Sunny Cayman

Let me set the scene.  It's mid-October, the time of year that DH and I had our wedding -- in Lake Tahoe.  Over the years, we have gone to several exotic areas of the world to celebrate that day, but we often return to Grand Cayman, where we have several time shares since we like this island so much.  This year we decided to reprise our wonderful time last year and return to the island, anticipating that although it is hurricane season, we have always lucked out with the weather.

Upon hitting the tarmac, we were greeted with a warm, very brisk wind.  The sun was shining.  We had been told that it was raining in Grand Cayman, and we had resigned ourselves to hanging out with the computer and catching great dinners for entertainment rather than the scuba diving that is our favorite pasttime.  Each day brings with it dark clouds and some rain.

Two more days go by, and a horrendous storm hits, bending the palms low and ticking noisily against the sliding glass doors of our condo.  Apparently it was the parting shot of some southerly winds as a result of Paula, just north of us.  We're starting to get cabin fever but accept this with equanimity and start surfing ebay, wondering what we can find for excitement.

Finally, after only a few hours of pounding the island with all its might, thunder and lightning included, the clouds drift away, apologetically, and the sun breaks through!  We are elated!

We pile into the car and take the north road to the Antique Car Museum, which is just a few feet north of the Turtle Farm.  Here, in the lobby, is the first automobile ever made!  It's a wonder to behold. We enter the museum, gasping at the gorgeous old cars, and the recent ones that bring tears to a grown man's eyes.  Not that DH did that....  I'm just saying...

 

Below is DH in front of my own dream car.  I LOVE Bentleys, the older the better.  We weren't allowed to touch anything, or else I would have crawled into this little beauty and stayed there all afternoon.   I love Bentleys so much that I bought my pontoon boat by that manufacturer!

This Cadillac below is the first car brought to the island -- woo hoo!  The locals thought the devil had come and  jumped out of its way and ran to the churches in droves.  Can you imagine?  Not to even know such a thing existed in the world and then to suddenly have one chugging and backfiring along the dirt paths that passed for roads here in those days.   I'm sure they thought it was the end of the world!

The next day was even lovelier, but we didn't know that the storms were over because on the local weather report, scattered thunderstorms had been predicted.  All this weather was the result of Paula getting hung up off the coast of Cancun and then over the western tip of Cuba.  We were holding our breath for fear that she would circle back over us again.

That wasn't to be, but we missed out on the diving today as a result of faulty weather reports.  We're signed up for tomorrow for a two tank dive.  It seems a sin to be in Cayman and not be 100 feet under the water...

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, take a look at the iguanas that roam the golf course here, next to the resort.  BIG ole thangs!

We'll be back homeSaturday, alas.  Now that the sun is out, we wish we could stay an extra week, but work and duty call.  See you all then!

I'm having a ball...or two, three, four...

At some point in the cuttings and sewings and designings during the Melrose Inn retreat, I had some scraps to deal with.  So I made little balls, about an inch across.  It turned out that later on I had other scraps, so I sewed those together to create little three dimensional flowers and gave one to each class participant.  I still had some scraps left over, so I made some for myself as well.

The pattern is from the split fingers design.  They are so cute!  I might find a place to put one or two of them in my quilt.

I guess it's time to give you a little peek at what I'm doing with my quilt.  This is the right lower corner, where I have made leaves and grasses.  These leaves will eventually be part of a stem system that goes to some interesting drooping flowers in the right upper corner.  But that's all the peek you get this time around.

These wonderful hot air balloons were created by Phyllis.  She used the spiral, the split fingers, the blaze, the chevron and the flip flop patterns to create these colorful floaters above a background that included the NYC skyline, prior to 9-11-01, and graduated shadings of skies, mimicking a sunrise coming over the city.

Lest you think that all I do is play all day, I did finally finish doing the quilting for the second QOV quilt that showed up on my doorstep some weeks ago, and I even mailed them off to their patiently waiting owner, Karen.  Sometimes these quilts are done with simple pantographs, as this one was.  Others are quite complex and take alot of custom quilting to do them justice.  But each one is made with a spirit of gratitude for our armed forces personnel. 

Take a moment to remember that freedom isn't free, and thank the men and women who have heeded the call and sometimes paid the ultimate price for our country. 

And while I'm at it, remember not to take things for granted.  Our country won't go on being the land of the free and the home of the brave unless we start boning up on what's going on in Washington.  Start paying attention now so you can vote wisely in November -- this year, next year, and especially in 2012.

One step at a time

The first technique we all learned at Marilyn's Melrose Inn Quilting retreat was called split fingers.  In most cases, we chose two strong colors and two complementary ones, sewed one strong to one complementary in a long strip on both sides of the strip and then cut out our wedges.  In my case, I used a strong teal and a light fabric with light teal and fuschia on it, plus a strong fuschia with a light pink. That made two sets of split fingers for me, which I could use as wings for butterflies or flowers.  The quilt above is one of Marilyn's critters, and down below is another example of how that technique can be used.

In this picture, it is the circle made with the pinks on the far right, lower section that uses the split fingers.  Some other techniques you see in this picture are the spiral (lower center, left), the chevron (blue, above center) and the blaze (far left). 

This is one of Marilyn's sample quilts that shows the flip flop method of cutting the strata.  It looks so pretty -- like stained glass.

And lastly, here's a teaser using several of the techniques to make flowers and bugs.  The leaves were another part of the class and will come later.

Melrose Inn and Artist Retreat Center

 Last Saturday my quilting buddy, Mary, and I embarked on an adventure.  We traveled to the quaint little town of Tryon, NC in order to take a week long course in design using the 9 degree ruler developed by Marilyn Doheny.  The trip was going to take us several hours, some of which were planned to be spent shopping at quilt shops along the way.  But first, in Greensboro, NC, we came upon the Gingher factory sale!  Mats, rulers and scissors for $1 or so.  We loaded up, and so did many other individuals as well as shop owners.

It was like Christmas!  We also took in Mary Jo's in Gastonia, NC, which, if you have never been there, is worth a day trip at some point in your life.  After these two shopping sprees, I was feeling overwhelmed.  Eventually we found a darling little tea shop in Gastonia and had  a delicious lunch at Chantilly's Tea Room and Restaurant. 

Finally, we arrived in Tryon, NC and cautiously drove up the hilly and winding streets until we came upon the lovely old Melrose Inn.  Presently, Marilyn Doheny is refurbishing it, but in the midst of decorating the rooms, the plumbing failed, and she had to attend to more basic needs before she could continue.  However, eight of the nineteen guest rooms are prepared for guests, each with a unique theme.  My room was call Floral Abundance.  Mary's was the Egyptian Room.  There are other motifs in play, such as the Equestrian Room and the Angel Room, but you really have to see it for yourself.

The Inn presents as a bed and breakfast, complete with downhome welcome and resplendent with European old world charm.  Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Marilyn is developing it as an artist retreat and offers week long classes in her signature style of art quilting as well as acting as its gourmet chef.  No French fries and hotdogs here -- you will dine on intriguing dishes like braised chicken with blueberry chipotle sauce and butternut squash sprinkled with olive oil and baked until meltingly smooth on the palate. 

As finances and planning permit, the 112 year old Inn will be brought back to its original glory, but this will be many years in the doing since Marilyn is also a well known quilting teacher and author, traveling to Europe and Australia as well as across the United States in order to educate those who wish to challenge themselves with quilts that are truly unusual.

You will see some of those quilts as I show you my progress in my own development along these lines, but for now, here is my background quilt, on which each lesson was auditioned, pinned and will be appliqued at some point.

Racing to the finish ... or should I say, Start?!

Here we go!  The countdown is on!  And Mary and I are racing towards the finish!  Or should I say the start?  We are going on an adventure to Marilyn Doheny's Melrose Inn and will be working with the 9 degree ruler to make a garden, complete with flowers and critters!  But first, we have work to do.  At least, I did.  Do.  This lovely quilt above is Dot F's granddaughter, Danielle's first quilt.  Pretty neat, isn't it?  The colors are lovely, and the log cabin design is very pleasing.

Here's a closer look at the junction of four of the log cabins.  I used feathers in the lighter half and bars in the darker one.

Danielle loves hearts, so I put them in wherever I could.  This is one of the small borders.

And here's the outer border.  The hearts here are upside down.

I also needed to finish Jane R's quilt before I left.  Don't forget that you can click directly on a picture, and it will enlarge for you so you can see the detail better.

But, just in case you want me to do it for you, here's a closeup of the pantograph.  It's called Sweetheart Garden and is one of my favorites.

Last, but not least (well, maybe least...) I finally quilted this one called Cubic Ribbons, made from one of Marilyn Doheny's classes on the 9 degree ruler.  I like the play on perspective, don't you?  And the Escher-like winding of the ribbons across and down each other.

And now, off to my lurkim.  (Who can tell me where I got that word?)  I still have all my strata to cut and sew.  Mary is way ahead of me on this one. 

Well, looky here!  Armed with new timing, a non-copper gasket and a new carburetor, DH once again took to the dirt track in his go cart AND WON FIRST PLACE!!!  Atta boy!  I think I am more proud of him for patiently, time consumingly, tirelessly and systematically going through each "organ system" of his engine and finding out the (multiple!) causes of its failure to perform than I am of his actually running the race and winning!  Talk about sticktoitiveness!

I'm taking a page from his book to finish this week's customer quilts.  I have two more to do, and hopefully one of my own as show and tell,  before I can jump in the car with best bud Mary and head for the Melrose Inn, Marilyn Doheny, and Tryon, NC.  On the way, we're going to stop at the Gingher factory's closeout sale in Greensboro, NC, then to Ye Olde Forest Quilters, also in Greensboro, to Mary Jo's in Gastonia, NC, and then finally to Tryon and our week long quilt retreat!  O frabjous day!  Calloo! Callay!  ( Does anyone know where I got that phrase?)

60 and counting

Today is DH's 60th birthday.  He's in mourning.  Now, I am 6 years his senior, so to me  the 60's are no big deal anymore, and they carry with them RETIREMENT!  Well, I retired, technically, 10 years ago when my knee got busted up too much to continue working.  But that magic "65" or even "62" looms brightly just at the horizon.  He believes he is going to have to work until he falls over dead, given today's economy and the fools who are running the country at the moment, so turning 60 is a bummer for him.  Considering his lifestyle in his youth, it's a wonder he's made it this far, so I think it's tremendous cause for celebration.  In my humble opinion.

So, after putting in a full day of work, after dinner most evenings, he putters about in his man cave, rebuilding motors and replacing gaskets.  These high performance motors blow when conditions aren't perfect, and he has had his share of problems with his engines.  I have learned more than I ever wanted to know about timing wheels and top dead center (TDC)  and before top dead center (BTDC) and how many degrees it has to be for the spark plug to fire on time.  I feel like Marisa Tomei in "My Cousin Vinny", only I'm not as cute.  And my biological clock stopped ticking a long time ago.

He says he relaxes with his go cart racing.  Now for me, this is NOT the way to spend the hours -- going around in circles and getting nowhere, but it seems to hold tremendous appeal to those of the male persuasion.  And as I tell my friend, Mary, if he has to obsess about something, I'm just glad it's not a red sports car and a hot blonde.

So, you know how you wish an actor luck on opening night?  You say "Break a leg".  Of course, you don't really mean that you hope the poor guy actually breaks a leg, but supposedly it's bad luck to wish an actor good luck.  So you say break a leg.  I guess that's supposed to deflect the gods' malevolent attention to your looming success onstage.

Well, in racing, it's similar.  At least, in our household it is.  Because of all the rebuilding and parts replacements and redrilling of these motors, when DH goes bounding out of the house on Saturday mornings, heading for the racetrack, I say, "Blow a gasket!"  Now, wouldn't you know, this is the only time in his life that he actually pays attention to me and blows the gasket -- regularly -- every race!  If he can keep the darn thing running, he should win, place or show.  He's been bringing home trophies up until about 4 weeks ago when his newest engine just decided to stop in the middle of the track on several occasions.  I hope he's got it figured out now.  Meanwhile, I think I should keep my mouth shut....

And that's how he's spending his birthday night -- working on another engine in preparation for a big race this weekend.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch...

I have finally finished Joyce T's quilt.  Poor dear.  Hers was the quilt I was working on when my Y axis motor to the IQ broke down.  Not only did it take several deliveries of parts, but it took me several days to know that other parts were needed as I fumbled my way through replacing my own motors!  Hmmmmm.  There's a theme in this family... 

I tried out the new motors with some practice quilts and then  determined that it was safe to finish Joyce's quilt.  Here's a closeup of the pantograph I did for her.  If you click on any of these pictures, they will come up in a much larger size so you can see details better.  I used one of my favorite variegated threads by King Tut:  Joseph's Coat. 

Tomorrow is another day, and another quilt on the frame, all ready for me.  Hurray!