MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Daybook December

Daybook 12/23/12

I'm feeling ... calm despite still having more wrapping to do

I'm seeing ... a snowy wonderland

I'm hearing ... solar chimes in the front window
I'm thinking ... my agenda
I'm cooking ... hash and eggs for breakfast
I'm planning ... the "In your own words" blog festival project
I'm reading ... The Butterflies Daughter by Mary Alice Monroe
I'm wearing ... a tal shirt and black velour slacks
I'm creating ... The Big Easy QUilt for PGD#1
I'm enjoying ... the blessings we have and a cup of tea
I'm sharing ... the Christmas Tree Skirt I made in a class taught by my Mother. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thanks Again Mom!

 

 

Power of ?

All went well with DH's procedure yesterday.   I'd like to thank you for your prayers and concerns.  Modern medicine is such a good thing! 
While one the table, the surgeon asked him if he'd like to keep his old pacemaker/defibulator.  
Of course DH said "Yes, that saved my life!" 
So today, All day long that thing keeps going off with alarming beeps
and a little  oueeey, oueeey, oueeey siren. 
How Annoying! 
At first I thought I was hearing things until I finally figured out where it was coming from.  It would sound off for about 5-7 rings then turn off for about an hour. 
Now we both know the sound just in case his new one has a problem and makes an alarm. 
With that being said besides sounds, the printed word also holds a sense of power over me.

I found this email message in my email box  from The Inner Journey
and wonder

at it's subliminal message for me.

 

 

EXPLORE WITH QUESTIONS

"The word 'question' is derived from the Latin 'quarrier' (to seek) which is also the root of 'quest.' A creative life is a continued quest, and good questions can be very useful guides. Most useful are open-ended questions; they allow for fresh unanticipated answers to reveal themselves."
-- Source Unknown

 

So I am asking myself if all of these
purchases were warranted and even
feeling a bit guilty over the total expense.


My nearest Bernina shop offered a 30% off
coupon and a percentage off their notion
wall so it was nice to come home with these.......


Happily I shopped for a few items while DH was in PacU yesterday afternoon even though I did take advantage of the huge clearance sale that Connecting Threads recently had. 





I'll share what I purchased via the net when it arrives. 
But with all these purchases, the money I've spent, WOW!  Especially this time of year!
But the deals I got, WOW, WOW! 
Hard to say no, BUT the kitted PIGS I have in are now even more numerous than evah. 
Yet even with all that being said, there are more quilts I'd love to make 
besides take part of all of the offered mysteries and quilt alongs that the internet is hosting. 
It is so hard for me to say NO! 

Why is that I wonder?  Hence a power of Questions.

I always knew this internet would be a one number enabler!   lol

So I am questioning my purchases.  The Power of the price tag.
Yes, they all made sense and by paying for it now, I am saving huge amounts of money for when that part of the quilt process is needed. For an example, The patience Corners quilt aka Jeweled Pavers Quilt I made last year, the backing alone for that was  120 buckaroos!
Most of the fabrics that were ordered were for quilt backs. 
Ten yards of this, 15 yards of that, ten of another, 12 yards of then another.....you get the drift. 
I think it's almost 90 yards of fabric that I bought! 
Yet at $3.00 and $4.00 a yard, it was impossible to let those prices go by without jumping on it.

 

Now with that all being said,  not only the power of the price tag but the power of words are potent to me. 
SO much so, that I happily enlisted in the blog hop that
Linda from Buzzing and Bumbling Blog site is hosting in January:

"In Your Own Words" 

My next question though is which one of the multitude of projects I have tumbling around in my head am I going to do to share with you? 

Yee gads, the Power of Questions about the power of words!!!

So please stay tuned, I promise I'll tease share more with you soon.   
I'll sign off with some words I used in the Big Easy:

 

It was hard to see in the first photo with all of it being there so I deleted it and snapped 2 extra shots that hopefully you'll be able to see the words used much easier.  It's  what I quilted into the actual quilt for PGD#1.  I only have one side left to finish hand stitching and the label and this baby will be done!

It says:   Meme {heart}s You

I know, they are not the best pictures so I do apologise for my weak non-existing skills in that department!
There are other projects that I've done in the past where the power of a word was used, but tomorrow is another day and I'll share more as time goes on.

Have I sparked a curiousity about it within you yet? 
To answer any of your questions, Stay Tuned......   lol

Oh I do love to tease....

Jane

It's here....12/21/12 12am

Have a blessed winter's day. 
DH and I will be celebrating this day in a neighborng state.  He has a medical procedure being done in the am and we should be home this evening.  
I'll be bringing my embroidery, the current  book, The Butterfly's Daughter and a  list of the items I need to purchase and have in for the Holidays and for my crafty self. 

Stay well.  I think I should be done handstitching the binding on the Big EZ quilt top today and hopefully the label will be finished too.  Boy, do  I have a story to share about the piped binding when I have more time.  Seems like that's a recurring theme around these parts.... oh well, I'm off.

Jane

Light your candles

 

I WILL LIGHT CANDLES…

Howard Thurman, The Mood of Christmas

 

I will light candles this Christmas

Candles of hope

Where despair keeps watch

Candles of courage

For fears ever present,

Candles of peace

To ease heavy burdens,

Candles of love

To inspire my living,

Candles that will burn all the year long.

This also was the Christmas page I printed and gave to my book club friends with a unique candle holder that spiraled upwards manually so as the candle burns down just the right amount is shown above the holder.  And of course a Yankee Candle was given too.   Thought it was a very appropriate message considering the recent days. 
We have our year end gathering at a nearby restaurant this evening.  Looking forward to it.


 

Prayers

My Heart is heavy due to the tragedy in Newtown, CT. My sincerest prayers go  out to all the families there.  May the hero teachers who sacrificed themselves while protecting their wards and those little angels know the love and grace of God and Jesus.  
 

Celebrating

The reason for the Season:

 

PGD#1 participating with the Christmas pageant as an angel.  All of the Sunday school children did a beautiful performance.  Done with wonder  and magic of the celebration of Jesus' birth. 

Both of the youngest grandchildren absolutely love the manger and the reason for the season. Of course they also embrace and enjoy Santa Claus who also comes this time of year.   
Look at that expression of PGS#3!  Doesn't look that angelic to me and I wonder what he was telling his sister. 

Enjoy your day and may peace find a place in your heart and life,
Jane

Happy Birthday PGS#3

My PGS#3 turns 4 today. He's the same age as Caillou who he loves and connects with daily and numerous times if you'd allow it. I'm expecting him to break out with the Caillou theme song at any time since he does love music too. lol

Happy Birthday Honey! So long #3.

I should say, "please stay little and don't be in a hurry to grow up".

You are such a sweet heart and so loving at this stage.

Ready to help, quick witted tho sometimes when I'm near my wit's end it's not appreciated.
But truthfully, he puts reality back into my day very quickly about what's truly important.

"Hey!  Why's that fire keep coming on?"
What a smartie and quick little guy!

Sounds doable..

Barbara from Cat Patches has been hosting the New FO for the 2012 calendar year and 2013 will be hosting it again.  Sounds like it could be fun and instead of always working on my UFOs this coule be  the  excuse  incentive to start a new project.  lol  What can I say?   Sometimes the muse within me just wants to play!  So I'm linking up.  Check out her blog post here explaining how it works and the giveaways she offers monthly when you remember to link it back to her blog at the end of the month.  Hopefully I'll be able to remember that! 
Soon I'll add her widget to my side bar.  There are tutorials out there explaining how to do that.  I know Connie from Quilting by the River notoriety, shares many tutorials and information on saavy computer  tips besides quilting tips so I'll be checking that out shortly.

Another block for the lil' Miss Shabby is Done. 

 

 Et viola-

 

September's block:

Have you ever been in the middle of a project and then that ah haa! moment arrives?
Well it just happened to me while working on the September block. 













I started around  the 5th block of LMS construction  to do a floss toss.  Figuring out which color to put where especially with taking the neighboring block colors  into consideration.   I listed the DMC numbers on the printed out pattern  to make the  legend. 

When selecting my colors for this project initially,  I pulled out all the thread colors from 5 storage containers of DMC threads.  Placing these thread bobbins onto binder rings so it kept them all together and secure until I could use them. 

But while stitiching and removing some of the threads from the binder rings, it wasn't long before my thread bobbins turned to a mess.  Flipping bobbin over after bobbin to find the correct number written in for that part of each block. 

Then it struck, how about containing them neatly so they are easier to find. 

DUH! 

So I changed it to this.

Since I didn't have an empty storage container, I emptied the one that stored my DMC rayon threads and used that for organizing my "current project".  You can't see the label with the angle that this photo was shot, but it clearly says Rayon on the front edg of the cover.

I plan on purchasing another container so I'll have a container for the current project  I'm workin on  with my next Michaels coupon.
It is so much neater and easier!  Now why didn't I think of that sooner?







Yesterday, PGD#1 had to turn in her school project where she created  a gingerbread cookie.  The school handed out the pattern and a piece of  brown 11x17 construction paper.  Each student had to embellish their own cookie.  

First we hunted through my different boxes of trims and such so she selected the buttons and ric rac that she liked.  We came up with making a gingerbread girl and how it could be done.  She loves doing art and is patient about doing so. 

Here she is and what she did.

This was started at my house and was finished at hers.  Notice the rubberband eyebrows?  Too cute!  So this was painted, colored with crayons, colored pencils, and a magic marker, glued, glittered, as well as all the add ons of the cotton balls, buttons, ric rac trim and broken rubber bands.  I think she did great job for 2nd grade!   Well done Honey! 

DH and I had to travel to Albany for another Drs appointment mid week and thank goodness the weather was cooperative.   Because of that, we had a couple of days off with the grandchildren/preschool agenda that is the normal around here.    Thankfully we were able to finish up the Christmas shopping while we were downstate.  Ahh, that feels good.  The only bad part  is that with me doing all the driving, I'm in pain and rather useless for a couple of days after straining my back and arms driving.    I knew it would happen, but it was necessary so I will cope. 

Getting off this computer now to get some things done around here. 

Enjoy your day,
Jane
 

 

Catching up

I have pieced together the piping and binding for The BIG EZ  but there it sits. 

Promise, ... I'll be getting busy with it SOON!


With the Easy Street QAL being shared by Bonnie Hunter right now. I was thinking about joining in on the fun while it's happening and ride the creative wave with many of theother quilters. But I am in a quandary of which colors to use.

A Cheddar and white Kona Snow for step 1. Thinking a Yellowish orange, Purple, aqua and lime green combination could be gorgeous. (I actually have lime, purple along with some black and white prints all kitted together to make the Carolina Crossroads pattern of hers.) I won't go into the basement to find that container of fabbies to show you but believe it's there. The purples are varied and a much darker palette.
Also I did finish the Orange Crush mystery quilt of hers which I call Key West Sunset.
 

 



Key West Sunset, aka Orange Crush Mystery QAL

 

Another option is to use this:



A UFO from a class taught by Camille Remy at Paul Smith's College in 1998-99?
How to Design your own quilt.    Calss requirements, a light, dark and something medium.  My interpretation.
 

When sewing the sewing Machine Cover and the pin cushion/thread catcher bag I ran across this UFO.  I threw in the scaps of my machine cover bits into this UFO container thinking of finishing it with a lime green thrown in too.  Imagine my surprise with Bonnie Humter selecting all of these colors for her current QAL.     I'm just unsure of how much periwinkle I have in.  For part 2 a periwinkle sky with pure White geese could be wonderful, resembling hte many snow geese that migrate through our region.  There I go dreaming again!

Is this synchronicity with the heavens telling me to work on it all together?   Notice the backing of theBIG EZ in the background, top right? So perhaps my involvement with Easy Street could be to add borders with those Easy Street Parts surrounding it. Though the name Easy anything wouldn't qualify for it if I do that!  It also would be a nice finish of designing the rest of this quilt with the typical block parts of HST, four patches and flying geese units.  Bonnie might be the incentive I need to push this UFO to the finish pile. 

 I just might start it and work on it though until I see the driection this quilt needs to go.  I can see many  Black and white four patches in my very near future.  LOL





Meanwhile, when I am sitting down I've been playing  catch up on the Little Miss Shabby stitcheries (LMS).   November is done and now it's on to the September block. 





Lil Miss Shabby December Block

Realizing while stitching these a verbage is going on in my head.  "What ever happened to me?  I'm timid and delaying in applying threads while trying to decide which colors to use and where....?"  How ever did that happen?   I'll never know.  I used to be fearless with applying color now I seem to second guess myself so much.  Even telling myself to break that thought and just get to it.    Though dealing with this back /neck and other health issues, I really do think that the Rxs I'm on have really affected me in so many ways besides the pain and depression that hovers ever near.   I will beat this and prevail.  Oh well, some good days and then some others thrown into the mix.  It's a good thing I come from such hearty stock.




Now that 6 blocks are embroidered I'll share my vision of how these will be displayed.   Using these, YUMM!

A more modern Blend of Fabrics for my Little Miss Shabby embroidered Blocks of 2011, I'm stitching in 2012. 
Using the Haven's Edge fabric  line with some other Tina Givens fabbies thrown in, of course just for fun.

I'll follow the recommended pattern with an immediate surround of 2 inch pieces mismashed of color followed with a solid ecru boundary.  Then for the sashing and cornerstones, more 2" mismashed pieces.  Perhaps the cornerstones will be the same fabric that I select for the main borders.    This should be done by March.

 

Or I might just have a simpler log border of a different fabric for each block then the 2" pieces and etc.....

 

 

I'm happy too that I shopped online during the Black Friday sales at Quilt in a Day.  What great prices and with the LMS fabrics I have in of  a Fat quarter pack of  Haven's Edge to set the blocks and sashing with was a great find. It's a perfect match since there are many birds and stylized birds scattered through out many of the prints.   Only three fabrics were on sale from that line that might work and so I picked up plenty for borders, backing and binding with enough for a pillow case or two.  8~)

Black Friday Goodies

 

As you an see I picked up another Accuquilt Go Die of the Leaves and Stems,  9 yards of the Black from  Island Batik besides a couple more patterns too.  I noticed out in blogland, sorry I can't remember where to point you in that direction, of a dresden plate quilt made in a class taught by Edyta  Sitar of Landry Basket Quilts that I thought it was stunning.  Perhaps some Kansas style fabbies would work nicely with that pattern,  so when said pattern with a template included  and another of her lovely patterns besides  a Fig Tree  pattern were spotted, I quickly added them to my shopping basket.  All total, 33 yards of fabric plus all the goodies for a little bit of nothing compared to their normal pricing.  Oh yeah, a roll of Invisigrip jumped into my cart too.  What can I say,  Merry Christmas to me. 

 

While blog hopping, I ran across this wonderful blog with a very talented creator of quilts, knitting and knowledge called  Quilting After Dark.  She shared a link of a video where Renate explains beautifully the use of hands here.    I'm linking it up here so I'll know where to find it. 

 

Enjoy your blessings,

Jane