What Inspires You?
Recently I was out shopping and came across this piece of furniture that made me want to make a quilt. Now the piece wasn’t quilted, there were no carvings that made me think of appliqué, it was just something about the piece that made me say, “I need to design a quilt!” I wish I knew what that something was exactly, because sometimes quilt making inspiration is few and far between! So what is it that inspires you to make a quilt? Is it a magazine photo? A piece of fabric? What makes you say, “this is it!”
The Lake
My husband’s family owns a house on Lake Winnipesaukee in New Hampshire. Tom’s grandfather had the house built almost 75 years ago and it truly is a family treasure. It’s not a huge house, there is no beach front, but it’s our place of refuge. This weekend (Columbus Day weekend) marks the 31st year I’ve been coming here! I still remember that first weekend…I didn’t really know Tom’s family well and the first night here I heard my first loon call…for those of you who have never heard a loon call it is an eerie sound…especially at night…at a place… Read more »
Creative Mojo with Mark Lipinski!
I’m going to be a guest on Mark Lipinski’s internet radio show! Tune in on Wednesday, October 6th between 3pm and 5pm (eastern time). We’ll be talking about why I prefer my smaller quilt guild to the larger one I joined when I moved to New Hampshire. Mark is always a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to it! If you’d like to listen go to Creative Mojo and click on “Listen Live”. If you get a chance to listen, please let me know what you thought!! See you then.
Quilt Retreats!
Does your quilt guild offer retreats? Have you gone on one? From my own experience, I highly recommend you attend one! Our guild retreats are held twice a year – once in September and once in February. They’re not too expensive ($110 – $240) and if you’re well enough prepared, you can get a LOT done! What do you do on retreats? Well, here’s what we do: our retreat center allows us to show up at 10am on Friday (and the majority of us do), we move tables around and set up cutting and ironing stations. We’ve had as many… Read more »
Getting ready…
There are two kinds of people…the organized kind and the unorganized kind. Unfortunately, try as I might, I fall into the later category. I’m trying to get ready for my quilt guild’s retreat this weekend and it’s bordering on ridiculous! I do okay up until the last minute and then I start chucking everything in the car for fear I might forget something, so I wind up with a huge bunch of stuff I really don’t need which in turn makes it even harder to focus on one project at a time! Today, I cut strips and squares for a… Read more »
Vanilla Cream Fruit Pizza!
I got this recipe a few years back from my sister-in-law and it has proved to be a great summer dessert! Got a last minute invite to a friends for dinner and we brought this for dessert. Here are some of the ingredients to start with: Ingredients: 3/4 cup butter or margarine, softened 1/2 cup confectioner’s sugar 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1 package (10 oz) vanilla chips, melted and cooled 1/4 cup whipping cream 1 package (8 oz) cream cheese, softened 1 pint fresh strawberries 1 cup fresh blueberries 1 cup fresh raspberries 1/2 cup pineapple juice 1/4 cup… Read more »
In search of…
the perfect tomato. Every summer my father would have a garden and it was mostly tomatoes. He grew the most heavenly tomatoes ever. My sister and I would live on tomato sandwiches all summer long….perfectly sliced tomato, Hellman’s mayonnaise, a little salt on white bread (I don’t think it was Wonder Bread – that would have been too expensive!). The perfect summer lunch. The first year we were married, my husband grew a garden at my parent’s house – we lived in an apartment so there was no place for us to plant. It was a massive garden! Eggplant, green… Read more »
Walking….
So I decided to get serious (well mostly serious) about my health and weight…on Saturday it was gorgeous out so I decided to take a walk. It was a 40 minute walk – got my heart rate up and sweated (did I mention I hate to sweat?!?). Sunday and Monday were pretty hot days, so I didn’t make an effort (unless you consider shopping exercise!). Tuesday is my quilt group day so instead of exercising, we ate! Wednesday I walked again (at the urging of René). René told me, do it! you’ll feel good about yourself! So I did…and surprisingly,… Read more »
There is a camp along Sta-ha-he shores….
Camp Trexler is its name… Well, Camp Trexler used to be its name. Trexler was a Lutheran Camp for boys in Harriman State Park in NY from the 1930′s until 1986. My husband worked there from 1977 until 1983 and I worked there the summer of 1982 right after we were married. We had so many good times there, that I started a group for alumni on FaceBook. When I started the group, we had three members. Myself, my husband and my brother-in-law. My brother-in-law’s first post was, “Now what?” My answer was, “we wait” and sure enough, just like… Read more »