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.

We can shower again!

3 weeks ago we discovered a problem in our shower which entailed removing a bunch of tiles, replacing some of the backing board and then retiling. Jerry finally finished the project tonight & we should be able to use the shower tomorrow!

The shower head in the guest bathroom doesn't work like the one we have in the master bath, and I've been having problems getting all the shampoo out of my hair. I'll be glad to get back to the real shower.

Making Cake

Noah likes to bake cakes and cupcakes. We made a red velvet cake the other day. I'd never made one from a mix before and was surprised that the mix turns red upon adding the liquid. Noah thought it was magic! Obviously his favorite part of the process is licking the beaters.

Do not try this at home

As I was emptying the dishwasher this morning, I noticed that the rinse agent dispenser needed refilling. I grabbed the bottle from under the sink and filled it to the brim. Then I realized that I grabbed the WRONG bottle. I filled it with Dawn instead of Jet Dry. If you've ever made this type of mistake you know what we encountered - lots and lots of suds! In comparing the two bottles I think it was an honest mistake - but I can assure you I will never make it again!

Magic Number is 12

When we lived in San Jose we were Oakland A's season ticket holders. The couple that had seats behind us convinced us one year to join them in dressing up for an important series near the end of the season. I thought we were very fetching in our green wigs. It worked, because we made the playoffs that year.

We're watching closely and hoping that the A's make it again this year. A combination of 12 A's wins and/or Angels' losses puts them in the postseason. LET'S GO A'S.

Not five years but sixty

While the nation is observing the 5th anniversary of the terror attacks on NY and DC, I'm also thinking about my sister-in-law Rosemary as she celebrates her 60th birthday.

Rosemary isn't technically my sister-in-law any more. She was married to my brother Ed but they divorced some time ago and he has since remarried. She has been a part of my life almost as long as I can remember so even though we're not officially related, I still consider her part of my family.

It's nice to have something positive to observe on a date connected with sorrow.

A week of anniversaries

We picked a popular week in which to get married. Craig & Chrystal were married on September 2nd. Our friends John & June on the 3rd. My nephew Eric & Melissa and my cousin Donovan & Lori were married on September 8th. Chrystal's mom & stepdad, Pam and Randy and Jerry & I all celebrate today, September 9th.

John & June are the longest married, but only have us beat by one year. They celebrated 35 years and today we celebrate 34.



I can't believe how young we look here, but after all we were both only 20 years old.




Our ceremony was in the garden of the Botsford Inn in Farmington, MI. I thought I was so classy with the flowers in my hair. My mother and I had an argument the morning of the ceremony because I refused to wear a veil. She even borrowed a co-worker's veil for me to use, but I insisted on the flowers. I should have spent more time fighting for a decent band for the reception. The band she picked out included a banjo and an accordion!

My dress only cost $20. I bought it at the store sample sale. I had to have a few alterations, and it needed to be cleaned, so it probably ended up costing about $50.

Our honeymoon was spent in Frankenmuth, Michigan We only spent a couple of days there. Four days after the wedding Jerry left for duty on a submarine tender in Dunoon, Scotland. I didn't get to join him there until Thanksgiving.

Thus far our celebration today has included more work on the master bathroom shower disaster. We are going out to dinner tonight. Any excuse for a good meal!

Oh oh.

We decided the shower in our bathroom needed recaulking. What was supposed to be a quick cheap job has turned into a real problem. While caulking, Jerry discovered a loose tile and by the time he finished investigating, half the wall was gone. Turns out they used green board instead of cement board and then didn't even run the green board all the way to the floor. The last 4 inches or so was just joint compound and the water has been soaking into the wall. UCK. Ever since we moved in Jerry has talked about changing that shower. Guess now is the time!

Looks like we'll be using the guest bathroom for showers for some time.

Like Father, Like Son

Craig, Chrystal & Noah stopped by today & I was snapping a bunch of photos. Although the quality of this one of Jerry & Craig isn't great, I still like it. Can you tell they're related?


We all went over to the driving range & putting green. Noah is still enjoying hitting the ball. I took this photo of Chrystal on the putting green.

It's always fun when the kids come by.

This one will be mine!

I just received photos of the quilt made for me in the Grab Bag challenge and I have to say I really love it! It was made for me by Patti Boston.

Here's a detail shot

I found it ironic that Patti put a hole in my quilt and I put a hole in the quilt I made for this challenge too.









I'm glad that she put a punch of color in the quilt. I'd been thinking all along that some red should go with those black & white fabrics, and Patti must have read my mind!

I can't wait to see the quilt in person.

Grab Bag Quilt II

The leader of our grab bag quilt challenge posted a photo of the quilt I made on the challenge web site so now I can post a photo of it here. The bag of fabrics & embellishments I received was mostly the greens and purples - with a few pieces of red fabric thrown in. I really had a hard time with this quilt because my first two designs were big failures and I ended up ripping out what I'd done. I ended up with the simple twisted log cabin design which I don't think was very original. I did want to make a hole in the quilt like I learned to do recently in a class with Vikki Pignatelli and thought it worked out as an interesting center for the log cabin. It wasn't until I saw the photo posted that I realized I made a major mistake. The green 'log' second from the bottom is cut off too short. It should have reached over the blue fabric all the way to the purple fabric.

I'm anxious to see a photo of the quilt made for me from my materials. The day I threw the fabrics together to send off I was in a black/white mood and I only sent black & white fabrics and embellishments. I hope the person who got my bag was able to work with it.

Grab Bag quilt

I've mentioned before (here)about the grab bag quilts. I finished mine last week and sent it off to the coordinator. I just found out today that Julie, the person I made a quilt for last time, is the same person I made a quilt for this time.

I really feel sorry for Julie because I don't think either quilt is a spectacular piece of art. I hope she isn't too disappointed. As soon as I get the okay, I'll post a photo of the quilt I made.