Snow and Ice in Southern Illinois

A late afternoon photo, front yard.

A sunny photo, back yard.

Thank the Lord we never lost power with two different sets of freezing rain and ice with 4-6 inches of snow in between.  Other states have had it worse, I feel for them.

I got lots done even with a husband home from work.  I finished that pesky “possible” commission proposal yesterday….yea!!!  This past weekend while I was out of town at another quilt retreat, I felt a nudge inside to….go for it!!  Make the effort and do it.

We spent three days at Rosemary’s quilt shop in Highland, IL.  When the phone rang and someone asked, what are you doing, the classic answer was, sewing!  I spent Thursday afternoon/evening finishing up entries for the Renewed, Repurposed, Reborn exhibit at Rend Lake, then Friday was spent making bag samples for my booth for shows (that was work). Saturday morning as I sat there quilting (doing something exciting for a change) on my stack and slash crazy quilt (pieced in 1999), with a cup of coffee and quilting friends,  I decided that this, indeed, was the perfect morning.

Wednesday This ‘N That…

In my last post I promised a picture of the jacket I finished at the retreat.  It is actually a “hybrid” using two of SuznQuilts‘ jacket designs, with a twist of my own thrown in.  I wanted to make this jacket just for me.  Valentine’s Day is coming (not that I celebrate it that much), but I thought this jacket was a cute design, so that is why I made it.

New potato soup recipe I made last night…this one has bacon in it. Yummm…I am so stuck on potato soups right now.

Today I am preparing to pack my van so that I can leave early in the morning.  Where am I going?  To another quilting retreat, that’s where! It doesn’t get any better than that.  This one will be held in a quilt shop that has living quarters on the 3rd floor.  Hopefully I will have new finished projects to show when I get back.

On another note, I want to congratulate the new president on a fine inaugural event and I wish him the best of success in governing this great land for the next four years.  May God richly bless him and his family as he embarks on the work ahead.

New Year’s First Fun…

My husband purchased a weekend quilting retreat for me for Christmas/birthday.  I had a wonderful weekend!  The retreat was put on by The Village Mercantile quilt shop in Boonville.  This is a huge store run by Betty Cummings (who just happens to be my friend and sometimes roommate at shows).  Her husband Steve used to run Victoria’s Tea Room above the Mercantile.  Steve loves to cook and he is quite good at it.

Anyway, the two of them put on this quilting shindig at a campground in Newburgh, IN. For anyone not familiar with what a quilting retreat is, I will give you the low-down.   We arrived on Friday by 3 p.m., except for those eastern Indiana people who live in the next time zone…they got there early.  Set up and start sewing.  I think dinner was at 5:30 or so.  Steve’s tomato pie and broccoli salad…awesome.  And there was dessert….Italian Creme cake (also awesome) and Chocolate Chocolate cake (I didn’t get to try it).  Then more sewing.   We slept in a dormitory with bunk beds.  It’s hard sleeping with 16 other people, but Betty had supplied everyone with earplugs.  How thoughtful!  She really took care of us.  There were bags on our beds with shampoo, bar of soap, a bandaid, some other odds and ends and a candy bar.

Up the next morning, with a breakfast of scrambled egg casserole, salsa, biscuits, o.j. and then more sewing.  There were breaks during the day for small demos, a game or two, and door prize announcements.  Lunch: bacon/potato soup, beef barley soup, grilled cheese on texas toast, then more sewing.  Supper was Italian lasagne, garlic toast and salad with homemade creamy Italian dressing.  Dessert was ice cream and all the fixin’s.  Then more sewing.  Sorry I don’t have pics of all these wonderful meals…what was I thinking? (It just never occurred to me. I guess I was busy eating.)

Then a trip to the Mercantile that evening.  More sewing, as late as you want.  Sunday morning breakfast was odds and ends of muffins, biscuits and apple butter, coffee and juice, cereal, and more sewing.  Lunch, and then a bit more sewing before packing up for home.  I made some wonderful new friends from eastern Indiana.  They were loads of fun and I am glad Betty assigned me to their table.  At the end of it all, I remarked to Betty that there was not a man on the planet who had managed to satisfy so many women in such a short time…I was referring to her Steve and his cooking.

I think I will be doing this again.  I even got a couple of projects completed.  The large Bossa Nova Bag by Cedar Canyon Textiles in, what else?….hand dyed fabrics.  I also completed a sweatshirt jacket in a Valentine’s day theme.  Picture of that to come later.

Then…because I never received my Quilting Arts magazine for December, Pokey promised me an issue PLUS some of her fun fabrics.  Yea for me!  And thanks, Pokey, for being so sweet. The package was waiting for me when I arrived home. Ahhh……life is good.

Working, Working…

It always seems as if the new year brings too-soon deadlines and a rush of things to get done in a short time.  Why is this?  Notification in December (the holidays) for a January deadline is not enough time for me.  I am busy with baking cookies and making or wrapping presents, and trying to celebrate a birthday.  Well, anyhoohow, I have been working on two small entries for Rend Lake’s  “Repurposed, Renewed, Reborn” quilt exhibit.  These are each 19″x 19″ square. I showed one in the prior post that is finished except for the binding/facing part.

The other one is the section of quilt that I flipped over to the back and put black gesso on it.  I painted it with Lumiere paints and have added some recycled cup beads from an old necklace.   With the paint I have created a new design using the piecing and stitching lines that are there. I am presently “weathering” metal washers outdoors and they will be added next.  Not sure if it is done at that point or not…we will see.  Here it  is so far (washers aren’t on there yet):

I am calling it “No, It’s Not Lamé”.  That’s because the Lumiere paints on the black gesso look like lamé.  I thought it would be interesting to keep the original blocks of the quilt available for viewing, so if one flips the quilt over, the original is there to see.

The old quilt is pretty ratty in some places, but I am going to patch it and lay fusible web over it and fuse everything down.  The muslin on the back was in perfect condition.

Today I must work on that pesky “possibility” of a commission proposal.  How many of you would spend hours and brain power to work up a proposal for a commission you might not ever get chosen for?  You see, this is my dilemma….I know that if I don’t do it, I definitely won’t get chosen.  And if I do do it, I still might not get chosen for it.  How many people would do this?  I am always weighing that in my mind.  Even if my designs don’t get chosen, I rationalize that I will still have the experience…and the designs.   At this point, I am probably 2/3 of the way through it.  Do I sound whiny?  Off to work.

The New Year

It is the last day of 2008.  My blog is set on some weird time zone, but I think it will show that I am still writing this in 2008.

(Note:  Whoops, guess not…after I published it I see it shows Jan. 1. 2009.  Oh, well.)

It is hard to be pensive and thoughtful about the past year as I am cleaning and fixing food, in preparation for a few guests tonight.  Perhaps I will be able to tomorrow.  Of course, my husband will also be home with me, so, maybe not. I am making that yummy potato soup recipe with homemade croutons that I have talked about before and the shrimp cocktail is on ice.

A lot of people on the quiltart list are already talking about goals for 2009.  Hmmm…all I know is that my first three months of the year are likely to be quite busy and I am gearing up mentally.  I will be attending two quilt retreats (count ’em…two!) in January.  My husband purchased one of them as a Christmas gift to me. What a sweetie.  I have a project class scheduled to teach at the quilt shop in Evansville.  In February I have a machine quilting class scheduled and the rest of the month will be spent preparing to vend at the Indiana Heritage Quilt Show in Bloomington, IN.  I received notification that they had a space available.  Since I have wanted to vend there for a few years, I jumped at the chance.  So I will be dyeing fabric as well as making decisions about my inventory of other artsy things to take.  The Indiana Heritage show is a fairly large show lasting 3 days.  I may also have the opportunity to teach a workshop for a Greenwood quilt guild while I am up there.  Currently I am still slugging around trying to complete the commission proposal.  It is not finished yet.  I am making small advances.

Anyway, here’s wishing every reader a VERY BLESSED NEW YEAR!

New piece I’ve been working on for a “go green” exhibit…I’m sure it’s now done..except for finishing the edges…made from a section of an old quilt…