Rob Appell Workshop

Last month I volunteered to help Debra, the nice lady who is in charge of programs at Friendship Quilters Guild in Poway.  I joined last June and wanted to get more involved. She asked me if I could be the helper for Rob who does seascapes.  I ended up taking the class and loved the results.

My kids will get this for Christmas.  It is all ironed down, the backing and bindings chosen and I bought the thread today.  I want to give the illusion of the sun shining above the surface of the water and hope to do it while quilting with white, yellow and light blue top/middle melding into medium and dark blues at the bottom-we'll see.  I really like this first attempt and think the kids will too.  we'll see again.

Visited a new quilt shop in San Marcos today named after a Shelti name Annie.  It may become my 2nd or 3rd favorite in SD County.  Bright vibrant fabrics and patterns.  I picked up 2 kits for under 40.00 for Christmas Celtic table toppers.  One for me and one for my nephew, Dallas and his wife. I will post pics after Saturday which is my sewing group's mini retreat and I hope to finish the table topper for Dallas.  Have to get all the Utah presents done by Nov 19th.  Yikes!  With God, ALL things are possible-even Christmas presents by mid November.

Getting to Work!

I finished "The Cat's Meow" and renamed it "Cattitudes".  It goes to Utah to my sister in law who is an uber cat lover.  She puts out little igloos made out of styrofoam coolers wrapped with insulation and padded with blankies for the homeless cats that move in for the winter as well as food and water.  She also has a group of garage only cats and her own house cats.  Only she could keep them all straight.

I haven't got much sewing done other than my Tuesday night "The Comforters" group which is a prayer quilt ministry in our church.  I hope to finish a never-ending turtle quilt tomorrow night.  Our new puppy, Lizzy has taken quantum time and is just now being trusted in the sewing room-only because I am allowing her to eat the inexpensive looped rug and pulling it apart string by string keeps her busy.   also I spent a week in Seattle helping our kids move from south to a north Seattle community.  A great visit and a tour of Martingale Publishing with a trip to their seconds bookshop which brought me 12 count them, 12 wonderful quilt books for 5.00 a piece.  So this last weekend I shut the door, gave dog duty to my sweet husband and knocked out 3 baby quilts from stash and scaps-didn't buy a thing and have all bindings and backs out of stash as well.  One was a string quilt which I have been wanting to try, one was squares I had cut out for something I don't even remember and one was a combo of squares and a border print.

One goes to a former boss that I really respect, one to my next door neighbor and one to The Door of Hope in SD.  All of them will have scriptures attached because God's word NEVER returns void.  There are some borders and some embroidery to do but they are close and my pink flannel drawer is almost empty.

The Lord whispered in my ear "stop dreaming, planning, and buying and get busy".  He knows his daughter.  After I was done I realized I had not used a pattern.  i let the scraps dictate the designs.  My soul is happy.

Cattitudes

Cat's Meow flimsy

I am going to get better at posting more regularly-really I am.  Went to a trunk show of my friend and teacher, Susan Axelrod, who does the most amazingly precise and intricate applique and small scale quilts.  She is a precision piecer in the tradition of Sally Collins who is her idol.  I love Susan's work and after viewing 30 pieces of it I was inspired to be more careful with my piecing, more extravagant with my applique and to make a quilt that will incorporate both. 

I just finished the above "Cat's Meow" flimsy.  I will piece a back next week and take it to Quilter's Paradise where I will load it on the longarm and quilt it with a cat and mouse motif, then bind it and add 2 eyes on all 12 cats (I will do that on the road trip to Utah in the fall when the quilt will be presented to my sister-in-law who is the biggest cat lover I know).  This was a stacked quilt-12 layers of cats and 12 layers of flowers then the patter was cut like a jigsaw puzzle and the top 3 fabrics moved to the bottom.  This makes each cat unique.

There were close to 30 pieces in every cat and another 13 in every flower.  I added cat whiskers on each cat by machine, then the flower blocks had appliqued stems and leaves added and embroidery freemotion flower centers.  I got dizzy going in circles!  I love this quilt.  I will post the finished quilt when I get there.  Back to working on my Home Sweet Home Applique quilt (pictures to come).  Happy quilting!

A New Year

Like most people, I like a new beginning, a fresh start, a do over. January is always filled with the excitement of new projects, lists of to do's and a timeline to make them have done's. I never get to the end of the list but it is comforting to know I have a focus, a measurement, a constraint for my ADHDness. The list is made, the projects started. This year, however, I am purposing to follow God's lead and not my own. I am praying before instead of asking for blessing after. One noteable difference has been that Jesus seems to be leading me at a slower pace than I ever lead myself. I loved the excitement of the freefall, pellmell, forward moving steam engine rate of my former self, however the constant burning of fuel left the engine a little worse for wear.

It is a Saturday morning and I am still in robe with favorite coffee cup attached to left hand at 11am but I have had a morning of deep reflection, yawning moments of total relaxation while listening to the ping ping ping of dripping rain off golden roof filling watering can on porch-I love that sound. It is lovely to take the time. My plans for today? I am headed back to bed with another cup of Joe and my Bible to do devotions, then I will make a light lunch for my sick, sleeping husband, then I will be ready to tackle my sewing room to prepare for a liesurely afternoon of sewing tomorrow. The stress to complete as fast as I can and as much as I can is gone. Thank-you precious Savior. You have saved me from myself. Again.

What Really Matters-A lesson from Kate Dibos

My job is 45 minutes from where I live so, over the last 12 years at this job, I have made few friends. I don't belong to a department that socializes like the English and Art Departments I belonged to in the past and, as a counselor, I am rather isolated from the rest of the school. So, the few friends I have made mean a lot to this social human being.

I heard today that one of them who just retired last year to do fabulous things, travel to exotic places, and spend quality and quantity time with her seven children and multiple grandchildren, will have her dreams dashed. Kate has cancer and was told this week that there is nothing more to do. I don't know Kate very well-enough to find her amazing, an artistic English teacher who brought goats into the classroom to bring the Odyssey alive-and trust me, I've taught the Odyssey-it would take a goat to give it life. She was a teacher who taught outside the box and the love of her students was as apparent as bees legs covered in pollen. They could not help but be attracted to the joy she exuded, the energy that radiated from her, the thoughtfulness that touched your heart like a lap from an affectionate puppy. I know enough about her to know that she is one of those people whose life cannot help but make an imprint on yours like a thumbprint in soft butter if you are lucky enough to cross her path.

I am learning to breath in life slowly and hold it till my lungs explode. Kate and I are the same age, even the same month-I believe I am a few days older. Hearing this kind of news makes the disappointments I have had recently, trivial. I believe in miracles and am praying one for dear Kate. But in the meantime I plan to keep breathing slowly. I am looking forward to heaven but would like to enjoy my granddaughter a little bit more here on earth. Kate took the time to care about others-I have the note cards and book that she gave to me for encouragement to prove it. Those are the things that are important-not what you gather, but what you scatter-Kate is a messy, she scatters everywhere.

A Manna Sandwich

I almost didn't go to the "How to do a devotional Class" yesterday. my pulled muscle in by upper back is knifepoint painful. However, my friend the teacher, Lisa Story, promised me a heating pad. What a great 3 hours. I have been told for years that a devotional time was important in the morning-and, for years I have faithfully done a devotional of some type in the morning. However, I don't always find that time as fruitful as it should be. 4:30 am is not the best time for a 10pm person.

Lisa taught the ladies gathered in her cozy livingroom, in front of the fire with steaming mugs of caffein in their hands, how to build a manna sandwich. What a great technique-easy to do, understandable-I think my devotional time will come to life. Thank-you Lisa for using your gift of teaching to help your friends walk closer to Jesus.

How to: List who God/Jesus is in the passage, 2nd column list what he does, 3rd column contains what you learned about you or others in passage, then lastly-how it applies. Overall, attitude is the most important. Bon Appetite!

Quilting-heart's desire

My husband says "quilting is done by chubby old ladies, and I don't see you as an old lady". Well, thank-you I think. Although his comment is totally unfounded, he holds to his perspective and, although I have shown him numerous "young" quilters, his mind is made up. I am finished trying to convince him otherwise-I will just continue to enjoy my old, new found passion.

I have always loved to sew. I made many of Greg's shirts in the 70's, every family member an Emily Barnes "Quilt in a Day" log cabin quilt-countless pillows-and a doorway heat blocker. I had just finished taking another quilting class when I started back to school for my degree and a working with paycheck life took over. I had English papers in my lap to replace the quilt frame. I retire in 3 months to the day. My old passion is resurfacing-now to get my Greg to understand my need for a pretty expensive sewing machine-a Bernina 730 is my heart's desire but God will have to make a way. Retail 6,000.00 dollars. My budget is closer to 2,500.00. I have never bought a sewing machine (except for the 10.00 Brother found at a garage sale). I am using the portable Singer my mom bought me in 1962 and it runs fine. However, I hope to be sewing for the next 15 years so I would like a machine to see me through and allow me to do art quilts and embroidery. Here's hoping and praying and thanking Jesus ahead of time.

Tea With Thee

What a fabulous day. It was hectic and definately some things to change for next year, but it was amazing to watch the little germ of an idea come to fruition after nine months of developing. 212 tickets were sold, all 23 of the tea cozies were sold, the quilt was raffled for 430.00 and the place was beautiful. A lot of work but all of it fun. Over 5,000.00 raised for the pregnancy center and 2,300.00 for The Children of Promise shelter in Tijuana. God brought every detail together and blessed every aspect of our efforts. It was wonderful to get to know the ladies from the other 4 churches better-how fun to do a group project. How good it feels to know lives could be changed through a small group's efforts. Time well spent.

Tea Cozies Anyone?

I am up to my eyebrows in tea cozies. When we started planning "Tea With Thee" nine months ago, I thought it would be just wonderful to have a Tee Cozy for silent auction on all 35 tables. One of my bright ideas that I get on a regular basis. I work a full time job and teach a college class and am involved in the prayer quilt ministry and have two other small ministries and have let go our housekeeper and . . .when did I think I would get these cute little blankets for pots done? So far I have 15 done and have downsized my original plan to 25 tables with cozies. Today I am going to blast out 5 I hope. These things are technical. Triple layers with French seams and gussets. I found the original in a tea shop in Seattle-had to buy it for 34.00 to get the pattern (killed frugal me) so now part of me says you need to start a tea cozy ETSY business to make the cost worthwhile and the other part of me silently commits the first part to the looney bin. Being inactive makes you 50% more likely to have a heart attack. I hope my heart holds out until these cozies are done. I sure hope people bid on them, if not-ETSY business here we come:)

Jumping or Flying: a point of view

I retire in three months and three and a half weeks. At times I am almost giddy with the thought of days spreading out like spilled honey in front of me. No deadlines, no forty-five minute commute, no lines of needy students in front of my door like hungry birds waiting for wiggling worms, no office, no administrators with fingers in air feeling for the wind of security. In another breath it feels like jumping off a cliff into obscurity, no calendar, no appointments to keep, no brainstorming, no colleagues, no professional title-although, I guess, grandma is a professional title:)

Who will I be? Feels a little like the sixties when I was trying to "find myself". Now I am in my sixties- finding myself all over again. I am so glad Jesus knows who I am no matter what I am doing or being.