A FEW NICE PICTURES

This is a quilt that my brother and sister in law had hanging in the guestroom when I visited in December. She didn't reveal anything about it when I questioned her except that it was a family treasure. The head of the bed was against that wall so enjoyed sleeping beneath it. On the cedar chest against the other wall was a quilt I had made them many, many years ago. I couldn't help but wonder if it was put out just for my visit or if it was part of her daily decor.  I was tempted but not quite rude enough to ask. Don't know why I didn't take a picture of it.  Had a wonderful visit there and also fulfilled a dream to go into a lighthouse. My brother is the human resource director for one and took me there. My fear of heights caused my knees to buckle on the third landing and I had to forgo finishing the entire climb. Kyle was so sweet about it. He is a real gentleman...in spirit and in deed.  It was healing to spend time with him.

KINDNESS

Please watch THIS . It is inspiring.

I hope this goes viral.
A little more about it:

There was an unusual high school football game played in Grapevine, Texas . The game was between Grapevine Faith Academy and the Gainesville State School . Faith is a Christian school and Gainesville State School is located within a maximum security correction facility.


Gainesville State School has 14 players. They play every game on the road. Their record was 0-8. They've only scored twice. Their 14 players are teenagers who have been convicted of crimes ranging from drugs to assault to robbery. Most had families who had disowned them. They wore outdated, used shoulder pads and helmets. Faith Academy was 7-2. They had 70 players, 11 coaches, and the latest equipment.

Chris Hogan, the head coach at Faith Academy , knew the Gainesville team would have no fans and it would be no contest, so he thought, “What if half of our fans and half of our cheerleaders, for one night only, cheered for the other team?” He sent out an email to the faithful asking them to do just that. “Here’s the message I want you to send,” Hogan wrote. “You’re just as valuable as any other person on the planet.”

Some folks were confused and thought he was nuts. One player said, “Coach, why are we doing this?” Hogan said, “Imagine you don’t have a home life, no one to love you, no one pulling for you. Imagine that everyone pretty much had given up on you. Now, imagine what it would feel like and mean to you for hundreds of people to suddenly believe in you.”

The idea took root. On the night of the game, imagine the surprise of those 14 players when they took the field and there was a banner the cheerleaders had made for them to crash through. The visitors’ stands were full. The cheerleaders were leading cheers for them. The fans were calling them by their names. Isaiah, the quarterback-middle linebacker said, “I never in my life thought I would hear parents cheering to tackle and hit their kid. Most of the time, when we come out, people are afraid of us. You can see it in their eyes, but these people are yelling for us. They knew our names.”

Faith won the game, and after the game the teams gathered at the 50-yard line to pray. That’s when Isaiah, the teenage convict-quarterback surprised everybody and asked if he could pray. he prayed, “Lord, I don’t know what just happened so I don’t know how or who to say thank you to, but I never knew there were so many people in the world who cared about us.” On the way back to the bus, under guard, each one of the players was handed a burger, fries, a coke, candy, a Bible, and an encouraging letter from the players from Faith Academy .

What an incredible act of Christian witness and kindness and goodness that was. Proverbs 11:17 says, “Your own soul is nourished when you are kind.” Proverbs 3:27 says, “Do not withhold good when it is in your power to act.”

Be kind to someone this week. Be kind to every person you meet. You might be amazed at what God will do with a simple act of kindness.

THE THRILL OF THE CHASE

Here's the thing...I love trying a new block.  It's the thrill of seeing if I can figure out how it's made. This morning Barb over at Just Sayin' Sew wrote about going to one of Bonnie Hunter's shows and dern it, she posted pictures. And though they are all wonderful, one in particular really caught my eye. Well, you know, I had fabric scraps out already left from Blue Ridge Beauty so what would it hurt if I made up one block. So I did.  Scrappy little star.

Now usually what happens is I can't stop at just one but this morning I am gonna stop. I am not gonna make this into a quilt.  Maybe a table topper or even just a potholder.  I already have a whole list of UFOs to be finished.  I am, though, not naive enough to believe that I am disciplined enough to stop making test blocks as they cross my path...that is just the thrill of the chase. But I have decided that since I have a lot of red white and blue fabric and patriotic is always good, from now on I'm going to make these test blocks from the r/w/b fabric and they will go on a clip and when I have several I will turn them into a patriotic quilt. Doesn't that sound like a plan? Building toward just one quilt of many different blocks instead of many quilts of just one block.  I think this will satisfy the "Oh, I just gotta try that."  And of course, if I just gotta do a whole quilt out of a certain one, well, we'll see.

These today would make good leaders and enders, though.

OK, going to go clean the living room right now.

IN REVIEW

I'm going to post these pictures of the 2 Blue Ridge Beauties I made so I can review and compare them.
I can't figure out quickly how to get them up together on my picture editor on my pc but do know how to put them on here. The first one has already been sent to and and snuggled in by my granddaughter. Otherwise, I would spread them in real life for a view. Anyway, after I've studied them a bit I'll come back and post my thoughts.

Quilt #1

Quilt #2

I'm ba-ack~~ (BTW, you can click on any picture to see it larger and then use your tool bar's back arrow to return to this page. I left them small to compare them together.)

OK, ready to chat this up. Other than the facts that these are different sizes and quilt #1 on the top is finished and quilt #2 does not even have borders yet, the only difference is shown in the photos further down of the blocks used for each. (Would the borders make the blue peaks pop more?)

The top block shown below is used repeatedly in the first quilt and is made up of two HSTs and two 4Patches. Each 4P has four scrappy squares~~2 light and 2 dark, but all scrappy.

  




Block used for Quilt #1

 

Block used for Quilt #2

This other one was used for the larger quilt and the only difference is Each 4P has 2 scrappy squares and 2 white squares.  Both blocks have light and dark blue triangles making up the HSTs. Those white squares really tone down the blue peaks.  While the second quilt is still very nice and I like it, I really love the boldness of the blue peaks in the first one.  I'm wondering if I had reversed the white to make it snuggle into the corners next to the blue, would I like it better?  Might just have to try that next time.....only on a smaller quilt. Somebody's just gonna have to have a baby boy. Can anyone say "Grandson"?

Hard to believe this quilt is made by only this one block repeated over and over an a half turn when you pit them together. The artist is very skilled at designing user friendly quilts.
It is a Bonnie K Hunter pattern you can see if you click here and then scroll down a bit.

I BELIEVE

CLICK ON THIS I BELIEVE

NOT AS RETIRED AS I THOUGHT

I took my retirement this past fall since the government says I am old enough.  I'm not sure how retired I am but this article that was posted on one of the groups I visit helps put it in perspective. It was anonymous so thanks to whoever wrote it.

Written by a third grader, on what his grandparents do.

After Christmas, a teacher asked her young pupils how they spent their holiday away from school. One child wrote the following:

We always used to spend the holidays with Grandma and Grandpa. They used to live in a big brick house, but Grandpa got retarded and they moved to Arizona . Now they live in a tin box and have rocks painted green to look like grass. They ride around on their bicycles, and wear name tags, because they don't know who they are anymore.. They go to a building called a wreck centre, but they must have got it fixed because it is all okay now, they do exercises there, but they don't do them very well. There is a swimming pool too, but they all jump up and down in it with hats on. At their gate, there is a doll house with a little old man sitting in it. He watches all day so nobody can escape. Sometimes they sneak out, and go cruising in their golf carts. Nobody there cooks, they just eat out. And, they eat the same thing every night - early birds. Some of the people can't get out past the man in the doll house. The ones who do get out, bring food back to the wrecked centre for pot luck. My Grandma says that Grandpa worked all his life to earn his retardment and, says I should work hard so I can be retarded someday too. When I earn my retardment, I want to be the man in the doll house. Then I will let people out, so they can visit their grandchildren.

THIS IS WHAT I DID TODAY

I did this today. It is huge. I'm tired. I'm vegging with the Brits the rest of the evening. Have a good one.

GRITTING MY TEETH

I've had the the PBS Gardening programs on this morning as I put the top of this huge quilt together. More later on that but I've just had to grit my teeth every time this program promo comes on.  Grrrrrr!!! It has run with every program break I do believe and the lady announcer comes on with something about needing money in Kansas and not having enough of it.  When are the talking heads gonna figure out that money is just paper....paper is generated by people. The solution is not in money...the solution is in people! Educating and promoting people.  When they, whoever "they" is stop promoting money and start promoting people, money will no longer be a problem.  It seems simple to me...why do they make it so hard?  Climbing down from my soap box and going back to the sewing machine.  But hey,  reeeahley!  Whew I feel better.

SIGNS OF SPRING 2011

 All things are looking good this year for an early coming of spring.  The groundhog says so, the TV guy reports it is just around the corner, yesterday it was 76 degrees and gorgeohsus!  AND whoo hoo! my dear Hubby just came into have me check out the first robins in our yard.  When I went to the window they were hopping around the car...probably foraging the crumbs that fell from my lap as I got out after my trip through the Wendy's drivethrough!  (Yes. I buy an extra FF and eat them hot on the way home...yeah right, try to convince me you don't do that, too.)  I ran for my camera and stealthily tried to open the door without scaring the one who was perched right on the corner peak of the shop's roof...what a great picture that will be but alas, off he flew at the sound of the opening door.  As I turned away, disappointed, I saw his partner on the highwire and was able to snap this picture.    Does she look full of eggs to you?  Pretty blue eggs all dressed up as for Easter.  This is always what is a sure sign for me that spring is sprung!  Get out the nursery catalogs, sharpen up the hoe, find my garden gloves and get out the neck pack and Ben Gay...albiet very early this year....it's garden time!

THAT'S A BIG BOWL!

This is the bowl I use to make caramel or cinnamon corn usually around the holidays. It is a big bowl. Notice it is resting in our big recliner...it is hard to find a place for it to stay when not in use. However I found that it fits nicely on top of a fabric tub under my cutting table and is a great place to throw my strings.

Today these strings are taking a road trip. I'm taking them to my sewing class and teaching the girls to do string blocks. I think we should be able to get enough strings done today to put together a quilt to donate to the Food bank to raffle off for funds for food. We're going to use solid red strips in the center to make the design. If we get enough blocks finished for front and back I may quilt as I go with red sashing between, mainly just because I've been wanting to try that technique. Stay tuned....

THE GROUNDHOG WAS RIGHT

I heard from a guy at our local television station and he said they have proof that the groundhog was right and spring is just around the corner.....scroll down for the proof.....






......this is so wonderful.....I'm glad we finally have proof....



......I'm so tired of winter...aren't you?...Here comes proof that spring is just around the corner




.

WHAT A GOOD IDEA FOR A GIVEAWAY

Sometimes I come across something and go "Now why didn't I think of that?" This is one of those times.  I just think this is such a fun and smart thing to do.  It's a Traveling Stash giveaway. You can read about and enter HERE . If you win the giveaway you recieve a box of goodies, take out what you want, refill it with items from your stash, have a giveaway on your blog and pass it to your winner.  Isn't that just clever!?!

I hope I win so I can have a giveaway of the Traveling Stash too.

GREEN STRINGS

Just finished binding up my fourth UFO finish of the year.  This one is one of my favorites to do. I love sewing string quilts, love using up scraps and love the finished project. This one is going on my bed so I decided I would try backing it with a favorite piece of cotton knit fabric I had.  I was cautious that it would slip and slide all over but perhaps the static electricity created from the heaters running non stop all week helped hold it together.  It stayed right it place and was very easy to navigate around my DSM. And at the end, there were no tucks, wrinkles or bunches on the back side so I was very pleased. 

And the back:

 

Off to watch the PBS quilt shows....

Cheri

BEAUTY ON A BLUE RIDGE

This post is about a UFO finish! Yahoo!!! I started my Blue Ridge Beauty from  Bonnie K Hunter over at Quiltville as a leader/ender project and when I had enough of the 4Ps I started in on the HSTs. Though this looks really complicated, it is really only those two blocks...light/dark 4 patches and light/dark half square triangles...lots of them! Heh, heh! 

It was so much fun to have it grow on the design wall.  Every time Hubby would go by he would give a comment that encouraged me to continue. It just turned out so well.  I want to encourage you to start one.  It is so worth it and comes together as you are doing other projects because the blocks are leader/enders.

This will wing it's way to my granddaughter for her 18th birthday which is also Valentine's Day. Can you believe it is done with plenty of time to ship? That is almost as good a feeling as the finish itself.  I was pin-basting the sandwich when a friend dropped by and he commissioned me to make him one.  I think that is just awesome.  He compared it to some he had seen in the Ozarks. Oh wow, that made my heart soar! (You can click on any pic to see it larger.)

I quilt on a designated domestic sewing machine. I am really enjoying learning how to free motion quilt.  Mostly I have done meandering.  I would say medium loops not too dense.  I struggled for awhile with no extension table. Then one day as I was adding to the yard sale pile I saw this computer part. It is actually a thingy that you place under your monitor to raise the monitor to more eye level. Since I don't have a desktop computer any longer it was added to the sale.

This re-assigning of objects is one reason I have such a big yard sale pile, but that's another post entirely, probably entitled "Am I a Hoarder?"

This particular object became just the perfect height when I set it on top of the yellow spacer board (also re-assigned) you see it the picture. My new extension table is wide and deep and smooth enough to allow the quilt to rest on and still move freely. The extra surface really helps with manuevering.  It also has this pull out tray that works great for pins and thread and has cool slots in the front of it that are perfect for bobbins. Sometimes I just get lucky blessed.

I added a lamp to put more direct light on the subject.  Oh yes and please notice my fancy quilting gloves. Ha! Ha! Ha!  I had a new pair of rubber cleaning gloves and tried them for awhile. Since they made my hands really sweaty, I cut a couple of half inch slots and that helped until I was pulling them off to change a bobbin and one tore in half at the slot. Sweaty hand also tend to be sticky. However being the "make-do" gal that I am, I found they work great just as fingers and no air conditioning slots required. 

Drug a dining room chair in to hold up the bulk of the quilt to prevent drag and I was set up to GO! Got her finished too!  Here she is:

Have I ever mentioned....

 I LOVE MY LIFE!

MORE USER FRIENDLY

Now this looks better doesn't it?