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My sister and niece are notoriously late with birthday gifts,which I love. Especially this year when I turned 70 and the celebration was a little bigger than usual. How nice in late September to get these wind chimes and be able to enjoy just them. And THREE pairs of earrings, oh, my. All in silver and two of them have blue accents.
On Mother's Day I received a gift certificate from Banasch's, a store that has sold fabric and notions in various locations in Cincinnati for 100 years. I love gift certificates and usually save them for awhile. When I went to the store this week, there was a sign out front that they were closing. My gift certificate bought twice as much as I was expecting. Four lovely lime green Riley Blake fabrics. And five spools of Gutterman thread, which is on sale for $1.00 per spool.
Happy Birthday and Mother's Day to me!
Sarah, we're definitely going down the street to this coffee shop next time you come. Note the "Coffee and Compassion in Tandem" on their sign.
And here's the real tandem sitting over the menu.
The space is currently two rooms plus outside seating, but they will be doubling their size soon. You can see information about the renovation here.
And the scones are really, really good.
The worship banner is to help visualize the "wholehearted" theme of three Sundays. Gray and white jelly-roll style background with heart and vertical strips in bright pink.
What I learned: I did the background first and finished it quilt style, with organic walking foot horizontal quilting. The heart was quilted separately with slanted walking foot straight quilting. I started with half inch quilting, then decided to try 1/4" matchbox quilting. What happened was, the heart pulled out of symmetry with all that slanted quilting. This doesn't really bother me, I tend to make things too controlled, too even, and this got me out of that zone. But, if I wanted to keep the symmetrical shape, I should have quilted vertically or horizontally.
Before I quilted, I cut out my heart and drew a line 1/2" inside the heart. I quilted to the line and that's where I turned around. At the end, I quilted on the line several times. I cut with a pinking shears about 1/4" outside the line, turned in on the line, and pressed it down. The pinking shears eliminated the need for cutting little lines around the curves. It was easy to applique the heart and it stayed flat.
One of my goals this year was to go to more Reds games (check) and another was to go to the last home game (check, yesterday.)
Last year's last home game was so awesome. The sun was shining, the stadium was crowded, and in the bottom of the 8th inning the pitcher Johnny Cueto got a hit and an RBI. In the 9th Aroldis Chapman pitched the save and Cueto got his 20th win for the season. The crowd was happy and greeted the Reds ushers after the game, saying "See you next year."
This year was different. It was rainy, the crowd was sparse and it seemed as if half the crowd was Cubs fans. Chapman hasn't pitched in a long time because there has been nothing to save. Cueto has been traded. A rookie pitcher started again for about the 100th time this season.
I had my favorite spot, a few rows up in the upper deck behind home plate. After a little while I moved way up under the roof to stay dry. There was plenty of room there.
But still, it was a good day. I moved back down in the 7th inning and dried off my seat and didn't feel too bad about the loss. Joey Votto got on base and if he does the same at the next away game he will tie Pete Rose's club record for getting on base in consecutive games. I greeted a few people after the game and got two energy bars on the way out, passed out by Reds personnel who said that next year will be better.
One of the ushers looked as if he was around 80. When I said, "See you next year," he replied "Oh, I'll be here." I like that.
After a chilly night, I gave up and turned on the heat for the next day or so. Today I'll put on the flannel sheets and tonight will be warmer.
Sweet little Trick-Or-Treat Bag from Anita Goodesign In the Hoop Halloween. 4" x 5" x 2". Next week I'm planning to make the Halloween Wall Hanging from the same design collection.
Tomorrow is the last Reds home game and I have my ticket printed and ready. They may set a club record tonight for the most losses in a row, but I'm still looking forward to the game tomorrow.
Thanks to Connie H. for the flannel and pattern from Villa Rose Designs to make this tenth NICU baby quilt for the year. I adapted the pattern - it shows more piecing on the left side. I needed a smaller quilt. There is another block of light patterned fabric at the top but it was hanging over the couch.
And, a pieced back. I wasn't sure how my usual tight quilting would look with the flannel, but there is more texture than with smooth cotton. I did prewash the flannel to get some of the shrinkage out. I thought about washing it after quilting to see how much difference that would make, but I know they will wash it again at the hospital so I didn't.
I used Best Press on the flannel before I cut it out to give it a little stability for cutting nicely. I love that stuff.
Snippets part two. Above is a rose from the garden Sarah was watering. The fragrance was amazing, and I can't smell that well. I'm guessing that it was an heirloom rose.
It was fun to try out the kayaks and the paddle boat that Winnie and Sarah have purchased. I had never done either before and they were a treat.
Above are a couple of flights from The Wedge brewery in Asheville.
And here is Winnie checking out the chickens at The Wedge. I guess they live there, at least during warm weather when there are peanuts to be had.
