Blogging…

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I never thought I would find the time for it, but I’ve become a blog reader. You can see the blogs I read regularly at the bottom of the right-hand column of this very blog. The easiest way for me to know when any of these blogs has a new post is to subscribe to them. Did you know that you could do that?


If you don’t know how to subscribe to a blog don’t feel bad. I’m going to tell you how you can. Look at the top of your browser window and find the URL for this page. (The URL is the line that starts with http://www…. ) To the right of the URL do you see RSS or a symbol? Click on RSS or the symbol (you might want to read the rest of this before you really click). 

A new window will open. I’m on a mac, using Safari. On the right side of my newly opened window I see a column. At the bottom of this column is an area that says Actions. I tried this in Firefox and there wasn’t a column, but there was a button that said “subscribe now”. If you are on a pc your window will probably be different from both of the ones I found, but I’ll bet you can find an obvious subscription area. Click what’s there.

I like to catch up on new blog posts in my email program, so I choose “subscribe in mail”. FYI – Mail is the mac email program. If you use some other email program it will probably give you an option to subscribe in that program. You may have to choose between RSS and Atom. I have used both and they both work.

Once I click “subscribe in mail” a new folder is automatically created in my email program. Every new post it shows up there. Treat them as emails – delete them when you want to. Forward them if you want to. You can see what my mail window looks like in the photo at left. The blog feeds are at the bottom of the left column in the RSS folder. Sometimes the emailed version of a blog is not a complete blog post but that’s OK because there is a link to the full post inside the email. 

A new blog that I’m watching is hyperthesis. It came to my attention in an enewsletter that I got last week from Chuck Green at Ideabook. This is not a blog that quilters might normally come across. I think the photographs on this blog are quirky and wonderful! The designers are Chinese (I think), living in New Zealand. The slightly fractured English in the text is charming. A more “quilterly” blog is HELLOmynameisheather. The photos in Heather Bailey’s blog make me swoon – and lust for a new camera! 

Isn’t technology amazing! That we can share these amazing stories and images, that we may never meet face to face – but that we are nonetheless connected… this is both amazing AND wonderful! I’m happy that you read our blog. Thank you and happy stitching,

Becky

Key lime cheesecake…

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Thanks to a Feather Princess guild member, I came home from Tampa last week with 10 freshly picked key limes! The feather princesses told me that 10 is the magic number of limes when planning key lime goodies, something I didn’t know. These key limes look a lot different from the tiny, hard, green key limes that I always find at the grocery store. They were yellower, bigger, thinner-skinned, and very juicy. You can see four of them in the photo. They look more like little lemons.



I decided to make a key lime cheesecake with my key limes on Monday. The kids were coming for dinner on Thursday and it would have time to chill by then. I found this recipe at about.com. It is gluten-free which is important at my house. My daughter-in-law and grandchildren can’t have gluten. I substituted gluten-free gingersnaps for the graham cracker crumbs in the crust and I think they added a lot of flavor to the cheesecake.

This cheesecake raises a lot during baking. The top of mine got browner than I prefer. When I make it again I’ll lower the rack in the oven and I’ll check it more often. If it gets this brown again I’ll be ready to put some foil over the top of it to protect it better.


My plan was to make this cheesecake and not eat any of it. That’s always my plan with cheesecake. I know what’s in a cheesecake which keeps me from eating it. But Steve came home for lunch on Tuesday, the cheesecake had chilled overnight, and we decided to each try a little bit. Big mistake! This was possibly the best cheesecake I’ve ever made! By dinner last night (Thursday) the cheesecake was almost half gone – as you can see in the photo above. (I should have taken a photo before I cut it, but I wasn’t thinking about that at the time.)

I have to tell you that as I ate my (multiple) slivers of cheesecake, I was smiling! All leftovers went home with Christopher and Lorna so today at lunch I’ll just dream of cheesecake…

Becky

Celebrity Interview

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Pat Sloan has interviewed me for her blog. Click here to read it: http://patsloan.typepad.com.: She calls these “Celerity Interviews”. Becky’s interview will be on Pat’s blog in early November. Pat’s blog is an interesting read.  There are more interviews on her site. To read them scroll down the right side of column and you will find Celebrity Interviews link.  Visit Pat’s web site for wonderful ongoing projects. She even does a radio program. http://PatSloan.com

Being referred to as a celebrity was nice. I may get the big head. 

I have been busy making pillows for my sister’s birthday. This is a big birthday. The applique pillow above with the bird on it gives you a sneak preview of the next BOM. 
I had not done pillows in years. The ruffle one I did the hard way by sewing two rows of basting stitches and then gathering the stitches by hand. The gathering foot I had was for my old Bernina. I advise you to use a gathering or ruffle attachment for your machine. It took way too long to do it the old way. 
The gathered cording was tedious.  I found out after I did the cording that there was also a foot to make gathering on cording easier. You all probably all ready knew this. All I can say is I make quilts and seldom have the time to make anything else. I think I need to take a refresher class on the attachments for my Bernina. No telling what else is out there. 
Blessings Linda

A block for breast cancer research…

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Linda and I are both making a block for a new quilt to benefit breast cancer research. I don’t know how many blocks there will be in the quilt but I would bet it’s going to be a big quilt. The Susan G. Komen Foundation will handle the auction/sale and the funds raised with the quilt. The quilt will be shown at the IQA show in Houston next year and at other venues.


I used a block from Applique Delights, enlarging it to 9″ x 9″ finished size. The block colors were set by the people coordinating this project. I think it’s going to be a lovely quilt and I hope they raise a lot of money!

A Halloween card…

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Lynda at the Great American Quilt Factory/Possibilities shared Smilebox with me a while ago. Smilebox is a site where you can create web cards using their templates and your own photos. It’s pretty cool. 


I finally got around to making a halloween card for Elanor. But you can send the card to as many people as you want to. And you can post it on a blog which is why you can see it below. 


Turn the sound up, there’s music. There is one photo of Chris and Jeff when they were kids, and one of Steve with Jack. This will be Jack’s first halloween, so I don’t have a picture yet of him in costume.

Happy halloween!

Click to play Spider Webs
Create your own postcard - Powered by Smilebox
Make a Smilebox postcard

Hiking the Grand Canyon…

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I was working on one of my lectures last week. I usually tweak my lectures before I give them. This time I was working on “How did I get to here from there?!” which is a story of my life with quilts. In the process of tweaking the lecture I came across this photo. 


That’s me with 3 friends. We were all turning 40 that year except for Helen (on the left), who is younger than the rest of us. She’s still younger, as I remind her at her birthday every year. Karen, on the right, had the great idea that we should hike the Grand Canyon in our 40th year. Laurie, 2nd from left, had just had a baby. She and I walked five mornings a week to prepare, often with Margaret in a stroller. We carried backpacks as we got closer to the hike. We were ready! 


Well, I wasn’t as ready as I had hoped. We walked downhill 13 miles from the north rim to Phantom Ranch at the bottom. (FYI – down is really hard on your knees!) I could barely move at the end of the day. We hiked 8 miles uphill the next day which is harder on your lungs but easier on your knees. I made it out alive and am still proud of myself.

This hike showed me that I needed to work my body if I wanted to keep it running. Laurie and I still walk 5 days a week (unless I’m on the road). We walk 3 miles and include the big hill in Sherman in each 1-mile circuit. 

I joined a gym 2 years ago and I strongly recommend that you do the same. No matter what shape you are in, being in better shape will make you feel better. And it will help your quilting! The stronger you are the better your posture will be which is good when you sit and applique. The stronger your upper body is, the better your machine quilting will be.

I’m 52 now and in the best shape of my life. I look back at this photo and I don’t wish myself back there. I was younger and less wrinkled but I was also 10 lbs. heavier a lot softer. Getting older is not all bad!