A new design....

Not that I need to start a new project, but I saw this pattern in the Quilt Sampler magazine Spring/Summer 2008 called Circle of Scraps and just fell in love with it! But I did not like the way the borders looked and prefer more happy colors, so I got busy on my EQ6 and came up with my own version. I did a version with black background and cream background. My daughters like the black, but I prefer the cream as you can see the circles better.

Here is the Circle of Scraps from the Quilt Sampler magazine. It is simply the Kalaediascope block, but it sure makes a pretty quilt. The thing I did not like about this pattern was the way the points got chopped off in the border.

By the way...if you have not tried this magazine, it has to be my absolute favorite. Comes out twice a year and features 10 quilt shops around the country. I read it two and three times! I sure hope I have not violated some copyright by printing the picture!

Yummmmmmmmmmmy !

These cookies are so good! I found the recipe on Wendy's blog this afternoon and had to stop at the grocery story on the way home to get the ingredients to make them after supper. They have toffee and chocolate chips in them and it sure does make for a great chocolate chip cookie. I had to hurry and get a picture as they were disappearing fast! And yes, I was reading blogs at work, but everyone gets a lunch break - right?

Here is is the next block in my Golden Rule of Attitudes applique blocks. These sure are fun to make. My next one is "Be Positive" and has an ant carrying a huge cupcake (huge to an ant that is) on his back. I believe that is my favorite block - for now anyway.

Hope you have all had a great Memorial Day, although my mother informed me that Memorial Day is supposed to be May 30 and she doesn't know why everything has to keep changing. I had to work today, so it really did not seem like a holiday anyway - except that it sure was quiet in the office.

Continuing saga of word verification

OK, now this is just too weird. I was going right along, reading blogs in the Quilting for Fun webring, when BOOM...I was hit with the evil red x in a box! So, I just typed in a few letters, and presto, it gave me the word verifcation letters. I typed them in, and it told me I had it wrong and gave me new letters.....I did this three times. And then I had a thought, I typed in the letters that were from the previous attempt - they didn't match the current letters, but heavens to Betsy - they worked. Now how weird is that?

Word Verification

I am so frustrated with blogger! Most days the word verification is just not there and I can not leave comments. All I see is a box with a red x in it. I have tried entering random letters just to see if it will then give me the word verification code, but still just the red x. Now it seems that when I get the word verification code, when I enter it, I get an error message popup with some weird coded error message. So, I have deleted the word verification on my site just incase some of the others of you are also having the same problem. If I start getting a lot of junk from spammers, I guess I will have to put it back on, but for now...I hope this works.

Hope you all have a good Sunday. Yesterday was my 34th wedding anniversary. Love you honey, and hope we have another 34 years to share!

Happy Birthday, Teresa Grace!

Happy Birthday, Princess Tess.

Here is my sweet granddaughter who became 3 years old today! My little Japanese Princess. I love you Tess!!!

French Braid continued

I finished the three french braid rows. The points have to be trimmed off and I need to find some fabric for the ending triangles, but I think they look pretty neat just hanging on my design wall, or maybe I should say half wall.

My stove arrived this morning, and I have already prepared my first pot of chili and baked brownies. So much more fun cooking when you have a pretty new stove!

Goodnight all - time for me to hit the pillows.

French Braid

I am still at home sick with bronchitis, but have found a good use of my time. I have begun working on a class sample for a French Braid quilt technique that I will be teaching at my club in June. I limited myself to just fabrics I had in my stash and that meant maybe not getting the transition between fabrics that I would like, but all in all I think it is looking good.....except.....

Notice anything a wrong in this picture? Yep, I have the center flower on its side. That must have been after I took one of my meds, and that is my story and I am sticking with it. So I guess today I will be doing some froggin' (rip it, rip it). I have 6 more braid fabrics to add, going from green to a dark purple that is in the flowers.

This pattern is by Jane Hardy Miller in a book entitled French Braid Quilts just incase you are interested.

The kitchen project continues as today my new range and dishwasher will be delivered!!! Geez, I hate to see what lies underneath my old range and dishwasher.

Graduation Day

This has been an eventful weekend for my family in that my sweet daughter Ellen graduated from Winthrop University today and I am just so very proud of her. It was a great day.....but my baby is grown up! In my unbiased opinion, she is going to be an outstanding, caring, loving, inspiring and well prepared teacher for some very fortunate third graders.

Commenting Errors

Am I the only one having problems leaving comments these days??? Of course, if you are too, you won't be able to leave me a comment to tell me! Lately, whenever I try to leave a comment, in the box where the word verification crazy letters are supposed to be, all I get is a red "x". I have tried right clicking on the x and then clicking on the option to open the picture...nothing. Other times when I have the been able to get past the red x, I get this comment saying that it will not allow me to post an annonymous comment. This makes no sense since I have signed into blogger and have listed my email and password. So what is going on???

Be Warm

Here is my first block in my Golden Rules of Attitudes - made from the Be Attitudes quilt pattern. I am going for a slightly different look from pattern, using a different pallet of fabrics and outlining my gold words with a shiny gold thread. I have found the most wonderful gold shiny thread - its a new YLI thread called YLI Heavy Metallic. It is soft, not scratchy, and does not frey when hand sewing with it like some of the metallic embroidery floss.

Here's a picture of just the words and I think you can see the sparkle the words have a little bit better. I have not tried this thread in machine embroidery or quilting yet - but it is just fantastic in hand work!

Mystery Solved

The fabrics are Faded Memories by 3 Sisters - Moda Fabric.

Golden Rule of Attitudes

I am ready to start working on my Be Attitude quilt, and have decided to call it the Golden Rule of Attitudes since I am using a gold fabric with a tinge of sparkle for the lettering. I have attached a picture of the fabrics I will use. These were in a FQ bundle that my wonderful friend Darlene gave me one year for my birthday. I would like to purchase some more of this fabric line for borders, but no where on the selvages does it identify the manufacturer or fabric line. I thought maybe one of you out there in blogland would recognize the fabric line and could help me out. They are just gorgeous! Of course, I could force myself to make a trip to the quilt shop where she bought the fabrics and check with the owner. I doubt she still has them in stock as it has been a couple of years but she could probably tell me the fabric line. They remind me of the Paris Flea Market or Shabby Chic lines.

Tess's Quilt

I have finished the appliqued bows on Tess's Quilt (Tess is my 2, almost 3 year old Granddaughter). This quilt will be for her "big" bed when they move into their new home. As you can see it is not quilted yet. I want to make the back of the quilt the same as the dust ruffle, so need to do a little fabric shopping with my daughter. Some of the churn dash blocks in the quilt were made by members of my club - Stitchin' Friends as part of a pizza box block swap. Sure was a fun swap and it makes the quilt more special to know friends helped to make it. Can you buddies find your block?

I also got real lucky at a yard sale at my daughter's church Saturday and found these beautiful embroidered pillow cases. One of the church members made them and I think they look so pretty with the quilt top so they will be going along for the new "big" bed.

Hey - don't forget to sign up for my pincushion swap if you are interested. You do not have to have a blog, just send me an email saying you want to participate.

Pincushion Swap - continued

Ok...after some thought I think I should post some "rules" - don't ya just hate rules, but sometimes they are necessary. Check the post before this one for what got this swap started.

1. I am limiting the swap to the first 30 people that sign up (don't panic, you don't have to make 30 pincushions!) You don't have to be a blogger to participate - but you do have to have email. Just send a message to jqd@comporium.net and you are in!

2. You can swap either 5 or 10 pincushions....send me 5, and I will send you 5 back; send me 10 and I will send you 10 back.

3. Either write your name/location on the back or bottom of the pincushion or attach a label, it will be fun to see where the ones we receive came from.

4. All pincushions should be made of fabric and nothing breakable - remember, these will be going through the mail and need to be easily mailed. You can be as creative as you like. Use common sense on size - remember I have to mail these out to people. You can applique, embroider, embellish with buttons, beads, etc or whatever you choose to do - just nothing that could get broken in the mail or that adds a lot of weight.

5. When you send your pincushions to me, include in the envelope, a return mail envelope which you have addressed.

If you are in the USA, then have the envelope prepaid with the same amount of postage that you needed to send your package to me.

If you are outside the USA, then please include in the envelope a money order in USA Currency for the amount of postage it cost for you to send to me. I will let you know if the cost was significantly different for me to return the pincushions to you. I think this will be the easiest way to handle for now. If I come up with something else, Iwill let you know.

6. I will allow sign ups for the swap until May 15, and will do the swap on July 1, 2008 - so you have to have the pincushions to me on or before June 30, 2008.

7. Once you sign up, I will send you an email with my mailing address, and when I receive your pincushions, I will send you an email letting you know they have arrived.

8. And this is the last and most important rule.....Keep it FUN!

Pincushion Swap

Hmmm..is pincushion one word or two? Isn't it funny how words sometimes don't look right and yet they are? Recently we were posting pictures of our pincushions - especially our favorite one, and I saw one similar to this on Judy's blog. I decided to make some and once I started cutting out 3.5 inch squares to make the four patch, I just couldn't stop. Now I have a pile of pincushions and more to make - at last count 50! I intend to give some to my guild to sell at our quilt show in September, and some are for Cathedral Window quilt kits that I will be using in teaching my Cathedral Window technique in the Fall. Now what to do with the rest? Anyone want to swap hand made pincushions? If you would, leave me a comment and at the end of this month I will see how many we have to participate. Also send me an email (jqd@comporium.net) so I can get a list together.