A Few More

OK, I've had days to do some sewing and only have a few more to show, boohoo! No whining, I did change my sketch and have done a clean out so that I have space to move now in my "studio". So, here they are, the X's and O's plus a few hearts. I am trying to get the hearts to look like the conversation heart candies. Haven't started on the white ones yet and am uncertain about the thread color, maybe I'll just stick with the magenta color as shown here.

SOOO many more blocks to go. Seems daunting even if it will just be a lap size quilt. Off I go.

Slow going

Yep, only 7 blocks to show you. It's slow going for me here. I've drawn out my sketch for the Valentine lap size quilt, but now I'm having second thoughts about it. I started here with the X's and O's (or hugs and kisses). I like the pink one in the right bottom corner......just a little tiny hug. I may even change the way I am doing these as they are starting to look more like funky boxes instead of O's. Time to take a breather.

The sun shone all day today! What a shocker! And it really wasn't that cold. The jacket of choice was my zip front fleece. Usually I have to wear my fat coat, as I call it, it's an overstuffed box stitched down coat the zips all the way up to the chin. Boy, that sun felt so good. The farmers were out clipping back the dead grapevines and putting them in neat little piles in each row.

In 2 short miles I came across 4 crucifixes all being just a little bit different from the next.

This picture was taken last fall and is the most different of all the crucifixes I have seen before, but this one is my favorite. Love the grapes and vines along the edges of this one. It's carved stone, not painted.

My son and hubby want to see the film "Beowulf", maybe I spelled it wrong, sorry. I am just not at all interested in this movie. My DH wanted to see the series "Rome", so I put them on my Netflix queue. It's just too brutal for me, so I haven't been watching that either.

I've been reading lately instead. My mother sent me a book on Menopause, "The Wisdom of Menopause" by Christiane Northrup, M.D., don't like that one. I don't have a closed mind about what she is trying to say, she's just too cynical for me. I've only read the first 100 pages, so maybe it will get better. I have 2 others I have been reading as well, "Menopause without Medicine" by Linda Ojeda, Ph.D. and "The New Menopause Book" edited by Mary Tagliaferri, M.D., Isaac Cohen, OMD, and Debu Tripathy, M.D. These 2 I am finding to be more resourceful which is what I want.

Sunset is gorgeous, so I'm going to go and try to capture it on my camera. Have a good day. :o)

Something New

Here it is, all finished. It only measures 30 inches square. I like it but it does have mistakes, of course, it wouldn't be my quilt if it didn't have at least 1 mistake! The pattern or technique was taken from Ricky Tims' book "Convergence Quilts". Here is a picture from the book of what the quilt should have looked like.

I found the book to be easy to read and it was just packed with pictures not only of each step to take, but also how to get different looks and styles. When I am interrupted just for a second this is what ends up happening. I cut the stips from the wrong direction, so I got a totally different result.

Now, I do like the outcome, however I am going to try the technique again at a later date. Probably with some of my wilder prints.

On to something new, I have received my order of wonderful cheery fabrics from equilter and was wondering what to do with them. The free piecing class that Tonya gave was so inspiring to me that I not only finished my "Let It Snow" quilt, but that I wanted to do a lap size quilt as a Valentine gift to my DH. So, here are the fabrics I've chosen, some of them are brand new and some are from my stash.

My ideas for the words have gone from Conversation heart type sayings like, "Be Mine", "hugs", "you're hot", "kiss me" and these would be inside heart shaped blocks. To the X's and O's blocks with words at the top, bottom or both saying "Be My Valentine". Maybe I can do a mixture of both these things since it will be large enough in the end.

It's another dreary winter day here, so good time to stay in and sketch out these ideas. Have a great day! :o)

Off and Running

Yesterday was my cleaning day so I didn't get any sewing done. But that's OK because today I am free to sew all day and that's what I am going to do! One of the Christmas presents from my DH was a digital photo frame so I played with that yesterday as well. When I opened it I was wondering if I would really use this thing, but after loading on some pictures and watching it......I love it. It's almost mesmerizing. It also has the capability to play MP3s so I will have to figure that out later. It's a frame, it's a clock, it's a calendar, it's an MP3 player.......no, it's all of those things. What a great present and believe it or not my darling hubby bought it for me and only me. Who knew? Sometimes he buys a gift for me, but really he's buying it for himself because he knows I won't like it and I will just say "oh, that's OK you can use it/have it, I don't know what I would do with that anyway". NOT THIS TIME, buddy.
It's mine...all mine and you can't have it or use it! NNNAA.

So I am off now to sew to my hearts content. In the coming days I will have something to show you for sure!
Happy Thread Trails to you.

Putting it Away

This is the weekend we put all our Christmas decorations away until next year. I would have had it all done in 2 days in past years, however, this year I am extra careful with wrapping each item as we will be moving later in the year. I am also sifting through ornaments and decorations I no longer want, so those items will go to charity.

I have taken a break from the packing to bake some wonderful Oatmeal cookies. I can't remember where I got this recipe, but it's my favorite and if you like soft cookies you gotta try this.

Oatmeal Cookies:

1 cup softened butter

1 cup granulated sugar

1 cup light brown sugar

2 eggs

1 Tablespoon Molasses

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

2 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups quick oats

1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup raisins

1/2 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

1/2 cup mini- chocolate chips (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a large mixing bowl, cream butter and sugars. Add eggs, molasses and vanilla beating well. In a medium bowl, combine all dry ingredients. Stir 1 cup at a time into the butter mixture, beat well. Stir in the raisins, nuts and chocolate chips. Drop by Tablespoonfuls onto baking sheets and bake for 9-10 minutes. Cool and remove from the baking sheets. Makes about 3 dozen.

As soon as I am finished with the packing I will continue with the quilt I am currently working on which at the moment is waiting at my sewing machine ready to be quilted. Here is a picture of it before the sandwiching.

I am just going to free motion quilt this top. It's not very large, maybe 38 inches square so it won't take me long to complete it. Yeah, I'm on the right track so far this year with my resolutions of finishing the UFO's. I have finished the Let It Snow quilt and it is packed away already. So only 8 more to go, not too bad. The sun just came out and it's a beautiful day.

Happy New Year!!

I had such lofty ideas of doing nothing but sitting at my machine and quilting over the holidays. Of course, that didn't happen due to getting a cold the day after Christmas. It hit me like a brick wall and I'm just now feeling better.

My New Year's resolution is to organize myself and my time so that I can get more things done especially finding more time for quilting.

This was my precious cat "Charlie". She passed away almost 24 years ago, but I often think about her. Tonya's cat "Lily" reminds me so much of her. Not just that they are similar in coat, but in their personalities. Since my DH is now allergic to dander/cats and dogs, we don't have pets. Two years ago I made a quilted book about my cat. Here are some pictures of that project. It was a lot of fun to do. I started with the concept of a soft book of only 4 to 6 pages. I came up with a poem as my story. This is the front cover.

This is the first page. The mouse has leather ears and tail. The bird's wing is stuffed and has a bead eye. This is page 2 which has fake fur, velvet and buttons.
Page 3 has embroidery and velvet.

Page 4 is applique with a stuffed heart that's removeable.

This is the back cover. It was mostly machine sewn and quilted. I added tabs to my pages and put gromets in each then threaded a ribbon through to hold the pages together. It opens flat.

The pictures of my cats were printed onto treated fabric sheets you can buy. It was extremely easy to do after an intial trial and error period. I'm glad I could share this with you and it makes a wonderful keepsake for me.

Christmas Everywhere

I am posting more photos of the Strasbourg Christmas Market. Isn't this tree beautiful? It was better in person, believe me. There were crowds and crowds of people, so I cropped the bottom to get most of the heads out of the picture. The air was filled with scents of spices, incense, and food booths selling crepes, pizza, and cookies and of course, Gluewein or mulled wine (spices like cloves, cinnamon stick, and orange peel is added to red wine, warmed, then served in a cup). So good, I look forward to this every year.

Walking through the streets was sometimes a task as there were thousands of people to weave through. We would stop briefly to admire the shop keepers wares. Here is some of the windows we passed. These cows are awesome. They really put a smile on my face. Unfortunately, when we passed by, this formage shop was closed. Otherwise, I never pass up a good hunk of cheese! The cow on the right shows a city scape all over her body. It was more impressive in person. I love it!

Another food group I rarely pass up is Chocolate! These Santas were so good looking, however,

I found them to be pretty pricey. They are marked in euros and the US dollar is not fairing well right now.

My son informs me that these treats are awesome. Wierd looking, but awesome. Of course, he loves marzipan and chocolate. I still can't figure out what they are suppose to look like? Maybe alien treats?

This picture doesn't do justice either. Close up these candies looked like gems or little rocks.

Here's the last one. I thought these stockings looked so cute. I think they were only 4 or 5 inches in length, but certainly big enough for an important gift like earrings or a bracelet? Maybe that ever important gift.......Chocolate!

Today I am sorting through my button box. The pile of brown buttons is the largest, and each color will go in its own baggie. This will help me better find what I need in the future.

Wrapped a few gifts this morning and thought too late about making some sort of button ornaments. Martha Stewart's website has lots of great crafty ideas and I saw some button ornaments there. Maybe next year! Gotta write that in my journal so the ideas don't escape me by February. HaHa Enjoy your day!

Visions of Sugar Plums

On Sunday, my son and I took a bus trip to Strasbourg France. It is in the Alsace region and on the border of Germany and France. We had so so weather. It rained for a bit, then cleared up and we saw the sun and blue patches for a bit, then it rained, and so on. We did a lot of walking. Most of our walking was on the cobbled streets near Little France and the Cathedral.

The Christmas market was scattered between streets near the Cathedral. It was so beautiful and when the sun went down and all the lights went on......WOW! Lots and lots of gorgeous lights. More than I've ever seen in one city.

This picture was taken between two streets on Gutenberg Square. Blue panel lights to the right and Angel Star lights to the left.

This one was on the corner near the Cathedral.

Yes, I cropped a bit off the bottom to get every one's heads out of the pictures. It was incredibly crowded on Sunday....... all day no let up. We got there quite early around 10am and it was already crowded.

Here are some more pictures. This one of the Cathedral was a hard shot to capture. It was darker than this picture shows and lights within the Cathedral were on. Since it was darker I had a hard time keeping my hands steady enough for the shutter speed. That's why it looks a little blurry.

Does anyone know what this one is about? Any ideas? There was a shop along a street leading up to the Cathedral and above were these 2 windows. The streamers were blowing around, it looked spooky, and on these chairs are crowns and on the backs are what looks like angel wings. With the lighting and the bluish lighting to the right side it looked more spooky and Halloweenish than festive and Christmasy.

Blogger won't let me add anymore photos now, so I will save some for my next post. It was a great day out and I would recommend going to the market if you've never been. We are going to the Mainz Germany market this week. So I need to rest my tired feet.

One more UFO

Ahh ha, I have finished the top and am so pleased. Glad I only took, in a matter of speaking, 5 minutes break from this then plowed right through to the end. If I hadn't listened to you all, I would have tossed it aside and moved on to something else. Thanks for not letting me rest. Now it is officially added to my UFO pile to be completed later. Could be only a day later or possibly up to years later. However, that won't happen as I am sure my New Year's resolution will be, once again, to finish all that I have started in the year. That doesn't mean I can't start something new. Otherwise how could I carry on my little tradition for New Years 2009??? AAHHH Hemm...





Anyway, here it is in all its glory:

I don't think I will add another border. Am thinking about just adding red binding after machine quilting it and calling it a day. This is undoubtedly the quickest top I've ever put together. Thank you, Tonya. You're a sweetheart. I have some more ideas kicking around in my head for the not too distant future. Like using your X's and O's in a kisses quilt for Valentine's day. Maybe in Chocolate and red colors like kisses candy. Possibly something with a 3-D effect to it as well. Quite a few years ago, I made some sketches in my book for a Nutcracker Suite quilt. Didn't get far with the idea, but your technique has sparked a few new elements I might develop further for that idea. This would be a good one to start around October 08!

We haven't seen sun here in days and days. I wish it would at least snow. Then we would have the illusion of some brightness in the day. It's a good day to work on some UFO's that are gathering dust bunnies and watching football. Come on, Lions, I know you got it in ya! My favorite player is of course, Jason Hansen, he's the only scorer at times (in case you're not up with football, he's the kicker). UUGGGHH, every year it's the same. Maybe your team will win today, good luck!

Sew, Sew, Sew

I am starting to get bored of this top. It's not taking shape like I thought it would. Maybe I will just set it aside for a while.

The houses don't look right. One of them has a side missing. Even though my husband likes the wrap-around window look, it just doesn't .......... to me. I am not trying to be perfect with this project. But, I would like to be proud of it. Otherwise, why finish it? It may just end up at the bottom of my UFO basket. My frustration level is rising, so for some relief I will just take a break. Maybe move on to some Christmas craft project.

I send my nephew handmade ornaments for Christmas every year. He is 10 now and it's getting harder for me to find a crafty ornaments that he would like. I've done beaded, felted, quilted, and folded star balls over the years so far. This year he is getting gingerbread men beaded ornaments. They were a lot of hard work. I can't tell you how many tiny seed beads I lost in the carpet and under the couch making these.

Speaking of my couch..........why do couches EAT everything that falls to the floor? It doesn't matter what it is. My couch likes the newspaper, beads, keys, bottle tops, you name it-- if it falls to the floor that couch will learch forward to grab whatever it is and roll it to the back near the wall. It sits back laughing and mocking me as I get on all fours searching for the lost items. If my husband is trying to find something, the first thing I ask him is "Did you look under the couch?, I think it fell on the floor". It's not funny, seriously.

I am in the middle of watching the X files season 6. I loved that show. Even if it was corny and unreal. Hey, what isn't these days. TV really stinks. My DH watches the reality TV shows. Come on, once you've seen one you've seen them all......too boring for me.

Wow, what a rush

Thanksgiving....what a great holiday! Anytime there is a holiday to celebrate food or the eating of food and the gathering of food, it just can't get any better than that. Like any worthy awards ceremony, I would like to take this opportunity to Thank my husband and my son for all the help setting up, cleaning up, taking down, and laughs afterward we shared. I want to Thank my mother for her wit and wisdom in the kitchen that she has gratiously handed down to me. Thanks be to the turkey, the stuffing, and the cranberry sauce, may they never grow moldy or lose their place at our table. And one last thing, Thank God there are after T-Day sales so my guys get out of the house which in turn frees up time for me to sew. Amen. OK, nuff said about T-Day!

So, after a few hours of sewing, I've come this far. I have been dwelling on the words for this wall hanging, but haven't come up with anything solid yet. Maybe just a few simple words at the top like; Let It Snow; Winter Wonderland; or how about Over the River and Through the Woods?

My mind is blank right now, but with some embroidery work on the snowman and maybe a holiday movie this afternoon, something will come to mind.

So, I'm keeping it short today.

Here is what I have so far: