Working Friday

Thanks to all who shared my grief at the demise of my beloved iron.  It was such a good iron.  I am hoping the one I ordered will be as good.  We shall see.  I have heard several bad reports about the Oliso Irons.  The quilt shop has stopped carrying them and sent the rest of their product back to the distributor.  They had major problems with them.  So sad, it was such a good idea!

Today was a frustrating day, between saving McGee's life repeatedly and trying to do some work with the longarm, I gave up on both and finally told McGee if he has such a death wish, he might as well get it over with.  He broke into my sewing room and distributed the contents of my trash can throughout the living room.  For which I put him outside.  He undid the tie out and got into the bird seed.  For which I put him inside.  He then broke into Frank's office and at the corners off the Land's End box that was delivered this morning.  For which I put him outside.  This went on three more times.

I am currently not speaking to him and considered not feeding him due to all the bird seed and fabric he probably ate.

The long arm is a pain in the patooty today again.  I gave up when I finally got the tension set correctly, I think, because of the number of times I had to leave to save McGee's life.

Then I decided to work on the Saints quilt, and now have all but two squares quilted.  I can get those done tonight after dinner with friends.  I think I will have some stiff beers!

And a few minutes ago, I was greeted with this marvelous scene.  Have you ever seen a more beautiful end to a day? Is that color magenta?  Whatever it is, it is beautiful!

glen

Iron Memorials

My beloved Rowenta iron that cost me a small fortune ($225.00 to be exact) the year Katrina hit has died.  Services will be held Saturday December 1, 2012 at the home of Glenda and Frank Parks.  The public is invited to share memories of their beloved irons and share the grief felt by the mourning couple.

"We have never had a more faithful servant," Mr. Parks stated in a taped interview earlier this week.  "My Dockers will never be so well creased again!"

Mrs. Parks agreed, "Yes, that Rowenta was the best friend I ever had.  It kept going and going and going, and never turned off.  Will I ever find a better friend?  My life is so empty feeling right now. And my shirt is so wrinkled, why did it have to leave us now?  Oh, WHY?"

After years of service to the family's clothes, the Rowenta iron will be sent to Iron Heaven where it will have a place of honor among the lesser irons of the Parks' Family.

Post Script:  Another iron has been found to fill the holes in the family's hearts.  A DiLongi Turbo Steam 1800 watt iron, but it will never fill the shoes of the incredible late Rowenta Iron.  It was a thing of beauty and substance.  And never let us down.

Journal covers????

OK.....no takers on the journal covers.......how many out there in Blogland want a tutorial?  They make great stocking stuffers or gifts for quilter friends or co-workers.  They are cheap and fast!  And personal, let's not forget that!

This is not my invention, I found it in a search of journal covers, but I really like the ease of the technique and how it is the best fitting cover I have ever made.  Some of the ones you have to use measurements, that makes them more complicated having to FDA all the figuring.  But this one is lickety split quick.

And you can use way cuter fabric than I did.  I wanted to test it and had an orphaned BQ block that worked nicely for both of my journal books.

I will get the pictures and the info ready for you.    Just let me know.

Meanwhile I have a bones pattern to test and a poinsettia project for the fiber group to invent.  I have been thinking about what to do......I have several ideas. but none of them are wowing me.

What about you guys?  Any ideas for poinsettias  in a 9x12 ish format for an art fiber group?

glen

Journal covers

How many people here in baton rouge want to do journal covers next Tuesday?

I can do a  " you follow along" at the red stick on Tuesday.  If you do come, please buy the fat quarter you use from the shop since we will be using their room.  That way I won't set up a class, with registration and fees.....you know.  Be nice to the shop.


How's that????

Reply here and let me know.

Journal covers are quick easy and fun

glen

Tuesday: Runners and Red Stick

We will be at the Red Stick in Baton Rouge if anyone wants to come by and sew.  We will get there late though, like around lunch or just after.

Yesterday, in amongst all the other stuff I need to be doing, I did get a chance to sew for an hour or so.  I made these!

Table runners!

They were fast and easy and very creative and very very modern.  I patterned them after Ikea and that other one that Carrie is always looking at., (can't remember the name of it right now....)  We have some placemats that look like that orange one almost!

I don't know if you notice it or not, but the right side of the orange runner is a different fabric.  There is a strip of a larger stripe there.  It blended beautifully and would be an incredible combination in a larger modern quilt.

I am doing hand stitching on the orange one, and need to find the beige thread for the squares on the brown one. I love both of these.  I wanted to do these for Christmas presents but they are so hard to give away!

I am actually amazed that the brown stripe one, the only one that is bound and finished, is so square!  My advice to new quilters is to keep plugging at it, experience and patience will turn you into an incredible quilter.  You do get better.

All the Santa CAAWS photos are mailed out.  And I am working on the Volunteer/Membership Party in about 2 weeks.  That reminds me, I need to call AJ.........

OOHHHHH!  and the BEST thing was the Sea Urchin Pinsie Cushion arrived yesterday!
Thanks Karen!  I love it soooo much!  See how it goes perfectly with my tablerunner?

glen

design wall Monday 11-26-12

So I tell Frank that he has only 11 days to make sure he has an Emcee for the CAAWS party on the 13th of Dec.  He panics.  But I am wrong, he has just over 2 weeks, more like 16 days.  Not too bad.  I just wanted to let him know because when he panics the day before and wants me to do it,  I can say not enough time, dear.....sorry.  I really need to prepare anyway, I guess.

Africa or African Women

Southwest

So what I am working on is a combination of things.  I have two quilts prepared for quilting, Southwest and Judy's class she taught, I can't remember the name but I call it Africa.


And I have the Spools that I need to get together, but I can do that on Tuesday at the Red Stick.

I made two journals from the BQ Quilt blocks that were leftover from the two quilts for Dan and Amber (this is a good picture of one of the quilts) were made into journal covers.  A very very very very easy method.  More later when I have a full battery in my camera to take pictures of the process.  One block is so large that it made two books!  And I gave one to Swooze when we met.  I will have to do a post on how to do it, so simple!  Maybe an informal class at the Red Stick!

I am fighting with the tension on the longarm.  I think I got that straight and the stitch regulator is not working.  I spent 2 hours working on the tension issue and finally got that figured out, but not before I #$%@*@  up the tension so that I needed to reset it.  Aughhhh!

You want to know what the problem was?

I bought a pantograph that was 11 inches wide.  My shelf is not, it is more like 8 inches wide.  And the thread trailed along the overhang.  So now I have to cut all my panto rolls down to whatever my shelf width is.  I guess it makes sense, that added a "tension" to the thread as it rolled through the machine.  But I think it was stupid of the machine to react that way.

It could have said, hey, trim the panto and I will work for you.  Instead it threw a hissy fit and set out to give me ulcers.  Stupid machine............

stash report 11-25-12

Groan......did you read the last post?  Swooze made me buy fabric..........

used this week	-0.830
used in Nov	-2.83
added this week	7
Add in Nov	7
Used YTD	-207.83
Added YTD	202
Stash Reduction	-5.83

Still in the black though.........what was used this week was a project for the Fiber Exploration Group.  the theme was "Discharge Something"  and I discharged a nice Michael Miller black and sewed it to some Kangaroo fabric that has been  staring at me for a while.

Nice............Such wonderful creativitiy in this group.  Small, just 6 of us.  But amazing talent.  And me......

glen:  who has nice plans for the fabric I bought. (Frank says.....but don't you ALWAYS??????)

The Best Saturday Ever!

Even though it did not seem like a Saturday with all the holidays going on, it was a pretty good one.


If you want to see what a lot of south Louisiana looks like, here is a nice picture of the Atchafalaya Basin Swamp.  This is where the Mississippi River would be draining if man would not force it into submission down the current path.

I had arranged to meet Swooze (from Mesquite, TX) at a restaurant in Lafayette.  It was fairly equi-distant between the two of us, Baton Rouge and New Iberia, where she was in town visiting with her brother.  She brought along the two most delightful parents you can imagine.  We talked her dad's ears off, so he took solace in Frank's more sedate manner.  (Although if you can withstand the millions of questions Frank fires at you, you are doing well.)

To no avail.....

There's me trying to be serious......

Swooze, her mom and I terrorized the quilt shop after dinner and bought a "few" yards of fabric on a nice 40% discount.  I had never been to this shop so it was good seeing all the people and enjoying their amusement at our antics.  There were some ladies I knew in the classroom so I felt totally at home.

you can see Frank in the reflection!

It was wonderful seeing the face behind the blog and comments and texts.  We were instantly felt a kinship like we had known each other for years!  And Mom and Dad were just great in the mix.

I bought some shot cotton and some homespun type stripes for some table runners and she bought bright and beautiful batiks.  Mom got fabrics for a table runner, blue and red.  I think Dad and Frank slept off the lunch in the car while we shopped.  To their credit, the men were very very patient and didn't complain much.




Here is my haul, when I was friviously purchasing these fabrics I did not once think of my stash report...........


Let's do this again.....I loved seeing that you were taller than me......I gotta keep friends like that!

glen:  and hey, when are you going to post to your blog again......dearie?

Thanksgiving and Winning

I am a WINNER!  A BIG Winner at that!

I won the Sea Urchin Pinsie Pin Cushio from Karen Griska at the Selvage Blog!  I was blown away by the email I received yesterday telling me I had won!  I never expected that.

Check out her pincushions by clicking on the highlighted blog name above.

THEN:::::::::::::::;

I entered a contest at Urban Elementz, the pantograph people at the Houston Quilt Show and won their prize of $50 worth of pantos!  Can't wait to choose those babies!

And then I won big with the Thanksgiving dinner.  I had a table of 7 people and two turkeys cooked to perfection.  There were

Sweet potatoes from the fields of LSU (probably experimental with glow in the dark things in them) and
Rolls from Texas Roadhouse so sweet you didn't need honey
and
Green bean and french fried onion casserole
and
fruit salad
and
Pies in the Mason Jars......they were a huge hit!  Seven people ate 12 mason jars!

And we had wonderful guests........Tiger and Ann and Press and the Daughter and Son in Law

And the bassets did not steal a single turkey leg (because they were relegated to the outside at all times, except for one escapee who snuck inside during the football game)

We had fun, food and laughter with good friends............

but I failed to take but one picture after I already started carving the huge perfect turkey!

glen:  hope yours was a winning day as well.!

Pies in a Mason Jar

This is the cutest, most innovative thing I have seen, well, this season anyway!  (McGee was pretty cute.)  If you want a new and spectacular that is fresh and will give you a big WOW! this is what you need.

I came across this on the Internet four days ago.  After some searching and planning I did a test run of 7 jars.  I tested a can of tart cherries and my tried and true pumpkin pie recipe.  Both did beautifully.    I ate the cherries and they were excellent and the crust was flaky in it's wonderful-ness.  I will share with you the pie crust recipe I used as well.

You need 1/2 pint mason jars, of course.  And they need to be straight sided, the "jar" shape won't allow you to get the darned thing out to eat!  I thought the quilted jars was totally appropriate!!!!!

Then you need basic measuring utensils and these ingredients.

At the last minute I decided to do the crust mixing in the food processor.  Yesterday I did it with the Kitchenaid mixer but couldn't' find my bread dough hook anywhere.  You need to cut up the butter into smaller chunks and add to the dry ingredients.  Pulse a few times to mix it to a cornmeally looking substance.  Then unplug the appliance (for safety always!) and take the dough out, divide in half and refrigerate for 1/2 to 1 hour.

I prepared my jars by spraying some Pam in them, which I did not do the first time and Frank mutilated the pies getting them out of the jars.

Take the dough from the fridge and roll it out thin.  The most time consuming part of the process is putting the dough into the jars.  But take your time and cover the jars well with no holes.

I used the end of the rounded 1/2 teaspoon measure to push the bottom around because my hand would not fit into the glass.  It worked if I was careful.  Smaller hands would do better.

Put your pie fillings into the pie crust filled jars.  Today I used pumpkin, cherry and apple.  Then I used a biscuit cutter and cut a circle to place on top.  Then I got fancy and used a sharp knife to cut a heart in the top (do this before you put it on your filling!)

See how cute?

Put your lids on.  At this point you can put them into the fridge.  Or the freezer.  Or bake immediately.  I put them into the fridge and then baked later in the afternoon.

My helpers appear to be pretending to be nice doggies, but McGee was preparing to chew up my 2011 National Specialty jacket.  That Basset Train is looking mighty close now........


TAKE THE LIDS OFF TO BAKE THEM!

Bake, I used 350 and 50 minutes but I have a convection oven, you may need longer minutes.  Mine auto converts the degrees for me when I ask it to, so 350 is good for you if you have a regular oven.

I thought you needed to see a lot of pictures of the finished products   Are they not wonderful?  And the house smelled so good!

 Look at that perfect heart!

That was supposed to be a pumpkin but it got warped in the oven!

Here is some cherry goodness!

Crust recipe:

2 1/2 c all purpose flour
1 c butter cold
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
6 tablespoons ice water

place dry ingredients in processor bowl and mix.  add butter that has been cut into 1/2 in chunks.  process by pulsing a few times.  You want your butter to be cut into the flour but not come to a ball, it needs to look more like a cornmeal substance.

Add water by tablespoon full until dough is thoroughly wet.

Divide in half, wrap in plastic wrap and put into fridge for about 1 hour.

Roll to your favorite thickness and use......

glen