Pokeydotquilting

We Went on Down The Road

2012-01-26T20:36:00.000-08:00

This is my friend Carolyn Toledo's quilt! She is in my Monday night quilt class.

Her quilt guild was the one that decorated the foyer with quilts~
this is a liberated wedding ring.

~loved the houses and topiary trees~

Ginny B., Larry and I were just a few of the attendees to The Road to California Quilt Show this year. It is in our neck of the woods, so I just hate to miss! I'm sharing a few I liked, Larry is always surprised at which quilts are my faves; they are not always the ones other folks rave about or remember, but that's why there is so much diversity at a quilt show, right?

I'm always drawn to piecing and - COLOR!

And geometric puzzles with color!

~ I really appreciated this red and white, wow ~

~ a few close-ups ~

I think these blocks finished at eight inches-!

This one was an earlier work of a fabric "sculptor" artist, she said the flat pieces (quilts) were her work before 1995 (I think). Larry loved her stuff. I thought it was funny she referred to the quilts as flat work!

I always have admiration for crazy quilts.They are patchwork fun visually. There were several there this year. Now I'm wishing I knew how to move a picture from my phone to show you, shucks!

~ I just liked this one~

Here is our Christmas Cactus in bloom again this year. I'm showing this for 2 reasons, 1- it doesn't live up to it's name. It must be January Cactus in our case,

and 2- my friend Vicky who gave it to us has no luck with hers blooming, and I told her I'd post it because I love her enough to tease her, LOL!!

I wanted to separate my little quilt from the beauties featured above. It has been done for a week, but no photos to prove it until now.

How cool, you can see the writing on the picture above, "God is love"!

Now, I want to show you the Twelve days of Christmas tops, or the 12 tiny houses, but I guess that will be for next time. Tomorrow is FRIDAY, and I can hardly wait for weekend!

Blessings, Pokey

"Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding," Proverbs 4:7

Off the Frame-At Last!!

2012-01-07T21:14:00.000-08:00

The design was based on a quilt by the creative Kathie Holland from Inspired by Antique Quilts.

" I get by with a little help from my friends."

Thank you for the information and general well wishes! It's just pulled it off the frame, wow! Some lessons are hard learned....

I just kept tweakin', cleaning, oiling it and re-threading. Oh, and walking away when I felt it was getting the best of me, lol.

I think the problem is a combination of things. I took the bobbin thread out, and changed it. I think one bobbin was not well balanced, so that one is pitched from sewing.

The top tension is about as loose as it can be, but I hit on the correct setting to where the stitches looked good, and the thread quit breaking. Hurray!!

The dedication label was added to because I did not have enough of the cream background- short a fat quarter, basically.
But we'll say it's a design call~

:-}

Edited to add: My first 3 inch house!

Happy to be quilting again!
hugs, Pokey

"For, lo, He that formeth the mountains, and createth the wind, and declareth unto man what is His thought, . . . and treadeth upon the high places of the earth, The LORD, The God of hosts, is His name." Amos 4:13

Home Quilting Machines, and Working with the Old Prints

2012-01-06T22:16:00.000-08:00

As far as I could go, after 3 hours of frustration!

I have this love/hate thing with my Pfaff Grandquilter.

The
back of
the quilt top,
it was this
far on
Friday night!

Just getting it

mounted

on the frame

at 9 a.m.,

my hopes

were

still high!

I must say, when things are good, Momma's a happy quilting fool. I have shared with others that having just this domestic machine on a ten foot frame has allowed me to complete so many more quilts than I ever have in my lifetime. I LOVE quilting, and for as long as I can remember, I wanted a long arm. Price has never allowed me to have one, and this is a close second. We purchased it from a friend in my quilting class, who allowed me to make "my" size payments. When I quilted for someone, I would turn my check over to her. It took me 2 years to pay her off, and she discounted it $500 from her original investment. (Poor Jill, she never made anything with it. She was designing a quilting studio that most of us would only dream of, it took 2 1/2 years to build. Once she got the sewing machine and frame all set up and ready to go, she realized her physical health limitations would not let her sew at the frame for any length of time. Since she had purchased it at the beginning of the building process, she was stuck with the machine. She "quilts by check" now!)

I do not want to push a queen sized quilt through a regular throat opening EVER again. BUT, I am totally self taught on this GQ, to the point I had to watch You Tube videos to see how to even load a quilt. Trial and error has been a tough taskmaster, with the school of hard knocks degree well earned. Except, I have no support group or instructor, or even a salesperson to guide me when I'm struggling with a lesson such as tension. That is the wall I've hit this past week. ARGH! I was on a roll, completing the 2 comfort quilts on time, praise the LORD, for the Christmas gifts they were promised to be.

Then I got the wild hair to sew the gift for my friend Ginni P's (not Ginny B., lol) 50th wedding anniversary. (Yep, New Year's Eve was the party, she was married on her birthday!)

Ginni P. in black,
with friends.
The room
we were in
was an
old school room,
how appropriate!

BTW, I gave her a cd with pictures we took that night, and photos of the gift to come, lol. What? I bet you've had to do that before, too!

Donna, my teaching partner

and friend for 20+ years,

with her honey, Don

Good friends Paul and Ginny B. and Beth

Our "like family" friends, Beth and Jerry

my sweet Larry and I

My friend Dora gave me some advice to join a Yahoo home quilting systems, but I've not had a light bulb moment.

Other than to see that no matter what machine you are quilting on, tension is the #1 frustration. And all the suggestions I've read are either things I've tried, or they do not relate to my little set-up. So, with a week now passed of me walking by and appreciating the sweet quilt,

and kicking the frame, I think I'll go back and try again tomorrow morning. I don't want it to get the best of me, but I just don't know what else to do. *sigh*

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Okay, enough grumbling. Here is the little bit of sewing I've done since last Saturday. Since I had the civil war prints out, Temecula Quilt Company has been putting up a small sampler titled "The 12 Days of Christmas" each day, and I was lured in.

One block a day, finishing up at 3 inches, Hey, what's not to love? Even being back to school, it was do-able.

Each day added one more piece to the block. this little blue X was day 11, and my biggest challenge of all of them. That 1/4 inch seam is a bugger sometimes!

I think this will be my layout eventually. It was easy enough to make 2 blocks of each, so there will be two mini quilts. Larry said it wasn't gonna be big enough
to be a napkin. He makes me laugh-!
:-}

He thinks this is small, well, you need to check out this blog. Really, the pattern for these little houses are 3 inches, oh, my... but it sure is a cute neighborhood! I've downloaded the paper pieced version, and I want to give it a try. Her idea was to make one for each day of the year, with a larger house in the center. 366 houses one for this being a leap year. You can make it as large or as small as you want, it was inspired by a mini quilt she did with (I think?) 12 houses.

Tell me you aren't wanting too, also. Come on, Jeanneke has the sign up until the 15th of January, and she has simple ideas for a fun quilt along that's literally world wide! Who knows, mine may end up just being another "napkin" sized quilt!

If any of you have any suggestions on the sewing machine, let me know. Oh, and did you notice I've lost my signature? Shucks, I threw it away, and don't remember how to put it back!!

So, without the pretty flourish, I'll just sign off with ~

Hugs, Pokey

"Bless the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits...

For He knoweth our frame; He remembereth that we are dust."

Psalm 103:2;14

In With the New ~

2011-12-30T10:43:00.000-08:00

This is a quilt inspired by Kathie Holland. She sure knows how to make the old become new again!

Hi to you all in the new year coming! Once again I am hoping for a year of creativity and good health for us all. I wasn't able to send out a note to each of you last post, I hope you understand...and I'll try to do better!

Larry is slowly improving, but always tired, poor guy. We look for more answers to come in January. I'm trying to keep up with the regular chores! We have always worked together as a team with them, but he really has struggled for a few months (understandable now!) with stamina, so it's been a change for us. (Jan, I know you are living this too, you have my heart.)

Now, let me show you something new in progress, and a finish. Remember this colorful collaboration of Lydia's hand embroidery, and my piecing? We finished it for little Nathaneal, and Lydia and Jeff delivered it this week.

~Lydia playing peek-a-boo between the quilt~

here's the cute little man!

We are attending a friend and co-worker's 50th Wedding Anniversary. She is the Jr. High U.S. History teacher at my school. We've taught together for 20+ years. I kept thinking about the 9 patches that were laying around for a different project, and decided they would do the trick for an extra special quilt for her and Bob.

~squaring up those nine patches~

I kept looking for a quick quilt, but nothing hit me in leafing through the magazines...except I kept noticing Kathie Holland's quilts...
which led me to her blog,
Inspired by Antique Quilts,
and going back, I remembered this one ...

~picture from Kathie's blog, used by permission~

...which is perfect for a quick to-do! I sewed these squares back in July or else this wouldn't be possible for someone with the earned name Pokey :-}

there was a quick draw of the plan...a lay out, a swap of color...

a new grid lay out...

...and I think I'm ready to start sewing.

I didn't tell you when the party is, did I ...?

Stay tuned, and wish me luck!

Comfort Quilt #2, and ~

2011-12-24T22:28:00.000-08:00

Larry is home, Merry Christmas! He spent 8 days in the hospital, and it was so-o long to us both! He came home Thursday night and had his first good night of sleep. He still needs to have some tests done, but I'm glad to have him home!

Here is the second quilt, completed in time for Christmas. This one is for the oldest daughter (who turned 18 since her father's passing in September). Again, the quilt was made up from her Daddy's shirts, chosen by her for colors and/or memories of hers.

The first label was from the collar...

and the second from the buttonhole placket.

I hope you have a Merry Christmas. We are thankful for friends, family, and the love of the Lord!

"
For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord." Luke 2

A Two Year Tradition at Christmas...

2011-12-18T06:55:00.000-08:00

We are visiting the hospital again this year... Larry is in the hospital for another surgery, bless his heart. The poor guy never regained his strength from last year, his endurance waned, he was tired all the time. The last 2 months found him with an upset stomach, and then he started a low grade fever that would come and go. He didn't go to the Dr. until I insisted that fever was not a normal state.

Our Dr. said it was gall bladder disease, since he was showing symptoms and was hurting where he was. We tried a natural remedy with good results, actually, but the pain did not go away, and he still was with a low grade fever every other day it seemed. On Thursday, December 15, that was it. He was admitted into the emergency room, then into the hospital. It took blood tests, IV's with strong antibiotics, chest x-ray, ultra-sound, ekg's, and finally a CT scan revealed he had a good sized abdominal abscess located right under where his gall bladder is located.

They chose to make an incision and insert a drain tube. Interestingly enough, the abscess was right where last year's drain tube was placed...hmmm-m....

We are hoping he can come home soon, but until then, I guess you know where I'll be, and why I've seemed absent... I love that man, I hope he gets to feeling stronger... he said he's feeling old. :-(

We laughed yesterday when he and I were walking around in the hospital. I was telling him I wondered what this place looked like when it wasn't Christmas. The lobby is decorated with huge trees and greenery, and the halls and nurses stations all have their own touches. The outdoor gardens are full of the most beautiful red and white poinsettias. There is even a decoration on each door.

A little cheer for everyone this time of year.

"And He said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for My strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in necessities, in persecutions, in distresses for Christ's sake: for when I am weak, then am I strong." II Corinthians 12 :9,10

Comfort Quilt #1

2011-12-06T22:09:00.000-08:00

This is the first quilt top for Jesse's girls, I'm hoping to find a navy for the border.

Here is one of the pockets from her Daddy's shirts....

Keep them in your prayers, please. Jesse died from a motorcycle accident. This will be the
first Christmas without their Daddy.

"Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness." Isaiah 41:10

What WAS on the Frame

2011-12-02T08:26:00.000-08:00

How many of you heard about our winds hear in Southern California? Yesterday, I taught in a class with no lights, all. day. long. I arrived at school at 7:15 a.m., and my lights weren't on (my friend Sherri who opens the daycare usually turns them on for me), and it stayed that way! We do have a wall of windows, and the sun was out so it wasn't as dark as it could have been. My kids were great, we continued on as if it were "normal" (HaH! Does such a thing really exist?) day. Eight out of 23 students said they did not have electricity at home either. You would think that some of them would miss school, but not my kids, lol! There were more than usual late, with traffic lights out and debris on the roads. (Since I live so far from school, my morning at home wasn't affected as severely.)

From the classroom perspective, the worst of it was no background instrumental music that really helps the day to flow, and, there is no windows in our classroom bathrooms. It just meant being a bit creative, as the flashlight batteries were not working either :-}

At 2:30 or so, we were told we wouldn't have school today -boo-hoo- I had 2 boys literally get up and start dancing! I can remember as a child having snow days, but I do not think I've ever missed as a teacher for any reason like weather. I feel like it's a gift day for sewing!

This is Ginny's beautiful hydrangea quilt for her oldest granddaughter Ashley. It was quilted last Saturday, I'm hoping to put the binding on this weekend. The quilt was a kit, we tackled it together. Ginny wanted it to not finish square like the pattern called for, so she found some more fabric from the same line and we added length in the white butterfly print. This was the last quilt to be finished in her goal of a quilt for each grandchild.

Her next one is an I Spy, and she has started this one all by herself! I can't wait to share those, since we both are making one.

This was a square for a special someone, just wanted to share it. It was a neat block and I liked the way the prints worked together. It's in the mail, finding its way to a secret quilt gift.

Happy first year to our kids! Time flies ~

The last share is one of the Love quilts for Jesse's girls. We asked for some of Jesse's shirts to make quilts for his 2 daughters and for his wife. It's still a goal to complete them before Christmas. Larry and Jerry helped to cut the shirts apart during a couple evenings in front of the tv, and I was trying to come up with a plan that would fit a special little girl.

This one is for his youngest daughter, who just turned 7. She liked Daddy's blue shirts because they are so soft. I put a gold one with them, and a couple of white shirts and fabric to extend the quilt to a good snuggle size.

The finish will have a couple of pockets from Daddy's shirts. Daddy's heart was right there under those pockets once, and it's a place she can put her hand to remember that his heart is still with her here.

Again, I am really thankful to have the day to sew! Hope you get to enjoy this day, too ~

"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" Romans 11:33

Happy Thanksgiving ~

2011-11-23T13:06:00.000-08:00

This is truly a time for the Davis family to be thankful! As Lydia and Jeff are approaching their first anniversary, and my sweet Larry's health is doing so much better than last year, I'm grateful. We have dinner in the works. The house smells like Pumpkin Pie Cake today, yum! The still frozen turkey is thawing. Cornbread stuffin' with my Momma's recipe is happening either later today or early tomorrow. The zucchini is grated for bread, here's the recipe for you:

Zucchini Bread

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. baking powder
3 tsp. ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup oil (sometimes I use 1/2 cup oil and 1/2 cup unsweetened applesauce)
1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
3 tsp. vanilla
2 cups grated zucchini
1 cup chopped walnuts (optional)

Topping:
1/2 cup quick oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 cup softened butter

Directions:

1. Grease and flour two 8x4 inch pans. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Combine flour, salt, baking powder, soda, and cinnamon together in a bowl.
3. Beat eggs, oil, vanilla, and sugars together in a large bowl. Add sifted ingredients to the creamed mixture and mix well. Stir in zucchini and nuts until well combined. Pour batter into the prepared pans.
4. Combine topping ingredients, cutting in butter. Topping can be sprinkled on before baking, or after the first 10 minutes of baking to keep it from sinking.
5. Bake for 40 - 60 minutes, or until toothpick comes out clean. Cool.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Ginny's two quilts for Kaylee were quilted this weekend, one is a dolly quilt made to match Kaylee's, and both are adorable ~

We planned both blankets around the cute paper doll print, which when she bought it a year back, she only got one yard. Much planning around the little amount made us use all but a couple of 4 inch squares!

We chose the coordinates to match prints of the little doll dresses ~

~ To all the sweet ladies who come visiting via the blog, thank you for your friendship and comments! They bless my heart, and I'm sending back many hugs to you. I'm grateful for you, your creativity and inspiration through your blogs. Happy Thanksgiving, be it your holiday now or on another day ~

Psalm 100: 1-5
Make a joyful noise unto the LORD, all ye lands.
Serve the LORD with gladness: come before His presence with singing.
Know ye that the LORD He is God: It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are His people, and the sheep of His pasture.
Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise: be thankful unto Him, and bless His name.
For the LORD is good; His mercy is everlasting; and His truth endureth to all generations.

The Week That Was ~

2011-11-12T23:20:00.000-08:00

Mandatory Parent Teacher Conferences are complete! I've met with all of my 23 student's parents, but my schedule had me at school until 5:30 or 6 because of the working parents needing later times. Even with all the business, I've had a good week. I taught Monday and Tuesday and jury duty Wednesday which ended up being 2 phone calls before dismissal (for which I was grateful).

Thursday morning Ginny and I went and directed the swapping of 48 sets of I Spy bags, 2 prints each (so we ended up with 96 prints). Our teacher has 5 classes she instructs, ours is on Monday night in a different city, but Susan travels between three cities, and the 3 quilting classes participated in the swap. It took all of a 3 hour class time to do the exchange! The ladies in that class were friendly and helpful, everyone oo-ohed and awed over the prints, and yes I'd host a swap again. So many people were interested that missed out on this swap, that we may end up hosting the same thing in the Spring semester. There were a few repeats but that is to be expected.

With the I Spy swap I participated in online, thanks to dear Karen of Sew Many Ways, I now have enough prints to do a couple of these novelty quilts. I want to finish one for my class of second graders. I Spy books have been a favorite of this age group for every year I've worked with 5, 6, 7 and 8 year olds.

These are my 4 blocks for Block Lotto this month. This is another great pattern of Bonnie Hunter. I'm always a bit surprised when I speak of her to quilters who don't know about her!

I wanted to do at least 4 blocks, so I could lay then out in the diamond, and the X.

Friday, Ginny and I worked to complete the borders on the last of her grandkid's gift quilts. Now, they are ready for the quilting machine. Maybe my next post will be a "what's on the frame" ...hoo,hoo!

"Seeing that we are surrounded with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset [us], and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, Looking unto Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith..." Hebrews 12:1,2

Another Three Weeks-!

2011-11-06T17:27:00.000-08:00


"Jungle Babies" is a collaboration of Lydia's fine embroidery, and my piecing.

This is a wall hanging for Lydia's good friend and Matron of Honor Jessica. Jess wanted a jungle theme, and Lydia has been hand embroidering these little animals for a month now!

She drew her own figures, but did get the monkey and the elephant off the internet. She put them on white cotton, and began stitching!

I told her I'd put them together, but we really did not have a certain direction. I had purchased a few animal prints, but they seemed to detract from all these sweetly stitched characters.

I wanted to do something that framed each piece, and saw this little bag of tidbits I purchased for a buck. The Quiet Mouse Quilt Shop in Calimesa cuts 2 1/2" strips for their customers, (also from their quilt kits) and sometimes has little scraps that they bag and sell as tidbits. I sewed the tiny strips into blocks, and then cut my own 2 1/2" strips

to surround Lydia's handsome blocks. This was an idea that grew as it progressed, and I loved the creative process!

Lydia still plans to stitch the Bible verse so we asked for it back to complete it.

I'm glad Jessica liked it!

~ Lydia spent about 15-20 hours on each character, a labor of love for her friend ~

Ready or not, time marches on! School + Mammograms + ultrasound + report cards + mandatory parent teacher conferences + severe food poisoning (ugh!) + drs. + meds + kids + teaching + another sleep apnea test + sewing projects + now I need to schedule a "lower GI" (you know what that means, huh P.?) + jury duty this coming week + I'm helping host an I-Spy swap in our quilting class, well....

I guess you get the picture. Oh, and my Second Graders cook for our Thanksgiving Party. I am trying not to complain (much) but it's just kinda busy. I know you folks are, too, so thanks for poppin' in !

"Oh the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out!" Romans 11:33

Did I Tell You I LOVE Red?

2011-10-20T20:23:00.000-07:00

Ginny B. and I crawled into the car for a 120 mile ride, and we sure enjoyed the eye candy at the Temecula Quilt Company! For the month of October, red and white quilts are on display ~

These two photos were borrowed from the Temecula Quilt Company blog ~

As always, they have other fun projects, too ~

~and these came home with me ~

All those pretty reds make me want to pull these out again

Happy Friday, ya'll!

This Week in October~

2011-10-15T19:53:00.000-07:00

The Second Graders went to Riley's Farm in Oak Glen, California. We are doing a historical studies of the colonists of early America.

We participated in activities such as loom weaving, grinding apples for cider,

churning butter, dipping candles,

writing with quills and ink,

and trying to stay cool in the 95 degree heat wave we had this week (it was over 100 at home). I felt bad for the folks in their heavy costumes ~

We had toast with apple butter and sorghum molasses as a treat at school the next day!

I finished this rug for a friend, better not say too much as she might figure it out, ahem, but it's done in time, yippee! With a few of you asking about the how to's on these rugs, I'm sharing the simplicity of their construction.

On the blue and green rugs I used cotton yarn, the weight that you use to make the little washcloths or dish cloths, three threads at a time.

I used one skein of yarn from start to finish to keep the unity of color in it, but I was using up scraps of yarns for the most part.

It's all single crochet.

This multi colored rug is all acrylic, and I used 4 threads. The full skein I used was a variegated one that went from burgundy to hot pink, and I was using a beige to try to tone it down a bit-!

The hook is a size P. It came packaged with a larger Q hook, the size I use in rag rugs.

I chained 20 to 30 loose chains, and single crocheted around both sides. I added 3 or 4 stitches to the ends each time around, unless I felt it was looking ripply, and then I'd go around once and not add any stitches at all!

I would also put the added stitches at different intervals on the ends, never just in the center of the end, so that the holes didn't show up in a pattern.

Edited to add:

1. 2. 3.

I was asked how I tied on the color/yarn changes.

I knot about a 3 inch tail from both the leader and the ender thread.
add the next stitch
and pull so the knot is tucked inside the stitch (it doesn't always work out perfectly!) The tails are laying along the edge of the rug-
and are covered over with your stitches as you go
until you don't see them any more! By leaving the tails long, they are well anchored.

4. 5.

See? not a tough "THIS IS HOW YOU MUST DO IT" set of rules.

Here are three of Mom's rugs.

This one is mostly white acrylic

with a chocolate brown

cotton crochet thread

(what I call doily weight),

I think she used 4 threads.

( I'm sorry I didn't wash before pictures, they're getting washed now!!!)

Can you see the variety of thread weights in this rug?

These first two were gifts

Mom recently made,

on our trip home this summer.

This is one of my favorites, it is all doily weight, 8 threads at once! This rug is about 8 years old, before Mom lost so much of her vision...

And seriously, Mom uses Anything and mixes Everything, including the smaller doily threads in with acrylics, and they turn out kinda cute.

Hope you all are having a good weekend! I still need to get to my studies, and next time, I'll share what Ginny and I did today...! Here's the hint ~

"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Hi~

2011-10-08T22:32:00.000-07:00

Hi, friends, just popping in with a hello. I've had my typical end-of-September bronchitis which slowed me down a bit, and I picked up the crochet needle for some evening rug hooking. I've finished 3 rugs, and want to make a few more for Christmas. When we went back to Nebraska, Larry's mom Barb was rug making like crazy, with whatever she puts her hands on! With her vision loss, her fine crochet doilies are no more. It's hard to see that, as she was always, ALWAYS crocheting in her spare time. We all have pretty doilies around our houses because of her! So, her inspiration continues in these yarn rugs.

The blue one I made for my Larry, and it's mostly cotton. Lydia gave me a bag full of colorful cotton yarn scraps, and I bought the big cones of blue yarn, I think they were around 12 ounces? for $8 from Walmart. I stitched with 3 threads at once using a hook smaller than Q (the Q is the one I used for rag rugs). From these 2 cones, I have enough left to make another one!

The green one is for Ginny for Christmas (it's her favorite color),

and this funky, bright one is for Beth (sh! Don't tell!).

I used all scraps on this one, and 4 colors of thread going. Larry said I ought to add the purple at the end, and I love it! We'll see if I can keep them a secret. More likely, I'll poke them away and not remember where. lol

This school year has me teaching 2 new curriculums, one for Bible and one for science. I mentioned to Dora that one (Bible) I'm having to make weekly quizzes for, and I'm hitting the books like a college kid! I've just finished the quiz and study sheet for next week...don't you know I'll be glad to just pull out the lessons next year! It's always good to grow, right? It's just stealing from my sewing time. . . .

No sewing right now, but helping Ginny with another granddaughter's quilt, this one from a kit using hydrangeas in purples, greens and cream, oh, so pretty!

I'm working on 3 memory quilts for the wife and daughters of our fallen friend. I was inspired by Nifty Quilts post that she called "Sacred Work". Her quilts are really cool! I really appreciated the idea behind adding a shirt pocket. The girls have only asked for squares, but each kinda told me what colors they liked of Daddy's shirts. Larry has been helping me cut the seams and remove buttons. I'll share more as I go along.

Please remember to pray for our little friend Jake. His leg is getting quite painful, keeping him awake at night, and the MRI's have given no answers.

Thanks for visiting ~

Philippians 4:19: "My God shall supply all your need according to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus."

Time Flies...

2011-09-14T21:19:00.000-07:00

This has been sewn into a flimsy, but no picture of that. "What border?" is the nagging question, Larry and I cannot agree....

Time flies...and I'm dragging these days, but school has been a joy to get back into. One teaching friend described it as getting back in the routine, so it's a good tired, not a stressed one. I agree. Cute students, teaching with a great staff and getting hugs from those little guys, it's all good. One little gal must have told me 3 times today that I was just beautiful-ha! Made me lol every time. I think it called "looking through the eyes of love", you can't beat that. But on second thought, I was wearing fushia pink slacks, and a pink and purple shirt - a little girl's dream colors- ha,ha~

Hi to you, sweet Norma!

I've neglected saying hi through sheer lack of time. Norma said on facebook, "I can tell you are back to work, less posts." :-}

Still sewing by bits, but the only pictures I've taken in the last week is of the kids in my classroom for the 1st day's picture. I get them printed out and use their photos all year for the board in the room that says, "Second Grade is the BEST!", made for me by none other than my favorite live-in artist, my sweet Larry.

~ the built in, almost finished cabinet...the shelves and not finished baseboards ~

Sewing room, uh, not done. I think I need to hire out for helpers, maybe you'll get a home cooked dinner in return? LOL No promises...!

The air conditioner has gone out at home, hopefully it will be repaired tomorrow. Thankfully, we've been too busy to be home, plus there has been a bit of a break in the weather.

We lost a dear friend in a tragic motorcycle accident. It has saddened our church family, we love his family like our own. He has a wonderful testimony for the Lord, and we know we'll see him again, but it is such a loss. Larry was honored to do some art for the special services. Jesse was a young man, a 24 year veteran for the Los Angeles Police Department. "Heaven's getting sweeter all the time"... this is the song running through my mind these days....

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Tomorrow is Back to School night, and there is always projects you want to have done so the parents can see you're trying to teach and have art around the room. Jeff and Lydia helped today by making folders for tomorrow's meetings, and hanging some apple mobiles from the ceiling. Hanging colored creativity always adds some fun to the room, and the kids are so proud ~

~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~ ~~

Okay, I fired up that camera to share these current 15 minutes of sewing:

From the red and white swap ~21 star blocks!

I was totally inspired by Annette of Sunshine Yellow's blog, who also had participated in the swap!

...and this is my sketch of a block I've been admiring, seen here and here, and too cute for me to ignore!

I'm using redeemed squares from my pineapple blossoms, plus other half square triangles I've sewn to go along...using a "Triangulations" cd purchased for 25% off, great deal!

Especially, since my redeemed squares measured an odd 2 3/4" and I wasn't willing to throw that 1/4" away, the cd made it easy to make more hst's the size I needed...and that made me happy!!

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is." Jeremiah 17:7

Quilts for Little Guys

2011-08-29T09:40:00.000-07:00

All last week, I've been working to get my classroom ready for the new school year. Posters, tape, staples, up and down the ladder numerous times, washing desks inside and out, labeling, moving furniture, making each bulletin board a work of art, visiting with returning staff, filing curriculum, another new beginning.

Tomorrow starts Teacher's meetings. Next week the students will be in the classrooms, ah, the cycle begins again. This is my 6th year at second grade, my first group at grade 2 will be graduating from 8th, and they will be leaving our campus for other times of their life. I'm glad to be a part of the children's lives at West Covina Christian School.

A new semester of my Monday night quilting class begins tonight. I'm home (not prepping in my own classroom) sewing today, since I won't get another chance to choose to stay home after today, yep, the denial thing is still in full swing, lol!

This is a quilt that Ginny and I worked on for her great nephew, another Bakan boy.

She wanted something to do with the piggy print (Bakan-bacon, get it?)

but was trying to not major on the pink of the pigs.

We both like the back of it the best-!

This is another quilt, this time a Prayer quilt for my dear friend Vicky's grandson Jake. He has a serious medical issue, that's going to require surgery on his spine. Jake's great aunt has a gift from the quilters at her church who made this with love and prayers. The tag reads:

Jake's favorite thing of all time is Lightnin' McQueen from the movie "Cars".

He is gonna love this! Please join me in prayer for Jake. Since this was diagnosed, today is the first meeting with specialists.

I'm sewing on a few fun things, including the next Block Lotto blocks that are a secret, hope to share later. Hope you're making the most of your day today, too!

"This is the day which the LORD hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

Sewing (When There are So Many Other Things to Do)

2011-08-18T18:03:00.000-07:00

I've received all my block lotto winnings for the Liberated Checkerboard,

and look what happened as I laid them out in the bed...I couldn't help but see this rainbow taking place!

The day's work: rainbow trims, ready to make into 'quilt jelly'!
edited to add: Larry's Momma pushed all those colorful little confetti pieces of fabric into a jelly jar and called them "quilt jelly" for fun! If you stuff it full, and put a couple of layers of netting on the top, you can use it for a pin cushion, too. With those pretty rainbow scraps, I felt it was too happy to toss them.

Today, I trimmed them all down to match, and sewed a few more to round out the quilt (actually, I made about 4 more RED ones, another blue green, and one more darker blue, too). Let's see how soon they get sewn together...!

While sewing these block lotto squares together this month, I saved the cut off half square triangles, I usually sew them as I go to help on the bias cut later, just easier. Now, how small is too small? Well, I know some of you girls do beautiful mini quilts, but I think this will be as little as it goes for me.

I used them as they were, should've trimmed them up neat but hey, they turned out kinda cool at 1/2 inch finished!

These were from the center of the flower, the yellows started out on the flower at 1 1/2 inch cut squares, but there were 4 "redeemed" squares from each flower.

On this year's quilt run in July, we found this sweet-gotta-have-it tiny box at Temecula Quilt Company, and it told me wanted to become a pin cushion :-}

So, I'm thinking...perfect!!!

Travelling 2011

2011-08-15T11:03:00.000-07:00

A free picture collage by Smilebox

You can click on the photos to enlarge this collage share, which includes photos of:

Four Corners
Brice, Utah
Mount Rushmore
fishin'
car rides in Papa's 1922 Ford Overlander
Crazy Horse (from freeway)
Wildlife Preserve in South Dakota
Mammoth digs
Carhenge in Alliance, Nebraska
Nebraska wildflowers

We also visited a museum, and went to a musical performed in Fort Robinson, Nebraska. It was so good to be with the folks. Mom is doing well, she only was sick one day during our time there. We went with her, Papa and Larry's brother Wayne to a Dr.'s appointment, and were able to ask some not so easy questions. Mom is in latter stage 3 breast cancer. at 82, she is confident in her next home, and says she feels fine, just has the "cancer" label. I would hope to have her attitude! She's a love, so dear to us all. It was so hard to leave Nebraska....

Of course, you have to have something to "do" on the road. I have been making these little hexies during little bits of time, but on the trip I got them sewn into a section, probably a table runner,

and two flowers to spare. I do not hand sew, really, but needing a carry along project made this the exception. I was glad to have it along....

When I got home, I had the pleasure of opening "squishy" envelopes, woohoo!! I won the Liberated Checkerboards from Block Lotto! 48 squares are gonna come together from other quilters world over, that's neat, huh?

front cover

Before our trip, Lydia had put together her wedding photos into a book on "Shutterfly". Have any of you done this before? Her book is beautiful, I'd recommend it 100%!

~one of our favorite pages~

It has quality paper, and is hard bound. We had coupons and free shipping, and 52 pages ended up costing around $50.00 apiece, not bad!

back cover

Oh, and today is Lydia's Birthday, love you, girl!

Block lotto this month is doing this flower, and here is my 4 for the month.

Do you recognize it, Lynda? You know I love the quilts you've done in this flower!

Well, I needed to post, but now I've got to get back to painting, sanding, glueing, moving woodstuff... a woman's work is never done....
:-}

And, We're Off ~

2011-07-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

Lydia and Jeff are minding the house.

Larry and I, Beth and Jerry are starting our road trip!

selecting music cd's before we go

I do not even know if I'll get to check email, or post
or read blogs Yikes! See ya'll sometime in August ~

A Bit of Progress

2011-07-25T18:09:00.000-07:00

Hi! We have been doing a number of projects, and a couple have gotten completed. Larry and I worked on the floor (look, Papa, not too bad!)

but we had to take a few boards to other folks to trim the ones that weren't full widths, because we don't own a table saw.

It worked out, but the floor just couldn't get finished in one day....
Today we have been working on the cabinets: purchasing, painting, and our friend Richard is installing and building the countertop.

I went with what was available, a Formica brand, but it had to be custom done because it will have extra depth than an ordinary kitchen cabinet.

I had to go to court Friday, umm...one of those lovely cameras on the corners of certain intersections took my picture for not coming to a complete stop. Yes, I'm ashamed to say, I'm not very "pokey" when I'm driving. This is only my second ticket in 30+ years of driving, but you cannot believe the price of that ticket, people! I pleaded "no contest" and asked for consideration, that being I received said ticket 6 months after it being issued (during the time Larry was in the hospital), and the judge knocked off some cost. Are you ready? I still had to pay $450, AND whatever the traffic school will cost. That Comedy Traffic teacher better be pretty funny!

Saturday, we drove up to Bakersfield to be with dear friends from our past. They had to bury their beloved daughter, a 35 year old momma of 4, a childhood playmate of my daughter. Her Daddy was saying how hard it was to stand at the graveside, knowing he would be walking away and leaving her physical body there six feet under. We'll see her again, we praise God for His promise of that...still...hard.

Dad and Mom, and the "kids"-Ginger, Wayne, Larry and Preston

We also received some sad news, which is leading to a trip to Nebraska. My sweet MIL Barb is having a recurring bout with cancer. She and Dad have agreed to not suffer through radiation/chemo treatments. She says she's feeling great right now, just going on with life as it comes.

She has been such an inspiration to me personally, spiritually and in my sewing and quilting. Actually, she was my home economics teacher my senior year in our private Christian high school eons ago.

I already was an accomplished seamstress, and I ended up assisting the new sewing students. I remember at that time in her life, she was sewing EVERYTHING she wore EXCEPT her pantyhose, no kidding, she had even sewn her shoes. She's amazing. I'm glad for the opportunity here before school to be able to go back to Nebraska. Larry and I will be travelling with our friends Beth and Jerry, for moral support and good company.

I've sewn a gown for the trip (no, I'm not modeling it!),

and the stack of Storm at Sea units has grown.

There is this little stack of nine patches, civil war style prints. Lydia wanted to know why I was sewing with such ugly prints. I said I've always liked era quilts, and was trying to do a "brown quilt". If you've never heard me say this before, I love Debbie Mumm, but usually end up with something more Mary Englebreit, lol. Lydia comes by her love of color in her genes, *vbs*! But, I'm hoping this stays a good brown quilt. :-}

And, the red charm squares arrived from Karen, and they are super!

Not a bad piece in the bunch, either! Thank you, Karen and all the 125 participants. I LOVE them ALL!

"Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fullness of joy;
at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore." Psalm 16:11

"But, First..."

2011-07-15T15:47:00.001-07:00

My demo tools of choice...wonderwoman!

We are backing up, instead of going forward in our sewing room...what can I say? I wanted to put built-in cabinets in the old closet area.

See the wall after we removed the newly painted (but now trash) baseboards...
uh, right...the new baseboard will be taller...hopefully

The carpet was not an ideal color, brown green...(I'm not a carpet person anyway) and to have it in a sewing-with-needles-and-pins room is just courting disaster in someone's foot.

Our friend Richard is filling the divots in the concrete left from the tack strips.

Larry sent me shopping for flooring, and meanwhile, the baseboards, and carpet, and padding, and carpet tack strips had to be removed, and handygal Pokey has been involved with every process, including hauling it out of the house. And hauling other stuff back in!

I'm so slow (ha! I bet you didn't know that?!?); it's taken a bit of time. Next up, the flooring! Larry's doing that, I'm the go getter mostly, lol.

The newly patched floor, and my floor of choice is a closeout laminate

that has a hand-scraped texture, Armstrong brand.

"Oh, no! My displaced fabric is in the computer room!"

DD Lydia is in the process of putting their wedding photos into a shutterfly book, and it's coming along much better than the sewing room. I've helped with some photo editing. I thought I'd close showing a few of those pics ~

Lydia made her flowers, boutonnieres and bouquets
from lace, felt, buttons and ribbon. Oh, and love ~

So sweet! And see the little lego light saber on his boutonniere ~ !

Me, Grandma Barb, Lydia, Jeff, Larry and Grandpa Gil Davis

Sewing Machines

2011-07-12T10:39:00.000-07:00

A small but beautiful hand crank sewing machine

I've saved this post to share today. Last week, I went with two friends from the Monday night quilting class to Anaheim.

I've mentioned M&L Fabrics before, and of course we went there.

A person could get into trouble in here, if she didn't have a plan! I was basically purchasing background prints, so it was all good.

We did lunch too. But I was wanting to share about sewing machines.

Mr. Lloyd Askew

There is a man that has a love for them, and we went to see his featherweights in particular.
Meet Mr. Lloyd Askew. He loves sewing machines. He has repaired and rebuilt them for 20 years, and it started as a side job or hobby.

~ I was viewing history on these shelves ~

I thought I loved sewing machines...until I met him. This is what greeted us in his garage.

Lloyd servicing my friend Lety's machine.

For those of you who don't know, years ago in 1933 Singer Sewing Machine Company put out a wondreful little doll-like machine that was portable, lighter weight than most machines of the day. It was well built and had a true but simple straight stitch. It seemed to lose favor in the 1960's-70's when most seamstresses wanted the zigzag or other fancy stitches. I'm one of them, growing up I sewed mostly on a Kenmore. But, these little machines still hold a charm to us girls who love fabric. He has so much more than featherweights, though....

I told him I'd love to share his collection.

~ mother of pearl inlay ~

hand painted, not decals

a couple hand cranked machines...

He smiled and said sure!

I think he said this one was from 1858 ~

~what's not to love about these child's versions?

a child's machine~ The first time I ever saw an Elna, I was in my 20's. My friend Patty Bullock was sewing on it, and it was green like this mini one-!

His collection of machines literally would rival a museum...

"AMERICAN" ~ don't you love it?

Or this one, that's me!

American Girl, a child's machine. No bobbin, this one does a chain stitch ~

Oh, you know what else? He has them all sewing, in working order. I was amazed at the beauty of them.

While we were there, I was shopping, too. My birthday is Sunday, 7/17. This little one is older than I am (not by much, though!),

and thanks to my sweet Larry, it came home with me. *VBG*

Now, I guess I'd better go sew a bit!
Happy Quilting ~

Friday Fun Post

2011-07-08T11:05:00.001-07:00

~ love the dots ~

This week has been a complete mix of activity for me, mostly fun. Wednesday, I visited with my bff Beth, to faraway Hemet (not really, but the drive was over an hour by myself) and attended her quilt guild, Maize Stone. The group was friendly, they had bunches of charity quilts and other creativity to share, and a great guest speaker, Wendy Mathson. I would join a guild if I could, but I'm only on a break, so my night school quilt class will do.

Wendy had so many quilts to show, some of them hers, and many done by a group of ladies she works with. She brought a book she's written

and a cool set of rulers that go along with it. Who doesn't like "Storm at Sea", one of my favorites for the curved lines that appear from the different angles? Her method helps you with perfecting your sewn units for a more successful completion.

I purchased her book and rulers at her "guild special" price,

and now have 10 near perfect diamond units. Ten down, 132 to go...who needs quilt alongs, I get myself into enough mischief all by myself...ha ha! (Yes, I LOVE the Farmer's Wife squares showing up everywhere..NO...NO....)

I mentioned waiting on a couple of exchanges,

this little envelope was wait for me when I got home yesterday,

filled with charm squares of

Pokey dots!! I know, you say tomato, I say...

...I say, I bet ya wished you joined in, aren't they sweet!
Thank you, Wendy, for hosting the swap.

In other news, the sewing room is almost paint-complete. We have a friend of the Handy Man sort coming to help us make some construction decisions, shelving, you know, that sort of thing. The hard part will be sorting through and breaking down the necessary fabrics and the ones I should part with. To me all of it is NeCeSSarY, right? Yeah, that's why I say it's the hard part....

This morning at 6:45 a.m., our kitchen thermometer said it was a nice 70 degrees outside, and 79 INSIDE.

So, I grabbed the weed bucket and headed out to deadhead the geraniums around the fountain. It took me an hour (does that tell you I don't do that task as often as needed?).

Here is my little zinnia bed, go see Chris' batch-w.o.w.

Now, it's 83 back inside, and 93 out. I'll be spending some time trying to bring this Google Reader number down, it has not been below 1000 until last night! my dear SIL Jeff told me to clear it, and start fresh, but I just know I'd miss the inspiration of the decade. That is what you guys are to me, pure inspiration of creativity!

How appropriate that my friend Annie was on the screen, I feel like I did one of her "Tuesday's Ort's" post, sharing bit of this and that today. I love her driving rants, I soo-oOo identify with driving frustrations, seeing how we work about 25 miles from home, and I spend more time than I want to driving. Larry and I carpool often to save gas.

Hope you are staying cool (or warm in the case of our "outback" friends), and hope you find some time to create today.
:-}

Tuesday's Design Floor

2011-07-05T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm still in summer mode here, and here is the sewing to prove it!

The little twister cherry runner top is done, I need to quilt it.

See the little cherry cornerstones? :-}

I know, I didn't use all the fabrics I showed before, but they didn't play well in the pattern. I may need to try something else with those...

The "Pineapple Blossom" was waiting for me to figure out the sashing and wonky star, I think it's gonna work out, hope so, anyway.

I'm not sure after I did it, what do you think? Anyway, I need to lay all the blocks on the bed today, and figure out the placement. You may recall, this was a Block Lotto challenge for May, originally from Bonnie Hunter....

I like the extra texture that comes from the white-on-white pieces ~

I appreciated the design and kept it going for the month of June, ha ha! Lydia keeps telling me this one is her wedding quilt. She says,"With so many quilters in my life, I didn't get one wedding quilt!" (I had to remind her of table runners and wedding dresses... ahem...)

I've finished 10 squares for the Block Lotto for July, that's the limit for the month for exchange.

This "Liberated Checkerboard" has to be the most fun I've had sewing a block, Sophie's step by step pictures on Flickr made it so-o easy... I may have to do more of these ~

TTFN!
tah-tah for now!

"O magnify the LORD with me, and let us exalt his name together." Psalm 34:3

Ceiling Fans and Paint

2011-07-02T09:21:00.000-07:00

a bit more done...

Progression

2011-06-30T11:37:00.000-07:00

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~

2011-06-29T10:56:00.000-07:00

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!

2011-06-20T08:27:00.001-07:00

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 ~

2011-06-09T21:28:00.000-07:00

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:

something I appreciated about them personally,
I enjoyed having them in my class that year,
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!

Monday's Design Wall

2011-05-30T15:03:00.001-07:00

These were Pineapple Blossoms from Bonnie Hunter, finished for the Block Lotto for May. Other than that, I'm working Second grade classroom projects, like averages, book projects, end of year awards, you know, that kinda stuff.

School is out June 17. SoOoOoo ready for summer, but so-o-o many things to do to close up the year. Ah, well... just wanted to say hi.

Happy Memorial Day, everyone ~

This Week ~

2011-05-21T20:12:00.000-07:00

I've been wanting to post the roses Larry got for me the day before Mother's Day. They lasted through the next week! I took this picture on Sunday, May 15th (also being our anniversary).
I could tell a little story on Larry here. He's always been tenderhearted towards me on our anniversary. On our 20th, he upgraded my 1/4 ct. diamond solitaire to a 1 carat total wt., with the 2 side stones being 1/4 apiece and the center a 1/2. He's a sweet guy, extremely thoughtful, and a great listener.

I digress. Roses. I love flowers, I often give cut flowers or arrangements, but seldom do I allow the purchase for myself. I'd rather have a plant, or perennials to bloom in the yard. My thought is that they will hang around longer. Larry thinks garden flowers are not romantic. If our anniversary falls on a school day, he's likely to have flowers delivered to the school. (The ladies in the school office think he is the best...I agree of course.) One year, I saw the bill for the 25 roses he sent to me, and let me just say, they took him to the cleaners!! I talked to him about what that much money would have bought in real life (I know, about now some of you are saying how terrible I am), and reminded him that when he comes with me to get flowers we go to a flower mart, or Sam's Club, rarely to a florist. Shoot, that costly arrangement wasn't even in a special vase!

So, fast forward 10 years. These beautiful, long lasting blooms? He went and purchased them at Albertson's Grocery store. And they stood beautifully for almost 2 weeks, amazing. I love him. He doesn't give up on me, and we both continue to learn about each other.

Here are pictures of a few antique quilt tops that were shown in our quilt class. They had such interesting fabrics in them!

~ ~ Well, this is a hard share, you may not want to keep reading. . . I felt the need to write it out for myself. Forgive me for the indulgence. ~ ~

So, May 15th was a special day that I shared for many years with a teaching friend, Jacque Ryan. We worked together for 20 years, she taught in our school's individualized learning center. Our school has morning devotion meetings, and for about 12 years, I belonged in a small prayer group on Wednesday mornings with Jacque, bff Beth, teaching partners Donna Davis and Ginny Bakan, and our friend Ginni P. There was also a few others, but over the years we were the 6 that stayed constant. We'd pray, share little gifts on seasons, have "teas" usually done by Jacque. Her birthday was the same as my anniversary, so we'd share cards each year. She has many homemade items that I'd give to her, or sometimes she would purchase from me (as I had a craft business called "Pure Heart").

The last thing she got was a rag style quilt (similar to this one) that she commissioned from me. Hers had more red florals, and no yellow (she loved Victorian, roses, reds and pinks, but yellow was "just ugly", she said, lol).

Jacque arrived early to school every day, usually before 7 a.m. She made the coffee in the teacher's lounge. If I went to her classroom before school, I'd usually find her reading. Books of her choosing were Women's Devotional Bible, Victoria magazine, or garden books. Country Sampler sometimes, but her style wasn't as primm as my art was. She was a good teacher, I'd seek her advice on my students with learning difficulties.

I missed her when she left 2 years ago, it was abrupt, and we didn't have a proper party or goodbyes. I've spoken to her only 2 times in this time passing. Well, 3, if you count Thursday night's visit. I was told 10 minutes before school started Thursday morning that Jacque had cancer, and was in hospice. I told Ginny, she was able to visit Jacque, she was comatose. How hard it was to hear! Jacque had only been told on Mother's Day it was stage 4. I cried every time I wasn't in front of my kids that day. It was also the day that we had our school wide musical, so I was at school until after 9 pm. Ginny had said that she could be visited at any time . . . so I went. Her grandaughter and ggd's were there, her shift, I guess. I was so glad to visit with her and tell her of the times that we had prayed for them all. Jacque never stirred. I held her hand as I've done before, in prayer. This time, I didn't let go for the whole time I was with her. I was blessed by the opportunity to tell her gd of my love for her precious Grandmother. We shared a bit, I prayed with her and the oldest ggd. We hugged and I left. I was so glad to have stopped by.

Jacque went home to be with her Saviour that night. What if I had not gone? I didn't get to be with my Momma. I didn't get to go to Daddy. Some day, I hope to see them all.

We have four more weeks of school. It seems so long, even for California, but oh, well. I'm so ready for the summer. I'm closing with some photos of another antique quilt top that was shared, it's so cool, again with such tiny pieces and well done. I wonder if the creator had always planned to finish it...?

"Blessed is the man that trusteth in the LORD, and whose hope the LORD is." Jeremiah 17:7

Quilt Finishes

2011-05-13T17:00:00.000-07:00

Just showing a few finishes. Seems like the quilts always get given away in a hurry, and I never show them bound.

This one was a simple 4 patch with a border and cornerstone sewn on only 2 sides, not all around.

For some reason, the men who see this one choose it as one of their recent favorites in the completion. That's cool, since it's going to Ginny's oldest grandson Weston, who will be 14. Funny how time passes, I remember when his momma was in 3rd grade...!

Can you see his name sewn into this one ?

The cowboy quilt was a hit with the girls at quilt class this last week.

Ginny was so cute holding it up, peeking over the top.

Remember the "neighborhood" exchange Beth and I participated in? This is my house, but not my quilt top!

One of my "neighbors" is working on her quilt, and she built a little park in the middle, love it!
Speaking of my friend Beth, and Jerry, we have shared anniversary dinners over the years, and went to our favorite fish restaurant, Market Broiler. Theirs is May 17th, and ours is May 15th. Tomorrow! We have been married for 35 years.
w.o.w.

Hope your weekend is going well, too!

Happy Mother's Day ~ in Flowers

2011-05-07T21:33:00.000-07:00

This is the only creative thing I've done for a week:

this was my sample for the kids

For Mother's Day, the students painted a water color floral arrangement. Ginny inked in their artwork lines, and we put them into a black 8" by 10" art mat.

Wednesday was Teacher Appreciation Day, and I was blessed with this pink miniature rosebush, a bouquet of peach Gerbera daisies, and this sweet orchid.

Lydia's church had a beautiful Ladies Tea today, her pastor's wife and the women of the church had made the church gorgeous, with borrowed teapots, cups and dishes, tea cozies, everything!! It was over the top, and a blessing to attend.

The floral arrangements with the lilies came from there today, they sold them at the end and we were happy to purchase.

When we came home, Larry had these roses waiting for me on the counter.

It's a garden in the kitchen! I love the blooms everywhere. Tomorrow, I'll be directing the Ladies Choir in the morning service, we're praising the Lord with our "joyful noise"!
I'm hoping you all have a wonderful Happy Mother's Day!

Sewing, and On Line Puzzles

2011-04-27T07:38:00.000-07:00

Cameron's Cowboy quilt

I think I've been decompressing since school let out on Friday noon. Open House went well, with 8 live baby chicks by Friday night. No pictures of the little guys, though, I seemed to forget my camera in all the work of the week! Overtime was put in for the last 2 weeks and some on a Saturday. Friends & a certain Grandma of a student this year helped with setting displays out during the day. My sweet Larry helped me in the classroom Wednesday night until 7:15 pm, and that made it so I could go home at 1pm (we had 1/2 day on Thursday of Open House), rest and come back to greet parents and students of this year and previous ones, plus upcoming students.
It's a really fun night, I look forward to it ~ after all the preparation is over!

So, one deadline was this quilt for Ginny's grandson Cameron, whose birthday happened to be on, you guessed it, that busy Friday, 4/22.

Really, I was doing fine meeting all the required dates ~I know why they call 'em d.e.a.d.l.i.n.e.s. ~ until the infamous neckpain of week one of April, and the next weekend 4/16 held sewing machine troubles of HUGE proportions ~ I'm telling you, there was crying and gnashing of teeth that Saturday!!!! ~ so, I was literally sewing each night until I brought this finished quilt to Ginny on Friday morning. Yea! I did it!

finished quilt and pillowcase!

But, here is the rant of said Saturday, I can speak of it and laugh only now (but stay out of the warpath that day, lol). I need more bobbins for my Grandquilter, and I cannot go just anywhere to purchase said bobbins. I had tried on 3 occasions to get some at the local Pfaff dealer, somewhat disappointed in their service. Oh, well, I thought, I'll go online, and I ordered through ebay the size needed for what was said to be Pfaff Grandquilter bobbins. Don't you know they were a great price? They came within the week of ordering, too. You do see where I'm going with this, I did NOT have the proper bobbins, but duh...it took me all day (yes, from 11am to 8pm) to trace the top breaking thread back to the bobbin trouble.

I oiled and re-oiled.
I cleaned the machine out again.
I changed the needle 3 times
(who knows, maybe the 2 needles from the first box were a bad batch?).
I re-threaded again and again,
including changing the thread 4 times.

I took breaks from sewing in between my over the top frustrations, too.

I cooked a pan of yummy from scratch cheese enchiladas
I made a great broccoli salad
(cutting everything up in iddy-biddy pieces, frustration spurred work, lol)
I laid down for 20 minutes.

At 8:15 pm, (yes peoples, I EARNED my name pokey) when that stupid top thread had broken more times than I can count ~ seriously, as much as 4 times in an 8 inch square ~ and I turned the quilt on one more agonizing turn, and saw...

a 2 inch pleat sewn into the back, two passes of the machine back
(which translates into about 12 inches of ripping that now must be done)
boo.hoo.

Lydia came home about that time and was worried about my crying (everyone was gone that day, another reason I was giving in to the tears, I guess) and she said my sewing pauses were apparently NOT long enough to stem the frustration (made me smile), and we started tracing the problem back to... those new bobbins. I needed to talk to another seamstress to figure it out. She also told me it's "buyer beware" on ebay, (I'm so trusting), and how she had bought Swarovski crystals that were everything but the real deal.

When I got up on Sunday morning, Larry teased me and said, "What do you know, the sun came up again. It's a new day." I thanked God for the new day, the new beginning and my loving family. I started ripping out that afternoon after church.

I think the fussy cut horse squares were one of the best parts of this quilt!

Now, I'm working on Ginny's quilt for grandson Weston, her firstborn gs.

Truthfully, this was her first pieced top, but we were meeting the birthday deadlines, and Weston's quilt was waiting for the early May date.

On Ginny's projects, she has been doing the sewing of the tops, and I bring in the completions with the backing, quilting and binding.

I love the blue variegated thread showing up on the solid squares!

We make a pillowcase to match. She pays me, though, and I get to quilt as desired.

I'm quilting this one in scrolls, and the directions I'm following are from Wendy's blog post here. Wendy's projects are beautiful, and she encourages and inspires many of us!

King Tut from Superior Threads.

And the puzzles I mentioned? I've always enjoyed a good puzzle, and Sue of Featherstone Quiltworks posts her own puzzles through Jigzone. Sue takes some of the prettiest photos of wildlife, mostly birds, you've ever seen. The puzzles are addicting....

So, the Easter break is on day three now, I'm quilting an new design, and doing puzzles. Tomorrow we're joining our friends Beth and Jerry for a few days in Big Bear before it's time to go back to school on Monday. I talked a lot today, sorry for the rant. What are you doing? I hope it is creative, and refreshing to your soul.

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

Here is another treasure from Virginia, well, really from Japan.
My family lived there when I was a kid, Daddy was stationed in
Japan and served in Vietnam for 4 years.
Daddy bought 2 of these 9 foot by 6' tall screens,
and Happy and I each have one now.
Mine is beautiful in our dining room.

Olivia, and April ~

2011-04-07T22:08:00.000-07:00

What does April hold? Let's see, report cards, SAT's,

Grandma LOVES it, hope her DIL does, too....

Open House projects, plants from seeds, Parent Teacher conferences. . .

Easter break that hasn't happened yet, I'm s-o-o looking forward!)
Baby chicks in the incubator, model lighthouses. . .
Student books to bind, Jog-a-thon. . .

2 quilts done and one waiting for the frame,
stiff neck issues that have me in the dr's office;...
I'm sitting here wanting to post but it may not happen until this weekend,

no, wait, that other quilt is supposed to be done this weekend.
I'm not the only one that gets this way I'm sure.
I'm avoiding that"overwhelmed" label.

Truthfully, I'm mostly on top of things but then a minor health issue kinda waylays a person. I don't like to complain about health, I know lots of us are trying to grow older gracefully without all the grumbling, huh?

"It just goes to show you, little Roseanne, Roseanna Dana, It's always something — if it ain’t one thing, it’s another."
Gilda Radner

Picture taken at school, on the tables with the kid's SAT booklets!

Oh, and I did 1, count 'em, one square for the Block Lotto.

Okay, there it is in a nutshell, sending out my love and the most recent photos. Hugs to all!

"The LORD is my strength and my shield; my heart trusted in Him, and I am helped: therefore my heart greatly rejoiceth; and with my song will I praise Him."
Psalm 128:7

Wild Thing...

2011-03-27T21:26:00.000-07:00

...is what Olivia's Gramma ordered. I think I've captured what she wanted...

I heard that the one Olivia's mommy had found online in a hot pink zebra baby set sold for $300. Gramma beat that, and got it personalized, too!

I had a little wonky creativity on the back. I'm hoping to get it bound this week, and that last green one, too.

Other than that, there's a few more disappearing 4 patches in my "15 minutes" of free play, and I think I've found a few pieces to use for the dresdens (I hope you're not tired of me mentioning that ongoing project), to be seen at a later time....

Here's to a happy Monday!

Quilting Day ~ What's on the Frame

2011-03-19T21:29:00.000-07:00

Happy National Quilting Day! Ha, ha, I know that doesn't matter to some of you, but I find it cool to have a "national" day of celebrating. I was sewing on the quilting frame for a little guy named Logan.

These fabrics are mostly Debbie Mumm, and I think it was Ginny's first quilt that she did the choosing without my advice (but she was pretty safe, knowing it was from one fabric line,*vbs*).
Again, I drew up an easy to accomplish quilt, and off she went sewing.

This quilt is due in for a birthday gift in April, but so is another one that we don't have all the fabric chosen yet, we will though....

The other thing I was able to do was catch up on some quilty blogs! The list was way over 1000 unread posts, so I do have to admit to some skimming, er, "speed reading" at times. There were several dresden projects, these popped out in my view:

here's one with Amy Butler, same inspiration with these bright prints!
Shay showed us hers, all plates completed. Yea!
Kim was gifted a beauty by Stephanie of Loft Creations.
I was honored to be inspiration to Amy, thank you! Her fabrics are perfect.

Boy, I am hoping to keep mine coming! There are 28 of them pressed, and waiting for the next step.

I'm stuck on a decision, match the centers? I made the circle template and actually sewed 2 on, but they seem to disappear since they are all bright and used in the plate already. I don't want to use the gray, I think it would recede, I'd rather have the circle be defined- stand out, but I may need to put a new piece of fabric in to make that happen. Little decisions. So I'm slowed down on the project, but there are plenty of to- do's on the project list anyway.

I've missed a few giveaways, but my friend Jennifer shared about a new blogger, Rhonda, from the Cumberland Gap area. That is back home for me, friends! Go meet Rhonda and this colorful giveaway.

Hope you all have a great Sunday!

Time Change

2011-03-13T08:26:00.001-07:00

From chaos, to order. . .

Sixteen dresdens assembled so far. . . the work made me think of a Bible verse:

"Let all things be done decently and in order." 1 Corinthians 14: 40

God is Good! Happy Sunday ~

It's March - !

2011-03-08T18:14:00.000-08:00

At the Davis household, Larry and I share computer time. It works out great, unless he has a pressing freelance job. That's the case for the last three weeks. . . I'm spending a lot of time sewing!

I've been trying to work on a border for the Amy Butler project.

These are made from recent scraps, my poor table hasn't been cleared since January, lol

It's taken a few tries, and these practice pieces will probably work into a mug rug or two, or
something fun.

But all along, I REALLY wanted a Dresden Plate border.

I think I have the math part worked out on this size here. So, cutting is the next part. . . .

This print is my favorite of the bunch!

These disappearing four patches have proven fun too.

There are some for the Block Lotto exchange, and others were made because I shared the "how-to" at quilt class, and before you know it there were multiples. . . .

Lastly, there was this pillowcase for Brandon's birthday quilt. His birthday happens to be today! Hope it's a great one.

I'll say hi when I can, happy quilting!

What’s on the Frame

2011-02-27T20:08:00.000-08:00

This quilt is for Ginny’s grandson, Brandon.

These were the starter blocks from earlier this month

His birthday is March 8th, so we were really pushing to get is done.

Ginny had the fish print and a couple of blues, so we built the quilt around them.

I tried to make a water movement in the quilt lines and Brandon’s name is quilted in stitches, also!

I love the turquoise water bubble she chose for the backing!

The binding is all that is left to do. Yea! This my third quilted finish for 2011.

I was able to make a couple of squares for the March Block Lotto ~ come see tomorrow what the new project is, I'm loving this one . . . .

Happy Quilting!

Thrift Store Iron

2011-02-21T18:59:00.000-08:00

I said I'd share...

We saw this neat old iron at a local thrift store on Friday afternoon, but it was priced $20. It was in a glass case, so I had to ask about it to get the price. The girl who was waiting on me said that it would be on sale on Monday, half off. Okay, I'll wait for half off.

Well, better than that, it was 75% off, and it was still there! *vbg*
I always try to say, if the Lord wants me to have it, it will still be there. (okay, sometimes that doesn't work out for me, but acceptance is a lesson, too.)

Iron lives at my house, now....

This makes me remember a t-shirt I saw on a Fons and Porter show:

"Irony is the opposite of wrinkly"

On sewing today:

Ginny and I worked on her ocean blue quilt top, it's 2/3 done.

I'm still working on my border.

School tomorrow, see ya!

Happy Quilting!

I Could Get Used to This. . .

2011-02-21T09:19:00.000-08:00

Oh, how I love a Monday off from school! I am hoping for a sewing day, but it's 9 a.m. and so far I've cooked breakfast, packed Larry's lunch (he reminds me that most jobs do not close for a holiday such as President's Day- gee, sorry Dad - not really *vbg*), washed and put away the dishes (okay, so the dishwasher did the biggest part of that!), and read and commented on a few hundred blogs (oh, how I love that!). I still need to get to the thrift store, (if I get what I waited to go on teacher discount for, I'll share later), go to the grocery store and then...I'll sew.

I did take these photos to share today. This is a rocker that Happy brought to me from the Virginia homestead. We grew up in the Air Force, which is to say, we lived in many places, and our Dad traveled to even more.

The small picture shows both rockers.

Happy took one on with him to his home.

I cannot help but think of him when I look at mine :-}

This was one of two rockers that Daddy purchased on an extended trip to Peru. He said he watched these "monks" spin the wood with a bike pedal style lathe, and they would hold a string with their hands and teeth, and spin the ribbed designs into the wood.

Is it true? I do not know. You'd have to know my Dad, I grew up with stories from him like, "...When I was a little girl...", or, "...Back when I rode horses on the open range with Tex Ritter..." ...no kidding, Daddy had the best stories.

Both chairs are in good condition, probably because there are other chairs more comfortable, lol. In our folks home in Anchorage, Momma had stylishly decorated with one of the rockers on display on top of a closet in a tall foyer entryway.

My photos were actually waiting on me giving the wood a good cleaning and conditioning, which happened this Saturday (finally!). My chair is now sitting in our computer room. I think this makes seven rockers in our house. WOW. Yea, I love rockers.

No one is sitting on one right now, does that make us off our rocker...? Okay, moving on....

While outside in the beautiful morning sun, I took advantage of the setting to take pictures of this latest project.

I was trying without success to make a fancy border, but I think I'll go with simplicity, and that way I'll have a finish, and not another UFO.

Oh, and February has been good to me in the giveaways, I'm so tickled! Big thank yous to ~

Cyndi of Blue Bird Swing ~ or, wait, is it Blue Bird's Wing? I'm gonna have to ask that question!
Cyndi did my prize with a cute presentation, she only showed the empty basket, and then she filled it daily. Look closely, and you'll see her doggy Noah in the chair ~

Doris from Threads of Conversation gave away a charm pack ~ Woo, Hoo! Oh, and go see her first quilt, it's a whole cloth quilted by her, from her teen day, it is an incredible accomplishment.

I and a few 1000 blogging quilters out there was entering the blogs giving away Kim Brackett's newest book, Scrap Basket Sensations. I love her projects, I knew I would save up to buy one, but I entered each day at each blog participating in the wonderful projects of Kim. Thank you, I won from Karen of Nana Girl Quilts! Karen made several of the projects in Kim's book, and displayed them around her own home, just lovely. You remember Larry's Blue Kitchen Sink was from Kim's last book....

Well, can you believe I've been at this for more than an hour, I'd better get moving, and I hope you can make the most of your day, too. Happy Quilting!

Valentine's Day 2011

2011-02-14T10:32:00.000-08:00

I'm enjoying a day home, we are out of school for 2 Mondays in February, one for Lincoln's Birthday, and the other is for Washington's Birthday, or President's Day. Either way, I'm home and happy!

My sweetheart Larry is at work. He's feeling much better, has been keeping his weight down, and his energy level is s-l-o-w-ly increasing, bless his heart! This year we will celebrate 35 years married, and I'm glad to have such a love. Our celebration of Valentine's Day will include home cooking, my really thick spaghetti sauce is his favorite, so it's cooking as I type.

Pokey's Really Thick Spaghetti Sauce
I'm not a real measuring person on this recipe, so do as you wish...

in a skillet, brown and stir until cooked and crumbly:

1-2 pounds ground beef
1 pound Italian sweet sausage, casings removed
2 coarsely chopped white onions
3-5 stalks chopped celery (I've even added 1 chopped carrot, chopped zucchini, or 1 diced bell pepper)
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon granulated garlic powder
1/2 teaspoon each basil flakes, and oregano

Add all to a large pot. For the sauce ingredients, add all this to the pot:

2- 14 ounce cans stewed tomatoes (I crush these in my hands, removing peels and tough tops)
2 or 3- 14 ounce cans mushrooms (because we love 'em)
2- 24 ounce jars Newman's Own Sockarooni Sauce
more garlic powder, oregano, and basil
1/2 cup dark brown sugar
sometimes I add 4 ounces sliced pepperoni

Cook all to blend the flavors. Serve with a green salad, cooked spaghetti noodles, and garlic bread. The leftovers are great to pack for lunches....

I recently won a sweet mug rug from The Adventures of the Empress of the Universe. You should go meet this gal, she has some serious talent at making these mug rugs, and mine is beautiful! The heart at the top of the post is from this one, too. Always nice to meet a new blogging friend.

I was hoping to work on a finish or two, but that new roll of Amy Butler was calling my name, so here goes....

And because I want to join in a couple more giveaways in the quilting community, go check these out:

Stash Resolution has a 6 fat quarter bundle of "Delilah". The deadline to enter is Wednesday, February 16, at midnight EST.

Thearica of Pigtales and Quilts is having a sponsored giveaway from the Quilt Depot. A nice blue shopping bag of goodies is the prize, come see. Date giveaway is 02/20 at noon EST.
Edited to add: Sew Fun Quilts has a one day giveaway: Red charm squares for Valentine's Day, I'm in for red!

That's it for now, I think I'll go back to stitching!

Sewing on a Sick Day or Two

2011-02-09T09:26:00.000-08:00

I'm home from school, this is going on week three of "asthmatic bronchitis" stuff, no fun. I've finally given in, and am staying home from school a couple of days (mostly due to not having a voice to teach, and the frequent 2-3 minutes of coughing fits.)

So, the positives ~ there are positives, people ~

I've read and commented on a LOT of blogs,
even entered a few giveaways, oh yes!
all caught up on the 1000+ posts right now
laundry, and most of the cleaning is done (between rests!)
afternoon naps oh, I could put that into each day
a bit of creativity too, yea!

For Ginny, this was an easy quilt idea for her grandson #2.

I was at school playing with teacher stuff, can you tell, lol.
We had already decided "easy" had to be the theme, and had cut her four prints into 5 inches by WOF. Yawn. This was too boring to me. (maybe it was the stamps...)

So, these came from a couple hours of play time, and about 4 more fabric selections. That meant pulling out one of the original pieces, we all do that, though, right? These are 12 inch squares, I think she'll like how quickly that size block works into a quilt. We picked a royal blue for sashing, I think that will be best in a boy's room, but the white looks nice....

I also got some of the string hearts done for the Block Lotto. I think they are a bit of a challenge, but I'm glad for the try. I entered only 2, I've a plan for these four.

Today, I'm going to see about using the leftovers of the string hearts.

Did you see the cute metal stamping at Karen's? Well, Larry is helping me with stamping some washers for my second graders for Valentine's Day. These are our washers, but her bookmark, I don't have one done that far yet. (you may need to click to enlarge, the washers say "LOVE")

And lastly, a new arrival from a sale at Fabric. com, this Amy Butler is going to be teaming up with the gray below it...well, dreaming about them together for now, anyway.
Hope I'm not sharing it too early, I may go ADD and jump to something else...
because you notice I haven't slipped it out of it's ribbon yet-yikes!

See ya'll soon!

This is a pincushion I made for Momma years ago, and have it back now.
Do any of you remember this tiny patchwork strawberry print
some 20 years ago? I loved it, and added the
strawberry emery onto the basket.

I Won!

2011-02-01T20:17:00.000-08:00

I won 30 blocks in the block lotto, boy, oh, boy!

And the block for February is cute, too....

These are not mine, but you can see these and more at
Sophie's Block Lotto, come see!

W I P's

2011-01-30T08:11:00.000-08:00

I've joined into some internet fun, with Sophie and her friends at Block Lotto. I "know" a few friends there, like Wilma in North Carolina, and Sophie is a new-to-me person. I guess I've joined in on a tidal wave year, but Sophie's block is so do-able this time, I've enjoyed making them. Here are my eight blocks, which I hope one will be a winning ticket. :-}

There is a button added on my sidebar to take you to Block Lotto. Sophie adds a new block, and therefore a new lottery each month. Check it out and see it it's a project you would like to join in. Of course, there are no guarantees, except sharing and growing in the creative process.

Last week, I quilted Ginny's little Duck, Duck, Goose quilt, and Monday had me finishing the binding, yeah! another completion!

Back last summer, I sewed 200+ scrappy 4-patch squares, and joined in an exchange with Bingo Bonnie. My goal is a scrappy Irish Chain. Well, scrappy sewing for the lotto has me sewing those patches again,

this little stack is sw-ee-ee-t!

...but, I think some of the motivation has come from these folks, too ~

Terry is the most recent one ~

...and there was Lane's, too...

...and lastly, Libby had the black background that Sings to me...

Libby's was a kit, too.

I have to admit, this is a long term project, so I don't think I'll have it done anytime soon, but they are beauties. Oh, I'm wanting to mention Bonnie Hunter's book, Leaders and Enders, that kinda got my ball rolling in the Irish Chain direction.

For those of you that like the soft colors found in vintage sheets, you may want to check out this giveaway....

That's it for now! Hope your week is great!

This is a double wedding ring from Virginia. My Grandmother made it, she did all piecing and quilting by hand.

Any fabric would do in her quilts! Often the quilt backs were feed sacks that she would dye a dull pink/red. This one isn't, though.

What's on the Frame

2011-01-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

This is the weekend I am SUPPOSED to work on my report cards. So, you know that I did what I am supposed to do, right? Yeah, right.

I quilted 2 quilts!

(insert a cheeky grin here!)

I can seem to get all kinds of busy when I have a job hanging over my head, and I've always been that way. I think it's the procrastination/easily distracted/creative part of me.

Do I see other hands out there?

Truthfully, I usually meet my deadlines ahead of time, partly because I draw an earlier time to meet it. My report cards are due in the office on Monday, 01/31/11, my date is Friday the 28th, see? I'll make it. . . .

Anyway, back to the fun stuff. I was working on Steven's quilt earlier in December, he was born the 18th. December being what it was in our house, well, the finish is coming now.The shower for him and his momma sweet Valerie (1st grade teacher at my school) is Wednesday-! yes, this Wednesday, I'll make the deadline!

I line quilted this one, mostly. That was kinda fun.

I've had the fabric for a while, Valerie likes these colors, and I had a feeling that the baby was going to be a "he" (they did this the surprise method). Val called me a "prophetess" but it's nothin' like that. Besides, I had some pinks I could throw in if I was wrong. *vbg*

It started out to be a Stacked Coins, but I turned them on end, can it still be called that? What's cool is, I used some of the fabrics from the wedding quilt I made them.

I'll try to edit and add Steven's finished quilt pictures later...
Here it is finished, and fresh out of the dryer!

This is hanging above my dryer. It was from my friend Ginny B. :-}

This little duck quilt was using a panel print, and Ginny wanted to make it into a quilt for her grandson Colton. Her goal is to make a quilt for each of her 7GK's, and I'm her production manager, lol. I love it, I'm always on the lookout for simplicity, and "we can do it" ideas.

We found this panel out of date, so we looked for our own coordinates, and they are working great. This will be bound with the stripe piece. I love striped binding...

Here is another share from Virginia. This painting was done by Momma for my Daddy. It was from a print, most of her paintings were. It is the biggest canvas she ever did,
I think it is 2' by 3 1/2'. It's beautiful, so dramatic! It now hangs in Happy's home.
They have 4 horses, it seemed right.

Oh, lastly, look at my new signature, made by my honey! (a.k.a. my Larry).

Hi ~

2011-01-17T21:33:00.000-08:00

This bowl was my Momma's, and we used it every holiday, or every large batch of potato salad! My baby brother Happy was able to rescue it for me, and I think of him and the folks every time I walk into the kitchen. It is one thing that has made me smile recently. The old glass canning jars with zinc lids came from the "homestead", too. :-}

Man, there is no sewing happening this week. Hap came through with a u-haul after 11 pm, and we worked most of the night sorting through and sharing stories, our own version of a memorial, I guess.

It was so good to visit, however short. Thanks Happy and John.

You did my heart good. We'll share a few pictures of Virginia stuff later.

Now, this week, I was talking to a friend from my youth. Her name is Norma, and she wanted to come and share a special celebration of her "spiritual birthday" with me, and she sure brought encouragement with her! I haven't seen Norma for 35 years, but we have spoken and facebooked for a few years.

See these smiles? We have really enjoyed our short visit. Friends from Michigan can make you laugh endlessly. God bless 'em!

Oh, we had to go to M & L Fabrics. . . and then to Knott's Berry Farm!

I have not smiled this much for a while. We said goodbye tonight, but it has been a boost to my spirit. Tomorrow, it's back to second grade with a bit of joy. I'm glad to feel more like myself again.

Oh, and I've been cutting a few strips of bright prints, more on that to come. . . !

Blessings, Pokey

Floral Blooms

2011-01-06T19:51:00.000-08:00

I have seen a few folks sharing their Christmas Cactus, and I wanted you to see this beauty. Honestly, I take no credit for its blooms, it does as it pleases. I water it sometimes. It was a gift from Vicky last Christmas, 2009.
It is still in the paper it came in last year, lol! I know, I have no shame. *vbg*

I guess at this time, I should remind you that I live in Southern California. I know that does make a difference.

Here is the little progress I've made on the crumble squares. I was going for a wonky setting, but I bet there is an easier way. I was kinda thinking along the lines of this one, but Amanda Jean did the smart thing of beginning with the same size square, mine are all different sizes, and some are rectangles. Ah, well, gives me more to think about, and keep my mind active. Busy hands keep you distracted sometimes....

My design wall is the bed, if you haven't noticed.

I've struggled as to whether to share this, so forgive me. I've been feeling like such a "Wednesday's Child" of late. I'm referring to the nursery rhyme,

Monday's Child:

Monday's child is fair of face,

Tuesday's child is full of grace,
Wednesday's child is full of woe,
Thursday's child has far to go,
Friday's child is loving and giving,
Saturday's child must work for a living,
But the child that's born on the Sabbath day,
Is fair and wise and good and gay.

I've not posted this, it has been so hard to deal with, but I lost my Dad. He fell on Christmas Day, and died about 12 hours later of subdural hematoma on Sunday, December 26. He lived in Virginia, I'm in California, and there is so much more than the 3,000 miles between here and there.

I've been so sad, I have barely been able to speak of it. Thank you to those who know, and are praying for us, truly. I'm gettin' better. I'm back to school, and slowly I'm dealing with the loss. Sometimes better than others. I do believe in a Father God Who has a plan, I know He loves me enough to give peace, that passes all understanding.

I think it's been a rough year. I think some of the difficulty is that I've just had my Larry in the hospital and with all swirling around that sorrow and medical bill stress, I just haven't been on a better level to deal with all the loss. I'm seeking the Lord. He has sent such love through others, it's been humbling, comforting, and - emotional.

My little brother has taken on most all of the responsibility and it has been a real gift to talk things over with him. We were left a few items of the household, and when Hap (my brother) asked what I wanted, I told him to look for the useful things.

The sewing basket I grew up with. The mixing bowl we would use for making dressing at holiday time. A few quilts, and quilt tops never finished, made by previous generations of our family. I will quilt them. The rockers. The wall clocks. Momma was a painter, so a few of her paintings. She took oil painting lessons from one of the top rated artists in Japan, when we lived there while Daddy was gone to Vietnam 1/2 of the 4 years we lived there. They are lovely reminders of the artistic dna that flows in our family.

Hap is on his way to my house tonight, driving the family memories here, from our rural Appalachia home, before he heads on to his house in Washington. I am biding my time, typing this, waiting to hug him, and be thankful for another reminder of God's love.

I have to admit, I'm looking for a better year in 2011.

Thanks for looking in. Lord willing, we will get back to the creativity.
Blessings, Pokey

"But they that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles;
they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint." Isaiah 40:31

"Rejoice with them that do rejoice, and weep with them that weep." Romans 12:15