Thoughts on Laughter and Gratitude -and me being silly

Be grateful for the things you use every day but would feel "lost" without. Simple but necessary things - like food, water, heating in this cold weather.

Remember to find something to celebrate every day. Look for humor, look for joy, look for a chance to laugh at yourself. Yes, I am serious. If you can laugh at yourself, the world seems less daunting. It makes you resilient against negative events.

So consider yourself, your attitudes, the things you do from outside yourself and see how funny you really are. Then don't get upset, LAUGH about it. Take yourself less seriously. You will live a longer and happier life.

I am hoping that the video below works. It is me playing autoharp and singing a totally silly song.  I heard the song in a virtual autoharp group and knew I needed to learn it. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative and keep laughing!

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

For the Season

Merry Christmas to all of you who celebrate this event.  I do normally.  This year will be much quieter.  But Mom and I will celebrate anyway.  I have made some sugar-free peanut butter fudge that we will enjoy.  Tomorrow morning I will make a dessert that I call "Peach Pudding."  It is like a Southern Banana Pudding - but with canned peaches replacing the bananas - since I can not eat bananas. 

I have a few more small surprises in store for her - they are based on personal family memories. 

Here is a painting that I did several years back in a class.  We each painted one and then had it printed on cards to send as Christmas cards.  I no longer mail out cards. So here is my card to you. 

I wish for Peace and Joy to you.

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Pieces and More

Here are the pieces - the pieces for what I think are the last three blocks to make for this quilt.

Those blocks will go into some fun giant four patches on the way to becoming quilt panels. 

Here are the five blocks that will go with those three.  Just ignore the stained, well-used ironing surface. 

Here are all the larger pieces that I have put on the bed.  I keep doing this to be sure that I make the panels correctly and get the layout as planned. 

I have to say that I think this quilt will make me very happy in spite of the small imperfections. But I will not point those out to you.  Ha ha. 

What I will point out to you is this one piece of my hand-dyed fabric that I think is just amazing.  That is one of the joys of the way I dye fabric.  You never know exactly what will happen, but more often than not you get some lovely pieces to play with.   Just feast your eyes on this one. 

I hope you know that I am talking about that upper right square.  The yellow streaking into the fuschia while still maintaining a purity of yellow and yet also blending on the edges  just brings me joy.  And those white places where the fabric resisted the dye add a lovely surprise.  That entire piece makes me smile - so of course  I put it in this quilt that I intend to keep for my bed. 

I don't know if I will be posting again this year but just in case I don't I want to wish you a glorious holiday season, whatever you celebrate.   Merry Christmas, Happy Chanukah,  Happy ___Whatever___.  I am glad you are here. 

 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Half Square Triangles for the Pieced Blocks

The quilt I am making uses a lot of HSTs (half-square triangles.)  There are lots of ways of making these units.  When I started on this quilt, I used a paper foundation called Thangles as I had some in my stash that were the right size.

But this time, I decided to use a ruler and cut them before sewing them. I have The Left-Eze ruler designed by "A Left-Handed Quilter."  - I am not left-handed, but I tested the ruler as a "right handed tester."  So you will see some special stickers on my ruler as an Honorary Leftie.

What I did was take the two 2 1/2"  strips and layer them and iron them together.  There is nothing to hold them, but I find that it helps me to keep them neatly stacked during cutting. Then I put them on the cutting board and use the handy Left-Eze ruler to cut them. They come out layered and ready to sew. 

I confess that sometimes I do cut with my left hand. I am somewhat ambidextrous - but it is limited. 

Once they are sewn there is only one "dog-ear" to cut off.  I cut them before I press the unit open. 

Once they are pressed open they are ready to go into the pieced blocks that look like this:

I find doing the HST units this way to be as easy and maybe a bit faster than using some other methods.  

I have a few more pieced blocks to make before I finish constructing the sections of the quilt. As you may know I am quilting this one in sections and joining them to make a nice big quilt for my bed. But I am taking it slowly and enjoying the process.  

I think I have joined the "slow quilting" movement - at least for a while.  Oh yes,  I have also started another warm fuzzy piece on the loom that I plan to use to make a "house jacket" that I can wear on cold days to avoid turning up the heat. 

Thanks for stopping by. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

In Bits and Spurts

That is the way the quilt is made.  There are so many things that happen during a week that I can't just sit and sew.  So, the quilt is made in bits and spurts.  But there is no real deadline so it doesn't matter.  Between all the other things I have been doing this is how the quilt has progressed.  

There are two sections ready to be layered and quilted. 

There is one piece of fabric that is not actually hand-dyed - instead it is hand painted. 

The blue with mingled pink and yellow was painted using a technique I learned in the book "Sky Dyes"  by Mickey Lawler.   I love that piece and wanted to have it in a bed quilt so I can see it often. 

This photo shows the already quilted piece at the bottom with the other two pieces in place.  I put this sideways on the bed so that less was hanging off the sides.  The quilt will be more or less square - so it will hang off the sides and foot of my queen-size bed.

Meanwhile,  I realized that I need to make ten - yes TEN- more of the pieced blocks to have enough to finish the quilt.  Fortunately, I have plenty of fabric left.   When the next bit of time and spurt of energy comes along, I will work on those blocks. (unless of course I decide to quilt one or both of those sections.....)

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Making an Early Christmas Present

As you know, I love weaving as much as quilt making.  My mom is always complaining that she is cold.  So I decided to pull out some fuzzy yarn and make a nice shawl for her.  I am saying it is her Christmas present since she told me "don't buy anything for me this year, because you know I can't get out to buy presents."    Thursday when I gave her the shawl, I said "This is your Christmas present.  I didn't buy anything - I made it from things I already had."  That seemed to satisfy her. 

Here are  pictures of the shawl. 

I hope she enjoys wearing this and that it keeps her snuggly warm. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Quilt Making Update

My latest quilt is now almost 1/4 done.  Since I am making it in sections that will get joined together I have one fourth completed - except the binding.   

But this is all quilted and looking good, in my opinion.

This is the first two quilted sections joined together.  Once I get the other there sections quilted and joined, I will have a quilt that measures roughly 78 inches square. 

I love the play of the hand-dyed fabrics against the pieced blocks.  I am just playing when I quilt the sections.  They will all be different although some designs will probably be repeated. 

I am not rushing through this, but rather taking my time and enjoying the process. And I am doing various other projects and fun things also.  That said, this will probably not get finished in 2020.  But who knows?  A sudden "spurt of energy" could change that. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

More quilting

The first section of the quilt is all quilted.   I did some more improv fun quilting.    The first is possibly my favorite part - so much so that I am showing you three different photos of it. 

 The second one shows it at an angle and also includes the border/sashing pattern on this section. 

The third one shows it from the back so you can see just the quilting on a solid background.  This is a variation on "Wild Quilting" from a class I took by Christina Cameli,  Her teaching style was a great way for me to learn. 

And here is one more bit that is one of my hand dyed fabric squares.  They are so fun to quilt on. 

This is mainly a branching teardrop shape. Some shapes are echoed while others are not.  But I did feel like I needed a few swirls in there also.  I am having a lot of fun doing these and deciding what design to play with next. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.

Quilting a Bit of the Quilt

Since I am quilting the current quilt in pieces, I decided to truly "quilt as I go."  I had two sections of the quilt sewn together.  I decided to quilt at least one of them before I sew the next sections together.  

Why? (you may be wondering)  Because I just wanted to do some free motion quilting.  

To be honest, I am finding it hard to stay focused these days.  One thing that I read was "be kind to yourself."   And saying 'why not?' to this idea seemed like a way to do that and still make some progress. 

Here is a photo showing some of the quilting from the back of the quilt.  I decided to use some solids for at least part of the back.  

The fun part of making the quilt this way is that the back can be several fabrics for a fun giant patchwork effect.  I also plan to join sections "as I go" also.  That eliminates the tedium of doing all the joining at the end.   

Here is a photo from the front side. 

One thing I discovered is that those pieced blocks need  a simpler quilting design, so the second one was just meandered.  The purple section is what I call my "crazy feather."  With the crazy feather you don't worry about making it come out just so..instead you aim for a general feather *idea* but anything goes.  This is supposed to be fun, right?  Right!  For me that crazy feather is just fun.

The temperatures here in the South have taken a sudden drop.  I even saw ice bits in the 'rain.'   I hope the icy coldness doesn't decide to hang around. I prefer it a bit warmer.  I think I will go wrap up in a quilt and read. 

Until Next Time,  

Stay Creative 

Comments are welcomed. I will reply when possible. Of course if you are a "No Reply Blogger"- I can not reply. Links in comments will result in the entire comment being deleted.