Dad's Birthday Party

Dad turned 86 last Saturday and we had a party for about 2 dozen people.  Naturally I made enough food for 50.  (There's a whole other table of food in the den.)

I can't take credit for the cake though.  We bought the cake and the "bundtini's" from "Nothing Bundt Cakes" here in Fort Worth.  Their cakes are the best!

My late Mother-in-law had lots of terrific serving pieces like the punch bowl and lazy Susan, which had not seen the light of day in about a decade.  It was fun to bring them out and use them again.

Here's Dad (at right) with his friend Norman.  Norman was the organist at Dad's church for years and still plays a mean rendition of "Happy Birthday" on the piano.

You can see Grandma Vivian in the purple top sitting down.  I was afraid Grandma might get tired during the party; she's 100 after all, but she paced herself, and didn't have to take me up on my offer of lying down.

Here's Larry by the piano with Yvonne and Grim.  Dad seemed to have a blast.  There's not much he likes better than parties and good food.  8)

Larry bought party hats, which made the party just that much more festive!  Sabra loved seeing Stan have so much fun.  The Waghalters brought the beautiful white flowers, which they distributed from their church after a new priest's installation.  Grandma ended up with the flowers when we left on Monday.

Sabra's daughter came to the party and got to be one of the very few people under 60 that were present.  8)  She's really nice.  She visited us very early on in the house clearing project, and seemed very impressed by our progress.

Larry and Grandma had a post-party cuddle.  They are both VERY cuddly people.  ;)  I think Grandma was a little more tired than she let on.  I know I was!

Sabra kept us entertained while we were waiting for the guests to arrive.  She wouldn't hold still so I could take a picture.

Everyone had fun, especially Stan.  We're calling it the party house now, since we've celebrated Easter, Mother's Day, and Dad's birthday there, and we plan to celebrate Father's Day there too.  It's so much better than celebrating at the independent living facilities, which we had been doing for years, when the house was beyond gross.  We've been eating tons of leftovers too; the olive-feta tapenade and tomato pesto both made excellent omelets and was yummy on toast as well.  We put the leftover cake in the freezer, and I think it will make an appearance again at Father's Day.  We refroze the second punch starter, which we decided would make excellent smoothies as well as really good punch.

Politically incorrect tea towels

Occasionally it is brought home to me how much of a Yankee I am, transplanted down here in the deep south.  I got all the way from the Monday to the Sunday tea towel without realizing what I was looking at.  There were many fine needle workers in my husband's family, and these were made by his Great Aunt Lorene, probably in the 1950's.  We have found many treasures in clearing out my father-in-law's house but this collection is my favorite.

They tell the story of a little black girl and her kitten; her underpants are just darling!

She's very sad on Tuesday, and the cat doesn't look too happy either.

Aunt Lorene's workmanship is exquisite; I love her little pigtails.

The pleated skirt is my favorite; the cat always has a matching bow, did you notice?

You just know she's proud of her lace panties!

I would never have thought to render a newspaper like this, and it works so well!

Grandma Vivian was concerned about the fate of very few things in the house.  She kept asking, "Did you find the tea towels?  Don't sell the tea towels!"  She did NOT want to see these get sold.  Nor she did not refer to them as "the politically incorrect, inappropriate, or (dare I say it?) racist, tea towels"; so when I first saw them, my mind didn't go there right away.  I had to get slapped in the face by "Mammy on a Sunday," then I was like, "Holy S**t!"

I am a mass of conflicting impulses.  What can I say?  Fine workmanship and beauty were used to denigrate an entire class of people as the object of humor in the name of cuteness, which is so not cool.  They are definitely a sign of their times; historical artifacts that probably belong in a museum of African Americana.  And I would love to display them because they are SO CUTE!!!  See? Conflicted.  Grandma never had these problems.  Sigh.

I'm back, at least for now

The last time I posted I sure didn't think it would take me until May to post again, but life happens.  My father-in-law had a car wreck in January, spent 10 days in the hospital and over 2 weeks in rehab.  He also lost his driver's license, so we moved him directly from rehab into an independent living facility near his home.  Note I said near HIS home; it's 224 miles door-to-door from OUR home.  He has since made a complete recovery, so it's all good.

And then there's his house. Sigh. See Dad is a hoarder. Not the trash-picking, buy-everything kind you see on TV, just the never, ever throw anything out kind that many of us are related to. It was impossible to do anything about it while he lived there, but we have been making progress since he moved. The office was the worst.

but the whole house was affected.  So far we have recycled 31 bins of paper, 28 bins of waste, and broken down dozens of boxes.  The house has been elevated from "hoarder" to "pack-rat" status; just don't open any closets and it looks fairly normal.

And then there's the decor...  but first, we enjoyed a lovely spring.  The azaleas gave us a beautiful show this year, but look through the open door.  Yes, that's lime green toille wallpaper over robin's egg blue wainscot.  Seriously.  It was like a slap in the face as you walked through the door.

It took us two full weekends just to paint the entry, but it was worth it.  It's very zen now. 

Doesn't it have a cool door?  I painted that window, no tape, just slow and steady.

Larry had to repair the water-damaged ceiling in the hallway.  He does terrific work!  So many doors, and they all used to be bright blue.

We brought the rugs from home.  The pictures were hanging all over the house, mementos from their trip to China in the mid-90's.

This fellow guards the door.

There's even one that is embroidered.

My inlaws traveled all over the world and brought back so many treasures, many of them still in their boxes under piles of paper.  It's been a real treasure hunt.  We are nowhere near done, but the house is so much better.  We've been having dinner parties for Dad and Sabra, and the whole family celebrated Easter together in the house.  Grandma Vivian (Dad's MIL) and Sabra are just tickled that it's livable again.  Dad likes what we've done with the house, but I think he still misses his papers.

January Free Motion Quilting Challenge - Leaves

I took the free motion quilting challenge, which for January was "leaves".  I used variagated thread and put them in the place I thought they would be most appropriate on my AAQI quilt - the treetop.  8)

Frances Moore's leaf tutorial was excellent.  I played a bit with a practise quilt sandwich, then let loose on the real thing.  This is going to be an apple tree; I've already bought the red beads.  I enjoyed taking one of the dots on the tree trunk and turning it into a knot.  My free-motion quilting is never perfect, but I'm pleased with these results.  Now I just have to finish the rest of the quilt.

Alzheimer's Priority Quilt

The Blanketeer's have committed to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for 2012.  These quilts are only 9"x12". My goal is to make one per month.  Here's my first attempt:

The quilt isn't finished yet, this is just the unembellished background.  It's going to be a clothesline quilt.

Chris knit three tiny afghans for me that will swing from the clothesline.  If it turns out cute I may use the clothesline theme again.

Country Chain and Cross Quilt Complete

It's done, it's done, it's FINALLY done!  Only took three years.  Three years of the Flynn Frame, falling out of the closet every time I opened the door.

I like how it has turned out very much.  Considering it was initially called the "Ugly Brown Quilt"; it turned out great!

The prints in this quilt came from the donated fabric that went through the Great American Smoke-Out.  Remember "fabric lasagna"?  Thank heavens for Febreze and a sunny day.

This quilt is absolute proof that there is no such thing as ugly fabric, only fabric that hasn't been cut into small enough pieces.

80 small scraps and 160 tiny bits of fabric were used in this quilt.  Most of them were unattractive and any number of them were butt-ugly, and yet the quilt is pretty nice.  It's a wonderment!

Cabin Friends

I finished Cabin Friends over the holidays.  I'm very pleased with it, though working with so many browns and greys made me long to do a nice bright project.

It was supposed to have snowflakes in the corners, but I wanted Christmas trees.  They were really fun to embellish, though I should have waited to bead until after quilting.  Live and learn!

I used beads as accents instead of French knots on the eyes to give it more shine.

I added some bling to Frosty's hatband as well.

And each log cabin block got a center bead. This wall-hanging is almost crusty with beads. This wall-hanging is almost crusty with beads. 8)

                       
I made a rod pocket in the back with three button-holes for the hooks.

My stitch-in-the-ditch turned out pretty well this time. I set my machine as slow as it would go, then ran it full out; it took forever, but I got much better results than normal.

The 80's will never die

I visited my Mom at her new house over Thanksgiving.  I had the choice of either helping cook the big feast or re-purposing the old master bedroom drapes in the new guest room.  I chose the drapes.  I spent several hours shoehorning big valences into much smaller windows.  It was the most rigged-up piece of work I've done in years, but Mom really liked the final result.  She really wanted to reuse those old curtains!  I took home a leftover valence and spent a few more hours on some accent pillows.  Turquoise, peach and mauve.  The 80's will never die.

Now I just have to get them to Green Bay.  The box squirrel that is my husband has made several valiant, though failed, attempts to get the mailing box size right.  I just need to be patient.  Oh yeah, Mom, don't look, these are for you and they're supposed to be a surprise.  8)

I'm back and I've been BUSY!

In the past 2 months since I last blogged I've completed 5 tiny cross-stitched Christmas stockings, 1 cross-stitched Easter egg, 1 handanger ornament, 1 big quilt, 1 small Christmas wall-hanging and 2 pillows.  I don't have pictures of everything yet, in fact, I gave away 5 of the stockings and both ornaments and forgot to take ANY pictures. 8(  Here's one stocking I did manage to photograph:  (Note:  all the stockings and ornaments are part of my personal Craft Book Challenge.)

Real life seriously kicked my butt since Grandma Vivian's party.  Work was very hectic. Plus, we spent a week in Green Bay at Thanksgiving, I hosted the Christmas Bee party, two of my Blanketeers retired with two separate parties, and we presented the Quilt of Valor to a very deserving Green Beret.  CRAZY!  Fortunately, after Christmas in Shreveport, I had two LOVELY weeks off to stitch.  Heaven!


More posts are coming as I gather the pictures.  I've missed you guys, but I'm back now!  8)

Grandma Vivian's 100th Birthday Party

On Tuesday Grandma Vivian turned 100.

Her favorite grandson gives her a big hug!

"Have you heard?  They're throwing me a party!"

There was singing by the Larks...

And beautiful flowers....

And THREE cakes!!!

And even a tribute from Pastor Mike.

Her son-in-law gives his compliments to the chef.  You can see her "Throne" in the background.

Vivian's granddaughter and great-granddaughter came from Oregon looking festive in red velvet and matching necklaces.

Larry looked too tall next to Dad's tiny girlfriend, Sabra, so he scrunched down for this shot.

"You should wear that more often, Dad.  It looks terrific!" ;)

Vivan's grandson-in-law was the only one who would hold still for a picture; he was trying to take one himself.  Good luck with that, Evan.

A HUGE thank you goes to Edie Maddox, Grandma's Sunday-school teacher, for making all the arrangements.  It never would have happened without you!

Happy Birthday, Grandma! 

We love you!!!