Celebrity Status -- We Are THERE Baby!

Talk about being treated like a major celebrity!  Last Friday we went to the Hollywood Casino and they must have thought we were movie stars or something.  Of course it helps to know the King of it all.

We had dinner in The Steakhouse at Hollywood Casino.  It is a truly unique and beautiful space downtown just before you get on the boat.  We had views of the river with an incredible sunset backdrop as barges and ships made their way past the riverboat up and down the Mississippi.

It was difficult to choose a single entree from the many excellent suggestions.  Chef Kerry himself came to the table to warn us not to order appetizers as he had a special one made just for us.  But it would be a surprise!  Then Enzo came to welcome us to his restaurant.   He made us feel like his special friends.

From the kitchen came Lamb Lollipops with Watermelon Barbecue Sauce.  Oh, my! An amazing presentation of succulent steaks, that indeed looked like Lollipops! 

The entrees were as incredible as the appetizers.  We all enjoyed our dinners, even though none of us had steak!  Funny how that happened.  Now we'll just have to go back and try their steak.

Before the meal was over, we did have one more visit from the General Manager.  She told us she had enjoyed having Enzo's friends visit us and asked us to come again soon.

It truly was like being a celebrity.  Thank you Enzo!  You made our night incredible!

glen

Biking in the heat, quilting in the cool

Whew!  Things have been so busy lately.  I feel like Charlene!  LOL.

Even though the weather has not been cooling off like Frank says it is, we have gotten back into the swing of biking again.    Last week we did 9.1 miles one day and this weekend and today we did about 4 miles a day.  Even though it looks cool in the photos, it is not.  However, it is much cooler riding in the tree forests than on the asphalt roads so we stick to the Forest Park or White Oak trails.  

It feels good to be riding even if we are sweating!  The last few days has pushed the mercury very very close to 100 degrees, and by our 10:30 PM dog walk it is still in the upper 90's.  This morning at 6:30 AM it was actually cool, we walked 1.5 miles with the dogs.  Then by the afternoon it was 101! 

Dutch has been walking 1/2 mile every morning and again at night.  He trots a bit when he forgets about his leg.  But I am glad he is even attempting to trot.  He took off after DiNozzo a few days ago, totally forgetting about his leg.  If it were a muscle pull, I would think he was getting better.  But I know it is just a matter of time before the cancer takes over.  He still is on rimadyl twice a day and I have upped the tumeric to 3 morning and night.  I know the turmeric won't help with this kind of cancer but I am hoping it helps as an anti-inflammatory and thus with some pain.  I still have moments when I sit and cry.

You probably can't see the perspective in this photo, but Dutch is about 108 lbs and that is a big dog bed.  He just barely fits.  But since I won't let him step up to the cooleroo bed he so dearly loves, he has taken over this one.  He looks so silly!

Wednesday I am going to meet Charlene in Lafayette and we head to Ami Simms Twisted Sister class.  Ami Simms is the brain of AAQI (Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative) http://www.alzquilts.org/

I have contributed several quilts over the years for auction, the proceeds go to research.  I have three of them there right now for sale.  Check them out #7145, 7146 and 7184 (http://www.alzquilts.org/15miplgrnyon.html)  Hey, bid on one! 

Over the weekend I brought cookies, chocolate bars and chips for my mom's stash.  Today I brought some drinks for her mini fridge we got her for her birthday.  She loves the chocolate Yahoo! drinks so I loaded her up with those.  Red drinks and blue drinks fascinate her as well.  and those little coke cans.   Hospice checked her in and approved the application based upon her Alzheimers diagnosis so she is getting another level of support from them.  Of course my brother has yet to even call me about her.  You would think he would be interested. 

I am teaching a class on an LSU tote bag in two weeks.  Ann and I spent two days gathering the fabrics.  I spent a day and a half doing all the cutting and making kits for everyone.  I included a pouch as an extra since I had some fabrics leftover.  It should be a good class, I will make up a sample this week.

All that, and I am writing an article I hope to have published soon, we shall see.  But that is for another day.

glen

Christmas Project: Zippered Pouch

Zippered Pouch Tutorial here

Make it Perfect  has a really easy tutorial for a zippered pouch.  I used some different sizes than she did but it all works out the same.   If you have never made a zippered pouch before I suggest you follow her directions.

What I did was to cut two outside pieces of fabric 7 x 8 1/2 and two lining pieces of a separate color 7 x 8 1/2. I also cut a fusible fleece piece 7 x 8 1/2 for the outside only.  I didn't want it too stiff but I did want some body to the pouch.

Then you will want a 7 inch zipper in a color that compliments your fabrics.

these are about 5 x 6

You can use these zippered pouches for



Made of selvages



 many things:  as a make-up bag; as a small item catch all in your purse or gym bag;  as gifts if you make different sizes or use coordinating fabrics; as a cute and unique gift bag; as your sewing items bag......I am sure you can think of a ton more uses for these guys.

Once you make one you can change up the sizes to suit whatever you want to put into them.  The pictures are of a few I have made with something that will give you some perspective as to the sizes.  I used this green polka dotted one (9x7 1/2) in my gym bag holding sweatbands, ties for my hair, a small brush and some wipes for my face.

And you will have several new presents in your Christmas Bag!

glen



The Christmas Project

This is the spot where the Christmas Project will now live.

I wanted to let everyone know that there will be a new and exciting project out this weekend!  Something to put in your bags for your Christmas presents!  Yeah!

I saw some really wonderfully fun tutorials for some pillows over on a blog I follow.  I want to make up a couple and then post the tutorials as a project for you to follow.  However, I can't re-write them, so you will have to click on a link.  It will be OK.



Crazy son in law



I also have a couple of embellishment ideas to write up for you.

Mom only two Christmases ago

Daughter and Grand-Dog

It will be exciting, I promise!

glen



It is a bizzare world!

First the earthquake in Washington/New York/Virginia.  How weird is that?

Here I am watching the TV talking about the Hurricane Irene hitting New York City.  New York City?  WOW!

I wonder if they need any advice on how to ride out a hurricane from us Louisiana folks?  I'll bet they don't know how to board up their windows with plywood.  Or how to make sandwiches and save ice for the days before the lights go out.  Or to put water in the bathtubs so you will have water when the pumps go out or if the water gets fouled by sewerage. 

Or to have that axe in the attic just in case you have to climb into the attic to escape rising waters.  You can chop your way out of the roof.  That is what happened to a lot of Katrina people, they just didn't have their axes in the attic.  The ones who did, were the ones on the roof tops waiting to be rescued.

And I guess you need to have your bags ready to go and get all that loot you will need to survive from the stores, like those big screen TVs, the athletic shoes and the fur coats.  Oh, is that just New Orleans? 

glen

Bug Jar Tutorial

I think I found something really exciting. I am a total insomniac. I stay awake for a long long long time every night after everyone else has gone to bed. I have three dogs snoring softly (some NOT so softly) and I can hear Frank snoring from all the way out in the living room with the TV going! I watch a lot of late night TV and cruise the quilt sights on my iPad until about 2 or 3 AM every night.

One of my favorite blocks has always been the Bug Jar. I have collected fabrics to make a Jar Quilt for a long time but have never really made one. Maybe this will turn the corner on that idea today!

I thought we could make a Fabric Jar Block. I envision a quilt with jars of different colors – one red scraps, one blue scraps, a yellow and a green jar. An orange sitting on one corner and a tall purple one in the middle maybe.

Wouldn’t it be cool to have a whole shelf unit full of different sized jars of fabric? Way cool. You can have mixed up colors of the rainbow in each jar and maybe different sizes of jars of multicolored scraps. You can dream in rainbows! If you can sleep!

Here is how to make a bug jar. I will show you some variations as well and you can get creative from there.

You need a background fabric. And a lid fabric. The coolest lids I have seen are from stripes so find a nice stripe scrap for your lid.

For a 12 inch finished block this will measure 12.5 inches unfinished. Oh, just for reference .125 is 1/8 inch and .825 is 7/8 inch.

Cut:

8.5 x 8.5 of jar contents – this is your made fabric
1.75 x 5.5 – this is your striped fabric lid
Background – 2.5 x 12.5 block top
                      1.25 x 12.5 block bottom

                 Two 2.5 x 8.5 block sides

                  Two 1.75 x 4 lid sides

                 Four 1.5 x 1.5 squares for jar corners

You can make a 6.5 inch jar block by cutting the following:

4.5 x 4.5 jar contents

1.125 x 3 – striped cap fabric

Background – 1.5 x 6.5 block top

                      .825 x 6.5 block bottom

              Two 1.5 x 4.5 block sides

              Two 1.125 x 2.25 lid sides

              Four 1 x 1 squares for jar corners

To assemble:

1. Get your bug jar square made fabric. Mark a diagonal line on your four jar background corners. Place the background fabric corner squares on the four corners of the bug jar square and sew on the diagonal (actually just to the outside of the line). Press toward the outside and trim the excess from the back of the jar. This makes the jar corners.

2. Sew the background jar sides to the sides of the jar piece.

3. Sew the lid between the two lid sides background pieces to form a long skinny strip.

3. Lay out the block in the following order:

block top (background)
lid strip
jar strip
block bottom (background)



4. Sew the block together and trim to 12.5 x 12.5 inches. If you are making the smaller block you will trim your block to be 6.5 x 6.5 inches.

If you want to be creative and make a different size jar you can sketch your block in a program like EQ or on draft paper. Here are some measurements for a tall block and a baby food jar block. You assemble the block the same way as before.

Tall block that finishes 8 x 12. To make it finish 12 x 12 just add 2 inches to your sides to make the block background wider.


For an 8 x 12 finished block:                                             For a 12 x 12 finished block:

              2 x 8.5              Block top (background)                2 x 12.5
              2 x 3.5              Lid (stripes)                                  2 x 3.5
      Two 2 x 3                Lid sides (background)                   2 x 5
            5.5 x 8                 Jar fabric (made fabric)                5.5 x 8
 Four 1.5 x 1.5                Jar corners (background)               1.5 x 1.5
    Two 2 x 8                 Block sides (background)               4 x 8
      2 x 8.5                     Block bottom (background             2 x 12.5

If you want a flat bottomed jar, leave off the two bottom corners of the jar. You can tweak the measurements in any number of different ways and make a variety of different shapes and sizes. Oh, you can make the top corners of the jar larger than the bottom two corners and have a different sort of jar.

Enjoy!

glen

Design Wall Monday 8-21-11

This will be a very busy week, this will be busy.  But the only thing I have right now to show is some bug jar blocks.  I am doing the tutorial for this block on another blog.  I will post it here as well, so you can stop by on Wednesday and see how it is made.

They are cute, I love bug jars.  There are so many variations of the jars that you can make a whole quilt, put them into a “bookcase” and they will look fabulous!

I have been wanting to do a bug jar quilt for a long time.  This just might be the start of one.  And I may get Ann working on some bug jars for some of the grandkids she has.  Wouldn’t that be cool.

My local quilters group might just enjoy a bug jar or two after we finish the Halloween Pumpkin quilt!

glen

Killing Innocent Clams?

It was another beautiful day in the cooking class, that is, until Chef Enzo wanted me to kill the innocent clams.  If he had brought me a container of clams already out of their shells and fried those suckers dredged in flour, it would have been a whole different story.  But once he told me they were alive and sputtering in the bucket there, that was it! 

We began the class with some wine.  We always start out with the wine!  He did some chopping work and instruction on how to properly fillet a carrot.  Carrots can be the bane of a chef's fingertips.  He showed us how to do it and not lose a finger in the process.  The carrots were for the Italian version of a Shepherd's Pie.  Oh, yeah, bambinos, you talk about good!

 The conchiglioni (conch shell pasta) and flat linguine pasta were set to boiling as part of the prelim work.  Oh I can't wait to taste those little shells with the alla Pastora. 

Chef Enzo chopped veggies, demonstrating the carrot chopping technique, and assembled the meats in a sauce pan to reduce to a fine demi glace from some rich beef stock.   This was set to cooking for the next hour or so.  That was my job, stirring the meats.

Then he sliced eggplant thin thin thin to be rolled with this amazing cheese mixture .  Topped with the Fresina's Smooth Tomato sauce it was the perfect appetizer. 

Roasting onions and tomatoes sent the incredible aromas of a real Italian kitchen into the air!  The chicken skewers were seasoned and fried in a heavy cast iron skillet, then plated as one of the main courses.  I was thinking the chicken looked like the satay from Chinese buffets but that was way off the mark!  It was definitely il pollo!

 By now it was time to assemble the conchiglie alla pastora, the Italian version of shepherd pie.  Chef Enzo took us down the dusty roads to the beautiful landscapes of the Tuscan villages on the River Arno where you would stop in and get a plate of this marvelous dish from any of the sun drenched villas among the chianti vines.  Oh, bambinos, this is looking really good.



And he was doing so well, up to this point.  Feeding us beautiful and delicious foods, talking to us in his deep macho Italian voice and romancing the 8 of us with tales of his youth wild in the New Orleans kitchens of his grandfather.  He was doing so well......until we had to kill the clams.

Chef Enzo said they were alive!  Yes, alive!  Oh, no............Jeff said you would hear them scream!  I think I did!  Can't you???????

Ann and Carrie had no problem eating them....they weren't screaming at that point.

Here they are, the poor little clammies.  Drenched in butter sauce laced with lemon squeezed by the fingers of the great Chef and nestled in a soft bed of linguine pasta like they were tucked in for the night.  By their mamas.  They look so sad. Their shells innocently open to the diner hovering above the plate....with a fork!  Poor little innocent clammies.   

And that was my day.  Food and wine and Enzo.  Too bad I can't convince Frank he needs to have a second career as an Italian Chef!  Maybe I'd get some tirramisu every night!

glen:  thanks Chef Enzo!  You ROCK!

Cleaning the Quilting Chair

This is one aspect of cleaning that I think most people don't think about.  Cleaning the quilting chair.  I am not talking about the seat or the back or arms of the chair, but the wheels.  I clean mine about every 3 or 4 months. 

So you don't think about your wheels?  I suggest you stop right here and check them out.    You will be absolutely amazed at what you are going to see in there!

I will tell you how to clean them and what you will need to do so.  I can't tell you how to stop this from happening.  It is a by product of what we do.  We use thread, batting, material.  And our wheels pick up everything we use, like little round dark hard sponges.

Here is one of my before wheels.  It is not the worst one even.  But let's start with that one.

These are the tools of choice for me.  A small but sharp pair of scissors.  I like these because they have long but thin blades.  Did you know that in New Orleans where I grew up my grandmother would put a pair of scissors under your pillow if you could not sleep well.  I guess it was supposed to help you sleep somehow.  It is a wonder my hand is still intact, I sleep with my hand under my pillow.  But I digress. 

A small but sharp pair of scissors with long thin blades.  A pick of some sort.  And some gripping tweezers.

 

Here is the second wheel I was working on.  There are five wheels on my chair, not sure why five is an improvement over four, but I have not fallen over in it yet.  Maybe that is why.

Take your small scissors and clip away as much of the detritus as you can.  Use your excellent tweezers to pull the thread masses out and away from the wheel.  My wheels never come apart but they do come off the chair so I did that to make myself more comfortable.  Of course DiNozzo had to get his nose in there to "help" me.  I moved him out about three times, finally gating myself in the room alone. 

This is one of the remaining wheels.  See the batting in there?  How did I get batting in the wheel well?  No wonder my chair was not rolling well.

At some point you will need to get the big guns out.  Here are my big bubba thread pulling apparatus.  Aparati?  Aparatuses?  Flat nose pliers and needle nosed pliers.  Did you know that a pliers is a lever joined at a fulcrum?  And that pliers were used even before 3000 BC?  But I digress.  

Use your big guns to grasp and pull parts of the thread and batting mass from the wheel wells.  You will need all your tools, the bigs and the littles, to complete this task so don't put anything away just yet.  Continue working the thread mass by loosening with the pick, clipping with the scissors,  pulling with the pliers, and picking with the tweezers.  Do this for several more hours because you have a chair with five wheels. 

Here is a partially done wheel.  When you get to this point you will have to work patiently and carefully.  You will think you are winning, but you are not winning yet.  This requires a steady hand so don't go starting to pour your favorite adult beverage either.  Use your pick to loosen the fibers from the wheel shaft.  Use your scissors to clip what you can.  If your points are small on those scissors you can get way down into the mass and do some good clipping action.  This also goes for your tweezers.  If the points are meeting and actually gripping they will be your best friend here. 

Sometimes all you get is a single thread, but it is really a good thing.  If you can get just one more, you are ahead of the end game. 

This wheel actually looks clean and you will be tempted to stop here.  Yes, you can still see threads in there!  But if you spend just a few more minutes getting the threads out of the axle you will be rewarded with a chair that literally flies across the room with just a minimum of effort!  I did that and ran smack dab into my ironing board.  Luckily when the iron landed in my lap it had not been on.

Aha!  Clean at last.  You too can have five wheels looking just like this one. 

Look at this thread mass. My mother would call it a rat's nest. I really don't think my hair ever did look like that, but that is what she would tell me all the time.

That thread mass is reward in itself.  Look at the colors in there.  And the pieces of fabric.  I'll bet you don't even remember all those fabrics.  Is that ribbon in there too?  Wow.

 I love having a big mass of work product to show for all my effort.  Show yours when you get it done!

Happy Wheel Cleaning!

glen