Memories of Grama Ida

Quite literally this is one of her favorite stories to tell

I am 2.5 here, lower right

of me when I was a little;

One fine birthday when I turned 3 or 4, because only a 3 or 4 year old could get away with this. I received as a present a pair of shiny red rain boots, hat and clear plastic bubble umbrella.

I remember the umbrella as I had it for a good long while after that, but the boots and hat not so much.

Anyway, some adult told me in no uncertain terms, I was not to play with my gift, it was only for rain.

So with much pouting and childish outrage, and many questions of "why not!" and "what good is a present if you can’t play with it!", "it is mine after all!" They were put away in the sun room for a later time when the might be needed. For rain.

Needless to say when grama Ida was woken up at the crack of dawn, by one of the cousins Tom, who informed her that I had gone out to play in the rain. She didn’t even open her eyes.

“That’s nice” she said. But Tom wan’t finished “she’s taken her umbrella down the block” now this was LaCrosse Wisconsin in the 60’s, so safe as houses for these shenannagins.

“she’s wearing her hat”, said Tom “Mph” responded Grama, pulling the coverlet up a little more, no doubt hoping he was done tattling. “She’s wearing her boots too”,

“Yes Tom. it’s raining so I expect she is excited to show them off, now go play” Grama was getting a little tetchy by this time and wanted Tom to go away and let her sleep in a little longer.

All the cousins were visiting, for mother's day, staying in the house and as there were about 10 of us between the ages of 3 and 5, we made quite the raucous crowd when we were all together. I’m sure bedtime was just bonkers.

There was just one more little bit of information Tom had to impart, and he was hanging onto it.

For impact.

“Shes’ down the block, wearing her boots and hat and her umbrella” with a deep sigh, knowing there was no getting back to sleep, she rolled over and looked at my 5 year old cousin Tom “you said that” she said with growing frustration.

He looked up at Grama Ida with a big grin and said “and she's not wearing anything else”

Grama’s Eyes flew open in horror as she shot out of bed, not even stopping for her slippers, she grabbed a wrap on her way out the door, down the block and around the corner, where she found me happily jumping in large puddles in my shiny new red boots, hat and bubble umbrella and indeed nothing else.

Story Time

 The holidays are a time for family and cooking those special dishes everyone loves and waits all year to get. It's also the time, at least in my house, for the annual Christmas eave gourmet dinner. 
The Children when they were small and adventurous, would badger the chef until you'd break and tell them what was on the menu, my ex, or have fun with them by playing "Can you guess?" That would be me. I almost miss the constant kitchen traffic and queries of "What cha' making?"

When The children's father would cook it was lobster, crab or Prime rib. The first year we got live lobster and let the kids race them across the kitchen floor, with much laughter and joy. This is where we learned the lesson of "You don't name what you eat" It makes it hard to cook and eat them later.
The ex was all "More for me!" but I could see the the look of betrayal in the eye's of my child. 

They ate only the sides that year, of which there was plenty but that isn't the point is it?

Speaking of those sides, of garlic mashed potatoes, a large salad, Buttered broccoli and a cheesecake of which only the flavor changed from year to year. The ex had definite idea's on food.

I on the other hand liked to experiment, and for the most part my family would eat my experiments happily, no complaints, no leftovers. Every once in a while the food gods did not smile on my efforts, usually when I was not feeling well or was distracted beyond the usual big dinner, 3 kids and a husband variety. Those disasters didn't happen very often and when they did they were pretty epic.

Like the time we had to ditch the Beans because the child didn't realize the can of mushrooms should not exhibit an attitude when opened, it spit at him, and he threw them in the casserole anyway. Good thing he mentioned this behavior before we all ate!

The time I over cooked the shrimp and we could have played table tennis with them, they were so chewy. Or the year the oven door decided after 40 years it had had enough and fell off, dumping the entire roast duck A'la Orange on the floor. Breaking the pyrex, splattering lava hot orange sauce and duck parts  allover the kitchen floor my arm, one leg and leaving a divit in the linoleum, to remind us all to be very careful when using the oven. The same oven the ex swore up and down he had fixed and I must have "Done something to" the last time it flopped open after the loose spring finally broke. I had been holding it closed with a wooden spoon to bake for a month before the supposed fix. needless to say it didn't take.

Disasters aside, I'm a good cook and I like to try things I have only had or made in the restaurants were I worked before marriage. The year I decided to make Greek Youvetsi Arni a lamb shank stewed in tomato sauce served over Orzo. Roasting anything well takes hours and people get hungry, and by people I mean my family, so i decided to make a few side dishes and appetizers as well as the annual Christmas cookies, so the kitchen was a right mess. We had my ex's sister and friends over so there was even more confusion and noise,  extra children and glasses of wine. Every time I would take cookies or crab cakes out of the oven, they would disappear, so I was getting a little crabby. In order to not starve before dinner, I was hiding a couple of whatever in a cabinet, it kept them out of the blast zone and safe from the ravening hoards. 

I used to cater weddings and business meetings so I know how to feed a crowd but nothing keeps up with pre-teen stomachs. I had prepped most of the cookies stuff the day before and the dinner was pretty straight forward, hunk of meat in tomato sauce and herbs in large roaster in back of oven 3hours and your done. the rest was scoop on trays bake and serve. everything was labeled, except the salmon roe.

Between the making and the baking and the whipping of things the roe got pushed to the back of the counter, where one of the kids wanted to know what the pink stuff in the bowl was. Being busy I assumed it was one of mine and told them to try it and find out. Them not being one of my children, they did.
Ruining the joys of Terramosalata for them forever after. Though possibly teaching them an important lesson, Grown ups are not to be trusted.

the end

scrappy flowers test block#1

Scrappy flowers test block #2

of 2017 at least
Its been a challenging year
The boogar in chief notwithstanding

scrappy flowers test block #3

 I have made a total of 12 quilts this year!

Not all full size mind and not yet all finished but still impressive considering my usual 12-9" blocks and a few side projects

the quilting

  Most have been given to their expected recipients and I have fallen down hard on the picture taking,

which is ironic as i got a new phone with a fabulous camera in it this year.
So piece of coal in my stocking there.

the three scrappy flower quilts were the first to be quilted on my new bernina and for pracrice quits are not to shabby

all the Blue scraps quilt

they are all lap size and done with 1/4yds of the state flowers fabric from last year.

It's amazing just how far a few 1/4 yards will go!

woodland animals

the blue scrap quilt was done using all the blue and tan scraps i have been squirreling away for the last 25 years, lord only knows why.
its a full size quilt made of 1/2 square triangles and wild geese.

it's the first big quilt that bernie has done and came out a little wobbly but nice.

 

 

the quilting, I am liking my new machine

then the woodland animals for my dd#2 I still havent managed to get a binding on it,hopefully that will get done before new years.
as usual if you put it on the floor the inspectors come out to make sure your doing it right....

garden

Spring and summer were taken up by the usual garden stuff

Green house

plus I FINALLY got off the stick and built myself a greenhouse.
I used the old sliding doors from the deck and a slide window

It took till mid september to make it leak proof but that's just because it didn't rain until then and then rained for 2 weeks!

Machine quilted, I may have gone overboard

Now I just need to find it a proper door
I'm using an old rug right now but that wont last

I've only been planning on doing this for 8 years so its so nice to have gotten it done

French store quilt half applique, half machine

the French store quilt was done with remaining tan and all the red and green scraps from the basket of doom

Center French store quilt

because why not finally empty the silly thing out?
what am I saving them for anyway if not to use in a quilt
besides 25 years 4 homes and 2 husbands is long enough don't you think?



 this one is made from Julie Paschkis Russian winter folktales fabric

 aand scraps from the basket, are you noticing a theme here?


this last one is still in the works but its coming along nicely I have 3 more rows of 4 blocks and the outer border to put on, nce I can wrest it away from the minions


Then there was my early prezzie of a surprise gallbladder removal for the holidays, yay. -.-
I'm doing just fine but if this is anything like getting shot in the belly, TV and movies have been lying to us for decades!

You do not bounce up to finish the job, with  great sopping hole in your tum.
If you are in line for one of these it's not that bad, you're belly will look like a bowling ball after and the first few days are owchie

but they give you the good drugs to get you over that part and hopefully, those around you are inclined to spoil the invalid.
Happy Holidays to all and a happy new year!

So little time!

So much to do before the winter solstice!

 

I have been working on projects, for a beginner embroidery class,so if anyone in the seattle area that wants to learn a little easy-peasy embroidery come on down (over, up?) to gathering fabrics in Woodinville.

Also finishing up embroidery on other stuff as well as gifts and what not for people.

 

As well as getting my grinchy on.

Happy Yule!

may he touch you with his noodley appendage

And so it's christmas

hello all! and a happy holidays to you all!

I have decided this year, as I do almost every year, to forgo the mall crawl mind numbing sameness of the "traditional" shopping season and stay home making Christmas presents from parts bought at local businesses.

I hate this time of year, not for the reasons you think ( though there are those too!).

the rampant commercialism and ruining of this years thanksgiving peace, was the last straw in a growing list of grievances with the walmarts and targets of the world.

at this point I'd rather pay and extra dollar at my local store than go to any one of them for anything.




anyway, I put the tirade at the end of the post, for those who simply wish to enjoy the eyecandy without the vitriol.

 I have been working on these little beauties for a month now and have gotten it down to a science!

I can do 2 1/2 in a day if I put the radio on.

so far I have made 20 phew!

 obviously not all of them are here some have been sent off to their new homes.

I have also been working on and off on Uncle the Monks coat of arms. I am in, various shades of blue split-stitch hell, right now and will get pictures when there are any new developments because it looks the same as last time just more blue.

 the other projects I am currently ignoring in favor of the holidays are Skellie, my faerie project and the lace and pearls rr which we all decided to ignore for the holidays.

so you understand why I have been inordinately silent, there will be big news (for me anyway) in the new year, which I am currently obsessing over and will let you in on when it's all done.


and yes, here is the end of my aforementioned soapbox tirade.  I felt the need to unburden.


I'm not going to go on about corporate greed and their willing minions in congress, form the gist of this post I think you already know where I'm going and either agree or don't so I won't bore you here.

Except to say, I vehemently disagree with the way the season is being used, by all parties to fleece on of the hard earned and paltry scheckles we have left at the end of the year.
This includes the church, who lost my interest, with their treatment of the abused children and their adamant refusal to do the right thing in dealing with the priests.
then there's  congress who can't seem to get out of their own way to get anything done.
I didn't agree with the GOP before but at least they could get their jobs done.
Now it seems they revel in the fact that they don't do anything and are being paid quite well for it thankyou.
PTHHHH! if there is any justice in the Universe they will all be out on their collective hinies  in 2014 and 2016.

WTF??!    If any of us behaved that way at work we'd be fired tomorrow. why can't we apply the same metric to them? I could go on and have at length I will stop now.
grumble, grumble, fuss, fuss, fuss..............

what have I been doing?

well there's a story there.


 A little story.




I've been making purses.

 lots and lots of purses.

I've dubbed them Saddlebags.




 i road tested them on my 17 year old by making her a star wars themed purse.




she could put all her stuff in it

while she bopped around the city for the summer with friends.




 then it turned into a school bag that holds all the stuff that she doesn't want to get smooshed in her backpack.



 so it's been thrown around used as a pillow, sat on, thrown in the wash, dragged on the floor and generally beat up and tortured



 then she thought I would be able to sell them at the annual Christmas bazaar at school. so I set about making a few out of material I already had on hand.


 I made a promise to myself I was not going to buy more fabric for future projects I was never getting to, no matter how amazing the fabric was.


so I had a backlog of fabric to choose from




I sewed and sewed and eventually ended up with 35 fun and unique bags to sell at the bazaar.




I also took some of my cq stuff. I got lots of compliments and questions about CQ which are nice





I didn't sell any thing.






so now I have lots of Christmas presents and new items up in the ETSY store

and a rather cynical view of bazaars.

Happy Solstice!

Happy Holidays!

sewing and coughing don't mix!

looks like a cqshop barfed on it!

Ok, so, walking pnumonia isn't fun, especially over a holliday!
I have been trying to plug along through a stuffy nose, shaky hands and coughing myself insideout.
my friends sewing and coughing don't mix!

ort's jar

half the time you loose your place and the other half you loose the needle, it's just badness.
I'll live, that prognosis is good, though I'm still coughing, it doesn't make me want to take a nap anymore!)

I got my FFT RR#16  block back and is it lovely!
I'm just going to add a thing or two and it will be perfecto!
I also worked on the changes Gerry suggested for the blue/brown block
(Isn't she the greatest!)

I added a fan to the yawning empty brown space and added a birds nest with two glass lampwork beads, I got in my monthly embellishments package from Eveningstar designs.

those are great if you need a random stash boost!
Carolyne sends out a selection of ribbons, lace, beads, silk ribbon, buttons, charms, silkies and all sorts of fun stuff!


it's totally random and a lovely little surprise in your mailbox once a month!

I get nothing for promoting BTW.
I just love her cqclubs and she is a lovely person to have gotten to know over the years.

we put up the tree this weekend and it looks fabulous like it does every year! it does need one more string of lights though, i ran out of them at the top of the tree so when they blink the whole top goes dark!
I started a stocking for my DD she requested I make her a new one this year, in apple greens with a turtle on it! so far so good!

new stuff in the works

I've got a bunch of new stuff in the works!
lots of projects to finish up  and new ones to start.

but first I have to finish the wedding present I'm making for my oldest friend.
she is getting married in Malibu on the 27th and I just started on it, I have to finish it first!
I've had the Idea for it for a few months now, but with all the other things and the girls and life and whatnot, it's been hard to get started on it.






I will post pics of this piece after we get back from the wedding.
but the other stuff you can see now!






I have little witchy-poo hats for the serenity shop and hawaii themed boxes





a wedding themed box, and a few other bits and bobs.


lets see if I can get these ready before halloween in time to gear up for the christmas season!

mom's place

the last leg of our journey was to my mom's place in Chicago. here's mom









finally open the presents!












where art and music are every where

































the silliness knows no bounds

































ahh! whats that!











Oh! a hug! I can deal with a hug!












where everyone can just relax.





















and fiddle about onthe computer some more