Happy Birthday Darling!

 Happy Birthday to my darling granddaughter,

Somebody is 8 years old today! And as. you can see she loves the PRIZM quilt, so now it lives in California.

The cat loves it too. He hasn't stopped cuddling with it since it came out of the box. (The soft frisbee is a gift from Mémère as well.)

yeah, those two are definitely connected....

Updates

 The birthday party was a wild success. The food was terrific, and the company was great. Alas, there were  no photographs. We were all too busy enjoying ourselves.

It's so much fun when you gather your friends together, and even though they may never have met each other, they all get along and have a good time. That's what happened. Instead of cake, I made red velvet cupcakes. They were delicious. I got some nifty gifts (which I didn't ask for) and some positively HYSTERICAL birthday cards. It was great.

My friend Janet-Lee, who does the longarm quilting on my quilts came and brought some custom decorated cookies. ("Too stinkin' cute!" somebody said.) 

She also brought the Scribble Scrabble quilt, which was tricky for a bit because M's wife, N, was attending the party. (M was traveling for work.)

N was talking about the quilts my grandmother made for all us kids. This seemed like quite the lead-in, so I brought out the Scribble Scrabble quilt, told the story and presented it to N, who was appropriately gob-smacked. I have to put the binding on it, and then it will go live with M & N.

My boss also came, and I showed him the office and remarked that I would soon be returning the WFH computer equipment back to the office. "Well, you should hang on to it. We're going to be needing you and this way you can work from home." So I did a bit of rearranging. I moved the big monitor to the corner so it would be available but not in the way. It really opened up the room and I can still work in it easily with my own laptop. Normally I write the blog from the couch, but working on a desk, with a great view, and the TV close by, is pretty cool.

I know I am going to love being retired. 

A Preview

 

I'm BAAAA-ACK!

The very clever of you will notice I was gone for my birthday. Well, I spent it in the best way possible, in my bathing suit at the beach with my darling GD. This photo was taken at Paradise Cove in Malibu California.

And lemme tell ya, NOTHING surprises a person like a six layer leaning tower of CAKE! I laughed the whole time they were bringing it over and singing. We did NOT eat all of it, but it was quite delicious. I ended up getting THREE cakes, but more on those later. I have been up since "O-dark thirty" and I am one tired Memere.

One more:

Here is my darling son with his daughter and his favorite quilt that I made. It is Magic Carpet and it is (believe it or not) a scrap quilt (but only in the broadest definition of the word.)

Okay!

More later, a gal of my advanced years needs a lot of sleep to catch up from all the excitement!

Guess Who is THREE?

My granddaughter is three years old today!

My son said to me on Sunday, "You're gonna really enjoy her, Mom. She's VERY social!"

I can tell. I remember after one doctor's visit with my son, the doctor said to me, "There's a little bit of ham in this kid."  Clearly it runs in the family!

What Was In The Bags?

So what was in the birthday bags?

A pasta maker,

and a collapsible pasta drying rack.

My son and I FaceTimed while I made the pasta dough, and ran it through the machine. I had had a pot of water boiling, so I was able to cook (and eat) some as soon as I made it.

Best. Birthday. Present. Ever.

Bird-day

I'm having a Bird-day real soon. So I made myself a bird, and you can make a bird like mine too, if you use my tutorial. Of course, you have to actually read it and follow the directions. Or you can come to New Hampshire and take a class with me. But you have to be prepared to leave your old ideas at home, because I don't use templates or traditional patterns. You don't need them.

 (start rant...)
...no, I won't draw you a pattern and send it to you, and I won't create templates and send them to you either, because YOU DON'T NEED THEM. Really; I'm not gonna make you a paper pieced pattern either. Read the previous sentence.
(end rant)

Yeah, you can see it's been a rough week. ANYWAY... 

I got a couple of birthday cards from two of my best friends, and they inspired me.

Gee, I wonder where they got the bird thing from?

Thank you Megan from Sydney Australia and Julie from Tennessee.

I found a box on my side porch two days ago when I went outside to get some fresh basil from the garden. Inside were these two gift bags. They are from my DS, DIL and DGD. (Dear Son, Daughter-In-Law and Dear GrandDaughter.) I immediately texted my son and asked if we could Face Time while I opened them. The reply was immediate:

"SURE! On your birthday! (which was then five or six days away.)" I rolled my eyes and sent this back: "Oh, thank you, I think."


I'm pretty sure I could hear my son laughing from here.

             

Birthday

Like anybody, I love getting presents, and I love opening them. This sparkly package was at the top of the box Julie sent me to return my Flight of Fancy and Life is Tweet quilts to me after she'd borrowed them to teach a Liberated Birds class.  She had told me to expect a present, but I certainly didn't expect THIS!

 It's a quilt Julie made in 2016 but quilted earlier this year, Stacked Squares. I was so surprised. I love it. (We all know how much I love black-and-white.)

I thought it was particularly appropriate to show Julie what I was wearing the day I opened the box (yes, black and white stacked squares.)

Not surprisingly, it looks right at home on my charcoal gray couch.

THANK YOU JULIE!

Cake

You should have cake on your birthday. This one is white chocolate raspberry from the 

Lido Bakery.

 It looked good, and tasted as yummy as it looked.

Salt & Pepper

No, that's not the color of my hair, although that IS the color of my hair. These are the salt and pepper grinders gifted me for my birthday by my pal Julie and her talented woodworker husband Larry. He made them. They will henceforth have a place of honor on my dining room table.

Julie is the most practical, efficient, and organized person I have ever met, so I was not surprised to open the second box in my birthday box to find Salt and Peppercorns for grinding.

Thank you Julie! You and Larry made my day!

Happy Birthday Valerie!

This is one of my best pals, Valerie. She is a blogger from Nova Scotia Canada and is a charter member of the SSOBB (Secret Society of Barn Builders). It's her birthday today.

Happy Birthday pal! Hope you have a great day!

Birthday Wrap Up

So I had a good day yesterday. Bought myself a fun purse with fringe.

I'm a bag lady, what can I say?

I enjoyed the Lobster Mac and Cheese for dinner last night, the birthday cards, texts and phone calls. It was a good day.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

My birthday is over, and so is the buy-the-bird-tute-get-the-butterfly-tute-free deal. If you were able to take advantage of the deal, thank you very much. All the butterflies should be delivered. If you have any questions about butterflies or birds, please email me.

Happy Birthday to Me!

When I was making birds last winter, I was a little blue around Christmastime. As it turns out, that was when my DS and DIL discovered they were pregnant. I made this bird to represent me. Bright wings, hot pink legs and a stylish beak. I gave myself a blue body because I was a bit blue.

I'm not blue any longer, and I'm out of the funk I was in for a few months, so that's good.

It's my birthday and if you order a copy of my Lynne's Liberated Birds Tutorial today I'll throw in the butterfly tutorial for free.  Now you'll have to make sure I have your email address because the butterfly tute will come from me, not Etsy. (And since it's my birthday I'll be busy most of the day, and I will send them out tomorrow.)

 And since I apparently have to say it AGAIN, these birds and butterflies are NOT PAPER PIECED!!!! I think I am going to make a small quilt that says "I am NOT paper pieced."

OK! Happy Birthday to me! Buy the Bird Tute, get the Butterfly Tute free!

Happy Birthday!

It's my birthday today, and I'm celebrating with cake. It's the Tiger Cake from Food52. I didn't add black pepper. Instead I added the grated rind of an orange, a bit of Grand Marnier and to the chocolate batter I added instant espresso powder and cinnamon with a touch of cayenne pepper.

Yes, I am having a slice of this cake for breakfast.  I'll bring the rest to work to share with my coworkers.

Happy Birthday Julie!

This is my best pal, Julie.

Julie lives in Tennessee. Last year I visited her. This past June she came to NH to visit me.

This photo was taken at the Zimmerman House, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright.

Today is Julie's birthday, so I got her a present.  I asked Terri from Quilternity to make one of her Grab and Go bags in fabric that I knew Julie would love.

This elephant fabric would be the lining.

This Jane Sassaman fabric would be the body of the bag.

This is the finished bag.

As you can see in this photo, Julie loves her bag.

Happy Birthday Julie!

No Other Otter

This is a greeting card I received in the mail. I smiled as soon as I saw this otter.

And I grinned from ear to ear when I opened it up and read it.

Later, when I talked to Julie she said she saw it months ago and JUST HAD to buy it.  "[The otter] loves eyeglasses just like YOU do!"

Growing up my Mother always said to me, "You're not the average bear." She always meant it affectionately, and it was always a reassurance, because I knew I was not like the other kids.

I can't tell you how much I love this image, and how it makes me smile every time I look at it. I know I am not your average bear, and I'm not like the Otters, either!

Birthday Surprise

On Monday I received a ship notice from UPS telling me my friend Julie had sent me a package.

I didn't think much about it, but when the package was delivered I was surprised when I saw the size of the box. What could it be?

 Inside was a birthday card

and a small red quilt

but then there was another box.

I was completely puzzled. What was it?

Holy Mackerel! It's one of Larry's beautiful wood turned bowls.  

 Julie's husband Larry Sefton is a woodturner.

You can find more photos of this particular bowl here.

 Doesn't it look beautiful with the Red Letter Alphabet?

Millie isn't quite sure about it.

Thank you so much, Larry and Julie!