Houston, we have a problem

I got my car all packed up and took off for Houston just before 8:00 this morning. As soon as I got on the freeway I noticed that my coolant light was on. I got off at the next exit and investigated. I'll admit that I'm a car idiot so I got out the owner's manual to assist me in figuring out how to fix the problem. I was frustrated because the drawing in the manual didn't match the actual car at all.

I had been having second thoughts about the trip so after a while I decided that the powers that be were trying to tell me something and decided to just turn around and go home. I'm disappointed about not going to see my quilt in the show, and I feel badly about letting down my friend Janis - with whom I was supposed to room. Even so, I do feel like I've made the right decision.

On the Road Again...

I leave in the morning for Houston to attend the International Quilt Festival. I'll be driving because of my fear of flying. I could probably make the trip in 2 long days, but I'll do it in 3. I want to be there early on Wednesday so I can be refreshed for the early opening on Wednesday night.

I'll be rooming with my friend Janis. We originally were going to be staying at the Doubletree but lucked into a room at the Hilton which is connected to the convention center. I hope to be able to blog a bit from the show, but I'm not making any promises.

Until then, here is a photo (clickable for a larger version) of the sun project I started the other day. I'm not sure I'm happy with it and may be taking some of it out, but heck, at least I'm sewing.

Jerry has said all along that it looks like an eyeball - among other things - and I'm beginning to agree with him.

See ya from Houston - quilter's mecca.

Newest Project

Last summer at Quilt Surface Design Symposium I took a class with Vikki Pignatelli. One evening while in the classroom working on my class project, I came up with a design I wanted to make using Vikki's techniques. I finally got started on it. It's probably hard to figure out by this photo (which is clickable to enlarge) that this is the sun. The white circle on the right will morph into yellow/orange/red flames.


Here are some of the fabrics I've pulled together thus far for the piecing.

I'll try to keep you posted on my progress (or lack thereof).

The Quilt Studio webring, of which I am a new member, is going to establish a Work in Progress Wednesday where the bloggers in the ring post photos of their Works in progress. Since I leave for Houston on Monday and won't be back for 10 days, this will have to be my WIP photo for a couple of weeks!

Measure Your Feet day

I discovered from this website of Bizarre American Holidays that I was born on Measure Your Feet day. My special day (January 23rd) actually has 3 exciting events; the foot day, National Handwriting Day and National Pie Day.

I'm living like every day is April 7th - No Housework Day and March 22 - National Goof-Off day.

What is YOUR bizarre holiday?

Happy Birthday Honey

Today is Jerry's 55th birthday. I think that qualifies him for ordering from the senior menu at Denny's. Good thing I'm SO much younger than him!

Unfortunately he spent the day trying to fight off illness. Craig got sick when he and Jerry made the trip to Detroit for the baseball games, and Jerry has finally come down with it. I suppose I'm next. Hope I get over it before I need to leave for Houston on 10/31. We were going to have the kids over for a birthday dinner, but since everyone seems to be feeling so bad, we canceled it. Instead we watched the first game of the world series.

Happy Birthday Jerry. I love you.

Quilter's Day Out

Last Saturday our guild had Quilter's Day Out where we all worked on an easy lone star top. I don't usually do pattern quilts, but I really liked the class sample and wanted to spend a day with fellow quilters. We had a preprinted fusible foundation and used the sew, flip and fuse technique of construction. Rather than cutting our pieces into diamonds this method allowed us to use rectangles. It's really a fast and easy method. I was able to complete all 8 of my segments this week and then had to decide which color should be in the middle. I could either put the yellow there...


Or the print...



I selected the yellow and went on to complete the top (except for the borders). That's when I took a good look at the background fabric and realized that in spite of the fact that I thought I'd cut it out properly, the direction in the fabric is messed up. The stripe like pattern goes in one direction on one triangle and the other on the adjacent triangle. Damn!


I don't have any more of the background fabric so I can't even attempt to fix it by cutting some new pieces.

This is what the top looks like right now. I guess I'll have to take out all the background and find something else to put there. I don't think that the quilting will camouflage the mistake do you?

Wait until next year!

The Tigers beat up on the A's in the ALCS and sadly our season is over, although since Detroit is my hometown, I can't be too upset. We'll be pulling for Detroit in the series.

Jerry & Craig attended games 3 & 4 of the ALCS in Detroit. They had a great time even though it was really cold.

Hopefully the A's will be in it again next year!

LET'S GO A'S

The A's are on their way to the second round of the playoffs. Amazingly the Detroit Tigers took the Yankees out in round one. The A's and Tigers will fight it out for the AL companionship.

Jerry was hoping for just this pairing. He had me go on line last week and get him tickets to the games next Friday & Saturday nights in Detroit "just in case." Turns out I can't go with him (darn) because I have to give a presentation at my quilt guild on Thursday night, so he's hoping that Craig will be able to make the drive up with him. The seats are up in the nose bleed section, but it's good to know that at least one person in the stands will be cheering for the A's.

Where it all started

My friend Liz, who grew up across the street from me, was visiting back in Detroit early this year. Neither one of us has lived in the city for years. Liz took a drive down our old street and snapped a photo of the house in which I lived from birth until I went to college. I was surprised to see that the house is still yellow. Our house was always the landmark on the block. If one of our neighbors was giving directions to their house, they'd say 'it's 3 houses from the yellow house' so some such statement. The house was small, about 900 sq. ft, but since we had a full basement in which to store all our junk, it didn't feel as small as it could have. Now I'm living in about 2700 sq. ft, but feel like I need more room. Too bad we don't have basements in this part of the country.