Sunday Sundry - Vol. 30

It has been a tumultuous week here in the heartland, as well as around the world.  My thoughts are with the people of Japan as they deal with the devastation and serious after-effects of the tsunami.

Wisconsin has felt its own sociopolitical shock waves this week.  My husband was among the 100,000 residents at the state capitol yesterday and took these photos.

Meanwhile, I was at home, working and coloring my hair taking care of business.  (I do not mean to diminish the importance of what is happening at the state level; just keeping it real.  The degree to which the events of the past week disturb and sadden me are beyond the scope of this blog.)

Thankfully, sweetness and light were delivered right to my doorstep in the form of a package from Mary at Mom Wald's Place.  I'd won a giveaway, and she threw in some extra-specialness besides.

I love her embroidery on this dish towel, and the beautiful border she added!

Though the snow still lingers in patches, the butterflies were not deterred.  She crocheted this amazing garland!

If you haven't visited Mom Wald's Place, or her Etsy shop of vintage goodness, you really should.  She finds wonderful items, does lovely stitchery and crochet, and takes beautiful photos of it all.  It's like a breath of fresh, spring air!

Knowles Tea Coffee Set

That's it for now.  I'll be back in a day or two with a tutorial for the St. Patrick's Day mug rug.  Enjoy the day!

 
 

St. Patrick's Day Mug Rug

 

Despite being a busy week, work-wise—or perhaps because it has been—I stole away to the sewing room last night to futz around with an idea that had been percolating in my P-brain.

A fellow Men's Sew Along-er, Cinnamon, sent me some gorgeous emerald green fabric that she was using for her shirt muslin.  She mentioned she had yards of it left and wasn't quite as enamored of it anymore, and graciously agreed to part with some.  Yay!  I love it!

After I got done petting it, I started to think about what all I could do with it.  I think an Irish Chain quilt is a definite possibility.

Double Irish Chain

But being the sort that needs more immediate gratification, and with St. Patrick's Day just around the corner, and having very limited time to sew anything lately, I came up with this Irish-inspired mug rug!

From left to right, we have the Irish flag, in the center a shamrock, and on the right, a 9-patch or the beginning of an Irish chain.

Sweet, huh?

Here's the back:

If there's any interest in a tutorial, let me know.  In the meantime, be sure to visit the folks who've linked at Sarah's:

Sunday Sundry - Vol. 29

How y'all are?  

Does anyone remember Justin Wilson, the Cajun chef and humorist?  That was one of his famous lines, along with the catchphrase, "I gar-ohn-TEE!"  I used to love watching his cooking show on PBS and hear his funny stories.

I seem to be all about the tangents today, so hold on to your hats as we steer and veer along the Sunday Sundry path! 

First things first, I want to wish my home girl Kathy (no blog) a very happy birthday!  I sent her this card, which tickled my funnybone.  This will be us in 35 years or so, with any luck.

Meanwhile, I'm still thinkin'...

I made up a couple of sample blocks for a quilt I've had in mind for several months now.  These are not the fabrics I'll be using, just some scraps.

The idea for this quilt started with a song on the radio.  This particular song had some interesting lyrics, the kind that evoke visual images, as well as the kind of lyrics that make you go hmm (or, what was he smoking?).  Kind of like when you hear an odd phrase and think, that would be a cool band name (or product name, or book title, etc.).  You know, something interesting enough to ponder.

For instance, the lyrics "...with a purple umbrella and a 50-cent hat..." (Led Zeppelin, Livin' Lovin' Maid), or "...the pompatus of love..." (Steve Miller, The Joker).  One is very visual, and the other is like, WTF?

Anyway, I heard this particular lyric and said to Norm, who was in the car with me at the time, "I'm going to make a quilt and call it X" (where X represents the interesting phrase from the lyrics).  Sorry, I can't tell you what the phrase is until the quilt is done.  I've got to maintain a little bit of suspense, right?

Now this is kind of a backwards way to make a quilt, I know.  Usually the naming of the quilt happens after, say, you decide on a pattern and cut some fabric.  But in this case, the wheels started turning pretty quickly about how I might represent X in fabric.  In keeping with the era of the song from whence the lyrics came, I knew it would have to have a funky, retro vibe to it, though I wanted to do it in modern fabrics.  

These are some of the fabrics that will potentially be going into this quilt.

Are you saying to yourself, Hmm...?  Yeah, me too.

I'm not going to rush this process.  There are still things I need to work out, and I want to take my time and enjoy each step and not hurry for the sake of producing something.  This quilt is going to be an exercise for me in value, i.e., dark, medium, light.  This is outside my comfort zone, so there's that.  Just looking at the stacks above, I think I have a lot of medium value fabrics, a few darks, and not enough lights.  So this is going to take some pondering.

Karaoke'd Away

You know how there are some songs you hear that you feel compelled to sing along with?  Hopefully, you're in the privacy of your own home or car when the urge hits to let fly with your vocal accompaniment, but we've all got our faves I'm sure.  Here's one I found on YouTube today.  Even if you don't like Journey—and I prefer the pre-'80s incarnation of the group myself—watch this, if nothing else than for a glimpse at the most awesome white person 'fro ever on Neal Schon, the guitarist.

Then again, who am I to talk?  I was rocking the UniPerm myself back then.

The UniPerm was this perming system in which your hair was rolled onto rods, a solution applied, and then hot and heavy clamps were placed over the rods to, I don't know, cook your hair into curling.  You were then left alone to "relax" with a stack of outdated Cosmo mags and a head full of stank that weighed 20 pounds more than it did when you came into the salon.  Good times.  It was kind of expensive too.

Finally, here's one you've heard before, but more than that, it's a fabulous retrospective of fashion from the late '60s.  Don't miss this—you might even find your creative inspiration!

Signed, Sealed, Delivered!

Well, this has to be some kind of record for me, folks.  I started this quilt on Saturday and finished it Wednesday.  Even got a label on it AND delivered it!

This was made for a former next-door neighbor lady who has cancer.  I visited her last week Wednesday and wished I had a quilt to give her.  I had my camera along and was showing her pictures of a couple of the quilts I'd made, and she enjoyed seeing them.

I went home and pulled fabrics for a quilt to make for her.  I thought a Sudoku quilt like the ones Sarah had made would work nicely, and Sarah graciously shared her instructions with me.

When I stopped back to visit the neighbor lady this week, she saw what was in my bag and said, "Oh, you've brought a quilt to show me."  I unfolded it over her lap and said, "Yes, and take a look at the label."

"It's for you.  I thought I'd bring you a little bit of springtime early."

She was delighted!

See what others have gotten done this week ~ just click the button!

Favorite Things Friday - Snacks!

It's time once again to play favorites, as in Favourite Things Friday, hosted by the lovely Shay at Quilting in My Pyjamas.  She really is lovely, and a doting grandmother, as her sweet post today describes.

My favorite thing this week is snacks.  SNACKS!!  I am a big-time snacker from way back(er?).  My mom wasn't real big on the snacks thing, and I swear she had some kind of radar that enabled her to know from the far corners of the house when the lid was raised on the aluminum cookie jar.  So I learned from an early age to forage for snacks on my own.  This meant anything from raiding the garden to combing the neighborhood for candy.  Seriously, we used to ring the doorbell of this elderly couple who always had Hershey bars on hand.  Can you imagine answering your door to some ragamuffin kids looking for a handout?  What were we thinking, that it was Halloween all year long?  Sheesh. 

My sister (left) and me, picking/eating cherries.

When I say "we," I mean my sister and I, and/or one or more neighbor girls our age, like Dee-Dee or Cathy.  Probably Dee-Dee.  She was my favorite instigator.  We got into all sorts of trouble adventures together.  Like the time we tried to make gum.  We read the ingredients on the back of a Bazooka wrapper and decided we probably had everything we needed to cook ourselves up a batch.  Except for gum base.  That turned out to be pretty important.  Turns out Kool-Aid (artificial flavor and color, right?), sugar, and corn syrup cooked together makes for one sticky sweet, stain-producing mess.

At some point, I started to earn an allowance, most of which went straight into my pie hole in the form of whatever crap I could buy at the corner grocery or gas station and eat on the way home whilst pedaling my Schwinn.

Didn't my parents feed me? you may be wondering.  Absolutely, three squares a day.  Hey, I was just a hungry, constantly growing kid with a sweet tooth the size of a fiberglass farm animal.  It stands to reason I was a little on the chubby side too.

But I digress.  The point is, I still love to snack, but now I have to abstain from gluten and dairy products.  Say it with me: Wah.  This has put a serious cramp in my snacking style, as you can imagine.  Gone are the days of driving through Dairy Queen, and having peanut M&Ms rattling around in my desk drawer where there should be paperclips.  But I feel better, health-wise, and far less flatulent.  Yes, I went there.

So what do I snack on?  These are the current faves:

Nuts of all kinds...peanuts, almonds, pecans, etc.  Peanut butter on crackers (though in all honesty, I've about had it with those rice bran crackers).  

I am rarely without Tostitos in the house.  Lately, I've rediscovered Fritos too.  Did I tell you I found a recipe for chocolate-covered Frito candy?  I need to make that soon.

I dip the corn chips in jalapeno salsa, hummus, or guacamole (hence the avocado, which later became this rockin' guac).

Sweets...well, it's tricky, but rest assured I get my sugar quota.  I miss donuts, and I'm not sure, but I think they may even miss me at the bakery counter.  But I bake at least once a week, and today it was Maui Wowee Bars.  I use gluten-free flours, of course, and other substitutes for butter or margarine.  Today it was canola oil plus some coconut milk in these bars.

I do have to be careful with chocolate and make sure to read the label for dairy products.  Pretty much all the usual chocolate in the checkout lane is off limits.  My latest favorite find, though, is this Venezuela dark chocolate (from Aldi).  I also buy marzipan during the Christmas holiday, when it's available.  And there's always marshmallows.  Hey, that reminds me—it's Marshmallow Peep season!

Missing from photo:  Carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, bananas, etc.  I do eat a variety of fruits and veggies, but didn't want to dump out my whole vegetable drawer for a picture.

So what do you like to nosh on?  Leave a comment, and I'll be back to read them shortly—after I grab a snack!