We Interrupt...

 We all have special people in our lives who, when they ask, "Hey Ma (or Memere, Grammy, Auntie, Sis, or whatever), can you make me a quilt..." the answer is always YES!

My son texted me yesterday afternoon, "Are you making no-batting quilts now? Like my old one that you made for me when I went to college? [My wife] and I love those. Can you make us a sage green one?"

"Yes," I texted back, "I made one for my bed.  Of course I will make one for you two."

"Can you put some dark greens in too?" he asked, "Foresty. We have a Queen bed. We love my old one. DW wants light green and I want dark green."

"OF COURSE, I will make you whatever colors you want.

I sent this picture to them, telling them this was my entire green stash.

DIL texts back that she likes that green with the pink, and can I incorporate that fabric? Well my dear, your wish is my command, so I pulled more greens with pink.

Here are some more sage-y greens.

I kept pulling fabrics. Here are greens with pinks and other colors.

And here are some more. I'll need at least 35-40 fabrics and I think I have that number here.

Here are all of them together. Obviously if I need more darks or lights I'll add them, but this is enough to get me going.

I know I said my next quilt would be the second Student bird quilt, but hey, family takes precedence. My DIL is getting to the age where she has hot flashes at night and a quilt like this will help keep her more comfortable at night, especially as summer approaches.

Julie would say SQUIRREL!!!

I can't wait to get started.

Memere to the Rescue!

 

Every time I go to California to visit my son's family. we take a trip to the South Coast Botanic Garden. This photo of my granddaughter was taken in August of this year when we visited the butterfly exhibit. I give my son and his family a membership to the Gardens each year. I love visiting as much as they do.

Yesterday my son texted me, "There are dinosaurs at the botanical gardens! And we lapsed our membership!"

HOLY TERROR BATMAN!

I tried to remember when I renewed the membership. I couldn't recall. So I got on my phone and brought you the Botanic Garden website and gave them a call. Discovering the membership had indeed expired, I renewed it for another year. After the staff person told me the membership was reinstated I thanked her, "Now I need. you to do me a favor. I need you to go out to the ticket office and tell the clerk that the membership for my son's family has been reinstated. I'm pretty sure my son is out there waiting with my granddaughter!"

She laughed and did just that. 

A few minutes later I got a text from my son, "Thanks Mom, they just let us in."

Turns out membership renewal notices are sent to the members, so my son probably saw it and thought, "Oh, Mom will take care of this." Now I have set a notice on my phone so I will renew the membership in time next year.

Memere to the rescue! 

OK! Christmas gift for the family... CHECK!

Happy granddaughter... CHECK!

Butterflies & More

 The South Beach Botanic Garden is located not far from my son's family. They love it, so I gift them with a family membership each year.

They had a butterfly exhibit there while I was visiting. Most places now have areas designed for photos. We should all be butterflies!

Not many people were lucky enough to be the landing spot for a butterfly.

This was as close as I got, but it was still fine by me.

They have lovely flowers, an entire bleeding heart garden, and a stunning rose garden, but I find myself attracted to the Cactus garden.

They were in flower, which was really cool to see.

We had some terrific food. Here my DGG is taking a picture of my son and DIL.

While there I read Haroun and the Sea of Stories **** to my DGD. I really didn't need to. She is able to read very well. Once I stopped to take a drink of water, and when I tried to find my place to resume reading, she pointed it right out to me! It's a fun book, and when we got to the end of one chapter and she said, "Do we have to stop? Can you please keep reading?" I knew she liked the book as much as I do.

It's always fun to see quilts I made a long time ago. This is the Petals quilt I made in 2015. I slept under the Dinosaur quilt!

Before I left, I set up my DGD's iPad so she could FaceTime with me with just the push of a button. As you can see she is getting tall. She'll be nine next week, and I'm pretty sure that the next time I see her she'll be taller than me.

I had a grand time.

**** this from Amazon about the book: 

Immediately forget any preconceptions you may have about Salman Rushdie and the controversy that has swirled around his million-dollar head. You should instead know that he is one of the best contemporary writers of fables and parables, from any culture. Haroun and the Sea of Stories is a delightful tale about a storyteller who loses his skill and a struggle against mysterious forces attempting to block the seas of inspiration from which all stories are derived.

“This is, simply put, a book for anyone who loves a good story. It’s also a work of literary genius.” —Stephen King

Not in Kansas

So I am not in Kansas.  Don’t think I’ve ever been to Kansas.

No, that’s the Pacific Ocean.

And that’s my granddaughter with me, having brunch  I had ham and eggs and avocado and I don’t know what else on a croissant.  It was fabulous, and I can’t believe I ate the whole thing. I’ve since had soba noodles at a Korean place and Tunisian food. At Barsha. And I had brunch at Martha’s, which is fabulous.

I’ve been a Penzey’s customer for years but I’ve never been in one of their stores so it was great to visit one. 

It’s kind of a PITA to post on my iPad so that’s it for now. 

This and That

 

I've got the bindings for the three quilts all made.

I've got the hanging sleeve for the Not Paper Pieced Quilt all ready.

I've got the backing for the Scribble Scrabble quilt ready. It's maps because M travels a lot for his work.

My son, DIL and DGD are together taking Tae Kwan Do. They have all just graduated to their Purple Belts. (Yes, my son has a Fourth Black in Kenpo Karate and Mr Park and his staff knew instantly that he had some prior training, but I think the three of them taking classes as a family is a terrific thing.)

And I am kinda sorta planning a new Holiday wall hanging. Obviously it won't be ready for THIS Christmas, but I am having fun with it.

HOLY MOLY! Christmas is next week.

Woo Hoo!

 

I thought it would be fun to get a banner to welcome my son and his family to NH for the weekend.

Guess who loves to play Jenga? The tower did NOT crash after my son removed his piece. It did crash on the next person's turn.

Here are the four generations. 

DGD and I made a tiger cake and fish chowder and we picked at a cheese platter for lunch. Who would have thought DGD loved Brie cheese?

I made another bag, and this one didn't come from the scrap stash. This one may not ever leave my house!

Coming Soon...

 YES! My Darling Son, DIL, and DGD will be here next month for my nephew's wedding. I have already been told by DGD that she plans to make Peanut Butter Energy Balls with me. No problem, darling, my kitchen is well stocked and we will can do that.

So of course I have to clean the house. Specifically the studio which has fabric everywhere. (Well, it's a quilting studio, what else do you expect?) You all know the drill.

I have also dug out some of my son's childhood books to read to DGD when she is here, and I have also stocked up a small selection of dinosaur coloring and activity books and crayons for DGD. I mean, hey, I'm a grandmother, that's my job!

And YES, the eagle-eyed amongst you will recognize the very first Zebra Quilt (seen in the first three photos here), which is the family's designated picnic/beach quilt.

If you want to make a Zebra quilt, you can get the tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

YES I am counting the days....

Finishing Touches

 My best pal Julie is coming to visit me next week. I have been working hard to get the house looking good. Mostly because I want it to look good for myself, but having company come is great motivation to get things done.

The Family Wall in the corner of my living room is all done. I have raised all the pictures that hung on the left side of the drawing of my grandmother and great-aunt, and I also raised the diamond shaped frame on the right. The postcard from my Dad hangs below that, and in the empty space that was left, I hung one of my quilt calendars showing a picture of Millie lying on a quilt Julie made. I also found a picture (a printed one!!!) of my granddaughter, so that is on the bureau as well. What's interesting is that picture is close to a photo of my son and I when he was the same age - and their smiles are alike!

The guest bath is almost complete. The shower door was partly delivered yesterday - the frame and handles were delivered, but the box with the doors themselves were not. I am hoping they arrive on Monday. They won't be installed before Julie's visit, but that's OK with me. Everything else is done except for a couple of finishing touches.

This cat vase Michelle gave me when I adopted Millie over 15 years ago is the only thing from the old bathroom that will be in the new one. I thought the room needed something, so I brought the vase to my favorite florist in town.

The opening for flowers is very small, but they were able to make a lovely arrangement. The mirror reflects the rose and makes it look like the bouquet is larger than it is.

Sometimes your frame of reference can affect the way you see something. I used to hate the big spa tub in my master bath, but when I dressed it up and made it look pretty, I liked it. So I carried on with that idea.

You can see in the little toilet / shower room that I have replaced the ugly round light fixture with a small chandelier. It cost me forty bucks, but now the room has sparkle and pizzazz. I also replaced the towel bar in there, the toilet and the floor, and hung up a framed print. Now the room is something I am proud to show off.

The final improvement to my master bath was a new light fixture over the mirror. The sharp-eyed among you will recognize the light fixture as a duplicate of the one in the guest bath. I had originally chosen a wider version, but the wiring wouldn't allow it. The solution? Two smaller ones side by side. I literally looked at hundreds of light fixtures and came back to these.

To renovate this room would require rebuilding it, and that's not going to happen any time soon, if ever. I like the changes I made and quite frankly I'm done with renovating for a while. I'm eager to get back into the studio, and believe you me - I will! Julie and I have sewing planned.

Julie arrives in four days...

The Family Gallery

 

I've been all sixes and sevens lately. No real surprise. I'm dealing with grief, and I just have to admit it. 

I'm having a hard time getting into the studio, and working on the second bird quilt doesn't really thrill me at the moment, so I may set it aside for a bit and do something to get my creative juices flowing.

ANYWAY...

I removed everything from the top of the bureau in that corner of the living room.  I cleaned the wall, and the top of the bureau. I cleaned and dusted every picture, photograph and anything I would put back on display.

I rewired the big drawing of The Fontaine Sisters.

It really should be moved over an inch or two to the right, but that's a pretty easy fix. The diamond shaped frame on the right with the four portraits needs to shift too. Again, an easy fix.

I should move everything on the left of the drawing up a bit higher too. I can do that a bit later, when I'm not so much full of emotion.

So this is the finished arrangement (minus the fine tuning I have yet to do.)

This is the same picture as at the top of this post. As you can see I found a frame for the photograph of my Dad and I. It's over on the right. In the back left is my college graduation photo. There's a picture of my son and I when he was about 8. There's a picture of me with my grandparents at my first communion on the right. Gizzy and Jasmine are there, and Millie's card tucked into the frame of the drawing is no accident.

There are some small objects on display too. One is a tiny rocking chair one of my coworkers gave me when I announced I was going to become a grandmother. There is a small brass bell that I hung in the Christmas tree to try to deter Millie from climbing in it the first year I had her. It did not deter her in the least. I remember hearing the bell tinkle at all hours of the day, and smiling to myself. There is also a small ingot of 10 troy ounces of sterling silver. It has a serial number on it, which means I can actually turn it in for money if I ever choose to. It's more fun as an object. I think it was given to my son, but it lives in my house. Oh well.

I visited The Framer's Market this morning and dropped off some things I wanted framed (you'll see them later), and I also left the postcard my dad sent me. 

I decided framing it would be the best way to preserve and honor it. I'm happy with what we chose, and it isn't at all what I thought I might do when I brought it in, but the guys at the shop were terrific. I can't wait to see it all finished. I don't know where it will go yet, but I'm not worried. 

I also saw this painting by a local artist, so I bought it. I put it in my bedroom, so I can see it every day and smile.

Right now I need all the smiles and hugs I can get, so please bear with me while I flounder around getting back to "normal."

There is some really good news and something wonderful to look forward to! My friend Julie will be visiting me in June. We are going to visit a couple of quilt shops, we will go to the Seacoast, and we will look at barns. We will also do some sewing. We may collaborate on a quilt or two. We will talk. It will be great.

The Fam Celebrates

 

My brother and his climbing partner were the keynote speakers at the American Alpine Club's Annual Benefit Gala which was held in Colorado this past weekend. My Mom and her guy traveled out to the Gala to attend. Here is my niece, my brother, my mom and M. (That's three generations up there.)

The AAC streamed the event, so I was able to watch from my home in New England. Of course, Colorado is two time zones away, so it didn't get started until almost midnight. By that time I was curled up in bed with my iPad balanced on my knees. You can watch my brother's presentation at the link above. It starts at about 2 hours 45 minutes in.

In the meantime, here's another bird for you to enjoy.

You can make your own birds too. You can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop.

A Nevada Bird

Today's bird is from Susan, in Nevada. I love the way the bird looks like it is walking because of the way Susan crossed the legs.

Getting the mail every day is so much fun when I find a package with birds! Keep them coming, please!! Email me if you would like to contribute a bird for my student bird quilt. I can be reached at patcherymenagerie AT gmail DOT com. If you would like to make a bird, you can get my tutorial here, at my Etsy shop. It's an instant download so you can get started right away.

 

 It was fun to read about all the ways we mix up the names of people we love. I have the photo below on display at my office at work. I thought you'd like to see it after yesterday's photo.

This photo was taken in 1998. It shows both my brothers, my son and me. What's funny about this isn't just Gizzy in the lower left, but that the four of us look so alike. If I didn't tell you the young man on the right is my son, you'd think the four of us were siblings.

Pandemic Fashion!

A week or so ago I made masks for my son and his family, and sent them to the City of Angels. Yesterday they sent me this picture.

"They are so comfy," my DIL wrote. "Little Miss loves hers and does not want to take it off. They fit perfectly, nice and snug around the nose."

Now, they live in California, and that means they can't even leave their own property, so they can't take a walk down the street. We all know my granddaughter probably won't go out at all, but there was no way I was NOT going to make her a mask. And OF COURSE it had to have dinosaurs!

This is me with one of the masks I made for myself. I have a pair, so I can always have a clean one if I need to go out.

Although I'm not going out. The only time I go out is to go down to the mail house to collect my mail, and whether I walk or drive, I wear a mask.

One of my coworkers saw the masks I had made for the production workers and asked if I could make some masks for her and her family. She had tried to buy some, but had no luck.

Tell me how much and I will pay you, she texted.

Well, gee, I wrote back, if you're still going to the grocery store, here is what I would like as payment:

1 bunch of parsley
1 bunch of cilantro
2 or 3 avocados
1 bag of spinach
1 bunch of asparagus
1 box of linguine

A few hours later, my grateful friend delivered two grocery bags of green stuff for me.

The masks for the rest of her family are almost ready!