This is shave ice.

It’s totally addicting. And what does this have to do with quilting? Everything! I go to Shipshewana in Indiana every few months to shop for fabric at Yoder’s and Lolly’s. And whenever I go, I always stop here for a shave ice. Why? Because it’s the only place to get shave ice within, like, a bazillion miles of me. I first had shave ice last year when we visited Hawaii. Shave ice is everywhere there. And it’s totally addicting.  I had a chance to talk with the owner of Kukui’s Shave Ice, Cindy Powell,  when I stopped in for my fix today.

I asked her my most pressing question: How do you explain shave ice to people? She had a great answer – it’s like eating cold cotton candy!

No, this is NOT a snowcone. Cindy explained that snowcones are crushed ice. When you put the flavoring on snow cones, it all runs to the bottom. The ice can’t absorb the flavor. Shave ice, on the other hand, is actually made from a BLOCK of ice, shaved so thin it looks like snow.

Can you see the waves of snow falling onto that snowball? That’s shave ice. It’s lightly, but firmly, packed, and up to three flavors can be added to the ice.

Look at all those flavors! My favorite is coconut-guava-mango. A taste of Hawaii! On a diet? Can’t have ice cream? How about a banana-pineapple-strawberry shave ice instead of a calorie-laden banana split? Or root beer-vanilla combo? Instant root beer float. Yum. It’s also a Hawaiian tradition to use Lychee nuts and cream on shave ice, but I’m a plain-jane and prefer mine with just syrup. I can only describe shave ice as soft and creamy – almost like ice cream. And the flavor is clear through the dish – not a puddle at the bottom of the cup. In fact, barely anything melts at all. It’s amazing to me that with ice this thin there’s little melting. Oh, and I almost forgot – there’s a special surprise at the bottom of every cup – a gumball! Cindy likes her Hawaiian ice with macadamia nut ice cream on the bottom. I had to laugh when she said most parents bring their kids in for a treat, then end up coming back and getting one for themselves, once they taste it!

Cindy and I sat and talked for about a half hour. She was a stay-at-home mom who designed and sold pressed flower art from home when her children were young, and later owned a Molly Maid franchise. She and her husband went to Hawaii for their 25th anniversary, and it was there that they had their first shave ice – and immediately fell in love with it. The rest, as they say, is history. On the plane ride home she decided she wanted to open her own shave ice shop.  It took two years to get the business going, and she started out with an outside mobile stand in the summer.

Cindy made the jump to an actual brick-and-mortar building about a year ago, and things have been going great ever since. She also offers lunch items such as Hawaiian sandwiches, pineapple slaw and other snacks. She makes her own Kahlua pig – just like you’d get at a luau. The next time I’m there I’m trying her Hawaiian Nachos – nacho chips with her famous pork, cheese sauce, and your choice of toppings from the tropical condiment bar that includes a sweet & sour pineapple relish and many other toppings. Mouth. Watering. She even imports her mustards directly from Hawaii.

(Some photos courtesy of Kukui's FB page)

If you’re in Shipshewana, look Cindy up. You definitely will get a great product, and a taste of Hawaii! Kukui’s is located at 101 Harrison Street. Going to Lolly’s for fabric?? When you go out to the parking lot of the Davis building, look left. Kukui’s is at the end of that street of little shops. Heck, you can WALK down there! Go! Now!! And visit her Facebook page once you’ve tasted her shave ice, and tell her how much you love it. Make shave ice a part of your quilting too .

PS – This is NOT a paid review. This is a review by a very, VERY happy customer!

I’ve decided to celebrate my day with a trip to Shipshewana to do some fabric shopping at Lolly’s…

and Yoders…

….stop for a hot pretzel at JoJo’s and a shave ice from Kukui’s….

….then stop at Das Essenhaus to pick up dinner and a pie…

What a way to start the day!!

I’ve got at least 7 quilts on the list – six memorial quilts and one t-shirt quilt for a niece. Then I’m gonna de-clutter my house and give it the “spring cleaning” it’s never had in 7 years. I may even take some photography classes at the local community college. And I’ve always wanted to learn sign language. Maybe now’s the time to do it!

Waa hooo!  I know you’ve been looking forward to this day for a long, long time!  Get your bucket list out, girl!

She was well loved by all of her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren, and great-great-grandchildren.

I’ve had all of her clothes in two containers and two huge trash bags, sitting in my sewing room ever since. I’ve been wanting to make quilts for my three siblings and mom’s two surviving sisters, whom the family lovingly calls “The Silver Sisters”.

Aunt Martha even cut off all her hair for mom - she still has it this way today. She loves it!

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve pulled out those clothes, picked up scissors, and stood there. Just stood there looking at them. So many memories in those clothes. This scenario went on for months. Open box, pull out clothes, pick up scissors, stand and stare, put them back in the box. Over and over. I finally took the plunge last weekend and made that first cut. And kept cutting.

It’s so much easier, now that I can see those clothes as strips of fabric instead of something my mom wore here or she spilled paint on there. She was a wonderful, talented artist in so many ways. China painting, drawing, sewing, crafting. She taught me how to sew when I was six years old. I credit her with every crafty thing I know and do today.

I had planned on doing a different quilt design for each person. Peggi helped me look for and sort through dozens and dozens of designs. In the end, I decided that the design wasn’t what was important. The clothes were. So I’m doing six simple charm-square block quilts with sashings. The focus will be on the fabrics, not the design. My family isn’t going to care about the design. They’ll care about the clothes, as it should be.

I’ve spent two days cutting fabric into 5″ squares. Unbelievably, I’ve got enough squares to make all six quilts just from mom’s pants and jeans.

That woman was obviously a clothes horse! I am getting ready to start the shirts today. The majority of the shirts are knit, which will require iron-on interfacing before cutting them up, to stabilize them. And it’s going to take a LOT of interfacing. I bought 10 yards last week. We’ll see how long that lasts. Of course, now my room will be a mess for weeks.

My sister is coming up in April for work-related reasons, and she’s bringing Aunt Martha along so she can stay with us for a few weeks.

We love having her here. I’m hoping to have at least two of the quilts done so I can give each of them one while they’re here. I think they’d like that.

Quilt held by my personal maneasel

It is the quilt from hell that I made for an angel’s wedding.  Certainly doesn’t look like it should be that difficult for a fairly seasoned quilter, does it?? I learned so many lessons making this quilt that I could rival War and Peace in length and content. My biggest lesson? Never, EVER pre-sash an on-point quilt. I spent an entire two weeks trying to figure out how to fix end pieces that didn’t have sashing. My second biggest lesson? You can always count on your quilty friends! Peggi was a lifesaver, listening to me whine and moan for days on end about it, then coming up with the solution. We actually even had a math teacher helping us – quite comically, I may add – on Facebook at one point! There were numbers flying everywhere.

I used curved quilting since everything was square:

Finally, the quilt is finished, and my niece and her new husband now have it. It’s actually bigger than it looks in the picture – 60 x 78, I think. I love making lap quilts. They get used – a lot. Here’s the label I designed in Photoshop…

…and how it actually looked after it was printed on muslin and Bubble Jet Set

I’m thrilled with the way it turned out. And it looks like I’ll get a chance to make it again – DH wants one for our bed! I know I won’t make the same mistakes twice this time

This week, I decided it’s finally time to invest in a pair of applique scissors.  None of my local quilt shops had any in stock, so yesterday morning I went online to Joanns.com to see what they had.  Bingo!  A pair of Ginger scissors, and on sale, no less!

I gleefully sailed over to Joann’s, happy with the thought that it would soon be easier to trim behind my applique, and I could quit poking holes everywhere.  But when I got there, I saw no signs on the applique scissors.  Instead, they had the entire stock of Fiskars on sale.  And, of course, the only pair of applique scissors in the store were the Gingher ones.  Heart sinking, I asked an employee and was told I must have been looking at last week’s ad.  I told her no, I was looking online that very morning, so the prices were current.  She heard the word “online” and immediately told me it was an online only price.

Do you see the words “online only” anywhere in this ad?

Me either.

You DO see the words “online only” in the product next to the Gingers, but NOT on the Gingher.  Which means I SHOULD be able to get the sale price on the same item in the store.  Right?  And what’s with the price difference between the two pages?  One page says it’s $21.69, the other page says it’s $18.59.  Which is it???

I am so tired of Joann’s shenanigans with their coupons and bait-n-switch pricing.  You go in the store, 40% off coupon in hand, only to discover that what you were going to purchase is already on sale, except it’s only 10% or 20% off, and they won’t let you use the coupon, even if you ask them to charge you the regular, full price.  Every other retailer is happy to do this, no matter what industry they’re in.  I’m tired of trying to communicate with employees who hide behind “Sorry, it’s Corporate Policy, there’s nothing we can do”.  And I’m tired of the never-ending line at the registers – why do they only have one person working a cash register when there’s 10, 11, 12 people in line?  Yet another thing you won’t see another retailer doing!

Who was Joann, and where has she gone?  Was she a quilter?  A seamstress?  A designer?  I know I’m not alone in my frustration with this company.  Would she be horrified at how her name is spoken with disdain and disgust in many circles?  Would she be saddened by how many people say “I hate Joann’s and refuse to shop there”?  Or did she sell out to a big corporation?  Take the money and run?  Did she ever exist?

I was very tempted to print out both of these pages and go back to Joann’s, waving them indignantly at the employee who said I was wrong.  But what good would it do?  I was POSITIVE I’d only hear “Sorry, it’s Corporate Policy” or “There’s nothing I can do” yet again.

So I went to Hancock’s instead, where they were very happy to sell me a pair of applique scissors for $18.89, AND I didn’t have to stand in a freakin’ line to pay for them. Plus, while I was there, I purchased several yards of Kona cotton.

Take that, Joann.

Peggi, I feel your pain! I was standing in line earlier this month with 9 other people (and one cashier!)  and heard someone call JoAnn’s the “Walmart of fabric stores”, and not in a good way. The only good thing about JoAnn’s is that it reinforces the necessity of LQS’s and the need to frequent them to keep them alive!

I was SO tired of constantly tugging and pulling on my ironing board cover, which would pull up and roll over the top of the ironing board every time I tried to iron fabric yardage. And don’t you just want to cut off the tapered end of your sewing board? I felt like I could only press 6-inches of fabric at a time when it was lying across that end.

I found this Press-Express Oversize Ironing Surface pattern by Hedgehog Quilts when I was in my LQS shop last year. Of course, it got buried under some fabric when I got home, and I found it again a few weeks ago when I was looking for something else that I’d misplaced. DH made the board for me and I whipped up the cover. Super easy and very stable! The instructions are very clear and well written. The only thing I advise – make sure you measure the top of the ironing board before you make it – they vary in size and you may need to adjust the width of the rails underneath.

DH made it to fit the old ironing board without the cover on it, but we found it was actually more stable if we left the old cover on the ironing board base underneath – it was a much tighter fit. I used duck cloth to make the new cover, and 2 yards of duck cloth was enough for two covers. However, threading the cording through duck cloth is ….well, let’s just say it’s a bitch.  I highly advise that you thread the cord through the buttonholes before sewing the hem down!  One thing I really liked about this board was the addition of little screws at 6 points under the board to help pull the cording tighter and prevent that dreaded, annoying cover rollover. That cover is not going to move now!!

As you can see in this picture, you sew buttonholes to thread the cording through. I’ll be honest. I hadn’t used my buttonholer in so long I spent more time looking for the sewing machine manual than it took to sew them! The entire board (including the rails) is made from one piece of prefinished shelving using only a few cuts. The bullnose finish on the shelving is used for the rails, so no staining or finishing necessary. This pattern is well worth the money. Pressing yardage will no longer be a chore! Doin’ the happy dance….

Wow, that looks great!  I have to admit that I’m pretty unhappy with my ironing board right now!  Mine isn’t standard, it’s a wide width, which is nice.  But I don’t like the taper at one end, and the other end has a metal iron rest that drives me nuts.  Plus, my youngest decided to test my scissors on the elastic that holds the cover on.  I think I need to make a larger surface for my board, too!

Someone recently gave me these tips – use unwashed, un-shrunk cotton duck for your cover, spritz it with water and let it dry over night.  The cotton duck will shrink to a skin-tight fit.  She also told me the cotton duck holds your blocks as good as a Steady Betty, but for a much better price.  I’m all over that!

I knew there wasn’t going to be time or space for any quilting over the Christmas holidays, so I picked up a couple of quilting magazines from the bookstore to keep me happy.  When I flipped through the latest issue of the New Zealand Quilter I found this  – a 12-sided pin cushion.  Just what I needed – a small portable hand-sewn project to keep me sane!

I did most of the prep work on a portable table while watching football and chatting with family.

It’s made of 5 diamonds sewn into stars.  12 stars, one for each side.

I can’t wait to see it finished!

Now THAT is cool! I’m not a pincushion user, but it would certainly be a nice, bright addition to my sewing room (hint, hint!!). Love the fabrics. Did you hand-sew all of those diamonds?????

…and I’m thinking, HUH? Houston? I don’t live in Houston, and neither does she. Then I open the map and I see this:

….a fact sheet for the Embassy Suites Hotel. It took me a minute (yeah, I’m old) to figure out what the hell was going on. Then I looked at the dates. OCTOBER 31st -NOVEMBER 5th. AAAACK!!! Peggi got us hotel reservations for……

THE HOUSTON INTERNATIONAL QUILT FESTIVAL!!!!!!!!!!!! OH….MY….GAWD!!!!!

I spent the next 10 minutes dancing around my living room. Mind you, it was 4:30 a.m., so I had to do it quietly, but it was a sight to see. THIS is my dream show. I’ve been to the Paducah show, which I absolutely love and is close to me. I never thought I’d ever get to the Houston show. And best of all, I get to spend it with the greatest friend to visit a quilt show with. Peggi and I had SO much fun in Paducah. I can’t imagine how much fun we’ll have in Houston. And the hotel is only TWO BLOCKS from the show – no buses to take, we can walk! I’m not buying another quilty thing in 2012 until I go to this show. I’m saving ALL my money for this baby.

Oh, and there was some other great stuff in there – a box of Wool & Needle flannels (this fabric is amazing!) for the quilt I’m finally going to make for our bed. Funny, I’m a quilter and don’t have a single quilt on a bed in this house! Now I have no excuses. There was also a great retractable mirror for my LA frame so I can see the stitches underneath (darned if I can find a picture of it to post!), and some great chocolate peanut butter:

Chocolate and peanut butter – my absolute favorites!! Pegs, you are the absolute BESTEST!

Apple cores.  I attempted – ATTEMPTED, I say! – my first apple core quilt about 5 years ago.  Everything went fine until I started sewing the rows together, by machine of course.  When I realized I was going to have to flip the quit around every other shape, just to get it stitched with no puckers, I wadded it up and threw it in the corner.

But I recently won a pattern (more on that later), and the pattern designer’s instructions for assembling apple cores were different than anything I have seen before.  Applique!  I smacked myself in the head.  Why didn’t I think of that?  This technique is so easy – and quick!

Did I mention that the apple cores are 2 inches long?  Heh heh.  Right up my miniature alley!

That is super, SUPER cool! I can’t believe those cores are 2-inches. You’re amazing at those miniatures. And with an applique technique, I may be tempted to try apple cores – you know me, I avoid curves like the plague!!