several fun things

You just have to look at this quilt.  I wish I had the patience this girl has.  She does incredible work.  AND has kids to look after.

http://greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/2011/03/dear-jane.html

Then I received the boxes of fabric from Texas.  My friend Pat, who most of you know at Stitchn on the HGTV quilt sites, died about 2 - 3 months ago.  Quite unexpectedly.  We were members of a virtual group called Quilting Sisters and we are in about 5 states.  There are 9, well, 8 of us now.

One of our Quilting Sisters lives near Pat and with her sons' permission went in and boxed up the majority of her fabrics.  I will use mine for a number of charity quilts for The Giving Quilt next year since their show is next week. 

Currently I am washing and re-washing the fabric to get the smoke out of it.  Pat was a heavy smoker and had emphysema real bad.  It is probably what killed her as she was in and out of hospitals for breathing treatments all the time. 

After the first load went though a full wash and still came out smoky, I did a rinse with a cup of vinegar.  Then it came out smelling like vinegar so it is in the washer going thropugh a full wash again.

These will be the cleanest fabrics ever because I am sure the Quilting Sister who boxed all this up washed it all before sending it to us.

Whatever the outcome, it will be nice a fresh when all is said and done.  I miss Pat very much.  She was a former FBI agent in the days when women were not these things.  And she raised 4 sons by herself.  And they all loved their momma! 

There is no greater tribute than that!

And for those of you who have hung in this long - I have a give away for you.

Two copies of the Quilter's Newseltter Magazine.  But not just any QNM.  These are 1983 and 1984 issues.  So cool  You can see the beginning of the "modern" quilting movement in the pages.  They are in great condition.  With full patterns and color photos. 

Just leave me a post here and I will generate a winner through the random number picker.

I also noticed my poor ironing board cover.  You can see a part of the huge hole in the magazine photos.  Here is the actual hole.  I need to SELL something and buy a new one, really.

Dogs - something educational for you

http://judgeseducation.com/rottweiler/pdfs/where_have_all_shoulders_gone.pdf

When you enter a conformation dog show you want the judges to understand what the ideal of your breed should look like.  So all AKC breeds have Judge's Education Seminars that allow those judging their breeds to understand what the standard should be.  Dogs in the show ring are compared to the standard rather than each other.  The dogs who come closest to the breed's standard are awarded points and titles.  This is to tell those who are fanciers of that breed, these dogs do have things about that that are close to the breed's standard.  That is not saying that dog is the ideal dog, just close to the standard.

Don't get me started on why most people who own dogs should never breed a dog.  It would take too long.

This article I cited above is a discussion on how the shoulder should look in the rottweiler.  It gives great examples of good and bad shoulders and why they are good or bad.  I found it very interesting.

Since Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs are said to be the forerunners of the Rottweiler breed many many years ago, you can see a lot of similarities in the breeds. 

Yes, Dutch is a Champion, he is officially CH Timberline Double Dutch, CGC, NWPD.  He is beautiful and has a really great rear.  Don't we all want that in our men?

And No, I am not a breeder.  I leave that to those who know dog structure  and genetics like the back of their hand. 

There is nothing sadder than an owner who loves their dog so much and is having to make decisions that could have been prevented by careful breeding. 

I hate back yard breeders.......can you tell?

glen

No quilting

I did no quilting yesterday because I spent all day cleaning the house for the Book Club meeting.  We read Reading Lolita In Tehran by Azar Nafisi.  Amazing book. She tells her story about being in Iran as the Revolution was changing the way they lived.  For the first time in over 50 years women were again required to wear burka and cover themselves.  She talks about things we never hear of here like when one of her students is on holiday with her girl friends.  A male cousin of one of the girls comes by and talks to them briefly and the girls are all thrown in prison for for years, raped and tortured.  One even dies.  Then released.  She comes back to the book club like she was never gone.  It is a way of life there. 

I served Lebonese food because it was a close to Iran as I could get.  In between cleaning and polishing I whipped up a batch of baklava that was amazingly incredible.  I had gyros and chicken shwarma with pita wraps.

Here is the baklava just coming out of the oven.  Then you pour the honey and lemon rose water over it.  Man, they were incredible!

I also went to the International Store and found the most wonderful dates and olives. 

And of course we had to have fine chocolates becase in the book Nafisi meets with the man she calls her magician and he always had chocolates for her.  It is an incredible thing to have in the middle of the Revolution in Iran.  It is decadent and Western.  And wonderful.

We had wine with our chocolate!

Design Wall Monday 4-25-11

I will be at the gym if you need me, I'll working off all the chocolate from yesterday.  But while I am gone, you can check out my design wall and some good news I can now share with you!        

First the good news -- I was invited to be a Block Tester for the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Magazine Vol. 3!  And they asked me back for Volume 4.  I may even submit a block to the Volume 5, surely they will run out of blocks soon enough and be looking for one more, huh?

Anyway.  As a Thank You they sent me a magazine and a CUP!   How cool is that!  And if you buy a copy of the Quiltmaker's 100 Blocks Vol 3, you will see my name under Block Testers!  Too cool!

I didn't get to test Judy's block though......... I wish I had!  I will show you some of the blocks I worked on in future posts.

So here is what I am working on on my design wall this week.  A UFO resurfaced from a long long time ago.  It was a pattern in a magazine that had pastel stripes and an applique of a huge golden retriever in the lower right section.  I loved it.  But my choice of bright stripes overwhelmed the dog and I grew discouraged.  And tossed it into a corner.

When I found again it last week I knew it needed to be worked on with the elan and verve that comes from the 15 Minutes Play Group I am working with.  So I held my breath and sliced into it.  Here are the bits and pieces from two of the sections.  I held back the other two just in case I got cold feet!  LOL.  But now I am into it with full aplomb!

And while I was putting the blocks on the design wall, I found the saw tooth piece from some half square triangles leftover from some project a few years ago.  They fit right into the chaos that was the sedate stripes a week ago.

I don' t know where this will lead, but it will certainly be interesting getting there!

glen

You are never too old for bubbles from the Easter Bunny!

 

We have had a fun filled weekend with family and friends.  Saturday we tested out the new barbeque grill once again.  He still needs to get the hang of cooking on the new surfaces and with the different burner arrangement.  So we had some guinea pigs.  (Not roasted, silly!)

Carrie and Andrew each got a huge egg filled with stuff from the Easter Bunny.  In Carrie’s egg was a bubble wand.  And she spent the next hour or so in the yard making bubbles for non-caring dogs.  Not a one paid her bubbles any attention.  And I had t

hough at least  DiNozzo would have.

And on Sunday, Frank and I drove to Houmas House Plantation for an incredible meal at their Easter Buffet.  Turtle Cheesecake, Bread Pudding with Rum Sauce, Cinnamon Pecan Pie with fresh fruits……a bit odd but good.  Grits and Grillads, Duck in Pecan Sauce, Lamb carvings, Roast Beef and those tiny potatoes, Squash Casseroles, lots of Shrimp (already peeled for you!) and Marinated Crab Claws, Glazed Ham, Maple Pork Loin.  And that was just the meats!

The incredible part of the meal was the Pumpkin Cream Curry with Shrimp and Corn and the Andouille Sausage and Crab Bisque Gumbo that was served out of huge cauldrons in the center of the buffet floor.

Houmas House has these incredible gardens surrounding the main house.  The restaurant is converted from the old slave run kitchen out behind the main house.  We wandered around the grounds a bit.  Here is what I saw:

   Of coOf course I did find dogs.  These are the resident Plantation Dogs named Sugar and Gracie

      We went with Press, Ann, Tiger, Yvonne and Miss Elizabeth, Ann’s 90 year old mother. 

 

Phase 2 - UFO Resurfaces

Took a deep breath and began slicing.

Cut the original into 4 pieces.

then I cut one section into 6 inch diagonal strips.

Then into 6 inch diagonal squares.

Another section I cut int 6 inch squares on the straight.

They each had some black.

I thought it was interesting.

I noticed the black was dominant so I began to place it strategically. 

See the sometimes diagonal blocks and the sometimes straight blocks. 

And look what I found!  Half square triangles.

What fun!

See them rearranged a bit more carefully? 

Hey, I am beginning to like this quilt.

Long ago UFO Resurfaces

Meet the Stripes Quilt.  It was begun long ago when I first got back into quilting after a long time of not quilting.  I saw a really cool quilt in one of the magazines my mom had and I instantly fell in love with it.  And I thought to make it for my niece for a long ago Christmas to impress and mystify my Sister-In-Law.

The quilt was a beautiful group of dog item fabrics in long stripes with a huge golden retriever dog appliqued in a corner.  I chose a bunch of cool bright fabrics that looked fun and kid-like.  I was pleased.  When I got my stripes made the brights totally overwhelmed the fabrics I wanted to make the dog out of.  I was NOT pleased.

So I tossed the stripes into a corner.  And there they sat.  For maybe another two years.  I got the idea to cut them up into quarters and tone them down with the black.  I think I must have seen an Amish quilt or something.  Well, this did not turn out to look Amish-like at all.  I was not pleased.  So it got tossed into another corner.

It surfaced over the years, from time to time.  And I would smile at it and put it back into yet another corner.  This happened, oh, maybe 8 or 10 times.  Then I found it again this week when I was cleaning out my "corner" which now is most of the center of the room AND the two corners.  OK, THREE corners.

And I decided to to a hatchet job on it.  I want to chop it up!  I figure there is no loss if it turns out ugly as sin, right?  It wasn't a favorite before.  So maybe it will improve a bit even. 

With the 15 Minutes Play Group under my wings inspiring  me onward and upward....who KNOWS what I will be capable of.

So sit back and see what happens.  OK?  And if you have any suggestions, add them to the pile.  Like I said, it can't get any worse!  LOL. 

glen

Look Ma, No Cavities!

Clean bill of health at the DDS today.  But am going to have them work on a filling that has been in my mouth for about 50 years now.  The last three dentists I have had have patched it, sanded it, babied it along but now it is cracked and the edge is tearing up my tongue.  So it is time to rework the whole tooth.

The last dentist didn't want to do it, but this new guy will.  He looks 12 and has braces on his teeth.  Probably doesn't get spending money from mom so he is working on teeth.  

I liked the gadgets in the office:  a pano camera, a mouth cam and a digital thingy that put pictures up on a computer screen mounted in the ceiling so you saw immediately what you looked like on the inside.  This is not my x-ray, but one that I pulled from xray.com or something.

My gums are great and teeth are sound.  I SAW that, really!  Fun.

Go figure.........an Honorable Mention

Well, we knew I wasn't going to win, that is reserved for only one person in that guild.  But telling myself it is for charity, makes it only marginally better.

And she ended up with an additional block somehow and it was......you guessed it.......second place.  Wow.

Anyway, remember my quilt made from a block exchange (where she one first place there too) and we were to make quilts from the blocks.  Here is mine and here is the ribbon.  It is a nice ribbon.

I turned them on to the dog show ribbons and now all the guilds are giving them out.  Page loves it!  She is my dog show/pack dog ribbon source.  So if your guild wants to give ribbons out let me know and I will introduce you to Page.

I also made a Fat Quarter Bag from a UFO Quilt top I had laying around.  It was a stroke of genius.  I got a new huge bag and used up a UFO in the meantime.

glen

design wall 4-18-11

Still on my design wall, but I have the top completed.  Now to work on a back.

A UFO Finish - Jesse Will Love This

Judy L called the number and this one came up.

Finished up a UFO just now.  It was one I started years ago.  I took a class at the Quilt Corner with Judy Tate and she had designed a Row Quilt out of beautiful bright tone on tone fabrics.  I had this in my stash and decided to use steel blue and beige rose prints.  I had the top finished for about a year and it was sandwiched and just sitting there.

When I got into quilting it I realized that a corner of the backing was chunked out for some reason.  So I pulled a piece of green that was a similar tone with roses and made a Y seam adding that to fill in the gap.

The added bonus is the beautiful day we had here.  60's temps made it a perfect spring day.  So I sat in the back yard, yelling at DiNozzo for chewing up all the sticks he could find and swallowing them for the 2 1/2 hours that I worked.  And I had to keep flicking the caterpillars off me and the quilt as well.

I hope you enjoy the pictures of the quilt and the beautiful day and the back yard we work so hard in every week!

glen:  see the new goldfish on the fence Frank bought me today?  He is looking at the quilt and going:  Blub! What a blub blub quilt!