another finish/birthday dinner story

Another finish 8-10-2012 Friday p.m.  By the time we left for our supper at Outback Steakhouse I only had the last long side to go.  Looks pretty good on that Button Up base, doesn't it?

Funny story about our meal out.  Part of my reason for picking Outback for my birthday dinner was because we had some of the money left on a gift card that DJ's son and his family had given us for Christmas.  Well, that and the coconut shrimp, LOL.  I had encouraged him to take a trip down there for a good meal when I was on vacation but he didn't go.  I figured the remaining monies would pay for one of us and less money out of his pocket.  Tracy's birthday is just 5 days earlier than mine so between the two of us, the checkbook takes a hit.

I spotted a new addition to the menu---the coconut shrimp was offered with a sirloin steak of varying sizes along with two sides.  I proposed that we order that item, split the baked potato and let him pick the 2nd side (vegetable medley) and I would get a house salad.  I would eat the shrimp and he could have the 6 oz. steak which he felt would be plenty and give me a bite.  Tab would be around 17 bucks and add on the tax and tip, water with lemon was fine too. ( There was 17 bucks left on the card.  Cheap date!)

Well, fairly quickly someone came from the kitchen with a steak and baked potato and a plate of ahi tuna. In retrospect, too quickly really.  Not our waitress though.  UH, not our order---we asked for the sirloin steak with coconut shrimp combination.  He left the steak plate and took the tuna away.   DJ assumed he was supposed to have it.  It didn't occur to us that it was bigger than it should have been and half the meal was missing.  Yep, you got it.  It belonged to a couple sitting behind us.  DJ had already cut into it when the waitress announced the error.

Out came my salad.  He shared a couple bites of steak, we split the baked potato.  At some point out comes our original order.  All of it---another baked potato, the smaller sirloin, the vegetable medley and my shrimp. I guess we know what DJ will eat for lunch tomorrow now!  Two whole meals then for the cost of tax and a more generous than usual tip.  DJ said he felt bad about the waitress getting gypped out of tip for a 2nd meal because we had shared a plate.  As you get older you often don't have as much of an appetite so no doubt other couples do that or take half of it home.

I have guild today so will check back in a couple days-----------hope you are having a good weekend in whatever you chose to do.

WIP Weds/check-in

What is a blog without pictures?  I've got a couple, LOL.

I quilted up the August Button Up on Monday afternoon and started on the "Faux Button Up" row quilt right after that but only got the first two rows and a little bit of the third one done before I hung it up for the night.  "The Closer" was on, after all and this next Monday is the series finale!    The binding still needs to be done on both wall hangings.  You still see pins in August because I am considering hand quilting around the melon seeds.

Tuesday, I finished up the row quilt, bound and labeled them both.   I realized that I did not have near enough information in my head to complete the label but was not entirely sure where I had put the journal notes that were passed around with it.  I knew all about the top three rows----I did the stars, Lauri from MD the flag,  Diane W from IN (who has since passed away) did the kitty, bowtie and log cabin blocks.  Cher did the butterfly and veggies row---my OR FAB pal of many years.   BUT it was not clear to me which row Jacquie from WA had done and who had done the 6th one??  What year was this anyway?  I should say that the piece was inspired by the Summer wall hanging in the Country Threads book from that patchwork place Quilt Shop Series way back in 1992.  Thankfully the girls did not slavishly follow the one in the book as I think their choices made it much more unique.  I didn't like parts of that piece anyway!

After throwing  picture up on Facebook, Jacquie posted that she thought it was from 2000 and she believed she had done the watermelons as she is not an applique aficionado.  Right on both counts!  I found the journal notes in the file cabinet along with the signature squares.  Off came the label that I had applied to it that had the wrong information and cross outs on it!  WOW, it is about time that this row robin get completed.  Of course I am thrilled that the piece is the same size as my other button ups so it can be used on the base just like the others.  I will not have to do up the June Button Up unless I want to----it is picket fence with tall flowers.   Meh.   Do the May basket, skip June, the July one is done.  Sounds good to me!

Here is the proper text with the sig squares pinned to it (the fan was blowing them away, LOL)  The green and white print is the reverse coloration of the backing I used.  These strips look like white on green while the backing was green on white. Blend-y though not a match.  I will piece the squares together to make a special label for the piece.  That is on today's "list"  Cutting fabric was as far as it got this morning as DJ needed me to go up to the license tag division at the Country Administration building and a few other errands along the way.

The other pile is the prototype for DJ's nighttime neck "brace" deal.  Coincidentally this yardage is what I used on the back of August.  I have plenty of fabrics but nothing I cared to cut into for this project.  Wrong color, floral or juvenile, headed to another project---you get the picture.  That job is also on today's "list" though I know I need to get some wide velcro on the next store run to finish the piece.

Before putting away my good and faithful servant Erik the Red I gave him a thorough cleaning inside and out the best I could anyway.  I re-positioned the sewing table and got out Brother Man though left him unplugged. I vacuumed up my stringy mess and even cleaned off the ceiling fan.  It is amazing how quickly a white fan can get dusty looking!  Yeah, I know---quir looking up!

Next up in the pictures for today----some more of my bday present.  Yeah, it isn't for a couple of days but who knew it would get here so quickly?  Boy, that DJ sure knows how to "shop", LOL.    Half yards of a bit more of the Vintage Modern for my Farmer's Wife Sampler.   Love, love that aqua and red combo.   I had ordered some half yards of a few selected pieces last month but my quilt will not be make entirely of the fabric line as I want a scrappy look in my 111 block sampler.  I may not have taken a picture of that stash acquisition when it came in.  Don't remember.   I am thinking that a stop for another snap lid stackable tote is going to take care of the remainder of my spend down, LOL.

My other selection----set M of Marti Michell's Perfect Patchwork Templates which is sized for a 12 inch finished block 5 x 5 grid.  I am pretty well set now and will use these on the Farmer's Wife Sampler.  Also since I love her 1 and 2 inch finished log cabin ruler so much I got the next smaller strip sized on which finishes at 3/4 inch and 1 1/2 inches.  

Here is the longer range plan----

• Finish up Popsicle Sticks ---roughly half done at this point.   Then I can raid whatever fabrics and strips that I want from that container.  It has not seen the machine since mid-Feb 2012 meaning it is fairly new UFO
• Start cutting for Farmer's Wife Sampler at least the first 10 blocks in whatever sequence I finally settle on---numerically by the book or by the conversion chart or how they are laid out in MY version.  
• Quit talking about it and get started on those blocks, will ya?!
• Finish up the Prairie Stroll top at the next Bama Belles meeting(s)---the blocks are done, after all.

Just noticed that is time for lunch and I have to pop it in the oven---best get off the computer and into the kitchen!  THX for stopping by.

this and that on a Friday

DJ went out as the sun was lowering behind the tree line and discovered that the UPS driver had left me a box.  I'll tell you, my mom knows how to stuff a shoe box, LOL.

Not sure what I will do with this stack as it sort of depends on how much is left of the fabric---there is a blend-y sort of thing going on though with a few of the pieces.  Naptime, maybe??  If not, there are a few nice pieces of neutral background.  I think Mom may have added two pieces that I did not have set aside but that's okay too.   Some re-arranging of boxes on her end left had her wondering, she said.

That lovely, cheerful floral on the left is a  Hoffman "Country Side Collection" piece.  I'm thinking it might make up into a 4 patch posie??  Isn't that the fun part of quilting to pull out fabrics till you find a combination that will work together?  Already I am eyeing a blue tone and tone on the shelf, LOL.    Lois had recently used some 4 patch posie elements as block centers of one of her tops.  I'll point that out when it is turned in because I did not get a picture at the time.

A glimpse at the design wall----mostly leftovers and future projects.  Christmas blocks for the stalled out Oxmoor Christmas quilt.  The strip is a section of binding for my Christmas Patience Corner.  Leftover bowties from the 76 Bowtie QOV--that will work with with the next abandoned block project along with the various other nine patches etc stuck up there.  The plain squares are for quilt labels.  The just finished basket block is hanging for me to see before I put it up with the others and pull another out to stitch.  The two ziploc bags?  One is squares I pulled to make a few "Fight Like a Quilter" blocks for a fund raiser.  I like the blocks so may make more for a pro bono quilt so I did not file the cut squares back into the 2 1/2 inch square container.  Lastly, greens that my friend Pat sent for the paint chip challenge----I see watermelons in their future as in Button Up #8.  

Those foundation pieced flowers were something I started years ago from one of Carol Doak's books, Easy Mix & Match Machine Paper Piecing.  Now this was copyright 1995 and I bought it as a new book at the time.  Yep, old project and I remember stitching on it at Hands All Around Quilt Retreat near Lake Shelbyville in Illinois. I planned to make a wall hanging she showed on the back cover with butterflies, a sun, snails in the grassy area.  Well here is a link to the image.  Once upon a time I had all 6 flowers done but two of them wound up in a row robin for a friend on the old aCozyQuilt Bee list.  I think that the sky blue fabric has been used elsewhere over the years so these four may be "it" and added to another project down the line.

Here I am holding up Lauri's row---bad picture as I had a crappy digital camera at the time.  Lauri had a garden theme going and wanted the bright fabrics she had provided as alternating blocks.  I stitched up the Pieces from My Heart blocks from Sandy Gervais that said ""What Flowers?".  The dragonfly and frog blocks were slightly re-sized from Quilts from the Heartland Nature of Things, I believe it was called.  The lady bugs were also from that book but was actually a wall hanging that I scaled down to a 12 inch block.  And then you see the other two flowers on the bottom.

So back to present day, LOL.   I have not done much but re-organize files on the computer..... and read.  I had picked up a used paperback from Mom's stash Barbara Parker's Suspicion of Innocence for reading on the plane and finished it up  We picked up a couple more of the series at the library the other day.   DJ is reading the first one now.  I also buzzed through Kate Jacob's Comfort Food on Wednesday afternoon and evening.  I enjoy reading but often do not make time to do so.  Some days, it is all I can do to get through the local paper . When I get on a reading jag, it reminds me of summertime and going up to the town library a couple times a week because you had read through the stack you had checked out days before.  


This summer cold and the heat have been energy sapping so the cutting and batting fusing that I had mentioned in my last post did not get done.  I told DJ he is just lucky that I have gotten meals on the table as lousy as I have felt at times.  But the laundry is done, groceries bought-----I am going to live, LOL.  I do hope to get something done today though as I hate wasting time and I hate having stuff piled up in here too.  That action really stifles my creativity when I don't have space to work and need the table or whatever under that pile.

It looks like a good part of the USA lower 48 are going to be in extreme heat situation if we are not already.  I just pray that there are no heat related fatalities with the sustained weather pattern.  I know my parents said it hit triple digits in IL---we were at 96 yesterday but fortunately without high humidity factors.  The a/c can barely keep up even set at 79.  I cooked  on the stove top, grill and microwave last night and still could barely stand to be in the kitchen though by that time the afternoon sun is barreling into the opposite side of the house. Now,even with the blinds drawn it is HOT in the kitchen with the sun on that side.  I am avoiding doing the prep work for the fish tacos with avocado sauce I plan on making for tonight.  The sauce and fresh tomato salsa should be done up ahead of time to meld the flavors a bit so I will go out there and blast a box fan while I do it.  No jalapeno peppers here though and I am putting the fish on the grill.  Skyler also is begging for his 2nd treat bite which he normally gets around noon if DJ does it but I am a softer touch and he knows it, LOL.  

Stay cool the best you can---and thanks for stopping by.