The Artist

Had a great meeting at the Brown Sugar Stitchers yesterday! Regina Carter taught a class using Shiva Paintstiks. I am no artist, but these paints are so versatile, we all achieved excellent results with little effort. Sad how long I've had Painstiks on hand and didn't do anything with them!

This is currently drying...then next weekend I'll embellish with Swarovski crystals.

Pain makes you stronger. Tears make you braver. Heartache makes you wiser. And Vodka makes you not remember any of that crap.

President's Block

Today was errand run day - eye check, hair cut, visit Tracy at KiwiQuilts, cleaners, Post Office. The African American Quilt Guild of Oakland gives the outgoing President a signature quilt as a thank you...I was able to squeeze in a little sewing and completed my block for Marilyn. If it wasn't overdue, I would take the time to trace the signature outline in embroidery thread so that 100 years from now when the ink fades, the signature will still be there...but...it was due the 28th, so...it will just have to last for me and Marilyn!


If all good things come to those who wait, does that make procrastination a good thing?

Which Way North?

I've been back from Empty Spools at Asilomar since April 20th but I haven't been sewing. I enjoyed the class - it was freezer paper piecing...a lot of work for not a lot of results.  On the third day, I was still working on putting the Mariner's Compass together. I'll stick with regular paper piecing, thank you very much. I choose this pattern because I thought I would learn a new technique but wouldn't end up with another UFO.
Here's the piece...this is a whole week of work, and I seriously worked...even stayed late one night until about 10PM. It rained a couple of days, so I wasn't taking walks on the beach and I only got one massage.  You can see the Mariner's Compass underneath the freezer paper (a little bit.) 








I must have had a brain fart when I filled out the form for the class, because they ask if you would be interested in being a hostess for your workshop, and that is just not something I would normally do in my right mind. Maybe I was thinking that since I'm retiring, I would start branching out and doing new things and being a class hostess would be something I could check off my bucket list. I don't know. You could have knocked me over with a feather when I got the letter saying "Congratulations, Hostess!"  Quite the surprise! It's easy enough - all you have to do is take attendance the first day, on the night of Show 'n Tell help the instructor sell books, and collect evaluations at the end. For this they give you a $30 gift certificate, which of course I spent the first day. Being a hostess was fun, and when I signed up for 2013, I intentionally checked Yes!

I stayed with Regina before traveling down to Pacific Grove and we walked Lake Merritt with Rafiki. This is the full moon over the lake on Saturday morning, April 7th. If the moon hasn't set yet, aren't you up Way Too Early?



Received this information from a friend - this is a very frightening statistic and probably one of the most troubling in recent years: 25% of women in this country are on medication for mental illness! That is truly scary! It means 75% are running around with no medication at all!

Mini Shop Hop

Atlanta Quilt Stores held their annual Shop Hop this weekend, and once again I said the only way I would go is if they let me sell some of this fabric overtaking my sewing room. However, in my official role as an Enabler, one of our new members wanted to go to all the shops on the hop. I did this the first year we moved here, so I understand. As a public service (just call me The Giver), I told her I would go with her to the Cobb County shops. We met at Red Hen, and then she mentioned she was looking for a particular fabric which I knew Tracy at KiwiQuilts had, so we made an unscheduled stop there. Tracy really has fantastabulous fabrics, and I have already scolded her for not getting in the shop hop (and I know she reads my blog, so will be scolded yet again!  Hi Tracy!)  :) Then we went to Little Quilts, then to Tiny Stitches, where I won their end of the day giveaway!  It's a magnetic notepad, with a little magnet on the back that you can attach to something and don't have to search for a notepad through the piles of paper on your desk. Except nothing is made of metal any more - LOL - so I don't know what I will attach it to! Al would have said I should have chosen the most expensive thing in the bin, but I went for something I would actually use. Cute little notepad, and THANK YOU Tiny Stitches!  I did actually buy some fabric yesterday...some fabric for the Brown Sugar Stitchers Guild's Quilts of Valor quilt project. And some fabric for the shoe quilt border.

And I finished the flying geese for Cattails in the Savanna:

Love them!

OH! Grazin' in the Grass just came on -- that is an even better name for Cattails in the Savanna. Shoot - now I have to choose!

And finally, Jewels in the Castle Wall won second place in the Smoky Mountain Quilters Guild Show. I now have a red, a white, and a blue ribbon for this quilt! Here it is hanging next to the gorgeous, hand appliqued first place winner.

I think it's important to protect the lives of innocent civilians in Libya and Syria, but let's start with Florida. ~ Andy Borowitz

Cutting...

Well, now we know why I didn't finish cutting out pieces for this quilt before class...I spent three nights this past week cutting out the rest of the fabric. Lot of cutting. Judy Neimeyer is all about organization, so after I cut, and cut, and cut, and cut, I put all the pieces together with their little paper clips, and I am now working on the flying geese.
Here is one of the completed geese units...love it!

When I'm bored, I send a text to a random number saying, "I hid the body...now what?"

Spinning Points

I had a very productive day today! Mailed off Jewels in the Castle Wall to Leona to show in the Smokey Mountain Guild Quilt Show. Boxed and sent off through UPS.

Then I went to the Frame Shop to drop off some beaded art work that I got in Ghana to be framed in a shadow box.

Then I made a really good decision that will help me focus and finish...Henredon gave me a four figure quote to do pillows for the sofa in the living room...seriously. So I had been looking for fabric online, and I happened on Bob's Upholstery here in Marietta and found the perfect fabric. Bob's will charge $100 to do two big pillows...that's $50 each! Yes, I could do it, but for $100...pfft! No brainer. So I dropped off the pillows and then went to the Sewing Expo.  Lots of new vendors, so I had a lot of fun shopping. Bought stencils and paints and a really neat ruler! I'll show you how the ruler works later.

Came home and finished the February free Block of the Month from Quilting on the Square.

Looking good! We lose an hour tonight, so it's really midnight! I'm going to bed!

Saw a cute bumper sticker today: Fasten your seat belt. It makes it harder for the aliens to suck you out of your car!

Focus and Finish

Just came back from New York (business) where I got to go to the 9/11 Memorial and celebrate my nephew's 19th birthday. Kids do just grow up way too fast, and when they are your friend on Facebook, you are really reminded how old you are.
Then I spent Sunday, the 26th, cutting fabric for Cattails in the Meadow, for my class with Judy Neimeyer in Panama City, Florida at Quilting by the Bay. I didn't even come close to finishing cutting, and there wasn't even that much to cut! So I was kinda behind in the class, but it was OK.  I did finish piecing the center compass.

I'm doing this in animal prints and will probably call it something awesomely clever like Cattails in the Jungle or Cattails on the Savanna...hmmmm....Cattails on the Savanna...kinda like it.
And I couldn't help but remember that it has been a year since I attended a class with Judy Neimeyer where I worked on Japanese Fans, and I haven't sewn another stitch on it since. I was talking to Tracey at KiwiQuilts today and we decided that I need to "Focus and Finish." 

So that's the new plan...finish Cattails before I do anything else. Watch this space to see if that really happens!

Never miss a chance to shut up ~ Will Rogers

Whitney

I hope life treats you kind...
And I hope you have all you dreamed of...
And I wish you joy! And happiness...
But above all this, I wish you love...

If the shoe fits...

...buy it in every color! Finally finishing up the shoe quilt, ready to start embellishing and quilting, but I don't have enough fabric for the border. I think I'm going to do a pieced border, because I don't have enough of anything. The fabric is from Barb's Elegant Designs. I subscribe to her Yard of the Month club, so I have exactly one yard of each fabric.


















This purple shoe is one of my favorite blocks.

But this boot is my favorite!

I submitted Jewels in the Castle Wall to Leona's guild in Tennessee. The show is at the end of March - not sure if I'm going to go or not.

"Always keep a bottle of champagne in the fridge for special occasions. Sometimes the special occasion is that you’ve got a bottle of champagne in the fridge." — Hester Browne

Freedom Day!

I forgot! While I was in Ghana, I decided to retire! I've always said when it wasn't fun any more, I would get out. My 401k has returned to pre-2008 levels, I don't love my job any more, so - "It's Time." My last day is June 29th! So that's what's up with the countdown clock over there on the right...

And I did restring the necklace...again...I can't believe I found all the beads!

The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas.

I'm ba-ack!

The thing about blogging is, if you let yourself get out of the habit, you let yourself get out of the habit. Truth of the matter is, I haven't been sewing. Jewels in the Castle Wall took it all out of me. But, I'm back in the saddle again!

Let me catch up, in reverse chronological order...starting with last night. My next door neighbor invited me to join a group called The Girlfriends. It's a local group of about 14 women, and every month they get together and do a new activity. Each member takes turns hosting the activity, and last night Tomicka and I chose a beading class at Beads by Design in Marietta. Everyone had a great time and walked away with a completed project...except me! While I was walking around the store, I remembered a glass pendant that I bought in Houston 2 years ago that I really wanted to use. So I learned the process and strung the beads when I got home...and take my word for it, it was very pretty. Was, because I hung it up to take a picture, but my phone was upstairs. When I came back, it had fallen and there were beads all over the floor. Drat!  I'll restring it later...(we all know what happens when I come back to something...later...)

And Quilting on the Square has a free Block of the Month Mariner's Compass  - and they also had a contest to get the first block completed. I stayed up until 1 to get it finished and sent in. And I won! Here is the February Block - Which Way is North? 

In December, my colleague Connie retired from Towers Watson. I had shown her a picture of the shoe quilt in progress, and she said she coveted the red and black shoe. So I made her a wall hanging as her retirement gift. I added a lot more buttons after I took this picture...that one little button looked lonely! It's called "Louboutins for Connie's Retirement."

In November I went to the Houston Quilt Show. The Houston Quilt show is indescribable...here is a view of the floor from the second floor:

This is the quilt that won Best of Show...It's called Harmony Within, by Sue McCarty. I wish you could see it in person. Talk about the picture not doing it justice... 

Every where you see the gold and red...that's not patchwork...that's quilting! The border...quilting.  The gold is quilted on a black background. See those meticulously placed pearls?



And finally - here are abbreviated pictures from Ghana! Only 108 photos....it wasn't easy getting that down from over a thousand, but it had to be done. OK - I'm back to blogging! Instead of a quote, here's a picture to close:



Georgia Quilt Show - Honorable Mention!

Spent all day yesterday at the Georgia Quilt Show! "Jewels in the Castle Wall" received an Honorable Mention. Again, the competition in this category was fierce, so it is wonderful just to be recognized! Isn't the Internet machine amazing? I "met" Leona on Facebook and sent her the quilt to be quilted. I finally got to meet her in person yesterday. This is the two of us at the show in front of the quilt.

This was the first place quilt in the Bed Quilt category - "Splendeferous" - it is an amazing quilt, lots of complexity and detail. The quilting is amazing!

Second place: - "My Sand Devils"

"Logs and Stars in Scraps" - Third.   This is an incredibly complex, non-strip pieced, beautiful quilt.

All the quilts in the show were gorgeous! So much hard work and creativity! For more pictures, if you're on Facebook, you can see them on the Original Sewing Expo's page.

As for me, I'm about to enter three weeks of epic back to back travel for work. I leave this afternoon for New York, then to Dallas on Tuesday. Don't come back from Dallas until Thursday.

The trouble with quotes on the Internet is that it's difficult to determine whether or not they are genuine. -- Abraham Lincoln

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner!

I'm ba-ack! We had an amazing trip to Ghana! I have over 1000 photos, and will post a link as soon as I get them down to something manageable.

But first - "Not Fast Food" won first place in the East Cobb Quilt Show in the 2-person bed quilt category! I've seen photos of some of the quilts in the category, and am so humbled by the honor. This was a very competitive category. I'm posting a photo from Melinda's website because it has the ribbons attached. I couldn't attend the show because we left for Ghana the day the winners were announced. We had internet access in Ghana, so I received several congratulatory emails and texts while away! I'm still basking in the glow! Wow!

And more good news! "Jewels in the Castle Wall" was juried into the Georgia Quilt Show.  After Leona finished quilting it with metallic threads, it looked kind of like a brick wall, so I changed the name.  It is really a beautiful quilt!

More photos to come of the trip to Ghana later! So happy to be home!

Be it ever so humble, there's no place like home.

No one realizes how beautiful it is to travel until he comes home and rests his head on his old, familiar pillow. -- Lin Yutang.

Reflect and Remember

I know it has been so long since I've posted...I've been in California a lot with my stepfather (crisis seems to have passed), and the only quilting I have done has been putting binding on. 

"Survivor Tree" salvaged from the ruins of  the WTC in 2001

Today is the  tenth anniversary of September 11th.  We were living in California at the time, so it was just 6AM on the West Coast. I was up, getting ready for work - my morning habit was to listen to KCBS, All News, All The Time, Traffic on the 8's while I got ready. I still stream KCBS sometimes here, when I can't take any more of the hatred spewed out by the local right wing stations. But I digress... The newscaster broke in to say that a plane had hit one of the towers at the World Trade Center...I envisioned a small plane hitting the tower, tried to think of which one was the North Tower, and continued getting ready. Then they broke in to say that a second plane had hit the other tower. I woke Al up and asked him to turn on the television. He asked what channel? I said, if what they're saying on the radio is true, it doesn't matter, any channel. And indeed, all the stations had feed of the two towers on fire as we tried to figure out what this meant. Terrorist attack was not even on my mind. Later, one tower pancaked down in a tremendous crash, then the other.  My sister lives in New York, but I wasn't even remotely concerned that she would be at the WTC...she stays away from tall buildings if she can help it.  I lived in NYC in the 80's, and I still have friends there. Later I found out that everyone I knew and loved was OK. When I worked in Capital Markets for Bank of America, we used to stay at The Millenium Hotel (another blog/another time about wonderful memories of me, Susan and Joann in the Big Apple), and in the days that followed, we learned that the front of The Millenium was completely blown out when the towers crashed, but the hotel was still standing. Susan has been back,and said it is now a Hilton. I was supposed to be in Seattle that day, and I can't remember why I came back early, but I was thankful to not be someplace where I needed to rely on a plane to get back home.

I went in to the office, and I remember some out of town people who were there for a meeting having the presence of mind to get a rental car and get on the road right away to go home. I don't know if I would have thought of that...and then, folks couldn't get rental cars since they were all taken. Because one of the planes was headed for SF, we closed the office, not knowing if the terrorists might target skyscrapers in SF.

It's sad to think of the loss of life and treasure since then. I watched the coverage this morning of 9/11 and the opening of the National 9/11 Memorial.  I think the architects got it exactly right...the memorial is beautiful. It was great to see the progress they have made. 

Scient People Team Reunion - 8/11

From September, 1999 to May, 2001, I worked at a dot-com called Scient as part of the People Team (HR). We had such a great group of people - it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and we all came together so well, as evidenced by the willingness of so many of the group to get together 10 years later.  Even though we worked our butts off, many, many 12-15 hour days, it was the best job I ever had. I used to joke about being the Adult Supervision. It was a unique culture and great work environment. To this day, you could wake me up at 2:00 AM and I could still tell you the Scient Values (Spirit, Community, Growth, Innovation, Urgency, Excellence). We definitely drank the Scient Kool-aid. Even knowing that the whole dot-com thing would implode, I would still do it again. Look at the great friends we all made!

Then it was off to the annual retreat out in Danville...what a talented group!  I worked on the binding for the red and white quilt and on a couple of the mystery projects. It's always great seeing everyone, and then on Sunday I came back home. This is the mystery project and I just love Benita's choice of fabrics. The picture does not do it justice!

And once again, I came back from the retreat to find that all three of my quilts had been accepted into the East Cobb Show! 

So I've been putting on bindings and sleeves and today I dropped off all three quilts!  And "Not Fast Food", which is now renamed to "Jewels in the Castle Wall," has also been accepted into the Georgia Quilt Show!

OK, so I haven't blogged in ages, and I am headed off to Ghana on Thursday, so it will be another couple of weeks before you hear from me again. Until then, happy stitching!

I dream of a better world where chickens can cross the road without having their motives questioned.