Something New and Quilt Show Trip

I got an early birthday present last week!  Yee HAW!  I have a new sewing machine with an embroidery unit... (wait, I wasn't going to get into embroidery -- except Pat said, go ahead and get it.)  So I have the 635 -- I'll get a photo of it sometime soon -- the one I took when we were setting up is blurred.  


I've been fighting with Ruthie still... I think the thread may be the issue but I'm not sure.  This afternoon I got the last 18"done.  But I ran out of bobbin with about 2" to go... guess what will be hand quilted at the end?   I am so ready to have this quilt done.  Tomorrow or Monday I'll make and apply the binding.  


I spent yesterday at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show with Diana and Jennie.  Great fun but boy we were tired when we left and then there was a huge rain storm on the way home.  Yuck.  Weird weather -- it was in the low 80's!  Less than a week ago we had 4 to 5" of snow.... go figure! 

I was in awe of the quilting on this particular quilt.  It was amazing.  Heck, a lot of the quilts were amazing.  


There must have been as many vendors as there were quilts.  We spent a lot of time checking out all the new gadgets, fabrics and the like.  I thought I was pretty conservative.  I only bought 2 fat quarters, a roll of wool felt and 1 pattern. (well, and a few pieces of jewelry... )  And, I did get some thread for Ruthie.  


I feel like it will take several days to recuperate from walking on cement for that many hours.  Some year I'd like to actually stay overnight there and spend more time with vendors and the quilts. 







Wouldn't Sophia look darling in a little dress like this?  It was on display at the Bernina booth.  I had to have a picture to remember it ... the flowers are embroidered. There is a line of decorative stitches where the green meets the pink.  Too cute.






I got a call on the way home saying my embroidery unit had arrived.  I'll pick it up Wednesday when I go up for my owners class.  YEAH!  Then I have to learn how to use it! 








Jennie was really taken with this quilt and bought the special ruler to make the rhomboid units.  It was a really cool ruler so I think I'm going to borrow it.


There were a lot of X Rulers being shown and patterns.  WHERE is my X ruler?  I have a plan for it and I can't find the darn thing!  


Happy Quilting All! 

Gem Show

The Gal Pals went to a gem show in northern Virginia on Friday.  We were nearing the end of the day before I started taking pictures.  Why didn't I think about this earlier? 

Rows and rows of beads to do it yourself.

Supplies to string your own beads.

Diana and Jennie deciding on cord to string some beads. 

We watched someone stringing some lovely beads and got a quick lesson.  Now I'm waiting to see Jennie's beads finished as a necklace.  

Honestly, I didn't think I would enjoy the gem show as much as just the fun time the three of us would have.  But I'm all ready for next year's trip and plan to buy some beads to string.  

I bought a couple of items but two of them I carefully put away in a purse... problem is it was Diana's purse. We have the exact same purse except hers is navy and mine is black.  By the time we were half way home it was getting dark and I carefully put away my cell phone and purchases.  Except, it was dark enough that I didn't realize I'd  put everything away in her purse.  When we got home I couldn't find my phone but finally checked her purse and retrieved my phone.  I just didn't think to check for my purchases.  Yep, had to call her to have her check her purse -- she had the pieces.  Sigh.  I'll try to post pictures of my new jewelry after I retrieve it from her! 

No quilting got done but I had a great time!

Happy Quilting All!

Culinary Efforts

Kevin and Aimee brought us home several Thai food products including a red curry paste from their honeymoon in Thailand.  So while Sharon was here I decided we would give it a try. (Sharon spent several years in Thailand.)   We used Chicken Pa Nang recipe from AllRecipes. com.   I had gotten the ingredients I don't normally have around the house like coconut milk and fish sauce.  We read several other curry recipes and proceeded to make our version of Chicken Pa Nang.

Our ingredients

 




Here we're stirring the mixture.  Sharon made some wonderful sticky Jasmine rice.  Because we didn't know how spicy the curry paste was we didn't get quite enough in.  

Here's the meal plated and served.  Yummy.  


Thanks Kevin and Aimee for bringing us the curry paste. 


Remember, I broke my camera so these photos are coming from my old (but new to me) iPhone.  Not bad for a telephone camera. 




If this isn't enough culinary effort I must share this gorgeous red velvet cake... 


Jennie, my next door neighbor, brought us a happy valentine's day cake. And, it is scrumptious!

Check out the tri colored swirls... pretty neat. She told me how to do it but I doubt I could get any swirls to look like that. 

Could you tell from the pictures above that we had already had some pieces?  It was as delicious as it looks!  


Hope everyone had a happy Valentine's Day.  Pat and I went out to dinner but couldn't get into the little restaurant we had wanted to go to.  I guess we'll try next weekend.  (Of course, we did get out to dinner... Mexican which was yummy!) 


Happy Quilting All! 

Design Wall Monday 12-12-11

A week or so ago I finished sewing the rows together on this scrap quilt.  I was ready to move on to the border ... but oh no!  I couldn't find the box with the directions, the triangle borders, 2 straight borders, and the extra 16 patches for another border.  But I knew where the quilt was.  I searched in all the clear boxes where I thought the pieces would be but nada, zip -- no pieces and directions!  


But the other day I was looking for something and had to move a basket and there they were... yeah!  Today I hung them on one of the design walls to get an idea of how it will look.  Am I really working on this?  Probably  not until January.  Heck, I'm already working on 3 quilts as is! 

Here's my neighbor Jennie growling at Pat after she rode the Lion's Club float in our local parade.  Ooops, I missed the parade but Jennie wanted to share her "scary" self with us.   She was probably the warmest person at the parade.  Love the nose Jennie. 


Have you finished your holiday shopping?  Nope, me neither.  I'm going to try to get a few things for the shortest person in our family today.  I know she doesn't read the blog so I can say that I have to make her a stocking to match all the others and also that I need to buy stuff to fill the stocking.  Hum, socks come to mind but will have to find little things to go with.  

Goals for Week of 12/5/11

Occupy my Studio √

Finish secret little quilt put this away as my partner is leaving town before I could get it to her so will finish it this week and then mail late in the week.

Begin secret Christmas present √

Make 3 quilties almost done... 

Mail off quilties, small quilt and a return

Start Christmas cards

Put Christmas quilt on bed, √ hang 2 others √√

Tie off threads on red, white and blue and give to charity√

Work on Carolina Christmas√

Work on black & white log cabin blocks √

Make and wrap ornament for guild exchange gave up on this...

Wrap cookie cutter for guild’s exchange √

Goals for Week of 12/12/11

Finish quilties and get in the mail

Make 2 blocks for the FCQ Equilters Komen donation quilt

Finish secret Christmas present

Start and finish another stocking for Sophia

Make Christmas cards and mail off

Work on Carolina Christmas

Work on black & white log cabin blocks

Post my Occupy My Studio activities

Raggs in for grooming

Hair Cut

Little Christmas Shopping 

Only 2 more Design Wall Monday's this year.  Wow, the year has flown by but I'm happy to report I have made a lot of quilts this year.  I'm especially proud of all the UFO's I pulled out and finished.  Hopefully, I haven't started and left unfinished a lot more projects!  Hop on over to Patchwork Times to see what every one else has been working on.  

Happy Quilting!  

T-Day & Black Friday All Over

We had a lovely Thanksgiving with your neighbors at Jennie & Del's house.  I didn't get photos of the food before the feast but I did get a picture of the desserts.  Yum!

 From left to right Chocolate Gingerbread cake, pumpkin pie and apple pie.  Look below to see how beautiful that apple pie was. All those little leaves.  I mean, honestly it was too beautiful to eat.  NOT! And the ones I had tasted fabulously.

 We even went outside to play this crazy game.  Let's just say I didn't win.  You can't tell from here but the bean bags were in Virginia Tech colors.  Someone is a big Tech fan.

We briefly talked about doing some Black Friday shopping but really, going out at midnight to try to buy stuff?  Not me.  Pat and I were ready for bed by about 10.  Well stuffed and tired. 

I spent Friday in the studio working on the FCQ Equilter's donation quilt.  I am making blocks to go around the applique piece.  I was tickled to use my V Block Trimmer by Deb Tucker when making a block. I really like Debbie's rulers.  I get really accurate blocks using them. Here's the section I was making. 

 I used the ruler to cut the correct pieces.  Then I trimmed it down to the correct size.

 And, with very little effort I had my pieces sewn and trimmed.  I like that the pointy parts are trimmed while cutting the pieces.

Here is the block that I made.

Which way do you like best?

Does it even matter?

Check back tomorrow to see some of the blocks I've already finished.


Did you support the buy local Saturday?  I did!  I grabbed Diana and went off to our local quilt store.  Jennie met us there because she wanted to buy some fabric for a winter quilt.  I bought some blue fabric to use for a baby quilt and two pieces of red.  Yes, I know I'm adding to my stash but I've blown my acquisitions out of the water so why not buy what you nee  um, want to get?  They were also having a great sale buy two of anything and get the third free.  So I bought 2 half yard pieces and got the third one free.  And, I never have many reds around cause I use them so much.

I've been bad about blogging.  So I'm hopeful I can get about 3 blogs a week written for the rest of the year.  I always do Design Wall Mondays but I need to add a couple of more postings.  Sounds like a great new year's resolution. But let's see how well I do for December.

Happy Quilting All.  

Road Trip South

I'm going to Mary Jo's Cloth Store in Gastonia, NC today with friends from Maryland. Woot! Woot!

I finished my products for the Festival of the Grape. 

I packed my bag.

I'm waiting for  my friends to show up.  

And, dreaming of all the fabric I could be buying!  Or, not buying as the case may be. 

No quilting was done this week -- I was making snap bags and gift bags for wine bottles.  Didn't get all that many made but hopefully will sell enough to pay for my trip.  Thanks Jennie the baker for letting me add my stuff to your stuff. 

Happy Quilting All! 

Two Little Quilt Tops

I've wanted to do a twister quilt for some time.  Now I've tried two...

I was going to try to make the twister block into a pumpkin, hence all of the oranges.  It was a good idea but didn't come out right in the planning stages (see block below...) 


I actually like this orange version.  


Here's how it looked while I was working on it. 

And here is the practice plan for the pumpkin.  I flipped the ruler over to cut the two blocks on the right side thinking I could get the cute little indent at the top which I felt a pumpkin needed.  Which actually gave me a completely different look for the center of the quilt.  I don't know what I'm going to do with this knowledge but it didn't scream pumpkin shape to me so I made up the orange blocks in the regular style.  Any ideas on either making a pumpkin with a twister ruler or what we can do with the upside down ruler blocks?? 

Jennie, Diana and I went down to Williamsburg outlets for some heavy duty shopping.  I was looking for a different dress for the wedding and some pre and post wedding clothes.  Not much luck for any of that but we all got some things. 


Jennie loves caramel apples so we went into old Williamsburg so she could get some apples. 

Look at that Jennie -- she always knows when I have the camera on her!

We had a great time even if I wasn't thrilled with the clothing I saw.  Sigh.  Guess I'll have to go again sometime!

Happy Quilting All!

What's On Ruthie Today

I'm quilting my neighbor Jennie's first quilt.  It is going fast so I hope to have it done shortly.  

 Stippling around the leaves on the border.

 A leaf panto on the strips. 

I'll have to turn it to do the side borders but that is so easy with my Red Rockets.  

Today is a "field trip" to a new quilt store with the guild.  I wonder what type of mischief I can get into today?  Hopefully I'll have photos for tomorrow or later this week! 

Life Is Good . . .

RUTHIE'S BACK

and

she's better than ever! 

Bill, our very mechanically inclined neighbor and Diana's husband, replaced one guide and the whole hook assembly.  I also got a new bobbin case.  Pat worked hard on it too but didn't have enough time to spend, well he does have to go to work.  Thanks bunches Bill.  Now, how are you on iPods?  

The first quilt up is this baby quilt Jenny did and boy howdy -- it is definitely fun to quilt!

 I'm stitching in the ditch on each of the squares and then stippling around the applique. 

Yesterday was a preview party for Quilter's Corner. Tiffany Sherman is the new owner.  She closed the store for a couple of days and reopened with a big hoopla. What better place to go with folks who are interested in quilting?  So I dragged invited Diana and Jennie to come with me.  After an early dinner we descended on the store. (Along with a nice crowd of interested folks.) We stayed for several hours enjoying the sights.  Diana even won one of the door prizes.  Needless to say I was terribly jealous when I realized the prize was a bunch of batiks.  I think she said they were 10 x 10" pieces.  Hey, I could definitely find something to do with those!  We all got a goody bag that included a fat quarter, a pen and chocolate.  I don't know why I have no pictures of Diana but here's Jennie checking out a quilt she likes and some fabric. 

If I didn't mention before we live on 2 acres in a small subdivision.  And, we have some serious gardeners living nearby.  I have been the grateful recipient of quite a lot of veggies and fruits.  Here's some of what we've recently received.  I call it Vegetable Still Life.  No zucchinis but lots of cucumbers. 

Half of tomorrow will be spent on Ruthie trying to finish Jenny's quilt.  The other half I plan to put together the baby quilt I've been working on.  Hopefully I'll post a picture of the top on Monday.  

Happy Quilting All!  

Cooking not Quilting

Today Jen and I are hostessing a bridal shower for Aimee.  I volunteered to do cupcakes for the event.  (Hey, I live next door to a former bakery owner, I'm no dummy!) This morning I went over to Jennie's house for lessons in baking and decorating cupcakes. (yes, it is very confusing having a daughter, Jen or Jenny and a next door neighbor Jennie!)  The chosen flavor is lemon.  Here's what we did. 


 We started with a Duncan Hines lemon cake mix.  Yum! 

Here they are just out of the oven.  


Jennie put in some wonderful lemon filling in them before they were frosted.

Jennie is showing me how to frost them with a bit of panache. 

How many cupcakes? 

Jennie then put a little yelllow dab in the middle.  Very nice looking cupcakes.  (And, almost professional looking!) 

All done and ready to take home. I let Pat sample one last night.  Well, my idea was to split one between us but before I knew what happened the cupcake I gave him was gone.  I got my own cupcake and cut it in half and the second half vanished somewhere near Pat also.  My half was fabulous, if I do say so myself.  


A big thank you to Jennie for teaching me how to frost cupcakes with quite a professional look.  Notice I'm not letting you have a close up view! (honest, I just forgot to take a closeup.  Maybe I'll get one at the shower tomorrow.)


On the quilt front I did get all the hand quilting done on the doll quilt.  Tomorrow I hope to get the binding on and sewn down.  Then I can put it in the mail to Australia on Monday. Then I need to do some serious work on getting a quilt or two done as the month is almost over and I will have to share my fabric ins and outs.  


Happy Quilting All (and baking too!)