Mr. Goodwrench meets Rubber Band Man

Cars and trucks are wonderful inventions.  I'm thrilled to be able to get in a car and travel to distant and not so distant places.  I am NOT so thrilled when the vehicle I'm in decides to quit working.  I am especially not so thrilled when it decides to stop working in rush hour traffic.  This past week I had the "honor" of riding with a tow truck driver 3 (three) times. 

Not so much fun.

They were very nice men, but still, not so much fun.

First the starter decided to, well, not start the car.

On a Friday night.

At the grocery store/pizza place.

The battery was determined to be fine by the first person sent out by AAA and suggested it might be the starter.  He called for a tow for us.  The tow truck driver confirmed that the battery was fine and said it was probably the starter as he could hear it trying to start the car. We had it towed 15 miles to our house.

We had to be someplace on Saturday. It's a good thing we have a truck, too!

Sunday, as you know, car repair places are usually not open.

Monday, we called to make an appointment for the car, and, oh, yes, a tow truck to take the car to be repaired.

Tuesday, I rode once again in the tow truck to the car dealership to get the work done.

"Looks, like the engine froze up. That's not a good thing." the first man told me.

"Hmmm, have you looked at the starter?" I replied, hopefully in a sweet voice.

"We go to lunch from 11:30 to 12:30", he says at 11:15.  "Can you hang out a while?"

Since I came with the two truck driver, what else was I going to do?

Enter, the second man.  "It looks like you've got a bad starter."  (I only thought, Ya think?) "We can get one locally, or you can wait 2 hours for a Delco to be delivered."  I opted for the local one, they put it in and I was on my way home.  Yay!

Thursday on the way home from work at the SAME INTERSECTION as the grocery store/pizza place the battery light came on, the power steering quit and it over heated.  We were in the far left lane, of course, and had to get to a safe place to get off the road during rush hour.  Fortunately, Gary is a very good driver and we did so without incident.

AAA sent a tow truck. We rode in the tow truck to a different car dealership.  Our usual car dealership. The one near our daughter, Beth's house.  She's a sweet daughter and let us use her car to get home.

Friday, I took her car back to her early enough for her to do the first school run.  She dropped me off at the car dealership before making the second school run.

Do you think it's a bad thing when the service representative calls you by your first name even when you arrive without an appointment?

A pulley that holds a belt had broken.  The belt was ruined, too.  And, oh yes, as long as we are in there, the alternator was about to go.  We decided to save a trip in a tow truck and have that fixed, too. The last time he had told me something was about to go, it did -- on the way home from getting the car fixed.  I listen when he talks now!

This all reminded me of this little quilt I made.  I named it Mr. Goodwrench meets Rubber Band Man.

The man made from rubber bands and the pliers, wrench and washer were scanned into the computer covered by bright yellow fabric.  There is an inner border of metal zipper teeth and the "binding" is also zipper teeth.  It was made for a challenge in Studio 222, the art group I was a part of in Auburn, AL. (They are a great group!)  The challenge was "heavy metal".

This little quilt was featured in Bonnie Browning's book Borders And Finishing Touches II.

Though I like the real Mr. Goodwrench at the car dealership.  I hope it's a long time before I see him or the inside of a tow truck again!

That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Have you thought about setting up challenges for yourself and making a small quilt just for the fun of it?  Studio 222 does it all the time and it challenges one to think creatively.  Share any challenging ideas you might have for fun quilts with me.  I'd love to hear from you!

Until next time,
Lois

Capella del Christo

For some reason January reminds of of undone things, or at least it does me.  I think of projects left undone from the year before and I do guilt really well, so I feel guilty about not finishing them.

I've also been thinking about  church architecture for some reason.  I think it may have to do with the recent shootings in Tucson and all of the funerals in various churches in the Tucson area for those who did not survive an innocent trip to the Safeway store to meet Congresswoman Gabrielle Gifford.

Several years ago, Gary and I were privileged to go to an event in Puerto Rico.  Two of the days there, we spent in San Juan.  On one of those days we had selected a guided tour as our activity.  After the official time was up, the guide told us that he would continue the tour for anyone who wished to see more of Old San Juan.  We jumped at the chance to see more with a guide telling us the history as we went.  This was too good to pass up.  Walking around looking is fun, but having an expert tell you what you are seeing is even better when it comes to historical places.

One of the places I was quite taken with was a small chapel - Capella del Christo.  I did not own a digital camera at the time, so this is not the best picture and has been scanned in to the computer.  It does, however, capture the rustic character of the chapel.

                                                   Capella del Christo, San Juan, Puerto Rico


My intent was always to make a wall hanging from the picture, but years past before I finally got around to doing something with it.  I had been in an art quilt group while living in Montgomery, AL, and shortly after moving back to AZ, the group there was having a special exhibit in a gallery.  We were all to make a piece that was to be centered on an artists canvas, with the canvas left white.  I decided to do a thread }sketch" of Capella del Christo using brown thread to look sort of like a sepia tone.  I then embellished the piece with beads and stitched brown bugle beads all around the exterior edges to separate the muslin the "sketch" was on from the stark white canvas.  This is the result.

                                                               Capella del Christo 1


Capella del Christo II never got done which is what I've been thinking about lately.  The second piece was to be either an applique piece or a fused "applique".  I had even collected fabrics for this project, just never completed it.

Do you have any projects left undone that have been bothering you?  Let's make 2011 the year we do some of those things we never quite got around to.  Life is too short to have regrets over things we intended to do, but didn't.

Until next time, keep stitching!
Lois

Welcome 2011!

It's not that everything was bad about 2010, but I'm really ready for a new year.  Remember the feeling you got on the first day of school when you had brand new crayons and brand new notebooks?  The new year feels like that.  It hasn't been written on yet.  Well, okay, this is January 3, so a couple of days have been written on, but that's okay.  We started the year with 1/1/11 so it just seems that this will be a really good year.

This quilt was made from doodles that I had done in my sketchbook.  We lived in Alabama at the time and these doodles reminded me of the symbol the TV stations used when we were on hurricane watch.  One of the things I had not been aware of before we lived in an area that was in the path of hurricanes a couple of times while we lived there was the spin-off tornadoes.  Now tornadoes I was familiar with having grown up in the Midwest!  The difference with the hurricanes was that the hurricane could be tracked with radar.  Tornadoes on the other hand give little warning.

The name I gave this quilt is "Eye of the Storm".  That's what 2010 felt like to me -- being in the eye of the storm with a lot going on.  Some of the stuff was good, like the birth of our first great-granddaughter, Summer.  Some of it was bad, foot surgery that didn't heal quite as planned and the death of Gary's mother.

The quilt I just finished is called "Blue Skies and Sunshine".  I can't show it to you yet as it will be in a magazine later in the year.  It was finished in 2010 and all I could think of while working on it was blue skies and sunshine like we have here in Arizona most of the time.  Today it's a chilly blue skies and sunshine day, but who can complain?  We don't have rain or snow to contend with like most of the country does right now.

I'm looking forward to a year of mostly good.  We have to have some bad in order to appreciate the good, though.  I wish for you a wonderful new year with plenty of good things in your life.

Blessings to you all,
Lois

If You Go Into the Woods Today........

This was supposed to be my Christmas Greeting to you, but the time got away from me.  I started to post last week and all of a sudden Christmas had come and gone! 

Hope you had a Merry Christmas with family and friends.  I hope you remembered that we celebrate Jesus Birthday on Christmas Day.

This little quilt If you Go Into the Woods Today, Don't Forget Your Compass is only 18" square.  It was on the cover of my book, Pine Tree Quilts.  On the cover it appears to be rectangular, but it is not.  For those of you who are non quilters, the "compass" blocks are in the four corners.  They are 3" squares.  That's a lot of pieces of fabric in a 3" square.  Thank goodness for paper piecing.

It was fun to make and I think it is fun to look at.

I hope you enjoy looking at it. It really isn't as hard to make as it might look.  The borders are paper pieced as well.  For you non quilters, that means you have a drawn line to sew on that is printed on paper so you really can't mess up all those little points.

We now have a whole year minus a couple of days to prepare for next Christmas.  Maybe if I start now, I'll be ready on time.  Don't hold your breath, though!

Until next time,
Lois

Friendship Pines

My mother-in-law passed away last week and I had to stay in AZ to run the company while Gary went back to make arrangements, etc.  Last night I made the date bars that she used to make every Christmas in her honor.  Maybe later I will post the recipe.  I needed to make them once again before posting the recipe as it's another of those recipes that all the instructions aren't there and I need to write them in.

Several years ago I was a part of a sub-group in Nimble Thimbles chapter of AZ Quilters Guild.  These were groups that we signed up to participate for a short time - usually a year.  Each participant made kits to give to the others for quilt blocks for a project they wanted to do.  You may have noticed that I'm sort of "into" pine trees so my project was a small, simple pine tree block.  (I've been "into" red and white quilts, too!)

This is the result of that project.   There were 9 people in the group who were given kits to make the pine tree block and a few extra half-square triangle units for the friendship stars used as alternate blocks.

One of the participants very apologetically gave me her block saying that she had problems doing the block and that when she squared the block she cut off points.  After studying the block at home, I could tell it was not salvageable.  I called to let her know that it was a problem and that we had a couple of options.  I could 1. give her another kit or 2. I could just remake the block or 3, if she was willing to come over, I would give her a private lesson in making half-square triangle units that were accurate.  She chose option 3 and we had a lovely day.  She went on to make a beautiful feathered star after completing a block that fit perfectly into my quilt.  I got a better block and got to spend the day with a friend -- how cool is that?.

Recently I thought about how fortunate we are to have some of our friends.  I sent an e-mail to two of my close friends recently pointing out how unlikely it was that we became friends since we were born in different states, went to different schools and churches and did not live on the same street, etc.  One is a native Arizonan and two of us moved here at different times.  We met at the first guild meeting I attended in AZ and they had only met a couple of months earlier when they each attended the same guild for the first time the same night without knowing each other previously.  Lucky us!

This past week, one of those friends, Joyce, has been meeting me at my office every morning so I won't have to unlock and open the business by myself since Gary is out of state attending to the details of his mother's funeral, etc.  How fortunate I am to have a friend willing to take time out of her busy day at the busiest time of year to make sure I'm safe until our employees come in.  A big "thank you" to Joyce!

Have you hugged a friend lately?  If not, at least call them and tell them how much you love them!

Until next time,
Lois

Whig Rose Quilt

My dear friend, Diane, collects antique quilts.  She has purchased them and been gifted with them.  She has an awesome collection.  But, every time she talked about her antique quilts, she would mention that someday she was going to find a Whig Rose quilt that would be in her price range.  If you know quilts, you know that this type of applique quilt in good conditions is hard to find and usually expensive.  Diane talked about wanting one of these a LOT.

A group of friends that includes Diane and me used to exchange Christmas gifts which were usually wall hangings we made for one another.  One year I was fortunate enough to draw Diane's name.  She had made several wall hangings for me over the years, but I had never drawn her name before.  To say I was excited to be able to make a wall hanging for her would be an understatement!  We drew names a year in advance so there was plenty of time to design and create a wall hanging.  Now, a 4 x 4 quilt would have been more in keeping with the tradition, but..........

I worked on the wall hanging everywhere I went that year which included Turkey.  It was a well traveled quilt and created the opportunity for a lot of conversations with strangers on planes and in airport waiting areas as I worked on the quilt.

All year Gary kept saying, "I can't believe you are giving that away!"  He liked it, he saw how much time it was taking and he knew I liked it, too.

Diane was thrilled with her gift.  Her husband told her to take down a perfectly lovely Amish wall hanging in order to hang the Whig Rose in a special place.  Her surprise and delight at finally owning a Whig Rose quilt, even a small one, was a delight to me.  But, now I wanted one, too.  I spent the next year making version 2 of the Whig Rose.  Diane entered hers in the AZ Quilters Guild show that year under my name and it won first place in it's category.  We were both pleased with that!

Here is a picture of version 2.  I don't have a digital file for version 1.  I'm sure I did, but it is one of the missing digital photos that got lost in the computer transfer.  There are a few differences in the two versions.  Diane's is on a lighter background.  I love that background, but only bought enough for 1 quilt to be made from it.  Diane's also has fewer leaves than version 2.  I'm not sure how that happened except I was using Version 2 as a teaching tool as I demonstrated how to applique leaves and stems for a year.  There are a lot of leaves on it -- a lot!

Four of these would make the traditional way the Whig Rose quilts were done.

Diane, does beautiful machine quilting.  I was nervous machine quilting something for her.  Hers was one of the first quilts that I machine quilted feathers on.

I LOVE machine quilting feathers!  Straight lines, not so much!

 I hope you've enjoyed both the story behind this quilt and the quilt.  I totally enjoyed making both version 1 and version 2.  Version 1 for Diane was the most fun as I anticipated her surprise for a whole year.

Until next time!
Lois

Ginger Cookies

This ginger cookie recipe is one I got from Gary's grandmother, Lena Hilgendorf Arnold, when we were first married. It is a family favorite.  I don't make them often enough!  Since this came from Gary's grandmother and I have it in her own handwriting, it is one of those where the ingredients are simple, but the flour amount is "enough to make a soft dough".  This is the way my mother cooked, too, and I never quite get the exact same results, unfortunately.  But, no matter because the cookies are still good even if they aren't identical to Great-Grandma's.  My mother-in-law used the same recipe and hers were different, too.  It's all in the interpretation of the "enough flour to make a soft dough", I think.

Here is what you do.

Start with 1 cup shortening (I use either butter or margarine)



Beat to soften.

Add 1-1/2 cups sugar and cream together.

Add 2 eggs, preferably without the shells.

Add 1 cup molasses, mix and then add 1/2 cup water and mix again..



Add 1 teaspoon ginger, 1 teaspoon cinnamon, 1 teaspoon baking soda and 1 teaspoon nutmeg.

You do not have to grate your own nutmeg, but I do -- it's so aromatic!



Mix well and add flour one cup at a time.



Mix in enough to make a soft dough -- at least 4-1/2 cups, but I use more, 6 cups or so.

The dough is easier to handle if you refrigerate it for several hours or overnight at this point.  When it's ready to handle, use an small scoop to get equal amounts of dough.  If you don't have  one of these, run out and get one right now! They make the job easier and the cookies are a uniform size for baking, You can find these in any cooking store. I would tell you where I got mine, but I forgot, I just know it was a cooking store.



Roll in granulated sugar. Apparently I forgot to upload this photo!, They look like this on the cookie sheet.

Flatten the balls with a glass dipped in sugar.

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes.  Be sure to enjoy a couple while they are still warm.  Yum!

Enjoy!

GINGER COOKIE RECIPE

1 C. shortening, butter or margarine

1-1/2 C. granulated sugar

2 eggs

1 C molasses

1/2 C. water

1 teaspoon ginger

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1 teaspoon nutmeg

1 teaspoon soda

Flour enough for a soft dough.  Start with 4-1/2 C and add until it feels right.

Refrigerate dough for several hours or overnight.

Roll balls in granulated sugar and place on cookie sheet

Flatten with a glass dipped in sugar

Bake at 375 degrees for 8-10 minutes

These are a softer gingerbread type cookie rather than a crisp gingersnap type cookie.

Bake some of these soon.  Your house will smell amazing.  You must bake these at Christmas time!

Happy baking,

Lois