Happy May Day!

I'm only a little early since some of my readers are ahead of me.  So Happy May Day everybody.

Do you have May Day traditions that you remember?  I do.  At school, about every 4 years, one of the Physical Educaiton teachers would get in their heads the idea to try and teach us awkward students how to dance around a May Pole.

That was semi fun but what REALLY fun was when mom would drive us to the neighbors to leave May baskets on the neighbors door.  Of course the theory was that you left it on the door or stoop, knocked on the door to get their attention, and then run!   Of course in the country when you have a mile drive way to try and escape down it wasn't as easy as people made it out to be.

This May Basket has flowers in it but Mom would have us make the cones out of paper and then we'd put fruit and nuts and marshmallows in them.  Every once in awhile a dandelion or daisy might have been stuck in it also.

I was going to do this at work this year but expenses didn't allow me to.  Ok, I will admit that May 1st snuck up on me.  Maybe next year.  :)

Have one more May Day pictures just because it is too cute not to add.

 On Saturday I'll post some more quilting stuff.  Right now I have to look through recipes to see what I want to bring to the office for another food day on May 7th.

Until then, keep whatever traditions you want, throw out whatever traditions you want, but always remember to have fun!

Until next time....Have a Great Day!

Weekend Sewing

I didn't get much done this weekend since it was a gaming weekend but I did manage to finish a block.  This is call the Hug Block and is from McCalls Quilting.  They have it for a 16" block (if I remember right) but I needed it as a 12" finished block.  It took me forever to figure it out.  I just asked somebody else to figure it out since I'm not good at that.  LOL.  Anyway here it is.

I'm not totally pleased with it but not totally displeased either.  That was on my list of things I wanted to accomplish on Sunday so that is good.  It is joining the other blocks now.  Here is what I have for the Beginner BOMs.

I will use more tans in a couple of other blocks later.  I'm trying to use most of the same fabrics in the blocks.  I have put those fabrics aside so that I won't accidentally use them in something else.  LOL.

After that I picked up my cross stitch again.  Made good progress on it.  I have to finish the halo and all the back stitching for the Angel.  I have to get some metallic thread first though so it might have to wait until the payday.  I also need to add a little more to her hand and the blue ribbons.

That's ok.  My fingers are protesting doing so much with them so they can use the rest.  On the other hand I might start the Delft cross stitch.

I have the Aida cloth and the blue floss all ready to start it.  I had hoped to be picked up a scroll frame for it but I wasn't able to.   Payday isn't here yet so it might have to wait a bit.  I did mark my center on the Aida cloth as well as used up leftover binding that I had. Instead of sewing the ends to stop fraying or using fabric fray etc., I sewing on (basted) my binding pieces.  I'll take a picture of it to show you later.

It is time to get ready for bed.  Everybody have a great night/day.

Name of Magazine

This is a super quick post to tell you the name of the magazine that I couldn't remember the other day.  Here it is....

Now I have to run to a meeting.  LOL.  Everybody have a good day/night.

Happy Administrative Professional Day

Yep, it's that time of year again.  About the only time I get flowers but you know what?  I'm not complaining.  I love where I work and I'm always remembered on Administrative Professional Day.  Not everybody can say that.  So this year, "the Recruitment Office" sent me these flowers.

That is a "leaf" that is wrapped around the flowers in the vase (the green stripe).  Never seen that done before so it will be interesting to see how it holds up.  The pink square vase is nice as a change from the normal vases you see.  Overall - I love it.  :)

Now on to some talk about quilting.  Yeah, I haven't done much but I did find a new magazine which I think I might love.  Of course I can't remember the name of it and I don't have the picture of the front of the magazine with me today.  Does that stop me from posting the other pictures?  Of  course not.  You'll just have to wait for the title until my next post.  The magazine (it's the premier issue) concentrates on precuts.  I love how the table of contents is laid out.  If you are looking for fat quarter patterns they are all listed in one place.  You want squares?  THEY are all listed under one heading.  I think that is a very useful way of doing.

I also like the diagrams.  They are large and easy to see so you're not scrunching up your eyes (Yeah, showing my age there) to get the idea.

So all in all I like the first issue.  I'll have to see what else they will come out with.

Now, sit down for the next part of this.  I found the story book that my grandma made my brother Philip (Tony).  So to preserve it, I'm taking pictures of the pages and will be posting them under the family ancestry page of my blog.  For those who wonder what to do for their grandkids, this is one idea.  As you can see it survived for a number of years.

Did I forget to post my 4th block?

It looks like I might have.  I didn't get much quilting done last week but did manage to get one block done.  This is the fourth block and so you can see it with the other three I am reposting them also.

I actually like the 4th block (square within a square).  It didn't take long to do and that is always a plus.

I'm not sure how much quilting I'll get done this weekend either since I'm determined to finish emptying out the storage shed that I share with somebody else.  Of course that means I'll have totes to go through and see what to get rid of.  I went through some of it last night and discovered some cross stitch and quilting gems.  I'll post more pictures of them later.  Right now I'm off to a meeting.

Have a great day.

Wordles - do you know what they are?

A Wordle.  What a strange word which I didn't know what it meant until today.  I've seen them but didn't know their name.  Do you know what a Wordle is?

A Wordle is a word cloud.  Wordle, or weighted list in visual design, is a visual representation for text data, typically used to depict keyword metadata on websites or to visualize free form text. According to Wikipedia anyway.

So I went to a site which is suppose to help make them.  I got this information from my Graduate Assistant who had an Instructional Technology class.  She gave me her PDF lessons and some of them I can do without being in the class.  This was one that I did with putting around 30 quilting words down for it to it's thing.  I chose the rectangle design because I might have a use for it.

:)

Then I did this one which I just plugged in my blog address and IT chose words from my blog to put into the Wordle and I chose a heart shape.

It was a fun thing to learn and I have a lot more to learn about it but it is past quitting time and I need to close up the office and start my weekend.  It's a gaming weekend so no quilting until Sunday.  I did, however work on a little bit of cross stitch last night.  The Angel is coming along.

I hope everybody has a wonderful night.

I'll catch up with you later.

What a find!

Did everybody have a good Easter?  Mine was ok.  The holidays aren't as big of a thing for me now that mom has passed on.  I enjoy going to see other people but also enjoy having the time to myself for a bit to get stuff done.

I did get stuff done.  I managed to finish up two blocks that have been mailed out to friends.

This a design from Bird Brain Designs

This was just out of one of my quilting books but can't remember which one.  Perhaps Inspired by Tradition.

Those have been sent in the mail so then I turned my attention to something that I have been postponing for quite awhile.  Removing my stuff from the Storage unit I've been sharing with my ex and his family.  It's a long story but it's time for me to get my stuff out of there (no he's not making me do it).  I managed to get hold of Jessica and she helped me take out 12 totes.  These are the plastic tubs from Walmart that Rubbermaid makes.  I had forgotten how heavy they could be!

The first 12 were taken and put into my apartment.  I can't finish taking out the rest until I go through all of these.  Jessica says she'll keep my quilting frame in her garage for me since I don't have room for it in my apartment.  I did manage to empty out 4 of the tubs.  It was rather easy since a lot of it was mom's knick knacks which I didn't want.  I do not have a lot of room and I already have a lot of things from mom--especially fond memories.

Back on topic Bonni.  Ok. so here I am with all these full plastic totes and at least 12 more waiting for me in storage yet.  I HAVE to get them emptied out and gone through to figure out what I want to get rid of.  Now, when I say get rid of, I don't always mean thrown out.  I might send some of my magazines or patterns to other crafts who might want them.   That means I will probably scan some of the patterns, if possible, so I will always have an electronic copy of it.  That is where my great find comes in.

Going through some old cross stitch magazines, I saw this cover and OMG!  It will be a perfect accompaniment to Oma's Blues which I'm going to do.  Ready to see those two pictures together?  Here we go......

 How great is that?!  Two of my favorite things, quilting and cross stitch that would compliment each other.  If you look closely, you can see that the magazine goes back to 1986!  I can't believe I've kept it all this time.  Back then the magazine only cost $2.95.  Ahhhh, an affordable price and well worth it.  LOL.

That's it for this segment.  I wonder what other treasures I will find.

Until next time, have a great day!