Quilt magazines

What is your one most favorite quilt magazine?

I get Quilts, Fons and Porter Love of Quilting, Quilters newsletter and sometimes I pick up another one from the newstand.  I used to get Easy Quilts.  I am thinking I will dump Quilters Newsletter, I like it but it has stuff in it I will never do. 

Is there a modern quilt magazine?  I am all into that now a days.

glen

It's that gift horse thing....

Daughter and Son-In-Law came to T'giving dinner, then left to head out to meet his parents at a Casino about 3 hours away for the weekend.  I babysitted the grand-dog.  She realized she forgot her camera and borrowed mine along with the charger.

So upon their return, she brought me the camera when she came to pick up her little Hugeaux.  But as she was driving out of the driveway I realized she forgot to bring me the charger.  This camera eats battery charges.  I really need it.

So I called, no answer.  I called again, no answer.  I know she has the phone nearby because I can hear the texts going off all the time.  So I called several more times as the afternoon went on.  And she has told me before that leaving messages is a waste of time since she never picks them up.

So finally around 8:30 pm she calls me. WHAT? she says.

I request my charger, and she says, Mom, with all the phone calls I thought there was something wrong.  I said, there was, I don't have my charger.

But, she says (thinking she is so wise), did it necessitate SEVEN phone calls?

**************************************

Just wait till she gets home, I call there too!  LOL

glen:  and yes it did!

My month at the Virtual Quilting Bee!

This is so totally exciting.  December is my month to receive blocks from the 15 Minutes Play Virtual Quilting Bee put on by Bumble Beans.   So exciting!

I requested my blocks be monocolor of hot and cool colors and shaped in a rectangle about twice long as wide.  They are loving the mystery.

I'll not share it here lest they sneak over here to spy!

glen:  but it will be fantabulous!

design wall monday 11-29-10

I am pleased to have two quilts on my design wall.  I designed them both, they are for my cousin's two boys.  I scored a passel of dinosuaurs at a garage sale about 3 months ago and knew they would be  an excellent companion for some dino quilts. 

I don't get to see the boys very often, they moved to Albuquerque NM a few years ago.  But their daddy grew up with Frank and I as "Aunt" and "Uncle". 

I know they will love the dinosaurs and the dino quilts! 

I used a panel of dinos I cut up and took all my brightly colored juvenile fabrics and tossed them into the mix.  I stepped outside the box and used some of the techniques I have been practicing in the Virtual Bee over at Bumble Beans.  It certainly pulled me out of the traditional stream of thought!

The two are headed for the quilt machine tomorrow.  I will just do a simple large meander on them to get them done.  I am hoping to have my mother do some of the binding.  That will keep us both busy for a while.

Now if I can just finish them for mailing time!

g

Black Friday

As we all know, Frank goes out on Black Friday every year.  He gets assorted Christmas presents.  I am under the impression that if he does not get your present on Black Friday, you are not going to get anything from him.

We had talked about me wanting an iPad for Christmas.  I kinda like the one Valerie has and I have looked at Ann's Kindle and the Nook and decided I could spend 4 times as much and get a mini computer as well.  Seeing as Frank took over MY laptop for CAAWS stuff.

So he comes home without a package holding anything looking like an iPad.  He said he looked for one, but the prices were not coming down now and he was only going to buy one on sale.  And that he had a better chance of getting one on sale closer to Christmas, if they had not sold out by then and he could get one.  So I figured I would have to buy one on my own.

Later that day we went to Office Depot to get some print cartridges and he asked me what kind of holder Valerie had so IF he found an iPad mine would look different from hers on a table.    I chose a black cover with teal blue suede inside, that sits upright. 

So I now have a folder for an iPad, and I am ASSUMING that he has the iPad.

glen:  he BETTER have the iPad..........

Happy Thanksgiving to all my peoples!

Have a safe, happy Thanksgiving and stay out of the Emergency Vet Offices.

Remember, dogs are conditioned to eat grain based foods, so don't give them meat or worse yet, fat.  That shuts down their pancreas.  And don't feed anything with onions in it, permanently damageing their red blood cells.

Just feed them regular dog food, and CALL it turkey, they won't know the difference!

glen:  This is Lepa hunting for turkey!

Christmas Presents for ME!

I'll bet you thought you had to wait for Christmas to get Christmas presents.  And further, I'd be willing to bet you had to wait for someone else to give you your presents.

Well, not so. 

And none of this is made to say that I don't get good presents, so bear that in mind.

Frank never gives me the presents I REALLY want, and when he does he wants me to buy them and then give them to him to wrap.  So over the years I save a few things, but the things I REALLY want, I buy myself.  He refuses to step inside a quilt shop, so he would stand at the door of the Quilt Corner and they would go get him what I told them I wanted the week before.  He was their funny guy they always told the stories about.  But they loved waiting on him!

I have a daughter and you would think you could rely on her to get the REALLY good stuff for you, but not so with this one.  And when I do get her headed in the right direction, like the cast iron skillet for example, I find one in the junk storage shed of his mother's stuff leftover from after she died and we inherited everything.  (Anyone want 17 snow villages?)

So I just today ordered two books I have been lusting after.  Amish Inspired Modern and Word Play.  I scored Word Play for about 1/2 the price, must have been a sale because it just came out recently from LazyGalQuilting.  Really cool, you must check it out if you want some wacky words on your quilts.

Anyway, I have my own little Christmas present thing going on.  And ti may continue for the entire month of December!  Now on to the boot section.

glen:  and I always get the perfect book and just the right size and color!

Update on the fabric boards

Wow.  Deja vu!  I could have sworn that I submitted this post already.  Now I am wondering what site I posted it to. 

Add to that mystery:  When I started this "new" post, and typed in Update in the title, it came up with the full title like I had done it already.

Hmmm.  This must have been my tipping point between genius and insanity today.

Anyway, I went to the local comic book store (didn't even know I had one until this afternoon) and purchased two more packages of the comic book boards.  He seemed interested in what I was using them for, but not surprised when I told him fabric.  He said that there were a lot of people who had multiple uses for them.

They cost me $9.95 per package of 100 with no shipping!

If you only wanted to purchase one package you could fold the fabric and then take the board out.  The fabric would maintain the shape and size.  However it is good to have the board if you plan on taking pieces in and out of your shelves. 

We built my shelves so I was surprised to find that the boards did not stand up, but required laying down.  I guess I could cut them short to fit the shelves and make it easier to remove the individual fabrics.  But that seems like too much work.

glen

glen

Comic Books and Quilting

An interesting mix, you say.  And you would be very right, it is an interesting mix, comic books and quilting.  But a very useful one.

Check out the before:

And the after:

because of this:

You can purchase fabric storage boards from places like Fabric Warehouse at 4 for $19.99, or from June Taylor for a bargain at $17.19 for four.

I found a place on the internet that sells acid free comic book boards at 100 for $15.00.
I got 1 1/2 times the fabric into the same space.  I am clearly not finished with the rearranging, but I am on the way to get more of these at a local comic book shop!

glen

Bike Ride or can you say “obstacle course”?

Frank led the ride today around LSU Lakes.  LSU really is a beautiful campus, the old oaks are so massive and stately.  The lakes form that edge of the campus that houses many of the dorms for “Proper Southern Ladies”.  Mostly I think it was to discourage those girls from attending college that they were put far on the outside of the main campus crammed into tiny buildings with tiny rooms .  The rooms are tiny tiny and the buildings are falling down.  The Men’s dorms are newer, more modern and have air conditioning.  Most of the women’s dorms do not.  But it was encouraging to see the renovation going on in some of the larger buildings.  Especially now that  the rule is all college freshmen have to stay on campus.

The path that Frank led us on was a test in maneuvering skills.  We had sharp turns up and down street ramps, bumpy asphalt, sharp curves around lake flora and fauna and a few ducks in the road.

The lakes were teeming with wildlife.  (Getting those crossword puzzle words in there.)  The bike paths were crowded with people running, walking and pushing baby carriages.  Navigation was difficult, to say the least.  But the views were beautiful, and I am not just talking co-eds.

 

View Full Album

The day was truly perfect.  We rode past some huge houses that line the lakes just outside the campus.  North and South Lakeshore Drive is where the elite all live.  And we did see a local celeb and good friend, Johnny D’Angelo, famous for his New York Style Pizza.  Any amico con buon alimento is a good friend indeed!  See the turkey in the back of that old truck?  Freddo!  (And you thought I could only curse in Italian!)

View Full Album

Around the lakes we saw lots of avian life.  Some turtles were hanging out on a log but the bikers didn’t want to stop for me to take a picture.   There was that turkey and some chickens, too, interestingly enough.

View Full Album

It was a great day for flying a kite, or just riding a bike.  

More riding next week, we have big plans for the road once again!

 

glen:  exercise your heart good this week!

Screwing with the Post Office

Every year I compile a calendar for my Greater Swiss Mountain Dog Breed Club and another one for the local Foster Rescue Group I am on the board of (and Frank is President of).  I have to mail out the calendars for Southbound Swissy club.  So that necessitates interacting with the US Post Office.

So today I shipped the first wave of 29 calendars for Southbound. The post office is an enigma to me. You do know what an enigma is, right? It is a puzzle that requires ingenuity and careful thinking to solve.

Well. Just saying.


Of course there is no one in the place since it is Saturday. No problem. I have one calendar packages and two calendar packages.  I take a one calendar package, place it on the scale of the self serve postage machine. It weighs the package and asks, like, 95 questions and then I key in the zip code. It offers me several options to send the package, or should I say "large envelope not over 3/4 of an inch thick or more than 14 inches on any given side."

I choose. Cost is $2.07.

This goes on for 5 large envelopes not over 3/4 of an inch thick or more than 14 inches on any given side. Then it refuses to acknowledge that there was a 1 lb package on the scale. I took it off. The screen zeroed out. I put it back on, it went to 1 lb. I have a hard time believing that one calendar is one pound, but I wanted to mail them off without appearing to be a terrorist sending illicit packages in the post. That is why I didn't go to FedEx or UPS. I figured I needed a few guns more than a package to get arrested at the post office.

So I take a couple of other one calendar packages out and the machine refuses to acknowledge these either. I have 4 two calendar packages so I pop one of those puppies on the scale and it registers as 1 lb 14 oz. So that tells me that one calendar is NOT 1 pound, but I don't want to appear to be argumentative, so I accept the verdict.

It seems that two calendars cannot go regular post, they must go priority at $5.15 which is more than twice than one calendar. But I remain calm. I purchase the Priority Stamp and try a 1 calendar package again.

It works. For 2 more calendars, then I get the same deal. I grab another 2 calendar package and this time it reads as $1.90. Hey, I buy the $1.90 stamp and get an idea.

What if I LEAVE the 2 calendar package on the scale where it is registering, and just key in the zip code of where I want the 1 calendar package to go. I am using a heavier package, the correct distance, and taking advantage of a 17 cent sale. So when I get to the end of the 1's and put a 2 calendar package on there, it wants to go back to the $5.15 price.

So I have 3 calendars that went priority at more than twice the price, so I didn't save any money, but the calendars may get there faster.  Howeer if last year is any barometer, it is not necissarily true. and factual

glen

A tribute to a Dear Quilter Friend

I met Pat, oh, maybe 5 or 6 years ago.  She was a picture in my mind.  Superwoman, but a bit more hip, and hair not as long and flowing.  But Superwoman none-the-less. 



Stompin' Stitchers -
Pat in red with silver hair next to me in orange



Over the years I learned so much from her.  She was a quilter of extraordinary talent.  If you had a question, she was there with suggestions and help.  She was a driving force in the CyberFriends Virtual Guild on the internet and Queen of our local bee the Stompin’ Stitchers.  She was always ready to join in and support the group and we participated in many swaps and challenges together.   She never missed an opportunity to do a Project Linus quilt, or and HGTV swap and donation quilt.  We shared tears as we worked on blocks for a memory quilt for our guild friends who lost a loved one.  She gave back. 

In one swap I directed, we all chose a word, hers was  Enchanted.  I was the lucky recipient of her wall hanging, a frog with a huge crown tilted to the side.  She did beautiful work.  See her owl?  It was a block in a Halloween appliqué quilt she was working on. 
We shared a room when we went to Houston.  It was one big huge king sized bed!  I don’t think either of us slept, we were too excited about the quilt show and meeting everyone from the Bee that was spread out among 5 states. 
Her career was with the FBI.  And she told little stories of her work and some of the funny things that people did thinking they would never be caught.  And she told stories of being a woman in a man’s world.  She was the one they looked at when the coffee pot was empty.
She raised four sons as a single mom.  And she never stepped out of their lives. 
It was a shock this morning when I opened the email her youngest son had sent to her quilting friends saying she was gone.  She had just come out of the hospital last week and was feeling good for a change.  Her meds had been changed and she sounded a little optimistic even. And then this email today.  You never know what a day will bring. 
I know there are a lot of people who will miss her.  Her quilting family was vast. 
She made a difference in my life.  And I know she touched many others as well.  I will miss my friend, my quilting friend, Pat.

Christmas Quilt Show

I decided to enter the Christmas Quilt Show over at:

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2010/11/christmas-quilt-show-2010.html

Sewgal sponsors several really cool giveaways during the year, she is always fun to check out if you have a few minutes to go through the wonderful pages of fun stuff.  She shares interests with quilters, embroidery people and appliquers!  She has it all! 

And better yet, as a viewer, you can win prizes too!

This is a quilt I designed using EQ.  It was a challenge for The Stompin' Stitchers Bee of the CyberFriends Guild.  I think I won 2nd place.

The Challenge had everyone send in 6 Christmas Fat Quarters and 6 were distributed back to you for use in your quilt.  You had to use the majority of the FQ.  Mine were so diverse that I thought I would never find a way to get them in there all together.

But this is what happened.  I am hoping to get it quilted this year.  I am going to quilt my ribbon into the label on the back.  That is exactly what I will do!

glen

relatively ramdom

With the respondents in line, I took the random number generator and set it to generate a random number.  It came out as number 1!

So Swooze, send me your address privately to obed101@cox.net
and I will send you a cute little present for being present when it counted!

LOL.

Thanks to all who spend time reading.

glen:  in a huge rush,  back later for more good stuff

200 and Infinity!

OH, this is 201 so the last post was 200.  Lots of interesting things are associated with 200.  The Mayan Civilization began about 200 BC, Talmudic law begins, as does Hinduism.  Wang Ling is born and Mi Heng dies.  There are 200 shekels all over the bible.  In the Tarot, 2 is a balance, partnership and cooperation.  And 0 is the beginning and ending, infinity and limitless potential!
Traditionally people sponsor giveaways, so I will dig around and see. Just reply to this post and I will use the random number generator and pick you!

glen:  happy to be at 200  and looking forward to 1000!

Battery re-charged and ready

Just got back from the hospital, so that was a not so busy morning.  But I did get some hand work done while I waited.

Here is the photo of the quilt on the design wall with the white sashing started on just over 1/3 so far.

 Until just now I didn't realize my little donkey has only one ear!  The poor little guy must be half deaf......

 And here are my completed pieces from this morning.  There are 2 table runners and a tote bag with martini glasses from the Key West fabrics!

glen

design wall monday 11-15-10

Finally!  I have something new and exciting on my design wall.  I was able to work on something new this week!  I am so excited.  It comes about because of Bumble Bean's 15 Minutes Play.  The directive here is to spend at least 15 minutes a day playing with ideas, fabric and creativity.

The Virtual Bee that evolved from that group began a couple of months ago.  Last month's blocks were fabric made from red scraps, slashed with a contrasting color. 

I lusted after those blocks! So when I received my Swap Scraps from my Swap Partner in England, I immediately set to work on my own blocks.

Of course BOTH my cameras were out of juice this morning when I went to take a picture.  So these are the blocks from yestarday.  If you can't see the white fabric (grin) against the white foam board, just over 1/3 of the blocks are set in so far.  There will be a white border, then probably another border of scraps and more white.

I am excited about this one!.

glen

Farmers Market and soup

On Saturday we headed out to the Red Stick Farmer's Market to see what we could score in regards to fresh veggies and fruits.  We did well.  Some snap beans, what must be early Pontchatoula strawberries and some corn and tomatoes. 

With the promise of fresh corn picked on Thursday, I decided to make corn and shrimp soup for lunch. 

I boiled the corn in salted water until done.  Saute the trinity.  For you non-Louisiana people that is onions, bell peppers, garlic and I always add celery.  I love big chunks of my veggies in sauces so I leave them fairly large.  Don't you just love spaghetti sauce that has veggies you can see?  But I digress.

Then you add your shrimp.  I used the rest of the frozen shrimp I had.  You have to take the tails off and chop them into bite-sized pieces.

Then you cook some more. 

Then you add 2 cans of creamed corn, I added my fresh corn or you can add one can of regular corn if you don't have the fresh guys.  And a can of Rotel Tomatoes and Chilies.  Season to taste with salt and pepper.  Cook some more.  You can put some in a blender and cream it but as I said, I really like the chunks of veggies in there. 

What you see in there are the green chilies.  I scored a large amount of yellow bell peppers so my bell peppers are yellow.  If you use the green ones it is more colorful.  The red is the tomatoes of course.  I thought at first that the yellow on yellow would be bland but you can actually see the different yellows and I find the yellow bells are sweeter than the greens.

I brought some over to Carrie and Andrew who were busy expanding their garden in the back.  She bought a sea grape and a peach tree to plant along with her elephant ears and butterfly bushes.  Allium bulbs will be intermixed with the greens to make a really wonderful presentation.  She is turning out to be quite the  accomplished landscaper !

Andrew, I am not so sure about.

I guess I didn't think that one through!

A number of mornings I make a shake for breakfast consisting of a fruit, oatmeal, yogurt, cinnamon, honey and soy milk.  It is quite good when blended together and very healthy.  It keeps me from getting hungry at least until lunch.  We always have an abundance of bananas being they are the most favored fruit of Frank's life.  And blueberries.  The blueberries are frozen during peak blueberry time and give the shake a nicely chilled and purple appearance.  I have used other fruits from time to time, but generally there is a banana in there. 

So I decided that since the frozen blueberries make the shake so nice, I would freeze a couple of bananas to make it nicer.  So at the grocery yesterday I tossed in some 5 extra bananas. 

Upon arriving at home, I tossed the 5 extra bananas into the freezer.  When I pulled them out this morning I realized I had not thought this through yesterday.

How did I think I was going to get the skin off?

glen

Go forth and eat chocolate avocados

I received this totally unsolicited advice this morning from my boxing club.  But I love avocados so I won't complain.  I am hoping they send me more info like this, I like to know that what I am eating can do things.  Like chocolate has endorphins.  I like that, cocoa puffs ARE good for you!

Super Foods for Super Health: #1 Avocados

Rich in good for you monounsaturated fats, avocados also contain phytonutrients like cholesterol-lowering beta-sitosterol and cancer-protective glutathione, along with vitamon E, folate, vitamin B6, and fiber. These creamy "vegetable fruits" contain more blood-pressure lowering potassium than bananas. (Enviromental Nutrition2006

 

HAPPY VETERAN'S DAY!  I live with an Air Force Vet and it is a wonderful feeling to know he has given back to his country in the most honorable way anyone can.  My brother and grandfather were Marines, my dad was Navy, my two uncles and father in law were Army, and Frank's brother was a career Army man.

So thanks to all our men and women who have served our country.  We would not be free like we are today without you!

ACK! Snowballs

Back at the grindstone again.  This morning I went to see my mom.  I was going to attempt to take her to Starbucks for breakfast but after an hour of her getting dressed I needed to leave to head to boxing class. I did manage to tidy up some piles of paper and stuff and get the bushel of dirty clothes before I left. 

Then on to the Grand-dog Hugeaux.  He was so glad to see his grandma!  I love it when they are excited to see me.  Of course his alternative was staying in the crate till Carrie came home, so I guess he was plenty glad to see his grandma.  We walked around the subdivision which is about a mile.  Why am I still fat?  I do all this healthy walking and boxing and riding and stuff?

I stopped at the library and got another tape to sew by.  This one is about the farms that were taken up when they created the Great Smokey Mountain National Park. 

Then I came home, finished up the last of the lasagna for lunch.  Well, there's your problem, you say.  Not so, grasshopper!  I use low fat everything and make my own sauces, and use Eggland's Best eggs, all the healthy stuff. and we have eaten for 4 days now on that lasagna.  Small, pre-cut pieces.  With broccoli, and ice tea with not even Splenda (which raises your blood sugar as much as sugar does). 

The snowball problem persisted.  Why does every pattern have some screw up?  Well, let me rephrase that.  Why do I screw up every pattern?  I know I cut the required amount of snowball pieces in the first step.  I know I did.  So why do I not have enough?

I made 5 more yesterday.  But those were the ones I had not completed.  So they were not extra.  Today I cut an additional 4.  And now I need 4 or 5 more.  How does this happen?

It really aggravates me.  I live right, eat right (most of the time), spend lots of time and money helping unfortunate animals, make interesting food for Carrie during the week, drive my blind friend around even though it aggravates me to spend hours in waiting rooms, make charity quilts, spend time with my Alzheimer Mother, took care of the Evil Mother In Law when she was dying and my Alzheimer Aunt when her kids abandoned her AND put up with Frank?

So if I do all this good, why can I not get these snowballs right?

glen   

Ok, Ok, I am working…..geez

Alright, y’all have pestered me enough.  I spent the morning getting my chores done and after lunch started working on the Snowball Mystery Quilt.     I have a tape going.     Good book but depressing.  If you want to know what is going on right next to Obama as he lives it up in Mumbai, India, it is a must read.

Getting close.  I find I did not make enough snowballs.  So I will make them tomorrow.  I have a Tea Party Meeting tonight. 

Yes, you heard right.  I am a great leader of the radical movement. 

Right now, I am concerned about my snowballs.  And this is only one of the quilts.  I have to piece blocks on the other one.  But the good thing is that I only need one to show up at the Guild meeting.  Two will be langiappe.  But only one is required.  Yes, required, since I am the Mystery Leader. 

If you have an idea for a good mystery for next year, let me know.

glen