Merry Christmas everyone

Merry Christmas everyone
with the love of my life, George

What am I doing writing a blog?

Quilting is one of the few places in my life where all the corners meet and stay put. On this blog I plan to ruminate about quilting and life, the quilted life, cat and quilts, and any old thing that falls in and out of my brain. I'd be pleased to hear from you on all of this or any topic of interest!

Search This Blog

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Just another great day at the Westmoreland Museum of American Art





One of the perks of working at an art museum is the fantastic art that surrounds me everyday! When I returned from my travels last week, Mike and Jeremy were painting one lobby wall this vibrant, eye opening red. They were preparing the lobby for the installation of our newest gift of art, MINING AMERICA (diptych), 2010 by Pittsburgh artist, Joyce Werwie Perry, done in oil with knives on canvas. I love this work! The faces of the miners are so honest and the two dogs in the lower foreground tickle me to death. I am so lucky to work with just beauty all around me! Be sure to try to get over and see all the great art right here in your backyard!

href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFSMmkH0SRxPZ8GY3Um8OV4CpkVtIIWkrdlU01cT_xjyXDJ_Gbow5GJfbPfUv8rssQL75zWzHrgPtsjrrg54qWiovnOAbExNO-cfKfAAeAbiyu5JLqnvdWVIn9Znyh9N1NMaKsmfkGTd__/s1600/P1010056.JPG">



Feed the body and the soul





Tuesday is Farmers' Market day at the Westmoreland. Here are pictures of the beautiful geraniums and asparagus I picked up!

Wyatt's first trip to Pennsylvania



After Becky's wedding on May 7th, we trotted on home to Pennsylvania with a trio of family in tow. Wyatt, his mama (my daughter) Jamie, and my mama, Ramona came back to Pennsylvania for a bit of a visit. We traveled like the British royals. You know, not putting the entire family on the same plane, so Ramona and I flew home Southwest and Jamie, George and Wyatt came home American. There is a long story why and I will tell it another time.

Of course I wanted to show off my family wherever I could find people who were sitting still and willing to be exposed to my Uber-Gramma-ness. After everyone had a day to get back on track from all the travel, Jamie and Gramma Mona brought Wyatt into the Museum Shop where I was at work.


I must admit my co-workers were much more pleased with the whole show and tell than Wyatt was. We wrapped it up pretty quickly and then all went to lunch.




This last picture is officially the first four generation picture with Wyatt on my side of the family.



The visit to PA was much too short and Jamie and Wyatt had quite an adventure getting back to California! George and I are already making plans to be out in sunny CA to see the new family again in August!

My baby is wed!





On a beautiful (and warm 95 degree) day in May, my baby girl, Rebecca Allison Allmendinger married her long time sweetie, Todd Newcomer. Family and friends gathered from all over the country to share the special day with them. The wedding was at the Dallas/Fort Worth Lakes Hilton, next to a beautiful lake (and gratefully, for the most part, in the shade).



The reception was at the Fort Worth Zoo where Becky and Todd had invited four zoo animal: a Alsatian Hound, a opossum, a baby alligator and a penguin to join us. About 150 guests had a great time. I wore a purple dress and balled like a baby. I am happy to report that my toast was not only well received by the guest (lots of laughs, which was my intention. Would have been really bad if I intended the toast to be serious!) but made my lovely daughter laugh and cry and almost lose it! The clincher was reminding Todd I did not make him take a driving test!



The wedding week was such fun. I left Pennsylvania on the evening of April 28 to attend a Museum Store Association conference in Rosemont, Illinois, not too far from my folks and my sisters' homes, which made it very nice to stay with my family and drive to the conference each day (thank you, Nese, for the room and board and use of your car!) While at the conference, I represented the museum at a Members' Market and made a video. If I can figure out how, I will attach the video to this post.

Right after the conference, I headed down to Dallas for the last week of wedding preparations. I stayed with Becky and Todd at their lovely new house for several night. Each day, they had a task for me to accomplish! On Tuesday I made cookies for the open house/rehearsal dinner scheduled for Friday. On Wednesday, we (Becky's dad, Mark and step-mom, Pam and I) planted gardens around the trees in the front of their yard and readied the outside for guests and ran various errands with Beck: dropping goodie bags off at the hotels, picking up baby equipment for Jamie, Jeff and baby Wyatt who arrived the next day. On Thursday, I cleaned bathrooms and the kitchen and the guests started to arrive. We had a big communal dinner at a Mexican restaurant that night and my parents and sister met Wyatt for the first time and George arrived for the wedding weekend after finishing up his semester grades.



Friday the official activities started. The rehearsal went very well and the Texas bar-be-que afterwards was so much fun. On the wedding day, Saturday, May 7th, we started the day with a pedicure and then arrived at the bridal suite to be "prettied up." The weather was fine and the couple was beautiful I will post more pictures as I get them. What a wonderful day which I will remember always.

Becky and Todd, I am so very happy for you both and we love you with all our hearts. Boo, you are so precious to me. I hope you will always be this happy and know that you are very loved!

Sunday, May 1, 2011

The story of two sisters and two quilts




This is the story of two sisters one born in 1954 and one born in 1960 and two quilts, one made in 1980 and one made in 2001.

When I was six years old, my baby sister, Denise was born. I have another sister, Bev who is 15 months (to the day) older than me and I will talk about her quilt in another post. Denise went off to school in 1979 and I made her a quilt to take to college, a multicolored sampler quilt. When she married my brother-in-law, champion golfer, fisherman, and general all around nice, funny as hell guy, Martin, I made them a wedding quilt. As you can see from the two pictures at the top of this post, alot of learning (on my part) occurred between the two quilts, one finished in 1980 and the other in 2001.

Here are some more photos of the details. Enjoy.