Remembering Cheryl

My circle of Friends quilt group gathered today and it was a bit bittersweet. It's always great getting together and sharing projects, lives and stories but today, our friend Cheryl was absent. She left the bonds of this earth on April 2nd. The strength she had to graciously endure her cancer and the pain that it involved was a testament to the type of a person she was. Even on her death bed she was able to laugh and share stories knowing her demise was close at hand. As I write this my love for her is formidable. Cheryl, I know you now are at peace and I thank you for your friendship.

Two friends of our group assisted Cheryl's family in finding and re-establishing homes for her projects and supplies. While we gathered yesteday, some of that was taken care of. I came home with a project intended for one of her nephews, Chris. Though only in his twenties, what a doll he was to Cheryl. Tending to her needs, and just being there.



So it is with love for our friendship and pride that I will make this quilt she had packaged and tagged for him. The numerous projects she had were very organized and I even know how she wanted this quilt done. Hopefully I'll be able to complete it just as she'd want it AND within a timely manner.

Jane
PS; I have tried to make Cheryl's picture larger than the fabric panel photo but my computer skills are lacking, my apologies.

Devastating news in the south.

It seems like there is one disaster after the next lately. Sometimes it is difficult to hear all the terrible news. When I hear of some tragedy, I always offer up a prayer to those affected by the circumstances and hope they receive the help and blessings needed to survive.

Within the past 24 hours the South has experienced some record breaking storms. What they have endured and will have to endure is I'm sure overwhelming. May the Lord be with you.

Jane

Many things I learned from the Easter Bunny!

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Everyone needs a friend who is all ears.

There's no such thing as too much candy.

All work and no play can make you a basket case.

A cute tail attracts a lot of attention.

Everyone is entitled to a bad hare day.

Let happy thoughts multiply like rabbits.

Some body parts should be floppy.

Keep your paws off of other people's jelly beans.

Good things come in small, sugar coated packages.

The grass is always greener in someone else's basket.

To show your true colors, you have to come out of the shell.

The best things in life are still sweet and gooey.

May the joy of the season fill your heart.

AND MAY GOD BLESS YOU!

Happy Easter!
Jane

3rd Bloggiversary is being celebrated by Angela

Angela is celebrating her 3 anniversary of blogging and is having a fantastic giveaway. I also know that by posting about it hear I am lessening my chances of winning, but if you haven't visited her blog and seen the beautiful counted cross stitch pieces she does, you've missed the boat. Her work is phenomenal! Here's the link, Hooked on Stitches.
Good Luck!

Jane

I won!!! and some retail therapy..

Lookie at this beautiful oak notion rack I won from Carole's giveaway. Isn't it great! Her husband makes it out of oak, cherry or walnut and he is a seriously wicked woodworker. He has a great eye for details. Thanks so much Carole and Steve, I love it! Of course I had to dig out one of my favorite thimbles to proudly let it be displayed on the pedestal made for just that item. Ingenious and so convenient, it's perfect!



Now I just need to clean off the table next to my sewing chair so it can be seen without all that clutter! I took a sanpshot of it on the keyboard drawer so you wouldn't see my mess and then of course I had to tell you about it anyway. lol Oh well, I'm an open book.
The scissors that came packaged with it are great too since with all the scissors I have in my scissor collection, I didn't own a pair of this style. Can't say that any more, Lucky Me!



Next up are some recent stash acquisitions.







Between local quilt shops, ebay and then Hancocks having a discounted sale that I couldn't resist, I really out did myself! Thank goodness I am not on the No buy program for stashbusters this year. I do heart the "Pom Pom de Paris" by French General so I scarfed up quite a bit of that in different packaging, layer cake, Fat quarter bundles,etc..... Some of the other fabrics in the stacks are also French General's other lines but I feel they will go well with the pom pom's coloring. Not exactly sure how I will work this into a quilt, but of course I have some ideas. lol! I think I did some serious retail therapy with all that has happened recently. the plan is that now I will get real and continue to use up what I have on hand, Promise!

A recent finish is a bracelet I made without any pattern. I really am so proud of myself for this one. I saw a similiar bracelet in Florida several years ago and when I inquired about purchasing the pattern, I was told there wasn't one and that it was a class they were offering in a couople of weeks time. Of course that didn't do me any good since I was flying back home in a week. SO, I looked at it and then shopped at the store and purchased the 3 row spacers, the clasp, and 6 beads of the 4mm different colored Swarovski crystals. I recently ran into them while finishing up the St. Petersburg bracelet and thought this needed to be done. AM I glad!



It's great to have a quick project! I started this on Sunday and finished it last night. A bit of a record for me in getting any beading done in that amount of time. Of course it was relatively easy since it was only stringing.
Notes to self, I used a 6lb fireline, some small silver crimp beads (without any crimping done) to finish the silver look on the ends and then stacked the crystals in a pleasing manner. At the ends, I strung back in towards the center of the bracelet tieing suare knots and half hitches intermittently along the way. At the end, I used a small dab of super glue on the fireline and snipped off the surplus, hopefully it will last fine. If you do another, double check and make sure you use an even number of colors and also play with the silver crimp balls beads to finish. perhaps the next could be done differently.

Two weeks ago for the hub's birthday celebration the youngest grandchildren were driving their jeep in the driveway.



This past week, this is what we woke up to:



It didn't stay long but there was enough that the snow plows were going by again. Pleeeeze hurry spring! Hopefully the Easter Bunny won't freeze!

Stay well and enjoy your blessings.
Happy Easter!
Jane

A Harrowing yet blessful experience

It's been a hectic couple of weeks. At the end of my last post, I had mentioned the septic and plumbing woes and the passing of a friend after her long ordeal with cancer and I had planned on giving life her a tribute here with blessings towards her final journey. And then life happened, unfortunately I didn't even make it to her wake.

DH's heart condition warranted a pacemaker defibrillator and luckily he's had one for 6 years. This current one is actually his second one since the batteries don't last forever and the first only had the pacing done but this one has the defibrillator too, otherwise known as the Cadillac. Well, the day of my friend's wake we had to go into town to pick up our daughter at the Eye Doctors since her eyes were dilated and we were going to drive her, the grandchildren and her vehicle home. On the way DH lost consciousness and while going 55 phm. We went off the road at a most inconvenient spot. The place where this happened had only a 5' span width of flat terrain before a steep embankment and a little roaring brook laying just at the bottom of the slope.

I know God or perhaps my friend was watching out for us. We all escaped without injury. While I noticed he seemed distracted and I called out his name to alert him of the direction of the car without any corrective responses of the driving direction, I glanced over and thought he was dead. We do know sudden cardiac death is a possibility, thus the defibrillator he was totally out, head bobbing with the roughness of the terrain by now.
By the time I looked back towards the road, we were on the right side of the guard rails on the right side of the road.
With the center console in the middle of our Suburu, I grabbed the wheel to try to pick out the best placement scenario while perhaps travelling at 50mph now.

Adrenaline pumping it's amazing how much detail I can remember, Thinking oh... no- The brook, if we go there we'll all drown, can I drive this on the right side of the guard rails?
No..... the land ledge starts getting skimpier and we'll then go towards said brook, the alternative, drive the car over the guardrails to get on safer ground, a nearly impossible tasks but the only course of action left.
A car was approaching from the other direction so don't over compensate was mentally noted.

Oh my....look at her face!
With a gratitude heart and soul that is what we did. Thankfully there was not another car coming from our rear so I was able to steer the car until we coasted to a stop. Just near the end of our coast I somehow knew that DH was now alert. I was yelling to him PUT ON THE BRAKES, PUT ON THE BRAKES!
He of course remembers none of it and actually has a bit of retrograde amnesia of the time spent just before the event took place.



We landed safely. Dh was brought to the ER via ambulance and hospitalized for a couple of days followed up with several appointments since to alter the settings, medications, and continue to set him up for Cardiac rehab (that was in the works before any of this since it's a followup of care after his mild heart attack last fall). On our way home, I brought him to the place where the accident was. My son and the trooper both thought that it was amazing nobody was hurt and that I was able to react so quickly and correctly to avert the worst possible disasters. The state trooper actually said we should get on our knees and pray. That he's never witnessed that and it was a miracle the guardrails allowed me to drive over them to get back on the road.



So, with heartfelt gratitude of the miracles of this cardiac event we are extremely grateful. Realising that all of us could have perished, besides another family on the road could have been seriously hurt with a head on collision and so many other tragedies were averted I feel like we observed our miracle. Thank you Lord for watching out over us. The car of course is damaged but that is just a little bit of inconvenience. Cars can be easily repaired or replaced.

Jane

UFO Challenge for April ~ #4~ Tater's Strip quilt

It's seems like the months are zipping by at an even faster speed. The UFO Challenge for March my UFO#1- Patience Corners, I am happy to report that the whole top is assembled. So I did meet that deadline, however I truly was hoping to get the backing made too. Just ran out of time and days.


I threw a 12" ruler on top so you could get a feel for how large this quilt will be. 106"x106". And to think this started by utilizing some scraps then I went stash diving to add more. This is the quilt that I think of water when I see it. Stacked organism rouleaux style, shimmering reflective colors dancing on the surface....





With this being the first of April another number was drawn.
#4- That is the tater strip quilt top.

NICE- That is all kitted up and not a thing done on it. It Should be fun to jump into a new project. Sometimes I feel like I have that startitis bug and if I linger too long on unfinished projects I loose my mojo, so with this fresh start perhaps it'll spur me on to get that #1 UFO back done at the same time. That's my plan.

I'll come back and add the photo after I take it so you can see what it looks like. It's a big one! 106X106"

Jane
I edited this post on April 3rd to add the photos. It's been hectic with plumbing problems, service technicians and then a dear friend has passed after a long ordeal with cancer. May she be at peace.

Musings

I still have to get to my backing for the Patience Corners quilt I am contemplating on calling Aquarius and I think a muse might have hit me smack dab in the middle of the night. Years ago while still in school, an English teacher introduced the class to poetry and specifically, Haiku. I was enamoured of it and since English was always my toughest subject, I was glad I could so successfully do Haiku. While blogging I stumbled onto a blog by Julie. It is here. She reminded me of this lost art I used to love and compelled me to think about one of my passions.


WATER




These pictures are from her blog and came from Google images.

Water has been a substance I honor, cherish and have loved for my entire life. It wasn't until my late 20s when I realized that every vacation I took, brought me within a close proximity to water. Being blessed to live in the northeast, we have an abundance of good quality water (for the most part). But specifically where I live, when my husband and I had our hand dug well replaced with a drilled well, we were lucky to hit an artisian spring.
I digress, sorry about that. Even though water is abundant for us, I realize this earth has many areas where water is a highly priced commodity and for many, a luxury. Many people and countries do not have this liquid libation so readily available. Throughout my life I have taught my children to not be wasteful and to recycle when we can but that's a totally other subject for another day. With the shortages in some areas and the unusuable water in others, this resource is one to be cherished, honored and not abused and I feel very strongly about it.

Even now when the grandchildren spend the night while brushing their teeth, the faucet does not have to run nonstop, they can shut it off while brushing and then turn the tap on when needed to rinse the brush. Such a simple concept, but if all people would do this, what a difference it could make.

While working as a supervisor in a prison system, inmates would leave water running because they thought another would be coming along behind them to use the sinks, I quickly and succinctly taught them to not abuse this resource, that the next man was very capable of turning on the faucet himself. To not let the faucets drip. Informing them that many people in Africa and through out our world would walk for miles to obtain potable water, that we should do our part to make this a better world. Many were ignorant of other countries plights and soon came back to let me know that they never knew that and thanked me for the knowledge, especially with many of them proud of their family heritages.

With making quilts, some of my friends and I have been doing the humpjumpers for years. Utilizing our scraps to catch the thread when stepping from one step of a quilt to the next and before you know it, you had enough scrap parts assembled to make another quilt. It got so that I have many "humpjumper quilt parts ready to finish into quilts". One of these "hump-jumpers" was my Patience Corners quilt. Whenever I sewed with black thread I had strips of 1-1/2" black Kona cotton and I would stitch a strip of a 4-1/2" WOF fabric onto this strip aftrer reaching 4-6 strips, I would cut them apart and have them ready for the next step of their process as my humpjumper. I gathered many jewel toned colors to have a more restricted colorway and found myself thinking this quilt was a "jewel" and reminded me of my blessings of water.

To make a long story a bit shorter, when my muse recently hit, I came up with this Haiku:

Luminous Liquid
Wonderfully Wet Water
Nuturing my Soul

and thought about the PC hump jumper quilt. I have an idea......
Perhaps could I? Write this haiku on the backside of my quilt? I have longed to do more liberated quiltmaking. Thinking originally of doing a couple of wonky, LARGER THEN LIFE log cabin blocks on the back and then using black and a taupe to have broad stripes to finish this quilt but with this current idea WOW! I am inspired by Julie's blog and I think I will.

Perhaps I'll play with some paper and get a feel for how I'll construct it. I won't use the same method of machine applique that I did for the back of my alien invasion quilt. Perhaps I could piece it. Then add another tidbit I thought of after seeing the water images. It's time to play, especially since this quilt is my UFO #1 challenge and who knows, perhaps this quilt will become my "Aquarius".



Jane

Alot has happened

Nothing that extraordinary but I remain busy. This past week did not pan out like I thought. Remember on my last post boasting of a trip I'd be taking with friends to see the "red an white quilt exhibit" in NYC?
Well, I didn't get to go thanks to the dratted intestinal bug I caught. I was actually in bed most of Thursday and Friday this past week and finally got some energy back on Saturday and could actually gain a longer distance from the indoor plumbing. Thanks goodness! Even though I couldn't eat and had no appetite, I was amazed how my body could turn against me so quickly. No spring tonics are needed here for me! Would you believe I also so wanted to go so badly that I got up early Friday morning, ( we were leaving at 4:45am to catch the amtrak train in Albany that left at 8am) and showered, packed my bag/cooler and was hoping that I was over it. But while waiting for Michelle to come pick me up, it sounded like gremlins were rearranging a house in my abdomen. Out came the big girl panties, I put them on and made a hard decision. No NYC for me today. In retrospect I am so glad I did, the worse was soon to come. While visiting Milahs blog, I read a posting about the funniest story she ever read. Oh, if I had made the wrong decision that could have been me, how horrifying! Okay enough about that crap! (sorry, I just could resist, can you tell I'm feeling much better?
This past week I was able to finish two projects. My St. Petersburgh bracelet is finally done! Whoop whoop! The beading portion was done for quite a while but since I still consider myself a novice, I wanted help in the finishing clasp portion. Last weekend my beading group met and Allison gave me the nudge and tutelage needed. Thank you so much Allison, I jsut loved this project! This group of friends are remarkable. What a talented group of wise women they are and I feel honored to be able to connect with them in a creative and essential way.
The second finish is this tote bag I started while away at the quilt retreat I attended 2 weekends ago. It's the first felled seam I've ever done and though I was intimidated a bit, was ableto get it right the first time. Yippee!



Couldn't resist grabbing a snap of it while the snow banks are still so malevolent around here.
That reminds me of a quote I found awhile back. "No matter how long the winter, spring will surely come." written by Anonymous

Please hurry Spring then dally for awhile....
Jane

Happy National Quilting Day!

In honor of the National QUilting Day I'd love to share this article written about a quilt exhibit only showing red and white quilts.

Lucky me, a couple of friends and I are able to make a wee trip to NYC to check it out for ourselves. I can't wait! But for today several of us are gathering to sew and visit a dining room redo that Carole and her husband recently finished.

With all that is happening in the world, I do feel blessed and very fortunate. My heart still goes out to the peoples of Japan. I read in blogland that an editor who is in Tokyo is heading up and arranging delivery of quilts to help out those in need. You can read more about it here on Naomi's blog.

Jane