My Christmas Quilt Entry

I was very excited to read that SewCal Gal is having a Christmas Quilt contest, you can read about it here.  I had just finished two christmas quilts and thought that one of them would make a cute entry.  I took my photos, cropped, sized, all that good stuff so I could post them here.  Here is what I get from Blogger:

I have tried EVERYTHING to get it vertical.  HELP ME!!!
It's called "Snow People Have lives, Too".  If you turn your head to the side, the quilt tells a little story.  Here is my DH's version: The snowman in the top is a poor pathetic guy, he meets someone, gets married but inevitably goofs off and makes her mad.  In the final block, the snow woman is happy, she is with her child and they are getting ready for Christmas.  To my DH it's obvious that she dumped the loser snowman.

Here is the second quilt I just finished.  It's called "Audrey's Gift."  One of my fellow guild member, Audrey, knowing my fondness for 1/2 square triangles, gifted me a box of them.. A box the size of a ream of paper STUFFED with them.  It wouldn't seem that you could get much from a box that size, but so far I have made a bed-sized quilt, a small wall hanging (UFO :( still) and this one.  I had a lot of fun combing through the squares and trying to come up with a color scheme.The borders are actually even -- my photo skills are NOT!

Check out the contest. There are some Fabulous prizes that will be given away.

Enjoy.

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Herman II

I read a lot of blogs.  It's my second favorite hobby.  Quilting is my first but it's not nearly as voyeuristic as reading about other peoples' lives.  In fact, some days I spend much more time as a peeping tom than as a quilter.

 Today I was reading Ree Drummond's blog and she had a post about Herman.  Her Herman is a friendly black snake who ingratiates himself by eating rodents around their ranch.  It stirred a memory about  Herman from my childhood.  My Herman wasn't nearly as helpful or friendly.  Herman was a pair of disembodied, dessicated chicken feet, held together by a string.

Herman would show up in unexpected places and scare the bejeebers out of us. I can't really remember how Herman came to live at our house but I do know that my younger brother took to him immediately.  Younger brothers live to scare the bejeebers out of their older sisters. 

Sometimes I'd open the medicine cabinet and Herman would be patiently waiting for me.  Sometimes I'd slide my hand under my pillow and disturb Herman from a nap. I still get the shivers when I remember touching those scaly things.

Do you have a "Herman" from your childhood?  Is there anything that still gives you "the shivers?"

Thursday is my Friday!!

I only go to the office four days a week so that means I have to rustle up some wisdom for my weekend.  YIKES!  No one would ever accuse me of being wise.  I guess I hoped the title might inspire me.

 

I was asked the name of my "thread stealer."  Her name is Isobel.  We call her Izzy most often or Esmeralda when she is being bad.  She is the 6th Great Dane I've had.  She is by far the most willful, stubborn, and fun dog we have ever had living with us. I take her to work with me.  She is a good dog most of the time but by evening, when I am finishing paperwork or just wasting time reading blogs, she gets antsy and starts to misbehave.  Tonight it was her favorite game "Make the human fetch my ball."  It goes like this:  She finds one of her many balls, bounces it around for a while then throws it under a piece of furniture just out of her reach.  The whining and woofing commences and continues until one of us gets on our belly and fishes it out for her.  Because I am gullible and trusting, I give it back to her.  Repeat.

I just snuck her into my husband's office (with him) so I could finish up my paperwork and write this post. Five minutes later my office door s-l-o-w-l-y opened as he returned her to me.  This went back and forth a few times but I finally whined slightly louder than Izzy "I have paperwork to finish" and he took her back with him. 

The top picture shows her at about 5 months old "at work" sitting in my chair.  The bottom photo is more recent. She is on her couch at home, evidently exhausted after a day at work.

No quilty pictures today but I spent all day yesterday at a fun workshop by Karen Cunagin.  She taught us some free-form string piecing.  I'll post a picture of what I did in class later.  It is certainly out of my comfort zone but I think that is what helps us grow.  Eleanor Roosevelt is quoted as saying, "Do one thing everyday that scares you."  And that's my wisdom for today.

Once a week is not TOO bad - is it?

I really get perturbed when bloggers I like to follow don't post every day.  I need to practice what I preach even if I am the only one who reads this blog.

Finn's UFO challenge really gave me the boost I needed to settle down and clear some unfinished things out of my Studio Q.  I find that nothing stalls my creativity more than having a bunch of "stuff" lying all over my studio.  It seems to absorb any creative energy from the air so it never reaches me. 

So far I have TWO finishes to report.

The first is a string quilt top that I finished a very long time ago.  It had been quilted and shuffled from pile to pile while it awaited binding.  I dug into my bin of 2.5 inch strips (thank you, Bonnie) and had binding made in no time.  Since the top is so scrappy, I thought scrappy binding would be perfect.  I think this one is bound to be a Quilt of Valor donation (sorry about the pun!).

The second finish I have is a sampler quilt I made for my guild.  I am showing it off tonight.  It's a bit wild.  I made it from a jelly roll that I fell in love with a few years ago.  I think I like the jelly roll better.  I can see why die-hard bloggers invest in expensive cameras.  This photo does not begin to do justice to the colors.

Finally, I thought I should show a picture of my Great Dane.  Normally she steers clear of my studio - unless she is stealing a new spool of thread.  But, get a camera out and she is RIGHT there.
                                                                          

I hope you have a productive day.

Gotta Start Somewhere

I have been a MAJOR blog lurker for years.  I thought it would be cool to have my own blog but...what in the world would I write about? After agonizing pondering about it for quite some time, I decided to dive in see how it feels.

A little about me:  I have a husband, two grown sons and a Great Dane who runs the house.  I quilt, walk, listen to books on my iPod, and have a small therapy practice.  But mostly I quilt.  It has become quite the obsession with  me.  My DH considers it my therapy.  His theory is that after trying to help people solve problems all day it is nice for me to work with something that doesn't have any complaints and does whatever I ask it to do.  He might be right.  All I know is that I get cranky if I don't sew for a few days.

The problem with this obsession is that it can quickly take over.  Everything.  My Studio Q (as my sisters dubbed it) is an absolute wreck.  I have been looking for the motivation to get some things finished and moved out when I came upon Finn's UFO challenge.  I signed up and pledged to finish FIVE things by the end of the year.  It's a rather wimpy goal but I like to succeed :-)  I put her button on the right.  I don't think it will link back to her blog but try this and see if it will get you there  Pieces From My Scrapbag.

Thanks for stopping by.