Monday's Design Wall

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 ~

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

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

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

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 ~

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