Geez.........Sam, a Dinner Party and a Machine Problem

When I sat down to do my "very inspiring post" the other day, the one that disappeared itself, I meant for the post to be about Sam Gilliam, not my rusty things!  They were just in there for highlights.

I was driving somewhere and heard the NPR show on Sam Gilliam (click on his name to see the NPR episode written out and with pictures!

I thought it was very interesting to have someone at 84 doing things I considered more Contemporary and Modern.  He has a love for color and for fabric, which he uses to drape indifferent ways at every time he exhibits.  You know that when you need to return something fabric, once taken out of a package, never goes back in the same way again!

Remember Matt from the Cousin's Party?  Home from the first year of the Naval Academy?

Well he sang at John McCain's funeral!  That is him in the center cadet section on the end of the second row from the top.

In all his handsome uniformed glory!  Proud momma Karen and I texted back and forth the whole time catching glimpses of him on the three networks carrying the funeral.

I still need to bind the Doily quilt.  I was telling Julie that since I started machine binding these quilts they finish so quickly.  Although sometimes I miss the tedium of hand sewing the binding down when I am watching TV.  I need to train myself to pick up my wool embroidery from Katie Prescott's class.

Last night I had a small dinner party for Michael and Renee.  We shared stories about the kids and grandkids, drank several bottles of wine and ate Crawfish Etouffe, Frank's wonderful salad and an Apple Pie to die for.

I had to go to three stores to find a small container of vanilla ice cream!  The ice creams are so exotic now that plain vanilla is difficult to find.

I will share the recipe for the pie with you.  This wasn't my original, that book was lost in the flood, but this is close.  I added some spices in the apples like cinnamon and a tiny bit of nutmeg.  Nutmeg tends to overwhelm tastes, so next time I think I will leave that out totally.  Tiny wasn't tiny enough for me.  Although Michael and Frank had two pieces and Frank went back before he went to bed.

Oh and I used brown sugar in place of the regular sugar.

The crust was wonderful.  My favorite part, I think.

I still have to do the post on Modern Quilting, what makes a quilt modern or not.

And I still have to put the Joseph Albers quilt together.  I think I am going to Walking Foot Quilt it on my Viking.  Diane told me she would give  me her mother's Janome and

I think I am going to take her up on it.

This Viking does some stupid skip stitch that only happens with me, never with the mechanic.  It will randomly grab the thread and twist up in a knot under the fabric.

Anybody have that happen?

Here is Sawyer's latest evolution.  Flat and stiff!  Strange little boy he is!

He definitely takes after me!

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?

Into The Badlands - filmed in Louisiana

My cousin's son has been one of my biggest quilt fans!  And now I am his biggest movie fan!

He has a part as an extra in the AMC show Into the Badlands that premiered on Sunday night .  It was filmed in Louisiana and seems to be a hit.

Matt is the cute one in the background.  Look for him in the first 6 episodes!  He will be the tall one at over 6 feet.  Interesting since Karen is the shortest of the cousins.....hmmmm.

Check him out next Sunday!

Are You In the Market for a Bed Frame?

This is the canopy corner

Since we are getting a new bed next Saturday the old one needs to go somewhere else.  The frame I  fell in love with is a metal canopy bed.  It did not come in a king sie so I gave up a king mattress for the queen bed frame.  No regrets.


But since we decided on the sleazy vibrating bed, it is time to let go of the frame too.  So I put it in the paper for sale.  The ad reads:  Queen Sized Metal Canopy Bed - $100, perfect condition, disassembles easily for moving, Call (phone number).  I can send photos on text.

See the Elephant Quilt on the wall!

If you are interested, text me, call me or post a reply to this post and I will call you tomorrow.  

The first call I get is a lady who wants photos, then tells me she doesn't want a canopy but wants a king sized frame!  Duh!  How did I mislead her there?

Ignore the messy pile of quilts there

The next call is a lady who says she doesn't want the frame she just wants the mattress.  Too bad, my cousin Matt is getting the Select Comfort mattress.  He has been dying for one since his parents got a Select Comfort a few years ago.  Perfect fit!

So we are meeting his mom, Cousin Karen and hubby at Middendorf's to exchange the mattress. They only have the best fried catfish in the entire world!  And I don't like fish, but this is the only one I eat.  The cat is flash frozen and sliced so thin that the cornmeal crust is thicker than the fish!  This is a long standing family tradition since my father was little.

The silly thing deflates, the foam comes out and it just folds up and into two boxes and a pile of pillowtop!  Amazing.  And it all fits in the back of my CRV!

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!

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

Design Wall Monday 10-15-12

 On the Retreat last weekend, I completed three tops.  Three tops!  One of them, the Saints that will be for Matt, the favorite nephew man boy.

I will begin to quilt this baby this week.  Close quilting about 1 inch apart.  This was a fun quilt, and it finished pretty quickly.  Of course at the retreat I didn't have to let a dog in or out once!  LOL.

On Saturday night, while Frank was watching LSU win, I made a pillow with the extras strips that were left over from the quilt.  I used an 18 x 18 pillow form and an 18 inch zipper.  I put the zipper in like my seamstress mother taught me to do in garments.

I sure hated to sew those zippers in my youth.  But I hated button holes more.  So I put in zippers.

I think a few of my zippers were imperfectly placed!

When I took Home Ec in high school, we had to make a blouse. The sleeve was a regular set in sleeve. The way the teacher taught was to baste the sleeve in.  My mother never basted the sleeve, but I did to get the grade. My friend Ann basted her sleeve in as well.  But she forgot to sew it later.

The day we had to wear our blouses to school, her sleeve fell off.  She got an F.  I got a C because my button holes looked like crap.

glen