Blogger's Quilt Festival - My Favorite Things

It's time for the Blogger's Quilt Festival over at Amy's Creative Side, and my entry in the Home Machine Quilted category is the sudoku quilt called "My Favorite Things" that I just finished for my dad's birthday - which is TODAY. 

 Happy birthday, Dad!

One of my favorite pics of Dad and me, circa 1986.  I guess you know who I look like now!

I collected nine fat quarters of novelty fabrics featuring some of my dad's favorite things: Las Vegas, dogs, Christmas, assorted sports, etc.  Surprisingly the most difficult one to find was the golf fabric.  I found all kinds of other sports, including lacrosse, gymnastics, track & field (really), bowling, and hockey plus the usual football, baseball and basketball, but the golf one was elusive.  I finally found one lonely fat quarter stuffed in a bin when I went to The Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild meeting in May.

To quilt it, I stitched in the ditch around the borders and sashing, did a loopy meander in each block, and then used the cursive capital L design in the border. 

A curse on the house of the quilt shop that doesn't cut their fat quarters a full 18"!  I had to put one of my favorites (with little "pretty drink" glasses on it) to the side because it wasn't big enough.

Luckily Lene came to my rescue at the last minute with some great choices.  I loved this one but wasn't sure that work really qualified as a "favorite thing."

I also wrote a little poem for the label.  Hum to the tune of "My Favorite Things" from The Sound of Music.  

My Favorite Things

with apologies to Rodgers and Hammerstein

Sunshine in winter and dirty martinis
Soaks in the hot tub and pasta linguine
Christmas tree angels with glittering wings
These are a few of my favorite things

When a cold snap
Keeps the course closed
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad

Drinks in the clubhouse and grandchildren laughing
Basketball season and fancy gift wrapping
Betting with Boomer and flowers in spring
These are a few of my favorite things

When the Braves lose
in October
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad

Days at the sports book and horses all saddled
Cold beer in summer and parties by Carol
Callaway, Titleist, Nike and Pings
These are a few of my favorite things

When it’s too cold
for the top down
When I’m feeling sad
I simply remember my favorite things
And then I don’t feel so bad

Don't forget to visit the rest of the Quilt Festival and vote for your favorite quilts!



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WiP Wednesay - The Sudoku Quilt

I'm linking up with WiP Wednesday over at Freshly Pieced.

This week I've been working fast and furious on my father's birthday quilt, the sudoko quilt.    Tomorrow I will have instructions in case you'd like to make one like mine.

I pieced the blocks last week, added the sashing and borders over the weekend, sandwiched it yesterday and also got all the stitch in the ditch and the grey borders quilted. 

It's going well, but I keep having this happen:

 

 

Can you see what the white thread is doing?  I have rethreaded and put in a new needle about three times.  It isn't happening a lot, but enough that it's annoying.  I have no idea what causes this.  Suggestions are welcome. 

My goal is to have the blocks quilted today so I can bind it and add the label tomorrow, wash and wrap it on Friday, and relax on Saturday!

Ha!  Like that's going to happen.  Saturday is graduation and my dad's birthday.  It's going to be all kinds of busy, but the good kind.

Hope you are having a great week.  What are you working on?




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Menu Plan Monday - Graduation Week!

It's Menu Plan Monday, and it's Graduation Week which means a lot of busy days.

Last night The Pit Boss and my kids (mostly the oldest) made a fabulous but so NOT healthy dinner for us and the grandparents.  Luckily I had had a great rest of the week, thanks to my healthy menu plan for the week. 

(For the record, the results were awesome.  Every dinner was one that they said they would eat again; the Crock Pot Italian Sloppy Joes and the Slow Cooked Jerked Pork with Caribbean Salsa were favorites.)

This week is abbreviated for us because my first baby is graduating from high school on Saturday.  We'll be celebrating at my mom's afterwards, and a surprise special guest is cooking next Sunday night.  Obviously I didn't have to cook yesterday, and Friday is an Awards Ceremony and Baccalaureate, so we are going to have sandwiches or leftovers in between.

Which means I only needed four meals this week, and I need them to be super healthy because I have a feeling the weekend is going to be chock full of good food that isn't on the low-calorie side.

Here's what I've got:

• Sunday:  Mother's Day Dinner
• Monday: Mexican Adobo Rubbed Grilled Pork Tenderloin, Cilantro Rice, salad
• Tuesday:  Hawaiian Garlic Salmon (from our wonderful local fish market, Kathleen's Catch), grilled veggies, and quinoa
• Wednesday:  Crock Pot Picadillo, brown rice, salad
• Thursday:  chicken and veggie kabobs, quinoa
• Friday:  leftovers/sandwiches
• Saturday:  Graduation party dinner (make potato salad)

I'm also going to be trying a new smoothie for breakfast.  Has anyone had hemp hearts? 

What's on your menu this week?



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Going to Guild - Anita Heady

Last night was the Chattahoochee Evening Stars guild meeting, and our guest was Anita Heady of Sewcial Studio. I have no pictures to show you, partly because a lot of her presentation was on screen (although she did have most of the quilts there to show and pass around afterwards) and partly because I got there a little late and didn't get a seat conducive to photography.  However, you can see her gorgeous work in the gallery of her website and skip the lopsided pictures I normally bring you with people's fingers and backs of heads around the edges.

I did snap this one shot with my phone of an interesting quilting design she did on one block of her Morning Glories quilt.  I'm not sure why this jumped out at me, but each block was quilted differently and I just loved this one.  In this block you see examples of her string piecing, some of her hand dyed fabrics, and the way she cuts string blocks apart or assembles them in non-square shapes and puts them back together to create her design.

Anita shared some of her tips and techniques for her beautiful and unique string quilts in the program called Stretching the String.  She has made this style of piecing modern and fresh in her work, and there is nothing old fashioned looking about it.  Anita and her husband also brought some goods from their brick and mortar store, including many hand dyed fabrics.  He apparently does some rust dyeing as well, although I didn't spy any of the pieces there. 

It was a busy meeting that included a sneak peek of the design for our next raffle quilt and a show and tell line that had more members standing than sitting in the audience.  People have been busy!

I sneaked out early because, despite what I keep telling myself and everyone else, I am tired.  My test yesterday went very well in that it didn't take long and everything looks good; the only downside is that they still don't know why I'm anemic.  Blech!

Now I've got to get to work so I can join the line next month for Show and Tell!



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Menu Plan Monday - Skinnytaste Crock Pot Challenge

I have an ulcer.

Yeah. That's the upshot of all these stupid tests I've been having. Unfortunately - and this is not something a doctor says every day - my ulcer is not big enough. That is, it's not big enough to explain why I'm so anemic, so they are doing more tests.  I am probably - at this very moment - swallowing some vile tasting liquid that shows up on x-rays and probably isn't all that great for you either.  (Thank you, auto post.) 

As a result of the many doctor's appointments I've had in the last five months, I've also had to get on the scale more times than I normally do in an average...year?...and so it's been pounded into my head that I am overweight.  Like I didn't know that already.

All that to say that I'm really working hard to plan meals, avoid eating out as much as possible, and eat healthier.  The Pit Boss is happy because he would like to lose a few pounds himself, and because the home cooking thing dovetails so nicely with our Dave Ramsey Ramen noodle diet budget plan.

I'm going to join up with Menu Plan Monday as a way of keeping myself accountable.  Also because The Pit Boss has come up with a fun challenge this week to keep life interesting, and I thought I'd share.

I was looking for crock pot recipes on one of my favorite healthy recipe sites, Skinnytaste, when TPB suggested we take a challenge to incorporate some new dishes into our rotation.  His idea was to try the first six recipes that came up in the crock pot category.  We each got one skip.  They did not have to eaten in that exact order.

Here's our challenging menu for the week.  Actually, I think it looks great.  As a bonus, he went to the store yesterday while I was at the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild meeting, so he's on the Husband of the Year list.

• Last night we made the Easiest Crock Pot Salsa Verde Chicken.  This was delicious!  My only suggestion is to double the chicken (no need to double the sauce I don't think) if you have teenagers because my family took no prisoners on this one.  They loved it and ate every little bit.
• Tonight I'm making  Slow Cooked Jerked Pork with Caribbean Salsa.
• Tomorrow I'm making the Sesame Honey Chicken.  I've made this before and it's a favorite, but it was in the first six so it's on the list.  I'm going to stir fry some fresh veggies and serve it all over steamed rice.
• Wednesday is the Turkey and Gravy with Gina's Skinny Mashed Potatoes.
• Thursday we're having the Crock Pot Italian Sloppy Joe with a tossed salad.  
• Friday it's Buffalo Chicken Potato Skins.  Which doesn't really sound like a meal to me but TPB is very excited.  We'll see.  

What did we skip?  I skipped the Picante Chicken and Black Bean soup because a) the Bear doesn't like beans; b) it's May and eating soup just feels wrong (even though it has been rainy and cold all weekend); and c) there's already a lot of poultry on this menu.  TPB skipped the Santa Fe Chicken for mostly the same reasons.  I think I've made that one before, though,  and it was good.

So tell me, do you menu plan?  What are you eating this week?  



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Visiting the Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild

After literally months of trying to get to an Atlanta Modern Quilt Guild meeting, I finally made it today thanks to a torrential rain all weekend, which caused all of the lacrosse games to be cancelled.

I was happy about this for several reasons.  First, of course, just to be there and meet everyone.  Second, I was able to deliver Pam's prize from my 5th Blogoversary Giveaway in person.  This not only saved postage, but was also exciting because I got to see several of her recent projects (Petrillo Bag, Aeroplane Bag, and the signature quilt) in person.

The speaker, Judy Alexander, was awesome.  Her landscape quilts and other art quilts were amazing just to look at, but then she threw in all kinds of tips and tricks.  It's hard to believe she's only been quilting slightly longer than I've been blogging.  I must be a slow learner!

 

 
The last best thing about this visit was that I finally found the last fabric I needed for my dad's 70th birthday sudoku quilt.  And not a moment too soon!  His birthday is in 13 days, and I'm going to have to channel Pam to get it done in time.  Luckily I don't have much else going on right now.

HA!  Deuce graduates the same day, Grace is in a lacrosse tournament all next weekend, there's Mother's Day to think about, I have a commission quilt that should be done already and another one due in June, plus yet another medical test tomorrow morning.

Sorry about the quality of the pictures.  I set my camera down somewhere in a safe place and I have to spend a few minutes to find it again. 



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FMQ Friday - Solace

Today is Free Motion Quilting Friday over at Leah Day's Free Motion Quilting Project.

The rules are simple:

1. Link up with a post that features something about Free Motion Quilting (FMQ). 
2. Somewhere in your post, you must link back to Leah's site, or you can just post the FMQF button in your sidebar. 
3. Comment on at least a few of the other FMQF links. Share your love of free motion quilting and make this weekly link up a fun way to connect!  

So it's been some helluva week, right?  It's getting to the point where I just want to go back to bed and pull the covers over my head - no news, no phone or facebook or twitter...nothing except a few episodes of 24 because I know Jack will get the bad guys.  On top of all the national news, we've had several people close to us get some shattering health/marriage/job loss news this week as well, and I'm on emotional overload.

Between my new work schedule and the other personal stuff, I've hardly touched my quilting.  Yesterday morning, though, after the news of the explosion in West, Texas, I needed it more than ever.  I pieced the back for the Family Ties quilt and basted it before work.

This morning, my boss asked me not to come in until 10, so I had another chunk of time to quilt and soothe my anxious heart with fabric. I'm so grateful.

I'm just getting started, but I love this quilt so much already.  My only concern after starting this spiral is that it is too dense a quilting pattern for a newborn.  I'm seriously considering ripping it out, which might be the straw that breaks the camels back and sends me right around the bend.  But I want it to be right.  Thoughts?
 
By the way, the baby girl for whom I'm making it is now officially EIGHT days late.  Good for me; not so much for her poor mama who is ready to get this show on the road. 



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