Not quite V-Day yet...

Ok, so I'm not fond of Black Friday - other than the choco of course. And yes, I know you've seen this already but it bears repeating!!!


Tomorrow is the annual Chocolate in the Stacks fundraiser at my local library. Chocolate themed snacks and drinks are scattered around the library and tickets are drawn for a fabulous Chinese basket auction. Several of the baskets contain tea, quilting, cooking or wine items and gain the majority of my tickets. There are always lots of snacks leftover so we get to take them home. Want to talk about a choco overload!!!

And since there is no one to send me flowers or singing telegrams tomorrow, I bought my own flowers at the local grocery store. LOL. In real life the purple is so dark it's almost black. Gorgeous!

Happy Chocolate Day tomorrow!!

Tea for 63

In reality, I just get to participate in the fun part of this fundraiser for my local library: The American Girl Spring Tea.

Bev and family plan every detail of the event from the menu to the room decorations and then divies up the cooking duties. I didn't even have to do dishes this year :)  But I did get the fun "job" of serving cookies to little girls and their mothers/aunts/grandmothers. I got to meet their American Girl dollies and see all their smiles and best manners. How fun is that??!!

This year we had record attendance and had to turn away more away for lack of room. I have no idea how many years this tea has been going on but I have a feeling it will continue for some time as it's now family tradition.



Beatrix talks to the bunnies before reading aloud one of her tales
Biggie size the photo to see the veggies in McGregor's garden



This year's theme was a garden party with Beatrix Potter and a Beatrix even came to the party to share a little of her life and creating her book series with the girls (we are all "girls" at heart - aren't we?). After tea and a craft project, all the girls, dolls and parents were invited to have their pictures taken which were then mounted on hand made frames. Mom and I also had our pictures taken with our dolls - mine is Matilda and I've had her since I was 4! Mom has Cora, a porcelain doll named after her great-Aunt Cora who received the doll as a child in the late 1800s.

I'm afraid I don't have a lot of pictures because I was "working" so you'll need to trust me that the cookies, cupcakes, chicken salad on croissant and 3 kinds of tea were perfect for a spring tea. Each place setting has a real porcelain tea cup for punch or tea - all the tea cups were donated years ago from a private collection. 

The grand finale of the tea party are door prizes for everyone. The table behind Beatrix is covered in doll quilts (mine is on the right) and various tea or garden related items. The wall is covered in handmade doll clothes. The grand prize is a new American Girl doll. Any remaining doll clothes are then sold for $10 each - a bargain for the detail that is put in to them.

It was a grand spring day for a tea and I've been drinking my latest tea in my latest antique tea cup all week in commemoration. I really should make some scones...

Arrowheads and Tea

It's nearly the summer marching season and I should be thinking about fitting into my fireman's uniform after a lazy winter and no more Zumba classes but who could resist making a quick run to Sweet Sarah's for a Heath Flurrie on this warm and sunny day?! I really do need to talk to Sarah about selling some of my things in her evergrowing gift shop...but I keep stalling for some unknown reason.

This is the (large) doll quilt that I am donating to the library's American Girl tea party this weekend. The pattern is simple but that is exactly why I like it and I've made several over the last couple of years. This year's tea party theme is a garden party so I think the colors fit quite nicely. I'm looking forward to wearing my crazy straw hat decorated with large flowers :)

Not sure that I've mentioned it here before but I've also decided to make another quilt with these arrowhead blocks in only neutral fabrics, an absolute fav of mine. It was an idea that came to me laying in bed one morning looking at the RWB arrowhead quilt on my bed. I've got one block done and the others will probably only get done as I am cutting neutrals for various projects. Yet another long term project :) Did you expect anything less from me?

Library Tea Party

This past Saturday was the annual tea party fundraiser for the Cordelia A Greene Library. This year's theme was a Hawiian party based on the American Girl doll of the year. I wore my big flowered hat and Hawaiian shirt with the other workers and attendees dressed similarly.

I didn't get many pictures during the event since I was serving tea - it was so fun to see little girls all excited about a cup of peach tea. Almost 60 girls and their moms/grandmas/aunts/etc attended the tea and each place setting had a different tea cup. The tea cup collection had been donated to the library several years ago and I think their individuality just made the table setting perfect.

Every person who bought a ticket (adult or child) goes home with a door prize. Just look at all these doll dresses. Left overs were sold for $10 apiece and they didn't last long. You can see my donated wall hanging at the bottom of the photo. There was also a table with doll quilts/afghans, candles, purses and other goodies.

This photo shows the AG doll that was the grand prize to one lucky young lady. Ray is also practicing his snow cones which were a real treat. Check out the flip flop cake in the middle - we forgot to cut into it!

There was a photo booth set up for everyone. Photos were printed immediately and mounted onto cardstock and decorated with flip flop cutouts and information on the tea party. What a great memento!

Oh and lets not forget the treats - this was just a small sampling. The painted cookies and (stacked) bonnets on the left were some of the prettiest. There were enough cookies for everyone to take several home.

Can't wait to hear what the theme is for next year's tea and hopefully I won't forget until the last minute to make my doll quilt...

Design Wall Monday - 5/2/11

Every spring the Cordelia A Greene Library holds a tea party. Tea is served, the girls get to do crafts and there is a "photo booth" to document the day. Many families have been coming for generations and the girls always bring their American Girl dolls. Everyone who attends the tea wins a door prize which includes jewelry or doll dresses made by one of the sponsoring families. The top prize is a new American Girl Doll.

Last year I was asked to make a doll quilt to donate and I had a great time making this little blue and green number. I found out after the tea that the adults were fighting over it - when I made the quilt I had no idea that adults could win prizes and hadn't included a hanging sleeve.

This year I was again asked to make a quilt and told that Kanani was the girl of the year and would be the party theme. I spent some time trying to think of a Hawiian theme to use and then all the sudden I had just 11 days to make it and I would be gone 4 of those days. Ooops!

Batiks are tropical, right? I thought that would be the most fun to play with so I cut out blades for a dresden plate. I looked for my brightest batiks but didn't get too matchy-matchy.

The plate was then machine appliqued to a solid black background and backed with a very bright batik.

As I was quilting, the local quality control officer stopped in for an inspection...I think it passed but he did refuse the bribe I put out for him...

Batiks fabrics

I've been playing with Batiks...check back next week to see the doll quilt I am donating to the American Girl Tea Party, a fundraiser for Cordelia Greene Library. This event is so popular and so many generations of ladies who attended as kids now take their own kids that tickets were almost sold out before the flyers were even posted!!

I'm not sure I'll be able to attend this year but I will take photos if all works out...

No, this is NOT a family bonding moment. It's just that the two bleep-ing squirrels in the bird feeder didn't seem to mind 3 furry faces drooling over them through an open window/screen.

Sweet Potato Pie

I didn’t win any official prizes at Chocolate in the Stacks yesterday but I did come home with two containers of extra chocolate treats and 2 bottles of wine. Not a bad way to finish Black Monday Valentine’s Day!


Hmm...that's an interesting seque into today's UFO blocks...I swear I was NOT drunk when I was working on these :) I haven't even opened those bottles yet...because...I picked up season two of Deadliest Catch while I was at the library!

I started these drunkard's path blocks based on the magazine patterrn shown in the background and the little templates that I already had. It seems to work best if I cut a 4" strip of the chosen fabric and then cut out the shapes I need. I'm saving the left over strip pieces to make the scalloped pie border. My blocks are much smaller than the magazine called for so I have no idea how many I will need. I might stop when I finally get truly sick of the curved piecing or when I decide I no longer want to look for more gold and brown fabrics (each is only used in one block and the border). But hey, who can turn down good gold and brown fabrics?

I think I probably got sick of these blocks before when I was having trouble with the curved edges. After doing the blendable curves that have convex and concave curves in each block, these seem much easier. I've used up all the pieces I had cut before this was put away. I'll need to check the stash to see if there are some other fabrics I can add...otherwise it may go back into storage.

Design Wall Monday - 2/14/11

It's a lovely day in the neighborhood. Today started at 46 degrees F. It's now down to 35 and sleeting. We also have wind gusts up to 57 mph. Two barn roofs collapsed this weekend from the weight of the snow. I am pretty sure last V-Day we didn't have barely any snow. I only remember this because V-Day is Chocolate in the Stacks at my local library and I don't remember parking in snow at last year's event. For CITS, there are chocolate treats scattered all over our library and there are almost 60 raffle baskets for a Chinese Auction. I'm on the library board and I'm not afraid to yell over the din of people so I get to pull the winning tickets and announce them. Wish me luck that I win something too!

This weekend, after finishing my February UFO, I worked some more on this class sample. Doesn't feel like I got a lot done but at least I am progressing. Maybe it's because this project gets a little monotonous and I worked on some other projects. Of course, this one also made me think of a drunkard's path UFO that I had to dig out and work a little on. Look for more on both UFO's on Thursday.

UFO Challenge update

I’d really like to blame this on Erin (my friend and local librarian) but I can’t, can I? Oh yes I can! Hello, my name is Sarah and I’m a Deadliest Catch-aholic. AND ERIN ENABLES ME! Basically, all I have done this week is watch season one on DVD. Not a lick of stitching or even worrying about not doing a lick of stitchin. Season two has already been placed on hold for me.

Anyways… a long long time ago in a state far far away….I should have been packing all my worldly possessions to move from Miami back to my hometown in NY. Instead, I was still taking classes at my LQS since I loved my friends and teachers there and feared the quilting here in NY would be different. That’s why this months UFO was never finished although it was sew close. And do you know what the biggest obstacle was to finish it?? Math!

Rusty, AKA Jane Hardy Miller, was a teacher at our store and the person who forced me to learn "color." She had already published the very popular French Braid Quilts and was working on her second book: French Braid Obsession. We were testing a pattern for the book and had we finished our quilts we might have had the opportunity to have it included in the book. Guess mine won't be in the book, huh?!

WWHHAATT?? – in looking up links for Rusty’s book, I see she has a new one coming out in June this year. Better start saving my pennies!

When I pulled this UFO out of it's drawer I found I had all four braids done with their purple spacer strip attached and some notes on the math to get the panel to fit into the center. I would have done things a little different now, such as cutting the panel slightly narrower and the extra spacers I still need to add bigger, so I could save the selvage dots for my collection and I would have purchased more of that great stripe for the binding. Oh well, hindsight is 20/20 and when you stall you can’t make changes. Either way, I have checked the math three more times and it still appears to come out ok so I finally cut the panel this morning and tonight or tomorrow (before season 2 arrives) I can get the spacer strips attached.

I didn’t lay out the extra spacers in this picture but that same purple will be used to add a 1.5” finished border around the center panel. Then I add the braids, trim the edges and it’s done. What will that take? A couple hours? And then another drawer is emptied!

I have always referred to this quilt as my wine french braid because of the grape/leaf fabrics and the colors. Maybe I should get some of that wine cork fabric for the back. It would really complement the top. Not that I have the money or time to actually finish the whole thing super soon.

Mainly because I did buy this flannel backing for the t-shirt quilt finished last month for the UFO Challenge. Think 9 patch: there will be 40” squares of the green in the 4 corners, the inner side rectangles will be about 12” of the teal and the center 12x12 square will be the green again. I thought it would be the best use of yardage and would make it as interesting as the front.

A-Z Reading Challenge

I think maybe I first heard about the A-Z Challenge on Carol’s blog. There was a website to log in all your books for the Challenge, etc, but I decided to go out on my own and just read books that start with each letter of the alphabet.  I’ve searched and searched for an “X” book and finally resorted to a short story, given that I had 4 days to find something, which means that I’ve now completed my alphabet for the year!


Apple Turnover Murder by Fluke, Joanne on 5/30/2010
The Bookwoman's Last Fling by Dunning, John on 2/14/2010
Catering to Nobody by Davidson, Diane Mott on 7/26/2010
A Dilly of a Death by Albert, Susan Wittig on 1/24/2010
Endless Chain by Richards, Emilie on 12/26/10
Farm Hands: on 5/21/2010
Garden Spells by Allen, Sarah Addison on 2/21/2010
The Help by Stockett, Kathryn on 4/18/2010
The Innocent by  Coben, Harlan on 1/10/2010
The Jester by Patterson, James on 12/15/2010
Killer Summer by Pearson, Ridley on 11/20/2010
The Lion by Demille, Nelson on 8/13/2010
The Mercedes Coffin by Kellerman, Faye on 4/3/2010
Nine Dragons by Connelly, Michael on 1/7/2010
One for the Money  by Evanovich, Janet on 8/8/2010
Push  by Sapphire on 2/8/2010
A Quilter's Holiday by Chiaverini, Jennifer on 5/14/2010
The Real Mother by Judith Michael on 11/3/2010
Scarlet Feather by Binchy, Maeve on 2/7/2010
Twisted by Kellerman, Jonathan on 1/18/2010
U is for Undertow by Grafton, Sue on 10/11/2010
The Visitor by Wick, Lori on 3/13/2010
Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Bloom, Amy on 4/6/2010
The X-Ray Detective by Arthur Reeve on 12/28/2010
A Year in the World by Mayes, Frances on 11/15/2010
Zombies versus Unicorns (anthology) on 12/19/2010

In total this year, I’ve read or listened to 64 books and I should get at least one more done before the end of the year. For anyone who has scoffed at audiobooks, I find it the best way to accomplish 2 things at once - "reading" and quilting! Be sure to check out my page on shelfari.com (link on the right) to see what I read and find suggestions for something that you might like. Sehlfari’s an easy way to log the books you read and get other people’s opinions on a book you are considering reading. You can even link to your friend’s “bookshelf” and see what they are reading.

I would like to do another reading challenge in 2011 but I haven’t decided what yet. I could do A-Z authors or try something totally different. Anyone have any suggestions for a project they have seen?

Design Wall Monday - 6/21/10

Saturday was a quilt market sale at one of my LQS where I picked up the kit for another tablerunner. The kit came with the pattern card from Pieced Tree Patterns and gold dusted fabric for the top, back and binding. I don't have the back situated yet but so far I think we're lacking fabric for the binding. There are pieces of everything but not enough of any of the fabrics from the top. The pattern calls for the dark red fabric to be the binding.

I won't get back to this until later this week - tonight is library board meeting and tomorrow is strawberry jam making at Mom's.

I've tried for so long to get this picture to turn sideways...sorry :(

Tea Party

No, this is not a political discussion...It's an actual tea party!

I'm on the Library Board for the Cordelia A. Greene Library and knowing that I am a quilter, the Library Director (Hi Erin!) asked me to make a doll quilt for the annual tea party fundraiser that will be held this weekend. One lucky little girl will win an American Girl doll and the other girls will win smaller prizes. I hope whoever wins this quilt will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it. The sun was pretty bright today so it was hard to get a good picture - imagine rich greens, blues, cream and a tiny bit of purple for splash. This is the best of a dozen kitten photos - they are adorable and quite independent plus I hear they may have a forever home soon.