TOO MUCH FUN

An annual event when we lived in Oregon was the trip to the county fair in early August ... such fun with our little quilting group checking out all the quilting entries, seeing ribbons won by friends, and, of course, snacking on a corn dog and sharing a funnel cake with a good friend.

 

The state fair trrip tradition always happened the last weekend in August ... Pam and I shopped our way through the commercial buildings while Norm and Mike checked out the barns ... all the farm entries for the year. Lunch once again ... you just can't beat state fair food ... scones with strawberry jam, brauts and sausage, curly fries, and the smooth creamy goodness of fresh homemade ice cream from the Oregon Dairy Association booth. (sigh)

 

But now we live in Massachusetts and there is no state fair. But there is THE BIG E ... a six state exposition started in 1917 originally known as Eastern States Exposition. There were differences but it was still a fair.

• Oregon has the county exhibits building ... the Big E has The Avenue of the States. (each state has a building with exhibits highlighting that which make each "special."
• Oregon has the Little Red School House ... the big E has Storrowton, a whole colonial village.

The commercial buildings were pretty much the same as what we had in Oregon; only one building called "farm-arama" rather than several different barns housing each kind of farm animal; and a midway, a 4-H building, and of course, lots of food vendors.   (I also skipped the chocolate covered bacon!)

 

It's hard to eat a funnel cake all by myself. I missed my friends during our annual trip to the fair this year.

A PROJECT IN HAND, ANOTHER IN MIND

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A GOOD BOOK, A GOOD SONG, AND EYE CANDY

A GOOD BOOK: I just finished two good books, one mentioned in an earlier post The Last Wife of Henry VIII. Insterestingly enough, Katherine Parr was a part of court life throughout all of Henry's wives so this book provides a different perspective as an overall view of his reign and desparation to sire an heir to the throne. The chronology of his life and keeping track of his many wives has been difficult for me to follow and this book helped to get "things" in order in my brain.

Another book I would recommend written by Elizabeth Chadwick is the tale of John Marshal father of one of the greatest knights of all time Sir William Marshal A Place Beyond Courage. It took a little bit to get into the story in the beginning, but once it started rolling it is a good read. I think the slow start may have been my trouble in transitioning from the 1500 and all of the Henry VIII drama going back in time to the mid 12th century.

What sparked all this interest in English historical fiction? From way back I've always loved any good book or movie about King Arthur, Robin Hood, King Henry VII, and even Princess Diana and that has continued to the present with a renewal of that interest being sparked by the TV series on showtime The Tudors and the reading of two best sellers by Ken Follett Pillars of the Earth and World Without End. I like the comparitive views presented by reading books from the perspective of the Church and the Kings and their lords.

A simple resource to help me keep track of where I am "in time" as I read has been a chronologial listing of English Monarchs. I appreciate a good story that is historically sound and well-researched.

A GOOD SONG: Being fairly new to the blog scene I find myself spending way too much time exploring different blogs and adding them to my favorites to come back and check out. As time goes on I find myself editing my bookmarks deleting some and adding new ones. And, a few are becoming regular favorites ... enough to maybe even think about starting a blog roll. One of those sites came to light this morning.

Part of our regular morning ritual is reading the paper over breakfast. Mike reads word for word the items of interest to him while I quickly scan the headlines over his shoulder asking an occassional question about an ariticle here and there. I'm interested in only one part of the paper and must anxiously wait until he finishes reading the comics before I can delve into the daily crossword puzzle. Oh how I love the days when I'm incredibally inteligent and rue the days I don't know nuthin' 'bout 'nuthin'.

So, to tie all this together ... crossword puzzles, a good song, and blog rolls? I found a blog that posts all the answers to the Star Tribune crossword each day with comments, links, and general repsonses to the clues, the words, the themes ... you name it. Good quick reading and much easier than hunting up a word in my crossword dictionary.

But what about the good song? Today there was a link posted with 65D: Give it a go: TRY. "TRY me, TRY me..." What a great start to my morning!

THE EYE CANDY: we had some special visitors come walking down the driveway just proud as ... well, you can see ... there were five of them in all ... not a bit afraid of me ... and very intent on eating seeds that had fallen naturally along the fenceline of the pasture.

I love the color of their feathers and the fanned topnot on each of their heads.

I love the way the line of flowers leads your eye across the picture. This is a concept I try to teach in my quilting classes when dealing with the layout of scrappy quilts making them works of art rather than jumbles of color and fabric.

Isn't this little garden of purple flowers just the greatest study on value? Texture and scale differences are minimal, but the change in value holds your interest and makes you come back for a second look.

And, finally, a photo entitled A Mother-Daughter Portrait.

I love you Eryn.

POSTAGE STAMP HEXAGON QUILT

As promised, here is the story of the Hexagon quilt. I started the hexagon quilt in the early 90's as a take-along project while waiting for our kids during music lessons, contest performances, cross country races, and track meets. It was small and easily fit into my purse in a plastic birthday card sized envelope. I had everything I needed ...

• pre-cut fabric hexagons
• card stock foundation papers
• basted hexagons
• scissors, needle, and thread
• the project (at that time it was small enough to fit very nicely into my bag without being wadded into a ball like a rag

But after this kids graduated and went away to college part of my "empty nest" was no more waiting time to be filled and the hexagon quilt was put away for another day, to work on sometime, and soon a forgotten UFO. Until, last summer.

One of the things Eryn asked for last summer was the hexagon quilt. Did I still have it? Could she have it? Could it be her quilt to finish? Absolutely! And, even better, Eryn would be visiting during her in-between homes moving time which happened to coincide with our Scrappy Sister annual quilting retreat.I had been using 30's reproduction prints for the hexagon quilt, and, at the retreat, we just happened to be trading strips of 30's reproduction fabrics. Eryn got to take my place in the strip exchange so she would have a stash for cutting new hexagons. She circulated through the tables during the retreat driving hard bargins with the ladies as she traded strips for different strips she liked better. We got her set up with a rotary cutter, a stacked template like I describe in yesterday's post, and the UFO quilt kit.

I would hear off and on about surprise "squishies" arriving in the mail as different Scrappy Sisters mailed 30's scraps to Eryn to help her along the way to finishing her quilt. And what progress she has made!. When I gave the UFO to her it measure about 18" in length and about 12" in width. Check out the length now! I think it must be nearly 4'x6'. It covers the top of her dining room table. The desired finished length is still up in the air. She has decided it will be a large wall hanging rather than a bed quilt. And from the looks of things, I think it might be time to think about ordering the half hexagon card stock from Paper Pieces.


While I was visiting Eryn earlier in June we found some great looking organizing containers for her hexagons. She used the antique sherbet glasses for sorting the unbasted hexagons by color. By the way, if anyone knows the name of the crystal pattern for these glasses, let us know. I know it is hard to see that pattern on them from this picture. I'll ask her to send me a picture of just one so you can get a good look at it and help us identify the pattern. She is looking for more. She has eight right now but would like more since she has more that eight colors. I think she needs about 4 more.

After she bastes the hexagons she sorts them into her Fiestaware tea cups. Her new search now is to find brown Fiestaware. Do they even make it in brown? I think the cinnabar might be her closest bet. She's done a great job working the reds into the quilt. I tended to avoid the reds when I started because they seemed to jump right off the quilt at me. She has also added some of the more bold colors that have joined the palette of 30's prints ... the darker blues, the brighter oranges, browns (which are very hard to find) and, for today's project she has been working in the black prints with grace and style so they look like the belong in the quilt. Not an easy task.

During our antique outings we also found this primitive tool boxs. I thought it would be a good storage piece for my studio or to use for display in the different shows I go to. Wrong! It is perfect for storing the 6" squares of fabric before they are cut into hexagons. Another bin is used for her cutter, scissors, needle case, and template, and she uses an antique aluminum measuring cup for corralling her pre-cut card stock shapes.

How big are the hexagons? Eryn is working with hexagons that measure 3/4" on the side. Just the right size to not make the quilt seam "klunky" and yet big enough to allow centering of fussy cut prints from the conversational prints of the 30's.

TREASURED MEMORIES

Yes, she's lived in all of these houses. Sue is one of my longarm customers and I can always count on her to give a challenge with every quilt. Sue definitely qualifies for the TIF (Take It Further) challenges I read about in so many other quilting blogs.

(Note: you can click on any image for a larger more detailed view.)

One time she used all of her husband's silk ties to create a quilt/wall hanging that was all circles. I've seen other tie quilts, but Sue took it a step further and used raw silk for the background fabric. Another wall hanging was done using up more of the ties but adding coins from all of the different countries where her husband had worked as an embellishing element.

This time, it is the "HOUSE QUILT." Sue used old photos for creating the houses and then asked her kids about their memories from each house. Sue interpreted those memories with bead, buttons, trim, and embroidery embellishments for each block. She forgot about needing to attach the embellishments after I completed the quilting so the challenge was double as I worked around each button and bead hoping not to hit them with the needle or catch them with the hopping foot.

For me, the quilting challenge became a question of how to enhance the memories of each block. The quilting became a freehand fill sampler using ever fill I ever seen and even dreaming up a couple of new ones.

I started with completing the obvious ... the sky areas and the grass or ground areas. The houses were a little more difficult because of the beading and buttons. But the detailing on the houses was so much more defined when I did stitch in the ditch where ever I could. Sue will have a few areas to complete on her own either by hand or with her domestic machine.

Sometimes the fabric was a good guide in dictating the fill pattern to be used. After I finished all of the sky/ground areas I went back to look at the roof of each house. Sue was very careful to pick fabrics that looked like the actual roofing material of each house. I followed her lead and quilted shakes, shingles, and swirly curvy roofing tiles. It is always difficult to use a two dimensional representation look three dimensional, but Sue did a good job by using proportion and scale, piecing lines, and embroidery stitches, and floss color to help create shadows, forward projecting roof lines, and under eaves areas.

Sometimes sky fill was easy because of the embroidery Sue had done to begin with. The fireworks in the sky gave me a theme to follow continuing with swirls and "shadow" fireworks. I also created a shadow forest behind the tall evergreen tree on the left to help enhance a single lone tree.
This building has a wonderful story. It was the only time Sue had to live in an apartment building. The building is located in Chicago ... hence, Lake Michigan in the foreground. And, of course, you'll notice the absence of any green, landscaping, flowers since Sue was living in the "concrete canyons." For one who loves her yard and gardening, the single lone ornamental tree she could see from her second story window was what helped her to keep her sanity.

The other item of interest with this building is an embroidered motif. This logo wasn't really on the side of the building, but Sue added it to help remember the other building tenants and to explain interesting visitors she may have met coming and going from the building. You may have to look closely at the picture on the left side of the building to see the embroidered Play Bunny logo - their headquarters is located in this building in Chicago.

No, this is not a giant peach or orange tree with only one orange. Sue could see the town water tower from one of her windows which was painted to look like a peach. What Sue remembers most about this water tower was, if one were approaching from just the right direction ... how much the top of the water tower looked like a bare baby's bottom.

Ah, Glasgow Kentucky ... where they actually created a mosaic of the town name and the state embedded right into the street!

Such a family treasure - a unique way to capture the memories and a great conversation starter for family gatherings. Sue, how are you ever going to decide who is the keeper of such a wonderful family heirloom? Is it time to get started making one for each of your children!

FRIDAY FOOD FOR THOUGHT

Here it is the end of the second week in January and I have loved my "slow-down" time. My friend Marje of Quilt Design Northwest asked me some time back,

"Kay, when IS your slow time?"

When you have to think about what the answer might be to that question, you're in trouble before you even know it. Thank you, Marje, for asking, because it has made me take time to slow down even if it is for just a short while. Time to reflect on goals for myself personally as well as professionally.

During this slower time I have been reading different blogs and stumbled upon one that bears mentioning because of the content in her 2 part post regarding the value of craft. But before you hop over to Paula's site and read what she has to say, let me preface it with some thoughts of my own and some from my daughter. Trust a daughter to always keep you on your toes and to tell it like it is.

I am a collector, a collector of all kinds of things, but mostly quilts. I remember thinking years ago one could never ever have too many quilts. I love decorating seasonally with my quilts ... on the walls, on the beds, on tables and over chair backs, and even on formal quilt racks. Since my hobby has since grown into my business, which I absolutely LOVE, I have lots and lots and lots of quilts. Samples for classes, samples for patterns, samples for quilting designs, duplicate samples for trunk shows, and retired samples which we have for every day use.

In fact I was sharing with my friend Juanita the other day that I really needed to get an inventory and organized storage check-in/out system going for all these quilts. It is amazing to have only lost one over the years for as much as they go in and out to this shop and that shop, to this show and that show, to this class and that workshop. But ... moving on ...

I come from a family of generational quilting --- great grandmother quilted, grandmother quilted, mother quilted, daughter (me) quilts, so it would stand to reason that my daughter might want to quilt. When asked about it this summer at my annual quilting retreat which happened to occur while she was home visiting, she just laughed.

"Why should I learn to quilt?" said Eryn. "Do we have any shortage of quilts in this house!" We all had to share in her laughter and admit, she did have a good point. I will say, in her defense, she asked for (and took with her) a scrappy 1 1/2" English paper piecing Grandmothers Flower garden project I had started over ten years ago with her in her move to Alabama this last fall. She's been working diligently on her project enjoying the journey, fondling the little scraps of fabric pondering which colors would look best as next-door neighbors. It appears maybe she did inherit some of the genes after all. And, she will have plenty of quilts to choose from when the time comes.

After that little prelude or warm-up, hop over to Paula's blog and read what she has to say about the value of craft. Thank you, Paula, for such an thought-provoking couple of posts.

TREASURES FROM THE TRUNK

We all have them; we save them; we protect them in acid free paper; we shield them from sunlight and dust. We may even bring them out every year or so just to re-adjust the folds and admire them ... and then back into hiding for another long year or two.

I'm suggesting we rescue our treasured linens, quilts, our keepsake family heirlooms from the dark recesses of our trunks, attics, and closets. Bring them out and enjoy them. Fill them with love. Honor the makers of these priceless family gems, our connections to the past, be it our personal family legacy or our community of quilters and needle workers.

Respect, honor, and treasure all that is contained within these simple pieces of cloth - the workmanship, the love, the memories, and ties across the miles that say "I will always remember you; I will always love you; you'll always be a part of my heart and a part of my life."

Karen did so with her grandmother's cross stitch tablecloth ...




A word about the "technicalities" of quilting a piece like this ... I used the very lightest weight thread I could find and quilted right through the cross stitching patterns. I recommend So Fine for the top thread and Bottom Line for the bobbin area to work with minimal thread breaks and tension issues. Both are from Superior Threads.

I find I need very little adjustment in either area when working with these threads. I do have a bobbin case that is just for my pre-wound SuperBOBS so I don't have to reset the tension when using these threads, and I find I don't have to make any adjustments in the top tension when switching from King Tut to So Fine. Each machine is different. Don't be afraid to experiment to find the best settings for tension to make your machine "sing" when using these threads.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Christmas celebrations happen at our house on Christmas Eve beginning with a large soup bowl full of our traditional Oyster Stew. When the dishes are cleared and the kitchen clean it's time to get ready for Santa to come. That was the one night either as a kid myself or with our own children, an early bed time was never a problem. Everyone knows, the earlier you go to bed the earlier Santa is likely to arrive.

It's a little different now since most of our Christmas celebrations are much more relaxed affairs at home with just Mike and me. We've had wonderful times traveling to the Chicago area to celebrate the holidays with Toby and Andrea. Last year was especially wonderful because it was the first time we had all of the kids home for Christmas. Our walls echoed last night with memories of a houseful of family sharing the love, laughter, joy and warmth of the season. And, I must admit, it's just as nice, quieter and more relaxing, when there is just two of us. Our cell phones have been fully charged and ready for long calls as we all make connections with each other via the air waves.

The melding of family traditions, the search for keeping those traditions alive and meaningful as our family grows and changes over the years whether near or far is part of what helps strengthen the family bond and helps keep the "blood thicker than water."

My family always had a hearty Potato Soup for Christmas dinner. Mike's family always celebrated with Oyster Stew. So, it was an easy leap for me to switch to the Oyster Stew for our family after Mike and I were married. Last year we needed to make some changes in the recipe after Eryn and Mike were diagnosed with celiac disease, a genetic lifelong condition which makes them gluten-intolerant. We've had quite a year changing recipes and finding the "good" foods and the foods to avoid. Eryn came up with the following recipe to help keep our family tradition of Oyster Stew on Christmas Eve alive.

So gather up a cuppa of your favorite holiday libations ... wine, egg nog, hot buttered rum, or even a seasonal favorite of mine ... HOT APPLE PIE (cider, tuaca, a cinnamon stick, topped off with whipped cream - YUM ... dessert in a glass!) and get ready for a simple hearty meal.

ERYN'S OYSTER STEW (for two ... two heaping bowl each!)

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon salted butter
• 1 cup chooped leek
• 2 ribs celery chopped
• 1 quart whole milk
• 2 jars extra small oysters (In our houseful of oyster lovers ... we use 3 jars)
• salt & pepper

Saute the leek and celery lightly in the butter. Heat the milk gently to scalding in a saucepan. Be careful to make sure the milk doesn't boil. Add leek/celery mixture and the oysters (including the liquid) to the scalding milk. Keep the temperature at scalding giving a stir every now and then. Season to taste with salt and pepper. It will not take long to cook the oysters ... maybe about 10 minutes depending on how cold they were when added to the milk.

Ladle into soup bowls and serve with a small dollop of butter on top. Serve with crackers ... gluten free or regular oyster crackers depending on your dietary needs.

Wishing all of you out there a safe and happy holiday season
as you share love and laughter with family and friends.
MERRY CHRISTMAS from Damascus OR
where it is snowing great big fat fluffy flakes right now!!!