Valerie's Birthday Party

Yesterday evening, we all headed over to the other side of town to help Valerie celebrate her Tuesday birthday. It was the first time Mike and I had seen her house, which was built in 1943. Valerie took the house down to its virtual skeleton and completely renovated it. It is adorable. My recollection is that it is about 750 square feet, and so it's a nice little doll house for the two of them and their three kitties.

We got the grand tour of the house and enjoyed some wine before heading over to the restaurant Valerie had selected.

I didn't take a lot of pictures of the interior of the house, but I wanted to show you this space-saver stairway. It's not as scary as it looks.

Matthew and Valerie mainly inhabit the lower floor, but the upper floor has two small rooms. One is a sort of lounging "library" with books, bookcases, and comfy cushions. On the side where I was standing is Matthew's "Man Cave" where he has his recording equipment. He had some "mood lighting" that turned both of these images hot pink. I converted the one below to black and white. The hot pink was a little distracting.

I took a few little gifts to Valerie. She's a woman who knows quality when she sees it. She saw my Frankencat on Facebook, and she claimed it as her own. 

Also, I can reveal the little mug rug I made for her. This is the mystery project I've been withholding.

This pattern was designed by The Patchsmith, and I found it on Craftsy. I'm calling mine "Eyes on the Prize". Also, I gave her this Mugtail coffee mug. I saw these at Christmas and thought it would be a perfect gift for Valerie, who loves cats as much as I do.

Speaking of cats, this is George, Valerie's flame point siamese. He was the sweetest thing. Very friendly and affectionate.

This is Osa, who kept her back to us most of the time. She clearly does not like strangers invading her space. Valerie showed us how one can request permission to pet her by putting your hand down by her face. If she nudges your hand (as she did mine), then permission granted. She does not care to have her picture taken however. She closed her eyes just as I snapped the shutter on this one, but she has the most beautiful yellow eyes.

And this shy guy is Smooth. Matthew dragged him out from his hiding place so that we could see him, and his coat is as soft as velvet. Smooth has taken up residence on the Sunshine on my Shoulders quilt. Clearly, he is a mancat of discriminating tastes.

It was cozy seating for six there, but we all had a place to sit down, and we chatted and laughed for a while before we left for the restaurant. It was fun hearing the stories of Valerie's house and renovation adventure.

We had a dinner of Cuban food at a restaurant in Portland called Pambiche. I just looked up the definition of Pambiche, and this is what I learned on Wikipedia:

Pambiche is a Latin American dance derived from Merengue, the national song and dance of the Dominican Republic. The Merengue was once called the "Palm Beach One Step" and it is said that "Pambiche" is a derivation of "Palm Beach." It is considered by some to be the most difficult of all americanized Latin American dances. Dominican Accordionist El Prodigio has released an album entitled Pambiche meets Jazz, in which he combines traditional merengue rhythms (most of the songs featuring pambiche) with traditional American music such as jazz, rock, and blues.

So there you go. I heart the internet. Anyway...good food, good service, good company, and definitely good times.

Now, not to brag about our weather, but allow me to brag about our weather. I'm forgetting for a moment about global climate change and just enjoying what it has done for us in the Northwest this winter. This picture appeared in our local paper a couple of days ago...

along with the news that this has indeed been the warmest winter on record for us. The last record was set in 1958. Average temperature this winter has been a chilly 45.8°F with very little rain. The lack of rain is what has made our winter so nice, and I am not complaining one bit.

So today I'm going to get a start on the baby quilt I'm making for a friend. I started cutting it out yesterday, but I'm going to start sewing it today. Before I leave you however, I wanted to tell you what I discovered yesterday. Those of you more internet savvy than I will probably yawn at this, but I was simply amazed.

As I was deciding which block to make next for Lisa's Retirement Quilt, I came across this one in the stack and heaved a big sigh. This is the downside of asking nonquilters to create blocks. Clearly, this is a paper-pieced block, and there was no way I was going to be able to recreate it without the pattern. (Maybe someone more EQ smart than I am could do it, but it isn't going to be me.)

So I tried searching for different names, like "paper-pieced star" and "paper-pieced pinwheel" and some other things. I could find approximations, but nothing identical. Then, I wrote a blog post entitled "Calling All Smart People" and asked all of you if you recognized it. Then, I deleted it when I remembered that it was possible to enter an image into the Google search box and search for an image. You do it like this.

Go to the Google Images Search page. This is how it looks on my computer screen:

Then, you click on the little camera icon, and upload your image:

When your image has uploaded, instantly, you will get a screen that looks like this:

You can see my image at the top, and then about a zillion times this image has been loaded onto Pinterest. I scanned the list and about halfway down the second page, I found the original pattern:

There, I found the original blog post for the block created by Anna at Six White Horses, along with a link to the pattern on Craftsy.

Cool!

Have I said lately how much I love the internet?

So there you go. And here I go. Heading off to the sewing room now. Have a nice Monday.