Quilt show Friday

Friday was a fun day.  A few of my quilting buddies and I met at my house and we all got in my van and we went to New Braunfels to the semi-annual Quilt Show.  The show is big enough to fill a day, but small enough keep from being overwhelming.  My biggest purchase I will not pick up until September. I paid a deposit on a quilt kit that is themed on the Quilt Across Texas a statewide shop hop.  Now anyone that could get their card stamped at all of the 90 shops would accomplish quite a feat.  I would not even begin to think about trying it, but one of the shops involved is local for me and they have put together a quilt that looks awesome.  They cannot release the kit until September when the QAT ends.  I will be anxiously awaiting.

I have been to this show in New Braunfels before, and I have a favorite restaurant just down the street, so I lured my friends to lunch at the Huisache Grill and we all had a delicious lunch in an awesome atmosphere. This is probably one of my favorite restaurants and I know all the food is good, but I always order the same thing so I can have my "shrimp Louis" salad.  I have posted about the Huisache before.

The next show that I will be attending with my quilting friends is in Houston in November.  It is the BIG one.  I have limited stamina for being on my feet, so even though it is a mind-boggling experience... one day is just fine for me.  We are going on a bus that has been chartered by a local quilt shop.  There are seven in our group and this is the second time we will be doing this.  There are a couple different ladies going this time, so I had to get some more bags labeled with their names.  These backpacks help us to be hands-free as we walk the floor of the show, and the yellow color helps us to stand out in the crowd so we can spot each other at a distance.  There are literally thousands of people at this show, so anything to help find a comrade is helpful.  We did it last time and it worked nicely.

Clothesline update

This clothesline quilt is taking a fair amount of time.  It isn't hard to do, but it does require me to be pretty precise with stitching. and cutting if I want everything to go together nicely. 

This is the first row of the three needed to complete the piecing. Once the other two rows are done, adding the sashing and the outside borders will be a piece of cake.  The backing and binding have already been cut from the original nine 3/4 yard cuts, so no decision will have to be made regarding what to use for the backing.  The binding is pieced from the 9 fabrics also.

This quilt has an unknown origination.  At our church quilt group we have lots of people that bring in a box to donate to our stash, and in these boxes there are remnants from a mother's or grandmother's sewing room.  In the boxes we sometimes find pieces of  fabric, thread, notions, patterns, blocks and partially pieced blocks, or as in this case... a quilt top that was partially put together.  This quilt top had all the pieces, I just had to make some adjustments and finish the top.  The fabric I brought home to use for the backing wasn't enough, so I pieced the backing and I really like how it turned out. I  quite often intentionally piece the backing because I think it gives the quilt a little more character. This quilt will be a gift to a new baby at our church from the quilting ladies.

Vermont in June

It surely is a long drive to get to Vermont from here.  There really are no shortcuts, it is just a long long way away.  Our first day in Vermont was beautiful.  The weather was favorable and five of my grandchildren were able to join us on the island.  I think all five really enjoyed the boats and the water in general.  All, except for little Benj, took a turn at paddling around in the one man kayak.  Even I paddled around a bit.

Have you ever seen a sunset over Lake Champlain?  It is quite an experience to view.  This picture hardly does it justice.

Now on the homefront I needed to find a project that I could work on in the living room while we are watching TV in the evening.  I like to have something to keep my hands busy.  I found a pattern a while back for a quilt called a Clothes Line quilt that I found online after doing a search.

 What makes this quilt different than the average is how the pieces are organized.  There are 9 groups of 9 - 9 patches.  After cutting 9 strips from 9 fabrics, there are organizer cards that mix up the layout so that no two blocks are the same in each subset (large block).  Each stripset makes 9 identical blocks, and these smaller blocks are then mixed up for the big blocks.

This project is spread around in space available in the living room.  I have a table set in front of the window which gives me lots of light during the daytime, but my lighting is not so great in the evening.  I don't want to make my corner too bright to over power the TV.  Husband doesn't complain about the noise, so I don't want to infringe on his TV any more than necessary.

I have not been real good about posting lately.  It seems that alot has been going on.  I will make an effort to post my progress on this project so what I have described so far will make more sense.

Another quilt for the wall

This is a quilt that I completed the piecing about 4 years ago.  When I finished it I folded it nicely into a box, put the box on a shelf and made a mental note that one day I would make time to quilt it.

I did alot of the piecing on this quilt in the loft of our cabin out in Colorado. With the cabin not being ours anymore, this quilt brings fond memories to mind.

It measures just shy of 80" square.  It really would not be big enough for our bed and I think one reason it stayed so long in the box is because it had no destination in mind.

Earlier this week we moved some furniture around that opened up a big space on the wall in our living room.  I knew I had plenty of quilt tops finished, but not quilted yet.  So between Ron and I we decided this was the one that I would quilt to fill the space.  None of the quilts on the walls have to stay where they are.  That is one of the reasons a quilter needs to have lots of quilts around.  Changing out the quilts on the wall can change the whole look of a room.

 

As I stood back to take this picture I looked to the left and saw another great picture opportunity... there is another quilt hanging over our bed.  Almost like a quilt gallery.

Lemons and Tomatoes

I have been creative in the kitchen the past several days.  First was the chocolate cake I posted about yesterday.  Then yesterday we were supposed to have supper at a friend's house, so I didn't want to eat anything that would spoil my appetite, but I was in the "snack" mode.  Another friend had given me some fresh tomatoes the other day and I hadn't used them yet.  I'm the only one in the house that will eat fresh tomatoes, so it was a good choice for a snack.  A few weeks ago I received an email message that told all about lemons and how good they are to enhance whatever you might be cooking.  It suggested that you should not discard the lemon peel, but rather freeze your lemon whole and grate the lemon onto whatever you are cooking/preparing, right from the freezer.  I have a couple in the freezer right now in a Ziploc bag... so I decided I would try it on my tomato slices.  I sliced the tomato onto my plate.  I took a fine grater that you would typically use for lemon peel... I wasn't sure it would grate the lemon while still frozen... but it worked just fine.  On two slices I maybe used the equivalent of 1/2 teaspoon of grated lemon.  I then sprinkled some black pepper on them, and just a dash of salt.  The tomato flavor just popped.  Totally awesome.  A snack worth repeating.

Now if you are interested in the lemon article, I have it saved as a Word document, but I am not sure how to attach that here, so if you leave a comment or send an email message, I will send you the article.  It was definitely worth reading... and there are some good tips regarding the health benefits.

Chocolate cake anyone?

 

 This is a chocolate cake with an addition I would not have thought of on my own.  I was at a friend's house with a few other ladies and we were quilting.  For a treat one of the ladies brought a bundt cake that she had made that started with a yellow cake mix.  It had blueberries and yogurt and it was really good.  I asked for the recipe which she was able to tell me right on the spot.  A couple days later I decided I wanted to give it a try, but I didn't have any vanilla yogurt on hand and I only had a Devil's Food chocolate cake mix.  My husband thought it would be good to try using the chocolate cake mix.  After all he does like his chocolate.   The only ingredient I changed was the chocolate cake mix.... everything else was just as the original list that was given to me.  So here is the recipe and it was awesome.
                     
                                 Chocolate Blueberry Cake
               1    package  Devil's Food cake mix (yellow cake mix)
               1    package  Instant Vanilla pudding
               1    teaspoon  cinnamon
               1    cup  vanilla yogurt
             1/2   cup  oil
             1/4   cup  water
               4    eggs
          1 1/2   cups  blueberries (if frozen they should be thawed)

Combine dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl.  Reserve a couple tablespoons of the dry ingredients to coat the blueberries before adding.  Whisk the eggs with the oil, water and yogurt.   Pour the liquid into the dry and mix with an electric mixer until well blended.  In a separate smaller bowl coat the blueberries with the reserved dry mix.  This will help keep the blueberries from sinking to the bottom of the cake.  Fold in the blueberries. 

Lightly grease and flour a bundt pan.  Pour mixture into pan and bake at 350 for 1 hour.

Mothers' Day 2012

It's a beautiful day here in South Texas.  My daughter actually beat her brother calling to wish me a Happy Mothers' Day.  Hope all the mothers out there had a great

I completed a UFO yesterday.  It was not a very long term WIP (work in progress), I started it last October.  The quilt kit was purchased in Paducah.  My husband took us on a side-trip from our September Ohio trip so I could experience Hancocks of Paducah.  He spotted the quilt on display, and I found the quilt kit on a discounted table.
I made an attempt to finish it for this past Christmas, but I didn't make it... I missed it by several months.  Now that the top is complete,  I owe it to my husband to get it quilted before this next Christmas.  I think that might be a great possibility.  I already have a panto design with poinsettias.

Speaking of UFO's, I had another quilt that I started in March, so I'm not sure it qualifies as a UFO.  Three other ladies and I were on a retreat in Rockport and we decided on this pattern for a project we could all learn from.  I was kind of taking the lead and gave the other ladies some guidance.  When I got home I found I should have paid closer attention to the instructions.  I have the tendency to "wing it" and this time it nipped me pretty good.  I had to modify the outside border to finish the top.  I don't usually show someone how to do something that I have not had the opportunity to test.  We decide on this quilt at the retreat and I thought it looked pretty doable.  If you look in the middle you will note there is a double strip that is not between the two side blocks.  This was added to make the border wide enough.  If you didn't know it was a mistake, I think it would be rather hard to pick it out.  I didn't discover my mistake until I got home, so I had to come up with a fix and let everyone know I had instructed them incorrectly.

 Next obstacle that I had was my husband.  First he didn't think it looked right to make an Hawaiian quilt in black & white.  Then I had a friend give me some fabric for the binding that I thought would work great, only to find out that my husband didn't think I should introduce another totally contrasting color in the binding.  I folded the quilt top up and put it aside.  Last week we bought a patio set that needed a table cloth and this quilt top was the perfect size.  I went to my stash looking for a backing and found this gray and red piece that added the necessary introduction of red into the quilt.... so I went ahead and used the red/black/gray & white striped binding.  I think it turned out beautiful.  He had to agree when I showed him the backing that it was OK to use the binding.  I do have to add here that my husband is my best critic.  He has a good eye for color coordination and more often than not, his opinion is very helpful.  So typically I pay attention to what he has to say.