Just for Funny

Thank you again, N.

Two WIPs

I like best to have two quilts in progress at the same time, one being pieced (my day job) and one being hand-quilted (my night job). Fortunately, I have two beauties going currently, previews of which you can see here.

The Heirloom Quilt

Last evening I finished the last of the hand sewing on the heirloom quilt project. This is what I have remade from my great great grandmother's bedspread and window covering. It can be now used as a wall-hanging, at 33 by 49 inches, rather than folded up in a drawer somewhere. I hope you like it.

Simple Granola

(Rolled Oats
Originally uploaded by .michael.newman.)

Dissolve 1/4 cup sugar (a.k.a. "crystallized evaporated cane juice") and 1/2 teaspoon salt in 1 cup water. Pour sweetened water over 4 cups regular rolled oats and mix until all the oats are wet.

Smash mixture onto oil-sprayed baking pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Remove from oven and use fork and fingers to break mixture into bite-sized pieces. Return to oven for 15 minutes. Stir again. Return to oven for 15 minutes more. Remove from oven and cool.

Delicious as a topping for yogurt. Add mix-ins of your choice.

(Click on the picture for photo credits.)

Just Because This Made Me Feel Good

(Thank you, Nokiomi.)

EverFeel Like This Woman?

Bukit Lawang / Indonesia, Sumatra
Originally uploaded by flydime

To All You Cave Men-Types: Happy Father's Day

Thank you to T, C and S for being such great dads and setting a worthy pattern for your sons to follow. You are the best!

By the way, the Dad at Cloudcover Cottage does not trust Ward Cleaver. He says that anyone who wears a tie in his own home ought to be strung up by it. We are so glad that Ward is sporting a polo shirt for barbecue night.

(And thanks, guys, for letting your wives come out of the kitchen once in a while, too.)

A Patchwork of Another Kind

Thank you to Kaferine for the pretty pictures.

Kaffe Fassett a Safe Asset

Today I happily ordered some fabrics which were designed by this man.

Three things:
1. His name rhymes with "safe asset."
2. His work is very colorful.
3. I like that he knits because my Grandpa did, too.

Pink for Someone's Precious Baby

This quilt-of-a-million-hand-stitches needs to go to a hospital and be given to just the right parents of just the right baby. Any ideas?

Backed Up

I'm getting backed up on my quilting projects. I am scurrying to finish the baby quilt I am working on (not shown--yet), so that I can do the finishing work on the heirloom, so I can get to this stack of Wee Play, while working on a modified crazy quilt as well. I feel a need to hurry, hurry. It's not thatI have any deadlines, but because I am so excited to get to the next thing and the next. My ideas are overflowing. (These gorgeous swatches of Moda Bela Solids on my work table certainly do nothing to settle me down.)

I am hand-quilting the baby quilt into one-inch squares, which I would love doing except that--due to a backorder on a better alternative--I am marking it with an Air Erasable Fabric Marking Pen. The air erases it all right. I do just one line across at a time, and, even though I have my needle and thread all ready to go before I mark a thing, it is a race to stitch across the quilt before the marks completely fade away and I have to mark again. Too much stop and go for a stitcher in a hurry.

I do not recommend an Air Erasable Fabric Marking Pen. (Has anybody out there found anything reliable for marking on good quilting fabrics?)

Report on David Ragsdale Hearing (Salt Lake Tribune)

Be warned that the full news article, linked below, describes the events of January 6 in rather graphic detail. The following introduction gives the essential update on the case, without the sad recounting of Kristy's death:

PROVO - A judge on Monday bound David Ragsdale over for trial on a charge of aggravated murder, ruling there is "clear and overwhelming" evidence he shot and killed his wife outside her Lehi church building in January. Ragsdale pleaded not guilty.
Whether Ragsdale put other people at risk while allegedly shooting Kristy Ragsdale will be the real issue of the trial, said Judge Claudia Laycock, because "everything else is very clear."
The risk of death to bystanders elevates the charge to "aggravated" murder, a capital crime for which offenders are eligible for the death penalty.
The people in jeopardy were Kristy Ragsdale's mother, Ann Palizzi, and a father with two young sons who were nearby, Laycock said. A police officer testified that one bullet hit a van about 4 feet from where the man and his children stood.

You can read the full article at
http://www.sltrib.com/news/ci_9462167

David Ragsdale Hearing Update (KSL 5.com)--Ann Palizzi Interviewed

David Ragsdale Hearing Update (ABC 4 .com)--Ann Palizzi Interviewed

A Quilt to Welcome Back-door Visitors

I got the 30's quilt up on the hallway wall yesterday. Now it is the first thing you see when you walk into the house through the pantry. It's a day-brightener for sure.

Chive Blossoms

Spring! Time to sprinkle purple chive blossoms into the salad. Yum.

Did You Know? 2.0