Land Ho

Most of me is back from my Caribbean vacation, but it's going to take a few days to stop looking for the Lido deck.....

Before I went away, I sent this Birthday gift to my friend, Sheila in Illinois.

It was one of those "big" Birthday's so I decided to make a red and white in remembrance of her visit to the exhibit, just about a year ago.

Here you can see the scale better.  The blocks are 4" finished and there are 70, hhhmmmm, coincidence?  

I used this red and white toile' on the backing and apparently it goes with Sheila's dining room.

My favorite home away from home:  Holland America Line.
We were aboard the newest ship:  The Nieuw Amsterdam.
It was beautiful.

Top picks from the trip:

The Crow's Nest, we came everyday after breakfast, and then for team trivia.  The views are beautiful.

On Grand Cayman we took a submarine tour - it was incredible.  We went 115 ft. down, and hey, I didn't even have to get wet :)

There are some bright blue fishes near the bottom of the shot.

Here is a hut that we "owned" for a day at Mahogany Beach, Honduras.

One of our favorite activities on board is sitting on Deck 3, Promenade deck, and watching the ocean go by....

And now there are dishes to do, laundry to fold and a dog to be walked.  I guess I'm back in Jersey all right!

Hope you all had a great week and I look forward to catching up on my blog reading.

Sailing away with my Sailor

Happy Friday Everyone!

I finished the first of the four princess feather blocks for my Jubilee Quilt.  There are 69 stuffed berries.  I've gotten the hang of them now and they are going much faster.

Part of my Jubilee year, includes celebrating 25 wonderful years with my husband.  We were married at the Chicago Yacht Club on a blustery, stormy night.

February 14, 1987 (yep, Valentine's Day)

February 14, 1997 - vow renewal

Andrew (10) and Hanna (4).  It was so fun to have them be part of it.

July 21, 2011 - Greek Island Cruise

We're going on a one week cruise - alone.  It's our first week long trip without our children since our honeymoon!

Here's what I'm taking to work on.   Berries, lots of berries...

I'm going to force myself to finish this on this cruise.  I only have 2 rows to go for heaven's sake!

Let's try it again.  Last summer I took my machine in while I was away and it was there 6 weeks and wasn't cleaned or fixed.  I took it to a different shop and have all the confidence that it will be.

And last but, never least, coco finally had some snow last Saturday to play in!

I'm gong where colorful umbrellas adorn the beaches and the drinks ;)

Hope you all have a fun week!

2012 UFO Challenge

Giants Win In Overtime - Superbowl XLVI
just had to get that out.

I met last week with Jill and Susan and instead of starting a new challenge project, we've decided to finish some UFOs this year.

We are also going to swap flying geese units every month.  We've decided to use bright, fresh fabrics and solids for fun.  I'll post when I've made my first sets.

Here in her own words is Jill's UFO project:

After Barb introduced me to English paper piecing, I have fallen in love with it, the accuracy which I could never attain otherwise and the relaxation of whip stitching together the prepared pieces.   Of course it is additional steps, with the basting and paper removal, but I enjoy the results very much.

I started this "star" project some time ago and picked this as my UFO for this Barb/Susan/Jill quilt-finishing deadline!   I have yet to come up with a nice setting design, so I am not sure how many star blocks I need.  I am thinking maybe six and as you can see,  I only have two finished, almost three.   I had better "put a fire under it"...lol.

 I also want to do a setting where the multi-colored stars seem to "float" on the black background and I also hope to come up with an appliqué design to add to either the center of the quilt and/or the border.   I love the combo of pieced and appliqué...my favorite.

Barb thinks perhaps the appliqué will be too busy, as it is already pretty colorful.   So I am rethinking that.  Right now I want to finish the six blocks,  put them on my design wall and try to finalize a plan.

Here in her own words is Susan's UFO project-

It was easy for me to pick my UFO challenge.  This quilt has been on my design wall for months....and months....waiting for the border.

"POTUS 1789-1901" is a quilt I designed with the quilting in mind.  It is a two block quilt.  The president block looks odd, silly really but placing a wreath stencil on top to show what the quilting will look like gives a better idea of where I am going.

The president images are from an old Windham line.  I thought there was a misprint at first because one president had two images.  A check of the facts showed that the printing was correct.  One president served two terms but not consecutively.  I love making quilts that include little bits of history.

And here is mine -

I started this quilt in 2009 to commemorate (again) the 2008 Summer Olympics.  I loved that the opening ceremony was on 8-8-08.  It would be great to finish this one before the 2012 games open in London!

I put this away when I started working on my Mother's Garden quilt and other projects for the quilt show last November.  I have posted on this quilt before and you can find them by typing "olympic star" in the search box.

I have the quilting area you see on the upper left hand side, then binding and labeling.

I will reporting back on these projects.  Our deadline is set for mid-April.

Are you currently finishing last years (or the last 5 years) projects?  It seems every year we quilters try to finish our UFOs.  Why is it so much more fun to start them?

Ding Dong

Barb calling--

I took a drive out to Pennsylvania on Wednesday to visit my blog buddies Sujata and Kelly at Sujata's lovely home.

It was their regular small bee meeting and I was lucky enough to meet the group and see some of their work.  What nice and incredibly talented ladies.  Thanks for making me so welcome!

I decided to make a little treat to bring.  This is a recipe from an Illinois quilter friend, Pat R. of the Piecemakers.

It is simply called Orange Toast.  Sorry I don't have a "beauty shot", but this is what they look like.

Orange Toast 


(I'm giving a 1/2 recipe as I find it's the one I use most, you can double it)

1 cup softened butter
1/2 cup white sugar
1 T. Orange Peel (you find it in the spice isle at the grocery)
1 loaf Pepperidge Farm Very Thin sliced bread.

Cream together ingredients and spread on bread.
Cut bread slices into thirds.
Place on cookie sheet (I lined with parchment)
Bake at 250 degrees for check at 1 hour.  Should be golden.

They are good with Tea, Milk, Coffee and oh yea, wine :)

*******
Hooray, Hooray!!  I ordered 2 bolts of Moda Solids from Thimbleanna.  She is so speedy and nice to work with - thanks Anna!

My plan is to make a quilt for my daughter each year she attends Miami University.  How lucky am I that the school colors are red & white?  She wants to be surprised, so I can't post until she receives it in May -

Household problem - SOLVED

Every morning before walking coco, I would have to dig around those 2 baskets for the right scarf, gloves, hat, etc.


But then I thought about how I "file" my flip flops, and viola'!
So I bought a shoe caddy and now we can see all our winter accessories easily.

Hope you all have a wonderful weekend.  I'm hoping for snow.

Go Giants!!

this, that, the other (again)

Thank you all so much for positive comments and encouragement on my Jubilee quilt.  It means so much to have a cheering section!

Several people commented on my Eagle quilt so I thought I'd review this quilt that I finished in 2008.

It's called "Obama For President" but I had to change that to "Olympic Eagle" (to be non-political) for the Vermont Quilt Show.  It is, to this day, the only eagle quilt I know featuring black eagles.  I named the quilt just after he spoke at the democratic convention...

It's a pattern from "antique quilts and how to make them".
I started it during the opening ceremonies of the winter olympics in Turin, Italy.  Another commemorative quilt?  yep. I guess it's one of my thangs.

I put an Olympic ring in each of the beaks and one of his tallons.

Here is a photo of me at the Vermont Quilt Show, 2008.  It was awarded a blue ribbon - very exciting!

So, what am I up to?
A little (more) of this-

And some of these-

And finally, how fun is this?  Beth is having a pincushion parade!  My pincushion cup runneth over!  Thank you to all my friends who have contributed to this collection.

Have a fun week!