Basting Quilt

I am finally back to quilting and it feels so good. I am going to baste a 54 inch Tom and Jane quilt top that I made last year. It's been patiently waiting for me staring at me every time I go into my fabric closet. I thought I had cotton batting but no luck so I will use polyester batting and I will have to piece it because I really hate to cut up a full or twin size batting just for a 54 inch quilt and I can't bring myself to throw good pieces of batting away either so I will piece the batting today. I have done that before and you can't even tell once the quilting is done. I'm quilting this one using a flannel backing and I had to piece that to because the flannel was 42 inches and the top is 52 inches wide. I will try quilting this with no frame since it is small but if it gets too hot I will definitely put it in a frame.

I have been gardening and found some beautiful dwarf dalias for my front yard. My hubby killed a climbing rose I had in the front that was about 13 years old. He put in some bone meal without watering it and now the leafs are all brown. I am so upset about that! I don't get it because I've never known him to kill any plants he's the one with the green thumb.

Remembering My Cat Sonia

Sonia right after we got her as a kitten.

Sonia a grown up lady.

This morning while browsing through blogs I came upon Sweetbait and she posted about her beautiful Calico kitty. It brought tears to my eyes as it reminded me of my beloved cat Sonia. I had Sonia for 10 years before having to put her to sleep. I loved that cat so much. She was such a good and loyal kitty. She use to follow me around the house and sit next to me when I sewed, she never got on the furniture not the table and she use to wait with my son at the bus stop until the bus picked him up. When we would let her go outside she never wondered off either. She was the cat everyone dreams of having. I miss her to this day and she’s been gone9 years. No matter how happy my Chi’s make me I still miss my Sonia. Off I go to buy some fabric at our new Super Joann’s. It’s my first time to the new store.

Houston,I Love It

I have been cleaning my sewing room and organizing before I start cutting backings for my quilt tops but decided to take a break. I was downloading some pictures to Windows live gallery and found these still in my camera. I still had 100 pictures in the camera. These are pictures of Houston. I took them when we were leaving and coming to town from Arizona. The big Beehive and Lady’s head was taken while we were just driving around town. I love this city because the people are very nice and polite, my son found that out when he moved to New York,LOL. The city has the best cancer hospitals anywhere, you can always find what you’re looking for. It has lot’s and lot’s of really good bookstores and the city is spread out it’s not just concentrated in one spot. The pictures above only show you a small part of Houston. There is a lot of land in Texas so that’s probably why.The highways are big and have exits that easily get you off the express way. There are many great museums that often have good exhibits.A great zoo which we visited almost every weekend when my kids were young. There are big sports arenas and of course the really big yearly quilt festival. Many multi cultural festivals through out the year and a great 4th of July fireworks display. We have the Johnson Space Center and the Space Center where one of my son’s worked at for a long time. Another things is that Houston usually gets lot’s of rain so it’s always green so when you’re in a plane and you look out the window when you coming into Houston you can see how green it looks everywhere. If you ever come to Houston look up Lucia’s Garden, it’s a small business in a cottage style house that has candles, fairy’s,books,herbs,music cd’s, soaps, jewelry,plants, incense ect… You won’t be disappointed I promise. You must be thinking there has to be something I don’t like about Houston and yes there is. It’s hot and humid in summer which curly headed people like me don’t like and the mosquitoes can be bad if we’ve had lot’s rain for a couple of days. I hate the clay soil which makes it very had to dig and you must add peat moss and compost to the soil to help make it more workable. I do a lot of gardening and that can be in a pain in the shoulders and rear.You need a strong back and tools to garden in Houston. That’s it.

Cake In A Mug

I tried a recipe for a cake in a mug and it was a big hit with my husband and son. I tried adding banana pudding on the right one and as you can see it looks pretty bad actually it looked a lot worst than what it tasted like. It was really pretty good. That was suppose to be for my son but I didn’t have the heart to give it to him and I just made him another one which is in the top picture. My husband ate all of his and my son is saving his for tomorrow. It was too chocolaty for me so I just tasted. I love the fact that I don’t have to make a whole cake so everyone eats less and it’s done in five minutes. What more could you want right. I’ll have to try and make different flavors. I added pecans to my husbands and chocolate chips to my son’s. I was thinking adding ice cream or bananas would also be great. If I’m going to just have it once in a while I might as well go all the way.LOL! Here’s the recipe.

4 tablespoons flour (I added 5)

3 or 4 tablespoon it depends on how sweet you want it

2 tablespoon cocoa

1/8 baking powder

1 egg ( I used egg substitute 1/4 cup)

3 tablespoons milk

3 tablespoons oil (I used 2 1/2)

chocolate chips

small splash vanilla

1 large mug

Put dry ingredients in mug and mix. Add egg, vanilla and oil and mix well. Add chocolate chips and mix again. Place in microwave (1000 watts) and cook for 3 to 5 minutes. Keep an eye on it it will rise over the top of the mug so don’t be alarmed. Let it cook for a couple of minutes so it can pop out when you place the mug upside down onto a plate or you can eat it out of the mug like we did.

Curtains On Their Way To New York

I am finally done with the altering of the curtains for my son's apartment. It took me three days to measure, cut and add fabric to the curtains but it took me three months to actually get started. I just wasn't motivated for some reason well I do know what it was. It's this darn computer I'm so addicted to. LOL! I also sent him some Ritz crackers, teddy graham cookies which he has liked since he was little and some books. Oh, and some Ranch Style Beans which he says he can't find in Jersey City. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders now that I sent off the box. He bought the curtains during his Christmas vacation to Texas at Linens & Things while everything was 70% off. He got great looking guy curtains at a great deal but three were too small and two were very long so I said "No problem I'll just take from the very long ones and add to the short ones." I was able to match the fabric pattern with no problem and you can't tell unless you look at them up close. He customized a curtain rod for the weird shaped window in his living room so hopefully it'll turn out o.k. Now I'm motivated to get back to my quilting and painting. I have many quilt tops waiting to be made into quilts, canvases waiting to be painted and beads waiting to be made into jewelry.

Bunny Love

Just take a look at this bunny isn't he the cutest. He reminds me of a bunny my brother found in a field and brought it home to me when I was three.He was 16 at the time and he use to help a farmer with his crops. As soon as he put the bunny on the floor I fell in love with it. We had the bunny for a long time until it died. I found this bunny at Petsmart of all places. It's a toy for big dogs of all things. I grabbed it as soon as I saw it and as soon as my Chi's saw it they wanted it but this one's for me. I was touching it and stroking it's super soft fur while i was reading last night. It looks real from a distance and I fooled my 21 year old son when I told him I had found a bunny near a field. He also had to hold it as soon as he saw it. I can't imagine someone giving this to a dog for a toy it's just to cute. Had to share.

Kreative Blogger Award

I am so happy and honored to have gotten a Kreative Blogger Award from Diane at http://dianesmixedart.blogspot.com/. Thank you very much for the award Diane. I am to list seven things I love or inspire me.

1. Nature

2. Babies

3. My Pets

4. Bold colors

5. Music

6. Old buildings from the 1800's

7. Traveling

I will now like to pass on this award to

http://glorv1.blogspot.com/

http://aquiltisnice.blogspot.com/ http://www.passionatequilter.blogspot.com/

http://scrappyhappystarfishy.blogspot.com/ http://morahquilts.blogspot.com/ http://bingobonnie.blogspot.com/

http://quiltnutcreations.blogspot.com/

I think the above blogs are great and full of great info. Keep up the good work blog owners.

Plant Shopping

Beautiful oriental statue. I just love it.

Very expensive very beautiful fountains.

Shrimp plant, kind of funky looking plant.

Herb section of nursery.

Spring shipments of annuals and perennials.

Me looking at roses.

Saturday I went plant shopping at the biggest Nursery I've ever been to. Maas Nursery is about 4 miles from my house and I just love going there during spring and summer if not to buy then just to see what's new. All of the roses I have I have bought at that place and I haven't lost a single one yet. I go every spring to buy new herb plants and plant food. They had a very big loss due to the hurricane but they are beginning to have shipments come in for the spring. Our weather has been beautiful the past couple of days so I thought I'd take advantage of it and start shopping for plants. I have to plant some rose cuttings that are big enough to put in the ground. Can you believe that from about 30 cuttings only 3 survived. I always accidentally pull out herbs in the beginning of spring when I'm pulling weeds. I go crazy pulling weeds and over look the baby herbs that look like weeds. My husband always gets after me for that. In a couple of weeks my there will be the most beautiful sweet and spicy scents of roses, jasmine, trumpet flowers and herbs. I tend to buy old fashion roses and David Austen roses are my favorite. Luckily my husband has a very green thumb which I envy. He plants every plant I buy and I trim and feed them. My husband loves plants he reminds me so much of his dad. My father in law is 94 years old and he still waters his gardens. Last year he was trying to climb an orange tree and fell. Thank goodness nothing happened to him. I wonder if that's what I should expect from my hubby. LOL.