Trying Not to Whine

Pollen. Springtime in Atlanta is magically beautiful. It is my favorite time of year. Pollen in Atlanta is brutal. I've completed the entire allergy/allergist routine for years and years. I'm faithful with medications and indoor environmental controls. This year the pollen just seems to be taking it's toll. Add to the mix that we have four weeks of school left. State testing has been the last two weeks. It's all been draining. Ok. That's out of my system. I have faithfully read blogs this week, but haven't felt up to posting a comment or creating a new post.

This week has been the week of birthdays. Last Saturday, we had our crawfish boil with our dear friends and neighbors, Kathy and George. Kathy is from New Orleans. George is from Meridian. Monday, was my husband's actual birthday. We ordered Chinese and had a semi-party.  Wednesday was our oldest son's birthday. We all went out to eat at a  Mexican restaurant. Thursday was the Spring Band Concert for our youngest son. Saturday was the Spring carnival for my school. My son and I volunteered for a time to help our PTA group. These are the ladies that help me at book fair time. 

Michael, my youngest son, is back from New York City. The high school band takes a trip every two years. They don't bring instruments. It is just a tour/fun trip. He had a blast. The highlight of the trip for him was a visit to the Nintendo World shop. Video games especially all things Nintendo are his passion. He purchased a T-shirt that he proudly wore to school on Monday.  We all have our obsessions. Michael's is videogames. My husband's is cooking/grilling. He owns six bar-b-que pits. Jason, our oldest son, loves music especially gus guitar and music by The Beatles. Of course, my obsession is quilting/fabric/sewing machines. 

The end of the month is closing in on me. I set a goal to finish one quilt a month. I have been working on two projects. Step 2 of Orange Crush and my Christmas Toile quilt. I'm pushing ahead to finish the top for Christmas Toile. I'm sewing the rows together. I've been working on it off and on since November. This will be a big finish. It used quite a bit of fabric. I pinned all the rows last night. I'm hoping to get the top assembled today. It's another busy week with lots of end-of-year activities. Here's hoping I meet my goal.

Have a wonderful, relaxing Sunday!

Rusty, the Dachshund Meets Clovis

Yesterday, we celebrated my husband's birthday which is actually on Monday with a crawfish boil. Both Marion and I grew up in South Louisiana (Cajun country). Springtime especially 

Easter or Mother's Day  was crawfish (pronounced craw fish not crayfish) time. We'd buy crawfish by the sack. I can remember Dad buying 75 pounds and boiling them for our family. Here in the Atlanta area we are fortunate to have a seafood market that makes weekly runs to Louisiana for fresh seafood. Marion called "Boudreaux" earlier in the week and reserved a forty pounnd sack of live crawfish. 

 

Crawfish are boiled outdoors.  We  have a special pot and burner to boil them. Red peper, salt, onions, corn, potatoes are all boiled at the same time.

 Rusty, our minature dachshund loved the smell. We had to keep him indoors so that he didn't get too close to the gas burner. We served the crawfish in aluminum pans. Here they are cooling a bit so that we could eat them.

Rusty actually took one out of the pan and tried to eat it hard shell and all. 

Who may you ask is Clovis? Clovis was the star and main character in a series of books written by Mary Alice Fonenot. The first book was printed in 1961. Here is the Wikopedia entry on Clovis the Crawfish:

Clovis Crawfish is the lead character in a series of nineteen children's books written by Mary Alice Fontenot published between 1961 and 2004.

"Clovis Crawfish and His Friends" by Mary Alice Fontenot, illustrated by Keith Graves, Pelican Press, 1961

Clovis is a crawfish who lives in the bayous of Louisiana who speaks in English with occasional Cajun words or phrases. Several volumes have also been published in French editions, usually translated by Fontenot's daughter, Julie Fontenot Landry.

The Clovis Crawfish books are beloved by generations of Louisiana children and have a following throughout the world as well.

In the Wrong Direction?

Judy L. has a place on her blog for weekly stash busting updates (using stash versus adding to stash). This past week she asked readers what their goal was in stashbusting. My goal is to complete  the quilt tops that I have already started. I have fabric in plastic bins or bags with the pattern and everything needed to complete the quilt. I even have backings for some of them. Most are  abandoned U.F.O's. My goal is to complete at least one a month. That would give me 12 completed quilts in a year. This year I have already completed  five quilt tops. I don't have any problems once the top is pieced. I have it quilted and add binding without it sitting for too long. At some point, I'd love to do my own quilting, but I would need lots more time to practice machine quilting. Something to look forward to when I retire. My goal then is to complete more of the actual quilt tops.

Last week while on Spring Break, I visited two different quilt shops. I purchased the fabric that I needed for a graduation rag quilt. I needed more flannel in bugundy and kaiki. Here are the pieces that I found at Tiny Stitches in Marietta.   That's 5 yards added. That was fabric needed to complete a project.

I also made a road trip to Sweet Home in Conyers. I found a neutral piece on sale. I added to my red, white and blue stash for a future patriotic quilt. I have a pattern selected, but have not cut this quilt out - at least not yet :)

That's another 5 yards. 

Added: 10 yards

Used:  1 yard

As I said, headed in the wrong direction, but gosh side trips can be fun too :)

What's On Your Design Wall?

Here is what's on my design wall:

I've begun putting the blocks for my Christmas Toile quilt on the design wall. I am so glad that I have a place to put quilt tops up to examine. This top has two directional fabrics. On the border pieces, I'll need to "reverse stitch" some of the sections to make the trees go in the right direction. It's not a big deal. I'll take my time getting the blocks right. It's not like I need my Christmas quilt in the next week. This quilt is for our bed. I lusted after it for months. By the time I decided to purchase a kit,I missedd buying fabric because the shop sold out of the line. Finally, located yardage on missingfabrics.com. I've been lucky locating fabric two different times on missingfabrics.com

The following quilts were on my design wall at some time recently. 

They are taking a trip/vacation to P.J.'s to be machine quilted. I've had to stash some cash so that I will be able to bring them home from their excursion. That's Sunshine/Crossed Paths with backing, Floragraphix with dragonfly backing, and Spinning Stars out of Wuthering Heights by Moda.