Stressed Fabtic

This is a day I want to spend in my shop doing just what I have to do personally, Here the first of December is upon me and I am not finished with my Christmas Swap. Shame on me! But today is the day for that, and for working on my Paint Chip Challenge for Quilt Group. The colors I drew were two yellows and a pretty blue. Since I organized the challenge I guess I had better do something special and different, which I have started.

I just finished a quilt for a customer, which for me was somewhat of a challenge. She had taken a Jelly Roll Class from the County Extension Office. This was her first quilt, and so it is special to her. She finished the base of the quilt, put on one border, but needed someone to finish it, so she called on me. Well when I got the bag I though "No Big Deal". But and I have never seen this before, all the fabric had been purchased in lenghts of 2-3 yards. Then the Extension Lady had had them rip, yes tear it the lenght of fabric. Wow what a waste of good fabric. I honestly did not realize people did sashings and borders like that. Needless to say, the fabric suffered from the stress. anyway it is done and I will deliver it this morning, but I was surprised to say the least. Has anyone else done a quilt like that??

Happy Thanksgiving to all!!

We are headed to my sisters for dinner today, which will be fun.  My nephew, his wife and three children should be there and we have not seen them for several years.  Time does seem to be getting away from us.
Life has been good, Bud worked for a guy during harvest, enjoying his time just driving a tractor.
I have been taking a class from Marilyn Belford on Quilt University, Realistic Fabric Portrait Quilts.  I have done art quilts before, but this class has been quite a challenge, but it is coming together quite nicely now.  I had to learn that I do things a bit different from others, so no big deal.  Here is a photo of my model, will post the finished quilt when it is finally done!

This is a painting a friend of mine did from a photo she was allowed to use that had been taken by her college professor.  Long story short, the photo was taken in the early 80's, she painted "Rosita" in 83-84.  I was able to find the photographer/professor, what a delightful man to visit with.  He gave his okay, so "Rosita" will be a quilt soon, I pray.

Fun Times

The group in Connecting Threads - Love of Art Quilts is having a challenge.  Our hostess too a photo, broke it into 12 pieces and each of us made a block out of what we saw from the bit of the photo.  Mine is off in the mail, to Becky Ray, and boy was it fun.  Here is what my portion of the block looked like, first the photo then the piece I did.

We are off to an Exotic animal auction today, which in hick terms just means, lots of Chickens, Pea Fowl, Ducks, and Geese, maybe a few pigeons, thrown in for good measure. I have my camera packed, as this is a new experience for DH and I. We will drive up to the Sandhills, about a hundred miles for the auction. We would have liked to take the RV and stayed for the exotic hooved animals (goats and such) tomorrow, but DH is on vacation from Church, so we want to visit some friends churches. He is really looking forward to sitting in the pew for a couple of weeks. The ole RV will, we hope be heading to the lake Sunday afternoon, that is if this weather straightens up, it has been way too cold for my blood.

I have signed up to follow a blog, http://sewfunquilts-sewmeow.blogspot.com/2011/04/i-never-promised-you-rose-gardenjust.html, she has a contest going now with the prize being 200 - 2" blocks for a watercolor quilt. Now I have made two already, but with 200 blocks, I could make yet another beauty.

Here is a photo of my very first watercolor quilt, called Watercolor Crosses. Then if you look down just a bit you can see her brother, Dear John.

Crashing down.

Have you every had times when things just seem to come crashing down?

First I had to prepare for a retreat, that stretched me in a new and different direction. I love people and I love the Lord, but it is hard for me to delegate, so God put me in that position and I had to literly let go and let God handle the rest. Lesson learned!!

For months I had been praying, as I had been asked in October if I would work the next Emmaus weekend in the conference room, and give a talk. Now my talk the "Priesthood of All Believers", an easy one, but boy did God put his foot down. We had a formation (day of preparation) so I gave my talk, boy that was an understatement. It was MY talk, not guided by Christ. I felt and knew that I had not shown Him respect, not had I followed His direction. So the day before the second and final formation, I rewrote the entire talk. Much different when I let God lead and I follow.

In between all of this, I broke my kneecap, right in two. Now it happened on city owned property, so of course that is an issue. I am still not to bear weight on that leg and have to wear a brace 24/7 which is hard and painful, not to mention slows me down way too much.

Many lessons to learn, when we feel like life is crashing down.

I am happy to report that my "Dear John" quilt sold to a good home, I have no idea what they paid and do not care, I am just happy that it went to a good Christian family.

I am off to quilt today, that is always good for my soul. I have been able to sit on my three legged roller stool and quilt from there, which is wonderful, since I am way behind.

Finally, the last ones didn't load

It has been too long

Well you can tell it has been a long time since I have written a post. I write up the title "Dear John 3:16", hit enter and what happens, it post. But, I wasn't ready, so now I will finish what I started. Modern equipmemt! Things just disappear.

A 12 year old girl in my home town, had surgery yesterday. She probably weights 60 pounds, as she has been sick for a long time. Come to find out she had a tumor on her kidney, and it is cancerous. The town has had several benefits for her family to help defray the horrible expenses. Back to the surgery, they removed a 2 pound tumor from her kidney, when you are as small as she is, 2 pounds is huge! Now back to the benefits, they have had several, and so Sunday night the ministarial association will have a hamburger/hotdog feed, along with a silent auction. I decided to make a quilt to give to the cause. I picked out the fabric, not thinking of what I was doing. I started a Saturday morning, cut out the fabric and by afternoon I had a wallhanging. I had done the pattern before and it was super easy. Well I hung the quilt on the design wall, stepped back and all I could think was, "Oh no, John Deere". So after some thought I decided to name the quilt "Dear John 3:16", and it does seem to fit. You see, I used tractor fabric for the backing so that everyone who sees the quilt will understand. Here are two photos of the quilt.