Off to California

Well I leave wednesday morning for 3 weeks in northern and southern California. There may not be any posts for a while.

Agave Quilt

Here's the final background for the agave (pre-fusing). It is now all fused together and ready to layer it with batting and backing. Unfortunately I am leaving for California in a couple days and will be gone for three weeks. I am anxious to get my sewing table put back together so I can quilt this on a flat surface. That will be my project for when I get back.

Woo Hoo!

There's a Place Called Mars won second place in Innovative quilts at the World Quilt show- New England. U.S. Winners & International Entries will tour to: Pennsylvania National Quilt Extravaganza and Pacific International Quilt Festival with a grand finale exhibition at Greater Chicago Quilt Exposition Schaumburg, Illinois November 9-12, 2006
This little Martian lady is going to tour the country.

Nina's new photography blog

I finally convinced my daugher to create a blog of her photography. She is so good. You can see her work here.

Fauna is accepted in IQA World of Beauty

We are all thrilled that our group quilt Fauna passed the jurying process. Here is the label I just finished for it. I am sending it to Texas so it can be stitched on the quilt before it gets sent to Houston at the end of the month.

May birthday party in August

Yesterday Melody Johnson hosted a birthday party for all the girlfriends with May birthdays: Laura, Emily, Anne, Frieda and Tommy. For the party to be in August shows you how busy all these talented gals are.

Here's the group shot. Back row: Emily Parson, Jane Sassaman, Me, Frieda Anderson, Laura Wasilowski and Anne Lullie. Front row Tommy Fitzsimmons and Melody Johnson. You will have to see Melody and Frieda's blogs for the play by play party photos. The food was fabulous, Melodys a great cook wowing us with coconut shrimp with pina colada dipping sauce and Bobbie Flay corn soup followed by juicy grilled pork chops and lots of fresh summer fruit. I made my Zucchini Chocolate cake, frosting design inspired by henna tattoos.

There have been several requests for the recipe so here it is:

Zucchini Chocolate Cake

2 cups flour
2 cups sugar
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp salt
3 cups shredded zucchini
3/4 cup semisweet chocolate baking chips
1 cup salad oil
4 large eggs

In a large bowl, mix flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in zucchini, and chocolate chips. In a small bowl, beat oil and eggs; add to dry mixture and mix well.

Spread batter in an oiled 9 by13 inch baking dish or pan. Bake in a 325° oven until a toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, 50 to 55 minutes.

Metal for quiltlets

A few people have asked what kind of metal I used for the tin quiltelts. I used 36 gauge aluminum tooling foil. You can buy it in rolls from art or craft stores. It is soft enough to use scissors on, but they may get dull pretty fast cutting through metal.

India Bound

The college age daughter of some friends is in Delhi India. She has a blog about her life there, it is wonderful. You really get a sense of what it is like. Check it out India Bound

A Chicken for Laura

Back in May Laura Wasilowski and Frieda Anderson had birthdays and I made them each a tin quiltlet. Laura loves and collects chickens and Frieda loves her dog George, now famous for helping Frieda break her ankle a day before her trip to Australia earlier this year while chasing a squirrel.
Saturday we will be celebrating their birthdays as well as Emily Parson and Anne Lullie's birthdays (also in May) at Melody's house. It is not easy finding a day when they are all in the same place at the same time.

dyed fabric

This is the extent of the latest dyeing. These are all 2 yard pieces. I love this color palette and have a few other ideas besides agave that I might want to do with it. Also I resolved the problem with the background on the other agave piece. I have to dye more fabric to get some pieces that are long enough to use. The peice I dyed for it ended up about 6" too short, hopefully I can reproduce it in the same color value. When I dye fabric it is all mixing and adding water in a very spontaneous way, like mixing paint. I am almost all out of yardage so I am going to have to be a little more careful dying the next few pieces for the background. Time to order a new bolt.

One hot dog

It has been really hot, 99° and humid. You know it's hot when you see a chihuahua pant. I took this yesterday when the kids and I went on a road trip down to a relatives farm and Abby got to run leashless in the field. She was one happy, hot dog.