Let the favor of the Lord our God be upon us; And confirm for us the work of our hands; Yes, confirm the work of our hands.
Psalm 90:17

Sunday, April 29, 2012

"M, would you be able to..."

...fill in the blank. It seems last week that was a popular question! While I helped with a bunch of stuff that popped up (including a job interview), the most significant was being the Dorm Mom for a camp weekend. It wasn't actually a whole weekend though. Our church helps support a Christian camp here in VA and my kids have been going since numbers 1 & 2 were young. I work one week during the summer and last year Philip became a Junior Counselor (JC) for the first time. In order to be a JC though, the kids must attend JC boot camp to learn what to do and be evaluated. I went to the boot camp last year to help out as dorm mom. It's really just an overnight-- Friday evening and all day Saturday. No biggie. But this year I got asked to be dorm mom again--- on Thursday. I didn't have plans but it pretty much killed any sewing on Friday and Saturday. I also came home from camp feeling lousy; I may have a cold coming on. No sewing tomorrow, either--- we're off to visit the grands!
  I was working on a DUFUS last week~ I have a bunch of scraps of Kona and Wendover solids left over from last year's Bottled Rainbows and Joseph's Technicolor Dreamcoat. I saw a scrap quilt on the cover of a magazine that looked like the fabric equivalent of a crocheted granny square. So my brain, and then my rotary cutter, started cutting a lot of 2 1/2" squares. A lot of squares. Stay tuned in. I'm really liking what's happening.
 Speaking of Bottled Rainbows, I pulled it out of the drawer that stores quilt tops waiting to be quilted and auditioned it with the Bear Tracks to see which would be the first I send off to be quilted. Bear Tracks #2 (the flannel one) won. I hope to send it off soon. In the meantime, I left BR out to be quilted by me. I hope to get to it this week. If there's nothing happening at camp...

Saturday, April 21, 2012

Night of 1000 Pillowcases...

 
Well, maybe not 1,000. Okay, not even close to 1,000. Maybe just 17. And two of those are for my household. The frog at the top matches some cases I made in February and one of the others has a spot I didn't see until I was folding. I really wanted to clear out some fabrics and I did. I may have made some space in yardage, but I now have more scraps (and a big mess) so now I'll be re-arranging again. S'okay. A new fabric arrangement to go with the new iron I had to buy at 9:00 last night because mine died. Oh, yes. In the middle of FNSI, the IRON DIED. Again, s'okay. It was a nice warmish-coolish evening and perfect for running to WalMart. And maybe stopping for an ice cream.

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The 'Case' for FNSI




Pillowcase, that is!

  Tomorrow, April 20, is this month's Friday Night Sew In and is dedicated to the ConKerr Cancer Pillowcase Project and sponsored by Arrow Sewing Cabinets . I'm not saying I'm excited about it but last Thursday I went into the fabric closet and pulled all kinds of pillowcase possibilities and made a huge pile in the doorway that was quite a mess and impossible to walk around. And then I remembered it was the next Friday and I had to find a place to put all that fabric for a week. I survived. My ironing board is probably a little ticked off though. Now I am really looking forward to diving back into the pile tomorrow! Not only will kids be getting som fun new pillowcases, this was great for my DUFUS project and making room in that closet! Call that a double-DUFUS!


Thank you to the folks at Arrow, too!






Wednesday, April 18, 2012

It's a girl!....umm...no.

 Busy-ness continues around here as we had Easter company, a massive yard sale and spring fixin' o' the yard (which is barely touched). The costume cleaning for the spring show is almost done... well, sorta done...I started...---oh, all right, I'll finish cleaning costumes today. Worst. Part. Of costuming. Ever.
 You may recall that I usually kill time backstage by making hexies for my (someday) hexie quilt. The last two shows this time I tried something new. I posted last month about a sweet baby boy that arrived amid a sea of pink ribbons and flowers because his mommy was told he would be a girl. Surprise! Well, I had also started a pink-ish quilt for the little one and had to re-think my project for little-now-named-Turner.  I did a simple 4-patch and some HST and used one empty space to embroider his name. I wasn't sure what to do with the other plain patch when I saw a cute teddy bear and thought of redwork. Redwork is on my list of things to do before I die so I dug out a hoop, some perle cotton and got busy. The teddy was done very quickly; maybe an hour and a half total over three sessions. Here's the complete top~ Turner may just get his quilt before pre-school!

And posting just because I can... we visited the Virginia Zoo when everyone was here for Easter. I so love having all my children together!

4/9/2012


Monday, April 9, 2012

I left you with a trash can...

...and mentioned nail polish. I, in my never-ending quest to avoid celebrating holidays the way "normal" people celebrate holidays, decided my Easter would be spent with people I love and my red trash can. That particular trash can is where I toss my quilting scraps when cutting quilt pieces. (Garment scraps get a completely different treatment. Usually the real trash can.) I used to save everything I though might be usable someday. I had a taller, Rubbermaid-type kitchen can that I tossed the scraps from every project in and, periodically, I'd sort it out and trim and toss. Scraps got closer and closer to the top and I kept packing them down so tight that trimming and tossing became too time consuming and I dreaded the chore. That can was finally overflowing one day when it was Jacie's turn to collect trash. She emptied that can and all those scraps were gone forever. I wailed, I freaked, I---- couldn't remember a single fabric in that can. I stood looking at the emptiness and realized that life would go on. It was just fabric. And the boys could really use a larger can in their room so I gave it to them. As much as I love my stash it is just fabric and I need to use it or lose it. Not long after, I brought home this old metal schoolroom style can from a theatre space I was cleaning out. I cleaned it, spray painted it and dubbed it the new scrap can--- but this time I vowed to do something with the scraps before it was too much to deal with. I also introduced it to every member of the household so there would be no more mix-ups on trash day. The can was filled with addition of the flannel scraps from "Bear Tracks" so I figured a lazy Easter afternoon would be a good time to trim and toss. I know most people hunt gaily colored eggs. Blecch. I rotary cut while waiting for the grandkids to arrive~

Scraps cut to strips or squares and an occasional tumbler:

And I played with this new (to me) ruler/template I picked up at the Mid-Atlantic quilt show on a scrap from the Joseph coat:



My can, while not quite empty, has lots of room now for new scraps!

    Once the kids arrived we set about the fun stuff; such as throwing toys all around, eating a wonderful dinner, taking a walk and decimating an overflowing candy bowl. Today we visited the zoo and played in a park. A lovely weekend that culminated in the painting of the toes. This is not a ritual. Jacie has not painted her toes since she was too small to argue about it and Ashley and I usually paint ours in the spring and re-do them when they are just too horrible to look at anymore. Like in September. Obviously, pedicures are not our thing. But I read about a sweet program called http://www.tealtoes.org/  that raises awareness for ovarian cancer. I have been blessed in that this particular killer has not touched my life as lung, breast and bone cancer has, but I am surrounded by women that could be someday. Painting your toes an unusual color like teal opens up an opportunity to talk and help spread awareness of this horrible disease.  Check out their website to learn more about the symptoms and the great work this organization is doing!

Here are our three generations of teal-toes~

                   (Yes, one of Jacie's toes is red. It's a long story. And unusual. But so is Jacie.)

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Of trash cans and nail polish~

What does this trash can and...




...this color of nail polish...

Have to do with each other?

You can find out on Monday!




~~Happy Easter~~


Tuesday, April 3, 2012

I'm a guest blogger!

 I feel humbled that someone would allow me into their blog world! I enjoy reading Beth Helfter's blog so much~ she's funny and self-deprecating in a way that says we would get along great if (when?) we ever meet outside of cyberspace. She has a fabulous approach to quilting that makes quilting fun and relieves the pressure of perfection. If you read me, you know she's the creator of "Kickin' Stash" AND she created the cover quilt on the latest issue of Quilter's World. If you haven't yet, check out her quilts and her blog here http://evapaigequiltdesigns.blogspot.com/ . She'll be a bright spot in your day!
And, oh yeah~ my guest post is there too! ;)

Monday, April 2, 2012

Our Birthday Guy~

Our sweet surprise after seven years of waiting.
Named for two special young men lost too soon.
A lean to the mischievious, generous and cheerful.
                                                                


          Artistic 

 Playful

 Sixteen

Watch out, world.

Happy Birthday, Philip Daniel~