Something to think about......

We all struggle day to day in figuring out what makes us tick.  Below are questions we can ask ourselves to make sure what we are doing is what we want to be doing.  

1.What are you passionate about?


2.When you wake up what do you wish you could be doing?


3.How do you want to spend your time?

4.What REALLY turns you on?

5.What’s fun for you and not work?


6.What activities do you like to do?


7.What gives you a sense of fulfillment?


I found these questions from a blog. who is asking herself these questions she found in an article in the Costco magazine.  It's always interesting on where a person gets their inspiration for change.

What I made sitting on the porch!

I took the day off on Friday to have a long 4 day weekend.  Everyone needs one of those once in a while.   I went out with my friend Kim.  She does scrap booking, holds the title of a ceramic maker proudly and is a fantastic cook.  She is the one I took the cake decorating classes with.  She is a great inspiration for my crafty goodness. She is currently into making dog collars and leashes.  She can do anything she sets her mind to and does it well.   Our styles are so different but I let her passion for crafts motivate me.

We went out to lunch on Friday and then we were off to the Quilt stores.   First was Quilting Delights where I signed up for the 5.00 block of the month that is now costing 135.00.   I wrote about it in my last post - so check it out.  I have been going there about 8 years I think.  On and off.   I first heard about the store from a temp that worked in my office for 2 days.  That's when I signed up for my first Block of the Month and it really got me back into quilting.  I never saw that temp again.. So i always have thought of her as a guardian angle.  The store has 30's prints, bright colors, and big quilts.There is a lot to choose from of a wide space.

Then on to Pioneer Quilts.   A totally different store then the first.  It's small and cozy and is full of wool patterns and quilts, some Kaffee Fasset bolts and civil war prints.  This is the store I found the Farmer Wives book way before the quilt-along blazed a trail through the Internet. I was looking at their classes and they have a group that meet monthly to work on wool quilts.  I might just have to look into that. 

While we were there I picked up a pattern for a cute pattern to store my sewing tools when traveling or whatever.   After stopping at Joanne's to pick up some batting, Kim and I went home to sit on the poach enjoying the beautiful day  and spent the  rest of the afternoon  sewing up the pattern.  We alternated between talking outside and going inside and sewing on her Brother Embroidery Machine.  I loved it.  I want one.  ;-)   Now if I only had enough money for everything I want.   That's another blog post.
Here are photos of my attempts.  We gave our selves new names.  Stupid 1 and stupid 2.   lol    We shared the sewing machine but were using different colored thread so we took turns.  Well I got to the completed stage first and when I went to turn it inside out guess what happened?   This:

Yup,  I  sewed it inside out.  All of the pockets were on the inside. So then there was a lot of this going on.

Yup ripping.    But I reread the directions and then this happened.

Yes.  a completed carrier!!!!  ;-)   It has 3 pockets and flap that comes over the top.
When my friend tried turning hers out the first time she thought she made the same mistake but it turns out she just had the pocket turned inside out and once she fixed that it came out awesome.  Forgot to take a photo of heres.  When mine  was completed it just felt like it was missing something.  What I did then was play with my friends machine.  I got into some of her cute stitches and ending up putting a half circle bunting  stitch on the front of the flap.  The perfect touch.
We then looked around her stash and found some neat fabric and we made another one. By the time we were done with that one it was dark.  So no photos of those.  Good thing to - because I was trying to be fancy on the stitching and guess what.  Yup..  back to the seam ripper.  So I will post the completed on another day.

What I will be doing monthly for the next year.

Well I did it.  i went over to Quilting Delights and signed up for their Block of the Month that starts in Nov.   

The store  goes back and forth between a quilt the shop owner designs and one they get through Maywood Studio’s.   This year it is through Maywood Studio.  The quilt is below and we have 4 color options. 

 

 

The first is in black and pinks and whites that has long stemmed pink roses and black backgrounds.  I have tried to find photos of it but I can’t find a photo out on the web and i can’t remember the name of the line.   The next three are color variations of the  Memories of Provence line.  The color ways we had were black, red and blue.     In the photo below  its the second,, third and fourth in the stack to the left.

I chose the

RED

of the Memories of Provence line.  It just spoke to me.  I am so excited.

 

 

Here is a  blog that describes another blogger  starting the quilt.  That is where I also got the 2 photos above.  Thank you Open Gate Quilt Blog.   I had trouble getting on the Maywood Studio website so I used the two I found.  Dang virus protectors.

 

It’s been  2  or 3 years (or has it been more?) since I have participated in a Block of the Month.  i did get a little burned out but I also was at a time in my life with school full time,  graduation, then losing my job, having no money, looking for a job and then finding one but trying to impress the company so I would get hired on from my temp status that I didn’t sign up for one.   

I start on Nov 10th but the store said that in a few weeks I will be getting the fabric and a cutting list so i can set up my little packets for each month with all my cut up fabric.   I can’t wait!

Today I also bought a cool pattern and made a cool little satchel to hold sewing supplies.  I will update you soon.

Have a wonderful day.

needlework

needlework, a photo by Tadlafleur on Flickr.

designing a peice.. i hope to have a series using my initals.

Special Fonts

o you like this?





found it at this site.




http://www.dailydropcap.com/

Kaffe Fassett

I love this designer... In fact it is a connection with my Aunt. When she died my brother and sister gave me her knitting statsh. In it I found articles on Kaffe from the 80's when she lived in the San Fransico area.

http://youtu.be/ZktTHOFv_mY

A Sunday note.

Things are going on in my life...

I am house sitting again. 3 minutes from work. It is so nice to leave work at 3:30 and be sitting on the couch working on my needlepoint by 3:45.
 

I have made great strides on this lately. I am on the bottom 3rd. Of that portion the two corners are a light apple green and white check. I have finished one corner and just have the white checks to finish on the other side. Still have the middle portion to finish. I feel so soothed when I stitch and it makes me think of my aunts  (my fathers sisters) who are great needle workers. I am so excited to start my next project when I am done.

I finished my cake decorating class Here is the final product.

Do I love it? No. I don’t like the size of the cake I used, it didn’t turn out like I had it in my head and I had so much trouble baking it. I made it in the kitchen I am house sitting at. Let me tell you there is nothing like missing your own kitchen. I had to make two versions. The first one had one disaster after another. First I couldn’t not find any oil or Pam to put in the pan so I gave up and made it anyway. In checking it when the timer went off I discovered I had turned the oven off and had to cook it longer. When it tried to get it out of the pan it fell apart and half of it stuck to the bottom of the pan. On the second one I decided to use butter to powder it with the flour I finally found but it turns out it was rice flour and I lost one of the ends when I took it out of the pan. But as I told them in class I was learning – and I learned so much.

This is my friends cake. It turned out awesome. She went ahead and made one out of the book. Of course perfection.

We have signed up for the next class.

The Flowers and Cake Design class.

We will see how it go’s.

I have been watching some good series lately…

Watched  

In the middle of

And just started and have on the shelf

I am reading

and also found another series in which I have read the first one.

 

Still working on collecting all of the DMC threads and working on my design books. Quilting is not at the forefront on being worked on but it’s never far from my mind.

Well it’s getting late and I will update you again soon.

My library adventures

In one of my quests to save Money and to also quench my thirst for books I take advantage of the Multnomah County Library.  The have many branches and it is one of the most used libraries in the nation.  I have intersts in a wide circle of things.    Currently I have 28 book/things checked out and I have 11 items on hold.
Today I will be returning a few:  Let me list them.

1. A Knitter’s Home Companion – A heartwarming collection of stories, patterns and recipes by Michelle Edwards
2. I Remember Nothing – and other Reflections by Nora Ephron
3. Hook, Loop and Lock – create fun and easy locker hooked project by Theresa Pulido
4. The Vintage Home – Clever finds and faded treasures for today’s chic living by Judith Wilson
5. The Pioneer Woman Cooks – Recipes from an Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond
6. Shed Chic – Outdoor Buildings for Work,  Rest and Play  by Sally Coulthard
7. Brava Valentine – a novel (audio book) by Adriana Trigiani
8. ReKindled (audio book) by Tamera Alexander
9. October Road  The complete first season
10. Run Fatboy Run
11. A Wrinkle in Time (2003 Disney)
12. Little Big Town by Little Big Town
13. Stripped by Christina Aguilera
14. Corinne Bailey Rae by Corinne Bailey Rae

The things i have checked out that I still have in a pile next to my bed are:

1. Summer of the midnight sun by Tracie Peterson
2. Whispers of Winter by Tracie Peterson
3. A summer in the Country by Marcia Willett 
4. A week in winter by Marcia Willett  (halfway through)
5. Big Stone Gap (Audio Book) by Adriana Trigiani   only have a few cd’s left to listen to on the commute
6. Commander in Chief.  Part 1  (DVD)
7. The big book of cross-stitch designs: over 900 simple to stitch decorative motifs
8. Crating a home by Kathryn M Ireland
9. Sister Parish Design: on Decorating   by Susan Bartlett Carter and Libby Cameron   ( I love Sister Parish – she is so into chintz.)
10. Color schemes for the flower garden by Gertrude Jekyll  - thought it would help on color theory.
11. October Road:  The complete second season  (DVD)
12. Live by Design:  6 steps to an extraordinary you by Tom Ferry with Laura Morton   I am pouring over this one as it is hitting home with me and plan to work with it some more.
13. Gunn’s golden rules:  life’s little lessons form making it work by Tim Gunn, with Ada Calhoun
14. Thrifty chic: interior style on a Shoestring by  Liz Bauwens and Alesxandra Campbell

Currently I have 11 on hold with two ready to pick up.

1. Drawling lab for mixed-media artists: 52 creative exercises to make drawing fun by Carla Sonheim
2. North and South.  The complete collection (DVD)
3. Big Love.  The complete fourth season.   87 out of 297 on hold
4. The Kids are all Right (DVD) 19 out of 207 on hold
5. The book of Stillmeadow   1 of 2 on hold
6. Doo-wops & hooligans by Bruno Mars  188 of 240 on hold (have had on hold since March and I am only up to 188)
7. Once and again: The complete second season   1 of 1 holds but on it’s way
8. Big Cherry Holler – A Big Stone Gap novel by Adriana Trigiani 1 of 1 holds but on it’s way
9. A wrinkle in time  (audio book) by Madeleine L”Engle   4 of 4 holds
10. One Tree Hill.  The complete first season.    1 of 1 holds but on it’s way
11. A year on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball  1 of 1 holds

Mamma Mia

 I am going in Aug to see this with my Mamma, my friend Rob and his mamma and sister.    Rob and I saw this on Broadway and have seen the movie lots of times.  I also have both the  soundtrack for both the movie and the London production.

Cake Class

I am takig a fondant and gum cake class. Yesterday I went over to my friend Kim’s house to make our “flowers” for our final project. Below is what I made. I didn’t have a set plan when I started but it all came together – I think. I looked at a couple of choices that they listed in the back of the class book and I started from there. I didn’t “love” anything so I took bit’s and peices from all the designs. I was first making circles with circles cut out and then I moved on to the flowers. Then I added the leaves. I don’t know what I am going to do with the little balls as I had one idea of putting them all around the edges but I don’t know.

My pink is not what i wanted. I wanted more of a red. I wanted to do a red and aqua colored cake. I couldn’t get the colors deep enough. For the purple/blue I tried to match the colors on her kitchen wall. I kept holding it up to her wall. She was giggling at me. She painted her house from the colors from the Disney line. She is a Disney fanatic.

I have made too many pieces but I wanted choices. I still don’t know how it’s going to be decorated but I will post photos when i am done.

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While we were doing this we made Cinnamon rolls from scratch. YUM YUM! She is such a creative and crafty person. She gives me so much inspiration. Our tastes are not the same but her continuous effort at cooking, crafting, thinking up new ideas motivates me to push my self. I say all the time I want to do this, or that and never get around to it. She says it and the next thing i know is we are doing it. I want to be like her when I grow up.

A romantic vision.

I stayed up all night watching the wedding. I was in love with the way she looked in the blush veil. I was reading blogs on Friday and someone said that the dress reminded her of Marie from the movie Sound of Music - I can see that. I can also see how it reminds them of Princess Grace. Two grand ladies to be compared to. What do you think?


I liked watching the pageantry and the tradition. I loved it.