Cheese and Crackers & Table Toppers

If you have been a regular reader of this blog for some time, you will think that I stopped quilting in 2009. There have been many posts about snow and travel. Although there has been plenty of both of those things going on, I have also been doing a bit of quilting. I am going to interrupt the vacation photos with a quilting post.

First, I finished off the FAB Summer Challenge and mailed it off to Pat on January 14, just before we left on vacation. I can't show pictures of the Challenge until after the reveal. Cher has been temporarily slowed down due to a cast on her hand/arm so we have postponed the reveal until she is out of the cast and has a chance to catch up. 2009 has been declared the "Year of the FAB" and in the spirit of the Musketeers it is, "All for one and one for all" when it comes to the FABs. No FAB shall be left behind so we will reveal sometime in the future. I have received my package from Linda and it is safely stored out of sight and out of temptation's way until the reveal date and time.

Couldn't resist taking this picture. Here is the master of all he surveys. This is Joey who insisted in being involved in the taking of pictures today. I did manage to crop him out of most of the pictures, but if you look close, he isn't far away.

This was the first bed size flimsy finish for 2009. Some of the FABs have wanted to make this pattern for a while and they patiently waited for me to return from vacation before starting this quilt. This quilt top was started three weekends ago. Thanks to the encouragement and cheering of the rest of the FABs, this top was finished last night. The quilt pattern is called, Cheese and Crackers and is from Atkinson Designs. Terry Atkinson's directions for this pattern were perfect. I was nervous that I might have to ease in the outer pieced border to the inner solid border. Nope, no easing was necessary, everything fit perfectly. The pressing directions make things go together so easily. If you do exactly as Terry tells you in her pattern, you will not be disappointed in the finished quilt.

This is a picture of the pattern jacket. Terry Atkinson's picture is much better than mine. I tried to take a picture of the quilt top on my bed. Either the bedroom is too small or the quilt is too big. Either way, I can't get the whole quilt in the picture. This quilt top is queen size finishing at approx. 93" x 103".

Next I moved the quilt top to the living room floor. The bright spots are the sun shining in through the windows. I closed the blinds and the sun was still bright enough to play with the light on the quilt.

One of the FABs has taken to calling this quilt Cheese Spread. Another is calling her version Blueberry Spread as she is working in a blue and white pallet.

So I kept taking more pictures, changing the angle a bit each time to see if it made a difference. It doesn't seem to make a difference, the quilt is beautiful, but the pictures are crap. In the words of a famous quilter, IIWII. LOL

My daughter refers to this quilt as the bug-eyed bunny quilt. When you look at the bunnies on the fabric they do have rather odd eyes.

I must have found those bunnies charming because I bought more than one colour-way of that fabric. LOL

I also finished my Valentine table topper. Some of these fabrics were gifted from Pam and some were purchased on my recent vacation. This table topper was not finished in time for Valentine's Day this year; but it is finished in time for Valentine's Day next year!

This is the reverse side.

I just love those ladybugs!.

I am on a roll with table toppers. This is an Easter table topper that is finished to the flimsy stage. This one will be for my table.

These are fabrics for the second one I will make. This one will be for my mother's table.

I Wish I Was Still In Arizona

I have been busy lately going through my vacation photos of my recent trip to Arizona and California. I still have more to share with you, but it takes time to sort through them and then post to Blogger.

The pictures in today's post look like pictures I would have taken in December. Nope, these pictures were taken this afternoon! Here we are back in the middle of the cold, wintry, snowy weather.

I am going to go back to looking through those vacation photos and dreaming of the warm sunny skies that I recently experienced in Arizona.

Vacation - Part 9

The first 8 pictures in this post are pictures of the grounds around our hotel in Mesa. We stayed in Mesa for 7 nights at the Best Western Dobson Ranch Inn. http://www.dobsonranchinn.com/

I couldn't resist going for a walk through the neighbourhood near our hotel. I love the simplicity of the landscaping in some of the yards I saw. If I lived here, I would definitely have one of these Saguaro cacti in my yard!

Citrus trees in back yards were very common.

The history of Mesa dates back at least two thousand years to the arrival of the Hohokam people. The Hohokam, built the original canal system that still exists in the Mesa area today. The canals were the largest and most sophisticated in the prehistoric New World. By A.D.1100 water could be delivered to an area over 110,000 acres, transforming the Sonoran Desert into an agricultural oasis. By A.D.1450, the Hohokam had constructed hundreds of miles of canals.

The expanses of green lawns and numerous golf courses in Arizona's cities require tremendous amounts of water to maintain them. Much of the water that now flows through the many canals that criss-cross the Phoenix metropolitan area today, goes towards urban uses. Canals also carry water to municipal treatment plants for distribution as drinking water. This is a photo of one of the many sections of the present day canals that delivers water to all parts of Mesa and surrounding areas.

Vacation - Part 8

The first 8 pictures show here are the scenery we saw as we headed out of Sedona towards Mesa.

The next stop was Montezuma Castle National Monument. http://www.nps.gov/moca/

It is not a castle and the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II was never here; the castle was abandoned at least a century before he was born. The 20 room, 5-storey structure was built into a recess in a white limestone cliff 100 ft above the floodplain. Montezuma Castle was part of a large extended community of Sinagua Indians who farmed in the area from 1100 AD to 1400 AD. When the Castle was first discovered by early explorers, the ruins were thought to be Aztec in origin, hence the name bestowed upon them.



There is a large grove of trees with white bark along the river bank below the ruins of Montezuma Castle. These trees are Arizona Sycamore.

After walking through the park around Montezuma Castle, we sat and relaxed in the shade. This is my Mom and Dad.

And a picture of my Dad and myself under the Sycamore tree.

As we neared Mesa, the Saguaro cactus started to appear. The Saguaro is everywhere, appearing like weeds on the side of the road.

When we stopped for our afternoon coffee break, I noticed this large Prickly Pear cactus.

The fruit of the Prickly Pear Cactus appears as these red "bulb" like growths on the the flat pads of the cactus. This fruit can be sued to made candies and jelly. The fruit is full of tiny seeds which can be chewed and eaten whole or spit out. The fruit can also be made into ice cream. The fruit is peeled and then mashed. The red seeds are left and not strained out. The mashed fruit and seed mixture is then added to milk to make ice cream - no sugar needs to be added. Later in our trip we had the pleasure of trying some Prickly Pear ice cream.

Our final destination on day 5 was Mesa. Mesa would be home for the next 7 nights.

Vacation - Part 7

After travelling through the Oak Creek Canyon, we emerged at Sedona. Sedona is a city of just over 10,000 people located approximately 120 miles from Phoenix.

Sedona is in the center of Arizona's Red Rock Country and the gorgeous red sandstone mountains/formations are evident no matter where you are in Sedona.

There are lots of sculptures on the main street in Sedona. I loved these colourful pigs.

This horse was lifelike.

The girl in the dress is not real--she is part of the sculpture.

Some of the artwork was wood and not metal. This is my Dad standing next to this wooden carving. (The carving was made from wood, not my Dad! LOL)

When my Mom and I saw the pink Jeeps, we had to take pictures for my daughter who is a Jeep fan.

The Pink Jeeps belong to a tour company. I am sure that the pink Jeeps travelling on the red rocks is quite the sight!