Friday, March 28, 2014





                  BACK FROM THE BAYOU-ALL IN ONE PIECE

Hello all! I made it back-a bit later than planned due to a plane delay, but home none the less. It is so hard to say goodbye. It does my heart wonders to spend time with these people!

The first day I had some  yummy Cajun food- 5 Guys Burgers- haha. What can I say- I love a good burger! And I did have the Cajun Fries! After lunch my friends’ hubby and son took me on an awesome little canoe trip on the bayou and onto Lake Ponchartrain.  We saw 2 Osprey, a snake, an otter and 4 gators- the biggest pictured below.  It was a wonderful little trip-it was so quiet and beautiful.

 
The next day was filled with shower prep. The bridal shower was at my friends’ home. We all had a great time getting the house ready. The food was fabulous, the bride was glowing and a good time was had by all.



 
 
 I tried not to get too drunk until the party was over, but I did manage to steal some of Jeff’s Yuenglings’ out of his fridge. Thank you Jeff- they were tasty!!!

 

Of course, I started to get a cold the day before I left. It didn’t get too bad, but sometimes when I get colds,  cold sores appear, and boy did they ever. At least they waited until the day after the shower to get too bad. I felt like a damn leper! When I was in high school I would get them right before a concert- nerves, I guess. And let me tell you it isn’t easy playing the flute with a giant herpes on your mouth!

 

Sunday was a great day of relaxing, followed by a St Patrick’s Day filled with Fuzzy Leprechauns at Pat o’Briens.


 

I had never been there- it was great fun! People watching was the best part! We saw this guy and his friends drinking this. Holy cow-


Then we raced off to dinner at Borgne. Wow- I had my first taste of swordfish and it was amazing!

 

Now I am home and am ready to get some sewing done. I need to start on the wedding quilt and a graduation one, too.

Have a great week!

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

              GOING INTERNATIONAL

Thank you faithful readers!! Our blog is now read not only in the United States, but on six continents and in seventeen countries: Australia (Thanks Sharron!), Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Colombia, France, Germany, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Moldova, Poland, Singapore, Spain, The United Kingdom and Zimbabwe. Quilting, sewing and fun are truly international languages that we all understand!


 
 
Happy Sewing!!!!

Thursday, March 13, 2014



                          My bags are packed and I’m ready to go-

 Well I am off on an adventure.  I am off to see my oldest and dearest friend. Yep- she is pretty old. We grew up across the street from one another in our tiny little town. I cannot remember a time when I did not hang out with her. We ran in different circles in high school. She was very funny and social so she hung out with the jock crowd while I was a band geek and hung out with fellow band people. But we drove to school together every day and still managed to get ourselves into quite a few messes.

Here we are in Brownies. I am at the top in the really cool glasses, and Penelope is in the fashionable aluminum hat.

 
One such adventure relates to a party out in the middle of the nowhere. One of the guys was being a jerk to Penelope. When my car got stuck in the snow later trying to leave the kegger kool aid party some of the guys, jerk included, tried to push us out. I yelled out the window to keep his fricking ( I did not use fricking- I was in high school and had a potty mouth) hands off my car, and then thought- what the hell did I just do? Luckily, my car worked it’s way out of the snow and off we went, without the help of said jerk.

My father used to like to go on Sunday drives. Most times we ended up in Amish country as it was so beautiful. Bless his heart, he even tried to get me a prom date with an Amish kid once-it didn’t work out. Anyway. Sometimes Penelope would go along. This was only in the summer when she could roll the windows down as the chain smoking that was being carried out in the front seat suffocated her.  On one memorable trip, I had my arms out the window. I used to like to grab leaves off of the bushes and trees along the road. Give me a break, everyone. We grew up in a VERY small town-we had to get creative to have fun. Anyway, right after my mother bitched at me to put my hands in the car I grabbed a damn sticker bush. Penelope still laughs about that to this day. I am sure the story will come up again as her sisters and mother will be there for this visit as well.
Penelope had a pool-a pretty large concrete one that sometimes would have water in it during the winter which would of course turn into ice. Then we would put on our very own Donny and Marie ice shows. Thank God there were no videos made of those shows! I could never skate backwards anyway.

Then there was the time we found some kind of cream in the band hall and spread it all over us because we didn’t have any sun tan lotion. (Remember this was before we knew about SPF or cared). Anyway, we ended up FRYING! I think I used 2 gallons of Noxema  that week trying to get rid of the burn.  I had a small spot removed from my arm last year- I bet it had to do with that incident LOL.
One day, after riding our bikes in the 1,000% humidity we decided to rest and sat down by our neighbors’ fence. All of a sudden a swarm of killer bees started coming out the damn poles! (ok, maybe they weren’t killer bees but they were sure scary)They were everywhere, but for some reason they liked her a lot more than they liked me. I am not sweet enough, evidently. We ran/biked home, screaming the whole way. Oh the good times-

We both ended up moving out of state. She has lived in quite a few different states and I came to Colorado. I have managed to see her several times, but not near enough. When we get together it is as if time never stopped. We talk non-stop- just ask our husbands- and we still laugh at the same stupid stuff.
I will find a card that makes me think of her, and pop it in the mail. That very night I will get a long e mail from her. And it has happened more than once. Very weird.

Penelope is a very gifted artist. She paints peoples’ houses using the trompe l’oeil technique. Of course the bitch hasn’t painted my house yet but oh well.  She painted this picture on canvas and then  I quilted it. Our idea was to combine our passions and sell this shit but we don’t have the time right now. I was supposed to send this back to her but once I framed it I just couldn’t.  It now hangs in a very special place where I can see it and think about her every day.


 


Anyway, I am so very lucky to still have Penelope as my friend. Her oldest daughter is having her bridal shower this weekend- hence the trip. I got to hold the Megster when she was just a month old- she was the very first baby I ever held so she holds a very special place in my heart.

Here is to very special friendships- and hoping every one of you has at least one this special.
 

Love,
Courtenay

                      It was a dark and stormy night-
Not really. I just had no good title for this post. Two weekends ago I taught a class at my LCS. The roads were awful on my way in. Thank you to my hubby to driving me! Some of you may have heard about the 100+ car pile-up in Denver. Thank goodness I was north of that and did not know about it until I got home! My 2 students were lovely and totally made the trip worthwhile! One drove a lot further than I did so I am glad I did not cancel the class! They made me laugh the whole 2 hours, and yes they even got some blocks done!
When I got home I decided to get those little bags done that I had all cut out. They came out great-and the pattern was perfect. The one thing I didn’t do that the patterns said to do was be careful when cutting the tape measure so it doesn’t retract back into itself after the cuts were made. Ooops! Now I need to get my darn screwdriver out and tear the tape measure apart. I got the dumbass award of the day for that move!

 
Then I moved on to another table runner. I am using the Quick Curve Ruler by Sew Kind of Wonderful. The pattern for this runner is included in the ruler. I LOVE that!
As I was sewing the parts together Friday night for the white background version it dawned on me that I had a hell of a lot of print pieces left. I cut exactly double the amount of main fabric I needed. Good lord- some days I wonder why I even bother. So- a design opportunity presented itself. Since I had all of those main parts cut I decided to make a 2nd runner using a dark background instead. And since I was going to the quilt shop for class anyway I might as well grab another 2/3 yard of fabric and finish it. I love it when a plan comes together!!!! I really like the dark version-what do you think?




After I got these done, I decided to pull out my Not Jo Morton top I have been working on. I have several friends that love reproductions.  I am more of a bright fabric person in case you all couldn’t tell J.  During one shopping excursion with my repro friends we all spotted this book and fell in love with the cover quilt.

 
I even thought out of the box for once and wondered what it would look like in batiks? So, I bought some background fabric, and maybe a few other pieces – hehe- and got going. I decided to do the center block first- this way it would be done and the only applique left would be little blocks. I also decided since I have 18 gazillion other hand projects going I would machine applique this instead of hand applique. That way it may get done by the time my 23 year old retires. The center block is totally done as well as 3 other blocks.
 I cut out and ironed down 13 more blocks this weekend and now only have 5 more to go! (Thanks to my friend Lexie who needed a project at quilt retreat and drew all of my blocks onto Heat n Bond for me- you ROCK!) I now can see the light at the end of the tunnel! I am even hiding all of my thread tails the proper way- according to Sue Nickels anyway. I was fortunate enough to take a class from her and WOW! Instead of rushing my sewing I am trying to take my time and do things to make my projects look more professional instead of like a kindergarten kid did it. No offense to any kindergartners reading this blog- you kids are amazing!!

 
And that was the way my Sunday ended. I am probably the only person in the USA that did not watch the Oscars- The Walking Dead was on and Darryl was on the Talking Dead so there was no way in hell I was missing that!
Hope you all had an enjoyable weekend as well!
Thanks for reading-
Court