The Big Party!

Yesterday was the Big Party Day.

I spent 5 days working on the house.  That schedule taped to my counter helped a lot.  I always knew where it was and could add things as they needed to be done. You always have last minute things you think of like the proverbial:

*%$(OMG! Why didn't I do that 3 DAYS ago?)*&%

It helped, it didn't completely erase those moments!

Diane, Carrie Jason Sawyer

One of which was the Fruit and Veggie Trays.  I ordered them from Albertson's and then I asked Frank to grab them when he went out for the ice on Saturday morning.  He comes back with a cereal bowl full of chopped fruit and a kid sized tray of carrots and broccoli with a tablespoon size of dip between them. 

Gary and Matt

Really?  This looks like a Veggie Tray to you?  So in order to allow my guest to have veggies if they wanted them, 

I resolved to only eat the brownies.  I made sure we had LOTS of brownies!

Matt and Sawyer

Other than that, things went really well.  I sat there thinking that these people will never get together like this again.  Rodney's Alzheimers is getting worse.  Ethan is starting his senior year

Karen, Michelle, Kenny

Gary, Carrie, Andrew

Kenny or my Dad (either way, same face)

Michelle

 in Denver, Matt just finished his Plebe year at the Naval Academy.  My brother's kids are getting scattered - one in Kentucky and one in New Orleans.  

It was a good time we were together, talking about the things we used to do.  Grandma and Aunt Annie and how they watched all of us at one time or another.  

Matt and Sawyer

The young cousins got to meet their youngest Cousin Sawyer and the oldest Rodney got to take charge of my kitchen and do what he loves best:  be the Chief Cook and   Entertainer.  

Ethan and Lucas were off somewhere with video games and the dogs  They are getting two golden retriever pups on Sunday for Jason's workshop.  

I hope the Bassets modeled good dog behavior examples.

I don't know why I don't have a photo of Rodney.  He was really enjoying himself.  He spoke in his Cajun French and flirted with me when I was drying the dishes he was washing.  He was out there working the grill to help Frank with those Amazing Ribs, He had a great day!

And the dogs were perfect.  Well, once you get over the first 15 minutes of :

+*&^%#    OMG PEOPLE ARE HERE 

AND WE ARE SO $%@ HAPPY TO SEE THEM $#%^*

There was even one time when  the front door was wide open and people were leaving and DiNozzo was just standing there waving goodbye to everyone.  He didn't even step out!  

What a good dog I've raised!

What a Great Party I threw.

And despite the fear that I was hiding the number of people I had invited and that 30 people would really show up, Frank survived too.

I asked him, if you thought I was hiding people from you then why did you get such a tiny bowl of fruit?

A Finish, New Shoes and a Brag

 My cousin Karen had asked me for a donation for the Cadet Ball in the spring. The Blue Star Mothers group for the Navy Cadets raises money to send their cadets to the event.  I volunteered to do a quilt.

I finished it about two weeks ago, but put off the binding.  Finally finished it last night.

We are meeting this Thursday for lunch and I will deliver it.

Oops! you can see my mistake in the lower right corner block!




And this is my baby!  I taught her everything she knows!!!

Well, I taught her everything she needed to get there anyway.  This is in the Baton Rouge Business Report.

She won the 2017 Emerging Professional Award from the Louisiana State Board of Interior Design.










I got new shoes in the mail today from Yes We Vibe.  I fell in love with the styles and he shoes are very comfortable. If you love running shoes with amazing graphics you will need to check these out.

I don't get anything, I just love them!

Bored? Let's Clean Some Vintage Linens!

When I was with my VetCousin Karen at my mom's funeral, she gave me some more of her mom's stuff she has been saving for me.

Her mom and dad moved back to Louisiana from Chicago after he retired.  I don't think Uncle Angelo was still alive when Katrina hit, but their house in Metairie flooded.  It took Karen and Matt a long time to get the house cleaned out and reconstructed.  There was such a shortage of qualified (or even unqualified) workers and roofers during that time.  It was over 4 years before it was ready to move back into.

Aunt Evelyn didn't make it back into the house.  She died quietly one morning at Karen's as the last touches were being put on the house.

This was the story of so many of the older people who lived their lives in middle class subdivisions, middle class lives, middle class houses.  Katrina was not all about the poor, homeless and helpless.  So many of the ones like my family didn't make the news, didn't make the government rosters, didn't make the TV programs.

One is Wilendure and the other is was one of the state tablecloths popular in the 60's.

This one happens to be of Florida with all the fun people playing on the beach under palm trees and visiting St. Augustine and the Fountain of Youth.

I have no idea what to do with that Florida one, it does not lend itself to be cut up easily.  The Wilendure is easy to visualize.  I actually have a book dedicated to making quilts out of the old Wilendures.

But, my pretties.......................








Before I can do any of that I need to take care of these age stains.  They are most likely stains from dampness, possibly from any starch used.  Although silverfish LOVE starch and these have no damage.  Keep that in mind, don't store anything you have starched for any long periods of time.










I researched the best way to clean these was to soak them in the tub overnight with Oxyclean.  I will warn you, the smell is so sickly sweet it may not make all night.  I get migraines from those smells so I have the door closed and the vent on.  And I still smell it in the front of the house.

The Oxyclean will not damage the fabric or your hands so plunge right in.  Do not put the linens in your washing machine.  It will tear up the fibers.

That said, since I can't do the wringing work with my bad arm, I will put mine in the delicate rinse only.  I have one of the newer machines where you can control everything.......except the water level, drives me crazy. 







The third table cloth came with 6 or 8 napkins in that same stripe.  The napkins will make a fabulous block center for a Navajo style top.  The Tablecloth itself was going to be the quilt back, but I am now thinking it might be too  thick.  It is woven.  Ah, maybe not........I shall discuss it with people and see what they think.  After all, batting is "thick", isn't it?

It also has stains but I didn't want to risk the colors running into the other two tablecloths all bunched up in the tub together. 

But don't tell Frank they are in the tub soaking......OK?

Nudes Bathing Continued

the Nudettes have progressed one step more. However, I did not work on them Monday.  I cleaned house.  Cousin Karen and son Matt were up for the State Science Fair at LSU today.  He has gotten through his school, the regional of 11 parishes and now he is competing on state level.  His project involves the osmosis of oxygen in algae plant cells.  Amazing.

Last year he was interviewed by Duke University as part of the program where they recruit pre-high school kids for their University later on.  Amazing.  He is 14.  Even more amazing.  So Duke tracks him academically.

He and mom Karen were inundated with bassets last night!  And they loved it.

Walker

Swimmer

The Nudes Bathing have progressed to where they are no longer formless ideas.  They have bodies!  I added a bit of hair made with yarn to see what it would look like.  But I am actually going to use embroidery thread for the hair.

And I need more leaves. A lot more.  And a natural looking way to put them on.  I need to go look at trees today.

 This is the fabric I used for the transition between water and land.  It looks like sand and does the work for me by employing the stripes in the yellows and greens.  I could not have done a better placement of color for that part.

The Walker needs something in the background, like mountains or something.  What do you think?  Is she too large scale for the background?  I have another smaller figure I could cut out.

Here they are with the hair and the tulle placed in the water.  I love the way it looks like their bodies are submerged and you are seeing though crystal clear water! The tulle makes such a difference in the pieces.  I thought, well, maybe it doesn't really matter, but it does!

I bought three blues and this one is the perfect tone.  Maybe if I had some of those crystals it would look like the water was sparkling!

It is not looking like anything I had in my head.  Does that happen to you?  The failure of the process between your head and your hands?  I guess the fact that my head has all the fabric in the world and my hands are limited to what is in my room!

I am stoked, so many people are loving this!  Thank you all for your comments.  I totally appreciate them.  I had the largest hit of people looking at the post of all my posts so far!

Whole lot of rain and a little bit of sewing going on

On Wednesday, I drove down to to Middendorfs to have a long lunch with Cousin Karen and finally get our Christmas present to exchanged.  We had the famous thin fried catfish Middendorf's does so beautifully.  Oh my, that is good.

Cousin Karen gave me a basket full of foods to cook.  She knows I LOVE to cook.  Lots of great looking soups and seasonings.  Can't wait to get into some of those packages.

The weather was so bad on the way down, the fog was thick as pea soup,  I took several photos to show you what a brave girl I am, driving on my ow.  In a torrential storm.  I definitely had my big girl panties on!  Normally you can see the cypress trees that line the bayou along the elevated highway.  You can barely see the vehicle in front of me.




There were several accidents along the way where people had skidded off the roadway.





 There should be no water in this photo!  That is not a lake, it is runoff that has not yet runoff into the Amite River.  Right along the side of the highway.






I went yesterday to have my hair done, I now sport some stripes!  Yes, I look sort of like a tigress!  Beware!

This afternoon I helped a friend set up a blog.  It was like the blind leading the blind as some times.  She would say somthing, I would think it meant something else.  Then we would laugh.

I started on Maylee's quilt.  First I cut up the cute little onesies and piled them up.  Then I put a double sided, oh what do you call it, stitch witchery stuff, on the back and trimmed them down a bit.  Then I adhered them to a thin white fabric to server as a stabilizer.  I like doing that better than

 I decided to put a sashing around each block since they are all different sizes and colors.  I was making it up as I went along!  Imagine that!

Here is what I ended up with so far

The Quilt I Can't Show You - Karen don't look at this post until we have lunch tomorrow

I just finished the quilt I can't show you.  I can't show you because it is my mystery quilt for this year.  But I have mine to the top stage as of now.  I love it.

I did make a mistake and need to rip out a section and turn it around.  I didn't notice that I had done it incorrectly until I had it on the design wall and was trying to design a baby quilt  around one of the corner blocks.  I realized that the two corners were not the same.

Easily corrected.

The other problem I had was not having a large enough difference in my value between my print fabric and my light.  The dark is dark!  But the Print and the Light are too close to medium, so remember to not make that problem when you get your fabrics.

You need a print first.  And take the print to pull two colors, a dark and a light.  And if you have any question shoot me a picture or bring it to a meeting and let me look.  I thought mine would be no problem and it way.  Big time.

I wish I could show you, I really do love the mystery quilt once again.

I will be meeting my cousin tomorrow to bring Matt's Saints Quilt to him along with his pillow and Karen's Siamese Kitty Duffle bag.  Remember that?

I hope to remember to take pictures tomorrow!

And it has rained steadily all day, and maybe tomorrow even.  Travel is not recommended!

glen

Karen, If You Are Reading This....Close Your Eyes

This is my cousin Karen's Christmas present.  She will love it.  She and her son Matthew the Smartest Kid in the World, both love cats.  Their foray into dogs was not a blazing success, but the cats have definitely been their thing.  She is an acupuncture vet who does only the acupuncture now.  Always interesting, that girl.

These are Siamese, if you please.....thank you Anne - I agree, I think it was Lady and The Tramp....

I finished this duffle bag about 9 pm tonight.  I did use a different batting inside, this one is the fusible pellon batting, 785 I think.  I already tossed the info on it.  It made if stiffer and it stands up where the other one with the 80/20 batting is really soft and needs stuff inside.  Both are the same in utilization ability but this one is prettier with nothing in it.  And it has cats.  Karen will think that makes it better anyway.

Don't you love it?  I am so impressed with these bags.  I am addicted to them.  The worthy this year may just get a duffle bag with their quilt!  LOL.  Maybe you need to click on this one showing the inside, it has little cat feet!  Like the Chicago Fog and Carl Sandburg.  Karen is from Chicago.......wow......that is amazing, it was meant to be!


THE fog comes

on little cat feet.

It sits looking
over harbor and city
on silent haunches
and then moves on.

I love the size and the shape and the ease of making it.  I will be at Red Stick on Tuesday with April and Ann and Charlene and we will all make one.  If you are interested, this is not a class but we can all work on one, I will send you the pre-info and you can make the fabric sandwich and do the cutting before we get together so it will finish in aobut 3 hours.  The longest part is the quilting the fabric part so I am thinking on how to do it on the long arm.........hmmmm.


I had hoped to finish the other one this weekend but I don't think I will have the time.  I am going on the Shop Hop in Houston leaving Friday morning with the Gang of Women from REME Guild.  That would be Remember Me Guild here in Baton Rouge.  We are still whining from the news that we have to leave at 7 fricking AM before all that is good and dawn has hit the streets.  But we will make it.

And I guess I will have to buy something at each shop, you know, just to be kind.   My Stash busting numbers are pathetically low right now anyway, so why not blow it in Texas!

And Sunday, Jason comes in town and we have a fish fry at his momma's house in Addis.  Addis is like BFE, but closer.  And cooler.  And Jason.




                                                      glen