Quilt # 239 - From the Archives

Exquisite Star

The blocks are 9" and it is 72 x 81".  Looking back at this picture, I notice that I have one block turned wrong (maybe I planned it that way - Not!).


Pieced back

 I didn't have enough of the cowboy fabric so I made some 12" blocks for the back to make it work. 

I gave this to grandson Benjamin on his 6th birthday.  He recently turned 9.  He entered this world a preemie at 1#12 ounces.  God was shining down on him.  While not quite as big as most 9 year olds, he is healthy and his passion at the moment is baseball and taekwondo.

Food-Fun-Friends-Farewells!



This pig was as good as it looks!

  With the thermometer reading over 100 the guys who cooked the pig deserve a lot of credit.  It was awesome! And we had all kinds of accompanying side dishes and desserts.


Great trio



Lots of great music.  Dickie, our host, set the time back to 6PM and it had cooled down enough to be tolerable.  



Friends from the Path and their friends too!


A good time to catch up with folks along Pigeon Path.



Pat, Nellie & GL

Our friends and next door neighbors, Nellie and GL, sold their place at the lake 3 weeks ago.  They are the best neighbors and sweetest friends anyone could have.  We will miss them so much.  I know we will still see them occasionally but it will take some time to get used to not seeing them next door. 

The nice thing about all this is that the new owners are our neighbors across the road.  We're looking forward to having Donna and Steve next door.

Tomorrow is Table of Grace at Wendell United Methodist Church.  We will welcome our new pastor, Trip Lowery, to our TOG ministry.  Stop in if you can, we serve dinner at 6PM.

Fractured - Whole

 My deck wasn't quite high enough to keep this quilt from dragging on the ground. It is 91 x 104"  I used a medium grey thread, Bottom Line by Superior Threads, on this quilt. It blends well over all the various colors on this quilt.  The back is flannel and I used the block pieces that I had sewn backwards on the back.  It was easy to get confused.  I had the green stripe binding fabric in my stash.

I had lots of fun making this quilt, using up some strange fabrics, but I'm glad it's finished. 

We will be at the lake when this posts - our neighbor is having a barbecue for the whole neighborhood this weekend and  I hope to spend some time working on my lake sewing projects.
 Happy Weekend!

Arrow Star Again



Arrow Star



This is the Arrow Star Quilt that I finished  a couple of weeks ago. The background fabric is an assortment of white and cream colored fabrics so I used an ecru Aurifil thread to quilt the center.  I used red thread over the red and blue borders.  It measures 80 x 92".



 

Quilt # 135 from The Archives

Very Wild Rose


I appliqued the blocks for this quilt in 2000 while staying with John in the hospital.  I set the blocks together and quilted it in 2001.  It is a very easy applique pattern that I got from a friend, Bonnie P., at Three Rivers Quilt Guild when we lived near Albemarle, NC.

It is quilted with Sulky polyester clear thread which was what I used a lot at that time.  It is 84" square. 
I have been using it as a tablecloth on a round table for a couple of years.

detail - Very Wild Rose

Back



Pricey Pickles????

Well last night I finally made pickles  - Yes, that's right two whole pints!

 Ever since I picked the first little Kirby cucumber from our mini- garden last month I've been wanting to make Bread and Butter Pickles.  Monday when I went out to water I picked 4 very nice cucumbers and I already had two in the kitchen.  A good start.  I  figured I'd go over to Wake Forest to buy enough  more to make one recipe.  I picked up my grand daughter, Emily, and we stopped at the vegetable stands that Shelly recommended.  Neither had really fresh cucumbers.  We shopped and then went out for lunch.  I picked up some new jars, mustard seed, pickling salt and turmeric.  I had everything I needed but the cucumbers.

Tuesday morning, near noon when I got off.  I decided I go to the State Farmer's Market in Raleigh for them.  I sliced up the 6 cucumbers I had to see how many more I  needed to buy.  I had 1 quart, I only need 18 more.   Okay!  I bought tomatoes for John, a basket of really nice peaches and $7. of cucumbers.  Then 3 ears of corn for John and I was on my way home.   Of course I stopped at the quilt shop  and the grocery store for a couple of things too.

Came home and  unloaded the car  - guess what No Cucumbers!  I guess I has set them down when I paid for the corn and left them.  RATS!!!!!!  Well I complained for a bit then I drove to Wrenn's Produce in Zebulon but they sell only the burpless variety.  Last resort -  maybe Walmart grocery had some.  They did  - but they looked liked they had been picked last month!

I didn't want my fresh cucumbers to go to waste so I made a 1/4 recipe.  I spent 2 days and drove about 120 miles but John and I tried them tonight and they are wonderful.

My new plan is to pull up the summer squash in the garden and plant some more seeds.  Maybe by  September I can make a whole batch.

John's Workshop

John has been spending a lot of time out in his workshop for the past two weeks.  Friday he was ready for me to see his project.  He has been making a stand for our TV up at the lake.

  In April we bought a larger HD set for home and we took the old one up to the lake.  It was too big to fit in the cabinet. 

I love that he used the natural edge of the board to make the design of the bottom of the stand.  The cedar is from some trees that we had cut a few years back.  John had a guy with a portable sawmill come to cut the trees into lumber.  This is the last of the cedar.

Now for the polyurethane finish.  Cool. Maybe we'll be rearranging the furniture a little this weekend. 

Family Game Day

We had a Catan tournament on Saturday.  We needed two boards as we had 10 players.  Some were  playing for the first time and then we had the Deters (our teachers and old pros).  We had lots of fun and we even talked John into playing.  My new favorite game!  We had a dinner break and finished up fairly early in the evening. 

Daniel won his first time playing over the 4th of July Weekend.  At the lake, we turn on the porch light and play until about midnight. 

Not Moon Pictures------------



Kopper King Hibiscus




Same Plant as above

This hibiscus is probably planted in the wrong place but it seems to do okay here.  The tags said to plant it in full sun but it is mostly shade here.  The insects love it and it is a chore to keep the foliage from them.


Liatris - Gayfeather

This is some of the liatris that shares the bed with the Kopper King Hibiscus and lots of Hosta too.
These are is not at all the pictures I wanted to post today.  We went up to the lake late yesterday evening - arrived just before dusk.  The Moon rose and it was so beautiful out in front of the dock.  I took lots of pictures but my camera and my poor photography skills yielded nothing.  But I have it etched in my memory bank anyway.

Backyard Flowers

Dixie Belle Hibiscus

I grew this plant from seed about 10 years ago. The bloom is about 10" across. It has been attacked by an insect for the past three summers.  I was surprised that it made it this year. It is down to two stalks where normally it has about 8.  We have put Sevin dust on it a couple of times. It has some leaf damage but maybe it will gain enough strength to keep on keeping on.

Star of Bethlehem Hibiscus

This plant was also grown from seed taken from a plant I had.  This one is about three years old - fortunately the Japanese Beetles don't seem to like it's foliage.  It is 6 -7 feet tall and is right outside my kitchen window.  I love the red blossoms.  They are smaller than the other hibiscus but they blossom for the rest of the summer.  Sometimes they reseed by themselves given the right conditions.  I collected the seed in the fall and  planted it in a pot which I left outside all winter.

Cleome


For the most part, once you have Cleome here in the South, you always have Cleome.  Most of mine are purple and lavender but this mostly white one is my favorite.  Sometimes I save some seed to relocate it here and there.  However it likes this spot by the deck and I can always count on a few plants popping up there.

Have a nice day and enjoy what's right out there in your backyard!

Two Quilts Finished ------- Fractured and Arrow Star

Started quilting this last week after we got home from the lake. I used an all over spiral design. The quilt is large so I wanted something that went pretty fast.

The backing is a green and brown flannel print.  I was worried about using a flannel backing on such a large quilt knowing the way flannel stretches.  I did have one bad tuck just as I was finishing the last corner.  It took me a  while to rip it out. I used a striped binding.  It is 91 x 104"  Hope to get a picture of the whole quilt soon. 

 I also put the binding on the Arrow Star Quilt.  I  used a red on red stripe for it.

Two quilts remain in my quilts-in-waiting pile - one a wall hanging and the other a large Dresden plate.  I bought some white Aurifil thread especially for the Dresden Plate Saturday while in Wilmington. Now I have to get up my nerve and just do it.

Wilmington Road Trip



Connie, Cathy, Sally & Pat



Saturday we got up early and went down to Wilmington to the Quilters by the Sea 29th Annual Quilt Show.  They had a great very nice show.  We're standing in front of the Best of Show Winners.

They had a nice variety of vendors  - good shopping - and I bought myself a couple of birthday gifts to me.  

We had lunch at McAllisters across from the UNC-W Campus and visited a couple of Quilt Shops on our way out of town.

My viewers choice - 2 awards













Beautiful Applique & Hand Quilting - 4 Awards\



I got home just in time (well to be truthful - an hour late, as I misread the time on my daughter's text) to go out to dinner with Kathy & Jesse, Daniel & Emily and Marcia (John too) at The Flying Biscuit in Raleigh and Goodberrys after.

We met our new Pastor this morning, Rev. Trip Lowery. He and his family will be a very welcome addition to our church family. 

This afternoon, for my birthday, Shelly, Hannah and I went to cirque de soeil, Allegria, at the RBC Center.  It was wonderful - the costumes for this show were not as elaborate but the acts were amazing. 

Tomorrow - I hope to put the binding on the Arrow Star quilt.

Gettin' In Some Quilting Time

I started quilting this quilt last week before we went on our road trip.  When we got home from our July Forth GetTogether/Party at the lake, I was anxious to finish it up.  The borders surprised me - It took most of the day yesterday to finish them. 

This is a pattern Connie and I saw on a blog last year.  I drew up a pattern that we call Arrow Star.  My blocks were made on a 2.5" grid.The blocks are 14.5".(Connie used the 2" grid for hers.)  With borders mine is about 68 x 84".  I finished piecing it September.

 I used a very simple meandering with stars for the quilting.  I had purchased some Aurifil thread a while back and I loved quilting with it.  There was very little lint compared to other threads.

Road Trip



Cathy, Pat, Connie ,Sally

 We had a fun trip to Loving Stitches in Fayetteville, NC yesterday.   After shopping, we ate lunch at Pierro's Pizza and Restaurante followed by desserts at a wonderful little bakery, Sweet Treats, just around the corner.


Batik Wall



We loved their display of batik fabrics, three double rows deep, arranged by colors!  Sally was excited as she has never met a batik she didn't like, esp. blue ones.  As you can see by the size of her bag  - lots of them went home with her.