COZINESS DEFINED

What can be more cozy than a kitty by the fireplace? Nothing, I think. Big kitty George has now taken to going to the fireplace, sitting there, and hollering until we turn it on... geesh, if there's anything else we can do for you, your highness, just ring the bell! George is a happy camper these days - he is on a 'weight gain' prescription from the vet - he was sick and lost weight, so now he gets all his favorite foods until he gets back his 'fightin weight'.

I have sooo enjoyed this week of vacation... lots of time to just 'do stuff' - like finishing this little bright and cheerful charity quilt, which was started as part of a nine-patch tribute to a quilter who passed away... and it is now finished and ready to donate..



We have a dear friend coming tomorrow for New Year's Eve - we are going to see the musical parody "Beach Blanket Babylon" in San Francisco.. I saw it several years ago and it is hilarious... can't wait!..

...........and I am serving Bonnie Hunter's potato soup !

I do hope everyone has a safe and pleasant NYE - and a fabulous 2011...

Kate

Good Grief!

I am Shaking My Head...



It's late, and I stayed up late, and ended up sewing and reading blogs (surprise, surprise) when I heard my kitty growling and hissing at the glass doors ... I suspected a neighbor's cat might have wondered by and stopped to look in... But then I saw this face outside on the porch :




Well - my visitor was huge - and was standing up to be more threatening to my kitty... thankfully lots of glass separated the two...


Now to the "good grief" part... that picture above isn't really the same raccoon - instead, its a photo I took off the web - I searched for "raccoon pictures"... unbelievably that led me to a British news story from 2009 about a man who tried to rape a racoon - and the racoon bit the man's male part completely off!


............................ I really didn't want to read that story, or think about that poor man - or that even poorer racoon!... I just wanted a simple picture..


...........................................good grief........................

If I go to sleep now, I wonder what kind of weird dreams I will have??

Better go sew some more as an antidote..

Kate (in the wee small hours of the morning)

and the Harley wins!!

Congratulations to Marjorie, who wins the Day of the Dead fabric!

Marjorie write that she would use the fabric to make a shirt for her DH who rides a "skull
-themed Harley"..........

DH laughed in delight when he read your post, Marjorie... and asked if you would trade the Harley for the fabric!

probably not, huh?

please send me your mailing address to send the fabric! I can't get the link to your email to work, so am posting here as well as on your blog...

Thanks to all who entered - DH and I had a blast reading all the posts and imagining all the different projects you all proposed!

Happy New Year, everyone..

Kate

Not a Creature is Stirring - except me

Hi there - it is the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve... and not a creature is stirring...

But I am up, staring at this:

Isn't it just the strangest photo????

It's the side view of the 120 pieces from the next clue of the Bonnie Hunter mystery...

From the top it looks a little more like part of a quilt:

I love staying up late to sew - Josh Groban is singing carols and the house is quiet... I never did the dishes from Christmas Eve dinner, but they will wait for the morning... DH will make breakfast - maybe he will do them!

Happy Christmas Day, everyone

Kate

Christmas Giveaway !

Merry Christmas my dear Online Friends:

These lovely novelty fabrics need a new home. I have been in attentive to them far too long... when I bought them, the figures on the fabric were all fat and healthy - now you can see they are only skeletons... how could I have forgotten to feed them like that!

Actually they are some wonderfully creative "Day of the Dead" novelty fabrics - and they are lovely quality fabric. Each cut is one yard - I think I bought them at some quilt festival.

So - leave a message and tell me something you would like to do with this fabric... I'll be asking my DH to read the posts and pick the one to send the fabric to... so creativity in your message might just turn the tide!

We will pick the winner at noon on Sunday, December 26th!

Merry Quilty Christmas to All...

Kate

HOW TO BREAK IN LINE AT THE POST OFFICE

................ Well, that title certainly doesn't sound in the spirit of the season, does it???

Well - it's a great story (sorry, no pictures)

Today, DH offered to mail the two boxes I mentioned in my last two posts on his lunch hour. So I packed them up, and he went by the post office at noon.

OH MY - but I forgot today is the VERY BUSIEST day for the post service of all the year - oh guilt, guilt, guilt - I should have done it myself...

So - he is there, standing in line, waiting, waiting, waiting...

And a conversation begins between him and some ladies in line:

"oh, what are you mailing"
DH: oh, these boxes have quilts in them...

"ooh, are they Christmas presents?"
DH: well, sort of - they are quilts for charities... "

" what kind of charities are they going to?"
DH: well, one box is going to NYC for families that have been homeless and now have new places to call home...

"OH, THAT'S SO WONDERFUL - WE DON'T WANT YOU TO STAND IN LINE. PLEASE GO TO THE FRONT OF THE LINE AND MAIL YOUR BOX"

ok, so that last part isn't exactly accurate... but the sentiment was the same.

..................... what a wonderful world we live in.

Kate

A Box for Wanda

Wanda - this box is on its way to you.. There are some strings, some scraps, and a few fat quarters as well. A few pieces came from my friend Bev Bennett, who would have been very pleased for you to have some of her 'stash'.


I met Wanda online, about a month or so ago. She posted on the Yahoo! Online Groups called Heartstrings... a group that makes string charity quilts.

Wanda's first post puzzled us all. It was confused - the words all seemed to be in the wrong order , and I couldn't understand what she was trying to say. Every few days she would post again, and gradually, we began to understand that Wanda wanted fabric. She was trying to let us know that if we had scraps, or extra strings, that she would like to have them.

We learned from her posts that she had had a stroke, and she told us that although she could not communicate clearly, she could still sew.

From her first note, she made me think - about how tough it would be to lose the ability to communicate clearly - and how unbearable it might be to lose my creative outlet in fabric and quilting.

I'm not the only online group member who has sent fabric to Wanda..

Wanda, this box is for you - enjoy. And thank you for reminding me how much I love the look, feel, and smell of fabric.

In closing, here's a sweet photo of my macho kitty, George... also known as George Rottweiler... he looks pretty passive here, doesn't he? He dearly loves to use yarn as a pillow...



I wish for you each that you have all the fabric you can use, and a ball of yarn for a pillow.

Kate

Christmas Gifts

Merry Merry Christmas Week to you all...

DH and I just got back from a shopping foray in the pouring rain - spent all of $20. The economy won't get better on that, now will it? I will try again another day... I'm sure I can find more to purchase.

Here are two quilts I am mailing out on Monday - they are going to New York City as part of the Bumble Beans initiative to provide 200 quilts to families who are now returning to housing... what a wonderful home for a few quilts!



The lovely string quilt on the left is a Bonnie Hunter pattern from quiltville.com... thanks, Bonnie!

And, a small present for all of my friends in cold places, looking out the window at snow and ice... here's what my patio looks like... (although it is raining this weekend).


Yes, this is Northern California - but the temps are in the 50s most days, and my petunias are just blooming like little champions...

Wishing everyone a great week preparing for the holiday.

Kate

Quilty Parade of Love

LESSON FOR TODAY: QUILTERS ARE THE MOST GENEROUS PEOPLE....

Today I went to a quilty parade of love at the Amador Valley Quilters Guild... that's Amador Valley in California, near San Francisco.

The meeting opened with - of course - FOOD! (THIS IS only THE DESERT TABLE) LOL . there was also a salad table and a meat table and an appetizer table (appetizer - that's a joke)

After the eating, the Guild began its annual Parade of Charity Quilts... More than 900 quilts had been gathered for donation to area agencies...

A representative from each agency spoke about what the quilts do - about women coming to shelters with nothing except fear and children... and who get wrapped in a quilt. They told about young boys who turn their quilts into Superman Quilts, to protect them from all harm...

They told about the children who can't sleep without their very own special quilt...

There were table fulls of quilts

and then THE MOMENT - the quilts (or at least 200 of them) PARADED... the local Girls Scouts led the parade, ... kids paraded a quilt, women paraded a quilt, men paraded a quilt - round and round the room the colorful train of comfort circled... it was FABULOUS!

..... AND THE CUTEST OF ALL was this little one...

......................and then the quilts went off to their new home, to give warmth and comfort and love.

QUILTERS ARE THE MOST GENEROUS PEOPLE.

QUILTERS ARE THE MOST GENEROUS PEOPLE.

Happy Holidays,

Kate

YUMMY

Hi all:

I have two yummy photos to share with you. First, here is my completed wholecloth mini-quilt from my class with Jill Schumacher... this was great fun!

Then - today my cactus blooms opened up - how beautiful!!

I am plugging along on my blocks for the Bonnie Hunter mystery - 36 completed - 24 more to go in Clue 3 !!!!

Happy Quilting everyone,

Kate

WHAT A MESS!!!!

WHAT AN UNSIGHTLY MESS... THE STRING BLOCKS FROM THE BONNIE HUNTER MYSTERY IN PROGRESS






Well, let's see... I guess hundreds of people are doing the Bonnie Hunter mystery, which uses up 60 pages from your old phone book as a foundation for the 60 string blocks...

So - imagine how much lighter the world will be!!! (I know, they just end up torn up in the trash - same difference... so - let's see what we can think of to use torn up telephone pages:
compost


hamster litter


ticker tape



What have YOU been up to this weekend???

Kate in rainy California

Football and Paper Piecing

YES - THERE IS A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN FOOTBALL AND PAPER PIECING !!!

Dear hubby offered to pull off paper pieces for me during the Auburn v. South Carolina game.. I did some paper-foundation blocks for the Bonnie Hunter mystery... all in all there will be 60 of them........

THERE BETTER BE OVERTIME!

Happy Saturday,

Kate

PAJAMA DAY - yippee

7:00 a.m. Good morning!!!! It's pajama day at our house - no getting dressed all day long...

Thank goodness no rule against quilting.

Plenty of turkey left for sandwiches.

I can't wait...........

10:00 update: I just finished the quilting on this little whole-cloth with trapunto that I started yesterday at class... just needs binding now! This is my first use of wool batting - oh is sews up nicely!

And I put DH to work arranging some "I Spy" blocks for a charity quilt! He is enjoying doing this (wonder if he wants to cut some strips?)



.............more pajama day to come!

6:30 pm. PAJAMA DAY NEARS AN END

The afternoon was very relaxed, but a lot got done:

These HST's are for Clue 2 of Bonnie Hunters's mystery quilt:

This basket of strings came from a bin of scraps: and then became a bunch of string blocks:

And I discovered that my cactus is preparing to bloom - a lovely yellow bud:


The quilt DH arranged and selected the border for is a completed flimsy now - this will go to the Bumble Beans Quilt Gathering when it is sandwiched and quilted..

What a great Pajama Day - and I didn't once stress over the laundry or other household chores... wearing pajamas somehow wards off reality...

Back to work tomorrow - what a great holiday weekend this has been!

Happy Quilting and Pajama-Wearing, Everyone

Kate

No More

No More Dishes

No More Laundry

No More Cleaning Up

No More Errands

No More Lists of Things to Do

Kate

ABOUT THOSE GIBLETS

Happy Thanksgiving !!!!

I must confess to being a lover of the giblets - the parts thrown away by so many cooks (boohoo).

I love the giblets so much that even though I bought a prepared dinner, I picked up some giblets to cook on the side, and thy are now in the slow-cooker... along with several lovely turkey necks... another favorite part!

And then, for some strange reason, I decided to research giblets – I am, after all, a professor! Here are a few interesting things I discovered:

The word "giblets" comes from Middle English, and originally meant a "game stew".

Giblets are described as the "edible offal" of a poultry carcass - - eeeew that sounds awful.

Now, a special word about that gizzard – the gizzard is the grinder for a bird, who has no teeth. When I was a child, we slaughtered our own chickens, and cleaning the gizzard was a mystery – you cut it open, and in there were stones, trash, all sorts of stuff the bird had picked up! The stones and sand help grind up the food... an amazing little body part.

The giblets in that little bag probably came from a DIFFERENT turkey... makes me think about some medieval torture – having the innards put in another body!

The color of the liver is influenced by what the bird last ate.Green livers are filled with bile, and are usually discarded in production at the slaughter plant.

"wog" means "without giblets" in the turkey trade!

If you accidentally leave them in the bag and cook the turkey – it's ok, they just need some salt!!

Happy Day - Kate

Pre-Thanksgiving Preparations

Hi all and Happy Pre-Turkey Day:

I've been reading lots of blogs about pre-Turkey prep: some people are brining their turkey; some are making pies; some are making cornbread for stuffing (doesn't she know Pepridge Farm sells that stuff in bags?) Seriously - I have great respect for all those dedicated and inspired chefs;; BUT

here's my True Confession:

What I did today to prepare for Thanksgiving:

Picked out some new batiks at the LQS;
Bought some thread and some sharp new needles;
Got three movies;

Oh - and called Boston Market and ordered DINNER FOR SIX with turkey, veggies, dressing, and PIE!!!

So - I wish all of you gifted cooks a wonderful meal...

.................i'll be sewing most of the day - I'll post some photos of my accomplishments!

Kate

So Much in Progress!

Hello everyone, and happy Saturday !

I've been away for a bit, visitingwith some family at a lovely lake house in North Carolina - it was gorgeous - crisp, fall temperatures, beautiful yellow and red leaves. We ate, we drank, and we watched one of the young ones perform in a play - great fun!

So now it's great to be home - and I have SOOOO many quilty projects that I hardly know what todo... let's see.............

I need to blanket stitch down the binding on this little cute cheater-panel charity quilt - love the trucks - -



And this one is in the process of being machine quilted - and I'm doing feathers for the first time:



And then - I started the new Bonnie Hunter mystery - this is half the pieces to complete Clue #1 - actually went pretty quickly:

And - over my travels I started the Farmers Wife Sampler - here are some first blocks. Only 109 left to hand piece!

There's a binding to be stitched down to finish this charity quilt:

And, oh heavens, all this fabric has been washed, but needs to be ironed, folded, and put on the shelf!

Do you think I can finish all this before lunch??? I have other UFO's waiting, too!!

Happy Quilting, Everyone !

Kate

Bev's Geese Went to Quilting Class

Hi all - - well, while many of you 'flew' off to Houston and had a wonderful time, I took advantage of a great class on machine quilting by Jill Schumacher, a California machine-quilting artist.

The two-day class, on machine-quilting design, was taught at a lovely LQS in Livermore, CA. It required that we show up with a finished top ready to quilt... so I took along a little flimsy that began from some flying geese blocks made by my friend Bev Bennett of the Yahoo Sunshine Quilt Guild... Bev passed away a few months ago, and some friends distributed her stash to members of the online guild... and I got these flying geese blocks... and then they began to tell me what needed to go with them... and this emerged...........

So - here's the quilt, all marked for machine quilting... and just barely begun to be quilted... this will be the first time I have done machine quilting beyond the basic stuff like stippling and straight lines ... should be fun!

Great class, Jill! And I love these flying geese, Bev...

Kate