MEMORIAL DAY, CQI N2G RR

Since this is Memorial Day weekend, though I would share a small patriotic CQ I entered in our state fair in 2003. Part of it has machine embroidery, and part was by hand. The category was 12" mini quilts, and this was in the patriotic division. This was called Three Cheers for the Red, White and Blue.

I love patriotic quilts, and red, white and blue.





Well I have been quite busy, but not much I can show right now. But I can show these:


I was working this month on Sherry's block from the CQI New 2 Group round robin. I worked on the fan, and stitched on either side and in the center.












I also did the part with the green beads. There is feather-stitching underneath, but was impossible for me to photograph it so it showed up.









Right now I am frantically working on finishing up my purse for the CQI purse contest, which shall remain a secret until after the voting has taken place. I worked on an idea for about 2-1/2 hours on Friday which didn't come out right. Anyway, I have until Friday, May 30, 2008 to get my pictures submitted. I haven't finished stitching much less sewn it together. So that is what I will be working on this week.

MERMAID SWAP

I participated in the mermaid swap recently, and I have been neglectful in reporting what I received. In this swap, we could make use any medium and make something with a mermaid, collage, a doll, paper items. I got my box early last week, but work has been crazy around here. My partner was Wanda, and this is what she made me. She made me some tags and hangers, and some cute card inserts. I had been looking for a journal, and she sent one of those too, as well as some stickers.





She also sent me a lot of beautiful ribbons and laces, in my favorite colors! Thanks so much Wanda, sorry it took me so long to post.










I didn't take pictures of what I sent Wanda before I mailed it. But she posted pictures
here.

This was a fun swap.

Now I have a couple of CQ RR's I need to finish up in the next couple of days, plus my CQI purse entry that is due next week.

Our daughter Katie is getting married in August, and in an effort to help me lose some weight, DH bought me 5 weeks of Nutrisystems. I am on day 5 and it is going pretty well. Wish me luck!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY, TIF MAY

Hope all the mothers have a lovely day today. Both my girls and 3 grandchildren will be coming over sometime today. John has decided to make a boiled dinner with ham, potatoes, carrots and cabbage.















Sharon's concept for May is: "How Do You Describe Yourself As An Artist?" Be sure to read Sharon's post on this. You can find it here.

This is the color scheme this month:


This concept isn't something I have really thought about before. But I guess I would think of myself first as an artist, whether a quilt artist, a watercolor artist, a doll artist, a fiber artist, a crazy quilt artist.

My husband John, when I asked him, said he has always thought of me as artsy-craftsy (for some reason I don't like that term). He said if it has anything to do with arts or crafts I will want to do it!

APRIL TIF, JUST IN THE NICK OF TIME

The Take it Further challenge for April, outlined by Sharon Boggon here, questions how we view change.

For my challenge project this month, I started out thinking I was going to play with some images in my Photoshop Elements, print them on fabric, and then embellish them. Well I played around with this for about a week, and I could not get my program to really do what I wanted to do, but I came up with this.

By now I am running out of time to embellish anything, so I decided it would just be a picture, reflecting how I am always thankful for our hot Sacramento summers to change into fall, and my love of sunflowers.

But I really was not pleased with this image. The colors are not right, the background and the image of my sunflowers.



Next I decided to play with some images of my John and I and how we have changed. The first, was in around 1976, I was 26, and he was 32. We had been married 1 year. The shirt he was wearing was one I made for him and embroidered, styled after one that Neil Diamond had worn on the cover of one of his albums. He has always romanced me with music, and most importantly, Neil Diamond tunes! The second picture was taken last autumn, 2007.
I finally was able to add words to my layout, which has eluded me for days. It will be there, but not print up. But I finally mastered this, I think.



This morning, I redid the first image of my sunflowers, and I like this one A LOT MORE!

SPRING QUILT SWAP, ON ITS WAY

My Spring Quilt Swap is on its way today to my swap partner, who shall still remain a secret.













This was the label. I would show the whole back of the quilt, but I forgot to cover up her name in that one, and I already packed it up!

WHAT'S IN YOUR PURSE, BRIEFCASE, BAG OR POCKET

Pat Sloan comments on her blog "I'll give away a prize... but I NEED 500 comments to give away a prize! So tell ALL your friends to come share. If you have a blog.. post a photo there... like I did!" She is looking for a comment on the contents of your purse, briefcase, bag or pocket.

My purse is relatively small. This is one I made with appliqued wool flowers on a wool base.








My purse has 2 pens, my wallet, cell phone, a pocket with Tylenol, lotion, chapstick, Post-It note pad, migraine medication, a list of books I am looking for. Another pocket has all the rewards cards: Borders, Office Depot, Pet Smart, Staples, library card, Ace Hardware, Sunrise Natural foods, Hallmark Petco, a small sewing kit, and a coupon for a free Jamba Juice.

GIVE AWAYS, N2G-VIRGINIA'S BLOCK

This morning, in reading Stina's blog, she pointed out 2 new giveaways. The first is JulieK.. She is giving away a quilt. The other is My Favourite Things... She is giving away a pattern.

The past almost week, I have been also working on Virginia's block from the CQI, New 2 Group RR. I am mailing it out today.


Virginia is from Madrid, Spain. This is the first time have been in an international RR and I am quite excited. Virginia wanted each of us to add a word to her block, and I added Love, my favorite. I also added a bit of dyed lace above this and this came from one of the laces that May Britt sent me. This one really looked good on this block.







I also added a piece of trim that came from Nadine's treasure box of trims. I did the daisy-like flowers in this section.












This is the entire block. Sandi, the person that worked on it before me added the word "Art" in the bottom corner.











Next projects I need to have finished by next week, are my TIF challenge for April, and I need to quilt my Four Seasons Swap, for the Spring Quilt swap.

SUSAN'S CQ RR, NOAH'S ARK

As mentioned before, I am in an ongoing RR with a group of friends: Susan, Gail, Moira, Candi and this month I worked on Susan's block.

It is really hard to see what I did on Susan's block. I really need to learn my camera better so I can zoom in, but I worked in the top, mostly right hand corner as you look at it. I did the fly stitch above the lady, and then on the orangish ribbon, I did stitching on either side, and I also embellished the ribbon though that is impossible to see.




This is the entire block, and it is ready to pass on to Candi when she has time to pick it up. We live a couple of blocks apart).











I also got the stitching for Noah's Ark done, though I don't have the sashing on yet. I decided last month, that as my granddaughter Kyleigh loves Noah's ark too, I would make 2 blocks each month. I am going to sash hers in some lighter colors than mine.

Right now, I am working on another RR block for CQI and hope to finish that up tonight so I can mail it tomorrow.

VICTORIA STRIKES AGAIN, QUILTER'S BLESSINGS

My mail lady Victoria brought another package last week. This one came from Nadine in Belgium.I sent her some of my over-abundance of Civil War reproduction fabrics, and she sent me this wonderful fabric covered box in return. It was jammed full of gorgeous trims, laces, threads fabric and buttons for CQ. Nadine made the box and I love it. I am going to use it as a little sewing box out where I do my hand work, if I ever take my goodies out of it. Thank you Nadine again, you made my day!



What I have been doing the past week was taxes. Thank goodness those are done.

I also worked on the block for my RR Bloggers group, I got this month's installment of our 15-month RR done. This is month 6, and I had Amy's block. Unfortunately, I cannot show this one as it remains a secret until the owner gets their quilt back at the end of the RR.



I finished my Quilter's Blessings block of the month designed by Bea at Capricorn Quilts.

Tomorrow, hopefully will have some CQ to show, and Lynette Anderson's BOM, "Noah's Ark".

VICTORIA HAS BEEN BUSY!

My mail lady Victoria, has been quite busy this past week with packages for me, both things
I had ordered, and packages from others.

My friend, Susan Nixon from Desertsky and cq4funlivejournal blogs has been working on a quilt which represents strong and special women in hers and her friends' lives. Last year she asked for photos of mothers and grandmothers to use in her quilt. Several months ago, I asked if she had enough pictures for her quilt, and she said she could always use more. So I sent her pictures of my 2 grandmothers, neither of which I ever met, because they died when my mother and father were 10 years of age, a picture of my mother, and my aunt who raised my mother from the time she was 10 years of age. I was so thrilled she still had room for my relatives! Susan has started a hand-dyed thread business, and she is naming various color lines after the special women. Several weeks ago, Susan told me this line of colors she was naming after my mother's mother, Mary Ellen. I ordered the DSQ line of Mary Ellen, plus the line that is named after Lois, Pat Winter's mother. Susan is selling the threads in her etsy shop. This is the Mary Ellen line:
















The second thing I ordered was from Pat Winter, her new CQ book that she self-published. It is just wonderful to look at, and am still enjoying the lovely pages.









Several weeks ago Pat had a contest on her blog, to guess the age that Pat was when she gave up dolls. I happened to be the winner. Pat kindly made dolls for both me and the runner up and Prissy arrived on Saturday! This is what Pat wrote about Prissy: "Prissy is a little shy yet spoiled enough to speak out when she wants her way. You know the type, hard to correct them because they are sweet. She loves to wear pink, she loves the "Flower Power" era and insists on going barefoot. I can't blame her there, she learned it from me".

Prissy is just precious, and she already has a treasured place in my family of dolls. My granddaughter Kyleigh is going to be so jealous when she sees her.

Thank you so much Pat, I am honored to have Prissy come live with me!


And last but not least, I recently traded May Britt some of my numerous Civil War reproduction fabrics, for some CQ laces and threads she no longer has any use for. This wonderful package arrived last Friday, and has so many goodies, and I love them all. May Britt's package from me arrived while she was away for the weekend and she has to pick them up from the post office after work today. Hope she is as pleased with her package as I am from mine!

TAKE IT FURTHER, APRIL

SharonB of In a Minute Ago has set the new challenge topic for April: How do you see change?

This is the color palette:

This is a tough one. On the one hand, change is hard in terms of growing older, and having to make suggestions to your elderly parents or in laws in terms of what you might feel is in their best interest, and knowing when to let them make their own decisions.

Change has also been hard these past few years in terms of my work situation. I am a medical transcriptionist by profession, and have worked out of my home for 25+ years. It used to be that I would pick up doctors' tapes and return them after I had transcribed them. Then several years ago I started losing accounts I had had for more than 20 years, due to the trend of the medical profession of going to electronic medical records. I could not afford the equipment necessary to do this, so lost accounts. An account I had for more than 20 years disbanded/1 doctor retired, and the remaining doctors joined another group who used one of these companies that use the electronic medical record system (and they pay really lousy). I have found a company that pays pretty good but nowhere near to what I made on my own.

On the other hand, the internet the past several years has made it really easy for me to research terms and drugs with regard to my profession.

I have loved the changes in my life regarding the additions of my 3 grandchildren, son-in-law, and the coming up addition of a new son-in-law in August.

I think this month I am going to use the color scheme, and make a little fall piece. I have the perfect frame!

MERMAID SWAP, OLD RED BARN CO, LIGHTS AHOY

I have decided to join in Genevieve's mermaid swap at Bella-Enchanted. I love mermaids, and collecting images, and am thinking of making a doll.

Also several weeks ago, Dana at Old Red Barn Co had a quilt giveaway. While I did not win the quilt, because I was #1 commenter, I won a $25 gift certificate from which I ordered some fantastic sugar scrubs and soaps which arrived yesterday.


I ordered Lavender Vanilla Sugar Scrub and Bulgarian Lavender Goat Milk Soap set, and Blackberry Sage Sugar Scrub, and Dana also included samples of Citrus Goat Milk Soap, Lemongrass Sage Goat Milk Soap, and Man Soap.
Thanks so much Dana, these smell heavenly!









I also wanted to share a quilt I made a number of years ago, that hangs in our living room. At one time, we went to visit some friends in McKinleyville, CA for several days. They took us to brunch at a place in Trinidad, and as we were leaving, I noticed a small house that was a quilt shop. I asked DH and our friends if we could stop there, and they kindly let me stop and look around. I noticed these lighthouse blocks that were printed onto muslin fabric, and also the whales in each corner. So that was my purchase. I also picked picked up the borders. DH asked me if I wanted anything else, and being afraid I was not going to be able to have any meals on the long drive home if I spent all his money I said no. But they this fabulous row boat fabric I thought would be great for the backing. When I got home I called up and ordered it. The owner, remembered who I was and pointed out my DH had asked if I wanted anything else.

When I got home, I made the center section, which was from a booklet I had by the Picket Fence, High Tide Series called All Hands on Deck. The original quilt did not have the sailboat, I incorporated that in from somewhere else. Susan Nixon of Desertsky Quilting at that time had a quilting business and quilted it for me. I won a prize that year at the California State Fair for this one when I entered it.

TAKE IT FURTHER CHALLENGE, MARCH FINISHED

Sharon B.'s theme for March is: "Do you ever notice the little things, the small moments, the details in life? This months challenge is to do just that, pay attention to the tiny details. Sometimes the small things become emblematic for something larger."

I did a lot of thinking about this month's theme. I would have loved to notice the little things in my garden, but my garden is still in a winter mess, and needs to be sorted out.

The thing that I see on a day to day basis, is this starfish, that occupies a place in a shadow box filled with shells in my home office where I work each day.

Throughout the past couple of weeks, I thought about what I was going to do. I decided to make a paper collage incorporating this starfish.

I have to explain that I have always loved the ocean, lighthouses, sea life, and my husband and I have a mutual love of sailing and old sailing ships.
Almost every room in our house reflects this.



This shows my completed collage. The piece at the time is a copy of the border that is in my bathroom that I just had to have several years ago when we remodeled our bathroom, with the sailing ships, lighthouse and whale.

I also stamped a row of starfish, and added a metallic placard (I collect a lot of scrapbooking items and stamps too). I cut out the picture of my starfish after I had enlarged it.

I also came across a quote of William Shakespeare that
I loved, "my bounty is as boundless as the sea.
my love as deep; the more to give to thee
the more I have, for both are infinite". It is from Romeo and Juliet, act II, scene 2 in Capulet's garden.




This is the back of the piece, I included some images of the many starfish I found online. I did not realize they came in so many shapes and colors.












I also thought I would show one of our nautical quilts. I did bluework squares of nautical motifs, or quotes and set them in a crazy setting.















I even incorporated in this 27' sailboat DH built.













And this 25' houseboat he built, that was our last boat.