You Can Dress Them Up....

but you can't take them anywhere

"Why must you embarrass me with this stupid towel costume again!"

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

October TIF

I think this is the last of my "slice and dice" blocks. It was extremely relaxing working around the pieces with a simple running stitch.... the biggest reason why I choose to create anything... the mindful peace of relaxation. October TIF guide is here.

In addition to my workspace at this post here my most favorite workspace resides in this tin.... any place is my workspace as long as I have this. You know what they say, " The world is my oyster" and it is when you practice a portable hand craft.

Still one TIF behind... Augusts and I don't know why I'm dragging my feet.

Sunday... Week in Review

Made up these banners and will be doing seams today while watching the lowly Lions football this afternoon.

These are quite large, the template being made off an NFL penant. Should have started these earlier but it's fun to be in the spirit with the colors and novelty prints. I'll take Gayles experience from here on out as to when to start holiday projects.


Had to get the coats and gloves out... aargghhhh...

This is 8:10 AM last Thursday morning but the daylight saving time will be changing this soon. Thursday was the clearest day all week.

We took a ride up to Mount Arvon (the highest point in MI). after reading that they had logged out a view. Unfortunately they were still hauling the lumber out and much of the road was full of equipment and the roads too muddy, even with 4 wheel drive. This is as close as we could get.

This photo was in this weeks Lanse Sentinel and showed what the new view looks like. You can see the article here . (But I think this gets written over with each weeks edition though.) It's 12 miles down to our house from here.

This mini waterfall was a pretty spot to stop at on the way up. Few days left to enjoy like this one.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The photo of this block came out poorly in an earlier post. Here it is with much better clarity. I'll try better with this, the winter light is definitly changing how I use the camera.

7 Things Tag

Taken from Planterra.com

I was tagged by Sue from Paddys Daughter to tell a few things about me...

1) I dispise clothing tags... as soon as I get clothing of any kind, I have to cut the tags out... they irratate the heck out of my skin, especially the back of my neck. Love how Hanes came out with their logo and care instructions printed right on the fabric, an awesome idea.

2) I collect maps and atlases. I have a whole drawer full of maps from places I've been and places I'd like to travel to. I love reading about the geograhies of other countries and while reading books and blogs, will pull out maps to get the feel of locales.

3) I get sad and mushy when I see a little kid with glasses. I think it started along time ago when I saw Hitchcocks movie "The Birds". In the school yard as the kids were running away, this poor kids glasses fell off and were smashed. There's just something about seeing a small childs eyes behind glasses, their vulnerability. (even tho' I know that it's a good thing and that the parents were able to know (and afford) the correction).

4) I CAN NOT eat tuna or egg salad made any where other than home. I just don't trust it. LOL

5) I prefer being barefoot and can not clean house with shoes on.

6) I worked in the interior plantscaping business in metro Detroit for over 20 years. I worked for several different companies including Planterra and Artscape. My favorite assignment was the First Center in Southfield. It was a 40 hour week job just maintaining the greenery in this one building . I had my own office (a revamped janitors closet LOL) for tools, hoses, and record keeping. It was a 5 story complex with 3 wings, each being the length of a football field. There were 15 bridges connecting each floor that had cascading pothos and ivy in side planters. Numerous fica trees and underplantings, color rotations of mums and seasonal flowers . It was my all time dream job and I was never at a loss for meeting people! ( Very similar to pic above)

7) I have to have my feet out of the covers at night ( and a window open, even when its freezing). Might stem from being rolled in a blanket head to toe like a hot dog bun by the neighborhood kids when I was about 7 or so. I am extremely claustrophobic when I can not move my arms or legs.



In loo of passing this on , I would love (or would have loved) to know 7 random things about these 7 people... my Great Grandma Pearl, Amy, Julie Gardner Fountain, Eliza Calvert Hall, Opal Whitely, Mort Neff , and of course Lily Tomlin. If you'd like to play along, I'd love to read your 7 things, once a voyeur, always a voyeur!

One More Crazy Post - Lily vs Jane

Has anyone ever told you that you looked like someone ?????

I get it ALL THE TIME, enough to where I had to see for myself... and guess what ??? It's true...

I look just like Lily Tomlin ....

Thank God I don't look like Sarah Palin

all images taken from Yahoo Image files

Everything But the Kitchen Sink Kind of Post...

Don't any one faint, but I got a block done... (sorry about photo quality here)

All these dinky seams left me with just stitching around some of the portions. Tacking down the center leaf with mono filament thread reminds me of how great it is for its invisibility while at the same time how awful it is to stitch with. There was a bad spot in the orange patch above the leaf where the seam ripped out.. don't ya just love that? A mend necessary, slightly visable but covered well. This will become a Thanksgiving adorn-ament of sorts.

I read so many quilt magazines while gone that I can't tell you where I found this... but I saw a Hospital Gown pattern available through Lazy Girl Designs. Free downloadable PDF patterns here. Child and adult sizes available. I thought of making a few for my dad in some really cool prints. Think he'd like that. I talked to a fellow guild member today and got the lowdown on the meeting I missed. The soldier pillowcases are due at the next meeting. Found a great tutorial here at About.com. Guess I'll do one for each gender. A few of the girls are going to a show in Marquette the first weekend of Nov, so thats something to look forward to for more inspi.

Saw on Sharons B's blog her ideas for the new years challenge. I was a dud at participating in the Stitch Along at SF and I really wanted to work it.... now with TIF coming to close it will be really easy to take that time spent and parlay it over. I'm really bad at multi tasking my creativity and feel smothered into a kind of paralysis when too much is bouncing around. Constantly at work on that one.

Speaking of embroidery (and my dread of separating floss) I saw this little gadget in Quilters Home Magazine. (BTW... the PDF Tuffet Pattern is adorable.) It is a weighted clip that you hook to the end of the floss that spins and allows you to get out the amount of strands you want with out tangeling. Puffinco Thread Separator ,there is a video on the page that demonstrates. I know those clips are in the garage and if I hot glue a rock to it, do you think I'll get the same results? LOL

Trying to make the space more conducive to sewing standard pieced quilt blocks today. My ironing area was always a literal pain in my back and I think I've got it right now. I could always stand it just long enough to make CQ blocks, But enough blocks for a quilt ?? I want to enjoy this eh?... I'm right handed so I set up a low table at a 45 degree angle right next to the machine. Even though it takes up more space, who cares.... I'm in here for the winter duration now. Seems like every year I re-situate things in the home for the winter months. Is it called nesting or simply trying to keep the couch from being set afire by the woodstove?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ahh... the stove. Another good thing about winter. The best Christmas present I ever gave Dan was a set of Paula Deens cookbooks. Thank God my metabolism is as such or else....

Popovers and Captain Jacks Corn Chowder was fare for Sundays football game (I won't even touch that subject) Not the most healthful in way of her "calls" for butter but DEE-licious. Her site is full of scrumptious things.

Not able to let him be the best and only chef in the kitchen, I must put out every now and then to save face.... apple pies in autumn are a hands down fav.

I'm trying to search out bread recipes so if anyone has any they would like to share , I would really appreciate it. You can email me through the About Me tab on sidebar.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

And last but not least.... while looking at the photo I'd recently posted with T and C, it looked as if I have no grey. Well, I liked the unintentional photo wizzardry but the truth is....... direct sunlight is very forgiving and some other lights give the geriatric glow. All in all, I think the worst is over and if my timeline is right, it only took 6 1/2 months to get to this tolerable stage where I feel I can see this through with out having a meltdown and shearing it completely off.

It is what it is.... and today I'm okay with all of it and extremely grateful !

Book Game

Taken from Amazon.com


Saw this challenge game on Gayles blog Sparkle Jars .. .. I've seen it before and it sounded like a fun thing to do today....

Page 56 Challenge

Grab the nearest book.*
Open the book to page 56.*
Find the fifth sentence.*
Post the text of the next two to five sentences in your blog along with these instructions.*
Don't dig for your favorite book, the cool book, or the intellectual one: pick the CLOSEST.

"It was built open-slatted to let air move through it. Candlelight shone yellow through the slats until I was near enough for the sound of my footsteps to be heard inside. Then the candle was blown out and only the moon shone down. I opened the door and and stepped in. Shelves on one side filled with brown crockery. Milk jugs sitting up to their shoulders in cool water.. The spring rose up from its deep source and smelled of wet earth and the stones at the center of the world."

Thirteen Moons by Charles Frazier (Cold Mountain)

I've not read it yet but it looks like it'll be a good one.

The Journey Home ... Part Three

And then there's the shopping where there is shopping...

some Halloween goodies...

a load of wool scraps, floss and what nots. Wendy has bushel baskets of all kinds of scraps. Stuff a bag to overflowing, cotton - 50 cents... wool - $3... man do I know how to stuff those little bags. LOL

more fabric in the way of FQ's, scraps and books for winter reading.

Saw this adorable CQ witches hat at Wendys...

Is this not the cutest Halloween decoration you've ever seen? Pattern is shown here.

A stop at the Oakland County Farmers market, good thing I was traveling by bus...

Football pumpkin

Old English D of the Detroit Tiger baseball logo




Mary Ellen of Forever Summer always has a stand at the Farmers Market and I was out of everything. The "Hippie Chick" scent has become trademark... wish there was scatch and sniff available here.

We did a power shop... Monarch Quilts - Brighton, The Stitchery - Howell, Christinas Quilts - Rochester, Joannes - Waterford, Creative Corner - Romeo. We also hit Salvation Army, Barnes and Noble, Carols Used Books, Greens Consignment, Pet Supplies Plus and Meijers. Aaahhhhh, the fix felt so good.

All the trees are bare and the real first frost happened last night. D kept the house up and as far as I can tell, no viruses are on the computer LOL. D brought little Tasha along when he picked me up... nothing like being smooched to death by a furry pooch who hasn't seen you for awhile and the other 2 knocked me down at the door. There's definately no place like home! But it was good for the soul to be out and about in the big city, inspiration and the fire of new ideas abound as the winter settles in. Now to get caught up with blog reading... see you soon.

The Journey Home ... Part Two

I received a great phone call while gone... our friends Tophat and Cathy wanted to connect while I was down there... I love these two people!

Tophat worked with my husband at Ford Motor Co and Cathy ( thinking she'd retired too, is now challenging herself with a post-retirement job in ad/marketing... how fun) One of the best things in life are finding "soul friends" and these two are it!

Their living room hosts an awesome display of Native American artifacts. Tophat is an Ojibwe Indian.

A museum ( if you will) of spirit and connection to the ancestors of the past

Of course I had to share his workspace. Tophat is an awesomely creative beadmaker and native crafter.

Their backyard hosts a sequoia of unreal proportions to this part of the country. An indigenous conifer that I have never seen in Michigan before.

The braided trunk is paranormal for this region suggesting roots of something that really shouldn't be...
and a fine canopy to sit beneath while enjoying beautiful company

Life is made more sweet by having friends like these

"Miigwech" (Thank You) to both of you...