Blog Break

Please feel free to peruse the older posts...because
I am not going to post for a while. I know it is not a
great loss to the quilt blog world, so I do not feel
guilty in the least- I have not 'public' to disappoint.
Even though blogging does not take-up too much
time, I know that the time I am using could be
better spent on The Littles, and running my household
more smoothly. They need me, and realistically,
this is not the time in my life to be blogging. I will
still visit my favorite quilt blogs, and post delightful
comments as I am able to! ;o) Thanks to those of
you who did post and were a great encouragement
to me. I had so much fun on this little adventure!
"Aresivoir!" (Mapp & Luchia)
Love, Me
p.s. I do have another blog about homeschooling,
which I will post to as I can.

Look at what is being made of vintage sheets at Sew Me Something Good.
I love it! Here is my vinatge 1970's quilt ;o) My mom made it. Since we lived
in Hawaii, there was no need for batting. She made both the front and back
flimsies, then put the right sides together, stitched around the edges leaving
an opening to turn it right side out, and then top stitched it down. The
fabrics are wild! Ya know, those were the days when you used what you had
because there just was not any other option! It is a treasure.

Back

My mom and I at the Honolulu International Airport, 1969
I loved the dresses she made for herself. The fabrics are so
great.

Love, Me

Wisteria

I took 15 minutes here and there Saturday & Sunday to get all
the orange & white pieces traced & cut for the 10 orange snail's
trail blocks. I am ready to go! Now I can sit and do 15 minute
sewing sessions. I have also figured out that I can get all the
pieces, except sashing, for 10 blocks out of a white fat quarter.
This has turned into a really fun project.

This is the wisteria on my porch. It is a Texas Purple.
I planted this after seeing a show on PBS years back about a
garden in Australia where this gal had a 100 year old wisteria.
She had a technique that allowed the flower buds only to bloom,
not any leaves. It will still bloom all summer, but with vines
and leaves. I planted this that next spring and trained it all summer.
This is what it looks like every spring.

Love, Me

Happy Easter

Hello. I hope you are all having a happy Easter. I decided to post about my
brother Kyle, who passed away in 1981 when he was 11 years old. My family
always takes the anniversary day of his death to look at pictures and
remember him. Today happens to be that day, so I am posting a few pics
and some poems I wrote about him. The pain of the exceptionally rare
brain tumor on his nervous system is now gone, but not the pain of
missing him so very much. My comfort is that I have the absolute
assurance that I will be together with him in Glory one day.

KYLE
He sits there helplessly trying to eat,
waiting for the numbness in his feet.
He wonders, "What is happening to me?
Am I going to live or die fast asleep?"
He waits in the office for the doctor to see
if he can come back, come back to me.
I wait and think if he'll ever come back
when he can run and play, do his work and say,
"Because of God I am here today."
And I wait like him too, but in a different way.
Then some day I will stand up and say,
"I waited for him, and I helped him through,
and because of your prayers, you helped him too."
~Moorea (eighth grade)

END
He's going now,
And going slow,
His heartbeat rapid,
His pulse is low.
I cry to see him hurt;
His eyes show no reflection.
I feel like yelling at God,
But I remember I need more perfection.
I fell the devil near,
I hear it in my ear,
the calling of the devil
to curse the God I love
I reject the hateful jest
And lay my eyes to rest.
He is going now,
Going now,
And going slow,
So very slow;
it is the end of the life of my brother,
the end.
~Moorea (eighth grade)

15 Miutes Here, 15 Minutes There

I sat and traced the templates of the bright orange tone on tone last night.
This morning I cut it them out! These are only a quarter of what is needed
for the 10 orange Snail's Trail blocks. I have the solid and white sections
to cut now. I am amazed what I have been able to get done in 15- 30
minutes. I have always been all or nothing, needing a good part of the
day to work on quilting or craft projects...or so I thought. I see now
that I am not going to get any quilting done with that philosophy.
In reality I do not and won't have a huge time slot like that
anytime soon. Home schooling and having two Littles makes
that pretty difficult. So I need to change. The story of life isn't it?

BTW- If you have Littles in diapers, you might not want to fix the
Braised Beef recipe I posted yesterday. The diapers I changed this
morning had everyone else running for cover...it was ugly.

Love, Me

My Kitchen View

I made this fantastic recipe tonight. Braised Beef. It is so easy and
so tasty! I made Beef Burgundy a few months ago- and it was
phenomenal, but required so much work and time. It was also so rich,
that I found I really did not want to make it again for a while. This
fits the bill perfectly. I used cheap stew meat and even cheaper red
wine. The trick is to brown the meat very throughly at a high temp.

Here is the view from my kitchen window. I love having a kitchen
that overlooks the backyard. I can cook and watch The Littles while
they play. It is especially sweet this Spring because we just
remodeled the kitchen in the last 6 months, and I can continue
the tradition of washing my babies in this country sink!

Love, Me

More Rainbow Fabric

I was near another Jo Ann's today and thought I'd drop-in to see if
they had better matches for the violet than the store in Elk Grove.
This violet is perfect and I found a few others as well that were
better matches. The only one left is the lemony green (prev. post.)

I have 15 minutes to cut little pieces today! Yahoo!

Love & Cutting, Me

More Rainbow Fabric

I went through my purple stash today to see if I could find a light
purple print to match the solid in the left. This tone on tone was
in there! Now I to find a better violet print to match the solid on
the right! I am getting closer to having all the fabric. I have not
spent any time cutting today, but the day is not over yet.

My baby's hair looked like this today. Beautiful baby hair.

Aunty Dori Ann came over to cut all the boys' hair today,
and this is what the mad screamer looks like now. I could
not watch all those beautiful curls come off, but it to had to be.
He looks so grown-up and handsome. Waaaaa.

Love & Hair Cuts, Me

Snail Trail Block

While Beloved watched How the West Was Won, the Littles slept and the
Big Boys devised new ways of keeping the Littles out of their LEGOs...
I made THIS! Now, I have never made a quilt the old fashioned way:
using a templates of tiny pieces, tracing them and cutting each tiny
piece out with scissors! I have always used a rotary cutter.
When I started this, I was not quite sure I was going to like it!
I have had this pattern and fabric for at least four years. I really
thought I should wait until I had all the fabric to begin, but I
realized today that I could have this for four more years before
I start it. I know that if I give myself 15 to 30 minutes a day to cut
out blocks, I will be that much closer to having this quilt DONE in
four years!

Here is the backing. I LOVE this fabric.

I also have to share the fabulous new dinner we are going to be making
all Summer. It is grilled pizza. Yep- you cook the dough right on the grill.
The recipe says charcoal grill, but I am a gas grill girl. I adore my gas
grill. We grill all through the winter. This was so delicious and the house
smelled so good- like we were at Paragary's.

Happy quilting and grilling, Me

Snail Rainbow Trail

I went to Jo Anne's today to get clay for my son's science project
and look what I found. The most beautiful piece of fabric called
Everglades by Alexander Henry Collection .
This goes so well with all the colors of the snail trail quilt I want
to make for my brother in Tim Hawaii. It was $9- a yard,
but I had my 40% off coupon!Yahoo!!!
It inspired me to unearth the box of bright fat quarters.

Here is what I have been collecting for years.

Here is the sample card I use when I go to the store.
Today I also found this lemony green, which I did not have.

Here is the primitive quilt plan I made by hand
(before EQ- which I stll don't have.)

Here is the original pattern that inspired me from a
Quilter Newsletter Magazine with templates cut and laminated!

I can't wait to start this.
I just need a few more prints to match up and I will be ready!

Happy Quilting, Moorea

Quilt Story Book

Lookie what my Mom gave me tonight!
A gift she purchased while on vacation.
It is a wonderful story about a quilt maker
who uses her beautiful quilts to teach a
greedy king to be content. Thanks Mom!

Boy, I really wish I had time to work on some quilting.
We went to a funeral after church today. I am just too tired.

Love, Moorea

Pajama Tea Party

I went to a pajama tea party today. It was so fun.

We were invited to join the hostess in our pj's and
bring a tea treat and book we were reading to share.
I took a lemon roll and and a quilt book, of course!
Hawaiian Appliqué by Vicky Flemming. Here is a pic of
the hostess' Grandmother's Flower Garden quilt
made by her husband's great aunt. Vintage at it's best!

Love, Moorea

Jacob's Baby Quilt

I finally got the label on the sweet baby quit my friend
the Amazing Annette (aka Princess Buttercup) made
for Jacob. I wanted it to be big enough that he could
use it for a while, so she made the field of tiny 1 -1/2"
blocks pretty large and I added the blue border for
a finished size of 49" x 43"! She had them on a board
that she used to fiddle and fuss them around on.
These are some snippets off of the 2" strip sets left over
from making my Grandma's quilt (see Stolen Quilt post.)
It is very special. Thanks Annette for making this for Jacob,
it is a treasure. Great minds think alike- look at this quilt
from Inspired By Antique Quilts, it is exactly the same, just
with reproduction fabrics. Cool.

mom quilted it diagonally, and it looks
like it is channel quilted.

Love, Moorea

Tea Party

The Big Boys and I had the Pastor's wife over for a tea party today!

It was so fun. We put the Littles to bed, brought out the good china
and stuffed ourselves! Scones, cucumber & cream cheese
sandwiches, russian tea cookies and éclairs. YUM!!!
Nothin' like high tea, good conversation and even better company!

Love, Moorea

The stolen quilt

Here is a picture that breaks my heart.
It is a quilt my mom and I made together
for my Grandma Irene in 2002. It got stolen
by an in home caregiver in 2005. I need to
post it on Lost Quilts. This is the only picture

I have and I did not take measurements or
get a pic of the label. I cannot encourage you
enough to document your quilts! I have made
quilt document record sheets in a pdf file that I
am going to put up on the side bar soon, or you
can go to Lostquilts.com to get some very detailed
documentation pages.

Kansas Twister from
"Scrap Quilts from Grandma's Attic."

Love, Moorea