Fabric Folding

My new studio is completely done. It's what I have to do to it that isn't finished. I have spent a very long time
refolding my fabric. Prior to the new shelving, I was using an already made library for my fabric. It's depth was only 11 inch shelving so when I moved in I had to fold my fabric from in half to thirds.
With my new 13 1/2" shelves (before the doors close) I can fold the fabric in half so that is exactly what I did.
I can get twice as much in a pile due to it's lack of bulk. Lots of my pieces are three yards so I needed the new fold, plus it is very therapeutic to fold.
I have other things to put in the top shelves but I don't have a ladder right now so I will need to finish that later. Things are coming along very nicely.
Here's a Bella post. She has a bit of a mustache problem. Was she in my 'product' maybe?

Couples

I need help thinking of recognizable couples (one male - one female rather than say, Siegfried and Roy); both real couples and those thrown together by a movie( Sly and Dolly) or an illustrator (Micky and Minnie). I have come up with the following and would welcome your additions:
Sonny and Cher
Charles and Diana
Ike and Tina
Fred and Wilma
Lucy and Ricky
Anthony and Cleo
John and Yoko
Pebbles and Bambam
Adam and Eve
Iman and Bowie
Christie Brinkley and Billy Joel
Rhett and Scarlett
Carrie and Big
Herman and Lily Munster
Ken and Barbie
Harold and Maude
Elvis and Priscilla

Also, do any of you know why sometimes I lose my Google homepage that I specifically made (with weather, artist of the day, etc)? Sometimes I have to start all over and I don't understand why. It's when I reboot but so what? It shouldn't do that and it doesn't always.
I was clearing out room in a display cabinet the other day to make room for my Mother's Day gift from Maggie. Isn't it adorable? It's a wired soft sculpture of a oyster shell and a pearl. I just love it and wanted to create an adequate space for it. I decided to take out some books and move them down to the library case in a guest room. Within this pile of books I noticed
this one that I thought I had misplaced a long time ago. It was written by my dearly departed friend Patty.
Here she is on the back jacket of the book that she self published. She wrote the book in 1997 and it was re released in 2000 and she was very proud of it. She died of a heart attack in 2002, just a year and a half after her wonderful husband died of cancer. This is kind of like a legacy for them because they had no children. I think of them everyday.

Monday Monday

With Maggie and fiance Evan visiting for the weekend, we had lots to do. First off, we went to a wine tasting; that is after a day of watching Bridezilla.

I am not fond of wine tasting; they give you such a little pour that it hardly seems worth it. And spitting out? Okay, I saw 'Sideways'; I know the drill but why waste perfectly good wine? Now, if we were at a wine tasting that featured Michigan wines; that's cause to spit out. Actually, we managed to buy a couple bottles of last years models that, although perfectly good, were no longer on the menu at the wine tasting establishment.

Along with a wedding coordinator and the florist, we spent Sunday on wedding logistics. It is mind boggling; all that you have to take into consideration. I was very pleased with all that we accomplished.
The reason for the Vegas trip - a college graduate and a dapper just 21 year old wanted to go - and I bummed a ride along with them. The college grad, Jordan got an IU (Indiana University) queen sized quilt from me, just days before the trip. He's the apple of my eye.

Bye Bye Vegas

Ready for one last shot of Vegas? Here's a dandy picture showing that no matter how built up you think the strip is, there is always
room to add more. This new construction is the CityCenter, the most expensive privately funded construction project in U.S. History.
The first phase of MGM/ MIRAGE's CityCenter, a gargantuan, $9.2-billion, 68-acre project, is under construction on the Las Vegas Strip between Bellagio and Monte Carlo. Phase two will eventually occupy the space behind and between Monte Carlo and New York New York. The Boardwalk Hotel was demolished along with a few local businesses to make room for this immense project. CityCenter will be an ultra modern, urban environment with nicely hidden parking structures. The project will be a mini-city with its own Fire Station, an on-site power plant, and lots of pedestrian space.
There is a lot of construction traffic around this area. I only went that way on the strip once, seeing as how it's a couple miles away and I was only in Vegas for two days.

Micky and I ventured a little closer to our digs and went to check out the new Palazzo, which opened last year and is the Venetian's counterpart.
It is very grand and very empty. Actually all of Vegas was pretty quiet. The time of the week , the time of year added to the economy make less visitors. You can really tell in the airport and walking on the strip. You can easily get a place at a gaming table or a restaurant too.
Check out the check in at the Palazzo. Now, with that goblet, I would get myself a mighty fine pour.. Speaking of restaurants and pours, here is the latest of Emeril's restaurants. It is named after a famous table at Lagasse's New Orleans flagship restaurant Emeril's.
There is this display of all the various chef coats at all the restaurants he worked at or owned. I love stuff
like this. I don't know if they are for sale or not. This next one is actually for Table 10. We asked if Emeril comes in often and was very surprised to hear that he had only come in the first week it opened. Not real
hands on, I guess. They have an open kitchen which I have always liked.
The place wasn't opened as yet when we visited but there was a lot of prep work going on but no expediter as yet.
Micky pointed out the cool way that they place the knives on the tables; point down. I should have checked out this table a little better.

I noticed this wonderful light sculpture and as I was shooting the picture this guy in a suit asked if we wanted to see the kitchen table. I guess this is like Charlie Trotters where you sit in the kitchen while you eat and watch, but unlike Trotters, this table isn't actually in the kitchen. Close but not in. Because I didn't realize what was behind the screen, it was cut off in the pic. He showed us that by flipping a wall switch, the glass partitions could remain cloudy, for privacy, or clear. I have seen that window 'treatment' in a zoomy house I toured in Chicago, way back when. End of Vegas tour - at least until next time.

Todays Special - Bellagio

Micky and I took her boys around to see some of our favorite things in Sin City. The ceiling

at the entry at the Bellagio is right up there with my top ten. The hand blown glass flowers are so much better looking in real life than in this photo that I do not do it justice. Steps away from this sight is the bar where I was playing video poker with my Maggie (21st birthday) while G checked in and I made three grand. That luck has definitely changed!!!

This view is of the space behind check in. It has no function what so ever except to have people say, 'oh, isn't that beautiful'. It's gotta be 20 or more feet deep. Here (up north) they would sell it off and put a strip mall in it's place.
These flower groupings are all over the place; fresh roses and this drippy mossy stuff that I love. We were heading over to another casino when the dancing waters show in front of the Bellagio started. Have you ever seen it? This time the water was dancing to the Titanic Theme (Celine). You just can't take your eyes away from this spectacle once it starts.
I was talking to a gal next to me and she was telling me that at Christmas time they do all theme tunes and the
lights are red and green. There wasn't one person who walked away from the 'show' once it started.
This theme of decorating with hot air balloons is new to me. I can't remember what was in it's place before but I know it wasn't balloons. You can see these gaily colored dirigibles all over the place in Bellagio. Did you happen to notice the first five letters in the casino's spelling? Veddy Interesting.

I Got You Babe

Just next door, (a half mile away!) from the Mirage is Caesars Palace. We spied this advertisement of the new
show in the Colosseum, which happened to be built for Celine a few years ago. Can you imagine having an
auditorium built just so you would have the proper place to preform? Well, here it is in all it's glory. Outside the
inside entrance to the auditorium in the round are glass enclosures that house some of the more famous Cher
garments. They are a tad racy for me but they are exquisite in their detail and workmanship. As a matter of
fact, my see through beaded thong slacks are very similar to this pair on the model. Hum,,,,,, maybe I will wear them out tonight. I will have to check the weather before the final decision is made.
Check out the red headdress. I wouldn't want to go two inches in that thing. Oh, and next to it is one of Cher's Oscar ensembles. I can't swear to this but I still think all her outfits are still made by Mackie. I remember Maggie (who is visiting for the weekend) had a Bob Mackie barbie she got from her godfather when she was a little girl.
This style of having your hips totally exposed is a different look. Cher must like it because she had a similarly constructed pair of dungarees on midway through her performance. Yeah, Micky and I went to the Cher concert.
Oh, here is the Oscar outfit, a little closer up. Every girls dream, right? The concert was fabulous. We were about eight rows from the front and could see everything!!!! We got our tickets online from StubHub after we went to the concierge in the Mirage and was told that it looked like the tickets weren't available. We decided the guy wanted a hefty tip so went and got them ourselves. Cher opened less than a week before and rumor has it that Oprah was there for the opening. I was talking to my gal pal Regina and after listening to my description of the show, she said that it was suspiciously like the Farewell Tour of 2002. Anyway, it was very visual and great and Cher had 17 costume changes. If I had any criticism it would be that she didn't move much. I realize she is 62, but she is a very fit and cared for 62 so I think she could have done a bit more movement, as she has done in the past. There's only one show a day and it's about 90 minutes long. No camera's were allowed and I mean NO Camera's. They actually took mine (and a million others) and returned it after the show. Cher is sharing the spotlight with Bette Middler and Elton John; all taking turns preforming. If I had only one choice of who to see, I would choose Bette. I have always been a bigger Bette fan than a Cher fan but I am very glad I got a chance to see her. My Maggie and her girlfriend are going to see the show next week. It's all in the family!!!

It's Just A Mirage

We are back from Vegas. The whole Mirage, where we stayed, was to have been wireless. No, it was not. We were charged 14 bucks for a 24 hour period only to find out that it didn't have the juice to work. And the wireless only was to have worked in the rooms. No where else in the hotel could you get service. The closest place was a tram ride away at a Starbucks. The Las Vegas airport had free wireless but for some reason it wouldn't download pictures so this is the first opportunity I had to post. It makes me crazy.

First up is a view of our digs. This room (suite) was amazing. It was cheaper than two regular rooms.


Here is the master bath, which Micky and I shared. Besides this main room of the bath that had two sinks, a whirlpool and a big, wonderful shower, there was a toilet/bidet room and two dressing rooms.
Here is the living room, dining room and bar room. There you can see newly 21 years old Sean in the background.
This is the master bedroom. The tv comes up out of the chest at the end of the bed. There I am in the mirror
and here I am in the mirror of the foyer. Lots of mirrors make the rooms appear to be twice as big which wasn't necessary because they were big to begin with.
This is another bedroom with it's own bath; not as big as ours but still bigger than a normal hotel room. There you see Jordan checking out the local tv channels.
Here's a view of the main room from the other side. There is Micky on the phone in the back of the picture.
Look at the word THE on top of the word Beatles and if you zoom on the 'H" you will see exactly where our room was. Pretty neat, eh? More later.

Vegas Baby!!

We spent a lot of time looking at old pictures this weekend. It was lots of fun except for the fact that three old women, over 58 were sprawled on the floor for several hours, pouring over pictures from our childhood and beyond. There are a couple that I put by the side to share. This first one is of me and G in June, 1972, which was six months before we got married.


Check out two lengths; my hemline and my hair. One very short and one very long (and RED).

This next picture was taken out in our back yard before we started into one of those game parties that you have a certain menu and them it's a who's who. They were popular in the eighties. Anyway,
that is me in the red big hair and big red glasses along with my college friend Jayne and our hubbies. What do you think of G? Can you even tell it is him?

I am off to Vegas tomorrow morn at 5 a.m. with my gal pal Micky and her two grown boys for three days in the sin city. You know the saying, 'What happens in Vegas' and all that. We shall see. And so, so shall you!!!

Happy Mother's Day

For some reason I have always felt that Mother's Day and Father's Day were Hallmark Holidays. Well, I am here to tell you that they are not; at least Mother's Day is legit. Here is an article about the Mother's Day movement through history.
http://www.theholidayspot.com/mothersday/history.htm

Closer to home, I find myself wondering what to do on this day with my sisters, Peter and Maria, two dogs, G, and an ugly, rainy day. Suggestions? I know that hitting the dollar store is one for sure thing that we are going to do.

I got this magnificent rosemary plant from Maria. She had one of them herself and it thrived for a year until she left Peter home while she went to care for her parents and he neglected to water it; causing it's demise. She now has a new one and so do I.

Have a great day all you mom's.

Sista's

This is pathetic. I felt guilty all day yesterday because I didn't blog. I got up and with my two sis's here, I got carried away with gab and missed the normal blog window. I could have done it at any time but didn't and it was unsettling. How wierd is that?

We have been busy having lots of fun working on double secret stuff for the "WEDDING" so I can't show you; at least right now I can't show you. Speaking of Maggie stuff, she is in seventh heaven this weekend because Dolly Parton is in town and she is going to see her, TWICE! Now that's a fan. She is going once with fiance' Evan and another time with girlfriends. We will miss her this weekend but I will gladly give her up for Dolly; she has no children of her own so I can share.

Claudia has a very good friend named Mary who happens to be first cousins with these girls. They are Mary's Uncle Bill's girls.
These gals are all sisters out of ten kids and have a couple brothers that didn't make it in the picture; that may have been due to the content of the advertisement.
Here is the complete ad. It's a bra ad for Walmart. It was in my favorite mag, People.

Olga's Here For A Visit

The weekend appears to have already started here. We had our first bout of company with the arrival of Claudia and Bill and their baby girl Bea (who has been renamed Olga, due to her closeness to the floor and her rather barrel shaped body).
After we got back from dinner, while Claud and I were watching the numskull Jason get kicked off of Idol, the two little girls (supermodel and gymnast wannabe) took up their places on top of the sewing table. Bella could hardly keep her eyes opened while Olga was as chipper as can be.

I made a big mistake yesterday and after arriving at the grooming place with a very long haired Bella, was told I was to have been there the day before. At least I got a reprieve and get to take her in for a haircut today. Due to the fact that I have a doctors appointment in a far away place today, I am leaving Claudia and Olga home by themselves until they are later joined by my sister Mike who is joining us for a long weekend. Brother Bill has already left to join brothers John and Dan in Minnesota for the opening of the walleye season. That should be a hoot considering the ice just started to melt yesterday!

Water

Yesterday, one of the guys who are replacing rotted wood on our deck came up to me and asked me for bottled water. I feel silly to say this but I was kinda embarrassed that I didn't have any; for only one second. Then I started to tell the guy my thoughts on all the hundreds of bottles just our household alone uses, without even putting bottled water into the equation. It was hard to get out of the habit, I grant you. We have just gotten to the stage where we no longer fill up old bottles, using washable bottles now.

Market studies show that the reason most Americans drink bottled water is its perceived superiority—most importantly in taste, and then in safety—compared to municipal tap water. But a widely publicized 1999 study by the Natural Resources Defense Council debunked at least some of these perceptions. The study found that the source of about a quarter of bottled water was municipal tap water, usually filtered to remove chlorine—the primary objectionable taste—and other chemicals such as fluoride—so much for the idea of pristine, undisturbed sources.

And instead of the widely held notion that bottled water harbored fewer chemicals and microorganisms, the study found little difference between the two; both are usually of exceptionally high quality in the United States. In fact, water quality standards in this country are more rigorous for tap water than for bottled. (The Food and Drug Administration regulate bottled water while tap water is overseen by the more stringent Environmental Protection Agency.)

Besides the enormous cost of bottled water compared to tap water (bottled water is between 250 to 10,000 times more expensive), there’s an additional expense: its effect on the environment. First there’s the crude oil necessary to produce the plastic bottles, which the Earth Policy Institute estimates at about 1.5 million barrels of oil a year in the U.S., enough to power 100,000 cars. Then there’s the transportation of this weighty product (though about 75 percent of bottled water is produced and consumed regionally). Finally, there’s the issue of getting rid of the empty bottles, only about 10 percent of which are recycled.

I have also started to buy the big two liters of soda, which in the past I have HATED due to their awkwardness and loss of fizz after awhile. The lack of fizz was operator error, I have come to find out and I can get over the awkwardness. I married Gordon after all!!!

It's Almost Been A Year!

Lookie here!

This is Maria and Peter's wedding book. No longer do we have to have the bulky, cumbersome, big ole' album.
Now we can have a coffee table book that is easy to handle, giving you the jist of the ceremony and reception without all the 'ugh, do I have to look at this album?"

Here is a look at a couple randomly chosen pages inside the book to give you the
feel of the insides. It's fun. Don't you wish you had one?

Will Cooper

As per usual, the reason I couldn't download my pictures yesterday was because of moi. The picture of this
perfect man, Master Will Cooper, was wayyyyyy to big but it took me two days to figure it out. Look at this georgous little man. I had the pleasure of feeding and burping him on my birthday, which, by the way, was the highlight of my celebration. Have you ever laid eyes on anyone more beautiful than this 'wise and thoughtful' little being? I think not.
I made my very first yo-yo animal (was supposed to be a dog but I failed miserably in the attempt) for Will Cooper.

Pictureless

I have tried fruitlessly to download pictures today. The pictures are worth a thousand words. I'll be back.

Happy Birthday To Me

Today is my birthday.
I share this birthday with the following:

Golda Meir (1898) Israeli big shot
Bing Crosby (1903) singer
Mary Astor (1906) actress
Sugar Ray Robinson (1921) boxer
James Brown (1933) singer?
Frankie Valli (1934) singer!
Ron Popeil (1935) inventor (and the reason for morning weekend tv, way back when)
Tommy Fitzsimmons (1950) famous blogger
Dule' Hill (1974) actor from West Wing
Cheryl Burke (1984) Dancing With The Stars dancer

I am in awe.

Back In (On?) The Saddle

We arrived home safe and sound yesterday afternoon. First on the agenda was to call Comcast and get a tech here for my computer that has been down since I don't know when. As far fetched as this may sound, they actually came three hours later. I was flabbergasted!!! It's a first for me. They fixed the problem and I was communicating. At least in one way; the worker guys had to disconnect the phone in order to put in a new cooktop for me and unfortunately it was the mother phone; you know, you get one that uses a jack and the other phones are parasites off the mom? The phone had been off the electricity for quite some time so we are charging and I am sure it is working by this morning. When you leave home for an extended time, this stuff is always bound to happen.

The first job I am going to tackle is to get my newly enlarged studio put together.

These bags contain all the fabric that we took off my shelves before the construction started and now it is my job to put them back where they belong. The new shelves are deeper and now have sliding doors in front of the fabric
that I can close to protect the fabric. This is a great idea in principle but time will tell if they will be a pain in the butt. Maybe they just seem awkward now because I am just getting used to them.
I have so much of this light fading where the fabric is folded. It's not just on the outside layer. The fading goes all the way through all layers. For that, the doors will surely help. I have lots to do but this is the fun stuff!!!

Wednesday Nite Musings

I am watching the second day of Idol and Neil D is singing. Only one of his eyes is opened. The song which I am guessing is Amazing Grace is not very Amazing. His voice is fine and he's kept fit and shockingly, he still has hair; what with all the product he used to use to keep it big. I never saw him on Tuesday because we were running late in the traveling. Somewhere I read that his divorce settlement was up there in the highest amounts awarded to a wife. I can't remember the amount and you could google it to find out but I remember that it was mega millions.

The two remaining Idol girls are in the chairs tonight so one of them will be going home. David Cook should be the winner but I am guessing that David A will make it, due to his age and therefore, fan base.

Where was I? Oh, yeah; we are by Louisville and the commercial for the Kentucky Derby and the festivities at Churchill Downs state that Kellie Pickler is one of the entertainers. Surely that can get someone better than her!!!

We have no cell service here. G and I have different carriers so usually one of our phones work but not here. Okay, Brooke's out. Three guys and one girl remain in Idol. I will be home tomorrow.

On The Road Again.

When I walked out the front door this morning to take out the last of the trash for Tuesday morning pickup I was accosted by a smell. It seems that it's my over abundance of gardenias.

Usually they have a cycle (at least that is my observation) and they aren't all blooming at the same time. As I looked closely, that is indeed the case but the amount that are in bloom right now is on the verge of becoming classified as a toxic fume. Their life span isn't very long but they sure are stunning flowers.
It seems as tho' everything really starts to bloom when we are heading back home. Oh well. With the bloom comes the bugs and the heat and humidity. I say no more.

I have finished up lots of loose ends in the last couple of days. I managed to get this sweater
assembled yesterday for my grand niece's third birthday in May. I wanted to have it done so I wouldn't have to assemble it at the last minute (which is my usual). I had already finished
these two in March for the twin sisters first birthday. I never know if any of the stuff I make for kids ever gets worn but I still plug away making them.

We are heading home today.

Email Woes

I have spent the morning trying to figure why I haven't gotten any emails for a couple days. So if you didn't hear back from me that's why. The problem ended up being that the checked box in my email account said to leave the emails on the server. That means that the thousand emails that I have sent and received are sitting out there waiting for me view when I open my computer at home. Wow, I so don't want that to happen. But in the future it will not be a problem. It's only happening because I got a new computer last year and the default is to leave email on the server. Who knew?

This is kinda funny. My girlfriend Jayne said that she was thinking about me and wanted to see what I was up to so she opened up the blog and saw 'Framing A Quilt' and said that it was time to pick up the phone. I guess quilting stuff doesn't appeal to everyone!!!

My computer at home doesn't work or at least it didn't when I went back home a couple weeks ago. That will probably be a technican visit because I did everything that I know how to do and I still had no service. We have had a bunch of work done on the house (including an addition to my studio!!!!) and that is probably the problem.

I am doing wash, cleaning out the refrigerator and stuff like that in preparation to go back north for the 'season'. All very boring but necessary. It's starting to be over 80° every day and the humidity is advancing so the time is right. Today will be Bella's last visit to the Dog Park. She goes almost every day (shows ya how much I have to do!!) and she now lets me know that she knows it's about 3:30 pm. As we get close to the park she almost jumps out of her skin in her excitement. She's still the prettiest girl there (says her mother.)

Framing A Quilt

I have had my third night of sleeping partially in a recliner. I have the drip in the throat cold that will not let me lay my head down. Other than that, it has been a very lackadaisical cold; not much of a problem. But it is my third cold in 2008 and normally I don't get one. G swears that I never got over the last one and that it has been lingering and just wanting to come out. Doctor G. My hero.

I was reminded yesterday that I promised to show how to get a quilt on a frame and I totally forgot. Here's a mini tute on how to do it.

Once you have done your stitching and/or quilting and your piece is ready to frame,( with extra fabric on the edges to go around the frame) you iron the piece lightly; enough to get any major creases that had formed during the quilting process. You lay down your sandwiched piece on a flat surface that can withstand a staple gun pressure.

Place the frame, centered on the wrong side of the work and start in the midddle of all sides and staple, going around the frame this way until you get to the corners. You can mildly stretch the work so that it is taut.


Here's what it looks like when you get to the corner. Pull the top fabric away from the corner and you may have to rip out stitches if you have them in the corner. When there is no chance of cutting the fabric, cut away the batting. In this case I didn't use backing fabric but if you do (and I have on occasion) cut backing fabric away with the batting.

This is what the corner looks like with the batting cut and the top fabric still pulled away.
Now bring the top fabric back into place and staple it down tautly. Decide where you want the corner seam (top or sides of your work) and fold it toward your chosen side.
Secure this with enough staples to hold it firmly in place. There, it's done. Now that wasn't hard, was it?

When done you have a clean, crisp work of art. I don't even bother with hangers but you certainly can if you want. I just level two nails where I want the thing to hang and use them as a ledge to sit my top inside frame onto. You can glue on a backing to hide the staples but unless it is going to sit on an easel, why bother?