A Notions Giveaway

Well, finally got back to destashing and what do I find - a small box under some fabric.  I put away what I wanted and decided to give away the rest.  Would you like to get these in the mail?

There is a finger guard for hand quilting.  I have one already and find it very useful.  Then there is a small vial of Roxanne's #12 betweens with a cute shell for a stopper.  I use others like these for applique.  And then there's a cute pin cushion made from an acron, some rick-rack and a small piece of cloth stuffed with batting. Lastly there is a package of bookplates with the prickly pear block as part of the design - they are self adhesive and of the same design - a BBD Creations from Vero Beach, FL.  I wonder where I got those, but I've decided not to use bookplates any more.

Giveaway closes next Sunday - I'll annouce the winner Monday.  To win, just become a follower and leave me a message.

Good Luck!

Design Wall Monday 8/30

Whew, tomorrow will be a non-stop day so I am posting early.  Here are 12 blocks that I received from my daughter's mother-in-law, Gail.  I posted about one of the blocks I messed up earlier.  You can see it in the photo:

They'll have sashing between them. The one that took the longest was the pineapple block in the second row. And here are my two favorites so far:

My mom has done all the embroidery for me and I love it!

  I could make two quilts  - one out of each of these blocks.  They're 8 1/2" blocks.  I would make the vase and flowers that size, but I can see the other one in a larger size.  Can't you?

A Train Trip

My friends Sheila, Sandy, Torre(from left to right) and I took a train trip on the Metrolink to San Juan Capistrano. It's a coastal town near Oceanside and a delightful getaway on what proved to be a "hot" (107) day in Riverside. We took the 10am train and arrived just in time for lunch. Then after the delicious meal at Sarducci's - they're at the train depot - we set off for the Mission San Juan Capistrano (you know the one where the swallows come back every March 19th?). It was just a couple of blocks away from the station. This is the seventh mission of 21 missions along the Camino Real built in the 1700s.

Here on the left is what you see when you enter - the outer courtyard. On right is what remains of then the largest church west of the Mississippi - there was a huge earthquake in 1812 which brought down the Jewel of the Missions. Parts have since been restored from 1982 -present. There was a lot to see as the last time I was there much was cordoned off, so it was a treat to return and see so much of the mission now. We spent almost two hours touring it and visiting the exhibits. There was a fun one for me called Zorro Unmasked - one of my favorite characters. They had excerpts from the Douglas Fairbanks, Tyrone Powers, Guy Williams, and Antonio Banderas films, costumes, and lots of ephemera - Great! Another exhibit were of plein aire paintings of California.

There were some lovely fountains with waterlilies and Koi and others without.

Beautiful gardens amid the working stations at the mission.

 

We saw the St Francis Chapel, the cemetery, the gift shop, the barracks, the kitchens, the library, the winery, the curing vats, a native plant garden, an Indian home and lots more.  What was great was they had an audio tour for visitors, free, with the price of admission.  I was happy to pay for the low admission as  proceeds go toward the maintenance and upkeep of the mission. We then visited the Basilica next door and tourerd the quaint shops in town before heading home.  A great day! I plan to go back soon and take my Mom.                                                

When Needs Must....

I'm slowly assembling a set of Shop Hop blocks that my daughter's mother-in-law (thanks, Gail) brought me this summer.  The one I was working on was a spider web pattern and you needed to cut the segments into  60 degrees triangles.  Somehow I used the wrong ruler and came up with an octogon -LOL, and since I didn't  catch it until I was trying to assemble the block --Yikes!.  Got to remember that saying:  Measure twice, cut once.  With no extra material, I had to fix it or go missing a block.  So I assembled 4 segments and cut a straight diameter, did the same with the 4 others, and sewed the two sections together.  Then I got a piece of paper and placed the octogon on top of it and drew the shape of it.  I then cut out each piece around the shape in the background and got this.  It was only after I ironed it that I noticed one piece was wrong side out.  Well it stays that way now!  Putting the ruler over it to cut out a 8 1/2" square I saw I had to add a few more pieces to have enough background to do so.  Good thing I've made a ton of crumb blocks - that experience came in handy for this one.  So I finally cut it and came up with the block.  It ain't perfect, and isn't exactly centered (something I forgot to do when I was

drawing the paper pattern), but now I feel I just may

be able to attempt a Ruth McDowell block. I look forward to that!

PS:  you'll see this and others on my Design wall next monday.

Design Wall Monday 8/23

Actually, this is coming off my design wall as I finally appliqued the border, sandwiched it, and quilted it.  Here is my new Koi Fish Bowl which I first put up on the wall on 8/2.  This was a Connecting Threads kit I got a few years ago and so it is UFO#14 done.  Dang, I have to learn to make better circles.  Someone said to use avery circle labels - I'll have to look into that, otherwise, I'm happy with it.  I'll have it out in October as it is the right colors even though I am not a "Halloween" person myself.  You can't see it, but the border lines are completed by the quilting - I repeated the corners with just quilting lines duplicating the curve of the bias line.  And here's the back:

There's a short story about it.  I bought the material at a yard sale.  Found it in a pile of clothes - it was a scrubs top.  I liked the fabric so much I went ahead and bought the top for 25 cents.  The back was just the right size for this project which happens to be 18" square.  I like both sides of this one.

Sunflower or ?

Did it again - got the "change" bug and made a few changes to a quilt block and came up with my version of sunflower.  The original has white space in the four corners so that there are really only 2 petals in each side and the center is a square.  Then to avoid adding another ufo to my mountain of ufos, I went ahead and finished it into a table topper.  I'm not too thrilled with it.  Since I added a black inner border, I think I should have had dark binding also. But it turned out to be a light green because that was what I used on the backing and I brought it forward to form the binding.  For the backing I was able to use up another orphan block so that makes this ufo#15. I think I like the back better.

I showed it to my husband and he quips up:    "Oh a worm hole!"     Ay ya yi - back to the drawing board.

Well, Summer has finally arrived!

Yep, it's official, a month before Autumn is suppose to start we get our summer which is usually hot, hot, hot.  This was the coolest of summers except for a 5 day span of hot weather way back in late June. Weird.  But here are two surprises at least in my garden from this weather:  a second blooming of our bougainvillea due to water stress and a surprise of naked ladies( I call them pink beauties) earlier than expected - they usually bloom in late Sept for us.

Design Wall Monday 8/16

These blocks WERE on my design wall last week, but I was unable to take a picture to show you.  So in the past week, I put Judy Laquidara's Scraps Ahoy blocks together and came up with another preemie top.  Now the purpose of the pattern was to use up scraps.  Well I had so many scraps left over from cutting the sizes suggested, I decided to use them for the back of this quilt, and for a time I entertained finding some plain back material and make two quilts, but then I just broke down and used the material I made with the scraps as the back.  It's the second picture.  Thanks for the pattern, Judy.  You can see it at her blog Patchwork Times which a button for it is located on the sidebar.

Garden Surprise

I don't pay a lot of attention to when my husband is planting something in the various locations of the yard because he is always planting something in the yard - after all botany is his main interest and hobby.  But as I was getting out of the car, I spied this beauty right to the left of me.  Isn't it spectacular?!  I sat there in the driver's seat a couple of minutes taking in the deep color and the number of flowers.  Then ran inside to get my camera.  DH is looking up the name for me.  I love finding things in bloom in our yard.

Another attempt at cool kitchen

Well here is Will with our latest attempt to eat our cake and keep cool.  This chocolate cake was made from scatch and baked in the microwave.  Will wanted icing so I defrosted and used the last of the blue icing I had left over from his birthday cake.  It rose almost a good 2 " .  We were delighted.  Since it was close to dinner, we decided to be good and wait to have it for dessert.

After dinner, I got plates , forks and cake server out and brought on the cake.  I gave the knife to Will to cut this first piece since he had helped me bake it.  He placed the knife carefully in the center and proceeded to slice.... and got nowhere except to a surprised look on his face.

We were rolling on the floor then laughing.  In the hour that cake had sat, it did what a lot of people claim from microwaved baked goods - it got almost as hard as a hockey puck!  Well, I was able to cut us both a slice after we got through wipiing the tears away.  Will got the bright idea to dunk it in his milk.  I just went for it.  "Grandma", it tastes good even though it's hard," Will said.  I just agreed. As he ate the crumbs, he tried to make me feel better.  ""Grandma - I didn't know we were making those hard things Auntie likes.

He meant biscotti - and you know he is right.  It did taste like biscotti, so I cut some up and wrapped in plastic and will go back to square one on the baking cake in a microwave.  PS:  I think I just cooked it too long so we will try again soon - LOL.

Design Wall Monday 8/2

I have to stop this, stop this now.  Here is another block on my design table that will have to be ufo #14.  My ufo 13 needs a big back still, my dresden plate coverlet needs bias and my mod quilt needs finishing the quilt top.  LOL when will I learn to stop starting before the finishing.

Well, anyway this is a smallish wall hanging from connecting threads.  It is 18" square. I have the top done.  I just need to add the applique in the border and quilt it. Hope to get this done this week so I can get back to the others.

Grocery shopping

Well, my husband went to the grocery store again, and saw a huge pile of cauliflower on display again, and you guessed it, he bought another head and a carton of sour cream.  He wants creamy cauliflower again!

Is this an obssession or what?
Well it's so easy I'll indulge him, but he may be eating this batch by hisself - I'll munch on our grape romas myself.