Family time is the best!

We just took a great trip to the east coast to visit my brothers and their families.

We hadn't seen any of them since well before Covid, so this was a joyous reunion! 

We stayed with my brother, Chuck, and SIL Jean.  Jean fills their house with lots and lots of fanciful, arty touches everywhere!

Cute napkins, and we enjoyed several lovely beverages in those fun swirl glasses!  

It was so fun to reconnect with our great nephew, Huddie (short for Hudson).  He is so sweet and in motion constantly!

Doesn't everyone have a bottle opener in a pink flamingo's butt? 

Brother John and SIL Helen.  They hosted us for a fun evening of dinner and cards around the dining room table.

My other great nephew, Rhys!  His exuberance and joy really shows in this photo.

Dinner out on the last night of our visit, love this bunch!

 

Summer Days

I'm loving our flower pots this year! The hot pinks and lime greens look great together, and those tall red grasses with the soft plumes are so pretty blowing in the breeze.  We love to sit on our porch to have a glass of wine, or even to have dinner.  It's fun to visit with our neighbors as they walk by, too.
Scott made the patriotic barn quilt a couple of years ago.

This Peach Pecan Crisp was over-the-top good!  Our neighbors down the street have a peach tree, and they gifted us a nice big bag of fresh, sweet peaches, which we didn't know would grow so well in our climate!  We both thought great peaches were grown in Georgia, or also in nearby Michigan, which has a nice, temperate climate for fruit, because of Lake Michigan.  
This Peach Pecan Crisp (find the recipe here ) has a really crunchy, sweet topping that complements the tart-sweet peaches.  We topped our servings with vanilla ice cream.  Yum!

Quilt top finished, Hannah's birthday

Quilt top finished!  Simple design, 6" squares, in a streak of lightning setting.  All those Kaffe fabrics in the quilt are so gorgeous.

I got inspired when it came time to make Hannah's birthday cake this year!  I had seen Molly Yeh on Girl Meets Farm make a Barbie cake, and this is my version.  The cake and frosting were both delicious - lots of butter and cream cheese, what's not to like?  But it was difficult to frost the cut edges of the cake.  Oh well, the sprinkles helped, and Hannah loved it!

Happy birthday, Hannah!

Hannah and her little man, Henry, so handsome!

 

Work in Progress

Do your quilt projects end up the way you planned them? Mine seldom do!  I enjoy the design process about as much as any other part of quilt-making.  

I started my latest quilt project with a pack of a bunch of Kaffe Fassett 6" in squares, all colors and patterns.  Yummy, gorgeous fabrics!  I planned to use them in a quick throw-size quilt to comfort a friend who has suffered the loss of her husband.

As much as I love these fabrics, I couldn't figure out what to do with them.  So - off to one of my favorite local quilt shops (The Quilt Merchant in Winfield). 

I was trying to create some kind of color scheme out of these varied fabric squares.  I bought a bunch of the glorious Kaffe print, and several other fabrics to add in for...I didn't know yet.  Would I make star blocks?  Square in a square?  Hard to say.

But when I got the fabrics home, and started throwing the fabrics on the wall, the fabrics told me to tone it down.  Too much color variety for a calming, comforting quilt.  So - I pulled out only the blue and purple print squares, and went to my stash to find more.  Plus, I added in the three newly-purchased fabrics on the right side above, and the Kaffe print, too.  I cut them all into more 6" squares, and settled on a streak of lightning set.  Sometimes simple is best.

I'm sewing the squares together into a web, adding one vertical row at a time.  First, I designed the quilt on the design wall (forgot to take a photo), and then took down all the rows, carefully labelling each row.  It's risky to leave a whole wall full of squares on the design wall - sometimes you come back the next day and half of them are on the floor!

I got half of the squares sewn together in one direction.  I will add the other half of the squares tomorrow, then press, and sew the crosswise seams.

 

Puzzle Fun

During this past year of hunkering down at home, lots of folks did lots of jigsaw puzzles, and we found this fun one!  Then, we decided to try making several of the cocktails featured on the puzzle as a little research project!

Mai Tai Cocktail - we rated it 4 out of 5.

The classic - Tequila Sunrise.  I remember this as being very special as a twenty-something!  We rated it 4.5 out of 5.  

Bootleg Cocktail.  This was described on the puzzle as one of the signature cocktails of Minnesota, although we are both from Minnesota and had never heard of it.  Refreshing and tasty, we rated it 4 out of 5. 

 

A new start? Birthdays and the best chicken!

I tend towards perfectionism, or nothing - and blogging is no exception.  I put it off until I think of the perfect subject, or the best photos, you get the idea.  

So - I am going to try for more frequent posts, and less obsessing! Here goes!

Dear granddaughter, Ella, turned 3 back in February!  She helped baking the cake with her Mama, and had fun adding the sprinkles! 

My DL husband, Scott, never seems to age.  He, also, had a birthday back in February.  I baked his favorite:  spice cake with penuche frosting, and shopped pecans on top.  By the way, does he look 71 to you?  :)

I follow "The Kitchen" on Instagram and recently found THE BEST way to grill chicken!  My experience up to that point had been - either you grill breasts and they are dry, or you grill dark meat pieces and they don't get done in the middle.  Well, this recipe was EASY and SO GOOD!  We loved it the first day, and it was also delicious the next day.  Enjoy!

 

Baby quilts are the best!

Finish!  "Rocky Mountain Love" to celebrate the birth of Owen, first born to our dear friend of the family, Cara K., who lives in Colorado.  Soft baby colors, and shapes reminiscent of mountains.

Soft stipple quilting with a simple binding.

Always add a label to your quilts! 

Packed, and on its way to meet little Owen.  Sweet dreams, Owen! 

Everything old is new again

We just did a partial redo of our kitchen!  We don't do things like this very often, so this was a special treat!  I got the name of a great contractor from our neighbor and friend down the street.  She had a major remodel of her main floor, down to the studs, and she's fussy!  I knew he must be good if she approved.  
This is our vintage kitchen, c. 1950 cabinets (custom!).  We painted the cabinets white and the walls "Gatherings" (Magnolia paint from  Ace Hardware, loved it!).  And this is pretty much our whole kitchen!  (refrigerator removed for the reno)

After - glamour shot with mood lighting! New: sink, faucet,  quartz countertops, gas cooktop, tile backsplash, and floating vinyl plank flooring.  We are so pleased with how it all turned out.  It's like a dream.
Our contractor, Carlo, said he would have extra quartz, and did we have a vanity we would like to use it on?  Yes please!

Bathroom before - we have a tiny bathroom also.  A realtor friend told use one time that we have a "doll house". :) She also said she could sell my house in 10 minutes.  Our house is pretty cute, and in a terrific location - really nice area, and you can walk to everything:  church, schools, library, stores, commuter train, and about 20 restaurants.  

Here you can really see how beautiful the quartz countertops are.  Carlo also found us a beautiful new rectangular sink.  Again, we love it all.

 

Happy first finishes - 2021

One plus to being cooped up at home is - more time for sewing!  On the first of the year, which is also my birthday, I cleaned up and cleared out my sewing studio!  I organized everything (which involved a quick trip to the dollar store for more clear plastic boxes), and took stock of all my UFO's (unfinished objects, or projects).  I made a list of all of my UFOs, and also listed projects not yet started but planned for this year.  I won't mention how many projects are on those lists!!!

First completed quilt for 2021 - Siddhi Quilt, started in an online class with Sujata Shah a few months ago.  Sujata is an excellent quilter and teacher, and just a beautiful person, too.  Scott and I were honored to meet her about 5 years ago.  
This is a small quilt, hand stitched with perle cotton.  You start at the OUTSIDE edges, and work your way around, adding pieces as you go.  The stitching goes through all three layers - backing, thin batting, and top pieces.  You just cut your pieces with a scissors, folding under the edges with your fingers.  No iron or rotary cutter needed.  I really love how it turned out, and have another one started already. 

This is a doll quilt called Happy Little Star for my grandson, Henry's, first birthday, which is coming up in April.  This is a small version of his baby quilt.  A truly unusual feature for me is the fact that this quilt is done way before the event!  I am usually finishing projects at the last possible minute!

This quilt, Happy Little Hearts, is a doll quilt for my granddaughter's Kate first birthday, coming up in May.  Yet another quilt done ahead of schedule!  This is a smaller version of her baby quilt.  I had fun with the free-motion quilting in the borders.  

 

'Tis the Season for New Christmas Stockings!

We were not able to have a house full of family this Christmas, but we still decorated - including a stocking for each family member!  This meant that I needed to sew some NEW stockings!

These two new stockings are for our daughter, Genevieve (GVG for short, an it fits nicely on a stocking!), and her darling daughter, our granddaughter, Lily, who turned 3 on Christmas Day.  I did have other stockings for them, but I decided I needed to make them nice, new ones, to better blend with our Christmas color scheme. 

These stockings are for our two NEW family members, born in 2020!  Two new grandchildren (total is now 4, we are blessed!), Henry - first born child to Hannah and Danny and Kate - second child to Emily and Matthew and sister to Ella.  We can't wait for NEXT Christmas, when (hopefully) all of the family will be here for Christmas morning!  We will be crowded, and it will be chaotic - and I cannot wait!

These are the stockings at Emily and Matt's house.  The one on the right is Emily's (she attended Indiana University), and the one on the left is for Ella.  I made Ella's this year.

The one on the left is Matthew's (he attended Notre Dame), and the one on the right is for Kate.  I made Kate's this year. 

Good tidings of comfort and joy, from our house to yours!

 

Happy New Year 2021!

Happy new year, 2021! I wish all of you a year filled with love, good health, and happiness!

We took a drive yesterday so I could visit a couple quilt shops! I had depleted much of my Christmas fabrics, especially reds, while sewing several new Christmas stockings for new family members.  I had fun doing some stash building! 
I also had this panel that I purchased a couple of years ago, that I plan to incorporate into a Christmas quilt.  Plan for that quilt is tbd.

New year's eve dinner was surf and turf!  Scott made the entrees, I made the sides, and we both enjoyed!  My birthday is January 1st, so this was also my birthday dinner.  

I got this puzzle for Christmas from my Secret Santa, my nephew, Austin.  It was lots of fun!  So much fun, that we just broke it up, and started it again!