Re-writing my autobiography

Dear Blossom Followers,

Remember a few posts ago when I mentioned we are writing our autobiography by the way we decorate our homes. My autobiography in the city house needs to be re-written.....FAST. My daughter's wedding shower is in a little over a week and I'm not ready yet. It is time to do some serious tidying up. So, I began in the sewing room of course.

I bought this cute pie safe a few years ago in San Andreas, CA at The Barn. I had it so stuffed with fabric that I didn't take a picture to show you because I was too embarrassed. (Did the doors "bow" from the weight of the fabric?) I couldn't close the doors before, and now I don't want to close them.

All Fig Tree fabric is on the top shelf along with Beach House and At Water's Edge...all from my favorite designers.

The second shelf has some left-over Stone Cottage and a basket full of goodies for a new project.

The luscious brown, orange, green, purples and plaids are for a new Autumn project. Did you know that plaid is my favorite color? The pinks and greens are for another design that I've had in my mind for over a year now. (Stayed tuned, they could be the next block of the month from me!)

All of the fabric that I removed from the pie safe is now "safely" stored on shelves in the closet.

Here's tomorrow's project. This cabinet was a great "find" from an old Post Office. It is great for storing fat quarters. You can see in an instant what colors you have. Now I just need to re-fold and re-sort the FQ's in all of the little mail slots. I'll post a picture of this when I'm finished.



This reorganization feels "good." Maybe no one from the bridal shower will go upstairs....but I won't cringe if they do.

More to come as I work my way through the house.

I'm working on my borders for Blossom of Friendship in the evening....but it's been hard to stay awake.

As always,

Lynn

To quilt or not to quilt

Good morning everyone,

Melissa, friends Ann and Michelle from Texas, and my husband and I, decided not to spend our day quilting and went for a walk through the North Grove of Calaveras Big Trees State Park located just three miles Northeast of Arnold, CA on Highway 4. http://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=551 Here we are standing on a stump of a tree that is so massive that square dances were once held on it.



The diameter of the tree is measured 4.5' off the ground. A couple of the trees in this park are over 30' in diameter. We needed about eight more quilters to complete the circle around this one!



Resistant to fire, wind is the worst enemy of the trees. You can actually walk through some of the fallen trees.





Early on, a horse and buggy could pass right through this tree. (Left to right, Lynn, Melissa, Ann and Michelle.)



Conveniently placed along the trail are benches that are tilted back. You can recline and gaze upon the spectacular redwoods without hurting your neck.



This is what was right in front of us. The trees are named Mother and Son.



"Toto, we aren't in Kansas anymore!"



We had a good day of fresh air, scenic beauty and companionship. Life is good.

As always,

Lynn

Quilting at the Cabin

Hello Friends,

So what does the owner of a quilt store do when she has a few days off? Well, she gathers up two friends from Texas and heads up to the mountains to spend a couple of days at the cabin....that's what!

We've got Melissa's room already for her. I promise you we will take good care of her and not let the bears near her. We are not responsible if she goes outside after dark!



I've got dinner all planned for either tonight or tomorrow night. Here are the meatballs for sopa de albonidgas just waiting to jump into the broth boiling on the stove. (Recipe below.)



Now look at what these berries turned into.



A wonderful berry crisp. I'll reheat it and serve it with vanilla ice cream tonight...yummers.

Maybe we'll eat dessert first!




No quilting retreat is complete without double chocolate brownies!




Recipe for Sopa de Albondigas

Broth:
1 medium onion chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 (15 oz) can tomato sauce
8 cups beef broth or stock
4 cups chopped fresh tomatoes
2 teaspoons cumin
1 teaspoon crushed oregano
1 teaspoon salt

Meatballs:
1 lb. ground pork
1 lb. extra lean ground beef
1/2 cup uncooked rice
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley
1 teaspoon pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 eggs, beaten

Condiments to put on top of your bowl
chopped avocado
chopped fresh cilantro
chopped fresh tomatoes
sour cream
grated Monterey Jack cheese

To make the broth, saute onion and garlic in the olive oil. Add tomato sauce, beef stock, fresh tomatoes, cumin, oregano and salt. Meanwhile mix together ingredients for meatballs. Shape into little balls and drop into boiling mixture.

Cover and cook for 45 minutes. Serve with the assorted condiments. This soup is actually better the next day. I mash up some of the meatballs prior to serving.

The evenings have been a bit on the chilly side, so this will hit the spot.

Wish you could all be with us.

As always,
Lynn

Month #9 - Miss Zinnia

Dear Quilters,



Welcome to July and month #9 in the Blossom of Friendship block of the month. Miss Zinnia is so cheerful with her big pink flower. You each received a fat quarter to cut out her basket which will give you plenty of material.

I'm still working on border flowers in between getting ready for company for the 4th of July holiday. I'm just about ready to pack all the quilting supplies away, as my 22-month-old grandson Jess, may decide to run off with (heaven forbid) my rotary cutter!



This is a little quilt from Little Quilts that I made and hand-quilted years ago. I put it out on the front porch to welcome our oldest son and his family for the weekend. If you can zoom in, you can see the crocheted lace my grandmother made. I cut up small sections to make curtains in some of the windows. I found a wicker sewing basket that had been packed away for years and it was packed with treasures of tatting, lace and old hankies.



I put the bunting out (where did that word come from?) I actually use the triangle to call all the little kids in for meals.....it works! Of course all the little ones gather around and need to be picked up so they can hit the triangle just as hard as they can signaling every creature within a mile that supper is on the picnic table. Those are memories they will carry with them for a lifetime. Of course they will probably all have bad hearing from the loud clanging they made in their youth at Grammy and Poppy's house.

Now what to do with these luscious berries?

Have a happy and safe 4th of July.

As always,

Lynn

Border Flowers

Dear Blossom of Friendship Followers,

I've sequestered myself away at the cabin this week to work on borders and border flower for Blossom of Friendship. This quilt is going to be exquisite! I've been taking pictures as I go to create a tutorial devoted solely to the creation of the sashing, and borders. I'll post it in the next couple of weeks.



The first thing did was sort all of the remaining fabric. As you can see, I have plenty of fabric left for the remaining border flowers. It helps to display it like this, so I can put colors together much easier than when it is stored in plastic bags.



Over the past eleven months, I've been making some flowers while I was doing the baskets. Each month, more and more beautiful fabric was delivered to the shop that I incorporated into the final blocks and border flowers. Not all of my flowers are going to be a carbon copy of each other. There is such a variety of colors in nature that I can't make the same flower the same way eight times over. You may choose to and that's fine....remember it's your quilt.




Here is a snapshot of one section of the border. This arrangement will most likely change as I place the border next to the blocks that I've sewn together. This is a dynamic process that will continue as I keep making more and more flowers.

The following Smilebox is a closeup of each of the flowers that I've done so far. Some of the flowers I have four of and some only one.....and then there's the reverse of each one too!

Sit back and enjoy the tranquility of the presentation. It's just a taste of the contentment and beauty that surrounds me while burning my fingers on my Hobbico applique iron!

Make a Smilebox postcard

As always,

Lynn

Ten Days Before...........

Dear Blossom of Friendship Followers,

Yesterday, we bought a crate of peaches at Costco. (I could have said we bought them at our local Farmer's Market in downtown Livermore)...but Costco it was. Some friends are coming over for dinner tonight so I decided to make a fresh peach pie.

I turned to my extensive cookbook collection, (I need all the help I can get), and the first book I opened was The Modern Family Cookbook with a copyright date of 1947. The book belonged to my mom and I can remember seeing it in her house for years. I turned the cover over and saw that my father had given it to my mother and had written three little words, "Ten days before....." It's a good thing my mother had written in (wedding) so that I would know what my father was talking about 61 years later!

Yes, this was Harley's gift to his bride-to-be, Edith in 1948. I turned to page 624 to a recipe for Fresh Peach Pie. The page had been turned down and it was comforting to know that my mom had made this very same recipe....who knows how long ago.

So I started making the pie, first slicing the peaches, then rolling out the dough on the enamel top on my Hoosier. The top always stays cool and is an excellent surface for rolling cookies and pie crusts.

The whole time I was making the pie, I was thinking about my parents. Then I started thinking about how our lives and life stories are interwoven like the lattice on the pie.



While it was baking (wish you had smell-o-vision) I was writing this posting.



Today, I made a pie. Not just any pie, but a pie from of an old family cookbook given in love. I also felt that it was a gift from my father for me to enjoy 6 decades later.....even though it was just "Ten Days Before."

As always,

Lynn

Feathering Your Nest

While working on the border flowers for the Blossom of Friendship quilt the other evening at the cabin, I decided to turn on TV. We have basic cable and summer reruns were the only bill of fare available. I knew I’d been in the woods way too long when I found myself watching The Natural History of the Chicken. (I guess as opposed to the Un-Natural History of the Chicken?) If that’s not bad enough, I watched Ferrets: The Pursuit of Excellence. It wasn’t what I call riveting television, but the History of the Chicken was actually quite interesting. Did you know that a hen will pull out her own feathers to line the nest to make her chicks more comfortable?

So let me digress quickly. I keep a little journal of blogging ideas. Of course I scribbled down the names of the two shows on PBS…..I could never make that up! My journal also contained the words; bird nest, graduation, weddings and Relay for Life. Now how is she going to tie this altogether you ask?

A family of sparrows set up housekeeping in my wreath on the front door of the Livermore house and to our delight; we had four little blue eggs before we knew it. We guarded the four little eggs as vigilantly as the mother. We didn’t let the mailman deliver mail through the slot in the door. He put the mail in an In Between Stitches bag on the gate. We didn’t use our front door…we came and went through the garage. The four little eggs hatched on Mother’s Day and then the hatchlings flew the coop shortly after that. Now we have FIVE little blue eggs in the nest. I think this set will be born on Father’s Day.

At the cabin, also by our front door, we have a nest of Stellar Blue Jays. We’ve heard little chirps, so we know there are little ones in there, but we can’t see how many.

Just as the birds from the four little eggs left the safety of that nest, this is the time of year when graduating seniors are leaving the safety of high school and heading to college. College graduates are leaving their old stomping grounds for the work force. And yes, even my little twin granddaughter’s are leaving the safety of Kindergarten for 1st grade. How do we make this transition easier? We make quilts to “feather the nest.” We make T-shirt quilts to remind the recipients of their past accomplishments. We make quilts to adorn a new dorm room or apartment. We make quilts for the bride and groom and their new home. We make quilts for donation to Relay for Life. We make quilts for our friends and family to take with them to chemotherapy. We make quilts to be a constant reminder that we are wrapping our loved ones in our affection. We make quilts as a reminder of what is important in life. Home, Love, Friends and Family.

I always ask customers if the quilt they are making is for them. Nine times out of ten the answer is, “No, I’m giving it away.” What a wonderful, caring, group of people you are.

Here’s to you and “feathering your nest.”

As always,
Lynn