WHAT'S YOUR BAG?

Everyone has been showing their purses, so I thought I would join in. I alway's liked leather Stone Mountain purses, and I still have several. My friend Kaye introduced to the Ameribag Healthy Back Purse. I really didn't like it at first because it was so different than anything I have ever used. But now I have two. A black leather purse for cold weather month's and a red one for the warmer months. I carry my sunglasses in the outside pocket (red case( The flap pocket holds my keys, thumb drive and ID for work) the zipper pocket carrys my wallet, and the pocket behind my note paper. The reason I like this purse is I don't have to dig for anything. My keys are easily accessible, I put my phone in the pocket straight in, my IPOD in the pocket on the right, pens, pencil, addresses, calendar and Moleskine graph book on the left.. All within easy reach. That's it.. pretty boring..

We went to Amishland today. Usually, we go down the backroads, to specific places and avoid the tourist areas (Berlin). But today I wanted to shop in town. I needed to look for a couple of gifts, and it seemed like a good place to look. I did find a couple of things for gifts, and a couple of things for me. I found a Sue Spargo Pattern for a table rug with thistles. I am going to have to reduce the pattern, because it is 72" long. I also found a pattern by Crab-apple Hill for "Summer Pears" they look like pear pincushions.. at least that's what I plan to do with them.

At Miller's Dry Goods, I FINALLY found the coffee bean fabric that I have looked for all summer. It was a brand new bolt with the plastic still on it. I also bought a couple of yards of the brown and pink plaid from the Moda "Think Pink" collection for a piece I'm working on.

I bought this big Ball Jar for my collection of two whole vintage tomato pincushions. Hopefully, there will be more in the future. The little one is kind of neat because when you pull on the strawberry, there is a retractable tape measure inside of the tomato. I like these little collections. I have a collection of thimbles, and antique irons. All small enough to be up on the wall and out of the way. I would love to have a collection of toy sewing machines, but they are unbelieveably expensive. Too bad I didn't get the urge before these people who sell them figured out there was someone who might actually want them. So, I don't have any, and I probably never will.

We had a good Thanksgiving. I went into work at 5am, came home and started dinner, took a nap, and then after we ate I started to clean up only to realize that my drains were clogged up because stupid me put potatoe peels in the garbage disposal. By that time I was dragging so much, I just went to bed. Bill fixed them all the next day. It is so nice to have a man around that is so handy. Saved us a big plumbing bill.

There are 4 movies that I want to see. But we are going to see a Christmas movie tomorrow.. can't remember the name offhand. Bill wants to stay home and do outside work. He says that the weather is going to turn cold and we have to do it before it does. I say NOT. I don't want to work all weekend after working all week. He can't stand just sitting around relaxing. It's a conundrum. Oh well, he will have to drag me off of the couch. Good Luck.

TIME FOR GIVING THANKS

It's the time of year that you think about all of your blessings. I was thinking today how much the holidays put me in a bad mood. Every year, it is nothing but terrible traffic, crowds, lines, money going out. Working everyday for long stretches, having what little time I have being taken by others. Sounds pretty negative if you look at it that way.

But, out of all of this, I can find my blessings.

I am blessed with good friends. Some friends that I share my childhood memories, other friends that I have had the pleasure of knowing because of our shared love of making quilts. I called one of them today. I was sitting in the parking lot at Walmart after a harrowing experience in traffic and I just felt I needed a laugh. Susan is one friend that can always make me laugh. She points out my 'hot head' and makes me look at myself in a comical manner. She helps me realize that I shouldn't take everything so seriously, and get so irritated at stupid things. I'm glad I have her in my life because I really need a laugh sometimes.

I'm blessed with a wonderful family. I have a husband that has always worked hard to make sure we have always had what we need. We couldn't let our kids go to whatever college they wanted. They have to work to help pay for their tuition. I would love to have a longarm machine. But I can't just go plop down thousands of dollars on something like that without planning for a few years. I don't have a beautiful house full of beautiful things, I don't have a new car. We have always had what we needed, but not always what we wanted.

But the good that has come out of this is I have children that understand how to work for what they want. They have a good work ethic, they don't party all of the time, and they are home at night. I can make a decent quilt without a longarm machine, and I have a great sewing machine. I am lucky to have it. I have a house and cars that will be completely paid off by this time next year. And I have a husband that passed his stress test with flying colors after getting 7 stents put in last year at this time. I am truly grateful for him and his good health.

My job causes me a lot of stress. I just want to go to work, do my job, and not play games. It isn't always possible. I have to work through almost every holiday, doing the work of 2 people. It stinks, but the good part is I have a job, and I like doing the actual work involved. I make extra money in overtime when I have to work all of this extra. When I am there by myself, I can close the door, listen to my radio without earphones, and just do my work without anyone bothering me. Who knows, maybe I can save up for that longarm... or not.

I hope that all of you have a great Thanksgiving. And that you can all make good things out of what sometimes seems to be a bad situation. I need this time of year to make me realize what are really the things that are the most important to me. That come off as pretty shallow when you look back on it the next day. I am more blessed than 90% of the people in the world. Which is something to be thankful for.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

JB OR JB?

Okay, I confess. I have never seen a James Bond movie until the new one today. I have seen bits and pieces of some of the others, but I never saw a complete movie. I would have to say that the new Bond "Daniel Craig" is not as handsome as Sean Connery or Pierce Brosnan. But he reminds me of a Jack Bauer type of spy. I can't say that I know what any of the other Bonds were like. But this one is a 'take no prisoner' type of guy. I like that. I have never seen anyone that could run so fast, or jump from high places without even stubbing his toe. Except for the first villan he chased who did all of the same things.. but with gymnastic flips.
So I give 'two thumbs up' for the new Bond. And while watching the movie and thinking of Jack Bauer.. I told Bill that our next dog should be named
"Jack Bow-wow". Feel free to use it if you want.

SATURDAY

I'm sitting here watching the Ohio State vs Michigan Game. I don't know why. I don't care too much about football. I spent way too much time cleaning out files on my computer.
I went grocery shopping today. Needed everything for Thanksgiving. I made it all of the way through the store and I noticed this tiny little boy pushing a cart with a turkey in it. If it had been anyone else I never would have noticed it. I forgot to get a turkey and seeing this boy reminded me! I would have been pretty ticked if I went home without the most important thing!

So I'm all ready for Thanksgiving. We don't do a lot. We don't have any family here and only a small family anyway. I have to go in to work in the morning because my co worker, who has been there for 40 years, can pretty much take off whenever she wants. Unfortunately, there are only the two of us that do the job, so when she isn't there, I am. It pretty much stinks, but if I had been at the job for that long, I would expect big perks. At least I will make some extra money. I can always use that!

I actually got a few blocks made today, for a quick project.

First are these wonky log cabin blocks with fall colors. I probably should have started with a smaller center square, but they look okay.

This is a compass that I drafted on EQ5 from a picture of an antique quilt that my friend Gail had in her webshots album. It looks great doesn't it? Well it isn't. I can do some things in EQ5, but I lack the fine point skills. The diamonds aren't all the same, and the points must not actually connect to the outside edge because if I try to select a piece of background area, big sections of the background get selected instead. Grr... I have to go back through all of those Quilt University lessons again. I have forgotten most of it.
I am not a drinker. There is only one thing I indulge in once a year. Bailey's Irish Cream..Today, I bought a bottle of the new Chocolate Mint Bailey's . Yum. Maybe some Baileys, Skelaxin, and Aleeve will take care of this spasm I have in my back. ouch.

I ALWAYS HAVE SOMETHING GOING ON!

Learning to knit was one of the many hand craft skills I learned as a little girl. But I gave all of my extra Hobbies up in favor of only quilting. I have done well ignoring the calls of all of the other things I like to do.. except this. I started knitting again about 3-4 months ago. It was the lure of the beautiful yarns, I swear!

This is a scarf that is being made from varigated Merino Wool in a Fan and Feather Pattern.

And I am also making a shawl in the same pattern out of varigated Alpaca. I love this yarn. It is blue with hints of purple and it is really soft. I can easily sit down in the morning while waiting to leave for work and knit a couple of rows.

The pattern is a REALLY EASY lace pattern. Knit a row, purl a row, then knit a pattern row, and another knit row. Then start over.

ADDENDUM: This is the PATTERN

It is free on Knitpicks.
Row 1 - Knit
Row 2 - purl
Row 3 - K1 - K2 together (3 times) Yarn over knit 1 (6 times) -2 together 6 times. Continue in the pattern for the last 7 stitches, then K2 together 3 times, and K1.
Row 4 - Knit.

Yarn over when in a knitting stitch, means to bring your yarn to the front, and knit the stitch. This leaves you with an extra stitch. When you knit the next row it leaves a hole on purpose. You don't end up with extra stitches because you are doing an equal amount of Knitting 2 together.

I have tried knitting a more difficult lace pattern, with lace weight yarn. I must say that this was much more fun and more productive with fingering weight yarn. Maybe I will try a lace weight again at some point. It just seemed that I knitted forever and had this tiny little amount to show for it. And with the more difficult pattern, I couldn't pick up the pattern because the yarn was so thin. I'm thinking maybe a LONG time from now I will try it again.

C.C. BLOOME

This is C.C. Bloome, the only plant I have never been able to kill. I bought it as a tiny little potted plant at Woolworth's probably 20 years ago. The best thing about C.C. (Christmas Cactus) is I only have to water it once a month. And to force it to bloom, I put it out on the porch all summer.. Mostly forget to water it, and then drag it back in the house in mid October, sit it in the shower for 20 minutes, and the buds start popping. Then I feed it. Can't ask much more than that. If I was rich, I would like to have a gardener. I love beautiful gardens and flowers, but I really don't like to garden. I love this plant, and I am grateful that I haven't killed it with negligence.

Today, I am finishing listening to a book so that I can go to the library. I have been working on cleaning my studio, which has been in disarray since I started cleaning it. I should just put on a blindfold and start tossing. Everytime I pick something up, I think I can probably use it at some point. I was getting a lot of stuff together for our guild rummage sale, but I couldn't go, so I will just continue to collect stuff to sell.

By the way, I decided to delete the post with my daughter's accident. I don't need a reminder every time I look at my blog. She is doing well. And I'm thankful that I made her wear her seatbelt when she was growing up. She was one of those kids that I had to stop the car for because she would unbuckle, or not buckle. At least she learned something from everything I tried to teach her. It saved her life.

Have a good weekend! Maybe I will actually get started on something fun that I can share.

WIP WENDESDAY

I am not working on anything. But for you Deb in the spirit of Quilt Studio'S wip Wednesday,

I give you

GRACE

12 1/2 X 12 1/2

This is my newest miniature. It has something like 486 1/2 " blocks. It contains mostly hand dyes and just a few batiks. Fabric was specifically dyed, and blocks were specifically pieced to get the color just the way I wanted it.

All I can say now is that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I thought my pineapple was difficult with 45 pieces for each 2" block. I figured I would do a simple 5 piece block so I could make it really little. I worked a couple of months piecing the blocks. I started in the center and worked my way out, placing each block on my miniature design wall

I didn't realize until I started putting the blocks together, that there would be 3 places on the side of each 1/2 " seam to match. This turned out to be a very difficult quilt. I will rethink before I make another extensively pieced miniature.

This is the second quilt in a series I call "Out of the Darkness". After nearly dying from a heart infection 5 years ago, I had some memory loss. After sewing and quilting my whole life, I couldn't even piece a simple block, then one day I got an idea for a New York Beauty quilt that I pieced in a two week period. I called it "Out of the Darkness, into God's light. I always said it was as if God put the idea in my head, and the ability/memory to make it. He turned on the light.

Grace has the same kind of color placement as my NYB. And yes, it represents to me, God's Grace. The closer you are to God (the center) the brighter it is. I have hand sewn tiny Austrian crystals on the front. More in the center and sparse placement the farther out towards the dark fabrics

I have it entered in a few shows, but there are many good miniatures out there. I don't really know what judges might like. But it means more to me than just a show quilt. On the label I put a bible verse. "But by the Grace of God, I am what I am."

WEEKEND CHORES

First of all, thank you everyone for the complements on my Skeletons. It is always nice to hear good comments about your work!

I have done nothing much in the fun department all weekend. I cleaned out the closet where I store my Christmas decorations only to find a mice nest. That's gone along with some of it's residents. I don't have the slightest idea how they got all the way into my house..we do have a lot of woods behind us. Pretty disgusting development though.
We brought in one of the towers of the entertainment center that Bill is building out of Cherry. I sincerely wish we had a bigger house. He builds all of this nice furniture, and I am running out of room to put it.
Today we are painting. I should be working on those stupid roman shades for the living room. I got a good start, and then we went away, and I just haven't gotten back to them.


I have quite a few cast iron skillets that I use frequently. There are only a couple of new ones, most are old old skillets that were used by my great-grandmothers, grandmothers, mother, aunt. The skillet above is what they always called a "Chicken Fryer. It is big and deep. A well seasoned skillet is smooth on the inside, and things don't stick. This one was caked black. Which is a good thing, but it didn't make it good to cook in. I read something about putting a skillet in your oven on the self cleaning cycle to clean off all of the old and start over. Let me say, when I looked at my pan at the end of the 3 hour cleaning, I thought I'd ruined it. It looked completely rusted. I took it out, cleaned it up, and it looked better than a new pan that you would buy today. For one thing, the pans you buy today have a roughened surface. This one is smooth as glass. I took a picture of it greased up to go back into the oven for the first stage of seasoning. It looks pretty good now, I have to repeat the seasoning process to get it perfect.
Atleast I know one thing, food isn't going to stick in it any worse than the eggs did in my new teflon skillet this morning!

i Feliz Dia De Los Muertos!

Skeletons From My Closet

Almost makes it look like I know what I'm talking about, doesn't it? I don't speak Spanish.. I recognize enough of the words to know what they say.. Never really knew much about the Day of the Dead celebration until I made the quilt.. so there ya go. I do want to make another one at some point. I love the idea, and I have more in me.