It's Only Rock'n'Roll - But I Like It !

This past weekend did not include sewing of any kind but it did include lots of fun!  We headed of to Brooklyn NY to see The Rolling Stones concert.

If you haven't been to the Barclay's Center in Brooklyn NY it's worth the 4-5 hour drive from NH. The arena is very new - just opened this year. The seats are padded and big enough so you didn't feel like you were crammed in even for those of us who are the large and lovely size ;-) There are plenty of concession stands with lost of variety of food from burgers to sushi and a full bar not just beer.  Before the show they even had vendors selling beer in the stands like a baseball game.

 

We had GREAT seats!  Just past half court and about 20 rows up.  The crowd was filled with old fans and new ones - reminded me of a Grateful Dead show where the whole family shows up including Gramma and Grampa LOL 

 

That's me standing in front of the stage.  I tried to take pictures during the show but none of them came out very good, most of them are blurry . . .

or dark . . . or both 

and some have big fat heads in the way (that's Keith Richards on the left playing the guitar).

So I'll just have to refer you to other sources like this Rolling Stones site or The New York Times or you can just Google the rolling stones at the Barclay's center and get tons of links and way better pictures! 

The show was excellent!  And this was not my first time at a Stones show so I'm speaking from experience.  The Stones are still rockin' and rollin' even though they are all pushing 70.  It was an inspiration to see them.  But I have to say, the jumbo-tron was not at all flattering to any of them LOL!  They have never had it in the "handsome" category but then I certainly would not want to see myself, with all my imperfections, projected 20 feet in the air!

The sound was great and these guys can still sing and play like they used to.  It's something to see and hear, I danced and sang along the whole time.  Here's some videos from YouTube of a couple of my all time favorites: Paint It Black and Brown Sugar.  They played all the hits and some real oldies like the Beatles "I Want To Be Your Man".  Sorry Betty, no Shattered this time.  This video is the tail end of Jumpin' Jack Flash and all of Satisfaction.  These were the last songs of the show and they were still sounding great.

We had a great time and hated to see it end.  The Big Guy is convinced they will be back next summer!

And for those of you expecting a quilting post, stay tuned.  I got the Christmas Tree quilt back from the quilter last week so I'll be doing the binding this week to get it on the sofa before Christmas.

Quick Christmas Projects

OMG!  I just sat down to see if there was a quick project that I could do this weekend and I found so many I can't believe my luck.  I not only found some fun free patterns but I also found a couple of new sites that I'll be keeping my eye on.

First I stopped by the Moda Bake Shop, which is one of my regular stops.  They have tons of free patterns, most are geared to pre-cuts but you can certainly do your own cutting and achieve the same results.  The first two looked simple enough, 

a herringbone pot holder

 

 and a patchwork wine gift bag.  Not bad but I kept scrolling.

 

Next was this mystery quilt.  OK, not a quick project but I want to make an Irish Chain quilt one of these days so it caught my eye and I opened the recipe. 

Well, one thing lead to another - as it always does on the Internet - and I found myself here at Sew We Quilt.  Its a site where you can sign up to do a project, post your finished work, and then "blog hop" around to see what other people have done with the same pattern.  Kind of a combination of a challenge, a show and tell, and a driver to get people to your site.  (Inspiring if you need motivation to stay on task to finish a project.)  Tons of fun stuff here!

Anyway, that site lead me to Jillily Studio and this fun "Holiday Lane Pillow".

I printed out the pillow and these "Very Merry" place mats.

She has other free patterns that look like fun as well.  Isn't the Internet a fascinating place?  Some days I can't find anything of value and then there are days like these where I could have just kept going and going.  You never know what you'll find. 

I don't know about you but I love getting inspired so early in the morning! 

Now - housework or sewing?  Hmmmm . . .  what will you be doing this weekend?