Happy Thanksgiving!

Whether you are alone with a peanut butter sandwich, surrounded by friends and loved ones, or somewhere in between, I hope that you are having a day of thanksgiving.

"Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus."

1 Thessalonians 5:18

Here's an update on those Christmas wall hangings. I've finished all of the actual piecing and ended up making 7 wall hangings instead of 6. One, as you can see, is different. I ran out of the fabric that I used in the others and thought this would be a better fit for my recipient anyway. I'm only showing you the backsides so that I don't completely spoil the surprise.

Now the hard part begins. I have appliques to sew onto the squares, then embellish, then quilt, then bind. Much of this can be done with the sewing machine. I'll have to hand sew the the binding to the back of the quilts and that part will be quite time consuming. There will be approximately 43' (yes, feet) of binding to hand sew! I'm just trying to finish them in the order that they will be given away, one by one. Fortunately, 95% of my Christmas shopping is done and I'll be able to devote lots of time to complete these. Wish me luck!

In early September, I joined a Pincushion Round Robin exchange. It works like this......after groups are assigned, the hostess fills the box with pincushion(s) and/or pincushion making items. It is mailed off to the first participant on the list. She takes out anything from the box that she wants, then replaces these items with items of her choice. A diary was also enclosed to write about yourself, your selections, and anything else that you wanted to add. And on it goes. There were 12 ladies in my group and I was number 10 on the list. The box arrived yesterday and here it is! I think the best part of this whole Round Robin exchange was the anticipation of waiting on the box and wondering what would be inside. When the exchange is over, I'll find out how many miles the box traveled. (Update--the hostess tells me that the box will have traveled 13,354 miles and visit 12 states.......not bad for a box......will it get frequent mailer miles?)
Here's an overall shot of the contents. The box weighed over five pounds and had lots of goodies in it. You can't really see everything that was stuffed into this box, but you get the idea. After searching through everything, I only kept three fat quarters, some plastic feet that had the potential of becoming PC's, and some ground walnut shells, which can be used to stuff pincushions.

I added this bottle cap pincushion that I made to the box, plus a ceramic turkey that was supposed to be a tea light holder. It was just screaming (gobbling?) that it wanted to be a PC. The box was then repacked and off it went to the next lady.

If you are ever invited to join a round robin exchange, I would recommend it just for the fun of waiting for it to arrive!

I'm working away on those Christmas wall hangings and thought that I'd better post something, even a past, but yet to be finished project.

This is a table runner that was made out of 5" charm squares. As I post more and more, you'll see that I like to make table cloths, table runners, place mats, wall hangings, etc., because they are quicker, cheaper to make, and easier to squeeze into my tiny home. I don't have much room, so I rarely make a full sized quilt.

Back to the 5" charm squares. This technique may be used with any sized charm square, not just the 5"ers. This runner took 34 charms (16 light, 16 dark) and 2 for the cornerstones. Two 5" charms yield 2 smaller star point blocks. In other words, each of these larger blocks (there are 8 larger blocks in this runner) contains 4-5" charms, in two color combinations. Confused?......me too. I learned how to do this at a class and I'm not sure about actually showing you the technique. I'm sure it may be found in many charm patterns with a little search. It's a beginners project, yet it looks like you would need to be a somewhat experienced quilter. Not so. The charm squares were provided in the class, so there was very little planning or complicated fabric selections. It just seemed to work as long as you had contrasting light and dark fabrics. I like this runner but I still hope to make another one with my own fabric choices.

This Psalm block is Psalm 90. Although this may not look square, it really is a 12" block. I must have taken the shot at an angle and the pieces themselves give your eye a bit of a wonky view.
Psalm 90:10-17 reads;
The length of our days is seventy years--or eighty, if we have the strength; yet their span is but trouble and sorrow, for they quickly pass, and we fly away. Who knows the power of Your anger? For Your wrath is as great as the fear that is due You. Teach us to number our days aright, that we may gain a heart of wisdom. Relent, O Lord! How long will it be? Have compassion on Your servants. Satisfy us in the morning with Your unfailing love, that we may sing for joy and be glad all our days. Make us glad for as many days as You have afflicted us, for as many years as we have seen trouble. May Your deeds be shown to Your servants, Your splendor to their children. May the favor of the Lord our God rest upon us; establish the work of Your hands for us--yes, establish the work of our hands.

All day long they work so hard
Till the sun is goin' down
Working on the highways and byways
And wearing, wearing a frown
You hear them moanin' their lives away
Then you hear somebody sa-ay
That's the sound of the men working on the chain ga-a-ang
That's the sound of the men working on the chain gang

By Sam Cooke

Well, I've been working on the chain gang today, chain sewing some of those 800 quilt pieces. This picture shows 86 pieces, the most I'm able to chain sew before having to connect to other pieces and actually think about what I'm doing. This surely saves a lot of time. I now have 3 of the 6 wall hangings pieced together and I'm feeling like I might be able to finish them in time for my Christmas exchanges. Yippee!

Happy Un-Birthday to me...to me!

Yesterday, five of my wonderful girlfriends got together to celebrate our birthdays. Because of our crazy schedules and life getting in the way, we hadn't managed to get together for our individual birthdays. So..........we had one day where we celebrated all of them! I didn't make this cake, Penny did. She just started taking cake decorating classes and wanted to give it a try. We had a delicious lunch and an afternoon filled with lots of fellowship......and even presents! It was a great, belated birthday celebration!

For some mindless, addicting fun, go to;



http://woodgears.ca/eyeball/



It's called the Eyeballing game and it's very easy, yet you want to try it again and again to get a better score. I just scored 3.63 and I just know I can do better!

Before viewing my silly crafting pictures, please take a moment to remember and honor all of our past, present, and future Veterans. We literally owe our lives to them! God Bless!

And on to my silly crafting pics.......

I made two fabric post cards this morning and they are almost ready to mail. I belong to a Fabric Post Card group that always has ongoing swaps with various topics. This one is called "Winter Windows" and I did a stained glass quilting technique to make these cards. There were three of us in this swap, so I only had to make two cards to send out. I've added a little glitter for snow in the window corners.

This shows both cards, more or less the same. You don't have to make them identical, but I find it's just easier than planning several cards. They limit the number of participants in each swap, but you could have as many as five cards to send out. Making them the same, just simplifies the process.

This is the back of the card. I just wanted you to see it before I addressed it and wrote a note. These will go through the mail like any regular post card, except they will have to be hand cancelled. Both of the other ladies in this swap live in England, so these cards will have a long trip "across the pond" and I hope they arrive in good shape. They really are very sturdy, as they have many layers of fabric and stabilizers in them. The only problem that I foresee is losing some of the snow glitter along the way.

When my exchange partners send me their cards, I'll post pictures. It's always fun to wait on the swaps to arrive!

I had a chance to sew yesterday morning and managed to get two blocks done before I had to get out and about.

This is block #3 in the Mystery Block of the month series. I put this one together as they designed, except I changed the green fabric. The fabric that was enclosed with the instructions was a dark, solid green and I didn't like the way it stood out. By substituting this softer green print, I feel like it blends in better. This block is another 12" block.
And this is block #11 in the Thangles series. Only one block to go, then I can set them all into my table runner.

This morning, I started working on those 800+ quilt pieces that I cut out last week. I was a little afraid to chain sew all 6 wall hangings without making sure that it was all going to work out. I sewed just one hanging, from start to finish, and it actually did come out great. Of course, only the top is pieced and now I have a fair amount of hand stitching for embellishment, and finally, to quilt and bind it. And then.........only 5 more to complete! As overwhelming as that sounds to me, I may just complete them one at a time. I know it's the same amount of work ...... and it's actually more efficient to do them all at once ....... but somehow it seems easier to undertake these hangings by nipping them off, one by one.

Another Psalm block. This block is called "Road to Heaven" and the Psalm inspiration is Psalm 73:23-26.

"I am always with You; You hold me by my right hand. You guide me with Your counsel, and afterward You will take me into glory. Whom have I in heaven but You? And earth has nothing I desire besides You. My flesh and my heart may fail, but God is the strength of my heart and my portion forever."

VOTING DAY!!


VOTING DAY!!

Please take the time to stop and cast your vote. As a democratic society, we often take voting for granted but it truly is a privilege. Remember, if you don’t vote, you forfeit the right to complain!

I challenge you to resist listening or watching any media until you have cast your vote. The media is careless and irresponsible when it comes to reporting the truth. How many elections have been determined by the media and the way they presented an election and predicted winners? In the recent past, we have had several elections that may have had different results if the media had not been negligent in their efforts to “report” the election results. To declare a winner before the voters in the central and west coast areas have even cast their vote is wrong. People hear the results and don’t even bother to vote as the media declares premature winners. I urge you to turn off all media and cast your vote based on your own opinions of the candidates and their plans for our future. There will be plenty of time to listen to the voting results after you have cast your vote.

I’d also like to request that you pray for whoever wins the election. Regardless of who becomes our next president, they have quite a challenge ahead of them and will need all of the help and support that they can get!

Now I’ll get off my soapbox and head to the polls!

BOO!!

Be safe......

Treats only, no tricks!

Here's a vintage crocheted pincushion given to me by my cousin, Lisa. Thanks, Lisa! It's pretty large.....about 5 1/2" tall, and has padding in the seat and back. I'm even wondering if it was made specifically as a doll chair and not as a pincushion, since it is so big. It would be the perfect size for Barbie. In any case, it's a cute idea. Someday, I'd like to make similar version in a smaller size if I can find the pattern. I'll add it to my "to do" list!

This may not look like much now, but these are baggies filled with about 800 quilt pieces destined to be small wall hangings. I've spent several hours over the past few days, cutting away, little by little, and I now have all of the pieces cut for 6 small wall hangings, each 15" x 20". And my plan is to have them finished for Christmas exchanges. I may have set myself up to fail, but I'll give it a shot. Once I get started, most of the sewing can be done with chain stitching, a huge time saver. As usual, I sure hope they turn out as they look in my minds' eye! To be continued......

This bright little dog was found on EBay. He was listed as a toothpick holder, but he has now earned the title of Pincushion. I thought the bone fabric would suit him well. What dog wouldn't love a hat full of bones? As I was working with him and stuffing the fabric into the hole, I heard a soft rattle coming from his head. I pulled the fabric out and spent the next 15 minutes trying to extract the "whatever" out of his head. Of course I had thoughts of money being tucked away for a rainy day.....maybe something of value since it had to have been specifically forced into the head cavity. Well...........

It was this! A wadded up list of baby items! It almost looks like a child's handwriting, as I don't think a mother-to-be would write "baby's" before all of these items. Maybe it was a list for Santa. In any case, it brought me a little excitement for 15 minutes!

Today, the 24th, I am officially a senior citizen. Yes.....it's my birthday and I've been around for 55 years. Not a bad thing, in my opinion, and I intend to take full advantage of senior citizen discounts.

I'm posting a few pictures to take you down memory lane....my own memory lane, of course.

This is my Dad, my Brother, and me. I'm about 5 months old in this picture. I think my Dad looks pretty proud! (Dottie....that's your wedding picture in the background!) Back then, there weren't many cameras around so there aren't that many pictures of me as an infant and toddler. I've inherited the photo box and have most of them in my possession. Every now and then, I enjoy a little reminiscing.
This is my Mom holding me. I'm between 3 and 4 years old in this shot. I have pretty clear memories of this age and remember the dress I was wearing and the paper dolls that are on my lap. Jr High School and pimples! I still have the brooch that I'm wearing and it's one of my favorite pins yet today. I was always very protective of my things and still have lots of items from my childhood tucked safely away.

Lastly, High School. This was literally decades ago! When did all of these years slip by?! I always loved school, from Grade School to High School. College.....not so much!

Well, now I look like my avatar on this blog. Whatever happened to my youth and good looks? Well, I got old and fat, I guess!

I want to thank everyone that helped me celebrate my birthday this year. Lots of cards, calls, good wishes, presents, and lunches. Birthdays should be celebrated, regardless of our age. And I think we need to share our birthdays with our friends and family, as we need their support to get from one birthday to the next. I consider myself blessed to have so many great, loving friends! Hugs and God's blessings to you all!

Aren't these pretty?! My friend, Penny, stopped by with the last of her summer roses. She didn't want them to just fade away without being enjoyed. We've had several frosts now, and all of my own rose bushes are taking a well deserved winter break.
This picture may look like the Psalm block that I've already posted, but if you had seen the first block up close, you would be able to see a big difference in the accuracy compared to this block. Last night, while watching TV, I took the first block apart, piece by piece, in an effort to save as much fabric as possible. No wonder this block is called "Patience." This afternoon, I cut new pieces for the areas that I needed to redraft in order to sew straight seams. The center squares went from 2 large squares to 8 smaller triangles, and the 2 side triangles became 4 smaller triangles. I really don't like to rip and redo, but now I'm happy with this block and will not hesitate to include it in my finished quilt.

After messing up yesterday's Psalm block, I received an email from the organizer suggesting that many of the pieces could be split in half in order to be able to make straight seams with no inset pieces. Well......duh! I'm not sure why I didn't do that, I guess I was just sticking to the pattern, as is. I have redrafted the pattern and will remake the block very soon.

With that thought in mind, I redrafted this Psalm block so that it did not have any inset pieces. It was going to be another really tough block and by redrafting and splitting 9 of the inset pieces into 18 pieces, I was able to make the entire block using straight seams. It involves more pieces and more seams, but ultimately, it makes a very simple and accurate block. Whew!

This is Psalm 85: 11-12. "Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven. The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest."

"Patience" is the name of this Psalm block and patience is exactly what it required. Today was not a great day for me and undertaking this block was a mistake. Since it didn't have many pieces, I decided to give it a go. With all of the inset seams, I ended up doing part of the block by machine and part of the block by hand. For whatever reason, combining techniques did not result in a smooth, precise block. It looks fair in this picture, but overall, I was not pleased with my work. Right now, I'll leave it as is, but someday I may give it another try.

This block was inspired by Psalm 37:4-7;

"Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord; trust in Him and He will do this: He will make your righteousness shine like the dawn, the justice of your cause like the noonday sun. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him..."

Not much of a post today, but I thought I'd better check in. I met with my quilting friends on Thursday and this was the wreath on the welcoming door. Fall seems to have finally arrived in Indiana and we are actually seeing the leaves turn to wonderful shades of rust, orange, and gold......soon to be crunching under our feet. I know this sounds odd, but I enjoy leafless trees so that I can see the limb structure that's hidden under the leaves. I find that the most beautiful and interesting part of the tree. I'm loving the cooler temps and shorter days. Good weather for crafting, yet I've been so busy that I haven't done much over the last few days. I'm hoping to complete a project (or projects) over the weekend. Have a wonderful weekend!

Here's this week's Psalm block. Whew..... this one was tough to construct. I use Electric Quilt 5 (EQ5) to draft my patterns and this block came up with pieces requiring 43 and 47 degree angles on some of the pieces. Certainly, not your standard angles. I ended up using a combination of rotary cutting and template cutting to get all of the pieces cut. I'll bet I spent 2 hours getting the pieces cut and another 4 hours putting the block together. Sew....press.....sew.....press. All of the pieces had to be organized and laid out before making the block, as it's almost impossible to tell the difference between the 43 and 47 degree pieces. After all was said and done, I probably could have just used the standard 45 degrees and it would have gone together fairly well. When you are working with triangles and bias edges, you do have stretching and tweaking ability. Well, no matter. It's done and I'm pleased with the results.

I'm sure hoping that all of the upcoming blocks in this series won't be this complex. Maybe they will send a simple block every few weeks to give us an easier project. We'll see.

And this was my inspiration, Psalm 19:1-6. "The heavens declare the glory of God: the skies proclaim the work of His hands. Day after day they pour forth speech: night after night they display knowledge. There is no speech of language where their voice is not heard. Their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the end of the world. In the heavens He has pitched a tent for the sun, which is like a bridegroom coming forth from his pavilion, like a champion rejoicing to run his course. It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is hidden from its heat."

Although I have plenty of things to do today, I got sidetracked with a little Origami. Paper money folding, to be exact. I just Googled

"Origami money folding" and got several good options, many with complete directions. This one looked pretty simple...... it was....... and a good beginning project.

Wouldn't this be a cute way to repay someone or tuck it inside of a card? This was my first try, but apparently once you know what you are doing, you can plan the look of your shirt a little better. Using the other side of the bill would have made a totally different pattern. Maybe I'll move up to more difficult patterns some day.....or maybe not. :)

A sad note today. My sweet little Beta, Rokka, passed in the night. This is an old picture as his "redness" had grown even more striking. I know it sounds odd to grieve for a fish, but he was one of God's creatures and deserved a good life. He was acting perfectly normal yesterday, even eating as normal, but last night he was swimming in what I would call a frantic mode. Beta's don't swim very fast or jerky because of their large, draping fins. I knew this wasn't normal behavior, but I had no idea what to do for him. This morning, his fight was over.

Rokka had a sweet personality. He would come up and beg for food and whenever I walked into the room, he would rush to the front of his aquarium for attention. He never showed any fear of me, even from the start. I could work in the aquarium, rearranging things, or whatever, and he would brush up against my hand and swim in and out of my fingers. What a sweetie!

"So God created the the great creatures of the sea and every living and moving thing with which the water teems, according to their kinds.....and God saw that it was good." Genesis 1:21

Yes, Rokka was good.

Another dish cloth finished. This one has been sitting around on my coffee table for quite some time, patiently waiting for me to finish it. I got side tracked with sock knitting and put it aside. I bound off the edges this morning, wove in my loose ends, and gave it a quick hand blocking. Even though this is a simple project, it still feels rewarding to finally complete it. Plus..... it gives me less guilt to get started on new projects.

I'm going to cast on my other sock today and begin making the mate for my first sock. I'm hoping that most of my sock knitting lessons are still hanging around in my brain and won't be too hard to retrieve. I won't be posting a picture of this sock until it's finished, as it will look just like the first one (or at least that's the plan). So.......don't hold your breath on this one.....it may be months before it's completed and posted.

This is my second Psalms block representing Psalm 1: 1-3. "Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditated day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers."

I chose fabrics that were blue or had blue in them. The darker blue represents the streams of water, the brown represents the tree trunks, and the lighter blue represents the trees. You can't tell much by this photo, but the lighter blue has leaves on it. I liked this because it shows leaves that are not withering and the blue indicates that water flows through the leaves, sustaining them. Same thing for the trunk fabric. It has blue running throughout. The outer gold fabric represents God, just as in my first Psalms block.

This was a fairly tough pattern because of the four inset pieces. I did this block by machine, even the inset pieces, and didn't have too much trouble. I find that if the inset pieces have angles greater than 90 degrees, I can still use my sewing machine by putting my needle down at the intersections and maneuvering the fabric. It's a bit of a tug of war, but if you take your time, you can make it work. Of course, this is the perfect block to hand piece, but I knew I wouldn't have the time for hand sewing.

I'll be receiving four Psalms blocks every month, so I don't know that I'll be able to keep up. For today, I can say that I'm up to date!

Block #10 in the Thangles series. I keep getting the block numbers messed up, but this really is block #10 out of 12 total blocks. This series will end in December. The blocks begin to look alike as we are using the same fabrics each month. Although they are similar, they do differ slightly in pattern and will look nice once they are set in my table runner. Oh, these are 8" blocks.





Quality Control has stepped in again to look over the progress of these blocks. Don't worry......... this rotary cutter has an automatic shield and Gracie can't hurt herself. When I'm actually slicing and dicing my fabric, I keep her out of harm's way.

Boo! Halloween is coming and here's a little bottle cap pincushion to welcome the little goblins!

Block #2 in this block of the month series. I didn't follow the pattern exactly on this block. I used their supplied fabrics, but did a little rearranging on placement of the fabric. The first block of this series was a 12" block and this one is a 6" block.....big difference. All they told us when we signed up for this series was that the blocks would be various sizes. Although I like different sizes of blocks, it does make setting them into a finished project more difficult. It will be interesting to see how things shape up over the year. Ten more blocks to go...........

My dear cousin Lisa came to spend the day with me on Thursday and she did not come with empty arms. Look at the goodies she brought with her! She's doing a little stash sorting and these were fabrics and items that she no longer wanted. Lisa is a great home decorating sewist and does beautiful work. These fabrics will make great purses, pillows,...... whatever. She also brought along three sets of purse handles and I already have more dish towels ready to use with them. The two Styrofoam eggs are the right size to make more fabric pine cones. Plus, some yarn scraps. There is enough of the white yarn to make a bigger project, maybe even a sweater.
So.......thanks Lisa! You didn't have to bring all of these goodies......just spending time with you was the best gift of all!

Here it is.......a completed sock! And you can actually tell that it's supposed to be a sock! This was a rough class but I would recommend that even beginning knitters give this a shot. I couldn't do it by following directions in a book, but having a teacher at my side, made it possible. We lost several students along the way, but it was just because they didn't break it up into smaller learning packages and they let it overwhelm them. Just look at my previous posts when I never thought I'd reach the end of this sock. Step by step, inch by inch, is the way to learn to knit socks. Of course, now I need to make this one a mate. I will need to start on it fairly soon before I forget how to do this. I did treat myself to some beautiful yarn today for my next pair, which I hope will give me the incentive to finish this one's mate. I truly am excited to have learned how to knit socks. There are many variations but I'll stick with this design, which is probably the simplest, and work my way up to other patterns. So.....the sock knitting saga ends and I'm really happy to complete what I thought was next to impossible!

There was a demonstration at one of our local sewing shops yesterday showing a simple, folded fabric pine cone using a 2" Styrofoam egg for the base. After she gave the demonstration, I won a kit with the supplies to make one of my own. (I suspect everyone may have won a kit.) This is the kit. An egg and 2" fabric strips. The other supplies that you will need are small head straight pins. Plus, of course, a rotary cutter, ruler, and mat.

This is the kit unfolded. In addition to the fabric strips, there is a 2 1/2" square that will be used on the bottom of the pine cone.

Cut your strips into 2" segments. You will need 49 of these 2" x 2" squares, although you could cut more if you wanted to make your pine cone segments closer together. I thought the 49 pieces were spaced just about right.

Take one of your squares and fold it in half twice. Just finger press this and all of the other pieces. Unfold and center this square on the top of your egg...the narrow end of the egg. Pin in place. This is just your beginning reference and the pin will be removed later.

Now you will begin to make your pine cone "needles". Fold a square in half (wrong sides together) and finger press.

Then fold each corner to the center and finger press. This is a completed pine cone needle. Finger press.

Use the folds on the base square to place your first row of needles. They should just follow the fold lines of the base square. Pin the raw edge corners of your triangles to the egg. These pins will remain in the egg.

There will be four needles on each row. After you place the first four needles around the base square, you will begin adding row after row of needles by centering each row between the preceding row. I dropped each row down about 1/4" while centering it between the two needles in the row above it. Continue adding rows of needles.

I'm about half way down the egg and my Quality Control Supervisor was called in to check my work. She approved and I continued adding needles, row by row, until I had come to the end of my squares and near the bottom of the egg. You should have about 2" of the bottom of the egg exposed.

This is the 2 1/2" x 2 1/2" square that you cut at the beginning. Do not fold this one, but finger press all of the raw edges toward the center. Use about 1/4" fold. This square will cover the bottom of the egg and give the egg a finished look. In the demonstration, she put a sequin on each of the four pins to finish it off instead of leaving a plain pin head.

This is the finished egg. Oliver has relieved Gracie as as my Quality Control Supervisor, but seems to be taking another break. (It's really hard to find a cat that doesn't take a lot of breaks.) You could use this pine cone as an ornament or just put several of them in a bowl. Different fabrics for different seasons. It took less than an hour to make this so you could turn out several pine cones pretty quickly. This same technique could also be used to cover a Styrofoam cone and make a Christmas tree. Simple and easy.....why not make a few?