Sister's Choice Quilts

Two Blue Quilts

Amidst the craziness that is beginning to define this summer, I managed to dig out two quilts that I simply must send out for quilting.  The one above I think I made ten years ago believe it or not.  Yes, time to get that baby quilted.  It is half square triangles set into stars and arranged, well, arranged the way I arranged them.  I know the fabrics are totally from my stash.

You all may remember Aurora.  Sweet little blue stars from a pattern by Laundry Basket.  This one is more recent.

I have an idea to decorate the upstairs guest room in blue and white.  I love to make blue and white quilts, but they just don't fit into the decor of the rest of my house.  How nice to have a nice blue and white oasis for guests to enjoy.  There is an antique rocker in that room that is upholstered in blue, tan and white fabric, so it will all go nicely together.

That is the plan anyway.  Between swim practice, swim meets, and various other Eva activities I need to get the backings sorted out and the quilts in the mail.  Wish me luck!

Sushi!

My son in law knows how to do things right.  He hired a professional sushi chef to come to his house and prepare five hours of sushi for 16 guests.  It was amazing.  Just imagine this happening in your own home and not a restaurant!

The sushi master brought an assistant and they made the magic happen all evening long.

There were oysters.  I have gone decades proclaiming that I would never eat a slimy icky oyster.  I was persuaded to try one and now realize my life has been wasted.  Years that I could have been enjoying this incredible delicacy down the drain. I could weep.  I cannot even describe how wonderful these were.

This was the freshest albacore tuna you can imagine.  Yes it is raw.  Yes it was delicious.

How is this for a presentation?  It was so cool!

These are yam chips that were used to scoop up fresh seviche (more raw fish marinated in lime juice).

Seviche.

I mean, really?

My son in law is a winemaker, so of course his wine was served.  Heaven.

Naturally to show respect for the occasion, I had to dress up.  It was just so special.

I wore a Japanese scarf as a wrap, and arranged my hair in as Japanese a style as I could manage.

The amazing thing is that I actually own blue chop sticks.

It was such a fun evening, and I am so grateful to have been able to enjoy the food, the fellowship and the incredible experience.  It was a once in a life time event for sure.

This and That

I am working sporadically on a couple of different projects.  Honestly, I have it on my calendar to sew at least one hour a day, but it just has not been happening.  I seem to always be going for a walk with my friend, reading a book or taking Eva to swim practice.  Despite my lagging attention, I am making some progress on my two projects.

I went gangbusters on these little units over the weekend, but still need to press about 300 of them.

On another subject entirely, I was out watering my herb garden yesterday and noticed something very weird growing around my herb plants.

Some sort of fungus is growing around the base of my sage, oregano and thyme!  Ick.  Have you ever seen such a thing?  I want to dig it all up and throw it away.  I am thinking it is something that was in the potting soil, do you think?  The soil is in a raised wooden box, and was used last year (not changed out this year).  No fungus last year.  If you know anything about this sort of issue, please do share!

Short Line

This is just a quick post on a quilt I have been enjoying lately.  It is called Short Line, and is a pattern by Miss Rosie's Quilt Co.  It was made with fabrics from various American Jane (Sandy Klop) collections, designed for Moda.  

It is a gorgeous quilt and although I have had it for nearly ten years I have never gotten tired of it.  This one is a real winner.  It was made from 1 1/2" strips of fabric-making it a great choice for honey buns.

You can also make it with larger strips (jelly rolls).  This version was made from 2 1/2" strips of French General fabrics, and made quite a large quilt.  If you can get your hands on the pattern, it is a great quilt to make in either version.

Quilt Joy

Do you remember me telling you about my young friend who made a quilt top for her older sister around five years ago?  She procrastinated getting it quilted and it just sat in her closet for all this time.  It became a family joke that she would never finish the thing and was the source of much teasing

As time passed, her sister married and moved to Georgia, and just last year had a baby.  The girls talk often, but long distance, and have missed each other very much.  In nearly every phone call, her sister would tease "So, where's my quilt?"

My young friend decided enough was enough, and recently asked me for help connecting her with a good long arm quilter.  I passed on some information to her and she contacted the quilter and made arrangements to ship the quilt out to be quilted.  She got it back in no time, and was very pleased with the results.

She made a label, I attached the binding for her, and she hand sewed the binding down herself.  Her sister arrived for a much anticipated visit this week, and you can see the moment of presentation in the photo above.  Sister looks appropriately delighted, but just look at the expression of pride on the face of my young friend (on the left).

Now that is priceless.  If you ever have the opportunity to mentor a young quilter, say yes.  It is one of the most rewarding things I have done.

Happy 4th of July

Ozzie and I would like to wish you all a happy and safe 4th of July if you live in the US, and a happy Thursday if you don't!  We plan to go to a barbecue with the family, and my corn salad that I posted on a week or so ago has been requested.  I told you it was good!

Ozzie isn't too keen about all the racket the fireworks make, but he plans a restful day up until the festivities begin.  I will spend the day making corn salad and reading my book.  Talk to you tomorrow!

Free Half Square Triangles

I have been snagging an hour or so every now and then to work on some blocks I started a few months back.  I am trimming off my triangles, but not tossing them.  Oh no, this time I am being frugal and turning them into half square triangles.  I used to scoff at friends who would save all their triangle trimmings to use in some other project.  It just seemed like too much bother to me.  But these are pretty big triangles, and I thought it would be a shame to waste them.

I am chain stitching the hsts and trimming them down to 2" squares.

Eventually I will sew them into some sort of quilt.  

I have about a gazillion of them.

Otherwise, I am spending most of my time with this gooney bird.