Ok Here We Go

I am using an iPad to post this and have no idea if it will work or not so please bear with me.......



My husband I went to St Augustine Florida last week.. It is a beautiful city and I want to go back. The weather was in the '70s and no rain.....sounds pretty good? Except that I spent one day in the hospital because of a kidney stone. So above is one of my souvenirs.




We went to a few art galleries and I found some work of a blogger I follow. Her name is Elizabeth St. Hilaire Nelson. Her blog is http://elizabethsthilairenelson.blogspot.com/ do check it out her work is very cool.




The way her art is made she makes a sketch, paints it and then tears her handmade paper into bits and glues it over the painted part. They are so beautiful! I bought her DVD to watch her process.

Ok so far so good. I don't know how to make a hot link so you will have to cut and paste......but do go look, it translates to quilting. A little like Snippets but much cooler.

Thanks Anna for your help!! I really appreciate it.

Kelly

 

Hello hello hello is there anybody in there?

If you have been waiting for something to see here I am sorry to disappoint you.
Not only has blogger been a bugger but I was away for a week in St Augustine FL and my computer did not work there either!

I am typing this on an IPad and need to figure out how to upload some pictures. Can anyone tell me? Right now I see a screen to write on, no upload button for pictures. I am sure it is something simple.

Okay just saw the camera button at the bottom......I will be back!

Kelly

Skeletons In The Closet

My skeleton is, I love quilts with curves but have never successfully made one. I came across a post on the blog called Stitched In Color and fell in love with some of her work. She is offering a 5 week online course that looked fun and doable! So I am in, it starts Monday. Check it out if you are interested, she still has some spots open.

Sorry for no pictures, blogger is not letting me upload anything......great way to start the new year?!

Kelly

The Story of 32 Quilts

Ahh the Christmas holiday, full of family, food and mostly fun. I am finding out that as I get older I like CONSISTANCY, ROUTINE and a lot less CHAOS. Don't get me wrong, I love watching the little kids faces on Christmas morning, the excitement of watching them open their presents and the whole magic of the holiday. I just want it to last for only 2 days and not 2 weeks!

My husband and I come from large families. It is very typical for a Christmas Eve to have about 40+ people and they are all family, no friends. It is controlled chaos with lots of hugs and kisses and good food. I think this year's most interesting present was a disco ball, complete with colored lights.

 

 

This is a very small house we pass by on the way home, it is about the size of most people's garages. Every year they decorate to the hilt! Every square inch of their house and yard is covered with some kind of lit up decoration. I think they add to it every year too. The grandkids call it the "crazy house".

Dylan and Mary gave this to us for Christmas, I am thrilled. We lose power a lot so now we can make coffee. We had to read the directions because we grew up with Mr Coffee.

Nancy opening a present

OK now to the story of the 32 quilts......my mother in law, Nancy came to stay with us for a few days. Her daughter Ellen also spent the night. Nancy was tired and went to bed early while Ellen and I stayed up to visit a little longer.
The next morning Ellen and I got up to go to a Zumba class when it hit me. I store all my quilts on the guest bed and cover them up with a quilt from Pottery Barn. This way they lie flat, they don't get exposed to the sun to fade, a perfect storage spot, except that I forgot to take them off the bed.
Yes my mother in law slept on top of all the quilts! She said it was a little warm.......I am still scratching my head!

So as the year ends I will not make any resolutions. I feel like a resolution is a set up for failure. Instead I want to make some goals, it just sounds more positive. Maybe I am just fooling myself? What goals or resolutions are you making? I think I need some sewing goals but I also need some house goals, painting, cleaning and organizing etc. I tend to let my house go when I am in the midst of a sewing project and it bugs me. I am the product of a mother that had floors you could eat off of...not that I want to aspire to that but at least clean enough to not have it nag at me.

Happy New Year to all my quilting friends! Happy birthday to my grandson Griffin, who turns 8 today!!!

Kelly

What Book Are You Reading?

I love this vintage Santa Claus cookie jar. I don't even remember where or when I bought it. It is circa 1975, the year I graduated from high school. It is completely plastic, yeah! I can't break it!

A gift that was finished up finally, it's only been 4 years since my son, Colin and his wife, Jenny got married. They will totally not be expecting it!

One of the cousins was in charge of getting people to sign the blocks. She did the best job she could but a lot of people missed signing them. I am taking it with me on Christmas Eve to have some of the family members who got skipped over sign it.

I have a perfect holiday book for you to read. By perfect I mean you can pick it up and put it down without worrying about what you read the day or two before. It is a fascinating look at why the rooms in our homes are the way they are today. The section on ironing is enough to make me never complain about it again! Talk about drudgery....
On wash day they talk about certain fabrics being hard to clean so they would take the dress apart, clean different parts in different methods (a horror in itself) and resew it!
Who knew stale urine makes your sheets whiter! Yes, I know the question you all are asking yourself is how do you know when the urine is stale????!!!!
It is at times humorous and very informative. Did you know that before people had tables (dining) that they would sit on benches and a board would be balanced on everyone's knees to place you plates etc. Hence the name "room and board"! There are tons of interesting things to learn.
Thanks Christine for a good pick!

Kelly

Projects

I have been stitching every night. As soon as dinner is over and the kitchen is clean I RUN into the family room and grab my applique to see how much I can get done before 9:00. That is about my time limit plus I like to read before I fall asleep.
I am enjoying the Stars and Sprigs, as long as a block is prepped it goes pretty fast.

Just in case a block gets finished I also have my other project that I talked about HERE to work on until I get the next Stars and Sprigs block ready.

I really enjoy cut away applique, it is simple and easy to do. Very little decisions have to be made except for one fabric. You do it exactly as the name, cut a bit and applique, cut a little bit more and applique...... It keeps the pattern very symetrical and fraying is very minimal.

Yesterday I went in to my local quilt shop, The Quilt Block because I was almost out of Mary Ellen's Best Press. I love this stuff and it also smells so good. The have a few different fragrances but I like the Linen Fresh. No flakes and no clogged sprayer.

While I was there they had a beautiful quilt top that instantly caught my eye. I have been looking for a pattern to make my daughter a quilt for her wedding and this is the one. She wants more purple, blues and greens so these colors won't work. If you like it they sell all the fabric and pattern in a kit so you might just want to stop by and get yourself a little Christmas present....
The blocks are 16x16 which is a good size, it makes a big quilt with only 20 blocks, I think twin size.

Is there anything better than some new colored pencils and some cool looking empty notebooks? Ahhh, the pristine pages waiting for some ideas and drawings to be put down.

Kelly

No Diary Block Tuesday

 

The big day is one week away. I love this cup, my friend Suzanne gave it to me for my birthday. the eyes are a little scary though...

 

Every year Christmas creeps up on me and I am always scrambling at the last minute. This year things are under control and I am enjoying it a lot more. I can still keep to my every day things without feeling the pressure of doing everything that needs to be done for Christmas. Procrastination....a bad thing. I must keep that in mind for next year.

 

 

 

 

 

I recieved this adorable little present in the mail from my blogging friend Barb of Fun with Barb . She has an amazing blog so be sure to check it out. Don't you love the little elves?

 

 

 

This stunning pillow was made for my birthday by my friend Cynthia. I have written about her in my blog and if you could see the quilts she makes..........Cynthia you need to start a blog so we can follow along with your projects!

 

 

 

In the past 4 years we got 3 new neighbors which may not sound that unreal except there are only 5 houses on our street. The one couple are on the young side (30's) and really good neighbors. Every Christmas they come up with a unique gift for everyone. This year they roasted coffee, brought it over and ground it up for us (we do not have a grinder)! The next morning we used their coffee and it was delicious!

The other neighbors sent over home made sticky buns right out of the oven, very very good.

I on the other hand will have to get a little bit more adventurous for next year......the pumpkin bread looked pretty pedestrian next to all those goodies!

 

Kelly