Alright Already

Happy Thanksgiving.  Hope you and your family are safe and ready to head home soon.

What a day yesterday!  I cleaned the house on Tuesday, top to bottom and even bathed the dogs because I forgot to make the appointment for the vet to bathe them and they were slammed full for the holiday.  The new, larger shower with the long hose and wand set up actually made it quite easy.  The worst part was the bending over.  My back has been killing me for a couple of days and this did not help at all.

But the dogs were cleaned and not too traumatized.  They naively went into the shower, which is large enough to be another room anyway. I probably won't get them to walk into the shower ever again though!

Post from Charlene:  Bonnie Hunter has a new mystery quilt you should do.
Reply:  No

I cooked all day yesterday.  I made carrot cake cupcakes with the requisite cream cheese frosting, candied yams with three Louisiana Yam varieties one of which was purple topped with Louisiana naval oranges, long green beans and long carrots done in the instant pot, cranberry sauce done in the instant pot, banana pudding and whipped cream, fried apples in the instant pot from North Louisiana apples and Brown sugar and Pineapple with Dijon mustard glazed spiral cut smoked ham.

My neighbor sent








 her famous fudge and Frank's cousin Patsy brought the Louisiana Pecan Pie.

I used about 5 lbs of Louisiana cane sugar, 10 lbs of brown sugar and a few vegetables.

Post from Charlene:  All you have to do is to make a couple of 4 patches.
Reply:  No - she will want 5,736 of them.  

We drank wine, beer, fancy root beer, Dr. Pepper, cokes, Sweet Southern Iced Tea and chocolate milk.   And ate ourselves silly.

Sawyer loved his Aunt Patsy and Aunt Stacey.  He had such a big grin when he saw them!  And he played them for all he was worth!












We discussed contrails vs chemtrails and how the government is trying to knock us off.  And ancestry.  Frank's side of the family goes back to Daniel Boone's uncle Jeremiah Boone.  But when Frank got his DNA results back there was no Native American in there.  And his genes were mostly English and the Boones were Dutch.  Who knows that far back though.  He did have that coonskin hat when he was a kid in the 50's.

Post from Charlene:  All you have to do is make 12.  You can make 12 just like that. 15 minutes tops.
Reply:  No, she will never stop wanting more.

Frank went out last night to get a jump on the Black Friday Sales.  He bought some things, he said, although I didn't see them come inside.  I am hazarding a guess here that he has bought my Christmas present.  In a heated argument last week I told him that he always ends up going out at the last minute and trying to find a present for me.  And I am tired of old lady jewelry from J C Penneys and Sears.

My neighbor two doors down just returned home from a massive hospital stay.  She  was stabbed by her brother in law trying to help her sister.  He was stabbing her sister and ended up killing her.  My neighbor was critically injured and has a lot of stab wounds.  She is healing physically, I imagine it will be a while for the mental healing to come.  I can't even imagine.  So far, the police have not found him.  I guess he is long gone from here by now.

Post from Charlene:  If you don't like them, you can just send them to me.  come on, you can do it, can't you?
Reply:  What size?  You know I am going to hate this, right?

I talked to my other cousin, who has her son home from the Naval Academy.  She is playing proud Momma this weekend.  I know I would!

Post from Charlene:  Come on...….you may end up loving it!
Reply:  I won't, I refuse to like it.  But I will see what I can do.

My fiber group met and we shared some really interesting work.  I am going to direct you to Our Fiber Exploration Blog for this month's sharing pieces.

Fiber Explorations Post click here
Fiber Explorations post click here


Post from Charlene:  That's the spirit!  You go girlfriend!
    Reply:  I refuse to reply...…

I am too busy making 4 patches...……..

Drop Cloth Tote #2

Two down and 4 to go.  I need to change the look of the totes so they don't all look alike.  Not to worry, I don't have anymore of those green flowers!  All gone!  Finished up and opened a spot for another lovely to fit into!

Yes, you know I will just buy more.


In fact I bought more this afternoon!  I bought 2 1/2 yards of a brown tiny dot for the football.  It is getting washed.  I don't normally wash my fabric but I had a load ready to go in and it took the ride with the skivvies.

 Here is a women you can be jealous of.  16 feet long.  She does incredible work that wins awards.  She has a thriving business quilting for people all over the area.  You would think such a person would be stuck up and not interested in lowly me?    But she is a wonderful and kind and sweet as can be! 

She hosted the Modern Quilt Guild at her home and studio for a question and answer session about long arm quilting.

Thank you Charlene!  (Don't you love that chandelier?)  There is another one in the tree in her backyard! If you look closely in the window you can see it!

First We Have Birthday Eve......

Then the original Birthday Day.  Then we have the Post-Birthday Day, that was yesterday.  Then we have the Birthday Weekend!  That is today and tomorrow!  Dinner with Carrie and Andrew tonight and more presents! Whoopee!

Met with buddy Charlene and cute as a bug hubby Stelly this day, and we had soul food lunch near the Alley where she will be Bowling (hence the bowling alley) in the Women's State Tourney.   GO CHARLENE!

And I am now the proud recipient of the most incredible Stonehenge fabrics!  And a pattern that will make your fingers itch with desire!

Monet and the perfect Stonehenge to start it off.



Of course, my "fabric diet" has suffered as much as my waistline with all the birthday partying.  I guess I have to claim it as an IN on my Stash Count.

No, I won't give it back!  I really do love it.  Well, lust for yourselves:

Lighthouses!

A very very good friend of mine knew just what we needed.  Frank has been complaining to everyone about me not making him a lighthouse quilt for his bed.  Well, not really his bed, but the bed in his office.  His office has lighthouse stuff all over it.  He likes them, I guess.

Anyway.  He has a quilt he bought from somewhere, one of those made in China.  It is pretty and has lots of lighthouses all over it, hand pieced and hand quilted.  But it is falling apart and he has been asking me to make him a new one, just like it!  Well, I am not going to do all that, and I have other stuff going on, so it has never gotten made.

But he has not stopped asking, and now he has resorted to the "shame" method.  He tells everyone about how beautifully I quilt and how wonderful all my nice machines are, and how happy he is to be able to live in amongst piles and boxes and shelves of fabrics from all over the world.  Arriving daily via the post and UPS even.

Then he tells people about his falling apart China quilt and how I won't make him one of his own.

And he turns pathetic looking eyes to me.

Now, that melts the hearts of everyone in hearing distance.

So Charlene from the Bayou gives me (in front of him, I might add) this beautiful pattern for a lighthouse quilt, and says Happy Anniversary!

LOL.  I guess Frank is going to get his lighthouse quilt! We have visited many of the lighthouses so he was all over that pattern when we got home.  It even had the Lake Pontchartrain lighthouse we use to see as a kid but now has sunk into the silt at the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain!

And thanks Charlene, I really love the pattern.  I have some hand dyes that will be perfect for it.  And I plan on getting back into some dyeing myself again.  He may have the most beautiful quilt in the world when it all ends with the binding and the label!

I guess she is going to keep me straight, when she visits here she sleeps under that old quilt from China!  So I am sure she is going to want to sleep under the NEW lighthouse quilt soon enough.

glen:  and that is pretty cool!

Sew Day in the Red Stick

I just found out that it is Reptile Mega Month at PetsMart. Not that I am interested in anything reptile, I just thought you may want to know that odd factoid.

I left my Cheetos at home.....

Charlene, my trucker lady

Ann, my LSU friend

I, on the other hand,  spent today with 5 friends, and a few more who dropped in randomly to say hi, at the Tuesday Sew Day at Red Stick, the wonderful new quilt shop. Rachel is a sweetie to let us use the beautiful room with its natural lighting.  I can get some stuff done in there.

However, I was sort of scattered today. I brought the bottom part of my challenge block to do, but not the block to put it on.......duh!

Jeanette, my shirt expert

And I brought the fabric to make the small duffles, but not the batting To make The quilted outside ......duh!

So I just gave up and helped Jeanette cut 5 1/2 inch squares out of her late husbands shirts.

 Duh..........I can do THAT!!!!!

Good thing Frank was in charge of the planting of the sweet bay leaf trees this weekend.  Hugeaux approves.  He stayed with us for the weekend because his momma and daddy went to the Country Music Fest at LSU.  Did I show you these already?  Such a long weekend, I can't remember.  And there is that scattered thing........duh.

Can you see the tiny tiny tiny parsley plant to between the drain pipe and the left tree?  Tiny is the operative word here.  I am thinking I need some lettuce around them as well.  Carrie is having a bad problem with slugs this year.  And something is eating my coleus.  The coleus always do well.  I have not found they have many enemies, which is why I love them.  But for some reason they are getting eaten this year.  And my petunias and marigolds are eaten all up.  Greg brought me some bromilliad pieces and I tore up the petunias to put them in.  The petunias were totally gone down to the stalk.

Sigh.......but the birds have left the tomatoes and the figs alone.

glen

Ellies get trimmed

I trimmed the ellies tonight.  I sucked it up and just whacked them but good.  See the dog from my class with Judy Holley up in the left top corner?  He is sitting and watching me!  Waiting for me to make him some friends!


I went to see Stelly bowl in the International Bowling Tournament today.  We had never been to one before and I wanted to see Charlene and Stelly.  But the whole place was amazing!  The Bowling Tourney people bring the entire bowling alley right to your town and set it up in your civic center!  Just like that!  Here is a photo of the entire 56 or 58 lanes there.  Stelly bowled on #1 so we were at the far end of the center.  (It used to be called the Centroplex but now they call it something else.  The New Orleans evacuees from Katrina stayed there and tore up the place so they did a major remodel that finished last year.)  It will always be the Centroplex to me though.  Whatever you call it, it was just amazing to see the transformation.

I had a whole post here but the blog-s-sphere ate it so I am redoing it.

Here are Charlene and I cutting up.  And normal. (yeah, right)  See my new sexy blouse?  With the lace cut out sleeves!  Yes.





Here is Stelly bowling.  It was so wonderful to watch him do what he loves.  Wait, wait, wait......till he turns around..........(but he does have a cute butt!)

Here is the handsome guy!  He is so so sweet, I love him!


I should be heading to Lafayette tomorrow for a class with Sue Nickels.  But I got a call from the nursing home saying I could meet with the doctor before his rounds tomorrow.  I am sure it is about the darned feeding tube.  They keep asking me and I keep saying no.  So I will do so again.  Kenny should be here saying no too, but you know how that is.

Anyway, I shall be there.

And Tuesday I have a sew day with the Traveling Quilter Woman.  She is returned from her journey to the East to vast and exotic quilt stores.  I can't wait to see her treasures!

glen

Winner announced! CATZ! made!

About 4 posts back I had a little giveaway and I would like to announce the winners.

Since only four of you loyal followers posted I think that I shall reward ALL of you with a pattern from my pattern group.   Say it, good for me for diminishing! 

Swooze, stephanie, jill and marie.  (Stephanie, DiNozzo will be in the mail as well, he ate his 9th pair of sunglasses and learned to open the cabinet that holds the doggy bones.) ( and see below for more bad behavior.)

So send me your name and address in a private email to

obed101 (at) cox (dot) net



I will add two more to the pile and you will each get one.  I need to charge up my camera from today's cat activities to take the extra pattern photos so you will have to wait to see what you won.  I thought about asking you which one you wanted but was afraid one would be so popular and three would get their feelings hurt so I will make the decision blindfolded and just stuff one into each envelope without regard for names.

That is the most fair and least work for me!  Which is what make it attractive, the least work for me part.



What an angel!





What an innocent baby.



While we were at the CATZ! class, DD Carrie stopped by the house to steal  borrow the Spot Bot.  I didn't ask what for because they have concrete floors through the house.  Hmmm.  She brought lunch with her from Taco Bell and set it in the middle of the breakfast table while she took the dogs out to pee.  She put DiNozzo and Dutch inside while she went looking for what Chloe was barking at way in the back.  She returned to no lunch.  She called me quite perturbed and said she assumed it was DiNozzo and that I needed to watch him because he ate the wrappings too and that I owed her a lunch.

I KNOW it was DiNozzo.  Dutch is the GOOD dog!  The way I see it is DiNozzo owes her a lunch so I stopped and bought a bag of dog food for her.

Here are some pictures from the CATZ! tutorial I did today.  We did have some help from the real cats.  Freida wanted to give us technical advice on cat making. 

Ann's is the blue paisley.  It makes a stunning contrast for the cat.  I think each of her cats will be a different color.  She is using some bright colors so it will be a fabulous piece when complete.  And best of all -- Ann did curved piecing with ease!  And she kept thinking it would be difficult - oh ye of little faith!

Paula decided to practice the paper piecing portion.  Hers will be all different colors as well, but her kitties will be Country Barn Cats. 

I am doing batiks leftover from the extra I bought for the BQ.  I will take a picture later when I get a whole one put together.  Remember, I was teaching too!  LOL.

Charlene was the first to finish a whole cat.  And an orange cat!  The rest of us did bits and pieces of a cat here and there.  The best part of the day was the laughing.  And the highlight of that was when Charlene cut -- not once but twice -- the wrong part of her section she had just sewn on to the foundation.  Every time I would look at her exasperated face, I would crack up again.  And you know how laughter is contagious.  Pretty soon we had everyone laughing!

Which is probably why we didn't get too many more finished!  And it wasn't because of that chocolate wine or the pasta e fagioli I made for lunch.  Or the "real made from a pumpkin" pumpkin pie.  But all that helped!

glen:  next time you'll want to come, huh!

Ami Simms Workshop in Lafayette

It was just as wonderful as Charlene said it would be! 

http://geemaswonderings.blogspot.com/2011/08/ami-simms-workshop.html

I actually like that picture of me laughing at her!  It must be the first time I have ever liked a picture of myself.  I guess we are all like that.

Ann and I were not without our problems as we attempted to meet for 7 AM to head out to Lafayette.  We both ran late but ended up getting there in plenty of time to find the church and set up our stations.  We got the added benefit of hobnobbing with Ami Simms for some personal time!

Ami Simms is the brainchild behind Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative or AAQI.  Thousands of quilters make 9 x 12 quilts for auction and sale.  Proceeds go to Alzheimer Research.  She has raised more than a half million dollars from these sales.  For more information or to donate or buy one of these marvels go to:

http://www.alzquilts.org/index.html

Oh yes, the workshop! I taught everyone how to get focus on a scatterbrained dog, how to extinguish a bad behavior and......oh, you mean the Twisted Sister Workshop!  LOL.

Here is everyone!

                                                    And here are Ann, me, Ami Charlene and Dottie hamming it up for the camera while Mary stole my blocks............

Twisted Sister looks difficult, but is not.  And that makes the block totally worthwhile to make!  It does use a template....and partially pieced seams.......well, maybe it is a bit difficult, but it was so much fun!  When I decided on Halloween fabrics, I knew Mary would be lusting after my stuff.  What I didn't know was that she was going to be there.  I had to keep a close eye on my blocks because between Mary and Charlene they nearly walked off several times.

Ann and I had found a perfect fabric combination for her TS blocks.  Of course you never know how it will come out until you actually put it together.  It was obviously a winning combination!  Check out her first block.

There were so many different combinations of fabric and ideas that all were fabulously different.  Throughout the workshop Ami was teaching, she never stopped working with individuals and pointing ways of doing things out to the group as well. She had a "train" of people following her as she walked through the class. 

Charlene worked in teals and browns.  This will be a DG quilt and I think it works for a guy graduate!  I do!  Boy, do those lights pup with that teal in the center!  What a great eye-catching combination. H  Her pallet was laid out on the table and I was definitely drooling. 






Here are some other blocks.  Some I know who they belong to, some I don't.  But they are all gorgeously fabulous!





This one will be exciting!



I love the colors here





Dottie




This was a strip material, wow!




Mary




Karen





Linda



Krotz Springs Quilt Guild Show

Frank drove me to the KSQG show this afternoon.  There were several bridges we had to pass over to get there.  Judy would never have made it!  We didn't have to cross that red one, it was a fabulous rail road bridge.  Don't you love it!  Every time I see a bridge now, I think of Judy!

What a good hubby he is.  But he was rewarded by several people who knew him there!

One was an old and dear friend Jan and her momma Arlene.  They lived one street behind us growing up and then again across the street from us when we moved to Hammond.  We were such good friends.  And all those years I never knew either one of them quilted until we ran into each other at the Pontchatoula Show.  Jan runs that show each year.  Amazing.  I turned around and just saw her there calling my name! 

And my blog buddy Charlene!  It was so good to see her!  We were like old friends, knowing each other for years!   Her guild put on the show.  I really expected that after I drove ALL the way to see their wonderful quilts that they would have let me win SOMETHING!  But no.  Came away with only a purchased bag from their guild.  Sigh.  Wouldn't you know, I didn't get our pictures together.  Darn.

Their guild show is really nice.  A lot of quilts for sale and a large number of raffle items were available  Had I know that ahead of time I would have come gunning for bear!  They had many mystery quilts hanging that were really nice. It may be a good one to use at River City one year.  No matter what fabrics were in each one, it was pretty. 

I was definitely impressed with their show, and hope that our show in August will be as good. 

glen:  thanks Charlene, for having me to tea today! LOL