If I'm Testing Zicam, Then....

That means I have a cold!! Ack!!!!
I've been bragging off and on (and smugly too) that I haven't had a cold in over 2 years. Tempting fate, huh? Well, yesterday at The Quilt Shop I noticed that I felt just a little off...nothing I could put my finger on, just off, yunno? So I wake up at 4:30am with my face glued to my pillowcase from my nose which had been running while I was sleeping. I know, I know...ewwwwwww. Get over yourself, ok, ...just trying to get a little sympathy going here. I bought some Zicam swabs when I first moved to the mountains, thinking that I'd be needing them. Glad I had them. Okay, enough of that.


This is Tod Prescott from the Quilt shop. She is wearing the new Emmeline Apron designed by Meg of Montessori By Hand.

(While you're over there looking, check out Meg's blog and her other patterns)

Tod was one of the pattern testers for Meg and she chose to make it with fabrics from Jane Sassaman's Hothouse Garden line for Free Spirit. Since the apron is reversible, it really is stunning and is just too much fun. I love it. Tod has ordered the pattern for her shop, and you can order them now too.

Speaking of Jane Sassaman...she has started a blog, and she has posted a freebie pattern on there that is drop dead stunning....called Folk Art Hearts. Go take a look and see.

You might have noticed that I've not written a single word this week ~~ bad blogger!

I've been making blocks, trying them out on my design wall, and then making quilt tops like a mad woman. I have 6 quilts in various stages of construction and hope to get two of them off to the long-armer this next week. I plan to quilt 2 of them myself, so will add them to the two that are already pin-basted and ready. I haven't decided yet, whether I'll quilt the others, or send them out.

This lovely one over here to the left has it's borders sewn on since I took this picture.

I've also made the binding, picked fabric for the backing and hopefully tonight will get that sewn.

Talk to you soon.

Yesterday with the Quilty Girlz....

If it's Wednesday, then this is where I am.

I'm writing about it on Thursday, because I'm there on Wednesdays so I can't write about it on Wednesday.

The Quilt Shop lets us bring our machines and have a sew-in on Wednesdays. In the summer, it's a madhouse because all of the "seasonal" quilters who spend summers here from Florida, are there in addition to the locals...the rest of us who live here year round.

It's a great space....with lots of fabrics to tempt us....and a calendar full of classes to inspire us.

I try not to miss it, and if I'm not there then it's the odd happenstance and someone should be calling my house to make sure I'm still breathin!


This is Tod Prescott, the owner and our partner in crime. She keeps the candle lit and is ready at the drop of a hat to slice some lovelies off of those bolts you see behind her. She is a Kaffe Fasset groupie, though I don't hold that against her....hehehe. She teaches, she quilts on her long arm machine there in the shop, and recently she has taken up pattern testing for Meg at Montessori by Hand.
If you ever, ever, ever are in Boone, NC up in the Beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains, do yourself a favor and visit Tod in her shop.



This is Sherry...she's been a good customer, and most recently has come to work at the shop part time while finishing up her coursework at the University.
Sonja and Ann are two of the regular quilty girlz. There's about another 3-4 of us locals but some are camera shy. I'll try to get a group shot one of these days.

I just wanted you to see a place that figures largely in my weekly schedule. In addition to Wednesdays, I probably stop in 2-3 times a week just to see what I might be missing...lol.

Now ya know.

Links....Other Blogs

First things first....this was the kitchen window this morning. Frosty!!

The temperature today got up to about 18 degrees farenheit, and tomorrow promises to be chilly too.

Now on to the topic of the day. I don't know who reads this blog.....regularly or otherwise....but I'm always assuming that I'm just not talking to myself here. I also am a fan of a bunch of other bloggers. I have probably 40-50 of them saved in my favorites and I shuffle them from time to time, adding some and letting go of some others. There are a few that are constant and you will see them listed there along the left of this page. I recently reorganized them, did that shuffling thing, and realized in the process that they fall into some categories and so I sorted them that way. Don't get too attached, though, because I might reorganize them again. LOL

Anyway you will notice that I have a category called red headed quilters....I found that when I was looking through my faves, I had these 3 women listed together and it was a coincidence that they all have red hair. I like them a lot and enjoy their blogs for very different reasons.

Nancy Rose is prolific as heck, is sleep deprived like me, and somehow weaves stories of her hubby and kids into the postings in such a natural, loving, and humorous way that I totally relate to.

Beth really cranks out the quilts! She also is pretty consistent about blogging, so it seems like she is always working on something new. I get inspired to get busy when I read her.

Deb doesn't seem to quilt as much as the other redheads, but she is multitalented and I read her for her photography as much as anything else. Besides that, she loves red shoes and while I don't have but 2 pair.....I always admire them in the store or on other women ~ I always notice them! She has themes that she explores with her camera. She sees the world a little differently and causes me to broaden my vision as well.

Do you have some bloggers you love? Leave me a comment and let me know who butters your grits.

Back atcha!

How About Orange?

That's the name of a blog that I read regularly. I stumbled over it by accident. Was intrigued by the name, because I had recently become enamored of the color orange and wanted to investigate a blog that I believed would reveal a kindred spirit of sorts. I fall in love with color the same way I date.....one at a time. Don't get me wrong, I don't think there's a color out there that I don't like, but from time to time I absolutely go crazy for one color in particular. Right now, and for the past year it has been the color Orange.....oooooo-weeeeeeeeee, I love me some Orange!

So yesterday, on the How About Orange blog, I noticed that my kindred spirit (Jessica Jones) was showing fabrics she had designed recently and was devastated to discover that there is not an orange one in the bunch (as if I need one more piece of orange fabric!!!!). And, to add insult to injury, I will not be able to partake of the offering because the fabrics are designer weight ~ too heavy for quilting. I understand this of course, because she is a designer for the trade and not a quilter. (by the way, go take a look at her blog and see why I love it so)

Still, it got me curious about just how pervasive this love of orange was evidenced by my surroundings. So, camera in hand, I did a walk-through. And this is the result....see for yourself.

Squishy Envelope in the Mail

This came in the mail today from Vicki Suan in Sacramento. How I found her, I don't know....you know how when you are blog-hopping, clicking on this and that, and then clicking on that and this? Well, somehow I saw her name, saw her work, and noticed she lived in Sacramento where I had lived for years and years.

I wrote her....she wrote me...I told her I had a big head and never could find a cap to fit. She has a business and said she'd make one if I wanted, and I did...I did! She made me an offer I couldn't refuse and I sent a check right away. So today there was a squishy envelope in the mailbox. I was so excited, I was trying to open the envelope and fasten my seatbelt and pull away from the mailbox all at the same time....shhhhhhh, don't tell.

Isn't it lovely? And so soft and cuddly and not scratchy. Very warm and comforting.
I love it!

And it's just in time, because it is cold here....temps in the single digits at night and teens in the daytime. And I just got a haircut, so my noggin needs covered.

If you love it too and want to tell her.....you can reach her here...
vdsuan@juno.com

She is multi-talented...handmade bags/purses, knit caps, and of course....she quilts!

Speaking of quilting....I didn't get anything done today, there were errands to run, but tomorrow might find me working on my latest project or if not then, definitely Sunday!



Here is a sign hanging on my stash cupboard in my studio....appropriate for how it goes here sometimes, don't you think?





Oh, and special thanks to my buddy Sally Bramald for that little insider information about how to get rid of the underlining on text when I'm trying to post pics and post text(sort of like trying to walk and chew gum for me, anyway) and not doing either one of them well. I'm still learning, and I thank her for schooling me today. If you haven't seen Sally's blog....go treat yourself!

take care....

Remember this?

This is the center block for a Mexican-themed quilt I'm starting to work on seriously this week. I pulled fabric and got the center block done a couple of months ago then got sidetracked by other projects.

Meanwhile I got the new sewing machine. I designed this quilt with a variety of sizes of sashed blocks and it's crucial that the seam allowance is consistently the same on each block in order for them to fit correctly. That's been the struggle this week....and some blocks have been "sacrificial"...and will likely end up as pot holders!!








Let me show you some parts:
Look at these lovely Kaffe Fasset shot cottons that I'm using as the sashing for the blocks....they are just toooooo yummy and I'm having big fun picking which colors to use on each block.




I love the Dia de los Muertos images in some of these fabrics...those skeletons are great, and so are the Talavera Tiles. All of these images are little memories of my experiences in Mexico, and have made me just a little bit homesick this week.

The coco masks remind me of the kitchen at my friend Dottie's casita in Punta Mita where we lived....she collected them and displayed them there. She gets so excited with every new find!

This quilt top will take a little more time as there is really no way to do assembly line piecing. I think though that the finished product will be way fun and worth the time. I have so much more of this theme fabric than I will ever use...so I have to figure out how many of these quilts I want to make, and most likely will only make one other one of the pattern and design that I drafted and am working on now. Maybe simple patchwork, or a Yellow Brick Road/Turning Twenty kind of pattern will eat up the yardage and help me bust the stash.

Be back later....

What's going on....and where have I been?

This is what it looks like outside today....Finally we got some real snow and not that puny stuff that melts on contact or blows away. The snowplow has passed and the snow is melting, but the temp will be dropping here again this afternoon so we will likely have ice tomorrow. Pretty right now though!

I dunno how to get my pics to show up where I want them. I can put all the pics on the page, and then I can't put text without it showing up as underlined.....grrrrrr. I've been busy as all get out in the sewing room so I haven't really had any inclination to post cause I'm in the groove working on a couple of things that have me excited. (I've been playing with this posting for about an hour now and it still isn't cooperating! I'm a blog-idiot I guess.)

Sylvia's quilt top is done and has gone to the long arm quilter...it turned out larger than I had planned, and while there are still enough blocks left to make another quilt the same size, this one is more than I want to wrestle with so it's on the road to Tennessee right now. I'll take pics once it's back and the binding is on.

I'll show you pics of what I'm working on this week in the next posting. I'm soooo done with trying to get this one right.

What a difference a year makes.....(the audacity of HOPE)

Last year I got this Christmas card from the Obama family. At that time, the concensus among those who "know" was that this brother didn't have a snowball's chance in hell in his quest for the nomination.

And last night he got the nod in Iowa.

Way to go, Barack Obama!

If you remember Burma Shave signs....

then, you'll remember a bunch of stuff here!
I thought this was big fun, and hope you enjoy it too....

I'm slowly but surely spending more time vertical than horizontal and that's a good thing. I hope to be back in my studio on the weekend working on Syl's quilt. While I'm working on that one, I have another one cooking in my head and there is one on the design wall that is still coming to fruition....I have all the fabric pulled for that one and am slowly but surely cutting into it.

The one cookin in my head is for "Slappy, the bait-shop guy"......don't even ask, and that way I won't have to tell any lies!

<=====This is Slappy's twin when he was about 4 years old.

We had a little snow...enough to be an inconvenience, but not enough to be breathtakingly beautiful. I keep waiting on that one.

Be back in two and two...you take care til then.

Resolutions?....No Way, but Goals....Sure!

I forgot to say thank you to those of you who took the time to visit this blog last year....to comment....to encourage and to give me feedback. So let me remedy that ...... Thank You!!! ~ I really appreciate it.



This was taken directly from TipNut, but it's something to think about....

11 Goals To Enhance Your Life This Year

1. Choose One New Thing To Learn: Take a class for something you’ve always wanted to know how to do…knitting, woodworking, embroidery, gourmet cooking, first aid, oil painting, wine making.
2. Eliminate One Negative Distraction: Media gossip capturing too much time from your day? Spending too much time complaining with others? World news haunting you hourly? Cut the negative noise, focus on weeding out one distracting habit at a time.
3. Embrace One Positive Influence: Focus on making room for more time for something positive in your life. Nurturing friendships, seeking uplifting discussion or information, spiritual reflection.
4. Honor Your Family: With your time, laughter, forgiveness, respect, generous acts, support and encouragement…then enjoy what blossoms from that.
5. Nurture Your Home: Determine areas that need improvement–cleaning, baking & cooking, organize. Make pretty the best you can with the resources you have. Appreciate.
6. Develop One Healthier Lifestyle Habit: Exercise, eat better, cut fatty foods and snacks, quit smoking, cut the soda pop, walk more.
7. Stretch Yourself–Do Something Terrifying: Public speaking, belly dance class, volunteer for your political party of choice, fundraise for a good cause.
8. Teach Something: Volunteer to teach a community class, start a blog and share your experience or knowledge, share family recipes, history and traditions with younger family members.
9. Reduce Something: Clutter, debt, overspending, household waste (recycle).
10. Focus On One Area For Increased Independence: Make more instead of buying ready-made (food, gifts), learn how to fix more instead of hiring or purchasing replacement, grow more of your own food–even if it’s just kitchen herbs, work on debt reduction.
11. Stretch Your Generosity: Regularly do something a bit painful that helps someone else–give a co-worker a ride home, offer a helping hand to an elderly neighbor, donate clothing and household items to a struggling family–all with no strings attached.

Some goals you may let go of over time, but some will flourish. The fun is appreciating the journey–and where it leads you to next.

I got tagged .....

Miss Raquel of The Ghetto Quilter blogspot has tagged me, and says she's gonna be checkin on me, so I gotta do this or else she will sic one of her 5 (soon to be 6 once Papie gets here) darlin lil chil'ren on me! Yikes!!! I better get to it.

Unlike Raquel, I'm not gonna get all introspective and stare off into space for like ever, 'cause it's past my bedtime and I'm still recuperating from having my toofuses pulled and I'm just not having all the strain to my brain, yuh feel me?

Okay, here we go ~~~

Five of my most significant memories of 2007:

1. The day I walked into my Local Quilt Shop, was greeted by the women who worked there and some other women that I meet there weekly and realizing that I finally felt "at home" here in Boone. I had been on the fence, and hadn't really committed to being here until that day.

2. Getting the letter from the job I had retired from telling me that they were no longer going to be able to provide the level of health coverage for me that I had believed was always gonna be there. It wasn't a good day, and I was "spun" for about a month or so....

3. Then, finally remembering that so many times in my life I've been carried when I felt like I couldn't go on...and that this would be another one of those times...and then getting excited about what I would learn about me, and about God, in this experience.

4. Finding a great deal on my Subaru and getting just the car I wanted for just the price I wanted to pay simply by cutting a picture out of a magazine of that car and attaching it to my refrigerator door with magnets .... I visualized that car into finding me.

5. Getting to spend time with my family....my auntie and cousins, my niece and her family and my nephew who is coming back into the fold after a field trip on the edge...how good to see him overcoming!

I'm not going to tag anyone, but if you see this and are so inclined....consider yourself "it" and get to writin on your own blog.

night night
sleep tight
see you in the morning light

Oops...forgot to add this....

Maya has been snoozing at my feet here in the office, and along side me when I'm horizontal on the couch, and even up on the bed when I'm napping there. She is uncanny in "reading" me, and knows when I'm not well.

This is her Happy New Year picture!

I love it, and her.

Happy New Year to all of you...may 2008 be your year~!!

Pulled Wisdom Teeth and Movie Recommendations.....

I've been running hither and yon getting last of the year's dental stuff done and yesterday I was in Hickory, NC at the Oral Surgeon having wisdom teeth pulled....Yowch! So today, after coming out from anesthesia and pain meds, I'm on the couch watching movies I rented in anticipation of being horizontal. More about the movies in a minute....

But first, something quilty! I've started on a special quilt for one of my sista's....Sylvia....who has asked that I make a quilt to go with some snazzy new curtains she got from Z Gallerie for her room. She and I discussed, color, design, and fabric choices. She sent me paint chips...and I looked at the curtains she chose.

I love that she wanted me to contribute to the re-do of her room; she has such a lovely sensibility in the decor of her home and that she wanted to include me makes my heart glad. She has recently added a fireplace to her room and is going to paint a wall the palest gray, so I am working on the quilt blocks...

I sent her fabric samples....she chose some she liked and I reserved the option to add some others. I sent her pictures of quilts and asked her to choose some that she liked...and we narrowed it down.



She liked these fabrics and she liked the top quilt of the two on this page with the samples.

I'm not feeling the border on it and so am making another choice....but the overall look of it will be lovely I think.

I've cut it all out....have stacks of "parts" and have actually gotten some of the blocks made. I might not get back to it for a few days while I recuperate...but am anxious to see it come together.



Okay, so I have a stack of DVD's calling me, so I'm going back to the couch. I watched this one earlier this afternoon and thought it was a good flick. Roeper and Ebert gave it thumbs up and chose it as one of the best films of the year.

Be forewarned that it is a collection of small films ~ like a book of short stories rather than an epic. I liked it.


Paris, Je T'aime
A collection of five-minute films about the City of Lights brings Paris to life with a unique patchwork of 20 stories. Numerous writers, directors and actors lend their distinctive vision to the project, employing a wide variety of styles and subject matter. Participants include Gérard Depardieu, Gus Van Sant, Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, Wes Craven, Marianne Faithfull, Steve Buscemi, Juliette Binoche, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Gena Rowlands and many others.