”]

'Twas the night before Christmas; there wasn't a sound,

Not a possum was stirring; no-one was around.

We'd left on the table some tucker and beer,

Hoping that Santa Claus soon would be here.

We children were snuggled up safe in our beds,

While dreams of pavlova danced 'round in our heads;

And Mum in her nightie, and Dad in his shorts,

Had just settled down to watch TV sports.

When outside the house a mad ruckus arose;

Loud squeaking and banging woke us from our doze

We ran to the screen door, peeked cautiously out,

Sneaked onto the deck, then let out a shout.

Guess what had woken us up from our snooze,

But a rusty old Ute pulled by eight mighty 'roos.

The cheerful man driving was giggling with glee,

And we both knew at once who this plump bloke must be.

Now, I'm telling the truth it's all dinki-di,

Those eight kangaroos fairly soared through the sky.

Santa leaned out the window to pull at the reins,

And encouraged the 'roos, by calling their names.

'Now, Kylie! Now, Kirsty! Now, Shazza and Shane!

On Kipper! On, Skipper! On, Bazza and Wayne!

Park up on that water tank. Grab a quick drink,

I'll scoot down the gum tree. Be back in a wink!'

So up to the tank those eight kangaroos flew,

With the Ute full of toys, and Santa Claus too.

He slid down the gum tree and jumped to the ground,

Then in through the window he sprang with a bound.

He had bright sunburned cheeks and a milky white beard.

A jolly old joker was how he appeared.

He wore red stubby shorts and old thongs on his feet,

And a hat of deep crimson as shade from the heat.

His eyes - bright as opals - Oh! How they twinkled!

And, like a goanna, his skin was quite wrinkled!

His shirt was stretched over a round bulging belly

Which shook when he moved, like a plate full of jelly.

A fat stack of prezzies he flung from his back,

And he looked like a swaggie unfastening his pack.

He spoke not a word, but bent down on one knee,

To position our goodies beneath the Yule tree.

Surfboard and footy-ball shapes for us two.

And for Dad, tongs to use on the new barbeque.

A mysterious package he left for our Mum,

Then he turned and he winked and he held up his thumb;

He strolled out on deck and his 'roos came on cue;

Flung his sack in the back and prepared to shoot through.

He bellowed out loud as they swooped past the gates

Merry Christmas to all and GOODONYA MATES

A little more progress......

2011-12-23T22:46:00.001-08:00

Christmas is almost here but my new kitchen isn't.........well it isn't all done. I do understand construction delays, and two weeks hold up for a completely gutted kitchen is probably neither here nor there in the whole scheme of things.

Today we did get some of the shelves and drawers so this evening I began to unpack boxes and replace some of the kitchenware, tomorrow I hope to organize a few more drawers in between some baking.

The fun thing I did yesterday was to make a new curtain for over the kitchen sink-I wanted a little privacy without forsaking the light-the window faces to the side so there is not much foot traffic but there is also no fence!

Searching for the thing I had in mind was getting me nowhere, so I had to switch gears and when I came across a single grey, semi- sheer drape with a self stripe, I thought I could make it work.

I cut off the strip with the rings and made a rod pocket along one side, purchased some blingy trim...........

and here is the new curtain! I am very happy with the result, the grey tones in nicely with the brushed nickel hardware and faucets.

David says next Wednesday he will have the doors, the trim and the balance of the drawers and shelves, and then there will be the grand "reveal".

It really is worth the little wait to have his expert carpentry skills creating beautiful furniture for the kitchen, it's worth waiting for the best!

JW and his little boy last night!

Too cute!

T'was The Week Before Christmas.......

2011-12-21T21:11:00.000-08:00

.........and I decided to take a holiday from quilting! What, you say, how can she do that? It is not my natural bent, but I confess I am a bit tired, and would prefer to focus on getting the kitchen done and taking care of Matthew and making my minimal Christmas preparations.

The adults in our family made the wise decision to forgo adult gift giving- spouses were excepted if they so wished- but otherwise it would be "just the kids". Only three of them and for DH and me this is a cinch. The two older DGS get their annual Telluride season ski pass, and young Matthew is no problem at two yrs and nine months.

Between the incomplete kitchen and oldest DGS work schedule and the fact that school doesn't let out till Friday, we have also missed the annual cookie baking. I hope that next year young Matthew will be able to participate. I did make a batch or two of Christmas biscotti and some mini Christmas breads, and plan to make some more in the next couple of days for gifting.

Makes Christmas pretty simple. I tried to persuade DH that the new kitchen is my gift but I know he will not comply so today I went out and bought him this for the new kitchen/entertainment area........

we will all enjoy it for games on holidays etc. when we gather but DH is the big TV watcher in the house on a daily basis, though I can be persuaded to watch the news while I am cooking. I said that Santa had come a little early.

I also purchased this............

so he can install it on the appropriate wall! Have I told you that he is a very handy chap to have around? Think I will keep him!

Now here's a sneak peek of the 8.5ft. island granite, the new French doors and the chandelier..........

and below, the main sink. That's an instant boiling water faucet on the left, filtered cold water on the right.

I told DH "if I am missing from bed in the night, come downstairs and you will find me hugging my granite!"

Happy Birthday Andrew And Christa.

2011-12-16T21:49:00.000-08:00

Convenient when two members of a family share the same birthday [a few years apart]. Our son Andrew and DIL Christa, Lucas' wife, the gal on the left.

We all gathered at Roy's Restaurant at the Marriott in Scottsdale for a wonderful dinner.

Happy birthday and many, many more to both of you.

We are so proud of you son!

My great DH and me in a mellow moment!

Quilt Appraisal-Commission Quilt Finish

2011-12-14T22:03:00.000-08:00

This morning I took the commission quilt to Karen Housner, professional quilt appraiser and historian. Karen also lectures and gives workshops. Click on her name for further information.

I often have special quilts appraised for insurance replacement value, quite different from retail value. No point in paying for more insurance than you need, if your purpose is simply to be able to pay for materials and labor to have a replacement constructed. Retail or market value is another thing entirely and requires a separate appraisal.

This does not take into account sentimental value which does not equate to $$$ and is unfortunately, quite irreplaceable!

Karen notes size, material type including fabric, batting and thread, as well as color, design, quilting design and whether appropiate to the overall quilt, quality of workmanship, backing, any labels and other pertinent information to help identify the quilt and its provenance.

This is custom quilted with McTavishing, feathers and other freehand motifs. It took me until 4 a.m to complete binding and other detail handwork so that I could get it to Karen Wednesday morning. Only three hours sleep so I need to catch up tonight! Maybe........

There are 3D applique butterflies hidden on the quilt........

The backing is toile; I "interviewed" several fabrics before settling on this one, that is not blatantly contrary to the front of the quilt and not too plain.

I am not sure if the quilt will be used as wall art or as a utility quilt so I have hand stitched a "sleeve" to the top of the back that can easily be removed if not needed.

So far these two labels have been attached but they will be joined by a personal label identifying the giver and recipient. A 5th. butterfly resides there too, just for fun [and Feng Shui,LOL]!

AZ Huggy Bunch

2011-12-10T23:40:00.000-08:00

BJ and Andee came to sew today, they brought food so we didn't have to eat out, that was nice! I did not prepare anything, I have had a full week, Matthew the usual two days and a few days out of commission while I had a minor procedure on my heart at Mayo hosp. I have atrial fibrillation and the meds weren't keeping it under control so they did a cardiac ablation via cardiac catheterization. As heart related ops go it's a cinch when all goes as planned as it did. Left me quite exhausted but today I am pretty much back to normal.

There was also the need to get Fritz's quilt done and off the LA so I could put the commission quilt on. Client would like an appraisal and my professional quilt appraiser is leaving town for a couple of weeks and 14th. is the last day she can do it. Karen Housner is the only appraiser in the Phx. area so there is a need to get this quilt done by Tuesday. Then there are a couple more I'd like to quilt before Christmas and at this rate I might even succeed!

BJ and Andee were both working on Orca Bay, the latest Bonnie Hunter Mystery quilt. I quite forgot to get pics of BJ's progress and she is to send me a photo, but meantime these are Andee's blocks to date. I really like how this quilt is turning out in the different colorways and wish I were in a place to make one but my next quilt will most likely be the New Year's Eve Mystery that BJ and I do together.

I did work bit at my machine, making a few butterfly appliques for the commission quilt then working a little more at binding the Dresden Plate quilt.

DJ spent a good part of the afternoon trying to sleep off a migraine-she came in later to show off her new U of A sweater.

Thursday the box for the island came, it's hard to picture the finished product but the base is just over 7.5 ft. long and the granite that goes on top [ it will be here Tuesday] is 8.5 ft. long.

And the "Ta-Da"!

The wonderful chandelier that the wonderful DH installed today! I love it! DH says it is "ostentatious" but I still love it and wait till you see it with the granite island top; check back Tuesday!

Fritz's Quilt

2011-12-09T19:51:00.000-08:00

Fritz's quilt is ready for Lauren to bind.

Fritz is a NASCAR fan .............

and he loves the Cardinals!

AZ. Huggy Bunch Quilters

2011-12-04T19:14:00.000-08:00

Saturday BJ and Lauren came to sew with me. Lauren has a quilt project that is urgent and she was needing some help so BJ and I combined our efforts to help sash this quilt ready for borders.

Lauren has a dear friend at her place of employment who has been desperately ill since October and who is actually comatose. This quilt is filled with loving messages from his friends who want him back amongst them.

Fritz could use every prayer you wish to offer.

I will be quilting it as a soon as the top comes back from Lauren with the borders completed, probably tomorrow.

This pretty quilt of lovely warm reds and golds came off the LA this afternoon- it's made mostly from batiks that can be challenging to quilt as the the tight weave can cause skipped stitches and frequent thread breakage. Generally I have little problems with batiks but this one did cause some annoying thread issues. I used silicon on the thread and thread path, backed off the top tension and slightly loosened that of the actual quilt sandwich and then as a last resort turned the needle on the machine slightly to the right.

This last idea is often suggested by other professional quilters and machine techs, and I am not exactly sure why it works, but I think it helps to take some stress off the thread path.

It is quilted with Sew Fine and Bottom Line threads from Superior, feather wreaths in the blocks and feathers in setting triangles and border.

With these tactics I managed to get it done and it will be mailed back to the owner this week.

The pic below taken without flash shows the quilting design better though the color is not accurate. Leslie said this quilt was going to remain a pile of blocks but the addition of the beautiful batik border and now the quilting has transformed it into a lovely quilt!

Thursday's Report!

2011-12-01T14:18:00.000-08:00

Here are pics from before border........

and after border application.

This commission quilt is now ready to be quilted after I complete the quilt that is currently on the longarm machine. It has finished up at around 56x60" just about right for the client's request.

I did say I would be posting kitchen rehab progress, and below is the most recent addition, the lovely big new granite sink. It's huge and I love it.

DH wanted to give me a water source other than the one in the downstairs powder room, and as we haven't any counters yet [that's next week], he had to invent a solution. He is a very resourceful sort of chap, handy to have around!

See, no doors yet on the cabinets either, but you can tell that everything is nicely appointed under the sink. It was quite the challenge to fit it all in, but as I already stated, DH is resourceful.

Note my temporary faucet-the elegant new one can't be installed until the granite counters come in. More resourcefulness from DH!

Other than that there are just two glitches in the program; UPS lost the chandelier, they haven't a clue what happened to it, it arrived in Phx. over a week ago and whoosh, just like that it seems to have disappeared. The company has shipped another that is predicted to arrive next Wednesday if UPS can keep track of it!

The other irritation is that HD promised delivery of the French doors last week and now they tell us that it will be two more weeks from now! Sigh.

Does anything ever go totally smooth? We are probably blessed to have had only these two relatively minor issues. Could have been much worse.

The Day after The Feast!

2011-11-25T19:32:00.000-08:00

Having a severely reduced kitchen there was no turkey cooked at our house but I was fortunate to be gifted with the leftover skeleton of a smoked turkey which made up into a wonderfully fragrant and tasty pot of turkey soup with just enough of the smokiness coming through.

As a little something to accompany the soup I made a Kiwi -Pomegranate relish.

I made it for the first time last week and we [DH, JW and I] thought it a very different and appealing mixture of sweet and spicy, a nice change from the ubiquitous tomato salsa found everywhere here in the southwest.

BJ brings me all of the more "exotic" fruit and vegetables from her Bountiful Baskets, and pomegranates have been in season so I have had a few lately! As a child I thought them delicious and here they are a rarer treat as they are not plentiful in this area, so I was anxious to try a couple of new ideas for them. I am happy to have discovered this recipe, and if you would like a change from salsa and have access to this odd fruit give this a try.

Kiwi-Pomegranate Salsa

4 or 5 firm kiwi peeled and chopped coarsely

arils [seeds] and juice of 2 pomegranates

a firm avocado coarsely chopped

2 tblsp. thinly sliced green onions

1-2 pickled jalapenos finely chopped

2 tblsp. chopped fresh cilantro

2 tsp. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Mix all together folding ingredients gently. Serve with tortilla chips. I found that it's best to use both kiwi and avocados that are only just ripe enough so that they do not disintegrate in the mixture.
I tried just one jalapeno and for us it was insufficient, but you can adjust that to suit your own taste. I also added juice of half a lime the second time, adds a little piquancy.

Below a pic taken yesterday of little DGS with adoring GM.

In Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T12:27:00.000-08:00

For the blessings of this life, we thank you God.

A Little Progress

2011-11-23T20:16:00.000-08:00

Wordless Wednesday

On the kitchen...............

and the commission quilt.

AZ Huggy Bunch

2011-11-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

Only BJ and I of our AZ HB group were quilting here today but we had a friend of mine from TX join us; Peggy is in town to visit a friend.

Peggy was working on "unsewing" a quilt.............

BJ finished this "scrappydoodah" quilt today for her niece...........

and I finished binding this one-only one more of my own quilts yet to bind, the 30's Dresden Plate. Then I need to put some more of my own flimsies on the LA, after I finish the commission quilt- that may not be until around Christmas!

Meanwhile DH was hard at work on the kitchen rehab but he had to put up with our chattering while he worked and we had to tolerate the power tools etc!

This is the necessary to hook up the prep sink for the new island.

Button got her footprints in the wet cement!

The trench now prepped for power and water and all filled in with cement!

Monday once the cement has cured, the missing tiles will be replaced.

Demo is over and reconstruction on the way!

Demolition!

2011-11-18T20:36:00.000-08:00

Yesterday the real, the serious demolition began. A six foot trench had to be cut in the slab to accommodate the drain, water and electricity for the new island that will be separate from the rest of the cabinets and will run at a different angle from the old one that came out from the wall and "walled off" the kitchen so to speak!

Here is David's rough draft of the new set up [he has refined it since to fit the final plan.]

DH is doing the "grunt work" because it saves us lots of money, and the creation of the trench was his laborious work.

I went out run a couple of errands and returned to what the following pics will show as the awful clouds of cement dust floated through the entire house, including all of the upstairs.

I ran around closing doors and draping old sheets and painter's plastic over furniture, quilts, my quilting machine etc, but it was too late to prevent a great deal of the nasty stuff from settling on everything. At one point the visibility was so poor that the pic below is all I could see!

Consequently I was up till 1 a.m., first running the shop vac then vacuuming and repeated vacuumings, and cleaning, cleaning, cleaning, washing floors, then many loads of laundry. Today my poor abused body was/is in pain and I had still more cleaning and laundry plus trying to organize sufficiently to be able to function with simple meals. And the little fellow was here all day, and we managed to keep him out of the mess! Hallelujah!

Today most of the worst of the dust is gone and my lovely and faithful cleaning lady will get the rest. I even have a dishwasher hooked up [thanks DH] especially as there is no sink!

Here is what was accomplished by this evening; tomorrow is more plumbing, then concrete to fill the trench and lastly tiles to fill in the open area. Tuesday David plans to bring the "boxes", the framework for the cabinets, so all of the rest has to be finished.

Tomorrow Huggy Bunch AZ meets, don't know yet who will be here but at least they can come in and sit down without being covered in cement dust!

I am quite sure that any of you who have done renovation in your homes while living there are quite familiar with all of this.

Family Night

2011-11-15T12:53:00.000-08:00

Son Andrew and wife Lana hosted a family dinner out for Veteran's Day to honor his Dad and brother's four plus decades of military service. We were able to enjoy the lovely Arizona Fall weather and eat on the patio at Babbo's so we did not disturb other diners with the [at times] rowdy family fellowship!

Thank you for this evening of family fun.

Sunday night we had another not so fun family evening out at John C Lincoln ER. Andrew was rushed there with a suspected major heart attack giving me almost a major heart attack. Thank God the cardiologist was able to identify the problem not as a heart attack but pericarditis [inflammation of the membrane around the heart]. However, the family lived through anxious hours until this was revealed to us and we are hoping our son will be home later today to return to full health shortly.

Cause of the inflammation is a virus, aetiology is unknown but we do not anticipate any further problems associated with this.

Thanks to God and great sighs of relief here from all of us!

Renovation!

2011-11-12T13:12:00.001-08:00

Renovation is great but what comes before is not so great, the removal of all that is to be renovated!

So today DH began the process by removing all the upper cabinets from the kitchen and re-installing them in the garage, yikes what a mess but not nearly the mess it will be before we are done. I hold the picture of the final product in my mind to keep me sane, it's all a work in progress!

Next Wednesday all the lower cabinets go out, Stardust a local non-profit organization will deconstruct them to be sold in one of their two Phoenix warehouses that sell gently used building materials to the public at 50-80% off retail. The profits are then used to make home improvements for those in need.

It is a fine way to keep usable building materials out of the landfills while providing them for use at deeply discounted prices.

Here are my new faucets............

and granite sinks. This is the big single sink, 33" I think.

The new island has a 14" square prep. sink in the kitchen end.

They are 80% granite and fairly indestructible, heat and scratch resistant. They are made by Blanco and the color is "Anthracite". Being a bargain hunter I searched online for the best price and almost halved the regular cost. It really pays to let your fingers do the walking/searching!

This is a not so great picture of the island granite slab, it's called "Misty Mountain" and most of it will be needed for the four by nine foot island.

So it was necessary to find a complimentary granite for the cabinets, something that would be interesting in it's own right but not so much that it fought with the island piece! It's more cream in reality, the pic. makes it look pink!

I looked at a lot of slabs until I found this one called "White Spring". Both of these pics were taken with my phone so they are not the most accurate color but you get the idea! Next time I will try to remember to take my camera.

The past week DH and I have been packing up all the items from the kitchen, then stacking them out of the way. When the lower cabinets go I will not have a sink any more so we will be eating off paper plates, not products that we can recycle unfortunately but we will keep them to the minimum. There will be minimal cooking too, just things that can be prepared in the microwave-I am really fortunate to have a Costco less than a mile away!

More updates on this project as it progresses!

Veteran's Day, Lest We Forget

2011-11-11T08:27:00.000-08:00

On Anzac Day in Australia I attended dawn memorial services from childhood. This heart- wrenching poem was part of the ceremony, at least the verse in italics, and never fails still to bring me to tears.

Binyon said as to how it came to be written:

"I can't recall the exact date beyond that it was shortly after the retreat. I was set down, out of doors, on a cliff in Polzeath, Cornwall. The stanza "They Shall Grow Not Old" was written first and dictated the rhythmical movement of the whole poem."

The retreat to which he referred was the Battle of Mons in August 1914.

For The Fallen Robert L.Binyon

With proud thanksgiving, a mother for her children,

England mourns for her dead across the sea.

Flesh of her flesh they were, spirit of her spirit,

Fallen in the cause of the free.

Solemn the drums thrill; Death august and royal

Sings sorrow up into immortal spheres,

There is music in the midst of desolation

And a glory that shines upon our tears.

They went with songs to the battle, they were young,

Straight of limb, true of eye, steady and aglow.

They were staunch to the end against odds uncounted;

They fell with their faces to the foe.

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them.

They mingle not with their laughing comrades again;

They sit no more at familiar tables of home;

They have no lot in our labour of the day-time;

They sleep beyond England's foam.

But where our desires are and our hopes profound,

Felt as a well-spring that is hidden from sight,

To the innermost heart of their own land they are known

As the stars are known to the Night;

As the stars that shall be bright when we are dust,

Moving in marches upon the heavenly plain;

As the stars that are starry in the time of our darkness,

To the end, to the end, they remain.

God bless our valiant Military forces and may He have mercy on them and their families.

AZ Huggy Bunch

2011-11-06T11:44:00.000-08:00

Although we missed Lauren [she was studying, working on her Master's] it was lovely to have BJ, Andee.....

her sidekick DJ, shown here modeling the Packer's cap Andee made for her brother, a vet tech.

Alissa came for a little while, she was working on cross-stitch Christmas ornament I think. Obviously her eyes are younger than mine, LOL, I had to give that up a long time ago-know anyone who wants about 100 skeins of embroidery thread?!

I didn't get a pic of BJ's project other than what you see in the first pic, but here's part of a tree skirt, one of four the ambitious Andee is making.

I managed to get one quilt bound, the little pink "Log Cabin With Attitude"......

and I have binding prepped for two more quilts but those are set aside until I get this commission quilt done.

A Blogger friend wants it for her sis and she gave me a specific color spectrum so I am endeavoring to stay within those parameters. It took a while to gather all the fabrics I thought I would need for this project and already I have rejected many as unsuitable! Watercolor quilts require a wide range of fabrics and because it's kind of like painting with little squares of fabrics, usually you don't know what you will need until the process is under way and even then it can change as you go along so you must be prepared with a wide variety.

I intend to add purples and greens to the design, maybe like these, and I am hoping to get the basic part done soon but unfortunately I don't have a large enough design space so I will have to construct it as I go. Many of the fabrics in this quilt are batik as those above.

In addition I am caring for young Matthew 4 days a week, about 10 hours/day for next couple of weeks, and there is no taking your eyes off the little scamp because he is very, very busy and into everything he should not be! He loves to get into my quilting tools which is absolutely a no-no, so of course it's exactly what he wants!

Then there's my other project, the kitchen renovation that I have been scheming and plotting and saving for and surfing the web for the best deals on granite sinks and new faucets, a chandelier etc. The tear down begins in little more than a week so that will be a mess for a few weeks but it is to be done by mid December, a new kitchen for Christmas I can hardly wait!

I will be posting on that you can be sure!

Vintage Dresden Plate Blocks

2011-11-03T22:55:00.000-07:00

I am linking with Finished for Friday at Litandlaundry.

These blocks constructed with 30's/40's original fabrics and purchased from an estate sale, made up into a very pretty quilt with a repro. fabric for the setting triangles, centers and border. I used up all of that fabric so will have to use something different for the binding. About half of the blocks were already hand appliqued to the muslin and the original piecer had cut the remainder of the eighteen blocks and plates.

Although I am quite pleased with it I now wish I had used something other than meandering around the blocks. However it is appropo for the era and not an unpleasing effect.

In the centers are small feather wreaths and feathers also in the border. I had loaded the quilt on the LA before quilt retreat and started right into the quilting once I returned last week. I find it very appealing am thinking I may keep it, as much handwork as I invested in the project and as charming as I find the end result.

With no daughters or yet granddaughters to receive it, it may hang out in my house for some time and become even more vintage!

The backing is a cream WOW to coordinate with the muslin in the quilt which is unbleached.

It shows up the quilting nicely though I used a natural colored Bottom Line in the bobbin and So Fine in the top for a subtle result.

Blogger's Fall Quilt Festival

2011-11-01T12:10:00.000-07:00

Here is another opportunity to celebrate our craft/passion of quilting, thanks to Amy's Creative Side for hosting the online festival

This time I chose a quilt called Singing His Praises", designed by Sherry Moore.

The quilt took a few years to piece and quilt, blocks are Paper Pieced and custom quilted. The quilt has been donated to Living Faith Anglican Church to raise money for the Memorial Fund. I chose to do that in memory of our son Matthew.

It was a challenge to construct; to begin with, the BOM packs I received had scarcely enough fabric, in fact in one instance I had to piece one of the small pieces!

But I dare you to find it,LOL.

Then I put off the quilting because I knew it would be custom and therefore time consuming.

Once I began it was fun to invent a different quilting design for each block.

The blocks represent hymns and the kit came with the list of blocks and hymns and an explanation of each.

Some blocks like this one below, were quite unusual and not at all familiar to me, so the quilting design really challenged my imagination!

Below is the smallest of the blocks and as you can see from some of the tiniest pieces it would have been impossible to construct other than with paper piecing. I think these little blocks are only 3.5"!

After I struggled through the first of these musical notes I was considering not bothering with the other three for the corners, but decided that I had come that far so why give up on the final challenge.

In the end I was very happy with the over all result and had the quilt appraised by Karen Housner.

The Final Retreat Day

2011-10-29T16:26:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning we awoke to this, it finished up at about 6" of the white fluffy stuff! At 7a.m it was 23 degrees and at 9a.m still 23 degrees!

We had about a 30 minute power outage during which time we figured out how to get the garage door open without power so we could join the Montrose Huggy Bunch quilters for their weekly sew-in! And fortunately we had already made our morning coffee before we lost the power!

My two companions were, I suspect, a trifle nervous about getting down the mountain in the snow but I have a great 4WD vehicle, the snow was dry and I am a very cautious driver so it was no problem at all.

Here are some of the quilters gathering to sew. The friendly folk at Crossroads Victory Church generously allow us the use of their multi-purpose area including the kitchen, for the weekly quilting group.

Once a month it's "pot luck" for lunch and BJ had made a large casserole of rich and yummy macaroni and cheese-from scratch- as our contribution.

We left Huggy Bunch around 3-ish to pay a visit to LadyBugz quilt shop run by the delightful Lori and Kristi. This lovely store, set in a quaint cottage, holds way more than you would at first believe, and it is well organized and bright so you can really enjoy browsing the merchandize.

It's a busy place, there is much to see and weekly more fabrics arrive. Class offerings are varied and interesting, there was a bargello class in progress while we were there. They have a great collection of CW and 30's repros and something for about every quilter's taste, batiks, florals, kid's designs and patterns and tools and other notions. Definitely worth a visit as we can all testify, none of us left empty handed!

For our final evening in CO. we sashayed back into Ouray [pronounced you-ray] to O'Brien's Pub. They have wonderful fish and chips- I love the option of the sweet potato chips- and Lauren is really crazy about their Irish egg rolls made with corned beef, cabbage and potatoes.

We all ordered the jalapena cheese soup, which you must try if you go there, and if you go to Ouray you simply must eat at O'Brien's!

A glass of Guinness will wash it down nicely.

We arrived back in Phx. safely Thursday evening, tired but well satisfied with our adventure.

Colorado Adventure Continues

2011-10-28T20:12:00.000-07:00

Sunday evening our retreat ended and we headed back up the mountain, stopping on the way in Ridgway at Colorado Boy Brewery for some of their excellent pizza and a jug of Stout!

I prefer their Porter but they didn't have it so we settled on Stout.

Monday morning we were back at our sewing machines......

that is the Cimarron mountain range you see.

And here is Lauren with a completed top that she made up from fabrics in a kit- this is not the original design that came with the kit.

After lunch we drove into the beautiful town and ski resort of Telluride, where Lauren finally found her bear!

Most everything is shut down for between season repairs/ renovation etc, but we did find one store open and these cute shirts on sale. We thought them perfect for quilters!

Tuesday morning found us sewing again, BJ showing off a completed top from our deck with 12,583 ft. Corbett's Peak behind her.

Three of these fabrics I bought at the Phx. Shop Hop last month, the other two came from stash. The design [sent to me by Leslie] calls for one yard each of five different fabrics- I have quite a bit left over that may go into the backing.

After lunch Tuesday we went into the charming town of Ouray] pronounced you-ray]where we had more shopping success!

First stop was Rocking P Ranch store, owned by the most delightful Pattie and her mom Oleta. There is something for everyone, items from $3 to thousands of $$, most made by Texas artisans.

I love Rocking P and both of the friendly ladies who greet everyone with a big Texas welcome.

Here Lauren modeled this sock monkey hat........

while this unusual treasure came home with me, a bracelet made with vintage watch faces telling me that it is "time to pray"!

A very Texas style cross with cowhide and turquoise was gifted to me by BJ. I know it's meant to be a necklace but I'm thinking of putting it in a shadow box where I can enjoy it every day.

Next we were drawn into Gumpshun Gallery by their amazing display of exotic purses.....

where BJ found plenty to delight her..........

as did Lauren and I,

note my new head wear!

Another fascinating store is "Kristopher's Culinaire" where I never fail to find unique kitchen accessories, and my two quilting companions found their own irresistible items!

Our final stop for the day was at "Mouse's Chocolates", a must if you are ever in Ouray!

All chocolates are made on the premises with only premium ingredients, from truffles of every flavor........

to their [in]famous "scrap cookies" filled with all the slightly imperfect chocolate rejects! OMiGosh!

Hot apple cider with Mouse's own sinfully delicious caramel sauce and topped with whipped cream defies description-Lauren's comment was totally apropos but you will have to ask her what it was, LOL!

Colorado Quilt Retreat, ETC!

2011-10-27T22:04:00.000-07:00

Thursday of last week three of us set off from Phx. on an eight day, 1300 mile adventure!

The first night Lauren, BJ and I spent at our mountain home, then on Friday morning we drove down into Montrose to begin our three day retreat with the San Juan Quilters.

The retreat was held at the Hampton Inn and the theme for the San Juan Quilter's this time was Western/Cowgirl.

Around thirty quilters all told, gathered at various times over a three day period.

We took over the inn's convention room and hospitality area for our events.....

and we gathered each evening to share a meal, first offering thanks for our blessings.

All day we munched our way through a variety of delectable home made treats, never lacking for caloric sustenance!

Each year Roena is the fortunate recipient of a handcrafted undergarment made in the theme of the retreat.

Note the thoughtful addition of the gun holster...............

and although Ro has quite an impressive collection now, we have yet to see any one of these divine undies actually modeled.

In spite of the distractions, on a more sedate note Roena managed to work on these batik blocks.

BJ learned to make a lovely ornament, now she has to teach it to the AZ Huggy Bunch Quilters.

A Christmas tree skirt.........

and a handy tote bag.

A thread catcher......

a very clever Halloween hanging by Lynn..........

and her adorable Fall door decoration - I have one almost finished, it was just too cute to resist!

A beautiful table runner from Pat from Log Hill

and a black and white quilt top from Pat from Montrose!

Jean pieced together these blocks donated by various members for a Quilt Of Valor for a Wounded Warrior.

Norma pieced this top...............

and began working on another project!

This is Elma's bright and cheerful quilt............

and one from Wendy-who does not make any small quilts!

Wendy bravely quilts her tops on her domestic machine.

Monica's been busy, this is the first of two tops she completed over the weekend........
as well as this original design.

An eye catching quilt by Leatha.

More blocks for a sampler quilt.

I made this top from a set of fabrics in a kit "Olivia The Pig Exercises". I had purchased it at a show a few years ago because it was cute, but when I read the directions I decided that it was waaaay too much trouble!

Feeling the need to get it out of my stash I concocted a different plan and this went together much better, so now it is ready to quilt and some lucky Olivia will want it, right?!

Lots of small scraps of 30's repros also needed to make their way into a quilt and turned out very sweet when combined with a lovely Marcus Brother's WOW gingko leaf design fabric.

There's more to report of our excellent adventure to Colorado, but that's all for tonight and I am a weary wandered now off to bed!

G'night!

Sweet dreams of fabrics and quilt designs to delight a quilter's heart!

Retreat Preparation And Home Made Tonic Water!

2011-10-17T20:51:00.000-07:00

On Thursday BJ, Lauren and yours truly leave for the Montrose San Juan Fall Quilt Retreat, yippee! We will have three days retreating with the San Juan group and three days at our mountain home. We have all three been deciding which projects and how many to take, remembering that we have an entire week to sew and only my small SUV to carry us and all our gear, including sewing machines and some clothing!

Saturday BJ and I kitted up a couple of quilts each, all cut and ready to be pieced. I think I have maybe four projects ready, it's best to have them cut because there is a lot of chatter, laughter and other distractions at the retreat [e.g. 28 other quilters' projects in progress] and the likelihood of cutting errors is high!

Everyone is encouraged to bring "snacks" to share during the retreat so this evening after young Matthew went home I made up a pan of caramel brownies [they have home made caramel baked in the middle] that are already packed away................

and a double batch of my Grand Marnier/orange/cranberry biscotti. if you'd like the recipe leave me a comment and I will post it. It is super simple and inexpensive, you can make an entire batch for the price of one Starbucks biscotti!

That way there are plenty to take, some for JW and some to leave for DH.

When I bake I usually try to make several things so there's only a one time mess to clean up-that's the worst part of cooking, I need a Sous Chef or maybe just a personal dishwasher!

Since I was on a roll and had some citrus that needs using I decided to make a new batch of my tonic water mix. Some time ago I rebelled against the commercial tonic water- either you get a neuro- toxin [aspartame] or something that messes with your metabolism [corn syrup].

We like gin and tonic occasionally and the store bought tonic water also has an off taste that does not compliment a good gin.

On an internet search I came across this website, with lots of info on home made tonic water and other drinks like non-alcoholic ginger beer a favorite from my childhood when my Mum kept a "ginger beer plant" on the kitchen window sill and made the very best ginger beer I ever had. It was a major refreshing treat, on a hot Aussie summer day, cold, sweet and strongly gingery.

I have yet to try to duplicate my Mum's ginger beer, but it's on my "to do" list!

Here is my tonic water mixture simmering away and filling the air with the delightful scents of orange, lemon, lime, cardamom, and allspice, what's not to like. Everyone who has tried a G and T at our house with my homemade tonic mix has pronounced it excellent and way superior to the commercial tonic.

In case you are interested in trying it, here's how I make mine.

4 cups water

3 tsp. dried lemon grass[or one large stalk of fresh]

2 Tblsp. cinchona bark powder[see below for ordering this, it's the origin of quinine]

2 oranges, zested

2 lemons, zested

2 limes, zested

1tsp. whole allspice berries

pinch of cardamom

2 Tblsp. citric acid

1/2 tsp. kosher salt

Zest the fruit then use a reamer to squeeze out most of the juice. Place fruit, zest and juice in a large saucepan, add remaining ingredients and water and simmer for 20 minutes. Strain out fruit and allspice etc with a colander, then pour the liquid through coffee filters- it takes a long time to strain because the cinchona powder is dense. I just leave it overnight then if necessary pour it through fresh filters and leave it again. It may still be a bit cloudy if like me you get tired of waiting for it to filter, but that doesn't affect the taste. You can also run it through a French Press.

We make our G an T's in a tall glass, using two-three tablespoons of the mix, depends on how much bitterness you like, two-three tablespoons of agave syrup, about two fingers of good gin and top off with plain soda water. You can add more or less agave syrup too if you like it more or less sweet. I like mine very citrusy so I add a wedge of lime to serve. That's another really good thing about making your own tonic mix you can adjust the flavoring to your personal preference.

I bottle mine and keep it in the fridge for months.

This is very bare bones info. so please check Jeff's blog for everything you ever wanted to know about mixing drinks including places to purchase cinchona bark powder. Many people have made adjustments to Jeff's original recipe as I have so it's interesting to see what others have done with it.

I just ordered another 5 ozs. of cinchona bark from one of Jeff's sources, Tenzingmomo.com in Seattle.

More Quilts Of Valor

2011-10-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

This past week these two scrappy QOV's were completed.

They were pieced by Nancy in Montrose, CO. Nancy's DH requires full time care so she uses her home bound time well, piecing quilts, many for missional purposes such as the outreach to our heroic wounded warriors.

To save some time these two tops were loaded on the long arm together after joining their identical backings with a basting stitch.

The tops were not quite the same length but that did not matter and a single piece of batting was used for both tops to keep it all even and smooth.

The quilting is the easy and fast freehand peacock feathers but they still need labels before I mail them off to Alycia for distribution through the military hospital chaplains.

Today another CW replica memorial quilt is going off to the mother of CW4 David Carter, one of the pilots of the Chinook helicopter that was shot down in Afghanistan in August.

There is a post and pics. on the HOB blog here.

White Chocolate Mud Cake.....Happy Birthday BJ And Lauren!

2011-10-07T22:07:00.000-07:00

Today was our AZ Huggy Bunch sewing day and this past week BJ and Lauren each had a birthday so I am making them a cake, from a very "naughty" recipe called White Chocolate Mud Cake. Naughty as in heaps of calories............

lots of white chocolate and butter, sugar, eggs and some flour! I used wholewheat white flour so maybe there is a little more nutritional value!

All covered in a white chocolate ganache and I am adding strawberries for extra pizzazz because all white sounds a bit boring, doesn't it? And don't we need some fresh fruit to make it nutritionally acceptable? And aesthetically pleasing?

Here's the recipe, if you dare.

White Chocolate Mud cake

250 gms. butter

150 gms. white chocolate [use the good stuff, Ghiradelli is the better choice]

2 cups sugar

1 cup milk

1.5 cups all purpose [plain] flour

1/2 cup self raising flour

1tsp vanilla

2 eggs lightly beaten

White Chocolate Ganache:

1/2 cup cream

300 gm. white chocolate

Grease a deep 9" round cake pan: line base and sides with parchment paper.

Combine butter, white chocolate, sugar and milk in a small saucepan over low heat until smooth and combined- do not boil. Transfer to a large bowl and cool 15 minutes.

Preheat oven to moderately slow [320degrees F].

Whisk flours into liquids and stir in vanilla and eggs. Pour into lined pan and bake one hour. Cover with foil and bake about another 30 minutes. This cake is moist and dense, not light and fluffy.

Leave cake in pan for 30 minutes then turn out onto a rack. When cooled spread with the ganache.

White Chocolate Ganache

Bring cream to a boil in small saucepan, pour over chocolate stirring until the chocolate melts. Cover and refrigerate until thick enough to be spreadable, stirring occasionally.

Ann's Sampler

2011-10-04T14:05:00.000-07:00

No posts for over a week, sad, I have been laid low with a virus that segued into an asthma episode and asthmatic bronchitis. Still have the cough and some wheezing even on the steroids and the terribly windy weather today here is kicking up all the stuff that makes me wheeze! But I managed to get through this quilt taking it a little at a time! I simply cannot do nothing, not in my DNA!

This lovely and rather large quilt, 92x102", is custom quilted.

Sorry about the sofa back , the quilt was too large to avoid it!

Hannah helped her sister Ann from FLA. to construct it while Ann was visiting Hannah during surgery recovery.

Lots of feathers here and there and in the borders, that seems to be my default quilting these days!

The thread is Signature 100% cotton in cream on the top and a slightly darker shade more tan, in the bobbin.

The batting is Hobbs, a lighter choice for the FLA. weather and a bit more definition.

Backing is a tone on tone Moda wide back.

Shop Hop Day Two

2011-09-25T12:54:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the final day for Shop Hop Phoenix. Four of us set out from my house and went first to Quiltz, just five minutes down the road. Lauren arrived safely, excited and prepared to enjoy her first experience of this nature.

Thence to The Olde Worlde Quilt Shop on Cave Creek Rd., lots and lots of fabric here, and a plentiful supply of Lauren's favorites the Civil War Replicas, so many in fact she had difficulty choosing.

The furthest away from us on the west side was In Stitches, where we were joined by Andee and her chauffeur, DJ.

Here they demoed a cool tool to make the quilt blocks behind us very easily, Andee is currently tackling a similar block so it was of great interest to her.

From there we visited Bearly Stitchin and by this time lunch was on our minds so we stopped at a nearby Wildflower where I usually love the food, but perhaps my taste buds were hampered by my URTI because my portabella mushroom sandwich lacked flavor.

Quilter's Bee was the next store, BJ's "home store", closest to her house, and then SunValley Quilts where we turned in our "passports" all duly stamped except for Lauren's, whose accident last week cause her to miss all the east valley stores. Bummer! The fabric care package was some consolation for her!

Finally this last stop at Arizona Quilts where Andee went a little wild at the sale rack and where even with coffee and refreshments we were all rather drained, brain and body weary and just plain exhausted. Somehow we all managed to put a smile on for this photo op. with tiaras still in place to show how much we enjoyed the day! Or perhaps it is simply our joy at having survived visiting another seven quilt shops in one day!

I failed to get pics of everyone's purchases, perhaps next time I'll be more organized but no doubt pics will show up on FB or Andee's blog.

I came home and pretty much collapsed. After some chicken soup I was still feeling horrid so I checked my temp, right around 100, don't have my voice back yet, still coughing, yikes, guess I have the creeping crud! No way I will be keeping the little Tin Hat Man tomorrow, just when he is feeling better.

This morning DH went off to church without me and I am taking meds and hoping to feel better soon.

Finished For Friday, Andee's Christmas Sampler Quilt

2011-09-23T20:50:00.000-07:00

Andee's Christmas Sampler

Isn't it a beauty?

The quilting is hard to see in pics but nicely subtle in reality, using the beautiful Superior Rainbows thread that sews so nicely in my A-1 machine.

I happened to have the perfect variegated thread for this quilt it seems to have been made for it.

Every block is custom quilted to suit the piecing...........

but in a sampler quilt I think it's important not to distract from the piecing and to follow some kind of theme block to block.

The borders have two rows of simple, graceful, feathers..............

shown here perhaps a little better on the backing.

I love the red binding that frames the quilt.

Currently my house is in turmoil, partly due to the remediation of the leak upstairs in the laundry that also flooded the kitchen. So while the kitchen ceiling was open DH took the opportunity to add a half dozen can lights, it's like daylight in there now! We had intended to rehab the kitchen this fall so we might as well go ahead with that now.

Meantime the laundry is still disrupted, appliances in the loft while DH tiles the floor there. I hope by Monday I can do laundry again!

I will post pics of the renovated kitchen whenever it is finished!

Meantime I have come down with a nasty URTI, thanks probably to #3DGS, laryngitis, painful coughing etc. Yuck. And tomorrow is our second shop hop day, I am going, I will not breathe on anyone, LOL!

Little Tin Hat Man!

2011-09-20T19:00:00.000-07:00

He has been very ill again, high fever.

Shop Hop 2011

2011-09-19T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is my first experience of Shop Hop. There were four of us all told today who convoyed around the south-east quilt shops in Phx., there were to be five but Lauren was involved in a horrible accident five minutes from my house in which her car was totaled. The good news is that apart from cuts, bruising and general soreness she does not appear to be seriously injured but we would all like a few minutes alone with the idiot who caused the accident by jumping out in front of Lauren's car on the 101! We hope and pray she will be ok to join us next Saturday.

So after confirming that Lauren was not able to come with us BJ, Alissa and I headed off to our first stop, The Three Dudes quilt shop. These guys are award winning quilters and know that shoppers need sustenance so they always have great coffee and cookies available!

When we walked in their door a little girl looked at us and said "mommy those ladies have tiaras"! If I had a spare I would have given her one!

Next stop was The Quilter's Ranch, another place where our tiaras were a hit!

Here's where we met up with Andee and DJ. DJ played chauffeur, doorman, porter and photographer but she cannot hide the fact that she is beginning to catch the very contagious quilt pox!

The Cutting Edge was our next quilt shop on the list, and once again we had our photos taken! It's in old town Chandler in San Marcos Place. We paused for lunch there at a nice bakery in the Square.

It was fun to add yet another 'new to me' quilt shop as I had never been to A Quilter's Oasis, where they were demonstrating a cool tool, Deb Tucker's "Square Squared Ruler" [Square 2]. Andee and BJ both fell for it so I know where to borrow one, LOL!

The final store for the day is one of my favorites of all the wonderful quilt shops in our area, The Bernina Connection on E. Indian School Rd. It's hard to choose between them, but some have collections more to my taste I guess and geographical distance also counts. Bernina Connection is a checkpoint for Quilts Of Valor so I go there more often anyway to pick up and drop off QOV's.

Val, one of the two women owners, was so kind, when she heard about Lauren's accident and I explained that we were making up a "care package" of these CW replica fabrics.......

she sent a collection of F8's to add to the bag.

My Stash has increased by the fabrics below, I love the blue/brown combo. I have no particular design in mind and will add a couple of other fabrics, a brown and a blue to this collection.

The stripe is for the border, that much I know!

The Batiks below are for a commission quilt that I will soon be starting, it has to be ready for a Christmas gift.

I don't plan to add any more as I think I have a fairly good variety of dark, medium and light now plus blenders.

Next Saturday we will be visiting the quilt shops in the northeast part of the valley, another long day, I think we will see eight stores! We need to take our vitamins and get lots of sleep this week!

Kentucky Whirligig Quilt

2011-09-16T12:29:00.000-07:00

Here is BJ's very first "original design" quilt and she is so happy with it she says she will never part with it!

The origin of the design was nine patches which then became "whirligigs". The outer border is also her original idea.

BJ is first and foremost a "scrap stash" quilter but she will purchase new fabric to enhance her ideas.

It's quilted with a freehand all over flower/leaf design using a beige thread. I had thought about quilting the Kentucky state flower [BJ is from Kentucky originally and still sounds like a Kentuckian!] but the state flower is Goldenrod, not a very good design for this quilt.

Backing is a small red print that reads as a solid, and makes the quilt reversible.

Nice work BJ!

Tomorrow is the first day for our little group to check out the Phoenix area annual Shop Hop, we will be heading out at 9a.m. to begin our tour of over a dozen quilt shops. We only expect to cover half of those tomorrow but we will all still be weary at day's end.

Hide the plastic, LOL!

This Week's Quilting

2011-09-10T22:39:00.000-07:00

The two Seuss quilts below are now ready to return to the piecer.

Both have the Dr Seuss backing, the first uses red thread because I chose to quilt the blocks and borders separately. The red stop border has titles of different Dr.Seuss books written there.

Using Hobbs 80/20 batting gives a little more definition, I have been using it a lot more recently and I like the lighter weight too. The weight is of particular concern on king and queen sized quilts, they can become real heavy weights!

This one is about 74" square.

Close up of the blocks, showing the "puffier" look of the Hobbs batt.

Dr. Seuss backing.

This Seuss quilt got freehand peacock feathers in white thread.

The Quilter's Dream batting is a firmer product so the quilting isn't as well defined.

Another of Leslie's tops is going back to her next week. I started out quilting freehand cherry blossom in the body of the quilt but quickly saw that I would struggle to see where I had quilted, so out came a panto! It looks appropriate for the design and certainly easier for me not to have to strain to see the thread path.

The border is quilted with freehand gingko leaves, the only place where the quilting really shows.

BJ and I were the only ones from AZ Huggy Bunch to sew today, this was her progress on joining blocks of a UFO.

My effort was to combine the blocks we made for our group QOV and prep the backing so it's now ready for me to quilt.

Saturday Sewing

2011-09-03T20:29:00.000-07:00

BJ and I sewed a bit today. We got the label made for her "Butterflies and Bumblebees " quilt, I forgot to take a pic but I will when I see the quilt again!

The two HOB quilts below for the young sons of a Fallen Hero, Justin McNeley, received labels today.

I did not make either of these quilts, they were sent to me by quilt guilds in CO. all ready to receive their labels. I am so grateful for the generous amount of help from CO. quilt guilds in this mission, many, many tops and quite a few completed quilts like these.

It's especially wonderful when they come all finished and I don't have to quilt them!

I will mail them out to the boys next week.

We also went to visit a new [to me] quilt shop, "Arizona Quilts". They were having a first anniversary celebration with cake and other refreshments, lots of sales and hourly door prizes. And was I surprised and delighted to be the recipient of one of the lovely hourly give-aways!

This adorable shoe, that will become a very cute pincushion, and five Moda FQ's perfect for a little boy's quilt. They will come in handy as many baby quilts as I make, nine so far this year.

Having recently received a commission to make one of my Resurrection design quilts in lap size and in specific colors, I am on the look out for a few fabrics to add to what I have in stash.

The two above will be good additions for that quilt I think, so no guilt in purchasing them and at 20% off it was a good time to buy. The pics were taken without flash so the colors aren't quite as bright as in real life.

As much as I love to make watercolor quilts I am always drawn to the florals that are so necessary for this design, and the two below were irresistible especially at 20% off.

This one will work well for the cross in some of the Resurrection quilts and also for borders so I bought two yards.

The larger print looks three dimensional and will not show up as well cut into 2" pieces so I am not sure how I will use it but it's gorgeous eye candy for a quilter! Perhaps it can become the centerpiece for a quilt.

I suspect that I am so attracted to these fabrics and the watercolor style partly because my Mum loved them; Mum was a master gardener who knew the botanical names of just about every flower, tree and bush and would much prefer to labor at her gardening than do anything else! Perhaps God has her hard at work in His Heavenly garden.

And last a very sweet panel- for no project in particular, but just because it is lovely [and on sale!]. Were my dear Mum still alive I would make it into a quilt for her.

If you have the opportunity please do yourself a favor and visit this shop - click here for their website. The ladies there are so very nice, friendly and super helpful and the shop is bright, well organized and stocks a very wide selection. There is definitely something for every quilter in that store. Unfortunately it isn't on the Phoenix area Shop Hop list later this month but they will be offering all kinds of special enticements during that time so stop in and check it out while you are out shop hopping!

Then head on over to 67th. avenue and have lunch at Babbo's, yum yum!

Sunday Finishes

2011-08-28T23:46:00.000-07:00

This evening I finished quilting the latest of Hannah's quilts. Multiple fabric colors allow a wide variety of thread choices and I ended up with a gold/green Valdani 100% cotton thread. The bobbin thread is also Valdani a solid gold cotton.

The backing is a very pale green print and this color choice seemed the best. I decided to use a panto, I was unsure how well I would be able to see the thread, as it turned out it was a wise move!

Yesterday I began to sew the binding on another baby boy quilt and this evening finished it off making it a fairly productive weekend.

There is no batting in this quilt, the Minkee backing is enough.

He's Baaaack!

2011-08-27T21:23:00.000-07:00

Our little guy is on the mend, PTL, fever down and he is eating and playing.

He and Daddy came for dinner this evening and what a joy to see him running around laughing and chasing the two Aussie Terriers, Button and her friend Tiki [who is having a "sleepover"!]

Whew, that's a relief it was quite a harrowing week until the antibiotics kicked in and the fever stayed down. He still has the chesty cough but that will take a while to clear, meantime no swimming and I know he is missing his pool time.

This was the first real illness Matthew has had, he has been wonderfully healthy just a couple of sniffles that may have been allergy related. It was very hard on his Daddy to see his little boy so sick and feel helpless to do anything immediate to make him feel better. I suspect that it was a bit of a shock to his Dad to experience this part of parenthood, those of us with older children all know how it is to sit up with a feverish miserable little one and have so little we can do.

Goes along with the joys of parenting, no avoiding the tough parts is there?

AZ Huggy Bunch met today but I failed to get pics. We did however all make some progress and although we were missing two, Shayla and Alissa, we had a new quilter join us, BJ brought her friend Donna. It was all good as always, fun, food and fellowship and some sewing too, LOL.

Wordless Wednesday, More Water Baby!

2011-08-24T15:58:00.001-07:00

He needs prayer, he has pneumonia.

More Quilting!

2011-08-20T23:00:00.000-07:00

Today BJ came to sew with me, she working on scrap blocks while I managed to get a couple of backings prepped for flimsies so they are ready for the LA when I am ready for them!

BJ had to leave earlier than usual for a family event and then I managed to get Andee's beautiful sampler quilt finished.

It's for her nephew who has joined the navy hence the navy themed backing!

The thread is a nice fine, shiny red, don't know the brand because my friend Gale gave it to me along with a couple of other colors from a batch that she picked up at Houston QS. I used it top and bobbin and I like how it quilted in, showing just enough of the quilting on the front and blending on the front and back so as not to distract from the piecing or the print. The quilting is freehand "peacock feathers".

On a family topic, little master Matthew has been ill this week, Friday his Daddy took him back to the dr. because along with the upper respiratory symptoms he had a fever, 103.2.

He has crackles [or rales, sounds of some "junk" in his lungs] so he is on antibiotics. Poor little chap was so ill yesterday and still not good today. JW and I both thought he was wheezing earlier too so we are hoping that the meds will clear it up quickly it makes us feel so bad to see him in so much misery.

Anyway he was supposed to go to the shore with his mom and her family for a week but that has been delayed a day or two until he feels better.

I miss him already!

Playing with guest dog "Tiki" earlier this week.

French Braid Quilt

2011-08-16T23:51:00.000-07:00

This evening I finished quilting another wall hanging of Leslie's. I love how it looks like a stained glass window.

It's quilted with Superior variegated Rainbow thread, great shiny thread that sews like a dream in my A-1 machine!

I quilted everything except that narrow solid black border, I was thinking it might be a good "stop" border-but would it look better quilted do you think?

AZ Huggy Bunch

2011-08-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

Five of us met today and we had a visit from Andee too, so we hope to see her here again to sew in the near future.

BJ said Andee needed to try the baked banana pudding I had made and she put her stamp of approval on it!

As did the rest of us a bit later after we shared a lunch of Margarita pizza, chicken salads and roasted cauliflower salad!

Today we all worked on a quilt project together making scrappy red, white and blue Disappearing Nine Patch [D9P] blocks for a Quilt Of Valor. We got off to a good start........

then Alissa came and we had to break to check out her latest project- Alissa likes to sew tiny pieces together! She is probably the most "modern" style quilter among us, preferring these graphic sort of quilts. This will be a city skyline scene, it's going to be very cool!

I managed to catch our youngest member taking a phone picture of the progress we made on the QOV.

We ended up with the thirty blocks we wanted for a quilt that will measure around 60"x70", we are not planning to put borders on it.

Next time we will square up the blocks and sew them all together and I will quilt it with the flag and star design that works so well for these patriotic quilts.

We were all quite pleased with our work and our first community project as a group- I sort of think that makes us an "official" group!

A Wall Hanging

2011-08-09T00:26:00.001-07:00

A couple of months ago I quilted that beautiful "Meteor Shower" quilt for Leslie for her GD's HS graduation. The quilt is not going to off to college but this wall hanging will remind her of the lovely quilt at home on her bed.

The view from the back.

Quilts Finished For Friday

2011-08-04T18:00:00.000-07:00

At last count I had 12 un-quilted tops on my on pile! I made a promise to myself to get them finished and this past week I crossed two off the list. They are both orphan block quilts the blue one I showed a few days ago and then there is this one, a compilation of the leftover fabrics from three other quilts!

The backing too is left over fabrics from other projects and as has become my habit of late the binding is cut from the extra fabric from the back- I like scrappy bindings especially on a scrappy quilt! It's quilted with red thread and peacock feathers.

Now still there are another ten, and I will try not to add to the pile until it gets a little shorter. Try, I said, the operative word...............

Potholder Blocks And Quilts.

2011-08-03T14:55:00.001-07:00

The national leader of a military support group I belong to has retired from the position and the other members decided to honor her with a "Potholder Quilt". You can find an explanation here.

The plan is to make our potholders with a 12.5" Civil War block design and CW repro. fabrics.
I hadn't ever heard of the idea but I wanted to contribute and time being of the essence I chose a simple two colored Churn Dash block. I grabbed the first two fabrics that came to hand from one of my CW collections and whipped mine out in haste this morning .

We are meant to write our names and the state we represent on the front but I had to put mine on the back because the writing wouldn't show on this busy fabric.
It goes off in the mail to the recipient today and when she gets all fifty [ or maybe more, some states have more than one coordinator] she will have enough blocks for a large quilt!

AZ Huggy Bunch

2011-08-01T15:42:00.000-07:00

Five of us met on Saturday and all made some progress. BJ brought turkey wraps and deadly [for our figures] brownies for lunch, Lauren and Shayla brought their wonderful chicken salad and I had made fresh biscotti.

BJ showed off her latest finish, now bound and needing just the label. We all love it.

Here is Lauren's work so far on her "Rattlesnake" quilt - she has decided that she will need to make eight more of these PP blocks to have a more useable sized quilt.

I finished binding this orphan block quilt.......

and cut up the fabrics for another baby boy quilt.

Shayla learned to machine applique and I forgot to take pics, and Alissa worked on her cityscapes quilt, I promise photos from these last two next AZ.HB meeting.

Our next full meeting will be in two weeks and we are planning to make patriotic blocks for Quilts Of Valor for Wounded Warriors. We will pool our red, white and blue fabrics and make scrappy D9P blocks.

Wordless Wednesday, Two Year Old Water Baby!

2011-07-27T19:49:00.001-07:00

BJ's Quilt

2011-07-26T18:04:00.000-07:00

The past week has been very busy, young Matthew here, a family party or two and a little health issue! Then when I wanted to blog, Blogger kept telling me that I was "not the author of any blogs"! Hmm, last time I checked I maintained two blogs, the other one gets much less attention, it's for the Colorado Chapter of "Home Of The Brave Quilt Project ". I need to put a link in my side bar from this blog, there is a link to the website but that's very out of date as I have no one to help me with the HTML.

This is the first of BJ's quilts to be "professionally" quilted and she is very excited.

It's a really pretty quilt and in keeping with the organic nature of the fabrics I chose to quilt a meandering leafy vine in the main body and a leaf border.

The thread is Superior Sew Fine in a light green and the batting 100% Hobbs cotton.

BJ stopped by to pick it up after work and has challenged herself to complete the binding by Saturday when our AZ Huggy Bunch gathers again.

Last Saturday BJ,Lauren and I sewed and I finished the shams to go with the red,white and black quilt I gave to my brother recently- I used a scrappy D9P second generation design.

I have to mail these off to Australia.

Matthew's New Shoes

2011-07-19T21:23:00.000-07:00

Last year I took Matthew to the Stride Rite store for new sandals and finally got around to repeating the act this year for shoes that would fit his much larger feet - and also because I was tired of replacing these after they fell off ! He has other shoes but these seemed to be the more frequent footwear of choice.

With apologies to all "croc" fans, I cannot wear them, they fall off my feet to begin with and Matthew has the same problem! I persuaded GF to come along and we headed for the Mall.

First stop, the Stride Rite Store, right across from the small one's play area which BTW, Matthew loves!

We had anticipated some protests from the young fellow about shopping before playing so we sneaked into the store keeping me between Matthew and the playground!

Fortunately the first pair he tried on worked so, whew, that was a relief, then off to the playground.

The next 40 minutes or so entailed much climbing.........

always up the down, you see.........

sliding..............

running ...........

falling..........

all thirsty work!

Until GF said "time for ice cream" ! No pics of our stop by the Gelato shop, I was too busy sharing with Matthew!

The "new shoes" boy!

Do you see that he is wearing one of the Aussie shirts I brought back from our recent visit DownUnder.

In Loving Memory

2011-07-18T13:43:00.001-07:00

Five years............

Still missing you son...........

Forty years

2011-07-17T15:27:00.000-07:00

On July 16th. 1971, Walt and I were wed at the Naval Weapons Stations Chapel in Weymouth, MA. It has been forty years filled with the wonderful, the mundane the unexpected and a tragedy, the worst I think that can ever stress a marriage relationship, five years ago the loss of a beloved child, our son Matthew.

Our family wished to bless us after forty years of marriage with a delightful celebration at Andrew and Lana's home.

Lovely food, good company and a gorgeous cake from "Cathy's Rum Cakes".

We brought a little of it home to enjoy, and we certainly will!

Hugs and kisses and much love to our family for this honor.

Ouray Perimeter Trail Hike

2011-07-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

"Someone" had told us that this hike could be completed in 1.25 hours, ha! They lied! That could only be half the trail, the full hike took more like 2.5-3 hours- ask me how I know, LOL. Some call it "the lord of the trails" and it circumnavigates the town of Ouray. That red line you see, that's the trail.

It's a very scenic and fairly challenging hike, up and down 1,000ft. for 4.2 miles between 7,500ft. and 8,5000 ft. Whew! But the scenery is divine- and the reward at the end even more so!

First you hike up steeply for a while until you come to these lovely falls..........

I thought this was very daring of us!

then past noisy tumbling water.......

and more noisy water..........

and still more!

Then up........

and up.........

passing daring parents with a 30lb. baby !

They are less than half our age mind you, but still courageous to my thinking!

Passing cairns.....

and adding our own rocks to the piles.

Then stopping for a photo op! This was the highest we went, 8,500ft., it's called the Potato Patch because the miners used to grow potatoes there. From here it was mostly down hill.

Around the Ouray Ice Park......

but this is how it looks in winter!

Across another bridge......this one the most modern.......

the view from the bridge........

and through this claustrophobic tunnel out of Box Canyon!

I can see the light at the end..........

nearly there.....

whew, I made it!

More steep descent........

then finally back onto the streets of the town. See that dark green forrest across the valley, the trail ran right through the top of that!

1896

Some lovely historic homes on the way down to the town

Aren't they charming?

The poppies that grow so well at these elevations welcomed us at the end of our trail.

As did an Aussie flag that delighted this ex pat's heart!

And then for the final reward.......

fish and sweet potato chips, beer for DH and a Bloody Mary for me!

I ate nearly everything on my plate, not sure where it went but I was so hungry!

Then home for a hot shower and some couch time!

A Scrap "Twofer" Quilt

2011-07-07T22:54:00.000-07:00

Sometimes you just get lucky-or something! The quilt top from a kit that I finished last week had lots of fabric left, but insufficient really for the backing without a lot of fussy math, so I decided to make a second quilt from the orphan blocks and assorted extra fabrics - if you scroll down a couple of posts you will see it, it looks like a cousin to this one. I had around 145 x 4" HST's [half square triangles] harvested from the original quilt construction so they became pinwheel blocks alternating with squares of the other fabrics. Having odd numbers of the plain blocks I tried to arrange a random "pattern" as it is a scrap quilt! The addition of a border of the plain blue [that was meant to back the first quilt] finished this cheerful top at just over 60" square- it will not be a QOV unfortunately, it's just a tad small- guess I should have made the borders a few inches larger. Anyway it's a nice size for a child or young person who won't mind that it's quite scrappy and a bit disorganized! We will see where it finds a home, but first it has to wait it's turn on my LA machine! And I am pleased to have very little of these fabrics left, just a few small bits except for the blue which may end up combined with a few other blues from my stash for the backing.

Independence Day Fourth Of July 2011

2011-07-04T00:05:00.000-07:00

God Bless The USA

May this great nation remain forever brave and free.

Click on the link below for a beautiful musical and visual tribute to all those who keep this nation brave and free.

http://www.youtube.com/v/ervaMPt4Ha0&autoplay=1

It's Cooler Here!

2011-06-30T23:38:00.000-07:00

We are back in the Colorado mountains for a couple of weeks where it's in the 40's at night, sooo nice and the days are great too, a whole lot better than 120degrees which is what is predicted for Saturday in Phoenix. Yuck.

My CO. Huggy Bunch meets on Wednesdays and it was so lovely to see all those dear quilting ladies.

This was my accomplishment for Wednesday, a scrappy backing ............

for this red, white and black quilt top made from orphan blocks left from other projects- you can tell that I am working at using up all those left over fabrics from my grandson's quilts.

As of today this top is also ready for quilting which makes eleven quilt tops I have stacked up now awaiting their turn on the longarm! This one was a kit and there was insufficient fabric for the border so I had to "punt"! First I added a little one inch "stop" border then I took four left over blocks and sewed them to the corners to make the rest of the fabric fit and would you believe those wee blocks were exactly the size needed to complete the borders, simply amazing! This not even the border fabric the kit showed so go figure!

However my dilemma does not end there-the kit was supposed to include binding and backing but there's no way enough fabric for that. I don't understand what happened but I will need to purchase a backing and decide which of the left over fabrics will do for binding.

Now about the QOV's, I had thought that I was falling behind in my plan to quilt at least one or more a month, until I remembered that I had delivered four more to Bernina Connection earlier in the year. So now I find that I am way ahead of schedule, yippee!

This last one was finished up on Monday before we left for CO. but I have two more just like it back in Phx. as yet unquilted! My CO.Huggy Bunch ladies just love making these scrappy beauties and it definitely helps to keep their scrap bins low!

Baby Chloe

2011-06-30T11:19:00.000-07:00

Baby Chloe's quilt pic was posted here, but now I have a pic of baby with her quilt. It is always a special treat to get a pic. of a baby with the quilt I have made. This was sent via phone so the quality is not the best!

A Surfeit Of Lemons

2011-06-26T13:17:00.000-07:00

This post might alternately be entitled "For all lemon curd afficionadas!"

My friend's home in Surprise has a couple of enormous citrus trees and I was invited to take as much fruit as I wanted, it is falling off the trees and rotting away on the ground.

Three large bags full seemed all that I could possibly use/distribute and after donating as many as I was able to I have been looking for ways to use the rest before they too deteriorate.

Several batches of lemon bars later there were still too many lemons in the fruit drawer so I pulled out the lemon curd recipe and decided that it was [as I remembered] a lot of work!

A little internet searching brought up a plethora of "best lemon curd recipes", and one in particular caught my eye because it intimated that there was a simpler/easier method to replace the traditional double boiler recipe.

Disclaimer: here is where I state that for me recipes and quilt patterns are mere suggestions, ideas, jumping off points for my own imagination to take flight!

These are the suggested recipe ingredients/amounts at the URL above:

3ozs. [6 tbs.] soft unsalted butter

1 cup sugar

2 large eggs

2 large egg yolks

2/3 cup fresh lemon juice

The first time I followed the recipe amounts fairly closely other than adding all the zest from the lemons I used for the juice, after all that's the part of the fruit that has the most intense flavor.

The second time around I tinkered with the ingredients and also doubled the recipe, those two small jars were simply not enough!

My adaptation:

12 tbs. soft butter

2 cups sugar

6 whole eggs

1 1/3 cups lemon juice

zest of all above lemons

The major difference here is the inclusion of all the egg whites. The left over whites seem to sit around and spoil so I usually try to use the entire egg in cooking, I can never find ways to use the whites alone that make up food we will actually eat! Unless of course I am planning to make Pavlovas.......but that recipe has already been done in a previous post!

Now for the secret to this lemon curd recipe, the method.

Beat butter and sugar until creamy as you would for a recipe for baked goods. Beat in the eggs one at a time until nicely incorporated, then add the lemon zest and juice while mixing until combined. The original recipe says that the mixture will normally curdle at this point and then reconstitute as it cooks, but it never did curdle for me!

Pour into a heavy-bottom saucepan and cook over medium heat until the temp reaches 170 degrees F stirring constantly, and making sure to scrape the entire base of the pan as you stir. It may take up to 15 minutes, I found it was less than that. Don't go beyond 170 and remove the pan from the heat immediately or the mixture may separate and then you won't get this beautiful silky smooth result.

Pour into clean containers and you may refrigerate two weeks or freeze up to two months. The above recipe filled these four eight ounce containers and a baby food jar.

This is great spread on bread, toast, English muffins, bagels etc but also good for filling pre-baked tart shells, as a filling for a cake, with angel food cake, or even over vanilla ice cream or frozen yoghurt [the addition of fresh blueberries is extra nice] or if you happen to have those pesky egg whites you could make meringue cases and fill them with lemon curd!

Either way, it may not last long enough to freeze!

As Margaret would say "Bon appettit"!

QOV #5 for 2011

2011-06-24T23:39:00.000-07:00

This scrappy quilt is for a Wounded Warrior, the quilting ladies in my Wednesday Huggy Bunch in CO. make these all the time.

My goal is to quilt one top/month for QOV, and as you see I am a little behind but hoping to catch up in the next couple of days! Maybe get one more done before we go to CO. next week, then I can take these latest quilts to my Montrose guild for binding.

Dolphin House Quilt

2011-06-21T08:36:00.000-07:00

This sampler quilt will go to Dolphin House in Montrose for a child recovering from an abusive situation. My Guild in CO. supports this center with a constant supply of quilts to comfort kids in need of loving care.

This is one of five tops I was given by my Guild members to quilt and originally I had thought it would be a QOV but it's just a bit too small, long enough at 70" but not wide enough for an adult at only 40". QOV's need to be at least 50" wide for the soldiers, I make them usually closer to 60" or so minimum but I quilt quite a few that come in closer to 50" wide.

My personal favorite freehand method, the peacock feathers quilted this up very speedily.

Because I realized that this quilt would be for a child I pulled this particular fabric from stash for the backing- it has bunnies on it and needed to go bye bye, been in my stash for some years and was a perfect fit for the back and makes the quilt nicely reversible.

Finished For Friday

2011-06-16T21:49:00.000-07:00

Two more quilts finished this week.

This is Hannah's......

a close up of the freehand loopy feather meander.....

and the backing.

This is Andee's Carolina Crossroads, still my favorite Bonnie Hunter mystery.

I loved mine, gave it to a friend in crisis right after I finished it.

Detail of the freehand peacock feather quilting on Andee's..........

and the backing...........

Matthew's Sleep Mat Quilt

2011-06-14T17:34:00.000-07:00

This cute pattern was irresistible, I purchased it a while back along with some alphabet fabric with the intent of sewing it up for young Matthew.

Meantime I found some other cute fabric at Lady Bugz Quilt Shop in Montrose, CO. The shop is very new so no website yet - I need to do a blog on them, I have a lot of pics I took when I went to the spring retreat.

The mat is designed to have velcro straps to roll it up for transporting to another location but I skipped that because I plan that Matthew will use it here.

Here is the finished item- I lined the top with Minkee- because Matthew loves it- both of his baby quilts are backed with this same kind of fabric.

The green fabrics for the top and base of the nap roll came from stash, and I made a scrappy binding I had so little of these fabrics left! The base is padded with a thick layer of batting.

I did make a couple of changes to the pattern, enlarging it considerably, Matthew is in 97 percentile for height already.

I also made a separate removable pillow to slip in and out of the striped pillow cover that is attached to the base of the nap roll, making laundering much easier and drying faster.

I hope that Matthew likes it, he will have an opportunity to use it on Friday so if he sleeps on it I will try to get a picture.

Esperanza's Quilt

2011-06-12T22:37:00.000-07:00

We have lovely neighbors. Those on the east side just received their US citizenship on Thursday, hooray for them!

Sweet little Esperanza has a type of debilitating cystic lung disease, she is so very frail and needs a lung transplant. The good news is that she is #1 on the list and leaves for LA this week.

I really wanted her to have something to take along to remind her of those here who love her and are praying for her recovery, both speedy and complete!

So of course I needed to give her a quilt. I looked over what I had that is completed but nothing was the right size [mostly too large for a very petite lady] or just not the right colors. Not having time to make one from scratch I searched through my unquilted tops and this 2010 NYE mystery quilt top, 60"x72", jumped out at me and said "give me to Esperanza"! You know that quilts do that sometimes..........

Off to the LA machine and I quilted it up with a leafy freehand to go with the organic elements of the batik print with the lemons.

I was so sure I had set aside some fabric for binding but thorough searching of my studio failed to bring it to light so I actually purchased a half yard of blue from "Quiltz" to bind it. So now all these fabrics are gone from my stash, justification for the five yards I purchased this week, The cheerful backing too came from stash but I still have a few yards of it, must have bought the whole bolt on sale, LOL!

I will be sad to see my neighbors leaving but our prayers go with them and they hope to return in about three months with a newer, healthier Esperanza!

God bless my friends!

Joe Cool

2011-06-10T12:14:00.000-07:00

We were doing flash cards when his Daddy put his sunnies on the little chap, he looked so cute I ran for the camera and here are the results!

When I saw the card he was holding at the time it kind of reminded me of Al Pacino in the movie "Scent Of A Woman"!

Long- Arming Again

2011-06-02T14:31:00.000-07:00

Apart from processing the jet lag from seventeen time zones, I have been trying to get back to my "normal" life here. So many things to catch up on and take care of but I think finally after almost a week, all the "stuff" that was waiting for me when I returned is now settled. Whew, you know how it is when you leave home for a bit!

This is another of Hannah's quilts and it came off the LA last night. Strangely, I did not even notice the secondary shading effect until I hung it up and took this picture!

I love the back of this quilt, Hannah frequently pieces her backings and this one has a nice modern look to it.

Here's a close-up of the freehand quilting.

Last Saturday BJ came to sew with me and in spite of a giant jet-lag hangover [only 24 hours after arriving back in the northern hemisphere] I decided to sew. And guess what, I didn't even sew any body parts either but I was fairly brain fogged and we [BJ and I] decided that I should only sew something that took no actual thought process!

So I pulled out all of my pink scrappy strips and began to make more of those "Log Cabin With Attitude" blocks and this is what I accomplished, beats sitting around in a jet-lag fog, right? They will make another baby girl quilt for the next female infant among my family and friends - and add to the stack of tops I need to quilt for myself!

Sigh, it is always "the cobbler's son who needs new shoes", isn't it?!

Memorial Day 2011

2011-05-30T12:21:00.000-07:00

"At the going down of the sun and in the morning

We will remember them"