Great Fun Friday

I had lunch at Cafe Sunflower with a friend who showed me his mother's quilts.

 I love this one the most. To me it shows a sense of humor and a delight in color.

 I love her fabrics. Leroy told me some of these were shirts, and others were pajamas.

This yellow one still had the pencil lines from her marking for hand quilting.

This is probably the best cathedral window quilt I have ever seen in person.

The "muslin" frames were of a very high quality dense smooth cotton I'd never touched before, and the quilt was very heavy.

You cannot help but play I Spy.

Too much fun.

And such a lovely quilt!

Not together

But look what is visiting me: 

 What a lovely butterfly!

I was lucky enough to get two good shots.

Now I need to concentrate; the wedding is tomorrow, and I need to get stuff rolling. 

I am lucky enough to be mother-of-the groom, so you'd think I could just show up and have fun, but I am also mother of the groomsmen (two of them at least), and one of them is a rouge entity. We don't know where he is most of the time, nor what he is doing. I purchased his shirt, pants, socks, belt and shoes for the wedding, but he has not tried any of it on. I even had the Brooks Brothers pants hemmed on a guess of how long they should be. It is his own fault if he has high-water pants and too big/small shoes tomorrow. 

But I am sure we will all have a great time. 

(Sorry about the bugs, Mom; I have not been sewing.)

Summer Wrap Up

It's the end of summer 2012. Time to put away the white pants and shoes, dig out the woolens (except for us allergic types), and buckle down to studies (or work for us contracted souls). I took Friday all for myself and wandered across town for the monthly meeting of the East Cobb Quilter's Guild.

Georgia 400 bridge over the Chattahoochee River.

 After the meeting I took a wrong turn, and, me being me, decided to follow where ever the lane took me. This being Atlanta, how lost could I get? You eventually run into a major highway, and sometimes you even find yourself under a major highway.

 I stopped at the park near the water to stretch my legs and let my little owls enjoy the dappled light and rush of the water. I didn't go for a walk though; there were too many men sitting in their cars. It was a little creepy.

(Insert floral photos here to lighten the mood.)

 The seeds I thought I started too late are providing me with new blooms daily. Above are the moonflowers.  I love them.

 The cosmos are putting out lots of hearty color.

And when I parted the zinnias and cosmos I found my first morning glory blossom!

(and now resume chatter about Friday)

 Speaking of flowers (nice transition tee hee), I saw this beautiful lilac cardigan in the JJill catalog and I knew I'd seen a similar flower, so I looked at my stash of Brannock & Patek Lilac Hill line, and there it was! I just had to have the sweater, so, also on Friday, I found myself near The Forum in Duluth and popped into the JJill shop. Sorry. I have to say it was not so pretty in person. The Brannock & Patek fabric is way more beautiful! (I liked the buttons on the sweater, just not $100 worth of like.)

 (I have to have a cat picture in my post.) Mr. Joe (Joseph James Vanzetti a.k.a Joey or JJ) keeps working on getting out of the house. He has found a quiet (no yapping Maltese) place under the shrubs in the front yard. I don't let him stay out though; he has to come in when I do.

(And I have to do SOMETHING with fabric!)

My darling new daughter-in-law asked me to teach her how to crochet, since she needs something to do while she and Adam are running around. I found a regular crochet hook and some yarn for her and did my best to show her how after I'd reviewed a YouTube video. (I am not a crochet-person even though I've made a couple of rugs using the technique; I only know the basics.)

Missouri Trip

Warning: Lots of photos. I have them on FB, but Mom doesn't check FB, so I am putting them here too.

 Miss Meredith and I hit the ground running in Kansas City. We picked up a rental car, and after a quick hello to my folks, we headed to Missouri Town 1855.

 I know Meredith is a fan of Little House on the Prairie, so I thought she'd enjoy seeing what it must have been like living back then (the Laura Ingall's story is actually set in the 1870s).

 The sheep liked being close to Miss M, but when I went closer to have my picture made, it scooted away.

 My best pal at Mo Town its Dusty the horse.  He is always looking for a treat, but there is a sign right next to him saying "Don't feed the horse," so of course, of course, I did not feed the horse.

 After spending a lovely evening (think half-price appetizers during happy hour and a classical music trio playing on the patio under the stars) at the landmark boutique hotel Raphael, and getting a great night's sleep, we drove (maybe 2 miles) over to the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art. We viewed most of the World's Fair exhibit, but since it was Saturday, the hall was more crowded than I found comfortable. Photos were not allowed in the special exhibit, and there were adults aiming camera phones all over the place ( I get tense when people aren't following the rules). The museum staff must have been worn out at the end of the day.  (Photos of the regular collection are allowed, and that's what I have here.)

AND there were small children. PLEASE! I don't mind children when they are in places appropriate to them, but I saw a 5-6 year old girl lean her whole body against this landscape canvas.  Her mother asked her to move, but the docent was calm and horrified at the same time as he ran across the gallery to shoo her off. The canvas will be tagged and examined by a museum professional to see if it was damaged and if repair is required. AND that was not the only child misbehavior I witnessed. It was too much. 

The reason I took the two photos of this lovely work of art is to show how the entire landscape is composed of spots of oil paint. It makes me think of single-colored mosaic.

I view art emotionally. I enjoy those pieces which make me sigh in wonder at the artist's vision and execution.

And this one because it was the only quilt-ish item I saw. Not a fan of the colors, but love the geometry.

This huge wall installation was composed of three-dimensional pyramid-ish (I am sure there is a proper geometric term for them, but since I didn't read the description, I don't know what it is) parts with one colored side. The color bounces off the white wall surface and creates this wonderful experience of motion and color as you walk past it.

We cut our trip to the Nelson short to go to Mom and Dad's for early dinner.  Dad made a cherry pie.  He asked what I wanted and, following his spaghetti and salad (homemade salad dressing), cherry pie was perfect.

Random family photos follow:

Dad, Mom and Meredith

Dad and Tasha

We had a great time. Meredith is a lovely young woman and we are overjoyed she is joining our family.

July Update

I am not sure what I will do with the fabric a friend sent, but I totally love it!

Here a the turtle pincushion observing some of my yo-yos.

He spies an important one,

And decides to swim in a pool of bigger yo-yos.

I alluded to stuff going on around here.  We discovered my middle son was in a hospital somewhere (he said Nashville, but we couldn't locate him there, and he would not give his location). Turns out he had a horrid infection in his leg from a bicycle accident he'd had 90 days prior and was hooked up to IVs. The day after the wedding he, middle son, drove home to return his brother's car to his dad's house where I picked him up after work and took him to the pharmacy for his dozen or so prescriptions. I have since spent hours cleaning his house, shoveling laundry out and down the road an hour to my house and back (his washer is broken). I've enjoyed spending time with my son, and his leg is healed nicely, but it has worn me out trying to keep up with everything.

Take a breather.

Things are looking up.

Everyone's healthy now.

Thank you Mom, Sue and Peggy.

I loved getting that package yesterday, and I will enjoy using the fabric and pincushion, and reading novel you sent. 

Time for a snooze.

(Don't you know I love my Joseph James kitty?)

How to start a fight with your sister

"MOM! He's touching me!"

Isn't that how it always starts?

And with quilting it starts with that special piece you finally found.  I'd been searching for a checkered fabric and found a bit at the J-store in Gainesville (GA) while visiting my son.

I thought it might look grand in Georgia's black and red.
Or maybe on some blue?

What about the set then? Straight set or on point?

Doesn't the Christmas fabric I found at the garage sale (the one I went to Friday and Saturday morning) look good with it?"

Or jettison the holiday print for a more seasonal red floral one? I like how the inside border frames the 12 patch center.

Then again I could go with something totally different like a floral with a white background...That's it. New UFO. I need a nap.

To make a Prairie, it takes
A Flower and one Bee,
One Flower and a Bee,
And Reverie.
The Reverie alone will do
If bees are few.

-Emily Dickenson

Students come back to the college this Monday. My new schedule for this 8 week semester has me working 6 days a week.  I know I can do it, but since I made the schedule, I wonder what the heck I was thinking. May bee some slow blogging for a while.

Mix Mash of Stuff

You may not know Kansas City is referred to as "The City of Fountains." This fountain is in front of the old Kansas City Star building on the east edge of the Quality Hill district.

These are Mom's good friends from childhood; they came over to sew with us one morning. Sue is peeking out from behind her "Easy Stars" quilt while Peggy (Mom's cousin) assists in holding it up. Notice I cropped myself out on the other side. I was in motion, and the resulting blur was not attractive on me. 

Once I got settled back here at home, Kitten took over the karate-belt padded reading spot I set up, so I went on to my sewing machine and set to quilting.

Roll it up and send it through.

Have you tried these new Clover Wonder Clips for holding the binding on? They are  super for hand stitching the binding, but they are magnificent for using with your machine, since one side is flat.

There we go. All done.

Denim on the back to stand up to the rigors of a Hawaiian beach.

Sweet!