The New House!!

This is a view from the deck of the new house. You can see that they will be building across the street so some of our view will be blocked but we will still have some.

This Warren and Lisa kite flying on the beach. It was a beautiful afternoon.

I loved all the different colors of houses down here. We have seen baby blue houses next to royal blue and then a deep purple or a lavender or yellow. It is wild!!

This is our beach access which is one block away.

I took this picture at 7 this morning as I looked out to the beach. The sun rose behind the house that you see so I didn't get to see it come up directly. Just had to see a sunrise the first day here!! My family objected to all my noise getting coffee ready first thing!!

Well, I sit here in the living room of my new house looking out the window across the deck to see the ocean! It doesn't hurt that it is a beautiful day with bright sunshine. You can actually see the dolphins bobbing up and down in the surf from here! The view in one direction is the ocean and there is a forever wild park area two blocks back in the other direction. It is a lovely residential area and much closer to the beach than I had thought - 250 steps -- I counted! We will be renting it out during the summer and wanted to know exactly how close it was to the beach access which is one short block away.

So, I am now the proud owner of a house with 3 palm trees and an elevator!! The ceilings are very high so there are two long flights of stairs to reach the living area. The bedrooms are mostly on the second floor (down a flight from the living area). There are bedrooms and bathrooms on every floor though. It was handy to have the elevator to bring up what little furniture and stuff we brought down here.

The NC acquarium is located about three miles down the road and lots of bike paths and water access in a park there. I haven't been down there but Warren and Lisa drove down when they were supposed to be getting lunch!

So far the only thing not working is the fancy oven which is brand new so a technician will be here Tuesday to fix it supposedly. Good thing I had brought along a little toaster oven!

Both Warren and I at separate times managed to lock outselves out on the decks. There is a dead bolt and a locking door knob. Even our front door doesn't have a locking door knob. It never occurred to me that you would be able to open the door to go out and not be able to come back in! Ooops.

A lot of pounding and yelling finally got the attention of my dear husband who thought it was kids banging on the door for Halloween!!! I guess I will never do that again!!

This is the picture of the infamous elevator that now defines me to my blogging friends!

This is a picture of one of the palm trees that sits at the entrance to the house.

This was our first view of the new house right before the realtor arrived to take Warren and I on the tour before we signed the papers.

This was a picture that Lisa took of me on the beach this afternoon. You can see that the weather is beautiful. There were lots of dolphins and pelicans hanging out today!

This picture was actually taken from the deck off the living room of the new house. Just one dorsal fin of many of the dolphins that were swimming by all afternoon!

Cleaning Cupboards for Closing!

Well, we almost have the van packed with all the extras from my various cupboards and sale items from many years ago (like the king-sized sheets for $2 apiece). Every little bit will help defray the cost of furnishing all those bedrooms! We close day after tomorrow and it is getting exciting. Our wonderful realtor got the bank to agree to fix the very minor things (like no electricity in the outlets on one wall) that were wrong even though it was a foreclosure. She has been wonderful. Our mortgage broker (who is also a dear friend) managed to get us a mortgage rate 1% lower than even around here for a first house, much less a second house -- guess we are a good credit risk! So the van is full to overflowing!

I always have to have projects to do on the road and at my daughter's house -- my hands are never, ever still. So I have fussy cut about 350 hexagons so far from my stash and from fabrics given to me by friends. I probably have another 500 that have been rough cut but which will be trimmed up while merrily going down the highway. I am cutting the setting triangles this afternoon so I may even have the beginnings of a top by the time I return and the "I Spy" quilt will be done by the arrival of my first grandchild! When I get back, I am going to cut of half yards of all the other novelties (unless big enough for a quilt back and I like) and get rid of the rest.

Now I never talk about politics and won't start now but to say that it is sad that there is so much horrible negativity from both sides especially in the local elections. I just don't see the point in skewing the truth and taking things totally out of context and around here it is both sides. Politics seems so much like religion in that you get stuck in your beliefs and then frame everything that happens around you in words to support those beliefs. I think it is great that so many people around here are registering with no party affiliation!

Getting Ready for the Close!

This is a constant sight in our house -- Warren's beloved cat, Mickey, begging for a treat which Warren will oblige him with very quickly. He makes his wants known. We have no idea how old Mickey is but we think he is getting on in years. We got him as a stray about a year ago and he fits right in with the other two seniors in this house.


Things seem to be moving at a frenetic pace on the new house and maybe my age is showing these days! Poor Lisa has been doing most of the work at her end as she lives a lot closer to the new house than we do. I have tried to do my share but inevitably it leads back to her having to make the final phone calls because she is physically going to be doing the bill paying. The last few days it seems as though everything I do has something wrong with it like missing digits in account numbers or misreading my own handwriting! I couldn't even get our local paper to cease delivery for a week until the third phone call (first two phone numbers were out of service!) Very annoying.



The good news is that except for the annoyance of losing a couple of days of transferring the money because I had one too few digits in the account number of the receiving bank, everything else seems to be done and we are down to the minute details. There never seems to be a day when there isn't one of those details popping up though.



It will be fun to camp out at the new house (literally as there is no furniture yet) and go to the local kite festival this weekend. I found out that one of the three branches of the North Carolina Aquarium is very closeby as well as a nature preserve -- yippee, lots of pictures and hopefully some nice blue crab at some point as well! The average yearly temp is in the mid-60's so I guess that is why there is a palm tree in the front yard -- NC always seems a bit north for palm trees but with global warming, they may be in Rochester before too long!


Monday evenings are spent learning how to use Photoshop with an awesome local instructor in an adult education class! His wife is a quilter and recommended the class as a good way to learn the software and she was really right! I spent the evening removing people's heads and whole bodies from photos!! What fun!! And I finally learned what a Photoshop layer is -- yehhh

This is one of my daugter Lisa's pictures from Namibia which had a big black shadow on the left hand side which I thought could be improved upon!


We learned how to do cloning and healing tonight and also layers and removing peoples and objects from pictures. Great fun!! I didn't even try too hard and I am sure it could be improved further if I took a little more time with it. Isn't it cool to be able to fix photos though!

I like to use my own photos as well as Lisa's as sources for new quilts. She has been to Africa twice now and would go again without a moment's hesitation. I had the wonderful opportunity to go there close to 40 years ago now -- an experience you never ever forget -- I still occasionally dream about it and going back! Of course we didn't have the wonderful digital cameras back then!

Many M's -- Marcia's and More Marbling

We still have roses in the garden despite the little bit of snow that was flying for a couple of days (nothing sticking). There have been years where we have had roses through December even here in snowy upstate NY.

Well, it has been a hectic nine days where we have gone from house offer to final mortgage commitments -- our mortgage broker said she set a new personal record with a nine day window! Of course my dear daughter and business partner said "nah, nah, nanah, nah" because I had said we could never get done before the end of the month! So next Thursday I head to NC and Friday we close and I get to spend our first night in the new house!!

I have done a bit of marbling the other day using a totally different pallette -- all browns with a little yellow tossed in for good luck. It isn't dark enough to use as background in my new pictoral piece but I like it and it will find a use!! Also the second prints were very pale neutrals which you can never have enough of!!

Just some of the marbled browns I was doing.

This is one of the many hibiscus very happy in their new kitchen jungle where it is a little warmer than outside!

This is the yearly kitchen jungle. Warren constructed a framework using pvc pipe and puts grow lights on top so we have our own little greenhouse in the kitchen.

This is the beginnings of Marcia's "orange" jacket. The top is a mola and the bottom is beautifully pieced stripes.

Yesterday I spent with Marcia and Priscilla and got really charging on the Bird of Paradise piece that I had laid out before the Ruth McDowell class. I used curves in this one and decided I would use some wild Kaffe Fassett fabrics in the background. The original was done using machine applique but I had always wanted to repeat it using piecing. I am liking this one much better so far!!

This was the bird of paradise piece where I was auditioning fabrics. I made several substitutions along the way before deciding that this area looked okay.

By the end of the day, I actually had sewn together all the sections I had put together during the day which was pretty amazing. It is always a surprise how fast this stage goes if you have done all the marking of the pieces.

This is the back of Priscilla's Koos jacket. She has already made it her own by adding some additional embellishment (and didn't we know that was going to happen!) You MUST check her blog for the pictures of her with the tigers!! The link is in my favorite links.

Marbling YET Again.....

Well, it is all quilted now!

After several days of all the excitement of getting the new house with a closing only a couple of weeks away, I am back with my marbling (of course). It is really so much fun to just throw colors down and see what happens. Sometimes you get some wonderful surprises! Today I decided (after finding yet another book in my marbling books stash) that perhaps I was crowding too much color on the size so I backed off a bit. Decided I liked the look of too much color better! The only thing I can emphasize over and over again is make sure you have a lot of difference in values -- just color difference won't do it, especially with the marbling!

I spent the better part of yesterday collecting those novelty prints and have been fussy cutting motifs each night! I did take a brief respite last night to FINALLY finish quilting the pelican. I am moderately pleased but will quilt "background" differently the next time -- more variety of line. It works but it could be improved. Now the next big decision is do I bind or just use facing? I will take it to my committee of two to help me decide tomorrow. I would love to hang the pelican in the new beach house but am afraid it would fly away with a tenant -- maybe just hang it while I am there!

The committee did decide and we all chose to go with a thin black binding which kinds of contains all the blue. I really do regret the way I quilted it as I wish I had used a smoother curve but no way am I going to undo it!

This was a second print taken from one of the leftovers. I got two prints from almost everything today. By the end of the day, I only had about 1/8 of an inch of size left and it didn't even come all the way to the sides. My problem is now that I can no longer find the white large trash bags locally so will have to order some more from the internet. I use these to surround the size in a box that I really like. It makes cleanup easier.

These next two are probably my favorites. I did my usual compressions and then added in some colors that were not very aggressive and then took quick prints.



These are two more of the same and I really like this effect so will do more. I was pretty productive all in all.

This was the first print from the new size and really was just three colors, a few strokes of a broomstraw and then a print. The first prints are never just what I want but this one isn't too bad as it has some nice dark lines.

The ladies called this one a brain MRI. A little different to say the least!

This is just more of the compressed and then speckled with color. I do like the look of these as they almost stand on their own as compositions. This was probably my favorite.

I am a Fabriholic.....

Isn't this the first step to recovery? Although not previously announced on my blog, I will be a first time grandmother (I know, I know my profile says that my children haven't had any children to distract me) and OF COURSE am making a quilt for the new arrival (March). With some luck, it will be done by his or her second or third birthday. What does this have to do with being a fabriholic? Well, I have collected novelty prints since the early 70's when all you could get was poly/cotton. These were all for those baby quilts or children's quilts that I would someday make.

About four years ago I had a MASSIVE garage sale and sold 90 Large boxes of fabric (gave away anything that I didn't sell). I didn't offer up any of this novelty fabric and it has lanquished in its boxes every since, occasionally being added to from current "can't live without" fabrics. Well, TODAY was the day to go through my own stash to find prints for the quilt for my grandchild to be!

Oh my..... I used to buy large quantities of fabrics I really liked -- just in case they stopped manufacturing fabrics, you know.... Well, I must have somewhere between 500 and 1000 novelty prints and lots of it in multiple yards... It really paints a picture of my particular interests as well... I mean, how many people do you know that own three pelican prints (probably close to 15 yards altogether)? Or 200 different kitty prints? Or 30 different fabrics with seashells on it?

Now, I don't know how many of you have ever been to a very BAD website called http://www.thousandsofbolts.com but don't go there as they have wonderful and very cheap quilting cottons. It is a very bad place for us fabriholics to go. I have no connection to them whatsoever except an unfortunate very satisfied customer feeding her addiction. I figure if enough people know about it, they will buy up all the nice fabric and I will save a bundle every year.

Another wonderful place for those addicted to good fabric but cheap prices is http://www.maryjos.com. It has only been recently that they have a web presence but many of you probably have wished you could go to this wonderful store in Gastonia, NC. They are not as cheap as the above store, but they are filled with bargain fabric and a good selection.

Of course there is always Hancocks of Paducah(http://www.hancocks-paducah.com) where occasionally I find some great fabrics at greatly reduced prices (like Kaffe Fassett fabrics). Anyone who has ever been to Paducah knows this fabric store and how much time (and money)you can spend there!

Well, had to state my particular addiction as part of my steps to recovery. Eventually, I will cut quarter yard pieces of most of these novelty fabrics and sell the rest on ebay or at quilt club, keeping only the ones that I cannot live without (my pelicans).

New House, Quilt Club and Class!!

Well, it has finally happened!! Our offer was accepted by the bank and so now my older daughter and I own half a duplex one road from the beach in Kure Beach NC. It is a 2500 square foot, many bedroom, many bath place that we hope to rent out during the high season and enjoy in the off seasons!! There is an owner's closet where I will leave a permanent sewing machine and sew while looking out at the ocean!

Yesterday was the October meeting of the Genesee Valley Quilt Club and as usual the show and tell was wonderful but it was difficult to get good pictures because of the angles. I contributed my excess Dear Jane blocks for the monthly raffle. I included over 180 blocks, the book and the notebook I made up with all the possible color combinations you could make of one block and the rotary cutting instructions!! I know the woman who won and she was very excited and gave me a big hug!! So that was nice!

I also had a garage sale for a dear old friend and new quilter who died in February. I surprised (shocked would be a better word) her husband with a very large check after the sale was over. I came in with probably 12 boxes of stuff and went home with one file box. I priced things to sell and they did!!

I also shared my vintage sewing trade card and cigarette silk collection with the vintage quilt group. I also showed them some of the pamphlets from the 30's dedicated to sewing and fabrics and written by Mary Pickens later known for her associations with Singer. There may be a few more collectors after they saw what I had!!


This is a piece done by Sarah Terry where she used a piece of her marbled fabric. She was in the same class as I was last summer and loves it as much as I do. She (and I am sure you also) can see the flowers in this one!!


This was an exquisite quilt by one of our most talented quilters. It is a surprise for her six year old grandson who loves cars. Toni is so so talented!!


This was a really fun quilt for Halloween which had all sorts of Halloween fabrics as well as the center panel. Just fit with the season. I got to wear my Halloween jacket as well for the meeting. I don't get to wear it that often!!

Today we had a class with Judi Warren Blaydon, a really well known art quilter. Yesterday she did a wonderful slide presentation on some of the quilts that were considered totally avant garde twenty years ago and how far we have come as quilt artists. The class today really emphasized the use of value in creating line, transparency and even sometimes luminosity. The setting was just beautiful and everyone enjoyed the class!

This is Judi with Mary Weiser who we don't get to see too often so it was a pleasure!

This is Judi and Pat Berardi discussing color placement.

These were Pat Pauly's designs which both showed her fabulous use of pattern and color even in the constrained format!

This was the view onto the pond from the shelter where we had the class.


These are examples of the transparency that we were trying to achieve.