Moments in Time

I'm up to my ears in stuff. Really! Tuesday I spent the afternoon with my friend Anne, who is also my daughter-in-law's mom. She invited me over to do some scrapbooking. Yes, I scrapbook. I first started after Matt and Amy's wedding when a friend invited me to a Creative Memories get-together and I took some wedding pictures. By the end of the afternoon, I was hooked and went home to rework the albums I had.

I started with our first album as a married couple. I pulled the photos from those old sticky "magnetic" album pages and put the pictures on new, acid-free paper. I journaled on every page, and slowly made progress. Over the next few years, I got very close to "real time" on several occasions, but then I would burn out or get busy with other things. Until Tuesday, I hadn't scrapbooked in several years.

Well, you can guess what's happened. I'm a woman possessed! When I got home, I began to dig through piles of pictures and memorabilia. I'm very sentimental and anything my loved ones have given me is precious. Scribbled notes created by little hands with color crayons? I've got them. Valentine's cards with Jolly Ranchers stuck to them with tape? Right over there. Pictures of tiny baby toes? Yup. Oh my. Yesterday I was moved to tears by my treasures. And the real reason I've been digging through every single pile I can find? I can't find Cameron's baby announcement. And it's time to do his "Welcome to the World" pages. Ack!! How can I have every thank you card given me by my students and not be able to find the announcement?!? I must remain hopeful.

So, no pictures today. Who needs to see heaped piles of cards, pictures, stickers and colorful paper? I'm off to search one more time for that announcement. Wish me luck.

At Long Last!

Okay. It's done. What a busy couple of weeks it's been; trying to fit in the quilt has been a challenge. But it's done!!


And here's the whole quilt:


There was no finishing kit for this quilt, so I spent some time deciding how to put it together, which took some figuring as there was only a limited supply of fabric in this line left at the shop. I'm happy with how it turned out though.

And now I'm off--have two classes to teach at the shop today. Who said retirement was boring?!?

Busy, busy, busy...

Whew, what a busy week it has been! I finally decided that having the BOM quilt completed by Valentine's Day just wasn't going to happen and that it was okay. The top was all pieced, but I just didn't have the time to get it quilted. I ended up working at the quilt shop for a day and a half, and then of course, there's the laundry, meals, etc., etc. Life just keeps on truckin'. :-)

I got the quilt loaded yesterday and a few passes completed before I had to head up to the kitchen to make cookies and get dinner on. I'm back at it today and should be able to finish up.

Here's a look after some work today.


I'm so thankful to have my Handi-Quilter!

Bowls

I have a strange love: bowls. Even as a child, I remember loving bowls; an old broken bowl belonging to one of my great-grandmothers that I glued back together, my Dad's old stoneware Wheaties bowl. Somehow bowls have history. I am currently lusting after a dark green 2-quart Fiestaware bowl. It would be a perfect serving bowl with my Longaberger Heritage Green dishes.

These bowls are in my cupboard:


They belonged to Dan's Aunt Jess. We have no idea how old they are, but I love them. They are small and rather rustic. They just say, "We have history." And they make us think of Aunt Jess who was one special lady.

Down, But Not Out

Dan and I were down with uncooperative tummies over the weekend, but we're on our way back now. I did some work on the BOM's Saturday and got the first two rows joined with sashing. I like it! Hopefully more stitching will take place tomorrow, but I also need to do some laundry and bake, so we'll see.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of one of my favorite quilts. I like to make smaller seasonal quilts to throw across the top of our bed and this is the current winter one. The warm colors brighten my day.


The pattern is called Three, Six, Nine, and I purchased the fabrics at a quilt shop in West Virginia during a visit with my son and family. Amy, Ryan and I took a road trip while Dan and Matt visited the Smithsonian. History lover that I am, quilt shops took precedence over even "The Big One." Fabric sells out, the Smithsonian is there forever! :-)

Rip, Sew, Ponder, Smile

Well, the consensus seemed to be fix the "too much white" block, and so I did. And I just couldn't take the boo boo block for a number of reasons, so I redid it, too. Now I'm smiling. The two new blocks are on the bottom row, but have changed places.


For a while there I thought I'd lost the happiness of making these blocks, but as I just laid them out on the floor, the joy came back. :-) Now to decide on sashing and borders. Thanks for your help!

Decisions

I'm done with all twelve star blocks. Maybe. There are two that I'm not sure about and I may replace them. One I goofed on, but I also think the colors are may be in the wrong places anyway; and another where I definitely think I need to change the color positions.



I didn't have the original blocks to look at when I was making these, and I just went with the block design, but I think the bottom left and bottom center just aren't right. Too much white in the left, and the center block is the one I made the boo boo on. The pink arrows are angled the wrong way (I think I suffer from pattern dyslexia sometimes), and the star is lost in the X the dark squares make.

Comments appreciated as I'm through for today. Some things are best slept on, right? I do have plenty of leftover fabric so making new blocks will not be a problem. Except that bottom center block has forty-gazillion pieces...

Too Much Fun

I didn't mean to be gone this long, but when the choice was stitch or blog, well, you know what won out.

I gave you a sneak peek on Saturday and I've been working on the project whenever I've had time since then. Here's the story. The local Bernina shop started a block of the month a year ago in January, but since I was teaching, I paid no attention. The series was called "Be a Star" and each month's star block was offered in three designer choices: Amy Butler, Kaffe Fassett, and Buggy Barn. Long about June, when I retired, I started noticing the completed blocks on the design wall of the shop, and those Buggy Barn blocks started calling my name. When the program ended at the end of the year, I asked the shop to let me know if there were any complete sets of the Buggy Barn blocks left. They called last week and said they had one for me!!

Here are the seven blocks I've completed:



The fabrics are In the Pink II. Since the colors are mainly pink and red, my plan is to have the entire quilt completed by Valentine's Day. This project is really making me smile. :-) And now I'm off to work on another block. Hope you're making time for some stitching, too! (That is, if you sew!)