Love That Green!

In honor of St. Patrick's Day...

My absolute favorite color is jadite green with a titch of aqua. I've got tons of this thread and will probably never actually use it. Whenever I spot this color thread, I add it to my collection.  It's such a gentle, peaceful color, and it just makes me happy to look at it.

Added 6/19/09:

Going Postal

This is the result of 6 hours(!) struggling through a fabric postcard workshop offered by our guild. I live in a very snug quilting box, and this was somewhat outside of it. While everyone else was laughing and enjoying the process, I was in a total stressed out sweat over it. I don't know what it is that makes me:
1) so rigid and inflexible
and
2) want to even try to get out of my box

My friend and fellow Sew-Ho Susi has a box, too. My box is here, and hers is the rest of the world. She came to the next guild meeting with a box of postcards, tied up with ribbons into sets of 9. I had one (1). I wish I could be more like her...just let loose and go with it!
Maybe part of it is because I was raised in a convent (literally), and letting loose wasn't allowed. Or maybe it's just me. You'd think I'd be used to it by now. But it still makes me want to go postal.

Shoe Pincushions!

I'm not really into shoes...unless you count these shoe pincushions! I started collecting them in 1999 and I just can't stop. They remind me of the shoes my grandmother wore back in the 40's and 50's. I just love them!

March 2009 Desktop Calendar

Click to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - you'll love it!

Wooden Spools

As I was looking for my 3rd lost 1/4" presser foot, I came across this small cache of wooden spools. The loose ones were stolen from my grandmother's sewing basket at least 30 years ago, when her eyesight was so bad I knew she wouldn't be needing these anymore. And she'd never notice anyway.

The spools on the twine were purchased at a tiny little antique/junque shop in Oklahoma. The sweetest couple ran the shop, and after sneezing my way through the years of dust, I came upon this little necklace of spools. I love the tag, too!
I've got my mother's sewing basket around here somewhere...I bet there's more in there, too!

February 2009 Desktop Calendar

Click image to expand to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - you'll love it!

Crazy Quilt

My quilt guild, the Tri-County Quilt Guild of Cypress, Texas, has finally finished our raffle quilt for this year. It's a fabulous 82" x 82" Victorian-style crazy quilt called (aptly enough) "Victorian Elegance"

We've been working on it for over 6 months and after hundreds of hand-stitched, blistered hours, it's ready to show. We'll be drawing the winner at our guild show February 12-13, 2010.

Details are at www.tricountyquiltguild.org

Thimbles

I love my thimbles! Almost 30 years ago, when I first started quilting, I bought a $5 thimble by mail. We were living in London at the time and I couldn't find a thimble to save my life. When we got home, I went thimble-shopping and found that they actually come in sizes. And styles. 

I even found a really large topless one that I bought just because. It wasn't til later I found out it was a tailor's thimble for my thumb. How weird.  So I bought it.

Then one year when I was at the International Quilt Festival in Houston, I took a handquilting class from DeeDee McElroy of Roxanne's Thimbles. That's when I discovered that thimbles not only come in sizes, they can be pretty, and ergonomically correct! I'll take two!

A few years later, same place, different handquilting class. This time I took Liuxin Newman's class (The Thimblelady) and found a totally new style of thimble where you push with the strongest part of your finger, instead of the tip.

The one on the left goes on your index or middle finger and the one on the right is for your thumb.

I'll take two of those, too, plea$e! 

So now I have my original mishmash of thimbles and that giant tailor's 'topless thumble'  and my 2 beautiful Roxanne ones and the 2 silver Liuxin Newman ones.

You can tell by the gold-plated Roxanne's thimble that that's the one I use most, but The Thimblelady's silver ones are effortless to use.

I even found a teensy book with a thimble bookmark!

January 2009 Desktop Calendar

Click to expand image to full size, right-click and choose Set as Wallpaper or Background. To really jazz up your desktop, right-click on your background and choose a color that coordinates with the calendar - a whole new look every month!

Quilt-Themed Children's Books

American Quilts, Book 1: Ellen’s Story Kirby

Bedspread, The Fair
Boy and the Quilt, The Kurtz
Cassie's Word Quilt Ringgold
Cradle That Grandpa Built, The Smith
Dream Quilt, The Ryan
Eight Hands Round Paul
Go Away, Dark Night Higgs
Homeplace Shelby
Josephina Story Quilt, The Coerr
Just Plain Fancy Polacco
Keeping Quilt, The Polacco
Log Cabin Christmas, The Howard/Himler
Log Cabin Quilt, The Howard
Moon Quilt, The Warner
My Grandmother’s Patchwork Quilt Bolton
On Market Street Lobel 
Patchwork Quilt, The Flournoy/Pinkney
Pieces: A Year in Poems & Quilts Hines
Quilt Block History of Pioneer Days, The Cobb
Quilting Now and Then Welling/Dock
Quiltmaker’s Gift, The Brumbeau
Quilt of Dreams Dwyer
Quilt Story, The Johnston/dePaola
Rag Coat, The Mills
Reuben and the Blizzard Moss
Reuben and the Quilt Moss
Sam Johnson and the Blue Ribbon Quilt Ernst
Seasons Sewn, The Paul/McCurdy
Selina and the Bear Paw Quilt Smucker
Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt Hopkinson
Tortilla Quilt, The Tenorio-Coscarelli
Who’s Under Grandma’s Quilt? Waterstone

Curriculum:
Quilting Activities Across the Curriculum, Grades 1-3 by Wendy Buchberg
Quilt Connections, Grades 1-4 Carson-Dellosa publisher