My First Embroidery

I had to work all weekend, but I managed to steal moments here and there to work on my first embroidery project. You know, all of you who said I should try it, you were right! It is wonderful fun! Here's my first block, something I've seen lots of other people working on lately, a block from the Gail Pan Christmas Wish BOM. I will definitely be making more. I learned three stitches with varying degrees of success: backstitch, lazy daisy and french knot.

Christmas Gift Idea

Did you read Shirley's post today? She bought a Quilt Block Frame from Angela and Jim at Country Scrap Quilts and put a really cute embroidered block in it. Which reminded me...I bought one to display a block that I won in a block lotto in my guild a couple of years ago.

Isn't this block neat? The maker (not me) is really talented. I love the butterfly!

But it also reminded me that I bought another of those frames last year thinking that I could put a quilt block of my own design into it and give it for a Christmas gift. I never got around to that last year, but what's stopping me from doing it this year? I have time to make a block. I'd like to try embroidery. I should be able to embroider one block in time for Christmas, right? Thanks for sharing, Shirley - now I'm all jazzed up about trying something new and possibly actually finishing a Christmas gift before Christmas! And if you are looking for a gift idea, check out Angela and Jim's shop. I've got my eye on one of those clocks...

I just had to try this

I've seen a couple people with this challenge on their blogs, and I really enjoyed reading their answers. So I thought I would give it a try. I love older female jazz vocalists, particularly Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne and Billie Holiday. Dinah and Sarah and Etta are probably my favorites, but I chose Billie since she probably has the biggest body of work to choose from. This activity makes me want to go turn on some music and croon!

Billie Holiday Pictures

(for those who are not familiar with the challenge, I chose one musical artist and answered the questions below using their song titles)

1. Are you a male or female? Sophisticated Lady
2. Describe yourself: Getting Some Fun Out of Life
3. How do you feel: I Don’t Know If I’m Coming or Going
4. Your family: Strange Fruit
5. If you could go anywhere, where would you go?: April In Paris
6. Your favorite form of transportation: A Sailboat in the Moonlight
7. Your best friend: My Man
8. Your favorite color is: If the Moon Turns Green
9. What's the weather like: Isn’t This A Lovely Day
10. Favorite day: Summertime
11. If your life was a TV show, what would it be called?: Everything Happens to Me
12. What is life to you? Havin’ Myself A Time
13. Your current relationship: Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man
14. Looking for: Nice Work if You Can Get It
15. Wouldn't mind: Pennies From Heaven
16. Your fear: The End of a Love Affair
17. What is the best advice you have to give: No Regrets
18. If you could change your name, you would change it to: Guess Who
19. Thought for the Day: Everything Happens for the Best
20. How I would like to die: Laughing At Life
21. Your pet: Gimme a Pigfoot (?)
22. Your motto: That’s Life, I Guess


Dinah Washington Pictures


Sarah Vaughn Pictures


Etta James Pictures


Ella Fitzgerald Pictures


Lena Horne Pictures

Aaaahhh!

Life has been throwing quite a few curve balls my way lately. Work is crazy, and I am in a stretch where I won't have a day off in 12 days. I found out this week that the after school care at my son's school will be discontinued after Thanksgiving, so I have three weeks to come up with an alternate plan for what he is to do from the end of the school day until the end of my workday. The list goes on.

Last night, after getting the kids in bed, I collected some candles, got my book, The Healing Quilt, and ran a lavender bath and pampered myself with some relaxation time. Aaaahhh!

Tomorrow night, my husband's basketball team is coming over to watch a movie in our new home theater, even though it isn't painted yet AND there is no furniture. Lots of big, noisy guys, but that means my husband is cooking on the grill, so I don't have to make dinner. I will be hiding out UPSTAIRS with Season 7 of the Gilmore Girls and some hand quilting. I can't wait!

Ta-da!!!

I sewed and sewed and last night, at an hour when I should have been sleeping, I finished my Scrappy Star quilt top! Here it is on my bed - it isn't big enough for my queen bed, but it may find its way onto one of the kids' twin beds when it finally gets quilted.

While I was admiring the corners (thanks, everyone, for your design ideas!),

it brought to mind my Crossing Paths quilt

where I did something similar with the corners.

And do you notice the border fabric? It is the same in both quilts! Who knew? It is a fabric that I had lots of but didn't really like, so I thought I would use it for a border - twice, I guess. I'm nothing if not consistent, apparently.

Those quilts looked so nice on my bed, I thought I'd pull out my other bed-sized tops to daydream about having a quilt on my own bed one day. Here's the one I started quilting 3 years ago, intended for my own bed. Lots of quilting still to go.

I think I am planning to one day gift this one to my father-in-law; the rich colors remind me of him, as he is quite the colorful character.

And then there's my last finish, still a favorite.

And who can forget the enormous 100" X 100" big block quilt - it is so big that you can't even really see the design on my queen bed.

Once I had all these quilt tops piled up on my bed, it took all my willpower not to snuggle down underneath the lot of them, but instead I put them away, determined to actually get them quilted someday.

But first, there is my New Year's Eve challenge. I managed a few more blocks on my buzzsaw quilt

plus I received squishy mail from Cheryl with four more flannels to add to the mix. Thanks, Cheryl! They are already washed, and will become blocks very soon!


Well, it appears that I have lots of quilting to do, so I suppose I should get to it!

Sunday morning ramblings

I woke up to find that my clock and my phone displayed different times - Daylight Saving Time, it is finally here! I feel like I have been handed a beautiful gift, one hour of time! I decided to use that time to try to catch up on blogs, since I have read very few in the last few weeks. I'm glad I did - do you know about the awesome giveaway at Canton Village Quilt Works? I want to win this:

Halloween was great! We have to drive into town to find a neighborhood to trick-or-treat in since we live in such a remote location. We tried a new neighborhood this year, one that was less crowded and more spread out than our usual route, but extremely friendly and fun. We also stopped by Mamanance/Nancy's house because she mentioned earlier that she probably wouldn't receive any trick-or-treaters. We can't have that now, can we?

Both of my children cracked me up last night. At one house, we arrived as one woman was running out of candy. She said, "Well, I guess you guys get the last of the candy." My 7-year-old, Jason, said, "Oh, would you like some of my candy so you can give it to the other kids who come later?" Needless to say, the woman was quite surprised and pleased with my little one. So was I. Compassion and generosity are good traits to have, in my book.

Later, about halfway around the neighborhood, my 4-year-old, Donald, got tired of walking and talking to strangers and he just wanted to get in the car and eat some candy. As people tried to give him more candy, he kept saying, "No thanks, I have enough candy." Meanwhile, I'm behind him thinking, "No! Get more so you can share with your Mommy!"

The Quilter's Kitchen

Tonight, there was no karate, no cub scouts, nothing! So I stopped at the library on the way home from work to let Jason pick out some more chapter books for himself, and to see if there was any quilting fiction at the library that I hadn't read yet. Lo and behold, there was! I picked up The Quilter's Kitchen by Jennifer Chiaverini

and The Healing Quilt by Lauraine Snelling.

I decided to start with The Quilter's Kitchen since it is such a short little story, really more recipes than stories. I sat down to read it while I drank a cup of tea (my version of heaven on earth!) while Jason sat down to do his homework.

One part of his homework was to read a story in his Reader, Hedgehog Bakes A Cake. At the end of the story, there is a recipe for Hedgehog's Yellow Cake. He brought it over to me and asked if he could make it. How funny that we were both reading stories with recipes in them! It looked pretty simple, so I told him to tie on an apron (don't you just LOVE wearing aprons? I think they are the best!) and we got to work. Or, I should say, he got to work, and I supervised and took pictures.

Less than an hour later...YUM!

My kids are so much fun! And now that I have finished the first book, I'm going to make another cup of tea and get started on the second. With another piece of that yummy cake, of course!