Monday, November 30, 2015

Thankful for Allietare

Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving!  Even though I was visiting family over the holiday week, I was anxiously awaiting Clue 1 of Bonnie Hunter's Allietare mystery quilt. And Bonnie came through once again with lots of pieces, starting off with hundreds to make in the first clue. I had planned to make only half of the parts then decide after the reveal if I wanted to complete the full size. But I started cutting and cutting, and pretty soon had all the parts ready to sew. I sewed half yesterday and will finish the rest this week. Allietare!

During our visit with family in the midwest (a mere 22-hour drive away), we went to a wine-tasting event. The new winery owner, an energetic local attorney named Mary, gave a personal tour of her tasting room and event center. She had lined the walls with wood slats reclaimed from lots of old barns in the area. Many of the furnishings were collected from old buildings and hotels around the state. The vintage they served had lots of promise. Once they are licensed to actually sell their wine, I will have to visit again and buy some.



The guys were more interested in the vintage Chevy truck. Go figure....


Monday, November 16, 2015

Sewing and Sari

Did you know Veteran's Day (November 11) was also the festival of Diwali celebrated in India?  My office has a lot of contractors from India, so we celebrated with a buffet of tasty Indian dishes. Several of the contractors gave a presentation about the festival and traditions. Diwali essentially is like Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into a multi-day festival.  Many of the ladies wore a beautiful sari.  I wore a decorative teal-colored dress bought in Tunisia, the most exotic outfit in my closet. It was much simpler than a sari but the ladies were gracious and appreciative of my attempt to dress up for the occasion. Here is a sample of one of the lovely outfits:

Unfortunately, the project I was working on has been put on hold, so now I am interviewing for my next position. Hopefully it will be within the same company. It's a bit nerve-wracking right now.

At least I have been accomplishing quite a bit in my sewing. I finished a few more blocks for Orange Crush, another set of hamburger potholders, the backing for Mother Earth (16-patch and pinwheels)














a new lunch bag












and a special cardinal potholder for my mother-in-law who loves those birds.












I also checked my stash to be sure I am ready for next week's Allietare clue.


In the meantime, I'm trying to exercise more for fitness and stress relief. Fitness, right.  Okay, for weight loss. Ugh. I'm at my highest weight ever and have finally figured out that I cannot eat myself thinner....I have to exercise.  When daylight savings time kicked in, suddenly it was too dark to take long walks in the evening. Oh, who am I kidding? I stopped those long walks two months before the time change. Okay, maybe posting a selfie on the fridge might bring the motivation. I miss that Barbie bod of mine. It's scary how easy it is to add those inches!

Monday, November 2, 2015

Orange flowers and Allietare

In the early morn while my mind was free-flowing and not quite awake, I had an epiphany about my Orange Crush quilt mentioned in my previous post.  Rather than all those green squares, let's make the orange into a flower rather than a plus sign. After finally waking up and starting my day, I sewed a few sample blocks.

BEFORE













AFTER













Definitely better!  I got excited again and made even more:




















This weekend Bonnie Hunter announced the colors of her new mystery quilt Allietare.  I should have just enough of the colors in my stash to make a 1/2 size quilt. After the big reveal I can decide to go shopping or just finish up.  In the meantime, gotta finish some gifts in between working on Orange Crush!

On a higher note, 90 Bravo is out of the maintenance shop and flying again!!! My hubby and flew down the Chesapeake to have lunch at a local airport diner. It was a beautiful fall day, cool and bright with fall foliage. This is a picture I borrowed but cannot seem to find the photographer to give proper credit. This looks like one of the roads near my house.