National Lasagna Day

Yup, that's right!

Today is National Lasagna Day.

A holy day of obligation in some circles.

To honor this momentous occasion, I have prepared a healthy version of lasagna. 

Turkey, veggies and low fat cheese. 

It sounds gross...but smells pretty good.

If its inedible, we can dine out. 

It's also my favorite & only brudder's birthday. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, MY BROTHER! 

I love you a ton!

I hope to be seeing you soon!

R2RR Border

I love how batik flimsies look like stained glass from behind. 

It almost makes me not want to finish them. 

But, not really. 

I finally death with it ... 

My version of Judy Ls Road to Round Rock was too scrappy for all those borders. 

I hemmed & hawed and decided...no pieced borders. 

It would just be too much. 

And, I didn't like it without any border, either. 

So, I nosed around my stash and found an acceptable border fabric. 

I added 6 inches all around. 

It settled it down a bit, IMHO. 

And, now, I like it!

Soon, I hope to get her quilted up and outta my studio. 

Gosh, I have a lot of quilts in queue for Lola-baby. 

Brig Beach getaway

I was feeling stressed...worrying way too much.

Why do I worry so?

So, I did what I do best...ESCAPED!

I packed up my traveling partner, Frannie, and we headed to NJ for a week.

Frannie spent the week with her brother, Buster.  I have no pictures of them. :-(

It was one absolutely gorgeous day after another. 

But it was hot...so we bought an umbrella at Sam's Club. 

Perfect!  It was even a bit chilly under there. Brig is a breezy place!

One day we went to Barbara's house and floated around her pool all day with Monica and Roxie. 

Barbaras home is so nice...her hubs is a landscaper and it shows!

We tried Moss Creek Inn for dinner one night. I liked it...Mimi & George were not impressed. 

The next night, we went to dinner at Oyster Creek...I had a lobster.  Swoon. 

Saturday was supposed to be rainy, so we stopped at Aversa's, picked up a Stromboli and some cannolis and headed a wee bit north to visit the in laws. 

Tony, my father in law, broke his hip in May. He wished we had bought bigger cannolis. 

Lillian, my mother in law, is happy to finally be back in her own house.

Uncle Mickey Hennessy came down from north Jersey to help with doctor appointments. 

 Pat invited us to stop by her house for cards & dinner on the way home. Orange Roughy, potatoes and cole slaw.  Yum!  I love her new place.  I like thinking about her living here. 

We bought the apple pie. It looked better than it tasted. Mimi wanted peach. 

The rest of the week was spent on the beach.

Which is the best place to be. 

Thanks for all the laughs and hospitality, Meem & George. 

Sophia's Quilt

I have a new grand dog. 

Her name is Sophia. 

I haven't met her in person yet.

She's half Pomeranian/half Chihuahua. 

Today, I made a quilt for her. 

I used a few dog print FQs I had in my stash and did a Chevron design on the front.

More HST binge...soon I shall be sick of them.

But right now, I just can't get enough. 

As you can see, I trimmed it in pink so everyone will know she's a girl. 

I also wrote her name on it in thread with Lola-baby. 

And I used a cute & girly owl fabric on the back. 

I hope Kelly & Jeff, and especially Sophia, like it. 

Sometimes it's nice to make a simple quilt that can be completed in just one day!

QBL, HSTs & other silliness

Today I took a ride over to OCC, to check out QBL.

OCC=Onondaga Community College

QBL=Quilting by the Lake

This is a local quilt show/retreat put on by the Schweinforth Museum. 

They do offer some good classes......but I'm always late to the party registering. 

Last year, they had an impressive display of quilts by Phillipa Naylor. 

They were delicious. 

She rocks my world. 

What that woman does with a Bernina would blow you away!

This year was kinda a disappointment. 

There were hardly any quilts hanging. 

There were 1 or 2 I would've photographed....

BUT THEY DO NOT LET YOU TAKE PICTURES!

Really?

Why not?

Ugh.

So, I walked around, looked at the quilts and when that was done....

I HIT THE VENDORS. 

Now, there were only 5 or 6 vendors there, but I did the best I could under the circumstances. 

I scored the cutest peace sign keychain.

Its going to be Patty's vanwarming gift...it's her fave color. 

And Judy from Patchwork Plus had new Oakshott like solids. 

A blue, a green, and, of course, a red. 

I LOVE red. 

Not quite as delectable as the real thing, but kinda cool, none the less. 

The picture does not do them justice. 

I want to try cutting them...I hope they aren't big frayers. 

And I snagged some BoNash....a must for us longarmers. 

I really wanted to find a good NYBeauty book with foundation pieces to print. 

Elizabeth from Quilters Corner in Ithaca is going to try and find one for me. 

I love that shop and wish it were closer. 

Best fabrics, nicest staff around. 

Then, since I was still a bit miffed, I came home and hit the studio.

Yup, I've been on a HST binge. 

And I finished the pinwheels today. 

I used a PB&J by Moda layer cake and mixed in some dark denimy blues from my stash. 

Sweet!

I still have the other half of the HSTs to make into blocks.

Just not sure which layout yet. 

Stay tuned.....

Wordless Wednesday

Nancy's Pi Quilt

Well, it's done!

The quilting went relatively well, only one thread break.

 I'm happy with the spacing of the all over. It's been a while!

And I love this pattern...I'm probably going to make one! 

There was one more glitch...with the binding...but she is hand sewing it down so it should be fine!

She's so sweet....just read the label. I'm a bit sad the edge is turned over on the label, but you can't see it when it's on the long arm. 

I hope she's ok with what I did. 

It was a challenge.

I learned A LOT.

And, considering everything, I think it turned out very well.

A Quilt & Murphy's Law

I agreed to do a quick all over for a friend. 

She had some surgery, fell behind on a quilt, and is pressed for time. 

She wants to bring it along to meet her new grand nephew, Jacks. 

Don't you love that name?

I had hoped that nickname would catch on for my John. 

(We wound up with the nickname Herman.  

I'll 'splain why another time)

More mind wandering....shocking, I know. 

Anyhow....

Nancy used the pattern Pi by Maple Island Quilts. 

Lesa, who also works with Nancy, provided the pattern. 

Her sister is Mrs Maple Island Quilts. 

(Its been oreviously established that I have a focus problem while blogging.

This post is a great example of said lack of focus.)

She used brights and mixed batiks and quilters cottons. 

It's cute!

When I picked it up, she told me there was one seam issue and showed it to me.

No problem, I said. 

I'll be able to fix that.

Upon further inspection, I found this...

Oh well, it's Nancy.

She's a good person.

I fixed them and brought it to the ironing board.

There I noticed....

A seam inside a block, upside down!

Really??

I took it apart, and guess what?

After flipping it over, it wasn't big enough.

Of course, it wasn't. 

It was that kind of day. 

So, I searched my scraps and found this not too terrible substitute fabric. 

I'm hoping once its quilted, you won't notice. 

Tomorrow, I'll load it and quilt it.

You know, with that quick all over. 

Yup, it was a Murphy's Law kind of day. 

Hope tomorrow is better. 

Stay tuned....

Wondering...

I follow the APQS quilting forum.

It's a great resource for me in my long arming adventures. 

This weekend, a member posted a thread titled

'Grey Grease in the Bobbin Area'

Every time I read it, I see Grey Goose. 

Problem?

What's a blog post without the obligatory picture?

Golf today

Ugh....

😤

Murray had no one to golf with him today. 

I had a choice....go with him or put up with his boredom. 

I put on my big girl panties and went. 

I really didn't want to go, but it wasn't THAT bad. 

It wasn't good, either. 

We walked 9, not awful.

I saw a sweet mama doe and 2 darling fawns.😍

And lotsa purty birds. 

I got some exercise and sun. 🌞

It was HOT. 😓

And my shoulders hurt. 😰

I NEVER COMPLAINED ONCE.😜

And I really wanted to...I was sweating.

Ick!

After, we sat on the deck and I ate a nice watermelon feta salad.🍴

I have admit that the food is good there. 

It should be since we pay and arm & a leg for membership. 💲

Bonus....now he can't balk at taking me to jazzfest tonight to hear the Brubaker Bros. 

a reward for me. 

Vermont QuiltFest Weekend....Quails, Quilts & Celebrities

O

Frannie always looks so miserable in the car.

I bet after this trip, she'll like it better.

We were off to Vermont to visit my sister Patty and her husband Bruce.

They're hippies now.

Patty packed me into her newly acquired VW van and we went to see the house my godson is building. 

I can not believe I didn't get a picture of the house...it's gorgeous.

He does such beautiful work.

Then we headed back to Kent Hill so Patty could make us a dinner party.

She had a bag of salt potatoes from Hinerwadels. in Syracuse...less than 2 blocks from Johns house. 

While she made the dinner party, I made cocktail parties to pass the time.

The Pre-Cocktails Cocktail Party was held on the front porch.

Grey Goose, Coconut Water, splash of cranberry and a lime squeeze...yum!

Patty's front porch is, without question, heaven on earth.

After a quick change into cocktail attire, the Cocktail Party was held in the driveway.

This was Frannie's first cocktail party.

Inside the new van...I wish you could see the rug.

Phil and Bruce thought the cocktails were too small, so they switched to GG on the rocks with a lime squeeze.

They paid dearly for this decision the next day on the links.

My gorgeous godson and his adorbs girlfriend, Heidi, joined us in the van.

Heidi drank the girly drinks, Scott went the way of Phil and Bruce.

Of course, I made sure Heidi knew how lucky she was to be dating such a fine specimen as Scott.

Notice that I am seated right in between them....I loved him first, you know.

She was a good sport.

Patty served up some baby birds on lettuce for dinner.

Thank God for the salt potatoes or we might have starved to death!

In all seriousness, it was tasty.

But it was not filling.

Or sobering. 

There will be many "quail' jokes in Pattys future, I'm afraid.

After strawberry rhubarb pie, we set off for an after dinner drink (uh oh) at the Barrows House.

The Barrows House is a newly renovated hotel within walking distance of Pattys house.

Walking distance was a must...as we were seriously inebriated.

It just re-opened, and we were pleasantly surprised!

It's a great spot. 

We bumped into Tim Daly of Wings fame at the bar.

Thankfully, we were good and liquored up, so we weren't shy about harassing him. 

Or his co star at the Dorset Playhouse.

Or his cousin, who we were assured would be famous very soon.

Sadly, when you over imbibe, it's hard to recall names. 

Did I mention that my godson is the cutest thing on 2 legs?

Ahhhh, to be young again.

I bet they can remember walking home. 

I can't. 

Oh well, I made it in one piece.

I woke up in bed, in my jammies.

I did, however, forget to remove my earrings.

I am old...that's good enough. 

Saturday we boarded the struggle bus early, went out to breakfast, ditched the men and headed north to the Vermont Quilt Fest.

(Frannie stayed with the guys.

She chased a fox, slept on the bed and enjoyed endless caressing by Uncle Bruce. 

If there was a dog petting contest, Bruce would leave everyone in the dust.)

You can read about the Quilt Fest in the previous post.

I loved it. 

After the show, we ate at the Shanty in Burlington.

I can't believe it, but we had a delish glass of wine...Talbot Kali Hart Pinot Noir.

Try it, you'll like it.

We ate a calamari appy that was obscene. 

We both ordered fried fish for dinner. 

I ordered scallops, shrimp, haddock and clam strips in a basket. 

Patty ordered clam bellies in a basket. 

When she tasted them, she remembered she didn't like clam bellies. 

I still laugh every time I think of this!

After all day walking around the show, we slept like logs til after 8:00 on Sunday morning. 

Then we rolled over and slept some more. 

We needed a late chek out. 

After we finally hoisted our asses out of that bed, we were off to the Promenade in Burlington.

Crepes for lunch and some window shopping. 

I scored 3 tank tops for Jimmy at Urban Outfitter. 

He liked all 3...a miracle!

We headed south back to Dorset.

On the way, we stopped in Vergennes for more window shopping.

While viewing the falls, we realized just how much rain we've gotten over the last weeks. 

The rushing water was violent!

Vermont is such a beautiful state!

We happened across this.....

and it's a good thing we went in.

The cookies were fab....but the Creemie was even better. 

A Creemie is soft serve ice cream...only way better. 

I do not even want to ponder what makes it so good. 

This was not a great Weight Watcher weekend for me. 

But you only live once, right?

After the creemies, we saw a sign for Basin Harbor. 

Patty has always wanted to see Basin Harbor.

So, we turned and followed the signs to.....

BASIN HARBOR!   What a great resort. 

A glass of wine there so we could feel the ambiance....

Yup, I'd vacation there. 

After the wine, it was back in the car.

Dinner was comprised of leftover cookies and devoured en route.

Cookies are a power food, right??

peanut butter chocolate chip...protein!

We passed through a brief, but strong, rainstorm.

And then, this.....

A perfect rainbow...I swear this was my mom winking from heaven. 

It couldn't have been more fun!

There is nothing like giggling with your sister...nothing. 

Phil drove home to Syracuse on Sunday night. 

Very slowly.

He and Bruce spent the weekend golfing. 

Good for them.