Thanksgiving 2018

Happy Thanksgiving!

We are grateful that Emily and Matt hosted Thanksgiving this year!  Emily is an excellent cook, and made the entire feast:  turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, glazed brussel sprouts, crescent rolls, charcuterie platter, and pumpkin cheesecake bars!  All I had to bring was an apple pie. 

This retro picture (c.1980) is my wonderful father-in-law, Don Hudson. Don't you love those '70s touches in the background? Orange coffee pot, green can opener, copper canisters? Don has been gone over 30 years, but his good looks live on in my husband.

We had fun recreating the old photo above.  Different time, different kitchen, but you can tell it's not 1980 anymore!  Insider note - after staging the photo, I stepped in and carved the turkey! We had lots of fun with food, babies, and football, of course!

More catch-up - Emily and Matt's baby shower, Ella's Tulip Garden quilt

We hosted a baby shower for our daughter, Emily, and her husband, Matt back in January.  We had fun decorating the house with some special family mementos, and fun shower decorations like the flag bunting. 

The quilt on the wall was made by my grandmother for my parents' wedding in 1944.  I thought the colors suited the baby shower theme.  The high chair in the background was used by me, my mom, and my grandmother!

Cutest cake ever!  Not only cute, but delish! White cake with lemon filling, and buttercream icing. (from Kirsten's Danish Bakery)

These are antique baby clothes I have. The beige one in the center was my mom's, so that dress is 100 years old! The picture in the foreground shows my mom wearing the dress. 

My lovely daughters!  Emily, Hannah, and Genevieve.  My heart is so full!

Mom and daughter.

Ella's Tulips - I had lots of fun making this.  

It looks so cute in their nursery!

Beautifully machine quilted by Sue Pawlowski.  

Baby Ella!  Born February 12, 2018. 

Ella and granddad sharing stories.  I have a feeling they will be great friends. :)

Coming home!

Three years ago, Emily and Matt took off for Austin, Texas.  They have had a new opportunity come up for Matt, and they are moving back to the Chicago area, as of today!
The trip to Texas was the two of them, plus Emily's dog, Cohen.  They have since bought a house (on the market soon), got married, and got another dog for Matt, Vinny the boxer. I hope that the looooong drive today and tomorrow goes well for them!

Emily and Matt at a recent event in Austin. Love those two!

Nice photo of Cohen (beagle mix). I've missed him!

Vinny!

Emily's Bridal Shower!

We just hosted a bridal shower for Emily in our backyard, and I am happy to report that it was a big success!  Beautiful weather, having the tent was a great idea, lots of family and friends attended, all the food was great (although I was not sure of that an hour before it started!), and everyone had so much fun.

Emily and Matthew, the happy couple.  I love them so much!  They are just a great couple.  We had several boys at the shower - Matt, his brother, Dan, his dad, Joe,  my husband, Scott, Genevieve's fiance, Nick,  Hannah's boyfriend, Danny, and another girl (one of the bridesmaids), Sarah's, boyfriend.  Sarah came all the way from Louisville! (we are in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove)

Hannah had so many great decorating ideas.  She was going to hang some tulle on the front door, but instead, we used my wedding hat from 37 years ago!  I'm sure I gave my mom some gray hairs over this back in the day, as I finished making it a day or two before the wedding.

Matt's cousin, Michelle, Matt, his aunt, and his cousin, Christina.  Matt's mother passed away about 10 years ago, and the family was not close for a while after that.  But they have been close again for the past 5 years or so, which makes everyone so happy.  They are such a beautiful Italian family - his dad, and his aunts and uncles were all born in Italy (Sicily, actually). 

Matt's brother, Dan, Matthew, Scott, and Joe. 

We served the food buffet-style, from our little screened-in porch, which worked well.  Here is cupcakes (white and chocolate), mini BLT's, and prosciutto-goat cheese-basil sandwiches.  Not shown, but on the back table we served caprese skewers, and mini vegetable quiche cups.   Emily's wedding colors (like the flowers) are cream, blush, clear glass, and lots of candles - but we added pink and gold for the shower, just for fun. Again, Hannah found lots of great decorating ideas.  The cupcakes have little wedding dresses on top, make from paper doilies.

Special guests - Emily's aunts, Jean and Helen, came all the way from Burke, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. I put them to work! Here they are, frosting and decorating the cupcakes, about 1-1/2 hours before the  party! It was a blast having them around for the whole weekend.

View from the breezeway, looking out to the backyard, as people were gathering and chatting before we sat down.  Here you see coffee, fresh fruit, and individual monkey bread cups, which turned out great.  I found a recipe using the frozen Rhode's roll dough, which was delicious.  My oven was super busy that morning!

Emily and Hannah, my cuties! Danny is hamming it up in the background, doing security. More decorating - we decorated the wine glasses with gold sparkle paint, and gave them out as favors.

Genevieve, Emily, and Hannah - my girls!

The mimosa bar was a big hit!  Hannah decorated the champagne bottles with glitter to make them extra fun.  Then we had orange or orange-mango juice to choose from for your mimosas.  We

also served water and pink lemonade from some cute glass servers that Hannah found.  She knows how to bring the fun to a party!

Two Finishes! Zigzag and Journey Through

Emily's Zig Zag! This is a gift to my daughter, Emily, on the achievement of her MBA from Boston University.  I am super happy with how this turned out! And Emily and her dad did a great job with the photography! I don't even mind the shadows on the quilt.
I wanted to make a scrap quilt, and Emily wanted a more modern look - so this is my compromise.  Machine quilted by Sue Pawlowski.

Quilting detail - love the pattern, and how the swirls contrast with the angular piecing. I used a cotton classic type batt, which is loftier than the thin, more popular types.  I like how the loft shows off the quilting.

Nice pose with Emily's beagle-Jack Russel mix, Cohen.  Pretty cute.

Not the best shot, but I had to give Emily's other dog equal time.  This is her new boxer puppy, Vinny.

This was made for Matthew, Emily's fiance, on the achievement of his MBA from Harvard University.  Matt traveled all over the country, to many cities - 10, I think - in order to land his current job in Austin, Texas.  This quilt represents that journey, and all of the cities he visited.  The design is a take-off on the "Greetings from Austin" sign, in Austin, Texas.

This was lots of fun to make, and took way longer than I expected! Isn't that always the way?

Christmas 2014

Our tradition is to open gifts leisurely, over several hours - so friendly and relaxing.  Emily's dog, Cohen, had to get into the act.

Our dog, Dora's, formal Christmas portrait. Pretty girl!

Emily and Matt, home from Austin Texas for the holidays, with me and Scott.  So great to have them here!  I gave them both quilts but somehow did not get pictures of them opening their gifts! I will post on that later.

Genevieve and me.

Hannah and her new blouse, and Danny.  Merry Christmas!

Happy day!

It's official! Emily and Matt became engaged yesterday, and we all couldn't be happier!  We already love Matt like a son, and are so happy and proud to welcome him into our family.

Scott and I shared a celebration dinner with the happy couple and Matt's dad, Joe. We went to Matt and Emily's "favorite place", Joe's Stone Crab in Chicago.  Very busy, bustling place, great service, and wonderful food.  But of course the best part was sharing in Matt and Emily's special day.  Congratulations! 

Gift quilt re-do, new favorite sandwich, Texas kids update

So - I am not remaking Emily's quilt "disaster" (see previous post here).  Maybe disaster is too strong a word...but anyway, here I go on a NEW quilt for Emily.  Based on the ideas she showed me on pinterest, I made the example above, and she loved it! I will make a simple zigzag quilt, still using the bright beautiful colorful prints I love, balanced by the soft gray neutral that Emily prefers.  And, it will be a lap size, for a couch throw - also what Emily prefers.  

When we visited Sujata, she served us the most delicious lunch! This is my attempt to recreate it.  Sandwich is: brown and serve ciabatta rolls brushed with olive oil and balsamic mixture, and filled with fresh mozzarella, sliced heirloom tomatoes, grilled slices of zucchini, and fresh basil. 

Salad is:  corn, finely chopped onion and red pepper, minced parsley, and a simple olive oil and balsamic vinaigrette.  While my lunch was tasty, I am going to retry - after finding out Sujata's recipe.  Same as above, but: sandwich roll was brushed with a simple vinaigrette with salt and pepper; her salad also had finely chopped celery and orange peppers, and hers was dressed only with the juice of one lemon, plus salt and pepper. 

The Texas kids are doing great! They each bought a car (Emily a white Jetta, Matt a black BMW, his first car ever!), and are making strides in unpacking and making their townhouse a home.  Emily is still researching job possibilities in Austin.
Matt started his new job this week, and seems to be enjoying it - including the relaxed dress code!
And Cohen continues to be his usual charming self. 

Quilter's remorse, East Coast trip, and Texas adventure

So - after all the work involved in piecing a queen-sized quilt top, I am not happy with this! Although I was going for a multi-print look, and I love all of the fabrics, it is just TOO bright, and TOO busy!
Not only that, but this is a special gift for my daughter, Emily - she just earned her MBA so I wanted to make her a special quilt.  I showed it to her, and she did say it was pretty...but I could tell that she was not thrilled.  It is just not her style - it is more my style!  Have any of you done that? I think it is hard to make a quilt for someone else sometimes - trying to go for their style, or colors, rather than what I would choose.

Close up - I do like how I added a different fabric (the black background print) for the sash intersection stars, but again, just TOO busy.  When I found the chartreuse print for the sashing - and I looked for it all over my local shops - I was so sure this was it!!  It is beautiful, but it is just TOO MUCH of a good thing!
Not sure what I am going to do with this...rip apart, make into a table runner, or ?  BUT - I have now ASKED EMILY for her ideas and input, and she likes totally different designs! She spent some time on pinterest, and chose - you guessed it, modern quilts, with clean lines, and lots of white or light gray background.  But, she DOES like blues, purples, and greens.  So maybe I can use some of these fabrics, but in a MUCH more toned-down pattern, with white? She also requested a throw, or couch-size, rather than bed-size, quilt.  Back to the drawing board!

We just took a week's vacation to the East Coast, and this was our first stop!  We stayed with our friend, Marianne, in her charming Oakhurst, New Jersey home - just a couple of miles from the Jersey shore!

We're not in Illinois any more!  It was a gorgeous, blue-sky day, with those lovely ocean breezes!  We just sat and visited, lots of catching up to do!  And of course a nice walk along the beach. 

Tent homes in Ocean Grove, NJ.

Fun selfie, during our tour of Ocean Grove, NJ - full of the cutest Victorian houses, and also little tent homes. More vacation pictures to come!

Other big news - my daughter, Emily, and her BF, Matt, just moved to Austin, Texas!  They both just graduated with their MBA's in May, and Matt landed a great job down in Austin, so off they went.  Now they are both busy getting settled into their (rented) townhouse, and Emily is searching for her job.  Big adventure for them!