I Hate This Thread Color!

After dithering around back and forth with Leslie whose quilt this is, I had the plan all ready and finally decided on gold thread-but no sooner had I quilted a couple of feet of the outer border than I realized- I hate the thread color! Yikes!

It just doesn't go, not the right shade of yellow, too brassy gold. Drat!

But this lovely lime green will do I think! 

It is actually even brighter in hue than it shows, and we had talked about using it but I didn't want to make it too seasonal/Christmassy. 

Therefore I will sleep on it and if I still despise it in the morning - and I am pretty sure that I will- I will frog it and start over with the green. It is not the same brand so I hope my tension stays adjusted, these shiny threads can be finicky!

I made a couple more selvedge pot holders to take for a little hostess gift this weekend, we can all use an extra one or two, everyone seems to love them and I will never run out of selvedges!
       Earlier this week I was over at 35th Avenue Sew 'N vac and cruised around their sale table while waiting for a sales person and it was not a good idea, at least for my wallet!
I spied this-an entire set of Kaffe Fassett fabrics half price, 16 yards in all it states.

 It took me a long time and quilting a few quilts with his fabrics before I grew to like them, in the beginning I thought they were too wild and I would go blind quilting them! The first quilt I custom quilted was a queen size to the floor, a big quilt king size really. All the blocks were different, stars I think, and no matter what thread I used I could not see where I had been! By the time I got to the last wide border I gave up and pulled out a pantograph, it was making me so crazy trying to see my quilting. I know that a black light can help so I need to get one just to have on hand for difficult fabrics.
Some of his fabrics I really love especially those polka dots in several different color-ways, yummy! I am not sure that this entire quilt is my style, not likely ever to make it, but a few blocks for a wall hanging would be fun and a very happy accent on the wall. There's just too much time consuming applique` there in the full size version but I am sure I can find some other wonderful things to make with them.

As I said it took me years to appreciate the riotous colors in Kaffe's designs, but now I love them, all that brightness and craziness makes me happy! Must be my advancing years, my Mum grew to love wild colors when she was older and I have a birthday Sunday so the years are catching up with me!
Oh yeah that's a great idea, this can be my birthday present to myself LOL!

New Projects For The New Year

Linking up with Needlework Tuesday

We returned from our Boston jaunt last week and spent the next few days catching up with mail, putting up Christmas decorations, purging the storage shed in back and cleaning house-not to mention laundry!
Now it's back to the normality of the gym and quilting, and the boy whom I had really missed not seeing him for three whole weeks!
 I did make it to the gym in Boston the week after Christmas, I took the eleven year old twins and had several good workouts at the "Y", but the second week they were back in school and I did not go so it feels really good to be back into that routine!
First up on the longarm is this stunning quilt and I have been back and forth with the quilter in Texas deciding on thread color and design. There is something very dramatic always about solid colors on a black background.

It is now loaded and ready to go

The plan is for a bright green thread and a leafy wreath in each block with a flower center, leaves between the blocks and a flower on each of the cornerstones. I think it will be really pretty. 

A couple of new babies at our church necessitates a couple more baby quilts and I pieced this quickie from an assortment of small amounts of girlie fabrics I cut into 7" squares for the baby girl I met before Christmas. It will be quilted as soon as the black one is done. Meanwhile I noticed another new babe on Sunday and I must ask tomorrow at Bible study who it is so I can get another in the works. We have a lot of young families and new ones joining here and there. Our church has had a wonderful preschool for many years [there is usually a waiting list] and we often seem to have new families join after their child has become a student in the preschool. Matthew goes to the Sunday School, which he absolutely loves, also overseen by the preschool director- it's a terrific program of Christian discipleship.

Eataly in Boston!

Have you heard of Chef Mario Batali's "Eataly"? There are thirty now around the globe since the first in Turin, Italy.In the USA there are four, in NYC Flatiron and NYC Downtown, Chicago and now Boston plus one in the offing in Los Angeles. This morning niece and I checked out the newest store, 45,000 square feet in the Prudential building Boston and to put it mildly we were astonished the store is enormous and the variety of goods from A to Z is overwhelming!

We had never seen so many cheeses in one place......

nor cured and fresh meat.....

The photos in this post are a miniscule representation of the entire facility, including four restaurants with the same menu.

A small selection of the artisan breads fresh baked daily on site 

We purchased a fig bread, but it was very hard to choose just one

and this Chianti that was advertised as new to the country so we decided to try a bottle.

We ate brunch there, K had a Ciabatta sandwich with mushrooms, pickled onions and a soft cheese and I ordered a selection of three salads, chicken with walnuts and Gorgonzola, one featuring eggplant and the third a Caprese. We finished up with Macchiato latte and a coffee, and I could not resist this decadent looking hazelnut dessert to share.

If you have an opportunity to visit one of these stores it's an adventure, but try to plan it early in the day close to 9am. before the crowds arrive. When we got there around 11 am. it was very busy and the restaurants were already crowded and we left around one pm. as the crowding was getting uncomfortable!