Running Away to Quilt

I'm in a cycle again of getting to go on more quilting retreats with lots of great friends.  Lynn is pretty okay with me going for a few days at a time, a few times a ......quarter!  Sometimes I go two whole quarters without going at all, so it probably balances out to about every other month, I get away for a few days.

We have been married since 1974.  You learn a lot about a person in that amount of time, and a lot about yourself.  I've done some pretty funny things to Lynn.  Stories for another post.

This time, I thought I'd share.  One of my little idiosyncrasies (gotta love spell check!) is that I tend to leave my shoes where ever I took them off.  About two weeks ago he made a comment, I think he was actually addressing the cat, about how I seem to need shoes in every room.  Which is NOT TRUE!  But I thought just for fun, I would leave a pair of shoes, in every room, for him to find when he comes home from work today, and I'm long down the freeway.

Above is a pair of shoes in the living room.  He stops there everyday to put his keys and wallet away.

Here they are in the kitchen

in the dining room

in front of my TV watching chair

next to the computer

in the entry

down the hall (in front of the quilting studio)

doing some laundry

in the guest room

in the master ( I KNOW the quilt has no binding yet....it works just fine!)

my favorite, taking a shower

My first Pickle Pot!!

Yes, Pinterest has become my latest obsession.  I glanced at it several weeks ago, but didn't really "get" it. 
Had a bit of time and started clicking there and not I am really hooked. 

This was one of the things I came across and I have been wanting to do some kind of pickles for a long time, and so now I have. 

It will go into the refrigerator for at least two weeks, then I'll give you a review. 

Now I'm going back to the kitchen to make some pumpkin bars....maybe pack them to take to the retreat I'm heading out for tomorrow.

Quilt in a Day

At the last retreat I attended, which was last month, I did actually make this top in about 6 hours.  I had been carrying this collection of fabric around for many, many retreats, never really doing anything with it.  I remember when I bought it, I was so drawn to the whole collection, and it is really not in my usual color palette.  I even offered the whole lot up for sale to my small group, but no one wanted it, at the time. 
Finally I came across a pattern that would allow me to keep the integrity of the beautiful big poppies and enjoy the companion pieces as well. 
If you click on the photo and enlarge it you will see the small dots on the background.  Now this quilt will head off to Carol for the long arm quilting portion.  I will share it once again, when it returns.  I'm so happy something came of it!!

I also had taken this long ago finished stitchery project.  I love redwork, alphabets and Christmas, so this pattern had it all wrapped together.  I worked on the stitchery for several years.  I can remember working on it while flying, and I haven't flown for quite a while!  So I tucked it away when finished with no particular plans of how to finish it;. 
The squares around the edge are from a collection of holiday fabrics that I had also been carrying around with a pattern for a table runner.  Turns out the pattern was a PITA.  While looking at them at the retreat, and coming across the tucked away stitchery block, I thought - PUT them together!!!  And so......I did!! 

And just last night I finished this stitchery.  Pretty bland as is, but I do like it.  So I'll be pulling some color and holiday appropriate fabrics and make something happen around this!

I have to start packing stuff up for the retreat this weekend.  I'm going to really TRY to take precut, preplanned projects and not drag along all the boxes of fabric that seem to find a way into my truck when I'm heading out. 

This is another new venue so it will be exciting to check it out.  Also will get some sister time, and some time with Carter, Henry, Kyle and Genie.  Back home for Halloween, and hopefully be helping Jeff and Krista get moved into their new home. 

Goodness my split pea soup is smelling just luscious......

Design Wall Monday

Ah.....Finally I have this much of my small quilting groups annual group lotto quilt done.  Each year the 12 of us decide on a pattern and each make a block.  When the quilt is finished we have a drawing amongst ourselves to win it.  If you have won in the past, you still get to be in the drawing!  If you choose to take the new one, the one you won in the past goes to the next name drawn. 
This year we chose to do the embroidery baskets.  Then it was my job to put it together.  Now I will add a small green stopper and then a border of the same floral.  Once it is quilted, another member is going to do a scalloped edge and binding.  Don't you wish you were in the drawing????

Fun Shopping Treasures!

Ooohhhh....it's been a while since I've brought any new fabric into my studio and added it to my INVENTORY!!  I do not call it a stash anymore.  Stash has an interesting history, don't you think????

I'd rather think of it as my inventory that I go through when in my creative mode.  The Stonehenge collection is the center is a line of fabric that somehow I have missed in the past.  I started in my fabric collection with those pretty fat quarter stacks that retailers would place around the store.  Now it is strips like these or jelly roll packs....marketing!

I also picked up a few new patterns, books and individual at a nice shop in Mount Vernon.  These were all on clearance....except for the Halloween embroidery.  Carter, my 3 year old grandson is quite enamored with Halloween, as is his Mom, so I thought this might make a nice quilt/wall hanging to make for them for NEXT year, since it isn't going to be done THIS Halloween.  I am finishing a black stitch witch small piece though.  Photo of that when all done.


After the retreat I attended down south a few weeks ago, I got bitten by the Superior Thread bug!  Cruised their website and put in an order.  Very excited to use the fusible thread this weekend at another retreat, with a friend Judy, who is the queen of quilt bling!  So I'll be embellishing and doing some applique while there

The packets are for silk embroidery. 

I bought myself a new present a few weeks ago.  A floor model Ott light with an attached magnifying glass and clip to hold a pattern.  Figured it would really help, especially in the evenings of the fall and winter, to work on those handwork projects. 

It was on sale, but still pretty spendy.  I brought it home, put it together.  Turned it on, and everything worked just great.  Then I went off on a couple of retreats, and get a ways.  A few nights ago, I gathered my current embroidery project and a cuppa tea and sat to stitch.  Reached up to turn on the lamp and nothing.....checked the bulb, tried another outlet.....still nothing.  Ugh....No, I don't have the receipt or the box, because when I put it together, it worked. 

So I called Ottlite and a nice woman asked me a series of questions, and determined that it is indeed under warranty and they would be sending me a new lamp.  However, I had to perform a bit of surgery.

Can you see????  I had to CUT THE CORD, to make sure this lamp would never work.  And email the photo to her to prove it.  I guess then you dispose of the lamp....but I'm thinking I'll keep the bulb, just in case it is still good. and I wonder if the magnifying glass could be attached to something else?  Or even just keep it on the stand to use elsewhere. 

I'm thrilled to not have to return the lamp to the store, and excited they are sending me a new lamp, though I have to pay $9.75 for the warranty....worth it, don't you think?

Rhubarb Liquor ready to rest

My gosh this is a gorgeous color!  Months ago, I saw a blog showing someone making rhubarb liquor.  I believe I blogged about it at the time, and posted a photo showing the chopped fresh rhubarb bathing happily in the Everclear grain alcohol.  The directions were to put it in the pantry and leave it alone for 2 - 4 weeks.  Don't you know, I sort of forgot about them.  When I came upon them in August I pulled them from the pantry and put them on the counter to remind myself to go to the second step.
And there they sat for a week or more, then they got moved into another cupboard.  At least now it was some where that I would see it more often so surely I would get it done, right?  NOT!  Finally today months after I started, I did the next step.  I was so surprised and delighted when as it was straining, this beautiful color appeared.  The directions said to taste it after adding the sugar syrup and adjust for sweetness, but to beware it would have a "harsh" flavor.  Well, maybe marinating for 3 months helps because it already tastes wonderful!!
But I did get it poured into these two jars.  One is four cups, the other is eight.  So I have 12 cups of this moonshine!  I mean rhubarb liquor.....
Maybe is some people are lucky they might get a nice little container of a bit for Christmas.
Since it is supposed to sit now again for at least a month, I'm planning to bring it out for Thanksgiving and give it a toast. 
Anyone still with me out here??  I'm feeling a blast of posts coming out of here in the next few days.

FINALLY!!  I made this top several Halloween's ago....I pulled it out each fall, still needing to be quilted and finished and then ended up folding it back up to be finished some other time, since quilting is NOT my favorite thing to do, and it was too small to send to my friend with the longarm. 
 Lucky me, got to attend two retreats, back to back last week and this project went with me.  And got to be finished!  Actually I had some fun doing some decorative stitching on it, and will probably do more, over time. 
This Halloween, it is up on the wall and being enjoyed!