Easter

PH was ready.  He had prizes, he had bunny ears, he had marble stuffed plastic eggs, he had a plan.

Let the Easter games begin. 

 This bucket toss was a new one in the line up this year.  The deal was you had to put the bunny ears on when it was your turn.

Even the He-Men of the family.

Even my brother,and seeing him in these bunny ears was worth the price of admission.

Then came the egg roll down our driveway. 

 Notice how far the street is from PH who is standing halfway down as spotter.

Our driveway is filled with pot holes and divots but that only made this the more challenging. There is definitely a strategy.  Everyone gets two eggs to roll that we put two marbles in for weight.

And then the raw egg toss.  

This year PH wanted to have the contestants standing along the walkway up to the house. That made this particularly difficult because the one on the bottom (near those three chalk lines ) had to be tossing UP to the partner. 

When it came to my brother's turn, PH was his partner and PH planned this with a hard boiled egg. 

We were so lucky to have marvelous weather. We could be outside for the games, we ate our dinners around the porches, windows were open, everyone had a great day. 

Retreat weekend

 Back from quilt retreat weekend and this post is heavy on pictures.  There is a little commentary but not much.  Just feast your eyes on my talented friends.

This was the sunset our first night there and I promise you I did not photo shop this.  It was stunning.

The next day we had rain/snow/ice so the morning after was heavy on the icey trees.  You could hear them tinkle as they swayed and the ice melted and dropped on our head but oh, my, it was gorgeous.

Barb usually thinks of a game that will get us up off our chairs.  Here we were charged with gently tossing a spool of thread into the baskets.  I think I got two.

The following photos are of show and tell

OK, this was a show and tell, too, but it was really hilarious.  Marissa saves here selvidges and rolls them into a ball.  This was originally, before she started to braid a rug with them, the size of a beach ball.  It's solid selvidge, absolutely no core to this ball.

We had a small challenge to bring, too.  We were to interpret "6" somehow.  

Barb was making the Pasquali medalions and just plain got tired of the tiny work so she put them away.  She pulled them out to interpret "6" with these flowers.  It was just beautiful.

My six?  I made a cube pin cushion.  I also didn't have show and tell because believe it or not, until very recently I hadn't picked up a needle since October.  The elves didn't show up to do any finishing for me, either so there you have it. Nothing to show.  I worked on my Liberty circles and the map of Lowell I'm scheming and that was what I brought.  Made some progress on the map but have to refigure an idea before I proceed too much further.  

On my way

                                    Going on quilt retreat this weekend!  We'll talk when I get back.

Lord of the land

 Our son said I'm feeding the monster.  

For Christmas we gave PH one square foot of land in Scotland.  So we now call him Lord of the land. 

There's a pub/brewery here in town that we like.  They don't serve food but allow it to be brought in so we get take out and settle in for a good time.  It's a system that works.

They also have the popular mug program whereby you purchase a mug, have it engraved with your name and then you get a discount on your drink when you come in.

PH went whole hog on his engraving.  He is now Lord everywhere.  I edit scattered the print on our last name because, you know, this IS the internet, but you get the idea.  

What IS this?

I really don't know what this is. Have you ever?

 I bought some heavy cream.  I was at a dairy and bought a half gallon of heavy cream.  It was a crazy thing to do because when I got home I couldn't for the life of me remember why I wanted heavy cream at all.  I still can't remember.  Obviously I ran across a recipe and thought it sounded good so wanted some cream. But I still don't remember.   Certainly I didn't/don't need a HALF GALLON.  But when I thought about how much a half pint costs in the grocery store compared to the price of this half gallon, well, this was the better deal.  Even if I certainly didn't need a HALF GALLON.

So yesterday I decided to use some of it to make butter.  I could make the butter and freeze it for later.  My way to make butter is to just pour some in a jar and shake it till it solidifies, rinse it and put it in a container. Easy peasy.

But this heavy cream was different.  It was so thick and rich when I opened the bottle some had risen to the top and gooped up. I just stared at it for a few minutes. It was very different than the grocery store heavy cream. So.  I shook that jar and shook and shook for about 30 minutes.  It wouldn't solidify like a glop of butter, it just got solid and smooth like thick frosting. I couldn't shake it anymore because it was done doing what it was going to do. 

But I don't know what it is.  I scooped the creamy smooth 'stuff' into a container and it looks like frosting. But it is absolutely delicious.  Light?  Oh, my gosh.  Creamy?  Oh, my gosh.  I had put, for real, two crystals of salt in it when I was shaking it and then just a light barely discernable pinch of sugar. 

I honestly don't know what this is.  I still have a lot of cream so made two batches of cream scones.  I was going to see daughter later and could give her one batch plus some of this creamy goodness. 

I really don't know what this is.  But a fresh scone with raspberry jam and this 'stuff,' well, Good Morning to you all, too!!

Retreat is coming up in a couple of weeks so I spent a bit of time packing up a few projects. I'm going light this time because I realize how much I actually get done at retreat and always over pack.  This time it's just two hand applique projects and no big quilt to quilt. If I get those two things done I'll be happy.

That out of my head I pulled out the fabrics for Charlie's quilt and did the dining room table thing.

I am one of those people.  I measure five times, cut once and still make a mistake. Now I way overthink before I cut.  All of these fabrics can be replaced, they are pretty basic batiks except for that first border. 

Does this not look like flying planes?  And the color was spot on perfect.  There can be NO mistakes made with this one.

So, I'm placing the planes, deciding whether to just use the whole sky piece or cut it down a bit (in the photo it's folded over a bit.  I'm going for using the whole piece and trimming later because I know me and cutting.

The bottom two borders are supposed to be land and water.  When Friend Barb drew the planes and we measured size we did not include these two pieces.  But I decided when at the store that I did want them there. So, I'm adding them back in.

This is the quilt Charlie chose and what I'm working on duplicating without a pattern.  Barb drew the planes.  All batiks. 

Sunny Sunday

 We've been dealing with freezing rain as winter tries to transition to something resembling not winter.

We had a doozy of an ice storm last week, it wasn't rain that froze on impact, it was little pellets about the size of a seed from a green pepper that came down frozen and stuck and froze together and created a crust that forced some people with level driveways to be prisoners in their homes for a few days.  We, on the other hand, have our steep driveway and, well, water does flow downhill so as it started to melt we were free. For once we had an advantage!

In order to have something to do on a wintry February Sunday yesterday the Showboat committee planned a painting class.  The class was on the showboat and it was, thankfully, a beautiful blue sky sun shiny ice melty day.

The sun just sparkled on the river, the swans were happy, people were out walking the riverwalk, it was a perfect day to get out.

This is the painting we were going to be guided through.  When the instructor asked if anyone had painting experience no one raised their hand!  "Good to know," she said.

We were all given a blank canvas and paints and brushes.

We were guided step by step, measuring distances, mixing colors.

Everyone's was different, as they should be. These were my table mates. The woman on the right in gray just retired from her part time job at the chamber of commerce so I knew her and we had some good laughs about retirement.  

And this is my finished painting.  I added the daffodils in the front of the fence just because. 

Saturday was gray and cloudy and heavy and PH was bored with days like that. He knew I needed to go to Shipshewana for the batik I needed for Charlie's quilt and he likes going down there for the food so early that morning he said, "let's go."  You're not going to believe this, but we were there two hours. He dropped me off at the store I was aiming for, he walked down the street to the meat and cheese store, came back and found a husband chair while I finished up.  I had a problem loading my phone with the photo that I was using as a guide - can you believe they don't have WiFi????  I felt like I was on the moon.  But the clerk could pull up the picture on her phone.

We spent an hour choosing, cutting and then I took PH to lunch.  After we got in the car to come home I noticed the time.  We had been there exactly two hours.  I was on a mission and did not divert from it. Fabric, lunch, home. Two hours down, two hours there, two hours home.  If I did anything wrong with this selection and amount I'm screwed.  But I think it will be ok.  Fingers crossed.  Math has never been my thing.  

Excuses, excuses

 Well, goodness, it's been couple of weeks since we've been staring at that chocolate cake but I had a good excuse.

I've said in other posts that one of the programs our museum offers is a two day immersion experience with every third grader in Lowell schools.  Third grade is when the kids learn local history so this program is intense.  They learn about museums and they learn about the fur trade that put Lowell on the map.  This gentleman and I sign up for all of the days of the program so we are there six days in January, every day the first two weeks of February and six days in March.   I come home tired...of talking for hours straight, for being on my feet for most of it and setting an alarm every morning for two weeks. But now this particular elementary school has finished the program and we have a break till March.

Now that I'm home again for a bit I've tackled grandson Charlie's graduation quilt.  I have a year to make this but I'm a hand quilter, remember, so it takes time.  I'm someone who does what can be done ahead of time because you never know.

I spent some time on Pinterest finding ideas and then showed them to him to pick out what he might like, but with the caveat that I will be changing what he shows me.  I am not copying someone else's quilt absolutely.  

This photo is to show you my primitive working conditions.  It's not unlike time travel.  I searched high and low for this kind of enlarger.  I asked at the elementary school I read at. They tried to get me to use one of the high tech projectors in one of the classrooms.  "No," I said, "I need something that will sit on my dining room table."  All of their old ones had been junked.  I asked around.  I looked online.  Finally, I found a YouTube video showing how to make one with a cardboard box and the flashlight from my phone.  I asked at the museum if I could take one of their boxes and told the education director what I needed it for.  " I need to make an overhead enlarger."  "We have one in the barn," she said.  Bless her heart.  And it works!

Friend Barb came over to do the math.  I don't do math.  She figured out how big to make the interior, the finished size, the size of borders and free hand drew the Blue Angel planes. You can see in the first photo with the enlarger the layout we are going for. 

We thought I would be enlarging the planes to fit but I couldn't get the enlarger to make it SMALL enough.  Ok. Take the paper off the wall, make some copies, cut them out and place them on the paper, which is the size the center will be. Turns out I didn't need that enlarger after all!  

Now to decide if I want the planes to be head on, second photo, or look like they are a bit on angle by changing that cockpit.  I'm going to ask Charlie.  

                                                             This is the quilt I'm going for 

   This is the Blue Angel that Barb based her free hand drawing of. It's more head on and will be "interpreted" with the fabrics.  I just have to check with him if he wants full on navy blue or more like the batik. I know, he's a guy and probably won't remember in a year what he chose but you know how kids can be, they get a notion and lock it in and throw away the key.

We have a group, herd, family...call it what you will, of deer that come everyday, sometimes twice a day to the side of the house just outside the dining room window.  Sometimes there are two, sometimes there are seven. Never more than seven. They are so aware now that when they come nosing around if I go outside to spread some corn for them they will either just step away and wait or run just halfway down the hill. I shake the container so the corn makes a good noise.  They stop, ears up, wait till I've spread some and by the time I turn to come back in the house they are back eating. We are enjoying the dynamics of the group, how they are to each other.

Around Michigan we like to trumpet when we see the first robins.  We say seeing a robin is the first sign of spring.  Well, last week we saw these robins - there were a total of four - drinking the melting water in the eaves. Middle of February?  Not unheard of but not normal, either.  It's unusually warm, we are never surprised to have a blizzard in the middle of February, but this is a very mild winter.  Yes,we've had snow but not for long.