Seeing Stars

I was trying to find this quilt on my blog to show Da Judge. Couldn't find it. So here it is! I made this for Brook (step-daughter) before she got married four years ago. She likes to celebrate her Scottish heritage so I found and adapted this design for the black borders...machine quilted in a yellow-orange variegated yarn. See the stars in the yellow border?This was my first venture with batiks. Honestly, this quilt was so out of my comfort zone! Nothing that I would make for myself, but it think it fit Brook perfectly! Staying with the star theme, I researched constellations on the internet and picked the perfect patterns for the black areas. Casseopia (the Queen) for Brook...the other side has Cephus (the King). ;-) Perfect for a wedding gift dontcha think?! The next year for Christmas I pulled out the leftover batiks and came up with this... The batik circles remind me so much of aggie (agate) marbles. I named this "Don't Lose Your Marbles." The pieced back. Brook's husband, Cody, asked me if I had any more of that fabric left. LOL Turns out that I did! Recently Brook made a request...she wanted to "commission" me to make some arm covers for her leather sofa (one of the dogs had way too much fun while left unattended in the house. I had to purchase a base fabric, but then sprinkled more circles over the batiked peace symbols...quilted them down...and made the arm covers for the sofa. (NO! I didn't charge her...I gave them to her.) I don't have any photos because they wouldn't fit my sofa. That project just about wiped out my batik collection...

How Cute is This?

Friends of the Library Catering Event

We catered another meeting for the local Business & Professional Women. I did a dessert this time.

Cherries with water and sugar cooking on the stove top. Pie pastry chilled in the refrigerator then rolled with my new rolling pin......that my dear husband made for me! (I gave him the burning element for Christmas.) Biscuit size circles cut out...pricked a couple of times with a fork...brushed on some milk and sprinkled on some coarse sugar crystals...and baked.Warmed filling was ladled into teacups and topped with a pastry circle. Someone else made the peach cobblers. We called them Peach Teacup Cobbler and Cherry Teacup Cobbler.

They received rave reviews! In other words, I had nothing left to bring home except a few pastry 'biscuits'.

ARRGGGGHHHHHH!

Cranky Old Woman time...I've been on the automated phone system with the Social Security Administration following a phone call from Mama. The rural route mail carrier is circling her incorrect address...from before the enhanced 911 calling system went into effect. She tried calling SSAs 1-800 number. The automated hussy inside the phone could not understand Mama's "Shirley. S H I R L E Y." So...I told Mama I would give it a try. First time...something was wrong with the information. I tried again leaving off her maiden name because she probably did not get a Social Security card until after she and Daddy married. That didn't work either. Heaven forbid a human being comes on the line! 45 minutes later...no luck at all. So...I get on the computer and try it. Nope. Something is still not jiving with the information SSA has. So it looks as if my poor decrepit mother is going to have to go to the nearest SSA office. Sigh.

March 30, 1951

No wedding photo available. This is the first that I could find. Shirley had just turned 16 on March 17 when she married Leslie who turned 20 that April. Daddy was a truckdriver. I don't remember if he had me call...or if he did the calling and I just picked them up...but he wanted one dozen long-stemmed roses. In a long box tied with a ribbon. The florist misunderstood and put them in an arrangement. Mama was still surprised. Their last portrait...August 2000 They should have had more time together.