Progression

Today is a bit of sewing this and that. That Pineapple Blossom pile has grown to 32.

"Squaring up" the bonus blocks in the evenings

The "blossom" square has a bonus of 4 half square triangles that could be used in a border...

or something else...jus' thinkin'....

Today is my bff Beth's birthday. She asked me for a table runner using some cherry fabrics we both were collecting on our recent Fabric Acquisition Road Trip (can you figure out the acronym on that one? hehehe). Beth has a sweet spot for cherries ~



I've been trying to figure out the twister for Beth's table runner. With the inspiration found here
at my cyber friend's blog in Ontario, Canada, I've worked on a practice block.

Photo taken from The Cozy Quilter's blog; cute, huh?


I am sharing my practice one right now, Because I was so excited it worked!!

mine: a 4patch of charm squares, framed with 3 1/2" white border

fabric swiss cheese :-} my homemade template is 3 3/4"; to make it,
I measured 3/4" from each corner, and drew a line connecting each mark.

Here are the cut squares laid out. Warning, this is a real quilt puzzle!


Uh-oh! I think I sewed something wrong...maybe if I flip it...


no, that didn't work, either! I guess I'll be ripping a seam.




Ta-Dah! Now, I'll try the cherries!

In the house, the storage room went from this ~

to this, oh, so nice to have a clean slate, so to speak. More to come later.

Hope your day is a creative, happy one!




Psalm 9:1 "I will praise thee, O LORD, with my whole heart; I will show forth all Thy marvelous works."

A Little House Time~

The Southern California Quilter's Run has now passed, but not without us enjoying several days of visiting about 30 shops! We also did a bit of collecting of course. It's so hard not to with all those beautiful fabrics out there. Beth was searching for new cherry prints for her kitchen. I have been wanting to do a "brown" quilt. The shops were happy to help us out! Sorry, I didn't have pictures of those to post, maybe next time....

This week, we are working on a few house projects. Chairs getting painted

Jerry putting the newly covered back on this old steel chair

or re-covered

Ta - Dah!!

or another one waiting for it's turn.

I do my dining room chairs like my quilts, give them something common, like the colors, but mismatch the styles. That makes me smile! (Poor Larry, he's a much more orderly kinda guy. He likes match-ey match-ey, but he puts up with my quirks!)


This week we are working on one of two last rooms to be painted in our home.

The folks who had it before us really liked CoLoR and every room had at least one bold color wall.

Let me tell you, we have kept the primer paint company in business. Uh, I think this wall is gonna need two coats before we paint....


Oh, yeah, hopefully this room that has been used for storage will become a sweet sewing studio.
Happy Quilting!

Summer Begins ~ NOW!

It's finally here, my first day of summer!!!

My end of year gift was a memory scrapbook, a page done by each student, precious!

I was so ready for today, I'm tellin' ya. We had a fun week for our last days of school, with field day, swim party, "clean the room" day, word searches, hidden pictures, classroom game afternoon, awards day and party, and while you as a teacher try to juggle all those balls in the air, you have cum files to complete, conferences, report cards, walls to strip bare, completed work to turn into books for them, kids that are as wiped out as you, and sometimes it is a bit overwhelming. Thanks to Larry for some beautiful created certificates, Ginny for 2 full days of help only another teacher could do, and Jerry to help pull down posters, scrub and pack up, I'm home today and still in my gown at 9 a.m. and reading my blog buddies posts! Yea!! I may get that old Google Reader list back down to zero, yet...

Saturday, we participated in the Southern California's Quilter's Run, and put 200 miles on our car going to 14 participating stores. I was really wanting to be a "party pooper" (mainly because I was just pooped, lol!) but Beth, Jerry and Larry prevailed and we actually had a great time, all without the aide of a GPS, man, it was too funny at times! Beth and I are hoping to do a few more places this week, and the guys will join us again for next Saturday. (but I will borrow Jeff's GPS next time!)

Now, we mostly only spent money on the gas and our lunches, but Beth did get some cherry prints to decorate and use in her new kitchen, and I fell for this patchwork print, too-o cute to pass up! The fat quarters had to come home with me too, of course...:-}

I found them at Fresh Picked Fabrics, and bought for Beth and myself their quilt square kit (each participating store was giving a quilt square pattern, but you could buy their fabric kit, too). I laughed when I got it home, and couldn't find the checkerboard fabric for the center of the flower; they gave us pieces of black and white to make a 50 square patchwork piece- Ha! I'll be looking for a checkered piece next time out ~ grin!

Oh, and we found these little thread snippers. When I lived in Japan as a girl, my Momma had several pairs of these and they are great for having at the side of your machine when sewing. I had to get those, just 'cuz they gave me a happy thought of my Momma...does anyone else have those times of talking and sewing with family? I love the heritage I share with others of you.

More power to those who learned to sew without the guidance, I wonder if I would sew? I was so impatient with imperfections, I'd wad up a dress I'd made a mistake on, and I'd see Momma later, seam ripper in hand, gently picking out my botched project. I have to admit, that taught me so much, including to do the same thing for my daughter Lydia, and others.

Another thing I greatly appreciated too, was her advice to walk away and come back to it later, that problems had a way of solving in our mind when we would lay it down. I see sewing as a puzzle, and try to fit quilt pieces in place. Do you do that? If it's a pieced square, I find myself breaking it down in my mind, seeing if I can come up with the solution. All that to say those little snippers took me back to sewing at my Momma's side. *vbs*

Here are those "15 minutes of sewing" pineapple blossoms, I'm up to 16, and going for 20. I have a puzzle in my mind, figuring on how I'm connecting them. Stay tuned....

Now this came in the mail last week, and I haven't even emailed a thank you to my friend Jodi for it, and the inspiration she wrote to me on a card that came, too! Thank you, Dear Jodi! I'm blessed to call you friend.

I'm waiting on some red and white charm squares to come from the exchange with Karen of Sew Many Ways and some polka dot charms to come from Wendy of Sewing in the Wendy City, both of those were right up my alley. Other than that, today's goal is to move the sprinkler around the yard, ha,ha! Oh, and I'll go to quilt class tonight, too.
Ah, this is a good Monday, I hope yours, is, too!




"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it. Thou art my God, and I will praise thee...O give thanks unto the LORD; for He is good: for His mercy endureth forever." Psalm 118

Pineapple Blossoms and Other Thoughts ~

The last post (my goodness, 10 days ago!) showed pineapple blossom squares,

congrats to those lotto winners.

They are such a neat square, I just had to make some of my own, tee-hee! As you can see, they are not all complete,

but I've been trying to do that 15 minutes here and there kinda sewing, since I'm stealing time from sleep sometimes, but mostly from finishing all the SCHOOL stuff... I'm getting there... s.l.o.w.l.y...

Now this is a table runner for Michelle, my 2 days a week, in the class "mom helper".

She was an office manager for 20 years, and she has done a spiffy job of keeping most homework recorded, grading tests, filing and all that classroom organizing necessity "stuff".



She loves butterflies, I'm hoping she'll like this, too!



I went to You Tube for a video help, and found, "Mitered Binding for Different Angles",

since these are not at 90 degrees.

It really assisted the completion!

Saturday, we went to Beth and Jerry's new home to help with cleaning and painting cabinets, cupboards and shelves. It makes it so nice to move into clean pantries....
Sunday was church.
Monday, school and quilting class.
Tuesday, retirement of a teaching friend of 21 years.

Wednesday, I went to the 8th grade chapel to do a gift presentation to my students of Kindergarten who graduate this year (our school goes from preschool to 8th), and it's always a touching time for us. I read to them the "poem" by Robert Falghum. Let me share this with you here~

All I ever needed to know, I learned in Kindergarten

All I really need to know I learned in kindergarten.
ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do
and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not
at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the
sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life - learn some and think some
and draw and paint and sing and dance and play
and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic,
hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.
Remember the little seed in the styrofoam cup:
The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody
really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even
the little seed in the Styrofoam cup - they all die.
So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books
and the first word you learned - the biggest
word of all - LOOK.



Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.
The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.
Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any of those items and extrapolate it into
sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your
family life or your work or your government or
your world and it holds true and clear and firm.
Think what a better world it would be if
all - the whole world - had cookies and milk about
three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with
our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments
had a basic policy to always put thing back where
they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you
are - when you go out into the world, it is best
to hold hands and stick together.

I also remind the grads what I wrote on their Kindergarten report card, and that is:

1. something I appreciated about them personally,
2. I enjoyed having them in my class that year,
3. I love them (I write that each year, truly!) with my name, and then this verse:

Proverbs 3:5,6 "Trust in the LORD with all you heart, and lean not on you own understanding. In all your ways, acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths."


We could learn from this, couldn't we? I hope you hold someone's hand today. I'm sending love out to you all!