I Can Step In It In Any Language

     We needed to get out of the house today so we decided to run some errands and see if we could find some peaches to "can". Gee I hope we aren't really going to do some canning. What an ordeal.

      We have recently discovered some buckwheat noodles that are so good and low gluten (?).  We stopped by an Asian market to buy some more. We went inside and perused every isle and shelf. It was a very interesting place. All kinds of strange and wonderful things: dried, frozen and canned fish, fruit, beans, seeds, noodles, etc.; bottles of soy this and soy that; cooking pots, tea pots, incense pots; toys; music CDs; many different kinds and designs of chop sticks.

      As we were standing at the register to pay, I noticed the interesting things on the shelves behind the counter. One thing that caught my eye was a clear bag of sliced deer horns. Now, being a sewer, I started getting ideas. I once saw a deer horn button that was beautiful, but cost $10, just for one! I thought, "I wonder if I could buy those and make some buttons, drill a couple of tiny holes in the center. Hmmmm."

      One of the owners was standing in the isle near me and I stepped over to her and asked her what those are used for. Apparently she didn't speak English. She said something to the man behind the counter. "Medicine", he said. My husband said, "Aphrodisiacs". I wonder if the lady just didn't want to have to say it. Medicine. Haha When we got back in the truck I started getting embarrassed. Thank goodness for language barriers. None of us had to really talk about it.

      I had to laugh. What if I had bought them and made buttons with them? Can you imagine their faces the next time I went in there wearing a coat or sweater with "those" buttons on it? I can hear them laughing now.

What Is Wrong With Me?

     This was going to be Finish Those Quilts Hanging on the Back of the Bedroom Door summer. Instead I've started two more and will be taking a class next month on a third.

     The first quilt I started during the Finish Those Quilts Hanging on the Back ... summer was in June. The design is called Bullseye.  I have been saving fabrics with circles and dots, not so much polka dots, for a few years. I once saw a quilt that had varigated thread bubbles and thought "I must!"  I have a few blocks put together. I haven't decided what size it's going to be, but, Yep! It's going to be as good as it is in my head.

     The second quilt I started during the summer of Finish Those Quilts Hanging... began last week. See July 7th post and story of human drama. Get used to it. I always have a story.

     I cut MANY 2 1/2" squares and 2 1/2" half-square triangles for this project in darks and lights. I didn't know what design I would choose until I got to the class. I finally decided on Scrapaholic. It's basically a 9 patch. Only two of the pieces are half-square triangles. It's not like I won't use the MANY left over half-square triangle pieces, but I spent quite a long time cutting and sewing them in preparation (while on vacation at my dad's house) to not use them in this.

     SIDE NOTE: Tuesday I went out to the car to get all my fabric, having just showed them to my sister a couple of days before. I had spent the afternoon collecting everything I needed for the class on Wednesday. When I got in the house I noticed the ziploc bag with the squares wasn't there. Hmmm. "Oh, I must have left them in the car. I'll get them the next time I go outside." WRONG!!! When I went out "the next time" our two puppies, 10 weeks old, had already found them. Only a few were still in the bag. Some were under the car, some in the mud-hole flowerbeds, some in the yard. I layed on the ground to rescue some pieces from under the car, but the puppies thought I wanted to play and proceeded to climb on my head and bite my hair. The puppies are no longer cute. I put the pieces in a mesh laundry bag. Most came out clean, but I had to iron about 100 little 2 1/2" pieces. See, I told you I always have a story. I can always make a long story longer.

     ANYWAY, the block for this quilt looks like this:

     Depending on how you arrange the blocks, you get light and dark stripes in a diamond pattern. The picture below shows six blocks sewn together.  Actually my light fabrics needed to be lighter. I needed a stronger contrast between my lights and darks. Hopefully with many more blocks sewn together the pattern will be easier to see. My darks were all browns except the ONE dark tourquoise. I decided to use it for the center of the nine patch, which then looks like an accent color, like I meant to. Yeah, that!

    So, why am I going to start a third one next month during this Finish Those ... summer ? It's a mystery to me. No, really. It's a mystery quilt. A bunch of fabric, lights-mediums-darks in this-and-that amounts, but I have no idea what it's going to be. I have directions for cutting in preparation for the class, but that's it.

     I have four quilts on hangers on the back of the door in different stages of "ready" and about 6-8 plastic shoe boxes with a different project/idea in each. AND I saw a cute idea for a baby/kid quilt yesterday on Sewing With Nancy. OOOOoooooo. I'm already there! It's really cute in my head!

     What is wrong with me? I asked my sister, Kathi. She said, "Nothing that an adult beverage won't help."

Really?

Only In The Ozarks

This morning my friend, Kathy, and I were on our way to a quilting class in Springfield. We left early so we could have breakfast out. We talked about several places to go and decided to go to the VFW post. I know, sounds like a strange place for two women to be having breakfast, but they have a great breakfast menu - FAB pancakes! AND it's cheap. Free coffee too.

We finished eating and got some coffee to go - yes, we offered to pay for it. What do you think we are? (It was free too!), and headed out to the car. I put the key in to start the engine and the car made this loud, terrible noise. There hadn't been any problems prior to this. It was weird enough to scare me, so I turned off the engine, but it didn't stop. It kept making this scraping, spinning sound. I got out and opened the hood, all the while the screeching continued.

Three or four men (veterans, I'm sure) were standing around talking. They noticed the car going crazy and my panicked face and came over to see if they could help. One guy said it was probably the starter relay and tried to get the cover off of it. He said he works on this kind of thing all the time. He was worried about the engine getting ruined and said if it goes on too long it could set the engine on fire. Eeeek!

By now 6 or 7 men are hovering around the car. The guy decided he should take the battery cable loose to get the engine to stop. He said, "What I need is a wrench." This one quiet old man nonchalantly reached in the pocket of his very high-waisted jeans and pulled out a wrench, wrapped in a rag. HAHAHA  Who would have thought? HAHAHAHA

The guy loosened the cable. The engine stopped. The noise stopped. He reconnected the battery cable and said to start the engine. It started fine. Weird! He told me to be sure to have it checked out. We were finally on our way to our class.

We started talking about what if we had gone to one of the other places for breakfast. I had to crack-up. We probably wouldn't have had anyone to help and there CERTAINLY wouldn't have been an old man veteran there with a wrench in his pocket. I wonder if he had once been a boy scout.

Only in the Ozarks.

Purple Mountain Majesties. The story of Katharine Lee Bates and "America The Beautiful" by Barbara Younger.

      This morning we sang America The Beautiful in church. This song takes me back several years to the first time I read this book to my student.

      It's the story of Katherine Lee Bates' 1893 train trip across the United States. She was an English professor at Wellsley College, on her way to teach a college course in Colorado Springs. She kept a journal, later writing a poem about what she saw. This poem was originally called Pikes Peak, published in 1895. In 1910 it was put to music and became the song America the Beautiful, music by Samuel Ward. I love the drawings in this book, beautiful colors. 

     Read this book to your child. You will appreciate the beauty of our country, the beauty of the story, and you both will love the time spent together.

     Since reading this book that first time, America The Beautiful has become my favorite patriotic song. I pray that God will continue to "shed His grace on thee."

     I get verklempt...

     Talk amoungst yourselves...

I've Been Told I'm A Little Twisted

   I've heard that a quilt project is still new if under 5 years old. This is my Twisted Bargello quilt top (started 2 years ago - still new!). The class was offered through Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild (I'm a member) and taught by Tony Munoz. It looks like a nightmare to make (20+ different fabrics), but if the chart is followed, it's not too bad. Strip piecing will be your BFF. There's a lot of prep time, so it's not going to be something you crank out in a week. Remember, still new - only 2 years old.

 

      If the quilt is turned on it's side, it reminds me of a fish. It is quilted with a purple/silver thread and just barely sparkles in the light. The thread makes me think of iridescent scales.

  

     The quilt is too big to put on a wall in my house and too small to put on a bed - not even lap size, so a few borders need to be added. I've collected more purple fabrics, but haven't decided which ones I will use. I am ALWAYS drawn to earth tone fabrics, but wanted to go out of my comfort zone. I am now a BIG time purple fan. No, I haven't changed the decor of my house to purple (do I have decor?) and the house is still basically earth tones, but I can't hardly leave purple fabrics in the store. I must feel them! I must have them! I must become The Purple!

     It's amazing how different this design looks in other colors. Several were shown at the Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild show in September 2010. My friend, Kathy, made one with blues and yellows. Another one was made in reds and looked like a Valentine. I will see if I can find pictures and edit/update this post then.


     Okay, this computer and the internet have about become my undoing tonight, huh, Bari? I have a few other quilt tops to show, all under 5 years old. Still new! That will have to wait until another day. AND wouldn't it be amazing IF they were finished before posting?


7-21-11 Revision: I found the quilts. They come out so different. Kathy has made 4 or 5 of these. I'm not sure I will do another. I'd better get caught up with other quilts first.

Red Puzzle by Sandy Higgins
Twisted Bargello
2010 Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild Show

Bargello Quilt by Kathy Haymes
Twisted Bargello
2010 Ozark Piecemakers Quilt Guild Show