Blame it on Mary

On Friday, I had an email from Mary over at Quilt Hollow. Somehow she remembered I like (understatement?) Halloween and she thought I'd be interested in this block of the month project:

Ho daddy, was I! You betcha! Yep, within a few minutes I'd committed myself to giving up buying Halloween candy for the next five years (and then some!) so I could spend the money I'd save on this purchase--which I elected to receive as an all-at-once project rather than month-by-month. I guess there are a few benefits to working long hours--the overtime pay can be used for some fun stuff!

Do you think you need to make this quilt too? So far, I've seen it offered at two online shops and I'm sure there will be more. Check it out HERE or HERE. Have them send Mary the bill. That's what I'm doing.

Then I have Gran to blame for this one. Verna Mosquera/The Vintage Spool's next retreat, in July, called Garden Party. Gran and I have both signed up. The project uses Verna's new line, Veranda. Gran sent me a link to an online source for the Veranda fat quarter bundle, and look what arrived in my mail on Saturday:

Sorry--the flash of the camera blurred it out a bit. Or maybe it's just the indescribable glow that fantastic new fabric seems to emit--that siren song we all recognize. The real colors are a bit softer and prettier.

Anyway, I figured it's only right to do a little temping myself now. Remember the Christmas pixie fabric I showed you a week or two ago? The "go with" fabric I ordered arrived. I have no idea what I'll make, but it's gonna be cute!

And that quilt shop excursion I went on with my friends on Saturday? The one I haven't told you about yet? I found this really cute line called Oops-a-Daisy by Keiki. Isn't it perfect for summer with those ladybugs?

I picked up the single charm pack and eight fat quarters, thinking it might work for a Schnibbles quilt--one where you don't need a pair of every square.

Oh, gosh, scrolling through this post, I can see I've been a bad, bad girl lately, haven't I? But really, it's not my fault! Totally understandable, right? I wonder how long the "but honey, it's my MOTHER'S DAY gift from you" defense will work? I suspect it's time to put that one to bed for another 11 months, but the good news is, my birthday's coming up in a couple months.

Yes, it Was Happy

It was a really nice Mother's Day weekend. On Saturday, I went on a road trip with my stitchery friends--I'll tell you more about that another day because it's a long story. But on Sunday, I relaxed. I spent the day stitching and being pampered by my kids.

On Saturday, one of my friends received her packet for the next Merry, Merry Snowmen block in the mail. Since we get our kits from the same online shop and mine didn't come on Saturday, I knew it was sure to arrive in Monday's mail. Yikes! I thought I'd better get busy and finish block three, so that's what I did.

In the afternoon, The Wild Child made a run to Starbucks for Frappucinos--it was the last day of Starbuck's half price special Frappucino deal. Soccer Son arrived and gifted me with a bag of Reese's mini peanut butter cups--yum! My kids know how to sweeten me up! The Frappucino is long gone but the Reese's are hidden away in the Sweat Shop--just in case I need a little chocolatty good energy to keep me going.

The weather was perfect for dinner out on the patio.

Soccer Son barbecued chicken and corn on the cobb. He also sauteed some thinly sliced Brussels sprouts with bacon and feta. I can't say I'm a big Brussels sprouts fan, but everything's good with bacon and cheese, right? He did a good job.

I hope you had a merry, merry Mother's Day!

A mother's heart is a patchwork of love. ~Author Unknown

Pink Fabric Isn't Necessarily a Rosy Subject

I thought I'd share with you the little story of a gaggle of frustrated quilters.

A year or so ago, a group of quilters went to a quilt shop where they viewed a designer's trunk show. All of them, four or five in number, yearned to reproduce--exactly--one of the quilts they saw. It was a Christmas quilt, with a center made up of simple pinwheels in red, green, and white. The designer, Tracy Souza, specializes in designing patterns primarily for embroidery and wool, so a mostly-pieced quilt was a little bit different. And this one was different in another way.

THIS quilt, although it was a Christmas quilt and was made with red, green, and white fabric, incorporated a bit of pink too. And the entire outer border was a lovely pale pink fabric with embroidered sprays of holly leaves and berries. Would you like to see what the quilt looked like? It isn't yet completed in this photo, but you can see it on the designer's blog, HERE. Click on the photo to enlarge it. Beautiful, isn't it?!

So after the quilting gaggle ohhhhhhh-ed and ahhhhhhhh-ed and made additional favorable comments about the trunk show quilt, they asked the shop owners if the shop stocked the fabric used--in particular, the lovely pink fabric. "No," the shop owners said, "but we will see if we can get it in." So the quilters all lined up at the cash register, Christmas pinwheel quilt patterns in hand, happy as could be with visions of pinwheel pink quilts dancing in their heads.

A few months passed, and the shop owners had not been able to locate the pink fabric. Couldn't the quilters find a different pink fabric that would do just as well? No, of course they couldn't! Further search efforts ensued. Finally, FINALLY, the shop owners located the last two bolts left on the face of the entire Earth, but one bolt was promised to another shop. The last remaining bolt could be theirs; that would have to do.

And this magical and highly rare fabric? Here, observe:

Designed by Verna Mosquera of the Vintage Spool for Free Spirit. Having heard the grumbles and rumbles of the gaggle of quilters for months and months, when three or four fat quarters turned up at the quilt designer's booth (Tracy Souza/Plumcute) at a quilt show, yours truly was finally able to purchase a fat quarter to waive before the eyes of the gaggle like a matador waives a red cape before the bull.

And why, you might wonder, had the gaggle been grumbling so greatly? Because the quilt shop owners had decided to hoard the last remaining bolt of precious pink fabric on the face of the Earth and only offer it for sale to quilters who signed up to take some distant, not-yet-scheduled, Christmas pinwheel quilt class which would one day be taught by the quilt's own designer--if the details could be worked out.

The class has now been scheduled for July, I believe. The class is full, the gaggle have their pretty pink fabric, and the shop owners have maximized their profits.

What do you think? Have you ever paid waaaay too much for a fabric you coveted? I know I've done that on eBay! Do you think the quilt shop owners thought too much about their immediate profit and less about gaining the loyalty of their customers, or do you think they were just doing what they're in business to do? Discuss.

I Hate to Admit it . . .

Seasonal allergies are close to their peak here in the Sacramento Valley, with warm summer-like weather following closely on the heels of a rainy period. I imagine grocery and drug stores are hard pressed to keep their shelves stocked with boxes of tissues and over the counter allergy medications.

The other day when I came home from work, Hubby tried to convince me that his eyes were so itchy that afternoon, there was nothing he could do but close them and nap the afternoon away. Yeah, right! I happen to know for a fact that it doesn't take itchy eyes to convince him an afternoon nap is just the thing!

Tonight, though, I have to admit that maybe he was right. Because my eyes are so itchy, I think I either need to get to bed and go to sleep, or scratch the heck of out them until they bleed. I think I'll just head to bed.

Return of the Wild . . .

The Wild Child, that is. Did I tell you? I think I did, but I can't remember for sure. The Wild Child decided New York wasn't the place for her, so tonight she arrived back in Sacramento.

It's really nice to have her home again. As you can imagine, the Drooling Dog is pretty happy too. He picked her up at the airport and it was all Hubby could do to hold onto him to keep him from diving out the car window to get to her.

And although she's back in California to stay . . . at least for now . . . we don't think she'll be here in Sacramento with us for long. She'll be starting school at Humboldt State up on the north coast of California in the fall, and she'll probably head up there in a couple weeks to look into a job and a place to live. If she's lucky, she'll be able to fill a job that was previously occupied by someone graduating from college this month.

After her years of living in Tahoe, we know Humboldt will be the perfect fit for her, and she'll be able to take the Drooling Dog with her--he was sure bored and lonely while she was in New York! The only drawback is that it will be about a six hour drive for us to visit her--not much different than it would have been for us to fly to visit her in New York. But we expect it will be a little more comforting to us to know she's living in the same state.

Welcome home, Wild Child!

I.S.T.H. Again

Remember I pinned four quilts a couple weeks ago, all Schnibbles? Well, I finished quilting a second one, I.S.T.H.

I.S.T.H. is one of those patterns I changed a bit. Here's the original pattern cover picture so you can compare:

I made mine using Blueberry Crumb Cake (Blackbird Designs) charms, and I think it will look perfect on my kitchen table around August--after I've grown weary of red, white, and blue but not yet ready for orange, gold, and dark green. The brown shades of wet and dry beach sand and the blue shades of the August sky and the ocean--that's what it reminds me of.

My version is similar to the original but I wanted mine square (I like square quilts best) and so I thought I wouldn't break it up into three columns as in the original, and I also left off the checkerboard borders on the two ends.

Here's the funny thing, though. You know how I'm always talking about my dislike of marking quilts for quilting? I'll do just about anything to avoid it. Well, this time I gave in and marked the quilt for quilting--sometimes you just gotta do it. I used a stencil I had of a five-pointed star with scallops around the star--kind of like flower petals. That all went fine, although it was a bit time consuming for my taste, but then when I got to the border, I was stumped. I didn't have a border stencil of the right size and with the right design feel to it, so instead of quilting the border right then, I started on the binding and finished that while I pondered the border. In the end, I decided to repeat the same star stencil in the border, but I varied the positioning a bit and used the border space to complete the design I'd stenciled part of in the setting triangles.

The quilting's not perfect, but for the way I plan to use it, it doesn't have to be. All in all, I think it turned out pretty okay.

The Voice: Who's Going to Win?

Have you been watching The Voice? This year is the first time I've watched, and I've really enjoyed it.

In case you haven't watched it, from left to right: Jermaine Paul (Blake Shelton's guy), Chris Mann (Christina Aquilera's guy), Juliet Simms (Cee Lo Green's gal), and Tony Lucca (Adam Levine's guy). These are the four finalists.

I've pretty much been pulling for Juliet Simms most of the season. Her voice, reminiscent of Janis Joplin, is different from most, and she has the looks to stand out. I think she'll win. But I've noticed lately that she really has to have the right song to stand out; when the song isn't right, she's pretty mediocre.

Of course, at this level, all four of the finalists are excellent. I found myself, though, really liking Tony Lucca. Why? Of course, I like his voice. But I also like his personality and his stage presence. I like Adam Levine. And maybe much of why I like Tony Lucca is because Christina is so rude to him and as far as I can tell, he doesn't deserve it. They were both Disney Mouseketeers together, along with Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake so they have history. Tonight, when Lucca had an opportunity to thank Levine for mentoring him through the process, he took the opportunity to thank all four coaches for what they've done for the contestants, and as the camera panned to the coaches, Christina appeared to be texting instead of listening. Did you catch that?

So I've voted for Tony tonight, but I think Juliet will win. We'll find out Tuesday night. How about you? Who do you think/hope will win?

Harrington and Hannah--April Showers

Over the weekend, I finished the Harrington and Hannah block for April.

Can you believe I forgot to give them eyes?! I soon remedied that little oversight (Ha!) but I didn't take another photo since I'd already uploaded this one to the computer. You'll have to imagine them with little black eyes.

Speaking of rabbits, when I was driving back through the countryside from spa day, I thought I spotted a few up ahead in the road. Nope, not rabbits!

Ducks! Or are they geese?! Whatever type of bird they are, it was a momma and her three babies out for a Saturday afternoon stroll. As soon as I got close, she led them off the road to safety.

I hope you had a lovely weekend!

P.S.: Did you see the new Country Cottages block is posted over at Shabby Fabrics? Check it out HERE!

Spa Day

At my office, our managing partner is a woman, and she invited the staff up to her home for a spa day--and today was the day. Back about ten years ago, when she was a fairly new partner, she started spa day, and invited us up to her home two years in a row, but then she started on a long course of remodeling, so spa day went by the wayside. Now the remodeling is done--or nearly so. The last little bit that needs to be done is to add a railing on one section of deck--you can see the unfinished edge in this photo.

She lives in the foothills and the view is spectacular. On a clear day, you can see the downtown Sacramento skyline. I thought the view would be great today because it was fairly windy, but I think there was so much pollen and other "stuff" in the air, the city was barely visible.

We spent much of the time in this great room--with window walls on two sides and awesome views. Our hostess brought in a massage therapist and had also arranged for someone to do pedicures, but the pedicurist sprained her ankle a couple days before and wasn't able to make it. It didn't matter, really--we had a wonderful time anyway.

In the photo above, you can see the massage chair over in the upper corner, and the massage therapist is giving one of the ladies a foot massage while we all chatted . . .

. . . and drank and ate.

The hostess's significant other was kind enough to cook up some treats for us before he left for a bike ride.

Check out the media room. Someone suggested the next "spa day" be a chick flick/pajama party. Wouldn't that be fantastic?! There was cool original artwork in every room--see the ceramic horse? And the painting on the back wall? This room also looks out over that expansive view in the other photos.

Speaking of which, I'll leave you with one more outdoor view--of the pool and beyond. I know if I lived here, I'd have a hard time leaving home to go into the office!