Pink

The color pink gives me the shivers - like fingernails on a chalkboard.  I was never one of those little girls who wanted a pink room or pink sparkly dress-up shoes or pink princess outfits.  Pink and I just don't get along.  So, it was really a challenge for me to pick out pink fabric for some find-a-cure blocks, but they were for a good cause.  I made them while I was visiting the folks in Houston.

 Checkerpins

Bird of Paradise
 

 Bird of Paradise
 

Children Take Wing
 

I made them all on this retro machine, a Singer 1411.  The only things I truly missed from my Pfaff were my "needle down" feature and my quarter-inch quilter's foot.

Dad's Eccentricities

My step mom told me about it, but I didn't believe it until I saw it the next morning.  I really wasn't THAT surprised.  It seemed like something dad would do.  His many eccentricities just make me laugh.

He carefully places raspberries, open end up, on top of his cereal.

Then he pours honey into each raspberry.  At this point, we had a conversation that went something like this:

Me:   You sure have to have a lot of patience for that.

Dad:  Good things come to those who wait.

Me:   What happens if you miss?

Dad:  I don't miss.

Here they are, honey-filled raspberries.  I think dad should trademark this before Kellogg's catches wind of it.  He could call them Clifberries.

This reminded dad of something that happened many years ago.  He was taking baby gerkins out of the pickle hotel - I call it a pickle elevator.

(source)

As he took each one out, he would bite the end of it off and stand it on end next to the others already standing in formation on the counter like little green soldiers.  After he had a nice little troop of them, he would eat them.  My brother was watching him and said, "You'd drive a psychiatrist crazy."

This may seem unrelated to handicrafty sisters, but it's totally related.  It has to be...somehow.  What do you think?

International Quilt Festival Houston

How convenient that my dad and step mom live in Houston.  I wanted to visit them and planned my visit while the International Quilt Festival was happening.  Here are some pictures of a few of the bazillion amazing quilts we saw that day.  We gawked and walked until we dropped!

Here's one of the first things we saw.  I think this would be a very fun ottoman.  The pen on the table gives some perspective on the size of this burger.  There was also a "tomato" but it's hidden in this view.

Here's a fun Texas-themed quilt.

This was an awesome fabric village.  This picture doesn't do it justice.

Here's a cool mosaic technique that was on the border of a quilt.  I've got to try this some day.

I've been following PaMdora for awhile and was so excited to turn the corner and run into Tango with a Technopus after seeing it online so many times.  Wild, right?  I love her bright colors and the way she outlines everything in black.  All her quilts are like big cartoons.

These artichokes blew me away!  This is fabric and thread people! Can you believe this!?  There might have been a bit of painting involved too.  I got excited when I saw that it was for sale.  However, I could buy a cheapo long arm sewing machine for the $9000 plus that it was selling for.  Sheesh!

I love the motion in the sky in this one.  I think this artist used the same technique as the mosaic above.

 

Here's a close up of the sky (wrong orientation - oops).  I'm guessing the quilter used double-sided fusible web to hold all of the little pieces in place.  Then it looks like she put tulle over the pieces before machine quilting them.  I'm guessing that helps to keep the corners and edges down.

Here's a 3D bird's-eye view of Central Park.  The buildings are a crack up.  I think they're fabric-covered foam pieces.  Too funny!

I took this picture for hubby.  It's a fractal quilt and he's obsessed with fractals.  He's a math geek, or should I say guru.

Here's another one that blew me away.  Again, this is fabric and thread people!  This is called Sakura Sakura by Hiroko Miyama.

This is the hand of A Very Stingy Tooth Fairy.  I loved all of the embellishments, but was kind of grossed out by the real molar in her hand.  Eeewww!  Of course, I still have a little box with my eight teeth that got pulled out all at once.  Double eewww!

This one is just fun.  It's called Journeys end in lovers meeting by Bodil Gardner.

Here's another fun one by Bodil called Organic is good for you!  There you have it - a glimpse of an amazing and inspiring event.  I think I'll have to visit my folks every November from now on ;o)

Fruit Salad

Amy wanted a "fruit salad" block.  During the Long Distance Quilting Bee we're supposed to make just one block per theme/month, but I made three.  Here's the first one.  I loved the star and I loved the idea of the ants invading the fruit, but the combination of everything turned out a bit too busy.

 

 This block was toooo wild.

Here's the second one.  It didn't seem fun enough and I missed the oranges.

  This block was toooo boring.

Here's the third one, my personal favorite.  Which one do you like best?

 This block was juuuust right.