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?

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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.

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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 !

Swap Block and Week Gone...

I finished my 10" block for the Where Are You swap and I tried to add as many things as I could that show different things about our state. Mainly I concentrated on water but was able to add Motown through a little button "record" I made, the Ford logo, the Tulip Festival, blueberries, robin nest (our state bird) snow, pines, hiking, and our "house". The under water scene, lake/waves, the beach and the little stream with the bear buttons got the water part covered. My lettering is atrociuos with much to be desired as well as my satin stitching but I think whomever gets this block will have fun looking at it. I sure had fun making it!

Colors for August TIF are out... and the theme being "balance" ?... oh my, what in the heck is that? see Sharons post here. I'm not done with July's yet but played around with picking colors from the chips and fabric, just so I can look at it and think. I'm surprised at colors I just don't have... the aqua, tealish blue? Nada. The terra cotta-ish orange? 1 piece.

The photos below are from last week... a beautiful summer day with blueberries ripening and many plants and blooms enjoying the sun. It was a perfect day for the beach and hard to believe we were the only people out there.

Mouth of the Huron (Huron Islands 4 miles out)

blueberries

pitcher plant

hairy vetch (ugly name for such a pretty plant)

But this week there's a fallish kind of feel to the air and looking around, I can see the little signs of change in season. Heads up to the Aussies... the sun is headed home!

And last but not least is how my transition to grey is going.....( blogging confessions , Paula) I am truly very weird with this and don't know exactly how I feel except I know that one day leads to the next, some days are good, some are bad. This photo is extreme in that normally I wear it down in a headband in public, but wow, is it coming in or what?... this should have been my TIF for July, 1/2 way to grey, He he! Thank God for the Dove commercials that are seeing me through! ... if I get to the point , I'm only a box of Clairol away...

Till the next time...

Whats On the Work Table & Then Some....

As you can see, I haven't got "Kenny" fixed yet so still no "fancy" stitches for me. The Featherweight is a charm though, I'm getting very chummy with it. I try to keep the table picked up as I go but it was a disaster yesterday. I'll spare you the glimpse of the mess I made while piecing CQ blocks. A tornado has nothing on my block making technique. ( You can always click picture for the bigger view)

I'm always working on my creative journal, alittle of this and alittle of that. I've always kept clippings my whole life, little did I know what I was actually "doing" while I was collecting it.... other than it felt good to put thought and vision to something memorable. I remember taking a Kodak camera box with a hinged lid and glueing pictures of James Taylor, horses and flowers all over it. LOL... I would love to take Sharon Bs Journal Class on Joggles, to find out how to use these ideas to their best advantage. Maybe the next time she offers it.

So here's what's been /is going on ...

I pieced this queen pillow from the scraps I got while downstate. It's comfy, soft and so up north-ish. A great find of fabric for $1.00. And it's 2 sided.

I know now that my colors are dark and jewel like... I love working them as they soothe my soul. This is an oblong square, roughly 20 x 12.. I had no plan when I made it.. it just talked to me as I went along. I really seem to enjoy the piecing of CQ blocks , maybe even more than embellishing them ???

I signed up for a block swap over at CQN. The idea of this one got me out of lurkdom and back involved with some great ladies I've been absent from. The theme is "Where are You" and it's a block to depict your locale and where you live. I'll say no more other than I'm from "The Great Lakes State".

As always there's the TIF, ( Junes link) which I really enjoy doing. I'm going after the story of the big bad wolf, I'll tell more later. This has a ways to go but it's summer after all, many avenues of "playing" calling my name. I love trying to put the theme and the colors together into something cohesive and I like the deadline. The time-frame seems to be the main thing that pushes me "further" and it's also showed me that I'm pretty well set in my designs and things I feel comfortable with. Although I can always improve my workmanship I'm finding a concurrent source in myself and that feels good too.

I said I was cleaning out stash..... so after putting together a few goodie bags for mail I decided I couldn't let these go without at least doing some stitching on them. This turned into quite the pile of blocks... hmmm, a good twin sized quilt... I'm trying to decide where to "purvey" these.

To prove to myself that I'm not always a "purple" colored person fabric wise, I put together this combo to do another block.... if for nothing else but to remember the sunshine.

More scrap blocks made of these, the batch of fabric scraps that won't go away... they're in my header here on the blog, they're on my shelf, they're in my scrap box and part of a piece done way back here..... I'm thinking in terms of a Christmas tree skirt now ??? several more ornaments ???..( Yeah, Christmas...it's coming and I'm always off guard) Where did these all come from ??? Was I manic or something??

Last but not least, my friend Roxie gave me this narrow, elongated frame... I have pansies that I've over-dyed ( 3 years ago) to put in it and am working out the logistics now. Lot's more UFO's with good intentions here but I'm living better with them now..especially after my last "stashbusting/clearing out" episode. I may have been under the wire but things are shaping "U.P."!

These are the books I've been consulting most often the past 2 months. Much source of education and inspiration this season but I found these tiny, ittsy bittsy fairy flowers (below) that are still nameless among them .. does anyone know what they are???





This would be a photo of the the dreaded TICK that latches on to man and animal. A thirsty, blood sucking, disease causing parasite that is the bane of summer here in Michigan. This speciman comes to you tweezer-ized from the leg of Felon. I've found several on me, still crawling,(thank God) not yet attached. Lyme Disease is something me or mine don't even want to fool with.

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Now down to the chitter chatter beyond quilts..... we're scheduled for an 8 hour power outage through UPPCO tomorrow. We had an appt. to change from the Dish to Direct TV that I had to cancel because of it. The Detroit Lions will be broadcast via "The Ticket" in this house hook or crook come September.
We'll be taking the fishing boat out on the Huron Bay where power doesn't matter anyway. Alot of people will be enjoying the imposed "3 day weekend".

I cheated with the going grey regime when I went downstate a month ago. I used a Clairol "rinse" because my hair was so putrid. Well the rinse is gone, my roots are long and the sun is helping me in the transition. I'm still committed to letting my hair go au' natural and I'm thinking it's coming out in a silverish tone. I can only hope.

I'm still involved with the Arvon Historical Museum and over July 4th, I'll be giving them a few more hours of time while the pie social at the Zion Church is going on. We had a feast of a pot luck last weekend at the museum's annual meeting, they love pot luck around here. LOL The parade at Witz's Marina and all the extra tourists and summer visitors will make this small town seem like city. I'll be happy to sit in the shade with a needle and a cold drink.

Till the next time.. and do have a happy and safe Independence Day !!!! Jane

PS.... Drawing for the giveaway will be Saturday.. I'm excited to see who the winner will be...

Chatting it up for the Week...

Looks like today is a good day to post the happenings of my week... so here goes.....

I've been mulling over some ideas for Aprils Take It Further Challenge... (see theme and color there). I wrote a couple pages of "thoughts" and pulled some fabrics that go with the palette (or pretty darn close) and came up with this pile. It's hard working with the colors this time but I can honor my "South of the Equator" friends even though Spring is here and I'm itching for the color of it, just another pose of the Challenge. I can actually see these colors as a sizzling July, sun drenched, kind of day to suit this hemisphere. As in the past, I'm using paint chips to act as my color guide and this is the first time I've been short of one, the vanilla-esque color shown... I didn't have anything close so my eye will have to replicate it. No telling where this will go...

First thoughts that jumped out (and I mean way out) about how I see change was that any change has to happen with me. I can't wait or hope for anyone else to do it to make my world right. Ironically, that's been one of my personal challenges to deal with these past couple years.... learning how to let go, let live, and let God. I'm thinking that I can use this piece to cement one of the things I've made my "truth", these realizations about change that will take me to this next place in my life... pretty profound and catalytic, eh??? All I could seem to think of was this, "Man In the Mirror".... by Michael Jackson... video here.......and..... lyrics here. .... pretty well sums up my thoughts vicariously. So I'm looking at "reflection" and a "mirror" to use as my muse . Maybe a hand mirror with infinite reflections of myself to symbolize the "million" changes I've been through thus far???

I'm wanting to work on the back/construction of the Geronimo blocks too, wanting to use this kind of look which fits with this months colors... hhhmmm.... could I accomplish 2 in 1 somehow....? I best not push it for now but the idea did pass through me...

Ya never know what you'll find at St Vincents.... yesterday I stopped in after work... lo and behold.... 10 cents a piece... I'll take them.... vintage button hole twists. A couple Birds and Blooms and BHG Garden & Patio mags....$5 and some cents and I'm enthused for the week.

What 20 cents would buy back when, huh?

I've been trying to pretty up some on my days off... trying not to loose my whole "citified persona" up here in the woods. "I am what I am" and they say you should never forget where you come from.....both bad or good !!! My dear friend Mary Anne made these for me about 20 years ago. She macramed the most awesome bottles and plant hangers... a resurgence to be anticipated. If you really love something , it will come back to style again.

And this is my head... while I was photographing the earrings, I thought I would let you know that I'm GONNA DO IT..... Well at least really try and see how it goes..... GRAY or GREY.... (either way I claim it) ... I figure the sun is coming which 'll help me out with the natural highlighting, but here it is ( the best pic I could get by myself). I have a back up box of L'oreal Preference just in case I freak out, (unlike like the box of Marlboro Lights of which I am NOT ready to give up just yet).

Speaking of hair.. a few posts back I mentioned it was "Spring Do" time. I ensconced myself in the bathroom for 2 1/2 hours, towels rolled up around the base of the washer and dryer so the hair wouldn't float under and unmercifully sheared my 2 Lhasas of their winter coats. Tash and Tang are really happy about it no matter how they look.

I asked them to smile and this is the best they could do under the circumstances. Per a bad experience, I had to take them to the town vet for their nail trimming but my hair work saved a few dollars anyway.

Thank goodness Felon, the "Big Boy" doesn't need shearing.

Although we got 4" of snow this AM ,again..... Arggghhhhh, these are pics from yesterday.... The Trout ( Steelhead) are running in the Huron River. This is a view from 5 miles (as the crow flies) inland from Lake Superior. Big Eriks Bridge Campground is full of fisherman trying their luck. I thought this was the coolest campsite with the TeePee.

The snow is melting off the mountains in a big way now and heading towards their goal of filling up the largest fresh water lake in the world.

There's green peeking out in the forest...

and the Maple trees are putting out the sap that will become "sugar in a bottle".

Everythings feeling good to be getting into a schedule of sorts. I love my job but I love the time I get to dream and create,having fun with my camera and playing with fabric and threads too.

Till the next time, Jane