Handyman in the studio - be very afraid....

My husband is a dear and he helps me with so many things. (Yeah, here comes the "but") But when his heart is not in a project, he can procrastinate longer than anybody I know.
I've had some on-going problems with my feet caused by standing up to quilt (without taking sufficient breaks). I will not bore you with the icky details, let's just say that I have already lost 2 toes on the right foot and would like to keep the remaining eight toes. And before you ask, no I am not diabetic.

So 2 months ago, the foot problems returned and I am still going to weekly wound care treatments. I think they are better ("they" are the 2 big toes) but we are waiting for an MRI to bear that out. So the doctor tells me that I can either sit to quilt or continue to lose appendages. He is not much on bedside manner.

So my husband and I discussed several ideas. We could put in a wood floor but that is a bit pricey. We decided to put in 3/4 finished plywood 4 ft by 12 ft to run the length of my machine. Then we will remove the quilt top's bottom roller that I don't use anyway; that way I can sit on my quilter chair and roll from one end to the other. Before we put in the plywood, we laid down some 6mm plastic to protect the carpet underneath the wood. He is in there installing the wood now with the accompanying choice swear words popping up here and there.

I forgot to mention the keystone cops episode we had when trying to get our lumber home from the store. We ended up calling out neighbor to come bail us out. We bought the plywood (3 ft x 8 ft) and put it on the roof of my SUV. Hubby decided to go with the twine there at the lumber station...free... instead of buying rope or bungee cords. We left the lumberyard headed for home. After 3 stops in a half mile to tighten the twine cords where the plywood was sliding off the car, I called my neighbor and asked him to bring his truck. This has been a keystone cops episode since the beginning.

Well, I hear him vacuuming up the sawdust so it must be done. I'm sure I'll love it. No worries, I have great insurance.

A New Citizen

A friend from church was sworn in as a U.S. Citizen on Wednesday. Because of dual-citizenship laws in Sweden, she had waited a long time. Our local party planners (Jeannette, Linda T and Judy H)decided that Elisabeth needed a party so that we could all celebrate with her.
We all brought a dish of food to share. As soon as I stepped in the party house, all I could see was red white and blue. All of us wore red, white and blue and were handed mardi-gras-style RWB beads. There were RWB balloons with streamers, banners with "In God We Trust" and RWB "God Bless America". There were stick on red and blue stars in the foyer so us girls could add a star or two to our faces.
The celebration started with all of us facing the flag and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (including the "Under God" part). Then we sang "God Bless America" and then "The Star Spangeled Banner". Elisabeth gave a wonderful speech (not a dry eye in the house) and the party was started for real. Congrats, Elisabeth.
Here are some of the photos. You can make up your own captions.

The new citizen has a big smile on her face.








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Friendship Stars #2

I have a client named Mary that like Friendship Stars. She made a Friendship Star quilt a couple months ago but the fabrics blended too much and she like the way the star points showed. I used lots of line work on that one.
So she carefully chose the fabric for Friendship Star #2 and told me that she wants to see the stars point and no line work. Hmmm, OK. Mary has always know what she wants in her quilts.
So I gave her three options with three different prices. She chose the wispy feathers with CC and stipple. I used a feather spine with pearls from Compuquilter Designs The rest is freehand.



I also learned a new border treatment from Laura Farnham that I wanted to try on this wwide border. I think it would have looked better on a solid border but I had to try it. It involved standing a triangle on its long edge facing each other and then adding piano keys to fill what's left of the triangle. She was happy with how it turned out.

Joe the Quilter

I know that I have been gone a while. It's like I made it to 500 blog posts and got stuck.
Anyhoo, I joined another guild last August but things kept getting the way of my attending the meetings. Well, today I remedied that. I got there at 9Am for a meeting that starts at 9:30.

The guest speaker was Joe "the Quilter" Cunningham. He is a musician, a songwriter and oh yeah, a quilter. It was very entertaining. Check him outon youtube.com and
you'll notice that his audience is laughing their heads off. I know that you have been to some pretty dour (read as b-o-r-i-n-g)guild meetings. Joe the Quilter brings a lot of laughter to a guild meeting. It was wonderful.

Here's a link to Joe on Youtube video

He's on Facebook ,http://cy-gb.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=10150278538645227 too.

And here is another link to the original Joe the quiltmaker who worked as a tailor in Warden, England in the 1780's. He made waistcoats for proper English gentlemen and met a mysterious death. If you need a guild speaker, you should consider Joe Cunningham.
He made waistcoats

Caramel Popcorn Balls

Trick or Treat everyone. I made up some caramel popcorn balls for a bake sale at church today and I wanted to share the recipe. I hope you enjoy these gooey treats as much as I do.

Caramel Popcorn Balls (double recipe)
½ cup margarine (Note #1)
2 cups light or dark brown sugar
1 cup light Karo syrup
1 can Eagle brand condensed milk
1 Tsp vanilla
5 quarts popped corn (white hull-less is best)
1/2 stick of butter for your hands

(Note #1: This recipe uses both margarine and butter. Cook caramel mixture using margarine, not butter, to help the caramel set up faster so the balls stay together better. The butter is used on your hands to prevent the caramel from sticking to your hands)
Warning: The hot caramel mixture will be poured over the popped corn and may melt plastic bowls. Recommend using glass bowls.

Divide popped corn into 3 large glass bowls. Spread 2 ft long section of wax paper.
In 3-quart saucepan, combine margarine, sugar and syrup. Stir well and bring to boil over medium heat. Stir in Eagle milk. Bring to boil stirring constantly to prevent burning on bottom. Bring to Soft Ball Stage – gets there quickly. Remove from heat and add vanilla. Slowly pour hot mixture over popcorn in bowls. Carefully turn popcorn in bowls, adding more as necessary, to distribute hot caramel. Allow to set 2 or 3 minutes so caramel will not burn your hands. Butter both hands. Make the balls squeezing just hard enough for them to stick together and place the balls on wax paper. Ready to eat. Makes about 30 softball-sized popcorn balls.

Men are so stubborn...

(continued from Facebook)
the grass around the sprinklers is tall again and the lawn starts to brown.

Yard guy tells my husband that the tall stuff is because of the bird feed falling out of the feeder. Huh? Yard guy has to come back an extra time to trim down the tall grass near the patio, $40.

3 weeks go by and now the yard guy thinks he needs to have a weekly service vice twice monthly. Grrrr.

So my husband told him "NO" so then the yard guy says that the sprinklers might be too low and he will install taller ones if we want; $$$. I had one word for my husband "Really?" If he had listened to me weeks ago, we'd probably have a putting green out there.

When you lose your cell phone.....

I drove a friend to a doctor's appt today. While I was waiting for her to be seen, I went down to the lobby to check my mail and messages. I noticed that there was a phone on the bench next to me; nobody else in site.

I picked it up, thinking maybe it was a toy. Nope, it was a real phone, "Jimbo's Phone" was on the front screen. Maybe he left it here on purpose since there is a "No Cell Phone" policy with signage all over the rest of the medical facility.

Nobody was working in security or at the volunteer desk so I started going thru the guys Contacts list and calling his 'friends'. "Hi my name is Linda. Do you know Jimbo?" I got "No" or voicemail from the first 3 people I called, ncluding "Home".

Finally on the 4th try, I got somebody who knew Jimbo and they called Jimbo's wife at work. About 10 minutes later Jimbo's phone rang.

Hmmm, should I answer it? "Hello, this is not Jimbo" is what I said and the guy on the other end started laughing. It was Jimbo. He was relieved to find out that he had not really lost his phone. I left it at the pharmacy at Kaiser for him to pick up later.

Does your cell phone have an emergency contact number in the contacts list?

Beading Class In Wynola

I took my second beading class today at Mountain Beadworks in Wynola. When I took my first beading class a couple of weeks ago, I was attracted to a necklace that was in one of the cases. They offered a class for the Crocheted Beads with Wire and I signed up. I went up there a week later to shop for my beads so I did not have that pressure on class day.

Wynola is about 20 miles north of Ramona up Highway 78 which is a winding single lane in each direction. I got stuck behind a BMW going 30 miles an hour and pulled over to let him get way ahead of me. The vista from the picnic area was beautiful. Here is a photo from the Inaja Memorial on the way up to Wynola.


I picked out mostly fall colors with some punches of orange and purple and red. I had a nice mix of colors and shapes, beads and semi-precious stones. I used black 26 gauge wire. It was fun and I love the way the necklace turned out.

Carla's Creative Exercise #3

I'm starting to have fun with this Facebook 5-part series by Carla Barrett. This exercise asks us to draw a quilt in a differnet shape than normal. Mine is a big old comma.

Carla's Creative Exercise #2

This is the second in a 5-part series of creative exercises hosted by Carla Barrett.
Ok, this exercise was to draw a flower. I did the no-start rose and then added
some extra stuff to it. I also tried to shade the outside of the right-side petals to make them dimensional. Not sure that worked but it's ok. I am having fun with the doodling. I have never been a doodler, there was always something else that my hands needed to do (laundry, type, quilt, la-de-dah).

So here is my flower.


Update - OK, I just looked at Carla's flower. I need to step up my game.

Carla's Creative Exercise #1

So Carla's creative execises, described on Facebook, was to draw a bird. This is my bird. Obviously a hen since she is wearing pearls and high heels and is carrying a stylish little purse. She's off to go shopping.
This is my first try so I hope to get better.

The Mola Quilt

This quilt will be shown at the San Diego Quilt Show next month. It has several molas made by the natives of the San Blas Island off the coast of Panama. It is reverse applique with intricate embellishments of fabric.

There is no point in looking for the quilting on this quilt, nothing shows. I quilted in the black areas inside each mola. Each channel was less than 1/8" wide. Don't try that without EdgeRider wheels.

If you are at the San Diego Quilt Show, look for this one.

Happy 4th of July

Here's Eileen 'on her horse' and that's Sherm, her pooper-scooper.











Linda is standing by her parade float.











I asked Elizabeth is her insurance was paid up before she got on her son's motorcycle.









Here's Wally. Lots of balloons. Wally and wife Judy had the music for the parade. He even found a gray ponytail to pin onto the hat he is wearing.









There was even a wagon load of puppies in the parade.








And this golf cart is packed with the 4th of July spirit. Even the stuffed toys were in 4th of July regalia.



We also had an ATV all dressed up with a BIG flag in the parade.







This is my Schwinn adult trike. I love this thing. It only has one speed but it is just right for me. Handy basket in the back, too.


What a great 4th of July week-end. First we had a small parade in our community. What fun to see everybody with their golf carts, wagons and bikes all decorated in red,white and blue.


There was also a quilt show in Old Poway Park that was put on by my guild, Friendship Quilters.There were about 45 entries. It was a great show. The winner of the most patriotic quilt was Terry Seaberg's quilt.













Viewer's Choice in the Whimsical categroty was Cheryl Ranes "My Inner Diva".






And Best of Show was this Baltimore Album by Audrey Mueller.








Congrats to the winners. It was another great show.

Judy's Diamonds

A photo is all I can manage. It is all half-square triangles. I used the panto named Agave from Intelligenting Quilt.

Betty's Table Toppers

Betty plans to sell these table toppers at a coming craft show. She used flannel as the batting because she really wanted it to lay flat. I chose:


Bending in the Wind (Sweet Dreams) for the Trees quilt






Christmas Poinsettias (Sweet Dreams) on the poinsettia quilt with Rheingold gold thread.





And this fun quilt of coffee jumps has the panto Teacups from Sweet Dreams.