Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Wednesday's chore

I have started to go through the book that my grandmother made for Tony for Christmas in 1949.  It is my understanding that she made it for all her grandchildren at the time (four - two boys, two girls).  I am sure that she probably did the same book, except for the outer cover, for all of them. 


The book's cover is hand made and covers one of those notebooks that have the black covers on them and then she hand appliqued their names to the front. 

Here is what Wednesday has to say.  I don't think that Grandma drew things herself so the drawings in the book were probably embroidery designs that could be copied.





More to come when I scan and take pictures of the contents.  :)


Sunday, January 22, 2012

Attempt at Organization

Let's face it...I don't have enough room.  It's either that or I have too much stuff and, of course, THAT couldn't be the problem.  LOL.

In my quest to get a bit more organized (one lesson learned from going through Tony's stuff - don't let my stuff get like that), I decided to make myself some "boards" to put my fabric on.  While I don't have the space or anything like a quilt shop or decent size sewing room would have, at the very least it might allow me to see what I have in fabric more easily.  I went to the Dollar Tree Store (where I got my poster board for my portable design wall) and picked up more poster board.  This is the thicker kind of poster board.  I took the cardboard that was in one of my fat quarters and cut out the poster board to that size.


Then I cut out a couple of different sizes to see what might work with larger pieces of fabric.


These sizes seem to fit into one of my crates so I will make sure and start the tedious (and long) process of wrapping up the fabric.  Once it is all wrapped up then I will tackle the problem of where to put them, how to arrange them etc.

Friday, January 20, 2012

Snowman done

Finished my first block for the snowman swap.  It didn't turn out bad at all and think I will enjoy working on the other 11.  LOL.  I figure I need to do two snowman a week and then I will be able to square them all up and get in mail in time to meet the deadline.  I decided to use perle 8 for french knots for the smile.  Think it was the right choice.  Of course the fun part of the smile and eyes, etc is that they are traditionally done with coal or rocks etc. (when making a snowman) so if they are a little off in size or shape it doesn't matter!  My kind of project!!!!!


Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Checkered Past

How many of us have checkered past?  Come on...you can tell me...REALLY you can.  LOL.

That's ok.  You don't have to tell me if you don't want to but here is a link to a FREE pattern that is not copyrighted so I can share it with you.

http://barbarabrackman.blogspot.com/2012/01/checkered-past-free-pattern.html

Even though I could have just listed the link to the pattern itself, she has an interesting website that is worth browsing through.  Interesting info on the Civil War era and that is where you'll also find the "Checkered Past" pattern that you can download for free.

Enjoy browsing.


Slowly getting back into things

My Niece in Law Jessica came over to my place over the weekend and we went through some more pictures while she was using my computer and internet connection.  That got me thinking how much I need to get back into things and what better time than when SHE is on my computer and not me!  Sort of self imposed exile from the computer and push me back into quiltland.

I finished up a block that I was working on for pattern testing although I had to bow out from it when Tony died.  I found some mistakes in the patterns and they were kind enough to send me corrected patterns and said don't worry about sending in the feedback due to circumstances but thought I'd appreciate a corrected copy.  I will be sending back feedback though just in case I found something that their new testers didn't find.  Of course I can't show it to you yet since it hasn't been published but...are you ready for this....it wasn't applique!  Yes, I broke out of my comfort zone and did a pieced block.  Of course after doing it I had to sign up for more applique blocks to test to give myself a break.

I have also signed up for a snowman block exchange.  There are twelve of us in the exchange and all the blocks are to be the same.  The blocks are to be 9.5" so that should make a decent size finished project when done.  Here is what I found in EQ7.


I don't like the knot on the scarf though so that is coming out.  Of course you can read "don't like the knot" to also be read as "didn't look right when I tried to use it".  The dots for the mouth also are a major pain and my fat fingers didn't like them.  I am thinking perhaps of making french knots instead and use #8 perle which I have on hand for some of my embroidery.  Here is a picture of how it is coming along.  It is not a great picture since it was laying down on my keyboard when I took it but it will give you an approximate idea of what it will look like.  I totally love that blue background fabric.



The snowman (and I) needed the scarf this morning.  Wind chill in the negatives and tomorrow the HIGH is only to be around 9 degrees.  brrrrr indeed.

Saturday, January 14, 2012

Asian Teapot January block finished

I feel like I accomplished something.  It's not much but I finished the January Block for the Asian Teapot wall hanging that Angie's Bits 'n Pieces has listed.

http://ajpadilla.com/bom/asian-teapots




The colors are actually a little darker than this picture shows.  The lighting wasn't the greatest.  I think this will be a fun BOM to do.  I put it on a 10" block but will cut it down to 8" later on before we sew them all together.  I also used colored pencils to darken the bottom of the teapot a little bit to help it stand out a bit more as well as the inside of the teacup.  That made the bottom of the teapot smudged a little at the bottom which I think turned out nice.  I wouldn't have thought about it except my friend Shelley thought it needed something.  I don't think she liked the pre stitched picture of the teapot.  (grins).

There are now around three other ladies in my facebook groups that are doing this BOM.  Everything thinks it will be so cute when done.  Now if only I remember to keep it up.


Friday, January 13, 2012

Live in Hearts

I saw a quote that somebody said Thomas Campbell said.  I'm not sure if that is right but I liked the quote.

"To live in hearts we leave behind is not to die".  How appropriate for many people at this time of year.  That prompted me to take in to work some of the slides that I found when going through Tony's stuff.  My office borrowed a piece of equipment that converts slides to jpegs.  Might as well use it while I have it there, right?  :)

Besides chuckling at the clothes and hairdo's of the mid 70s, I found a picture of MY grandmother Mertie Chamberlain.  This was taken in 1976.  I'll have to look  up and see if I can find out how old she was when this picture was taken.  I would have just graduated from Community College with my A.A.S. (Secretarial Science) and if I remember right, grandma would have died around 3-5 years later.  Funny how you associate things with events. 






More to follow as I continue to look through funny dressed people....oh wait.  One shouldn't talk about thei family (and themselves) like that should we. 

Here is a pix of my Aunt Anita.  She is still with us but she wouldn't be if she saw I put this up.  She'd die from shock and/or laughing so hard.  She is currently in her early 90s.  This was taken in 1943.



I lightened up the picture in Picassa so we could see her better. 

Since I am already in the dog house showing family pictures let me do one more before I leave work today.  This one is my mom back in 1975.  It is somewhat craft related.  My sister in law had done crewel embroidery work on two wall hangings of Hummels.  Mom had a Hummel collection at the time and she kept these wall hangings that Bobbie did even when she first moved into the nursing home.


Once again I lightened it up somewhat so you could see it a bit better.  How do you like that TV and her electric candles in the window?  She always had to have a chair by the window and if she could have a choice it had to be a rocker.  This was.

Monday, January 9, 2012

January 9, 2012

I had a good weekend.  Got a lot done with settling things from Tony's place and had a great time going through pictures and slides with my niece in law.  My hands are paying for it though since we did it for 5 hours and now they are stiff etc.  That will pass though.  I wanted to get back to sewing and didn't get too far but did start on a new BOM from Angie's Bits and Pieces.  The Asian Teaport BOM.

Here is my first block fused but not stitched.  I'm not happy with it yet so am not sure what I'll change.  I did feel good though to just get it fused on.  A small step back towards my regularly scheduled life.







I also need to get the courage to do the first installment for the 2012 FMQ challenge - the leaf pattern.  Perhaps this next weekend or something.  Perhaps not.  I will get to it though.






Wednesday, January 4, 2012

Jenny of ELEFANT: New free BOM

Just found a new BOM which is nice and think I will do.  It's  on

http://www.elefantz.com/2012/01/new-free-bom-quilt-pattern-for-2012-and.html


Isn't that cute and versitile?  You can use it for a border or add in the scriptures for a mini wall hanging or put all 12 (by the time you finish) together for a larger project.

Go check it out.



January 4, 2012

Four days into January and the new year already!!!!!!  WOW!  This year will go just as fast as last year did...if not faster.  I should have posted before now but with Tony passing away I have been distracted and busy trying to find walking space in my apartment again.

Even though I am writing this at 8:19 a.m. (shhh.  I'm suppose to be working) two things have happened already that made the day start out right.  One of them is the 2012 Free Motion Quilting Challenge  has started and January is posted up.  It is a leaf design.  I actually think I can do this one.  Of course thinking is one thing....doing it is another.  I will endeavor to do it though.  Even if you don't recognize it has a leaf, it will still be practice.  For those of you who are following it and haven't noticed that January has been posted....here is a link.

http://sewcalgal.blogspot.com/2012/01/welcome-to-2012-free-motion-quilting.html

The video that Frances Moore did for January is also located on YouTube which is nice.  I clicked on the link for YouTube that was in the blog/article and then was able to save it to my YouTube favorites.  Now I will have it whenever I need to refer back to it.

Another thing that brightened up my day was to read Sarah Lynn's "The Daily Dispatch".  Her journal is wonderful to read full of humor and lots of pictures.  Her website shows off her delightful work and if you want to see wonderful eye candy and perhaps get a chuckle or two you should go and navigate around it.

http://www.sarahlynnsquilting.com/The%20Daily%20Dispatch%2001-02-12--02-06-12.htm

That's it for now.  About time for mail to be picked up and I need to get some stuff into it.  I will consider myself lucky if I manage to get done today:

1.  transfer notes from last year calendar to 2012 calendar
2.  keep a smile on my face
3.  make it through the 3 p.m. meet at Nursing Home/Rehab (still need to sign some papers about Tony)
4.  make it through going to see Kerm (other brother) after that to talk about "stuff"
5.  make it through going to see Jessica (niece in law) after that to talk about what is considered proper obit for Tony
6.  Work on gaming writing
7.  see if I can see the top of the sewing machine to remind me to keep working on getting to it.
8.  Work on a test block pattern which is giving me hassles.

Sounds like a lot?  Yeah, that's my life lately.  Soooooo, I will leave you with these words that a friend of mine posted on facebook.  It was entitled Three Simple Rules in Life.


Whew! Time for a break!

I have been busy these last few days.  I even got out my sewing machine and did some 9 patch blocks so I could continue on with Fleur.  Do y...