Old-fashioned pig roast! A neighborhood affair!

My friends/neighbors had a grand pig roast for their daughter's wedding shower. It was a big party instead of a shower just for the ladies. They had it at their house on the lawn, and it was picture perfect!

Here is a picture of my son Rob and the father of the bride (Mike) as they started roasting the pig on Saturday morning at 6:30 AM!! Kathy, my friend and neighbor, is in the peach outfit. Of course her daughter, Leah, is the one in the green with the tiara! Robin is the groom's mom. Leah used to babysit my kids!! She was my mother's helper for a number of years as well. Can it be that all of these kids are old enough to be getting married?

The night before the party, we all went to help Mike and Kathy get ready. As we ate dinner together in the tent that night, I said it reminded me of an Amish barnraising. It really was a neighborhood event, which made it even more special.

Getting the arbor ready. Keith and Barbara used this for their kids and are now putting it together for Leah. It had lights and sheer fabric on it later.

Sue lives across the street. We all helped each other raise our kids. Since they all turned out great, I guess it's true that it takes a village! She was taking all of the pictures, so I stole her camera to sneak one of her.

Keith had a good system to get the arbor together.

Of course I am messing with the toys for the kids. This megaphone would be great for school.

Barbara is good at making things look beautiful. She is also very patient!

Adam's parents putting the sides on the tent. It was so pretty at night with the lights on in there. We all sat together and had Chinese food once everything was done.

It was exciting to help get ready for the party! We were all looking forward to spending the next day and evening together. Kathy and Mike spent weeks and weeks getting everything just perfect. It all paid off when Leah saw what they had done for her special day.

Getting ready for Halloween!!

Today was one of those perfect days!! I am off from school for the Jewish holidays, so I got up, did my chores and went to visit my auntie down the road for a few hours. Then I played with the dogs. By afternoon, I was sitting at the sewing machine making this adorable quilt for Halloween. The blocks are all machine-appliqued, which I did this weekend. The middle border is a black and orange polka dot!! I love polka dots! Here is a closer look at the center. You can click on the picture to make it larger. It is so easy and quick to do machine applique. Putting on the borders took most of the afternoon, but I was also making meatloaf and mashed potatoes while I was sewing. The weather today is cool and windy, which made it all the more perfect to work on Halloween projects.

Last night there was a class at Pieceful Quilting where we are making a wall hanging with paper pieced witches and pumpkins. Today I made four of these witches. Cannot wait to get eyes on her and to get the pumpkins done.

Curtains and a quilt that took a long time!!

A few years ago I got this great rooster fabric from The Fabric Mill, which is a store for people who make curtains, do upholstery, etc. It has been sitting in my sewing room waiting for me to do something with it. Last month, there was a class on making these napkins, which are reversible.

Here are the curtains I made to match. The red fabric is from that failed slipcover attempt a while ago. The curtains are easy to make and are lined which makes them nice and sturdy. This is a lovely quilt pattern from the Nickle Quilts book. You take five inch squares and cut them and sew them together to make a variety of different quilt designs. While I love this quilt, it took a long time because you have to do a lot of cutting. Each time you do a little piecing, you have to cut it again to make it perfect. So, it took a long time, but it was perfect when I finally put it all together.

This must have been my summer of green. Almost every quilt that I made had green as the main or coordinating color.

Summer is officially over!! We had to go back to school this past Wednesday for meetings, and room set-up. The students will be in on Tuesday and Wednesday of next week and then we are off again for four days (Jewish holidays). A rather disjointed beginning, but it will be a good year. I look forward to seeing the kids every September, and I am ready to go back. I have not gained weight this summer, and have only ten pounds left to lose!! It is easier during the school year, so I hope to have it gone by Thanksgiving.

Cheater quilts for quilting practice

I have so many unfinished quilt tops in my attic!! The truth is that I am always afraid to ruin them when I think about machine quilting them myself. Although I have done several over the past few years, and they came out pretty well, I still always get myself worked up with just the thought of putting that machine to my quilt tops! So, I got some "cheater" panels a while back and decided to try my hand at different quilting styles on them. They are printed panels, and even though they are beautiful, I had no part in making them, so if I ruin them, it was only about $10.00 instead of like 80-100 or more dollars in fabric, batting, etc. On the side border, I simply followed the lines of the flowers. On the outer border(the green one), I did a double loopy design that is free flowing. I just quilted in the ditch on the corner basket design.

Following the lines on each flower was easy and fun.

I outline-quilted the center picture of the girl and chickens and then I stippled all over. That was fun, but you have to keep moving pretty fast, or it gets too clunky and ugly. It looks like a million little puzzle pieces.

I love the panel and will use it as a wall-hanging somewhere in the house soon. Just need to bind it up now. I have at least 8 more panels to practice on. I have done feathers in the past, but really need to work on that. Maybe on the next one. Kenny got me two DVDs of quilting lessons, so will use them this week.

Shadowbox quilt and a new shelf from a mantle

At Pieceful Quilting in Riverhead, I took a class called Shadowbox Quilt. You use a novelty fabric and make window panes around it. The fabric I used was pictures of houses with quilts on the line.

The boxes in the quilt are all different sizes, which made it like a puzzle when it was time to put together.

I have it hanging in my pantry window now. Once it is quilted, I am going to hang it there since I love walking into the pantry and seeing it there. Our teacher Alice made the project fun and easy. Maybe I will make another one.

About 5 years ago, I saw a shelf that was made from a mantle and I asked Kenny to make me one. It had doorknobs instead of hooks, so I got some nice ones at an antiques store and have had them in a box all this time. I painted it white, then brushed red paint over it and then put that crackle stuff on to make it look old. Kenny HATED it when he saw it and would not put it up for all this time!! He begged me to change the color, but the other day I said, "Ken, it's time to get this old shelf put up in the mudroom." He asked me to paint it again and I said that I liked the red, so he just went along with it finally:) Here it is with the aprons hanging on it and a few farmy things on top. I am really happy with it and Ken probably is too.

With the whole house clean as a whistle, anyone can just pop on in anytime and I won't be embarrassed. Better hurry though, as it won't last long!

Vintage Fourth of July fabric for an apron

The quilting shop I practically live in, Pieceful Quilting, had this great patriotic fabric so I made a reversible apron for my friend, Diane, who is the manager there. She is a great teacher and a good friend, so I love to make aprons for her.

This fabric has little white stars all over it, and looks good as the other side of the patriotic apron. I actually got it done so she could wear it for the Fourth of July!

Evelyn and I on an excellent adventure!!

My daughter graduated from college this year, so we wanted to go on a good trip together. We decided on Washington state since we had never gone there and probably never would have the chance again once she is a full-time something (still working on which direction she wants to take professionally). There was one condition for me and one for her: quilt shops for me and Starbucks for her (plus she made me promise that we would not be in any car for hours at a time!) So we will go to Seattle for a few of the days, and the island of Whidbey for a few. This is a view from our window at the Saratoga Inn on Whidbey Island at Langley. We have to take a ferry boat just to get there!

This is the inn I found for us to stay in for a few days. We will be there for two nights and three days. We will be riding bikes all over and can walk to everything we will possibly need--including the quilt shop!! YAY! A view of the inn from the road we will take to get there!! Right on the water. Mountains in the close distance!

We will arrive at Seattle airport and this hotel is the one we will stay in on the first night. Evelyn can walk to the first Starbucks in the world right from our hotel. I have not booked most of the nights yet since we are not sure where we will want to spend all of our time. The Pacific Ocean is calling us, so we will scout that out once we get there.

Our room at the Doubletree Hotel in Seattle. Looks nice! Of course, we will do the Space Needle and go to a baseball game at the stadium for the Seattle Mariners. We do sporting events every place we visit, so can't miss out this time. This is my last week of school, so the trip is coming up soon. It will be a great way to celebrate a great school year for me and a hard-earned college graduation for Evy. So exciting!!

Can't wait to get started on this adventure!! Then I still have most of the summer to sit home, garden, kayak, sew and read!!