Quilting Mary Ellen's Sunflowers

Remember this one?  I blogged about it way back and it has sat, untouched, ever since.  Never mind the fact it's sat since the days of my great grandmother, possibly my great great grandmother, unquilted, waiting for some crazy broad antique quilt lover crazy broad to give it the finish it deserves.

Anyway, I pulled it out again a couple of days ago and began to seriously consider my quilting options.  I'm not joking when I say it made me nauseous and gave me a pounding headache just thinking about it.  What if I get it quilted and it just makes me say 'GAG!'...what then?  Will I have utterly ruined it?  Still, it seems grossly unfair to the maker to leave it as it is, so this weekend I'm putting it on the frame, taking a deep cleansing breath and going for it.  I may also pour a glass of red and pop a Xanax...hey, whatever works! 

I'm going for fairly tight echo quilting around the circular sunflower shape (see photo below).  I'll do two, maybe three straight rows of quilting in each of the sashing strips and outline quilting in each of the nine patches.  I'm nixing doing anything inside the circles because the flowers themselves are dimensional.

I've never quilted an antique top, but I am determined to get this done.  It may take me 'til the kids leave home or I drop dead of old age, but I will quilt it.  Wish me luck!

Gee Double Oh Dee, Good

Let me start by saying, I am not a baker.  In fact, I'm not much of a cook, although my kids say I make the best macaroni and cheese EVER (thank you, Kraft Foods for your neon orange simulated cheese powder).  I do, however, love to watch cooking and travel shows and at least act like I know what the heck those people are doing.

Yesterday, I caught some show on Travel Channel that was everything bacon.  Now, some folks don't like pigs.  Sure, they may be slovenly little suckers, but they taste divine.  PIG.  IS.  GOOD.  One restaurant, Slater's 50/50 in Anaheim, California, featured all sorts of bacony goodness: burgers, cocktails and...be still my heart...a bacon brownie.  Spare me the retching and gagging routine, please.  To channel my Mom: Have you tried them yet?  Well, then, how can you know whether you like 'em or not? 

They looked phenomenal and I thought 'Self, even YOU can make those'.  So, I did.

Crumble up the cooked piggy into the batter and bake.

At this point, my camera literally died (not even new batteries could help) so I don't have a picture of the pan.  But let me just say...I love chocolate.  I love bacon.  And damn if these brownies don't ROCK!!

Mr. Postman, Stop My Nightmare

I am beginning to dread the daily trek to the mailbox.  Granted, the postman will occasionally grace its dark confines with a quilt magazine or Connecting Threads catalog (pitty-pat goes my heart).  Even the bills, junk mail or random critter have nothing on the one piece of post guaranteed to pee on my parade. 

It's an American Girl catalog.

For a girl who eschews all things pink, frilly or feminine, you'd think Co-Def 2's lip would curl in derision at the very thought of anything doll related.  We are, after all, talking about the kid who gave that silicone infused beeotch who has everything, Barbie, green striped zebra hair 'to make her pretty'.

But these aren't your average dolls.  No, no, no.  We're talking 'spensive' dolls here now with outfits ranging from vintage to couture with accessories and price tags to match.  Plus, these little beauties must have a stand to keep them upright 'cause two feet aren't enough, a carrying case because only commoners are carried in a child's arms and bedding because who the heck wants to share a twin-sized bed with a living, breathing child.  Let the kid sleep on the floor...and let them eat cake!  Oh, wait, that was Marie Antoinette.  Sorry.

For what one of them would wind up costing me, I could just pop out Co-Def #3 and call it a day.  Oh, hell-to-the-no y'all!

So, you can kinda understand my snatching the offensive catalog from her hand and lobbing it into the nearest trash receptacle while muttering hysterically 'Who put this crappy Fisher-Price junk in here-don't they know that's for babies?!  Nothing to see here!  Move along!!'  She eyed me rather suspiciously kinda like she did the day I told her the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy owned a time-share property in Florida with Santa Claus that they shared during the off-season.  Hey, she wanted to know if they all lived together.  I can't remember names, much less who lives where, okay??

Now every afternoon, it's a race to see who gets to the mailbox first.  One of these days she's gonna win.  It still takes her a while to get outta the car considering I'm the one with the keyless remote, but she's getting faster at extricating herself.

Yep, I'm a Bad Mommy.

Blood, Sweat and Beards

Clint and I skipped town yesterday afternoon and headed north to Dallas for a night out by ourselves...and okay, I admit it, a night away from the Co-Defendants.  He cancelled car show plans to do this because I've been in an awful funk and he wanted to cheer me up.  What a guy!

Yes, I took a picture of the Dallas skyline.  Call me odd, but I think it's really pretty, especially at night. 

I absolutely love hockey and am a devoted Detroit Red Wings fan, but Hubby wasn't willing to spring for  game tickets and airfare.  Not to mention the fact I'd have to tranquilize him to get him on a plane.

We sat waaay up in the nosebleeds...so high up in the stands that the players looked like ants.  Frankly, this doesn't bother me as you're pretty much assured you're not going to wind up with a puck in the  face or have a guy come crashing through the glass to land in your lap.  Although, some of them were pretty cute so I wouldn't have been entirely opposed to the latter.  Smile.

Faceoff at center ice to start the game...see, told you they looked like ants!  This was only Game 5 of the season so there was very little fisticuffs...only two instances of glove dropping and face punching.  I was, I'm ashamed to admit, vastly disappointed.  That's all part of the experience, otherwise it wouldn't be hockey, it would be...golf.  Although, Tiger Woods may disagree.

I look like I've been caught doing something illegal; he looks like he's been on a bender.  We were also freezing our butts off!

They wound up winning 4-2 over the Columbus Blue Jackets which is a miracle because they played most of the game like they'd left their man-cards at home.  The peewee group that played during one of the intermissions showed a little more spunk.  Dear Hubby sat silently through the whole thing...mostly I think just to hear and watch me make a fool of myself, screaming at the top of my lungs and jumping up and down.  Hockey season is one of the only times Hubby doesn't reached over, pat my knee and whisper vehemently SHHHH!  

Labels

How many of you quilters put a label on your quilts?

I can count on one hand how many times I've done this.  I occasionally will sign my name and date on the back with a Sharpie and then heat set it, but even this is not my habit.

Do you label them all, even the ones for charity organizations, raffles, etcetera?  I think my name and date are sufficient, but I frequently get The Lecture about about being remembered by future generations.  I don't think my own children even realize I have a name other than 'Mom'. 

Does it really matter?