Grabbing Some Vitamin D and Z!

Guess where I went yesterday?  LOVE the Detroit Zoological Gardens, and it's only a mile from my house! My sister and I spent about four hours walking around the park, and all the animals were out!  The weather was a little brisk but the sun was out!

I'm really looking forward to the Zoo in Spring!

Happy Int'l Quilting Day!

I'm spending the day working on butterflies!!!

Happy Birthday Adventure!

A week ago today was my 44th birthday.  And, as tradition would have it, my sister and I spent the day exploring parts of Michigan, laughing and snapping pictures.

I thought I'd share the wonderful adventure she executed.  It was fabulous!  I had the hardest time narrowing down the pictures to share with you.

Hamtramck Disneyland

Hamtramck Disneyland

Heidelberg Project - is this the house that burned down days later?

Heidelberg Project - the Birthday House.  Fitting, isn't it?

I love the Dog House

Then we headed North.  Lunch at Max & Erma's near Oakland University and then onto the house tour at Meadowbrook.

Then off to Meadowbrook for the house tour!

Meadowbrook - fabulous house and fascinating history

VERY bright (and cold) day - hard to take good pictures

Built 1927

Lorna crossing the bridge to Meadowbrook

Pegasus in the Meadowbrook Garden

After Meadowbrook, we cruised North down very snowy roads. It's "horse country" past Oxford, into Metamora, and on to LaPeer.  In addition, as we rounded the corner we came across a group of wild turkeys!

Dancing in LaPeer

LaPeer - one of 10 oldest continually run courthouses

This is a Virtual cache in LaPeer

Our final stop was Frankenmuth. Lovely at night, streets lined with snow.  Being so cold and a little late, there were only four other parties in the main dining room at Zehnder's.  We need to bring the family back in the Spring.

My fabulous sister, Lorna

Not the best picture but we were tired, hungry, and very happy.

Little Sister is always stealing from my plate!

It was a glorious day.  We decided, in addition to our birthdays (in cold November and March) that this year we'd take an adventure on our Un-birthdays (July 12th) and enjoy an adventure in the warmth!  Grand Rapids this year!

Simplifying Solid Bindings

I loved that last Memorial Quilt - I had a really hard time handing it over.  I'm particularly pleased with the way the binding really framed the quilt.  That binding, however, was a pain in the heinie.  It was a solid fabric - same color on both sides.

What's the big deal?  You don't want to join your strips together and, while pressing, discover that you have some seams facing up and some down.  When you sew together 200+ inches, you don't want to sew "right" sides together and, 40 inches later, "wrong" sides together.

So here's my little trick. Since you can't tell which side is the "wrong" side, I marked them!  No big deal as any markings on the ends will be trimmed away. It's not a very good picture, but I've laid 8 strips atop each other and marked them.  Then I rotated the pile and marked the other ends, too.

When you grab two strips to sew together, you just make sure the markings are on the same side.

I wish the pictures were a little clearer.

Happy Stitching!

Elisa

Spinning Oxfords

Here it is! The memorial quilt for a friend's Mom. She passed away this last summer, and she loved her Oxford shirts! The entire front, including the sashing (but not the binding), was made from her crisp, starched shirts!

I hope it doesn't appear washed out with the snow behind it, but, up close, it looks like a summer picnic quilt. And it's the perfect drape - the heavy seams just melt into the Quilter's Dream Puff batting.

This is my favorite one yet and will be VERY hard to give away.

Big Reveal, Lauri!

... But it was a windy day, and Steve got confused...