Quilty Weekend

 I had the pleasure of attending three quilt shows in three days! On Friday and Sunday, I went to the Flights and Fantasies show at the New England Quilt Museum. Karen and I went on Friday, then I went back on Sunday with my husband and my mother to pick up my quilt.

I was thrilled that Karen Griska posted about my quilt on the Selvage Blog. It's her fault that I started collecting selvages!

Sue Reich displayed several botanical quilts from her collection of antique quilts. 

 

I love the setting "triangles" in the border of this state flower quilt made in 1933.

 

 This Daisy quilt from c.1930 looks so modern.

My mother was fascinated by the space suits. She doesn't remember seeing them on family vacations to Cape Kennedy and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum. 

 

Bill was excited to see this replica of a Gee Bee R-1 racer. The original won the 1932 Thompson Trophy, piloted by Jimmy Doolittle. Bill's father grew up near the Granville Brothers' factory, and he and his brother enjoyed watching the test flights.

 

On Saturday, I went show hopping with Karen (Sew Many Ways), Erin (Quilting in RI), and Ellie (no blog). We started out at the Silver City show in Taunton. MA. For a young guild founded in 2007, it was an impressive show! We were happy to meet the maker of the Best in Show quilt, Janet Elia.  

(This photo from my phone is horrible. Please click over to Janet's blog for a better view.)

After lunch at The Best Sandwich Shop, we went to the Blackstone Valley Quilters' show in Cumberland, RI. They had the most wonderful raffle baskets. One was filled with 200 fat quarters! Fabric shopping at Ryco and a quick run through a flea market rounded out our day.

Batik Arrowheads

 Another completed quilt! This was a quick one. Once I started making blocks, I couldn't stop! I started it on Friday, March 29 and completed it on Friday, April 5.

The pattern is Anita's Arrowheads from Anita Grossman Solomon's book Rotary Cutting Revolution and her Craftsy class Traditional Blocks Made Simple. (If you purchase the class, you get the e-book for free!)

 

All of the batiks came out of my stash. The only thing I had to buy was the back. It is quilted in the ditch with a variegated YLI machine quilting thread that blended perfectly with the back.

 

 It looks really good on the back of my brown sofa, but it won't be there for long. I'll bring it to guild show & tell tomorrow, then it will be given to a friend who needs to be wrapped in love and prayers.

My mother tested it out for him! If you saw yesterday's post, you know we went to a Marine Corps Poolee family day. The recruiters put them through their paces, then turned them over to the Drill Instructor standing behind mom.  It was a fun day for all of us!

Batik Arrowheads

March 29-April 5, 2013

50" x 76"

Family Day

 My husband, mother and I spent a few glorious hours at a lovely state park watching Pete and about a hundred other Marine Corps Poolees being run through their paces by their recruiters and a real live Drill Instructor.

My mother was not dressed appropriately for the cool breeze, so it's a good thing this quilt was in the car to bundle her up in. I brought it thinking I could take cool outdoor pics at the park. We were so focused on the action, I never did get any other photos.

 The day started at 10:30am with pull ups. If Pete looks like he's struggling, this was pull up number 25, perhaps the most he's ever done. My mother was very proud!

 Their day ended just before 2pm with volunteers rolling around in the mud with the DI.

 This muddy mess hugged me! He ships out for Parris Island in September.

 After family day, mom and I went to the Modern Guild meeting down the street from the park. Convenient, considering we were almost an hour from home. The current challenge is a crayon challenge and you can see my crayon in the middle of this pic. I pulled some fabric last night and made a sample block this morning, inspired by a quilt in Camille Roskelley's new book. I love this Martha Negley Dahlia print. It is literally the only thing in my stash that matches the crayon color.

Off to church, then I'll take the batik quilt out for photos. 

Have a great day!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday. We're happy to have here here at our house, riding out the storm. At this time, Hurricane Sandy is battering the north east coast of the US. Praying that our family and friends are all safe and sound.

Birthday bouquet from my cousin.

We celebrated mom's birthday all weekend, with my sister and Julia in town! I did a lot of cooking, so I didn't have time to take pictures. Here are the Pinterest recipes I tried for the first time.

Apple Crisp
This was perfect for after the football game.

Butternut Squash Gratin
Yum! We would have liked it better without the onion. My grandmother made a delicious butternut squash. This wasn't it, but it was good anyway.

Autumn Chopped Salad
We all needed seconds (and thirds)! I'm glad I have enough ingredients leftover to make it again.

Pistachio Cake
Pistachio is my mother's favorite ice cream, so I figured she'd like the cake. She loved it! She was wishing there was pistachio ice cream, too, but we thought that would be overkill. Vanilla was fine.

Oh, look! There is one slice left!  I'll stick a candle in it later so we can sing Happy Birthday!

Mom's Birthday

We interrupt this quilting blog for a brief family post...

My mother turned 85 on Saturday and she couldn't be happier (or cuter)!

Julia prepared a double batch of homemade pasta (8 eggs worth)! She's made it a few times before, and this was the best yet! Does that look like enough for 10 people? I hate to tell you there wasn't much left over.

When my sister was leaving yesterday, Mom said thank you and that her presence would have been enough. I thought she said presents!

She was a little confused by the quilt at first. She didn't remember making the hexie flowers all those years ago. When it all sunk in, she got a little teary.

To end our beautiful evening, it started to snow! We were lucky on the coast with only a dusting.

Have a Happy Halloween!

Friday Finish!

My mother's birthday gift is done, 24 hours early! If you've been following along, you already know that she started the Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks about 20 years ago. Only the quilting angels know for sure how long those poor blocks sat untouched in her UFO pile, then mine.

I'm really pleased with how it turned out! I was worried about the maroon fabric running in the wash, but the quilt and the color catchers came out clean.


I didn't do a ton of quilting because it was a tight deadline and I wanted the quilt to stay soft. Mom liked the way I quilted the flowers in Nonna's Garden, so I did that again here. The quilt finished at 50" X 77"- a long lap quilt for a tiny lady!

I had to wait for Pete to get home from school to hold it up for photos. Too much shadow in the first shot.

The second is better, but the railing is in the way. Oh well, that's as good as it's gonna get.

Does every quilt need a name? How about Nonna's Garden 2? Nonna's Garden Maxi?

WIP Wednesday

I'm focused this week on trying to finish my mother's birthday gift. Last week when I was recovering from tendonitis, I dug up the Grandmother's Flower Garden blocks that she started almost 20 years ago. Since they were a little wonky, I was hesitant to try to piece a garden path through the flowers.

Inspiration struck and I realized I could machine applique them to a large piece of muslin I had. I've finished 13 flowers and there are 12 to go. Then I'll need to think about borders and quilting. Luckily, my mother doesn't often drop by unexpectedly, but I've started locking my front door during the day, just in case!

It's kind of funny that I'm doing this. These are the prints from the 90s that I just purged from my stash! Some of them aren't all that bad, but a few are just horrible.

Everything else is on hold for the next week while I finish this up. You can see my WIP list by clicking on the tab up top.

Now, off you go!

Azalea Garden

My sister was in town this weekend and the sun was shining(!) so we took a little field trip to the Kinney Azalea Garden. What a gem this place is, right in the Faella family's back yard!

We all look normal together, without an average-height person nearby! Julia and I are the tallest at 4'11".

Ready for some eye candy?

I love the late day sun shining through the trees.

I decided my blog needed an update.
The banner went from this...

to this...

Many thanks to my nephew Eric for tweaking the photo. I'm happy that it fits the space much better and you gotta love the hexies.

Go Gators!

My apologies to my Central New York relatives. I'm a Gators fan now. We're watching Syracuse play Florida on ESPN. Every time Erik Murphy gets the ball, we cheer. When he scores, forget about it! We've known his family since he was my height. I might be exaggerating. His little brother was taller than me in 2nd grade. Florida lists Erik at 6'9"! We've been watching him shoot hoops with his brothers at their house around the corner from us for years. It's fun to watch him on TV now.

I couldn't post with no photo. I found this one of my mother, checking out the new laptop. Isn't she the cutest? She doesn't understand all this new technology, but she is fascinated by it. We had a lovely day Christmas shopping together today.

There you have it. My first post from the couch via the laptop and wireless network!

Swine Flu, Halloween, and Charlie

Pete and I have been down and out with swine flu (H1N1) all week. Luckily, we didn't have any of the intestinal symptoms. It was all in our heads. Haha. It hit me hard a week ago Friday, then Pete's symptoms started on Sunday. He coughs a lot on a good day, so we didn't realize he was sick until he got a fever. Unfortunately for me, I ended up with an ear infection, and after 4 days of antibiotic, I still feel like I'm under water. And I hate being under water.

Julia hopes to stay healthy long enough to get her vaccination in school on Monday. Bill has been working long hours, which is keeping him away from our germs. Pete and I are on the mend, and I plan to get out of the house today for some sunshine and vitamin D.

To recap the past week, Halloween is huge in our neighborhood. 100 houses, close together, means kids from all over town come here to trick-or-treat. I buy enough candy for 400 kids. We think there were fewer than that this year, maybe 200-300. Julia's friend Genevieve came over to help Julia and Josh pass out candy, and she was shocked by the swarms of trick-or-treaters.


You can see our pumpkins on the porch. Not our best effort. Julia planned to carve Cinderella's coach, and Pete used the Woodstock logo to celebrate the 40th anniversary. We've never done any scraping, and we didn't have the right tools, but they made a good effort. Josh gutted my pumpkin for me (thank you!), but I didn't have the energy for my usual elaborate carving. So I asked Bill for the electric drill and the biggest drill bits we own. Using power tools on a pumpkin is a blast! The flesh was flying!


This was my view of the world from the couch late Thursday afternoon. The light was eerily beautiful, which was hard to capture with our point and shoot camera.


Pete went out on the porch to take this one. I like the way the flag looks translucent. As he came back in he took a deep breath of fresh air. After being cooped up, it's the little things that matter most.


Today is the day my mother will have to bid farewell to her beloved Charlie. Her apartment will seem so empty without him. She has been so funny with this bunny. She brought him to her exercise class at the senior center last week to sell raffle tickets, and just happened to run into a couple of reporters from the small local newspaper. She said, "Have you met Charlie?" Here they are, ON THE FRONT PAGE!


Take a deep breath of fresh air today!

Happy Birthday, Mom!

Today is my mother's birthday. Isn't she the cutest octogenarian?


Julia and Pete spent a few minutes at the chalk fair at school today. It's supposed to foster school spirit.

We spotted some blooming spring flowers that didn't get the memo that it is the end of October! And we don't live in Australia.

Pete took this one for me out the car window as we left the orthodontist's office.

It went something like this...
Me: Pete, take a picture of that bush for me.
Pete: Really, Mom?
Me: Yes, really.
Pete: For the blog?
Me. Yes. Just take the picture. A car is coming.