Feeling Dutch

Feeling very Dutch today.
I received a plate of warm jan hagels from Annette!
Yum!!! Just look at those perfect diamonds.
( I tried to cut these once...I butchered them!)
Wonderful with a hot cup of coffee.Thanks A!

Here is what else is making me feel Dutch. Tulips! In winter.
I was thinking just last week about my friend Darci and how she had
forced paper whites (narcissus) a few winters ago. They were so beautiful,
and smelled so good, that I really wanted try it sometime.
Well, when I went to Costco yesterday, lo and behold, there was a rack of
assorted tulips all ready to go in these fantastic forcing jars. It was difficult to choose.
Red and yellow, pink, solid red, yellow, cream? I finally settled on cream.
I have never seen cream tulips. They are fluffy too, like a peony.
I cannot wait until they bloom. I will post "Tulip Watch" when one finally does.

post script: The weather is helping the mood, too. It is cold (42') and drizzly here.

Love, Moorea

Drunkard's Path

This was one of my grandmother's quilts. She got it from the family in Arkansas.
I guess some of the aunts made it together. I have really grown to love this quilt.
the colors turned me off at first, but it is so warm and cozy!
We use it as the the "sick quilt." If anyone is sick, this is the quilt to use, it is so
soft. The quilting is done in small fans, and the batting is heavy, could be wool.
The blocks are 18". It is so yummy to wrap up in this.
I know it's not going to last long. I think it must be at least 50 years old.

Love, Moorea

Fabric Cabinet

I absolutely love this tin cabinet. It is from my Aunt Vera's kitchen in
Nevada City. She kept her dishes, pots, pans and silverware in it. I
remember the small jelly jars we used a juice glasses. She had jade-ite
plates and bowls. They were so pretty. OK, so much for the stroll down
memory lane. I now use it for my fabric stash. This past summer, I sanded
down all the rusty spots (inside & out) and spray painted it with white
appliance spray paint. It matched the original 1930's paint perfectly! I
spiffed-up the little handles, too!It is 5 1/2 feet x 3 1/2 feet. I really try to
keep all the fabric in here. It keeps me sane. I could fill-up boxes & bins, just
like we all could (or do!). So with this, I can just say "NO!" to more fabric.
I have a shelf that I keep quilts in actual progress on.

Here are the cats that live on my tin cabinet. I made these in 1985.
Since my husband does not like cats, I won't get one, but I can dream!
These will do for now.

Love, Moorea

30's Stash

I really needed to go through my 30's stash and organize it.
I have been tossing fat quarters on the box and it was starting to fall out
of the cabinet. It looks so pretty when it is organized.

Here are the nine patches. They are the ones left over from making E's
baby quilt. I want to cut white muslin to pair with these to have ready
to use as leaders and enders.

Here are the beautiful railroad sets we traded at our little quilt group.
I counted 173. I have the cornerstones cut, I just need to cut 6.5" white muslin
squares. I can't wait until I get to work on this. It is going to be so beautiful.

Quilting has really been a great process of learning for me. I am a
kinesthetic (hand-on) learner. I do not follow patterns well, I have always
done better if someone showed me. I am a great watcher/copier.
Quilting is changing that. I am beginning to trust in my abilities to follow
a pattern and let myself make a mistake. My seam ripper is my friend!

Love, Moorea

Anniversary

"We are not
the same two people
who once met
and fell in love.
Life has changed us,
and love has changed us.
Who we are now
and what we have together
are different,
and better,
than I could have ever
imagined."

~Anniversary card C gave me last year

Anniversary Festivities Continue

This is the most beautiful Victorian marriage certificate.
I purchased it through Victorian Papers and at that time they had someone
who could do the Spencerian calligraphy. I really felt it deserved prominence,
so I had it professionally matted and framed. I just love it.

Curtis suggested we celebrate our anniversary with the boys, so we made our favorite,
Jager schnitzel. The mushroom cream sauce really makes this dish, although
very fresh meat stays more tender and juicy, which makes it good too. When we toasted,
I thanked God for the institution of marriage. Daniel was so sweet in asking
"What did you mean when you said God instituted marriage, is that like He established marriage?"
I am always tickled by his questions and statements.

For dessert, I made a coffee Ice cream chocolate bombe. It was great.
I remembered at 3pm today that I was going to make this, for tonight, (it should be
in the freezer overnight) so it was not pretty, but it sure tasted phenomenal.

Curtis gave me a sterling silver heart locket that opens. Now we have to figure out a
way to get a pinky nail picture of us into it! We got beautiful cards from C's mom
and my mom & dad. Thanks!!!

Tomorrow is D-day (ie. the actual anniversary date) so bear with me as I will be posting
more lovey dovey stuff.
Oh, yeah, I have not had time to quilt, but I have been organizing the stash & "studio"
so I can post pics of that next week.

Love, Moorea

Anniversary Friends

Well, the anniversary weekend began last night with a fantastic dinner at Cattlemen's.

We have not been there for years, but we had to choose a new restaurant after we
tried to make reservations at Cafe Vienna in W. Sac, and discovered it was closed!
Our hearts sank. We called information, we checked the web for clues and we drove
over there. It was certainly gone. We begrudgingly, and I mean begrudgingly,
began to decide where to go. This was such a hard process because for the past
7 years, we three couples have gone to Cafe Vienna to celebrate our anniversaries
together! We all really enjoyed the authentic German food and great ambiance.
I will never forget the cucumber salad, fried potatoes or Champinon Schnitzel.
Cattlemen's was quite a departure, but we enjoyed it. Ya can't go wrong with steak!
(Except DoriAnn had swordfish!) They are used to turn-over, but we are fine diners,
and we did not want to be turned over! Our waitress was a hoot and very nice.
Considering the decibel level of the restaurant, I understand the her loudness,
but we had to laugh when she manhandled to fake dessert tray. I think we agreed to
keep our eyes peeled for a new place for next year. (no Italian or Mexican)
Stay tuned for more anniversary niceties.

Love, Moorea

30's Nine Patch

This is E's baby blanket. It is made from 30's nine patches that
my small quilt group traded for what seemed like a million years...
oh no, I was thinking of the bajillion 5" charm squares we traded for 2 years!
;o) Love you guys!
The nine patches were so fun to do. The four of us L, M, A & myself, would make
four of each fabric into a patch. One for us, then one to trade with eachother.
Sometimes we'd go crazy and have 8-10 EACH to trade.
Needless to say, we've got a lot-o-patches (170?)
I tried to take the boldest colors out. My mom arranged & sewed the blocks.
She did a fantastic job in placement. I quilted it across every block.
It looks & feels so vintage because of the tight quilting. It is wonderful.

Erik had a few firsts today. He read the Holy (picture) Bible with Daddy for the first time,
and he asked me "Why?" when I asked him to take his beloved galoshes off.
He asked why three times before I realized he was asking. Wahoo- a new word!

Love, Moorea

Lookie-lookie What I Got!

I received this from Lucy at Quilting With the Past. It is from Holland! How cool is
that? I looooove it. It is needle case she made. What a blessing! I have already
used it to hold needles & a bobbin of thread while tacking the binding on E's Cars
quilt. Thank you Lucy!

Two WISP's Finished!

This is a true WISP (work in ss-ll-oo-ww progress.) A Hawaiian appliqué for my
brother Tim in who lives in Hawaii. I believe I gave him the block with only the
appliqué (no quilting) for Christmas one year long, long ago (5 years). My friend
Annette, who introduced me to quilting, took pity on me this week when she
saw my horrid attempt at hand quilting this. Look at the job she did. I cried
when I saw it, it is so beautiful. I have posted a picture of the back as well.
I got the binding on it today. I cannot wait to put three hanging loops
on it and put it in the mail to him. This can't be counted for the May Britt
WISP contest (previous post) as a friend helped. But at least it is
off the To-do shelf! OK, this has also inspired me to learn to hand quilt.

Here is the 3"french fold binding for E's Cars quilt. I took a pic because I have
never had the guide lines so straight before. It cut and iron/folded perfectly.

This is a WISP I can check off the list! Awesome.
I really doubt I would have finished this without
the May Britt challenge. Thank you Abyquilt!

I hope you can see the Nascar fabric backing. DoriAnn's MIL gave me
giant bags of fabric and this was in one. What a blessing!

Dinner Party

Friends came over for dinner tonight. They wanted to spend their
date night with US! How fun! It is not so much fun to go out to dinner
without your own kids and end up eating with someone else's "babies,"
so I set a beautiful table for them. We put the "babies" down early and
played 10 rounds of Sequence. Boys against girls. WELL- the boys rule.
they got two sequences every round. I think we had a total of two for
the whole time. I will not make any excuses, they won fair & square.
DoriAnn & I put band aids on our pride and ate giant slices of fudge cake!
"Kings to you Fernande."

It's All About the Boots

I love this age. It's all about the boots!
Galoshes & cowboy boots. They fight over the boots.
Erik's have faces on them, Jacob's don't. Which do
think Jacob wants? ;o)
Love, Moorea

I've Been Busy

While cleaning out the school room, I came upon this sewing box.
It is from my Great Aunt Vera. I remember visiting her in her home in
Nevada City every summer. This box has many old needle booklets and wooden spools
of thread. I keep wanting to clean it out, but somehow I just can't. It reminds me of
sweet memories, so I will put it back on the shelf for safekeeping until the next time I
feel the need to look through it.

Here is the Evening Star quilt top.
I have made great gains on it. I'll get it off that WISP list yet!

Here are my school-room bookshelves. I spent all day Monday closing out the
first semester, grading, sorting old schoolwork and and going through these shelves
to purge. I got rid of 50 lbs. of books! I know because I had to weigh them to put
postage with the posting I listed on veg. source. I already got a hit to sell the the heaviest
one! It feels good to have the room tidy and usable again.

We started school again today. I have learned from experience to take the first few days
slowly and not expect too much. So we should be getting back into our rhythm by next week.

Love, Moorea

WISP Challenge

I am posting my WISP's for January!

Erik's Cars quilt (supposted to be for Christmas!)
My goal is to baste, quilt, and bind this.

A throw quilt for me , in Evening Star pattern. I have had this for years.

The problem is that I am short the lovely apple fabric by 5 blocks, so I had to find
some solid fabric that would go well with the apple fabric. I did, and now I
can finish it! My goal is only to get the top made.

I am going to join May Britt from Abyquilt in her WISP challenge for January.
My list is on the sidebar. Wish me luck! Here are the details from her site:

"January will be my month of finishing WISP's (Work In Slow Progress.)
I read Kims big plans of having a "January - finish it up month" so
I decided to join her in doing this. I have too many projects in my
sewing room that needs to be finished. But I still have to take care of
my shoulder so I'll concentrate of the small WISP's I got. And I know
it will feel so good to have something finished.

And while thinking of this I decided to make a challenge out of it.

Who finish the most WISP's in january ?? The rules are that it has
to be something "old", started in 2007 or earlier :) And you have to

finish it before January 31th. And you have to blog a photo of the WISP
before you start working on it and when you have finished it. And report
it to me. I've decided to make a post in my sidebar that links to my
finished projects, perhaps you can do it too??" ~May Britt

Love, Moorea

Fabric shopping

Ohhh- I went to Bear Paws and Hollyhocks today! It was their
3rd anniversary. I saw my cousin Sue who works there, got to
visit with my BFF Annette (we drove together), and purchased some
awesome fabric with a Christmas gift certificate from my
Mom and Dad. Here we are, me on the left (The cupcakes were
very tasty!) Annette is the one who talked/tempted me into quilting
5 years ago. I am so glad she did.

They had some very fun games,
this was "Pin the Tail on the Donkey", quilter style!

Here are the fat quarters I purchased. Civil War fabric on the
bottom. I will be using it to add to the stash in the next picture to
make a tumbler quilt for our room. The yardage on top will be for the
backing of my tumbler. I also got some 30's fabric for my ever growing
stash of 30's/40's fabric. I love all this fabric!

Here is the Civil War fabric I have been gathering for
the tumbler. Between these two, I think I will have enough
for the king size quilt!

Have a great weekend!
Love, Moorea

Tapa quilt top is done!

Here it is!
With the help of a little insomnia a few night ago and in spite of
having to pack-up all the Christmas decorations, the tapa quilt top is
done. I am sooo happy. I learned so much and had a really good time
making it. More importantly, I know my Dad is going to really LOVE
this quilt. He and my mom enjoy collecting Hawaiiana, so this will be
treasured. I am going to send it out to be quilted. I found a local
quilter who has extremely reasonable prices. When it is done being
quilted I will post a pic.

Love, Moorea

Flannel Rainbow

Since it is such a dreary day, and the "big storm" lasting almost a
week is coming, I thought I would share a rainbow with you. This is
the rag quilt Josiah requested. Jewel tones make me smile, so I
made it bright! The blocks are twelve inches square. They have
batting in between them. The total length is 84", width 60". Since
my machine is so simplistic and I cannot do freestyle quilting I made
the quilting design symmetrical (ie. easy to do) in black. The back is
all one color, a marbled baby blue. He really likes to snuggle in it,
which means I did good!

Love, Moorea

While I was cutting...

While I was cutting these triangle squares...
Jacob was very quiet in the playpen next to me.
This is why. He was able to somehow get the
ribbons from the Christmas wrap box.
Well. you can see from the picture I've got
my work cut out for me. Small price to pay
for being able to concentrate. ;o} I have half
the triangle squares sewn and the last
border to put on. Yahoo!

Love, Moorea