I'm Back

I am back from my trip to Alaska.  I flew out on May 18th and returned May 28th.  I have a quilting friend, Beth, whose husband is working at Nikiski.  She was going to Alaska to see him so I tagged along.  We flew out of Lake Charles to Houston, picked up a straight-through flight to Anchorage and then a short flight on ERA to Kenai.  It was long, very long.  My stay in Alaska made up for the inconvenience of the plane trip.  I am posting a map which will make it easier for those of you who would like to know the relationship of the places that I will talk about.  I am going to break this down into several posts.  I have too many pictures and too much chatter to do it all in one post. 

Not only did we take in all the beautiful scenery but we visited several quilt shops.  Since Alaska has a very long and cold winter they quilt.  I also noticed that some of the quilt shops have yarn and the supplies to go with it. 

The first quilt shop that we went to was at Homer, AK.  Homer is at the end of the Kenai Peninsula, that is at the end of where you can drive. 

Beth at The Sewciable Quilt - Homer, AK

This is a lovely shop.  I left a few dollars there.  We also found a great great gift shop in Homer.  I told Beth, that she could buy half and I would buy the other half.  They had lovely things.  I would have liked to picked it up and dropped it in Lake Charles.  I did buy a picture frame (restrictions of suitcase space). 

Lands End, Homer, AK

We had lunch at the Lands End.  This again is as far as you can drive.  The scenery here was beyond fabulous.  I will post pictures of it in the next blog.  The food that we had in Alaska was very good.  They serve a lot of it, but it is expensive.  I would say roughly double or close to what it would cost in Lake Charles. 

To be continued.................

Visitors - Quilting - Food - New Orleans

Chris and Sharie

Chris and Don just left.  They came from Idaho to visit.  It was so nice to see them.  We have been friends for many a year.  Their visit wasn't long enough, but they still had another stop to make in Nebraska and then on home to Idaho.  Don is retired and Chris is almost retired but not quite, so thus she must be back to work this coming Monday.  Chris and I made a run to Quilts Bayou in Lake Charles.  She is also a quilter.  I bought some fabric, didn't need it but I bought it.  There is this thing called "want."  That is a quilter's biggest problem, "want."  Chris has an excuse, she is on a road trip.  Road trips always call for buying fabric and lots of it.

Quilt Mania Special Spring 2012

From Quilts Bayou we stopped at the boutique stores on Hodges.  I bought a pair of earrings.  They have green beads.  The green beads are something that I don't have and thought would look loverly with my green clothes.  Chris picked up a few things and then we were on our way to Muggs.  Muggs is a coffee shop attached to Books-a-Million.  We got our drinks and sat and chatted for awhile and then wandered through the book store.  It is hard to go to a book store and not buy a book.  Books-a-million has a million magazines.  I have been looking for a cute chicken either to embroidery or applique on the back and front of a denim shirt.  I bought a magazine.  I spent $19.99 for a magazine.  Would you believe that?  I would never do that, I can love it a lot, but I am not spending $19.99 for a magazine, except this time, it had a chicken I liked.  My quilting group is the Stitch and Cackle Quilt Circle.  We are going on a Shop Hop in August and we are also going to Houston Market come Oct/Nov.  We wanted to have shirts with a chicken or chickens and our stitching group name.  Isn't she cute?????

Don and Sharie

 Last evening Chris, Don and myself went to a restaurant, 121.  They have very good food.  The special last night was Red Snapper on a bed of potatoes, caramelized onions, cherry tomatoes and this wonderful sauce.  We started with wedges of fried cheese with a marinara sauce.  So very good.  The bread was super, the Caesar Salad was wonderful and I was stuffed when I left.  They have outstanding desserts but we decided that we would give ourselves a rest and eat Turtle Pie (from my freezer) when we got home. 

In my last post, I said that I would tell you about the quilting group and my visit to the restaurant in New Orleans.  To be up to speed on this post you might want to read the last post.  At Melissa's suggestion, she is our food person, we decided to do dinner at Tony Angello's in New Orleans.  There is nothing like eating in New Orleans or Louisiana as far as that is concerned.  When we got there, she said, we will not look at the menu, we will tell them to "feed me."  Feed me!!!!!   It was a feed.  This was a 13 course meal.  It took 3 hours to eat it.  No dessert.   This is the list of what we ate..........
Cajun boiled shrimp with a horseradish cream sauce
Fresh sliced mushrooms marinated in vinaigrette with sliced salami
Steamed artichoke drizzled with olive oil and seasoned with salt and fresh cracked black pepper
Panned (pan-fried) filet of flounder
Crab stuffed shrimp
Grilled marinated Portabello mushrooms
Lobster cup
Brisket salad.....................absolutely outstanding
Angel hair with a red crab gravy
(Served with a rustic noodle with butter and scallion the below)
Pork stewed in a red sauce
Rosemary chicken
Eggplant Tina

If you are ever in New Orleans and you want a treat (take money, it's not McDonalds) go to Tony Angello's and tell them "Feed Me."

Hope all is well................

Eyelashes and Slidell/New Orleans Trip

Eyelashes

The eyelash quilt is slowly coming together.  I have made minor changes to the color, have not changed the design (it is a Judy Niemeyer pattern).  You will notice the picture is much better.  I bought a new camera.  It is doing a much better job then my old one.  I have almost all of the pieces made for this quilt.  I have been assembling blocks and the bottom row is put together.  This quilt has partial seams so thus I won't attempt to put the rows together until I have all the blocks finished. 

This past weekend I went with 3 of the gals I sew with to Slidell, LA.  The GSQA was holding a quilt show at the civic center.  We stopped at Mandeville, LA at a super shop.  Lots and lots of batiks.  I really tried to control myself, but it is difficult when you see all the gorgeous colors looking back at you and saying "take me home."  It is almost like looking at a puppy.  My New Year's resolution I think has fallen by the wayside.  It was a good idea in January but so far it has been a "big bust."  I have an upcoming trip to Alaska.  The only thing that will save me is I can only stuff so much into a suitcase. 

At Slidell we stopped at "Louie and the Red Headed Lady" restaurant.  What a super place to eat.  I only wish they were in Moss Bluff.  I would eat there everyday.  I had a catfish poorboy (I know that is not how they spell it).  It was supersized and the catfish was wonderful.  The waitress asked me if I wanted it "dressed."  Dressed????  I always dress........It is a term used in the New Orleans area meaning, lettuce, tomato, pickles and mayo (I think, I have that right).  Dressed, by all means.  As I said, wonderful.  After the show we went on to New Orleans.  I will save that for my next post. 

Hope all is well with you............

Kenai, Alaska

There is not a lot exciting going on in my world except.............

Kenai, Alaska

I have a trip planned to go to Kenai, Alaska next month.  I am excited.  I have always wanted to go to Alaska and thought I would probably never make it. 

I just happen to have a quilting friend whose husband is working in Alaska.  She is planning a trip up there in May.  We are going to go together.  It will be nice actually for both of us since it gives us someone to travel with.  It should be a very good time of the year to go. 

I also have a friend living at Eagle River.  She is going to be in Kenai with her husband and relatives to fish at the same time that we are going to be there.  She is also a quilter.  We should have a great time since I understand that Kenai has a quilt shop with about 19,000 bolts of fabric.  We actually don't plan on spending all of our time at the quilt shop.  Who in their right mind would go to Alaska and not try to get in as much of the scenery as possible.

Remember me saying that I really needed a new camera.  Guess what?????  I ordered one yesterday.  I just could not go to Alaska and not take beautiful pictures.  So thus, maybe my quilt pictures will be better.  I bought a Nikon L810,  not the fanciest camera but I think it will do the job. 

I am still working on my Judy N. quilt.  It is slowly coming together.  Next week, I will post a picture.

Hope all is well on your end.

Quiltmaker, Bow Ties, and Eyelashes

My Easter Dress

Back in about September, I was working on a block (My Easter Dress) for a group quilt.  I sew with a group (8 including myself) of ladies every week.  We meet 1-3 times a week to chatter and to sew.  I put my block on my blog and also on Judy L.'s blog (design wall Monday).  One of the editor's from Quiltmaker was nosing around the blogs and she saw my block.  This is a block from one of Quiltmaker's Block Books.  She contacted me and asked about the details of the block, the quilt, and the group.  If you would like to see the results check out http://www.quiltmaker.com/.   In the middle of the page it says recent blog posts.  Under that click on - My Easter Dress. 



Eyelashes For a Lady

 I am still working on my Judy Niemeyer quilt.  This is a doozy but it is going to be a great quilt with lots of color and movement.  I am using 43 different batiks in it for the center and I don't know how many more in the border.  I wish I could take credit for the design, but I can't.  In the picture it looks like a big mess but it is slowly coming together.  By next week (I hope) it will be well on its way to being finished.  I need to have this to the quilter as close to May 1st as I can do. 

A Bow Tie Affair

This quilt is the last quilt that Larry Abshire (The Quilt Shoppe, Westlake, LA) quilted.  He quilted most of my quilts.  His talents are greatly missed.  Larry moved onto doing a thing that he dearly loves and that is being more involved with the American Legion.  He is the state commander and has a lot of work to do but he gets a lot of satisfaction in helping all the vets across the state.  This quilt I named "A Bow Tie Affair."  When you look at it you see white pinwheels, but if you cross your eyes a little you will see bow ties. 

Got to get busy, that quilt will not finish itself.  Hope all is well on your end.

It is Raining, I am Sewing...........

We had a big thunderstorm go through this morning.  It really blew, and it is still raining.  I just heard thunder.  The weatherman says it is going to go on all afternoon, on and off.  It is a good day to sew.  I debated whether I wanted to eat (like go to the grocery store).  I will go tomorrow.  My cupboard is not totally bare as yet. 

Here is the quilt that I am working on.  I showed a picture in my last blog.  It is slow progress, but I think it is going to be a great quilt.  Judy Niemeyer's quilts (patterns) are always outstanding.  They are not always the easiest patterns to follow for the most part, I do not follow the directions.  The first one (of which I have not finished) was the Bali Wedding Star (pictures are in my blog somewhere).  I have another of her patterns (The Cactus Rose) and have had it for years (like before Hurricane Rita).  I bought it in Galveston, TX.  Quilts by the Bay was not far off the beach.  When I went into the shop they had the Cactus Rose hanging, it was gorgeous.  I bought the pattern, but as I have said before, I put it in the drawer, and have said many times I should make this quilt, well, may be soon.  Quilts by the Bay was one of the shops and many homes that did not make it through Hurricane Rita.  You can find them on line and many times they are at the Houston International Quilt Show.  Check them out on line to see if they are coming to a show near you. 

My kitty tower is in my office.  My kitties like to be near me.  They are pests.  Here Smokey (on top) is harrassing JAC (the cat).  Smokey is full of vim and vigor. 

I went to the "bag sale" at QB on Saturday.  For those of you who don't know what a "bag sale" is....starting Jan. 1 until Mar 1, QB (Quilts Bayou) sold tote bags for a fee and they are to be used on the 5th Saturday of the months that have 5 Saturdays in them.  March 31st was a 5th Saturday month.  Everything in the shop as long as you can get it into the bag is 25% off excluding thread and BOM.  I bought several batik fabrics, sewing machine needles and batting.  I wanted to make the space in my bag count.  The next "bag sale" is in June.  I will probably buy more of the same.  One thing I did buy was a ruler with big numbers.  It is wonderful. 

I need to go wash clothes and get to sewing or I will never get that quilt finished.

Do check into Perri's blog.  She is working on the Market Basket quilt again.  It is going to be super.  Her blog address and also Beth's quilt (she made it too) can be found in my right column.  I plan on finishing my Market Basket quilt soon.  All depends on the Judy Niemeyer above.   My plans are to enter it in the AQS show in Des Moines this year (it has to be accepted first).   That will depend on the date that the picture has to be into AQS.  The quilt has to be completely finished for the picture.  I am sure that I will be pushing this one. 

Hope all is well on your end.........

At Sharie's House

There really is not much going on at Sharie's house.............unless you want to count the road trip the "Quilting Chicks" and I went on this past Saturday.  We went to Kinder, LA, stopped at a quilters house, left off several quilts and then went on to Oberlin, LA where we visited a new shop in town.  I could not pass up the batiks.  I could have bought many more but you know that pocket book thing, and then of course I do have a few in the house.  Look at that kitty cat fabric.  It is so cute, it has shiny "stuff" on it.  I bought that for a friend who could not go on our trip.  She loooves kitty cats.  There is a panel in there.  I bought that because I have a lot of fabric in that line.  I thought I would use the panel on the back of the quilt (when I make it).  The others are just things I wanted and the last piece with all the stripes is gorgeous.  It will make a lovely binding.  I bought enough so I could sprinkle it through a quilt and then bind it to match.  So much fabric, so many ideas and not enough time.  I wish I could do something about all the time I waste sleeping.  I cannot seem to get away from sleeping. 

These "Bottle Brush" bushes are in my back yard.  I have never seen them so loaded with flowers.  All the flowers this year seem to be in abundance.  We have been in summer now for at least a couple of weeks.  It is 72 degrees and it is 8:30 in the morning.  It is lovely weather but it is a sign that we are going to have a loooong hot summer.  Everything is very green.  You can see from the picture my yard needs to be mowed.  I had it mowed on 29 Feb, and I took this picture a couple of days ago, so it is less then three weeks since it was mowed.  Everything is growing like a weed.  I hate the thoughts of summer, I really would like to have a long winter, but I think that is unheard of in the deep south.  Although I have seen winter last a little longer than this one has. 

Tomorrow, we have 100% chance of rain and 90% chance on Wednesday.  Guess what I am going to do....sew????

Hope all is well on your end...........

My Design Wall and Spring

I have been lazy again about blogging.  Where does the time go????

When I open the window in back of my sewing machine this is what I see.  The azalea's are in full bloom.  No matter where you go you see lots of color.  They don't last long but while they are blooming they really are beautiful.  We have had so many grey days this winter and a lot of rain, we needed it (drought)), but we didn't need all the grey days. 

This is what I have on my design wall.  This is a quilt designed by Judy Niemeyer.  I have wanted to make this quilt for years.  I first saw it at Market in Houston probably roughly 4/5 years ago.  The pattern at the time was not available and it was over a year before it was.  I never forgot the quilt, and I bought it as soon as I found that it was available.  It is really a terrific quilt with lots of movement and I love the border.  Typical of me, I brought it home and have looked at it many times saying I should make this quilt and put it back in the drawer.  Five days ago, I started making it.  It is time and I do have the stash (don't have to buy anything to make it except batting) I figure roughly 60 days to get it together.  You say, 60 days, I am slow, slow, slow.  I do a lot of thinking.  See all those strips, I move them around every day.  They are for the border.  Just as I cannot take scraps out of a paper bag and be happy putting them side by side, I cannot be happy doing the same thing with my strips.

It is starting to warm up in the deep south.  I have turned on my air conditioner.  It is humid.  I hope it is not a sign of more to come soon.  This is suppose to be winter, you know cold.

Hope all is well on your end.

Raspberry Tea and Flowers to See

This quilt you have seen before except.........it is different.  I made this quilt with a border of green and brown polka dots.  Sometimes you do stupid things and you know there stupid but you do them anyway.  Well, I made this border, cut the strips, the dots were not straight.  They were straight on part of the strip but not straight on the rest of the strip.  I knew I would not like it, but I didn't want to mess around with it and I did like the polka dots, so I put the border on the quilt, added the outside border, which you see plus the polka dot corner stones.  When I looked at the quilt hanging, I did not like it.  I put it in the amoire.  It stayed there for months. 

I finally decided that I really like this quilt and I needed to do something with it.  I took off the borders (the green and the brown polka dots) and the corner stones.  I found enough fabric of green with brown leaves and etc and decided I liked it.  So a new border was born.  Then I decided I had a red border on it already before the green and I thought a flange border in red would look really good.  So thus, a flange border was added.  Then I thought about the corner stones.  What can I do for corner stones?  I decided to make four more pineapple blocks.  So now we have pineapples in the corners, I put the brown print border back on and I have a top finished and I like it. 

I made a back and it is ready to be quilted.  Hooray!!!!!

I must apologize for the terrible photography.  I really need a new camera, and I guess I am going to have to break down and buy one.  When I do get one, I will post it again.  The colors are great and picture does not do it justice.

I must run, I am off to sew with friends.  I will add to this tonight or tomorrow, so come back and see what is going on at my house.

So Sweet..........

I have been working on this quilt the last few days.  It is SO SWEET.  I am a dog lover so what is sweeter then lots of puppy dogs?



Doggy Quilt

 There is another quilt hanging behind this top.  As some of you know I have two design boards and they always have at least one quilt on them if not more.  The other quilt is peaking through so the last border fabric on this is paws - darling...... Click on the picture to see all the puppy dogs larger. 

The second picture is the back.  I still have several rows to add to it for it to be big enough. 

When I was at the quilt show at Beaumont, TX last week I bought a table.  Isn't this marvelous?  It is perfect and I like the way it folds up in case you wish to store it. 

It is a dreary day in southern Louisiana.  The other day it rained and rained and rained some more  so I guess I should be grateful that it is not raining.  The sky is grey, grey and more grey.  The weatherman says it is suppose to be partially sunny.  I think he lies. 

I have a doggy quilt calling.  Hope all is well on your end.

After the Show.............

Sharie Paulson design - copyright
3rd place in catagory

I think I can take a deep breath.  It has been a whirlwind of activity around here.  The Beaumont, TX quilt show was this past weekend.  It was work, work, work to get my quilts (I entered) done.  I went to the show on Saturday.  It was a great show, not crowded, the quilts were wonderful and the vendors very nice. 

I am on the run today, my guild meeting is tonight.  We have Allen Jones from San Antonio giving our program.  It is going to be on color.  Allen is very talented and what a wonderful person.  He was in our group that went to Paducah last spring for the show. 

Sharie Paulson design - copyright
1st place in catagory

I am going to post my pictures from the show and then must run.  For a better view, click on the pictures.

I will catch up in a couple of days.  Hope all is well on your end.

Sharie Paulson design - copyright
did not place

Show Quilts

I am almost finished with the show quilts.  The show is in Beaumont, TX this weekend.  I have to have them finished and to my friend, Judy by Wednesday.  My time is cut short because I have an appointment with the back dr. on Wednesday morning.  Today, I had to run to town and have an x-ray.  It looks like I will finish with a little time to spare.  Here's hoping.  I will show pictures in my next blog of them hanging. 

All I have done of late is to work on these quilts.  It will be nice to get my life back and maybe do and think of something else (although I do love quilting).

The weather has changed again, rather typical for this time of year.  It is chilly again.  We are back to jackets and sweatshirts.  We had several days that it was in the 70's.  I have trees leafing out and bushes beginning to bloom.  It looks like an early spring and I hope not an early summer.  We have more summer than we need. 

I just burned my pizza.  I am always burning my pizza.  I have a kitchen timer, I don't know why I don't use it.  Maybe I will learn.  I will eat the pizza anyway. 

Hope all is well with you..............

Design Wall and Etc...........

Saturday, past, 6 of my quilting buddies and I hopped into my van and drove to Baton Rouge.  A road trip..... That means shopping and eating.  We stopped at Fabric Crazy.  We had a great time.  They have a lovely shop and I could not resist the batiks.  I bought way more than I thought I was buying.  I did buy several pieces that were three yards or more.  I hate it when I go to make a quilt and find this lovely fabric in my stash but there is not enough of it.  It is a problem since names and manufacturers are not on the edge of the fabric.

Look at this terrific little sign I found in the shop.  I could not resist.  And it is so true.

When we left Fabric Crazy we drove to Lafayette.  We went to The Borne Quilter.  Again more batiks but since I had over done it at Fabric Crazy and kept myself under control and did not buy much.  When we left there we went to Zea's.  Zea's is an outstanding restaurant.  If you like shrimp, they have a dish that is Asian something or other.  It is wonderful.  I am really not much of a shrimp person, but I could eat this everyday. 

From Zea's we drove to Raine.  Raine has a Dairy Queen.  Lake Charles does not.  So although we were all stuffed we had to have a Dairy Queen fix.  I don't know where I put that thing, but it was goooood. 

Copyright - Sharie Paulson

In my previous post is a picture of my last quilt.  This is a picture of the block for the next quilt.  I designed it a couple of weeks ago.  Some of the fabric I am putting in the quilt is fabric that I bought on Saturday.  It is time consuming to make this block but thankfully I only have 35 more to go.  The flower at the top is purple.  The others are going to be yellow, pink, teal and the purple. 

The weather here is gorgeous, 71 degrees.  We have had several days of 70 + degree weather.  I do know that it will not last, but spring comes early.  It would be nice to have a few more weeks of winter.  Once spring arrives summer is not far behind.  And summers are not fun in the deep south. 

Hope all is well on your end.............

Top is Done............

Copyright - Sharie Paulson

I have finally finished this top and the back is nearly finished.  It will be off to the quilter this week.  I have been dragging my feet and of course I am now under a deadline, so it is time to get this done. 

There is nothing going on here that is exciting.  The weather is great today - 72 degrees, the forcasters are predicting rain.  It has been very windy today.

I am still working on organizing my storage for quilting.  I saw some great carts at a friends house.  I am going to do a search on line to see if I can find them.  I would like to have shorter ones than Judy has.  I need one for a closet.  I do not want to remove the shelf that is in there so it needs to fit under that shelf.  The carts have large wheels.  I would like to have one for my sunporch also.  I don't like to have "things" sitting on the floor.  I think they will work out perfectly. 

Hope all is well on your end..............