Mardi Gras Stars!

Remember this little number? I finished this when I got back from teaching in Louisiana in January. I finished quilting and binding it last Thursday evening while in Greenville SC! The sleeve had to wait until Sunday....



















I am getting better at freehanding those baptist fans, thanks to Tonya! I still find it easiest for me to quilt WITH a hoop, although I keep the quilt very LOOSE in the hoop.

I had a couple gals ask me last night at guild meeting what good was the hoop if it was so loose, and all I could think of was that it acts like a 3rd and 4th hand for me.It's easy to turn, easy to prop. Whatever works for you, right? And this works for me. I've never been able to get small stitches with the hoop TIGHT...you have to be able to move the fabric, and tight hoops really make needles bend :c|

My favorite quilting needles? Roxanne size 11, just in case you wanted to know! I also quilt with those cheapy plastic thimbles that have an open top and are adjustible. I don't care if I lose these. I've got some in my purse, my pockets, my car, and in every room of the house,and no doubt some will find their way through the washer and dryer..

That pretty silver thimble that Dave found in the vent before we moved? It's lost again :c| See what I mean? I'm better with the cheapy plastic ones.















I have a confession to make on this quilt. I quilted it from the BACK! Because I was quilting with purple thread and could not for the life of me see where I was going.....I just put it in the hoop with the back side up and I could quilt just fine. In fact,I liked it so much that I'll probably do that again, it was really easy when quilting from the back.

I also completely used up this cutesy little girl/little boy fabric that had been in my stash forever....I think it's cute! I used more of that in charity quilts than I can count because it was donated to me. So now...it's ALL GONE! YAY!!

Mary Jo Musings....

I returned Saturday night from my trip to Greenville SC! We had a great time for the lecture and crumbs workshop. What a hoot it is to try to get people to think outside of their boxes. I bring a big basket of crumbs and scraps with me and as they are sewing along, I'll pull something REALLY LOVELY (**NOT**!!) out of my basket and challenge them to use this piece in their piecing. Some could do it with reckless abandon, and some just could NOT use that piece because it wasn't their color,their style, whatever. But no matter, we had a blast! I've got LOADS of pics to upload. I had friday off, the lecture was thursday, and the workshop was saturday, so a couple of guild members had the job of running me around from museums, historical living farms, and antique malls..not to mention dragging me out to lunch. Thanks ladies, it was SO great!





In return I subjected a couple of my escorts to the wonders of bargain shopping at the goodwill clearance center in Greenville! Yes, there is one there, $1.00 a pound for anything on the tables! Whooowhooo! Eyes were opened that once were closed!

The night before I left home to go to Greenville, I mapquested my route so I would know the best way to get there. Imagine my surprise when I saw it was I-85 all the way! Oh goodness! Lookee there! I-85 goes right through Charlotte and GASTONIA....and WHAT is in Gastonia, pray tell? Why....the fantastic fabulous MARY JO'S CLOTH WORLD of course!

Those of you who have never been there, never fear, I took pics :c) they don't capture it all, that's for sure, but this should give you an idea. Those who haven't been there in a long time can see how there is deconstruction and reconstruction going on all around, but Mary Jo's has put their foot down and is staying put in the midst of it all!





The front door used to take you in the mall entrance, and then there was another entrance to get into the store in the inside of the Mall. No more. The mall is GONE...and they have moved the entrance into the side of the building so you go directly into the store.

I love just walking through and seeing all the quilting fabrics arranged by color, or type, look at all these STRIPES in a row...a total rainbow!


Towards the back of the store are the reproductions. Notice the sign? We are really high tech here....stenciled letters on butcher paper :c)

I didn't have a lot of time, so I headed to the fat quarter table, and then to the remnant bins. I was there for maybe 20 minutes, but still managed to rack up a $70 bill...acckkkk!

This is all I'll post for now...tomorrow, hopefully I'll get to some more!

Dimensions of a Fat 1/8??

Yes, I'm still writing pattern info. It's really difficult to explain that Scraps mean Scraps, so I'm having to write some stuff using Fat 1/8ths because Fat Quarters are too big. What are the dimensions of a fat 1/8??? When you cut a fat quarter in half to get a fat 1/8 do you cut it the long way, or the across way?


*ADDENDUM* (or should that be ADDEND-DUMB!!!) A Fat Eighth (why does that look like it has one too many h's in it?!) is 9"X22". Thank you to those who answered so quickly! I knew I could count on you... :c)

I just didn't know if it was going to be 9"X22" or 11"X18". You can tell I've never bought Fat Eighths....or if I had, I probably wouldn't care about the exact dimensions anyway!

Carry On, Quilt On!

The Mystery Is Solved!

This is Step 6 of the Orange Crush Mystery......come sew and play!

My original plan was to use plain borders, but you know what? I had extra split four patch units! I'd been building more as leaders and enders and I thought it would be fun to use them in the border.


I also cleared out a bunch of red fabrics with a barnyard theme from the "get rid of it NOW" stash! I've got hoffman chickens and turkeys, (does the fact that it's 'hoffman' make it any LESS ugly?*LOL*)I've got cows jumping over moons (And I'm happy to say that other than scraps, this fabric is now ALL gone!) and I've got a 1990's vintage ducks and cattails! The best part is that they are now OUT of the stash. Hallelujia!

I've just got the binding left to do...more orange for the binding..whoowhoo!

I'm headed to Greenville SC tomorrow for a lecture/trunkshow and a workshop there. I'll be home Saturday night if I can get out of there in good time to make it home that evening.

I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the huge group hug regarding Heather's birthday. It means more than you can know. Thank you all.

In Remembrance...

Some Days are harder than others. Some years this day goes by without much tugging on my heart, but this year the tugging is quite strong. and here I was just telling a friend about how well I was doing, considering what day it is. I think that planted the thought in my head, and it has stewed..just like a song that keeps playing over and over, when you don't want it there.

26 years ago today my daughter Heather was born. She had severe complications, and spent the short 2 1/2 weeks of her little life in the NICU. We never got to bring her home. I was a young mother then, only 20 years old. But life has a way of teaching us valuable lessons, even at an early age.



Today I am missing her very much. My friend Randy told me how she used to light Yahrzeit candles to remember her brother, and I have a candle burning today in remembrance of my sweet angel. The writing on the candle holder means "in remembrance".




Funny, if she had lived she would be 26, heading up to 30,but forever in my mind she is a little 6 pound bundle of wonder even with all she had to bear in such a short time. I learned what it was like to feel life growing within my womb with her. She was the first one who grew beneath my heart. That will always be special to me. I have memories of the wonder I felt at her little hiccups before she was born, all the movements and flutters across my belly. I remember her. I love her. I miss her.

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl..
Mama.

Strings in the Border!

I have had such a great time with Charlotte visiting! Her hubby dropped her off yesterday about lunch time, and we set up machines right away and started sewing.

I quilted on a customer quilt while she worked on her Orange Crush! When I was finished with the long arm, I was able to sit with a basket of strings and mindlessly piece for the evening.

Today after she left, I toyed with these blocks, which had no purpose really, and decided to use them for the border! I'd used string blocks for a border before on my fabric food chain quilt, and I like how they play on the outside of this orphan quilt.

Again, Chloe knew just when to plant herself in the middle of it! (She is still there as I type this...)

It's been a great weekend and I'm raring and ready to tackle the work week come tomorrow morning :c)

Orphan Party!

I finally decided to tackle the orphan block bin, and start organizing it by block size, instead of it being a jumbled up mess. I thought if I put things by SIZE, you know...8" blocks, 9" blocks, 6" blocks, etc...I might find a purpose for them.

Well, you can't sort blocks without playing with them a bit! And you can't lay things out without just "STARTING" to sew them together, can you?

I can't!

So I have two little orphan tops. Not too big, not too small. One is 8" blocks surrounded by 6" blocks. The other is 9" blocks surrounded by a scrappy 9 patch border, all the 9 patches were left from my zigzag 9 patch quilt, and I used other 4.5" blocks in the corners to finish it off.

FUN! I may add a border to the one with the 6" blocks around the outside....but I don't want it to get TOO big! These two tops cleared out a lot of orphans, and I can move stuff around in that box without too much effort now. I think these will be cute as table toppers, or over the back of a chair or something. The one with the 6" blocks on the outside is DEFINITELY going to be needing a tea bath. That muslin is just too stark for my liking!

You can also see that Chloe is taking her new job of studio cat very seriously! She has really turned into a lover. I was worried about her a bit, but learned that her meowing and meowing is her way of talking, not expressing necessarily her discontent. I knew she had accepted me when she would flop over at my feet and roll belly up for me to scratch her tummy. Do you hear that Tonya? I've got a kittie who gives bellies, just like Pokey! :cD

Chloe and the other kitties are now expressing DISINTEREST in each other. No more hissing, just lots of "I can ignore you better than you can ignore me!"

This morning I had to take our grey tabby girl, Emmy, to the vet...she's got some kind of abscess on her back by her hip. Hopefully some antibiotics will clear that up. I like this vet....they allow us "drop off" visits, so we just drop her off, and pick her up later. I don't have to wait in the room the whole time with her, watching them drain that thing.. :c)

Charlotte and her hubby Jerry are on their way over here, I better get the studio ready so we can SEW SEW SEW this weekend!

Better than a Snake!

I am laughing at the comments and emails from people saying they are not wanting to come visit my blog until I put something new on top of the snake skin pictures!

So here you have it! My new Singer hand crank! I just looked up the date and it was born in 1941!

I found her at an antique mall in Winston Salem that I hadn't ever stopped at before. Price? $85.00 I stewed about it for a while, wandered around the mall, came back..yep, still there. Took the cover off again, turned the crank (It turns SO smooth!) put the cover back on, and bought it.

I wanted a functional hand crank machine. I have one that is very old, and just decorative for me, but not working. This one, I think will work! I have yet to thread her up yet and give her a go. Makes me wish I were left handed because I'm not sure how I'm going to do cranking with one hand and guiding the fabric with the other!

I thought the decals were interesting, and she has a beautiful face plate!

I had a wonderful trip up to Lake Gaston, NC where I did a lecture/trunkshow for the guild up there on Wednesday. I stopped at an antique mall on my drive up there as well, and found the wooden antique ironing board that I have been looking for..in a both with a 20% off sign on everything! The board was only marked $7.50! I've seen them marked at $37.50 before, so this was amazing, and of course, I got 20% off of that as well. Not sure where I'm going to put it yet.

My friend Charlotte is coming to spend the weekend. She will be my first house guest since moving here! She will be here about lunch time on Saturday and stay til Sunday afternoon. I wonder what kind of quilty fun we can get up to?

More Snakes In The Ceiling!!

GROSS!! This is just SO GROSS! IIIICKKKKKKKKKKK!!!

We found one snake skin in the ceiling in February when we first moved in....we were locating the tv cables that run through the space between the floor above, the insulation, and the dropped ceiling tiles here in my studio room.

Well, today's project was to replace some of the broken and worn ceiling tiles now that the studio lights have been installed (The light in here is WONDERFUL now!)and as we moved one aside to slide it out....ewwwwwwwwwww!



This one is bigger than the first! Does it belong to the same snake? Is it still in there somewhere?

Snakes are good for getting rid of MICE right? This whole thing just creeps me out, but I guess this is what I get for moving to the country....I now have nightmares of a snake slithering himself down through the heater vent hanging above my sewing machine..*LOL*

So how are you spending your memorial day? Are you going anywhere? We are NOT. If they double the price of gas, we are going to drive half as much. There is no other way around it. I have no desire to get in my car and go anywhere. I swear, that pink scooter may be closer in my future than I originally thought! (Can you see me....driving up the road to put a gallon of milk in the bucket on the back?!) I just don't want to DRIVE anywhere. Another reason for me to consider that it was great that we moved to NC when we did and I left my massage practice behind. If you figure the gas, I would be taking a huge cut in pay to keep working there, and I'd rather be quilting. I'd rather be home. I really would.

Today I am finishing the borders on Orange Crush! My goal is to finish the quilt (even if it's just the quilt TOP..no time to quilt it now, or so I think) and put up the directions for part 6 as soon as I have everything together. I really like how the borders turned out! :cD (just don't think about the snakes Bonnie, just don't let your mind GO THERE....)

It's a beautiful day, and I am considering chicken on the grill for dinner, eating out on our picnic table in the grove...and just being HOMEBODIES.

Orange Crush And Pecan Cheesecake Pie!

I finished writing the directions for Step 5 of the Orange Crush Mystery!


Today we enjoyed going to the matinee movie and seeing Indiana Jones! Harrison Ford just keeps getting better and better! I loved this movie, as much as I loved those done 20 years ago. If you are a Harrison fan, run, don't walk...you won't be sorry!

And for a special treat, here is the recipe you've been asking for! All credit for this treat goes to Mary who served this at the sewing day at her house yesterday. I have to tell you though...the first time I saw it, it already had a HUGE wedge missing...seems her DH was home for the day as well. Quilters upstairs? Pie left alone in the kitchen? You put two and two together! :cD

Mary's Pecan Cheesecake Pie

Ingredients

1/2 (15-oz.) package refrigerated piecrusts
1 (8-oz.) package cream cheese, softened
4 large eggs, divided
3/4 cup sugar, divided
2 teaspoons vanilla extract, divided
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cups chopped pecans
1 cup light corn syrup
Preparation
1. Fit pie crust into a 9-inch pie plate according to package directions. Fold edges under, and crimp.

2. Beat cream cheese, 1 egg, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, and salt at medium speed with an electric mixer until smooth. Pour cream cheese mixture into piecrust; sprinkle evenly with chopped pecans.

3. Whisk together corn syrup and remaining 3 eggs, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1 tsp. vanilla; pour mixture over pecans. Place pie on a baking sheet.

4. Bake at 350° on lowest oven rack 50 to 55 minutes or until pie is set. Cool on a wire rack 1 hour or until completely cool. Serve immediately, or cover and chill up to 2 days.