Nature Study

Since I haven't done much if any quilting this week, I will share a couple of nature-related pics I have taken recently.

A couple of weeks ago when I was sewing at Sharon's house, she pointed this out to me.

This bush is just outside her front door, on the way to the car. Look what was down inside it.

Pretty little speckled birds' eggs! One got shoved out, so I assume this is how birds deal with non-viable eggs. I  have no idea what kind of bird these eggs belong to, but I suppose bird enthusiasts know how to identify them. I just thought it was cool.

Now, if you can handle just a little bit more nature, take a look at what we could see beyond our back yard yesterday morning.

Can you see the deer? Actually, there are 2, one standing in front of the other. And there were 4, but by the time I got the camera ready to go (needed batteries! aarrgghh!), the others had walked on to the right and out of view. They stayed for the longest time just grazing there in the woods where DH has cleared away the underbrush. 

I know city dwellers and those in more suburban areas see deer in their yards quite often, and consider them pests. It's sort of unusual for us to see them, though, out here in the country. And we are really out in the country.

Now, since this is a quilting blog, I will share something that relates. It's a barn on the way to Athens, where my DD attends Ohio University. She snapped this pic for me as we motored past it.

Isn't that pleasing to look at? I love how colorful it is. Makes the long drive to and from Athens a bit more pleasant, know what I mean? It's out in the middle of nowhere, so I often miss it.

Well, that combines quilting with the nature study. It was the best I could do!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Tagalong Quilted

Way, way back in April of 2010, I made a Schnibbles called Tagalong. On Fridays when I get together with my group for quilting, I have been working on hand-quilting it.

This week, I finished it! How about that? *big cheesy grin*

Feels good to report a finish! I have so many quilt tops from small, like this, to huge queen- and king-sized. It'll be awhile before everything gets quilted.

I need to be more committed to hand-quilting some of them.

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Unusual Behavior

My motto for the last year or so has been use the stash!!

Lately, especially, I am really proud of the way I have been using from the stash for my recent and not-so-recent projects.  I have so much fabric. Really. So much. I doubt it would be humanly possible to use everything in said stash in an average lifetime. In reading some of my favorite blogs, I notice that today's blog from Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie's Quilts has a similar sentiment! Cool!

The size of the stash coupled with the alarming rate of increasing fabric prices have reinforced in me the absolute necessity to use the stash!

Given that, I have to report my unusual behavior. I have made a select few purchases lately. Twice. Both times the fabrics were sale-priced. Yippeee!

At the recent quilt show in Cincinnati, I bought only these two 1-yard bundles at $5 each. Nice, huh?

Both pieces are by Judie Rothermel. Love her stuff. I am very pleased with this purchase. Stash enhanced quite well, I must say.

Today, our new area quilt shop, Old Town Fabric Shop in Chillicothe, is offering sale prices as part of their grand opening celebration. I love getting 25% off if you finish the bolt, so that's what I did - three times!

The 3 yardage pieces totalled just under 7 yards; price around $45. The jelly roll was already marked down, and they were offering an additional 20% off because of the Celebration, so it was just over $23.

Not too bad, wouldn't you agree? These will work nicely into the existing stash, so I'm thinking I did just fine.

Retail therapy was just what I needed!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

New Barstools for Me

Last fall or winter, my sister reupholstered her barstools, so I thought I ought to try redoing my own. I had leftever foam padding from the porch cushions I made last spring; I hated wasting it, and this would be a perfect way to use it. Sunday afternoon, I got two of them done. I used all the foam I had; now I need to buy more for the remaining two stools.

The original barstool. We got these as unfinished for Christmas over 19 years ago when our house was newly built. We had a bar in the kitchen/dining area, but no proper seating for it.  DH painted them.



Two screws underneath held the seat to the frame. We removed the seats with lots of grunting--they were tough little buggers!

Spread the fabric out, wrong-side up. I was very generous in what I cut; I didn't want to find myself with too little fabric to pull into place.

Center the foam on the fabric. (I have two pieces here because I am using leftovers; it won't make any difference in the end.)

Layer the seat next. Be sure it's upside-down.

After much tugging of fabric and staple-gunning by DH, VOILA! A newly upholstered barstool!
The fabric is some dark gray that my grandmother gave me a few years back when we were cleaning out some of her sewing room. It could easily be 50-year-old fabric!

Book Club and Tea, Again

A week ago Saturday, my book club had our monthly get-together at Lucy and Ethel's Tea Room over in Clinton County. I've chronicles the tasty treats served by the Tea Room in a previous post about my first visit. Then, my friends from teaching went another time.

This particular day, we had several new goodies along with a few standards from before. Feast your eyes on the delights we were treated to. I didn't do a good job of writing down details about each tasty morsel, but the pictures will verify that they were, indeed, delicious.

I didn't think to take pictures until after the first course, so this is a leftover scone that was on the counter after we were finished. I have tried making scones, always with results that are too dry. These scones were as moist and wonderful as you can imagine. YUM!

Sharon P., Wendy, Vickie, Debbie and Kelly--The Biblios. Marlise was at the other end of the table. All present!

Second Course. I recall that the quiche is cheese and asparagus.

Third course: pureed vegetable soup sprinkled with paremesan.

Fourth course.

Fifth course (on the bottom): desserts.

I took a close-up of this. The cake ball was served in a chocolate molded teacup. The entire thing was edible. Cool!
Beside it, in the ramekin, is creme brulee--easily the best item on the entire menu. Our hostess has nailed this recipe!
A perfect 10!

Well, Let's Get Back to Normal, Okay?

Thanks to everyone for the well wishes and patience in my week-long absence. Having one's gallbladder removed is not the most critical of surgeries, but I was set back a bit longer than I thought I'd be. The doctor didn't forbid too many activities, and even said if I felt up to it I could teach my class on Tuesday and keep my dental appointment on Wednesday. Well, I wasn't ready for either. I think I was just a bit too optimistic in my ability to bounce back.

The surgery was a week ago today, and I am still experiencing some discomfort. I take the stairs very slowly, I can never seem to get comfortable sitting. My 4 tiny incisions are beginning to itch--a sign of healing, so I'm hopeful that this will be a good week.

Enough about me; let's talk about quilts! A week ago Thursday and Friday, the Frankfort quilty girls and I went to Cincinnati for a quilt show. Preview night and Friday morning - we got to see all we wanted, made some important purchases and had some wonderful quality time together. We even had an extra quilter along! Cherie B. joined us to make 6 wacky quilters loose in the city. Gracious!

Here are some pictures. I won't narrate; I'll just post them. Enjoy!

Vendors:

Exhibits:

Cincinnati:

The Hilton Netherland Plaza, our hotel--a very swanky place!

It really was a fun show! Thanks, Girls!! You were a blast!!

Happy Quilting!



A Brief (hopefully!) Interruption

Just when things are going along swimmingly, life throws me a big curveball!

On Sunday, I was in the hospital for the removal of my gall bladder!

I thought I was just having a very severe case of indigestion, but when it wouldn't stop hurting, I had DH take me to the emergency room. In quick order I was having a CAT scan, which revealed a gallstone the size of an egg. That's pretty big, as I guess the gall bladder is normally just larger than a golf ball! I had a fun ride in the ambulance from our little town to the hospital about 25 miles away. By midnight I was being discharged! It was quite a routine surgery, and despite feeling a good bit sore and stiff today, I think I am mending nicely.

Here's a brief biology lesson: the gall bladder is situated on the right side, near the lowest rib. It hides under the liver. And even though I described it as the size of a golf ball, it is not round - it's more oblong, as illustrated above.

Here is another illustration showing a bladder with numerous gallstones.

There are many small stones in this illustration, while I had one giant one.

Still can't believe I wasn't experiencing prior discomfort.

Well, I think I will take a few days to recover; then I will be back to posting about quilts.

Happy quilting, Friends!

Road Trip!

The Frankfort Quilty girls and I are off on an overnight adventure to Cincinnati's Quilt Show at the Duke Energy Center.


Here is just one of the beauties I hope to see while there:



Thistles & Currants, c. 1885. Artist Unknown.
From the Quilts, Inc., Corporate Collection.

Looking forward to seeing some new fabrics and taking pics of some pretty quilts. I am determined to temper my desire to buy fabric, as you know my goal for this year is to

use from the stash!!

Friday Frankfort Group!

I have tried all sorts of ways to identify this group I quilt with every-other-Friday. Oh well, by now I suppose we all know who we mean. And if we don't, does it really matter? It's quilting!

We were at Sheryll's on Friday morning, and all 5 of us were in attendance! So nice when we can all make it. Several of us had projects to show and tell. Let's roll!!

In early March, we all went to a quilt show in Lebanon. While there, JoAnn bought this sampler kit. I'm amazed that she has this already constructed. Here is the post detailing it. It would have been months, if not years, before I would have ever begun it. I do love it. The green doesn't show up especially well in my photo, but the large blocks - anvil, perhaps? - has this poison green color, and it is truly striking. I really like the way this finished up.

Remember the mystery quilt I made? Sheryll had made one previously, but she decided to make another one, and this is it! Really pretty. The colors are burgundy, green and white. Such a nice combination, and I still like the pattern! Click here to see the post about the mystery quilts.

Sharon had made this little Easter wall-hanging or table-topper. She was stitching the binding, and then it was ready for use!

This is a cheddar, black and brown quilt with some beige neutral, too. I really, really like this. I am all about making quilts with  large pieces lately, but this is definitely one I'd like to make when I get back in the mood for smaller pieces. Sheryll made this; she says it's a Clothesline Pattern called Battle of Atlanta.

This is another Clothesline Pattern called Chattanooga, and it is also by Sheryll.

So simple, yet such impact! I sure wish I had Sheryll's work ethic, because we still have more of hers to show!

This is a wall-hanging that she showed us. I don't know when she finds the time to do all this!! Impressive, that's for sure.

Sheryll's daughter Jessi had asked for a quilt, and selected black and white for her colors of choice. She also selected the little 9-patches, I believe. In my opinion, you just can't go wrong with a 9-patch. So simple, yet so interesting!! Here, take a look at the cool backing fabric Jessi chose:

And, the pillow cases, too!

What a nice bedroom ensemble: black and white with a splash of yellow. Nicely done!

Happy Quilting, Friends!

Quick Trip to Old Town Fabric Shoppe

Chillicothe's new quilt shop called my name after working on that batik quilt a week ago. I was needing some additional 2.5" strips to finish the blocks and get this quickie quilt finished up. So today, after my OU-C class, I stopped down for a visit. Sharon met me there! Fun-fun-fun!

What a nice shop. I didn't have my camera with me, but I've shared this new shop here and here. I found the batik strips I wanted straight away, so that gave me ample time to wander through the shop and check out all the stuff. New since I was last there are the Bernina sewing machines. They were just getting their training last time I was there, but now a variety of machines are on display. Oh, how I would love to splurge on a new machine...

Sharon brought with her a bag of Kaffe Fassett fabrics from her stash to match up with a few additional Kaffe's in the store. Talk about fun. We could ooooh and aaaah over KF fabrics all afternoon! She did find 4 to add to her collection. Her plan is to cut big 12.5" squares from these wonderful florals and just sew them together. As we checked out, we discussed the possibility of our doing this together, as I have a rather large KF stash, myself. What a fun day that would be!!

Japanese Chrysanthemum

Floating Mums

I got my batik strips - Bali Pops; Sharon got her Kaffe's; the two of us were very satisfied leaving the shop.

Spumoni - Bali Pops