Quilter's Stimulus Package Give-A-Way

Elaine of Faithful Quilter: Elaine's Journey, is featuring another Quilter's Stimulus Package Give-A-Way. If you would like to enter, visit Elaine's blog to see how you can enter. But hurry. You only have until August 10th to enter.

Good Luck!

Today's Adventure

Rather than spend my morning in my sewing room working on my getting my musical angels quilt ready for quilting, I spent it at our local Department of Licensing office. Ugh! I don’t know why I put off going in until the last minute. I suppose it has to do with the fact it is one of my least favorite places to go; second only to going to the dentist’s office.

I’m sure most of the DOL offices are similar to ours. There’s never enough employees to service the people and if you aren’t there as soon as the door opens, your wait could be a couple of hours. And while you wait, if you’re lucky enough to have a chair to sit in, you’re squeezed in like sardines, literally shoulder to shoulder, hoping and praying your number comes up quickly. Of course they have a couple different series of numbers going at the same time and when they call a number you have to run up to the window quickly or else they’ll go to the next number and you'll have to pull another number. (I’ve seen it happen.)

Well, I was delayed in leaving the house and by the time I arrived the office had been open for about 25 minutes. I’m not sure why, but at every DOL office I’ve seen, they have very limited parking and our office doesn’t allow parking on the neighboring streets. I had to circle the parking lot before I could find a parking space. When I walked up the steps and reached to open the door, a little old lady walked up too and as I held the door open for her, I noticed there were at least 50 people waiting. Needless to say, the little old lady got to the number machine first and as I pushed the button for renewing my license I was praying I would get a low number. The little old lady was given number 14 while I was given number 15. They were on number 3. I should have ignored the little old lady and marched on in, and then I would have been the one holding number 14. Hey, it would have saved me about 20 minutes!

After standing for about ten minutes, a seat opened up and I sat down between the little old lady to my right and a young man on my left. I had brought a book with me, anticipating I would have a lengthy wait ahead of me, but every time I started to read my story someone would interrupt me. I travel for business all the time and can be reviewing project data and contracts while waiting for my flight and someone will invariably start talking to me. Well, I digress… The little old lady to my right began telling me how her husband had gone to the courthouse and while he was going through security one of the security officers stole his expensive pen and she didn't trust our local government officials. I couldn’t quite understand what the young man on my left was trying to say because he spoke with a very heavy Mexican accent. This went on for almost two hours and once my number was called it took me five minutes to pay for my license renewal and take my picture.

I think next year I’m going to renew my license on-line and avoid getting to know my neighbors.

Musical Angels Quilt Sandwich

I'm ashamed to admit that I have not done a lot of sewing / quilting lately because it has been just too hot. For the last week or so our daily temperatures have been in the high 90's and low 100's, but with the high humidity, these temperatures are even higher! For the Pacific Northwest, this is very unusual. I don't consider myself a wimp, but I found myself whining every day, wishing for cooler temperatures.

The temperatures were much cooler this morning and I took advantage of it and began working on creating a quilt sandwich with my musical angels quilt. At this phase of your quilt, it is important to prepare your quilt correctly or you run the risk of ruining your quilt and watching your hard work disintegrate before your eyes. I don't think there is any quilter out there who hasn't made mistakes. Even experienced quilters. We all have our favorite ways to create a quilt sandwich and I'm going to take you through mine.

My first step is to iron my quilt top and backing. I prefer not to use steam during this process because steam adds moisture to the fabric which can result in distortion during handling. With my iron set at cotton/linen, I begin to press the quilt top and backing.

Next I find the width and length center of my backing by folding it in half lengthwise and marking with a glass head pin on all sides. I repeat for locating the center of the width.

For this quilt's backing, I chose to use a pin on each side of the center back because it happened to be at a seam.

I've marked the center on my cutting table using a piece of painter's tape. By matching the centerback of my quilt backing with this mark, I will ensure my quilt top is centered on the back and batting. There is nothing more frustrating than to get everything laid out only to discover you're too short on one side and have to start over again.

Here is the backing centered on to my cutting table.

I use 1" binder clips to hold the backing on to my table. This will ensure the backing is taut and remains centered. You want your backing taut so you don't have bubbles after you've finished your quilting. Although it is taut, you don't want to stretch and distort your backing.



Using the same process, I've added the batting to the backing. I know some people pre-wash their batting, but I choose not to because I like the antique/vintage appearance it has after washing.

Before I add my top I've double-checked to ensure all of my seams are pressed in the proper direction and loose threads have been cut.

Here is the quilt sandwich with the top added.

I still need to pin it, but I've made some progress and am a few steps closer to getting it quilted and passed on to my granddaughter.

Friendship Bag Swap

One of the authors of a blog, Tonya's Sewing Room, I follow featured a fun swap and I thought it would be exciting to participate. The swap is titled Friendship Bag Swap and each participant will make a bag to send to one of the other participants while receiving a bag from someone else. Sound like fun? Go to the Quilt Gallery site to learn more about the Friendship Bag Swap. Maybe we’ll be making friendship bags for each other.

I Received A Gift

Our youngest daughter, Katie, and grandson, Elijah, came to visit with us a couple of days ago. We had a wonderful visit. Usually, the first thing Elijah does when he comes into the house is to run to our bedroom looking for Papa's licorice. He loves licorice. Black. Red. It doesn't matter. Licorice is licorice.

Elijah attends pre-school while his mom is at school or work and he made me something special while at school the other day.

It's a beautiful butterfly! I have placed it in my sewing room so I can look at it while I am working on a project and think of Elijah.

We went to the river to cool off. Elijah loves the water. He found a log to jump off of while someone was there to catch him as he hit the water. He thought that was great. He also loves to throw the rocks except him and Papa go to war when he throws them around our antique cars... but that's for another day. LOL

Isn't being a grandparent wonderful?

The ABC's of Me

I came across this little game on one of the blogs, Tonya's Sewing Room, that I regularly follow and thought it would be fun to feature on mine. It's called the ABC's of Me where I divulge a little bit about myself for each letter of the alphabet.

ABC’S OF ME
A – Age - 48
B – Bed Size – Queen
C – Chore you hate – After raising boys, I hate cleaning bathrooms.
D – Dog’s name – We have two dogs, Boris and Chica.
E – Essential “start your day” item – The first thing I do in the morning is take a shower. It’s the only thing that seems to wake me up! LOL
F – Favorite color – If I have to pick a color, it’d be raspberry.
G – Gold or silver? – Definitely gold
H – Height – I’ve been 5’ 7” since I was in 5th grade.
I – Instruments you play – I played the flute all through school and taught myself how to play the guitar well enough to play Stairway To Heaven when I was younger.
J – Job title – Currently I’m not working but when I am my title changes within the project controls area.
K – Kids – I have six children, three boys and three girls.
L – Living arrangements – I live in a rural area where the garages/shops are larger than the houses with my husband, two goats, one cat, and two dogs.
M – Mom’s name – My mother’s name was Joane. To be unique she added the ‘e’ at the end of her name.
N – Nicknames – Mom, Grandma, Nana, Dear, Honey, Aunt D
O – Overnight hospital stays (except when giving birth) – I’ve had to stay in the hospital a few times but the most recent time was in last December when I fell on black ice and broke my ankle. I now have ten screws, three pins, and a couple of plates holding it together.
P – Pet peeve – I hate when people who don’t do things for themselves and instead rely on everyone else.
Q – Quote from a movie – From Harry Met Sally, when Rob Reiner’s mother says “I’ll have what she’s having.” One of the funniest moments I can remember in movie history.
R – Right or left handed – I’m a lefty
S – Siblings – I’m the second oldest from a large family. I have eight sisters and two brothers.
T – Time you wake up – I’m up at 4:00am most mornings. In fact, I have this internal clock that works overtime and into the weekends.
U – Underwear – Yep, I got some of them.
V – Vegetable you dislike – I absolutely hate okra and garbanzo beans! Okra is like eating slugs…
W – Workout style – Before I moved to the Skagit Valley area I would go to the gym every day. I’ve wanted to restart my routine, but work always seems to get in the way. Since I broke my ankle my physical activity is very limited. Once I return to work where I’m working up to seventeen hours a day, it’ll be difficult to find the time or energy to go back to the gym.
X – X-rays you’ve had – I’ve had a few, but the most recent has been on my ankle every time I went in to see my orthopedic surgeon.
Y – Yesterday’s best moments – With our temperature reaching 104°F yesterday, the best moment was when my husband and I went to a local casino where there was air conditioning. Relief!
Z – Zoo favorites – Anything but the snakes!

Black/Fuchsia/Turquoise/Purple To-Die-For Pumps

Have you ever had something happen to you that is so funny, that even you couldn’t stop laughing? Yeah, me too. I thought I’d share my funny story with you today.

I had a suit that I loved to wear to work. It was an electric purple a-line skirt with a form fitting blazer in the same color in medium weight rayon. I always wore my fuchsia silk blouse with it and this day was no exception. I also had these black/fuchsia/turquoise/purple to-die-for pumps with 5-inch spike heels and with black stockings, I looked good! Hah!

On this particular day I was dressed to the hilt, thinking I looked great. Never mind that I was driving an Aerostar van. I was driving home from work, turned into our driveway which was at a pretty steep incline. I went to step out of the van when all of a sudden my face was meeting the concrete of our driveway and my hands were the only thing preventing me from becoming intimate with the concrete. As hard as I tried, I could not get upright from this position. So I’m frantically searching to find out why I can’t get out of this position and learned the heel of my black/fuchsia/turquoise/purple to-die-for pumps was stuck in the door seam. With my butt up in the air and my hands still holding me from collapsing on the concrete, I’m feverishly shaking my leg to try to get me heel out of the door seam. And in the background I can hear someone hysterically laughing, but I couldn’t tell who because my movement was limited. You’d think this person would have offered to help me, but they were having too much fun watching me squirm in an attempt to get out of this predicament.

It becomes obvious to me that I’m on my own and as I continue to shake and pull my leg I can’t get my foot out of my black/fuchsia/turquoise/purple to-die-for pump! My shaking and pulling did do one thing; it caused the door to swing closed on me and bumping me in the head. Even that didn’t dislodge my foot. And the laughter continued!

After what seemed like 15 minutes or more but was probably more like 5 minutes, I was able to get my foot out of my black/fuchsia/turquoise/purple to-die-for pump. With a little tugging and twisting I did get my black/fuchsia/turquoise/purple to-die-for pump out of the door seam and as I limp with pump in hand to my front door my oldest son comes running out to greet me, asking how my day was. All I could do was grunt as I could feel the holes appearing in my brand new black stockings with each step.

I did finally learn where the laughing came from when my neighbor from across the street was visiting one day. She hesitantly told me a tale of her husband, Denis, working in their back yard one afternoon when I pulled into our driveway. He told her he had gone to put some brush in his pile when he happened to see my butt sticking up in the air. Upon further investigation he said he could see me struggling to get my heel from being stuck. When she asked him why he hadn’t offered to help me his response was he was laughing so hard he couldn’t stop long enough to walk across the street to help me.

Yeah, I loved wearing my electric purple suit, fuchsia silk blouse, and black/fuchsia/turquoise/purple to‑die-for pumps. But I haven’t worn the pumps since because I can’t get the image of me bent over with my butt up in the air as I tried to get my heel out of the door seam out of my mind.

Metamorphosis Is Complete

A couple of weeks ago, I posted a picture of some scraps on my cutting table in a pile. Originally, I had hoped to complete its transformation to enlighten you of its identity. But, life seemed to get in the way and I was delayed a bit. As of last night, this...

Metamorphosized into this...

What is it? Well, this is the backing to my musical angels quilt I'm doing for my two year old granddaughter, Brielle. I still need to press it, as well as the quilt front, before I can make my quilt sandwich. But it sure feels good to complete another milestone. If you're interested in seeing the front of the quilt, on the left side of this page is a list of headings in my blog, click on Musical Angels Quilt and you'll see some shots of the completed top.

Hand Embroidery and A Giveaway

When I was a little girl, I can remember my mother doing hand embroidery and crochet all the time. She would embroider pillowcases and other linens. After she embroidered her designs she would finish the item with a pretty crocheted trim in pretty colors.

My mother died when I was eight years old. After her death I taught myself how to hand embroider. I must have watched her embroider many, many pillowcases and linens because I taught myself from memory. I must have stitched-out a thousand little daisies and leaves accented with even more French knots. Maybe I felt closer to my mother while I was stitching, I’m not sure. But I know I continue to get deep satisfaction whenever I do embroidery, sewing or quilting. Something I’m positive my mother and I shared.

Now for the Giveaway! A friend of mine is sponsoring a Giveaway on her blog. She has two prize packages she’s offering. Visit her blog to learn more and to read about her and her favorite things.

Modern Technology

I'm so far behind on my sewing projects, reading other's blogs, and in updating my blog as I feel as though I'll never catch-up. Three of my grand kids have been visiting with us for the last month and I haven't had a lot of free time. I've had a moment here, a moment there to sneak in a few minutes on the computer and I find that is not enough time to read my emails, some of my favorite blogs, or to throw out a few words for my own blog.

I love browsing the internet, reading blogs, and corresponding with friends over the internet. Isn't technology wonderful? I find it amazing how we can touch each other's lives without ever meeting face to face. Whether we are drawn together by a common hobby or life experience, we all have the ability to become a strong influence in someone else's life. How awesome is that? I've seen amazing advancement in technology through the years.

Years ago, while in college I can remember typing term papers on a manual typewriter. At the time, correction fluid had not been invented yet and if you made an error you had to use an eraser pencil. Sounds good, right? NOT! These erasers would wear a hole right through the paper while smearing the typewriter ink if you were not careful. And don’t even make an error while you were typing a term paper because you would have to start all over again. So come back in time with me for a moment…

I’m working on a term paper for my Anthropology class. The subject is the effect the changes in our environment has on the rain forest, minimum 25 pages, typed, and single spaced. I have one week to complete my research, compile my notes, hand-write a rough draft, edit, and type final draft for submission to my professor.

Item 1 – Go to the library and select a couple of books for gathering reference material for paper. Remember, the internet didn’t exist so I couldn’t search for data on Google.

Item 2 – Read books and compile handwritten notes. Again, no PC so I couldn’t just type points of interest into an outline. Everything had to be handwritten.

Item 3 – Prepare handwritten outline and edit. See comment above.

Item 4 – Prepare handwritten term paper and edit for final draft. See comment for Item 2.

Item 5 – Once the final draft is perfect, type out title page, outline, index, term paper, and bibliography according to professor’s specifications… very carefully. If an error occurs, attempt to correct using an eraser pencil. If eraser creates a hole in the paper or smears the ink, pull-out paper and start over, being careful to not make another error.

Item 6 – Proofread term paper for grammar, content, and format. If an error occurred, attempt to correct. If correction made error more noticeable, retype paper. Hopefully, the error is small enough and only the page the error occurred on needs to be retyped. Otherwise, retype term paper.

Item 7 – Turn in term paper and pray you caught everything. Remember, no computer, no spell or grammar check, no print preview, no special effect features. Everything is manual Even making Xerox copies was different from today.

In real life, I was up until sometime after 1:00 am the day the term paper was due editing and typing. Although today’s technology would have made it easier to complete my task, the fact that I was carrying a 20 credit load with labs, working 40 hours a week, and raising 2 small children plus a husband at the time was probably a bigger hindrance to my progress. But just imagine the time I would have saved had I had access to a PC and the internet.

So, when I complain about not having enough time to write a few lines on my blog, or some other task, I just remind myself how grueling a task it would have been when I was younger and we didn’t have computers, we had terminals; we didn’t have computerized sewing machines with automatic buttonholes, we had all metal sewing machines with a buttonhole attachment that shook the entire house when in operation; we didn’t have the internet, we had a neighborhood library system we could check books out of; and finally, we didn’t have the electronic social groups for meeting people in other states or countries while building lasting friendships with, we had the local PTA, YMCA, church or other local community center were we met people who resided in the same town and we could build lasting friendships with.

Isn’t modern technology mind boggling?

100th Post Giveaway

Visit Green Fairy Quilts Blog to learn about her 100th post giveaway. She has some wonderful prizes for four lucky visitors. While you're there, read about their charity work:

http://www.greenfairyquilts.blogspot.com/

Busy Weekend - Fireworks

I love holidays. For me, it is family time and the Fourth of July is no exception. As my children were growing up we always had a huge celebration. It seemed to always include a large BBQ with a huge assortment of food shared with family and friends, followed by the grand finale... tons of fireworks. I would set-up a large banquet table outside where the fireworks would sit until after dark. It would soon turn into a neighborhood display that would last over 30 minutes. Today, our traditional celebration usually includes two separate events.

It begins on July 3rd. We have friends who have a house on Big Lake and every year the fire department sponsors a huge fireworks display on the lake, the day before the 4th. The kids spend the day swimming in the lake while the adults visit. Often times, we also cruise the lake in our friend's boat until BBQ time. When it begins to turn dark, everyone sits along the shoreline of the lake in anticipation of the firework show. In the meantime, we continue to visit while watching the individual fireworks.

This year I had to sit at a picnic table because of my ankle. But I was able to get some decent pictures to share with you:

The only downside to the day was my sunburn. When I say I am lobster red, I mean I am literally lobster red... my face, arms, back of my hands, shoulders, knees, back of my neck. Lobster Red! I've never been so sunburned in my life. It's going to take awhile for me to recover, but we all had fun. I'll just remember next year to remain covered, regardless of the heat.

My contribution to our BBQ was a fruit salad with a lemon cream cheese dip. I thought I'd share this recipe with you:

Fruit Salad with Lemon Cream Cheese Dip

3 oz cream cheese, room temperature
1/4 cup lemon curd
1 honey dew melon, peeled and sliced
1 cantaloupe, peeled and sliced
4 kiwi fruit, peeled and sliced
2 cups strawberries, hulled
2 cups red grapes

In small bowl, wisk cream cheese and lemon curd until smooth. Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes. Arrange fruit on platter and serve with lemon cream cheese dip.

Our second event occurs on the 4th. We love going to the races and our favorite racetrack is Evergreen Speedway located at the Monroe Fairgrounds. They have figure eight races featuring cars and buses hauling boats that are hilarious. Most of the time the boats are larger than the car resulting in the boats controlling where the cars go during the race rather than the other way around. They also have races featuring school buses as well as a school bus jump. They set up several RVs, campers, and cars stretching several feet which a school bus attempts to jump over. The kid’s favorite part is when fire shoots up in the air during the jump. Prior to their massive fireworks display they hold a demolition derby which always entertains the crowd.

In my opinion, the fireworks display at Evergreen Raceway is the best in our area and I'm saddened that I was unable to get pictures of it. I had forgotten to recharge the battery for my digital camera. But we had lots of fun sharing the day with our grand kids.

These are memories I'm confident our grandchildren will remember them, always.

What Is This?

It's alive! It just showed up on my cutting table the other day and it's continuing to grow... and changing by the minute. Should I be afraid? I wonder what it is? Hmmmm.....

Where Has The Time Gone?

It appears I've been absent from my blog. I have a good excuse, really. My grand kids have been visiting for the last couple of weeks. Joseph is 14 yrs old, Chuckie is 11 yrs old, and Brielle is 2 yrs old. The two older boys pretty much take care of themselves but Brielle is another story. When my kids were growing up I had a schedule that I strictly adhered to. We were up at the same time every day, ate breakfast, got dressed, and started our day. Nap time was immediately following lunch and lasted about 30 minutes. Our evening routine was simple. My husband worked swing shift so the kids and I were always on our own for dinner. Either I would cook dinner or we would pack a picnic and go to the park or down to the waterfront for the evening. I learned early that bedtime was always easier if the kids got fresh air beforehand. Living in Tacoma we had several nice parks to choose from. Often times we would go to Pt. Defiance, Puget Sound Park, or Jefferson Park. The kids loved it. If we didn’t go the park, we would load up the van, often with extra kids, and go down to the waterfront where the kids could roller skate or run along the walk way. This is a five mile stretch along the water and by the time we left the kids was exhausted. When we got back to the house, it was bath time followed by quiet time before going to bed. Quiet time always consisted of reading a book or watching something on television. Brielle doesn’t have a schedule, other than her own. Her parents work odd hours making it difficult to adhere to a strict schedule. Her mother works nights and her father works three jobs with hours stretched between 8:00am and midnight. Consequently, Brielle doesn’t go down for the night until the early morning hours and sleeps until noon. This is a huge conflict to our schedule. We’re up at 4:00am and usually in bed around 8:00pm. Aside from the odd schedule, their visit has been wonderful. We’ve baked bread, cookies, and blueberry muffins. We’ve had lots of strawberry shortcake and BBQs. We canned 20 pints of strawberry jam. They’ve enjoyed water fights, played with distant cousins, and visited with their friends up here.

Isn’t she adorable? Who would imagine someone so innocent looking could create so much havoc to our daily lives?




Brielle has helped her grandpa mow the yard, feed the goats, and take care of the dogs and cat.

She even got to help her older brothers wash the cars. And I think we’ve all had our fill of watching Tigger and Pooh and A Musical Too, Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, and Chip and Dale movies.

But at the end of the day, we have learned to appreciate our quiet life even more than before the invasion.

Even if they all fall asleep in the family room instead of going to their rooms… Life is good.

Then morning arrives and it begins all over again. I love being a grandma!

100th Post Giveaway

One of the blogs I follow is having a 100th post giveaway. It's a great prize of 14 FQs, 2 templates, electric scissors, a picture frame, rick-rack, and metalic gold ribbon. Visit her blog to learn more: http://tonyassewingroom.blogspot.com/2009/06/100th-post-giveaway.html

Strawberry Shortcake

I live in a small farming community and our crops are delayed this season because of the extended cold and wet weather we experienced this year. But in the last few weeks the field activity has increased and we now have several stands scattered throughout the area filled with freshly picked strawberries.

If you’ve ever tasted food freshly picked from your garden then you can understand my enthusiasm. My husband lives for this time of the year. One of his favorites is fresh strawberry shortcake. He believes strawberry shortcake was created for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. I’ve tried to explain to him nutrition, but he states strawberry shortcake contains all of the necessary nutrients for his existence: dairy and fruit. It’s hard to argue with his logic since it does contain eggs, cream, butter, and fresh strawberries. But this is a man who lives for the holidays when his mother makes him egg nog pie and I bake him pumpkin pie.

Have you ever watched the Cosby Show starring Bill Cosby? Cliff Huxtable has a weakness for subway sandwiches and greasy chips washed down with soda drank from a 2-liter bottle. The sandwich mimics something you’d see Dagwood from the Blondie comic strip eat. But as he prepares to eat this subway sandwich, which is forbidden by his wife Claire Huxtable, pure enjoyment is displayed in his facial expression. That is my husband eating strawberry shortcake, egg nog pie, and pumpkin pie.

How can I keep him from such pure pleasure? It would be like him trying to keep me from fabric.

Brand New Day!

Don't you just love the start of a new day? I do! It is God's way of giving us the opportunity to start anew. Leave our 'baggage' behind and take a new path with a fresh perspective on life. I like the analogy of comparing a brand new day with freshly fallen snow.

The snow lands delicately onto the ground covering everything in its path. Not a blemish in sight. If you take a deep breath, the air is cool as it fills your lungs and everything smells cleans. And only after you have taken a step as you build a new path does a definitive direction appear. Of course, as you change directions the whiteness of the snow begins to change color and you begin to see the hidden ground, or the results of your path underneath each step. You can always change direction as you’re walking, but the path you left behind will always remain… until the overnight snowfall covers it up so a new path can be formed.

So, today is my Brand New Day where I have awakened to admire the freshly fallen snow and have chosen a new path, leaving yesterday’s path behind. Sometimes, I may have to close my eyes as I take a couple of deep breaths before putting one foot in front of the other, but I know I will have the power to face the day with renewed energy and courage, regardless of my path from yesterday.

With this, I am going to work in my sewing room today. Initially, I plan to work on piecing the backing of my musical angels quilt. But if by chance I work on one of my other sewing or quilting projects, I know I will approach the change with a positive, enthusiastic approach.

No Time For Sewing

This week has been busy and it looks as though I will be even busier as I move into the next couple of weeks.

This week has been doctor appointments and doing things for a friend. Next week I'm toddler proofing my house as three of my grandchildren are coming for a visit. One of them is my 2 year old granddaughter. I also have several family obligations the next two weeks because my sister-in-law and her family will be visiting from Utah. The following week I have a wedding to attend, with three grand kids. So I've been busy cleaning house and synchronizing the family schedule all week. I just don't have the energy.

What do you do when you hit a rut like this? Do you have a trick that energizes you and gets you in the mood?

White vs Bright Pink Icing

This weekend has not been as productive as I would have liked. I had wanted to sew all weekend. Maybe it was the hot temperatures we had last week. Or, maybe it was the overcast sky that began to roll in Friday evening. For whatever reason I just didn't have the energy to go into my sewing room and put thread to fabric. Instead, I spent yesterday at a three year old's birthday party.

Some very good friends of ours granddaughter celebrated her third birthday. Children are always so excited about birthdays. I think they begin the countdown to their next birthday the day after this year's birthday. The adults are always busy preparing for the party to make sure everything is perfect, but the guest of honor is interested in three things: Who's coming, how many presents, and what kind of cake and ice cream are we having. At the age of three, I believe their only concern is the cake, ice cream, and presents. Not necessarily in that order.

As I was getting dressed I made the decision to wear my brand new white pants and a raspberry knit top. My only defense is I must have been in a daze from the cloud cover outside. I wasn't thinking. Anyone who has spent any time with three year olds knows they do not get along with white. White anything.

We arrived at our friend's house and the guest of honor, Jasmine, and I spent time playing with the balloons. We talked about their colors while we tossed them in the air. When we weren't tossing the balloons, we were outside talking and/or playing. Everything was going great. We had a nice BBQ with great conversation. Jasmine opened her gifts while modeling her presents for Nana to take the pictures and I was keeping the gifts and wrapping paper separate and orderly. Then came the cake. Jasmine's cake had Tinker Bell on it with bright pink flowers on green icing. We all sang happy birthday to her and cheered her on as she blew out her three candles. I was helping Jasmine with her cake and ice cream...

About ten minutes after we were finished with the cake and ice cream I happened to look down at my new white pants and discovered I had bright pink icing on the left leg of my new white pants.

I have raised five children. I have nine grandchildren of my own. My oldest son is thirty-two next month and my oldest grandson is fourteen. So I have a lot of years of experience. I've given a lot of birthday parties. I was room mother every year as the kids were growing up. Sometimes in two classrooms at the same time. I knew better! This is not the first time I've had something spilled or smeared on me at the hands of a small child. I immediately when into damage control mode.

My friend brought me one of those laundry pens and a clean damp cloth. I began to squeeze and rub... squeeze and rub... bright pink icing smears... it begins to spread on white lycra jeans... I squeezed and rubbed some more... finally; I took the damp cloth and blotted before squeezing and rubbing again. When my friend and I saw it was only smearing she suggested using this cleaner she used on her countertops. She had used it to get the bright pink icing off her countertops and it worked great. I was saying I'll just go get some Rit Dye to change the color of my new white pants. But, I thought it couldn't hurt to try. I sprayed it on. No change. I shrugged my shoulders and went back outside to visit with everyone. As I said before, this isn't the first time I've had something stained...

After sitting outside for an hour or so and the pant leg continued to dry, the bright pink stain began to fade. I don't know if it was the laundry pen or the cleaning solution used on the countertops. It really doesn't matter because I will never buy white anything anymore. White and me don't get along.

Summer is Here!

Today I can finally say that summer has arrived in my little shaded garden as my peonies have begun to bloom. I love peonies. Their petals are so delicate, yet they create layers and layers of dimension and colors. Often times, it is raining when they bloom and I don't get to enjoy them. But this year, they are not predicting rain until early next week and then, it is only light sprinkles so it shouldn't ruin the beauty of my peonies.

I only have three that have opened, but I wanted to share them with you.

Because we live in an area known for rain, I find myself racing to see if my flowers will survive our weather. Sort of a game to see which will arrive first. My flowers or the rain? I must admit, this year is somewhat disappointing for me because I wasn't able to work in my gardens or plant a vegetable garden because of my broken ankle. So my gardens are not full of beautiful blooms.

I'm not a master at gardening. In fact, far from it. But I love to have freshly cut flowers around the house, which can be difficult since our property is mostly shade. I have a sister who is what I would call a Master Gardner. As long as I can remember, she has been knowledgeable of gardening. She knows most of their Latin names and all the tricks to get them to grow to their fullest. When I first moved up to our house I wanted to put in a couple of garden areas and solicited the assistance of my sister, brother-in-law, and my husband. My husband did a lot of prep work before the big day while I was at work.

My sister and brother-in-law arrived early that Saturday morning and we were outside working in my gardens in 20° temperature. The ground was solid as a ice as we planted all the bulbs and plants I had purchased. But we managed to get everything in within a couple of hours and that spring, we had some of the most beautiful displays of color. We had daffodils, crocus, and several varieties of tulips welcoming anyone who entered our property.

I can only hope I will be able to properly prepare my garden for next year's display.

Musical Angels Quilt - Border On!

It has been quite the process, but I finally have the border attached and the corners mitre'd on the musical angels quilt. I think having three borders of varying widths is a nice design feature to the quilt. Originally, I was thinking of starting narrow and gradually wider towards the binding but after auditioning the fabric, I decided I liked having the narrow border in the middle of the two wider ones.

Here are a couple of pictures of the quilt with the borders on. The first one is a close-up of the upper left corner and the second is of the whole quilt.

My next step is to build my quilt sandwich in preparation of machine quilting it. This process will take a little longer since I'm not quite sure what quilting design(s) I will use. I have a few ideas and will need to audition them before I make a final decision. Also, before I quilt on the quilt I will be doing some practice exercises with my new toy, which I would do anyways to select thread colors and designs.

Musical Angels Quilt - Update

It has been a couple of days since my last posting. I've been a little busy enjoying the beautiful sunshine. We don't get a lot of sunshine, so I like to take advantage of it when I can. I've also been working on my granddaughter Brielle's quilt.

Sometimes preparation in quiltmaking can take longer than the actual sewing. In my case, it has been taking me even longer because I am not able to spend long periods of time standing. In December, we had over 31 inches of snowfall compared to our normal up to a foot of annual snowfall. When the snow began to first fall I was trying to get one of our dogs into the house before we left to go into town to run errands and he thought I was playing. Needless to say, I was paying more attention on the dog instead of where I was walking and slipped on black ice. I knew I was in trouble when I looked back at my left foot, still in my snow boot, but facing the wrong direction. To make a long story short, I broke my ankle. Ten screws, three pins, and a plate. My orthopedic surgeon told my husband my ankle literally exploded. Folks, do not try to do this at home. I've made a lot of progress in my recovery but my ankle still swells three to four times its normal size and it is incredibly tender. I walk around the house in my slippers but am still tied to my casting boot when I venture outside the house. Usually by the end of the day my ankle is throbbing and I can barely move around.

In any case, I've been working on the borders on Brielle's musical angels quilt for the past week. The quilt will have three borders and each print requires me to measure, starch, iron, and cut to size before I can sew. I like to use a sizing and it usually takes a couple of applications to get it to the correct stiffness before I can cut it. Due to my ankle swelling I've been having to do it in shifts of less than one hour. It's unbelievable how long it takes to prep the fabric before I can cut it. But I have managed to stitch the three border prints together and I've measured the length of the quilt sides and marked them so now all I have to do is sew the borders to the quilt top and mitre the corners.

I'm still undecided on how I will quilt it. Traditionally, most nine-patch squares are quilted with an X from point to point but I'm wanting to do something more elaborate. I've considered sending it out to be professionally quilted by one of my friends, but since it is for my granddaughter, I would really like to do the quilting myself. I've always been a handquilter but I have a new toy and I'm going to start learning how to machine quilt using my Fabric Mover with stitch regulator.

When I get to that point, I'll take pictures of my progress and post them to my blog so you can see how it works.