Pat's retreat projects, my "ribbon", Sandy's pattern

Friday (4/29) started out with breakfast on the deck once again, then Michael ran a few errands while I headed to my studio.  It took me several hours to get the program done for Sandy’s quilt and by then Pat called and asked me to come for a visit.  I got to see everything she completed at retreat and BOY was it a LOT: 

 

the outside ones are 2 tops for Clinton...YAY!!

 

We sat and talked and talked and talked and finally I told her I had to get home as our landscaper was supposed to be coming at 4:30.  Well, they called and rescheduled for 9 AM on Saturday :~(.  BTW, when I got home from Pat’s, this was what greeted me over by my desk: 

 

 

 

My honey thought I should have a ribbon as well for the winning quilt…so he printed out the picture and hung it by my desk  :~).  I got a start on Sandy’s quilt and I LOVE this pattern:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Big swooping swirls of a feather…it looks beautiful on the quilt.  And even though Sandy never stopped by to see the thread color...I think she's going to love the one I picked out as well.  I baked the second pot pie-wich (you know…like my ruebenwich) for dinner and it was smurfy.  I sewed until 9 PM, then came upstairs for a bit of TV before bed.

front garden flowers, Elsie a duex, Sally & Ginny & Gale & Ann Mary, pot pie-wich

I couldn’t believe the cold weather we had through almost all of April, but the worm has turned and boy….don’t the plants know it.  Everything is bursting into bloom:

 

our iris

Michael's oxalis that comes back year after year

one of our rose bushes

When I came in from taking those pics, Elsie was snuggled up in a new place (she looked SO cozy):

 

My friend Sally invited a group of ladies over for breakfast Thursday morning (4/28):

Sally & Ginny in back, Gale & Ann Mary in front

 She had a crustless quiche, mixed fruit with honey/yoghurt topping and Hawaiian bread…YUM!  We all had a great time eating and sitting around talking about everything under the sun.  I finally left around 11 AM so that I could at least greet the people at quilting before it was time to come home.  I read my book in the afternoon, then put together a smurfy dinner!  I made a pot pie only once over the winter :~(, and  had about a quart of filling left over.  By the next day it was a solid mass, and I threw it in the freezer.  Well, I got that out and thawed it, then made some rosemary dough and layered the filling down the center, then braided the sides over and baked it….OMG…it was YUMMY!  

 I made 2 at once and will bake the other one on Friday night.  My honey and I separated for an hour after dinner so that I could get a bit of sewing done, then got back together for relaxing and TV.

first rose of the season, bread, Sandy's quilt started, ribbon

This is what greeted Michael when he sat down to breakfast Wednesday morning (4/27):  

 He asked me if I had picked it at mid-night, right before I came to bed and I said yes  :~).  He left for golf and I started to put together bread dough.  I haven’t made bread in FOREVER, since Michael said he wanted to give up bread for the month of April.  But, Susan (across the street neighbor) comes home today from a 3 week vacation, and I wanted to stock her fridge with eggs and bread, so I baked 4 mini-loaves: 

one to Susan, one to each of two neighbors (Ann Mary and Joe) that watched our house while we were at the beach, and one for us.  I was downstairs loading up a quilt while the bread was baking and when I came upstairs to take it out of the oven…it truly smelled like HEAVEN!!!  Is there any better smell than the smell of bread baking???  I don’t think so  :~).  It took me quilt awhile to get Sandy’s quilt loaded…at about 97 inches square, it will be the biggest one I have ever done.   

I will take my tablet to quilting so that she can pick out a design, and she is going to stop by my house on the way home from quilting to look at thread.  I have done 3 quilts for her previously and she has really liked the thread I picked out…but this quilt is MUCH lighter in color than any of the others, so I want her opinion.  Sandy is the one who won a second place ribbon at the Charlotte Quilt Show for a quilt I quilted and she sent me a picture since she keeps saying that BOTH of us won the ribbon, but the quilter gets to keep it :~):

I read my book for a good bit of the afternoon (and eventually I have to tell you about these series of books Jan & I are reading....I've read 8 of them and they are really cute/good), and Michael and I had the rest of the pizza for dinner….it was SO GOOD!!  I SKYPED with Janice in the evening (and after 20 minutes of problems, SKYPE finally settled down), and got to hear all about her new job…that was cool.  After that it was TV and snuggling with my honey until bed.

leftovers quilt top finished

Michael left early again on Tuesday (4/26) for the second day of his fund raising seminar.  He said there were a lot of good ideas for the Fort Mill Playhouse, but he is not sure they will be able to get it off the ground.  There are a lot of people on the committee and no one seems strong enough to steer the group and make some decisions.  Guess we’ll have to wait to see how it plays out.  Other than going to Stitch & Chat with Joanne, I spent all day on the “leftovers” quilt and by dinnertime it was done  :~).  It is quite a patchwork…I couldn’t even begin to guess how many different fabrics are in it, but it used up a TON of leftovers and I think it’s very colorful.  I used up almost all of the 5 inch blocks I made out of scraps and 18 of the 3-1/2 inch blocks as well.  It ended up being 60 inches by 70 inches….so larger than a typical Clinton School quilt…I will have to think on what to use as a backing...although I might finally try piecing polar fleece for the back:

1/2 of the start of it all

other 1/2 of the beginning

combining those 2 to make it rectangular

blocks made from cleaning scraps from 2 drawers

more blocks

adding sashing between blocks

adding dragonfly fabric for inner border

more blocks on bottom

and on top...

more dragonfly to complete inner border

ta-da!

 Michael and I haven’t had pizza in FOREVER….and we were both thinking of $10 Tuesdays at Figaro’s…so that’s what we got.  Then Michael left for the movies and I left to head over to Jan’s.  We talked for 3 hours and solved all of the problems of the world before I headed home.

Martini Night

Michael left for the first of a 2 day workshop on fund raising on Monday morning (4/25), while I headed to my studio to cut more muslin for bases for my new “empty drawer” project.  I got almost all of the blocks cut out by the time my meeting started at NOON.  For the first time, the Volunteer Club has decided to have a fund raiser in October, and we are doing a chocolate sampling, champagne swilling, dance.  I think we had a really good meeting and covered all of the points of things we need to do.  Paula came down as a consultant on the project (she has done LOTS of big parties in the Lake House and had many worthwhile suggestions) then she stayed afterwards just to talk.  She just got back from a 2 week cruise through the Panama Canal and she got sick 5 days before the end of the cruise :~(.  She was pretty miserable and couldn’t wait to get home.  After she left I spent an hour on the community calendar trying to figure out when we could have the Chocolate Bash.  We already had a date reserved, but it is opposite the “Halloween Bash” and several people at the meeting explained that that is also a dance and very well attended.  They thought we were lose out by competing with that, hence the search for a new date.  I wrote down some potential dates and headed up to the lodge to see if I could talk to the scheduler.  She wasn’t available (only available between 9 and 3), but I ran into 2 martini ladies and we sat and talked for over an hour.  I just had time to read my book for 1/2 an hour when I got home before it was time to get dressed and head out to martini night with a theme of “April in Paris”.  Alice made crustless quiche bites, 

mushrooms stuffed with French Onion Soup flavors (even though I don't really like mushrooms, these were YUMMY!), 

a Nicoise salad, 

and baked brie with an apricot/almond glaze:

Everything was delightful and with the second martini (which was called a French Kiss) 

she served a Napolean dessert, 

which looked exactly like Loree’s éclair cake from a few weeks ago.  The drinks and food were wonderful, but the talking and playing TABOO was better!  I got home just after 10 and read my book for a bit before bed.