Rocket Boosters

Who can say what strange things cause a burst of creativity!??  For me, it's been a long dry spell...waiting for something to happen, waiting for that muse of ...something...to break in and set me to work.

I keep inspiring notes on my board...

I have evidence of other people's creativity to spur me on...


Nothing like heroes of the Zombie Apocalypse to generate excitement and fervor (especially if the Xena-like warrior is your own daughter! Go Emily!!! lol)!!

But nothing much has worked until this week.

I took a mad risk.

I've known for a while that I can't function in chaos.  And my Sewing Room/Mary Kay office has been a testimony to a cluttered mind for some time.  Piles of this and that....paperwork and inventory and unfinished projects, and projects that need to be finished because of deadlines and LAST year's deadlines unmet...

No wonder I haven't been sewing!!

This past week, though, I did something I'd been threatening for a while.

I had a YARD SALE!!!

Oh. My. Word!!
Do you know you can clean out stuff? That you can down size? You can rid yourself of clothes unworn and household dust-catchers, and even....dare I say it...FABRIC!?! at a yard sale!?!  And I did!! To the tune of over a $1,000!

I set out on a mission to de-clutter and scale down.  Is it possible to have too much fabric!? For me, the answer is yes.  I couldn't get to the pieces I wanted.  I couldn't see the forest for the trees!! I couldn't pull out pieces to audition because there were already too many pieces out!!

So I got desperate and ruthless, and starting making decisions about what I would keep and what could go.   That fabulous Jan Patek block-of-the-month.  There are other applique projects that I want more, so it hit the sale table.  UFO's that I'd lost interest in, or had started in a class only to push it to the back of the closet.  Yards and yards of "It's so pretty I can't resist it!" fabric filled laundry baskets. Neutrals, prints, Moda, RJR, even my precious Thimbleberries....pared down to manageable amounts.

That Orca Bay Bonnie Hunter mystery that I was sure I wouldn't be finishing...suddenly, with some of the clutter removed, I could put pieces on the design wall...

Could it...?

Would it work....?

Oh. My. Word!!!
It's a quilt top!!  A sorta Bonnie Hunter meets Jo Morton little quilt top!! And I'm as giddy as a schoolgirl!! I'm a quilter again!!!  Who knew!!?!?

One of my favorite passages of scripture is from Hebrews 12:1.  The Amplified version says it this way:

"Therefore then, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses [who have borne testimony to the Truth], let us strip off and throw aside every encumbrance (unnecessary weight) and that sin which so readily (deftly and cleverly) clings to and entangles us, and let us run with patient endurance and steady and active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1 AMP)

Entangled is a good word.  And I have to laugh about stripping off the encumbrance.  All day at the yard sale I wore a quilt t-shirt that said, "Eleanor Burns made a stripper outta me!"

How it matters that we throw aside the things that are keeping us from becoming all God created us to be!! 

I keep visualizing the Space Shuttle...with the pieces falling off, boosters shooting the spacecraft into orbit....Beautiful!!  What unnecessary weight do you need to throw off!?

This is my year. My jubilee! Mary Kay said, "If you simplify, you will simply fly!"  Pounds (20 so far!), and clutter and yes, even beautiful things that cannot be appreciated for the sheer bulk of them.  It's time to be boosted to the stars!!  Time to be ALL that God desires me to be!

Blessings!!

Vanity, thy name is....

My Mary Kay adventure has been so good!! When I started this new career back in October, I wasn't sure where it would lead.  It was just months after Sam passed away, and all I knew was that MK would give me a platform to bless people. 

Quilting does that (and I always receive sooo much more than I give!), and now MK gives me even more people to know and love.  Weird combo, huh?!  Quilting and Mary Kay??!!  Imagine my great surprise when our make-up artist Lori Hogg trained us in "color correction" -- how the color wheel helps determine what we can use to conceal skin discolorations and blemishes...COOL!! I know color wheel stuff!!!!!

I have qualified for the "Court of Sales" -- a major accomplishment for this newbie and totally NOT possible without the fabulous people who buy from me and (can you believe it!?! LOL) trust me when I talk about make-up.  This plain-jane homeschool mom has enjoyed the unlikely transformation to "glamour guru."  LOL

But it's not without some serious pitfalls!! The business!? GREAT! MK is a fabulous product. The recognition...?  Well, I thought I wanted it....

Enter Exhibit A...

Black Sequined Dress.

The Court of Sales includes a Royalty Reception complete with formal attire, an appearance on stage at our convention (Seminar in  Dallas!!), and if I'm #1 in my national area (I'm currently #2) or my Division (I'm currently #18), a speech.  That's been my motivation.  To talk about a life well lived.  To talk about making a difference.  To talk about Sam.  LOVE! LOVE!!

Problem? 
Um....
The dress is a size (or so! :-(  too SMALL.

Vanity, thy name is IDIOT!!! LOL
So I'm working out.  Walking 3+ miles every day. Step Aerobics three times a week.  Weight Watchers.  I have 7 weeks.

Aren't there better ways to spend my time!?!?!  Perhaps a little machine quilting?

I'm still very much a novice on my home machine.  But I'm enjoying the process.  This "little Jo" -- a Jo Morton pattern (can't remember the name) from her club -- is a veritable eye feast of her fabrics and colors. 

The original was square...I got so wrapped up in those quarter-square-triangles that I ended up with a rectangular quilt.  Can't wait to put on the binding!!

I'll be binding another quilt before long.  Judi Madsen at Green Fairy Quilts emailed today that she hoped to finish Sam's Darlin' Hearts very soon.  Be watching her blog for pics!!

I worry that I won't fit into my dress.  That my hard work will be for nothing!! :-)  In quilting there is always a payoff.  Same with a walk with God!!

The apostle Paul writes in 1 Corinthians 15: 57-58, "But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain."

Isn't that a great promise!?  I like knowing that what I invest with Christ is not vanity. 

Unlike the fiasco my black-sequin-dress may prove to be! LOL! :-D  And in case I get discouraged, I need to remember how to weigh....

 Blessings!!





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Memory Eye Candy

The weekend is coming! The weekend is coming!! :-)
And it's gonna be a good one!!
I've gotten several things done this week, and I'm as pleased as punch about it! Nothing like actually finishing something (I am, after all, Queen Starts-a-lot) to make me feel that I'm not THE most useless person on the planet right now!

AND! I'm getting company! My friend Jennifer and her boys are coming up for a special Memorial Run for my Sam...more about that in a minute....

Look what I've done!! :-D
This is a "Little Jo" pattern from Jo Morton. I've had it pieced for a while, and finally machine quilted it on my Bernina.  I used the walking foot on the 4-patches, and did some free-motion "L's" and "U's" in the sashing strips and some curly waves in the borders.  I used matching thread, of course! So you can't see my blunders, but I'm thrilled with the finish!


I also managed to complete two t-shirt quilts I had in the works for a friend.  One is bound (yippee!) and the other is at the quilter.









They are for members of the same family, so they are similar, but uniquely their own with their memories represented in those wonderful t-shirts.  The mom asked for quotations on her son's quilt.  It was fun figuring out how to do the letters, and they turned out really cool....

So much so that I used them on Jennifer's quilt -- which is actually finished in time for her visit here this weekend!!  I've called the quilt "The Best of Times" -- and it is representative of the many places we went and memories our families made together.  I wanted the quilt to be a kind of scrap book of our time together.

A dear friend of mine, Mary Greene, made a scrap book for me of Sam...She is such an artist!! Look at some of the pages she created:

The rest of the album is just as beautiful, like memory eye-candy!  My quilt doesn't approach Mary's kind of artistry, but at least it brings to mind many of our adventures together.  We'll reminisce while they are here.

Also this weekend, Cumberland Homeschool Athletic Teams (CHAT :-) is hosting the Sam Casada Trail Blazer Memorial Run.  This is the organization through which Sam and Jennifer's boys got to compete in cross country and basketball.  Jennifer and her boys are coming up to participate in the run and spend some time with us.

A local girl drew a likeness of Sam for the run's t-shirt.

It's gonna be a great weekend!

The book of Proverbs tells us that "The memory of the righteous will be a blessing, but the name of the wicked will rot."  (Proverbs 10:7 NIV)
Love it!!

At the end of the story of Esther, that brave queen who intervened for her people in the Old Testament, the writer admonishes us, "These days should be remembered and observed in every generation, by every family..." (Esther 9:28 NIV)

How are you making memory eye candy?  Will your memory be a blessing?

Blessings!

Hearts and Sparrows and a UFO or two

July is passing too quickly!

I'm hoping to put the Heart blocks together along with completing this month's UFO's for Judy's UFO Challenge. My #2's are the top of the Victory Quilt (for which I have all the blocks done!), and quilting for Somerset (a Jo Morton pattern).

I've decided to name the Heart quilt, "Sam's Darlin' Hearts." :-)  Mostly because all the blocks are sweet and because they make me cry like Charlene Darlin' on Andy Griffith! :-D

The latest addition to the collection of blocks in memory of Sam comes from Barb at Fun with Barb.

Somerset (I "tweaked" Jo's pattern
by putting the blocks on point)

Barb pieced the background of her block from scraps of her Mother's Garden quilt.  She designed the beautiful memory quilt, completed the top last year, and she is hand quilting it.  It's a stunning tribute to her mom, and you can read about it here: Good Mourning. 

Her card said, "...I have only scraps left over from my 'Mother's Garden' quilt and very much wanted to use it for you.  I have one of my sparrows flying in with a double dose of Friendship and Love."

Quilt-in-a-Day's Victory Quilt blocks

The sparrow....well, that's another beautiful story.  Barb wrote about it in  The Sparrow Story and you'll be blessed as I was to note it's symbolism. 

I had to look up the lyrics to the song by Simon and Garfunkel that Barb referenced (it'd been a long, long time since I'd heard it!).  The last verse says this....

Who will love a little Sparrow?

Will no one write her eulogy?

"I will," said the Earth,

"For all I've created returns unto me,

From dust were ye made and dust ye shall be."

The little sparrow is a perfect addition to the quilt!

I've started planning the setting for the blocks...

I'm gonna use Sam's favorite blue to frame the lighter blocks, and a creamy delicate floral to frame the darker ones.  I've not arranged them yet in their final layout (there are a couple of blocks still coming, I think!), but I love shifting them around, standing back and listening as they sing to me. 

They are an orchestra of color, and the sum total of them more amazing than any single block.  And each has a story or a card or an encouraging word to go with it.  I'm making a page to tell their story (see above, Sam's Quilts) and the story of the quilts that will be made in his memory.

Barb references Psalm 84 --
³ Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself, where she may have her young— a place near your altar, O LORD Almighty, my King and my God.  ⁴ Blessed are those who dwell in your house; they are ever praising you.

She couldn't know that one of my "life verses" is Psalm 84:11:  For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD will give grace and glory;  no good thing will He withhold  from those who walk uprightly. 

Coincidence? Maybe, but I prefer to think that even in these little details God is being Himself and watching out for His little sparrows!

I think God is all about the details...

See what He says (another passage with sparrows...):

Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows. Matthew 10: 29-31

You are more precious than many sparrows!!!   Don't that'n just make you wanna cry!!??  :-)

Blessings!

Finishing School!

I've decided that Judy at Patchwork Times is my "Finishing Governess."  Back in the mother country (that would be merry old England), and back in the day (regency era, when men were rakes and women sat in drawing rooms and embroidered....sigh), a finishing governess would be employed the year before a girl's "come out" to polish her for presentation.

So I've got several projects that need finishing! And Judy's UFO Challenge is just the schoolmaster I need (at least I HOPE! :-D).

In addition to the Quilt Tops I listed here, I also want to complete the quilting on some tops that have piled up for way too long.  I'd planned to learn to use my Hobby Quilter in 2010, but never got to it.  So I want to rectify that neglect this year.  I also want to get back into hand quilting, which I love.  Here's what I want to finish up:

Quilts to Finish Completely (quilted/bound) in 2011:

1. Mountain Laurel Sampler (hand quilted)
2. Somerset (Jo Morton - machine)
3. Baby Rose (Jo Morton - machine)
4. Pick Up Sticks (Jo Morton - machine)
5. Razzle Dazzle (machine)
6. Thimbleberries Take 5 (machine)
7. Ocean Waves (hand quilted)
8. Christmas Friendship Star (machine)
9. Batik Stars (machine)
10. Ribbons (machine)
11. 5-Stripe Thimbleberries (machine)
12. 4-Patch Strippy (Jo Morton - machine) 

All the challenges in Blogdom won't help me finish, though (notwithstanding Judy's valient efforts! :-), unless I am determined and persistent!

In Scripture, James had some thoughts about that...

He said, "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." (James 1:2-4)  I like how the Amplified version expounds on verse 4:  "Let endurance and steadfastness and patience have full play and do a thorough work..."

I think I'm ready to let them have full play!! -- as long as they play nicely with the other projects waiting in the wings! :-D -- so that in the end, they may be "perfect and entire" (KJV).

Would that all areas of my life would be so surrended, that the trials that come and test my faith would find ME perfect and entire!  Let it be so, Lord Jesus.

Blessings!

P.S.  In keeping with my desire for accountability, I've added two pages above. One will document my UFO Challenge progress, the other my weight loss/fitness progress. :-) I'd also like to include one for my other 2011 Resolution for a daily quiet time, but I'm not sure how to chronicle that yet.  I'll think more on it and see what works! :-)  Pop over and take a look!  Blessings!

Fall Colors For People Who Don't Do Anything

Jeff asked me to send him photos of the house and what not.  He's got alot of rocks and sand around him in Afghanistan, and I'm thinking he asked for photos because the colors of fall might be particularly pleasing to see.  So I sent him the spectacular tree color from our yard.  No...not the trees in the background that are a quarter mile away....our yard:

Yeah, buddy.  It's a virtual kaleidoscope of brilliant color from the side of our home.  We are the envy of every house around us.  We are the epitome of stunning autumnal resplendence.  (It's a Thanksgiving miracle!)   LOL
Wait 'til you see the front yard:

We planted a lovely hemlock there before Jeff was deployed.  After the fourth time the wind blew it over last March, we staked it down.  I can't imagine why it didn't last through the summer.  It's as if it were never there....

We have some lovely mums.  It's a good thing they are perennial...Lord knows my not-so-green thumb would have done them in weeks ago if not!

They need a little...weeding? perhaps.  Pruning? Cleaning up? (Do you deadhead mums?)  Of course, I'd have to leave the sewing room to do that.  There just SOOO many hours in the day!! If I were going to leave my sewing room, don't you think I would sweep and dust!?!?

And, like any good homeschooling mom would do, I assigned the children to do animal husbandry -- meaning, it's Sam's and Will's jobs to keep the chickens and bees alive until Jeff returns from overseas. (They are his hobby; quilting is mine, thank you very much.  Do I ask him to watch my fabric when I'm gone!?! Nooooooooooooooooo.)

So far, so good!

Bucky, the rooster, is some of the best fall color we have! And, the bees are still buzzing, so I'm optimistic.

Lest you think I never DO anything...there is some lovely fall color INSIDE the house. :-D

After Mary at Quilt Hollow posted about her beautiful little quilt by Lori Smith using Jo Morton fabrics, it reminded me of the little quilts I have (long had!) in my "to be quilted" pile. They are "Little Jo's" -- designed by Jo Morton and using her fabrics (I tweaked a couple of them because I got carried away and cannot leave --hehe, get it, leave ...!?-- well enough alone).

Now there's some fall color to love! They may actually be quilted some day....assuming I can find the time in the lazy days of fall.  (....at this point, I'm thinking the bees have a better prognosis!)

Good thing the Lord is a little  more reliable than I! :-)  The Psalmist writes:

Your love, O LORD, reaches to the heavens, your faithfulness to the skies. Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the great deep. O LORD, you preserve both man and beast. How priceless is your unfailing love! Both high and low among men find refuge in the shadow of your wings. They feast on the abundance of your house; you give them drink from your river of delights. For with you is the fountain of life; in your light we see light.  (Psalm 36:5-9)
 

He preserves "both man and beast" -- bees and chickens, and my Jeff in a foreign land.  I don't have to do anything!

 

 

Except maybe send a photo or two to show everything's OK at home (right after I deadhead the mums!).

Blessings!