Winged Hearts

Okay, I finally got the design done for the winged hearts swap and my first one done. Did you ever have a situation where you just couldn't get motivated? I mean, I had the design in my mind (although it *did* go through some changes), pieces cut, etc. and just couldn't get my rear in gear to finish it up? I mean -- I like winged hearts enough to wear one forever on my shoulder, but I just couldn't get moving to finish up this swap stuff...Oh well, the rest should be done soon. I just have to finish up cutting some kits for ebay.

See you soon with a fun description of Tart and my trip to the aquarium.

A Question of Copyright

Hi all -- I'm posting again. I've just written to see if I can get permission to use my back tattoo as the inspiration for a quilt block. It's an interesting question and I've spent the past couple of hours reading about copyright of tattoos on the web. A lot of food for thought. Here's a photo of it, as an FYI -- since unless I'm wearing a "wife-beater" t-shirt, you'll never see it! Unfortunately, the shading color kind of photographed funny -- it's not purple at all, more of a darker red. The quilt block I'm thinking of would eliminate the halo and a lot of the shading, etc., but I'd like a similar shape with the same type of "sharp" wings/feathers.

Flipping Mad

I am so flipping mad I just had to share -- I belong to an on-line group that is, for the most part, very nice. NO politics and no religion. Sounds perfect -- like I don't have to worry about the inevitable witch questions or people trying to convert me.

There was a post, though, concerning immigrants. Those of you who know me, know how I feel about it. Hot button is an understatement. I kept my mouth shut for post #1, #2 and now there is #3. I'm about ready to start the rant about this country being built on the backs of immigrants, both documented and undocumented as well as the facts that our founding fathers who landed on Plymouth Rock were certainly not invited by the natives who already lived here.

I think I'm going to explode...

Butterflies of Hope

I very rarely, if ever, name a quilt, but decided to name this one. It's still not totally finished but the top is together and I'll get it sandwiched up sometime soon. I'm still trying to figure out how I want to quilt it. I have a friend with a long-arm and may ask her to borrow it for some type of stippling. I had received a quilt when Beren died that had words incorporated into it -- some sympathetic magic and I'm thinking I'd like to do that -- things like hope and faith and love and survival, etc. I don't know, I've still got to sleep on it. Mom contacted her friend and the local cancer society is going to raffle it off as a fund raiser.

Anyway, it's now only a half of a UFO now that the top is done!

cya soon

SGWSW -- First Block Received

I just received my block from James. It's beautiful and I love the accent color. It's not a color that my eye would go to, but seeing it like this, it's going to be added. Very cool -- I'm quite excited about this quilt!

Some New Year's Blocks

Happy New Year Everybody!!!

Here are some of the blocks that I've completed for the Breast Cancer fund raiser quilt. Right now, I'm doing two of each style and still have a bunch to do. If I need to do more to get it to size, I will. Sashing will be the butterfly fabric which is actually quite pretty on its own. For some reason, the purple bits in the butterflies didn't photograph very well (in case you were wondering about the purple fabric) -- it's in there, though! Sorry for the quality of the photos, I'm not in the mood to mess with the lighting, etc... :)

The Tart is 3

Hard to believe, but the Tart is three today. It seems like yesterday that holding her in the hospital made me realize, in all my grief for Beren, that I still like babies. Having her around has been such a blessing and at times, has saved my sanity. Thank goodness momma Cat understands and cuts me slack when I feel the "need" to kidnap her for some Aunt Chuckie therapy.

She was absolutely adorable tonight in her little princess tiara. She was in 7th Heaven that she had a Jack Skelington cake and got a Jack pillow from Aunt Kristen. Roger and I were both miserable with this cold/bronchitis thingie so we left basically right after the cake.

I'm going back to work now on the quilt top I started yesterday. I think I can finish up most of the blocks today. I should probably do work, but I'm really not up for it enough -- I'm afraid that because of the cold medication I'll make some mistake that I can't fix easily. At least with the quilt there's always the seam ripper!!!!

Anyway, Happy New Year to all. Hopefully I'll have some pics to post tomorrow.

Skulls, skulls and quilting...

I finished my first set of blocks for the new swap. The theme was skulls...Although I know which one I like best, it's hard to figure out what someone else would like... Oh well, they're all off in the mail tomorrow.

Thanksgiving Update

We finally got finished cleaning up from Thanksgiving today. I think everyone had a good time, hopefully, at least. Mom and I went out to the outlets today and I bought a very nice set of snowflake cookie cutters at Williams Sonoma. They were $5.00 for the set and they're a really nice size.

Then Mom taught me how to match plaids. We pinned and cut the Tart's "Festivus" dress and after Mom left for home, I put it together. I haven't sewn a garment in such a long time, it was a real learning experience again... It still needs to be hemmed, but the Tart is sick. Hopefully tomorrow...

I put a binding on the Teddy quilt, but I'm in no mood to hand sew. Of all things, my *right* shoulder is hurting (it's the left I broke) Right now I'm putting together another crib quilt -- one of the ladies on QC is helping me to figure out the triangles -- we all know I stink at math.

Anyway, here's the pic of the Tart's dress...

Little bit of an Update

Okay, it was quite rightfully brought to my attention that I haven't updated my blog in quite awhile. Life has just been so crazy lately that I don't feel like I've had time to breathe.

Let's see, so much has happened since my last post--I got a promotion at work and am now doing basically two jobs. It's taking a bit of time to get my feet under me, but it will happen. I have to get back into the habit of supervising someone and I haven't had to do that in quite awhile.

Lately, I've been doing a lot of work at home and trying to pull together the quilt business. We're doing a Christmas fair next weekend and I'm trying to get some stuff together. As soon as I have finished products, I'll post them up. Probably tomorrow -- everything is just waiting for that final finishing. It's the part I actually hate the most.

Halloween was a lot of fun when Lindsay finally came over to do trick or treat, but it was kind of a crappy day overall. An odd thing that happened is that a catalog came in that we've never gotten before and it had what I think is a perfect permanent urn for Beren. Roger is still thinking about it, but I love it. Odd that the day to honor the beloved dead and finally I found an urn. It's been tough because the ashes are only about 1/2 a cup. Right now, there in a sealed box with a beautiful pentacle on it, but that was always only supposed to be temporary...

Anyway, I'll get back soon to the blog habit. :)

Finally Back and Princess Pics

I'm finally back! At least to typing. I still have to take it easy because I have such limited motion in my shoulder. Next doctor's appointment is 8/14. I'm actually not supposed to be typing or driving, but I just can't live that way any more! Hopefully by next week, I'll have enough strength to be able to cut some quilt kits for ebay.

Speaking of quilts, here's some pics of the infamous "Princess Quilt". I pieced it and Mom quilted it. Jules loved it, so it was worth all the work. Unfortunately, we didn't have a good space to photograph the whole thing, but the first two rows are repeated for 7 rows. We were a little worried about giving a 4 year old a basically white quilt, however, according to my sister-in-law, Jules is very careful of it.

I'm so happy I finally got the hang of the saw tooth stars!

Kitty Pics

I haven't written in awhile, but plan on some tonight to bring everybody up to date. In the meantime I promised some kitty pics. These three are kittens who were born of a wild mother that we adopted. ONe was sent to another family, but two still live with us.
Grady likes to help iron
Hunter is usually really active (she plays fetch), but also a typical cat!
Hunter
Hunter, Grady and Ossie
Hunter and Ossie

Post Memorial Day

It's been awhile since I last had time or energy to write. We also had a ton of family over on Memorial Day. I missed Tom and Kim and Julia and Jen & Frank couldn't make it, but it was fun. The Tart was absolutely a laugh riot! The inch worms are all over the place and she kept bringing us "friends" to play with -- Yuck, but amusing to see this dainty little girl playing with worms.

She slept over on Sunday night and again -- a laugh riot! Especially when she decided she was going to try to wake up Uncle Roger at the crack of dawn. He's a heavy sleeper and her little squeeky "get up sleepy head" didn't work. She was *very* disappointed.

I'm also reconsidering my participation in the angel quilt project. It's just chock full of fundie Xtians and I'm having a hard time swallowing it. When I spoke to one of the list leaders to vent, it was suggested that I go no mail rather than have them explain to the fundies that they were being offensive. Why would I want to belong to a group where I have to go no mail or have my blood pressure somewhere in the stratosphere? I know the babies are the most important, but so is my peace of mind. I guess I'm too used to living in a metro area where just about anything goes.

Anyway, I'm working on another preemie quilt and will deliver it, but after this, who knows?

Not such a good day

Okay, I finally found a 7 drawer plastic thingie on wheels for my stash. It works for everything but the *really* big pieces (3 yards & above). I put those in a bottom drawer of my dresser. Hopefully I won't forget about them.

I ordered a Stack and Whack book today off ebay. It looks really interesting and I like the kaleidescope effect. I even decided to redo my web site. Unfortunately, it looks like my registration expired during my depression and someone else took the .com. I don't know, maybe I'll spring for seasonsoflight.net.

As I was surfing around for some presentation ideas, I ran across a memorial page for a baby. Go figure -- sigh. Needless to say, I sat and cried for a good half hour. I'm starting to worry if this is normal or not. I'm not jumping off any bridges, but there are just some things that set me off on these uncontrollable crying jags. Not so often anymore, but often enough.

Good thing the Tart is coming by tomorrow. I need a "fix". I miss having her on Friday afternoons. Maybe it's time for a sleepover.

Anyway, maybe I'll try to work on the new project--Pinwheel preemie quilt. I should also start the potato salad for tomorrow. I am *not* excited.

Stash Management Day

Okay, Mom decided she needed to mow the lawn instead of going out East. Oh well, R got a wild hair that he was going to organize his music room, so needless to say, I am organizing my stash today. I have got to figure out what to keep it in that I can a. see it, b. get to it and c. move it out of the way when I need to. Here's a picture of it at the moment. I was keeping things in the bags, but it's just not working. The plastic thingie is okay, but the fabric doesn't all fit and it's hard to get out of the way...I think a trip to Walmart is in order.

I also found out last night that I can't post to fan story. I upgraded my membership for some exhorbitant fee and now find that although I can review things, I cannot post any writing unless I pay another fee. What a friggin' ripoff.

Super Day

Had a great day at the party. Lots of fun and lots of kids. Poor Tart had a bad day -- yacked in the car and then didn't get a good nap and *then* almost had her poor little toes broken by a wayward chair.

Hope Tim likes the bubble bucket. Lord knows I have a ton of fun with Tart's!

Got home totally exhausted and found that Roger had gone out to Cheap Sam's and got two more lilac bushes for the hedge as well as a "bridal wreath" bush. He put the bridal wreath in the area behind the retaining wall (where I told him something would look good--didn't want to believe me, though) The new bushes look kind of strange next to the one that we put in last week. That one is tall and obviously had been trimmed to be tall and thin, and the new ones are short and squat.

Tonight I'm trying to rearrange my stash and clean up the sewing area. It's an abomination and we're having company next weekend. I think that SIL is staying. Now that I have K's quilt done, I have a little bit of time, although I'd like to get the sale quilt that's almost done up and on ebay. I put about 500 5 x 5 patches that I bought a couple of weeks ago back on the 'bay. I just have no use for most of them. I pulled out about 100 from the initial lot that I want, and hopefully can get rid of the rest without losing too much money.

Tomorrow I'm off to the eastern nurseries with MOm as her MD present. We have fun and now I'll have even more because I don't have to "hawk" around for white lilacs...:) LIFE IS GOOD!

P.S. I forgot how much fun it is to keep a diary

First Post - Katie's quilt done!!!!

This is the first post I've had the chance to do, only because I'm waiting for the outfit that I'm wearing to Katie's birthday party to dry...I've been piecing and quilting like a fiend. Somehow, it always seemed as though I had more time to finish this than I actually did. I finally pulled it out of the washing machine at 3 am and got up again at 7 to clip all of the threads. I hope I got them all. I'm exhausted, but at least having Cat in the car will make the trip to CT go that much faster. Also, if I totally fall out, I can always ask Cat to drive.

Buzzer just went off on the dryer -- gotta shower, hit K-Mart for a bubble bucket for Timmy and a gift bag and don't forget to wake up Roger...

See you soon! Here's a copy of the quilt and the detail.

Incredibly cool

Hi everybody -- I've heard so much about blogging and thought you'd have to pay for a spot. This is cool!