slacker

Yep, that's me! 

A slacker, lately!

Few and far between on the blog posts.

Sorry!

No excuses, just life!

So back to the business at hand:

Here are a couple of quilts I meandered over last week.

The first is Virginia's.

She is working on cleaning up her back-log of UFOs.

This one is a five-year-old BOM.

I don't know about you, but I think it was worth the wait! 

The second one is Helen's.

A trip around the world. 

 In thirties.

It's great, too, isn't it?

I have a pic,
as promised,
of the craziness that I signed up for recently.
Remember,
I told you that
I decided
I had the time this summer
to do a
BLOCKS OF THE WEEK?
Each week is
4 applique and 5 nine-patches -
all finishing at three and a half inches!
The craziness in this decision?
The WEEK part!!!
Who in the world
has time to add four appliques and 5 nine-patches a week!!!!!??????
In the middle of summer????!!!!
What was I thinking?
So,
the first week,
the delivery was late -
as the truck carrying the background fabric had an accident in New York.
So, right off the bat  needle, well, I am a week behind in my BOW.
This is the forth week...
and it's time for this weeks' blocks in the mail.
And,
TA DA
I want it noted that I am caught up - all three previous weeks done!
Here's the proof:

Oops!

I guess I'm not up to date!

I just counted the little 3 1/2 inch blocks in the picture,

should be 15 nine-patches and 12 appliques....

I only count ten 9-patches. 

But, I do have all of the wool on cotton appliques done. 

I will count the appliques as done.

5 nine-patches to go.

Before the mailman drives past my house tomorrow lunch-time!

And why did I decide that I could add this project to my summer?

Well, just look at those blocks...

They are just too cute!

relief and the baby dinosaur

How do you spell relief???
c - a - m - e - r - a!

I am no longer having camera withdrawal...
That was a LOOOOONNNNNGGGG three days! ha
I even had to take a couple of picks with my cell phone - like that was helpful!  Those pics are soo small and very few pixels, so not a good quality.  Anyway...
Here are the few pics that I didn't/couldn't share earlier:

The pitting of nine quarts of cherries:

The "pitter" - a.k.a. my thumbnail

The ''fruits of labor":

the culprit that caused the oven to burn: 

"Amish" pies for graduation:

Nine of the pies in the 'peach crate carrier''
(read about the peach crate legacy by clicking on the link above).

And,

the graduation spread:

Desserts first, of course, 'cause that's how we roll!

Then the second and main courses:

And lastly,

THE

BABY

DINOSAUR!!!

Really, that is a baby dinosaur!

It came to the grad party!

It flew in and stayed for just a while,

walking around the rim of a cup.

Then it had to fly.  More parties to hit, you know.

'Cause that is what makes a great party,

don't you know?

When the dinosaurs show up.

You now you've hit the big leagues in grad parties

when they put in an appearance!

Congrats to all the grads!

I wish you dinosaurs in your lives...

that and lots of pies!

the peach crate legacy

Quite a few years ago,

Sweeties' Grandma Ruth

wanted me to have

her peach crate.

Not just any peach crate, mind you.

But a peach crate that her sweetie - Frank,

had worked his magic on.

Grandpa Frank knew that his Ruth needed a way

to carry her baked goods

to the events she was "fixin' for"

(fixin' for also known as catering).

And when Grandma Ruth did catering,

well, she did it up right.

Home-made everything. 

And an abundance of everything. 

Including pies - lots of pies.

Hence,

the 'peach-crate carrier',

magic added by her Sweetie.

He took an old peach crate, added a couple of bent pipe handles,

turned it on end, added some removable shelves and a slide out door.

Ingenious!

Now, at the time

that she wanted to pass on her peach crate,

this made me sad.

In my mind, that meant that she knew

she was no longer able or wanted to

make all of those baked goods to take along.  

But she told me,

that, well,

she knew no one else in the family 

would have a use for the peach crate.

Who else besides herself and me

would have the need to

fill up the peach crate to take anywhere? 

I told her that I would surely use it

as it was intended,

and I would cherish the legacy

(this was said with tears in my eyes and throat).

Cherish the peach crate legacy with use.

Cherish the peach crate legacy with lots of baked goods.

Lots of pies - all homemade.

So, in remembrance

of Grandma Ruth (1913-2008)

for all the pies she made and carried 

and Grandpa Frank (1912-2010)

for all the magic he put into making her a carrier...

I present:

the peach-crate legacy

in all it's glory - filled bottom to top:

Be truthful here.

How many people do you know

that would have the need

to carry nine pies

all at one time?

Thanks, Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Frank -

thanks for the legacy.

It's a happy/sad!

Welcome Summer

Summer is finally here!!!

Today is the summer equinox. 

(Don't tell my kids that I have eggs standing on end - they might still think I am weird!)

Although our central Ohio weather thought it/summer had already arrived.

Hot and steamy - just like it should be!

Last of the grad parties for this year were held over the weekend - they were all wonderful. 
My niece asked me to make "Amish pies" for her party ... you know, graduation pies!
Yes, I know that I am not Amish;
and so does she...
she just thinks that "we" cook like we are Amish! 
Sooooo,
Friday afternoon and Saturday morn - well it was pie-baking time.
Some of those fresh picked/frozen tart cherries = three pies,
some of those fresh Ohio strawberries
& a trip to the rhubarb patch = one strawberry-rhubarb,
some fresh/frozen peaches from last summer's harvest = two pies,
some fresh/frozen blueberries = one pie
and some fresh apples = three pies.
Add one half-chocolate/half-white cake for 45 people.
What do you have? 
Enough dessert for a grad party!
Add a fresh, BBQ'd hog on the roaster, and Wallah!
I told you it was a good party!

Except for the part where I left my camera there!  
Boo.
So no pics today! 

And, to finish off the weekend?

A little hand applique and machine piecing/sewing!

(little being the operative word!-pics at a later date.)

Working on a "BOW" - block of the week.

Yes, I may be crazy...

taking on a block of the week project.

But, I am now caught up.

At least until the mail comes Tuesday.

Aah, summer!

ooops

I totally forgot to post this great quilt picture last week!  (the quilt is great, not the picture.)
Sorry, Helen!
This is a queen-sized beauty that is machine-pieced blocks within the hearts, with machine applique floral borders.  I wish I had taken a close-up pic of the quilting, though.  Not because of the quilting, but because of what Helen chose to have quilted around the hearts and in the borders. 
She had me quilt this meandering Ohio Rose-like flower with a leafy-heart-continuous line in the rose colored border, and a smaller version in the white triangles of the heart stripes, then echo quilting in the floral stripes. 
You can click on the picture, and then click on that frame again and kind of see the pattern she chose to have quited into it.  A great choice for quilting!, and a beautiful quilt.  Thanks, Helen, for letting me be a part of your quilt!  I  L O V E it!

family sewing

There were a couple of cuties over yesterday.

We finished up some more sewing. 

The gal is working on her first lap quilt.  She is 10 and is loving sewing and making her own project her own!

The guy - he's the one that informed me that "time does fly";

he's nine, and he made sure he was back over to finish his pillow,

as it is a Father's Day gift for his Daddy. 

He does not look particularly happy here because,

well,

I made him stop to take a picture.

He was finished with his sewing, 

and he wanted to go back out and pick some more cherries!

Check out the cherries that got picked with Sweeties' help:

!!!!!!!!!!

Aren't they beauties?

Now to get some black under my nails and clean me some cherries!

stuff in the road

It has been crazy with big ole' storms here in Ohio lately...

they roll through unexpectedly and create havoc - lots of high winds, lightening struck trees, flooding and general chaos from road closures. 

Road closures because of the flooding, downed trees, and power outages. 

you know, stuff in the road...

(note to self: buy more candles)

Anyway, I don't like to have my quilting machine plugged in during these storms. 

We always are having power outages even if there's not a storm in the area, and I don't want to get the electronics "fried" in my HQ when the storms are rolling through!  So, Big DD has been having a break, and

therefore, the meandering has suffered!

Only a couple to show from last week:

The first is a memory quilt that was a re-do...

I didn't do the first quilting, just did the re-do part...hope she likes it!

and the next is a great one for Loretta.

I think this is from a mystery night at the LQS-

again, the colors in my picture are not true.

The quilt is a great teal and almost a brickie-red.

Not what my pic looks like at all, huh?

Trust me, it's a good one!

I have another quilt loaded now, waiting for this morn's storm to blow through.

The end of this week

the National Quilt Association Show comes to town,

so I want to get A LOT done so I can go downtown

to check it out and not feel quilty-guilty about taking the day off!

On a different but same note:

graduations and stuff in the road!

Don't you just love graduations?!

This is the picture for all my graduation cards this year:

There

will be

many...

What do you think?  Good? Lame? Indifferent?

At first this was just going to be for family-member grads,

but I like it well enough that it is going to be a printed card

and kept in my card stash!

I know, it's just weird enough that it expresses ... me!

And I think it's a good message.

OK, back to the sewing!

and stuff in the road!

Hope your week is enjoyable, too.

out of order tizzy and the towels

I am enjoying a couple of days out of order this week...

Out of order,
because,
well,
I usually work at the LQS on Monday and Thursday. 
But this week, not Monday.
But yes for Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday.
and this made me think that I AM a creature of habit after all.
Are you like me in that regard?
Do you have certain things/chores that you do on certain days?

Like the old tea towels with the stitching?
Or was it Great-grandma B that used to say:

Wash on Monday,

Iron on Tuesday,

Mend on Wednesday,

Churn on Thursday,

Clean on Friday,

Bake on Saturday,

Rest on Sunday.

I know I don't REALLY mind change;
I can roll with the punches with the best of y'all.

My mind was in a little tizzy, though, - I admit.
I did my groceries/errands on a different day...no biggie.
Wednesday is usually "my" day:  "Mending day"- my own hand-stitching, pattern making, quilting, projects, ideas.
 Also on this day, I like to cook up some entrees to have on hand for the nights after I have worked that day (at home or out of the home).  Then I just throw together some veggies and fruits with the pre-cooked and call it a meal - a good meal.
Laundry just gets done on the weekend when it gets done.
Sooo,
Monday became Wednesday in my tizzy mind;  Tuesday became Saturday; Wednesday became customer quilting day - which really should have been Tuesday; since I am working Friday, I won't get my cleaning done (that's as good excuse as any!); Sunday there is the Wool Crazy class I am leading at the LQS, so is it called resting if you are stitching??, and I don't know what day it will be when I finally do laundry...  does this explain the tizzy feeling?

(Maybe it all really started with all of those strawberries!!?!)

I'm going to have to get out the towels
and see what day it is
and what I'm supposed to be doing!

abundance

My Sweetie --- he is sooooo sweet...

He came in the door Saturday night, at 5 o'clock,

with 32 QUARTS of strawberries

and one angel food cake...

So the ratio of strawberries to cake is a little skewed...

Aren't they beautiful???

And truth to be told,

I had a call asking if I wanted these gorgeous red Ohio berries,

so I knew they were coming.

Really not Sweetie's fault at all. 

The angel food cake though? 

That was Sweetie's fault. 

It's a good problem, isn't it?

Too many strawberries?

So a few hours later,

we (translate I) 

had "farmed out" half of the berries to a neighbor,

cleaned berries and dropped into quart bags for freezing,

made jam,

and made a shortcake. 

And, no, I really didn't need

the shortcake on top of the angel food cake,

but I like the angel food, and Sweetie likes the shortcake. 

And since he was kind enough to make the strawberry run,

I thought I would make him the shortcake

in my spare time,
in the midst of cleaning and prepping berries.

(but really, making the shortcake fit perfectly into the middle of stirring a batch of jam!)

So, by 8:30 p.m.

there were nine and a half quarts of jam

sitting pretty on the butcher block,

forty-eight cups of frozen berries,

and a good sized bowl of berries lightly sugared for eating. 

Soon, I was sitting in my chair, with my feet up,

eating a bowl of berries and a little slice of angel food cake,

while Sweetie was eating a bowl of shortcake

drenched with strawberries,

that was then drenched with milk. 

There was more than a little slurping going on in here, I can tell you. 

The moral of the story? 

Don't turn down 32 quarts of strawberries

at 5 o'clock on a Saturday night!

You don't know what abundance you're missing if you do!!!

vibrant tartness

It

 is

almost

Cherry time!!!

Do you see

all of those

little yellow globes

hanging in the Forest of leaves???

In just a few days,

they will

all

be bright red

and ready for the picking!

If

I

beat

the birds

to the punch

to the cherries!!!

Seeing those colors in that tree reminds me of this quilt that I just meandered across.

And now that almost a day has passed since these cherry tree pictures were taken,

the colors are even more cherry and orangey and vibrant!

So, I had to show you this quilt of KyleAnn's.
Check out those colors -
the colors that look like ripening cherries:

And this puppy quilt was almost king size -

that's a whole lot of vibrancy! 

(Of course, my picture doesn't show the true vibrancy -

it was a gorgeous mix of brightness.) 

Just like the cherries ripening on the tree in the garden. 

I love ripening cherry colors -

in trees and in quilts!

tending flowers...

I have a wild looking flower bed in the front of the house...

I initially planted it to be a lot more "prairie" looking than some of the other beds.

Lots of daisies and lavender and something else that I can't remember now.

At some point, I added these poppies.

Because I LOVED the color. 

Because they were light and breezy looking.

Because they bloomed when I had nothing else blooming in the bed

except for the daisies.

And because they had these great seed pods!

Check out that purple that is SOOOO purple that it is almost black! 

And, click on the pic and enlarge to get a good look at the pollen sitting in that petal basket! 

These colors and the vibrancy make me think I should design something quilty!

Also, makes me think

that maybe I found part of the reason that allergies are so bad right now!

But worth every sneeze!