HOT--HOT--HOTTER

It has been so hot here that I think I am melting occasionally.  Today, Monday, was day number five of over 100* heat.  The record was six days in July of 2009.  If I am melting, am I a wicked witch like in the Wizard of Oz???

Friday evening I was at Fabric Garden to take the Christmas Joy quilt class.  I met Tracy Souza, the designer, colored and embroidered until 8:45pm.  There were nine quilters in the class.  I knew five of them very well.  We had a lovely social time, but really, as my friend, Sandy, pointed out to me, this could have all been done at home.   I was curious about meeting Tracy.  She showed us upcoming patterns for the next year.  Very fun stuff.

Mostly I have been watching television--the Olympics--and playing games with my son.   I am happy about one thing this time around.  In years past the athletes would win that gold medal and then our national anthem would play.  When did we stop educating our children, teaching them to stand with their hand over their heart as the anthem plays?  This year it was done correctly over and over.  These are good kids!

Keep cool!  Drink iced tea!

While the mouse is away......

I know it is supposed to be the cat is away, but I have spent years telling my daughter that we are cats.  Even now, I will ask how my kitty is and she always gets mad and tells me she isn't a cat! 

So, my husband is in Montana.  "We" have property there.  Really the property belongs to cousin Shannon and my father-in-law.  When he dies (God forbid that be soon--I mean in about 20+ years), my husband will inherit one third of his half.  So we will own 1/6th of the place.  My husband and his friend, Paul, go up there every year for two weeks.  They play and fix up whatever has broken over the winter.  The house sits about 100 feet from the banks of the Yellowstone River.  It is really indescribable how beautiful it is in the summer.  I have never seen it in the winter.

This year, Paul, left his dog with me to watch.  Jack/Dog (a mix of dog) is turning out to be very alternatingly good and annoying.  He sleeps nicely, eats well and plays well with our dog, Hunter (a yellow lab).  When I sew, use my sewing machine, Jack cries--loudly.  I don't think I can stop sewing for two weeks to accommodate this dog.  Unlike Hunter, who came to us directly from his mom as a puppy, Jack came from the pound which makes it impossible to know what has gone on before that would make him whine and cry like that.  I have resorted to exiling him to the backyard when I sew, but he still comes to the door and cries--probably wondering why he is outside.  It is better when Hunter is out there with him, but then Jack has a tendency to bark.  I know my neighbor, Anna, goes to bed at 9pm and wouldn't appreciate barking at 11pm.

Speaking of Anna--funny story,  She was in the restroom at work and when she went to flush the toilet, her phone fell out of her pocket into the toilet, flushed away.  Amazing that a phone can be flushed.  There doesn't seem like there is enough room, but there is.  Anna is happy now though.  She bought an I-phone and has all sorts of new things to play with.  I am thinking I am the last person on the earth whose phone only takes and makes calls.  No camera.  No texting.  Just calls.  Word to the wise--check the toilet before you flush.

Have a great day.  If you go to Starbucks remember your treat receipt.

Treat Reciept at Starbucks

It is treat receipt time again--until the end of August.  Love those grande mocha frappachinos....

Catching up......

 I looked out my window and saw these roses.  It was if they were faeries dancing in the breeze.  I just had to run out and take a picture.  We are so grateful for the breezes here to help drive out the heat--although a dry heat is better than a humid heat like on the east coast...

I have been trying to get a good picture of this mining cart.  My dear husband makes them and he is going to try and market them to people as planters.  It may be hard to tell,. but they are very authentic looking.  One guy has already bought one.  Hopefully we can put them in some of the nurseries in the area with business cards to take. 

I am so pleased with this picture.  This was the block of the month for my guild.  I didn't want to do anything too involved because it was out community service night and that is not always well attended.  There did seem to be a lot of people there this time.  That is always a good thing.

I think last year the guild made 600+ quilts for charity.  A lot of people do their part, but there are some who have never made a quilt for community service.  

But, back to the block-of-the-month....I did a scrappy pinwheel block.  I didn't have to buy very much fabric for this--I used a bunch of my scraps.  I only sold seven of the 20 I prepared.  I just don't know what else to do about this.  It takes hours to make up the kits.  I am not having fun.....Whine, whine, whine.

Enough of that.  This is the beginning of August.  This month's quote is

               A lady is one who never shows her underwear unintentionally.
                                                     --Lillian Day

Lillian Day was a novelist, biographer and playwright.  She wrote a book, The Youngest Profession, in 1938 which was turned into a movie starring Edward G Robinson.  She spent the last 30+ years of her life living in France. 

Back to my blocks.........

BOM

If you are a quilter, you will immediately recognize BOM to be Block-of-the-month.  I am the BOM committee this year for my guild.  I have done it before with success, but this time I am not happy.  I seem to spend huge amounts of time prepping for it, making the kits and then only selling a few.  I bring the unsold ones home and sew them up myself so I have blocks to showcase when they are brought back.  I don't want the nine I sold to look lonely up there by themselves.  Consequently, I have done very little of my own sewing and quilting and I an darn tired of that.  I think I am done with this.  I am going to try small wallhangings and see what happens--after I finish up with the pieces I have already cut.

Christms Joy Quilt

 I don't know how this happened, but the first picture should have been the quilt that is now the last picture.
I have spoken of the skirmishes over the Christmas Joy quilt--the fabric that I wanted and had to pay for a class in order to get the two yards I needed.  The bottom picture is the inside of the quilt--the pinwheels.  The picture above is what I did to change it just a little.  In the corners that have no embroidery, I did a broken dishes square to create interest.  Not sure if that was successful, but we shall see when the entire quilt is put together.  Now that I have this part done, I must find the two yards of pink fabric that my darling husband put away for me and has no idea where he put it.  Most likely is the fabric closet.  I am starting there on Friday--the hunt for fabric.

 Don't you just love the color of these potatoes????  My husband was putting up a screen door for our friend Lisa's mom. Judy.  Judyhas an amazing garden and she sent home with the husband, cucumbers and two bags of these potatoes.  It is a medley of potatoes--gold, red and blue potatoes.  It is a little disconcerting to eat them at first, but blue potatoes taste like--potatoes.  I am the only on who will eat them, so breakfast food they have become.  The sausages did get more browned and there was an egg and a piece of toast with coffee eaten in my backyard!

This is a secret.  Okay not so much, but no one who can't know reads this blog.  Names are changed to protect the innocent-me!  Jenny is married to George.  George is a sweet guy who weighs more than Jenny is comfortable with,  Her daughter and son-in-law are on the Atkins diet and doing great losing weight.  So, Jenny puts George on it. Now my husband was at Jenny's two mornings.  Each morning George had him drive over to Subway to get a sandwich with everything on it (including the vegetables).  While the cat is away, the mouse eats Subway.

 This is my son who refuses to eat blue potatoes.  He took this picture so he could show his online friends what he looks like as he is playing some online game.  He also plays with his cousin and best friend and they know what he looks like.  Hecame out and tells me tonight that there are two changes since the darling daughter left home.  He can cook anytime he wants without having to work around her and he hasn't had fast food since she left.  She would stop o her way home from work every Friday and get Chipotle burritos.  I was just thinking that McDonald's Chicken McNuggets sounded good.....

Speaking of birthdays.....My friend Kim is a year older.   My sister is a year older and three years away from her trip to France to celebrate her 50th birthday.  My brother is 50 this year and we did a photo album--this is your life--and someone (I like to blame my sister here) put the wrong date.  You would think we would know when he was born.  He told me he didn't know who was responsible since the album showed up sans note.  That is a quote.  My second brother will be 49 on Friday.  It always amazes people to know that before I was four years old, I had two brothers and a sister.  In fact, when Mary was born I was only three years and 10 months old.   One more birthday--my father-in-law will be 75 this year.  We were going to have a party fro him, but he declined.  Maybe just a family dinner.  One day I was over visiting and he was whining about not having a big scoop for soup and stuff.  I bought him one at Ikea to put on top of whatever gift card we get him this year.  He likes to go out to eat.  I wonder in Felipes has gift cards.  If you live in the Sacramento area--Felipes is a hole in the wall Mexican restaurant that is fabulous.  Always clean, great food and real Mexican family who owns it.

Here it is!  The middle without borders is five squares by six squares.  Each square is 8.5 inches unfinished or 8 inches finished.  Wish me luck on the fabric hunt!

River City Quilt Guild

A long time ago (21 years ago) I was a member of the River City Quilt Guild.  I loved going to the meetings and there was a lovely quilt show to help with and every other year we had classes with nationally known teachers.  I was made corresponding secretary right away (sending cards and notes to people--reminds me of a line from a song).  I stopped going--not because there was any problem or I was unhappy with someone--but my son graduated from Webelos to Boy Scouts.  He had been in the Boy Scouts since he was 6 years old.  Out of the twelve that began the group as Tigers, only my son and one other boy made it to Eagle Scout.  I was committed to seeing my son go all the way to Eagle Scout and his meetings were on Tuesdays--the same time as the quilt guild meetings.  I had to give one of them up--so goodbye quilt guild.  I haven't been to a meeting since my son turned 10 years old in 1999--until Tuesday, July 17, 2012.  It was amazing to see Sandy Ross standing up there speaking.  She hasn't changed in the least.  Her mom was Kit.  Kit had had polio when  she was a kid and was the only person I knew who had polio.  It was a big scare in the 30's I think.  Kit was always nice to me.

Anelie Beldon was the speaker.  She is the author of  Thoroughly Modern Dresden.  She gave a talk about the tools she loves to use.  I took notes!  She began with her choice of sewing machine for quilting--the Brother 1500.  I don't know if it is all that, but Anelie says it is.  I know my friend, Kim, uses a Juki (not sure of spelling).  She does beautiful work, soooo....  She makes her own starch.  I will stick with my big blue bottle and dilute it.  Cost is pennies, so making it from scratch seems like work to me.  Cornstarch and water makes starch.  No amounts were mentioned.  And you have to keep it in the refrigerator.  Hmmmm.  Still not going for the cornstarch here.  Anelie also mentioned a specific brand of quilting gloves--Machingers.  She did say you need to keep track of your gloves or you will miss one and not find it until you turn over your newly quilted quilt and find that glove quilted to the back!  She even showed the glove quilted to the back of a quilt.  Anelie uses Sewer's Aid (a lubricant to put on your needle--Amazon sells a 12 oz. bottle for $7.03).  Another fun tool is the quick clip.  Not really sure about that one because Anelie mentioned using it to safely close safety pins, but I couldn't find anything but the little scissors.  The coolest tool tip was about the nail holders you can buy at Lowe's.  If they fall, nothing comes out.  Great for pins and rumor has it that they cost $2.25 each!  Believe me when I say that I will be making a trip soon to Lowe's to check this one out.  For marking, Anelie uses a white water soluble pencil.  She mentioned the brand --Stabilo--which is a German company and the web site needs translating.  You can buy the Clover brand at JoAnn's Fabric and Crafts.  Notions are 50% off this week through Saturday.  If it isn't labeled as a quilting notion, then it might be worth trying.  This one is a cool trick--using a clear shower curtain to draw out patterns.  Using an erasable marker, you can use that shower curtain over and over.  Anelie cuts it up into small pieces to make it usable.  Thinking Target?  Walmart?  Kmart?  Here is something I can't use because I don't have an I-Phone, but you may be able--there is an app for Quilt reference.  Appliquer's take note--aqua brush/pen.  You can buy one at Aaron Brothers or for about the same price go over to Quilter's Corner and get their version--that is the one I use and love.  We were cautioned that there is a 3-pack for not so much money or you can buy one for $10.50 (the Aaron Brothers route).  In this case, you get what you pay for.  Pay the money  and be happier.  For organization Anelie uses the Omnigrid organizer with the yellow handle.  These can be pretty pricey.  Try Tuesday Morning (friend paid $23.00 instead of $49.00) or wait for a good sale at Shared Stitches in Cameron Park--off HWY 50 towards Placerville.  There was mention of the cordless Maytag iron.  I wrote this note:  iron for model airplanes.  I have no idea what I meant and will email Anelie and ask.  She uses readers when she wants to see up close and she uses an eyeglass case to hold her rotary cutter.  Anelie also uses Retain and something else that I am not sure of.  I wrote it completely wrong, but it is used with retain.  Another question for Anelie.  The best tip of the evening was this stuff called Restoration.  It is a washing machine product that will get out stains--even rust!

So there it is in a nutshell!  Let me know if anyone out there tries one of these tips.  Did it work?  Not work?
Inquiring minds want to know.........