"Sunbonnet Sue" donated to Peppers & Pinatas Silent Auction

Once again the Blanketeers came through with another lovely donation for the Peppers & Piñatas silent auction.  Didn't "Sue" turn out beautifully well?  Thanks again to everyone who worked on the quilt, especially Virginia, who put the quilt together and bound it, and Karen, who donated the gorgeous machine quilting.

I'm sure everyone who worked on making the Sunbonnet Sue blocks will never forget the project day where I "taught" everyone how to applique.  What a laugh.  Talk about the blind leading the blind!  It was lots of fun though, and we ended up with such a pretty quilt for our trouble.

"Peppers and Piñatas is an event hosted by Mental Health America of Greater Tarrant County.  Proceeds from the evening will broaden support for the Warrior Support Program designed for military, police, fire, paramedics, and their families in need of mental health services."

Link to Official Tomato Tart Recipe

I was looking on the "Cooking Light" website and found that they had published the tomato tart recipe here. 

Tomato Tart

OK, so I never take pictures of food, but I had to make an exception for this tomato tart.  It turned out so beautiful, and anyway, isn't it Julia Child's birthday? 

Before you ask, the recipe came from this month's (August) issue of "Cooking Light" magazine.  I believe the editors might take issue with me publishing a recipe that's still on the newsstand, so I'll just recommend you look for the magazine.  I can tell you the tart featured heirloom tomatoes and fontina cheese and was absolutely delicious.  This month's issue was full of all sorts of mouth-watering food.  I'll be making their featured crab cakes very soon.  I wonder how photogenic those will be.  lol

Week in Shreveport

Larry & I spent the week of July 4th in Shreveport.  I won't say it rained often, but when it did rain, it poured.  Surprisingly, a perfect fairy circle of mushrooms about 12 feet in diameter arose in the backyard.

It inspired Larry...

Then he rested... by the way, doesn't he have beautiful ears?

See the bamboo sunshade?  I made that out of bamboo place mats earlier this year.  Works like a charm.  And we'll never have to eat off those disgusting, dirty place matts EVER again!

We haven't gotten as much done on the house since we cleaned up the porch.  lol  It's MUCH more fun to sit out there and look out over the bayou than it is to clean out closets. 

Larry trimmed a few overhanging branches, so now we can look down to the water.  The wooden post in the middle left of the above picture is a handrail down to the water, which is about 15 feet below the grade of the patio.  We're in the middle of Shreveport, but the backyard is incredibly private.  At night the bullfrogs are deafening!

The fairy circle really was fascinating.  It kept raining periodically, with sudden intense cloudbursts, and you could practically watch the mushrooms grow.  It was actually a double fairy circle.  Larry is staring at the outer ring.

We both liked this family grouping of Mom, Dad, junior, and the twins

I told Larry that it was too bad we couldn't tell if they were poisonous, because this one looked pretty tasty.

I think the fig tree grew another foot this week too.  It has figs on it, but the birds and squirrels get up earlier than we do, so they've gotten the bounty.

Here's the same family grouping again; they grow up so fast!  lol

Siggies

2012 has been pretty light on the siggy front, but I have received these two this year.  Both are from the Netherlands.  This cute little elephant duo is from Anita Janssen in Tiel, which is about 45 miles southeast of Amsterdam, in the central part of the country.

And this wise-looking chap is from Linda Gossens in Rijen.  Rijen is about 50 miles due south of Amsterdam, fairly close to the border with Belgium.

Both are very lovely and very simple, which I like.  It is sort of embarrassing to return my simple pony-stamped siggy for one that has been hand-stitched or fancifully embellished.  I always think they'll have to tuck my siggy in some hidden corner of their quilt.  lol

Alzheimer's Priority Quilt Complete

It is finally finished.  I've decided to call it "Clothesline Capers".  I really enjoyed the clothesline theme.  It would be fun to do more of these.  I'm thinking of making a pattern available if I can work out all the kinks in the process.  Those apples were a bear to sew on through the thick interfacing.



The design process is fun, but you never know when you're finished.  I keep thinking the dog needs a collar, or maybe I should add a few windfall apples under the tree.  I'm going to leave it be for a few days and work on something else, perhaps I'll get a little more perspective.

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.