All Decked Out

Catching Up

Saturday, March 17, 2012 3 Comments »

Well, now that I have my new computer, I realize why I was so frustrated editing pictures for posting on my old one. My old CPU, easily 10 years old, had a whopping 8 meg of RAM, and a 500 meg hard drive -- it was virtually top-of-the-line when I bought it, but could no longer handle the demands I made of it. The new machine is more middle-of-the-road, but has 8 GIG of RAM, and a 1 TB hard drive. Yowzer.

So now I will begin catching up.

First in line is the 3rd Jelly Roll 1600 quilt that I did for Christmas. I gave my neice and my nephew's fiance batik jelly roll quilts for Christmas. By the time I realized that my step-nephew's fiance would be joining us for Christmas as well; I was only able to get the top done for hers. I finally pieced the back & sent it off to my FLLQ (Friendly Local Longarm Quilter).

And here it is! It's made with a Bali Pop, plus some random batik scaps from my scrap bin, and is named Chablis and Merlot in honor of the Rebecca's love of wine.

I gave it to her today at the end of her bridal shower, and she loved it. Now I need to get cracking on their wedding quilt. I'm trying something different this time -- a kaliedescope quilt. Thanks to Sue, at SuBee Sews for giving me the idea. You need to check out some of the kaliedescope quilts she has made.

Leprechauns and Potatoes

Friday, March 16, 2012 2 Comments »

My daughter-in-law, Jamie, makes sure her children remember the Irish heritage from her side of the family. Aren't these Deck-rechauns the cutest? Baby Owen isn't quite sure what to make of it all.

I would not be surprised if some leprechauns make a visit to their house tonight to create a little mischief. Last year they opened the kitchen cabinets, put the cooking pots in the floor, turned the breakfast room chairs upside down, and even left a few "gold coins". Those leprechauns are really tricky!

My family, on the other hand, is Pennsylvania German. I'm going to make some Am-rish Potatoes tomorrow to eat for dessert after our corned beef dinner. What are Am-rish Potatoes, you ask? They are candy Irish Potatoes, but made the way our Pennsylvania Amish make potato candy. Try it with your kids or grandkids -- it's tons of fun, and it's neat to see them turn left-over mashed potatoes into a yummy, sweet treat.

Patti's Am-rish Potatoes

1/4 cup mashed potatoes (made without milk, butter or seasonings)

3 1/2 cups sifted confectioners sugar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup shredded coconut

1 tablespoon butter

Cinnamon

Put potatoes in large bowl. Add sugar, vanilla extract, coconut and butter. Mix well. Knead several minutes, adding more sugar, if necessary, to make a stiff dough. Tear off a teaspoon of dough and form into a small log/potato shapes. Roll in cinnamon. Lay on wax paper for 1 hour to dry. Store in an airtight container.

So........

Monday, March 05, 2012 15 Comments »

How do you know it's time to put down that glass of wine , turn off the sewing machine, fold your tent for the night and go to bed?

Fiesta!

Sunday, February 19, 2012 9 Comments »

My daughter's father-in-law, Aurelio, was born in Mexico. Most of his family lives there, although Aurelio has lived here in Pennsylvania since college. My son-in-law, Paul, and his 2 brothers spent many summers in Guadalajra with Aurelio's brother Antonio; Antonio's 3 children each spent a year with Tio Aurelio and Tia Lori here in the United States going to school. Paul's oldest cousin, Julio, was Best Man in Kate and Paul's wedding 5 years ago.

That's Julio, with his two sisters Carolina and Daniela, at Kate and Paul's rehersal dinner in Puerto Vallarta, June, 2006.

Julio has been the perrenial batchelor, but he finally found a woman who could tame his wild ways. Eleanora is an artist, very independent, and has captured his heart. Their wedding will be held in the historic town of Tlaquepaque, outside of Guadalajara; Kate and Paul will be going to the wedding in March, along with the rest of Paul's family. We are not able to attend, however I wanted to send something very special for Julio and his bride.

Somehow Kaffe Fasset's fabric remind me of a Mexican fiesta, so that Kaffe quilt I've been working on will travel to Mexico along with Kate and Paul as a gift for Julio and his artist bride. I finished the top today, and am thrilled at how it turned out. I'll put the back together tonight so it can go off to the long-armer tomorrow. Believe me, it's going to be very very hard to part with this one!

Fiesta de la Boda Kaffe Fassett fabrics. 82" x 92"

Double Trouble

Friday, February 17, 2012 12 Comments »

I'm having an angry C.O.W.* moment.

Google has decided that we need to add an extra layer of security to the commenting process on our blogs. No more single word verification, with funky words that invite funkier definitions. Now we have this:

Can you read that first word? I can't. Talk about a PIA! My eyes are old, my brain is feeble, and I'll thing twice about leaving a comment if it means having to decipher that hot mess. Bah, humbug and phooey.

Given a choice between putting up with the spam, or making people do that -- especially those of you who do your bloggy reading first thing in the morning or last thing at night -- I choose the former. Sometimes you just need to let your inner C.O.W. out & take a stand.

* C.O.W. Cranky Old Woman (with props to Nancy, for having brought the Cult of the C.O.W. to blogland).

Addendum: Lori, at Humble Quilts suggested just turning off the word verification requirement by doing this:

Go to Dashboard, settings, comments, scroll down this page until you find word verification- fill in the NO bubble. Click "save settings" at the bottom of the page.

Of course this leaves you open to potential spam. You can avoid having spam show up automatically on your blog by turning on comment moderation (same page as shown above). This won't protect you from receiving spam, but it will allow you to dump it before it shows up on your blog page.