Meow

I've had this little pattern for a long time - I don't even remember how long!  But it was one of my UFOs uncovered when searching for something else.  I love when that happens...it's like I just made a trip to the quilt shop since I'd forgotten I had it.  :)

The cats are fused down and then stitched with one strand of white embroidery floss, using the blanket stitch.  The scalloped border was done like no other I'd seen.  I added it just like I would any other border, then cut the scalloped edges, then the lighter border was put on, not as a border but as a whole piece almost like it was a backing.  Then I blanket stitched the scalloped border with two strands of purple.  This is how the directions showed to do this and it worked fine with one exception.  Because the background of the cats is white the floral showed through.  The easy fix for that was to cut the center of the back piece out at about where the green sashing is.

The colors are actually a little lighter than is shown in either of these pictures but if I lighten them then the cats fade too much.  :(  These are 1930s reproduction fabrics and I would almost swear that my grandmother had dresses/aprons made from some of these exact fabrics!

With A Heavy Heart

Tornados - just the word has the power to take my breath away.  Devastation, injuries, deaths, broken lives....my heart is heavy for fellow Arkansans as well as those in other states who were affected by these storms last night.

Sixteen lives were taken by this tornado - perhaps more.

As many of you know my husband and I are members of the United Methodist Church and are frequently volunteer missionaries at a facility in south Louisiana.  At UMCOR Sager Brown we put together Cleaning Buckets, Health Kits (toothbrush, toothpaste, comb, washcloth, soap, etc.), school bags, baby layettes, bedding kits and more.  These kits are sent to areas of crisis here in the United States and all across the world.  When I see the aftermath of not just tornados but also floods, earthquakes and wars I know that the work we do truly reflects the love of Christ.  We try to be His hands and feet where people are hurting.

I am not soliciting anything....but for those of you who have asked me I want you to know that 100% of all donations given to UMCOR go directly to disaster relief.  Administrative costs are covered another way.  If you so desire the way to donate is at www.umcor.org.  But please, please say a prayer for those who have been so profoundly affected and for those who are already at work helping to restore, rescue and serve.

A New Series

I've started a new series - wool candle mats from Primitive Gatherings.  This is the first one I've finished.  I'm using it as a mug rug on my desk.  :)

As you can see from the closeup I'm using variegated Valdani threads with a blanket stitch.  My next one in this series will be a patriotic one...red, white and blue.  These are small enough to finish in an evening or two!

He Is Risen!

May your Easter be blessed!

Did You See It?

It didn't look exactly like this at my house - it wasn't this bright red - but it was really gorgeous.  I set my alarm, got up, bundled up in wool socks and a sweatshirt over my pajamas, wrapped up in a thick, fuzzy acrylic blanket and sat on my deck looking up through the trees for about an hour.  We have lots of trees but the leaves are just budding so I was able to see through the branches.  At my house it looked more like this.

Was it worth getting up at 2:00 a.m.?  Definitely!  And as I look at this image my brain is simmering....I wonder how I could make a quilt that looked like this?  :)

What's Your SuperPower?

Oops - I almost missed it!  There's another cute blog hop going on!

And here's the schedule:

FRIDAY APRIL 11
Just Let me Quilt
Meadowbrook
Living with Purpose
The Quilting Queen Online Blog
Words and Stitches
Beaquilter

MONDAY APRIL 14

It Seams To Be Sew...
Why-Knot-Kwilt
Bumbleberry Stitchn'
Elizabeth Coughlin Designs
Jane's Quilting
Secretly Stitching

TUESDAY APRIL 15

The Distracted Domestic
A Geeky Crafty Life
Thimblemouse and Spouse
How ART you?
Sew Golden A Chance
Just Because Quilts
DMC-Threads

WEDNESDAY APRIL 16

krislovesfabric

My Addiction to Quilting
Needle and Hook
Sew Incredibly Crazy
Lixie Makes It
Seams To Be Sew

THURSDAY APRIL 17

Kathy's Quilts
Made by Me in Red
life, quilts and a cat too
Val Spiers Sews
Quilt Doodle Doodles...
Quilting My Way-5th Generation Quilters Blog

FRIDAY APRIL 18

Late Night Quilter
Just Keep Swimming
I Piece 2-Mary
The Fuzzy Hat Quilter
Kids and Sewing
Sew many yarns

MONDAY APRIL 21
QuiltnQueen
Malini's Quilting Adventure
Pig Tales and Quilts
My Stitchin-n-Stuff
pieces by polly
Buzzing and Bumbling
Sew We Quilt

Pauline over at Quilting Queen is hosting this one so you'll want to be sure to visit her.  And of course, it's the brainchild of Madame Samm, my favorite blog hostess.  I'm not sure I have a Super power, but I plan to claim every power others dream up.  :)  Unless someone is a sky diver.  Or a bungee jumper.  Or anything that involves work.

Believe

It's been a hectic couple of weeks at my house - nothing out of the ordinary, just busy.  I'm working part time right now helping out at school in the preparations for next year.  Sounds crazy but the scheduling for high school students begins in the spring before they even finish the year they're in.  It's fun to go back for a little while, see some of the kids I grew to love when I was working last year, and get my brain back in gear.  Not that I don't use my brain when I'm away from school, but I for sure use it in a different way.  Several people asked me today if I missed working and the answer is NO.  I first retired in 2003, then worked for a year at church a few years later, re-retired, then worked at a local high school last year, then re-retired again.  I'm the only person I know who can't seem to retire and make it stick.  :)

I'm mostly working on some hand projects but I have finished a couple of things.  This pillow was a free pattern from Bunny Hill Designs.  I changed it just a little bit but basically it's the same letters except they used a star as the dot on the i, which I left off.  I used a green ticking fabric with a scrap of a civil war reproduction print that I found in my leftover basket.

And this lap sized quilt is a pattern I saw on Carol's blog, Just Let Me Quilt.  You can find the pattern here.

I made this quilt for a very dear friend who has a monkey named Katie.  Yes.  A real monkey.  And she's precious and funny and cute and I love her.  Oh and I love my friend too.  :)  She is a special blessing in my life - one of those neighbors (one block away!) who grows into a friend and then into just-like-family.  I mean she has a key to my house....that kind of friend.  Do you have a friend like that?  Count yourself lucky if you do.  And maybe make them a monkey quilt.  :)

Flags Are Waving

There's been a lot of fun with this blog hop - all kinds of creative and beautiful projects.  I hope you've been following along!  Many thanks to Madame Samm for the idea, to Thearica for the organization and to the participants for their dedication to this stitching adventure.  But an especially huge thanks to those of you who come to visit.  Without you this wouldn't be much fun at all!

I've never had a flag in my yard other than the American flag so when this was announced I started to look around at other homes where I would see flags in the flower beds, on the porch columns and once even in a garden!  Since Easter is coming, and so were my grandchildren, I thought an Easter egg would be the perfect thing for the season.  I have a similar one on my front door so I used that pattern (each row on it is a different stitch on my Janome) with rick rack as the decorations instead of stitches.  I think it shows up nicely.

As much as I love this Easter egg I knew I couldn't leave it up all the time - that would be kind of like leaving Christmas lights on my house all year, don't you think?  :)  So I made a second one that I thought represented me quite well.  It's all about love!

One of my favorite things to do is to combine embroidery with applique - and another love of mine is a more primitive look.  Now these bright colors don't really shout primitive but I knew that for the flag to really be seen outdoors it called for something lighter and more colorful.  I loved picking out these colors for the flowers and houses - they almost glow, don't you think?  I added some free motion quilting using loops and hearts; now this is where the primitive comes in.  :)  It was the first time I'd tried doing hearts and it was so fun!  Not perfect of course, but then I never am!

Enjoy the rest of your Flags on a Stick blog hop - you won't want to miss a one of these participants!

April 2nd

Thimblemouse & Spouse

Stitchin' By The Lake

Just One More Stitch

The Quilting Queen Online

Selina quilts

Whims And Fancies



April 3rd

Pigtales and Quilts

DachsiesWithMoxie

Just Keep Swimming

The House on the Side of the Hill

Texas Quilting Gal

Madame Samm