Klosjes - my attempt

I have lost sleep over these cute little blocks.  Stay up late working on it, get up early, and I think I finally got it.  I have redesigned my blocks too many times to count in EQ6 and tried various size blocks.  I like the circle setting (see http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2010/05/klosjes-saturday.html for where this idea came from - she has a great tutorial on how to make your pattern), and that has added an additional challenge, but here are the two I finished.  The one on the right with the blue background is my first one. It was totally off center, and fortunately I had cut the background big enough that I kind of centered the back around the block.  The circle is a 6" circle ( somewhat) and the klosje is 5 inches.  On the block on the left side, I set the circle to be 5" and the klosje is 3".  I also enlarged the center square to make it look a little more like a spool. Both blocks measure 6 1/2" unfinished.  So which do you like the best?

Here are some of my mom's blue bird dishes.  They now reside on my dining room wall and make me happy everytime I see them...they are blue birds, afterall, and my mom loved them, and I loved my mom.  I miss her so much.

Thanks for stopping by,

Teresa

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Sunday Post on Wednesday

Well its Wednesday, and I am just now getting around to posting my Sunday post - yea, we all have weeks like that.  This weekend was spent attending some programs at the University, visiting with my Dad and hours and hours of washing, ironing, and cutting fabric.  My club, bless them all, have agreed to help my daughter with a project with her 3rd grade class.  Each child (20 in all) is going to color pictures onto fabric around a theme, then my club will assemble the quilts for tying. On May 25, we will join the students and their parents in class to teach them how to tie the quilt, have a quilt show and watch the kids act out skits on the theme they studied - all about being smart in their daily lives, not taking chances, that sort of thing. So this weekend, I cut out 20 backings, 196 white blocks with freezer paper backing for coloring (needed 160 but thought a few extra might be a good idea), and 20 sets of sashing.  Its a good thing I enjoy cutting fabric!  I really am proud of my daughter as she wrote a grant to do this project and also did a presentation at her PTA to get their support. I think it is going to be a lot of fun, now that all the fabric is cut and ready to go. 

My other project, which I finished this morning, was to write a pattern for my Heart and Home wall hanging. I still have to test it out with my club, bless them double, but the pattern is done!

My husband, being the kind hearted hungry man he is, furnished supper Sunday night.

Now...on to the next project.  I am home this morning, psyching myself up for  my annual checkup at the doctors office later this morning. (Good thing I got that hamburger on Sunday, will be mylast one for awile.) I won't show you a picture of the look on my face as I type that one!  I think I will get cleaned up and go to Hancocks before the doctor's office...try to get my blood pressure back to normal.

Hope you all have a wonderful Sunday...er, Wednesday.

Teresa
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Sunday in the Park

It seems like a long time since I last posted and I guess it has been over a week.  I have been busily working around the house, working in the yard, working at work, which leaves very little time for playing in my sewing room, sitting in the swing reading and blogging.  I did finish the book "The Last Song" - great book!

Sewing has been on my Be Attitudes block, which I will not show again for the hundreth time, and I started putting together a pattern for my Heart and Home wall hanging. My quilt club is going to test the pattern for me. This week I designed a paperpieced heart to go in the top left corner. This turned out pretty good and is a little easier to make than the heart with 169 pieces that I taught my club.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, and we started it out by watching my daughter Ellen, and neices Cindy and Joy run a 5K.  Here they are cheesing it for the camera (Joy - Ellen - Cindy, left to right).  They are striking a pose like my mom and her sisters always did in photos. 

I am so very proud of each of them for this accomplishment.  This is Ellen's third 5K and she ran it in 29min1sec!  Cindy's second run and Joy's first. 

And then another beautiful day today.  We took my Dad to Glencairn Gardens here in town to see the fabulous flowers, fountains and just enjoy being outside.  Here are few pictures from the morning - it was a great day. God is good and blesses me over and over again.

Wishing you a wonderful week!

Teresa

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The good news is...

We finally got a new door for the basement entrance, which my daughter is thrilled about since she lives down there. The bad news is my husband scheduled it for installation this morning, and he can not be here - so I have to be here to deal with the installers.

The good news is, that means I have to stay home this morning from work (yipppeeee) and this gave me time to work on my screen - the bad news is Lowes did not put all the necessary parts in the box for the dead bolt, so I have to be here longer than expected while they bring them out from the store -

Then good news is....I have to be here longer than expected :)

I finished the screen panels and here they are.  The panels are held in with painters tape right now, as hubby and I need to decide the best way to put them in.  I am thinking now that I want them to be easily removed as I see all kinds of possibilites. I covered foam board with fabric to make the panels - and wouldn't Christmas fabric be nice for the holidays, or quilt blocks for a meeting of my bee? I could change them with the seasons! I put my chair there so you can see how the screen fabric goes with the fabric I recovered the chairs in. So what do you think?

My next big home decor project will be to paint the book shelf in the living room, and they are supposed to bring the huge china cabinet up to the house this weekend and that will have to be painted as well.

I did a little stitchery on a Nice People Nice Things block this week.  Dagnabit - I traced the wording block on the side of the fabric that has the fusible interfacing.  Now how in the world did I not notice that???

Hope you have a great day!

Teresa

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Happy Easter!

May your hearts be filled with joy and praise,

and

May your day be filled with fun  and family

and

All your Easter eggs be filled with chocolate!

Happy Easter!

Teresa
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Be Forgiving

So how has your week gone?   Mine has been crazy as usual, but throughout the week I have been stitchin on my Be Forgiving block.  I finished it, but this block has really caused me some sleepless nights this week. What exactly does it mean to "forgive."  I have some people in my life that have betrayed me, treated me unfairly - as we all have.  I really don't hold any bitterness against them as I learned long ago that bitterness only makes us miserable, doesn't really do anything to the person that did the "dirty" deed.  I no longer trust these people or want anything to do with them....does that mean I have not forgiven them? I honestly wish them no ill will, but I have no desire to ever associate with them again. Can you ever truely forget the wrong that was done? Can you forgive someone, but still not trust them, be wary of even being around them?  What do you  all think - do you struggle with this too?

On the home front, I have been working on a screen that my father made for me a few years ago.  I never got around to painting it, although I did use it for awhile.  I had put fabric on it, but when a friend needed the fabric for a quilt she was working on, and could not find it anywhere..I just ripped it off and gave it to her, thinking it was time for a change anyway.  This screen will be the perfect "blind" for my laundry room so that when my company is sitting in my dining room they can not see the storage area in my laundry area.  Stay tuned...next week I hope to have a picture of the finished screen.

Oh..and btw, the table in the background was also made by my Dad.  A lucky girl I am!

Hope you all have a wonderful week and I will see you in the blogs!

Teresa
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Some gifts, some sewing, and a lot of napping..

I have been rather ill this week with strep throat - which as many of you know is no fun. My doctor said he was going to give me something to help me rest, and boy did it ever. I think I napped the entire week away - so sad as this is Spring Break at the University I work for, and I had Thursday and Friday off. So, I slept through Monday - Thursday, tried to work on Friday, went in and came home before lunch and went back to bed. I am much better today, and have only had one nap, which I would probably have taken on the rainy Sunday afternoon anyway.

I have been working on a few gifts over this past few weeks and thought I would show those to you, since very little quilting has been getting done.

First is a travel case that I made for each member in my quilt club. I use mine to store my paper piecing supplies and it is so nice to have them all in one place. I have included a picture of the pattern. The one you see is mine and while it is fully stocked, the ones I gave had a few items in them, but not full like mine. This gift was actually an incentive for a project we will start next month in the club.

The next is called a "Girls Day Out" bag and I am ashamed to say I can not find the pattern, but you can see it here. I made these for my three friends (and me) that went to the Mid Atlantic Quilt Show together.

They were fun to make and so useful at the show, allowing us to keep both hands free to fondle the fabrics and examine all the goodies the vendors had to offer while also having our money and plastic close at hand. I added the back pocket so we would have some place to put our cell phones.

My Winthrop quilting buddies and I have started another exchange that begins in April, in which we make a gift for one of the ladies in the group (there are 5 of us) and share the pattern with all the members. Of couse we are looking for free patterns on the internet or designing our own, since we will be sharing the patterns. Here is a sneak peek at my offering for April - but just a peek. I can not show it yet since I have to wait until April to "gift" it. Some of you may recognize it though, as it was all over the blogs last year.

I have done a little sewing on my Be Attitudes quilt blocks, completing the Be Smart block and starting the Be Forgiving block.

Hope you are all staying well and getting ready for Spring. Prayers going out for the folks in ND and MN dealing with the floods. God save us from ourselves and all that is going on in Washington!

Teresa

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Show and Tell

Its been a few days since I last posted, but I have been so busy working in the house and having fun at the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Show. I have a ton of pictures I could show, but I will limit it to just the 11 that I am showing here. Now now, remember I just post once a week (or even longer) so bear with me, please. Be sure to go to the end....I saved the best for last!!!

I will only show one quilt from the show - my favorite. Unfortunately I did not think to capture the identify of the quilter and I feel really bad about that. So if anyone knows the creator of this amazing quilt, just let me know and I will add it to the post. I have a picture of the whole quilt and then a few close ups of some of the blocks. The embellishment work on this quilt was gorgeous.

=
Then there were the fabrics and patterns and notions...oh my! I certainly contributed to the stimulus plan! John Flynn was there and I was excited to meet him as I have made his double wedding ring pattern. I came home with one of his quilting frames and I can not way to try it out!

The Friday before the show, my friends and I had an all day workshop at the home of Sara Madson, an expert in Baltimore Album applique. She shared with us history of the Baltimore Album, her designs and her techniques - including back basting applique and a great way of sewing on stems. The little bluebells block is the one we did in the workshop and is one that Ms. Madson drew from an image of an old album quilt. I had to pick up a couple of her patterns as they were just too wonderful to pass up. She also fed us a scrumptious lunch of quiche, salad and fruit and let us enjoy her beautiful home decorated with lovely quilts, gave us a sneak peek of an amazing work in progress and introduced us to her charming husband. What a great time we had!

Work around the house has also been keepin me busy - with an upgrade to the dining room - including new seat covers for the chairs, new curtains and hanging a quilt hand pieced and quilted by my husband's grandmother - at least 40 years ago, maybe longer. (Fred, Ellen and Joy did the painting for me of dining room and living room and new flooring installed.)

And last, but not least, this Granny has been busy baby sitting (oh, did I mention I also work full time?). I have had the joy of babysitting my three boys (Levi, Malachi and Elijah) one evening - forgot to get a picture, but I will be there again this week and will get one then, and then Friday night, it was Taralyn's turn to spend time with Granny. Does it get any better than this?

So, what's been keeping you busy these days?

Teresa

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Congratulations Ellen and Cindy !

And here they are, my daughter Ellen on the left and my niece Cindy, on the right. This was taken right before they ran their first ever 5k run in Charlotte, NC. They both had been training for this run since Christmas and I am just so proud of them.

Ellen crosses the finish line, followed closely by Cindy.

I haven't been doing much sewing, but have really been busy with the house, maybe next week I will have some pictures to show of that project.

Thursday, my friends Darlene, Cheryl and Carol and I are off to Chesapeake area, and will be attending the big show in Norfolk. But first...we will be getting some applique instruction in Baltimore Album quilt design and technique by Sara Madson. Woohoooo...I am so excited!

Hope to see you in Norfolk!
Teresa
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Not much to talk about today as it has been a busy week with all but quilting. I did work a

little on my Be Smart block in the Be Attitudes series this week, especially while watching the Olympics.

I finished painting the new laundry room shelves.

Cleaned up my sewing area, even oranizing my many cords used to attach things to my computer. I just had to add a picture of hubby's area - we share a room and our work areas are side by side. Sure makes it nice to be able to enjoy my hobby and also spend time with Fred.



And finally, but definitely not the least important.....I vacuumed Felicia.

Not to worry...she loves when I do this. She'll turn round and round and sometimes even lay on her back so I can get her tummy. Since she is deaf, she can't hear the noise.

So, that was my day. How was yours?

Teresa
15926

And the winner is..........

I interrupted Fred's Super Bowl game long enough to draw the winning name, and Mary, he said to tell you that you owe him $5! I'll bring it to you at our Saturday meeting, and Congratulations!



Today I finished the Heart and Home wall hanging I have been working on. On the last post, it looked like this. As you know I was not at all happy with this design. Sooooooooooooooooooo.......

After several revisions (or I should say rippititions) it ended up like this. The saying that I put on it says "It takes hands to build a house, but only hearts can build a home." I found that on the internet and really liked it. It was listed as "author unknown" so I think that means I am free to use it. I did free motion hearts for the quilting. It is hanging between two kitchen cabinets, hiding an ugly grey fuse box. The heart buttons are shell buttons that I recently found at Tuesday Morning and just love. I purchased a bag of them - hearts, butterflies, different shapes and sizes.

Wednesday my lunch group finished up our pizza box round robbin and I am just thrilled with my quilt. You may recognize the Boo block center from Fons and Porter - but the rest of the design is original to the ladies in the group.


Round 1 - set the block on point - Cheryl, and she added some nice embroidered leaves;
Round 2 - the second round was a pieced border - Katie G and pretty friendship stars so appropriate;
Round 3 - 3 dimensional, and Carol added some yoyo flowers for the dimension;
Round 4 - was quilter's choice - Katie L, and just the right finishing touch.

They all did a wonderful job and I could not be more pleased. Thank you Cheryl, Carol, Katie and Katie!


Thanks for stopping by,
Teresa
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