Past, Present and Future

Past - Here's a quilt top 5 years in the making (60" x 60"). I finally finished it at Cindy's Up-North Quilt Retreat. Baptist Fans keep calling out to me for the quilting. I don't think I want to hand quilt it though. Not sure how I would go about it on the machine.

Present - Claire is very adamant about not decorating or listening to Holiday music or any other acknowledgment of Christmas before the day after Thanksgiving. This past weekend she admitted that it was just too beautiful to waste the good weather. She decorated the front of the house with lights and bows and garland. The lollipops are a new addition this year.

Future - not very far away now-unless you're 6 years old - then it's forever! This is the "real" Santa at Van Atta's Holiday Open House.  Cubby is hoping for a very Batman Christmas.

It's a car of course!

"Gamma, Gamma, what's that?" "It's a flannel board Cubby."  I guess even with digital computer programs and Pinterest, etc., sometimes the old fashioned toys are still the best. Cubby stayed occupied for a long time (in 6 year old terms) manipulating shapes on the flannel board. He didn't have enough circles for wheels. He picked the fabric, a few snips and done!  It's a car of course!

Claire is busy in the kitchen making chocolate kiss peanut butter cookies. One of her co-workers has found a new job and they are having a good-bye celebration. Claire's gotten quite the reputation as the Betty Crocker of the group and these cookies were a special request

We had a sign-up event last week for students to choose their dorms for next year and I was unable to attend the last block exchange.  After conferring with JanG., we figured out the proportions for the leaf blocks to go with my pansies. Here are a couple in progress.  The flower blocks are scattered (as they would be in nature) and not aligned in rows.  My next challenge is to figure out how to get the blocks together with the least amount of set-in seams.

Now We are Six

Saturday morning, it was off to the Fiddle Scouts, a newly created music program by The Ten Pound Fiddle.  Kids get hands on opportunities to learn about instruments and music. This month's program was on drums. What 6 year old doesn't like drums? Cubby did ask to leave after about the first 10 minutes of warm up songs but when they split the group into ages 6 and over and he got to go with the big kids, it was so long Gamma Gamma. 

 

Next month's program is about Ukuleles and one of Cubby's favorite people is going to be the "Scout Master". 

Yep, he had a birthday this month. Still haven't quite gotten rid of the training wheels. I'm sure next spring we'll just have to go for it!  Still time to enjoy a few more beautiful Michigan fall days.

You Lookin' at Me?

Cindy had a visitor this evening.  She gave us a call and Cubby and I drove over to check out this praying mantis that had landed in her potato vine.  Quite the handsome devil, don't you think?

Someone at work told me about an app for my phone - Runkeeper. I love it! Every five minutes it tells me how long I've been walking, how far I've gone, what's my average minutes per mile and launches my iTunes so I can listen and walk at the same time. I actually walked a 5k on Sunday just walking around the neighborhood. Now how do I get it to do dishes?

Give it Another Go

I haven't done much quilting lately. My quilt room is probably the hottest room in my house. I have central air conditioning but it never seems to really cool off the upstairs. Someday I'll need to invest in better insulation.

I'm also busy taking care of a very busy 5 (he'll tell you 5 and a HALF) year old. The other day I tried to sneak upstairs. Just for yuks I counted... I made it to 19 before both Cubby AND Chloe were at the quilt room door.

 Here is what happens when you try to sew "just one more seam" when it's late at night and you're really too tired.

Next night. OK, that's the way it's supposed to go.

Finally. Here is Terry's finished block. At this rate it would take me HOW LONG? to make enough blocks for a quilt?

Today's rain (finally!) has reminded us that cooler, quilting weather is on the way.

It's been a warm summer (ok 'hot' but you'll never find me complaining about the heat because I really hate being cold) but I'm not ready to give up on summer quite yet.

"Gamma, Gamma. Can I play with your phone?"

One More Skill

For those of you who don't know, I broke down and purchased a "Smart Phone" about a month ago to go on the trip to North Carolina.  My old phone (for the last 10 years!), which I dearly loved, which fit beautifully into my pocket, which was just a phone and uncomplicated, would no longer hold a charge.  I asked about a new battery and was told they were no longer carried in the store but that I could contact the manufacturer. The manufacturer's rep almost laughed at me and just said, "sorry".

Since I was going on a trip and might want access to email or Mapquest or Google and since I have a iMac at home, I purchased an iPhone. Seamless integration, Cloud and all that - what???

Anyway, this weekend Cindy and I went to the Ann Arbor Quilt Show. Here is the first picture taken with my iPhone (which has more megapixels than my Nikon camera). I wasn't sure how uploading would work. My faith was that I only had to connect the cord to my iMac and Apple would do all the rest. Yay! It worked! 

Next on the list is cropping and resizing...

The photo on the left behind the plastic sleeve is the original photo. The resulting quilt is on the right.

Rock climbing Cubby out on a perfect Sunday morning bike ride.  Love it!

This Little Piggie.......

A Pigtail, A Pig's Tail?
This cute little piggie pirate was on the back of the T-Shirt of the guy in front of me at the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games in North Carolina.  The pirate himself was not all that cute but he had a great braid.

This version of Blogger is going to take some getting used to...

The Ayes (i's) Have it

I just finished reading The Paris Wife by Paula McLain. It's a fictional account of Ernest Hemingway's first marriage as told by his wife, Hadley Richardson. It takes into account their time in Paris in the 1920's whe he wrote The Sun Also Rises and all of their real life friends such as Gertrude Stein and F. Scott Fitzgerald.

This was a time after WWI. They were survivors. Celebrating every day as though it were their last. As Cole Porter wrote, "Anything Goes".

This is my "i" quilt (18" x 20"). We each took a vowel. Many ideas came to mind (like ice cream) but I like the graphic quality of the lower case 'i'. I originally thought of solid backgrounds with printed fabric i's but then I came across this great fabric in the stash that I had purchased from Kari (see earlier post) and this is what evolved.

Yesterday, the whole bunch went to Kalamazoo to celebrate my dad's 81st birthday. It was a beautiful day to travel and a fine day for a birthday party complete with corned beef and cabbage, of course!

Tangerine Tuxedo

C'mon and see, see, see, Tennessee Tuxedo... Do you remember the cartoon series Tennessee Tuxedo? From 1963-1966, Tennessee and his friend, Chumley would escape from the zoo for some misadventure. They were always rescued at the last minute by Dr. Stanley Livingston. Don Adams was the voice of Tennessee at the same time he was on Get Smart (1965-1970). I wonder if he ever got his characters mixed up? Very coincidentally, I just read in a magazine that Tennessee Tuxedo is going to be released soon on DVD! I wonder if Cubby would find it funny?

Here is my little quilt "Tangerine Tuxedo" (12"x19"). This is part 2 of a pentaptytch (5-part) art piece. We took a large piece of paper, drew lines and circles the length of the paper and then cut the whole into five pieces. Each piece was interpreted separately by a different quilter. The only commonality was the orange "ribbon" running through all five sections.

I hope to pick up Claire's Dr. Seuss Quilt from the quilter in Howell this week. Can't wait to see how it turned out. Wasn't the weather perfect today? I actually raked a little and cut back some of my grass plants. And I met my new neighbor, Rebecca. All sorts of things happen when we are cocooned inside for the winter!

Purple Shirley!

This is the little quilt I did for Daisy's Paint chip challenge (20" x 20"). I didn't make it to the December meeting so I'm not sure who has seen it. We had to include the four colors on our paint chip and could add one additional color. I chose lime green of course!

The title of the Post come from a neighbor of my mom's. My mother had a sage green living room and chose to recover a pair of side chairs in purple wide wale corduroy. A woman before her time, we all know now that purple and green are au currant. Her neighbor came over to see the newly redecorated room and could only exclaim, "Purple, Shirley!".

For Christmas Chloe got the greatest present since sliced bread. Deer, elk, and moose shed their antlers every spring and some enterprising entrepreneurs are picking them up, cleaning them, sanding them and selling them as dog chews (at a premium price). They do not splinter. However, dogs do like to playfully toss them in the air and my cousin's Rottweiler threw hers through the glass door of an antique china cabinet. Ooops!

Another Birthday

Another year. Happy 2012 and Happy Birthday to me! It was also Ian's birthday so we celebrated together.

Cubby is always up for a party.

My sister gave me a present of fabric money. I hope it doesn't upset Jan's tummy.