Zen

Here is one of the new quilts I have started, Zen. It is out of the february issue of American Patchwork and Quilting. These are half of the blocks. The other blocks are just plain but I have to figure out something to do with them. It will be a great quilt to practice quilting on with all of that open space. Now that I have collected all of these cream batiks I need to use them.
Song of the day: "Don't Dream Its Over" by Crowded House

Birdie Sling

Well I have to say it should be called the Lazy 12 Days of Christmas. I have not felt like doing anything since my son got out of school. It felt good to catch up on my sleep. On Christmas day I ate, took 2 naps, ate again, watched some movies and then went to bed. I have been sewing but pretty much anything else I have not wanted to do.
Before Christmas I went to my friend Barb's house and she taught me how to sew one of Amy Butler's bags, Birdie Sling. She made one too. I cut it out before I went then it took most of the day to sew. Now that I have made 3 I can do it all in one day. It is like anything else I do, I cannot just make one. Now I have gifts. My daughter took one with her to Florida, one is for my niece in college, and as of now I will be keeping the one with the red band. I have bought more fabric for more purses. So which ever one I like best I will keep. The pink and brown one I made 2 in that fabric. The pattern calls for 1 1/8 yard of 3 fabrics but if you buy 1 1/2 yard of each and cut it out carefully you can get 2 purses out of it.
I started 2 more quilts also. Nothing hard just wanting to work on something. I have until the 6th to get the Mumbo Gumbo finished. That is what I will be doing until it is done. I found some great black and white flannel to go on the back. Barb put that on the back of hers and it really looks good. I was going to put a colorful stripe on mine but when I saw hers I changed my mind.
Song of the day: "Girls Just Want To Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper

Luminary Night

Tonight where I live we line the streets with luminaries. That makes it great to go out and see all of the christmas lights. As soon as it gets dusk everyone lights them. There is a candle burning in each bag. They stay lit until the candle burns out. That is usually very late into the night. My husband and I joke that we would have not moved into this house if we would have known about the luminaries. Because we live on a corner lot we have about 30 more to put out than most people. I think because it was dusk my picture is very blurry but you get the idea.
Song of the day: "Silent Night"

Together With Friends

We had a great get together today. Sewing, laughing, and eating. Barb made a fabulous chicken and rice dish, Chris brought a salad, and Vanessa made a dessert. I forgot to photograph the table. It was decorated very pretty.
Sharon worked on her x-mas wall hanging, Barb cooked, Vanessa made an apron, I worked on another x-mas quilt, and Chris made a pear pincushion. The talk of today was Chris's fabric. Ladies with big fruit butts!!! Now I have to get some of that. She fussy cut the panel so she got each butt on a section of pear. It was a great time with friends.
The weather was nasty all day then started snowing around 4pm. I think we ended up getting about 1-2 inches. Enough to cancel school tomorrow. Now I will be sleepin in!!
Song of the day: "Barbie Girl" by Aqua

Christmas Shopping

Today was the best day. It was so dark, gloomy, and cold. Just the way I like it. I did photograph it but there was no card in my camera so you will just have to trust me. Normally I try not to go anywhere when it is like this because it makes a great day for sewing. Today was the 2nd day for the sale at Kohls, so I had to get out. Everything was 50% or more off. I needed to wrap up some shopping. It took care of most of my gifts so I can relax a little. I did buy myself one thing. I broke down and bought Rachael Ray's garbage bowl. I am the only person that has bought this, a garbage bowl??? I could not resist. I know I need help.
That is Pal in the picture. He always comes over and smells the bags. I think he thought I went to the grocery, so he is looking for his bag of treats.
My small sewing group is getting together tomorrow. I am looking forward to going. I am not sure what I will work on. I have them all a little x-mas quilting gift. I hope they like it.
Song of the day: "Holiday" by Green Day

Back To Mumbo Gumbo

Now that Thanksgiving and the guild x-mas party is over I have to get back to work on a few projects. My mumbo gumbo has to be finished by our January meeting. My small quilting group will be showing them at show and tell. I think I am the only one not finished. There are six of us and this is the quilt that we chose for the year. We are meeting this thursday and hopefully we will be able to decide on a new pattern for 2009. I hope to get a really good pic of all of them and post them. I decided I wanted mine bigger so I finished 2 big blocks along the bottom done today. I have one more to go along the bottom and then 4 more down the side. I think I will be quilting circles all over it to clash with the straight lines. I will quilt a practice block and see how I like it. The pattern is from Pie in the Sky Quilts.
Song of the day: "Lady Marmalade" by Christina Aguilera
Missy I cannot leave a comment on your blog. I was glad to hear from you. I was getting worried. I thought you stopped blogging!

Decorating

It has been a busy last 3 days. Friday I spent all day helping Stitchers Garden, the quilt shop in downtown Franklin move their location. Of course I was not the only one. Ladies from our guild volunteered for a donation. I have never lifted so many bolts of fabric. Her store is big and open now with lots of light. Will it stay that way? Who knows.
Saturday I got the christmas tree up and decorations started. My kids were getting upset because I was not doing things fast enough. They help for about 30 minutes then I get to do the rest. That is ok I got to watch the Gators beat Alabama. We left during the 4th quarter to watch the Predators so I watched the end at the Sommet Center. It was a good day, both of my teams won. We had a semi good fight at the hockey game too. The Predators traded one enforcer for another one about 2 weeks ago. I guess this one is better. He fought a guy that was listed at 6'8". That guy left the ice with a bloody nose and did not come back.
I did a little christmas shopping today. I am not an early shopper. It takes me a while to figure out what to get everyone. My kids are at a bad age. My daughter is 19 and has everything she needs and we are paying for college right now. My son is 11, so he is not little or big. I think he probably has more than most adults. He and his dad are big gadget people, the latest and greatest. I told my husband we just need to start taking a cool trip at christmas and making memories instead of buying things!!!!! The only problem with that is we do not like to travel when everyone else does. I am sure we will figure something out.
Song of the day: "Wicked Game" by Chris Isaak

Christmas Party

It seemed a little early to have it today but it went really well. We decorated the tables last night. One of the committee members dried some hydrangeas and cut fresh greenery from her yard to use as centerpieces. They smelled wonderful and looked great. The hydrangeas had purple in them so they matched the tablecloths perfect. It was a nice change from the regular red and green. We had our business meeting, played a purse treasure hunt, and had a huge show and tell. Everyone seemed happy to have completed a christmas quilt. I have no pictures of the show and tell because I hardly even got to see it. I was getting the food ready, bummer! I am going to get to see pictures.
The pears were a big hit as door prizes. I can't wait to make some more. I think if I would have had the pattern in the summer I would have made everyone a pear. We also had a guild member that has an online store donate fat quarter packs. If you like all the contemporary fabrics her shop is great. I quit ordering from her online. I just found out where she lives and I go over there. She is probably like, this chic is crazy! She is great and her shop is Be Sew Happy.
Song of the day: "Behind Blue Eyes" by The Who

Pear Pincushions

I actually have 2 patterns for this pincushion but I decided to make the larger one first. I have not made a pincushion up until a few weeks ago, now I am addicted. I just keep making them in groups of 2's. I look at my stash and think that would make a cute pear then I make another one. The hardest part is stuffing them. It took way more fiberfil than I expected. The very bottom is filled with rice. That makes it bottom heavy and stand up better. The first pattern I bought was from Heather Bailey. Her fabrics and patterns are so feminine. The second pattern was from Nancy Halvorsen. That is the pattern I used. Her pear was about 7 inches tall. It is in her 12 Days of Christmas book. I am sure I will make more before christmas to give as gifts.
I am getting ready to go to the church to set up for our party tomorrow. I hope the ladies like getting the pin cushions as a prize in our scavenger hunt. There was a slight chance of snow but I think it has passed. No school no party. My son is doing the snow dance!
Song of the day: "Get Busy" by Sean Paul

Back to Blogging

Finally I got things working again. They kept my computer 2 weeks and fixed it in like 2 hours. I think they forgot about it even though I was calling them. It was an electrical part so all my data was saved. Now I have my program to automatically back up my data and my external hard drive to put it on. It was funny when I picked it up. He put it in my front seat and seat belted it in. I was going to take a pic of it like that but I got it out and plugged it in and forgot. I felt like I needed an additional carseat to bring it home from the hospital.
Now back to quilting. I have been working on my christmas quilt. A bargello heart, one of my favorite patterns. Our guild party is tuesday. I hate hand stitching my binding down so I waited till the last minute. I challenged everyone to make a christmas quilt last year, have it finished , and bring it this year for show and tell. I think I might get a few bad looks if I did not have mine done! I also made these really cute pin cushions for prizes. I will post them tomorrow.
Song of the day: "These Dreams" by Heart

I Hope To Return Soon

It is so weird not to have a computer. It crashed, I cried, and I might loose all of my pictures and data. It is nobodys fault but my own. I am a bad backer upper. I just feel like my computer will always work. The whole attitude that it will never happen to me. I was working on putting pics on a digital frame for my mom. Now she is not getting the frame because I want the pics on it especially if I loose all mine. She said she understood, so I sent her a blank frame and told het I will send her pics if mine get saved.
I am getting alot finished now that I am not distracted by my computer. I got 5 quilts quilted. 2 pear pincushions made and they are huge, 7 inches tall. I am wrapping up my x-mas quilts for the guild party.
I went to Ky. this past weekend to see my neice and nephew. I got some great pics of them to put on the frame. We bought my granny some fabric with a pattern book for x-mas. I am sending her a pincushion also. You can't beat 30% off fabric.
Hopefully things will work out with my computer. I hope to hear from them today. As soon as I get it back I will be back to blogging and backing up!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Daily Walk

These were some of the pics I took on Nancy's farm when I went for my daily walk at lunch. We get 2 hours for lunch but most of us only took 30 minutes and went straight back to work. I walked to the front of her property everyday. Since she has most of her classes in the spring and fall there are definitely plenty of things to photograph.
Song of the day: "Rollin" by Big & Rich

Last 2 Compositions

This is my second black and white study. I hated sewing this thing together. It was very frustrating. I only started sewing in 2000 and I do not have a great deal of technical skill in sewing things together that are not straight. I put the black on the wall first then had to cut white pieces to go around the black then figure out a way to sew it all together. I managed to get stuck in a box a few times. At this time in my quilting career I will not be doing things like this. There was no pleasure derived at all. I am glad Nancy pushed me to do it but it sucked. It also did not turn out like the before picture I took before I started to sew. I whacked off a few black pieces to get it together.
The color piece was my last composition. The strips we pieced were wavy and when I cut them I had all of these curvy strips. Well I just cut them until they were straight. I was going for a long vertical piece but it just kept shrinking. It is only about 24 inches long. All of the colors are pretty but it is not much of a compelling composition. I told Nancy I was going to quilt it and send it to her. She thought it was funny that I had cut the strips until they were straight. Oh well.
I really love going to the barn. The ladies are great and everyone really sticks together and encourages each other along. We actually had a gentleman in our class this time. That was great.
Song of the day: "Disturbia" by Rihanna

Workshop Pieces

These are 4 of the pieces that I did at Nancys. We always start with a black and white composition and work off of that. She gives us certain directions to do these. Working from a black and white has its advantages. You can change things you don't like about the piece and do more of the parts that work. It is very time consuming but I can see how it would help make your work evolve.
The large neutral piece is from my black and white. It is the upper left hand corner. I folded it to get a smaller composition. The neutral is about 4x4 feet. I was supposed to do a color piece off of the neutral but I did not get to that. I will have to work on that at home. It is amazing to me how many ladies do not like neutrals. I love them. Those are my favorite non colors. I have come to find out that I like bright colored pieces at first but then I get tired of looking at them.
The 2 brown and black pieces were seperate. The small one was supposed to be busy and the large piece was supposed to be sewn wonky. I really have a hard time sewing wonky. I am a perfectionist and that is hard for me. I want to straighten everything up. That was the joke of the workshop, me and my straight sewing. I really learn alot in each workshop that I take. It may not show in my workshop pieces but I try to incorporate it into my pieces at home when I have a little more time to concentrate.
My pics do not want to load in the order I want them to. So they start from the bottom and go up.
I am enjoying all of my shows this fall. I seem to gravitate toward the weird and unusual. I love Dexter, Little Britian, and Trueblood. They are on HBO and Showtime. My song of the day comes from the theme song of Trueblood. Come to find out he is a country singer right here in Nashville and was born in the town next to where I grew up. It is a small world. He has a nice deep voice like Josh Turner.
Song of the day: "Bad Things" by Jace Everett

Back In Town

I had a great time in Columbus. I stayed with a friend of mine, Tiffany, over the weekend then I went out to Nancy's for the week.
My friend Barb told me about this topiary garden in downtown Columbus. A Sunday Afternoon on the ILE DE LA GRANDE JATTE by Georges Seurat. It is located where the Old Deaf School used to be. So Tiffany and I went down on sunday to check it out. It was really cool. I love the painting so to see it put into a topiary garden was very creative. It looks like they even planted the trees to fit the painting. I think they had lost some of the shrubbery and had replanted it. The gift shop had pictures of the garden during the winter. It looks like people just sitting in the snow. I don't know if I will ever get there in the winter but I would like to see it then.
I got back on saturday night, celebrated my daughters 19th birthday on sunday, and have been trying to get caught up around the house since. It is amazing what being gone for a week does.
My week was a stimulating, frustrating, and tiring. I always learn a great deal from Nancy. I hope to return in the spring. I will post my work when I retake the photos of it. They did not turn out very well.
Song of the day: "Hot N Cold" by Katy Perry

Ready To Leave

I did not realize I had not posted in so long. It has been a really busy couple of weeks. I have to make sure things run smoothly before I go out of town or everyone around here is grumpy when I get back. I did a few things for me too.
I spent 2 days with friends shopping for fabric. One was here locally and the other was a day trip to Paducah. We hit Hancocks first, then went to my favorite mexican restuarant, and finally the museum. There were 3 exhibits there I wanted to see and one was 3 days from leaving. We also were on a photo shoot for my daughter. She had to shoot 2 rolls of film for school so she got some great shots of Paducah.
My husband and I have been to 2 concerts at The Ryman. Last thursday we saw The Raconteurs 2 rows from the stage. I was dissappointed that I did not bring my camera. They were letting people take pictures and they have not done that in a long time. I could have gotten some great shots being that close. So last night at The Black Keys I had my camera. We were front row and I was right in front of the drummer. He was great and now I am deaf! I am glad my husband likes music like he does because he always makes sure our seats are good. I think we have gone to a Predators game also. Time flies.
I leave for Nancy's in the morning. It is not a bad drive, 6 hours. I will stay with some friends over the weekend and head out to her place on sunday. I am not as excited about going this time. I am hoping once I get sewing I will get motivated. It has been a draining year and I have not had things affect me like this before. I will have to keep track of what I do on a daily basis and post it when I get back. I will not have time or a laptop to do it while I am gone.
I would like to thank Missy, she nominated me for I Love Your Blog award. I will pass that on when I return from Ohio. Thanks again!
Song of the day: "Your Touch" by The Black Keys

Catching Up

I have been working outside today. Weeds were taking over my mulch beds. How can weeds grow so well and it takes great effort to keep the good plants alive? I have been trying to catch up since I was sick for 2 weeks. I still was not back to 100% this past week but I managed to do a few things. I photographed these wasps today. I was right under them and did not see them.
I snapped a photo of my hummingbird last week. I went and sat really still and waited for him to come. I could not find my tripod anywhere so I did not think any of the pics would turn out. I got a few good ones.
Hopefully I will manage to do some things this week to post about. I leave for Nancy Crow in 2 weeks so I will be getting ready for that.
Song of the day: "Silver Springs" by Fleetwood Mac

Craziness

Since friday of last week people have been freaking out about gas around here. I guess we started to run short. We were not getting shipments from Texas because of hurricane Ike. Word got out and everyone started flocking to gas stations topping off and hoarding. I have never had to wait to fill up for gas. I think I waited about 15 minutes but I needed it. I forget what the paper said about gas sales since this. They were up like crazy, so it seems we had the gas but everyone was panicking and going and getting more. Things should be back to normal this week. I guess the gas line in Texas is up and running now. It just really makes you stop and think about what you do. If times get hard how would you react and what would you have to give up. It has been hard keeping my daughter home this weekend. We just tried to make her understand that no matter what happens you have to be prepared. Just because everyone else is out driving around doesn't mean you can too. If gas is going to be hard to get you have to make sure you can get back and forth to school. That is your main priority just like people have to go to work. Maybe one day all the things we lecture her about will sink in.
This is the gas station down from my neighborhood. Both entrances have long lines of people waiting. How much gas do you waste by waiting in line for a long time? I snapped these while I was waiting at the intersection.
On another note, GO GATORS. They did a great job kicking Tennessee's butt! Hopefully they will be able to keep that up all season. They have some tough games ahead. I thought the Gator's colors of orange and blue were obnoxious but they were showing highlights of other college teams during the breaks. Oregon was green and neon yellow. My husband said I think they are green and gold. I did not see gold I saw hurt my eyes yellow.
Song of the day: "Black Magic Woman" by Santana

Not Playing Nice

I was sitting on my deck at sunset seeing if I could get some bird pictures. I did! It seems they do not play nice and get along very well. They kept kicking each other out of the birdbath. They did not seem to mind sharing food but they did not want to share the water hole! I am getting a larger variety of birds now that they are finding out about the food. Don't ask me to name them because that is not going to happen. At the bird store the lady just kept spouting out names of birds and I kept shaking my head like I knew what she was talking about. As long as they are pretty and keep amusing me I will feed them. I do love nature but I am not concerned with naming it yet. Maybe when my kids are gone.
I washed my fabrics today and cut some of the purple. It makes it all go faster when it is cut and ready to go. The purples are going to be great. It is a wide selection of different ones.
Gotta go pick my son up from hockey.
Song of the day: "Flamenco Sketches" by Miles Davis

Batiks

I received my purple and brown batiks today. Now I can make more flower blocks. Here are the 2 that I have done. I actually did the purple one first and ran out of cream. I sent swatches out to the batik shops hoping someone had some of it. Batiks Galore did, the same place I got the browns and purples from. So I threw it in the wash today and finished the purple flower. It only needed 4 6 1/2 in strips. That was frustrating getting that far then running out of fabric. Only 7 more blocks to go.
Song of the day: "Give It Up, Turn It Loose" By En Vogue

Making My Backyard Nice

This is all I have had the energy to do. I went and purchased some bird feeders and a hummingbird feeder. I caught a hummingbird in my garage the other day. They get stuck in there and fly up instead of down so that keeps them from getting out. Then they get webs on them and it makes it hard to fly. It is great for me because I have gotten to hold one twice. It even sat on the back of my hand. The lady at the store said they fly in there to check out the garage cord that hangs down. She was right when I came home and looked at it it was red. That is what attracts them to it. I put the hummingbird feeder by the fountain so I can sit there and get pictures of them. The bird feeders are out in the yard so hopefully that will keep the birds out there and away from the deck. I don't want my deck covered in bird crap!
It is nice having the dogs outside with me. Drake loves to lay in the sun. He thinks he is a model. He just stares at me like take my picture. Pal runs from me. I have taken his picture since he was a pup so he hates the camera.
I am hoping by the weekend I will have the energy to sew.
Song of the day: "Warwick Avenue" by Duffy

Sick All Week

Just when I get back into a rhythm something happens. I was doing so good getting into my studio and sewing them bamm I get sick saturday night. When I went to bed my right hip was hurting. No big deal, I get aches and pains here and there. Sunday I woke up aching everywhere. Monday my head was about to split open, all my joints hurt, and my hands and feet were burning. I went to a walk in clinic. They could not tell me anything from the tests they ran in the office. They sent some of my bloodwork out to a lab for tick related illness. I just got the results from that today, nothing! It has been a week and my hips still hurt. They said I probably just have a virus. It is frustrating when you do not know exactly what you have. I have never been this sore and achy. If I go out I load up on motrin. Which is what I did today.
My daughter and I spent some time together today. We stopped by a friends house, picked up some algae stuff for my fountain, and went to lunch. I am always amazed at who I see around town. There was a group of people walking in the restuarant. I noticed a very tall girl in a red dress coming in. As soon as she took her glasses off I recognized her. She was the model that married Peter Brady, of the Brady Bunch. Then about 4 men later he walked in. Too funny, Peter Brady!! Every star I have seen is always shorter in person. My daughter was trying to get me to notice the christian singer that came in and I was trying to get her to notice them. That is the afternoon gossip around here.
This flower was the last thing I was working on before I got sick. I am going to do 9 blocks all purple with cream backgrounds. I figured that is a good way to use my batik creams I have been collecting. I ordered some more purples and browns today. This one flower is about 24 inch finished. It will be another big one. I got my 2 1/2inch strips of batiks that I ordered last week. They look great with the creams.
Song of the day: "Daisy Jane" by America