2012 Free-Motion Quilt Challenge - January

I like to say that I'm a quilter. But really, I make a lot of quilt tops. And then they sit. Sometimes for a very long time. Getting those quilt tops actually quilted is a real challenge for me. So, when I saw that SewCalGal was going to host the 2012 Free-Motion Quilting Challenge, I knew I had to follow along.

The way it works is that SewCalGal has lined up some FMQ experts. Each month one of them will present a tutorial with tips for the participants to practice. Participants who pledge to complete the challenge can submit a picture and be eligible for that month's prizes. I wasn't going to take the pledge, just follow along on my own. But there are prizes! How fun is that? 

January FMQ leaves

The tutorial for January was by Frances Moore. She showed how to do some free motion leaves. After practicing on a white board for two weeks I bit the bullet and tried them out on a practice quilt sandwich. You know what? They don't look half bad! Are they perfect? No. I know I still need to practice my spacing and my stitch length consistency, but if this had been done on a printed fabric with matching thread it would have looked just fine. Most of all, this has given me a much needed boost in my confidence level. 

I'm looking forward to more tutorials, more practice and most importantly, finishing some quilts!

(I know I still need to do some work on the look of my blog, but I wanted to get this submitted before the deadline.)

Did You Miss Me?

Probably not since the only people who read my blog are people that I talk to on a somewhat regular basis anyway. It's been over 2-1/2 years since I last posted. How can that be? I have a couple dozen posts started that I was going to get back to in "a few days" and that was just a couple of months ago, right?

Since I'm taking part in a couple of monthly quilt challenges, I want to be able to post my progress here and submit links so I've decided to revive the blog. Once I figure out what I'm doing again I may even update the look.

Stay tuned...

Memorial Day Parade

Did you know that I like parades? No? How did you miss it? I mentioned it in this post, this post, this post and this post. But you know what? Rich doesn't like parades all that much. He only goes along to humor me. I love that about him.

But today, he wasn't budging. His back was bothering him and there was no way he was going to sit on a curb and watch a parade just to humor me. Sigh. I guess I really can't blame him. But, I wasn't going to miss it. I'm only here for a year and I'm on a mission to get to as many places and see as many things as I can. And that includes parades.

Besides all the usual military marching groups you'd expect to see in a Memorial Day parade, I liked all the reenactment groups that were in this one. I especially liked this Civil War group. There were a lot of women in period costume following them, but they were a little spread out and I couldn't get a good picture.

 There were also a gazillion high school bands. I almost missed this one and barely got the picture snapped. I can't believe it! This is the high school that my oldest son graduated from! He was even a part of this band! It was a nice surprise to see them in the parade.

Bagpipes are always fun. I love listening to them. Well, when they're performing as a large group anyway. We once had a neighbor who used to practice out in his backyard every day after work. He wasn't so much fun to listen to.

NSO Memorial Day Concert

 

For the past 20 years the National Memorial Day Concert has been broadcast on PBS to honor the service and sacrifice of our men and women in uniform. Each year more than 300,000 people attend the concert on the U. S. Capitol west lawn.

 Rich and I took our lawn chairs and found a nice, grassy area to sit and watch the concert. When we sat down there was hardly anyone there. By the time the concert started, it was wall-to-wall people.

The concert was hosted by actors Gary Sinise and Joe Mantegna and along with a slew of well-known stars and personalities featured the National Symphony Orchestra, The U. S. Army Chorus, The U. S. Army Ceremonial Band, The U. S. Army Herald Trumpets, The U. S. Navy Band Sea Chanters, The Soldiers' Chorus of the U. S. Army Field Band and maybe some others that I forgot. I don't usually watch the concert on PBS when it's televised, but it was nice to be here and remember what Memorial Day is really about.

Rolling Thunder

I've heard of Rolling Thunder, but had never actually seen one of their demonstration rides. At noon Rich and I were sitting on Memorial Bridge when the first riders turned onto the bridge going toward the Lincoln Memorial. I have no idea how many motorcyclists there were. Tens of thousands?

Rolling Thunder is dedicated to helping American veterans from all wars. They have over 90 chapters across the country. I always thought you had to be a veteran to be a member, but you don't. You do have to be dedicated to their cause. You have to be willing to volunteer your time. And, you must be present in Washington, DC on Memorial Day weekend.

You don't have to have a motorcycle to participate. But I think it would be a lot more fun if you did.

We watched for 45 minutes. I don't know how much longer it went on, but I'd bet it was a couple of hours. I think our ears will be ringing the rest of the day. If I ever get to see them again, I'll remember to bring ear plugs.

Another Nats Game!

After resting up from our morning adventure, Rich decided he wanted to go see the Nationals play the Baltimore Orioles. It was kind of a last minute decision, but we find that we can do things like that so much easier here since we hardly drive anywhere. While we have to allow time for getting to/from the metro stations and walking to our destination, we don't have to worry about traffic and looking for parking. 

I got pictures of Rich with all the presidents. Here he is with George.

You know my favorite part of the game - the 4th inning presidents race! Look at the lead Teddy has! Could this be the night he finally wins? With a lead like this how could he possibly lose?

Wouldn't you know it. Just 10 yards before the finish line the Baltimore Orioles mascot jumps out of nowhere and tackles poor Teddy. And even has the audacity to do a celebratory dance too! I forget who won the race.

Heh, heh. Teddy got his revenge. While he always has that big, goofy grin, standing there next to the oriole down on the ground that grin takes on a very mischievous quality. Not very presidential, but so, so funny.

And, while the Nats didn't win, it was a very close game. They lost 2-1. 

Take Me to the River

Memorial Day Weekend. Beautiful weather. What to do, what to do. Well, we decided to go kayaking on the Potomac. We got up early and were at Thompson Boat Center within minutes of opening. We got outfitted and were on the water in no time. After we were out on the water we realized that it's kind of impossible to get a picture of us in the kayak since we're both, uh, in the kayak. And, when we returned we didn't think to ask one of the employees to get a picture of us because the line to rent kayaks was way out the building and they were just a tad busy. The great part about starting so early (besides not having to wait in line) was that there were hardly any boats out so the water was still relatively smooth. It's a river, so the water is moving, but it wasn't choppy from lots of boats.

We headed south a bit and had this view of The Lincoln Memorial and Washington Monument.

There's an island in the middle of the Potomac between DC and Arlington. It's the Theodore Roosevelt Island National Memorial. We haven't been there yet. It's supposed to have some nice hiking trails. We're running out of time here, but I hope to get there. Anyway, this picture of the other people out rowing was taken between the island and Arlington. We're heading back north now.

This the Key Bridge that goes from Arlington across the Potomac to Georgetown. After this we continued around the island and back to the boat center. It took us a little more than an hour and since kayaking isn't something I do everyday that was plenty. I probably won't be able to use my arms tomorrow.

Bubble Bubble Toil and Trouble

This Happy Hauntings block went together very quickly. It's a little difficult to see the green bubbles against the busy background, but I think they'll show up better after the embroidery for this block is done. It's hard to explain but there'll be wavy lines coming up from the pot around the bubbles. I haven't even decided what block to work on next. I usually prep two or three blocks at a time. I've been so busy running around lately with visitors and all that I haven't looked ahead. Guess I'd better go get to it.

The Boss!

Rich and I went to see Bruce Springsteen at the Verizon Center! From the picture you can see that our seats were up and behind the stage a bit. That's okay. We were happy to have gotten tickets. You see, the concert sold out in 17 minutes. Last time we saw Bruce was 24 years ago at the Dallas Cotton Bowl Stadium for his Born in the USA tour. We had 9th row center seats. It was awesome. To get those seats we camped out all night and slept on a sidewalk. I was pregnant.

This time was different. They don't want people camping out for days ahead to get tickets to concerts. So, what they did was everyone who was standing in line at 8:00am (tickets went on sale at 9am) were brought inside the building. They did a head count and put that many tickets in a bucket and then went around and had you draw a ticket. That determined your place in line at 9am. If you came after 8am you had to get in line behind those who got a randomly selected ticket (although your chances of actually making it to the window in time to get tickets to the concert were practically nil). I got number 37.  It took 12 minutes to get up to the window. Meanwhile tickets were being sold online and over the phone as well. Yeah, we were lucky to get tickets.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band still put on a heckuva show.

Do What You Wanna Do

We took Marcus and his friends to dinner at a restaurant we just recently discovered. Maybe I'll write about it sometime. We really like this restaurant and will probably go back, but this post isn't about the restaurant. It's about the building across the street:

I usually make the pictures on my blog small (you can always click on them to make them bigger), but I really wanted you to see what was happening in this one. So, here we are on Pennsylvania Ave. This is the Mexican Embassy. I couldn't find any info about the building but I'm guessing the row houses are historic in some way and couldn't be torn down. What do you do? Do you add on in a way so as to maintain the historic look of the buildings you're surrounding? Nah, why the heck would you wanna do that?