Butterflies are Free

 

Boy, I can vouch for that!  

But finally, finally I finished quilting the butterflies I started oh, so long ago. Quilting this was what got me out of the slump I've been in since October.  The more I worked on it the more I remembered how much fun it was to come up with the wing combinations and I admired them all over again.  There are a few backgrounds that could have used better placement and the flower on the left should have been reversed but all were discovered once I was nose to needle with it.  And I don't care. I fell in love with this all over again and now just have to bind it.  But I was too excited to have this done not to share. 

Sally's Pieces

 At our retreat a couple of weeks ago Friend Sally brought me a gift.  She purges her stuff occasionally and this time I was the recipient of her Aunt Grace blocks.  She knows I love the 30's look fabric and I was thrilled to get this bonus.  It's a bonus because look at these - she did all the work! The cutting, sewing the blocks and then she gave them away!

When I got them home I looked at my treasure.  There was this medallion with three extra flower blocks.

And then these blocks, and a good pile of smaller 9 patch blocks.

And this pile of 9 patches that are smaller and not all Aunt Grace. There was also pile of fabric that wasn't cut up but will make grea sashing for the idea I have in mind.

In the middle of the night I started to think of how to use them all in one piece. As of now I'm thinking the medallion in the center, surrounded by the pieced blocks, adding in the three spare flower blocks, then surrounding all of that in a border of the larger 9 patch (by large I mean 3.5 inches finished.)  

The crappy smaller 9 patches will be for another day, another top.

When I layed that all out on a bed it looked nice but for now they are all gathered together in a pile for another day.  Like I said, Friend Sally did all of the work.  I just need to put them together.  

I have been the recipient of Sally's purging in the past and never take it for granted.  Thank you, Sally!

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.