Quilts, Box Cushions, Leek Roundup

Log Cabin. Yum - love the blue & yellow.

Garden Quilt. Cozy flannel-ish backing.

New upholstery on the box cushions for my nephew's window seat.

Now for the (last) Friday Report.  It was a beautiful day, around 13c.  This nice weather won't hold for much longer.  It was time to dig the leeks.

Approximate leek count:  120

Avoid the playful distraction

Arm myself with the steel toed boots.

Chop off the bulk of tops with handy-dandy hedge clippers.  Lee Valley Tools, I heart you.

As a lazy gardener, I will leave the leaves as on-ground compost.  The rabbit-bastard(s) will enjoy the greens after they finish up with my cabbages.

Three hours later.  Thirty leeks have been put aside for Jean & Jane, the rest are in the bag.

Time for a cocktail and hors-d'oeuvres.  Two parts vodka, one part mandarin orange liqueur, generous glug of orange juice.  Two ice cubes.

Can you tell I've been eating alone this week?  Soup bowls and sandwich plates.  This is the new 'stealth' dishwasher.  OMG - so quiet!!!!

OK.  Back to work.  Cut off the roots and the dark green parts.  Slice lengthwise and swish around in a sink full of water.  In my lovely NEW 9" deep sink.  I heart my new sink, too.

Drain,  Chop.  Line cookie sheet(s) with wax paper.  Freeze leek bits on cookie sheets.  The whole house will have a noticeable odour.  Wait 24 hours, then bag the frozen leeks.  I use leftover milk bags because 1) they are free, and 2) they are a nice heavy food-grade plastic.  For you non-Canadians, yes, we get our milk in bags.

The garden is pretty much empty now, except for a huge batch of volunteer cilantro which has sprouted, and some lettuces which are also volunteers.  I may put some cloche hats on the lettuce and see if I can harvest a couple heads later in December.  I have nothing the lose, right?

Wholecloth Finished

Wholecloth finished, more than a week after it was started. This is a preprinted Benartex top.  I'm not sure where my customer bought it, but you can get them from the Stencil Company.

Red backing. Beautiful.

Friday was Red Hat day.  Monica arranged for us to go on the Christmas House Tour which is run by the United Church.  This year the organizers contacted the Quilt Guild and asked for our Christmas quilts to include in their decorating.  How much fun was that?  The church ladies also host a lunch as part of the tour, so to do my bit I ate my way through several (!) chocolate and shortbread treats.  Today I went to Zumba class to wear off one or two of the treats.  Then, because I worked out I allowed myself to a piece of pie after supper.  Note to self:  Double check your math - one exercise class does not make up for TWO meals of overeating.

Coke - and are YOU one of the 99% ?

Seventeen hours in... the halfway mark.

Last night we went to the movies to see Tower Heist. It was a fun movie - with Eddie Murphy and Matthew Broderick. And you know how there are commercials now before the movie starts?  Well, the COKE commercial just made me snort with derision.  It's about saving the Polar Bears.  The focus is on Coke's commitment to donate $2 million over 5 years.  Um, excuse me?  A whole $400,000 per year?  Below is the annual compensation for the CEO of Coke.

from Wikipedia:

Compensation

While CEO of Coca-Cola in 2008, Muhtar Kent's earnings totalled $19,628,585, which included a base salary of $1,100,000, a cash bonus of $4,500,000, stocks granted of $2,999,975, and options granted of $10,280,428.^[3]

In 2010, Muhtar Kent made over $24.8 million, this included a base salary of $1.2 million, annual cash bonus of $6.5 million and other compensation totaling $738,000.

Seriously????  Coke couldn't make a better effort?  Coincidentally, many of the OCCUPY ______ (insert city name) camps are currently being evicted by the city mayors.  Many of the occupiers are there to protest the inordinate amount of wealth being accumulated in a very few number of pants pockets.  If I were a whole lot of years younger I might be joining the protesters.  Although I would need someone to tell me how to live in a tent and poop behind a tree.  As I have posted before, this kind of annual income by ANYONE is obscene.  There is no one person on earth who works so hard that they are entitled to a paycheque of $_extreme_ millions of dollars.  Oy.  I hope I didn't spoil your lunch, which may have been (like mine) leftovers.

If you are curious about the other executives, here is a link to compensation from 2007 to 2009.

Perhaps I should have taken the time away from work this morning to go to Zumba class, to burn off some of this pissed-offed-ness.  

Premarked Wholecloth

I am knee-deep into the job of quilting this premarked wholecloth quilt.  This pic is from a couple days ago - I am about a third of the way through now.  These are sooo pretty when they are complete.  If you have never quilted one before - keep the marked top away from heat (which will set the marks).  When complete, soak in cold water to remove the blue markings.  If the markings will not come out, as has happened to me in the past, go to the hardware store or pharmacy or fabric store - in the fabric dye section you can also purchase a colour remover.  Fill up the washing machine with that, and voila!!  No more blue.

On the home front:  I dug up the canna lilies on Saturday.  This year I am making another feeble attempt at keeping the tubers over the winter.  We'll see how that goes.  Sometimes I think for the amount of work involved in digging and storing, I would rather spend another $25 in the spring for new ones already potted up.  However, I must say that the tubers I dug are HUGE and I now have a ton of them from the original four little pots.  And the other benefit:  my butt muscles have been screaming ever since, so apparently I got a workout.

I am also getting around to finally putting the sealer on the kitchen grout.  The stupid bottle has this weird applicator setup with a rolling wheel, that you are supposed to run over the grout.  It's a kind of drip system where you squeeze the bottle and the goop runs on to the roller, which you are moving over the grout lines.  That may work for a floor, but on a wall?  Not so much.  I had goo running everywhere except where I wanted it.  I finally took the lid off and got a wee piece of sponge to apply the liquid.  Much better.  I'll do a second coat today.  I didn't have time last night - Desperate Housewives was on and I do my darndest not to miss that.  I am so sad the series will be ending this year.  sniff sniff.

Please remember - freedom is not free

Remembrance  Day

He  was getting old and paunchy
And his hair was falling fast,
And  he sat around the Legion,
Telling stories of the past.

Of  a war that he once fought in
And the deeds that he had  done,
In his exploits with his buddies;
They were heroes,  every one.

And tho' sometimes to his neighbours
His tales  became a joke,
All his buddies listened quietly
For they knew  whereof he spoke.

But we'll hear his tales no longer,
For  old Bob has passed away,
And the world's a little poorer
For a  Soldier died today.

He won't be mourned by many,
Just his  children and his wife.
For he lived an ordinary,
Very quiet  sort of life.

He held a job and raised a family,
Going  quietly on his way;
And the world won't note his passing,
Tho'  a Soldier died today.

When politicians leave this  earth,
Their bodies lie in state.
While thousands note their  passing,
And proclaim that they were great.

Papers tell of  their life stories
From the time that they were young.
But the  passing of a Soldier
Goes unnoticed, and unsung.

Is the  greatest contribution
To the welfare of our land,
Someone who  breaks his promise
And cons his fellow man?

Or the  ordinary fellow
Who in times of war and strife,
Goes off to  serve his country
And offers up his life?

The politician’s  stipend
And the style in which he lives,
Are often  disproportionate,
To the service that he gives.

While the  ordinary Soldier,
Who offered up his all,
Is paid off with a  medal
And perhaps a pension - though small.

It is not the  politicians
With their compromise and ploys,
Who won for us  the freedom
That our country now enjoys.

Should you find  yourself in danger,
With your enemies at hand,
Would you  really want some cop-out,
With his ever waffling stand?

Or  would you want a Soldier -
His home, his country, his  kin,
Just a common Soldier,
Who would fight until the  end?

He was just a common Soldier,
And his ranks are  growing thin,
But his presence should remind us
We may need  his like again.

For when countries are in conflict,
We  find the Soldier's part,
Is to clean up all the troubles
That  the politicians start.

If we cannot do him honour
While  he's here to hear the praise,
Then at least let's give him  homage
At the ending of his days.

Perhaps just a simple  headline
In the paper that might say:
"OUR COUNTRY IS IN  MOURNING,
A SOLDIER DIED TODAY."

A visit with the inlaws

We spent the weekend with my inlaws.  I truly love my BIL and SIL and enjoy our (sadly infrequent) visits.  On Saturday we went to the Transportation Museum in Essex (outside of Windsor, On.).  Our day started with breakfast in their 50's styled diner - mmm, bacon & eggs. After wandering through the museum for an hour or two we ended up back in the gift shop.  I am ashamed to call myself a quilter, because I did not even notice these three quilts on the wall.  Well, maybe I noticed them at the same time as my BIL.

They are fabulous.  Click on the pics for a larger photo.  Flo Prince is a quilter from Windsor, On. who made four quilts covering the history of Ford.  All of the cars are appliqued and many are three dimensional.  The little doors open to show teddy bears on the seat, or people inside the cars, or other whimsical details.

I am such a blubber-puss, I started to cry when I read the story of these quilts and I got to the end where it mentioned that Flo was diagnosed with Alzheimers in 2004.

It was the quilting that originally caught my eye - it's all done by hand and struck me as being very contemporary.  When I got closer and looked at the applique, that is when my jaw dropped. 

I sure hope the museum knows what a treasure they have.  If you are ever in the area, don't miss an opportunity to see these.  And the museum was really good, too.  :-)

Fabric at a REAL BARGAIN

Yesterday I posted my stash report, and commented that I bought fabric for $2.50 per yard.  Even with the shipping across the border it still worked out to $4.00 per yard, which is an excellent bargain.  I checked the web site and she still has fabric left (and yarn and books and notions).   Go to Knots & Bolts.  For Canadians, have her ship by U.S. Post, not UPS.

Antique Pinwheels, Halloween, Stash Report

I love antique quilts. Except for a wee bit of wibbly-ness this one quilted up really nicely.

The Binbrook guild meeting was Halloween. A few of us showed TEAM SPIRIT. Or something.? I'm the doper, in case you can't tell.  I had to laugh at how creative I got with stuff I already had in my closet.  And I mean stuff that I normally wear.  I save the black wig for very special occasions.

I can't seem to find a stash report in quite a while, although I am SURE I posted one.  Anyways, here is a several-months update.  Notice how much I added in October?  OMG - at $2.50 per yard I could not say no.  This is all earmarked for quilt backings.

Floyd is out of commission this week.  It seems I burned a flat spot in his motor.  I just happened to have a new motor hanging around (from 2004, if you can believe that!!!).  The new motor is installed, but I need Ricardo to set the timing.  I have a blurry spot in my vision and just cannot do it.  So I will leave that to the expert who is coming after his dentist appointment tomorrow.  That gives me more time to vacuum the house.  Oh, yay.

I've also updated my UFO page.  You can check it out, but there was no progress, outside of pawning off one of my UFOs on someone else.  Heh, heh, heh.