When the Girls are gone...

Mama posts funny pictures of them....well of Steph at least. That....thing on her chin is chocolate....brownie mix chocolate...boy did it bring out all the brown jokes.....and butt chin jokes...we are badddddddddd....... Today I sewed....and sewed some more.

Can't prove it, camera is with the girlies....remember they aren't here.

They are at a concert.

They do that a lot...a lot lot.

But since Ashley pays for it, it's ok me moi!
I worked on a Row Robin quilt....from a Row Robin Swap back in '04 I think.

And Susan....My DH has said some reallllly thoughtless things in years past, but he has gotten better about catching what he is about to say and re-phrasing it, or explaining what he means.

Happiness Is....

Waking up to flowers for our 20th Anniversary. Thank You Sweets!!

A few days ago I asked him if he could believe it was 20 years!

he said, "I'm surprised you lasted this long"

she said, "What???" and thought a lot of other things.

he said, "I'm just surprised you stuck with me all these years"

she said "you're welcome"

Happiness is also having that depressing depression lift since we moved into this house!

I feel mentally much better. Much much much better!

Happiness is longer daylight.

Happiness is a house that lets IN the daylight.

Happiness is having a roof over my head.

Cherry Blossoms

I made the "flowers" from yoyo's. These blocks are for a group quilt.

Below......

I am making a wallie for my MIL. This is from EQ6, their version of New York Beauty, called Rick Rack II i do believe. Anyway, I made the 1/4 block into a full circle for the wall hanging, Steph picked the colors and I am doing the sewing. Paper piecing and applique. I suppose I could sew the circle parts by machine, but I rather prefer doing it by hand.

And here is a little trick I learned by accident. The solid orange border in the picture above printed out as one copy[1/4 of the circle I needed], but I wanted all 4 to make the complete circle fairly even for Stephs left brain....not wibbly wobbly for my right brain. {hey, shes good at chemistry, which turns out to be mostly MATH...shudder...so I complain not} Anyway.....I had machine-stitched-w/o-thread 4 pieces of paper stacked tog, along the printed copy pattern lines. Then instead of drawing a line to follow for the applique, I folded the.....blahblahblah......

See the bumpy edge of the paper on the outside curve?

Fold over there. Press.

Nice edge. No sweat.

2 more Tin Cushions for gifties.

Google Goodies

Google is just too cool. I have a personalized home page and today noticed something new....A Theme....you can select a theme for the top of the page, otherwise known as 'skins'. I picked the Beach theme and when you add your zip code, it times the sun for you....go check it out!

Thats google.com......

Can you see the headlines???

Smart Woman Snatched While Reading IKEA adfor those who don't know, IKEA ads always end with

"You don't have to be rich, just smart"

Blooming

I didn't know this was a Forsthia! Of course some of the shrubs along the property line were just sticks when we moved here, and I didn't see this place last spring. The camillia is blooming too, but no picture yet. There are at least 2 rodies and a holly too. I need to get Ashley to help me prune/trim back the plants on this side. Ashley likes gardening, I don't. This is Stephs decor. Sorry about the bright spot, but I needed the flash to show off the tape, the shiny, mirror tape that she put up between the black and blue. The art on left is by Ashley, on the right is the calendar Steph picked for 2007. I love decorating with calendars.
And this is a pile of b&w fabrics that friends have given Ashley for a new quilt. Thank You friends!!! Ashley plans to add a little red to it, so I tossed the shoe in for contrast. Think I will show DebR, she loves red shoes.

Cherry Blossoms

Christine asked how I made the cherry blossoms pictured in the last post.....yoyos....I just made yoyos and then....I brought the thread up from the center, looped around to the back and pulled. I did it four times to make 5 'petals'. I got the idea from here and have seen it in other places, including applique books. i used perle cotton and will use it when I sew them down on the block. Oh, and I didn't hem the yoyos, since you won't see the 'front' like they normally are.....click the underlined to see some nice normal yoyos on another blog.

Comment answers

Dorothy my row is one you don't see...I will take a picture of it later and show you why I don't want to use it as is.

Susan the row robin is the same...well, you don't attach the rows as you pass it along, so ok, it's different. I am glad I have it this way so I don't have to chop out my work. And~ Steph says the insect on the pot is a scarb beetle....I will tell her you like it!

Granny Fran..I can't remember what your comment is....[insert crooked grin]

As for generic stuff....why is it when you install a virus protection program, the computer gets a virus and you have to start all over???? Now I have to start all over with my bookmarks...

And...why is it when a dog fight breaks out IN THE HOUSE, all you can find is your coffee to throw on the snarling pooches? Why a dog fight? you say. Well there's mama dog with 3 pups and older daughter dog who tested mama dog. Guess i should call it what it was...Bitch Fight....

Quilty Things!

3 blocks of branches for cherry blossoms for a group quilt. The pink things are the blossoms, some of them are pinned to the tin cushion that I blogged about a while ago.

Which leads me to the new cushions I made yesterday for more tins. The moon is supposed to be round....LOL And this colorful circle is the start of a wallie for my MIL. It's a pattern from EQ6 called Rick Rack II Stephanie picked the fabric and colors...from my stash.












This picture of ice cream is from a Row Robin swap from quilting.about.com a few years ago. I really dislike my row, which you won't see here, but love the other rows made by others!!! I couldn't resist adding some color to the redwork block, and will color the others.....then change the blocks to a Round Robin.





The rows of blocks. Tho the bottom row is not all in this picture.

Pottery

Stephanie made this large vessel in ceramics class this last trimester. It has something to do with a band she likes, like I can remember which one...maybe Saosin?...anyway, the guitar bodies stick out like handles...or ears....and the light bulb is whole on this side and broken on the other, way cool! I am not sure what species of insect that is.


See the broken bulb? The glaze is supposed to be black, and does look darker in room light, but you know how the flash on a camera is. Steph really liked this class, along with her other faves, math and chemistry, and plans to take Ceramics II next year. This last tri, she has drawing, which she is not looking forward to, but I am going to mention "drawing pictures for pottery" babble to inspire her.

In your face

The cat is as big as the rug....ok, it's a small rug.

Kacie brought Megan's table over today, now that I have a 'play' area set up for the babe. Megan did the arranging of 'friends' and books.
Each movement got a "err-you-go" from Meg.

Moving the Sewing Room area.....

Steph has convinced me that putting my sewing area in the bedroom is a good idea, I hope. So I am moving it all....AGAIN. But since I am hoping to have a sun-room-deck someday, that may be where the sewing will end up, so I am not exactely losing the window. [yes I will keep the fabric behind dark doors, or whatever. the whole roof of the room won't be glass anyway.]

Other Projects~~

I have been making a few wooden things shiny. I LOVE this polycrylic by Minwax. [got the tip from the artquilt.com posting list] LOW odor, water clean up, makes things shiny....what more do you need? So what am I shining up? you say. The coat hook things were made by my FIL who planned to make a standing coat rack. I plan to use them for curtain rod holders, and coast hooks too if there are enough. The poles that you only see a bit of, are 8 feet long, according to Dan, and they will be the curtain poles...after being cut to size for the windows they will be curtaining. And notched to fit the hooks. The Borden's Cream Cheese boxes were used by my Dad for nails and such in his wood shop area. I am not sure how old they are, but past 50 for sure.

Orange Quiltie & Sew Corner

This is the orange block I made into a Quilt-let, or Quiltie, as I named it. I used perle cotton thread for the quilting. I think the border needs some too, I just haven't figured out what yet.


And my sewing corner is set up, for now. Who knows what evolution it will go thru, but this is the beginning. I had to put my Fat Q. buckets on their sides so I could see the color. In their past life they were on shelves that went up from the machine. If you enlarge the picture, you might be able to see the fun things on the bb. The daffy Steph embroidered, the Cat Ashley drew when she was a tot, the 'map' for my Cherry Blossom blocks for a group quilt. My machine sits on a childs card table....I finally have the machine where I look down on it!