Fun For Friday - High Brow/Low Brow

Ever 2 years here in NJ the Morristown Women's Society present a Designers Showcase Mansion Tour in May.  You can learn more by clicking here.


Glynallyn is a 3 story, 32,000 sq. ft mansion that was built from 1913-1917 by George Marshall Allen.  He was a NYC millionaire who lived here with his wife and daughter.

Here is the back view-

Hanna seemed right at home, and for about $5.7 million it could be hers.

It took us 2 hours to tour the 60 rooms of the castle.  The gardens were also beautiful -

And now for the low brow lunch I enjoyed this past weekend.

One of my street food favorites:  the spiral fried potato chips.

A corn dog and a lemon shake up - be still my heart.

My poor coco.  It has rained all week and all she does is pine to go outside.  Good thing she has 2 pillows to make window gazing more comfortable.

I hope you have a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!

Say Yes to the Stress

Huh?  The stress I am referring to is a Quilt Challenge.
I happen to really love quilt challenges.  They force me to think and work in a direction that I may not otherwise take.

I am currently working on a guild challenge due next month.  While it is under wraps, I thought I'd share 2 past challenges that I have not yet blogged about.

Little Pink Houses 2008

this challenge actually fulfilled the requirements for both of my guilds - bonus!!  for one guild the challenge was "A Song Title", so Little Pink Houses by John Mellencamp.  The other guild was celebrating it's 25th anniversary so you had to represent 25, and also include something silver.

I attached little silver bee charms around the 25 houses.

I designed this little house using flying geese as roofs.  I also hand quilted it during a long car ride.  The backing fabric is the game Candy Land.

It is quite small as you can see here.

The Asian Half Yard Challenge (quite possibly the worst title).

I made this in 2009 with a bee group, The Wednesday Needlers.  We were provided with a half yard of the Asian print.

I decide to try something modern in feel and used the solids to frame the Asian fabric.  I really like this quilt, even though I didn't really like the challenge fabric.

I did simple machine quilting to accentuate the boxes.

I do love this fabric that I used for the backing.  It is one piece but looks like a collage of fabrics - fun.

Here you get a better look at the label and the quilting.

So next time your girl friends or guild asks you participate in a challenge say YES.   You may end up with an unexpected new quilt that you really like!

A list of some of the Challenge Quilts I have done .  Click the quilt if you want to see them.

Bird in a Berry Tree
Abe Lincoln
Black and White
Little Baskets
Liberty Lady
Lollipop Garden
Self Portrait

Have a great week from rainy, rainy New Jersey.

Fun For Friday - Bubbly Part 2

(posting early as I'll be away tomorrow)

A long time ago, in a city far away I had an attic apartment.  One Christmas I decided to get a real tree.  I invited my 3 best friends to come and decorate it with me.

And so started a tradition that has been going on now over 25 years.    The annual champagne flute.

After all these years, here is my collection of flutes.

Here are my Home Town Best Friends,  Martha, Me, Judy and Joan.  They have been through it all with me and I love them like sisters.  My goodness, are these girls always drinking?  (maybe)

Here is another shot.  I think there are a couple more stored away, but these I have at hand.  They are all different and we've taken turns picking them out.

This is a favorite of mine.  It's light pink with polkadots.

Green with a  pretty stem.

This one has a peppermint twist of glass in the stem.

Tools of the trade.  I use the nut cracker to hold the cork while I gently twisting the bottle.  You don't want to spill any of those precious bubbles.  The vacuum stopper preserves the bubbles and I can enjoy them for about 3 days.

A reader asked which champagnes I like.  This is my "everyday champagne" ha ha.  As if you can even say that.  It's the one I really like and can get on sale.

This is a real value.  It's not champagne but Prosecco is a nice priced alternative.

And this one is the "Big One" a magnum.  I found this on sale and I'm saving it for the my 50th Birthday dinner at a local "bring your own" restaurant.  I can't wait to share it with my family.  This is my #1 pick, but it's pricey so we save it for really special occasions.

And now I've shared everything I know and love about Champagne. Get a bottle and savor it.

Dom Perignon said when he first invented it "Come quickly, I'm drinking the stars".  I agree!

bits and pieces

Just a few bits of a different things for today's  rainy day post.

I made this little dolly quilt for no particular reason except that I had at the 4-patches.

This backing fabric is an absolute riot!  I encourage everyone to read the cartoons.

This will give you the idea of scale.  The 4-patches are 2".

A new flock of geese flew into the sewing room from my swap with Jill and Susan.  I'm going to start piecing sets of these together soon.

My dear friend, Pauline, made this pin cushion for me.  Is it not incredible?  I love it so much!  Thank you Pauline.

The embroidery is perfection!

All that beauty fits in the palm of my hand - delightful!

I found this lovely birds nest on a walk with coco and my daughter.  It had blown out of a tree.  It contains Christmas tree tinsel.  Now that's recycling.

And a shout out to my Garden State Quilting friends who asked about coco last night.  Here she is living like a rock star in my sons bed after her morning walk.

Seriously, can it get any better than this?

Fun For Friday - Shopping & Lunch

I shop on a "need to basis" and not for sport.  Yesterday while at the Garden State Mall with my daughter I was inspired by some of the window dressings and thought I'd share them.

Converse Shoes:

I forget which store this is, but these dangling cups were so cute!

One of my favorite stores; Anthropology -
This is a Styrofoam ball with plastic spoons stuck in and spray painted.  I love it for its simplicity.

They hung over the cash wrap station.

Louis Vitton had a playful theme based on the Hunger Games:

Confession:  I LOVE Burgers and Fries!

I took my friend, Norma, here a couple of weeks ago.

I love the crinkle fries.  Their burgers are small and come with grilled onions and cheese on a potato bun.

It has been featured on almost all the food network shows and has been there since 1946.    And it's so conveniently located just steps from the gas station.

Wishing you all a Happy Mother's Day on Sunday!!