Wouldn't you know it - another finish

My "Really Retro" wall hanging is now officially finished. DD#1 is pleased and will be able to take it home with her tomorrow if she so desires. I'm feeling inclined to re-name it because it has turned out differently to the pattern that I started out with a few weeks ago.

Thought for Today

Thoughts lead to acts, acts lead to habits, habits lead to character - and our character will determine our eternal destiny.
Ezra Taft Benson

Cleaning house

It's close to the end of the year and today we cleaned up a good chunk of the house, re-organized our short term food storage closet, put some things together to donate to charity and played a lengthy game of Monopoly in the sun room. 

I also put together a box of fabric squares to send to Deanna Z for one of her quilting charity projects. I also found a lot more of the squares I had cut out for Project Stork so plan on sewing them together next week and then mail them. The more project boxes I can clear out over the next month the better :)

Really Retro wall hanging

The Really Retro that I started a few weeks ago is almost finished :) I just have to add a couple more yo-yo flowers and the hangers, sign the back and take a final picture. I am quite pleased with the result and may consider trying a larger version in a different set of colors.

Blue and white 9 patch quilt

I am currently working on DD #2's quilt top. We made it together a few years ago when her room was still blue. Yesterday I retrieved it from it's box, ironed it, took photographs and inspected it for damage. It is now minus one whole section of the design and will become a single bed quilt instead of the intended double. Some of the cut off blocks will make a stripe across the back of the quilt. I'm contemplating sending the quilt to one of my friends to be machine quilted.

Thought for today

"Everybody is a star with the potentiality to shine in the infinite sky of eternity."

Shanti

Thought for today

"If we learn how to forgive ourselves, to forgive others and to live with thanksgiving, we need not seek happiness. It will seek us."

Anon. 14th century.

Something other than quilting. It's cross-stitch :)

Yes I actually do have pictures of something other than quilt projects :) I found this in my drawer and now have to decide what to do with the outside edges. I think it was going to be for a bread basket but I hate to cover up this center panel with food.

Post Christmas

The last few days took on a life of their own. 

We decided to celebrate Christmas on the eve of and had a wonderful time. Had a sit down roast beef and Yorkshire pudding dinner together, read scriptures from Luke, opened presents, played a game and generally had a great evening together. On Christmas day we travelled up to Ohio to visit grandma and whoever else was there at the time. There was hardly any traffic on the highway through Kentucky and the weather was good. I joked about "catching some rays". We travelled back on Saturday and again had great weather for traveling.

We enjoyed our short visit but we are all glad to be home doing our own thing. There was 15 people crammed into the house in Ohio on top of all my wonderful m-i-l's sewing projects :)

I was able to get two of my snowmen cross stitch people finished while traveling and another one almost done. Once all 10 are complete they are going to become a Christmas wall-hanging. This will be one of my sidebar mystery projects for 2009 and will be revealed a piece at a time :)

A Christmas gift

I've been trying to upload a Christmas gift to you all for a few days now but for whatever reason it's not been working so I hope you all enjoy this wonderful time of year.

Joy to the World v3

No more will sin and sorrow grow,

Nor thorns infest the ground;

He'll come and make the blessings flow

Far as the curse was found (repeat twice more)

Joy to the World v.2

Rejoice! Rejoice when Jesus reigns,

And Saints their songs employ,

While fields and floods, rocks, hills, and plains

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat the sounding joy,

Repeat, repeat the sounding joy.

Joy to the World verse 1

One of my favorite hymns in the LDS hymn book and one that many people are familiar with.

Joy to the world, the Lord is come;
Let earth receive her King!
Let ev'ry heart prepare him room,
And Saints and angels sing,
And Saints and angels sing,
And Saints and angels sing.

I am going to post the other verses over the next 3 days

Let the party week begin :)

So daughters 1&2 eventually got into town last night and their luggage showed up at about lunch time today :)

They got to Chicago yesterday morning knowing that their connecting flight to Nashville had already been cancelled as was the next one. They ended up going to Alabama. DH left church early to go pick them up and wouldn't you know it their new flight was delayed and had only just left Chicago when he got to Huntsville :)

Needless to say we are happy they got here safely and our darling dog did not know which one to greet first she was soooo excited to see them both !!!!

I am almost done sewing fleece blankets. Three down and 1 to go. Never again, as in small precut fringed squares. Waaaaay too many seams to work through the presser foot and trying to manipulate all the fringing at the same time.

Heartstrings Project

A goodly number of quilters have heard of the Heartstrings Project. Here's the link to a January/February special project. Looks like fun and very doable.

http://maryquilts.com/happy-blocks-for-heartstrings

Give it a try and see what you think. A great way to use up your stash of fabrics if you have one :)

Thought for today

From Leo C. Rosten - "I think the purpose of life is to be useful, to be responsible, to be honorable, to be compassionate. It is after all, to matter, to count, to stand for something, to have made some difference that you lived at all."

With wondering awe

I read the following quote from Socrates and immediately thought of the Wise Men traveling to find our Savior. 

"Wisdom begins in wonder."

And then I thought of the Shepherds.

Two groups of people divided by distance and social standing but brought together by one glorious event and purpose - to follow a star to a glorious meeting. All were wise in their own sphere and all expressed wonder at the birth of a baby who would change their lives forever.

As we each celebrate this time of year no matter what our faith is, may we each remember the feelings we have when we touch the hand of a new born babe. For me it is joy and amazement that another soul has made it safely to this earth with wonderful opportunities and learning experiences lying ahead.

I've been feeling inclined over the past few days to learn how to make the Mariners Compass quilt block. Maybe that will be my challenge piece for 2009.

Postcards From Cairo

Wow, wow and triple WOW !!!!! and she had been contemplating closing her site down :( That would be a major shame.

http://jennybowker.blogspot.com

Eden Phillpotts

"The universe is full of magical things, patiently waiting for our wits to grow sharper."

Clearing out my sewing room :(

Not as bad as it sounds thank goodness. 

DD's 1&2 get into town on Sunday so today I am clearing out a lot of supplies from "my" room so that DD#1 can have "her" room back for a few days. So all of my fabric boxes will go in the sun room or basement and my sewing machine will either be boxed up or set up on the sun room table. Maybe I'll just do some hand sewing for a while.

George Bernard Shaw

"Life is no brief candle to me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got a hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations."

Well I had a ridiculous "burning bright" moment this morning. I'm still having nausea issues when I eat from all the prep for my Colonoscopy last Friday. Today I decided to have some pancakes, which worked well. However, while the first one was cooking, I smelled burning and went back into the kitchen to investigate. Lo and behold the plate was on fire and sparking and smoke was starting to billow up to the extractor fan !!!! Turns out last time that particular plate had been used something combustible had dripped down below. So here I sit with the kitchen window and sun room door both open trying to air out the house :)

Greetings from Lucy

A number of people have been asking me about my dog so here she is :) It was her birthday on Monday and she is now 6. It is hard to believe we have had her in our lives for so long. Her parents live close by and different friends not too far from us have two of her younger siblings. Would you believe she has about 36 siblings thus far !!!!

She has been enjoying all the Christmassy stuff that has been going on including lying under the tree on the tree skirt. I took a picture but need to put new batteries in the camera so that I can download.

Swedish proverb

"Those who wish to sing always find a song."

Seems appropriate for this time of year with all the religious and festival observances going on. 

I looooooove Christmas Carols and most types of Christmas music. They fill my heart with joy and I have a large collection of said music. I'm one of those shoppers who boogies in the aisles at the department/grocery stores. 

Speaking of joy. One of the joy's of my life DD#3 has just walked in the door from school, 1/2 day, and we are going out to look for her  "secret santa" gift. We might even make something.

"Dashing through the snow on a one horse open sled........." Oops, sorry wrong end of the country!!!!!!

Happy Holydays everyone.

Primary Colors - fabric postcard

This is another card that got sent out on an exchange. The patterned fabric was bought on one of my rare visits to Scotland to visit my family. The buttons I bought dirt cheap at a close out sale a few years ago.

Purple fabric postcard

In a previous post I mentioned that I belong to an online group called Postcard Pizzazz. This is one of the cards I sent out. I made three of them. This is the only one that has the yarn bobbles on it.

A Star is Born

Okay so it's a rather cheesy title for one of my Scottie dog wall-hangings but overall I like how the project turned out. The fabrics are actually darker that the picture indicates. The center was one of my orphan blocks. Scottie and some of his other friends are made from a Mary Engelbreit fabric. I did not want to use plain black because Scotties have coats that glisten.

How many times round the block? revisited

A few posts ago I mentioned that I wanted to try the Twelvex12 groups Math theme. This is the block I made. The picture is a bit dark and all the fabrics are in shades of green. So now it sits as I ruminate. I think I need to add a leash and maybe a few flowers. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Henry David Thoreau

One very much quoted author and cool dude :)

"If the day and the night are such that you greet them with joy, and life emits a fragrance like flowers and sweet-scented herbs, is more elastic, more starry, more immortal - that is your success. All nature is your congratulation, and you have cause momentarily to bless yourself."

Fussy Cutting

I'm working on a new wall hanging and decided to cut up the small piece of flower fabric I had left over. Now I don't mind fussy cutting but sometimes all the little bits and pieces can get just a wee bit too time consuming. Add to that trying to fuse the pieces and you have cutting x2. 

I'm liking all the flowers and their various sizes. It would be really easy to add everything to the wall hanging but I try to remind myself that "less is often more" and that I still have a back to do.

It's end of semester exams this week for all the kids at school and in college. Wish you all well. We have 4 involved in this semi-annual process and they are experiencing various degrees of exam jitters.

One week to go .......

and the kids will be out of school for the holidays. Whoopeeee!!!!! We are so looking forward to our two oldest children coming home for a few days.

I was looking at our Christmas tree and decided I did not like it in front of the window in our family room. We had spent part of the morning clearing the room out and lo and behold a decent area opened up in front of our fireplace. Imagine if you will trying to move a 7 foot fully decorated tree without everything falling off :) It's doable and I managed it without scratching up the wood floor to boot :) Looks so much nicer and more festive in it's new location. (Tuck the tree skirt under the metal stand, crawl under the tree and puuuuush ever so slooooowly across the floor.)

A quote from Mother Teresa - "See how nature - trees, flowers, grass - grows in silence; see the stars, the moon and the sun, how they move in silence ....... We need silence to be able to touch souls."

Through Thick and Thin

So the colonoscopy went well but if I never have to drink Gatorade mixed with a laxative again I will be more than happy :) All of that purging caused my blood pressure to drop quite considerably but I should be fine by tomorrow.

I did get a lot of reading done which was nice. Read almost all of "Seven Layers of Organization" and given my own interior design background I have a quote from there.

"Good merchandising displays a room in it's best light by telling all who enter that you thought about what goes where."

All that means is group your collectibles together attractively instead of scattering them all over the place. The eye then rests and looks properly at the objects instead of bouncing all over the place. e.g. I have a collection of birds carved on small wooden eggs. They are displayed on a pair of small decorative stair steps in my front living room. It is located on the small wall beside the front door so the grouping is also physically contained in it's space and not lost on a large wall.

I'm contemplating whether or not I want to take part in an on-line quilt block exchange next year. At the moment it looks like it will be a semi patriotic theme with the emphasis being on blue and white.

I'm also contemplating trying to make some of the quilts in Fons and Porter's "Baby Quilts" magazine. I don't normally buy anything about baby quilts but this one proved to be interesting. If you are interested in kits you can find them at www.ShopFonsandPorter.com

Favorite links - Allsorts

Today I am doing the prep work for a colonoscopy tomorrow. One of the joys of turning 50 :)

To keep myself occupied between the hourly intake of fluids I'm going to be wrapping Christmas presents, sewing the center medallion on my son's wall-hanging, reading "Seven Layers of Organization" by Christopher Lowell and adjusting my favorite links section. I might even do some housework, the bathroom seems to be an obvious place :)

So I'm adding Allsorts by Jenny B. Harris to my favorite links. Keeps popping up in a number of other blogs I read and I spent a number of days looking at all her wonderful whimsy. Gorgeous. Wish it had been around when my kids were really young. 

"The art of being happy lies in the power of extracting happiness from common things."

Henry Ward Beecher

Racheal Ray

I don't watch TV much during the day except for this time of year. I was putting ornaments on the Christmas tree and the CD I was listening to had finished. Racheal Ray was on and interviewing Tom Jones. She is a huge fan of his and had such a hard time interviewing him without getting all flustery and in awe. It was quite refreshing to watch.

I'm working on an Amish style wall hanging for my son's bedroom. It took me quite a while today to baste the thing together because there is going to be a lot of hand stitching done on it. DS is not too sure about the feather stitch that is currently drawn on the center panel and requested that it be "manly" i.e. he wants the stitching done in black :)

Here's a thought. 

"To improve the golden moment of opportunity, and catch the good that is within our reach, is the great art of life."

William James

Applewood Farms/Beth Ferrier

Applewood is in my favorite links and wouldn't you know it but a video link about Beth Ferrier showed up at Quilting on a Budget today (one of the yahoo groups I'm having fun at). So take a look and enjoy learning how to use glue to help you with your applique quilts.

http://tinyurl.com/2e2sgc

I love applique but I also know I'm all thumbs when it comes to glue so would probably stick the fabric to myself :O I do plan on trying the process because Beth Ferrier makes it look so EASY and FUN. She also uses her best scissors to cut paper. Got to love her :)

St. Francis of Assisi

My book of collected quotes fell open to this one by St. Francis.

"We have been called to heal wounds, to unite what has fallen apart, and to bring home those who have lost their way." 

We live in a wonderful world (regardless of all the turmoil) and those of us who can should be willing to give from the heart to those in need regardless of the time of year. Having grown up in a country with a civil war going on in the background I guess deep in my heart I am passionate about each of us having peace within our own core and radiating that out to others.

I got a phone call this week from one of our Family History Directors (spouses) about a new project we will be starting in January. She was thrilled with the wall hanging I had given them at their party last week. The single yellow star reminded her of a tradition that her mother and grandmother participated in during WWII i.e. hanging a yellow star in a window for each person in the family who was fighting in the war. Even with my love of social history I had no idea about that one. I learn something new every day. (I need to haul my camera over to their house because I forgot to take a photograph.)

Charles Dickens

Having grown up in Britain I had to read most of Charles Dickens works either as required reading at school or just because I wanted to. So here's a thought from the man himself :) 

"Have a heart that never hardens, a temper that never tries, and a touch that never hurts." Seems appropriate thinking for this time of year and hopefully throughout the next. 

Happy day for me. I got one of my wall hangings COMPLETELY finished as in hand embroidered the  cream blocks with a modified fluer-de-lis pattern and signed & dated the back. I also had to redo some of the binding. Just have to decide on a name for it. 

Take Time To ........

I have this quote sitting on a shelf in my kitchen but unfortunately I do not know the author.

TAKE TIME TO ....

WORK - it is the price of success

PLAY - it is the secret of perpetual youth

THINK - it is the source of power

READ - it is the fountain of wisdom

PRAY - it is conversation with God

LAUGH - it is the music of the soul

LISTEN - it is the pathway to understanding

DREAM - it is hitching your wagon to a star

WORSHIP - it is the highway of reverence

LOVE and be LOVED - it is the gift of God.

Ink Circles

I was taking a long look at the Ink Circles site this morning and decided to look for a distributer in TN. Lo and behold there is one in Nashville and woohooo it's a company I thought had gone out of business. Stitchin' Post used to be at the Harding Mall waaaay over on the other side of town. (Most things are waaaay over on the other side of town :( ) 

Anyway, I loved the place and I would take my mother there on any of her visits. One day I went and it had closed, I was so sad about that. Time moves on (as always) and I got busy with other things. I am so thrilled to find out that they are at another location and in an area (closer to me) that I frequent fairly often. (Cann't imagine how I missed seeing them.) Guess what I am going to make time to do next week and I dropped a hint like a brick to DH for one of the IC patterns as a Christmas present:)

Back to Ink Circles. Lovely site and I downloaded a number of freebies to make Celtic Christmas ornaments for NEXT year. I am a very slow stitcher so maybe I should be saying next century :)

Thought for today.

It should be one of our nagging fears that we may die with our gifts yet unwrapped, with our talents and our skills untried and unused in the service of God and neighbor. We should not be caught short but give while there is yet time to give. Thus, when our day comes to stand before God, we must appear with empty hands, with our opportunities for doing good all exploited, with our resources for making people happy all depleted.

Fr. James Turro

Play day at the YMCA

I had plans but ended up having a play day of sorts. I started out going to our local Family History group for a presentation on Prehistoric Archaeology in Middle Tennessee. It was very interesting and we learned a goodly amount about a couple of sites right on our doorstep i.e. down the street.  We might be doing some creative writing classes next year to record our personal histories. 

A couple of the ladies decided to go out to lunch and I was invited along. We went for "meat and three", fried pork being the Friday choice of the day. Yum. They both had fascinating stories to tell about some of their personal family research.

I've been having some problems coming up with ideas to finish off some of my wall hangings -artist's block I guess. I decided to drop in on our local quilt group which meets on Friday afternoons. I introduced myself, looked at some of their work then raced home to let Lucy out and pick up a couple of my projects. The ladies were great. They gave me some ideas and  a couple of stencil designs to draw onto my fabric. I also took some of my butterfly blocks to work on and they liked what I have done thus far. I think I will start attending the group on a regular basis and.... remember to take my camera along. Their quilts are gorgeous and at least two are hanging in the center.

My thought for today.

The game of life is like a game of boomerangs. Our thoughts, deeds and words return to us sooner or later with astounding accuracy.

Florence Scovel Shinn.

( I'm thinking too much about Australia at the moment :) )

Louisa May Alcott

Wonderful author.  I read her books when I was a teenager. Don't ask me which one this quote is from I forgot to write it down !!!

"Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead." 

Many of us chastise ourselves when we fall short of our expectations when really we should be rejoicing in what we have been able to accomplish. 

I remembered this morning that I had agreed to do a cardinal swap (the bird). I found a quilt block with a cardinal on it that has always annoyed me because it did not "turn out right". I took it apart and cut it to size then did some crazy scrap quilting round it. Put some glittery rick rack on it. Turned out great and looks sooooo much better than the original idea. I have another one that I might just tear apart and make a regular Christmas block size from.

Currently my aspirations are telling me to take my Christmas package for my parents to the post office and mail it :) Where's a padded envelope when one needs one ? Oh, right, the post office :)

Fabric postcards for real

Well lets try this again. My hand got stuck when I was trying to move the mouse out of the way and than my thumb hit return and posted the air message :) Being technologically challenged also means I'm not sure where I recently saw the delete button for accidental messages etc.

Fabric Postcards.

I am in the middle of a number of exchanges at the moment which is a lot of fun. Since we are supposed to treat these as little works of art I decided to photograph each of them on a little gold easel. The challenge was finding somewhere in the house that would work well. After a bit of a hunt I eventually settled on Kristina's room. She has a computer desk with a shelf at a decent height and the wall behind is a very pretty shade of yellow. I sent 4 of them in the mail today and have two ready to send out sometime this week. 

Given that Christmas is coming faster than I probably realize I think it's time to put my art projects to one side (yeh right !!!) and focus on finishing up the items I want to make for family members. It would be wonderful if I could actually get something to my parents on time instead of the usual show up date of January through March !!!!

I signed up yesterday for a mystery postcard challenge for a quilt show next year. We will get the fabrics etc. in the mail and have to use some of the items to make the card. Thinking rather than doing. I can deal with that for the moment :)

fabric postcards

Larry the Cucumber

I got some of my inspirational books out of my bookcase and wouldn't you know it one of my daughters had written something inside the front cover and upside down so I thought I would share it with you :)

"God made you special and he loves you very much." Larry the Cucumber "Veggie Tales". I have not seen the whole set of videos related to that little character but they are a joy to watch.

Not only did I get that nice surprise I also found a stack of my quilting and cross stitch magazines in front of the bookcase. They are now safely stacked in the magazine basket in my sewing room. I guess I better organize the remaining books that are on the floor in the living room.

Inspirational thoughts

For years I've been collecting inspirational thoughts with the intent to someday create  art works with them. 

I've written down books of them so my thought last night was to post one a day to my blog. We'll see how long that lasts :)

Today's thought which is currently attached to my fridge is - "Each of us is a star. Together we light up the sky." 

In these days of world trouble we all can be beacons of light and each of us have ways to light up the lives of those around us.

Miniature Art and the master creator

For most of my life I have been fascinated by any form of miniature artwork - model houses and furniture, portraiture, watercolor landscapes, quilts,  etc. etc. etc.  How did I develop this interest ? My mother. When I was a child she would drag me round all kinds of antique places looking at furniture, textiles, jewelry etc. She has a brilliant eye for detail and while I may not have always appreciated it at the time I did learn from her passion. She has furnished a Victorian style miniature house over a period of years that I would love to transport over here. My parents Victorian stone villa is not too shabby either. We used to joke as children that mother had a paintbrush for a third arm :)

The master creator of anything miniature is of course God. Nature is the absolute inspiration for any art form. I am just in awe at His attention to detail and love to stroll slowly with my dog or go for drives and admire His handiwork. Sometimes I have to be careful I do not drive off the road :)

My mother has turned her walled back garden into a lovely place for my father to pursue his photography hobby. It has gone through many transformations and currently sports a Scottish twist to Japanese style.

One of my current interests is fabric postcards. This is a fabulous way to try out any kind of art experiment on a small scale. A really good tutorial can be found at http://dollmakersjourney.com/fabricpostcards.html. From there you can view numerous postcards donated to Fiberart For A Cause to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

Slooooooower than trying to walk through molasses

The internet access in this part of breezy Ohio is slower than trying to walk through molassess. No I have not physically tried it but it certainly created a good brain image :) I've about completed a small tapestry while waiting to read me e-mail over the past few days and have decided that some of the broohaha ones are going to have to wait till I get home for a response. I'm dedicated to celebrating Thanksgiving and the fun, froth and joy that can surround that event.

Another slower than molasses moment came when DD#3 and I were dropped of at Michaels so that DH could go to Circuit City. It was only supposed to be for about a half hour but we got into the yarn section and my daughter decided she wanted to buy some for a scarf. I swear the child looked at every single color and finish on the shelves and eventually we came out with 2 balls of variegated brown :) I threatend to package them up for Christmas but she would have none of it. I snuck in some fat quarters for a wall hanging for my sewing room (what can I say they have sewing machines printed on them !!!!) Please don't anyone tell the ladies at Dusting Your Stash or I will be in deeeeep trouble.

Happy Thanksgiving y'all

We are doing all the usual Thanksgiving stuff. Travelling through weird traffic, staying with my wonderful mother-in-law, helping make Thanksgiving dinner, shopping, eating fast food, travelling some more, interacting with relatives etc. etc. etc.

I love the idea of Thanksgiving and wish that in our troubled world more people would extend the hand of friendship on a daily basis instead of hurt, kill and conquer. I hope each one of us is able in some way to make our part of the world a better place to live in and does it with dignity and grace.

frprenescnnailrt - say what?

So I am taking a short break from helping my mother-in-law make Thanksgiving dinner and all will become clear as mud in a moment.

I am a member of a number of Yahoo groups. Our intrepid leader at Lady of Steeles Hand Embroidery Crafters posted a scrammbled up puzzle for us to work on over Thanksgiving. She has given me permission to post it here.

1. orsisscs
2. eleden
3. ofsls
4. opho
5. gtiantb
6. eatrptn
7. treaiaml
8. bgansikwetes
9. rany
10. tflriaumqe
11. efrruatncepi
12. ilutq
13. rsecsasrefrd
14. eclolbtaht
15. wcoalsleilp
16. tbloilucqk
17. htsoiwdesl
18. dweorkr
19. lhlanagwgni
20. frprenescnnailrt

Enjoy. And no I have not unscrammbled #20 yet :) My intent was to save the list for when I am travelling home but I got my mother-in-law started on it last night and wouldn't you know it she has solved all of them except one !!!!!!

Photographs to come

I am going to have to quite saying "photographs to come" in my blogs :) I have them. They are downloaded. Can I get them uploaded so that I can post them individually? Noooooooo :( 

I'll keep tinkering but it should not be this difficult. Maybe I'm missing something - yup - instructions !!!!

Twelveby12

I was trolling through some sites for inspiration and found this fascinating group of designers. Their current theme is math so I decided to give it a try with one of my Scottie dog blocks. I now have a basic 12"x12" entitled "How many times round the block?" using a number of my green colors. Photo to come.

It's our dear son's birthday to day and he is off camping with his scout troop. Rather him that me is all I can say. It's supposed to be about 14 degrees overnight.

Cross Stitch Corner - Just for a change - cross stitch

Our darling doggie took me for a walk this morning. Seriously she did :) She was none too thrilled when I cut it short. My ears were aching from the cold. Muffs were in my other jacket which was not much use.

When we got home I finally dragged out all my cross stitch projects and took photographs of the WIP's. A number of them just need outline stitch done which should not take too long. I knew I had a lot of projects (including my tapestry stuff) but 2 drawers full !!!!! Good grief. Enough to keep me busy for a loooong time.

Got to go. It's my turn to use the WII :) then we have to work out what we are going to do for our beloved son's birthday.

WIIFit

So DD #3 is now home and we are taking turns doing the WIIFit. It's great and a whoooole lot of fun. She is very good at all the different sections she tries. Me..... well my hand eye coordination leaves a lot to be desired and my WII age has fallen to my actual age :(  We have both managed to lose some weight and are trying to use it every afternoon as part of our "fitness" program ;)

My brain is definitely in quilt design mode because I keep looking at the little people and thinking there goes a fun looking village quilt using lots of brights.

The computer came back from the dead

Happy day :) Our main computer is now back up and running. My DH bought something off the internet and was able to retrieve all of my files. Saved us about $600-800. Now I can get back to writing my assorted family histories. 

Happy day part 2 - I found all the full size patterns I had made a few years ago for an applique quilt. I'm not sure if I want to tackle a queen size cover yet but at the very least I can do a large wall-hanging for above my bed.

Textile Corner - Scottie Dog madness

A few days ago I finally found an applique pattern for a Scottie Dog that was the right size. Yesterday I was playing around with some of my small quilt blocks and decided to use the pattern. I was so pleased with the finished result, in darker colors than I normally use, that I got going on another one. For the second one I used some of my Mary Engelbreit fat quarter stash and it turned out quite Christmassy looking. Now that I see the two of them together I feel inclined to make some seasonal variations :)

"Boston Grandma" sent me a fabric card as part of our one-to-one exchange at Postcard Pizzazz. It is a really gorgeous fan on a purple background. It arrived last night and we all ooohed and aaahed :)

Photographs of everything to come.

Speaking of photographs - my Snapfish quilt album came in the mail today. It turned out quite nicely for a first effort and I learned that I need to take some sharper images.

I took a jaunt over to Joann's this morning and ended up having a lesson on machine embroidery. Quite fascinating, but at the moment too expensive for me to justify a purchase.

Favorite links

If you want to have a look at some of my wall hangings in progress look under favorite links and it will take you to my Picasa upload.

Feed back is always welcome :) Some of my WIP's need embellishing so I am at the thought process with them.

Quilting of another kind

I had some fun Thursday through Saturday learning how to make a photograph album at Snapfish.com. I used some pictures of the quilted wallhangings I have been working on over the past few weeks and am looking forward to the album showing up in my mailbox some time in the next couple of weeks. It got me thinking about ways I could use parts of my quilts in photographs so I am going to play with that for a while.

John also got going with the online albums and put together a Christmas present for his mother. She loves Iris and has a fairly extensive collection in her back yard. He has taken numerous photographs. I would love to take some of his photographs and turn them into quilts either by doing applique or learning how to do fabric painting.

If you want to be inspired by what other quilters are doing go to www.quiltersshowandtell.com I found out about it today at one of the yahoo groups I am on and am just in awe and what some people are producing.

Another quilt site I ran across is www.lenorecrawford.com My jaw just dropped to the floor at her artistry. One of these years I will get serious about my quilt learning curve but for the moment I am happy to play :)

"Patriotic Stars" 2008

I call this wall hanging "Patriotic Stars." I started it last year.

Thursday 13th November 2008

It's been a while since I last posted, not because I did not want to, but because our main computer died. This has impacted a number of things, mainly my genealogy and family history writings. Hopefully John will be able to get the information from the hard drive retrieved soon. So I was without a computer for a while and have been learning how to use a MAC.

So what has been happening for the past few weeks ?

I spent a month moving contents of rooms around to create my sewing room :) It's up and running and I have been having a wonderful time finally getting most of the quilting WIP's completed. My DH got all my photographs downloaded to my desk top last night and I should be able to post them here within the next few days. It has been very energizing seeing my stack of finished projects get larger and my stack of WIP's getting smaller.

We had an unexpected house guest for two weeks in the middle of October. She had a number of very stressful events happen to her in the space of a few days and needed somewhere to stay while she put her life back in order. She has now moved back to Utah and is doing well so far.

On Sunday 26th October we had a big event at church. Our ward (congregation) was split and we went with half the members to create the new Bellevue Ward. We were all released from our callings (assignments) which means that I am no longer Relief Society President and John is no longer an advisor to the High Priest Group. So we have had Sacrament only meetings for the past two Sundays and this Sunday will be Stake Conference. The following Sunday we start back into our 3 hour block and with 3 wards meeting in the building there is going to be some overlapping of schedules.

On the 28th I had my birthday. I am now 50 !!! While I am older I don't necessarily feel any wiser. We went to The Melting Pot for dinner which is a great fondue restaurant in downtown Nashville. We finally got round to using the gift card my brother-in-law gave us for Christmas a couple of years ago :) One of my friends surprised me with flowers, balloons and ice-cream. Way to go Linda :) She pointed out that one of the balloons said "aged to perfection".

So today I will be working my shift at our local Family History Center. I was supposed to do Tuesday as well but DD#3 was out sick from school so I spent a good chunk of my time catching up on housework (had migraines since Thursday evening) and taking photographs of projects. 

Have a great day y'all :)

Welcome

Wednesday 8th October 2008

It's a gorgous day in my little patch of heaven. The sun is shining, there is a gentle breeze and I feel in the mood to sit in our back yard and watch the butterflies flutter around the remains of my flowers. Maybe I should pull up the remains of the Iris and Day Lilies to move them to another area of the garden. I was sorely tempted to by some Crocus when I was at Home Depot early this morning.

Lucy and I have enjoyed our morning walk in the crisp cooler air. She has perked up quite considerably since the heat broke a few days ago. "Eskies" have double coats which works better for cold weather. She loves to meet all the other dogs in our neighborhood and is passionate about trying to chase squirrels and chipmunks. We noticed the brush collectors out and about so maybe our large pile of tree limbs will be gone by the end of the day.

I am starting on a new endeavor courtesy of an e- group called POSTCARDPIZZAZZ. I'm doing a one on one exchange with a nice lady in Liverpool, England. We have a month to make our exchanges. I looked through my stash of already made items to see what I could use and am happy with the result. I just have to take a jaunt over to Joann's on the other side of town and buy some stiffer Pelon. Michael's is out of the stuff.

We are planning a Senior Sister's Luncheon at church in a couple of weks. We got the details for that sorted out today. I am excited about this event. All our ladies are so wonderful and not always able to get out and about as much as they would like. I love listening to all the stories they tell of times gone by and what life was like for them.

So like I said at the beginning it's a gorgous day in my little patch of heaven. I'm off outside to take some photographs and I'll maybe add them into this blog at a later date.