September Splendor . . .

What a wonderful, fantastic time of year to take a Photography Class!

The last photography class is tomorrow night - so I am now searching for the right photos to take for the critique session. Do I take some of the fabric photos from the last post, or try one of these ones? Decisions, decisions! I don't think I've taken as many photos in my life as I've taken in the last three months! It's kinda like any creative venture - you start looking at the things around you in a different way; a different angle and just . . . differently.

Nature is full of the greatest ideas for color, whimsy and even a whole new outlook on life. I must say that stopping and looking at the "small things" has become my new most favorite thing to do. Why do we always need to look at the "big picture" - sometimes I find that to be very depressing. So my advice to everyone today is to stop and look at the "small things" in life and be fascinated, amused and surprised by what you see.

The Quilt Show is this weekend and I really hope to remember to take my camera (and that everyone lets me take a few pictures!). Monday will be quiltshowblog day if everything works out. Putting on a quilt show is quite an undertaking and takes a lot of organizing and time to get up and running - the inspiration that we will take away with us once it is all over and done with, will keep us going for all our new and upcoming projects. We have a great year of meetings and workshops planned - now if I could only find time to finish the workshop projects from last year! One is a queen size quilt - so I know I need to set aside more than a couple of days to get that quilted - it's a beautiful New York Beauty quilt made from fabrics by Kansas Troubles - that should be inspiration enough you would think - I need more time! Whine, whine . . . It won't stop me from finishing my "project", nor will it stop me from starting new projects either . . . oh well, I'm here for a good time, right?

Till next time,

M.

Fabric Daydreams . . .

I have a confession . . . I love fabric!

All types of quilting fabric - I do lean towards certain colors and prints, as I think most people do. I like small and medium prints and still would have to force myself to purchase a large scale print, and more than likely it would be for a border or a backing. I prefer the more traditional patterns, where there is more detailed piecing and/or applique which traditionally uses smaller pieces of fabric - and thus to my way of thinking, the smaller prints work best.

So you now know about my fabric obsession - but my other confession is that I hate to cut into fabric! I love seeing it all stacked up and ready to go - trouble is, I quite often don't take it anywhere. What if I cut into it and then don't like the pattern - isn't that a waste - or is it a learning curve?

That little snowman is part of a fat quarter bundle that I purchased a couple of years ago - I just love it! But I can't cut into it :( Maybe someday . . . when the moon is just right and the idea is brilliant . . . it will become a little wallhanging . . . until then, it looks great sitting on the shelf.

The fabric under the snowman is from Blue Meadow Designs and once again I cannnot force myself to cut into it. I might have a better idea for it someday - so I'll just hang onto it for a while longer.
Plaids from Kansas Troubles, (shown in the photo) may need to be made into a fun snowman quilt pattern by Meme's Quilts called "Snow Row" that I bought about three years ago - you see I can sometimes make a decision - just carrying it out may take a bit longer.

If you didn't know better you would think that this fabric stack is about 14" high. Just so happens that I hang my measuring tape from a nail that is nailed into one of the beams in the basement (the ceiling is too low to finish - so I might as well make use of opportunities!). The basket that this fabric is in is about 18" to 20" high and holds my fat quarter collection - a small portion of it at least. I find this little collection to be motivating and inspiring - we all need some of that once in a while.

My photography course last week went really well! The pictures I used for the "critique" session were all photos I have used in previous posts. I received some really great feedback and now have a "standard" to keep up. So this past weekend I've been wandering around with my old camera shooting anything that catches my fancy and also trying different setting and angles. Therefore, you have all my fabric pictures to look at! I haven't narrowed down which ones I will take to class this Thursday, but thought it would be fun to share these ones with you.

Till next time . . .

M

I'm back . . .

Sorry for disappearing for a bit there . . . between not feeling really great, work committments (I need a new job!) and leaving town for three days . . . life kinda took control there for a week or so.

I was able to make it to the big city (Winnipeg) for a few days and spent time with my daughter - planting all those perennials, shopping, coffee and visiting printing places. Wow is that amazing the stuff those places can produce on short notice and with just a quick little file download. Quite impressed! I have confirmation from them that they can do anything by email and I will not need to make the trip again - very worthwhile adventure for me. I was even able to get some designs printed on fabric - not cotton but still gives me a really good feel for what's going on.

Dentist appointment yesterday, council meeting today, district meeting tomorrow and I believe I'm supposed to actually be in my office on Friday. Photography class tomorrow night - remember I missed last week - so now I'm out of the loop. My homework from last week will have to do for tomorrow night I guess.

I was also able to get my laptop fixed up - it's now received a memory boost of 2/3rds more than it's original memory! How cool is that? This is the machine that I have come to HATE over the last six months and now (I hope) it will be working better than new. Thanks to my extended warranty purchase, it has a new motherboard and a new harddrive and now I have more RAM so I should be good to go - and I do mean go - it is the system that follows me around everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I really do love my new desktop computer with it's wonderfully wide screen and lots, and lots of speed, but sometimes you need that portability. Now I have both! Lucky me (knock on wood!).

Well, I've tried to post three pictures tonight and none of them are wanting to cooperate - I'll try again tomorrow - if all goes well - and then at least you'll have something to look at while you read my ramblings.

I want to thank all those who have sent me emails - it is wonderful to hear from all the different places - the world really isn't that big, is it?

Until next time,

M.

On The Mend . . .

Well that was some weekend! Ended up in bed Friday night, all day Saturday and most of Sunday, went to the Doctor's office on Monday morning. Gotta love those trips! Gave a bunch of blood, waiting for appointments to be set up with specialists and need to go back on Friday morning for another test.

My daughter, Candace and her boyfriend were out for the weekend - the most I saw of them was when they came in the bedroom for a visit - that's where we had Saturday night pizza - they were all camped out at the window seat and stacking stools for tables - kinda different!

We're supposed to be going into Winnipeg this weekend for a visit, so I'll see them again soon. Need to get all those perennials I started for her planted in the ground. It's been getting cold here at night - last night was +3 or 4. Next week is looking better.

I had a schedule for my project that I was trying to follow - oh well, I guess it was my schedule, no one elses. I'll need to make slight adjustments to my timeframes. To add to that is the quilt group's "Quilt Show" on the 29th of September - I missed the first meeting of the year on Monday night - but the preparations will be in full swing now for the next few weeks.

Then last week I signed up for a photography class that started last Thursday night and goes until the end of September - I'm supposed to do some homework - if you notice there are no pictures attached to this post - so, guess what? My homework isn't even started yet! Then I found out that I'm missing this class on Thursday night because my Reeve called a meeting - that bites - now I won't even know if my homework that isn't done measured up to everyone elses.

Hope everyone else's week is going good so far. I'll try for pictures next time and a more positive outlook from my corner of the world . . .

Talk to you soon,

M.

The "Lipstick Pink" saga continues . . .

On and on we go . . .

This is coat #4 (I think! - I'm losing track!).

I'm told this is the last coat (#5) - at least for awhile. Much better tone I think from the very first coat. Thank goodness paint dries much darker and each successive layer gets better and better. I think I like it - it matches good with the brown stain on the step.

Not sure what happened to the plant, it was looking great one day and frazzled the next - go figure that. Needs planted in the garden . . . it's supposed to be a perennial so that is good.

While I was taking pictures of the door I thought I'd throw this photo in - this is one of my winter time quilts which is still hanging in my front entry way! Think maybe I should switch up to a Halloween one soon - got lots of good spooky quilts - I love Halloween :)

Till next time,
M.

Happy Labor Day!

As promised in the previous post, here is the project that my daughter made out of the "Stars All Around Us" book by Cherie Ralston. Candace used left over paints from my new kitchen (that she designed!) and I think this turned out wonderful. The brown is the baseboard color, the green is the wall color, the yellow is another part wall and the cream is part of the hall color - you can see all of these colors from just about anywhere you stand in the kitchen. I love it!

This catch-all box sits up on top of one of the kitchen cupboards next to some other great little tin boxes, etc. I'm embarrassed to tell you that inside this little box is where I am storing my punchneedle supplies. At Quilt Market in Kansas City a couple of years ago I admired the wonderful little projects that people were making with the punchneedle and I promptly came home and ordered the needles and a small kit - I found out that it was just a bit more than I had the patience for! Oh, well, the lessons we learn - maybe someday I'll end up in the hospital or something and need something to do - that's me, always prepared for the worst.

We're painting our front door and this magazine was the inspiration for our color choice. We took the color sample that matched the closest to the photo and had it color matched at our paint supplier. Now Randy (husband) is freaking because the first coat was PINK! Not quite the manly color he was looking for. I've been trying to reassure him that after a couple more coats it will be the darker color.

This was after coat #1 - a nice lipstick pink - don't you think?

This is coat #2 - just went on about an hour ago.

Scary looking, isn't it? Hopefully after this coat dries and the sun isn't reflecting off it, it will look a bit darker. I think there may be hope - looks like it might take another two coats at least. The undercoater was a light grey, but it should have been a lot deeper toned. I'll keep you posted on our pink door crisis!

Till next time,

M.