Sofa.com's Comfy Award

Sofa.com is a trendy sofa company in London, dedicated to building high quality, custom made sofas for a fraction of the usual custom price. One of their passions is comfort, and their blog is devoted to all things comfortable. I would love to be able to visit them and all the funky shops the blog mentions! Sofa.com’s latest mission is to recognize companies that understand the significance of comfort and coziness in one’s life.

Quilted Lovelies was recently honored with a Comfy Award, and a very lovely post on Sofa.com’s blog. Check out the badge! Pretty slick, huh? I love their avant-garde pictures too – not what you’d expect in merchandise photography. Take a look at their site; you’ll wish they delivered to the U.S.

Enjoy and stay comfy! :)

CitizenS.A.M.

This great organization is composed of volunteers who desire to support our Armed Forces. They send quilts to transport wounded soldiers from the battlefield to safety, plus helmet liners and Christmas stockings. There are several more volunteer groups that involve writing cards and letters, adopting a soldier, helping out the K-9 unit and more.


If you are interested in volunteering, please click on any of the links above. If you have any red, white, blue or patriotic themed fabric that you don’t want anymore, I would be most appreciative to receive it. I recently started making quilts for them, but one of their stipulations is that all the quilts have to be made of 100% cotton, red, white, blue or patriotic themed fabric. After only 2 quilts, I am quickly running out! If you’d like to donate your unwanted fabric, please send it to Quilted Lovelies, P.O. Box 126316, Benbrook TX 76126. If you’d like to volunteer your time or make a donation to CitizenSAM, please click on CitizenSAM to go to their home page.

Thank you so much for your help!

The Dog Ate My Quilt

Destroyin’ Norman, the Labrador Retriever is one lucky dog. When his owner brought me the product of his labor (1st photo), I wasn’t sure I could put Humpty Dumpty together again. The Grandmother’s Flower Garden quilt was over 70 years old and fragile. Now a dog had taken a big bite out of it. How is one supposed to age gracefully with a chunk missing?


The first thing I did was look at it for a day, hoping some magic power would come through my eyeballs and fix it. When that didn’t work, I got busy. One of the half flowers at the border needed replacing as did a 2 foot section of the border itself. The batting, back and binding for the section also had to be replaced (next 3 pictures). Then the new section would have to be hand quilted, matching the stitches of the original quilter (“Good luck with that,” Norman chuckled). Two big challenges were finding fabric that matched the old border fabric, and trying to attach the new section to old fragile material. Finding the fabric was easier than I thought it would be; thank goodness Depression era colors are popular right now. Getting everyone to play together nicely was another matter.

The old border fabric and the background hexagons are very delicate, and fell apart in places when machine sewing was attempted. After more than a few Diva Moments (“This looks like trash, and trash is not allowed to exist in my presence!”), trying the Magic Eyeball trick again, and walking away a couple of times to mutter to myself, everything finally came together and stayed together. I wondered if there was a place I could take the quilt to have all the negative energy removed, but decided a good airing would do just as well.

Norman is out of the dog house for now...

Americans Helping Americans

Get some good priced Quilted Lovelies items and help out a great cause at the same time. Americans Helping Americans is featuring some donated items from QL in their online store. All profits go to AHA!

http://store.helpingamericans.org/

Time For A New Look

At last, renovations have started on my aunt's Flower Garden quilt.  It's a little sad covering up an old flower, but at least it's still part of the quilt.  Now the old flower is protected, and the new flower makes the quilt more stable.

The first picture shows an old flower that has seen better days (see the far left blue flower in the middle).  Good-bye old flower!  The new flower is then basted over the old to hold it in place (picture 2), then hand appliqued to the quilt (picture 3).  Finally, the quilt stitching on the rest of the quilt is repeated in the new flower (picture 4).  My grandmother made some of the tiniest stitches I've seen; it's going to be challenging to match her standard.  Only 11 more flowers to go, and it's finished - I may be writing from the looney bin next time (ha)!

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part VI

Yay!  The last two flowers are done, and they are as different as night and day.  The flower on the left is a coral beauty made with a modern fabric in a scallop design, and matching solids.  The look isn't too much for the quilt though because of the medium scale print (believe me, I checked!).  The second flower is a typical small scale floral in pretty pinks and greens.  The middle ring has another floral in cream and pink, while the center is a tiny cream-on-cream floral.  Lots of flowery goodness!

Up next, the new flowers will be appliqued over the damaged flowers, providing more stability and less stress to the surrounding fabrics.  Stay tuned!    

Two New Product Lines For Quilted Lovelies

Two new product lines have been added to the Quilted Lovelies line-up: doll quilts and hot pads.

The doll quilts come in two designs, checkerboard and diagonally striped.  The checkerboard doll quilts feature bright fabrics in carnival inspired colors of turquoise, red, yellow and chartreuse, just to name a few.  They come in two sizes, 10" x 14" and 12" x 14".  The diagonally striped doll quilt is made up of triangles pieced together to seemingly form rows of flowers on a solid yellow background.  Both designs are perfect for 18" dolls.

Two of the hot pads designs are primary colored quilt block patterns in 2 sizes, 8 1/2" square and 9 1/2" square.  The third is a whopping 16" x 14 1/2" (that's big enough for a lasagna pan).  I made them because I couldn't find a hot pad big enough to fit under the crock pot.  I made a "guinea pig special" for me, then my mom wanted one, and a neighbor, so I made a dozen of the smaller ones and 4 of the larger ones.  The big hot pads are pieced squares and rectangles in spring colors of lime, yellow and turquoise, and can also be used as a table topper or a wall hanging.  

Not a new line, but 7 new coasters designs have been added as well.  Coming soon: placemats and quilt block kits!

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part V

I've been a busy bee in the flower making department, but kind of slack in the picture taking area.  Four more flowers are done.  Hooray!  There are two more left to do, then the fun really begins - actually restoring the quilt.  I talked to my aunt yesterday, and she kept telling me to "take my time."  That's code for "don't rush and screw up."  Just kidding, Auntie!  Before I get myself into trouble, let me describe the fabrics used.

The flower on the left in the first picture is made with a small yellow floral print accented by solid mint and a white-on-white fern print center.  Like my grandmother, I had to make do with what was on hand for the second flower.  The darker pink floral is a 30s repro, and I thought I had enough scraps to make 12 hexagons, but I think I was just wishing there was enough.  The other pink is also a 30s repro.  Not an exact match, but it gives the flower character.  The other fabrics are solid yellow and a tiny white-on-white floral center.

In the second picture, the flower on the left is also a 30s repro of yellow roses and green leaves.  It's complemented by solid nile green and a dragonfly white-on-white print in the center.  Last but not least, something a little different.  The red and cream hexagons are made with an Art Nouveau style print.  It is highlighted by solid blue and cream-on-cream stars in the middle.  A patriotic flower amid all the flowery ones. 

Flower #11 is in production, so it won't be long until "real" quilt work begins.  Stay tuned!

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part IV

Six flowers down, which means the half-way mark has been reached! The flower on the left has a pink and green dogwood print with a complementary green inner circle and a pink and green plaid center. Dogwoods are prolific in Kentucky, where my grandmother was from, and in the spring, the mountains are a fairy land of pink and white. The second flower uses a space age inspired print in avocado, along with solid marigold and a center of white on white stars. The flower that's in production now is also green and yellow, but it's light spring green for the inner circle and a bright yellow floral print for the outer circle. Very light and airy!

Amazing What You Can Find When You Clean Out Your Closet

I cleaned out my closet yesterday and found a treasure. For over 30 years, my Great Aunt Florence owned the swankiest dress store in town, aptly named The Florence Shoppe. All the well heeled ladies of the town could get anything they wanted there: dresses, shoes, jewelry, peignoirs, hosiery and all their lingerie. The entire time Aunt Florence owned her shop (40s-70s), ladies' "unmentionables" were in discreet boxes behind the counter. The box I found used to hold a dozen panties. From the tape marks, I think it used to hold Christmas presents too. I thought the box was treasure enough, because I could remember the stacks of seafoam boxes that lined the wall behind the counter. But when I opened it, there was a mink collar inside (don't throw red paint on me). I don't remember getting the box, let alone looking inside it. I think it may have been my aunt's mink. The collar clips to your dress at the shoulder, and snaps in the front. All hand stitched too. I don't wear fur, but I collect vintage textiles, so I guess I'll find a better storage method than an old lingerie box lined with old plastic Sears packaging.

Why “Refrigerator To Table In 30 Minutes Or Less” Is A Lie

I hate cooking, but I like everyone to eat a healthy dinner around the table. So my save-time radar perks up when I see a recipe that claims I can fix it in 30 minutes or less. Included is the alleged time saving recipe, scanned from my recipe book (I can’t keep torn magazine pages intact so I put them on a card and pop them into my recipe book).


Here’s the first time sucker: 1 pound of chicken cut into strips. Do you know how long it takes to cut 4 boneless chicken breasts into strips if you remembered to defrost them ahead of time? 5 minutes! If you didn’t remember to defrost them, add another 12 minutes for microwave defrosting. I don’t know about you, but I rinse my chicken off before I prepare it. Then I put it on a paper towel lined plate to drain. Do you think the person who took the last paper towel replaced the roll? No. Stop everything while I go find another roll of paper towel. This little side trip took 3 minutes.

Second step: Toss chicken strips in cheese. Where’s the parmesan cheese? Great, we’re low on it. Is there any more? No. Hope there’s 4 tablespoons. Luckily, there were 4 tablespoons of parmesan cheese left. Now do I toss the chicken like I toss a salad? Dredge it? I decided to toss it. Raw chicken doesn’t toss as easily as lettuce, so before I started throwing food everywhere a la the Swedish Chef, I developed a little toss-roll thing. Parmesan search and technique development chewed up 7 more minutes. Now we’re up to 15 minutes, and I haven’t even started cooking!

I don’t like to start the oil heating in the skillet until I’m almost ready to cook in case there are unexpected preparation difficulties. Nothing worse than a forgotten skillet with hot oil in it. Can you say kitchen fire? While the chicken and cheese were “getting to know each other” (one of my granny’s cooking terms), I got the olive oil. I started putting it on the highest shelf when the kids were little but I can’t remember why. I’m sure it involved making a mess or accidental ingestion. Who knows why it’s still on the highest shelf since my son is taller than me now. At any rate, I have to s-t-r-e-t-c-h up there to get it, and just as I’m about to snag the bottle, the phone rings. It’s for my daughter, but while I’m distracted looking at the caller ID, I knocked down some seldom used baking cups and a birthday candle lighter. I can see why I put the lighter up there, but baking cups? I’ve gotta reorganize this cabinet some day. Obtaining my 1 tablespoon of olive oil ate up another 3 minutes.

While the oil was heating, I started the side dishes in the microwave. Times flies so much faster when you’re preoccupied by other activities, and before you know it, your skillet is smoking. That didn’t happen this time though. In go the chicken strips, and the cheese promptly absorbed all the olive oil. Now they’re browning too fast, soon on their way to being blackened. I put in some more oil, hoping I wouldn’t make the whole thing a big grease ball. The recipe should be amended to 4-6 tablespoons. Now we’re up to 23 minutes.

The last side dish was going to take 6 minutes to nuke. I wonder if the chicken is 6 minutes from being finished? I don’t know, myself answered, why don’t you ask it? Enough of that, get back on track. Saute 3-4 minutes until browned and cooked through doesn’t apply to any chicken I buy. More like 8-10 minutes. Of course by now my side dishes are cold because I forgot to factor in special sauce production time. It’s taken 32 minutes so far, and I still have one more thing to make. I hollered for the kids to set the table and pour the drinks, and got to work.

I don’t add tomatoes, because the other 3 people who live with me don’t like hot tomatoes. Well, that saved me a minute. Where’s the pesto? I know we have some; I just bought it. Found the pesto, and am now cooking 1-2 minutes until sauce thickens slightly. No thickening is occurring. Does it need more flour? Just leave it alone, I told myself, and threw the veggies back in the microwave for a quick re-heat. I decided to take up the sauce because I feared it would just dry up and permanently adhere to the skillet. It wasn’t thick like white gravy (don’t know if it was supposed to be), but it smelled good. Hollered for everyone to come to the table. On the plus side, Pesto Presto Chicken ended up looking like the picture (always a success in my book), and tasted good too. But it did take 37 minutes from refrigerator to table. Seven whole minutes longer?! The horror! I wish the folks at the Magazine Recipe Testing Kitchen would take into account such time zappers as no paper towel, slicing, defrosting, chopping (take that back, there was no chopping!), cabinet items falling out, ringing phones, etc. before they proclaim a recipe as a “time saver”.  At least nothing caught fire this time.

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part III

Two more flowers are finished!  After the next two, I'll be half way done.  The flower on the left uses a vintage turquoise and pink floral from the 40s along with a turquoise ombre print and a white on white vine print in the center.  The peach fabric in the other flower is a vintage Wamsutta from the 70s.  The other two fabrics are a mint lawn, and a center made with the same material as the center of the turquoise/pink flower.  The flower I'm working on now is gold and green - the combination is so pretty together!

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part II

Two flowers are done. Only 10 more to go! I'm using the English paper piecing method to make the flowers. Most of the fabrics I chose for the restored flowers are reproduction prints from the 30s and 40s. One lucky flower though gets to be made with the real deal: a vintage floral print from the 40s. One flower is made with a summer themed print (apples, bees, sunshine) and a solid burgundy, and the other is made with a 30s repro blue and pink floral and a pink solid.

Grandmother's Flower Garden Quilt, Part I

This is a picture of my grandmother, Lillian Fields Patton, in 1943. She was one of the many women who inspired and nurtured my love of quilting. Long before I was a twinkle in my daddy’s eye, Grandmother made Flower Garden quilts for all her children when they were freshly married. Each hexagon was hand cut, and no two flowers were the same. She used up every piece of scrap fabric she could find, and some of the neighbors’ too. Grandmother even made flowers from my grandpa’s old boxer shorts (3rd picture)!

Six months ago, my aunt, a Super Master Of The Quilting Universe herself, sent me her quilt, asking me to restore it. ACK! What an honor to refurbish something my grandmother made! Not to mention nerve wracking, anxiety producing, heart pounding, pressure filled... OK, I’ll stop. While I was marking the flowers that needed to be fixed, I noticed the binding needed a little TLC too. However, Grandmother bound each side of the outer hexagons with its own separate miter. Can you imagine hand sewing the binding to the quilt 1" at a time, then mitering 1” pieces of fabric together? My mind reeled. Before I fainted completely away, I asked my aunt if she wanted me to replace the binding too. Luckily for my heart, she said no because it would be too hard to match the fabric. What’s left of my sanity thanked her.


The other two pictures are of the quilt itself. It’s too big to take in one shot, so I just took a couple of close-ups to show the diversity of colors and fabrics used. I’ll be posting updates as I go along, or maybe pix of me in the loony bin. Stay tuned!

Get A Coupon!

Only a month to go until the Funky Find Spring Fling!  Around my house it's time for me to drive everyone crazy with "requests" (that's a nice way of saying "demands") for help to pull it all together.  Wait until there's only a week to go; it will just be me and the dog.  The rest of the family will be staying with my folks until Her Majesty, The Drama Queen leaves (ha).

Here's a picture of my banner.  If you plan on coming to the Spring Fling, be sure to look for it and stop by for a visit.  If you'd like a 10% off coupon, email me your name and snail mail address, and I'll send you one.  I won't send you anything else either, so don't worry that this is a lame ploy to send you junk mail.

Hope to see you there!

How Not To Give A Dog Medicine

There is a right way and a wrong way to give a dog medicine, and I think I have all the wrong ways down pat.


My golden retriever, Merle, has to take medicine for his sensitive skin, and outsmarted me at almost every turn. I think he did this for spite. Half of his medicine ended up a gloppy, semi-dissolved mess on the floor, and so did I. However, when I took Merle back to the vet to tell on him, Merle happily took his meds for the doc. There’s that spite again. It couldn’t possibly be me.

So here is a list of everything I did wrong

1. Put the pill in your hand and say, “Here ya go,” like you’re handing him a treat or something. Merle gave me an arched look that said, “Do I look that stupid?”
2. Hide it in food. Now that he’s on to me, Merle ate around the pill and spit it out.
3. Here’s my fave. The vet said to put the medicine in Merle’s mouth, lift his snout and rub his throat. Magically, he’ll swallow the pill. Ha. The first time I tried it, Mr. Merle chewed the capsule, getting granules of medicine all in his mouth and on his lips. The capsule part was partially dissolved and stuck to the hair around his mouth. Pretty! And pretty stinky! I thought I was successful with attempt #2, but the little sneak cheeked it - he put it between his massive floppy cheek and gum – then spit it out when I wasn’t looking. I swear that dog has it in for me.
4. Wrestling. He won.
5. Pretending to take it and acting like I feel so much better. The performance got a yawn.
6. Begging. He won.

In the end, I took him back to the vet where I got personal lessons on the rub-the-throat technique. The vet was very supportive, but Merle smiled gleefully, knowing that once again, he had shown himself to be smarter than I am.

Be Nice To Your Mail Carrier

Today is Thank A Mail Carrier Day! We have the sweetest “maillady”. The kids started calling her that early on, and the name stuck. We have the drive-up-and-put-the-mail-in-the-box delivery system. If a package is too big for the mailbox, our maillady will come to the door (with the rest of the mail), ring the bell and wait for someone to answer. She also says hello, pets the dog, and asks how our day is going before she heads back to the truck. It doesn’t matter if it’s raining or cold or sleeting. I know she has Monday off because if a package is too big for the mailbox, her substitute leaves it on the porch, and doesn’t even do a ding-dong ditch. The rest of the mail is in the mailbox.

So today I will be waiting for her with a beverage of her choice as just a small token of my appreciation of her hard work and excellent customer service. I’ll be waiting inside though so as not to give the neighbors something to gossip about. It would be my luck that she’s sick today and a substitute is driving the truck - another good reason to stay inside and listen for the familiar squeak of the postal truck brakes.

If you decide to thank your mail carrier today, here are a few tips:

1. Don’t run outside, waving your arms, shouting, “Thank you! Thank you!” Your mail carrier might just keep on going, dialing 911 at the same time.
2. If you have a mail carrier who walks your route (i.e. your mailbox is attached to the house), don’t wait by the door then spring out with a loud THANK YOU!  The results might not be to your liking (heart attack, mace to the face, any number of bad things).
3. A really good way to show your appreciation is to tell the boss! Everyone calls to complain about the post office, but I bet hardly anyone calls to say, “good job”. Contact 1-800-ASK-USPS (1-800-275-8777) and they will be happy to document your compliment.

Thanks Maillady!

Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo

Fran's Button Corner is celebrating the last week of the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo by discounting all mixes with red, white or blue buttons by 15%! No waiting for a PayPal refund or a revised invoice either. Red, white and blue button mixes have already been marked down! Hurry, sale ends February 7.

To read more about the Stock Show, go to http://www.fwssr.com/.  To read the Hog Blog (I am not kidding), go to http://www.star-telegram.com/stockshow/.  Great pictures and video!

Opposite Day

Yesterday was Opposite Day so I did the opposite and didn’t write a post yesterday. However, I got it all wrong. Opposite Day was meant for you to try things you haven’t tried before, or do things you’ve always wanted to do, but haven’t. Here’s what I attempted yesterday:

• Try to be different - was subdued and acquiescent. For all of 15 minutes. Not gonna happen.
• Try a new route to work – got lost.
• Wear a color you’ve never worn before – pea green was hideous.
• Don’t have your usual lunch – lots of hot spicy food was a bad idea

Didn’t get a whole lot done in the afternoon, which is a complete 180 for me. More than likely had something to do with the atomic bomb I had for lunch. Try something new today – you’ll probably have better luck than I did!

A Yummy Recipe

Today is National Buttercrunch Day!  Hooray!  Buttercrunch is caramel coated in chocolate and ground nuts.  Sounds heavenly!  In honor of such an auspicious day, here's a buttercrunch recipe.

It comes from Stonewall Kitchen Winter Celebrations: Special Recipes for Family and Friends by Kathy Gunst, Jonathan King and Jim Stott.  You can double the recipe if you like, but if you want to make more you shouldn’t try to multiply the recipe by three or four -- simply keep doubling the recipe.

Ingredients
1 cup unsalted butter
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon light Karo syrup
2 tablespoons water
2 large (about 7 or 8 ounce) chocolate bars*
About 1 cup very finely chopped walnuts**

*Buttercrunch can be made successfully with regular grocery store milk chocolate or chocolate chips, but you can also splurge and use fabulous bittersweet or semi-sweet 60% cocoa chocolate. The choice is yours.

**You can use walnuts, almonds, pecans, pistachio, or any type of nut but it must be finely chopped to adhere properly to the chocolate.

Directions

Line a cookie sheet with a piece of well greased aluminum foil.

In a medium saucepan, heat the butter, sugar, Karo syrup and water over a low heat, stirring frequently. The mixture will caramelize and is ready when it hits 290 degrees on a candy thermometer. Watch it carefully, particularly toward the end of the cooking process. It will take at least 15 to 20 minutes to reach 290 on low heat. The mixture can burn easily; reduce the heat to very low and stir constantly if it seems to be cooking too quickly or turning darker than pale golden brown.

When the candy hits 290 remove from the heat and carefully spread it out in an even layer on the sheet of greased foil. Spread with a spatula to make a fairly thin layer. Let cool and harden. (If you are really impatient you can place the cookie sheet outside in the cold in a protected place so it will harden more quickly.)

While the buttercrunch is hardening melt the chocolate in a saucepan over very low heat, stirring until smooth. IF you choose to let the buttercrunch harden outside or in a very cold spot you must bring it back to room temperature before spreading with the chocolate. If the buttercrunch is too cold the chocolate won’t adhere properly.

When the buttercrunch is hard to the touch (you shouldn’t feel any soft spots), use a soft spatula and spread a thin layer of chocolate over the entire thing. Sprinkle with half the nuts, pressing down lightly so they adhere. Again, if you are the impatient type, you can let the chocolate harden in a cold spot. The chocolate should be fully dry—no wet spots to the touch. Carefully remove the foil with the candy from the cookie sheet; place the cookie sheet on top of the foil and candy. Gently flip the candy over onto the cookie sheet and peel away the foil. Spread the remaining chocolate on top of the other side of the buttercrunch. Sprinkle with the remaining nuts, pressing down lightly. Let the chocolate harden and set in a cool spot.

When the buttercrunch is dry and hard break it into small pieces. You can keep it in a cool, dry tin or tightly sealed plastic bag for up to two or three weeks.

Serves 6 to 8 (or one if you keep conducting quality control tests - ha).  Once you taste it, it’s hard to stop!