I need to count my blessings ...

I've been in such a funk lately ... nothing really appeals to me, not on a gut level. No joy. Now don't get me wrong. I'm not depressed, at least not the need-to-seek-professional-help kind of depressed. But I feel like I'm just going through the motions, not really living, just getting by. Have any of you ever felt like that? I just want to pull back for a bit, take some time for myself to give myself a good talking-to. But who has time for that? Then, recently, something got through the fog. I discovered this project a week or so ago and I can't get it out of my mind.I think I need to count my blessings, too, to remind myself that there are some wonderful things in my life. Things to be joyful about. I know in my head that I am surrounded by blessings, but I've lost sight of them. This is what I need a serious talking-to about! So I'm digging out my embroidery floss, scrounging up a piece of fabric to stitch on, and I'm going to start counting. Would you like to join me?

Did you send out a search party?

Yes, I went back into hiding a bit, I guess. But I'm still here, plugging away at being a wife and homeschooling mom, occasionally sewing or doodling in my art journal. I don't know why I've been neglecting my blog ... need to get out of this rut ...

One thing that's helping with that is a new online class I joined (an early Christmas present from dh): Mary Ann Moss' Remains of the Day: A Shabby Journal of Scraps. This one is really outside my comfort zone ... lots of mismatched scraps and tangly threads ... a real stretching exercise for me LOL! The first lesson started this Tuesday ... sewing the cover. Here's mine, all done and ready to be filled with scraps of paper and other goodies:
Here you can see it opened out flat:And here is the inside, where all the goodies will eventually end up:The cover went together so fast, using Mary Ann's guerrilla-style sewing techniques LOL! It was quite fun, once I let go of trying to make it look perfect. I must have rearranged the bits and pieces a dozen times before I finally said, "Enough already!"

I'll keep you posted as I work on this journal ... the second lesson is next Tuesday and I can't wait! So my goal is to have everything wrapped and under the Christmas tree before then so I can play without guilt LOL!

If this looks like something you'd enjoy, do check out Mary Ann's class ... it's not too late! The class blog will be open and available for about a year, so even if you're pressed for time (and who isn't in December?!), you can join and then take your own sweet time. Have fun and create something!

My plaid apron

Well, not exactly a plaid apron ... it's really a denim apron with touches of plaid. You see, I bought a yard of this neat plaid fabric at Hobby Lobby ... it was actually made up of small (roughly 3") squares of different plaids all stitched together. And the best part was that it was on clearance at $2/yd ... love it! So I brought it home, with tentative plans to make a half-apron with it, maybe adding an overlay using one of my recent vintage embroidery purchases (scored big at a garage sale recently!), perfect for my submission to the current Tie One On theme.

But then, a couple days later, someone forwarded a recent issue of a newsletter called Sewing Savvy on the Sewing Aprons Yahoo group, because the issue was all about aprons (it's the current issue as I type, but if you read this down the road, it's July 2009, Vol. 7, No. 10). One article in the newsletter is called Denim with Dinner ... a pattern for turning bib overalls into an apron. It caught my eye for two reasons ... one, I happened to have a pair of pale green overalls that I hardly wear (why? because they are not flattering at all LOL!), and two, they dressed it up with a plaid fabric. The wheels in my head started turning and turning, and this is the result.
Now, I couldn't follow the pattern exactly ... my overalls were different than they were describing and I had less of the plaid than it called for ... but the pattern made a great guideline for turning a piece of denim clothing into an apron. I'm very pleased with how it turned out! And now I have an excuse for wearing these soft denim overalls without looking frumpy LOL!This was great fun to do, and now I can't wait for the girls to outgrow some of their jeans so I can try the same techniques on some half-aprons for them, especially since they love how mine turned out. And, hey, if any of you try this, let me know because I want to see!!

First place winners

And, finally, the 6 first place winners! The first three are some of my favorite quilts, perhaps because they are my own design LOL! Here is my "In the Garden" quilt (this was for my church's art challenge ... make a piece of artwork based on a favorite hymn).The second quilt is "Tulips". I started with a Carol Doak paper-pieced star, then added borders around it (what I like to call a "roosting robin" ... like a round robin, except it stays home and I do all the borders myself).The last quilt is "The Burning Bush" (this was another church art challenge ... artwork representing a Bible passage ... I did Exodus 3:1-4:17).And here are the other 3 winners. My pie-makin' apron:A crocheted granny square tote bag:And a Christmas-themed decorated sweatshirt (front and back):











Well, that's all of them ... thanks for letting me brag a bit! Now I'm off to see what I can make for next year's fair ...

Second place winners

Here are the 4 second place winners from the county fair. First up is my sampler quilt (you may recognize this pattern for the book Quilts! Quilts!! Quilts!!!) ... sorry about the pic ... it's hard to get the whole quilt while standing on the couch looking down LOL!Next is the apron I made for the No $$ Apron challenge.Then there is this cute tote bag with coneflowers on it.And, finally, a pink and black chevron afghan I crocheted for my daughter, Abby.Check back tomorrow for the 6 first place winners!

May's basket

Slow and steady wins the race! Finally finished the May basket for the Tisket, Tasket BOM ... on to June ... wonder how much I can get done before July's block is up next week LOL!

Opposites Attract

I've been home for a week now, and yet I still haven't started working on those dang car organizers ... need to straighten up my sewing area first! So in the meantime, I thought I'd share my pages from the altered art book page thingy (seeing as I promised I would share them weeks ago ... my bad!) As I mentioned in this post, I didn't allow myself to look at my finished pages until I finished my mom's summer pages. Now that those are done and returned to her, I can focus on mine ... here they are, up on my design wall, waiting for me to figure out how in the world I'm going to put them together.My theme was "Opposites Attract". Here's the pages I did first and sent on ... order and chaos.
My mom did the next set ... black and white.Now I don't know which of the other two ladies did which of these last two sets ... they didn't mark them in any way so I'll never know for sure, unless my mom is still in contact with them. The third set is spring ahead, fall back.The last set is blue and orange. The quote says, "All colors are the friends of their neighbors and the lovers of their opposites."Didn't they all do an amazing job?! Now I have to figure out how I want to put these together. The original idea was to make an accordion folded book, but now that I have them back, I'm not sure if that's the way I want to go. I need to think about it some more. What would you do? If you have any ideas, please share!

No, I haven't gone back into hiding ...

I just don't have any projects to share lately! I haven't sewn a single stitch in several days. Instead, we've been busy wrapping up our homeschool year (almost there!!), buying a new car (headache-inducing!), and trying to pack for our trip to Florida next week (can we possibly fit everything into carry-ons?!?) It doesn't help that I came down with something nasty over the weekend ...

I did start planning a new project, however ... car caddies for the new car. Several years ago, I bought McCall's Crafts pattern #8260, which is all about organizing (desperately needed around here, I might add!!) I meant to make these for our previous "new car", but never got around to it, so for this new car, it's gettin' done ... really ... I mean it! It's that organizer pictured in the lower right corner of the pattern:I dug through my stash of decorator weight fabrics and chose a few that'd work, then let my girls pick their favorite ... now I'm all ready, except I can't find the time right now! So it's my goal to make them first thing when we get back ... well, maybe second thing, right after putting the vacation clothes into the laundry ...

Spurred on into summer

Two events have combined recently to spur me into action ... Pat Sloan's recent finish-it-up challenge and my upcoming trip to Florida to visit my mom. These two things have reminded me that I still had one more round to do on the "Altered Art Book Page Thingy", which first began in February 2008. Three other ladies, including my mom, and I set out to make pages for each other, round robin style, in each of our chosen themes. Mine was "Opposites Attract".

The second round I worked on, the theme was "Flourish", and the third round, the theme was "Matisse". Both of these rounds, I took my time, but still finished relatively quickly. But then came the final round ... this was my mom's theme, "Seasons", and the work of the first three rounds (spring, fall and winter) was amazing! I had no idea how I could come close to matching these beautiful pages with my summer pages. I hemmed, I hawed, I tossed around and rejected a few ideas. Mom said, "Don't stress about it ... take your time and when it gets done, it gets done." So it got put back in the envelope to incubate.

Now, when my mom says, "take your time," she really means, "give it another week, or even two," not "take a year off," but that's what happened! It sat and sat ... occasionally I'd spy the envelope peeking out at me and I'd think so more, but, really, it just sat. Recently, in light of the whole finish-it-up challenge, I got the bright idea (think, "duh!" with hand slap to forehead) to pull the pages out and put them up on the design wall. There I couldn't ignore them and pretend they didn't exist! And then, my mom calls and invites us down to visit ... bingo! A deadline! So I got in gear and told myself, "It's not about trying to match the others, it's about what the season means to you!" So I thought some more, searched the Internet for ideas, pulled some fabrics, broke out the fusible web, and made these.











Not so grand as the other three seasons, but I'm please with them! Here's a pic of all the pages together. Can't wait to see what my mom does with them!Ready for a kicker? When the lady before me sent me my mom's, she sent mine back, too. But I promised myself I wouldn't look at mine until my mom's were done. So last night I finally got to see what these ladies had done with my "Opposites Attract" theme ... gorgeous! I'll share them with you later this week ....

Aprons by the dozen

My mil and I go to a luncheon each month where for just $15 we get to enjoy the company of many wonderful ladies, eat a delicious meal and hear amazing speakers talk about what God is doing in their lives. A few months ago, my mil offered to help with the centerpieces for the tables. She likes to make them fit the theme of the luncheon topics ... for instance, once we had a watercolor artist speak, so she painted up some small canvases and displayed them on little easels, complete with paintbrushes with flowers tied to them. Another month, we had a musician, so she cut out musical notes, glued them to skewers and tucked them into flower arrangements. Cute, huh?!

Well, for the month of June, I'm adding to the fun! The theme is "Once Upon a Salad" and the speaker, a chef, will be giving us ideas on main dish salads. I told my mil an apron tied to the vase would be cute, and hmm, somehow I ended up promising to make said aprons LOL! So I went home, did a little searching for apron ornament patterns, and ended up coming up with my own half-apron pattern. Next, I pawed through the scraps left over from my Dancing Train quilt and came up with over a dozen combinations. Then came the fun!
I made my own bias tape to edge each apron, which caused some burned fingers, but I think the results were worth it!
Here's one tied to the vase we picked out. She plans to add some greenery and maybe a daisy or two, plus a set of four wooden spoons/forks that she got at the dollar store.Only one problem ... I won't be there to see them! I realized about halfway through the sewing that my girls and I will be in Florida visiting my mom that week (yeah, I can hear you cuing up the violins LOL!) Hope my mil gets some pictures! And we're going to offer the centerpieces for sale, so I can't wait to hear how they do! Which one's your favorite?

My Pie-Makin' Apron

Last week I posted a sneak peek of my Pie-Makin' Apron ... a pile of fabrics and a recipe card. A recipe card? Yep, a recipe card ... but not for just any ol' recipe. This is a recipe for my Great Grandma Mitchell's Butterscotch Cookies. I remember as a little girl playing Tiddly Winks in her living room while nibbling on these yummy cookies, eating around the pecan half, saving it for last. Wonderful memories!When I read about the latest Tie One On theme, I immediately knew what apron I wanted to make ... the recipe-card apron in a sweet little book called Stitched in Time by Alicia Paulson. I looked through all the old recipes my stepmom had, specifically looking for a pie recipe, but when I stumbled on this cookie recipe, I knew it was the one! So I took it home and whipped up this apron (well, it did take me several days, but still ...)I had so much fun putting this together and remembering my Great Grandma! If you'd like to go back in time with me, make up a batch of these cookies. Enjoy!

Butterscotch Cookies

1/2 lb. (2 sticks) butter
1 scant cup dark brown sugar
1 egg, beaten
1 tsp. vanilla
1/2 tsp. almond or lemon extract
2 scant cups flour
Pecan halves

Cream butter and brown sugar. Add egg, vanilla and almond or lemon. Add flour and beat well 'til well blended. Refrigerate for an hour. Drop by teaspoons on buttered cookie sheet, with pecan half on top. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes. Makes 4 dozen.

April's basket

I finished April's basket over the weekend.On to May's basket o' flowers ... I'm lovin' these baskets!

It has borders!

I finally bit the bullet and worked on the borders of the first Crooked Cabin quilt. It was a bit daunting to square it up, but it had to be done ... and now I'm glad it's over LOL! A bit of black and then a nice red outer border really finished it off nicely. I'm very pleased with it.As for the second Crooked Cabin quilt, I auditioned several different borders and I didn't like any of them. Nothing seemed right. Then I realized that the fabric I used to tilt the squares is so wide that it is enough of a border as is. So I'm calling it done, too.Well, these quilts are at that "top-is-done-and-just-needs-quilting" stage, which is where I wanted to be! Now I have a new goal for them ... to be quilted and bound in time for my guild's July picnic. It's tradition to invite kids and grandkids that like to sew and quilt, and show-n-tell is centered around the kids' handiwork and also any recent quilts that have been made for kids. These would fit the bill nicely, so I thought it'd make a good goal to shoot for. Thank goodness we meet toward the end of the month LOL! Cross your fingers for me ....

What I'm working on right now ...

Anyone remember when I started these two Crooked cabin quilts? Yep, that's correct ... three years ago! I should be a card-carrying member of Procrastinators Anonymous LOL!

Anyways, Pat Sloan is having a Finish-It-Up challenge right now, so I thought I'd try to get these done (at least to the "top-is-done-and-just-needs-quilting" stage). When I last posted about these quilts, I had half the blocks put together, waiting for borders, and the other half still sitting while I decided whether to attempt a different setting than the first (it was a doozy!)

Since joining the challenge three weeks ago, I got the second half of the blocks put together. I wanted to do this one differently than the first one, so I added red and green (but not Christmas-y) fabrics to tilt the blocks before sewing them together. Tilting them really made the blocks grow, so this one is 6" wider and 12" longer than the first one!Now I need to get borders on ... and quick, since the deadline for the challenge is this Friday! I'm thinking of doing a thin (1"-1 1/2") border of black on both quilts to contain the blocks, then the red star fabric for the first quilt and the green stripe for the second quilt. But we shall see ....

Btw, if you're interested, you can see other quilts being finished up for the challenge here.

The next redwork block

I finally finished the February block of the A Tisket, A Tasket, Twelve Months of Baskets. So far, it's my favorite!Now I'm working on April's block and have May traced and ready. I'm really loving how they are turning out ... can't wait to see what will end up in future baskets!

I've been working on these blocks while watching TV with my husband or kids, and when we're out and about, but I have also found some time to play in my sewing room recently. I've been working on my Pie-Makin' Apron and on two Crooked Cabin quilts that I started back in 2006. Below is a sneak preview of the apron, and you can see where I left off with the quilts almost three years ago here.I'll share some of the progress on both of these projects in the very near future, so stay tuned!

My current handwork project

At Christmastime, my Bible study group had an ornament exchange ... being me, I couldn't just buy an ornament, I had to stitch one up. So, the morning of the exchange (do you see a pattern here?), I pulled out my fabric and DMC floss, dug out the lightbox, traced a button tree pattern I've had in a binder for who knows how long and got started. By working on it throughout the day (including over an hour of uninterrupted time during dance class ... yay for dance classes!), I finished it with about an hour to spare. But did I take a picture of it during that hour? No. And I'm still kicking myself for that ... it turned out so darn cute!

So, what does that have to do with anything? Well, it reminded me how much I enjoy embroidery. So I proceeded to make ... er, start some more ornaments for myself, using some redwork designs found in said binder. However, I didn't rush these like I did the button tree, so they aren't complete ... maybe Christmas morning 2009 I'll finish 'em up (or maybe even earlier, like Christmas Eve). But I'll give you a peek:Then a couple weeks ago, I stumbled upon Bunny Hill Designs. They currently have a free BOM (Block of the Month for you non-quilters) called "A Tisket, A Tasket, Twelve Months of Baskets". I'm usually not into BOMs, but they are showing the blocks in both applique and redwork, and, you guessed it, the redwork got to me. I immediately printed out the available months (January through April) and got started. I pulled a bunch of WOW (white-on-white) fabrics, cut 12 backgrounds, traced out the four designs, drove to Hobby Lobby to get the right red (because the 5 reds I do have weren't right!), and started sewing. Okay, okay, so I didn't do all this within five minutes of printing ... I had to wait a couple days until I went to the post office because Hobby Lobby is two doors down. While I was there, I also got some lightweight fusible interfacing ... I've never tried it before, but the patterns suggested it so I thought I'd give it a go. Boy, is this stuff cool! It's so lightweight that I can barely tell it's there, but it really helps prevent puckering. Plus if there needs to be any trailing between stitch areas, it doesn't show through the front. I'm hooked!

I've done January and March (I skipped February because the fusible interfacing wasn't completely fused, so I waited until the next time I had my iron on and got it fused properly ... it's in progress now):









Anyone care to join me? It's free!

Dancing Trains

At my quilt guild's quilt show last September, scraps were being sold by the bag. My girls knew this and they were armed with change, ready to buy! "Yeah, sure, Mom, the quilts are pretty ... but where's the scraps?!" We started at one end of the building and searched for the scrap tables ... the only thing slowing us down was me, trying to actually enjoy the quilts LOL! But, finally, close to the other end of the building (wouldn't ya know it?), the Promised Land ... several tables filled with bags and bags of scraps ... big paper grocery bags for $1, small lunch bags for 50 cents, and a few more small lunch bags filled with really itty bitty scraps for 25 cents. Now for the girls to choose ... "Mom, are you going to get any?" "No, dear, I don't need MORE scraps ... got plenty at home that I don't use anyway."

But, wait, what's that posted on the wall? A challenge? Ooh, I like a challenge ... what's it say? Make a 48"x60" quilt top using only scraps from up to 5 bags and bring it to the next meeting. The next meeting?! ... that's, like, only 4 weeks away ... I can't do that! Hmmm ... it is only a quilt top, doesn't need to be quilted or anything ... hmmm ....

Okay, so I caved, er, rose to the challenge ... I brought 5 bags home with me ... and no small bags for me, no sir, I bought 5 of the big ones ... I was going to give myself plenty to work with! My girls had dance class that afternoon, so I brought the scraps with me, along with some big Ziplock bags for sorting. I separated them by color and thought, "What was I thinking?!?! I'm not a scrap quilter! How am I going to make a pretty quilt out of this stuff?" Now, don't get me wrong, I love scrappy quilts, I make scrappy quilts, but there's a difference. I'm of the variety that likes to work with lots of fabrics ... if the pattern calls for a green fabric, why use one green when you can use 10 different greens. That's my kind of scrappy ... controlled. There was no control with those 5 bags ... just chaos. But I was determined not to give up ... at least not in the first 24 hours!

My next mission was to scour all my quilt magazines for just the right pattern. For the next couple of days, I skimmed through my past issues, pulling aside about a dozen or so that looked promising. I brought them with me to the next dance class and narrowed it down to one that looked easy enough to complete in less than a month ... it's called "Happy Cows" and is in the March/April '08 issue of Quiltmaker (page 46, designed by Roxann O'Hare in Nebraska). A little fiddling with the sizing of the blocks and sashing to fit the scraps I was working with, and I was good to go.

A few days later, I got an email ... several members want to participate, but during the next meeting they'll be at the Houston show. So the challenger agrees to move the challenge to the following meeting ... cool, an extra month to work on it. I just might pull this off! At each dance class, I brought scraps and cut them in strips with a pair of scissors (the pattern was great for this ... I just eyeballed for length and width). Then I'd go home and sew the strips together. Back and forth I went. The scrappy sections were coming together nicely. I found a long strip of train fabric that was the closest thing to a focus fabric that I could find in the bags to use for the center, so I went with it ... it wasn't perfect ... the trains were too big to fussy cut into the small centers, but it looked kind of cool having just small sections of train ... at least they were big enough that one could tell they were trains!Well, not only did I make the top, but because of the extra month, I was able to back, quilt and bind it, too. And, best of all, it all came from the scrap bags! I even made it a quillow using a large piece of prequilted material I found in one of the bags. The only things I added were batting and thread. I named it "Dancing Trains" because of the train fabric for the centers and because I did most of the cutting and planning during my daughters' dance classes (thank goodness that gave me 3 times per week to focus!) My 7 yo claimed it while it was still a work in progress and it now resides on her bed ... well, most of the time LOL! Not bad for $5!Wonder what I'll do with all those leftover scraps ....

Eight months?!?

Yikes!! I knew it'd been awhile since I blogged, but eight months?!? That is just way too darn long ... the sad thing is that I have no real excuse ... one thing just led to another, one day led to another, and now, here I am, wondering where the time went ... can anyone tell me?!

Oh, well, nothing I can do about it now, except to try to post more often instead of just surfing everyone else's blogs LOL! No promises on how often, but I do promise to try to post way more often than once every eight months.

So, what have I been doing for the past eight months? A little stitching, a little quilting, and a whole lot of homeschooling ... ah, now there's an excuse for not having much craftiness to post! But I did finally buckle down this weekend and make something for me ... a new apron! Thanks to Tie One On, I got a bee in my bonnet to make an apron for their latest theme, which is "No $$$" ... meaning make an apron with what you have on hand, no spending allowed. Of course, they posted the theme on March 1st, so I'm doing better on the whole time management thing, right? After all, I did finish it 4 whole days before the May 1st deadline LOL! Anyways, here it is:So, what do you think? I'm pretty happy with it, though I do wish the waist ties were just a tad longer (made a note on the pattern for next time). And, nary a nickel did I spend ... the blue leaf fabric and the green check fabric were old cotton sheets, and the chicken fabric was in my quilting stash (I think I got it at the Chicago quilt show about 3 or 4 years ago). I have no idea where I got the buttons from ... I had 6 of them, so it's possible I cut them off a thrifted shirt or dress, but it's been too long to remember. Even the pattern didn't cost me anything ... I won it recently from Woodland Quilts! Love it!!I did make a couple minor changes, such as making the neck strap longer (I'm long-waisted) and edge-stitching the pieces as I went (makes for a more finished look). I think this will be the one to wear for National Wear Your Apron Day (unless I happen to make another one between now and then ... ha!)

A plus! Because I used old linens to make the apron, I can enter it in EllynAnne Geisel's giveaway ... crossing my fingers real tight!!

Strawberry Fields Forever ... an art quilt

My quilt guild's quilt show is coming up and one of the categories is a Burpee challenge. Participants picked a number out of the hat and were then given that numbered page of the Burpee seed catalog. The challenge was to make an art quilt inspired by the something on the page ... the colors, the flowers, the names of the flowers ... whatever. I hadn't worked on a quilt in ages and I thought, "Why not?" Maybe joining the challenge would get me back to my sewing machine and jump-start my quilting again. I got page #30, which you can see here:Lots of reds and pinks, which I don't use very often. Great, now what? Well, after looking over the page, I zeroed in on this:Hmmm ... "Strawberry Fields" ... I liked it! Just had to figure out what to do with it ....

Now this was back in January, with a deadline of the August meeting (which is now only 2 days away). Plenty of time, I figured, so I put it on the back-burner for a bit ... occasionally thinking about it, but never doing more than that. But as August approached, my apprehension level rose ... and when they reminded us at the July meeting that the quilts were due at the next meeting, I was beginning to get desperate. So when my mom came to town last weekend (a surprise for my 40th birthday) and asked me what I wanted to do on "my day", I said "HELP!" Hey, my mom is an award-winning art quilter, so who better to ask, right?! So we brainstormed a bit and came up with this:Don't ya love it?! And it didn't take much time at all (well, if you don't count the 7 months it took to get started LOL!) After we came up with the idea, she showed me how to use a picture of my feet (yep, those are my tootsies) to make a template for tracing onto Wonder-Under and then gave me some tips on stitching and embellishing to finish it off. It was a lot of fun trying something new and making an art quilt in my mom's style ... and I've gotten a little bitten by the quilting bug again, so who knows? You might just see some more quilting from me in the future. Too bad it's too late to enter anything else for the upcoming show ... but I'll be ready for the next show in 2010! Thanks, Mom! I sure did enjoy having you here ... love ya!!

Here's a close-up of the beading ... sorry for the bad pic, but it's so hard for my camera to get a good close-up, even using the (supposedly) correct setting.Now to cross my fingers ... the winner of the viewer's choice in this category gets a $25 Burpee gift certificate! Plus I'm going to donate the quilt to Ami Simms' Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative ... hope someone actually buys it LOL!