Sunday Snapshot #4

I had a fantastic time last weekend back in MD as a bridesmaid for Liz & Dan on their special day!  It was great to see friends again and be apart of the celebrations. 

Congrats!

The Mass was beautiful, the weather cooperated and we had a grand time taking photos (in spite of the bugs) and partied it up at the reception!    

Here's to the newlyweds!

I was able to pack in a lot during my stay and amongst all the wedding festivities - bachelorette, nails, rehearsal, hair, wedding, reception - I was able to spend some time with the brother & other friends as well.  So good to see you all - let me know when you're coming to visit KY.    ;) 

Flood 2011

In January of 1937, the Ohio River flooded across several states - including the city of Paducah.  At the time the only barricade was a levee that couldn't hold back the river, which eventually reached 60.6 feet.  Buildings downtown have markers that indicate how high the waters rose as it flooded the streets.  Afterwords, the flood walls were built to protect the downtown from future floods and has done that job well. Although, up until this point; the walls have never been tested with this much water.   <--yikes!

closing up the walls

With all the rain we've had in the last several weeks the river has pushed into the major flood stage and currently several counties are in a state of emergency, bridges are closed, roads are flooded out and people in outlying or low lying areas have evacuated. The annual AQS Quilt Show had to move to several other venues in town once they closed up the flood walls last Monday- the Convention Center is on the river side.   *oops*
Interestingly, the walls don't get closed very often; some co-workers say maybe it's happened once in the 10 years or so they've been here. The predicted crest is for 55.8 feet by Thursday and the forecast has little sunshines in it for the next several days - hooray!  Right now, we are at 54.7 feet and so far it seems flood 2011 will be the new 2nd place holder for highest crests.

Yesterday the Corps of Engineers blasted out some areas of the earthen levee out at Birds Point (South-east Missouri) to divert the water into the floodway fields/farm land.  The initial blasts shook my apartment enough that I had to turn the news on to figure out what it was.  This should help keep the river from getting up to 58/59 feet and will help keep it out of towns on the Mississippi & Ohio rivers.  Several businesses on the way into work are on lower ground at the edges of the walls and have water in the parking lots, car dealers moved their stock to higher ground and lots of dirt has been trucked in to build some berms to help stop the water from spreading.  

We took precautions at the museum and moved all the quilts in storage off-site to our backup higher ground location.  Putting boxes into plastic bags & loading them on & off some vans/panel trucks.  Boxing up quilts that need to go into storage and placing them on the higher shelves in the vault; reviewing how to take down quilts in the gallery in case we need to grab & go made for an interesting week so far.

all closed off - apparently the seepage is normal

I'll leave you dear reader, with the link for the city flood wall cameras that give a good view of the water at the walls which has been fun to watch over the last few days!  Flood wall camera views.  Usually there's a road there so you can drive alongside the walls and view the river - pictures from earlier posts about the rising river were taken in that area!

calm before the quilt storm

Such a nice weekend here - time to relax and play before the big rush of Easter and Quilt Week.  Weather was a bit on the cool side & breezy, but it helped keep the frantic rush at bay. 

Today kicks off Holy Week and it was the first time I've been to a Palm Sunday Mass where the congregation did not participate in the Gospel reading.  Usually, we have several lines to speak, representing the crowd and I felt a bit left out that we weren't involved this year.  They had the rest of the parts covered so it threw me off a bit, and I didn't think it was as powerful to just hear it.  It always seemed so personal to say the words of the Jews willing to crucify Christ.  We had a nice procession into Mass with the palm branches, which was neat, but on the way out, someone took my palm branch!  I snagged another one afterwords, though I didn't have the skill to weave it into a cross.  Growing up J was better at that than me.

I managed to spend some time organizing the sewing room and even got rid of another lingering moving box.  Score!  I finished up the binding on quilt project #1 while watching hockey and got project #2 ready to baste.  It's nice to work at a place with classrooms and large tables so I can bring in my quilts, lay them out & baste 'em where there's plenty of space. 

Have I mentioned that it's nice to have cable again?  Especially for it to be just in time to watch the Stanley Cup playoffs.  :D Both the Red Wings & Capitals are in and doing well so far and they games are fun to watch.  The Caps need to avoid the penalty calls though; today's game 3 was full of them.  I also cheer for the Blackhawks (thanks dad) when they aren't playing my other teams, and they could use some help right now.  They've played well, but are down 3-0 to the Canucks (gotta love the name) so it's getting dicey.  It's hard to do anything else when the game is on unless it can be done in view of the tv or during the intermissions - a small price to pay for good hockey!

I've re-hung my hummingbird feeder and have seen 1 zip by so far.  We thwarted the pigeons from nesting on my porch, though they did nest in the downstairs neighbors' porch.  I hope that won't keep the hummers away too much.  Took a walk today and heard a woodpecker, lots of songbirds hidden in the trees, saw the the geese in full force around the pond, startled a bunny and enjoyed the sound of the wind through the trees.  Stepped out briefly after dark and the moon had a smooth orange glow behind a light cloud cover. 

I am working my way through my to-see movie list as well with the most recent being Invictus.  Such a good movie!  I like Matt Damon & he did an excellent job in this role. I like how he commits to the story and the character and really gets into it because it shows up on screen and really draws you in.  Seeing the rugby reminded me of summer camp and the international staffers with their rugby Thursdays.  Good times.

A good weekend to recharge and relax before it gets super chaotic as we gear up for Quilt Show at work.  I've helped J rearrange and hang quilts (more like play musical quilts in the gallery) and set-up the School Block Challenge winner display in the lobby.  There's plenty more to handle this week before all the quilters arrive and I look forward to seeing the show in action.

-- it's a beautiful night -- bee signing off --

Sunday Snapshot #3

display case @ library

right side

Quilts start popping up everywhere since it's

officially quilt month here in Paducah.  Store fronts, magazines, people talking on the street - you can't escape it.  The library has mini quilts hanging up and they let us fill on of the lobby display cases with 'stuff' from the Museum to help celebrate. 

left side

I printed some pictures, an exhibit label, grabbed some fabric - loose, looking like it doesn't care - and borrowed some items from the Junior Quilters to fill the case.  

It turned out really well; don't you think?

B!day

So I got all excited about my birthday and having M&D come down to party that I didn't even post about it.  Oops.  :o)  We just had so much fun that I didn't think about it until waay later. 

I love birthdays and usually spend the preceding weeks in a state on anticipatory excitement.  I was glad to not have to spend this birthday on my own since I am now far, far away from friends.  M&D came down to help party it up in style and we packed a lot into just a few days.  

There's an Argentinean restaurant here (who woulda guessed?) and we went to try the rodizio fun.  They had 6 different types of meat that they bring around to your table and you can choose to take it or not.  We tried all types and wowza! they were good.  I can't imagine going to a larger restaurant where they have 10+ types of meat...

bday pie

We also went to Panera and I got Dad hooked on chocolate pastries....yummm.  I've been rationing out the birthday chocolate pie we had over the last week to extend the chocolatey goodness.

Dad summed it up quite well so here's a brief overview of all the B!day fun:

Hugged.  Un-packed.  Got taxes done.  Psych!  Went shopping.  Made French press coffee.  Fixed blinds (had spare parts).  Changed light bulb (how many dads did it take?).  Evicted the birds.  Hugged.  Got cable modem, wireless router & scheduled Comcast installation.  Set up shredder.  Mass.  Argentinean rodizio B!-day dinner. Hugged.  Saw Despicable Me.  Had double chocolate pie for celebration.  Went to a wine tasting.  Slept.  Twice.  Chocolate pastries rock.  Reheated coffee.  Hugged.  Set up quilt light.  Walked to the river.  Lots of quilt-y talk.  Hancock’s.  Took out garbage.  Packed up.

 All in all another wonderful birthday complete with fun adventures, family & friend phone calls and cards and a natural high for several weeks in anticipation.  

Here's to the next year - may it be full of adventure and good things!

Weekly Tidbits

Last weekend I got my cable installed so now I once again have TV channels.  It was kind of strange after the last 6 months to turn the TV on and have actual shows pop-up.  First thing I managed to catch the last half hour or so of the Tour of Flanders, and then spent some time figuring out which channels went with which station.  Sadly, I've discovered that Jeopardy! is on at 4:30 here so I can't watch it- I ask the TV stations, why would you do that?! 

Monday, we had some severe wind alerts and then a tornado warning in the morning.  The warning sirens went off and we followed protocol by herding everyone into one of our interior classrooms.  There was a meeting going on so that made it pretty interesting, but the kept going with their agenda and we waited out the sirens.  It sounded like the tornado touched down about 30 miles from us, so we're glad we followed our emergency plans <- it even made it into the newspaper that we did what we were supposed to. Go team. The rest of the week has been very spring-like and has even reached upwards of 85 today, gorgeous.

I spent some time working on one of my 'secret' quilt projects as well and am thrilled about how it's coming along.  I made my first bias binding using several blog instructions to help me figure out how to make it continuous.  It turned out perfectly and from a little over a 1/2 yard of fabric I got 8 yards of binding!  I also picked up some thread so I can continue to work on the next project.

I had Junior Quilters (our young kids (10-17) quilt group) too, which is always fun for a Tuesday afternoon.  There are several different projects going on as some kids are finishing up their quilts from last year, some are finishing up their journal covers & a few have completed their journal covers.  It's hard to keep track of what's going on each month! This month, we put everything else on hold and worked on the Just One Star project from Moda fabrics.
<---I first spotted here it on the blog I follow & was intrigued with what Moda was doing for Quilts of Valor.

one star from KY

I knew I wanted to make a star block to contribute because my grandfather was a Marine and it is a great way to help others. Once I made my block, I hunted up the appropriate colors at work to use with our Junior Quilters and we got another 5-7 stars made.  It was a perfect way to do a small group project that benefits others, gets the kids involved in a larger project and give something back to Moda who sponsors our School Block Challenge each year. A win-win!  If you're looking for a quick sewing project in the next couple of weeks - this is it!  Head over to Moda's blog & get stitching on Just One Star!

quilty quilty quilt

Dear readers I'm a bit remiss in my posting, as I've noticed a severe lack of quilt related posting (new job not included). This will more than make up for it, I'm sure.

amazingly easy pinwheels!

I found a great tutorial online by the Missouri Quilt Star Co. - on easy pinwheels - and was just amazed at the method.  Of course, I had to try it for myself and wow! what an easy way to make pinwheels en masse.  Once I tested it, I had to turn it into something and what better than a mug rug.  Mom got me semi-hooked on these and I spot them all over the blog-o-sphere.  These are also a great way to practice my binding techniques – an added bonus.  

 

  

I've been working on a couple classified projects as well so here are just some teaser shots - more to come. I've got to piece the backing to one & possibly get some batting for the other - we'll see how I can stretch what I have to cover both.  Although, speaking of batting, there's some super soft stuff from Moda that I'm wanting to try out. 

I'm super excited about them both and can't wait to get them into the machine!  I'll probably take them to work with me soon, so I can lay 'em out and pin baste 'em on the larger tables.  Yay.

Lastly, I'm completely enamored with the Gypsy Bandana fabric line by Pillow & Maxfield.  Every time I'm at Hancock's I walk down the aisle and drool *not literally!* over these awesome pieces.  I wish I could take yards of each home with me, but alas, that just isn't feasible.  

Don't you just love these designs?!

However, I do scour the remnant table and have managed to find good pieces of several color ways which totally makes my day!  I'll need to find a good way to use this awesome fabric so i can buy more.  :D 

So that's what's up in the quilt room for now - stay tuned for more project teasers.