A Fond Farewell

Goodness sometimes, I don't post for days or even weeks and here I am posting twice in one day!  But to me this a very special post. I said goodbye to my Whirling Buzzsaw quilt.  To me a quilt is like a member of the family.  I spend a great deal of time selecting the fabrics, cutting and constructing the top and then choosing the quilting design.  Many times I will pray as I sew.  Perhaps asking for healing for someone or if I am making a quilt for a specific person I will pray for that person while making it.  In other words a part of me goes into every quilt I make, as I am sure it is the same for most of you reading this post.
Do you remember Whirling Buzzsaw?

You can read about it here.  It was my Lovely Year of Finishes for February.

But now it will be going to a new home on August 2nd when it will be raffled off as a fund raiser to help a lovely, vivacious, and talented young lady with Lyme Disease.  Apparently insurance doesn't believe this condition exists and will not pay for any treatment.  I am not educated on the disease enough to write about it, but here is the link to her blog.  It was lovely to see her this evening and I pray that in some small way the quilt will help in aiding her to get the treatment she desperately needs and deserves.
So goodbye Whirling Buzzsaw....I hope your journey is a good one.

Slowing Down For Slow Stitching Sunday

It just doesn't seem possible that the days can pass me by so quickly.  I do seem to get a little quilting and stitching done, but then rarely have time to visit with you about it.  Lately my time has been occupied with my project for the HO HO HO Blog Hop to premiere later this month and preparing all of the wonderful vegetable gifts from my students.  We have been receiving a wide array of vegetables including tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, onions, potatoes and corn from one student and it is organic because they have bee hives, and from two other students zucchini and yellow squash.  We are blessed to have such generous people in our lives.  I put in an extra effort with these culinary gems to make them extra tasty (without making them unhealthy with such things as bacon etc.) as I used to do.  Tomorrow I will be making Zucchini Fries.  In case you would like to try them here is the recipe:

Zucchini Fries

3 medium sized zucchini 

1 1/2 cups crushed potato chips. rice cereal like rice krispies, very fine bread crumbs or tortilla chips, 

1/4 teaspoon garlic powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 eggs

Cooking spray

Preheat oven to 450 degrees spray cooking sheet with cooking spray

Cut zucchini into "french fries"

Mix together the chips, salt and garlic powder set aside

In another bowl whisk the eggs and coat the "fries" with the egg and then dip into the chip coating and place on the baking sheet.

Spray fries with the cooking oil spray and bake about 15 to 20 minutes .  They are done when they are crispy.  

I have been following a great BOM by Val Laird ( I say following because it started 7 months ago) called "Apples of Gold", you can find it here.
I had prepared Block 2 a couple of weeks ago to have something to work on while hubby is driving us to various destinations.

Since I knew that this would soon be completed, this last Friday I decided to prepare the other 6 blocks so they would be ready to go.  I don't know why I procrastinate to prepare these as it only took about 30 minutes.  But now I am on track so maybe I can get caught up.

Block 1 is applique with just a touch of embroidery.

Block 3 is all embroidery 

As is Block 4

And Block 5

Also all embroidery is Block 6

And Block 7 is applique with a little embroidery.

There is also a pieced block each month but I will get to them after I catch up on the embroidery. 

Since I am slow stitching today I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts, find her here

Well, my friends, that's about all I've been up to, well there are lots of other things I'm working on but will be writing about them when they are in better order.  Although I am excited about my hand dyed and hand painted sky for my cancer quilt.  A very talented lady and I have been corresponding for about 8 months now and I believe she will start on it shortly.  I can hardly wait to see it.  And THEN I will be able to coordinate my other fabrics to it and get a lot more done on my cancer quilt.  When I have the sky in hand which is the last piece to my puzzle, so to speak I plan to set myself a finish date goal to keep me on track.  Looking forward to following this journey.  Hope you have a Slow Stitching Sunday too.

Calico Quilter's Quilt Show...Challenges

It doesn't seem possible that it has been a week since our quilt show.  It is held the last weekend in June in connection with the annual Waterfest Festival.  Our town is known for it's historic waters.  You can read a little about them here.

But on with the Challenges.  I blogged about my Challenge here and told about the requirements for the Challenge.  We had 11 finished pieces entered into the show.  They were all really great.  I will start with the group picture.  "Group picture" reminds me of grade school.

Now the ribbon winners.  1st place was this lovely applique.  The 7 of Diamonds.  Where are the diamonds you ask?  The center of each flower has 7 diamonds.  I do hope you are able to see them when you enlarge the photo.

Second place went to this amazing scene.  Did you guess the card?  The 4 of Spades, check in the lower right hand corner.

Well, look who got third place.  My "Queenie",  the card was the Queen of Hearts.  I feel honored to place with all of these fantastic art quilts.

Honorable Mention went to the 3 of Clubs.  The scene depicts the three "clubs" she has  belonged to in her lifetime.  One was a car club, I think, the Garden Club and the Quilt guild.

Not placing, but still fantastic were the following:
The lady that drew the King of Hearts made this one first.  Elvis "the King of Rock and Roll".

When she was about finished she realized she should have made King Kong since it was her favorite movie when she was a child.  So she made a second one.  Say hello to King Kong complete with a blonde figure from her granddaughter's doll house.  Planes flying over at the top of the piece and New York across the bottom.

 Next is the 4 of Diamonds.  I really liked the four diamonds in the opposite corners like in a playing card.

The next card was the 2 of Diamonds.  But she tried to trick us by throwing those clubs in there.

How about "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil".  The monkey's have the eyes, ears and mouth "x ed" out.  Of course it is the 3 of Hearts.

This is the 4 of Hearts.  This lady had worked on the pineapple blocks that we paper pieced for our Opportunity  Quilt.  See it here. She enjoyed the paper piecing so much she decided to use it in her Challenge.  Oh and by the way, she won the Opportunity Quilt.  She had put her granddaughter's name on the ticket.  Granddaughter is 3 years old.  When asked, she said SHE was keeping it.  But will be a fun story to tell her granddaughter when she is old enough.

And last, but certainly not least is the Ace of Diamonds.

Well, that does it for the "Challenges",  each and everyone a winner in my book.  I will blog about other quilts in the show soon.  Till then, hope your journey involves a little quilting.

Happy Fourth of July

Wishing all a safe, happy and joyful 4th.  

Enjoy today's journey.

We Interrupt This Day.....to CELEBRATE

Our day started off as usual this morning with each of us having coffee in front of our computers, a quick breakfast and since it's the day before the Fourth of July, both of my students for the day had cancelled to prepare for the holiday.
I was in my sewing studio working on these little blocks..

They are 1.5" squares for the half square triangles and the 20 of them will go around an embroidery Santa and sleigh.  It is a machine embroidery done by my friend that sells at Quilt Shows and I am putting the borders on it for her.  I will show the embroidery when I show the finished runner.

When I was just about finished constructing the last of the 20 blocks the phone rang.  Hubby had come into the studio to say something to me and we both looked at the phone ID and saw it was the Medical Center that had recently processed a biopsy for a suspected basal cell cancer on the side of his face.  He had undergone MOHS surgery a couple of years ago on this same spot and the dermatologist saw the issue and suggested the biopsy.  Thus we have had this weighing on our thoughts for about two weeks now and we were both a little tentative when hubby answered the phone.  But the young lady at the other end of the phone calmed our fears by announcing the place was benign and no other follow up was necessary.
After hubby hung up the phone he said with a big smile on his face, "we need to celebrate".  So with nothing on the agenda for the rest of the day, I turned off the sewing machine and iron and off we went.  Did a little shopping and then a nice dinner.  Hubby enjoyed filet minion with salad and baked potato and I splurged with grilled shrimp and baked potato.  I generally do not eat meat, but this was definitely a special occasion.
Hubby and I grew up in the era when there was no sunscreen.  The only thing I really remember was fake bake as my friends and I called it that turned us orange and a streaked orange at that and Coppertone sun"tan" lotion, so as a result  hubby and I deal with skin cancer scares on a regular basis. Most can be frozen but hubby has had two of the MOHS surgeries and we were not looking forward to the third, but as for now we can rest easy.  Unfortunately I did not get to the Quilt Show photos I promised but  I believe tomorrow I will be able to post about the Challenges I talked about here.
So until tomorrow....may your journey be as happy as ours.

A Day of Rest From After Our Calico Quilters Show

I really believe I look a little better than this, but I am really tired today.  I was wanting to blog about several things but just couldn't muster the energy today after our fun filled show.

After receiving a lovely note from a blog friend and reader asking about me I decided to send this short post.  She reminded me I have not posted since I claimed my blog.  Boy!!! time sure flies when you are having fun or is my age showing, I'll never tell.  I will post about our show in a few days.

Never fear I have been keeping up with all the lovely blogs I follow.  Each and every one gives me inspiration,

Seems as if my journey keeps me moving, hope your days have been as fun filled as mine.