New Year's Eve Bird #31

Happy New Year!

The Daily Bird quota has been met!  31 days in December and 31 birds. 

Bet you didn't think I could do it.  There were some close calls when I fell behind, and I caught up....several times.

We will celebrate the old year's dying by keeping McGee from dying.  He is terrified by fireworks and the sound.  There are some  people behind us just out of the city limits who shoot off tons of very loud and bright fireworks. 

Poor McGee he has a terrible time. 

This final bird celebrates the night with a full front of fireworks and bright orange wings.  He is the most beautiful after the sun sets and the night is dark. 

He often brings with him loud music, like the 1812 Overture and Livin' in the USA.

McGee hates that too.......Hopefully McGee will live to celebrate January 1st with us.

Fireworks

Wow!  Who knew that using more than you bought would be such a foreign concept to some people?

I have to get a handle on some of these great piles of fabrics though, I think I now have more than I will ever use in the rest of this lifetime.  And I am not sure how to leave it to my reincarnated self in the future.  Burying it is not really an option.  Leaving it to Carrie is huge mistake.  She will just put it on Ebay!

Sigh, use it or lose it, I guess.

Here is the finished Fireworks quilt.  Top, quilt top.  Sorry.  Not the finished quilt.  I am in the process of putting pieces of fabrics together for the back.  I already have the binding ready.  I used some of the fireworks fabric that was intended for the original quilt borders.

Can you see what I did to fill in for the missing blue run?  Did I make another?  Can you see it?

And I have the four 4 color strips that were intended for the original inner borders.  I have an idea for a modern quilt that will  be interesting.

Not sure what I will do with the quilts yet.  Like I really need MORE quilts.  Maybe everyone will get a quilt for Christmas this year.

Might just happen this year.

glen

Fireworks on th 4th of July

I fell in love with this quilt a lot of years ago.  Like in 2005 or so.

It was in a magazine.  And I ordered it.

And put it together for a while.  I taught my mother to paperpiece a couple of blocks, but she was not really able to do much.  Alzheimer's, you know. 

Got tired of it when things were not lining up well.

Put it aside.

I pulled it out a few times over the years, saw where it was wonky in some blocks.  Put it back into the bag.

I pulled it out yesterday and just blew over the wonky blocks.  I hacked some of the points off to make them more square.  Sometimes you do what you gotta do.

I got all the blocks on the wall.  Except one piece.  A blue run.

Cannot find one block part anywhere but I suspect there was a bag of blue that got lost somewhere over the years of being moved around and shoved aside.  I can find all the other colors but not the blues even to make another one.

I decide to use plain black centers rather than the fireworks fabric from the original kit.

I put all the blocks together, except for that missing part one. Since they didn't all match up properly, I used some of my 1 inch black strips left over from the last thing.

It still needs the pieced border. But I can get that done today. 

I like it.  And it is a part of a pile that got moved and finished.  To the top stage, anyway.

Two, not without a Third….

I found out last night that my hairdresser (who was thin and ate healthy) died in her sleep the night before.  Everyone was totally shocked  She was 49. 

Irma was the one who made me look beautiful.  She knew just the right combination of ingredients to put that shine on my locks.  And she had class.  She was from Venezuela and had that deep thick accent that made you listen closely to her as she spoke.  I loved to hear her talk about her daughter Tatiana and granddaughter Adriana.  She will be missed terribly by her family and her clients. 

And even more scary, when I got home today from errands and my mom, a dear friend called and left an ominous message to call her, it was about her husband, Ralphie.  I am thinking he died.  He had several problems with his heart, but he was the most laid back non stressed guy you would ever know.  And the funniest.

(Update:  Ralphie had multiple strokes, has had up and down prognosis, and is now in a coma, but with brain activity.  No change from yesterday.  Which is good I guess.  Diane is falling apart about now.)

Diane and I grew up together, sharing those horrible pre-teen years when nothing is beautiful on your body.  She has gorgeous red curly hair, I had limp straight brown (but wanted her hair).  She met Ralphie a year before Frank and I married, and they married the following year.  I stood in her wedding in a huge huge dress with a huge huge hoop skirt!

Ralphie and Frank have been friends from the day they met.  They played softball together, bowled together, drank together.  We shot fireworks every New Year’s Day down on Milne Street in New Orleans.  It was an event for the neighborhood when they tossed out their dead Christmas Trees.  A huge bonfire commenced and they loaded it with thousands of fireworks.  Fireworks went flying everywhere!  You were constantly on the lookout for any coming your way out of the blazing fire in the middle of the street.  Interestingly, 3 of the 5 boys who grew up there playing with the bonfire every year because firemen!  Hmm.

We have so many stories of times together.  There was never a time we didn’t laugh and love being together. 

I fear the news is not good.  And that Diane has lost the love of her life.  I am dreading that return phone call. 

So with Irma and Ralphie I am thinking my stressful life combined with an Italian Cream Cake and fried food diet will keep me going for a long time!

glen:  where’s that candy bar????