Colorado trip highlights

I was sick all weekend with either a bad cold or flu (still am) so I didn't post. Believe it or not, though, I have several posts lined up so thought I better get the first one up here.

We had a good time in Colorado. We snuggled with Aiden:


Made a birthday cake for Sophia:

Dad was so nervous about writing Sophia's name on the cake that he forgot the "i" in her name and had to add it later in blue frosting! Hee!

We opened birthday presents and played with balloons:


We had dinner at midnight, cooked by my youngest son, Josh and his wife, in their tee-tiny kitchen:

Sauteed chicken tenders, mushroom risotto and glazed asparagus. Yummers!

Here are our three boys... Nat, Josh and Randy. They are rather rough around the edges but then, so are we. We love 'em dearly!


We had a good time... too short but we packed in what we could! On the way back we stopped for the night in Taos, New Mexico. I have quite a few pictures I'd like to share so I'll leave those for another day.

I think it's time for another nap!

Introducing...

Aiden Gage in his daddy's arms, born April 10, 2007. He's quite a chunk... 8 lbs 14 oz and 21" long (4kg and 53cm long)! Aiden is our second grandchild and first grandson.



Innt he cute??? We made a whirlwind trip to Colorado to see him last weekend, returning on Wednesday. I'll share more about the trip (and the Quilt of Valor progress) this weekend, but wanted to get this up for you to see.

Quilt of Valor

I've been working on my Quilt of Valor I started with a panel from Laurel Burch's Mythical Horses line.

The woman in the center with the horse

just seemed so "Warrior" to me that I thought it would be appropriate. Also, I like bright colors... ;0)

Here's a couple of closeups of the figures in the panel so you can see where my inspiration for the design came from:


I had to increase the width to make it work within the 50" x 60" lap quilt size. I played around with some different combinations of side panels and finally went with these. It took a bit of playing with leftovers but I got it done!

I think this worked pretty well. It might have been better if I had taken the outside bits of black and yellow banding off, but I think it will be fine this way.

I wanted an inner border using two colors (to stay with the wonkiness of the whole concept)and then an outer border of the dark blue to pull the eye from the center with the woman out to the border, and vice versa. Here's the inner border of pink and green just laid out on the design wall...

The pink and green are the same value so (to my eye at least) they work well together.

Here is the outer border added on. The striped corners reflect the stripes painted on several of the horses in the panel and were the starting point for my design. I didn't quite have enough blue fabric left that was long enough so I had to add some pink and green rectangular pieces on either side of the striped corner block.

I do like it better with the extra rectangular pieces added, though!

In fact, I like it alot; however, I'm really a novice at this and am just feeling my way along. I know it is bright but to my mind it needs to match the panel intensity.

So, I'm asking your opinion if I may... does this design work or do I need to try something else? Maybe different colors? Not so many stripes?? Any suggestions welcome... well, I won't start completely over!

Color

One of the many blogs I read is Knitting on Impulse. Although her medium is yarn and ours is cloth and thread, I thought you might be interested in a series she is running about Playing with Colour (she's in Canada).

She takes a photograph, pulls the colors out of it and then uses the colors in a knitting design. It's really fascinating stuff! She calls it Patterns in Nature and it is simply scrump-dilly-icious!

Enjoy!

Estate sale goodies

Morning ladies!!

How are things in your world this morning?? My world is beginning to look up... the van is back and I get my permanent crown put on this afternoon on that pesky broken tooth. WooHoo! A return to normalcy.

Edited to add... thanks for all the great comments, everyone! I appreciate the support and suggestions. I was going to try and do the quilting myself... I've never done any machine quilting and it is high time I learned. We'll see how the summer goes... I still think it would be a great big blank slate to practice on!! Thanks for the suggestions on adding applique, Victoria, but I don't think I'm up to that right now!!

There hasn't been much quilting or embroidering going on. I've attempted to get some done but it didn't work. I was able to stop at an estate sale on the way to work last Thursday, and I picked up these goodies.

This is a lovely crocheted collar. The neck opening is only 3 1/4" (8.25cm) across so I assume it was made for a doll. Maybe it isn't even a collar... although I'm not sure what else it could be. I'll probably use it as the centerpiece for a crazy quilt.

Then I got a few more bits of rick rack... lots of silver:

I have plans for a black and white crazy quilt with silver and pearls as accents so I've been keeping my eye out for goodies to add to it.

And here are some of those goodies:

Left is a marcasite and jet (I believe) necklace and bracelet and on the right is a Laguna aurora borealis necklace. I just love these crystal necklaces... the beads really make a crazy quilt glisten and shine, don't you think? The copper pieces are a bracelet that I'll probably gift to my red-haired daughter-in-law. It should be smashing with her hair.

That's all for now. I need to resurrect my work room and find the top of my quilting and cutting tables before I start on the Quilt of Valor. Back soon... everyone have a great week!

Queen bed quilt pieced!

Although I haven't been blogging, I have been quilting. In bits and pieces over the past two weeks I have been piecing my bed quilt top. I finally finished it yesterday. See?

I am slightly underwhelmed at this point. I like the way it turned out, on the whole, but right now I just can't see the beauty in it. I think I need to step back from it awhile until I fall in love with it again. So... I'm going to fold it up and tuck it away till later this summer. I do think I made it big enough though, don't you?

It hits the floor on all three sides... !!

Now it's on the Quilt of Valor. (I'm having trouble linking tonight so will try and put it in tomorrow.) I'm starting with a panel by Laurel Burch from her Mystical Horses line:

I'll put a border around it using these colors and fabrics:

Right now I'm thinking several layers of color, possibly with some striping... we'll see what appears!

Desert Botanical Garden

On Sunday we went to the Desert Botanical Garden. It was 88°F (31°C) so it was pretty warm but we soldiered on. Mom pushed her wheeled walker around, with one of us ahead of her and one of us behind. It worked pretty well but we all got tired fast. It was the Flower Festival last weekend, although there weren't a lot of wildflowers to see. Usually, Phoenix gets winter rains that really get the wildflowers growing; however, this year, we hardly got any rain at all. We also had several very heavy frosts in January that did some significant damage. Since they don't do any supplemental watering, the flowers were rather sparse. Anyway, here are some pictures I took so you can see what it's like in the Valley of the Sun.

Here's some golden poppies with just a few owl clover blossoms peaking through:


Here are some penstomen, verbena and a couple others I don't know yet (sorry) snuggled up against a huge agave:


Here is a saguaro cactus with it's "nurse" palo verde tree:

Many times, in the desert, saguaros begin growing in the protective shade of palo verde trees, and after many years they tower over their "nurse's."

We also walked through the Butterfly Pavilion. It was alive with butterflies of many species and these two (a Zebra Longwing and a Julia butterfly) posed nicely together for a picture:


We got to see the Patrick Doughrty sculpture. I should have taken a picture with someone standing nearby so you can get a good idea of the scale. These wondrous things are large enough for several people to stand inside!


Here is what it looked like from the inside looking out and up:


I hope you enjoyed the tour and that this wasn't too picture heavy for dial-up users! More pictures can be seen on
my flickr site .

Quilting content in a day or two!

Barred chain stitch

No... I didn't fall in and the aliens didn't come and get me! Mom arrived last weekend and it has taken me a few days to adjust.

I have been having trouble with getting myself to sit down and stitch on the samplers for Sharon Boggon's Take a Stitch Tuesday. I have come to the conclusion that I am just not a sampler kinda gal, so I made some crazy quilt blocks out of the scraps from my queen bed quilt to use for my stitches. I'm not sure how I will use them in my bedroom but it sure was nice to get back to embroidering a crazy quilt block!

Here's a 10.5" block:


and here's a 5.5" block:


and a 3" block:


I sat down yesterday (finally) and played with the Barred Chain stitch and the Alternating Barred Chain stitch and here is the result on the 3" block:

This picture is a scan, whereas the others are photographs, but I think you can see it pretty well.

I really like the Barred Chain Stitch but I think the Alternating Barred Chain stitch is going to take some work to move into my bag of tricks. On the last seam I did on this little block (the shortest one up on the upper left corner of the center piece) I used the Alternating Barred Chain stitch and made the regular chain stitches much shorter than the Barred Chain stitch and I really like how that came out. I'll be playing some more with that idea in the future.

Regular posting shall resume. Or at least as regular as I ever post! LOL!!

Laying out the queen bed quilt...

The past two weeks have been a blur and I apologize for not posting more. The whirlwind of cleaning and organizing has slowed down to a manageable pace, finally. My brother and his son were here over this past weekend. Gaston (not his real name!) is contemplating attending Arizona State University in Tempe, which is right next to Phoenix, so they extended their stay for a couple of days to visit.

We had a great time, walked all over the ASU campus and spent Saturday afternoon at the Desert Botanical Garden. Unfortunately, we didn't make it over to see the installation by Patrick Dougherty that you see on the main page at the Desert Botanical Garden website. Gaston had to get back and do some homework so I'll have to see it next month when I go with Mom to see the wildflowers.

I've managed a few stitches on my feather stitch sampler but that's about it. I'm hoping things slow down soon so I can get back in the groove of stitching on a regular basis. I miss it! I also miss crazy quilting so I'm definitely going to have to do something about that.

Meanwhile... I have put together a few pictures to show you (in case you are interested) how I put together each quarter of the bed quilt (I need to figure out a name for it) I'm making for our master bedroom. The quilt is my take on this lovely quilt by Lisa Call New Works and Inspiration (scroll down).

First I lay out the 15.5" squares, making sure I had one of these in each corner of the quilt and then just spreading them out from there.


Next came the 10.5" squares, making sure to spread the colors around fairly evenly.


Then I added the 8" squares, snuggling some of them together and others by themselves.


The 5.5" squares are next...here is where I started to make sure that I had "blocks" of pieces that could be sewn together easily...


and lastly the 3" squares, finishing out the quilt quarter. Some of the lighter 3" squares are laid out together to break it up a bit.


and... this is the state it has been in for nearly 3 weeks. I'm hoping to get some work done on it tonight... keep your fingers crossed!

Algerian Eye Stitch

After all the kerfuffle with everything in my everyday life it is good to get back to some stitching. Although I'm behind (nothing new there) here is my contribution to the Algerian Eye Stitch round-up from Sharon B's Take a Stitch Tuesday.


I've always liked this stitch, although it has been quite some time since I played with it. It adds so much to freeform embroidery, too. I think I tried to have too many "spokes" on some of them, but it's all a learning process!

Now I'm off to spend some time cruising through everyone else's contributions and possibly... just possibly, contemplate working some feather stitches this evening.

Have a wonderful weekend, ladies!!

I love you guys!!

MMMMMMWWWWWWWAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!



Thanks so much for all the kind comments! I know in the grand scheme of things, Meniere's is pretty small potatoes but it's gonna mean a major lifestyle change for me and I so appreciate everyone's good thoughts.

When "life gets uppity" as we reach the "age of findings," the knowledge that "it does get better" and I actually "have a diagnosis" makes me feel so much better. To hear from someone special who welcomes me to her "nasty little club," and oh, baby... to know I'm "finished with disasters for awhile" sure does help! LOL!!!!

Thanks, guys... you made my day!

Real life has been interfering...

with trying to get any stitching done. On top of the small wreck with my van ($12,000 damage and 3 more weeks till it's fixed) and the broken tooth (root canal last week and gum surgery tomorrow so they can attach a crown) I have been bothered with increasingly frequent dizzy spells (as opposed to my usual ditzy spells). I had a fairly severe ear infection in December and when I went to my doctor, I happened to mention to her that I had dizzy spells quite frequently so it took me awhile to catch on to the fact that there was something wrong. Being a good little doctor she referred me to an ENT.

So, after a brief visit wherein we discussed my dizzy spells he sent me to an audiologist to be evaluated. After two 2-hour sessions in which I was made VERY dizzy and rather nauseous and a follow-up with the ENT, I have been diagnosed with Meniere's disease. Lovely. Good news... I have excellent hearing with only minimal loss in one ear. Bad news... I have to go on a very low-salt diet in order to reduce the incidence of vertigo and to keep from losing my hearing.

Mega bummer. Do you know how much I love salt? Gah!!!!!!!!!!!

So, I get to learn to cook all over again and what I make will not taste quite right. Yes, I can do it and it will be a good thing all the way around but it is rather frustrating!! Of course it also tells me why I've had dizzy spells for years as well as periods of nausea (that both I and my former doctor thought was heartburn) for no reason. Oh, yes... and the tiredness... apparently it is rather tiring to get these spells. So far 2007 has not been conducive to getting lots of creative work done.

My brother and his son are coming on the 22nd for a few days to check out Arizona State University, and then (oh, joy of joys) my mother will be here for the month of March. Adding these two visits into the mix has been adding extra work on the home front as we try and get everything together.

Would you like some cheese with that whine, Marty?

Why, yes... but please make it low-salt!

----------------***************-----------------------

On a happier note, I have joined two webrings, Susan's "Around the Block" and the TAST Webring run by Debra Spincic. The buttons are on the sidebar. Also, in case you haven't noticed, I reworked my blog roll a couple of weeks ago so do check them out and see if you find something special.

I'll be back with quilting content shortly. Promise.

Cretan stitch

Morning ladies!

I finally found time to do some stitching on my sampler of Creten Stitch for Take a Stitch Tuesdays (TAST). For this sampler, I'm using a lovely medium green 32 count Belgian linen. So far I have used some #5 perle cotton, silk floss and a Caron Impressions blend.

I'm planning on several more lines of stitches but this will do to give you a taste of what I have been doing.

Master Bedroom quilt progress

I spent quite a few pleasant hours Saturday and Sunday, working on the queen-size quilt for our bedroom. My design wall isn't big enough to lay out the whole quilt at one time, so I decided to do the quilt in quarters. I divided the various fabric squares as equally as possible into four stacks of fabric, making sure to get a fairly even distribution of sizes and colors.

Then, I took the first stack and started to lay it out on the wall. I began with the largest squares, placing one in the top left corner of the quilt, and trying (rather badly at one point) to keep colors and sizes working while laying out the fabric. While doing the planning for this quilt, I realized that if I wanted it to be random, I needed to ensure that the pieces I used could be sewn into "blocks" so that they could be easily joined without messing with set-in seams. Picturing random sizes of blocks as I laid out the squares really helped. Here's the first quarter of the quilt up on the design wall.


And, here it is all sewn up on Sunday afternoon. There were a few changes as I went along, but not too many.


Since I was in the swing of the quilt, I decided to design the second quarter of the quilt Sunday evening. Here it is on the design wall:

As you can see from the pictures of the two sections, I will be doing a bit of rearranging before I do more sewing.

If I was a bit more blog savvy I could post the two of them next to each other, but for now, this will have to do! :0) I'll have to put "positioning of pictures in the blog" up higher on my list of things to learn!

Anyway, I think it is coming along pretty well. Now, to work on my lazy daisy, cretan and chevron stitch for Take a Stitch Tuesday. I believe I may be a bit behind in my stitching! :0)

Buttonhole - final

I've spent some time finishing up this buttonhole sampler today.


I got bored with the squares and rectangles so just started playing with the stitch. The pink on the bottom portion kinda meandered around and then all of a sudden it looked a bit like mountains so I thought I would try a saguaro with some #3 perle cotton. Although the #3 was too large a thread for this treatment, I think it would be a viable way to make a saguaro with a bit of practice.

There is a three-pronged deep pink section on the lower right that I really like. To my mind it reminds me of stylized fuchia blossoms. This one I will definitely use along a crazy quilt seam.

Just a short post today as I want to get some quilting done. I'll be back in a couple of days!

Oh, about the accident... I'm fine now, although I was a bit shook up afterwards. It looks like they'll be able to fix the van... the final decision will be made next week after they pull it apart to really get a good look at the frame, etc. So far, so good!

Quilting content!

I certainly hope that the remainder of 2007 goes better than the first three weeks. Friday night I had an accident on the way home from work and smashed the heck out of my pretty red van. I had a bit of muscle soreness in my back but that is all as far as my injuries. I don't know the extent of the damages to the van yet... the insurance company got a rental car for me right away but I don't have an appraisal yet. I sure hope it isn't totalled!

On a brighter note, I chose the fabrics for the quilt for our master bedroom.


I'm going to be doing a really simple "pattern" that came from a post in December 2005 on Lisa Call's blog New Works and Inspiration (scroll down). I wanted lots of color without spending huge amounts of time working with an intricate pattern. I'm still a beginning quilter so I work pretty slowly, and I have quite a few sane quilts lined up to do this year... and I want to do some crazy quilting, too!

Glenn had to work graveyard shifts over the weekend so I spent about 6 hours on Sunday in my little workroom and got most of the pieces cut out. I only cut one group of 8 or so squares the wrong size; however, the beauty of this pattern is that you can substitute a pieced square for a solid square and no one will know the difference!

I haven't done any more on my Take a Stitch Tuesdays sampler, unfortunately. I hope to catch up this weekend 'cause I need some stitching time!

Buttonhole stitch - a beginning

I've started on my buttonhole stitch sampler for Take a Stitch Tuesdays . I decided to be a little bit more freeform this time around, trying to explore my boundaries somewhat. In between blowing my nose and trying to stay warm, here's my progress:

I like the graphic shapes that are appearing and plan to continue in this way till the sampler is full. These are 5"x7" (about 13cm x 18cm) sizes and will work well in the scrapbook I'll be using to hold all the stitches I play with this year during TAST.

Here's a photo of the scrapbook. It holds 8"x8" (about 20cm square) sheets and I found it at Target (I love Target!) and then bought some extra sheets to add to it.


Here is the cover page so when somebody stumbles across this worn little book in a 100 years they will know who did it, when and the genius behind it (that would be Sharon).


These are the inner pages... I plan on putting my sampler on the right hand side, then printing pictures of specific stitches that I fall in love with from the needleworkers involved in the challenge on the left side so I can refer to them. I think it should work well.


Since my samplers will of course be fairly thick I may have to go to a second scrapbook but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it.

In other news... the cold is almost gone; however, I broke a tooth last night. Sheesh!

Herringbone - Final for TAST

Short post today, ladies, as I have been felled by a vicious little virus and feel like carp. :0(

Here is my Herringbone Stitch Sampler for Take a Stitch Tuesdays (TAST). I think it was pulled a bit out of square by the hoop and the word herringbone needs some help; however, I plead ill health. ;0)



After seeing everyone's freeform stitching I had to try it on the bottom section of the sampler. After awhile I kinda got the hang of it and plan on playing with it some more. Do check out the link above, there is some great stitching going on out there!

Herringbone stitch - Take a Stitch Tuesdays

Here's my Herringbone sampler... at least part of it. I still have more to do but other things have been getting in the way of my stitching. Sorry, the picture isn't the best!


I used #3 and #5 perle cotton, along with some silk floss and beads. As I said I'll be doing more on this sampler but I wanted to get it up before the next one comes out!

Everyone has been doing some great variations on this stitch. To see what others have done, please check out Sharon Boggon's Take a Stitch Tuesday page for links to examples of Herringbone stitch. You'll be glad you did!

I have been away from the blog too long. We've been spending extra time on yard work and getting everything put away after Christmas. We're also coming down to the last few piles of "stuff" from our move. This has been taking way to much time and we are VERY tired of it... I hope to see the end of the reorganization soon!! When we left Colorado quite a bit of our stuff went into storage, and then some of my Mother's got added to it, and each of the boys left some boxes, too. Well, by the time we got around to moving it down to Phoenix, everyone had forgotten that their stuff was mixed in with our stuff... so, of course it ended up here and we have the task of sorting through it... and mailing it back to them or storing it here until we drive back up. Not to mention all the collections of stuff that I no longer collect... sometimes I look at it and think "What the heck was I thinking?" and then I think "WHAT am I gonna do with this?"

We just plain have too much stuff!