Friday, December 16, 2011

Photos to start the day

This is what I just saw as I opened the door to let our dog, Georgie, outside.

We get some gorgeous sunrises here. One just has to be up early enough to see them. My problem is not being awake and up. It is making the effort to look outside and see the beauty that greets the day. So many times we get so caught up in the busyness of our life that we forget to take the time to enjoy God's majesty. It is displayed in everything around us. We just need to be aware of it.

I have photos of another project that I finished up. It is a vintage cutwork tablecloth that I found at a local antique shop that I layered over top of some beautiful varigated peach fabric and quilted. It measures about 43" square.

Here is a detail photo of the quilting.

And another.

I hope that you have a wonderful day. Let the Son of Righteousness shine in your heart just like the sun rise shines every morning to signal a new day to honor Him.

Be kind and grateful today.

Thursday, December 15, 2011

Photos of projects

I was cleaning up my email account and found some photos that I never completed downloading of some projects that I finished up so I thought that I would share them today.
The first photo is of an Oriental piece that I converged 2 preprinted Oriental scenes into one piece. One of the panels was a beautiful panel that had cranes and flowers on and the other panel was an outline drawing of a geisha girl with fans. There is a series of 4 of these geisha girls portraying the 4 seasons. This one happens to be doing a dance with fans. I have all 4 panels and plan on doing a series of these.
Here is the photo and then I will explain how I did it.

I cut both panels apart in vertical strips. The strips are of gradating sizes. It is important not to cut through her face so careful planning has to be done to avoid ill placed cuts. The pieces are then sewn together alternating between the 2 panels in order to recreate the scene on the panels. I also wanted to add color the geisha girl panel since she was a black a cream line drawing. I used Shiva paint sticks to add color to her fans and headpiece and I used permanent ink markers to add the color on the band portion of her kimono. The rest of the color is added with the thread work as I quilted the piece. The concept was to have the colors from the floral panel to flow into the geisha girl panel.

Here is a detail of the quilting.

You can see the color that the quilting added to her costume. I used the same color thread in the background area so that you would see the texture but not detract color wise with the girl and her kimono.

Here is a detail photo of some of the background quilting that I did in the background of the floral pieces.

I love how this turned out and I have the other 3 quilt tops ready to start quilting that utilize the same technique. I would like to get them all done and enter them as a set into some of the quilt shows this year. I will have to work hard to get it done but it will be so worth it. I love working with these types of panels and creating something wonderful with them. I hope you have enjoyed how I made these and I also hope that it inspires you to try something similar.

Have a great day, remember to be grateful for something small today and do some kind act of generosity toward your fellow mankind.

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

Christmas decoration photos

Yesterday was quite a busy day but I was able to get the living room presentable for photos of the decorations. Here is the Christmas tree.

I was surprised that I couldn't find any tree lights at Wal-Mart. I ended up getting them at Big Lots.
I also got two sets of sparkly ornaments. I tried to stay with a red, white and gold color theme to the tree but I added pretty much all the ornaments that were glass regardless of color.

Here is the table scape on the entertainment buffet.

I used a gold wreath for a base, set my mom's punch bowl inside the wreath and filled it with red and white ornaments. I also tucked a birds nest into the front of the wreath and placed a bird ornament in front of the nest.

The kitchen buffet got a simpler arrangement of candles and Hallmark animated characters.

I still have to get downstairs and clean out the storage closet and then put all the boxes away. That will be my morning project and then I will work on putting 2 small bookcases together for my brother Bill. He needs extra storage in his apartment.

Today looks like a good day to finish up lots of little ends to projects. I have lots to get done before Christmas arrives. Lots to do indeed.

Have a great day and find one thing to be grateful for and one kindness to do for someone else.

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Mishmash of stuff

I got the tree decorated yesterday. The wreath is on the door and the decorations are in place except for some minor tweaking. I have not got the boxes put away yet though. I ran out of time and energy yesterday to do that.

I had been in the mood for some good homemade Tomato-Basil Soup, so I made that yesterday afternoon and had that along with a smoked gouda and havarti toasted cheese sandwich. It was so good.

Today is Prime Timers Christmas party/meal at the church. We are having a white elephant gift exchange. I haven't even gotten my gift ready. Mentally I am just not making the needed connections. I have got to get my act together.

After Prime Timers I have to run over to Domestic Sewing Center and pick up my sewing machine. It was sent back to the company for repairs since it was still under warranty. It will be interesting to see what they said was wrong with it, it wouldn't zigzag. I will also take my spare machine over and have them check it out. I think the foot pedal is going bad on it but it also needs a good cleaning so I might as well leave it when I pick up the other one. It is a long trip but since they don't charge a service fee on machines bought there it makes it worth it and they are so friendly. If I have enough energy I might check out Target while I am over there. So I will be running around a lot today.

Well, today's post is rather short but I have a lot to do before going out for the day so I need to get going. I will post photos tomorrow of the Christmas decorations.

Have a great day and remember to be thankful for something today and do something kind for someone else too.

Monday, December 12, 2011

Getting on board with Christmas

Last week was a very low energy week and I feel that I didn't get a whole lot done so I now feel the pressure to get a lot done this week in preparation for Christmas. I started to decorate yesterday but got derailed because I need to get some new Christmas lights for the tree. I have 3 strings but 2 of them only half of the lights work. I am sure that I have more lights somewhere probably in the attic which I am not going to try to navigate. So this morning I am going to run into town and pick up some lights. I will also go get a pattern from a friend on making star ornaments. So there might be a post on these cute ornaments in the future.

So my projects for today are,
1. get lights for the tree
2. get the pattern
3. decorate the tree
4. get rest of the decorations placed
5. clean out the storage room where the decorations reside
6. put all the boxes back in storage room once done with them
7. vacuum and clean up the living room once everything is decorated.

In the meantime I will give you a sneak peak of what chaos the living room is in during the decorating process.

There is the tree that I can't go any further with until I get the lights on it.
Getting through that maze is a challenge. Soon it will be passable again. (I hope.)

I need to come up with a really nice display/centerpiece for the buffet.

That should be enough for today and tomorrow I should have photos of the tree and decorations for you.

Have a great day. Hope everything is beautiful for you today but remember that it might get ugly and disfunctional for a while before it falls into place and becomes beautiful and functional. Be grateful for life today and do something nice for someone else.