Back at my house for a night.

  I love the extra money I make house-sitting but sure miss my house.  I have not taken my computer with me so I have not posted since the 1st day of 2013.  Will do a longer post when I return. Here is a photo of my towels.  I love flowers..  Posting from my recently new android phone.  Lots to learn.  Lol

Happy New Year!

Happy 2013 to everyone.

Based on the theory that what ever you do on New Years Day you will do the rest of your year I am trying to have a full day. I have sewed, done embroidery, shopped, spent time with my boyfriend, spent time with friends and enjoyed my comfy red chair in my own apartment. The only things I wish I wasn't doing is putting oil in the car and coming down with a cold. Hope everyone has a wonderful year!!!!

Another thing I want to do in 2013 is update my blog. I want to document my life and show what I have done. I have had enormous changes in my life in the last year including getting my own apartment.  I now have all of my things around me.
I have decided on my new word  for the year and I will be following up with that. 
Off to do more “things” on the first day of this brand new Year.

A bit about me!

I see meme on blogs all the time.  I am always impressed by the one at  Barefoot Mama.  So I thought I would do one.


Right Here, Right Now


What I'm wearing... jeans, white tee and Nikes

What I'm reading... Moonlight Cove by Sherryl Woods

What I'm creating... I'm working on my Grandmothers Flower quilt that I am sewing from scraps of other quilts.
What's happening in my kitchen... left over pizza

What I'm smelling... the smell of rain and fallen leaves

What I'm hearing... U of O beating USC and now the news.

What's on my mind... That’s it’s a nice relaxing Saturday night – and a sick friend

Words to live by..."In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away"- shing xiong


What happened in my world this week... Really feeling “relaxed” in my apartment and that it’s my own.

An April update.

I have been MIA haven’t I.
Where have I been you ask?  I don’t really have an answer.   Mostly I have been working, sleeping and I  don’t know what else.  I can’t believe B it’s been over a month since I last posted.
It seems that work has been sucking the life out of me.  Just like aliens have been taking all my energy..   I get home and I just can’t do anything.   I haven’t worked on any quilting.  I have to write a speech for Toastmasters and I keep putting it off.   I have been working on my small rug for my doll house but I haven’t done much more than that.
I have been watching a lot of tv series on DVD.  I have fallen in love with Drop Dead Diva.   I just today watched the first shows of Veronica Mars.  I wasn’t sure on the pilot but it has gotten better.  I have watched Garrow’s Law and I am on the third series of Bramwell.
It has also been a month of record rainfall here in Oregon.  The days have also been very GRAY.  That has been the hardest thing or me this year.    So gray it doesn’t want me to do anything.    I don’t have the energy to get the quilts out and work on them.  I could get so much out if I could just get it out but It just seems just to much work.
I didn’t update the progress on my UFO’s from Judy’s UFO Challenge from the Patchwork Times.    For February – I haven’t even cut anything out so that is not yet completed.  For March the number picked was # 8 which was Kenny’s quilt.  I have given it no thought. 
Today the number picked for April was #10.   This is the quilt I am going monthly to Quilting Delights to get the pattern.  I have been going since November and I haven’t even cut a single piece for it.   No excuse really – just nervous to make that first cut in all the beautiful fabric.
Hopefully I will do something in the month of April. Let’s keep our fingers and toes crossed.
Another thing that I have been reading a lot about in blogs lately is Copyright issues  and how some people feel it’s getting out of control in the quilting world.  I do believe that to a point.  I can understand if someone uses the photo of their quilt or design for promotion purpose and does not give credit or compensation.  But I feel it’s going too far if you are using someone’s line of fabric in your design and you show it on your blog and you claim it’s a copyrighted fabric design and try to have them stop using it.  For me that is going to far.  Why else would you design fabric other for it to be used?  That’s all I am going to say on that for now.   There are so many sides and so many opinions – so if you want to learn more search the issue on the internet and make your own opinion.   I am just sorry that a craft that a lot of people do for creativity release and pure pleasure has turned into such a minefield of touchy subjects.
It’s Sunday night again.. I am off to watch the CMA’s and the spring break song “Red Solo Cup” 
Till next time.

How do you spend your dash?

The Dash

 By Linda Ellis

I read of a man who stood to speak

At the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates on her tombstone

From the beginning…to the end.

He noted that first came the date of her birth

And spoke of the following date with tears,

But he said what mattered most of all

Was the dash between those years.

For that dash represents all the time

That she spent alive on earth

And now only those who love her

Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own,

The cars…the house…the cash.

What matters is how we live and love

And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard;

Are there things you’d like to change?

For you never know how much time is left

That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough

To consider what’s true and real

And always try to understand

The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger

And show appreciation more

And love the people in our lives

Like we never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect

And more often wear a smile…

Remembering that this special dash

Might only last a little while.

So when your eulogy is read

With your life’s actions to rehash

Would you be proud of the things they say

About how you spent your dash?

February UFO.

My birthday was a downer day this year  but my week  definitely got better.    On Wed the 1st – Judy at the Patchwork Times picked a new UFO.  This month she picked #1  For me this is the  Floral $5.00 Monthly Quilt from Quilting Delights.   I have not started this at all so I am really going to have to buckle down and work on it.  I still didn’t get photos' but I promise they will come.
In fact I started to work on this weekend along with my Provence quilt.  I pulled the both out to start cutting and then I got distracted.   I knew with the Provence quilt I should pull some fabrics to use as practice for the 12 squares.  I then started looking through my stash which lead me to pull everything out of my closet and reorganize.    I was happy I did.  I found a couple of things I couldn’t find.
No photos' today but in organizing my stash I was thinking about ways I want my future craft room to be.

From Pinterest    http://lifeinmystudio.blogspot.com/


via Country Living
Another  exciting project I found was listing to Mark Lipinski's – Creative  Mojo.   I am a few radio podcasts behind but I was listing to one from the Spring of 2011.   They started talking about doll houses. ( This is another area I want to explore – in fact I think I have one  in my storage but that fascination is for another post. )     They started talking about needle pointing rugs for doll houses.  I got so excited and I immediately got on line and ordered a kit for one from  Janet Granger via  Rose Cottage in Staffordshire England.  The package arrived today with 4 stamps with the Queens image and a customs declaration.   How cool is that. 

I won…..

It was Monday night and I am watching “The Voice” and I am reading blogs and I come across one and found that I won a giveaway..   Yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  My first one..   It’s at happy little cottage.  The day I entered was on my birthday so I know that had something to do with my luck.

Today

Today is my birthday.  It’s a bittersweet day as I lost a very close friend on this very day two years ago.  This was about a year and a half after I lost  my boyfriend whom i dearly loved.  I have lost too many men in my life and the memories keep flooding my mind today. For some reason the age of 44 is hitting me hard.  I don’t know why it’s just seems old.  Must be something from that timeline I set in my head when I was 15.   I  will be back to my chipper self tomorrow and it’s been a long day so I am headed to bed.

Dreaming

“Don’t dream your life, live your dreams” ~ Anonymous

I found this quote last year and I was going to use it in a post but i never did.  This weekend was both a balance for everyday life and dreaming.
I accomplished a lot of  of errands and checking things off my list this weekend. .    During a break on Friday I wrote down a list of things i wanted to get done over the weekend and for the long term.  I won’t bother you with the long term ideas.  Some of them were spurred by the books below, some where just thinking of things that needed to be done.
A few of the errands and projects were:
- change bed.  - oh my gosh i fluffed up my feather cushion and my 3 coverings and it now feels like heaven
- get knee highs.. – i like to sometimes dress up for work and i haven’t had any knee highs for a while and I miss the dressing up.
-return pop bottles.  I didn’t get this done.  There is a whole stack in the garage.  This will have to wait for another weekend.
- Bennet House Cross stitch – write down all the thread I still need.  I bought my self a Christmas present but the shop did not have all the thread I needed.  I needed to write down what i did have versus what I needed so i could stop by one day after work as it’s closer to work then home.
- buy a couple cheap pair of flip-flops.    Do you know how hard this is to do in the middle of January when you don’t want to go all over town and you don’t want to spend over 2 dollars a pair.    Its for a function at work and I found some at the dollar store that will just have to do   Tomorrow is National Feet day per my coworkers so we are are using that day  to tie in with the concept of Word of the Year.   We are giving all our coworkers paper cutouts of  flip flops to put down a word or “feat” they want to accomplish at work or in their personal life.  We thought we would get a live pair of flip-flops to pass out to the team leads to use as recognition when someone on their team accomplishes a grand “feat" in their department.
Well tonight I feel very accomplished.  I got  almost everything checked off my to do list.  I didn’t start any of the long term goals. but i have a plan in mind to get them done.
But the heading was about dreaming.  I did a lot of that this weekend to.   Both in sleep ‘:-)  and in day dreaming.
I have been in the mode of  reading of self help books lately.  Wait let’s not use those words.  I think exploring new ways of thinking is a better phrasing.  I needed something to be adding creativity and light to the gray days  of January.  The ones I have been reading are.
 







 












  
When I read these books I of course take them with a grain of salt.  I try to get a feel for the things they are saying.  They all have a common thread it seems.   Being positive and believing in what you want.   In fact they are very old ideas but it’s always refreshing to think of the ideas in new light. The Books  give me  new ways of how to apply the ideas to my own life.  The hindsight these books have brought have helped me realize this actions have been occurring in my life  and I hope to continue to use them as I strive to grow every day. I can honestly say that I have seen  awesome results of putting the  ideas into motion in my life in the past two years and even in bits and pieces from years before that.
Dreams..  This is where I started this post.  I dream all the time.  I dream of how i want to decorate, how i want to quilt, to design fabric.   How i want to live in a beautiful old house by the water.  How I want to travel.  How I want to have a delicious Italian dinner in Italy surrounded by Italians and savoring the food.     I dream of what I want  to be when i grow up.  I dream all the time.  I dream in color when i sleep and i dream while sitting in freeway traffic.   I dream when i write and when i sitting quiely working on stitching.
Another thing the books talk about is live your dreams. Work toward your dreams.    I am striving to do it this year.  I am always reminded about the lady who always saves her “pretty” things for a special occasion and when she died her children found things still tucked away and not used for years because daily life wasn’t special enough.    I want to take things out and use them. Both physical things and my dreams.   Every day is special and we are special and we should celebrate every day by using our “pretty” things.
P.S.   while out running errands this weekend I found this.   Doesn’t it bring joy?

Shall we explore a new series?

Enid Blyton

UFO # 5 for January

I am so excited.  I finished my  UFO early.    At this point in my life I am considering completion to the flimsy as completing my UFO.  Perhaps next year I will consider UFO’s from flimsy to complete.
In 2006 I participated in a block of the month exchange at the Shop Heart to Hand.  I received 13 squares.  The pattern was A Fathers Journey – which I think was an original design but I might be wrong.  I would occasionally take them out and try to figure out what to do with them but always came up empty.    At one point I even bought coordinating fabric to tie them all together.  A green, a goldish tan, a burgundy red flora and a dark blue.
Last year I could not get them out of my mind and I finally decided to do something out of them. I went through them and really looked at what I had.  All thirteen had the same piece of medium blue fabric in all of them and they also had a mixture of dark blue, light blue, tans and one had red and a few other oddities thrown in.   I can’t remember the original count but I determined that what I needed  was 5 dark, 5 light, 3 red and 3 neutrals and i had to do some resewing.  So I got to work and tore some of them apart, added other fabric that coordinated and made sure that the one fabric was in all of them. I think i did 14 of them and then had two more complete ones to sew up.
Last September I was house sitting and  I brought the project along.  I sewed the final two blocks and then started measuring the others and found they were not very accurate  and the seam ripper came out.
This is what I ended up with . 


Then I was stuck.   What was i going to do next?  I laid them out in all different order but could never find a good balance. I tried out all the fabrics as borders.   Nothing seemed to work.  Then inspiration struck.
i came up with a 5 set on point in a square.

I then I layed the remaining ones around the square but I had a couple of problems.  One.  I  was a square short but did not have any more of the fabric that was in all of them.  That was okay-  I used fabric that was in many of the others and hoped it didn’t stand out.
This is what it looks like.
    
The next problem was the square in the middle was slightly smaller then the outside square.  Inspiration left and i put it back in the box.  I took it home and asked my mom to help me deicide on borders.  Still no decision.
Then  I put it down on my UFO list and it was pulled for January.
I am house-sitting again so I brought it back out and I set down on Thursday night and put in a 4 hour session.
I was able to figure out a way to  showcase the difference between the two “squares”.   I then held it up against myself and it was too square and wasn’t long enough to use on the couch.  So I added another row on the top and the bottom of a neutral.   
I then cheated  (wink) on the last border.  I had borders already cut from another quilt that wasn’t used.  All I had to do was use two of them and just had to cut the two long sides.
Tada!!!  Sorry about the bad lighting it was at night.