Saturday, March 27, 2010

Stacked Crumbs done

It is a top. Quilt top that is. Tell me what you think. When I showed it Wednesday they liked the colors but the comments I got were--"There's no rhyme or reason." with their head turning and looking at it from different directions. Okay. I think we can say that they didn't get excited about it. So don't worry about my feelings. Go ahead be objective.Sorry that the picture is not in focus.

Blessings,

Saturday, March 20, 2010

We have snow.

Can you tell how excited I am? 70 degrees yesterday and 30s today. Monday is to be back up in the 60s.

We had guild meeting today. Lots of fun. We had a neat demo of a Tossed Pineapple block and we each sewed one. Sorry I don't have a picture. We turned them in to be used for baby quilts.

Tonight I made us my version of Jambalaya. Rice, chicken, shrimp, okra, onion, tomatoes, green chilies and cayene pepper. Very tasty on a cold night.  I need to use up the okra that I froze last summer.

The little doggie? She is cold. She was trembling and we put her coat on her. Now she is sleeping beside me and soaking my heat. 

I wish they could make heat pumps where they didn't blow cold air when they first come on.  Brrrr.


Blessings,

Friday, March 19, 2010

Cooking

This morning I was in the kitchen working. I cleaned out the refrigerator. Trash day. Nuf said. LOL I had the bread machine going. I was browning short ribs and washing dishes. The washing machine was going. And I thought about how women years ago would have loved to have had our modern conveniences. And I heard someone say this week after having gone to the Dallas Quilt Show that machine quilted quilts were no comparison to hand quilted ones. As you know if you've been reading my blog I do both. I admire both.  I believe that there are many talented quilters. Both hand quilters and machine quilters.  And I do believe that if women from days gone by had had the machines we do now they would have used them. Stepping off my soapbox now. 
Back to the cooking segment. The short ribs are done and will be our supper tonight. I am telling you these are seriously good. Check out The Pioneer Woman. She's got lots of good recipes plus lots of laughs.

Yesterday was an absolutely gorgeous day. DH decided to trim the trees that had been damaged in that big snow storm we had. I had started doing the wash and was planning on machine quilting but put the quilting on hold so I could help him. Would you believe I am sore today? Those limbs were heavy and it turned out there were more breaks than we thought after getting started.  But I'm glad the job is done.

But please say it isn't so! The weather man is predicting snow flurries late Saturday! Please, no. It's been so warm there's not much chance of any accumulation.

The little doggie. The little doggie aka Sissy is in trouble. I bathed her last night. Guess what she did this afternoon. Yes! She did. She rolled in it again. She is outside and not liking it one bit. Better get the shampoo ready, huh?

Blessings,

Pieces Parts Done

Quilted and bound. I love how it turned out. Can you see the clamshell quilting design?
I was praticing so don't look too close.

Blessings,

Sunday, March 14, 2010

More Quilting

I got the string quilt assembled to my liking. Hope you like it, too. It measures around 50 inches. I worked on assembling the crumb quilt and only need to add a couple more borders.

We had surprise visits this week. DS#2 and family stopped by Friday morning on their way to Lubbock. DGS Mason got to play for a few minutes while DGD Paisley had a bottle. Then it was a quick kiss so they could continue their trip. Then DD and her hubby came by Saturday on their way home from buying their new pickup. What a surprise!

Today DH, DS#1 and I went to the Quilters Guild of Dallas Quilt Show. As always there were so many pretty quilts. I am trying my best to pass this habit -uhm-er- hobby on to my descendants. LOL The drive was so pretty. The temps have been in the 60s and redbud trees, plum, and bradford pear trees are in bloom. The grass everywhere is greening up. It has seemed like everything has just burst into Spring.

And when DH's parents visited recently they brought canning jars. One box had this newspaper in it.
Check out the date. I just had to look it over. Remember leisure suits? Aren't we glad those are in the past? LOL The grocery ads were interesting. Some prices are much more now but some aren't that much different. Too weird.

Wishing everyone a wonderful week,

Monday, March 08, 2010

Strings & Crumbs

It was rainy on Sunday. A good day for staying in and sewing. So that's what I did. ; ) I laid out my string blocks Saturday on the floor and I wasn't happy with the way the colors were coming together so I decided to make a few more and pull out the ones that didn't seem to fit in. I am much happier. I've sewn sixteen blocks (4x4). I sewed crumbs as leaders and enders as I sewed the blocks together. Then I pulled some fabric for the borders. I got the small inner border sewn on and will cut the outer border and sew it on in the morning.  Have I said that I sew my string blocks on paper towels? Bounty towels are 11" square. I squared them to 10 3/4". I made the crumb blocks 9'' square.

One thing I have found. There will always be crumbs. LOL So I guess there will be no shortage of crumb quilts. Or as I like to refer to them as pieces parts.

Oh, DH and a friend went to the Southwest Type Conference in Belton, Texas Saturday. I thought we would be safe. He took my car. (It gets good gas mileage.) I thought we would be safe in that he wouldn't be able to buy any hogs. Well, I was wrong. No, he didn't put it in my car. He had already been warned about doing that. No, he found someone from our area there with a trailer and got them to bring it back. But he did pick a good one. He is a Hampshire. Black & white. His name is King Kong (that's what his papers say). Yeah, I know. A hog named King Kong. Just so Godzilla doesn't show up. Oh, by the way. We also have hogs that are Herefords. That's their breed. White faces & feet and reddish brown bodies. We have one litter and sow in the barn that were born 2-24. There are three litters due in the next several weeks. There will be no shortage of pigs or crumbs around here. LOL

Oh, I forgot. We are expecting puppies. Ruby and Max got married. That's what our seven year old DGD  said. Ruby and Max are border collies and we had been thinking of finding a puppy. Max is getting on in age. Ruby is due around Easter.  Baby pigs and puppies. Baby granddaughter. Must be a year for babies.

And speaking of DGD--our daughter called this week and said to check our email. She had sent a picture of DGD. She was grinning really big and something was missing. You guessed it. She lost an upper front tooth.
The other one is loose. We will be hearing a lisp when she talks. Oh and speaking of DD--they went bowling Friday night. She sprained her ankle. They have spring break this week. She is a teacher. She has her foot propped up and is knitting. Doesn't sound bad to me. Other than the throbbing foot. I could live without that.

Blessings,

Saturday, March 06, 2010

Signs of Spring!

The first daffodils are blooming. Our temps have been in the 60s and near 70. So nice.

These are the crumbs and I'm thinking of setting them together like Chinese Coins and maybe calling it Stacked Crumbs. I have laid a white sheet on top of the bed then the light purple and then the stacks of crumb blocks which are not sewn together yet.

I had been rising last week at 6am and sewing for an hour or so on strings then crumbs (the trimmings from the strings) blocks. A total of 32 11" string blocksand 20 9" crumb blocks. I used 16 string blocks with a border to make one small string quilt for C.A.S.A. I forgot to take a photo before I delivered it to Kraz-z Quilters on Wednesday.

This picture was taken at Kraz-z Quilters meeting last summer.

I got the Pieces Parts quilt quilted. I just need to trim the threads and batting; prepare the binding and sew it on. I quilted a customer quilt and it was picked up this week. And Thursday I was invited to go to Post Oak to visit the Post Oak Quilters. I always enjoy visiting with them. Thank you, Ladies.
Friday I washed and hung clothes out. It was a beautiful day. Very breezy but beautiful.

This is Mickey and the Purple 4 Patch Stacked Posies I made for her. She added the pink and off white outer borders. She will bind it with a dark purple. It is on our frames at Kraz-z Quilters right now. Mickey has marked it so nicely and it will be so pretty. I will try to remember to take my

I said I had been rising at 6am and sewing. It just wasn't happening this week. No energy.  I've got more machine quilting this week. Then I will start sewing the strings and crumb blocks together.

Blessings,