Postcards from...

Saturday, Fiber on a Whim welcomed the Contemporary Quilts and Fiber Arts Alliance to their studio for a sew-in. We worked on postcards for Fiberart for a Cause. There were 8 people working in the basement of this wonderful shop. It was very interesting to see all the different styles of postcards people were making. Rebecca has some pictures on her blog. Here are the two I completed on Saturday.
Pretty boring, huh? Well, if you open the doors, this is what you see...

That's a little better. The bat on the second one is hanging from a string, so he swings around. I had a great time. I have more designs in my head. Now to get them onto postcards.

Outlet Shopping

Yesterday, I went to Dawsonville to go outlet shopping. I hadn't been up there in a while, so I was amazed to see how much the outlet mall had grown, not to mention the surrounding area. Anyway, to my surprise, there was a Williams-Sonoma outlet. Now, I love Williams-Sonoma. Not a holiday goes by where I don't give a number of gifts from Williams-Sonoma. I really just love that store. One of my favorite gifts to give is a set of three melamnte mixing bowls. They come in a lot of different colors and are a ton of fun. However, I never bought any for myself. Well, there they were at the outlet, in red no less, a color I want to incorporate into my new kitchen. Oh, they were beautiful. And, while I think the regular price of $24 for the three bowls is reasonable, they were on sale for $9.99. Another thing I love from Williams Sonoma are their dishtowels. Now these I think of as a luxury item. But there they were for a bargain price, so I got another set. I also got a new set of measuring spoons, because many of mine were lost in the move. I can make chocolate chip cookies with just a 1/2 tsp, but it is easier with a full set.

I also got some new boots to wear with jeans this winter, some clothes for the kids, and shoes for the one kid who was with me. All in all, it was a good day. Now to go back when my husband can come with me. He needs some new clothes...

Another one bites the dust

Ok, I was having flashbacks to elementary school. We used to listen to Queen during art class. So, sometimes, when I am in an artistic mood, Queen pops into my head. Please, no one diss Mr. Green for letting us listen to what might could be objectionable music in art class. He was one of the best art teachers ever. I went to elementary school in the late 70's, and that just about says it all. My third grade teacher drove a VW Van. Avocado Green. By the way, my youngest sings "We Will Rock You" all the time, but doesn't quite make the segway to "We Are the Champions".


Anyway, back to the present time, I finished this quilt the other evening. It is a Halloween Baby quilt. The pattern is "Stars in His Eyes" by Becky of Quiltpox. I started it a year ago, made it through the quilting, but not the binding. I am so happy it is done and ready to be packed for the hospital.

I did live through the last back to school night for the year last night. I think maybe I should refrain from going out in public because I spent a lot of the time writing snarky notes to my husband about different things that were going on. I would give you examples, but I am afraid someone I know might read this blog and the comments were not fit for public consumption. Suffice it to say that my son will have a good school year, and if I have to supplement the Social Studies curriculum A LOT, then so be it. Just think, one year, in the not so distant future, I will have four of these to attend! Oh, and my guess is I am not the only one who rolls her eyes at some of the things people ask. By the way, college admissions people never see your middle school transcripts. Really, they don't. They just want you to get your act together by high school. (And I am one of the nuttier moms who thinks her child has a great shot at Yale, even though his dad and I didn't go there.) Anyway, I am becoming more and more antisocial. And I wasn't that social in the first place...

Birthday Presents

I made this bag for my sister-in-law for her birthday. There are two in the picture because the bag is completely reversible and I made myself an identical one. The pattern is the Chelsea Tote by Amy Butler. I have adored her fabric on her patterns for years, but never found any in a shop. Well, Fiber on a Whim to the rescue. I LOVE that place. Anyway, the fabrics on the tote bags are also Amy Butler. I used YLI invisible thread, and I just loved it. My old Bernina 830 did not have a problem with it at all. I only used it for the top thread, though, not in the bobbin.

I did have to buy a new iron in order to make the totes because my old one bit the dust. It was 18 years old almost to the day and just wouldn't stay hot. So I went to Wal Mart and got the same brand. I love a heavy iron, so I bought the heaviest one I could find in that brand. I also need the auto-off setting. I know most quilters don't like the auto-off, but I do. I have an irrational fear of fire, so the auto-off keeps me from driving back and checking the iron more than once.

Ok, I am off to Back to School Night. Is anyone else tired of these? Or am I the only one who reads this blog who still has these to go to for the next 18 years? It is enough to make me want to home school, Tracey!

It's Done! Hurray!

The red, black and white quilt is DONE! I finished stitching down the binding at the Contemporary Quilt and Fiber Arts Alliance meeting last night. Now to get the swim team to sign it, and give it to the coach. When my husband saw it last night he said, "I didn't know you loved Coach Ben this much." I think that was meant as a compliment. Here it is in all its glory. I especially love the red binding. I had fun quilting the spirals using black and white varigated thread. I love varigated thread.


Last night we had guild at Fiber on a Whim. I LOVE that store and will someday spend money there. It is just that after the meeting, I was so tired that I was afraid to try to shop. However, once school starts next week, I will be making a trip there for some Angelina fibers and some Misty Fuse. That Misty Fuse stuff is so cool. The meeting last night was about how to use all these cool products such as Misty Fuse and Angelina Fibers. I thought the Angelina would be great for mermaid hair...

Back from Vacation

I am back from a week at the beach with my family. I saw both my sisters and their kids. And, of course, my parents, who are looking very tan and fit from living in Florida.

I went to a cute quilt shop in Port Saint Lucie, whose name is escaping me at the moment. It is right on Route 1. I picked up a cute purse pattern designed by Kimura in Jensen Beach, Florida.

I have been seriously unpacking this week. I got my cookbooks unpacked and shelved. I am a cookbook fanatic, so there were lots of them to put away. I also rearranged the kids' playroom and family room in the basement so both are more usable. I set up a huge table on one side of the family room for crafting. It doubles as a great place to baste quilts.

Tomorrow starts the tax holiday weekend in Georgia, so I will take the kids to get their school supplies. I love school supply shopping. I am also going to get some arts and crafts stuff for the craft table in the basement.

It is strange to be starting a new school year in a new place. I used to know everyone and was very involved. Now I don't know very many people, although the ones I know are the very involved ones because I met them a PTA Council events. I do plan to take a step back this year. Last year I edited both the weekly and quarterly newsletter for my son's school. While it was very time consuming, I did know everything that was going on. I also had a good relationship with most of the teachers and all the administration of the school. Now I am starting fresh in two schools. However, with children who need gifted services, it does not take long to get to know the staff and administration of a school. Excellent gifted services is one of the key reasons my children are in public school.

I have started collecting my "afterschooling" curriculum. (I have a friend who homeschools and she made up that term for me...) Today I picked up the new kids' version of Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss. I loved the adult version of the book and saw this one on The Today Show yesterday. I looked at a couple of other things at Borders, but didn't find anything that impressed me. Next week, I will go to the teacher supply store to see what I can find. I want to do a lot with oceans and marine life since we have season passes to the aquarium. I also want to find some things on energy since my kids loved visiting the nuclear plant in Port Saint Lucie. My oldest was won over by nuclear power. So Debra, if you are reading this, can you point me to some interesting things about oil and petroleum since I know you are connected to that industry?

Rian's peach crisp is in the oven as I type. I found Georgia peaches in the grocery this week, so I am making it. Living in Georgia, I feel weird using California peaches...

Debra posted some beautiful Quilts of Valor that she and her mom have worked on. It is such a worthwhile project, and one that will go on for some time, I am sure. Check out what she did.

Tracey has been canning, which I have never done. My mom used to, though. I am hoping to get to Little Quilts for some repro fabrics to bribe her for some blackberry syrup and preserves...

Quilting

I got my brown bag lady quilt quilted today. Actually, I was almost done last night, but the bobbin ran out and I was too tired to finish. Also, I hate quilting borders, and that is what was left. I thought I should do that while I was bright-eyed and bushy-tailed. So now it is done. I just have to do the binding.

A friend and I pieced a top for the swim team coach. We ended up doing a Yellow Brick Road quilt in red, black, and white. Here is a bad picture of it.

The backing is in the wash, as we speak. I will quilt it in the next two days and then bind it. The swimmers will then sign the back of the quilt. We will have a little celebration to say goodbye to our coach right before he returns to UGA.

Dorothy has a good post on her blog. It is something I had to read in high school by Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I hope high school kids are still reading it today. Certainly Ms. Pfister, if she is still teaching, is still having people read it. I printed it out for my sixth grader to read...

Tea With Betty Pillsbury

The tea with Betty Pillsbury was amazing. Her work is incredible. I was really inspired by her art. I learned some things that I am doing wrong. For example, I didn't make my block on a foundation. I am going to correct that by stitching around the edges on top of some muslin to give it a little more stability. Next time, I will know.

I went to Michael's this morning for some supplies. Here they are:



Here are my first attempts at embroidery.



I am going to work on it some more and add some beads. Dinner is of the crock pot variety. I am baking a whole free range chicken in the crock pot with some olive oil. Then a caesar salad. And strawberries with lady fingers for dessert. So that gives me time to work now, before we go to the pool to cool off.

Jumping in with both feet

I made a crazy quilt block to start embellishing with the 100 days thing. I loved Rian's monochromatic block, so I made my own monochromatic one. I am not sure I did it right, but I did it. It is about 13 inches square, because I was using a 13 inch ruler. (Who has ever heard of a 13 inch ruler?) I had some upholstery fabric from my mother-in-law's neighbor, so I combined that with regular quilting cotton. Here is a not so good picture of the naked block.


Here is a picture of the quilt I am working on quilting at the moment. It is my first of the pick 4 UFO challenge.


Here are a couple of pictures of my way too messy studio. I need to do some work in here. I need to get some new shelves, too.


I never did get Dave to bring my rolling chair down, so I brought down a lightweight folding chair. I really need the rolling one to be comfortable to quilt for a long period of time...

I did it!

I located my basting spray and I basted a quilt today. I am so happy. My sewing room is still a mess. I couldn't find a chair in the basement to use, so I fixed a border seam while standing at the sewing machine. (My rolling chair for my machine is upstairs and I would never hear the end of it if I carried a chair down two flights of stairs in my condition.) Of course, the basement now has a little bit of basting spray smell since it is raining and I couldn't baste on the back patio. But who cares? I can quilt tomorrow!

Next Saturday I am going to a Tea with Betty Pillsbury at Fiber on a Whim. Having never been to Fiber on a Whim, I am very excited about seeing this shop. It is sponsored by The Contemporary Quilts and Fiber Arts Alliance. I went to their opening meeting a month or so ago. I had to miss the second meeting because of swim team. Their next meeting is July 11th. I am going to have to convince Rebecca to go shopping with me for the supplies because I am confused by the supply list.

Where Have I Been Hiding?

I ran into Rebecca at the doctor's office the other day and she wanted to know if I had gone underground. And then I posted to Debra's blog and she wanted to know where I have been hiding. I have been enjoying the saga of Rian's new house, and am glad Jim is feeling better. So, here is what's up...

We moved into the new house three weeks ago. Boy is it great, although still predominantly purple. The boys rooms are blue. (Thank goodness for professional painters!) The house is much bigger, which means the kids can spread out. The ceilings are higher, which means more stairs, and a tighter behind from climbing them. (Don't I wish?) The sewing room is a huge mess. I would post a picture but I am not sure where the digital camera is. I WILL spend some time down there this weekend getting things organized and quilting a quilt top that has been done for ages. (I hope I can find the basting spray this afternoon. The top is basted to the batting, but not the backing, yet. Oh crap, I have to find the iron, too... Who wants to iron when it is 97 degree outside?)

I have been hiding at soccer camp and swim team practice. My boys went to soccer camp for a week. It was local, so it was a day camp, although my younger son wanted to spend the night at the Y. The 5 year old's camp was 9-noon, and the 11 year old's camp was 9-4. Needless to say, he was wiped at the end of the day. Swim team has been going on since before school let out. It will be over next week. Except the week of soccer camp, we have been at swim team practice every week day. The week of soccer camp, on the swim meet night, my oldest played soccer from 9-4, and then jumped in the pool for warm ups at 5:15. In between, he ate a banana, a bagel, a power bar, a Snickers bar, and drank 32 ounces of Gatorade. I was very proud that he swam the IM ( a lap of each of the four strokes nonstop) without drowning or even coming in last. So, I have been really busy with the kids.

We also had middle school orientation this week. Am I old enough to have a kid going to middle school? I guess so, although I bet I was the youngest parent in the room at the orientation lunch today... This orientation program is unique to this middle school, as far as I can tell. It was 9-12 every day this week. They did activities to get to know the other kids. They also worked on some study skills and learning about the school. I think it was a great program to help lower the anxiety level of starting middle school. And, since we only paid $10 for the entire week, which included lunch for the entire family today and a snack for my son every day, I am pretty sure the teachers did this out of the goodness of their hearts and did not get paid. So thank you to the teachers and staff.

I have broken out the EQ5 that I got for my birthday. I have been having fun designing a quilt for one of our swim team coaches. He attends the Univeristy of Georgia, so I am working on a red and black quilt. Being a Georgia Tech alumnae, this task has been interesting.

This picture from EQ5 looks pretty bad. I don't think I have the hang of things, yet. I mean, I like the quilt, I just don't think I have the exporting pictures thing down. Oh, and it has a solid black border, too.

Well, that is the news from here. I am going to try to get back into life now. I still have boxes everywhere. Some of them will stay packed until all of the painting is done. Some may never get unpacked. Some get unpacked as we need them.

One more thing... The day my daughter was born, one of my friends, whose son is our swim team coach, died of ovarian cancer. I recently discovered that the day my daughter was admitted to Scottish Rite Hospital this spring was that friend's birthday. My daughter's life was saved by a miracle that night. I think Linda, my late friend, is her guardian angel. My daughter has always loved our swim team coach, and still goes to him, even though she is going through that stranger anxiety thing. There is a definite connection there. It is that coach for whom the UGA quilt will be made...

Miss Shirley's Shrine

Rebecca posted Miss Shirley's Shrine on her blog. My son had Miss Shirley a couple of years ago and we love her, too. Now to start on my vertebrae one...

It's Almost Summer

This is the last week of school. I have two kids "graduating" this year. One is finishing elementary school, and one is finishing preschool. Since we are moving in two weeks, Friday will be our last day to be associated with this elementary school. For six years I have been volunteering at this school, and I am sad to leave it. Many times I have started to call the principal to see if my younger son could go to this school as a transfer student. But then I decided we all have to bloom where we are planted, even when we are transplanted. I talked to the president of our PTA District and she said she would help me get involved at the new school. I just think the more involved the parents are, the more the child can get out of school. My parents were always volunteering for everything, so my sisters and I follow in their footsteps.

I have done nothing of a quilty variety in ages. After we move, I will get back into it. I have been doing some planning of quilts. I see a shrine quilt in my immediate future for a friend who is facing surgery and months of rehab starting tomorrow. My friend Rebecca made a beautiful one for a preschool teacher facing breast cancer and my idea is growing off of hers. Maybe when she reads this post she will post a picture of hers. I also see my first political quilt shaping up on paper. I am getting a lot of encouragement on this front from quilting friends and those who hear my rants. Maybe they think getting it in cloth might shut me up. I just think it will get me strange looks from some of those who enter our house. However, I am used to that.

Our old house has not sold, yet, but we do have some people seriously looking. Keep your fingers crossed. We are going to get the painters started on a couple of rooms in the new house. We simply cannot move the boys into purple floral bedrooms. It might scar them for life. I still cannot decide on the main color for the house, so that will be put on hold until we move in. Until I decide, we cannot decide on carpet or new countertops or anything like that. I think I am just going to have to move in and live in it for a while. Who knows? Maybe Debra was right and I might just decide to keep some of the purple. I do think the peacocks in the dining room will have to go...

To See What I Did

To see how I spent Friday, check out my friend Rebecca's blog. She does some incredible work, and she is starting a new guild this week. I am going to my first guild meeting ever. I had a blast with Sharon and Rebecca on Friday. I hope we can get together to experiment on a regular basis. I would never think to do these things on my own, but with those two, I think I may get more adventurous.

My son had middle school orientation this week. Boy did that make me feel old. However, he is very excited about it, and has started wearing his middle school t-shirt. He is already talking about what activities he wants to do including art club, the school paper, and band. Did my middle school even have a paper? I don't remember. We did have a band.

Until next time...

Fell Off the Planet

I really feel like I fell off the planet last week. On Easter, my daughter was admitted to the ICU at Scottish Rite/Children's Healthcare of Atlanta due to severe hypoglycemia and dehydration from an unknown stomach virus. The next 48 hours were spent in the hospital with her, except the three I spent across the street being rehydrated myself. Anyway, we were both given excellent care, and the whole family is healthy again. And, even though I know they aren't reading this blog, I want to thank all the doctors and nurses that worked on and with my baby. They were all great!

More later....

A MeMe

Amy had this on her blog. I thought it was interesting...

You go to Wikipedia and enter your birthday in the search box - just the day, not the year. It pops up with all sorts of things that happened on that day in various years. You list three events, three births, and three deaths that have occurred throughout history on your birthday. My day is February 12.

Events...
1733 - Englishman James Oglethorpe founds the 13th and final American colony of Georgia, and its first city at Savannah. (I put this one because I live in Georgia now.)
1924 - Premiere of George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue with Paul Whiteman's Palais Royal Orchestra in Aeolian Hall in New York City
1973 - Ohio becomes the first U.S. state to post distance in SI units on signs. (Being a scientist, I love SI units...)

Births...
1775 - Louisa Adams, First Lady of the United States, wife of John Quincy Adams (d. 1852)
1809 - Abraham Lincoln, 16th President of the United States (d. 1865) (Both a first lady and a President share my birthday.)
1970 - Jim Creeggan, Canadian bassist (Barenaked Ladies) (I love the Barenaked Ladies.)

Deaths...
1554 - Lady Jane Grey, claimant to the throne of England (executed) (b. 1537)
1789 - Ethan Allen, American patriot (b. 1738)
1971 - James C. Penney, American department store founder (b. 1875)

I thought it was fun. Anyone else want to try?

Four UFO's

Ok, here are my four UFO's for the four UFO challenge.

1. Picnic quilt with heart fabric
2. Niece's quilt
3. Brown Bag Lady quilt
4. Backpack

Ok, the last one is not a quilt, but it is a quilted backpack that I bought the fabric for ages ago. On my niece's quilt, I need to baste and quilt it. The picnic quilt I have the pattern and the fabric for. Since Wes picked #3, I will do the Brown Bag Lady quilt first. The top is done. The top is actually spray basted to the batting. The backing is put together and starched, ready to be basted. I even own the quilting thread.

I will get pictures of them soon. I need to get new batteries for the camera. I had to take the batteries out of the tv remote to take the picture of Ketchup...Snowflakes...

House stuff... Traffic is picking up. We put in new countertops. I really think it is just a matter of timing right now. I know I have over a year before I have to really start worrying. I am having fun seeing how much money I can not spend and how much I can save.

Dave started talking about completely remodeling the kitchen in the new house. I just looked at him like he was crazy. I would like to replace the oven and microwave with a conventional oven/convection oven/microwave combination like my older sister has. I think we will get the cabinets refaced. Although, the other new neighbors had their cabinets replaced, and Dave thinks I will want to do that as soon as I see her kitchen. I am not the type that has to keep up with the Joneses, but we will see. Anyway, we have decided we will move to the new house the first week of June, even if we haven't sold this one. So I need to get back on the wallpaper removal.

Spring Break

I am very excited that it is Spring Break. We aren't going anywhere. Well, we will hang out at the new house a lot so the kids can get to know any neighbors who are also hanging around. We will go to Ledo's Pizza one day. And maybe we will go to the zoo. Maybe not, though. It depends on the weather, which is rather severe right now. I just heard the siren go off.

Quilting-wise, I am going to do March's journal page this week. I finished my Winter Art Image Challenge, although I will probably add some more quilting to it.

"Ketchup is our Vegetable, Snowflakes are our Drugs"
By Julie Runyan Kokan

When I got to making the snowflakes, it reminded me of my senior year of high school. I worked in the school's writing tutoring center one period a day with a bunch of friends. We were the students that were going to schools like Wellesley, Stanford, Georgia Tech, Smith, Williams, and some of the better out of state state schools. So needless to say, that winter was a nailbiting time for many of us. (Not me, I got into the engineering program at Virginia Tech at the beginning of October, but I was still nervous for all my friends.) So we would sit around second period and cut out snowflakes to decorate the room. We didn't do drugs, which were prevalent in our school, but we made snowflakes. I went to middle and high school (and part of elementary school) during the Reagan era. He decided that ketchup could be counted as a vegetable for school lunches. Of course, I am sure he was advised by many people that it would be ok. Most of us were liberals and campaigning for Gore's primary run at the time. Although we had a few Republicans who were working on the Dole Primary Campaign. Anyway, the title of this piece came from an essay someone wrote during that time.

The snowflakes are made the old fashioned way by folding a circle 12 times and cutting it out. They aren't perfect, like real snowflakes. And a couple of them were cut out by my five year old. But it was so much fun and so relaxing. I learned it was better to cut them AFTER removing the paper from the fusible web. I have never made a fusible quilt before, and I found it liberating.

The other thing I will do quilt-wise is make my list of 4 UFO's to finish for the 4 UFO Challenge on the Quilt Studio. I will list them, and then pick them out of a hat so that I will randomly choose the #3 to start with. I need to be in the studio to pick the UFO's, though, and they are at the new house right now.

It's Friday! Yipee!

I am so excited for the weekend to come. I get to go to a soccer game tomorrow and see my kid play goalie. I get to play tennis on Sunday. My mother-in-law is in town for the weekend. I get to go shopping with her tomorrow. She is staying with one of my brothers-in-law because our spare bed has been moved to the new house. It is going to be a nice weekend, even if it is cold... Oh, and we are having a cookout with my husband's brothers and their wives tomorrow. I am making potato salad. I think I make a great potato salad.

If you want to see a wonderful quilt, visit Debra's blog. I love this quilt.

I had a doctor's appointment this morning. I arrived in the area about 30 minutes early. You can never tell how long it will take you to get somewhere in Atlanta traffic. I decided I needed a Starbucks hot chocolate. I couldn't find a Starbucks. So they aren't on every corner. I didn't need to spend that $3 anyway...

Traffic has picked up at the old house. Hopefully it will sell soon. Two other houses in our neighborhood are under contract, both listed by our realtor. Keep us in your prayers.

People are Bugging Me These Days

I think I am becoming more intolerant with every day. I realize being hormonal is making me worse, but I am not sure that is the whole reason. I think I am over stupid people. I have had to stop reading two quilting forums that I used to read because I cannot stand to read what these people write. Even in the quilting only sections, people write the craziest things. I am glad Debra created the Quilt Studio on Delphi forums. I am learning a lot from these women.

I need to do my March journal quilt. It will be late. I am working hard on my first Art Image Challenge quilt, which I am determined to keep small. I am also determined to use some metallic thread on it, which I have never done before. Keep your fingers crossed.

On a totally different subject, I have joined a neighborhood tennis team. I am having a blast, although every once in a while I want a beer with the rest of the girls. That won't be happening for a number of months. My tennis is getting better. Maybe I will win a match in the next 6 weeks. Who cares. It will be fun anyway.

Snowflakes

My son and I made snowflakes yesterday. I made them out of fabric and he used the paper from the fusible web to make his. It was great fun until I realized that we had run out of trash bags and had no where to put the "droppings." Well, many of them vacuumed up and the rest we put in a grocery bag. Then we went and bought trash bags. The snowflakes are not perfect, but they are a lot of fun.

This is my first Art Image Challenge, and I am a little intimidated. I think I am probably one of the youngest and least experienced quilter in the group. That said, this group of women seems nice and supportive. Anyway, I have a lot of work to do before Tuesday...

On my agenda for tomorrow is to get my printer/scanner/photocard reader/etc. back on a computer. I miss being able to download pictures from my camera at the click on a mouse. Hopefully I can get some pictures of the snowflakes....

Fusing

I just realized that I haven't posted in a long time. My life has totally turned upside down in the last couple of weeks. But I have a handle on things now. So back to my regularly scheduled life...

I started working on the Art Image Challenge for March. I decided not to go with the discharge dying and go with fusing instead. I have this insane need for snowflakes to have strict six fold symmetry. I think it is the engineer in me. I took classes in both undergraduate and graduate school about x-ray diffraction. X-ray diffraction is a technique used to study crystals. Many solids are made up of crystals, including metals and ceramics. X-rays are beamed at a surface, and the angle and intesity at which they bounce off gives a lot of information about a material. You can also difffract electrons. Anyway, symmetry is very important in using diffraction to study a material. Symmetry also plays a huge role in material properties. So the fact that snowflakes have six fold symmetry may seem like a trivial thing, but to me it is not.

I could not get the precision I wanted with the discharge dying. Perhaps if I took a lot of time and perfected the technique, I could get the precision I want. So I decided to just make snowflakes and Wonder-Under them. (I did a lot of reading on Melody Johnsons's Fibermania about fusing.) I am not a fuser, so this is also new to me. And I need something to keep me occupied over the next couple of days while my oldest is on his first overnight field trip.

I have learned about a new store called Fiber on a Whim that I am wanting to visit. I am planning a trip to see the quilt show in Roswell at Bulloch Hall this week. I have never been to that one, but a friend asked me to go with her.

Ok, some little hands are wanting to help me type now, so I will stop.

A Couple of Days Off

After finishing my February journal quilt, I decided to take a couple of days off before starting my Artimage Challenge design in earnest. I actually have the design in my head. I just have to translate it to fabric. Probably should put it on a large piece of newsprint paper just to make sure I like it before starting with fabric.

I have mentioned in the past that I am fascinated with knitting. My reward for getting down to my healthy weight is to take a knitting class. Well, I have 8 more pounds to go. However, when I stopped in Michael's to get some supplies for my February JQ, I saw these crazy knitting looms.
My son's teacher has been busily making hats and scarves on one and the hats and scarves are adorable. Since they were on sale, I picked up a set. I made a cute little hat for my son. He loves it. It is totally mindless, although I am thinking of adding some design elements now. I just need to get more yarn.

I would post a picture of the hat, but we sold our big computer desk. So now I am at the kitchen desk and my printer/card reader/everything else machine does not fit. Later, I will put it on another machine that will share it with me. I just haven't gotten around to it.

So, did it satisfy my need for knitting? Not really, but I am having a blast with it. There are so many fun yard choices out there. It was easy, mindless, and my kids liked helping me. I went back today and got another set for my niece, and my friend who came with me got a set for her daughter. I think I will start another hat...

February Journal Quilt Reveal

Continuing the water theme, here is my February Journal Challenge Quilt. The picture in the quilt is from our visit to the new Georgia Aquarium last month. It was taken in the coral reef exhibit, which brought back great memories of snorkeling off St. John two years ago. I printed the picture directly onto the fabric using the Printed Treasures fabric sheets. I am going to get some Bubble Jet Set to try next time. Although it does not show up in this picture, it is quilted with a varigated rayon thread that mas the colors of the coral reef--greens, pinks, yellow, blues...
This is the back. I stamped fish onto it using acrylic paint. I have used rubber stamps before, but never in a quilt, so that was new to me. My kids had fun helping me with this part.

So why make this quilt? Our trip to the aquarium was right before we bought the new house. Lots of changes have come to our lives since that trip. So this quilt represents the end of our old life. Next month's will find a way to represent the change to our new life. Maybe a waterfall...

February Journal Quilt

I have decided to use a picture from our aquarium trip for my February piece. It seems like that was the last normal weekend we have had. We bought the new house the next week and I feel like I am living in two places and not having everything I need at either. What a pain. My sewing room is at the new house because I just couldn't keep it in show condition at this house. So now I have to find time to go over there to finish the rest of this month's piece. It will get done, just not as easy at it would if my machine was not 7 miles away from me. Not to mention my fabric. However, the picture has been transferred to the fabric. Michaels is between the two houses so I can pick up the supplies to stamp on the rest of the piece on the way over there. Just need to get everyone dressed and ready to move. Oh, and get them to not want me to buy them a bunch of stuff in Michaels.

Here is the picture I am using....
Next month's piece is going to have to be about change...

Children's Books

Jen had this on her blog...

1. Name your 3 favorite children's series.
2. Name your 3 favorite non-series children's books.
3. Name 3 favorite children's books characters.

Favorite children's series...
1. Harry Potter because I think it got so many people reading. It also got my dad and son closer when they were standing in the Denver airport and my dad said, "Look at all these muggles." My son decided then and there that my dad was the coolest grandparent ever. And he tells people that all the time.
2. The Little House books, well the original ones. I haven't read the Caroline series, etc that they have come out with that are prequels to the Laura series.
3. Trixie Belden series. I know, not very high brow, but a lot of fun to read. I read them all a bunch of times. My sister has all our copies, and I read them every time I go to her house. (Not all of them, but some each time.)

Honorable mentions:
Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans
Babar byJean De Brunhoff
Berenstain Bears by Stan and Jan Berenstain
The Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket
The Keeping Days by Norma Johston
Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
Harriet the Spy by Louise Fitzhugh



Favorite Non-series Children's Books
1. The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kippling
2. Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
3. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

Honorable mentions:
The Tenth Good Thing About Barney by Judith Viorst
Jacob have I Loved by Katherine Patterson
Bears in the Night by Stan and Jan Berenstain
The Wonderous Star by Joanne Marxhausen
Anything by Eric Carle or Bill Martin, Jr.
The Little Prince (so much better in French) by St. Exupery


Favorite Children's Book Characters
1. Madeline because she is a redhead and "To the lion in the zoo, Madeline just said 'Poo Poo.'"
2. Laura Ingalls because she was middle child, too
3. Harriet the Spy because she had gumption

Today and Tomorrow

We rented a truck today and moved a bunch of stuff over to the new house. Dave and I didn't discuss everything we moved and we ended up moving some stuff that I planned to get rid of. Oh well, I just recycled it over there instead of over here. It was all my old notes from college and grad school. I kept the notes from the calls in which I met Dave. But other than that, I got rid of everything. So now I have a bunch of empty three ring binders. I will have to fill them with my quilting stuff...

My entire sewing room was moved. Tomorrow I will spend the day unpacking it and sorting it out. And deciding how to light the new room. Dave has promised to help me get better lighting in there.

I will take pictures if I remember to bring the camera.

Before Pictures

I thought I would show you some of the before pictures. My husband said to be sure to say we really love the layout of the house and there are some great points to it before I show you all the things we are changing to make it our home. He thinks you all will just think we were insane for buying it if I don't point out some good points...

I really love this kitchen. It has a ton of counter space and, although you cannot see it in this picture, a great eating area that has windows on three sides and looks out over the wooded backyard. This kitchen was a big selling point with me. Oh, and the cabinets go to the ceiling so I don't have that dust catching area above them.

I also love this office area/laundry room/mud room off the kitchen. This built in desk will be great for a computer that I can check my email on during the day.
Now, here is a close up of the wallpaper in the kitchen. First let me say, I am sure it is beautiful wallpaper. I am sure there are many people out there who love it, or the wallpaper company wouldn't have made it. It just is not my style.
Here is the dining room chandeliere. This fixture will be replaced as soon as the painting is done. No need to have a new one in there while we are painting.
This picture actually does not do it justice. You cannot see all the spikey branches. Also, it has been painted gold. Gold is not its original color. I am not a gold fixture person, so there are a lot of fixtures in the house that need to be changed including all the door knobs, cabinet pulls, faucets, and shower heads.

Here is a close up of the wallpaper in the dining room.
These peacocks have a lot of detail on them that you cannot see in this small picture. I cannot imagine having turkey in a room with these on the wall. However, I am beginning to see how they could be used in a quilt... Too bad there is no peacock fabric on the drapes...

One last room--the powder room. This paper is what is on the walls:
And here is the ceiling...
I just don't know about having people on the wall in the powder room. It seems like it would ruin any sense of privacy.

So, as you can see, we have a lot of work to do. However, I am so excited about this house. We have met some neighbors and they are great. It is going to be a great move for us.

A Weekend at the New House

This is part of the cover from the latest Mechanical Engineering magazine, which is produced by the American Society for Mechanical Engineers. My husband gets this magazine. I had two thoughts when I saw it... First, wow, there are a lot more women engineers these days if they can put a knitting analogy on the cover of ASME's magazine. Second, I thought, knitting is really becoming mainstream again and perhaps quilting is going by the wayside...

We spent most of the weekend at the new house taking down wallpaper. Dave would take it down and I followed behind with the spackle. I am pretty good at spackling as I spent a few summers repairing houses in Appalachia with my church group. I am going to go back over there this afternoon and work some more. The wallpaper is not coming down very easily as it was put up on unprimed drywall.

I did sneak away for an hour to go to the Super Bowl sale at my local quilt store. The store changed owners on February 1st. I am reserving judgement on if that was a good or bad thing. I liked the old owner. I have met the new owner and she seems very sweet. She was nice to my kids, who tend to go shopping with me. (They were with me earlier in the week, not for the sale.) While I certainly think quilt store owners have the right not to love my kids, it makes my life easier if they do. I don't like to take them into stores where they are not welcome. It is not that I won't shop there, I just don't do it with the kids. But, back to the new owner, the employees like her. They say she is not making major changes. I wonder if she'll show up at Wool Club on Wednesday. Here is what I bought...



And a fun thing... My oldest is trying out for the talent show at school. I loved being on stage when I was young. I hope he loves it, too. He is doing a skit with half the boys in his class. The music teacher, who also the dad of one of the boys, is helping them with it. What a fun thing for him and for me.

Oh, I forgot to read The Artist's Way this week. Too much other excitement going on. I will complete the book this week. Next I want to read something about color and quilting.

New Home

I have to say I am very excited about our new home. We are allowed in Thursday at 5, so we will be eating dinner there that night. And then Friday night we promised the kids we could camp out there. We will not be moving in for a while. Every wall needs at least paint. Most walls are wallpapered, so they need to have wallpaper stripped before painting. We figure the work will be easier without our furniture in place. The carpet also needs to be replaced. While I am sure it is beautifully decorated, it is just not my style.

On top of all the decorating issues, the basement has high levels of radon gas. We are having a mitigation system installed next week, which will solve the problem. The homeowner was apalled that they did not know about the radon gas while they were raising their kids there. And the realtor just about had a cow because she used to own the house across the street, which also has a radon issue. Anyway, the mitigation system continuously monitors the radon level in the basement and sends it to the rado monitoring company. Their work is guaranteed for the life of the house, so if it is ever out of whack, they will come fix it. It also has a display on it so we can always know the radon gas level.

Our current house is on the market, but not under contract, yet. I am sure it will sell soon. It is in good shape, although the kitchen could be updated. We may do a little work on the kitchen to help the marketability. (Is that a word?) I am not all that worried about it. Well, maybe a little.

The new house is bigger and in a different school district. Both of those were factors in deciding to buy that house. We bought our current house when we were in our 20's and only had 1 child. Now we are in our mid-thirties and have three kids. Our needs and, quite frankly our income are different now. I love the floor plan, as it emphesizes the family room and really has a very small formal living room. Actually, I think the living room is probably bigger than I imagined because the sellers had a baby grand piano in there. My small cabinet upright piano will take up a lot less room. The living room also has a fake fireplace, and I am not sure what that is about. We'll see what I do with that. Back to the family room, it is large, has a fireplace, and windows that look out over the wooded backyard. It also has French doors onto the large deck. Since we have kids, we spend a lot of time in the family room.

Our current house was built in 1975, which means it has a lacking master bath. The new house has an incredible master bath, if you look beyond the purple plaid wallpaper and purple carpet. I plan to tile the bathroom floor. I know everyone says they never use their jetted tub. However, I am a bath person, and I am sure I will use it. (I'll get back to you in a couple of months...) The master bedroom has a fireplace, which I think is romantic. But, I am not sure how much we will use it. I have this idea in mind to have a fake bearskin run in front of the fireplace. My husband just rolls his eyes. Maybe I do have a little bit of romance in me...

The house has 4 1/2 baths, which is two more than we have now. I have told the kids it is time they learned to clean bathrooms. The seller offered me the name of her cleaning lady, but I think I will still be cleaning myself...

The seller had a room in the basement where she made and furnished doll houses. It has great light and she was delighted that I would be moving my quilting stuff in there.

I am hoping to entertain a little more in the new house. It has a great set up for that. Of course, it will be a while before we are ready for that. I am hoping to do a big party at Christmas.

After Thursday, I will have pictures to show you. Keep your fingers crossed that someone will buy our house soon.

Chapter 10 Check In

I found all the stuff about avoiding creating very interesting. I do tend to start the laundry, oh and do the dishes, and take out the trash... Well, you get it. I am not a workaholic because I don't have a job. I do have my kids, but they nap and go to school, so I do have some time. I probably cook dinner to avoid working on things sometimes.

Nothing I do would win a competition. However, I have seen a number of my high school friends/aquaintainces making careers out of being creative. One friend is a set designer for off-Broadway productions. Another person I knew in high school is an Oscar nominated actor. One of my best friends has 3 piano CD's out for which she not only played the music, she composed it all. So, I do see myself as being behind them. However, I also don't see myself as being the next Jinny Beyer, either, so I am pretty sure my quilting goals do not equal their goals for their art.

I do know that my t-shirt quilt has gotten many compliments and I will be receiving some more t-shirt quilt business. The person for whom I made it says everyone comments on how unique it is.

Artist's Date this week... I went to the quilt store and got fabric for my first Art Image challenge. I also shopped on-line for fun fabric paiints and some anti-chlor. That was all done in one afternoon, so I kind of see it as an Artisit's Date.

We closed on the new house today. It still does not feel real as we don't take possession until Thursday. The closing went very smoothly, for which I am grateful. Now to start taking down wallpaper...

Discharge Dying

I decided yesterday to try discharge dying. I don't know why I suddenly wanted to try it, but I did. I was thinking of using it in the first Art Image Challenge of the year. I had a Clorox Bleach Pen that I was going to use to do the bathroom floor, but then I didn't need it. So I pulled out a bunch of different fabrics. I did a wet and a dry sample of each. Then, while they were bleaching, I thought I would do some research. It turns out, I needed something called anti-chlor to make the bleaching process stop and keep my fabric from getting brittle. So I ordered it from Dharma Trading Company. (While on the website, I ordered some DynaFlow paints, too, like Jenny used in her first journal piece...) I rinsed them in water after I was done bleaching, and then threw them in the dryer.

I am not displeased with the results. My technique needs a little refining. Having the fabric wet kept the bleach from bleeding a lot. I think I will try using contact paper as a mask and spraying the bleach, too. But, I definately see how this could work into my first Art Image piece.

I look at the painting and see millions of individual snow crystals, all with hexagonal symmetry. I think that is what I am gong to explore for my piece. I have been researching snow crystals, and it is fascinating.

January Journal Quilt

Here is my finished January Journal Quilt. It actually is rectangular. It just didn't photograph that way. I'll try to take a better picture later and change it out.

It is all hand appliqued, which would explain why I was still working on it at midnight last night. The fish are all buttons. One of my kids helped put them on. I am on there rock climbing, relaxing on the beach (listening to Clay Aiken, according to Beth), and riding in a hot air balloon. The whole time I was working on this piece, Tim McGraw's song, "Live Like You Were Dying" was running through my head. I have no desire to sky dive, but I have hiked in the Rockies, and would love to again.

After visiting the Georgia Aquarium this morning, I have changed my overall journal quilts theme. Now it is water, so this one still fits in the theme.

You All and Your Magazines

I have been on a magazine buying freeze. But then I saw Quilting Arts at the grocery one day and had to have it. And then I read on someone's blog about Cloth Paper Scissors, and someone else mentioned Sumerset Studio. So I thought I would look when I was in JoAnn's today getting fish buttons. The two magazines had to come home with me along with Inspirations.

There was a huge back-up on the highway due to a broken-down tractor trailer, so I went the back way home. The back way goes right by the quilt store. One of my favorite quilters is teaching a class next month on fabric postcards. Now, I know I do not need to take a class on fabric postcards. But I love this teacher's style of just about everything she does. So I am going to take Melinda's class just because I want to be inspired. I stopped to register for the class and there was a new Designers' Quarters right by the register. It came home with me, too.

So now I think I am set with magazines for a while. Good thing these only come out quarterly...

January Journal Quilt Again and Chapter 8

Here is the background for my journal piece. I just laid it on top of the scanner and scanned. It looks a little different in real life, but not much. The colors are a little light in real life. Next I will add the trees. I am not sure how that will go. I will probably do it while watching tv. I am happy that I am on-track to finish it by my reveal date, next Saturday.

The funny thing about this week is that Chapter 8 of The Artist's Way is about time and I took it to heart. I think the central message was , "Stop fretting, stop planning, start doing." So that is what I did with this piece. I just went downstairs and started cutting and sewing. And I am very pleased with the results.

I love the idea of "Fill in the Form." Now, being an engineer, I first thought about it in terms of concrete. In order to build a structure, you have to start by building the foundation. Many buildings have a concrete foundation built by filling in molds called forms. Then I realized that Ms. Cameron wouldn't be thinking that way, but the analogy still worked. I like the idea of taking life one step at a time. Of course, I am not that type of person. In high school, I had my entire life planned out. Guess what? It didn't work out. I fell in love and had kids, neither of which were in my plan. I am not unhappy that I did either, though. This week I worked on just taking the next step. It will be a hard lesson to learn, but a very good one.

More on my Journal Quilt

I have the ocean appliqued down now. I used hand applique because I have a mental block against machine applique. Not that I am some sort of purist who thinks applique should only be done by hand. I have a personal block against it. I have actually tried machine applique a few times. I should take a class or buy a book. If anyone has any machine applique book suggestions, I would love to hear them.

I actually had a fun time doing the ocean. Next comes the mountain. I plan to do that during the Redskins' game this afternoon. I have not yet figured out how to do the trees, but I guess I had better hurry since it is due next Saturday. I am thinking of doing the Julies like paper dolls. I was thinking of using Timtex to make little people and then fusing fabric on them to dress them. I am going to try to find some fish buttons this week and perhaps some bird buttons, too. I have never added buttons, or beads or any sort of embellishment like that to a quilt, and I think it is high time I started.

Becky in Suriname completed her January Journal Quilt, and it is wonderful. I love the thread painting and want to try that myself someday.

Journal Quilt for January

Here is a sketch of my January Journal Quilt. There will be four little Julies on this quilt. One will be scuba diving, one will be snorkeling, one will be rock/mountain climbing, and the final one will be in a hot air balloon. Ok, French Impressionist I am not, but I get the idea from this picture. I think a lot of my journal pieces are going to have the ocean on them. I think I am just a beach bum at heart.

A new meme

Jen of Bayou Quilts tagged me to do this...

Four jobs you've had: concessions at the Columbia Cinemas, a salesperson in a vintage clothes shop, graduate student, engineer
Four movies you could watch over and over: Remember the Titans, Steel Magnolias, Varsity Blues, Field of Dreams
Four places you've lived: College Park, MD, Columbia, MD, Blacksburg, VA, Atlanta, GA
Four TV shows you love to watch: West Wing, Boston Legal, Two and a Half Men, Gilmore Girls
Four Places You've Been on Vacation: London, The Soviet Union (back when it was The Soviet Union,) Isle of Palms, SC, Disney World
Four Websites You Visit Every Day: About.com quilting forum, a number of blogs
Four Of Your Favorite Foods: French fries with ketchup, chicken salad, pizza from Ledos, shrimp
Four Places You'd Rather Be: The Beach, London, St. John, USVI, Disney World
Four Albums you can't live without: REM Eponymous, Jill Palmer's Wings to Fly, Jimmy Buffet's Songs You Know by Heart, and my new favorite is the soundtrack from Jersey Boys
Four People you'll pass this on to: Anyone else want to play? We did something like this when we started The Artist's Way and it helped to get to know each other.

Chapter 7 Check In

I, too, enjoyed chapter 7. I think there is a little perfectionist in all of us. I also think there is a little jealousy in all of us. Maybe jealousy is too strong of a word, but other people have things that I would enjoy. Am I dying of envy? No. But I do think that wanting things helps us grow as people.

I will admit to fogetting my morning pages all week. The kids were still off school and I kind of forgot I wasn't on vacation from my entire life, too. That said, I will start them again in the morning. Really, I will.

I threw caution to the wind and joined the Art Image Challenge for next year. I want the practice. I also came up with a design for the Hoffman Challenge. Now, I realize my quilting is not good enough to win the Hoffman Challenge. I do not say that to put myself down. I have not been quilting very long. With young kids at home, I certainly do not have a lot of time to quilt. But I am working on it. And participating in these things will allow me to have a set goal and just get something down.

I got all excited about the collage until I realized that I have recycled all the excess magazines in the house in order to get it clean, to show. The only one we receive in the mail is Mechanical Engineering. Somehow I don't think it has the pictures I need. I was going to use Sophie's idea and get pictures off the internet, but time slipped away. I think I will go raid the magazine recylcing bin at the school, tear out the pictures and then return the magazines. (Really, that wouldn't be wrong, would it?) Or I may take the time this afternoon to find some pictures on the internet.

Synchronicity... My life has been full of it lately. It turns out, the assistant set director of the production of Wicked that I saw, was a friend of mine in middle and high school. And he is opening a company in Atlanta. His website is not set up enough for me to contact him yet, but I will as soon as I can get the contact information. I really just want to tell him how much I enjoyed the performance and am looking forward to the Atlanta production this spring. We'll see what happens. I also got a Christmas card from another high school friend, Jill Palmer. She is a pianist whose music I love. She now lives close to my parents so I am hoping to see her next time I visit them. Earlier this year I read on her website about her tour of hospices. I had given her cd to a friend of mine who was dying of ovarian cancer. And I thought, "Wow. How serendipitous." (It was before I was introduced to the word synchronicity.) I e-mailed her and she e-mailed back and that was the end of it. However, I wanted to send her a Christmas card, but I didn't have an address. Sure enough, she had mine from sending me the cd and I got her card with her address.

For my Artist's Date I went to Borders. I am a book junkie. I got Eats, Shoots, and Leaves by Lynne Truss and Eight Minutes in the Morning by Jorge Cruise. The former is about punctuation and the latter is a fitness book. I had read about him in Oprah's magazine and did his exercises for quite a while in the spring. Then Barbara mentioned him on the Quilter's Lounge. I am excited about adding his exercises to my walking routine starting tomorrow morning.

On to week eight...

American Gothic Challenge

There is a group on the About.com quilting forum who designed quilts based on different works of art this year. It is called the ARTImage Challenge. I did not participate, but read the posts and looked at the new works of art as they were revealed. The October challenge was the famous picture American Gothic.

When this challenge was announced, I was taking a trip with my dad to the family farm. My grandmother has gotten too old to live there by herself, so we helped her move into a retirement home and auction off some of her stuff and a small parcel of land and the buildings. Part of this farm has belonged to my family since the late 1700's as payment for fighting in the Revolution. We still own that part.

Do to this coincidence of events, I decided to take on the American Gothic challenge. This piece is the first time I have worked as an artist instead of a crafter, and I can feel the difference. Making the quilt did not take very long. Designing it and getting over the hump of actually starting it with some sort of confidence took a long time for me. It was going to have more stuff on it, like a farm house, barn, silo, sheep, etc. I decided I like it better plain.

Runyan Farm
by Julie Kokan
15x15 inches

This quilt depicts my dad as a little boy feeding a lamb named Oscar Pepper. What you don't see in the picture is that as soon as the lamb finished the bottle he turned around and knocked my dad down. I found this picture in the house the night before the auction and knew I had to do something with it.

This picture was my first ever attempt at putting a picture onto fabric. I did it the expensive way with the Printed Treasures. Although it worked great, I will buy some Bubble Jet Set when I run out of the fabric sheets. However, I wanted something easy that I knew would work for my first attempt at this process.

I think this quilt will be the first in a series. I am working on getting a picture of my mom when she was little to make a similar one of her. She grew up in the city, so I am thinking of more of city background for hers. From there, I will go to my husband's parents.

I hope you all enjoy my first foray in to art.

Catching Up

I had a wonderful Christmas in Chicago. I visited my sister and her family there. My brother-in-law got us tickets to "Wicked" which I loved. I am going to start reading the book this week, although I am sure the book and musical are different. If you have not heard of "Wicked," it is about the lives of the Witches of Oz before Dorothy so unceremoniously plopped her house down on one of them. I loved it. Did I mention that?

I also got to have dinner at the American Girl Place. What a lovely evening, and a great way to expose young girls to formal dining, but in a friendly setting. Great food. Great time had by all, including Elizabeth and Felicity, the dolls who came with us. They even bring the dolls food and drink. It would be very easy to spend a fortune in that place.

I have decided on a theme for the Journal Quilts Challenge. I am going to do a verb of the month. January's verb will be Live. February's will be Love. That's as far as I've gotten. My plan is to start designing today for January.

I bought my first Quilting Arts magazine yesterday at the grocery. I have never seen it at the grocery before. I feel like a little synchronicity was at work there as I have been avoinding the magazine section recently because magazines are definately a "latte factor" for me. What a cool magazine. I am going to subscribe as a birthday present to myself.

Thursday....

I cannot believe that Christmas is this weekend. Today is the last day of school for the kids. My oldest is going on a field trip to see "A Christmas Carol" and my middlest (as he calls himself) is having his Christmas party. I made both of them wrap their own teacher gifts and write the cards. Most teachers are getting Godiva Chocolate, Nam's Bits (the best little chocolate chip cookies ever) and scented candles in milk glasses. The gifted services teacher is getting the new dinosaur pop-up book. She has had my oldest in class for 5 years now, so we wanted to give her a personal gift that she would love and would remind her of my son for years to come. If you mention dinosaurs to any of my son's teachers (and many other teachers in the school, the vice principal, the principal, the instructional lead teacher, the janitor, the school nurse, etc.) they immediately think of my son. And this teacher collects pop-up books. It was synchronicity that this book was released this fall. Anyway, I love shopping for teachers' gifts, as I think these people are so important to my kids. However, I do try to give gifts that they can use up because I am sure they get a lot of stuff to dust. The dinosaur book is the exception.

Tuesday, we decided that in order to sell this house, our living room had to be a different color. We really didn't like the way it turned out when we painted it. I have since learned that you don't trust the lighting in the paint department at Home Depot. Anyway, I don't like the new living room, either, but at least it is neutral. We started painting about 8 pm and had all the furniture back in place by 2 am. I slept for 2 1/2 hours and got up and walked my four miles. I think I may have overdone things, though, because I just could not get up this morning. Luckily, my husband was kind enough to go into work a little later than usual so I could oversleep. I am feeling much better now. So here is the living room transformation...
Before...
After...
Wow, what bad lighting... It is now white. So the downstairs of the house is now white, or at least has white below the chair rail. I guess people want to buy neutral homes. My new one is anything but neutral. It is purple, everywhere. Very purple. Not burgandy, not lavendar, purple. I am working on a warm tones pallet for the new house. There is a lot of wall paper to come down first, though.

Interesting blogs I have read lately... Both Rayna and Amy have great information about Chanukah on their blogs. A friend of mine has been at school making potato pancakes a lot recently. I am ready to try my hand at Rayna's recipe. Debra had some interesting points about men and gift giving which has sparked quite the conversation. JudyL has a fun story about a gift arriving just in time and how to hide it from a man. Gabrielle has an interesting post about Twyla Tharpe's book, which I think I will read when I am done The Artist's Way. Be prepared to be serenaded by Bon Jovi when you go to that site.

Ok, back to wrapping presents. Maybe a quick trip to the Avenue to get some more Nam's Bits. And I am hoping one of my Chicago relatives sends me some Frango Mints soon...

Hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah, or just enjoys the holidays.

Welcome Home

My brother-in-law arrived home safe from Iraq last night. He has been over there for a year. I know my sister and her kids are glad to have him home for Christmas. I said a huge prayer of thanks when my sister called to tell me his plane touched down at 8 pm. My heart will still break at each loss of a soldier. All of those boys are someone's loved one. But mine is at home for now...

Finished Some UFOs

Although you cannot see it well in this picture (it is gorgeous when it is bigger...) we woke up to ice on the trees this morning. No ice on the roads, so school was not cancelled.

As promised yesterday, I finished a quilt up. It is for my son's principal. It was a number of years in the making because I got bored with it. When I saw this apple fabric it looked like a kaliedoscope quilt would work great for it. It was my first attempt at equilateral triangles. I learned you really must be extremely precise when cutting them. However, a lot of quilting has allowed this quilt to look better than it should. I think the principal will be happy with it. I am calling it Carmel Apple.
Here is another quilt I finished for my niece. I did it to practice machine quilting. I drew the pattern on using a Crayola washable marker. It washed right out, even though I left it for a month or so. And it was a black marker. Anyway, in the middle of working on this quilt, I got a new foot pedal for my machine. I had no idea the speed control had deteriorated as much as it had. Needless to say, it was much easier to quilt with the new foot pedal.
Ok, I am off to find another UFO to work on. Thanks for the inspiration Tracey!

P.S. If you want to see the most wonderful quilt of the Christmas Season, even though I know Barbara did not design it to be a Christmas Quilt per se, visit the Madonna Idea Blog. This quilt had me speechless this morning.

It's That Time of Year

I usually go all out decorating for Christmas. This year, our house is on the market, so I really don't think I can do that. Next year, in our new home, I will have my Christmas village out, all my Nativities, and all my other stuff. This year we have our tree...
and this Santa that I got at a gift exchange on Monday. He just goes perfect in my dining room, which is really a deeper color than this picture shows.


We did have someone come see the house today, so all of my cleaning is not for naught.

Time to get back to stitching down binding on a quilt. I am halfway done, so it should be finished tonight. I'll post a picture tomorrow. (See how I am trying to make myself accountable? Now if I could only do that with my diet. Check out Debra's post on the Quilter's Lounge. The information is towards the bottom of the post.)

Week 6 Check In

Week six was about "Recovering a Sense of Abundance." Essentially, a lot of it was about money. I must admit I have never been broke. I am not rich by a long shot, but I have never had to wonder where my next meal was coming from or if we could turn on the heat. Well, that is since I have been an adult. I believe that money must have been tight when I was young. However, my parents made the best of it. My parents taught me over the years that how you spend your money will show your priorities. I see a lot of that in this chapter. Or maybe that is just what I wanted to see. I did the money madness exercise, but I am not going to share it all here. Suffice it to say that I think I have a healthy attitude about money and I think I learned it from my well grounded parents.

I did my morning pages every day this week. YAHOO! I am going to continue to do them during our hiatus. I like spilling my guts that way. Although my husband has not seen, nor will he ever see my morning pages, I have shared some of my thoughts with him. He thinks they are working pretty well.

For my artist date, I didn't get to do what I wanted to. I wanted to go to a Christmas program at a church this afternoon. I forgot my boys had tickets to the hockey game. So my littlest and I went to historic Marietta Square shopping. I got the teachers' gifts that I needed. My favorite store, The Keeping Room was open on a Sunday for a change. That is where I always find my teachers' gifts, and once again there they were.

Sychronicity--The Keeping Room was open today. My younger sister called and out of the blue said that her husband's favorite restaurant was the one I just got him a gift card to.

About the new house, everything is in place for us to close at the end of January. Here is a picture of the new house.

Tasks from Chapter 6

Well, Julia said to do it, so I did it. I baked something. Unlike Hilda, I baked something not so good for me. I made gingerbread cookies from the Raleigh Tavern Bakeshop Cookbook. My parents own a timeshare in Williamsburg, Virginia, so every few years we end up there on vacation, hanging out behind the Raleigh Tavern, drinking cider and eating gingerbread. I went to a Christmas party last evening, and I took the gingerbread as my gift. I had a story all made up about how I worked at the bakeshop one summer and had the secret recipe. I am not that good of a liar, so I went with the truth.
I also went and bought a few luxury items. I went to the Schoolbox, which is the teacher supply store. I was hoping to find giant graph paper, but they did not have it. I did however get a giant newprint pad, a pad of tracing paper, and some watercolor colored pencils. I had fun and spent less than $12.
I found about 12 pieces of clothing to let go. I need to find time to go to the Goodwill drop off. There used to be a Goodwill Store close by. I was going to drop a bunch of stuff off there this summer and found they had built a Super Walmart on top of it. So now I have to go up to the truck in the mall parking lot. Since I don't like the road the mall is on, I don't go up there very often. Hopefully I can find time tomorrow.

If I were 65 and had money...

I would buy a giant beach house for my family to use for vacations near the small beach house my husband I would live in. These beach houses would be on one of the islands near Charleston, South Carolina. (Does that count as two?) And we would eat fresh seafood all the time.

I would go to a big city once a month to see a show and go shopping. I would meet my friends there and we would have a blast. Anyone want to join me?

I would set aside college funds for my grandkids so my kids would have less to worry about.

I would have a long arm quilting machine and any other sewing machines my heart desired.

I would write an entire science curriculum from kindergarten through high school and publish it.

Week 5 Check In

Here is my week 5 check-in. I am kind of sad that we will be taking a break, but I know it is necessary over Christmas. My first read through of the chapter, I had some of the same thoughts as Tracey. So I reread it and tried to look over that part.

This week I wrote my morning pages 6 out of 7 days. Saturdays are just alluding me because I sleep in. I will try to do them later in the day next Saturday. But the other days I really feel the mind dump in the mornings releases me for the rest of the day. One day this week they turned into a list of pet peeves. I did not realize I let so many little things bother me. I am trying to let them go. Another day I did a page of resolutons for my family. We have all been working on them.

For my artist date this week I took a drive with my music cranked up. I did end up at the quilt shop for a few minutes, but I didn't find anything to buy. Having cleaned up the sewing room and knowing that anything I buy will just have to be moved in February helps. Anyway, I just listened to my guilty pleasures CDs and had a blast. I really relaxed. I think just getting away from the kids is almost enough most weeks. This week I am going to go shopping in the historic square and attend a Christmas program at a church where I don't know anyone. (That way no one can ask me to volunteer for something while I am there!)

Synchronicity... Let's see... I think I need to pay more attention to this aspect. I was having an obsession with Picasso the past couple of weeks for some reason. And, when I went into Borders on Tuesday Christmas shopping, I found a book on Picasso on sale for $4. Does that count? A number of years ago I read the book The Celestine Prophecy and really looked for synchronicity incidences. I think they called them something else in that book. Anyway, I have been having a desire to reread that book during all of this, and I am going to do that this week.

Other issues... Last night my husband asked me if I noticed the parking break light on the dash of my truck was not working all the time. I said, "No, really it isn't?" He said, "You know, you were much more observant of those things when you were an engineer than you are no that you are an artist." I think he is seeing a change in me. The kids are too. I have also been being more productive in my sewing room this week. When we discuss the new house, we discuss my sewing room with the same necessity as the bedrooms. Oh, and we are calling it a studio.

The idea that this chapter is on possiblities was synchronous (is that the word?) in itself this week. As I posted earlier, this was the first time I have ever made money quilting. I didn't realize it was a possiblity until now. We are buying a house that I never thought was a realizable dream with me not working. This week I want to sit down and set more goals and plans. I am finding it amazing what planning can do.

We are having the inspection on the new house tomorrow. Please keep us in your thoughts. We love this house and its location. I just hope it is not falling off its foundation or anything horrible like that.

My First Commission Quilt

About a month before we started The Artist's Way journey, I was asked to make a t-shirt quilt for my friend. I picked up the t-shirts, and they sat there for a long time. I had seen a number of t-shirt quilts at a quilt show I had recently attended, but I was not excited about them. Either all the t-shirts were cut the same size, with no regard for the design on the shirt; or they had been cut different sizes and then fabric strips were added so they were all a uniform block size, based on the largest t-shirt design. Frankly, I thought both ideas took away from the unique designs of each of the t-shirts.

Then I read that you should just experiment and see what happens. So I did. Now, after I got started I thought, "Maybe experimenting with someone else's irreplacable Peachtree Road Race t-shirts is not the wisest idea," but I had already started. So I kept going. I cut all the t-shirts to the size that the design dictated. Then, I laid them out on the floor to make a design that I liked. Most t-shirts are white or gray, so I needed to be careful about the color placement. I then decided that I didn't want the borders to be straight. So I allowed the t-shirts to hang over the borders. Then one t-shirt said, "I really should be a circle" to me, so I made it a circle. And here is the result...

Here is my favorite "block" of the quilt...


When I went to quilt it, I did not want to take anything away from the t-shirts. Afterall, my friend had run a lot of miles to earn all of these. I quilted in the ditch, which was not close enough together. So I picked a motif on each shirt and quilted it. Here are two shirts...

I quilted the outline of Georgia on this one.I quilted around the shoe on this one.

I delivered the quilt today. I got paid more than I asked, which made me very happy. I also had a lot of fun doing this quilt.