It's Time To Take the Plunge!

I have been stalking WIP for several weeks...oohing and aahing...drooling over all the beautiful finished projects, berating myself because I was too chicken to post (kept using the excuse I didn't have time to take pictures, blog and post).  Well, I'm taking the time just for me.  I hope that you enjoy, but if you cringe at unfinished projects hurry up and hit your back button while there is still time.

I realized that I have been too chicken to post because I am not a very disciplined quilter.  I work alot and I will stay as many hours as it takes to finish a bank statement or post daily work....but...my quilting....well....I like to try new things and life's too short to keep fighting to finish a quilt if I am not excited by it.  That doesn't mean I don't like it, just it doesn't grab me.  I am the same way with a new novel.  If the author doesn't grab me in the first one or two chapters....back to the library it goes.

Now I have finished a couple of quilts...if you go back to one of my older posts you will see them and I have a couple that are close to be completed, but life interrupts.  My LQS gets in a new book, new ruler, new fabric or I see a cute idea on one of your wonderful blogs and I am off and running in a new direction until something else gets my attention.

I so admire all of you who persevere and I love looking at your finishes, but I would hope you would enjoy looking at my starts as just fun.  I have fun!  So here goes:

I do try to be organized...a friend runs a pizza shop...can you tell...these are really handy for keeping pieces and parts together so I don't lose them.

What's in all those boxes....well....let's see:

I love dots and pinwheels.  This was supposed to be a summer quilt and it will be one of these days.  This is one I will actually continue working on because I love the colors.  It is super easy to put together.

I love pinwheels...can you tell?  They are easy.  I sometimes take new fabrics as they come in at my LQS and make them up in pinwheels just to give customers an idea of what they are going to look like combined.  Only when I really love them, do I plan on making a whole project.  Sometimes I mess up and the customers buy all the fabric before I can get back and buy more.....oh well!

Oops...missed a few...these are the Louisiana Pinwheel....I just tried it in several colors to show contrast.

And then there is "Card Tricks"....how fun!  You can do so much with contrast.  Little bit more complicated to piece, but fun.

I guess Blog.com thought I was crazy too....it won't let me load any more pictures.  So I'll be back another time, because I have more.  Have to go to work, anyway!  Have a great day!

By the way, I have joined a new swap called "Pay It Forward".  Read about it in an earlier post.  Should be fun.

Thanks For the Reminder Kelly!

Drinking my coffee, enjoying the quiet (it is early and still dark here) and visiting one of my favorite blogs....Charming Chatter.  Kelly always has such wonderful and sweet entries.  I would so love to meet her in person.  Her blog today was about the wisdom of Chief Seattle and it reminded of something I read several years ago.  I printed it out to put on a scrapbook page for someone at my church and I thought I would share it with you this morning.

                     Cherokee Indian Youth's Rite of Passage

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage? His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it. He cannot cry out for help to anyone. Once he survives the night, he is a MAN. He cannot tell the other boys of this experience, because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified. He can hear all kinds of noises. Wild beasts must surely be all around him. Maybe even some human might do him harm. The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold. It would be the only way he could become a man.

Finally, after a horrific night the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold. It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him. He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone. Even when we don't know it, our Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us. When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

 

I don't know about you but this always reminds me that no matter how bad it gets all I have to do is reach out and ask My Father for help.

I was afraid this would happen....

I work constantly, meet myself going and coming, so I forget to post regularly.  I get up at 4:30 every morning and have my first cup of coffee (I am a coffee fanatic), spend an hour drooling over what everyone is doing, spend an hour sewing something....anything and the it's off to work.  I spend a few minutes at my LQS every afternoon on my way home and I have all these wonderful ideas while driving, but I am too tired when I get home to do anything but eat, bathe and sleep.  But I am going to do better....really I am.

I just joined "Pay It Forward" over at Harriet Homemaker Strikes Again.  It sounds like fun.  I love making homemade goodies for friends and the idea of sending them to friends I make on blogspot really sounds like fun.

Here are the rules:
1.  I will make a handmade goodie for the first 3 people who comment on this post.  It will be surprise and arrive when you least expect it.

2.  I will have a year to do this (but I will try to do it alot sooner than that....I mean Christmas is coming and it is my favorite time of year).  What's the catch?  You have to participate by placing the "Pay It Forward" button on your post and linking it back to Julia at bluejaycottage and sending a little something to the first 3 comments on your blog.  It doesn't have to be quilty, just handmade.  Think of how much fun it will be to see what everyone sends and receives.  You can do that by joining the Flicker group set up just for this.  Wow, I just joined and already some really cute ideas are showing up.

3.  You have to have a blog.

4.  Once you comment here (be sure you include your e-mail so that I can write you) you must place the Pay It Forward  button on your blog and write about it to keep the fun going.

5.  Follow me, if you don't already.

6.  I hate to say this, but foreign postage is so high I would like to limit this to folks in the good ole USA.

I want to get to know all about you so I can make the perfect gift for you, so tell me your likes and dislikes, colors, hobbies, animals....etc.

There is nothing quite as much fun as receiving a surprise package in the mail. 

And I promise I will do a better job of posting.  I have tons of new items I have been making that I need to put pictures up on my site.  I will work on that this week.  I hope everyone has a great day.

I can't believe I won!

I came home so tired last night and while I was eating a bite of supper I decided to make it thru a few more of the WIP entries for the week.  There are 99 now and it takes me all week to look at all the beautiful work.  Mostly because I have to keep wiping the drool off my chin.  I clicked on Meinca's site and I see my name!  I won her give-a-way.  Four fat quarters by Natalie Barnes of Beyond the Reef patterns.  The colors are awesome and of course my favorite places in the world have the word beach in them.  Can't wait to see them in person.  I never win anything so this is very exciting.  And on my birthday no less.  Go on over and check out her wonderful blog.

No sewing this week, but I had to go by my favorite quilt shop "Mama's" to see what came in while I was so busy and imagine this "I found fabric I need to buy".  Brenda is beginning to get in Christmas fabric, the latest is Jason Yenter's new fabric.  It will be a stretch but I am absolutely certain I will be able to find a corner in my sewing room to put a few yards of it.  Or on the living room couch, or coffee table, or dining room table or ..........

Well....I got to go get dressed to go to work....have a wonderful day everyone.  Sew one for me!

It's My Birthday!

Had to post today!  It's my birthday (57) if anyone's counting!  It doesn't bother me to tell my age.  I am amazed that I made it.  I don't feel that old (at least for today).  And I can't believe that one of my favorite blogs "Cat Patches" is one year old today and she is having a fabulous birthday give-a-way.  Run on over and check it out.  I have cute, cute button near the bottom of my pages.  She loves cats too!

I don't have time to feel old, too busy.  Been meeting myself going and coming at work.  No time to even touch my sewing machine in the last week and a half. 

This beautiful girl is getting married in August.  Here she is with her mother and future mother-in-law at a shower we gave her Sunday.  Not only is she beautiful on the outside, she is more beautiful on the inside.  I can't wait to see her walk down the aisle.  Congratulations Katie!

And right now in Louisiana, our beautiful crape myrtles are in bloom.  This one is right outside my favorite shopping place.  "Mama's Quilt Shop"

Everyone have a great day!

Wow! What a great give-a-way!

It's the "cat's meow".  You don't want to miss out on this great blog and equally great give-a-way.  You could win one of four fabulous books and a fat quarter.  A quilter's dream.  So stop cat-napping and run on over to http://catpatches.blogspot.com/2011/06/fun-fact-friday-freebie-500th-post.html and put your name in the hat.

100 Quilts for Kids

What a great way to have fun and share the love of quilts with children.  I don't have any children of my own but I have a few "adopted" ones and they have brought so much love to my life.  I have several small quilts ready to be quilted and I would like to donate them to the children at St. Jude.  Ten years ago I was diagnosed with throat cancer at the ripe old age of 46.  I had never been sick or in the hospital. so to say it was both an adventure and a wild trip is an understatement.  It was my youth group at church that helped me get through it.

When I watch the St. Jude commercials it breaks my heart that these beautiful children have to go through all this pain and suffering.  I don't know yet if St. Jude will allow you to donate the quilts (does anyone have any experience with this) because of germ issues, but perhaps they will give them to brothers and sisters of the children.  The whole experience has to be horrific, not just for the sick child, but for family too.

So "swim, bike, quilt" on over and check out this wonderful opportunity to bring love to children and possibly when a few goodies for yourself in return (lol).