UFO Finished! Tada!

I’ve been feeling very productive the past couple of weeks, and I decided to finish the quilt that got me addicted to quilting. I started it 6 years ago, and it just needed borders. However, I didn’t know how to do mitered borders, so it went unfinished. In my desire to finally finish things that I start, which is rare for me, it is now bordered, quilted, bound and labeled! I love it! It’s a quilt from the book, Blended Quilts.

And of course, a picture of one of my best buddies.

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It’s the little things…

I’ve really been working on enjoying the small things in my life, and I can honestly say that it has greatly effected my artistic harmony.  (I gently borrow that term from Carla Barrett.)  As I focus more on enjoying the simple things, I’m much more energized, productive, and creative. In that spirit, I want to post more of the simple things in my life that bring me joy.

My new Crocs backpack in Graffitti style.  I love it!

My husband, Scott, and Chunk, enjoying a lazy Sunday morning.

Carla posted a thread about her new kitty, Oscar, and how he loved a special scarf. My little Chipper has always had a thing about socks. He will stuff his mouth full with one, then whine and whimper as he searches for the perfect place to lie down with it. I call it his woobie.

My oldest son, Zack, who makes me laugh more than anyone else!

This is always the scene when I’m working on a binding. The crisp fall air makes everyone want to cuddle! See all three dogs? Chipper is on my lap, Chunk has his head under the quilt, and Penny is on the small quilt by herself. There’s nothing better than a good snuggle!

May you be blessed with the small things in your life!

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Akeelah and the Bee

This movie had been lying around my house for a couple of weeks, and Scott and I finally put it in the player over the weekend. We both loved this movie! It’s a feel good, heartwarming, inspiring movie. On a scale of 1 – 10, I’d definitely give it a 10. In the movie, Samuel L. Jackson had a quote hanging on his wall, which he recited. I looked it up and printed it off. I have a thing about collecting inspirational quotes. Here, I share it with the rest of you.

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, ‘Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous?’ Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. ~~ Marianne Williamson

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Catching Up Again

I’ve been busier than a one-armed paper hanger! Gina, thanks for asking where I’ve been. It’s nice to know I’m missed!

Last weekend, Scott and I spent time in Northern California, setting up our latest A-1 owners. We had a lovely time with Tracey and her husband, David! We got the equipment all set up on Friday, and David and Tracey treated us to a wonderful dinner at Chilis, complete with drinks and appetizers. Yumlicious! While I trained Tracey on Saturday, Scott helped David hang a flat panel t.v. In the process, I asked a zillion questions about LCD vs. Plasma, and I got quite the education in electronics overall. Now I know exactly what I want and how to mount it! I can’t wait to get my next commission check and go shopping! I can’t leave this topic without mentioning Nelson, Tracey and David’s dog. He’s a Rhodesian Ridgeback, and he’s huge! As big as he is, though, he’s a gentle giant and absolutely adorable! While I was doing something under the table, he got right under there with me and gave me a big ol’ kiss. Tracey was afraid he’d be a bother, but I fell in love immediately! He’s actually very well trained and behaved like a gentleman. Thank you, Tracey, David, and Nelson, for welcoming us into your beautiful home and treating us to a delicious dinner! We enjoyed getting to know all of you!

After spending a couple of days resting and catching up around the house, I decided to dig out a 6 year old UFO and finish it. All it needed was to have the borders mitered, but I never knew how to do that. With the help of my friend, Nancy, the UFO top was completed on Wednesday. This is the quilt that got me hooked on quilting in the first place! Now I’m ready to load it and get it quilted. I got a UFO challenge going on http://www.mqresource.com, and this will be my finished piece for September. I’m going to try to finish at least one each month.

I’ve also finished my Journal Quilt Project piece, and it’s now being blocked. I’ve had so much fun in this creative process, that I’m bouncing off the walls with more ideas! It’s been so long since I did anything truly creative, that I’ve realized how much I need to do more. Note to self: More time for me!

The last couple of days have been gorgeous! Our skies are clear, and the weather has cooled by more than 30 degrees in the past two weeks. My husband opened the patio door off of our bedroom this morning, when he left for work. I actually got quite chilled! So did the dogs, as I had all 3 of them under the covers and crowding me for warmth! LOL. It’s supposed to stay in the low 80’s for another week. I love this time of year, when it starts to turn crisp instead of crispy! I love to sit on the patio with my morning coffee and enjoy the quiet. I’m so ready to say goodbye to scorching days and high A/C bills!

May you all be finding joy in whatever you do! Now, of course, the token Oscar photo.

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A Fruitful Holiday Weekend

My weekend plans changed when I came down with a bug of some sort late last week. I was supposed to be traveling to set up a new customer, and I just didn’t feel like I could physically get on the road. It’s a good thing that said customer is a wonderfully compassionate woman, and she took pity on me. (Thank you, Tracey!) Instead, I slept a lot, slept a lot, and generally slept a lot. LOL. I thought I was struggling with an arthritis flair up, but I think it may have been whatever was ailing me. I had pain like I’ve never felt before! At any rate, I hung out around the house and got creative. That is, when I wasn’t sleeping, napping, etc.

I’ve always wanted to show something at the Houston Quilt Festival. One year, I committed to doing the Journal Quilt Project, but only got one piece done. I backed out of submitting anything. Since this year is the last year for the JQP, and the required piece could be a little bigger, I committed to doing a piece to submit. The deadline is September 28th. A few weeks ago, I was struggling with the idea that I had to do something that I thought would be worthy of showing, and I didn’t have thought one in my head for what to do. I’ve always enjoyed painting, and I used to paint children’s furniture. It has been a desire of mine to combine my love for whimsical painting and my love of fabric.

While setting up and training my latest customer, Carie Shields, I had the pleasure of staying at her home. While putting something away in her frig, I noticed a magnet on the frig door. I found the art on it quite intriguing, and it created a thought process that stirred within me for the past few weeks. Since I wasn’t up to going anywhere over the weekend, I dug out my white muslin and fabric paints. I started with the basic idea of the sun and sky. I think this all started on Friday afternoon. As of today, I have a nearly completed journal quilt to submit to the Houston Quilt Festival, and I’m artistically happier than I’ve been in a very long time! For the first time since I started quilting 7 years ago, I have finally combined my love of two art forms into one!

I’m often told that I’m creative, and I think that I am (sort of), but I never have the confidence to come up with an idea, work it out, and see a final end result that I am happy with. I seriously lack self confidence in that department. I pushed myself with the Have a Heart piece I showed here in an earlier post, and now I’ve done it again. Now I have an entire series of small fiber art pieces all planned out in my very over crowded brain!

The other thing I did today, was to accompany my husband to Best Buy to purchase a new DVD player. Ours bit the dust a couple of weeks ago, and since we get Netflix, one needs a functioning DVD player. We ended up bringing home a complete surround sound home theater system! While he and Collin are working out the logistics of how to plug it all in and get it to work, I’m burried in the final stages of my JQP piece. I pay absolutely no attention to what’s going on in the electronis department, because I’m a woman obsessed with getting a binding on this piece! I did have to take a necessary break to put clean sheets on my bed, tuck Scott in, say goodnight to the boys, then I returned to the living room.

Now it’s just me, my fiber art piece, the dogs, the cat, and the mess left behind from setting up a new home theater system. Left behind are: the boxes from the new system, the pieces of the old system, a stereo cabinet pulled out into the middle of the room, extra cables from only God knows where, the vacuum cleaner, and foam packing from unpacking! What in blue blazes happened while I was obsessed with my JQP? I’ve just spent the last hour cleaning up the boxes and packaging stuff, pushing the stereo cabinet back into place (had to dust it too), finding a place to store all of the old home theater pieces, picking up the various dishes that the family left scattered around the living room throughout the day, fed the dogs, fed the cat, changed another load of laundry, and now I’m updating my blog. See what happens when the lady of the house gets distracted? Hell breaks loose!

I think I’ll call it a night and eat the fortune cookie that was left on the counter. Maybe the fortune will read, “You will awaken in the morning to a husband and sons who will treat you like royalty!” 🙂

 Good night, everyone.  Or should I say, good morning!

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WIP – Next Step

Since I have decided to use the painted fabrics as part of my Journal Quilt Project, I have removed the pictures of the base from my blog. When the show opens, I’ll be able to post pictures of the finished piece. I must say that I’m having a blast with this!

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