Saturday, February 26, 2011

More Quilt Blocks, 11 - 15

A girl can't have too many shoes, can she?

Groovey man, like, wow.

The center of this one is a 4 1/2" block where I paper-pieced the leaf. It looks like a printed fabric in this photo but it is pieced.

A tropical block that looks much better in person - used a batik & interesting palm tree fabric from a sample fabric swatch.

I needed to add some dark ones to the mix. Plus, I needed to add brown to coordinate the applique blocks that other people are making.

There they are! The quilt block gallery.

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Blocks Seven Through Ten a.k.a. My Aching Neck

The newest four....I've used up all the precut pieces meaning lots more cutting work before I', able to make more blocks. Got these four put together tonight and I have to admit my neck and shoulders are aching. I need some PT! lol




Monday, February 21, 2011

Six Down - Nineteen To Go

Mom & I worked on quilt blocks again today. We made 5 more for a total of 6. I don't know what made me think that we would get all 25 done this weekend. Wishful thinking? Psychosis?

I'm calling this one "if a dog barks in the woods.....". I'm a miniature quilter so it's unusual for me to make these 12" blocks I've committed to making.

You can take a girl out of the miniature quilting world, but you can't take the miniature quilt out of the girl. Notice the center square? It's a paper-pieced paw print (a real score to have found the pattern free online) and is made of about 40 small pieces in that 4" square.


I used 6 of my 1930's reproduction fabrics to make the heart in the center of this block.

I'm calling this one "they eat sushi in Ohio" because it's an Ohio Star block with the center square being a sushi print fabric.

And this one is known as "high tea in Bali" because of the Bali batik and center novelty fabric.

At first I thought the center fabric on this one was Aurora Borealis but upon closer inspection, I believe it is coral.

If you need me, I'll be chained to my sewing machine, lol.

One Down - 24 to Go

Mom came over today and we spent 5 hours cutting fabric for 10 blocks. She's coming back tomorrow and I am going to sewing and she is going to continue cutting for the remaining 15 blocks. So far I've only chosen two patterns, both stars, but am considering a 3rd. Mom is new to this so I wanted to keep the patterns simple.

Last weekend I made cup cakes to take to work on Valentine's day (see earllier post). Well, I always get enough product to make twice as much for whatever I am doing just in case there's an accident in the kitchen named Vickie ;) I used the extras to make a cake for us. Been a long time since I decorated a cake but I was able to make the shell border.

I filled it with starawberries and topped it wiith sixlets. Red velvet with cocoa frosting. It was delic!


Finally, mom & I went to a sale yesterday and she bought an oil painting and I bought a new rug for Daisey. Seriously, the rug solved a problem with Daisey being afraid to jump up and requiring us to pick her up.



Sunday, February 20, 2011

Green Thumb Sunday

OK, so maybe it's more like Green Fabric Sunday, lol. I volunteered my mom & I to make 25 quilt blocks for a raffle quilt. What was I thinking??? I am a miniature quilter. Mom is a good sport.

The title isn't completely wrong. I do have flower photos to share. This is the bouquet that Jerry sent me on Monday and these photos were taken Saturday. They are holding up remarkably well. The stargazer lillies continue to fill our house with a floral scent.

Monday, February 14, 2011

Daisey Says "Happy Valentine's Day"

I made cupcakes for Jerry & I take to our coworkers today. Here's a pictorial of the process a.k.a "How To Dress A Cupcake":

Assembled ingredients and supplies

Used a boxed cake mix because...................


I'm not dealing with that red dye in red velvet cake! Did it once and ruined a top. I remember there was a time when I wouldn't use a hand mixer, I always used a wooden spoon. Now I wonder WHY????

Sloppy but ready for a 350 degree oven

Nekked cupcakes out of the oven and cooling. They say, "get me some clothes, baby it's cold otuside". They are so embarrassed to be photoed without clothes they are bright red!

Haven't had my cake decorating tips out in years. I had to wash them all because some bottles of coloring had broken and they were covered in dyes. Here they are drying - my little tip forrest :)

For the frosting I brought out the big-boy mixer. There were so many different cream cheese frosting recipes online that I ended up making something 'in between". Two 8oz packages of cream cheese, two stick of butter (= 1 cup), 3 cups of sifted powdered sugar and a teaspoon of vanilla extract.

Yup, I said sifted powedered sugar. The Kitchenaid did the rest. Took a while to get it completely smooth.

Scooped it into a frosting bag/tube thingy and away we go............. (the first go round is neat but when you have to refill it things get messy(

Whew, no longer nekked, now they are cupcakes in their underware ;)

Time for a little dressing. I choose sprinkles and sixletts.

All dressed up. Now just a few accessories and they will be ready to go!

Decided the best way to transport them was to slip them into plastic cocktail glasses, kinda like a purse. I figured out how to get them in thbe cups but didn't think ahead on how to get them out, lol.

Now wrapping them in their overcoats.....

Tie off with a knit scarff, ok, a twist tie, and...............

They are ready to travel! By the way, no frosting was injured in these transports. The little plastic glasses protected them. I guess that is my one good idea for the year. I can snooze the rest of the year, lol.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Glass Cleaning

I bought a new paperweight today from Jerry's store and discovered that my collection of glass objects I keep on the ledge of the clear story window all needed a good cleaning.

In this collection you will see paper weights and insulators. When we drove up the Al-Can highway from Seattle to Anchorage we came upon a construction area where the road was blocked for a while these HUGE machine knocked down old telephone poles. Those of us in the parked cars got out to stretch our legs and soon discovered the poles they had knocked down had insulator attached. We carefully rummaged through the piles of debris looking for unbroken insulators. We got 10 and still have 9 - gave one away to someone who collects them.

The new paperweight is the one with the jelly fish design inside and it glows in the dark!

Oh, and I noticed that a couple of the large insulators have darkened. They used to be perfectly clear but now are a shade between light grey and purple, very faint but there. They are marked "Whitall Tatum No1 and on the back made in the USA. The smaller, kinda square ones are marked Hemingray 2-51: CSC. No idea what any of that means so maybe I will look it up!

Eddie



If you have a dog nearby, turn up the volume!

Saturday, February 5, 2011

Tonight

What a busy but fun day. I left work an hour early (4pm) because I needed to get kibble in St Pete, our new area rug in Pinellas Park, and meet Jerry and his coworkers for dinner at Applebee's in Largo by 6pm (that didn't happen, lol). When Jerry called and asked me to pick up a birthday cake for the dinner, I knew something had to go and it was the kibble - let them eat Woody's canned food.

Here's the new rug. I love the way the dog's eyes turned out. My camera is low on battery charge and it does wierd things. I will have to remember this for Halloween photos!

The cake. Well, I didn't go to Publix (boring story as to why) so I picked up a cake at another store
and when I got it home I wasn't so happy with it. It was a strawberry torte cake (sponge cake, strawberry filling, whipped cream (sorta) frosting) but it had one single strawberry on the top and the frosing didn't cover well in some spots. Plus, it had hit the side of the cover so it screamed out to be redecorated, Luckily I bought strawberries today and we always have blueberries in the fridge. I was able to find some red sprinkles leftover from some baking project. It was a fun dinner and nice to meet the spouses of his coworkers.

On the way tot he car we saw this thing parked in the lot. Have no idea what the heck this thing is. Do you?