Grandson's Quilt

Currently my husband and I are the proud grandparents of FOUR grandDAUGHTERS.  I've longed for a grandson!  I love my granddaughters very much!  I have loved making pink quilts and attending tea parties and playing Barbie dolls.  However, probably because I had 3 girls myself, I've wondered what it would be like to have a grandson! 

Our oldest daughter is due in late October and she is having a boy!  She and her husband are so excited!  My husband and I are excited!  Unfortunately, she lives about 12 hours (driving) from us and we can't get out to see her before the baby is due.  So I shipped her 3 things I made for the baby.

The first was a quilt:

This quilt was a breeze to make!  I had a coupon for 50% off one item at my LQS (Local Quilt Store) so I obtained the fabric "layer cake" for about $20 dollars.  The border, binding and backing were all in my stash.  I used the MODA line "Ten Little Things" because my daughter loves owls and the fabric had trucks and things on it!   I'll do a separate blog on how to use a layer cake to make this quilt.

Here are some closeups of the fabric.

 I backed it with some soft flannel and it looked like this:

I quilted this with echo quilting - just sewing around each triangle.  I used a low loft cotton poly blend batting.   The back is a piece of baby flannel that I had.  I like to back baby quilts with flannel, I think it makes them softer. I hope she likes this!

My other two handmade gifts were self binding receiving blankets.  Here is what they look like:

These are literally the easiest thing I've ever made!  I mean E-Z!  It takes a 40" square of the print flannel and a 30" square of the solid, about an hour and you're done.

I learned how to make these from Jenny at Missouri Star Quilting's YOUTUBE video lesson - here is a link:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqwdNqMZ8Ro

I can recommend this pattern to anyone.  It is fast, easy and not expensive at all.  If I were to do this over again, I'd get some extra flannel and make some matching burp cloths!

Anyway these all went in a UPS box and should arrive at her home tonight!  She promised to call me when the box arrives and open them with me on the phone.  I can't wait!

What's around the bend?  I'm working on another quilt with the same pattern using a layer cake, except this time I'm documenting the steps so I can post it for you to use.  Look for a blog sometime in the near future with the instructions. 

Quilting and Math - OH MY!

When I first thought about quilting I was a small child.  I don't even know if I understood math at that time, and I know I didn't realize how math and quilting would go together.

As an adult I am thrilled to use some of those math skills that I so laboriously learned in school!  Today's lesson is in geometry and HEXAGONS!!! 

Lets go back to the beginning of quilt philosophy.  I believe that the outcome of a quilt is directly linked to the beginning of the quilt.  I've found that if I take my time and make sure my pattern is exact, my cutting is exact (or as exact as I can make it) and I double check things before I assemble them - I usually have a much better outcome.  Not only does the quilt look better, but my temper and patience aren't nearly as taxed.

When I started working with hexagons (6-sided figures, each side equal in length with 60 degree angles) I bought premade paper patterns.  This solved the problem of making sure the patterns were perfect, but it did three things that I didn't like:

1. It COST MONEY!!! (I hate spending money if I can do it myself)
2. It made me dependent on someone else - if I ran out of patterns at 11:00 on a Sunday evening (yes, sometimes I quilt late at night) how would I handle it?  What if my LQS (Local Quilt Store) was out of those patterns? 
3. I was not able to customize the size for what I wanted.  I love to use pictures and ideas as inspiration for my quilts.  I don't always follow directions - I make up my own as I go (yes this can cause problems, but once you do this enough you'll usually be able to dig yourself out of those problems)

So let me explain how these patterns are used.  There is an old pattern called, "Grandmother's Flower Garden" today this is known as "English Paper Piecing".  In days gone by, women cut hexagons out of whatever paper they had, many times it was a newspaper or an old Sears's catalog.  She would use scraps of cloth from whatever and eventually, when she had enough pieces she would assemble a quilt top.  She would usually put a solid in the center and printed material around the edges to form a "flower".  Here are some samples of pictures I found on the web:



I can tell you there are at least 1,000+ different ways to use these little hexagons!

You need to make paper hexagons for each of these pieces of fabric.  The fabric is actual sewn to the paper, then the hexagons are sewn together and lastly the paper is pulled out.  So can you imagine how many of these you'd need to do a simple project?  Yep - a bunch.  So lets learn how to make the hexagons.

Step 1 - Figure out how big you want the hexagon.  You'll see them referred to as say a 1.5" hexagon, 2" hexagon etc.  this refers to the length of each side (all 6 sides of the hexagon are the same length).  I don't pay much attention to these references.  I rough draw the size I want for the project I want to make.  For instance, when I did an all white on white dresser runner I used hexagons that were about 1.5" and when I made hexagons for my table topper I used a size about 3.5".  The beauty of doing this yourself is YOU can control the size!!

Step 2 - Gather the materials you'll need.

You'll need:

1. Ruler
2. SHARP Pencil
3. Compass
4. Paper
5. Maybe a magazine or something thick so that the point of the compass doesn't scratch your table top

Step 3 - Draw your rough sized hexagon, then calibrate the compass to draw a circle the same size as the hexagon you've rough drawn.  I also make a dot where the center of my circle is located coinciding with the point of the compass. DO NOT CHANGE THE COMPASS SETTINGS, LOCK THEM IN WHEN YOUR CIRCLE IS THE CORRECT SIZE!

Step 4 - Draw a line through the center of the circle, through the dot that you drew in step 3

Step 5 - Using your compass (with the EXACT same settings as you used to draw the circle) put the point of the compass on the point where the line bisects the circle then draw a small mark with the pencil of the compass to bisect the circle on the left and on the right

Step 6 - Repeat step 5 for the other end of the center line and when you're done the drawing should look like this.

Note you have SIX marks on the circle, the two you created in step 4 with the line, the 2 you drew in step 5, and the 2 you drew in step 6.

Step 7 - Connect the dots!  Use your ruler to draw a line between each of the marks on the circle - you will draw SIX lines.

When you're done with step seven the drawing should look like this

Step 8 - Now cut out your master hexagon

Step 9 - I call this my DOUBLE CHECK step.  I cut out 5 or six patterns out of paper and then put them together to make SURE that the hexagons are correct.  If you did everything above, took your time and made sure you were precise it should look like this.

That is all there is to it!  You've made your hexagons.

What's around the corner?  I will create a new page on the blog for instructions on how to make a project using your newly made hexagons.

Seen in my Garden

I don't have a huge garden, but I love to tend what I have.  For the past few years I've been attempting to grow flowers native to this region.  This year I stumbled on a beautiful flower - the cone flower.

They come in many different colors.  The flower matures differently than any other flower I've seen.  The center forms and looks exactly like the centers in the picture.  Then spikes appear to grow out (these will become the petals).  They are tightly rolled and you can't tell what color they will be.  Slowly, over a day or so the spikes unroll and form the petals.  It is very interesting to watch.

On another note cone flowers attract butterflies!  You can see the yellow tiger swallowtail above and here is his cousin the black swallowtail:

When I first snapped this one I was ready to toss it out, but I was amazed at the detail of the blue on his wings.  It looked like fairy dust to me.  He is just a pretty butterfly.

And of course one of my favorite garden visitors are my fat bumblebees.  I'll admit that this one was on a weed near the edge of the garden bed, but he was so BUSY.  I love it when they land on a flower to collect the pollen, but they are so fat that the flower bends.  Bumblebees are so dedicated to collecting their pollen.  I love watching them.

I find a great deal of peace working in my garden.  I often sit and look at the beautiful plants and find myself wondering on God's creative genius.  Digging in the dirt and planting things that will grow and flourish nourishes my soul.  I love to create things and I love to assist plants as they create flowers.  Most of all I enjoy when wildlife visits the garden to partake of its bounty.

What's around the bend?  We are trying out two recipes this weekend that I'll blog on!  Stay tuned for a pork loin with sauce and my favorite salmon cakes!!!

Cats for People Who Don't Know Cats

This subject was on my mind this morning.  You see we adopted our cat without really knowing anything about cats.  I've had barn cats etc., and I had one indoor/outdoor independent cat (I'm not sure it is fair to say "I had" for him) but this would be our first indoor cat.

Sitting by the backdoor chattering at birds on the deck.  We feed the birds from the side of the deck and Caruso LOVES to sit and watch them.

We made a few mistakes along the way, some of which weren't too bad, and a few we had to change IMMEDIATELY or Caruso would suffer.  I can't stress enough that a GOOD VET is your best source of information!  However, if I called my Vet every time I had a question I don't think she would be our Vet for long!  I tend to do research on the web.  When I find something that looks credible I do cross reference it and make sure it isn't just a wild idea. 


He LOVES quilts, and quilts in a beam of sunshine
 is irresistible to him.

 Tidbits I've learned
Did you know that you should be feeding and offering water to your cat out of stainless steel bowls?  I didn't until we found out the hard way.  First of all ceramic and plastic bowls have surfaces that aren't smooth (yes even though the ceramic bowl is glazed and feels nice and smooth) and the irregular surfaces allow bacteria to cling and offers an easy place for it to grow.  Second of all both ceramic and plastic bowls can cause a cat to get "Chin Acne" little blackish pimples!  So we switched Caruso to all stainless steel bowls. 

Did you know that you should be changing your cat's water EVERY DAY?  I didn't know that, but we did it out of concern that Caruso have fresh water!  When we started off with him we had a self watering system.  We thought, "Wow how nice!  Container with clean water, it bubbles when it fills the bowl, and he couldn't tip it."  We couldn't forget to fill it etc.  Boy were we wrong.  First of all the bowl got dirty and slimy quickly.  Since we didn't change the water daily, it was really gross.  A contributing factor to Caruso's kidney problem was he wasn't drinking enough water.  Was it because of our poor choice in water container?  Who knows, but when we threw that out and went to stainless steel - he drinks like a camel who won't see water for days.  (He doesn't have diabetes).  Another note for people how have filtered automatic waterers - you need to change that filter OFTEN apparently bacteria grows there profusely.

Did you know that a cat's water and food dishes should be set apart?  I didn't have a clue until one day, during the course of a conversation, our vet told me that.  I was a bit sceptical but I gave it a try and Caruso loved it!  He drank more and seemed very happy.  The bowls are in our kitchen and they are about 12 feet apart.  I called up my daughter, who has a cat, and told her.   She gave it a try for her cat and again he LOVED the new setup.  You may want to give this a try in your home.

I do not use the pretty nylon collars anymore.  Caruso would scratch the collars and eventually they would become unsightly - but that isn't why we don't use them.  When he would scratch, sometimes he'd hook a thread and pull which tightened it on his neck.  Our vet suggested and we have switched to "Beastie Bands for Cats" I found them for about $6.00 each on Amazon.

What's around the bend?   I don't have any specific ideas about posting on cats - but if you have any hints or ideas, please comment below and I'll share them with the blog!

Vegetable Garden Test

More on our gardens!

My husband has spent his life either in a very urban setting or stationed on military bases all over the world - none of which truly allowed him time to plant a vegetable garden.  This year he agreed to let me try adding vegetables to my flower gardens.  You see, adding gardens in this area is a MAJOR undertaking as you have to dig (drill) through clay and then add dirt etc.  Or you can do something called raised bed gardening (on my to do list in a year or so).  Since it is just the two of us, we don't need a huge vegetable garden (yet), so I thought I could utilize garden beds that were already in existence and just add my veggies to it!

Rather than overwhelm ourselves with tons of things, I decided to try out 5 tomato plants, 2 cucumbers, 2 squash and 4 yellow pepper plants.


They resemble small trees - but they are just a few tomato plants.  These are all over 5 foot tall and have thick branches held up by the metal cages.

My tomatoes grew wildly - beyond my expectations!  It is VERY dense in the tomato area.  We have fresh sweet tomatoes all week long.  I planted a variety to see what we liked.  Honestly next year I'm going to try out new ones as none of these were exactly what I wanted.

With the horrible heat wave baking us this summer, I lost my squash and cucumbers.  I watered every day, but to no avail.  I can only take heart that other people (who are much more knowledgeable than I) lost their squash and cucumbers too!  So next year I have high hopes to try again!!

My yellow peppers!  In the beginning they struggled and then took.  Each plant had one pepper growing.  We were so excited.  Then the heat wave... UGH... cooked peppers.  I thought for sure that was it.  I was wrong.

This is only two of the pepper plants! There are two more beside them.  Look at the bounty of peppers!!

My peppers LIVE!  They are all offering us peppers - many peppers.  I can see some lovely bags of peppers in the freezer to bring out in the dead of winter!

I hope you enjoyed this tiny peek into my gardens.  I should share my husband's reaction to our attempt at farming.  He is thrilled.  I think he would make a great farmer.  He loves to work on the plantings, weedings, caring and harvesting of the plants.  He loves to eat the fruit of our labor.  I'd plant 100 tomatoes to see his happy smile when he bites into the tomatoes!

Just around the bend - I'm thinking about trying some hydroponic herb gardening under grow lights in my basement this winter.  I'll keep you posted when I figure that out! 

Crepe Myrtles

We love to garden!  Unfortunately, we live in an area that is almost 100% clay but I'm slowly overcoming that hurdle. 

Moving to Virginia from the north was great, for many reasons!  I found a whole new variety of plants to enjoy!  Hands down, my favorite local lovely are crepe myrtles.  I have 6 of them in my yard, and if my hubby didn't rein me in I'd probably have 60!  They come in all colors, shapes, sizes and they bloom at different times from spring to summer.  Here are two of mine and a close up of the flower clusters.  One thing to note is these were taken about 12 hours after a heavy rainfall, the stems/branches are bent slightly from the weight of the water on the heavy blooms.

I am working on getting more gardening pictures together to post, but I wanted to share these with you as they are my favorites. 

Surprise in my Garden

Today is one of those perfect "Summer is Winding Down" days in Virginia.  It is cool and rainy today.  My husband was on the covered front porch enjoying a cup of coffee and his newspaper when I went outside to visit.

As I sat in my chair and chatted I noticed someone had come to visit my garden.  Now I'm NOT a fan of spiders - but this one was too pretty to not take a picture of.  I also loved the way the web is sprinkled with water droplets.

I'm not sure but I believe he is a type of garden spider.

Plattsburgh, NY

We just returned from several days in Plattsburgh NY, where we attended a good friend's daughter's wedding.

I love Plattsburgh!  It is on Lake Champlain and it is just a lovely place.  Having visited our friend, and her family, several times I was forced to look up some information on this area.  Here is a map of the lake:

And here is a good link for information on the lake: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Champlain

Did you know that there are legally SIX Great Lakes?  Yes there are! Lakes Huron, Ontario, Michigan, Erie and Superior are the five that most people are familiar with.  However in 1998 Lake Champlain was named (officially) the sixth great lake.  Here is a link to that information:  http://www.dencities.com/champlain.html

Did you know that Lake Champlain has its' own legendary monster?  Probably not as well known as Nessie in Scotland, but nonetheless - here is some information on Champy.  By the way, I've looked for her whenever we are visiting the lake, but alas, nothing seen - YET!!  http://www.csicop.org/si/show/measure_of_a_monster_investigating_the_champ_photo/  And here is another website with some more informaion:  http://www.genesispark.org/exhibits/evidence/cryptozoological/plesiosaurs/champ/

Did you know that in 1814 the first military base was located in Plattsburgh?  This base evenutally became the Plattsburgh Air Force Base and it was closed in 1995 by the BRAC (Defense Base Closure and Realignment).  "The original military reservation consisted of only 200 acres. Additional parcels of land were acquired and stone barracks were built to house "Plattsburgh Barracks" personnel in 1838. Many different types of units have valiantly served  at Plattsburgh over the years using a great variety of weapons, from muskets and cannons to the sophisticated FB-111As and KC-135s. When the base was finally closed, it covered 3,447 acres."  Here is a link to the Wikipedia article I drew a lot of this information from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plattsburgh_Air_Force_Base The history of this base is wonderful, colorful and upon reading it, helped me understand some of the War of 1812 better. 

If you ever have a chance to visit this area of our country, I can highly recommend it!  You will be 20 miles (or so) south of the Canadian border and only 55+ miles from Montreal.  The Lake Placid olympic village lies about 40 miles from Plattsburgh and I understand that the outlets in Burlington VT aren't far away either!  There are a ton of historical sites and things to view and learn about.  One of my favorite is a story that was verbally related to me by a long time resident about a tiny island (I would guess the "island" is about the size of a house - a one story rancher - but that is my guess) that lay off the mainland about a 1/3 of a mile.  The story goes that one evening during the War of 1812, the British thought the island was an American ship (I've seen the island in the evening and I can easily see why someone might think that) so they bombed it and expended all of their ammunition trying to sink the perceived ship.  I haven't been able to confirm that verbal story, but it was interesting and it was told to me with a great deal of joy and by a man who was an inate story teller!!!

Baby Quilt

I made this quilt for a friend of mine whom I work with and his wife.  They were going to have a boy!  Since I've only had granddaughters and daughters, FINALLY I would get a chance to make a boy's quilt!

I asked my friend what theme did they have?  He told me none.  I asked what colors, to which he replied, nothing specific but no pastels. 

Well that left the door wide open!  So I drafted a quilt pattern, calculated my yardage and off to the LQS I went (Local Quilt Store).  I fell in love with Moda's Meadow Friends.  This is the quilt.


Baby Quilt - Moda's Meadow Friends

I quilted it on my Bernina and just did some simple echo quilting to simulate ripples in water.  Imagine a stone being dropped in the pond - the ripples flowing outward. 

Close up of quilt

I know you can't see it very well - the picture didn't do the quilt justice (plus the fact the quilt was photographed upside down). 

I tend to make baby quilts larger than what would be considered "normal".  I remember as a young mother always wishing the baby blankets were just a smidge larger. 

The batting is dream cotton and I quilted it with YLI thread.  Once I washed it I thought it looked nice.  Not too puffy, but just enough to give it some definition.

Caruso McKitty

This is our baby, Caruso.  Just your average American Kitty.  Caruso came to us six years ago in February when we lived in New Jersey .  A work friend of mine rescued him from the streets of Philadelphia.  Her cats didn't like him so she found him a "Forever Home".  I saw his picture posted at work and sent it to my hubby, who was in uniform at the time and away from home (Army).  He said okay we could give the cat a try.

Now Caruso's original name was given to him by my friend's nine year old daughter.  She called him Prince.  This would not work for him at our house.  I can't picture my husband and I crooning, "Here Prince" so we had to find a new name.  Since he would "sing" every time he came in or left a room, lept up or down, we came up with Caruso.  I figured he sang like Enrico Caruso.  If you remember, this is the same time that the musician Prince renamed himself and referred to himself as "the artist formerly known as Prince".  Yeah we did the same to Caruso, he is still jokingly referred to as "The cat formerly known as Prince".

So Caruso came to live with us.  I think it took me 20 minutes to fall in love with him that first night, Valentines Day 2006.  My husband came home that Friday to a terrified cat.  My hubby wore combat boots and for whatever reason (we think a man in boots must have hurt him when he lived on the streets) Caruso was TERRIFIED.  So late that night, after we had gone to bed, my husband got up not feeling well.  He went to lay down on the couch and watch some TV and be sick without waking me.  Caruso, who still hadn't really warmed up to my hubby, came and laid on him.  Even though he was scared he wanted to be with my husband.  THAT WAS IT!  Caruso was ours - PERIOD!!!

And so began our life with Caruso.  We've not looked back and cannot image a day without him in it.  Caruso has decided that he loves to quilt, knit and clean!  He lives to help me do things.  He is quite the craft kitty.  I'm sure as time goes on I will blog tons about Caruso.  

Here he is helping me with a quilt for Granddaughter #3  We call him the Quilt Police

Inspecting a baby quilt before it was gifted to a good friend.



No matter what we are doing in the house, Caruso is there to supervise and to help us.



Reset on My Quilt Studio

UGH it was a huge task!

When we moved to VA one of our agreements was I could have the small guest room as my studio.  We moved in and I sort of just jammed things in the room willy nilly.  That was 5 years ago.  It was very disorgnaized and it was becoming increasingly difficult for me to use the room, and honestly I didn't want to be in the studio.

So I decided to rip the studio apart. The only thing I left in the room (besides the walls, doors,celing and floor) was the cutting table.

I use a wire cube rack system to help me organize my things.  Because I have so many crafts I need extreme organization or it is unusable.  My biggest craft, by far, is quilting.

Wire rack system set up

You'll see my flag showing 2 members of my family serving in the US military.  I'll blog on that later in a separate post.

The white boxes to the left of the wire racks, are actually drawers (and they end up elsewhere in the final room).  You can also see a wooden book case tucked in on the left side.  That is going to be replaced with a taller bookcase at a later date.  When that comes in I'll blog about it because I am going to be refinishing it myself!

So here is a corner of my room after I had it all organized.

Pretty colors, bright light through the window and my beloved Bernina sewing machine.  Beneath the window is a bench with pretty wicker baskets under it (they are stuffed with projects).  Laying on the bench are the parts and pieces for what would become the gold quilt (it has it's own blog)
And this is the wire cube wall unit assembled and filled


All of my quilting fabrics neatly wrapped and displayed in color families.

At the top is a teddy bear (you can see him sitting on top of a brown cube).  He is one of my hand drafted, hand sewn teddy bears.  I used to make these and sell them, but now I'm just making them for my grandkids. 

So much fabric!  I've been collecting for almost 20 years.  I've traded and bartered.  Some of the fabrics are left overs from commissioned quilts and some are gifts.  I don't subscribe to the old quilting adage, "She who dies with the most fabric wins" but I do enjoy having lots of choices.

You can buy the wire cubes at Target and if you're interested in the fabric storage boards I used to organize things, just drop me a note and I'll give you the contact information.

Thank you NM Sis

My New Mexico sister has been blogging for a while.  She was my main inspiration for starting my own blog.  She is my second to youngest sister and she lives far away!  But she is one of my best friends.

Thanks NM Sis for your encouragement, comments and most of all your love.

Always,
Cee Cee

Chameleon Beans!

We went to the Madison Farmers Market this morning.  One of the stands was selling purple beans - which the lady swore would turn green when cooked, and she also said they'd taste just like green beans.  Well my middle name is scepticism, but what the heck I'd give it a whirl.

Purple Beans fresh from the market.

So I washed them and cut them to prepare for the first step of my recipe here is what they looked like.

Note the lovely green centers - and I wish there was smell-o-vision on the computer they smelled SO FRESH!

We put them in the microwave for 5 minutes to start the cooking.  Here is what they looked like after that.

We saved an uncooked bean to compare the cooked ones too.  Note my husband is pointing it out for you.

I'll give you the recipe below but here was the final products!

Green beans with nuts and steak!



Dinner!  I love the cloth napkins.

So I am no longer sceptical.  One of my sisters said that she loves to eat purple beans (purple green beans) raw!

Recipe:

1. WASH your beans very thoroughly.  As you wash them watch for bad ones, leaves etc. 
2. Cut your ends off and either snap or cut your beans into bite sized pieces.
3. Put them in a microwave safe bowl, put several tablespoons of water in the container and then cover it with stretch tite (saran wrap).
4. For two servings cook it in the microwave for 5 minutes.  You aren't trying to cook them through - just get them started.
5. While you're doing this take some hazelnut pieces (or almond pieces) and toast them in a small frying pan.  I toast them on medium high heat and NEVER LEAVE THEM.  I stir them a lot - they are done when you can see a tinge of color but more importantly when you can smell them.  They go from being done to burnt in seconds - so be very mindful.
6. Move the toasted nuts to a cutting board and let them cool (we'll get back to them later in the recipe)
7. When the beans are done in the microwave move them to a frying pan.  I use a spritz of oil and a pat of butter to cook them - however you can adjust this to taste.
8. Add a pinch of salt (or if you are on a salt restricted diet skip this) and some fresh ground pepper.
9. Cook them covered on medium heat.  I stir them often.  You want them to get a touch of brown color but not fried.
10. While they are cooking, cut up your toasted nuts.  I like them cut pretty fine, but make them to your taste.
11. Into the hot pan of beans add some lemon juice.  I love fresh squeezed but sometimes the price gets me.  I have been known to use lemon juice from a jar.  I use about a 1/2 tsp - but you can adjust this to taste.  Stir and remove from the heat immediately.  Add the nuts and mix.
12. Serve and ENJOY!





Welcome!

I've thought about blogging for a while.  Several friends and relatives have blogs and I enjoy reading them.  I also have found a wealth of information in blogs.  So why not?

This is my first attempt and please bear with me as I add content.  Right now it is pretty sparse, but please check back to see whats new!

Where did I get the name?  I love driving on back roads.  I love wandering and I often find myself thinking, "Whats around the next bend"?  When I think about it, it is an interesting way to face life.  I am usually cruising along happily living my life when I look up and realize that, for whatever reason, we are approaching a bend.  As I continue to cruise I begin to prepare and think about what the next stretch of road will bring.  I can bring this analogy to everything - but I won't bore you with that!

So I hope you enjoy what you find her in my little corner of the blogging world.

A Bit About Me

My husband and I live near the Blue Ridge mountains in Virginia.  Our 3 girls are grown, married and live wonderful lives that we get to share in.  We currently have 4 granddaughters and our first grandson is due in October of 2012.  I think being a grandparent is the greatest thing of all!  I am a Christian and find a great deal of peace in applying my religion to life's daily trials.

My husband works for the US Government and I work as a contractor for the US Government.  We've been married for 6+ years, and I still feel like we are on our honeymoon.  He is my best friend and he tells me that I am his too.  We love to cook together, relax and travel too.  An average summer evening at our home would find him on the porch with a good cigar, me sewing in my studio and then both of us converging in the family room to watch some TV and talk while I sew on my current hand project.  In the winter we love to pour a glass of wine, have a fire in the fireplace and read books together!  I like sitting on the couch with my toes tucked under him and just enjoy the evening.

We share our home with a small cat, Caruso.  Caruso was a rescue from the streets of Philadelphia and came to us from a friend.  I'm not sure if we cohabitate with him as equals or if we are here as his staff.  Either way, we love him and I think he loves us too.  He has a condition that apparently is common in male cats, crystals in his urinary tract.  We take great care to ensure that he is healthy and happy. 

I love to sew!  I quilt and sew almost daily.  I also enjoy needlework of all types, embroidery, candlewicking, cross stitching, stump work, needlepoint and crewel are some of my favorites.  I also enjoy crocheting and knitting.  I spin wool and weave too.  I like to dye my own fibers as it lets me customize what I am working on.

I hope you enjoy reading my blog!

Cee Cee

Thoughts on Food

My husband and I live alone, just the two of us and our cat.  About a year ago it occurred to me that we were NOT living efficiently nor were we being good stewards of food.  I was wasting things for no reason other than I was lazy.   About a year ago we also looked at ourselves and realized we needed to change our eating habits or risk moving into the severely overweight category. 

Couple these two things and add to it my slow awakening to the dangers in processed and prepared foods.  I'm constantly shocked by what is in premade/packaged foods!  For instance, the next time you're at the supermarket and you go to buy a raw whole chicken to roast READ THE LABEL.  I was floored when my raw chicken had a LIST OF INGREDIENTS!!! 

Luckily, we are able to put food on our table relatively easily.  We have many choices and we take full advantage of them!  I am planning on learning how to can next year.  That will be blogged so that everyone can enjoy my trials and tribulations and hopefully, people chime in and offer advice!

Anyway, for now in our life we are striving to do our own food prep from scratch for as much as we can.  I'll admit that we both work jobs that are more than 40 hours a week and we sometimes are lazy.

Easy Grilled Salad

About two years ago we bought our first grill.  Since then we've been on a journey to learn new things to grill and new grilling methods.  To date, the oddest thing I've discovered is grilled salad!

Here is a picture of the salad

It is so simple and SO good! 

1. Take a head of romaine lettuce and cut it in half. 
2. If the tips of the lettuce are a bit beat up or starting to show their age, I just trim them off. 
3. WASH THE LETTUCE!  I wait until I cut it open to wash it so I ensure the inner leaves get washed too.
4. Shake the well washed lettuce until most of the water is off of the leaves.
5. Generously brush the cut sides with olive oil.
6. Slip onto a medium heat grill, cut side down.
7. Grill for 1 1/2 - 2 1/2 minutes.  We grill until the grill marks are well established and the lettuce has wilted (not shriveled but wilted).
8. Take the lettuce off the grill and put it on the dinner plate, cut side up.
9. Drizzle with red wine vinegar.
10. Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste.
11. Dress with fresh shredded Parmesan cheese.
12. Serve and enjoy a healthy, affordable EASY salad from the grill!

Steps of Quilting

Quilting is my way of expressing myself.  I try to design or chose patterns that match the person I'm making the quilt for taking into account the use of the quilt etc.  I love it when I work with someone (like a granddaughter) and manage to draw out the information I need to create a quilt that they will love and USE!

In my opinon, there are a few distinct stages to quilting:

1. Getting to know what the receipient wants! This is usually where I begin.  Sometimes the person has no clue, and other times they are definite about their wants. For instance, Grandaughter #2, who is 6 year old told me, "I want it pretty, I want lots of white and B-R-I-G-H-T colors"  Okay I can work with that (I will be posting this quilt in a series of blogs which should begin sometime this fall).
2. Or step 3 depending - Pattern choice. This is usually my second step as it will set the tone for the fabric I chose.  If you look at my blog "RED QUILT" you'll see an example of a quilt that was made with this step being #3 - yet it still turned out looking great! 
3. Or step 2 depending - Fabric choice.  This is usually my third step and I base it on the pattern choice.  As I say this, I can say that probably 1/4 of the quilts I've made were this as step 2 with the pattern following.  But I find it is usually easier to do pattern and then fabric.
4. Piecing the top.  This is where the parts are cut and then sewen together.  I machine piece.  Some people will hand piece their tops, and that is a personal choice.  Personally I love to machine piece as it allows some speed in the process but I also think the seams are more sturdy.
5. Quilting the top.  This is the second to the last step.  If the quilt is small or the seams are straight (see RED QUILT) I will do this on my Bernina.  If I want a pattern to the quilting or if the quilt is large, I will finish it on a LAQ (Long Arm Quilter).  Lucky for me, there is a machine at my LQS (Local Quilt Store) where I've taken lessons and can rent time on their machine.
6. Finishing the quilt.  I like to hand sew the binding on the edge.  If I have a quilt label I attach it during the binding process.

So that is a quick list of the steps to making a quilt.  There is more indepth discussions and other considerations, but I'll save that for another blog posting.

Gold Quilt

I love quilting.  I consider myself an advanced beginner.

Quilting is a way to express myself.  I love traditional fabrics and tradtional patterns. 
Here is an example of what I enjoy (for myself) - this was made for our big guest room. 

Double Irish Chain with Moda's Morris Tapestry fabrics.  The pattern for the quilt is from the Quilt in Day Irish Chain book, the pillowcases and shams were my own design, influenced by the pattern for the quilt.

It was my first bed skirt too!  It was difficult to figure it out, but I managed.  I made the decking out of an old duvet cover that was past it's prime (as no one would see it).  I will caution you though the corners at the foot of the bed were a pain.  Each side has an inset (you can't see it well in this picture). 

I will post instructions for the bed skirt in another blog later.

Red Quilt

This quilt was made for my best friend's wedding.  She LOVED the fabric and really LOVED the red!  I didn't follow any published pattern, I drafted and created this myself. 

M's Quilt!  The pattern is based on an old pattern called a Braid.  I call this a modified braid.  I created the patterns for the quilt and pillow shams myself.  The material is by Moda and it is the Luna Note pattern.

I quilted this myself on my Bernina 440 QE.  I definitely built strong arm muscles!  Oh it was difficult!  The finished size was 120 x 98!  She wanted it to have a long drape (distance from the edge of the mattress to the edge of the quilt) Here is what the back looks like.



Back of M's Wedding Quilt



If I had it to do all over, I'd have quilted this on a LAQ (Long Arm Quilting Machine).  The good news is my friend loves it and it makes me happy to see it on her bed, proudly displayed and lovingly used every day.

So that launches me into one of my personal opinions on quiting.  I make most quilts to be USED!  One of the greatest moments in my life as a quilter came from Granddaughter #1.  I had been quilting for many years and then took about a 10 year break.  The first quilt I did, after my long break, was her quilt.  It wasn't perfect but it was hers and she had picked out the fabrics and helped me set the rules for the quilt (for instance each of the focus fabrics could only be on the quilt once and each of the complimentary fabrics could only appear twice etc).  It was about 4 years later that she and her Mom called me to explain that the quilt had a small tear in it and could I fix it?  It was an easy "band aid" fix (thank goodness) but as I was fixing it I saw a small stain and another small wear spot.  I fixed the wear spot and was getting ready to cover up the stain - when it hit me.  Why?  That was the quilt's badge of love.  She was USING the quilt!!!  I will admit to you that I had tears in my eyes.  I live about 250 miles away from her and I never actually saw her use the quilt, but here was the proof that it was used and loved.