6.30.12

Happy Anniversary, Mom and Dad! 
Here are some flowers from our garden just for you!

 

6.29.12

It does not look like much, does it? It is three skeins of Noro Silk Garden. I cast on about 40 sitiches and knit totally in garter stitch. When I got to the end, I knit 4 stitches and left them on the needle, bound off until the last four stitches and then knit those. I yanked the needles out and ravelled down. Each row of each side had a long loop which I tied in an overhand knot close to the knitted fabric.

Fold it in half lengthwise and add a button at the bottom and I have a colorful, silk scarf collar. It took me about two days since I could knit it in the dark while watching Netflix.

6.28.12

Day lilies! I bought the bulbs last year. They had greenery on them and the lady who sold them to me told me to just put them in the ground and wait. Both of mine seem to be the same kind but I thought I bought two different kinds. Oh, well. I DO enjoy them! I would like to get more and have a whole design along the driveway but that would involve work and either a lot of money or a long wait!

6.27.12

OOOOPS. Took the day off.

6.26.12

 I found this picture HERE when searching for Tea Pots. It is a site for photo editing but for people w-a-a-a-a-a-a-y outside my realm of experience.

I think they look more like coffee pots, but what the heck. Open the mind to new ideas, yes?

6.25.12

Look at things in a new way

I hope when you are reading this, I am reflecting over all I have learned last week. Maybe I will have some new vision to share from my experiences.

Last week's How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

is pretty much how I feel all the time so it was less of a mind-shaping mantra and more of a reflective affirmation.

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE. 

6.24.12

Home again, home again, jiggedy jig.

Hope I survived.

6.23.12

Will I need a retreat from the RETREAT? Today is my second full day. 

See this speckle-chested little delight? From his perch on the trunk of the pine tree, you can not tell that this is a blue bird. In the picture below, you can just barely see the blue in the tail a little to the left. Actually, I am not at all sure this is a male. It could be the female or a juvenile. The males have a very rosy belly and are a miraculous shade of blue over more of their bodies.

6.22.12

What a fine fellow! We have seen beautiful orange and black orioles but they are too fast for me and my camera.

This is my first full day at the 2012 Pieceful Mountain Quilt Retreat. I am probably having lots of fun and am glad I wrote these posts ahead of time! I do not know if internet is available at the Hinton Retreat Center but you can email me if you want and find out. I will take my iPad along so I do not get out of touch with unreality (games!)

6.21.12

Johnny Jump-Ups! Jeff has a green thumb! He has various pots of sprouted seeds hanging around the porch and these made blooms! 
I LOVE LOVE LOVE all violets, violas, pansies, and of course, Johnnies!

6.20.12

Today is Applique with Connie Tackett. I will be making plans to buy THIS pattern from Pacific Rim Quilt Company. We will finish up our current cutwork applique and work some on these two-color jobbies.



Or, I might decide that THIS is the one for me. I like both and cannot decide. Are you interested? Click the Pacific Rim Quilt Company link and see what YOU like!

I am just about ready to go for an album style quilt. Quilty Friend is committed to her Civil War Bride quilt, which I have blogged about before. She is thinking about the bride block right now. The bride on the quilt shows her pantaloons and stockings--SHOCKING! I am sure she is modestly clothed by today's standards.

6.19.12

I have actually seen one of these  TEA POT NAPKIN HOLDERS in person. My remembery sees it as turquoise, though. Want one for your house? Get it here. We have a napkin holder but it is a chicken.

EXTRA POST! 6.18.12

I did the June Free Motion Quilt Challenge. This month's lesson was by CINDY NEEDHAM. I can honestly say I ENJOYED IT. I rarely have been able to say that about FMQ because I am still such a beginner.

I liked making the little pebbles and the geometry of lines got easier and easier. I would LOVE to tell you the secrets she revealed but you will just have to go to her site and find out yourself! I used three full bobbins of thread to get this far.

I love the way the geometric shapes lend themselves to landscapes. Of course, I had to return to the heart/leaves vine shape. It is getting easier!

I was inspired to make a snow globe.You can tell by looking at my pine tree that I come from Florida. Pines usually have less of a palm look to them but the snowman has potential!

6.18.12

How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!

Courage was a pretty good phrase last week, although I should have maybe saved it for this week. I foresee a lot of challenges. Still, among my challenges this week, I will be going to my first quilt retreat. Actually, my first retreat ever. I used to go off for doll weekends with my dollmaking friend, Helen, but this will be very different. I will have a roommate I do not know and there will be nineteen of us doing almost everything together. That is a little outside my comfort zone.

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE. 

6.17.12

This was the last block we did. I think it was called the Amish block. I had a "do over" with my pieces on either side of the candy cane because they did not reveal the stripe the way I wanted them to. I ripped it out and cut them bigger so they were better balanced.

6.16.12

This one is called chevron but most of us in the Foldy Stuff class called it tuxedo. It is supposed to have a series of three buttons right where the red and white pin striping is. This was one of my favorites. A lot of us imagined bride and groom blocks and how we could place them meaningfully in a quilt. I spent the drive home trying to figure out a bride block to go side by side. They would make a good wedding quilt.

6.15.12

The second Foldy Stuff block was a courthouse steps. You can see the center block is larger than some might be. It was only slightly more difficult than the log cabin block because I wanted the candy canes to feature. Try to ignore the loose threads!

6.14.12

 Wow, I got behind in posting. The problem is that I was cleaning up the studio and got distracted and started six new quilts. Granted, four are only going to finish at just larger than a standard piece of paper but in the middle of all THAT I took a class and also spent an additional five hours planning ANOTHER one!

Here is the first block we made from the FOLDY STUFF class that I took with Diana McLauglin from the Misty Mountain Quilters Guild. It sure was fun and I think I would try this method again. This is log cabin variation. If you know log cabin at all, you can see how easy it would be to do the traditional sunshine and shadow effect. Diana also said we could start with  a much larger center block and fussy cut a feature fabric.

6.13.12

He lives in our neighborhood, too, Along with the deer, bunnies, bear, and turkeys that travel through our yard,--oh, and the giant black snake--I have seen this fellow. I think he is a box turtle but I do not know much about reptiles. Since we go rid of the flying squirrels, other neighbors have had bats and gophers. I hope they are not sending them our way. And that skunk can just stop visiting.

6.12.12

I pity the foo....

No. Do NOT get this for me. I only link you to the site because it is the right thing to do. Go HERE but keep your credit card in your wallet.

But it IS clever.

6.11.12

COURAGE

I got a lot of mileage from previous Monday Mantras, but last week's "It is enough to have done my best" did not get much of a work out. I will have to repeat it another week.

Today's phrase comes from a quote attributed to Mary Anne Radmacher.

“Courage doesn't always roar. Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says I'll try again tomorrow. ”

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE. 

6.10.12

It is a day lily. It is scrawny and missing one huge petal but it is my first blooming day lily! I bought two last year and hoped for blooms. My plan is to get more each year and divide the ones I have. I miss the amaryllis and rain lilies I had in Florida and I am hopping the day lilies will take off here in the front yard.

6.9.12

I will be going to  a quilters retreat in a week or so. One of the projects is a Hunters Star Quilt, like this one. I did not make this one and I think the one we are doing may have more blocks but this is surely eye catching. Here is the fabric I have chosen for mine. In the sample, I chose fabric #3 from the left for the dark fabric. It is Civil War Homefront by Barbara Brackman.

I think the particular design is called Poke Salad. I bought #4 from the left--same design in red--to use as border. I Also bought two other pieces of fabric. I will use a red and cream stripe as a flange and the "white" part of the star is a heavy cream color with tiny star and leaf print, America the Beautiful by Judy Rothermel.

These last two pictures do not really show the deep cream color well enough. I think I have seen it referred to as "honey". The project is W-A-A-A-A-Y outside my comfort zone but it is a good idea to stretch once in a while.

6.8.12

I have been casting around for projects to work on when the sun goes down. I spend a lot of time during the day with quilting either designing and planning or cutting, sewing, and hand-quilting. When the sun gets to s certain point, I switch to something that doesn't need as much natural light. I can pretty much knit while watching television so I have rediscovered some languishing knitting projects. 

This is a tweed Cascade 220 shawl I started probably four years ago. I was so surprised when I picked it up that I could still remember pretty much what to do and when. As a matter of fact, it is a fairly tricky bias style but once you set it up it is easy to do consisting of knit 3, knit 2 together, yarn over on the "right"side and knit 4, purl 1 on the "wrong" side. The trick is that the pattern "travels" to make the slant so each row is not an exact duplicate but shifted to the right one stitch on the front or to the left one stitch on the back.

6.7.12

Monday, after company was gone and could not see him, a bear walked into our yard. These pictures are not great because I was shooting into the sunlight but I thought I would share them anyway.

6.6.12

A page from my sketch book.

6.5.12

So cute, I had to share THIS with you. What do you think?

It is a Department 56 item. I used to collect their different Christmas ornaments. They always had something different, unique, and to my liking. THIS way of collecting--that is--collecting electronic PICTURES of what I like is much more satisfying than owning the object. For one thing, it is more economical and for another, there is very little to dust. Also, I do not have to put these pictures in an album, they will just sit here on my blog and I can visit anytime I have internet access!

6.4.12

It is enough to have done my best.

I got a lot of mileage from the previous Monday Mantras, particularly I MAKE GOOD CHOICES. It happened that the next day, Misty Mountain Quilt Guild had their garage sale. I made a little folding money and spent NOTHING! I did keep repeating that week's mantra and I think it helped. I hope I do as well with this week's thought.

One Monday, I wrote about my thoughts leading up to having a personal mantra/affirmation phrase handy.  You can re-read that post HERE. 

6.3.12

I have been happily working on a new project. By the time you are reading this, I hope is finished, photographed, and delivered. If not, this may be all you get to see. Some of the fabrics I interviewed.

Only three of these made the final cut.

6.2.12

I have seen this pair frolicking and having a snack. I hope later in the spring to see some little ones.

They look like a couple, anyway. I still have not decided on names.

6.1.12

These bunnies are easier to see than yesterday's. Actually, they are the same two from the same photo session, I just edited for a closer view.

I have not named them yet. They take breakfast in our front yard and then hop down the side toward the back where the deer lived a few summers ago.