Just back from Utah

I spent a wonderful several days in the company of some of my favorite people in Salt Lake City, Utah last week. I took a photo of the Handi Quilter building, but the sun glare killed it. I really need to learn how to take a proper photo, but that won't happen for quite some time.

The sun didn't kill the photo of the business down the way from Handi Quilter, though. Jack Black, anyone?



Wow, I just noticed that I'm in that photo. Blue sweater, brown handbag, black pants. Ever fashionable am I.

Mondays are for food

Working weekends has definitely helped in my quest for organization. Every Monday morning I go grocery shopping and spend until noon cooking for the week.

Today I cooked up 10 pounds of chicken yielding many cups of cooked chicken for the freezer and a gallon of broth. Once that was done, it was easy to whip up 3 chicken potpies (now in the freezer).

All that yummy chicken and broth reminded me of the lettuce wraps I had last week in Salt Lake City (can't remember the name of the restaurant, sorry), so I made chicken lettuce wraps and vegetable lo mein. We ate it tonight and it rocked!

I also chopped up all my vegetables for the week and cooked up a bunch of pasta. The daughter usually zaps some after school for lunch.

Since I'm out of town a lot, I cook many meals ahead. I wouldn't want my two nearest and dearest starving in my absence.

A full freezer makes me happy.

PSA

If you ever fly cross-country, take more than one book with you. If you choose not to take this advice, you will only be able to read 190 pages on the way to Utah and have to save the other 190 pages for the flight home.

Another hint -- if you only take one book, make sure it isn't Sinner by Ted Dekker. In a word.... meh.

Working on....

This WIP (work in progress) won't be finished any time soon. It's name is Ping and it was a block of the month from Pinwheels. I am absolutely smitten with Daiwabo fabrics, and this uses hundreds of different ones. Bliss! It is English paper pieced and very time consuming, but it's been a great travel project. A week's worth of hand work can be transported in a small zippered bag.

Here's one star:



Those stars will eventually be appliqued onto larger squares. I have 11 of 20 stars pieced.

Here's the 12th star:



And the 13th:



This WIP may show up in "working on..." many more times over many more months years.

Gee, I love Philadelphia

Once upon a time, I had a dear friend. We were pregnant together and both had little girls. We kept each other sane. One day, the big bad company transferred her husband thousands of miles away and my friend left me behind. We kept in touch and visited with each other whenever we were in the neighborhood. Unfortunately, that wasn't very often. Several years later, the big bad company tried to redeem itself by moving my dear friend back to my time zone. We still see each other whenever we're in the neighborhood, but that's much more often now.

Last week, I was in her neighborhood and we went to the Philadelphia Museum of Art to see the Quilts from Gees Bend. They were beautiful in a different way than the quilts I see every day in my job. These women used whatever they had and didn't stress over perfection, but they were beautiful anyway. Even though I don't think I'm going to stop using precision quilting techniques, there are things I learned from these quilts that will enhance my own quilts.

Since I couldn't take photographs of the quilts, I took one of my lunch:

When in Rome, right?

Still in the neighborhood, I stopped in to visit with my aunt and uncle:

I haven't seen them since my wedding. We had a lot of catching up to do!

Toot! Toot!

Check this out.

Scroll down to "Contents". See that Christmas bed scarf? I quilted that.

I'm done tooting my own horn.

You meet the neatest people

when you blog.

I posted about a Jodi Picoult book a few weeks ago and Kelly Simmons left a comment. Kelly suggested that I read her book, Standing Still. Ever the obedient one, I did just that. I started it while working in Philadelphia last weekend and finished it at home. As in, I started reading it the minute my eyes opened and was late for church because I couldn't not finish it.

This is a book that made me go "hmmmmmmmmmmm". Have you heard the description of an iceberg where 90% of the ice is below the surface of the water? Well, 90% of the story took place outside of the book. I think I really, really like that.

For other obedient ones just waiting for instructions....... GO READ THIS BOOK!

Finishes

Notice I didn't imply that I finished anything. These are some the projects the gals at my quilt retreat last weekend were working on.

The fabrics in this evening bag are so yummy you just have to touch them:





I think this bag is going on a trip at some point. Maybe it's large enough to smuggle me aboard?



A strip swap from a previous retreat finally got finished:





My favorite lawyer and I started this quilt 18 months or so ago. Mine's in pieces in a box. Here's my friend's:




She's such an over-achiever! (And I love her even though she can't comment on my blog)

We clucked away all weekend making chicken blocks:





They grew up and turned into this quilt:



The retreat ended Sunday afternoon. The quilt was quilted, bound, and delivered to the intended recipient by Wednesday. Apparently there's more than one over-achiever in the group.
I managed to piece a simple scrap quilt:





This will be a wedding gift for another of my daughter's teachers. He's getting married in October.

And I miss my A number-1 quilt holder upper. He went back to college.

If you give a moose a muffin....

.... he'll want some jam to go with it.

If you give me a muffin, I'll eat it just the way it is and be extremely happy.

Mmmmmmmmmmm. Fresh chocolate chip muffins. I also made fresh strawberry-orange muffins.

Bliss.

______

to my new best friend: Lie to me and tell my that my photos are crappy because I use a really cheap camera instead of my extreme lack of skill. See you Saturday!

Working on....

This was a strip club quilt from a year or two ago. The light in my dining sewing room doesn't do the fabrics justice. They are gorgeous!

I love quilters!

So much so that I spent a whole weekend with them, just hanging out and sewing (in our PJs most of the time).

The view was incredible:



Even though that picture doesn't capture the mist over the river in the morning, the blazing sunsets, or large ships sailing by.

We were well fed:



That is just the snack table. The kitchen was also full, and more food showed up at mealtimes! There was even a really cute bagel delivery boy......

We enjoyed luxurious accommodations:



It was a good thing though. Who wants to sleep when there's quilting to do?

We stayed toasty warm:



Several of our women were expert fire-tenders and keepers of the hearth.

So, basically, we had a blast!!!! When's the next getaway????

________________________

note: the bagel delivery boy may or may not be married to the founder of our little group.

Deal Maker

I have a crush on a man named Myron. I just finished reading Deal Breaker by Harlan Coben and am shocked that I haven't heard of this book before; it was fantastic. I was in suspense until almost the end, but the wit and style carried me through the book easily. Please oh please let there be another book featuring Myron Bolitar and Co.

Martha has a blog?

She most certainly does! See? And she wants to see your blog, too. Leave her a comment and she may check out your blog.

Ahoy!

It snuck up on me again. Today is "Talk Like a Pirate Day". Check it out, or walk the plank!

Argh!

Another Finish

Last summer I made a new quilt for my bed. The leftover blocks made a nice baby quilt:



My son's church is experiencing a population explosion. I'm sending a bunch of baby quilts for him to give away. Babies are cool, aren't they?

So long, old friend

I recently damaged my sewing machine. This week I'm investigating the fixing vs. replacing costs. It's a Janome Gem Gold and I literally loved it to death.

Since I still had sewing to do, I pulled out my old Viking 500.



I bought it in 1996 and used it exclusively until the last few years. Sewing on it this week, I realized that I'm not very happy with the quarter-inch. If I use the quarter-inch foot, the feed dogs pull the fabric in a displeasing manner (was that polite enough? because I used less polite words earlier).

I re-boxed the Viking and pulled out my daughter's Janome Sewist 509 and have been using that with much better results. It's a short-term solution, but sometimes that's all you need.

I've been feeling very guilty about my perfectly good Viking that I plan to never use again. I feel like a whiny princess for not using a machine that still works. It's so old that it would be very difficult to sell. I offered this machine to my mother, my sister, a friend, and my son's girlfriend. No takers. Recently we had company (could this be the inspiration for the clean dining room? I vote "yes") and my friend wanted to see what I do. I took her into the pit sewing room. She asked about all the machines and I asked if she wanted one. She excitedly said yes! My Viking 500 has a new home and my friend is now dreaming of hems and curtains and gifts.

So this is the dining room?

Finally, I got all my quilting crap stuff moved out of my dining room:



My family was kind enough to help. I truly appreciated the help. Unfortunately, everything is now thrown back in my sewing room. I will not show a picture of that pit. Maybe later. Probably not.

___

I just noticed one piece of debris left on the dining room chair. His name is Spike. He's very active and enthusiastic. Can't you tell?

Retreat or Advance

You decide.

I spent the weekend at a wonderful quilt shop with 17 of my newest best friends:



We ate really, really good food. We played games. We won prizes. Oh, and we did some longarm quilting, too.


See?:







These were amazingly talented and wonderful women and I was honored that they chose to spend a weekend with me, learning more about longarm quilting.

To Dexter or not to Dexter, that is the question

I've seen the Dexter dvds at the library and been sorely tempted to watch them. I absolutely ADORE the Dexter books. If you haven't heard of them, Dexter is a serial killer. And the good guy. Yeah, I know it's strange. The books are very, very dark but somehow funny and I completely get that.

I went to Showtime's website and watched trailers for Dexter and I had serious issues...... that wasn't MY Dexter. Does that ever happen to you? I've had a picture of Dexter in my head since I read the first book a few years ago. The tv-Dexter didn't match my mental picture and I'm afraid that watching the show will ruin my crush on book-Dexter.

I'm stumped. And going to read the Dexter books. Yet again.

Finished!

A few years ago I took several blue fabrics from my stash and made up a bunch (80!) of blocks. I sewed them into 5 baby quilts. This is number 3, I think:



Preparing this quilt for photography caused a minor ruckus in my household. I used a new batting, Quilter's Dream Green (made from recycled soda bottles), and wanted to test it thoroughly. I threw it in the washer and dryer to see how it would wear. More than one member of my family questioned me about running the dryer. I rarely/never use the dryer for laundry. I have probably dried one load since April, since it was raining and we had to leave town the next morning with clean laundry.

Runing the dryer..... one more thing I'm willing to do for my art. But only on occasion.

_____

Note on the batting: It washed beautifully and I will definitely use this batting again.