BB CW #3

Being disgustingly lazy, I stenciled Barbara Brackman's appliqued CW block #3:

If anybody is interested in the design I used for the block, I uploaded it to Google Docs.

Here is the quilt line-up so far:

Here is an antique Seven Sisters block that I bought years ago in Indiana. It is a singleton orphan block. Well, they didn't put the 7th star in the center:

Iced Atlanta

I left the house/quilting studio for the first time since Sunday to ice-walk to the grocery for provisions. This is what I am going to try next:

Now you know that since I am a quilter (and decidedly not crazy for Day Job) that I was not the least bit upset about staying at home for three days to quilt. It has been heaven. I wouldn't have gone to the grocery except that I really needed to get a "walk" (if you can call mincing along on the ice as if my feet had been bound as a baby walking). I had food but nothing to put in the crock pot and I didn't know if the grocery would have bread (they did), so I made dilly bread and put lentil soup in one pot and sauerkraut/turkey sausage in the other pot.

I was interested in making chili but there was no ground beef in the store. I could have had all the unground beef I wanted for $20 and up a package. There was also no celery or carrots, no loose potatoes or loose onions, a necessity for backpack-toting. The store co-manager said he and the other manager had slept in the grocery for three nights running. He seemed a bit crazed and it's no wonder. It made me think of that Sondheim musical where the people lived in the department store 24/7 and sang beautiful songs.

Icicles!

Triple-decker icicles! One-dimensional icicles are simply unheard-of down here.

There are other quilty things I should be working on, but this Old Swedish Quilt (pictured on Kathie Holland's blog) has captured my attention:

That Rembrandt, always helping with the quilting:

Don't ask me what that red thing is on my arm, it's too long a story.

Monday Morning

I know the Southern Snowfall is a challenge for many, so please forgive me for being absolutely thrilled at seeing several unheard-of inches of snow on the Atlanta ground (and getting a Snow Day besides!). I'm a Nordic Snow Girl and miss the snow down here in the humid South. Got out pre-dawn and tried taking some pictures but hey, it was pitch dark. Need I point out that I was the first person out?

It was fabulous walking around in footprint-free snow. Note the snow covering the palm tree :-) :

A present appeared in the mail from Pam! Will you just look at that adorable snowman she made from two buttons??? I die.

Pam and I have long been seeking in vain to get a suitably stained and chipped shabby chic bone dish JUST like the one that appears in the Blackbird Ladies' blog banner,

with no luck at all. I mean seriously, I have been stalking eBay for years and not a single dish has appeared that is like Barb and Alma's. They all seem to be disgustingly pristine and pure white, I mean, gag. Pam, however, found two pretty ones that are in the pre-stained stage and are the right shape (it isn't even easy to find a dish shaped just like the one in the header); she shared and sent me one! Thank you, Pam, this goes right at my sewing machine for a crackers dish :-). Maybe someday, someday, we will be able to find bone dishes that have not been well cared for like the pair that Pam found ha.

Dear Pam thinks I know how to age this dish, the poor deluded girl. Soak it in the only two liquids around here, Diet Coke or Olive Brine? Bury it in the kitchen compost pile for two years? Oh okay, I know from my living history museum days that I could drop it in a 19th c. well or bury it under the dirt floor of a log cabin for 160 years or so to achieve that aged effect. Now where is my 19th c. log cabin? I had it here a minute ago. If anybody knows some sensible way to age it, let me know.

Second BB Civil War block:

A supplementary Les Fleurs class met yesterday courtesy of Wanda so that we could see a few completed quilts. Some gorgeous quilts have resulted from this year-long class. Please forgive the lack of focus in some or all of the pictures. I took the pictures with one hand while on hold on B's cell phone (Net10 Customer No-Service) with the other (for a solid hour, I might add, with nothing at all achieved; but thank you for the minutes, B!):

My Timy hasn't left the country yet, but he will leave for Afghanistan towards the end of the month. If you have a way to keep my baby in your prayers (several have already promised to do so), I would be so thankful:

Okay, it's back to admiring the snow and getting some quilting done.

Barbara Brackman's Civil War Block #1

Must participate in this. It will be fun to try to stay on task with fabric selection.

I am making the blocks 6" and will be popping photos of the finished blocks into the EQ diagram as I go. The signature star block might look nice in the four corners:

Thank you for doing this, Barbara, I had not yet gotten involved with any of the Civil War quilt projects that are available and I did want to make a quilt to commemorate it.

2011

Happy New Year all!

Timmy and New Patterns

First of all, I posted the two patterns I mentioned earlier on my website, namely Crazy (Doll) Quilt, that will be offered as a class this coming quarter:

and Cozy Home:

Also here are four Pocket Patterns that are part of another class I am teaching at Little Quilts beginning in January: Study in Amish. This class meets four times. Each session deals with stylistic regional differences in Amish quilts, in this case, Lancaster PA, Holmes County OH, Indiana, and Illinois. The patterns come with the classes. I am offering them as a set on my website as well. I'm very excited about this class, so if you are interested and live in the Atlanta area, I hope you will consider signing up :-):

Tuesday, 5am, note found by mother on clipboard (tandem snoring coming from vicinity of day bed and chair):

"Time Unknown

Hi, Mommy, I am here. So is Kyle. He is a Marine in my unit, so it is cool that he stays here. Wake me up before you go anywhere. Love you, Timy" [editor: note that he doesn't even know how to spell his own name anymore]."

next clipboard entry:

"8:30am Thursday

Hello my son, I love you. [editor: sensing there is more to the story] Does Kyle live in Atlanta? It is too early to wake you up. I am taking quilt class samples to LQ and will be back soon. Hope we can go eat when I get back. Love, Mom"

Got back at 11am. Timy was awake but had written the following on the clipboard:

"10:15 Thursday

MaMa, Kyle is from Boston. I do not know what the game plan is [editor: I knew I smelled a story]. Let's do lunch. Love, Timy"

At lunch:

Timothy: "So Kyle flew in from Boston to see this girl. They've been emailing."

Mom: "Had they met before?"

Timothy: "No. So she picked him up at the airport."

Mom: "How did that go?"

Timothy: "Well, she called me to ask where she could drop him off. I thought he was in Boston."

Mom: "How much time was there between picking him up at the airport and calling you?"

Timothy: "About half an hour."

Mom: "Where was Kyle planning to stay?"

Timothy: "With her."

Mom: "Where was she planning for him to stay?"

Timothy: "With me."

Mom: "I wonder what will happen next?"

Timothy: "Can't wait to find out."

And finally, as a fare-thee-well to Christmas 2010, here is Rembrandt treating the shepherd's flock like a catnip mouse:

Happy Holidays

Merry Christmas to you and yours from Karen, Timmy, A Good Cat, and a Devil Cat.

Christmas Eve

Hope everybody has a lovely day today. Timmy came home last night, so all is well here. Cooking and shopping ahead.

This little book was published in Boston in 1854.

Busy Times

Are you all feeling as frantic as I am? It's like racing to the finish line time.

I have a remodeling plan for the main floor of the house, so I put a bit of it in motion these past few days by painting the DR, the wall shelf, and the table. One wall was dark paneling, so I'm loving the big change. Had a yen to get a white tree and spent two hours fluffing up those branches and assembling it. Oops the light strands are green so that looks awful. I have a lead that Big Lots has white strand lights so it's off to there at 8am, then must work again today at the LQS. Rembrandt is climbing on the tree, knocking down the branches, so I cannot put decorations on the tree. There's a squirt gun at Big Lots with Rembrandt's name on it:

I got several dropcloths at Home Depot, which I noticed all the best Shabby Chic decorators are doing, and turned them into day bed covers, bolster covers, tablecloth, and temporary curtains (I have a more permanent plan for the sliding glass doors).

Next to an old Christmas card that I drew many years ago is the Primitive Gatherings Primitive Muslin FQ giveaway I won from Tara of Sew Unique Creations! Tara even threw in some heavenly reproduction FQs that go beautifully with the Primitive Muslins. The Muslins are pure heaven and I can't wait to make something with them. Thank you, Tara!!

Gifts

Here is what Rembrandt (so close to Christmas when little housecats should be behaving; enlarge to see the carnage) did:

Here is what I am giving Rembrandt for Christmas:

Here is what Marcie gave me for Christmas!! I wouldn't have gotten this wonderful doll quilt and Long Live Vintage sign if I had run amuck through the house, tearing up valuable Good Ideas pages that belonged to somebody else:

Thank you, Marcie, this is such a wonderful Christmas gift and I LOVE it. Marcie has an incredible talent for making scrappy quilts and must have the most entrancing stash ever because there are loads of fabrics that I do not recognize at all and definitely would have purchased if I had seen them.