Fundraiser Quilt

An internet friend and fellow quilter is using this beautiful quilt to help raise money for her husbands open heart surgery. She hand pieced this Grandmothers Garden quilt and another friend machine quilted it. You can read about their situation and also find out how you can help at her blog Pieceful Afternoon.

ABC Wednesday

O is for Origami

I think everyone has done some paper folding at some point in life. My earliest memories are from grade school. We would make these paper "fortune teller's". I remember putting numbers inside and someone would ask you a question like "how many kids will Cindy have" and then you'd open it up to reveal a number that would be your answer. There was some way we were suppose to open and close it before you revealed the number but I don't remember that part. Does anyone else remember doing this?

My favorite origami memory is from the year we hosted an exchange student named Fumi. Fumi brought origami paper with her to teach the kids, as well as folded gifts for us all. She even made this beautiful book as a thank you to us when she left. It had origami on every page and the front and back covers. I still have it...it was quite beautiful.

Be sure to visit other blogs participating in ABC Wednesday.

Little in Big...Big in Little

My hubby got a iPod shuffle in the mail yesterday. For those of you not familiar with a shuffle...its about the size of a match book. Look at the size of the box they shipped it in! Really? That little iPod needed a box that big? Really?

And then on Saturday when I was visiting my Mom she pulls out this shirt she bought for me...all the while she is giggly. Huh? I'm curiously wondering why the giggles? Well look for yourself. The blue shirt is mine...it's the size I wear. The little bitty purple shirt is what she gave me. What, am I two?

Surprise! It's one of those fabrics that stretches to fit anyone! I was amazed. She even gave a cardigan made the same way. So now this is a big enough shirt in a little package. :)
I just thought those two size things were funny and had to share.

Feet Friday

Aren't these shoes beautiful?

They are silk, probably made in the 1760's. I read a blurb in Readers Digest about a shoe museum. I had to find out about it for Feet Friday. It's called the Bata Shoe Museum and its in Toronto, Canada. What's fun about their web site is there is a online exhibit that you can visit. So go, and learn a little bit about the history of the shoe!

Using a Longarm

Do you remember my post titled "How Long Does it Take You to Make a Quilt"? Well, I finally got my Scotland quilt basted, so now it's ready to hand quilt. I machine basted it on a longarm that I rent. I began renting the machine a while ago cuz I wanted to do a few of my own quilts and save some money. I was just beginning to get the hang of doing VERY simple all over patterns when I stopped going...just one of those "one thing after another" and before I knew it over a year had passed. I felt like a newbie with no experience when I went back to baste this quilt. I'm hoping to stick to it better this time around. I really want to get good enough to actually do some of my own custom work.

Anyhoo...now I have to choose a quilting design for my Scotland quilt and get started on the quilting. If I'm still blogging and you're still reading a few years from now, I'll show you a picture of the final quilt! LOL!!!!

ABC Wednesday

N is for Numismatics

Now there’s a big word, huh? I bet your wondering what hobby that is.

Well, here’s the definition:
The study or collection of coins, tokens, and paper money.

For us, this would be coin collecting. Something we have been doing for many years.

We are not serious coin collectors. Just have kept those left over coins from our travels and added others that friends and family have kept for us. The kids used to play poker with them! LOL!
I took a quick peek at some to give you an idea of coins we have. There are some from England, Honduras, Mexico, Spain, France, Norway, Austria, Japan and more.

This is my favorite one. We can’t remember where it’s from….either Japan or Korea.
We’ve also been collecting the state commemorative quarters. We have all but Minnesota, Oklahoma, New Mexico and Arizona….those four keep alluding us. How many of you are collecting those?

That's it for N! Be sure to visit other ABC blogs for more N posts.

Knitted Dish cloths

Isn't this a cute dish cloth? One last seam to sew and then I'm all done. I got the pattern from the "My Messy, Thrilling Life" blog months ago. Sadly the directions are no longer available for me to pass on to you from there. But, thanks to Julie, I have this other site that has the same pattern. It knits up really fast. I can't wait to make some more.

ABC Wednesday

M is for Martial Arts

Our son took Taekwondo for several years when he was a teenager. He has always excelled at physical activities (unlike his Mom...I tried learning his white belt level stuff and was too uncoordinated....it's a miracle I can do Scottish dancing!) and martial arts was the perfect sport for him. He didn't need a team to practice. He wasn't reliant on others for advancing. It was just him and his own discipline and self-motivation. This picture is from his black belt testing. I love the determination in his face. :)

Remember to go visit some others who are participating in ABC Wednesdays!

Recent Swap Blocks

Last month I shared with you some swap blocks I made for an online group I'm in.    I thought I'd share some of the recent ones that others have made for me.   Below are the two from Joy last month and two from Kathy this month.   

And these two are the ones I made this month for Eileen:   

 Swapping is such a great way to get blocks made from fabrics that aren't in our own stashes!   :)

Feet Friday

Lazy feet....eating dinner while watching the tube! Lazy, yes...but oh so relaxing. :)

Another Petite Yaya Quilt

When my daughter Jennifer turned 18 many years ago, I wanted to give her a quilt made by the adult women in her life who were close to me & her. You've read about the Yaya's before and how special they are in my life...well, they also hold a special place in Jenn's heart. You can read her blog about her Yaya quilt here. I know she feels loved when she looks at her quilt and I also hope it reminds her about the value of friendship....we women need each other!

Well, another of the Yaya daughters had some significant milestones in the past year (marriage and moving away) that I thought would be great to celebrate with another sampler quilt made by us Ya's. This young lady loves that bright spring/lime green color and wanted something psychedelic. This is the fabric I found for our focus:

It's a Kaffe Fassett fabric called "Millefiore" and I thought it fit what she wanted nicely. Isn't it fun?

Here is top that I just finished yesterday:

Each Yaya made a block, Jennifer made one also and I made two. Tink helped me with finishing. It's a bright and happy quilt, don't you think? I can't wait to get it quilted and then on it's way to its new home to warm the heart of another daughter. We love you, S!

ABC Wednesday

L is for Leather

There are some amazing artists out there who work with leather. Just look at this beautiful water bottle by Paul Krause of PK Bootmaker:

I would love to have that water bottle!

We haven’t much experience with the hobby of leather working. The kids did a few odds-n-ends like knife sheaths when they were little. And we did learn how to tan our own hides during the years we raised rabbits and sheep. But we never did anything with them. One time Hubby and our daughter took a class at the local bead store on making small beaded leather bags. Here’s the one our daughter finished:

That’s it for “L”!

Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more blogs!

Convenient

Convenient: suited to personal comfort or to easy performance

I have two new conveniences in my life that fit that definition to a “t”.

First is my new Melitta individual coffee filter:

I love coffee. Normally you would find me drinking International House Orange Cappuccino coffee….like 3 cups a day! It all started nearly 30 years ago when hubby and I were engaged and we enjoyed our first cup after painting his first apartment. Anyhoo….this new Melitta filter allows me to make myself the perfect single cup of coffee. No wasted coffee from making a full pot….no guilt drinking of leftover coffee from said full pot. No upset tummy from French pressed coffee. And its fast…one needs fast with that first cup in the morning! Suited to my personal comfort? Check! Easy performance? Check!

Second is bread baking the “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day” way! Yes, homemade yeast bread that is convenient. My son always brags that he gets homemade bread every day that Faith makes. Now I know her secret! ;) Tink learned the secret from a neighbor. She was pumping out fresh bread all the time too. She made some for us Yaya’s on our vacation…Melis went home and bought the book and is making fresh bread all the time too! I had to get in on the action. So I bought the book from Amazon and made my first batch the other day. The dough takes about 5 minutes…including measuring and mixing. There is no kneading. You let it rise a few hours and then goes into the frig. I used my Kitchen Aid to mix but you can just mix in the container you're gonna store the dough in and then you'd have no clean up! Score. I'm doing that next time.

Dough keeps for 14 days in the frig and when you want a loaf, you take off a hunk, let it rest for 40 minutes, and then bake it.





Voila! You’re done and can pig out like we did…eating the whole loaf at one meal.
Suited to my personal comfort? Check! Easy performance? Check!

I love convenience!

Feet Friday

This is what happens when one takes the baby outside without checking to see if he has socks on and all one has in her pockets is mittens and one is too lazy to walk back inside for socks! I know...how could you not see the boy was barefoot? It just happens. LOL!

Hello, Dolly!

"I went away from the lights of Fourteenth Street

And into my personal haze

But now that I'm back in the lights of l4th Street

Tomorrow will be brighter than the good old days"

-From Hello, Dolly

Hubby and I regularly go to Seattle to see musicals at the 5th Avenue Theatre. Seattle is, of course, famous for rain but we have never been rained on in the 7 years of going over for plays! That doesn't mean it hasn't rained...just that we don't get rained on. It rains during the play or during dinner but always has stopped during the times we are outside walking. True! That is until this time. It was miserable. Cold. Wet. Cold. Wet. Did I say cold & wet? Ugh!

Here we are on the ferry....smiling cuz it's early yet and maybe...just maybe the rain will stop on the way over!

Gray skies and more gray skies:

Once we got to the theatre the gloom of the day vanished. "Hello, Dolly!" is the perfect play to whisk away the gray! I had forgotten what fun this show is. And amidst the laughter it has a poignant message too......when tragedy enters our lives (for Dolly, her hubby dying) and we enter "our personal haze", eventually our "tomorrows will be brighter than the good old days." Yippy for our tomorrows.

We tried a new restaurant this trip. It's called Thao's and serves modern Vietnamese food. I loved our appetizer the best. It was soft shelled crab spring rolls. Oh boy, could have just eaten them all night.

Rain or no rain, it's always a good day when it's a play day. :)

ABC Wednesday

K is for Knitting

 

Knitting is a fairly new hobby for me.   Some where in my past I learned how to do it…but I can’t remember when or who taught me.  I was never good at it so stuck with crochet.  

A few years ago I started knitting scarves while watching TV at night.  I was wanting something mindless to keep my hands busy and hand quilting/appliqué was requiring too much of my brain!  The wonderful fuzzy yarns were so helpful in hiding any mistakes too! Love that.  I gave most of them away but here is a picture of one I kept:

Scarves were all I did until last October when I decided to try making myself a felted bag.  I’ve already blogged on that so if you want to see, just click here.  They were fun and easy and fast. 

Right now I’m trying my first hat.  I’ve only had to take it out once (I don’t know how to fix mistakes so have to take the whole thing apart if I mess up…..some day I should learn that skill, huh?).   I've not gotten very far...just a teeny bit past the brim edge.   Notice the cute button-up denim bag behind my knitting?  My friend Tink made that for my knitting from an old jumper she had.  It's so cute.

I doubt I'll ever make anything fancy but knitting has been a great tv hobby for me.

Check out other ABC blogs here.

I Never Knew

I never knew that apparently I am in need of much help in my daily activities. Thankfully, Mr. Finn is ever ready and present to give me all the "help" I need! :)

Here's my boy helping with the laundry:

Apparently I hadn't pin basted this quilt properly and some of the pins needed to come out:


Here he is acting as my stylist as I was getting ready for a party:

Not sure why he thinks I need help reading? Maybe by staying put he thinks he will keep me on task:


Of course, even a super fantastic helper needs to take some time for himself! A good nap is in order.

Thanks, Finn. You make my days much more fun!

Swap Blocks

I'm in a block swap with a small online group.   Each month we send directions for a block we want made plus a part of the fabric for making it to whoever is assigned that month.   This round we are actually making each person two blocks....normally two of the same pattern but with different fabrics.  That person makes the blocks then mails them back to us.   At the end of this swap I'll end up with 18 blocks.  I love doing this swap cuz its a great way to get a good scrappy look with many fabrics I don't have!

 The above blocks were made for a gal who is making a redwork quilt.  She requested any star blocks but to only use the the red fabric she sent or reds we had with white for the background.  In other words...one color.    That made it interesting when searching out star patterns.    Anyway, the two I decided on look pretty good.  Both are from Judy Martin's book called "Knockout Blocks and Sampler Quilts".  The one on the left is called "Fiery Star" and the one on the right is called "Virginia Star".   I hope she likes them and that they work well with the collection she receives.  

ABC Wednesday

J is for Jigsaw Puzzles

I have lots of memories of puzzle making. My Mom was a whiz at it. She could sit for hours and work on one. I’m more like my Dad…come in for a 5 minute stretch and then off to do something else. There was often a puzzle going at camp in NY when we’d go there in the summer. It’d be set up folks would stop by as they passed and put in a piece or two. By the time our vacation was over it’d be done.

Here’s a pic of my hubby and son-in-law seriously at work on a puzzle at our lake vacation this summer:

Even our cat likes to get in on the fun:

J is for Jewelry Making

This is something new I get to do. I have a friend (one of the Yaya’s) who has been making jewelry for a long time. She’s really good at it. Well, due to a conversation about earning badges we Yaya’s had, it was decided we’d make charm bracelets to commemorate certain events and to symbolize meaningful things to our friendship.
I’m so excited about this project! And I’m so glad I have a close friend who already is good at this hobby and can be our teacher.

Lovelies to choose from:

Some of our homemade charms and objects to add:


I'll have to remember to post a pic of our finished charm bracelets once their done.

Lots of folks participate in ABC Wednesday, be sure to check out more J blogs!

Feet Friday

I'm tired of being cold!!!

Wishing for flip-flop weather. :)