OPA!!

This weekend is the 53rd. annual Greek Festival at Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Cathedral.
Opa is an expression of celebration but seems to be used in Greek for other meanings as well.

Youngest son, JW, usually helps out along with his friend Rob running the Saganaki food stand.
Saganaki is a Greek cheese, grilled and flambeed with Metaxa a type of Greek brandy.Yum!
 The cheese used is one called kafelograviera but I am told that you can also use Kasseri cheese.

Everyone yells "opa" as the Metaxa flames on the cheese. It's then sprinkled with a little fresh lemon juice and served on pita bread. Double yum, but I had to forgo the pita, I am endeavoring to live gluten free.

That's JW on the left, Rob on the right hard at work grilling the cheese.

On with the Metaxa.....

fire on the cheese!

Lots of other Greek delicacies..........

I didn't have room for the calamari unfortunately, probably shouldn't eat it anyway the batter surely has gluten in it!

The guy on the left appears to have already had his fill, LOL!

These are the Greek fried donuts, drenched with a sweet honey syrup, yummy, not for me though!

Baklava sundae, oh my!

This was my choice, lamb shank.

I passed on the Ouzo, though when I was young I drank it on the rocks!

 Both red and white Greek wine...........

 even a Greek market or "Agora"...........

 T-shirts with different Greek messages............

 Jewelry from Athens...........

and Holy Honey! And not just all kinds of edible honey but also some skin care products.

I purchased these for my friend who has breast cancer and needs surgery, a lovely soap and a skin cream. They are fragrant, vegan and pure and will be kind to her skin.

And I found these honey sticks, for my tea!

There was entertainment for young and old.

 Bouncy things.........

 sliding things............

and it wouldn't be a Greek festival without lots of dancing

We had a lovely evening! If you live in the Phoenix area you can check it out tomorrow evening too.

Sock Knitting

A couple of years back I had a yen to knit socks after a friend was raving about how nice and comfy  hand knit socks are. I purchased yarn, some needles and this book.

However, I discovered that there is a dedicated language of sock knitting that causes confusion for the uninitiated- toe up or top down, four double pointed needles or circular needles or the Magic loop or even two- at -a -time!

It was all just too much so I began to search for a class, looked all over the city but couldn't find anything within reasonable driving distance so I abandoned the project, well, sort of put it on the back burner protem.

Then a couple of months ago I happened to walk into Joann's for some notions when they were promoting their classes and lo and behold, a sock knitting class! Of course I signed up and took the class-it was only two sessions, but that is really quite adequate as long as you already have the basics of knitting. I learned the English style as a very young child rather than the US so I had a few adjustments to make, different instructions, abbreviations, methods of increase /decrease, cast on and off etc.

The teacher agreed to give instruction for toe up-my preference- although her preference is for top down. I liked the idea of toe up for a couple of reasons, you can get a smooth, ridgeless toe and a more accurate sock fit as well as the ability to use up the entire ball of yarn by making the leg part longer instead of having partial balls left over. The method we learned was on two circular needles so there was a learning curve there to adjust to that technique and I found that it really helps to have two different colored needles!

This is my first completed sock, I plan to begin on the second one as soon as I get this quilt frogged as I do not want to suffer from the infamous "second sock syndrome"!! I used a heavier yarn for this first pair, the needles were larger, I used US#6, and the yarn being thicker it knit up faster and the stitches/errors were easier to identify. I have only a couple of yards left of the ball of yarn and decided to use the roll over cast-off method. I see only one mistake so that's not bad for a first effort.  I have learned a couple of techniques that will help me in future sock making, and I found a plethora of tuts on Youtube answering just about every question you might have. There is also a way to knit in a fine nylon thread at toe and heel to reinforce those areas that wear out first-I plan to try and incorporate that in my next pair.

 This is the DK Superwash yarn, DK is one step heavier than regular sock yarn I think. I have enough regular sock yarn to make three pairs for ordinary use, but this first pair will be my around- the- house- in- my- slipper socks for winter.

Frogging A Quilt...... And Machine Repair!

I should know by now, if I am not happy with the beginning of the quilting then I will be extremely unhappy by the end! In spite of that, I did it again, quilted a good size quilt and now I am ripping out all the stitching.

This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern, Tobacco Road, and her quilts are always busy and scrappy, lots of small pieces and likely hundreds of different fabrics. 

They need a simple overall quilting design and the leafy pattern I chose is just too fussy.

 I have used this pantograph many times successfully but I think not on such a busy quilt.

None of the quilting will show much on a busy quilt but the effect is more pleasing if it is simple.

 The large leaves are ok but the smaller ones just look awful to me so I decided it all must come out!

 It just looks messy to me and that is unacceptable!

The back is OK, the full design shows but on the front the smaller leaves etc. get lost. I am a fan of Bonnie Hunter's patterns and Andee, owner of this quilt is a devotee so for both of us this must really meet our standards for eye candy! I contacted Andee to be sure she was not in a hurry for the quilt, the unsewing will take a while I need frequent breaks for my hands and arms  to do something different!

This is my choice now for the re-quilting, it's called Maple Breezes from Meadowlynn quilting, it's a 15" design and I think it will be perfect. I have also decided to use a neutral thread color instead of brown. 
Lesson learned here, and next time I begin to feel unhappy with the quilting process, I will stop and wait a day or so thinking it over before going on!

In addition I had a machine issue this past week when a tiny piece of fine bobbin thread got jammed inside the hook assembly and my machine would not move! Heavy oiling and wiggling the hook usually works but not this time it was locked up!

So removing the hook and soaking in oil was my next move, also to no avail which is when I called Randy one of the wonderful techs at A-1, Plank Manufacturing. He suggested the owner's solution, take a hammer to it LOL.

  Literally that is what you must do, with these high tech tools!

The first whack was likely too tentative as nothing happened, the second gained a tiny amount of play and the third loosened the hook enough that I was able to wiggle it back and forth with more oil until it broke free and spat out a half inch piece of thread! Whew, that saved me about $150 and a wait for a new hook.

The A-1 maintenance DVD actually shows this elegant procedure and Randy would never have advised it were it not an acceptable solution. All of this trauma required that the hook be re-timed, one of my least favorite tasks, because the tolerances for these machines are so fine that it can take several tries to get timing right. Fortunately I am experienced enough at this chore that it only took two adjustments and the machine and I were again in harmony.

Now a disclaimer: I am never suggesting that you take a hammer to your machine- unless you have clear and defined instructions you should never do anything that may destroy something expensive, so follow your manufacturer guidelines to the letter!

BJ's Mystery Quilt

I believe this was our New Year's Eve Mystery from 2012.

It's quilted with a lime green thread and a freehand daisy and leaf design. BJ doesn't like quilting designs that look like patterns, she prefers the freehand open leafy sort of thing so that's what I do for her!

September Block Of The Month

Only three more months!

Handkerchief Finish

Janice's quilt is ready for her to collect when she returns from vacation.

 I found my camera so I took new photos and they depict the colors more accurately.

 Lots of cross hatching, I wish I had been able to use a template but I could not find a one inch size and the 1.5" was too large. I did locate a couple of one inch grid  templates online so I will be ordering that to have on hand.

 It was a big job so it feels good to have it completed, I know that Janice is anxious to see it.

Handkerchief Quilts

This book by Sharon Newman is the guide Janice used to construct a quilt using her mother's vintage hankies. Published in 1992,  it is "out of print" so I was rather shocked at some of the prices I found while looking online for a copy for myself- I think $300 is outrageous! Argh! I really wanted my own copy so  I let my fingers do the walking around the internet and found one on eBay from an Aussie vendor that cost me about $27 US. including shipping. A deal, right? Now I have no excuse not to make a quilt from my Mum's hankies.

Janice asked me to quilt her top and wanted it quilted the same as the design she used from the book,  in which all but two blocks are crosshatched.

First row, fairly straight forward..........

second row, 

one odd hankie here, a lacy silky fabric, not much use as a handkerchief, I would guess merely for decoration.

I am on the third row now.

This block did not get crosshatching, just a little outline around some of the flowers to anchor it so it won't "pouf" up! 

Here is another of the lacy ones, a souvenir  piece. I think I won't like off -white thread on this, it will show up too much so I plan to switch to a red thread. 

Two more rows and the bottom border, then the side borders. Because the borders are large and the quilting is a larger curving feather I plan to turn the quilt to do the other two borders. This is my week with The Boy, so not as much quilting gets done, but it should be a cinch to get this one finished by next week. 

Never Forget...................

A Finished Floorplan!

This one came off the longarm last night. 

 My new camera is "missing", haven't seen it since we returned from CO. and the phone isn't producing such nice photos, just can't get true color and can't see the quilting. The background of the quilt is a gingko leaf White On White.

 The quilting design is hard to see in this photo..........

 better in this close up............

 even better from the back view. A high quality premium muslin seemed suitable for the back.

 The batting is Quilter's Dream, it was whiter than the Hobbs Heirloom, and the thread is white also.
The Circle Lord "Swirls" turned out well and appropriate for this more modern quilt design.

Floor Plan

Linking with "Wordless Wednesday"

BJ's Scrappy Squares Quilt

This was done yesterday........

I thought that the Swirls from Circle Lord would look really cool on this quilt but BJ wouldn't allow it, said it was "too modern a design" for her!

 She did allow me to freehand quilt the peacock feathers. I used a Valdani variegated thread and BJ brought me Warm And Natural batting.

 The backing is also pieced, of course! Tomorrow I am sewing with BJ at Jacki's so I will deliver it to her then, I hope she likes it.