Quilt, Scrap

The Queen is Dead, Long Live the Queen!

2009-12-14T10:17:00.000-08:00

I finished a quilt! I finished a quilt! So what, you say? Well, it's been years since I actually completed a quilt project that wasn't small enough to hide in my purse. I had called myself Queen of the UFOs (Un-Finished Objects) but I now will have to relinquish the crown. Maybe now I'll call myself Queen of Everything (acknowledgment to Mary Engelbreit here.

When my mom offered to ship gifts to my sister and nephew if I had them ready by today, I thought about going shopping. However, I was inspired by my friend and neighbor who is making all of her Christmas gifts and getting them all finished prior to having surgery on the 17th. She inspires me often. So I dived into the crate of UFOs and came up with a sofa-sized one-block quilt top I made as sample for a class I taught years ago. It still needed borders, quilting and binding, but I was sure I could knock that out in a few hours.

Oh, how the proud are humbled. I managed to make the quilting more complicated than necessary by doing in-the-ditch quilting, 1/4 inch outline quilting and decorative stitching. Then, trying a time saving tip using white glue to baste together binding, I unintentionally used 'fusible' glue, making permanently fused stiff seams in my binding. I can promise you they'll never un-sew! I ended up spending about 12 hours total finishing this quilt.

On the plus side, I was lucky to have enough fabric for the borders in my unsold fat-quarter stash. And I got creative in my binding fabrics by using 2 1/2" wide strips from my recently cut strip stash. Rather than sew on a label on the back, I inked a Christmas greeting with a Micron .03 pen right on the front of the quilt. It's barely noticeable within the 1/4 inch outline quilting.

I'm so happy to have this project finished. It lays flat (mostly) and came out square (relatively) without my trying to hard. And the fleece fabric quilts beautifully, showing the quilting on the back in relief.

While searching for an image to use for Queen of UFOs, I encountered a lovely blog from a quilter from the Netherlands who makes the extra special effort to write in English. Brava for her! Take a look at her wonderful projects at Dutch Blue.

P.S. I promise to post a picture soon. I'm waiting for the sunlight to move across the living room floor so that I can take a picture without a bright spot in the middle.

Attention, please!

2009-12-04T08:36:00.001-08:00

May I have your attention for an important annoucement! (drumroll please)...........
My scrap bin is EMPTY!

The cleaning-out process was inspired by my quilt buddy Cat and her daughter Beth who had come over to peruse the bin for scrap quilts they were making. Watching them have such fun going through the goodies reminded me of how much fun it was to collect all those scraps. So I decided to start going through them myself and breaking them down into workable parts.

I cut 10" and 9" squares out first for big block quilts. After that, I cut one each of a 5" and/or 6" square for my charm square collections. Then, from longer pieces, I cut strips 2 1/2" wide (jelly rolls) down to 1" wide. Narrower strips and selvages got thrown into a ziploc bag. All others scraps were set aside to die cut into 4" and 2" squares or equilateral triangles.

As I dug through the box, it was great fun to remember where the fabrics came from. "Ah, here's Cheo's Spiderman shorts." "These are left from the first block-of-the-month class that I taught with my friend Patti at Hancocks." "These are from the bag of scraps that I won at our guild's Chinese Auction." "Here's the leftovers from Laurel's Crazy Strip class." "Here's a big chunk from that pink, blue & purple Western shirt I bought for Pedro that he wouldn't wear." and "These are all from the Dollar Bag Day at the thrift shop."

One of the greatest pleasures of a scrap quilt or a charm quilt are just these; touching the fabrics and recalling the special memories that go along with each piece. It may be nothing more than, "Oh, this was a great deal at the quilt shop." or "I bought this on that Road Trip to Tampa." These are good memories to be sure; to me the even more special are "This hot pink print is from the dress I was wearing the first time I felt my baby Cheo move inside me" and "This Looney Tunes print is from the shorts and vest outfit Cheo wore on his first day of first grade."

Now my 32 gallon scrap box is empty, waiting to be filled with fresh new fabric or UFOs or orphaned blocks - who knows. I've enjoyed the pleasure of all the memories passing under my ruler and rotary cutter as they transformed into the building blocks of new projects. I look forward to the new memories yet to be formed.

Waxing Philosophical

2009-11-20T09:16:00.000-08:00

I had a TP emergency in the bathroom today. I'm one of those people who likes to have something to read while I'm in the bathroom and I was reading a book from the series "Conversations with God". This particular passage touched on the ideas of being One with God and the nature of how that appears in daily life. It also touched on the quote, "Ask and you shall receive." I set the book down and reached for the TP and there just wasn't enough there for my needs. I frantically looked back over my shoulder to see if an extra roll was on the tank and saw nothing. Since I was alone in the house, no one was going to come to my rescue.
The thought popped into my head, "Well, if I had total faith, a roll of toilet paper would just appear." A very facetious thought, that. I looked back over my shoulder one more time, and there it was - a new roll of toilet paper!
Now I'm assuming that the roll of toilet paper was there the whole time and, in my panic, I just didn't look back far enough to see it. But even so, aren't the smallest of miracles sometimes the most marvelous.

The Excitement of Travel

2009-11-07T13:35:00.000-08:00

Today is our third day in New York City. Day one was a travel day, which is inevitably tiring, but we still managed to pull off a hike around central Manhattan, seeing Radio City Music Hall, the big retailers on Fifth Avenue including Macy's and Bloomie's, and St. Patrick's Cathedral. Yesterday we saw the Yankee's victory parade from Battery Park, shopped a little, went to Staten Island on the ferry and managed to get stuck there due to a riot at the ferry terminal on the Manhattan side. Eventually back to Manhattan, on to Ground Zero, then subway and bus to Greenwich Village for my birthday dinner at Veselka, an Ukrainian restaurant that's been there for 44 years. After that we rode the bus around Greenwich Village and the East Village, hopped off to change buses and ended up back on the subway for the trip back to Queens.

So, are you worn out yet? I am. Today we stayed in Queens (today two of the places I wanted to go to in Manhattan are closed for the Jewish sabbath). We went to Jamaica Center, a shopping area much like a glorified flea market, with lots of cheap shoes, clothing and jewelry, mostly faux in some way, but we found a few bargains. No place to eat, though, except McDonald's and Subway, and we have vowed to stay away from chain restaurants during this trip. So, back to Queens Boulevard and a tiny little hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant for General Tso's and Garlic chicken. Mm-mmm.

I love this neighborhood. It's called Briarwood, and is a combination of small businesses, attached multi-family homes, skinny little single family homes and apartments. The streets are tree lined and quiet. It hardly seems like New York. Of course, our hotel is on the main thoroughfare and not as quiet, but a great deal for us.

We got back to our room and, sadly, it was not made up, so I tucked down here to the business center to blog while our bed gets made and towels changed out. I am worn out and its only 4:45 p.m. My dogs are barkin' as my dad would say.

Here's a secret - don't tell Pedro! A few days ago, a cute little dachsund puppy was born with Minnie Mouse ears in black on her back, and brown spots on white. She just happens to be designated for me in 8 weeks. A little spotted long-haired doxie!

Almost out of time, $2.00 for 20 minutes, so I'd better hit PUBLISH and get this posted.

Happy Today

2009-11-02T09:15:00.000-08:00

Today I've made a decision to be happy. Let's face it, I am addicted to anxiety. Worrying about my son at college, my backlog of work, the never-ending household chores, my relationships with family, friends and acquaintances keeps me on the treadmill of anxiety. Just for right now, I'm stepping off the treadmill and declaring, "I'm happy."

I have a cushy job. Let's face it, how many people get to set their own hours, roll out of bed, and stroll into their office (in my jammies, if I want). So, maybe it's not my dream job. But it's valuable work.

I have a husband that still adores me after 20 years. Not every minute or even every day, but often enough, he looks at me with caring and desire. How lucky am I!

I have two amazing sons. My oldest is on a wonderful journey of self-discovery, is polite, handsome, smart and kind. My youngest shares his days with me and fills my world with his thoughts and ideas, bringing a unique perspective from his Asperger's mind.

I have a beautiful home with space and color and filled with the things that I love, and then some. I am very blessed to have plenty and enough again to share.

One of my very favorite things to do, play with color and texture, is fulfilled by my collection of fabrics. My younger son noticed me cutting scraps into strips and squares the other day and commented, "That makes you fell peaceful, doesn't it." You're darn right!

So, just for a few minutes, let me stop grinding my teeth and clenching my jaw, squinching my shoulders and forgetting to breathe. Right this minute, I am happy.

Who Do You Know?

2009-08-23T08:39:00.000-07:00

(Image Copyright Sharon Lam)
When do we ever tell “the whole truth” to any one person? Bits of our past, our hopes and dreams, are scattered about, confided piecemeal to our friends, co-workers, therapists, even strangers. When can we ever truly say, “I really know him.”?

Last night, sharing our mutual feelings of longing for our son, I discovered something new, something big, about the time my husband came to the U.S. His original plan was to accompany his sister across the border, see her off on her journey to Florida, and then go back home. 23 years later, he’s still here.

How could I have missed this? How did this tiny little detail that is so absolutely crucial to our life and present circumstances never have come up in conversation before?

Isn’t Cheo’s present longing for a best friend actually a longing for someone to know him, to share his hopes with, to see the whole of him, and not just that face he presents to the casual world? I absolutely understand that longing.

PBS is a Major Distraction

2009-04-13T08:39:00.000-07:00

No, not Public Broadcasting System, but PaperBack Swap. I signed up for this free service a little over a month ago and its been more than a little distracting. It works like this: you go through your bookshelf, pull out books you want to get rid of, you post them on you PBS Bookshelf, other members request them from you, and you send them off and receive 1 trading point for each completed transaction.

Initially I thought this would be a quick and easy way to get rid of my excess of paperback books. The thought of trading books I'd read for those that I want was just too tempting. But then, after an initial surge of requests for my newly posted books, I stopped getting requests. So, after a little trial and error, I discovered that I could purchase points and get the books I wanted that way. Hey, wait a minute! Wasn't I supposed to be getting rid of books?

Here's what I've learned - For the cost of shipping one paperback book from my bookshelf, $2.02, I get a fresh copy of a (much desired) book that would have cost me $7.00 or more from Books-A-Million or Amazon. That's a good deal. And I can purchase a point for $3.45, which is still half the cost of buying new. However, if I shop garage sales or library book sales, I can purchase more commonly available books for as little as 25 cents each. So, I save my points for those books which are hard to find used (like those of favorite authors Charlaine Harris or Piers Anthony) and that I plan to keep. Otherwise, I request books from the library.

In the meantime, I still have a box of books in my office. Anyone interested in a trade?

Seesaw Wheat Oof

2009-04-10T12:19:00.000-07:00

It's a wonderful feeling when something you've been patiently, albeit sporadically trying to learn, starts to show results. It could be anything from learning to drive a standard transmission car (which I've been teaching my oldest) to a new quilting technique to studying a foreign language.

For a few years now, I've been teaching myself French with the help of books, videos and some coaching from my son, whose studied three years of French. Periodically, I visit websites that have mini French lessons, and I practice my pronunciation. French is very similar to English in that the pronunciation has little or nothing to do with what is written.

I was following a link to the Paris newspaper, Le Figaro's, website with an article (in French) about a contest judging the best flan of Paris. There is also a short video showing the judging process, so I watched and listened to see what I could pick up. I picked out "texture" "cream" "color" "golden" "bakery" and "food store". Then I heard this phrase "Seesaw Wheat Oof". I knew I recognized those sounds. What could it be? I kept repeating it to myself. Sees - that's six. Wheat aka huit - that's eight. And Oof is ouef - egg. Six a huit ouefs! Six to eight eggs! I have a lightbulb going off over my head moment and it feels awesome!

Water, water everywhere

2009-04-06T14:34:00.000-07:00

When I was in France, I drank a lot of water. Coming from the humidity of Florida's climate, the naturally drier climate of France in September had us sucking on bottled water pretty much all day long. Like everything in France, the water was expensive. Whenever we sat down to eat in a restaurant, we would order the complementary "carafe d'eau" - a pitcher of cold water, to save the $4.00 bottled water charge.

One day in Lyons, I got separated from our group after I made an extended stop at the post office. Since I was on my own for the next six hours, I decided to make the best of it and stopped to have lunch at the outdoor seating area of a cafe on the central square. I was able to order the special, a pork chop with cauliflower gratin, without any problem and I asked for the pitcher of "d'eau" (pronounced DOH). The waitress looked at me quizzically and asked me "a pitcher of what?" "D'eau", I replied, "D'eau, d'eau, d'eau." Which made me feel like a Doh (Homer Simpson style.)

I ended up ordering lemonade.

And to this day, I still don't know what I was saying so incorrectly that the waitress couldn't understand me. C'est la vie.

Camellia weather

2009-03-05T14:04:00.001-08:00

It's definitely not a usual plant for our hot and wet summers, but we have managed to keep a few camellia plants thriving in our heavily shaded side yard for three years now. Here at the cusp of spring, the gorgeous rose-like blossoms are a welcome sight in comparison to our heavily front-burnt bottle palms and Christmas palm. This is the first year in about seven that we've had such low, sustained temperatures and, like many homeowners and landscapers, we had become complacent about the risk of a freeze. We all cavalierly planted palms and tender perennials better suited for zone 10 and sometimes even zone 11.

So, we now have burnt Hawaiian Ti, Crotons, Ixora and palms. On the "making lemonade" side, my "employer" has been getting calls from homeowners that need the dead plants torn out and replaced with hardier varieties. Would they like to try camellias, do you think?

World Nutella Day

2009-02-05T11:04:00.001-08:00

How fascinating for a snack food to have it's own day - who declared this anyway?

It doesn't really matter because Nutella really does deserve it's own day. After all, it's hard not to love the wonderfully chocolaty, creamy, hazelnutty stuff. Thumbs up to the Italians who combine hazelnuts and chocolate in wonderful ways.

I was well into adulthood when I discovered Nutella. I'd always considered it price prohibitive - more than $4.00 for stuff that gets thrown in with the peanut butter selection at the grocery store? How good could it be, anyway. When it was on sale one day at Publix, I decided to give it a whirl. Boy was I in for a treat.

As soon as I realized how delicious it was straight out of the jar, I went on a journey to find what surface it was best spread upon. For me, Nutella on toast or baguette just didn't cut it. I tried it on various cookies and crackers and fruit and decided upon my favorite - cheap little butter cookies. These are flower shaped, hole-in-the-middle cookies you find at bakery thrift stores and drug stores, never in the grocery store, and they usually sell for about $1.00 a pack. Sometimes they are studied with bits of chocolate in an imitation of chocolate chip cookies. Try it and you'll see what I mean. My second choice is Bimbo Pan Tostado, but that's a little bit more difficult to find outside of a Mexican specialty shop. I suppose Rusk Toasts might be close. Pan Tostado has a slightly sweet taste that plain old toast doesn't have and I think that's why it combines so well with Nutella.

My favorite Nutella memory - It was our last day in Paris and I had taken the Metro by myself to Montmartre, home of the Moulin Rouge, many African immigrants and the fabric stores of Paris. I was shopping my little heart out and filling my shopping bags to the brim when it finally occurred to me that I was starving. The cafes were all full to the brim with tourists and locals taking in the view, along with their coffee, of Sacre Couer on the hill above. A corner takeout window was selling warm crepes filled with a choice of toppings, from plain butter to strawberry preserves to (you guessed it) Nutella. I tucked my crepe into my purse and found a somewhat secluded door step behind a rack of fabric and there I dined, basking in the afterglow of fabric shopping, Paris on a September afternoon and two weeks of French bliss.

Autumn Leaves in January

2009-02-02T07:33:00.000-08:00

I was driving down State Road 528 last Thursday on my way to the airport. This particular 4-lane toll road has many maple trees along its corridor. That day, they were blazing in their fall color glory. In the middle of winter.

The Florida Maple trees had previously misinterpreted the long warm weeks of December and early January and decided that spring had arrived, so they set on fresh green leaves. One night last week, we had our first "freeze" in several years here in central Florida with temperatures dipping below 32F and staying there for a few hours. The maples were forced into a second "fall".

The beauty of a maple tree in full fall color is a true treat, especially in ever-green Florida. As I cruised along the highway, the maples were lined up like runway models showing off their fall fashions. And in one particularly spectacular stand of trees, a younger slimmer maple had managed to hold on to its spring leaves and provided a spectacular contrast of chartreuse green to the fiery reds and oranges. Add to that a trio of fat wild turkeys foraging in the underbrush and I was provided a moment of temporal displacement, reliving colder northern climes.

Well, no, not really, but isn't that prettily poetic. And yes, there was a trio of turkeys. And, with a particularly strong gust of crosswind, a scattering of red leaves whooshed over my windshield, providing the perfect fall moment. In January.

Octopi?!?

2009-01-20T14:42:00.000-08:00

I'm a sucker for a bargain. There is no arguing the fact that I'll buy stuff that's a "good deal" that I wouldn't normally purchase. So when my neighbor mentioned that Oriental Trading had some great deals on clearance scrapbooking supplies and they were offering free shipping on orders over $60, I figured I was good for half of that.
The order arrived last week and I was enjoying myself, unpacking the plastic bags everything comes in and finding tidy homes for each item. Then I came across these felt stickers.

It's obvious that the green stickers are holly leaves and the red stickers may be peppermint candies, but what in the heck are those brown things. They look like upside down octopi! After a few minutes of puzzling at them and trying to figure out what an octopus has to do with Christmas, the visual puzzle cleared itself and I could see it - they are REINDEER HEADS with curly swirly antlers. Okay.

So, I decided I needed to use these up right away before I forgot what they were. I laid them out in sections along the border of a 12x12 beige cardstock to form a frame. These little buggers were #@%& to get off the backing, tending to curl back on themselves. With a small tweezers and large patience, I did it. It took a good long while, let me tell you, and I didn't even use up the whole roll of border (and I still have another roll).

My younger son, coming it to visit, looked over my shoulder at the finished page and said, "Mom, why did you put octopus on that page?"

Ants at a Picnic

2009-01-09T13:54:00.000-08:00

This card started out with just the dusty rose-colored card, a 9x9 piece. I cut it down to 8.5 x 5.5, as if it were half of a letter-sized piece. That way it will fit into my purchased envelopes. Then I dug through the pile of embellishments on my table (remember the "Oversized Stickers). I found these checked tablecloth border stickers and I immediately thought "picnic". Of course what's a picnic without ants? I just happen to have an ant paper punch (imagine that!), so I grabbed some black card and punched out an odd number of ants. For some reason, an odd number of items always looks better on a page than an even number.

Then I picked a funky alpha stamp from Close to my Heart and stamped and matted. I used their Barn Red ink, which came out a little browner than I expected, but it matches really well now that it's dried all the way. I've noticed with some Close to my Heart inks that, although they appear dry soon after stamping, the color seems to change slightly over time. Also, if you apply paper glaze or glitter glaze on the fresh ink, it lifts up a yellowish tinge into the glaze. So it's best to let the ink dry longer before glazing.

I was challenged when it came to picking a saying for the inside. I didn't want to be specific to the picnic theme, and I search for quotes involving ants, but didn't find anything appropriate. "It's not a picnic without ants" is cute, but no. And this quote from The Family Guy - "You're an ant in the picnic of life" - definitely not. So I settled with "Don't let anything spoil your day".

When I made the tag, I followed them theme and used a piece of barn red ribbon for the tassle, securing it with a snap attached with the Crop-A-Dile setter. It is an awesome tool. I could never have punched holes in ribbon without it, not even with a leather punch.

2009-01-07T09:47:00.000-08:00

Here are the tags to go along with the cards - I'm please with how they came out. Turns out I only have one stamp set that says To: From: so they all got that same stamp. It saves time setting individual letter stamps.

I got an email today from Hancock's of Paducah, one of my favorite internet shopping sites, and oh they are tempting me. 20% off an entire purchase of $50 or more. Lord, please help me be strong! I just got a big package from them on Christmas Eve.

I've been on a hunt to help a customer identify a plant in her yard damaged by falling branches. It turns out to be the coolest thing - Indian Head Ginger. If we end up supplying her plants for her, I'd like to get a few myself for our shady side yard. Take a look:

Reuse, Renew

2009-01-05T14:16:00.000-08:00

Over the past two weeks, I've been working on a scrapbooking project for my friend and neighbor and I gave it to her without taking pictures first! Oh well.

In between times, I try to go through my voluminous amounts of STUFF and pare down things that I acquired and haven't used. Many of the things I acquired came from when I was an "instructor" for "I Remember When" and was paying for an automatic monthly shipment of scrapbooking supplies. I had one small packet of die-cut and painted plastic pieces with a spring theme (eggs, tulips, clover). Scratching my head about what I was going to do with 10 four-leaf clovers, I remembered that I have an upcoming card exchange with the same group from my last post. I had signed up to do birthday tags, but I think I'm going to do card/tag combinations. Here is a card for a spring birthday (inside it says "It's your day to shine".)

It's odd how the color shifted when I scanned this. The green of the clover is almost the exact shade of green as the SMILE sticker, yet they scanned in the blue range. I know I could Photoshop the colors to correct them, but that would mean creating masks and layers and a bunch of other work.... Isn't this supposed to be fun?

I also found a huge amount of STUFF in a file sorter (and a fairly useless one at that) labeled OVERSIZE STICKERS. Now what kind of a category is that? Let's really call it STICKERS I WAS TOO BORED TO SORT AND SHOVED IN A FILE. The flowering bamboo sticker I used on the following card was one long 12-inch sticker that I cut into 3 parts, used two on front and 1 on the inside. The rubber stamp phrase is from Close To My Heart. Inside quote - "Wishing you a beautiful day".
This last card I made when I was so tired that I was having trouble focusing my eyes, so I'm kind of proud of how even everything is. I have a hard enough time getting things glued down straight and it usually takes me a few tries (thank goodness for repositionable adhesive.) The little animal stickers were about 12" long, so I cut them up into sections to frame the card. After getting the animals on, I was stumped on what to do next or what sentiment the card needed. I didn't have any larger appropriate animal stickers or rubber stamp animal images. I didn't want to do a zoo theme or Noah's ark theme. These colored scraps begged to be included, and the word sticker popped up from stickers I had sorted earlier in the day. Inside, I framed out with more animals and put the following phrase in a jaunty font - "Have a fun-filled day".
Tonight I will make matching tags.

Sense of Accomplishment

2008-12-02T10:25:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, exactly when I can't tell you, but it was the day that University of Florida played football at Vanderbilt, I agreed to join in a Christmas Tag swap. And although I procrastinated hugely, I actually got all 40 of my tags done! I made 8 each of 5 different tags to share with 7 others. I am so very, very happy with how the tags turned out. I loved the process of creating something simple and (I hope) beautiful. It feels pretty darn good to finish something and then give it away.

We met for breakfast at Panera, caught up on what everyone's been doing (two of our group ran a half-marathon the previous day), and then passed around our tags. It's always fun to see the different creative directions each person takes. And I'm always excited to give and get anything with glitter on it. Love that bling!

For breakfast, I had English Breakfast tea and a Spinach Artichoke souffle'. It seemed more like a mini quiche me than a souffle, but it was absolutely delicious. If you get a chance to go to a Panera during breakfast hours, grab one of these babies. I promise you won't be disappointed. For a mouth watering preview, see picture above.

Nature's Ornaments

2008-11-28T10:32:00.000-08:00

About three years ago, Pedro planted a triple-trunked Christmas palm (also known as a Manila Palm) in our front landscape island. This year it fruited for the first time. Look at how gorgeous these fruits are when they ripen. Plus, the squirrels love them (as if that's a good thing). That's how the palm gets in name - it puts on beautiful red Christmas ornaments this time of year. The boughs are so full of fruit, they're just barely holding on to the tree.

Queen of UFOs

2008-11-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

Let me be honest. I am the Queen of the UFOs. UFO (in quilt speak) stands for UnFinished Objects, just so you don't think I believe in extra-terrestrial aliens abducting people while they sleep.

In preparation for the garage sale, I pulled out three FULL 30 gallon bins from under my cutting table. Full of what, you might wonder? Full of UFOs, all in various stages of completion. Some projects consist of nothing more than folded fabric tied together with a ribbon, with a sticky note stuck on reminding me which project I have (had) planned for that particular bunch. Some of them actually reached the cutting stage; I have lovely stacks of squares, triangles or strips, waiting to be pieced together. Some of these actually have the instructions or book with them, which gives a greater clue as to their final composition.

What UFO collection would be complete without Orphaned Blocks? These are those completed pieced or appliqued blocks, lovely to look at, well constructed of course, but without a family. In other words, there's not enough of them to complete a quilt. Most of these come from classes I taught, classes I took and techniques I tried. I also have a 4" high stack of crazy-pieced blocks on 8 1/2 x 11 paper backing. Some of these orphans have recently found an adoptive home with the charitable quilt-making arm of my local quilt guild. I'm sure they'll be happier there than in my plastic bins.

Next, we get to the almost completed quilt tops - these are blocks put together with other blocks, but not quite ready for finish quilting. Some lack a border or have turned out to be too small or too large in some way. One small square quilt might be too big for a baby quilt, but not big enough for a twin sized bed. Some unfinished tops once had a border, but my color tastes changed and I ripped off the border with plans to choose something different and new. And there are also quilt tops that I inherited or purchased that I just don't love anymore.

Lastly, we have completed tops that are ready for quilting. Here's where I am the queen. I have a character flaw that resists finishing anything. I don't suppose that's news to anyone. I must be getting famous for being flaky. This is been bothering me a lot lately, like at the depths of my soul. Look at some of my older posts with projects that are started and ask me where are the pictures of the completed quilts. Take a guess.

You know, I started out writing this to put a humorous twist on my UFO's but the thing is, I'm not laughing anymore. I've got some serious thinking to do about this. I'll get back to you later.

Garage Sale Update

2008-11-12T14:47:00.000-08:00

Once again, I covered our pool table with boxes of fat quarters, set up two folding tables and put out additional odds and ends, acid-free papers, rubber stamps, etc. I advertised on Craigs List and was fortunate enough to get a few quilters to come, which made up the largest part of my sales.

All in all, it was a lovely day for a garage sale. The temperature started out in the mid-70s, and gradually worked up to the mid-80s by the time I shut the garage door at 1:00 p.m. sharp. Traffic was a little slow, as the 1st weekend of November is the busiest garage sale weekend of the year around year and our neighborhood was competing with at least a dozen others holding subdivision-wide sales.

My next-door neighbor traded me a box of paperback books in exchange for fabric, so I grabbed an Alex Cross murder mystery and enjoyed a leisurely stretch on the sofa in the garage during breaks between customers. I still have lots of fabric to get rid of, so it's back to Ebay, 20 fat quarters at a time.

48 (Again)

2008-11-05T09:11:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is my birthday and I will be 48. Here's the weird thing - I've been telling people I'm 48 for months now, if not the whole year. Why? I can't really figure it out. Is it because 48 is a nice round number? Was 47 not good enough? Am I in a hurry to qualify for senior shopping days or a membership in AARP? Or is it because my mind is slipping and peri-menopause has me as scatterbrained as Gracie Allen? There are women older and wiser than I that tell me this mind-slippage will pass once I finish menopause. Looking at my elder female family members, I'm in some doubt about this.

I received a new book in the mail today. It's a thin volume, and I usually like a little more meat to my quilting books, but has everything one would want to know about easy cutting and piecing of freehand curves and numerous well-illustrated examples from the simplest 4-patch blocks to a more challenging fiber art version. I also like the suggestions on quilting designs and concise instructions for binding with mitered corners. There are no corners cut with this book. Now, if I can ever get finished preparing for this Saturday's garage sale, I can actually get some quilting done.

Precious Baby Coconuts

2008-10-27T08:45:00.001-07:00

Yesterday afternoon, my friend and neighbor called me to find out what or who I had been yelling at in my backyard. She heard me out there making a racket and was a little alarmed at what could possibly be wrong. Although I confess that, at times, I would like to yell bloody murder at my husband or sons, I was actually taking my wrath out on a bleepety-bleep squirrel.

Right outside my office window, there grows a coconut palm. Now coconut palms are a little tender for this far north in Florida, and we had this one for some years before it decided to bloom. Shortly after blooming (which the bees adore), little baby coconuts start to form and grow. It's just amazing to watch how fast they plump up - kind of like watching corn grow, you can almost see it happening.

One day, I noticed I had a lot fewer baby coconuts than previously, so I went outside to see what was happening. Were they falling off? Were they diseased? A closer investigation revealed that they had been gnawed off! I kept my eye out for the culprit, and later that afternoon along comes Mr. Squirrel - a dirty rat under any name. He (she, they) was the sneaky thief that was eating my tender young babies.

Apparently, young baby coconuts must be especially delicious to this vermin varmint, because he is especially persistent. That's why I had to take drastic measures. When I saw him stalking my babies yesterday afternoon, I let myself out the back door quietly, tip-toed over to where he was making his approach, and started screaming at him. Don't ask me for a direct quote - I was pretty mad and looking to intimidate. He dashed across the lawn and scrambled up the elm tree, while I grabbed a garden rake and starting banging on the tree with it, threatening to impale him upon its tines the next time he shows his furry face.

So, that's what all the ruckus was about in my backyard yesterday afternoon. By the way, this is our second crop of coconuts this year. My first crop up and disappeared one day, carried off and eaten and drunk by the coconut fairy and his friends.

Yikes!

2008-10-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

How did that happen - almost three weeks without a blog entry? I also haven't been reading many blogs or checking my email or the daily deals on Amazon.com or Woot.com, etc., etc. Why not?

Well, I had a last push to get everything ready for the Big Fabric Sale. A week ago Friday, everyone from our local quilter's guild was invited over to partake of the great deals on fat quarters from my selection. Many did come and, although the afternoon was unseasonably warm in my garage, shopped a good deal. I was able to condense the collection a fair amount and add some cash to my rainy-day fund, but still have many, many fat quarters left to sell. That means it's back to Ebay. I may try and sell more during our neighborhood garage sale on November 8, but since the majority of garage sale shoppers are not quilters, I don't expect too much turnover then.

I've also been super busy at work - actually working! By that I mean not playing, and catching everything up, going over the books to clean them up and get ready for year end, catch up on collecting monies owed and try to find ways to cut expenses. The business is getting hit hard by the recession, just squeaking by, and the squeaking would be a little easier if we could cut out some of the overhead. I offered to cut my hours, but nobody took me up on my offer!

Did I mention how much I love my Hello Kitty purse, shown at the right? It doesn't look like a Hello Kitty purse, but it is and I just love it! Here it's draped with a scarf I bought on my very first day in Paris. Apart from water and food, this was the first purchase I made in France. I took this pic after arriving home from the gala 15th birthday party we attended for my niece Yuriana where I wore my scarf and carried my purse for the first time.

Last One on the Block

2008-10-06T10:20:00.000-07:00

I know that everyone in the civilized world (or at least everyone I know) has eaten at an Outback restaurant. Am I right? But I've never eaten there, never wanted to wait in line, or wait until they opened or figured that any wait that long would be worth it. Well, yesterday I found out otherwise.

I had one of the Top 3 steaks I've eaten in my life at the Outback! Of course you're not surprised. But I sure was. And not only was the steak great (Ribeye, Outback medium if you please, which is medium-rare in any other restaurant), but the Coconut Shrimp was to-die-for: crunchy, perfectly coated, cooked just to doneness without being tough. It was happy hour, so I ordered 2 frozen drinks made with peaches, peach schnapps, vodka and champagne. Wow! I saved one for dessert (and snuck it out in my iced tea to-go cup.)

The Bloomin Onion was greasy and great, and the veggies and wild rice flavorful and properly cooked. I don't really understand why the bread was such a dark brown color without tasting at all like pumpernickel, but it was tasty. I tried to limit myself to leave room for the rest of the meal. Pedro said he wasn't fond of the Caesar's salad, as the cheese was overly salty. Apart from that, we just loved the meal and left in an exceedingly content mood, to waddle through our grocery shopping.

What a great meal and excellent service! Plus, I had a $35 gift certificate, making a great meal a great deal. Maybe I'm the last person in the country to discover the good food at the Outback, but I'll be spending many good meals making up for my lost opportunities.

FYI, the Top 2 steaks I've eaten were both eaten in Houston, Texas. Number One was at an awards banquet at the George Brown Convention Center, a bacon-wrapped filet mignon. Number Two was at a restaurant in Houston called Houston's, oddly enough. Count on Texas for great beef! Number 4 was on a recent outing in Mexico, in a little family-owned restaurant in Dolores Hidalgo: a delicious thinner-cut rib-eye, lightly marinated, and grilled over real wood coals. And number 5 would have been any of really good steaks grilled over pecan wood that I ate at Durango's, before they went out of business. Good food just can't survive poor management and service.

P.S. Googled Outback Bread and found out the recipe has both cocoa powder and instant coffee - that explains the color.

Backyard Visitors

2008-09-29T13:20:00.000-07:00

As I sit here at my office desk, occasionally some bird or critter catches my eye flitting past my window. This day I was taken aback by a red-capped head and beady eye gliding by my frame of vision. The eye's owner and 2 other 'birds-of-a-feather' walked right past my office, went around the corner of the house and then came back. I got this picture of them just before they startled at my movement in the window and took off.

Sandhill cranes aren't rare around here by any means, but usually stick around ponds, canals and waterways. It was quite a surprise to have them visit our backyard. It was as fascinating as the time the mating pair of hawks hung around for a few days.