letter about QoV, pizza, lemon bundt cake

BRRRRR-R-R…it was 25 degrees when we got up on Wednesday (1/30), way too cold to go golfing so Michael cancelled his reservation.  I got my blog out just before SKYPE-ing with Janice.  Michael came down when we were almost done to show me something in our local CAROLINA GATEWAY paper, which I was THRILLED to read:

Woods letter: Vet recognition by an unknown

more

 This past Saturday (Jan. 19) I attended a Fort Mill community charity event.
During the event, an auction was held and one of the items for auction was a beautiful Quilt of Valor made for dedication to U.S. veterans. The person who made the quilt was also the auctioneer. She choked up while explaining the importance of the quilt, but maintained enough composure to ask all veterans attending the event to stand for recognition.
About three of us stood and received a grateful recognition from the attendees.
A lady in the front row bid on the quilt and won the bid that was in the three-figures range. Much to my surprise, she presented the quilt to me as I was one of the veterans who stood. The lady did not know me, she only saw me standing when the vets were asked to stand.
After the event closed, the lady and I met. We exchanged names (her name is Liz) and had a short discussion. She thanked me for my service during the Vietnam War and I thanked her for her kindness and generosity.
Liz did not know me, but she knew veterans, as her recently deceased husband was a vet of the Korean War.
I thank her, and all like her, for the recognition of past service of the country’s veterans. Liz may not be a veteran, but she is certainly a U.S. patriot in my eyes.
Thank you, Liz.
Nelson Woods
Indian Land

I am smiling….smiling….smiling…..

I finally had breakfast around 11 AM, and after that Michael switched out my broken machine for my featherweight before leaving for errands:  

Of course Lucy immediately had to check out the featherweight sewing case:  

I headed to my studio after breakfast.  I had a customer quilt to load up, so that was first on the agenda.  

This quilt is a bit unusual as it is just 2 plain pieces of fabric to be quilted together, but whatever…that’s what the customer wants, so that’s what she is getting  :~).  I re-measured the pieces and called her to tell her that her top is 3/4 ‘’ larger than her bottom  :~(.  She said she would just slice off the extra when she gets it back.  I believe she plans to appliqué pennants on top once the quilting is finished.  

I didn’t get the basting finished before it was time to make dinner.  Remember I still had a quarter of the dough left from making bread several nights ago?  Well, it was pizza for dinner…..I haven’t made homemade pizza in FOREVER and it was yummy.  

first the sauce, then the 'line of demarcation'

mushrooms on one side, onions on the other

spinach for Michael

mozzarella & romano

YUMM-O

Michael left for rehearsal and since the oven was hot I made a lemon bundt cake, a new recipe I’ve been wanting to try.  

After that I headed downstairs and got a bunch more sides put on my rainbow squares (YAY for my featherweight) 

2/3 of the way done

before Michael got home before 9 PM.  We relaxed and watched TV a bit before bed.

4 patches, rainbow moving along, AJ

Michael went out to breakfast Tuesday morning (1/30) with his Pinehurst guys and then headed out grocery shopping while I putzed around in the kitchen a bit before heading to my studio.  I got in a good amount of sewing, making new 4 patches for another FPF QoV: 

and also got the second side on 1/3 of my rainbow blocks:  

When my honey came home, he made us a smurfy grilled ham/cheese sandwich that we split for a late lunch:  

Our gals were playing on the sofa and I have a cute video of them at the end of this post:

I had a meeting on the Club Manual from 3 – 5 PM and after having a quick dinner together, Michael left for rehearsal and I headed back to the studio….that’s when disaster struck :~(.  I turned on my Pfaff…my workhorse machine that I sew on almost everyday…and my touch screen has stopped working  :~(.  I’m going to have to disconnect everything and take it in for service….I know it will cost $200 right off the bat just to look at it…not to mention the motherboard it probably needs to start working again.  That certainly put the kibosh on sewing for the rest of the evening, so I headed back upstairs to dig out a knitting project.  Michael got home early for a change (before 9 PM) so we got to snuggle together for a bit before bed.

More cuteness from AJ:

I like clapping!

I got a cute video of the kitties playing on the couch:

Cooking Fingers, Beds=Dreams totally finished

My honey was up early for golf on Monday (1/28) and I hopped up as well to get laundry in, my blog out, and get packed up to head up to Cooking Fingers.  It was a good meeting and I saw lots of friends I haven’t seen for quite awhile.  

the tables looked so pretty

Paula giving her opening spiel

Karen - our local insurance agent getting ready to make White Chicken Chili and cornbread muffins

The nicest thing to happen to me is that once the lunch was over and I was getting ready to leave, a woman approached me to tell me she appreciated all of my tips and that she had learned a lot from me over the years….that really put a smile on my face!  

I spent over an hour when I got home trying to fix my checkbook register and I had a new quilting customer stop by.  Unfortunately she had pinned her entire quilt layers together, and her backing was only an inch wider than her top, so I sent her home with my order form (which indicates what I need) and to take out all of those pins…hopefully I’ll see her again before the end of the week!  

I took a quick nap (energy still not 100% back) and had leftovers for dinner before my honey left for rehearsal and I continued to work on binding.  By the time Michael came home after 9 PM, I had one Beds=Dreams quilt totally finished:  

and I had cut another Quilt of Valor out:

Remember that Minnie Mouse I embroidered on a small fleece blanket?  Well, the MAKE A WISH foundation had the party for a little girl and she LOVED it:

Dar said she immediately lay down on the floor and covered herself with the blanket and said over and over again how soft it was...I'm so glad she liked it!

Sopapillas, Joyce's quilt finished, new QoV cut

Michael got to make his gas housers for breakfast on Sunday(1/27); he loves to do that when the bread is really fresh!  I had 2 eggs over easy and over Jim’s sausage bread….yum!!!  

Then it was slaving over a hot oven for several hours as I made 80 more servings (that's four 9'' by 13'' pans) of Sopapillas for Cooking Fingers tomorrow:  

before baking

and after

I really was kind of beat after that and took a quick nap and finally made it to my studio around 2 PM.  I worked on Joyce’s quilt and got it off of the frame and all cleaned up 

before setting up my embroidery machine for labels:  

While those were stitching out, I couldn’t work on my binding on the first quilt as I needed to the label to continue, so I started to cut out fabric for more Quilts of Valor.  I do not have any completed quilts in the house, and that is making me nervous (ya never know when you might want to chase after a car with a military decal….right BG??), so I need to work on some.   I got one cut out: 

before my honey got home from rehearsal by 9 PM with small FROSTIES from WENDY”S so we ate those while vegging in front of the TV.

breakfast sandwich, sausage soup, onion rolls, Ann Mary & Jim

Michael was up early on Saturday (1/26) to head out for golf, but since he had a frost delay he had time to made me a smurfy breakfast before leaving:  

I hopped up early as I had a lot to get done as well.  I got Barb W’s Sausage Soup in the crockpot 

and started some bread dough before heading to my studio.  I had a customer quilt on the frame to get done, so I started working on the pattern.  My machine was acting very erratically and somehow the screens looked different than they normally do and it took me a bit of time to figure out I was still in simulation mode.  But, I finally got a new quilting pattern loaded up, wound bobbins and kicked off the stitching.  

I quilted all day and by dinnertime, the quilt was done:  

I also got a good start on putting the binding on one side of a recently finished Beds=Dreams quilt.  

Ann Mary & Jim 

arrived at 6 PM bearing sausage bread (OMgoodness….. Jim makes this and it is positively yummy!) and dessert.  I only baked 1/2 of my dough into a loaf of bread (we haven’t had sandwich bread in the house for weeks!) 

and I made 1/2 of the rest into onion rolls for dinner.  

I still have 1/4 of the dough for pizza dough....soon I hope  :~).

We sat and talked and talked and talked (and maybe snuggled a kitty or 2)

before finally stopping for Ann Mary’s Lemon Ricotta Cake with strawberries and whipped cream.  

It was a wonderful and relaxing evening and we watched TV for just a bit after they left, before bed.

And another thoughtful essay from John Pavlovitz (writer, pastor, and activist from Wake Forest, North Carolina) about people in this country who are still defending the totally indefensible: 

https://johnpavlovitz.com/2018/01/12/good-people-dont-defend-bad-man/

Statesville Quilt Show

I met Pat, Penny & Susie at the Pickle Ball courts at 8 AM for our trip to the Quilt Show in Statesville.  There was a lot of traffic along the way, but we were there by 9:30.  Pat, Penny & Susie started to look around while I went immediately to the INNOVA display.  I spent 2-1/2 hours with Michelle getting all of my questions answered with the upshot being that I put a deposit down on a new machine  :~).  So yes, my old one is for sale…if you know of anyone who is interested, please send them my way.  

We stopped for lunch just across the street at a ‘quilter’s tea’: 

and came back to the show for just about another half hour before heading for home.  Although traffic was slow going at times, we were home by 4 PM.  I read my book and took a short nap before having a late dinner of 521 BBQ leftovers and snuggling on the couch with my honey.  It was a good day!

SHQ Show & Tell

We awoke to another gloomy day on Thursday (1/24), I’m not sure the ground is ever going to dry out!  Michael packed the car for quilting and I picked up Paula and off we went.  I got a good bit of sewing done and feel like I will complete my Thursday project next week, so I’ll need to figure out what I’m working on the following week for our 2 day retreat!  

We had great show and tell: 

this wasn't exactly show and tell...Mary Ann was laying out her quilt and I LOVED the layout and totally plan to steal it  :~)

Robin - all finished with blocks from last week's class, made into a table runner

and a really cute apron

BJ also had her blocks done from class

But Paula was the real superstar.....she finished all 44 pieced blocks from last week's class and got her quilt top sewn together, quilted and bound for this week's show and tell:

Jeanne started this quilt last March....this is HAND embroidered!!

and she also had a very cute baby quilt top

When we walked outside to come home, there was beautiful blue sky and the temps got up to 63 degrees!!!  We got home around 2 PM after stopping at CVS and the library.  I putzed around in the basement with Michael, both of us running our emails and talking, and eventually I got more dark blue cut to finish my Thursday project.  Michael took us out to 521 BBQ for dinner (we haven’t been in forever) and when we got home around 6:30 I decided I had better write most of my blog entry for Friday as I will be leaving early in the AM for the Quilt Show in Stateville.

I also started to cut out a new QoV before heading upstairs to watch TV and go to bed early  :~).