A Quilting Reader's Garden

My third DGS

is Leo - isn't he a cutie? This is a photo taken by his momma near his 1st birthday. Thanks, Amanda for posting this on facebook. He looks a lot like you.

I help with a group that makes Crisis Pregnancy baby quilts and a friend, thank you Deanna, graciously gave me for them, two boxes of baby material for the next sewing session. It's great stuff. One box is full of strips. I grabbed a handful and made this:

It measures 37 square. My job is to make the quilt tops - there are others who do the other steps, so I'm counting this as a finish.

Any Birders out there?

Sitting at my computer, working on a website I am responsible for our guild, I heard a sound besides the crickets that are the normal background to night's here. I had not heard this in a long time. Some kind of owl? We heard them when we first moved into the house over 40 years ago, but not recently. Does anyone know what it is? Listen:

Another digital greeting by Smilebox

Please leave a comment if you know. Thanks!

Giveaway Winner and a NEW Quilted Fish giveaway

Good morning! I went to randomnumbergenerator.com and had them pick the winner from the comments and got: Random number between 1 and 11 and got 6.

So our winner is Mary from FLQs. Congratulations, Mary! I'll be sending you your notions as soon as I have your snail mail address.

And if you'd like to enter a fabulous giveaway, visit the Quilted Fish. But hurry, ends soon.

Thanks to all you entered.
Angie

Lily Mary Anita

I've been remiss about posting about our precious, Lily. So here she is in a starring role.

Customize a slideshow

I've had this video clip for a while but I just couldn't figure out how to post it and then I saw a Smilebox slide show on quiltshow.com and I was able to do it with Smilebox. The service is free with ads, so I thought I'd give it a try. Still photos of Lily taken on Tuesday coming up next.

Thanks for indulging a doting Abuela.

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.

A summer version

My husband likes creamed cauliflower, however the way his Mama made it was in the oven and it's way too hot to turn on the oven to make this side dish. But he bought a head of cauliflower(he's the grocery shopper now) and some sour cream and brought them home hoping I'd indulge him - I like it too, but not enough to turn on the oven!

So off I go to my cookbook shelf to see if I can find a recipe for cauliflower in the microwave. Eureka! I found one. Reading it through I realized I could assemble it just as I do for the oven but cook it in the micro for only 6 minutes and I essentially had the same dish. And here it is:

I didn't tell him it was from the microwave. And he liked it! If you'd like to try it, here's the recipe:

Creamed Cauliflower
1 head of caulflower (medium size) cut up into florets
1 cup of sour cream ( I used Smart Balance)
1 egg
1 Tbs of flour
1/2 tsp salt, dash of pepper
1/2 tsp of garlic powder, 1/2 tsp of dill weed
Bread crumbs

Grease a 9" ceramic/glass pan (something that can go in the microwave) with butter or PAM. Set aside.

In a 4 quart pan, bring water to boil and toss in the florets, bring the water back to a boil and lower to medium heat and cook the florets for 3 minutes. They will be cooked but still a little crunchy. Once they have cooked, drain in a colander and set aside.

While the cauliflower is cooking, mix the rest of the ingredients in a medium bowl until smooth. Add the drained cauliflower to the sauce and fold the florets into the sauce until they are well coated (this was the only change from the oven version - on that one I pour the sour cream mixture on top only). Actually, I like this new way better. Pour the mixture into the prepared dish. Sprinkle some bread crumbs on the top. Set in the microwave and cook at 100% power for 6 minutes If you don't have a micro that turns, at 3 minutes turn the pan around so it will cook evenly.

Enjoy your cool kitchen!

PS If you're making it in the oven during a cool time outside, preheat oven to 350 degrees and cook in the oven for 30 minutes or when lightly brown.

Step 2 of Mod Quilt on Design wall

Well I decided on a plan for the mod fabrics - a simple one and adding a solid. So on my design wall I now have this set up of squares cut from the six fat quarters. I found a nice polka dot fabric for the back and hopefully I'll have enough to bind with it. Those solid areas are calling "feathers" to me. We'll see. I've never done feathers as a quilting motif.

Orphan Block Not!

I was working with the weathervane block seeing if I could change it to see if it looks more like a flower. I put a light center square, a circle for the stamens and pistol. And curved corner blocks on the 4 central blocks. The green corners I tried to quilt in a leaf pattern. What do you think?

Well, I think I like the regular pattern better, but it was worth trying - and since I didn't want to have an orphan block, I finished it into a little quiltlet. I'm thinking if I wanted to make it into a morning glory block, the center would be white not gold and I could use a blue batik for the flower parts and the center square in a white blue batik. I'll see as a real morning glory has a star with 5 points radiating from the center.

Well, enough - the computer is in the "hot" part of the house and I can't stand it any longer. Since I had a spell of heat exhaustion in 02, I start to feel nauseous when it's over 100. This part of the house has no ac, so back to the living room I go.

Stay cool!

UFO #12 is done

This was a disappearing 9 patch that I made with large squares (8"). LOL - I started it when the D9P pattern first came out. And all the fabric came from my stash. The back is a cute puppy dog fabric from Robert Kaufman. I quilted letters in the large squares using the letters in the word - Baby.

Now I need to work on a backing for #13 as it is a set of blocks from 2009. The last ufo I started in that year. I'm happy to report I haven't started a new ufo in 2010!

Lily Report

Here's our precious baby at 2 1/2 months! When she's awake, she is so aware. A very good baby. Mom is going back to work July 12th - Oh, how I wished I lived closer so that I could watch her while she's gone (Deanna is working 24 hrs I think each week).

New Challenge

What do you think of these? I joined the Inland Valley Modern Quilt Guild and am challenging myself to try to go out of my "comfort range"in fabric selection and see if I can make a Mod Quilt.
These are fat quarters I won online. Are they modern enough? I'll put them up on my design wall so I can think about what pattern to use. And in the meantime, I've ordered a solid and am going to try my hand at it.

UFO #11

Neonatal quilt done, so ufo #11 is off my list. Now the fabric was NOT my choice. This was a kit I got at the last sew day devoted to neonatal quilts. Too psychadelic for me - LOL. I hope the preemie who gets this one doesn't get traumatized. Then seeing how these are draped over the neonatal units, I picked a more soothing back for it since that is what the baby will see. And it is below:

Geranium Seeds

Remember the first picture in the last post? That is one of my plots of geraniums. And this year with the mild weather we are having, they exploded with color (remember that photo was when they were on their way out) and now I have a ton of seeds. Would you like some free seeds? If so, go to http://www.angiesbookshelf.com/ and get my address. Send a SASE and I'll send you some seeds, so you can start some of your own. They do great in pots too and are wonderful on patios. In the winter you'll have to take them inside if you live where it freezes. I'll send seeds as long as the supply lasts. And here is a great website where you can find info on how to successfully grow geraniums from seed: http://tinyurl.com/2cuzte3 At left is a close up of one that is slightly redder than the seed I have - mine are more a rosey, salmon, red. LOL, is that exact enough? There might be some pink seed there also. Oh and leave a comment to reserve your packet and I'll save some for when your SASE comes. SASE?? Self addressed Stamped envelope. Hope to hear from y'all soon.

Garden Views

Phew - the last three weeks have been way too busy, but I have survived. It was all good stuff, however took up a lot of time - ie DGS's swimming lessons, visiting cousins from out of state, minding DGS 2 while mom gets a little special time with DGD Lily, and guild stuff and Friends stuff and time with DH - LOL not much time for quilting. Through it all trying to get a last hurrah from my spring garden before the HEAT descends on it. So here are some pics of the last of it: I have enjoyed it and credit mostly goes to the weather that has allowed us to have quite a few cooler days than normal (anywhere from 4 to 10 degrees cooler than normal). Here are the last of my rose geraniums - more on those later. Located uphill from our carport in a mostly sunny spot. These might have bloomed longer, but I was not able to prune the old blooms off. Now here are some lilies that my husband moved while making the new wall around our planting area out front. He just plopped the bunch under my Cecil Bruner (not even planted) and I was waiting to move it to when he was done. However, I forgot and in their time in that location, they decided to bloom. Aren't they lovely! I think I will leave them there. Next is the planting along the north side of the house. I've started to plant wildflowers there and sweet peas. The sweet peas didn't amount to much (planted too late) but I will get some seed. I like to plant in this area cuz then I can see the flowers from my hallway.

Lastly, just to the left of my carport we have these lovely white white epiphyllums that are just blooming away! These flowers open in the early morning and have such a delicate scent to them. It is just glorious to go somewhere in the car and have these to view as I am backing out. I love flowers!