ALS ASSOCIATION

I emailed the ALS Association and requested permission to put the image of their stamp, and the calendar that they sell on their site on my blog, and they were kind enough to give it to me. I just wanted to post the information that they have about the artist, Peggy Chun, on their site:

"This beautiful calendar chronicles the vivid work of artist Peggy Chun, whose painting methods have evolved during the past several years since she was diagnosed with ALS in 2002. Peggy began painting with her right hand, then she switched to using her left hand. When Peggy could no longer use her hands, she began painting with her teeth. Eventually, she lost the use of her teeth, and began using an eye response computer system. She then lost the ability to use an eye response computer system, and now uses her nose with the help of an assistant to create her unique paintings."

http://alsaestore.compet.com/product.asp?product_id=272

Orange Crush Step 4 and Moment of Insanity

After all the work, I finally have a block. I am including steps 1 and 2 of the CC in that work. Only 100 more triangle sets to sew together, and 29 more blocks to piece, and I will be done with step 4 of the OC. I can see I need to mix things up a bit more, but I was so excited to put a block together that I guess I didn't really look that hard. As careful as I tried to be, I had to do a little ripping. I had my red where the black should be, and my black where the red should be. Luckily, I only had to undo 3 little seams. As usual, my angle is bad. I don't have a design wall, but I'm thinking that I will make myself a small flannel board so I can at least put up a block or two.

Now for the moment of insanity. I don't need a machine. I have my 18 year old Bernina, and my Janome Jem, and even a little blue Sears machine that I bought for an uninterested granddaughter. So why when I saw conversations about featherweights did I look on Ebay, just out of curiousity? I don't know, but when I did, I got the impulse to put in a bid, and then another bid and another. Finally, I reached my absolute limit, and was waiting in anticipation, half hoping to win, and half hoping to lose. As you have probably surmised, the win half won. I had always liked them, even before I knew what they were. I used to sew with my friend in Massachusetts about 35 years ago, and she had a cute little black machine. I'm not positive, but I would bet that it was a featherweight, and as you can see, it stuck in my mind. Then when I started quilting and learned what they were, I wished that I had one, mostly because they are so cute. According to the information, it is in good condition and works. I am hoping to study up, and get it in really good condition, but I also am wanting just to display it in my sewing room. Again, it's so cute.

Orange Crush - Step 3

A more subdued - Yeah me. Step 3 is done, and it was a snap after steps 1 and 2. The fabric they are laying on is my yardage for step 4. Thanks to Bonnie's needing another week, I think that I will finally catch up. I may even have time to work on step 3 of my CC. I think that on my scrappies many of my lights are too dark, and many of my darks are too light, so I am hoping that the pattern will show up correctly. I am anxious to see how mine and everybody elses OC's turn out. I am just trusting Bonnie, and all the beautiful quilts on her site. I tried to copy her colors, but I can see from the picture that my black shows up more as a gray, so I guess I'll have to wait and see. I'm hoping the blue and the orange (yeah, Gators) (that was for my brother) give it pizazz.

Mother's Collage

I have spent my morning looking through pictures to try to organize a collage for my mother's graveside service next month. I have requested input from my daughter and my niece and my brother since you can have a maximum of 30 photos, but if I don't hear anything back, this will be it. It will be 20 x 30, and I am going to look for a poster frame for it. I thought this would be better than a poster with individual pictures, as I don't know what the weather will be.
It seems odd to say you are looking forward to a memorial service, but I am.


It will be nice to be with everyone, and it will be nice to honor my mother's memory. Also, I haven't been more than about 50 miles from home for almost two years. My Mother was pretty, wasn't she.

Go Doodles N Quilt - Giveaway

Erin at Go Doodles N Quilt is giving away this adorable doll to celebrate her new website HanniesAnnies. Take a look, the blog and the website are excellent. I hope I win.

Orange Crush Step 2 - Finally

Finally, my step 2's are finished. I did 50 last night, and 73 this morning. It is amazing how much faster it goes when you actually work on it, instead of thinking about working on it. I am tempted to skip step 3, and go on to step 4, but I am fighting the temptation, as it goes against my sense of order. It is silly, but that's how I am. Hopefully, I can skip all (or at least most) of the whining and thinking, and go right to the actual cutting and sewing.

Today has been a fairly nice day. The weather has been beautiful, and after I finished step 2, my DH and I met my daughter and my grandson, and her boyfriend and looked at some model homes. It is tempting, but then it seems to make more sense to stay where we are. My daughter would love to buy a new home, as her house is old and not exactly what she would like to live in as it has a lot of old memories from her marriage, which had a lot of unhappy times. There doesn't seem to be a perfect house, not in our price range anyway, and our house has most of what we want.

After that, we met DD and her boyfriend at an Italian restaurant, as we were all starving, and I had my usual baked ziti. Now we are home, and my husband is watching his Red Sox. After that, we are going to go for a walk. We missed 2 days, and I don't want to get back out of the habit of going. I'd like to take some pictures of beautiful flowers to share on my blog, and living in Florida you would think that they would be all over the place. Unfortunately, it has been so dry that you don't see too many yards with flowers. I'm thinking of cheating, and going to a nursery or some such place, and taking flower pictures.

Light Bulb Went Off

I have been trying to get my sewing room efficient, comfortable and attractive, and since it is fairly small, and it also is my extra bedroom, guest room combination, it has been a challenge.
I had it down pretty much for the sewing part, but was feeling like I wished I could also cut and press in here, too. I have been going into the family room, where I have had my little 2'x4' table set up. Today, I thought, just because I have my sewing cabinet with my Bernina centered on the wall doesn't mean it has to be that way. So I measured, and there was enough room to move
it down and add the little table to that wall. If you notice the second picture,
you can see the wooden blocks to raise the table. My brother made those for me and they are very nice and sturdy.
The waste basket came today. I got it off ebay and think that it is very cute it is a Peterboro basket. I am going to go to Home Depot and get a piece of plywood and cover it for an ironing top that I can just remove to cut. I am thinking of removing the doors from the sewing cabinet in the first picture and leaving the sewing machine up, and perhaps getting some baskets for the other half. I don't use that machine very much due to the inconvenience of getting the machine in and out, when it is so convenient to just sew on my Janome Jem. Does anyone have an opinion of how that would work out? I am hoping to do some quilting on my machine, and that would perhaps just be more convenient.
I had mentioned my brother making the leg extenders for me, and he is also working on a small desk to hold my laptop in my sewing room. It will only be about 20"x30" about like a school room desk. I am just enclosing a couple of pictues of tables he has made. The little end table in the third picture he made for my mother, and the dropleaf table in the last picture he made for me. He makes it from just ugly old boards from scratch. I am very proud of the work he has done. He has only been doing it a couple of years, and taught himself.
We kind of feel a kinship, as both quilting and woodworking if you don't do something like that yourself, you cannot normally imagine what is involved in time and expense. I know he was kind of amazed when our niece wanted him to make her new kitchen cabinets, but it wasn't too much of a surprise to me, as most people have no idea what is involved in a quilt. Even my simple ones are an undertaking, and I can't even imagine what is involved in some of the beautiful, intricate quilts that I see on other blogs and groups.
I have had two lazy days and so nothing much to show for my time, except my little moment of enlightenment when the light bulb went off and I was able to fit my table in my sewing room.

Republic of Tea Canisters

On Meredith's blog Like Merchant Ships she had a guest blogger Michelle from Scribbit today who posted about how she hates to throw away McCann's Irish Oatmeal cans. She had a lovely picture of one with an arrangement of tulips, I believe. There were also fourteen suggestions on what to do with them. I feel the same way about the Republic of Tea canisters. Anyone got any good suggestions for using them? I thought about using them for notions on a shelf, but then my mind kind of goes blank.

Collections and New Camera

My new camera came yesterday afternoon, and I now have it charged, and ready to go. It wasn't as easy as it should have been, as I had to redo the strap about 3 times due to getting it backwards, and not looking at the directions first. I say looking, as there was only a picture nothing written. I am very happy with it so far, but I have to try the macro again, as I wasn't too pleased with that, and that is one of the most important things in my opinion.
On Christine's blog Once upon a Quilt.... the other day, she shared her charming collection of honey pots in addition to some of her quilts, and I enjoyed the whole post so much that I thought I would practice with my new camera on some of my collections. I have been married for almost 44 years, so I have had a while to accumulate. The first is my collection of little glass chicken and bunny salt cellars. I love them, to me they look like little jewels. They were mostly all gifts from my mother, and a few from two of my aunts who were dealers at one time. I have quite a few more around the house in various places, even in my bathroom. They brighten my days. The second is most of my small collection of canning jars, which were my mothers and her mothers. My mother had given them to one of my aunts (one of the glass dealers) and she thought I would like to have them, and gave them back to me.
The last is a large part of my stoneware collection, mostly from Rowe Pottery Works, I love their product, and it is a bit expensive so it has taken me about 20 years to collect what I have. I will share some other collections at another time, I'm sure everyone has had enough for now. I enjoy my collections, even though they are dust catchers, but at this point there is no more room, so the acquisition part is finished, and just the dusting and enjoying part is left.

Mother's Day

This is my mother Norma Cole Howland, who passed away April 10, 2008. She is already missed. This picture was taken when I was a small child.

She was gallant until the end.

Happy Mother's Day. I have lots of good memories.

I hope you all have a wonderful Mother's Day tomorrow.