Spring is Here!!!

Quote for the Day:

"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." ~

Doug Larson

Last summer when we were in Tennessee when our grandson was born, I bought a tub full of quilting fabric from someone on their local Craigslist....a whole large tote of fabric for $40!!!  I emptied the tote and put everything away...well...everything except a stack of 5" X 6" squares that were tied together.  This particular stack was a mix of fabrics...seersucker, cotton, home dec and other fabrics...and I wasn't quite sure where to put them.  I could have just thrown them away, but that were such pretty colors and looked like they coordinated with each other so well...they just made me smile...so I just put them aside for the time being.  (The rest of the tote contained cotton quilting fabric with only a small handful of non-quilting fabrics, so it was VERY worth the money!)  

About a month ago when I was cleaning off the shelving units in my sewing room and moving some things around, I came upon them again, but still didn't quite know what to do with them.  I put them on my cutting table and decided that if I didn't figure out something soon, then I would pass them along to a friend that I donate fabric to now and then.

About a week or so after that I was feeling "blah" from all the snow and cold weather and wanted to work with some pretty colors to perk up my mood.  Enter that strange little pile of pretty fabrics...

They were an odd shape and not very many of them, so I decided to use them all and make a table runner to brighten my mood!  The only fabric I added to them was the blue gingham check that I used in the border and the backing fabric...both from my stash!  (The blue gingham used in the blocks was one that came in the stack of fabrics!)

Nothing says "Spring" like florals and gingham!!!  :)

Now can you see why I just couldn't get rid of these pieces of fabric?  Don't they just call your name and say "Look at me...don't I make you smile"???  

Loretta

Vintage Stars quilt is DONE!!!

Quote for the Day:

"The hardest thing to find in life is happiness -- 

money is only hard to find because it gets wasted trying to find happiness."

~author unknown

I finished piecing the Vintage Stars quilt top made from vintage embroidered linens about 2 weeks ago.  Because I had to add interfacing to the vintage linens to give them added strength, I didn't want to try to hand quilt this one.  I also didn't feel that my machine quilting would do justice to the design, therefore, I decided to quilt this one "by checkbook"....the first quilt that I have ever sent out to be quilted by someone else!

I reached out to a local long-arm quilter here in Grafton, Joann Sturm, that I used to attend church with.  She listened to what I wanted and had it completed and back to me one week later!  She did a great job of custom quilting on it!  When I got it home, I added a scrappy binding and labeled it.  I still need to wash it, but wanted to go ahead and photograph it and share it with you!

Here are some close-ups so you can see the excellent quilting in the blocks and sashings...

...and in the pinwheel cornerstones...

The border...

The pieced back...

...and the label...

This one is for ANDY & ME!!!!!!!!  I give most of my quilts away...but this one was made for us!!!

Now...I'm going to go put it in the wash...  :)

Loretta

A New Quilt Block!!!

I'm sure that you all have heard about the Human Genome Project...the project that's been going on since the late 1990's that is mapping all of the genes and chromosomes of the human body.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) is an international scientific research project with the goal of determining the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up human DNA, and of identifying and mapping all of the genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint.

What you may not realize is that they have found that there is a "decorating gene"...some people have it and some people don't.  When they saw the gene, they knew it was the "decorating gene" because it had a little tiny wreath hanging on it!  

BAZZINGA!!!

I can tell you right now that I am deficient in that gene!  That is why I troll Pinterest like my life depended on it!  Yesterday I came upon this article by an interior designer about decorating above cabinets, and it made me more comfortable about this open space above my kitchen cabinets.  I'd been contemplating if I should put something up there or not.  

The article was interesting because it talked about WHEN to put something above a cabinet or shelf.

Back track to last week when I was gifted a hand-made wooden quilt made by a very talented wood-worker...my friend and chiropractor, Dr. Leonette!  I "thought" I knew where I wanted to hang it in the entry way, but for some reason I couldn't pull the trigger to hang it in that spot.  

We have plaster walls, and you'd better be VERY SURE that you want something someplace before you go drilling into the plaster because it is NOT easily fixed like drywall is.  

Then today it hit me what the author said about extending the height of a short piece of furniture by decorating on top with large, non-cluttered items...and I knew just the place for the wooden quilt...

We have two hutches in the dining room...this being the shorter of the two...and that blank space above it always bothered me....it was 3-3.5' of blank space!!  The high ceilings in this house make this mid-century modern hutch look even shorter than it is!  

Instead of hanging this beautiful wooden quilt on the wall, I set it atop the hutch and leaned it against the wall...thus making the two look continuous and increasing the perceived height of the hutch!  Look at the size of that space above it that was just blank before!

I have a variety of woods in this room, so the fact that it is a different wood than the hutch just goes with eclectic feel of the room.  All of the artwork on the walls in this room are one-of-a-kind, hand-made pieces...and all are made by people we know!  I love that!!!  It makes each piece just that much more special to us.

I think it looks good from all angles! 

Yep...that'll do!!  Thanks, Doc, for the beautiful gift!  It will be loved and appreciated very much!

Loretta 

BACON!!!!

People who know me...really, really KNOW me...know that there are two things that are essential for life:  bacon and coffee!!

Coffee has not been a problem for me while doing Whole30...I just had to learn to drink it without any sweetener...using unsweetened coconut milk as "cream".  It took me about 3 days to adjust to drinking it that way.

Bacon has been a different story because I don't eat nitrates/nitrates.  Also, it is hard to find meat and pork that hasn't been given hormones or antibiotics...two other things I don't eat anymore.  

BUT, last week when I was grocery shopping I found some Appleton Farms "Never Any" uncured bacon with NO hormones, NO antibiotics, and NO nitrates/nitrites!!  It does contain a small amount of sugar...but it is the next to the last ingredient on the list.  (This is actually the FIRST food item I've eaten since Jan. 15 that has had ANY sugar in it!)

And guess where I found this bundle of happiness???

At Aldi's, of all places...so it was actually affordable!!!

I cooked the entire package off in the oven this evening so that I can enjoy some in the morning with breakfast!  (Andy & I both tried one piece tonight to see how it tasted.  Andy thought it wasn't as tasty as "regular" bacon, but I thought I had died and GONE TO HEAVEN!!!  Of course, Andy would complain if he were "hung with a new rope", as my dad used to say...but I've learned to not pay attention to his nay-saying!)

Since I'm still not interested in adding sugar as a staple back into to my diet, I will eat the bacon conservatively and just enjoy it occasionally, although, I don't think that the scant amount of sugar that is in this bacon is going to cause issues.  

Forecast for tomorrow's breakfast looks VERY good!!!

Loretta