RSC16: March Purple with a Dash of Yellow, My March OMG, and Cake Thoughts

I was really trying to stick with bookkeeping and organizing, but before going to bed I gave in and made my RSC16 block for March.  It's purple with a dash of yellow.  I decided to leave it a little larger than 12.5 inches square this month, just in case.... 

Everyone is doing the RSC16 in a different way.  Some people are very organized and are making multiple blocks that are the same or different pattern each month.  I've followed the blog since the the first year, but this is the first time I'm jumping in...  I'm only using scraps that I have from previous projects or fabric I had cut into strips when I thought that was a good idea. And I'm just making a 12.5 inch square piece of fabric!

Even though I'm trying to stick with bookkeeping this week, I've spent a lot of time reading quilting blogs and downloading the March BOMs and project files for all my dream projects, so of course I knew what the RSC16 color for March was almost as soon as she posted it!

   

For my March OMG I have decide to free motion quilt the project I put together and basted last month.  Cultural Fusion Windmills.  (I will save putting the binding on until I have at least three quilts ready for binding.) 

Here is the quilt as it looks now after the recent spray basting:

Really if it weren't for these online challenges or pushes I think I'd just be reading blogs.  They are really motivating for me!  Click to see what projects folks will be working on!

On Wednesdays I've been having lunch with our son.  

Tomorrow is his 28th birthday. We are supposed to meet to make a cake, have dinner and go to Star Wars this weekend!  

(I'm not sure if that will happen really as today he called to postpone lunch as he is ill with a fever and cough.)

But before that call, I had put together a little stack of cookbooks to bring for him to select a recipe while we had our lunch, plus I found a recipe card my mom had written out for me! 

 She wrote a note that it was Xtra Good, so for sure it's worth a try even though I don't think I remember this cake. Boy, I remember her lemon meringue pie though! She would make it for baby and wedding showers, using a cupcake cake pan for the crusts. She would also make a grasshopper pie (creme de menthe) that was pretty tasty too. I do remember a few times she made meringue drops that were eaten like cookies.  She experimented with adding chocolate chips and strawberries.  That was a fun experiment to eat!

 

• What kind of cake do you have for your birthday? Is it the same every year, or does it change? Do different people in your family have the same cake each year or is it different?  In our family I have burnt almond cake. My husband has newly adopted a Swedish summer strawberry cake with lemon curd for his birthday (it used to be a lemon bundt cake that I would buy with lemon sherbet), and we this year discovered a wonderful corn meal cake that we are now going to continue to make for our Thanksgivings.  Now we need to find a special cake, made only once a year, for our son and DIL's birthdays!
• What recipes do you make that your mother made?  Care to share?
• What are your family rituals?  For example, we have Christmas pajama bags that are filled pretty much every year with new pajamas... 

Grate on the Pier.

In the middle of February we went to the Santa Monica Pier.  I took these photos of designs while there.

Thanks for visiting my blog!

Sidewalk on the way to the Santa Monica Pier.

RSC16: February Brown with Pink Accents

http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/2016/01/
february-color-announcement-and-fabric.html

This month the rainbow scrap challenge colors are brown with pink accents.  

It was easy to find my scraps as they were hanging by color in the closet. 

I'm not sure how long it took me to get these scraps so they were 12.5 inch square, but it's done now!

So Scrappy: Rainbow 2016: http://superscrappy.blogspot.com/p/rsc16.html 
Monthly colors and ideas for blocks designed to end up in one end of year quilt.

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This past weekend, my husband and son made my birthday cake. It's a burnt almond cake.

They start with a cake mix, but make the pastry cream and frosting from scratch.

I think it was the prettiest one yet, and certainly was very tasty too.

We had some friends over for dinner.  It was very nice.



My husband and I have been married for 30 years, however, it's really just recently that have figured out a way to entertain together.

I'm taking advantage of this!

We set up table for the pre-dinner food.

Guests brought flowers and additional wine.

We put the food here and people served self -
buffet style.  DH grilled chicken and vegetables.

Table set with green and blue!
I made the salad that was on this table.

This year the cake had five layers.
But they weren't all alike...

DH and DS got to chatting and missed some of the directions.

So the first cake made that day was extremely flat.  It was
tasty though.  The first layer was nibbled on and gone.

It was like a wonderful sugar cookie.  This one became the
fifth layer in the official cake. (they forgot to add the
water, and to blend the batter for 4 minutes.)  The
other four layers were really two layers cut in half.

A wonderful tradition -
our just-once-a-year-made-by-my-husband-and-son-for-my-birthday
Burnt Almond Cake!

A finish - at least for now. Pajama Bag

Of course it's not just a quilting project.  It's not just 

that this is a pajama bag, it's the whole thing of 

adding a new person to the family and continuing

 the few traditions we have had, and adding new 

ones.  New excuses to spend time with each other 

and get caught up and to learn by listening to 

others. Getting a fresh new start on everything.

This is mainly just in my head as there is rarely 

time to discuss with others, but hopefully things 

will calm down and there will more quality time 

in the future.

This first version of the pajama bag is finished! The project took a lot of thinking and reading. And then there were twists and turns too.

I had thought I'd free hand or paper piece a Christmas tree for the front, and that it would be a quilted and lined bag.

But then I remembered I had a bunch of felt and since the other pajama bags were made of felt thought it would be better to use that.

I had thought I'd use a zipper to close the top, but when I tried to sew it seemed that the felt would pull apart so that attempt was cut off.

In the end, I found some lovely red and green tumblers I had cut a while back, I put them together and quilted the blocks on the felt following tips from Candace at Saltwater Quilts. I followed her suggestions to get the modern quilting on my little bag - click here to see her detail photo of the design. This was a good practice for the larger quilt I have basted already.

I FMQed 'Maria' three times to help it stand out and added a little tree with garland so it was more centered.

Then I added the sweet little charm Heidy at Red Letter Quilts just sent me.

I thought I had snaps as my backup closure, but when I looked closer saw the snaps I had from my mom were corroded so unusable. That is why it's just finished for now. I will either find snaps I can use, or figure out something to close the top a little better. But for now the bag part can be tucked under the top and it works!

Candance and I were emailing about my other tumbler and she said in one of the emails I am sure whatever you decide to do will look great, and that some how freed me to go ahead and get a pajama bag done.

Thank you for your encouragement!

I had started the day by going on a ranger led tour of Mission Trails.  It was a little one mile walk, so interesting to learn about the history and to have plants pointed out to me.

I remembered a bit and shared with my husband when I returned, but I didn't take photos of those things.

There is type packrat that builds these houses made of tree branches and other things.  She collects future food and shiny things and keeps bring these things back, then when the area is full, she builds

another room so she can add more!  She urinates on the stuff and that preserves things.  She lives alone except when she has babies. Two at a time.  They live with her for just a short while then she puts them out so they are on their own and she has the place to herself again..  The males also build these houses but they do not collect things so theirs are smaller.  Some scientists took one of these nests apart and were able to date the rooms and items inside.  They found that some where over a hundred years old!  The rat itself will only live around three years.  After she is dead then one of her children will move in and take over the house.  I'll have to listen again to be sure of the details.

The ranger also pointed out two types of Oak trees.  One had the typical leaves that are shiny of top, sort of cup in and underneath are fuzzy.  The other kind of tree she said was endangered - my ears perked up as I wondered if that was type we have in our backyard. Ours is more bushy since I had it trimmed, definitely isn't as grand looking as the one she pointed to.  I'm going to bring some leaves to double check and see if I can get the tree identified.

It was a lovely way to start the Sunday.


Then I had a special lunch and time with a friend from out of town.  She dropped me off at the Little Italy trolley station and then went to the airport to return her car and leave for home.

After a bit my husband came, then our son and DIL.

We all met downtown to see the San Diego Parade of lights last night.

It was silly to see the boats with their light displays, dancing Santa's and elves shouting out - when I say Merry you say Christmas, or San and Diego.  Silly fun.

Afterwards we walked through Little Italy and picked a restaurant to share a meal together.  We walked to the trolley again and took that to our different stops to get back in our cars.

So the day was a success.

Throwback Thursday: Giving Credit

Welcome to Throwback Thursday
@ A Quarter Inch from the Edge!
On the first Thursday of each month,
we have a visit from
the Ghosts of Quilt Projects Past! 

Yesterday I read a lot of blogs and updated my own as a result.  The links to at least several of the people I had sort of been following seemed out of date, and things just needed a good freshening up.

Shasta wrote to a group we belong to asking what projects we were going to work on in the coming year.  There are even more choices to pick and choose from than the year before, but I made a little list.  It's so difficult to make a list when there are just so many wonderful online and offline projects to consider! and one wants to be flexible and change when life changes too.  Already I can tell, I put too many things on the list.

Shasta posted today about a pretty Christmas tree quilt she had made earlier in the year. I remember seeing it before on her blog.  A fun quilt with patriotic colored trees. Hope your click to see it!

Anyway, in her post she links back to Throwback Thursday and I clicked to see that posting too. Jenn has reminded me to take time to have fun over the holidays, so I thank her for that!

I have decided to take this time to first share somethings from my Mom.  She passed away last year.  So naturally, I've been thinking about her a lot.  She gave this wall hanging to me. I usually hang it on a tree branch and then tack it to the wall during December.  Some years I have kept it up all the year, but it's really special for Christmas time.  She made me many expertly made outfits to wear, but this is the only quilt she gave me.  I believe she only made two quilts.

Please click to see the detail!

Really signed an dated!

 She also gave us lots of these Christmas dishes.

I pulled them out after reading Jenn's post to start using for the month.  It's not as easy as it once was to find replacement pieces now, but I think better to use them, than to keep them boxed away.

There is a special plate for Santa's cookies and different designs on some of the mugs.







I remember when Mom saw these reindeer at Robinson's the year we moved into our current home.  She was so excited, and had me take the elevator up so I could take the escalator down and slowly see the grand Christmas display.

She said she wanted to give them to us to have something to remember her by each Christmas.

Like I would forget her and need reminding.

I was so afraid when she gave them to me though. I imagined our baby would fall and poke his eye out!  I have a photo of the-just-beyond-toddler him somewhere, sitting on the one with horns like it was a pony. We would place the deer by the tree and put a little finger dish full of glitter reindeer food for the one looking toward the ground.




Mom used to put these smaller ones on an end table at Christmas time.

She liked reindeer.

Ever since I can remember, an anticipated present each year from my Mom & Dad was a fresh pair of pajamas tucked away in these bags.

I thought until recently that Mom had made these. But now on closer inspection, I can tell they were purchased.

I carry on the tradition now and almost always get my son and husband a pair of pajamas for Christmas.   (I don't know where the bag with my name is now.)

But now I need to get or make one now for our daughter-in-law! I wonder what she will think of my getting her pajamas for Christmas!

Well, this isn't exactly what Jenn intended I'm sure for Throwback Thursday, but it got me thinking and I thought I would share.  Please go to her site to see her wonderful Christmas tree quilt with fabulous border that reminds me of Christmas lights!

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For the record though, here is my first finished quilt!  It's the farthest back I can throw!

It's not my first quilt top completed, but the first one I finished! I'm sure I had dreams of giving to to my son for Christmas...

Project Started 1992 - finished November 2009

For the rest of the story:
http://quiltquest.blogspot.com/2009/11/my-first-finished-quilt-alexs-nap-quilt.html

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Thanks for sharing this throw back Thursday set of Christmas memories with me.

: )