Back in the Saddle (Yet Again)

It has been a loooooong, eventful Holiday season, and I think I am finally recovered. Just so much to do.  I have learned that being the owner/moderator of Crazy Quilting International, a Yahoo group - very active - with over 800 members in almost 3 dozen countries -  takes time. That rather surprised me (duh!), but I had been a moderator (not the owner/“Momma”) of the group for years.  Sure, if I set myself out special tasks, they are going to take time, but I didn’t anticipate all the emails (which I love, BTW)  and other mini-crises that happen and need attending to. I have four other great moderators - Berta Partridge, Sharon Boggon, Gerry Hookstra and Wilma Van Wagensveld.  But sometimes the buck stops with me. And then we had our 2014 Retreat Registrations, which filled up in 2 days (I was handling those deposits).  I will post more info about that here later because we are also going to have a Visitors Day where others can come for a single day.  In a nutshell: Kansas City, September 2014.  I will also be sharing some other CQI stuff here as well as on the CQI Blog.

Anyway, I have been blogging and writing to all of you ‘in my head’ for weeks, with full intentions of keeping my blog going and up to date. Eventually, that is.  :-)  I think I am ready to finally show some of the pictures of my son’s wedding last June, plus pictures of our cruise to the Bahamas and my visit with my dear friends Carol and Woody K in Florida.  But that will be in a post or two.


First, I want to show you a quilt finish (a sane quilt, not a crazy quilt) that I did in December.  I had pieced this easy strippy mile-a-minute quilt top last year after Christmas and then put it away. The fabric is Kate Spain’s Joy for Moda, with a few other strips added in here and there.

I had the backing fabric (red Minkee), batting and binding,  so all I had to do after Thanksgiving was whip it out, baste it together and quilt it.  The quilting process was a freemotion nightmare with my old Husqvarna machine (about 15 years old). It has  been an OK machine most of the time for basic sewing and CQ piecing, but has always had tension issues.

Let me tell you, I was soooooo ready to pick up my new Bernina out of Layaway in December.  This was the last quilt  I was ever going to quilt on a less than stellar machine!!  And since it was going to be just for me to cuddle up in during the winter, I played around and experimented with the quilting on this quilt.

So, I am going to show a close-up of some of my crappy quilting. I tried to mimic the cording in the Christmas lights prints that meanders and circles, etc.  And then I thought “what the heck” and practiced anything I felt like.

So the quilting varies here and there to include stippling, pebbling, waves and a holly leaf.  See?  Even in sane quilting I am good at breaking the ROOLS.    :-)

remember, this is just PRACTICE!!

 But that’s OK. I love it, and so does Alfie!

And, in the interests of Equal Opportunity, here is a cute picture of Darla, taken a couple weeks ago:

So, I finally got my long-anticipated Bernina 550QE (Quilters Edition) out of layaway!!  I paid for most of it with proceeds from my Etsy shop, which I am proud of.  Financially speaking, going on the cruise and vacation was a higher priority than the machine sincethe layaway was 12 months interest-free.  Here is my new baby, which I have named Bernadette:

I have been taking the 4-week Owners Course and have completed 3 out of 4 weeks. Next week we will focus on quilting, and I'll learn how to use the walking foot and the Stitch Regulator (makes all stitches equal length when you are quilting!  YAY!).  The last week was a review of a lot of the heirloom stitching techniques that I used to do quite a bit of (pintucks and rolled hems being my favorites). I even bought a special gathering (ruffling) foot for it, so I am looking forward to sewing some cute clothes for DGD London this year!

My next goal is to save for a nice sewing table/cabinet with storage and lots of space for quilting and cutting out garments.

Well, my tummy is grumbling for dinner. Oh, and I am still on Weight Watchers and doing well.  Down 19 pounds so far, and going strong.

I will be back later in the week to begin catching up with CQ to show, wedding and cruise pix (I just want to see them again for the warm weather scenes!!), and a whole list of things. If I can find that list under this pile of paperwork for taxes. . .

Hugs,

More (and Better) Thanksgiving Images

I took some time to go through my myriad files and consolidate my Thanksgiving images.  So here are some more, and I think they're the best!!

Some Vintage Thanksgiving Images

Some vintage Thanksgiving images for you from my collection!  To save with the best resolution, right click, open in a new window and save from there.  Enjoy!

Lace, Pearls and a Magazine

For all you Crazy Quilters or embroiderers or art quilters out there, the new issue of Crazy Quilt Gatherings from Pat Winter is now available at Mag Cloud here.   I’ve ordered mine and  am excited to get it because my friend Susie Wolfe is featured. Her lovely Christmas Tree skirt, which she started almost two years ago (and I mentioned in the post about our visit to her home here) is on the cover.  It looks like the feature is a few pages long and has lots of pictures.  Believe me, Susie’s stitching is beyond beautiful.  It is meticulous and creative and a real inspiration. An eye candy overload, I promise!!  This issue is worth the cover price for Susie’s stitching alone!!

And I have been doing some stitching myself.  This time it was for Elizabeth, my friend in Kansas. We are participating in the Lace & Pearls round robin at Crazy Quilting International.   For some reason, her blocks really spoke to me, blue notwithstanding!

There were two stitchers previous to me who had each completed their own 6” block for Elizabeth.  One of them, Gayle, had used a piece of vintage beaded lace that she had purchased from me at the CQI Retreat in September.  To coordinate with her block, and since I had more of that lace, I also used it. It is the lace in the upper right corner. Barbara, who had done the other block for Liz, had made blue flowers out of Mokuba ribbon, so I did the same (although I reversed the light and dark) to further coordinate the blocks with one another.  Finally, Liz had given us the Irish crocheted lace to each include on the blocks, and I used that in the upper left.

The light brown gathered ribbon in the upper left was raided from a thrift store find and given to me by my friend Bev. The other laces are all vintage. This was so much fun for me to do. I am just loving the Lace and Pearls theme!!

My Weight Watchers weigh-in was this morning, and I maintained my current weight - no loss or gain. But that is just fine, as I have lost 16 pounds even to date.  I had my Thanksgiving day all planned out nutritionally, and now we have been invited to Cousin Carrie`s.  Some of the family is Jewish, so we will be celebrating not only Thanksgiving, but Hanukkah, which some are calling Thanksgivukkah.  (Does that mean that Adam Sandler needs to write another Thanksgiving song?)

Hugs,

Bumblebees, CQ and Treasure

When I get really busy, I tend to hyper-focus and forget about other things.  When I was a book-aholic (and had better eyes), I could read for hours on end and forget dinner, bedtime, etc.  I do that now with stitching and being on the computer; working on my Etsy shop, playing games, reading blogs or surfing Pinterest.  And CQI (Crazy Quilting International) takes a good chunk of my time (and heart). So, that is my excuse - and I`m sticking to it - for not blogging even when I have lots to share.  :-)

I am still doing catch-up posts in addition to sharing current projects and happenings.  So, jumping back to last August, here are some pictures from granddaughter London`s 4th birthday party.

She wanted a bumblebee theme, and we even had a cute bumblebee costume that she wore, with antennas, but that came off rather quickly because it was “too itchy”. I think it was a former dance costume (courtesy of the thrift store) that was meant to have a blouse under it.  So the bumblebee morphed into a princess.

London, Age 4

Bumblebee cake made by Grammy (me)

Eating fruit before the cake was cut

Grandpa Bruce and I gave her a great art station (desk and chair behind London in picture below) that I found at Costco. It is made of durable plastic and has room to store her markers, paint, etc.  Her daddy (my son Shane) is an artist and London definitely has artsy genes. Last year we gave her an easel/white board combo, so now she and Daddy have their art spaces set up together in their apartment.

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I  am still waiting for DH to download all the cruise wedding pictures (from June - my son Ryan and DIL Kim) from his spare hard drive (that he calls “Spock”) onto my hard drive. He was supposed to do that on his last days off as one of his “honey-do’s”, but he forgot. Ahem. Well, at least I got the legs to the kitchen table tightened up.  :-)

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Let`s move on to some stitching-related things.

I have finished my work on two blocks in our Lace and Pearls round robin at Crazy Quilting International.  These are 6” blocks.

The first block belongs to Gayle.  I really enjoyed working on this and did most of the work at our CQI Retreat in September.  The gray thing on the left is a Margaret Rose, one that Sharon Boggon teaches in her workshops.  Elizabeth Rudder refreshed our memories (with permission from Sharon) on how to do those.  They are time consuming but fun (and my example is rather lacking).

The block below belongs to Barbara W.  She asked us to add touches of black.  Her six blocks in this round robin will go into a wall hanging featuring a vintage silkie of a spider`s silk wedding dress shop.  It is so cute!

And over on CQI, we have started a program that runs through the end of the year - featuring the Etsy shops of CQI members twice weekly.  We do this in the form of Treasuries, curated collection of items.  One is a “supplies” treasury (think threads, ribbons, needles, lace, buttons, fabrics, beads, charms, etc) for needleworkers of all types. The other is a “gift” or finished product treasury.

If you fancy a browse, here are some of the Treasuries that we have posted so far:

Crazy Needlewoman’s Necessities

Sewing Southpaw’s Favorite Treasures

A Crazy Quilt Journey Red and Green Christmas Sewing Treasures:

Crazy Crafty Christmas Gifts

LES Designs Inspiration

That ought to keep you busy and out of trouble!  hehehe

Hugs,

A Generous Friend, Thrifting Treasure and a Sneak Peek

Yes, I know I could post each of the topics in my post heading separately, LOL. But as I work through all the stuff I want to share from the last couple  few  several  NINE months that I didn’t blog, it seems as though it would be cheating to devote a post to each one. Like I suddenly became some sort of super blogger, which I definitely am NOT.  So, you may be seeing these mish-mash-type posts for awhile.

And speaking of my studio (OK, I wasn’t speaking about my studio, but I did have to change subjects), I have to snap some pictures to show you the remodel. First I will have to clean it up though, as it has been put to good use and there is STUFF all over it already.  But I will get to that soon enough. I’ll even have before and after pictures. For now, you will have to settle for one little tease picture.

This is my fancy thread storage. Using the idea that Gerry borrowed from Judith Baker Montano, among others, I bought the old coffee cup rack - a very sturdy one in a lovely light color -  and mounted it on the wall.  I also purchased some rings from eCanyons, a place that Gerry recommended (and now, so do I). While my friend Diane was here visiting from Canada after the CQI Retreat in Colorado last month, we spent a couple hours one evening hanging my couching fibers. I have another dozen or so rings onto which I will eventually add other fibers - my perles, floss, etc. But I wanted to get this riot of color up so I could enjoy looking at it!  And doesn’t it look great with that GORGEOUS pin cushion I won in our CQ Crazy Gift game at the retreat? It was made of wool by my friend Ingrid who lives in California.  I gave it a place of honor in the studio, but have not yet stuck a pin in it!

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Every couple weeks, my friend Bev and Susan (whom some of you know from the CQI Retreats) and I get together to either stitch, go thrifting or work on my Etsy stuff. They are so generous to help with their time when we need to be preparing or packaging inventory, and in the process I am teaching them a bit about how Etsy works.  But I digress.

For our last get-together, it was Susan`s birthday.  I just gave her a stash bag of CQ goodies and a card, but Bev went all out and really made something spine-tingly wonderful. I think it’s gorgeous.  She took a print of two little girls and hand-pieced it into a block with a real primitive, Victorian feel.  Then she stitched gold to “tie” them together and framed it.  The caption reads, “Best Friends are tied together with Love”.  

Bev`s gift for Susan

And then, thinking I might feel left out (or more likely, just being the sweet and generous person she is), Bev made me a little gift, too.  Those are REAL leaves that she stitched. They have gold veins and a bit of needlelace on them.  I love autumn and STILL haven’t put any decorations up this year - except this one.  And I treasure it.  Thank you, Bev!

Real Leaves, stitched

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The week after we returned home from the Crazy Quilting International Retreat, Bev, Susan and I went thrifting, along with Diane (who was visiting as I mentioned above).  We all found some wonderful things, especially since at this time of year the stores gear up for Halloween by putting out their funny, outrageous, vintage and otherwise bling-y clothes. Lots of people go costume shopping in thrift stores, which I think is a smart idea.  One of our particular favorite things is looking for highly embellished gowns or Indian saris and clothes that we can raid for beads, sequins, gold purl, etc.


And we were not disappointed!  However, I scored a real find when I found this obi for $3 mixed in with the housewares - curtains, tablecloths, etc.  Isn’t it lovely?  Now, I don’t know much about obis, but I bet this is not a valuable vintage find of any type.  In fact, the back and front are the same, so it is not even lined in anything like silk.  But it is a wonderful feast for the eyes - the print, the colors.  I have it laid out on my old sewing chair in my stitching room (another sneak peek, I guess).   There is no label on it, but since it is not handmade, nor do we make obis in the US, my guess is that it is, at the very least, from Japan.  Or, on second thought, China.  (???)  Is there anyone who could venture a guess about this?

I think I’ll close this post for now.  Although I have a lot more things to share, I think that three things in one post is enough mish-mashing.  And tonight is Halloween, by the way, so we will be Monster Mashing!  Bruce and I always watch Young Frankenstein while the kids are coming to the door for treats.  I think we know all the dialog by heart, and use it all year long.

“Hump? What hump?”
“Walk this way!  No.... THIS way!”
“Put the candle BACK!”


Hugs,

Family, A Great Find, and Other Important Stuff

On Monday, which was Bruce’s only day off this week (he is “retired”, heading up The Tinkering Garage at The Leonardo Museum in Salt Lake City “for fun”), we had a visit from Bruce`s daughter Emily, her DH Chad (who is between Special Agent training courses in the USAF) and our sweet grandkids.  We were really looking forward to seeing them, especially our sweeties Deacon (age 5 1/2), Abbie (almost 4) and Gunner, 7 months.

Deacon plucks the uke

One of the fun things we try to do with the grandkids when they visit is to have a Jam Session, where all of us on our varying instruments play and sing together some of our favorite songs like “Old MacDonald Had a Farm”, “You are My Sunshine”, and other standards.  The kids love to pick silly animals for Old MacDonald`s Farm (like kangaroos and giraffes) and we have to all figure out what they say.  

Watch out Jethro Tull - here is Abbie on the flute!

Anyway, for Jam Sessions, Bruce whips out his ukelele, and we drag out our stash of instruments, which include another (toy) uke, a flute (bought that for $3 in the Bahamas, so you an imagine how *ahem* “fine” it is), maracas, harmonicas, a Fisher-Price xylophone, our drum (old oatmeal carton), etc.    Wow, were we ever wailin’ on Monday!  ;-) 

Gunner on maracas (and bumblebee toy)

The most AMAZING thing happened while they were visiting us that afternoon.  We were having our annual chimney cleaning done, and can you guess what the chimney cleaners found in our chimney? A torn piece of sooty red fabric that had been in the chimney since, oh, probably last Christmas!  We adults were trying to figure out what it was and how it got there. But Deacon and Abbie figured it out first (wink) and excitedly told us adults that it came from Santa`s outfit!!  Oh my!  You can just imagine what a thrilling event this was! Deacon and Abbie wanted their picture taken with it.  We gave it to them so Deacon could take it to Show and Tell at Kindergarten the next day.  I tell you, the fun never ends around here!  

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A month or two ago I did some Angel work (substitute stitching) for a Crazy Quilting International round robin.  The block was mostly done (and nicely so), but I was the last person to work on it and tried to tie things together and fill in the blanks.  My humble contributions included the leaves to the large flower (upper right) that was already there, seam stitching in upper left, adding some flowers to the arrangement above the heart and the ribbon topiary and swirly stitching on the left.

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Well, I guess I have no shame.  This post has been full of gratuitous pictures of Cute Kids  and Lovely Stitching.  What am I missing? Oh!  Baby Animals, of course.  ;-)

So, without further ado, here are a couple snapshots of my sweet little troublemakers, kittens, Alfie and Darla.  Alfie’s picture was snapped a week before the one of Darla, and he is noticeably smaller.  They are growing up too fast!!

Alfie “recharging"

Darla - “I’m too Sexy for my Fur"

Yep, they’re really dignified, aren’t they?

Until next time,