Painting and Quilting - New Year New Blog

Almost a year gone by!

2011-02-26T13:18:00.000-05:00

I'm so bad at updating this! I joined Facebook and have been putting most things there. Thought I better update a couple things here. I had my other knee replaced not quite six weeks ago so I haven't been doing any quilting or painting! Will be anxious to get back into both hobbies and I have a couple of commissions to do.

April 7th - Easter Update and a ME day

2010-04-07T16:30:00.000-04:00

What a wonderful fun day we had at Christy and Brian's house on Easter Sunday. Hunting for Easter eggs was a huge hit - mostly because Grammy hides money in the eggs! And this was Easton's first Easter so he had special Noah's Ark eggs for mommy to find. Lunch was delicious and easy - ham bbq sandwiches, pasta salad, baked beans,deviled eggs. And Tina's boys made triple mud pie for dessert. Of course there was a ball game and a water balloon slingshot too! Just a perfect day and I am so blessed.

Today was a "me" day. I still have 4 days of physical therapy and then I start back to work. So I went to Joanne Fabrics to get backings for two quilts for my sister then I went to Smocking Shop to look at a Husqvarna Viking Designer Topaz machine. Will probably try to purchase it. Both of my machines are old and wearing out. Then I went to Austin's Sewing and signed up for a class with Cynthia England on June 5th. I love doing landscape quilts so I'm looking forward to that! Tonite I continue working on a Quilt of Valor quilt that my 89 year old mom started piecing for me. Soon it will be ready to quilt then get it shipped. I also made hotel reservations for the Quilting with Machines show in September and registered for a few classes. It's been a great day!

Another surgery done!

2010-04-02T17:41:00.000-04:00

I had a total knee replacement done on Feb. 22nd so have not had a whole lot to show or write about. Last week I was finally able to start sewing again and began working on some UFO's. Hopefully will get some new pics up soon. I still have 6 therapy classes to go but am so glad I had this done. Soon I can climb the stairs again to get to my Georgie Girl (my gammill premier plus) and get several quilts done that my mother had pieced.

Walking with a Cancer Patient

2010-02-06T20:30:00.000-05:00

This quilt is reflective of my walk with my daughter-in-law, Catina, as she battled breast cancer. I’d like to dedicate it to all of the doctors, nurses, technicians and support teams at the Louisville Oncology offices at Norton Suburban and Audubon and the help at the radiology unit.

The quilt was made in 2008 as a block of the month at the website www.thequiltshow.com however her story started in March 2006 when she found a lump and was 5 months pregnant. She had her left breast removed, had a port put in, and had one round of chemo before delivering Bradley 5 weeks early. Chemo continued. In the summer she had a hysterectomy, then another lump was found in the chest wall of the same side and that was removed in 07 and was cancerous. More chemo. December of 07 showed a clean ct scan. In April of 2008 the right breast was removed due to another mass which fortunately was not cancerous. When healed from that, she began radiation. In December of 08, a clean ct scan was reported.

Tina is the mother of 4 boys, ages 11,7,6,2 ½. Bradley has been diagnosed with cerebral palsy and sensory integration disorder. He began walking earlier this year and what a miracle that was. She’s been a strong woman through it all and has gone through the gamut of emotions of course. My son, Keith, stood by her side the whole way. We all kept hope alive through our faith in Jesus Christ and prayers from all over the world. The family participated in the family walk this summer and will do so again next year. In March 09 Tina will be a 3 year survivor.

January: I'm working through the emotions of cancer on my dil, so my quilt is beginning with black/white for my anger at her recurrence. Jesus, the bright and shining star, is the constant in each block as He helps me through. Color will be added each month by painting some of the fabrics.

February: I began adding color to my block starting with the vases. I used tsukeniko inks to paint the black/white fabric. I did this because just as the vase holds the flowers, our bodies hold our spirits and emotions and our bodies are very temporal. Cancer is a reminder that life here is just practice for life later.

March: This month I painted the flowers red to reflect one of the first emotions of cancer - anger.

April: This month I left the flowers red because Tina had to have the 2nd mastectomy but I added green to the stems and flowers to symbolize you can have new life with cancer.

May: I added green to the dark grey leaves this month to continue the reminder of new life with cancer.

June: Dedicated to the counselors and help at the resource centers who helped sort through all the mixed up emotions, thoughts, and feelings. That's why this block is mixed up!

July: The empty spaces on this block will be quilted in with thread. Cancer leaves a lot of empty spaces in your life, in your questions and answers, that need filled in later.

August: This month is colorful because the 4 month scan was clear for my dil! I'll add the baby's breath, etc... when I do the thread painting. I added a breast cancer charm to the vase.

September: Butterflies are another symbol of hope so they decorate my vase this month. The vase was colorfully painted with polka dots too. Feet will be embroidered later because Bradley finally started walking this month! I left the blue dark because he has to have surgery in the near future for a tethered spinal cord. They see the neurosurgeon on Nov. 4th.

October: When I saw all those circles, I thought "I don't want to do this anymore!" It reminded me of taking to Tina to daily radiation treatments - 40 miles round trip - with Bradley and stroller and I thought the same thing! So to simplify things, I used the circle stitch on my machine to do them. We couldn't simplify trips but we went shopping some and treated ourselves to McD's some.

November: When I saw the ribbon on this block, I knew I had to use my pink ribbon fabric since this is my walk with my dil through breast cancer. The first piece of colored fabric except for the yellow of my stars.

December: This finishes the quilt with using all special fabrics. The yellow for Jesus still remains and has expanded even more because He’s so much a part of this walk. The vase is glitzy and shiny – another clean ct scan! The flowers are made using a fabric from the Hoffman Quilt for a Cure fabric line. The leaves and stems are fabric that I hand-dyed – trying something new. Cancer gives everyone – yourself, your family, those who love you, a new look at living. Beauty can come from the black/white beginning – keep hope alive at all times!

I finally got the quilt together and quilted and finished in Feb. 2010.

Some Works in Progress

2010-01-23T11:34:00.000-05:00

Here's a few things I've been working on since surgery. I finished all of the 2009 Among Friends BOM but I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them yet because they truly are not my color palette at all. Maybe make some placemats for a gift or a vest.

The larger quilt is the BOM from The Quilt Show website. I just finished October and now I need to make 170 more flying geese for the next border for November! It might get finished by June of this year!

The back of the jacket was a Carol Fallert Pattern called soaring. I dyed most of the fabric for that part of the jacket. I was going to work on finishing it today but I can't find my pattern! I think I left it at Linda's when I cut it out a couple weeks ago. Hope it's still there.

The paintings are all waiting for frames. The bunny was from a photo that my friend Joyce had. The glacier is my favorite spot in Alaska - Prince William Sound. The Shiprock was another of the October seminar classes with Jerry Yarnell that I tried on my own because I could only sit in on the class and take notes due to recovering still.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-22T19:10:00.001-05:00

A lot has happened since my last post! I did have the kidney surgery and it was a rough recovery but Praise the Lord, there was no cancer! I worked a good bit from home doing the bookkeeping but wasn't able to paint or sew much. I started working on projects again in October so hopefully I can get some photos up in the next couple days of works in progress.

Thanksgiving and Christmas were a blessing. Christy and Brian adopted a little boy - Easton Malachi. He was born about 6 weeks premature but is doing wonderfully at almost 3 months old now.

We were able to have the whole family together the Sunday after Christmas for dinner and that really made my holiday special.

In November we moved into our new church building and it's awesome! I love my office - it has lots of windows. And it's so nice to attend church again because now we don't have any steps.

I am looking forward to a total knee replacement finally on February 22nd. It's been coming for several years but finally it's time. So now I'm preparing meals ahead and getting some small projects organized that I can take to the rehab facility to work on for a few days there too.
Wishing you all rich blessings and God's grace for the coming year!

August

2009-08-11T20:19:00.004-04:00

I was afraid I wouldn't get something posted before August ended! Surgery is still for the 20th and I am soooooooo ready. Thursday I have to discontinue arthritis meds so please say a prayer that my knee holds out for me. My sister, Pat, is flying down on the 24th to stay for a week and help. I should be in the hospital 3-4 days.

Here's the July Among Friends block:

My 89 year old mom, was needing a project, so I cut out triangles and had her piece some blocks for a throw to give to Christy's motherinlaw, Rose, who just had a lumpectomy. I love the angel wings panto and use it on a lot of female quilts. Mom was so glad to help with this and she did so well that I sent her another box of patches to piece for a female Quilt of Valor quilt. That won't get quilted til after I've recovered though. Rose was thrilled with the gift. I can't do the Walks or Runs for the cure but I sure can Quilt for the Cure!

My grandsons started back to school today. Am anxious to hear a report!

George had a great time at the National shooting matches at Camp Perry and he improved a lot from last year. Hopefully I can go next year. I sure missed him. He didn't take any pictures though.

I need to get busy on the Quilt Show BOM for August. I have most of my smaller stars done.

Way behind!

2009-07-23T18:22:00.005-04:00

I jumped over to facebook for a while and our computer went crazy so I've come back to try to blog again. Since my last blog I've gotten a few things done. Basically just trying to keep up. I'm having a partial kidney removed on August 20th to finally get rid of this cyst.

At our Bullitt County Fair, I won 2 ribbons. The first place blue was for the thread painted wallhanging I did for my friend Linda and the 2nd place red was for the pink patience quilt. I was thrilled. Both Linda's entered things and won blue ribbons too!

My Among Friends blocks are caught up and so are The Quilt Show blocks.

Tina and the boys went to Myrtle Beach for a few days vacation with some relatives and really enjoyed themselves after recovering from wrecking their car. Fortunately nobody was hurt bad and they found a minivan after returning.

My friend Janet and I have always wanted to go to the beach but since her house is for sale and she'll be moving further away, I painted her a gift. I hope she likes it. The thing at the end of the pier was supposed to be a hut of some sort but my looked like a VW Bug so that's what I made it into. Janet and I are in the beach chairs.

June 8

2009-06-08T16:22:00.005-04:00

I think I mentioned hubby took me on the Belle of Louisville last week and it was so nice.

I've also finally got pictures of my BOM from Among Friends and The Quilt Show. These are both May. Now I can get busy on June I hope - not too far behind!

I started a new painting this weekend too. Our favorite spot in Alaska was Prince Williams Sound and I'm going to attempt to add an eagle to it because we saw so many eagles in the various ports.

June 3

2009-06-03T15:59:00.005-04:00

I must confess I am not a good blogger! I'm going to attempt monthly now and see if that helps. May was productive. I finished "Pink Patience". It took a lot of patience as I did the medallion on the quilt with sample 4 from Renae Haddadin's dvd and I just tried different things in the surrounding blocks. The blocks were Among Friends 2008 BOM. It may go to the county fair but not sure yet. Also did the 2009 BOM and quilted one for a friend that she hand embroidered the blocks and she's giving it as a wedding gift this weekend. My quilty friends, Linda and Linda, both had their hands in it too - getting it squared and attaching the binding. I'm still finishing up the May BOM for The Quilt Show - I'm a slow piecer with 1" finished half square triangles!

George and I took a west coast relocation cruise also. We left from LA and went to Vancouver with stops at Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Astoria, Seattle and Victoria along the way. My favorite was Astoria. I was finally able to meet in person an online friend of 12+ years and her husband. They met us at the dock and gave us a personal tour of their town. It was awesome! After we got back, we were having cruise withdrawals so my George surprised me with a Belle of Louisville riverboat cruise last Sunday. The weather was beautiful and the river was calm. Very relaxing. Now we save for the next one someday... Inspiration for another quilt came from these tiles!

Family continues to do well so praise the Lord for that! Tina had a combined party on the 23rd. We celebrated Bradley's 3rd birthday and Kaden's graduation from elementary school. I forgot my camera so will have to get those from Tina later.

June is full of dr appt's for me. 3 to the orthopedic dr to do the hyalgen injections in my knees to buy me time before the replacement; 1 for the kidney ultrasound and 1 to the urologist to see what we do now. I feel the kidney surgery needs taken care of before the knee since it's a major organ but I'm not overly anxious to do either! :)

I hope you all have a great start to summer! More pics are at webshots.

May Day

2009-05-01T15:50:00.003-04:00

Today is the Oaks race at Churchhill Downs and tomorrow is the Kentucky Derby. I don't bet but I still like to choose a horse. Usually I like the greyish silver ones for some reason.

I've finished my April BOM for Among Friends and The Quilt Show. I like how nicely my colors played together in the stars. I think it'll be a pretty quilt. These blocks are 6 1/2" large. Now I can download May and hopefully stay on track!

Back & Busy

2009-04-25T14:48:00.004-04:00

We had company in April so I was quite busy. We had a nice time with George's brother Paul and wife Martha for a weekend and then George's mom came down for a week over Easter. She sure enjoyed seeing her greatgrandsons.

I finished the tshirt quilt and got it sent off in March. My friend loved it and is giving it to her son for his birthday.

The thread art quilt was given to my friend last week and she loved it. It's from a picture of her childhood home. I'd taken a class with Jamie Wallen last year and learned some of the technique but not much hands on so I was pretty much winging it and learned a lot!

I also got caught up on the blocks of the month at Among Friends Quilt Shop and The Quilt Show website.

The weather has been beautiful the past couple days and I was able to get a pretty good shot of a couple cardinals in a tree in my back yard.

The cyst on my kidney has grown back. Saw the urologist Thursday. He's going to check with radiology about draining the cyst again and then injecting it with something that would scar it. Depending on the success rate numbers will determine if I go that route or just do the partial kidney removal. That will be a large incision because of the location of the cyst and it can't be done with laparascope and it'll be 6 weeks off work. For now it's not large enough to drain again yet so I'll have another ultrasound on June 9th then discuss with him on the 16th. He gave me some pain meds to take as needed that are not as harsh on my stomach as naproxen and I only took 2 halves yesterday and it took the edge off. Today so far so good. It'll definately help on the 4 hour flight when we take our cruise. Woohoo - we leave in 13 days!

Surgery is over!

2009-02-24T18:55:00.002-05:00

I want to thank everybody for their prayers. I had surgery on the 18th to remove the cyst from my kidney. From mid-January til then the cyst had grown to orange size again. Dr. Ganesh Rao of Metropolitan Urologists is the best! Even with a lot of adhesions he was able to do the surgery with laparascope. I did stay in the hospital over night though because of a catheter. The team at Audubon was great too!
My quilting friends kept us supplied with delicious food after I came home and George did great as a nurse and cook and dishwasher, etc... He made sure I had anything I needed. No wonder I still love him after 35+years! He's a keeper!
I've been resting a lot. Saw Dr. Rao today and he removed the staples and told me - no cancer! Praise the Lord for that. Regular restrictions - no lifting, rest when tired, etc... and I can go back to work on Monday.
I have a tshirt quilt to start putting sashing on so that's my next project that I can sit and sew in short periods. Then hopefully I'll be able to run "Georgie Girl" (my machine) again soon. I have another tshirt quilt coming in March.
So thanks again!

February update

2009-02-15T09:43:00.005-05:00

I've finished my BOM for Among Friends Quilt Shop and Sue Garman's from The Quilt Show. I'm looking forward to seeing how they both finish up. We don't see the finished product from the quilt store until the end of the year and Sue's I'm using mostly scraps from my stash. I may have to raid the Linda's as I get toward the end though!

After the ice storm, we had a wind storm and again were blessed with no major damage - only a downspout came off the garage. George's flagpole is supposed to withstand hurricane force winds and it did a good job!

My surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday to have the cyst removed from my kidney. I should be in the hospital two days and off work 7-10. I'm really praying this takes care of the matter because I've struggled for an answer for 10-12 years and finally God led me to a great urologist - Ganesh Rao - who comes to Mt. Washington once a week.

Linda M. figured out the sizes for my setting triangles on last year's BOM so I'm anxious to get that set together and quilted. I'm using Renae's Amazing Rays for a center medallion and it'll have sample #4 from her DVD as the center. Also working on a tshirt quilt for the son of a friend in Michigan. I was able to get it cut out yesterday. And still working on a thread painted wallhanging for Linda M. I had hoped to get it done before Quilters Day out but with the surgery that won't happen. The theme this year was homes and this is a thread painting of her childhood home. It's being appliqued down to the base now and then can start quilting.

I had a nice Valentine's Day. Talked to all the kids and Tina and BJ brought me a pot of red tulips - they're so pretty. George treated me to a cinnamon roll in the morning and we both worked on a steak/salad dinner. He grilled and I tossed the salad! Also had coffee with another good friend Janet in the morning at Cracker Barrel. We'd planned for breakfast but since I already that the roll, I opted for coffee and a banana. It was nice to just visit with her.

Time to do my daily devotions. I'm working through Max Lucado's Devotional Bible this year and journaling my answers so it's been very interesting so far. Have a blessed day!

Happy Groundhog Day!

2009-02-02T18:30:00.005-05:00

As a Pennsylvanian by birth, I couldn't help but watch the festivities of Punxatawny Phil this morning and sad to see that he once again saw his shadow. I'm sorry that I didn't get anything posted in January so I have some catching up to do starting with my December BOM from the Quilt Show (this months is all fabric because Tina is almost a 3 year survivor and the quilt is ready to put together) and from Among Friends Quilt Shop (can't find that picture yet). The new Quilt Show BOM for January is a paper pieced feathered star. This is going to be a scrappy quilt for me.

We survived the ice storm last week. We were without power for only 18 hours and fortunately had a kerosene heater to keep warm with and of course lots of quilts to cuddle under! Tuesday night while George worked, I played solitaire on the laptop til the battery died then had to go to bed. Finally got tv, phone, and internet back on Friday. George went to Christy's on Sunday and helped clean up some more at their house. These are their front and back yard and a view from my office and some berries.

I've worked a little on some sewing but nothing to show just yet. The cyst I had drained in November has refilled so I'm having surgery scheduled soon to have it removed. It'll be an overnight stay and I'll be off work 7-10 days. I can't really sit for long periods to do much of anything.

2008-12-22T19:31:00.010-05:00

First I want to wish all of you a Merry Christmas!

November 12th I had the procedure to drain the cyst off my kidney and it went well and was not cancerous! That was good news. However I was not able to travel to PA with George to visit our families.

Thanksgiving Dinner was at Keith and Tina's house and Keith deepfried a turkey - it was delicious! George was not able to attend because he had shingles again.

Sadly, George's dad passed away on December 4th. He was very comfortable and at peace and the family was with him. Our kids and spouses were able to get to PA for the visitation and funeral and it was so nice to have them there. They had to drive through the blizzard though so we worried. Even Kaden came and was quite a young man. All of them got to participate in the funeral mass which was kind of nice. We'll all miss PopPop. He'd been my dad longer than my dad had been because he passed away when I was only 24. Dorothy seems to be doing pretty well and we hope to go up in January sometime.

We kept all the grandsons on the 13th so Keith and Tina could go to their company party. Had a good time making a gingerbread house and George had them flying the simulator on the computer. BJ fell asleep after only one verse of Jesus Loves Me and Mary Had a Little Lamb! We watched Transformers with the others who had a slumber party in the family room.

Finished my November BOM for the Quilt Show and Among Friends Quilt shop. Now to do Decembers. I also finally got Mom's portrait done. I'm sending it to my sister Tammy who's been her main caregiver for so long. I hope she likes it.

Two of my grandsons were in the church Christmas play and that always helps get me in the spirit of Christmas. It truly was quite a production and almost standing room only.

Thursday, the 18th, I was kidnapped by my friend Susan who took all us "quilty" girls to a tea party in Buckner KY - Sisters Tea Parlor. I really enjoyed it because they really are my sisters that I enjoy sharing with and doing things with. My real sisters are all in PA and none of these gals have real sisters. We laughed and just enjoyed the day. And it was right beside a quilt store!

A busy month

2008-11-07T17:10:00.004-05:00

Since my last post, I took another Jerry Yarnell seminar. In 4 days we completed 2 18x24 canvases and had a great time! I learned so much. These aren't quite finished yet.

After that I finished a commissioned portrait. 16x20 in oil.

The grandsons came over for Halloween Trick or Treat and were so cute! Christy and Brian brought their goodies too so Christy and I sat outside, it was lovely weather, and handed out treats while Brian, George, Keith and Tina took the boys around the neighborhood. When it got cool, I came in and George say out. We had a good time and so many cute costumes this year!

Haven't been doing much quilting but did complete another QOV to send to Alicia in CO.

And I got my October Among Friends BOM finished.

I'm still working on The Quilt Show BOM for October but making progress. I'm supposed to have knee replacement next year possibly and am only supposed to go up/down stairs once a day so with my Gammill being upstairs, I have to make every trip count. It's slowed me down a little!

Wednesday I will be having a cyst drained from my kidney. It's been there for several years but has gone from golfball size to about the size of an orange and had moved my kidney towards my rib cage - been pretty painful the last couple weeks. Hopefully this will take care of it and we can make a trip to PA on the weekend.

Where has time gone?

2008-10-11T18:26:00.006-04:00

I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last post!

I finally finished my landscape and got it framed and hung it in my family room. I really like how it turned out. Monday I go to Bardstown for 4 days of painting with Jerry Yarnell and we'll be doing two paintings this year. Usually we only do one and that's overwhelming at times! It'll be fun though and I always learn a lot.

I finished the bargello quilt and it's being a couch cover for now until I decide what to do with it. I'd like to hang it somewhere in my house but really don't have the right wall space.

I'm currently working on a fabric portrait of my mom. The photo was taken this year while she was in the nursing home afteer her knee surgery. It's Marilyn Bedfords online class at Quilt University. I was working with a very limited fabric palette and am ready to start the thread painting and I think that will pull it together nicely. I may use some inks to add some contrast in a few areas too.

My oldest son Keith had his 32nd birthday in September and we also celebrated that he got his Ford Masters Certification.

Tina, Keith and the boys walked in the Louisville Susan G. Koman Walk for the Cure this morning as a family - they did one mile.

Tina got a 2 year survivor medal. She called right after and said "this was awesome!" and was already making plans for next year! I embroidered Bradley's shirt - I'm a survivor, too! The weather was perfect too.

They then went to Huber's Orchard to the pumpkin patch for Dylan's birthday - he'll be 6 on Monday and he had lunch at Hooters!

Last night I had my 2nd jewelry show for Christy. Here she is doing a demo. We had a lot of fun and I earned over $400 in free jewelry!

PA Trip, IKE and BOM

2008-09-15T19:47:00.010-04:00

We went to Pa this past weekend to visit parents. I enjoyed my time with my mom as usual. I took pictures of the bargello quilt that she helped me piece to show her since I didn't get it off the longarm yet. This is how it looked in progress on the design wall.

Coming home, we hit the winds of Ike starting around Zanesville OH and lasted until we got to Cincinnati. The rest areas were closed due to no power so we made a sidetrip to Kevin's Dollar General store in Lebanon to use the bathroom! What a relief. I'm glad George was driving because he really had to hold onto the steering wheel. The winds were around 35-40 sustained, gusting to 50-65 where we were. Fortunately the driver of this truck was not hurt but the helpers had a hard time standing up!

Tonight I've finished my BOM for The Quilt Show. I embroidered butterflies in the vase as another symbol of hope and I will embroider some feet somewhere on it since BJ started walking this month.

and finally found the picture of my BOM for Among Friends. We go to the shop on Saturday for our next block.

It's a miracle!

2008-09-10T19:25:00.007-04:00

Our miracle grandson, Bradley, born with Cerebral Palsy, started walking last week at age 27 months! God is so good! His dad emailed it to me but my phone couldn't read it so he emailed it to George who emailed it to Christy, etc... I finally had to go over tonight and see for myself and take some video so we can show the great-grandparents when we go to PA this weekend.

Back from Nashville AQS

2008-08-27T12:46:00.004-04:00

Me, Susan, Linda G, Linda M

My quilting friends took along another friend to Nashville on Wednesday and came home Saturday. We had a blast! I thoroughly loved my classes with Jamie Wallen and finally was able to put together both of my passions - painting and quilting! I was so excited! I also got to talk to Renae Haddadin a few times and showed her my samples so far from her dvd and she said I was doing great and should start doing customers quilts. She and Jamie were my dream builders this weekend!

The quilts were pretty and it was nice to see some of the names I recognized from various groups.

Thursday night was our only night to go to dinner so we took the shuttle to Opry Mills and ate at Rainforest Cafe. The others had never been there. We had a few minutes til the shuttle so two went to the shoe store, one to look for pictures, and I had no where to go so I got a tatoo! Henna of course! I drew the design, from Jamie's class, and then the gal did it. It was fun!

Monday my hubby installed a new light in my studio. I am getting rid of all my onestroke things since I'm not doing that anymore. They're all on my longarm for now. Gotta get them packaged and given away or sold soon so I can start my quilting again. We also priced the items I need for a drawing board to do the portraits. Soon....all in God's timing! Praise the Lord!

Quilt Shop Day

2008-08-16T15:28:00.004-04:00

Today was the day we went to Among Friends to get our August quilt block. Lots of gorgeous new fabrics in too! I had to pick up some fat quarters to use for a portrait class I'm taking at Quilt University next month. I'm going to do a pic of my mom at her sewing machine since she pretty much taught me all I know of the basics and gave me a passion for quilting.

Yesterday I finished what I could of the August BOM at The Quilt Show designed by Sue Garman. I finally bought stabilizer today so I can start doing some of the raw edge applique stitching and thread painting and don't get too far behind on that. Most of the blocks and explanation of them are listed in my photos at webshots but they've all been done with black and white and grey fabrics and then painted with inks/dyes except for the yellow stars. That's a blender that is the only constant in each block. The quilt is my emotional journey through my dil's breast cancer, and the yellow symbolizes Jesus, who is our constant shining star and hope.

Catching Up

2008-08-10T10:28:00.003-04:00

Wednesday night Stacie's daughter Taelor came over to use my longarm to quilt her entry for the state fair. Taelor is 9 years old and she paperpieced this one all by herself. Last year she got a 3rd place ribbon so she's hoping for a 2nd this year. We're all very proud of her!

I wasn't feeling great yesterday or today but I did manage to finish the dog portrait. The owner will see it tomorrow. Hope he likes it!

Another little guy I'm proud of is BJ. This is my dil's baby that was born while she had breast cancer and chemo. He has cerebral palsy and for the first 2 years "walked" on his knees. He's started pulling himself up to stand now! He was 2 years old on May 24th.

The day after 8/8/8

2008-08-09T16:43:00.004-04:00

I celebrated my 54th birthday yesterday on 8/8/8! My daughter Christy came out to bring her dog for me to dogsit (pic is from the last time I kept her) and she brought me a new necklace from the Premier line. She's a jewelry lady and is doing great at it! I'm so proud.

In the afternoon my dil, Tina, brought my grandsons and a beautiful birthday cake and cards the boys had made. I loved it all! I hadn't had a birthday cake for 2 years so this was truly a wonderful gift. I talked to Keith and Kevin too and my mom. Missed calls from my sister Pat and my inlaws. Went to dinner with my friend Janet in the afternoon then did the exciting grocery shopping.

I've been enjoying using Renae's Amazing MiniRays and Arcs and can finally upload some pics.

Weekend Projects

2008-08-07T17:13:00.006-04:00

I said while I was in Erie I managed to complete two blocks. These are part of a mystery quilt at Among Friends Quilt Store in Louisville.

I'm very anxious to get to the end and see how to put them together. I've already bought some Lava Thread from Sew Thankful for my longarm in the variagated brown/pink color and the backing will be pink.

Here's the pet portrait I got started on too. I'm working on it tonight and hopefully it'll be ready to quilt on my domestic machine this weekend. I still have some shading to do on it with the tsukiniko inks. While at NQA in June, I took a class that did thread painting using two threads in one needle so I'm going to attempt that. Not sure if I can get both threads separated on my tension on my machine yet. Should be interesting!

Therapy Tuesday

2008-08-05T21:17:00.005-04:00

Yes, Tuesdays are therapy days! I get to paint and quilt both with my friends. I get off work about 2pm and Joyce shows up at 2:30 to paint. We've been painting together about 4 years now. I taught Onestroke painting at Michaels and she brought her neice to classes. They were very good students and outgrew my teaching so we started meeting regularly at my home to learn different things. We are currently working on a Jerry Yarnell painting - Autumn Splendor.

This is where we started this afternoon and this is where we ended up. Hopefully next week we can finish the trees and the rock.

It doesn't look like much progress. We've taken seminars with Jerry in Bardstown the past two years and really looking forward to it again this October.

In the evening I quilt with Linda M and Linda G and sometimes Stacie M. Several years ago I taught a quilt class at our church and these ladies all came. We became good friends and have met every Tuesday night for probably 4 years now to quilt and we travel to whatever quilt shows we can. Tonight they had cake and icecream to celebrate my birthday on Friday. I feel so blessed to have them in my life. Tonight I worked on a string pieced scrappy quilt using bounce fabric softener sheets (used) as my foundation. I have 48 blocks made and probably need that many more to make a decent size quilt. You can see the beginning blocks in the background of this picture.

This was a quilt of valor quilt pieced by Sharon D of KY.

Time to go read some new quilt magazines borrowed from Linda G tonight!

Getting Started

2008-08-04T17:40:00.013-04:00

This is the 2nd year that I have gone to Camp Perry in Port Clinton Ohio. He goes to attend a shooting competition and I go to have my own personal sewing retreat at the hotel. Before we left, I was singing the song "all my bags are packed, I'm ready to go"...but then I noticed my suitcase wasn't there! So I got things ready and we were off. I planned to work on my blocks from Among Friends Quilt Store since I was two months behind on those, try a pet portrait and a people portrait, stitch together a jelly bargelly piece, make an advent candy calendar, and work on a strip pieced scrappy quilt. I got the two blocks made and started the pet portrait and that's as far as I got.

On Friday, hubby took off and we took the Jet Express over to Put-in-Bay Island. It is a 98 foot long catamaran that held about 300 people. We had to sit on the very top of course! It was gorgeous scenery and Lake Erie was so calm and peaceful.

At the island, we visited the Perry Memorial which is the tallest International Peace Monument in the world. We rode the elevator up 317' to the top and it was such a pretty view. It commemorated a naval battle between the US and England in 1813 on Lake Erie.

George did ok at the competition. I went to "babysit" his stuff after he competed and had to go to the pits to score for the next shooters. It was pretty interesting to see 130+ people shooting m1Garands at the same time! Noisy too - was glad he found me ear plugs!