Sunny Thoughts PC

I made and mailed this PC to a young woman that has started a course of treatment for breast cancer. She is a friend of one of my HGTV friends, Lisa. I wanted to send Sunny Thoughts her way. Another woman on the message board is putting to together a quilt of black and pink hearts for her as well. I also spent a bit of time on making this block.

I do believe that quilters are the most generous, caring demographic.

So I am now 51 years old and 1 week today! There are days I feel every bit of that! Met up with Jenn, Noni, Ian & Darcy, last Sunday, for breakfast. A stroll around Antiques World in the balmy summer-like day yielded a bday gift for me!

I love this garden cart! Old mismatched wood on a metal base with metal wheels....aged to perfection. It will go on my little deck with clay pots of herbs and flowers! How can you not love it?

Melissa and Dave made me dinner. While there, Michael called to from boot camp in Oklahoma, to wish me happy birthday. A very nice day indeed.

I have had repainting rooms in my house on my list for years now. I have been thinking about what to change, what to add by reading Flea Market style magazines. That is my style. Old. Repurposed cool bits. When my kids were still dependent on my chauffeuring and attending sporting events year round, my creative outlet was decorating my domains. Sewing and stitching were not at the forefront due to time constraints. Since Michael got his license at 16, I have increasingly indulged my time creating with threads and fabrics. Decorating has fallen short.

Time is my biggest nemesis....the lack of it. I seem to be busier socially which is not a bad thing. I try to keep one entire day, preferably Sunday, free for catching up on projects and starting new ones. Today I have worked on my HGTV Challenge #2 piece. I can't show it for weeks though! We were given a bag of scraps in our colorway request to make anything we want....adding only solid fabrics. Liking where I have gone with it.

Also worked on Sharon's embellishment RR. My art quilt group started this 2 months ago. Sharon started us off with a great piece of rust color dyed fabric that has a light line running through it where she had done some stitching before dying. I am the 3rd person to work on it. It felt it needed to have a focus. So I made a large focal point....and I can't show you this either! Let me assure you, it looks good.

Jenn's shower went well on the 11th. We managed to seat almost 70 people in the room we rented in an old house in Alden. Jenn got great gifts. Alan made a great cake. Great food. Great weather. I loved the detail on jenn's dress and had to get a shot of the neckline.

I have learned:

1. Buffalo has had record breaking temps over the last week. 70's & 80's! It was warmer here than is was at Fort Sill, OK where Michael experienced "end of the world rain"!
2. Click here and scroll down a to Bruce Springsteen's speech at SXSW in Austin,Texas. Worth a few minutes.
3. Mondo was the Project Runway All Star winner. Talented and always interesting. Mondo's work is all the looks in the bottom row.
4. The Art of Racing in the Rain. Good read (on my Nook!). Story told from the viewpoint of the family dog, Enzo. 
5. After a total of 3.5 hours and 3 phone calls to Southwest airlines, my 2 "free" airfare tickets cost me $325.00. I had to but extra points. Really?!. Well, it is done. We are set to see Michael graduate in his US Army uniform. Can't wait!
6. My Wonder Wheel tied with my friend Karen's Samba Queen quilt for Viewers favorite! All the pieces from the annual guild challenge hung in the library for the month of February and we invite viewers to vote for their favs. 

Ring Bearer Pillow

Tomorrow is Michael's fiance's shower! Jen is a welcome addition to the family, we just love her. She asked me to make her ring bearer pillow...this is it! It has a contemporary-vintage vibe. I used more of the beloved vintage organza curtain found at Sally Ann's a few years ago. (I used this on my Wonder Wheel too). I will be sad to see the end of those curtains! I used it as an overlay again. Sketched the hearts onto freezer paper, iron to an organza, white cotton and red silk crushed velvet (bought at my first HGTV quilt retreat in Houston) sandwich and thread sketch the outline. Removing the paper is time consuming, as the paper bits get stuck under the stitches. After removing the paper, I sketched some more to make the outline of the hearts definitive. Next I cut away the organza and cotton layers to reveal the red velvet.
I did the same for the "Forever and Always". Freezer paper. Sketch. Voile.
I do love it. It is very me. I know Jen will love it too.

I knew I had a lot to so today with the shower tomorrow. At 10:00 this morning I had a quilt show meeting. While there, Ian was texting me about his championship game at noon...was I coming...I wish you were...you know...the tugging at the heartstrings. I was feeling guilty...Aunt guilt. After showing Tracy J the text, she told me I had to go. She was right. These are the moments that matter to our growing charges. Off I went...knowing I would get done what needed to get done for tomorrow.
His team lost, after double overtime.
I did get done what I needed to get done.

While I was taking the pic of the pillow on my little deck, I noticed the mini rose bush I left out all winter, had green leaves. I am hopeful for mini buds now!

I have learned:

1. 20/20 right now. Touching story about tw0olittle girls in Ohio that have Progeria. Only nine girls in the US have this rapidly advancing aging disease. Tears.
2. I really don't like to lose at Scrabble. 
3. Michael is doing well at Army boot camp. Hand to hand combat..check. Repel the 80' tower..check. Gas chamber...check. Graduation April 20. 
4. Live Well & Be Happy.

Spring. Quilt.

This is a quilt I recently pieced and quilted for a challenge on HGTV message board. Our assignment was to make something from UFO blocks in your stash. I chose to use some of the "fabrics" I made in the Nancy Crow class at QBL 1 1/2 years ago.

These are the bits I needed to use. I don't know what I was thinking when I added the fabric with the red strip in it. Really? No matter how cool I tried to make it by adding that bit to the front, it was just not going to work. I had to use it. So......

I made it work on the back! I love this back. It's sort of Gee's Bend-ish, in that I improvised.
I had to quilt it too, since it needed to be a finished project. Ugh. Hate this part. I decided to make it easy on myself and just run close, vertical lines with a variegated thread. The top was transformed with every line. Made it all work together.

Fun project. Fun quilt. I am calling it "Spring".

I have learned:

1. Davey Jones, from The Monkees, died of a heart attack yesterday. Reminded me of good times spent singing to those 45's with Pam....we were young...and Bobby Sherman was our Tiger Beat focus at the time! 
2. The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton...good read. Nook. Love it. 
3. How to Look Good Naked. This  show is from the UK. Only there could they make this show charming.....I am convinced it is the host, Gok Wan's accent that makes it work! That same show done here would end up cheesy....crass even, recited in an American accent. 
4. Apparently Fiona feels the need to groom me....she has started to paw and bite my hair/scalp. Ouch, but it's the thought that counts!