Mother/Daughter time

Not to be confused with Hammer Time. But I digress....

My darling daughter usually remembers that I know how to sew about 2 hours before a birthday party that she has a) neglected to tell us about and b) neglected to buy a present for (I couldn't un-dangle those prepositions, sorry.) The conversation usually starts like, "Mom? What do you have in the house that can be easily embroidered?"

I usually suggest a tote bag or a hat or a t-shirt. Somehow, these are never what she has in mind. Today's simple embroidery project turned into a red metallic pillow with a flange, embroidered in gold. I measured, cut, hooped for embroidery, and my daughter did all the sewing. We're pleased. Hopefully Sarah will be as well.



Note my daughter's PJs. I usually have to be on my death bed to wear PJs at 2pm.

Speaking of death bed, my daughter finally got the plague. Very, very minor case on Thursday night. Who wants it next?

The Plague Spreads......

My son goes to college about 600 miles away from home. He's joined the list of the fallen.

Saturday -- dear husband

Monday -- me

Tuesday -- dear son

Who's next? And why is my daughter locked in her room refusing all contact with us?

What's your favorite color?

Mine is blue. Especially this shade.

We took a quick mid-week trip to celebrate our anniversary and stayed here:



and ate here:



Yes, it's a castle. Really. We ate there for two reasons: 1) it's good and 2) we couldn't afford to actually stay there.

Then we came home and my husband gave me the best present ever -- the stomach flu. I think my new necklace matches my pjs just fine, thank you.

I'm thinking toast now ... maybe?

I've got the power!

(insert dance moves here)

A quick run-down of my day:

Get up
Run a few quick errands
Go to work
Come home and eat dinner
Start laundry
Head to the studio to work some more (where o where are the soap operas and bonbons?)
Lose power
Set up a quilt by candlelight
Hook up generator (ok, so Mr. Man did that but I honestly know how)
Quilt that quilt
Decide to unhook generator and go to bed
Re-gain power
Re-start laundry (but it's still gonna sit overnight)
Check email
Blog
Finally hit the sack (that's next, I promise)

Electricity, I've got a crush on you.

Coming soon to a quilt show near you.......

Handi Quilter Educator? That would be me!

I love Handi Quilter -- the product and the people. I've worked with them a few times in the last year, but the position is now official.

I spent a week with the company in Salt Lake City, UT. I met five ah-ma-zing ladies who are also new Handi Quilter Educators and we had a blast! We learned all sorts of neat stuff about machines and we quilted every second we could.

My new job will be what is has been for the last year, just more so. I will be travelling to different quilt shows and events and teaching people how to use the Handi Quilter.

I am thrilled and honored to work with this great company.

One of the most important things I learned about my new job is...... always pack a change of clothes in your carry-on luggage. My suitcase caught up to me the next day. I wasn't too worried, but my favorite pair of pumps were in that suitcase!!!

Quilt Tales

My son is a music major at a Big-Ten school (go Bucks!) and had his junior recital. We made plans to fly out for the weekend. My son is a very responsible young man, but he's still a man and doesn't get girl details. I'm sure I drove him crazy with all my questions, like

1. "What are we supposed to wear?"

2. "Do the parents host a reception?"

3. "Are we supposed to pay your accompanist (I really don't know how to spell that word)?"

Minor stuff. The answers were:

1. "Jeans" -- I think not

2. "Yes" -- I think I was looking for a few more details than that

3. "I don't think so, it's part of their grade" -- ok, but are we supposed to give them a gift?

My son and I spoke back and forth for a few weeks on some of these issues. One day he asked if I had a quilt I was willing to give his accompanyist. He happened to ask right after I finished this quilt:

I started this quilt about 2 years ago and packed it away. I finished the top over Christmas and took most of January to bind it. The pattern is from Nickel Quilts and a huge bonnet-tip to Bonnie at Quiltville for the pieced back idea.

I'm as prompt at taking photos as I am at all other things in life. The object to the left of the quilt in the photos isn't a grand piano in a classroom at the music school. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

The recipient of the quilt was a darling. She is a doctoral candidate and beyond a fantastic pianist. She is from Greece and really appreciated an American quilt. The music my son chose for her wasn't simple. She did wayyyyyyyy more than hammer out a few chords behind the trombone solos. The piano part was insanely intense and she was grateful to be done with it so she could get back to her own studies. I'm so glad she was a part of that wonderful day and so glad she enjoyed her American quilt.

Is it time for bed yet?

File this under 'Shoot me now!'.

At the local quilt shop, we were working on scrap quilts from Open A Can of Worms. The theme was supposed to be floral, so I of course brought polka dots. Dots are the new floral, right? Humor me here.

Now that the dot/floral matter is settled, I left the shop and went to the grocery store for arborio rice. What is life without risotto? Not worth much, in my opinion. Quick trip in an out and then I was headed to an evening church service.

So, the car wouldn't start. It wouldn't even pretend to start. I've been expecting this since last weekend when a gremlin hatched in my electrical system. Blinking lights, power steering outage, power brake outage, radio turning on and off, clock resetting to 12:00 every 2 minutes. Fun stuff. Once I turned the car off and restarted it, it was fine. I knew it wouldn't continue to be fine, though. How did I know this? My car has over 100,000 miles and is American-made. Need more explanation?

Mr. Man came to the grocery store to jump my car, and, gosh darn it, it worked. Color us shocked. I slammed my fingers in the door drove home with Mr. Man following me while the gremlins played with my electrical system again. My personal favorite was when the transmission suddenly went into neutral. That ROCKED!

Has anyone had the thought process that starts with "I should lose weight" and goes to "I really need to drink more water"? I took that path today. The inevitable end of that thought is "I really have to use the washroom" (just for you Meredyth).

Can you picture this yet? Fingers throbbing, car throbbing, bladder throbbing..... Fun ride home. As soon as I pulled into the driveway, I threw the car into park and ran to the bathroom fell on the ice. Yes, I had to do laundry, but only for the mud on my pants and (sob) new jacket. I took care of business then started the laundry then changed into my pajamas then grabbed my heating pad and laptop. Not much to be done for the sore wrists and nether-regions, but the herniated disc that I just aggravated? Heat and blogging are the best medicine. Funny, my smashed fingers din't hurt so much once I threw my back out.

Tomorrow, I get to call a tow truck and see how much the beast my cute little car will cost to de-gremlin. If I can get out of bed, that is.

Sing it with me now.....

Oh where, oh where has my luggage gone?
Oh where, oh where can it be?
With it's black handles and it's wheels that roll.....
Bring back my luggage to me.

Bring.... back
Bring.... back
Oh bring back my luggage to me, to me
Bring.... back
Bring.... back
Oh bring back my luggage to me!

______________________
I think I joined two separate songs from childhood together, but I'm wearing yesterday's clothes and don't really care! Wish me luck at my first day on my new job (in yesterday's clothes).

Didn't think I remembered, did ya?

Remembered how to quilt, that is. Well, at long last, I did.

I did a bit of sewing between Christmas and the New Year, but I didn't actually finish anything. I started wading through the UFOs in my sewing room and pulled out some long-forgotten treasures.

Remember this?

I pulled out a bag that I thought contained all the blocks. It did, but they were already sewn together!!!! And I put this away why?

I quickly added some borders and did a simple quilting job. An entire month later, I finally finished the binding.

Here it is:

This quilt is going in the gift pile. I don't know who will receive it yet, but I'm gonna enjoy looking at it a while longer. Ahhhhh, red.

A very good week!

It's been a rather interesting week.

First this. (scroll down to the wedding quilt. page 46 in real life).

Now this.

Check out page 80 of Quilter's Newsletter Magazine March 2008. You just might see another quilt that I quilted.

It's the little things...

...that make my day.

Look.

Yes, that is my name beside the wedding quilt.

The magazine hits the newsstands on January 22. I'm available for autographs.

All joking aside, it was a cool experience working with the designers and going through the whole publishing process. I saw the magazine today and they did a great job. The photography is excellent and they wrote a really, really favorable article*.

It's a good day.

How's your day been?
___

My daughter says it's more of a blurb, but I choose to call it an article. So there.

Hey Good Lookin'....

What's cookin'?

Saturday's dinner was spicy fried tofu with sesame dipping sauce and vegetarian lo mein. Yum! Mr. Man deserved some cow after that meal.

Last night's dinner was pot roast. It's never been a favorite of mine and I've never claimed to be an accomplished beef chef. This meal was quite bleh. Edible, but bleh.

The fun part was the leftovers. All the potatoes, carrots, gravy and some meat went into the freezer for a future beef stew. A chunk'o'beef went into the freezer for future BBQ sandwiches. The rest of the beef went into the fridge for some beef stroganoff later in the week (we have some lonely mushrooms).

Hopefully each of these meals will be less bleh than the original. Hopefully, I'll get to quilt during my "would have been cooking" time on the nights these easy-to-prepare meals are served.

_______
I managed to cook all these meals without further injuring myself. I am proud.

Cooking for Dummies

I learned how to cook as a newlywed, but I'm learning some new skills. My son is grown, so I am learning to cook smaller amounts. My daughter is a vegetarian, so I'm learning vegetarian/vegan cooking.

Tonight's dinner was a blending of new and old skills. I made:

Penne
Vodka sauce (very, very wonderful)
Non-vegetarian grated cheese

How, you may ask, does one make non-vegetarian grated cheese? It's quite simple, really.

1. Get out your shiny new cheese grater that your mom gave you for Christmas.



2. Grate some very delicious Parmesan cheese

3. Turn your hand slightly while grating and add a little meat to the cheese.

4. Whine a bit so you don't have to wash dishes with your injured hand.

5. Go to your sewing room and quilt while watching CSI:NY in front of the fire while your husband washes the dishes.

If you are short on quilting time or simply want to get out of doing dishes for a night, copy down this recipe, but make sure you have Shrek bandages. They make everything all better.



My apologies for the poor quality photo. If anyone has a simple way to use a camera with only their left hand while photographing their right hand, please let me know.

Happy New Year!

Oh, and anticipating a few sly emails coming my way, the vodka had nothing to do with the creation of the non-vegetarian cheese.

Proof of Life

I'm still here. Working. 'Cuz it's December. I'm averaging more quilts a week than hours of sleep a night.

It's all good.

O, January, Where Art Thou?

My Sink is Shiny

I'm Flying (again)

Loneliness

e. e. cummings describes loneliness as:

l(a

le

af

fa

ll

s)

one

l

iness

I describe it like this:

This is how I describe togetherness:

My husband doesn't call this togetherness...... he calls it brain-damaged.

*** hopefully you can tell by the photos which room we've renovated and which one has the original flooring and peeling wallpaper.

It's a bird! It's a plane! ...

.... It's a quilt! Don't die of shock or anything, but I finally finished a quilt.



This is going on my dining room table. It was designed by the Quilt Basket and really fun to quilt. I think they have one kit left if anyone's interested. It's not on their website, but a call or email asking for the 'spiderweb strip quilt' will get the job done.

While I was outside taking a picture of the quilt, I had to take a picture of this clear, cold autumn day.

I hope to get some more hiking in before all the leaves are down, the snow is on the ground, and the hunters are out.

can't. stop. laughing.

I decided to learn to speak Spanish last year. I can now order beer, find the bathroom, and understand the 'First Semester of Spanish Spanish Love Song'.

Working in the LQS this morning made me realize how rusty my sign language skills are so I'll probably be working on that now, too. The customer and I were able to communicate enough to pick out fabric for pillows, but it was a lot of pointing and finger-spelling.

Thanks, but I'm waiting for the paperback

In an earlier post, I mentioned that I went back to college this semester. I'm taking an English course and we're just finishing up Othello. Being the library lover that I am, I requested several copies of Othello. They all came in while I was in Houston (which was awesome, thanks for asking). On Monday I went to the library to pick up

the movie starring Bob Hoskins:



the movie starring Ian McKellan (yes, from LOTR):



and the movie starring Laurence Fishburne:



The woman at the desk looked curiously at my three different copies of Othello movies. I explained that I was studying it in college and had a test on it this week. Her retort? "Did you know this is available as a book, too?" Cute.

........

In the interest of full disclosure, I also borrowed the audio cds of Othello:



The test was this morning and I'm hoping for a B or better. I still have to write a paper over the weekend. Whose bright idea was it to go back to school?

October Wrap Up

Where on earth did October go? I cannot believe it's already time for another month-end post. Anyway, here goes:

I read:

The Emperor's Children by Claire Messud
I really, really, really enjoyed this book but I can't explain why. I enjoyed the journey immensely.

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J. K. Rowling
I decided to re-read the series to get me to #7. I haven't read number seven yet, so don't tell me what happens. This one was fun, even for the 5th or 6th go round.

Ricochet by Sandra Brown
I enjoyed the 12 hours spent listening to this book, but that was due more to Dennis Boutsikaris than Sandra Brown. I enjoy Dennis as an actor and he did a great job reading this book. The story wasn't too bad. It had twists and turns and kept me guessing, but it ended on a bit of a syrupy, preachy note.

Play Dirty by Sandra Brown This book was as enjoyable as Ricochet even with a different speaker. There was no preachy ending to distract me from this one, though. I didn't plan to read two Sandra Brown novels back-to-back, but I did. I probably won't read another one for quite some time, but I will definitely read her again.

Power Play by Joseph Finder
Normally I have to stay up and work and the book keeps me company, but this time I had to stay up for the book and the quilting kept me company. Once the book ended (at 3am!!!!), I wasn't disappointed. I've never read anything by Finder before, but I definitely will again. Oh, and Dennis Boutsikaris read this one, too. I like Dennis.

The Burnt House by Faye Kellerman
This was my first book with this author, but the reading by George Guidall made it seem like old times. He's one of mine (and most other audiobook listeners) favorite readers. The story had some great twists and turns and kept me quilting. Another great quilting book. I'm getting spoiled.

Break No Bones by Kathy Reich If you've read this book, answer me one question....... Has the author ever read Harry Potter? Crookshanks? Harry? Hermoine? It could have been annoying, but it was subtly done and kind of cute. The story was nicely done, as well.

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Not much to say. Too busy pursuing my personal legend. Whatever.

Divisadero by Michael Ondaatje
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Slipknot by Linda Greenlaw
Harmless little book.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets by J. K. Rowling
Still good, even on the fourth time through. On to number 3!

Lisey's Story by Stephen King
This was a great way to spend 19 hours. Mare Winningham read the book and I loved her Pittsburgh accent. Snce there is no 'typical' Stephen King novel, I'm not sure what I expected, but I enjoyed this. The Mist is back on the bestseller list, so I'll have to add that to my ever-expanding t0-be-read list.

In addition to reading, I also:

1. worked at the First Dutchess Quilt Show. It's my local guild show. I demo-ed longarm quilting and bonded with my saddle stool. Quilt shows are so much more fun when you can sit for a portion of the day! Five of my customers entered quilts and two won ribbons. Several of my students won major ribbons for their quilting. It was a really nice weekend.

2. finished the 3rd season of CSI: Miami around the time my cold went away. So, the next time
you get a cold, take 3 seasons and call me in 1o days. You'll feel better by then.

3. had my ebay account infiltrated. Like I really want a copy of Grand Tourismo Racing game. Now I have no ebay account to be defrauded in the future. Just a friendly reminder that there are indeed stinky people out there who can ruin things for the rest of us.

4. went to the Sheep and Wool Festival and had a beautiful time. I was with some old friends and some new ones and already plan to go next year.

5. taught a quilting class locally. I love to teach quilting. (see number 6)

6. made the Machine Quilters Exposition catalog. I'm so honored and humbled to be teaching at the same event as the most talented quilters alive. If you dig through the sight, you may even find my picture. I'm not so very fond of that picture, but I guess that's what I look like most of the time.

7. finished 21 customer quilts. I know, fewer than last month, but most of these were queen/king and custom.

AND...... the very last thing I did in October ........

8. packed to go to Houston!