24/7 Sewing

Friday after work I started sewing, and I haven't stopped yet! I'm trying to take advantage of my long weekend and get caught up on lots of projects.

Yesterday I posted the quilt top for Joanie. I made another top using more of the blocks people sent, along with some that I had forgotten I had. I mixed those together and filled in the spaces with 3-inch squares. It turned out pretty cute for being 99% unplanned, I think.



These are the pink/orange blocks I made for Project Improv. These will eventually go into a charity quilt. Wow! I can hardly wait to see the quilts that come out of this project. They definitely won't be boring.



I'm also (finally) once again working on my challenge quilt that is due for my guild's show in February. It's almost all put together, so now I can start the quilting process. I need to finish a few other projects for the show, too. I've let those deadlines sneak up on me this year!

It's 1:40 a.m., and I just finished another pink/orange block. I call it Eyeballs.

Quilt for Joanie

Thanks to all of you who donated Ohio Star blocks for Joanie's quilt. I apologize that I could not use them all in this top. I still might make her a pillow with some of the others... and I probably have enough to make a Sunshine quilt, too! People were very generous. Thanks so much!

Here's a close-up of the border fabric. I love how it picks up so many of the colors in the blocks!



Mary has kindly agreed to quilt this for us, even though she's very busy with a pile of other quilts to do. Thank you, Mary! (I'll deliver the top to Mary this weekend.)

The 4th of the 4th

Heather over at Needles and Pens tagged me today. I think I will do this instead of my usual Friday Five. This one is kind of fun and random. Here are the rules:
Go to your fourth photo album, to the fourth photo, and write about it.
Fun! I love photography, I love stories, and I love the randomness of this tag. It is making me write about something I never would have thought of today!

My fourth photo album is called Animals. I have very few pictures in it. But the fourth photo is easily the all-time best of that folder. Here it is:


photo by Abraham Lincoln

Back in 2006-07 I discovered several Daily Photo blogs. People all over the world chose to post a photo each day of the city in which they lived. It was begun by a guy named Eric who lives in Paris. What fun! I decided to join in. For one year I photographed St. Paul, Minnesota and each day posted a new photo. The daily photo bloggers around the world joined together in rings so we could see each others' photos. On the first of the month we had a theme to follow. These themes were voted on by us.. and were fun and challenging, sometimes odd categories.

Some of the daily photo bloggers met in person! Sometimes they would travel to other countries and announce that they would like to meet people in the cities where they were going. Sometimes, like happened in the Twin Cities, the locals got together for a couple of gatherings. I met several other Twin Cities photographers, and at least one of them is still an inspiration to me.

That whole year I learned a LOT about photography. I had a few favorites around the world that I always visited daily. Abraham Lincoln was one of those. He lives in Ohio and takes fabulous pictures of wildlife in his back yard. You should see his bird photos! I saved this raccoon picture of his, for another reason which I won't go into here - it's just another random story. But if I had to share a photo with you from my fourth album, Animals, I'm glad it's one of Mr. Lincoln's. He is an inspiration to many photographers around the world.

After I participated in that year, I put together a book of my daily photos. When I realized how expensive the book was going to be, I asked hubby to give it to me for Christmas. He did, and I love the book. It is a real treasure to remember that fun year of taking pictures. (And yes, there are a couple of quilt pictures in it, of course!) Oh - and some of the daily photo bloggers have kept it up for several years. I only did it for one year - 365 posts of photographs! If you ever see me in person, ask to see my book! I'd be glad to show it to you.

I'm going to tag only one other person: Beth from Walk a Mile.

Photos

Feast your eyes...



...on photos I took...





moon on lake; playing with motion



...with my old camera...





Get this... the new camera won't upload to my oldie-but-goodie hard drive. I need a new hard drive to upload my new photos!! Arrrrggghhh.

It's a balmy 17 below zero (F) this morning. Time to button up the vest.
Edit: I found out it was really 21 below when I thought it was 17 below. What's 4 more degrees among friends?!

Twobelow, Minnesota

Every time I hear the name of Tupelo, Mississippi, I think that we should have a town here named Twobelow, Minnesota. Today I texted my friend in Georgia that it was "damn cold" here, and then I realized it was "only" two below. That's really not what true Minnesotans would call damn cold. But it's cold enough, I reckon.

I've been having fun playing with my new camera, but I need to learn more before I can upload to the computer. So you will have to wait to see my photographic masterpieces.



Yesterday I had a WONDERFUL mail delivery day:

1) Marjorie came home! Thank you for sending her, Amanda. We had a happy reunion.
The little tote bag is so cute, and it came with some other interesting tidbits such as news articles about the Orphan Train, a printout of Michelle's blog post after she read the book, a couple of business cards, and even some orphan blocks for starting another quilt, AND the cute bookmark you see pictured to the right. Who made it? It's adorable.

2) a block for Joanie from Sue B. Thank you!

3) 3 blocks for Joanie from Yvonne. Thank you, too!

4) the highlight was my camera! Snap, snap, snap. If I see you I will photograph you.

I now have about 4 gazillion blocks for Joanie. I'm going to start making her quilt! It'll be plenty big, and I'll probably have some leftover for a second quilt. As soon as I learn how with my new toy, I'll post pictures!

It Came!

Now to learn all its functions and secret powers.........

Cuties on Ice

A neighborhood elementary school started ice skating lessons today. A few people from my church volunteered to help. We tied on skates, helped the kids wobble out to the rink, and we provided hot chocolate and treats.

There were "big kids" there to help - middle school kids who are good skaters. It was so cute to see the little ones holding on to the middle size ones for support. A few used folding chairs.



It was five below zero, but the kids were bundled up nicely, and the teacher was careful about having them go into the warming house periodically.

We'll be there to help again next week. Fun!

Snow!

Didn't Know I Was That Tired

Well, I announced on Friday that I was going to take it easy this weekend, and today I did exactly that! I didn't know how exhausted I was after my work week and then my all-day Saturday sew-in. This afternoon I sat down with hubby to watch some football, but since the Vikings are no longer in it... who cares? It's easy to nod off, and nod off I did... for almost the entire afternoon! I woke up at 5:00 p.m.!! I could hardly believe it.

I wonder if I'll be able to get to sleep tonight. Maybe I'll just think about football, and that will do the trick.

Here are some weekend highlights:
1) made progress on a quilt that will be a graduation gift
2) made the above block for the Block Party which is proving to be a lot of fun
3) had a good time at church today - lots of energy and excitement around there. It felt great. Maybe it was because the fellowship room is damaged from the water leak, so we were squashed together into a smaller space. Whatever it was, it just felt like a lot of people having a lot of fun.
4) my confirmation mentee is growing up! Today she seemed so mature! I am impressed.
5) I ordered a new camera (my Christmas gift from sweet hubby), and I'm hoping it arrives tomorrow. I can hardly wait!


church fellowship room post-water-pipe-break

Now I'm bracing for the COLD that Alaska has been so kind to share with us. Here it comes!

A Good Tired

I was dreaming about some music. The beautiful chord came to an end, and just then my alarm went off. "Perfect," I said out loud, thinking the alarm had waited until the perfect moment to sound. If you're going to wake up from a dream saying something out loud, I guess "perfect" is a pretty good word to be saying; a good way to start the day.

It was to be a sewing day for me! We do these one-day retreats every few months with my guild. Usually we meet at my church which has a lovely, big room with lots of good light (that's important to quilters). We couldn't meet there today, however, because of the water damage that occurred this week.



Neighboring church to the rescue! They let us use their space on a last-minute request. The large group took over the smallish-size library to do their applique class. The light was better here (even more important for hand-work applique).



Sylvia is an expert and appeared to be running an excellent class to a bunch of eager students.



That left two of us to sew in the large room! Here's my fellow machine sew-er being visited by an applique class member. We had plenty of room to spread out our stuff, but we could have used some more bodies and a few more irons for the extra heat. The room was chilly, and the thermostat was too complicated to monkey with!



The church was very nice to let us use the space, and two of us even got to partake in a delicious pot-luck dinner which had been previously scheduled. Yummy food!

I sewed today from 9:00 a.m. to about 7:00 p.m. ... a long day of sewing which made my legs tired, but it's a good tired. And I got all the blocks made for the above setting! Progress was made.

Tonight I shall sleep tight.

Friday Five

1. I love blue and yellow together! These blocks are for Sunshine.

2. I love that my job affords me opportunities to go off site and do hands-on work with students in the real world. I'm so lucky!

3. It's Friday! Hooray! I'm surprised at how tired I was this week, coming back to work after the holidays. I'm planning to rest up this weekend, as much as possible.



4. Where am I headed in this life? Who knows?! I'm just enjoying the ride.

5. Here's a hug for all moms whose hearts ache when their children are struggling.


photo by DaBok

Laughter is the Best Medicine

photo by Freddie Freak

My friends and I have shared some laughs which REALLY helped my mood. Thanks also to my wonderful readers and your nice comments. I love my blogger friends!

The Downward Slope

photo by someone to whom I wish I could give credit, but I couldn't figure out who it was - I googled "lazy person"

I'm on the downward slope of a roller coaster ride (which is called Life). I'm feeling down on myself. Not long ago a friend asked what is a typical day like at my household. I wrote it down for her, and it depressed me. It was written proof of how lazy I am. I make a lot of quilts, I read a lot of books, my hubby and I have fun together, I go to work every day. But hubby and I don't do much of anything else. Even though I love a neat and tidy house, I hardly ever do housework because I hate it so much! It is embarrassing to admit that, but it's true. I try to keep the place picked up, but when we get behind, it just begins to overwhelm me.

That's one characteristic of myself that I can't stand, and it depresses me.

Another one is that I'm so gosh-darned fat. And I hate obsessing about it! But, I'm naturally a thin person. Or at least I used to be. So I can't get used to the new, fat me, and it's easy to be in denial. Today I received a picture of one of our Christmas gatherings. Who's that elephant in the front row?? Me. Not pretty.

I'm tired. When i was on my two-week break from work, I let my body rhythms take charge. This meant being a Night Owl. So I'm trying to revert my body clock back to what it needs to be for work. Not easy. *yawn!*

I'm thankful for nice friends, people who love me, and my happy life. But once in a while the roller coaster takes a dip and I feel down. That's where I am today.

Intentionally looking at and working on these down sides of my life helps. I'm trying to be more On Top of Things at home so we don't let it turn into a dump. The f*a*t part is harder to work on, because I don't enjoy the solutions to that problem: cutting down on eating? Not fun. Exercising? Not fun, and harder to do in the winter time.

So.. life goes on, and I struggle with improving my down areas. Thanks for listening!

Just a Tiny Leak...

See this tiny break in a water pipe?


See this beautiful room?


See what that tiny break did to the beautiful room? Amazing! This is at my church. I heard there was a "flood," but I never pictured this. See what amazing damage some water droplets hath wrought!



[Stuff is dragged to other places all over the church to dry out.]

Praying for Strangers

photo by Ne$

In my work I come across a lot of sad stories. Too many young people are struggling with multiple roadblocks in their lives. My heart goes out to them. We (I work in a school) do the best we can to address their educational needs, and when they have other needs, we work hard to find the correct social service agency that can help them.

You'd be very impressed if you could see all the big-hearted, kind, hard-working human service workers there are in this world. Too often it's only the rotten ones we hear about. (Yes, they do exist.) I can't tell you how many times I have sat in meetings to help iron out a plan to address all the complicated needs of a particular student... and I've been thrilled to be a part of the entourage of caring people and services represented at the table.

Some of the sad stories I have come across:
1) a student who spent most of his/her growing up years in foster care due to a drug-dealing mother, and who now at 18 is struggling to make a go of adult life, alone.
2) a student who, after 15 years of being able bodied, was struck with a catastrophic disease which caused deafness, legal blindness, and physical weakness.
3) a student who grew up with such turmoil that he/she rarely saw success modeled in life, so sabotages his/her own near-success every time it's just around the corner
4) a student whose disabilities prevent him/her from reading above a second grade level but whose parent insists that he/she should go to college.
5) a student who was abandoned by one parent, and the other parent is in prison.

I could get political here, but I am not going to. I just want you to remember children and young adults who suffer terribly and who are trying so hard to succeed. Please keep them in your prayers, and pray for our society, too, that we not forget to care and to help each other. Open our eyes to what is and who is in front of our noses, so we can make a difference in this world.

Lemonade in Winter!

I don't usually drink lemonade in winter time, but what the heck - Beth tagged me with this award, so I'm going to go ahead and enjoy it. I will make my list, but I'm not going to tag any other bloggers. If you fit the description and want to, go ahead and tag yourself! It's for bloggers who show attitude and/or gratitude. OK. Here goes:

Things for which I am grateful (there are a lot, so I'm not going to list the obvious ones like family, friends, and quilting)--
1. Minnesota lakes
2. Learning (You're never too old)
3. Music - almost all kinds (not too crazy about hard rock)
4. Food
5. Smart people
6. American Sign Language
7. God and my growing faith

and just for fun, the things that bring out my attitude --
1. being told what to do (my inner brat instantly rebels)
2. uptight, prissy people
3. my gosh-darn impulsivity (Hmm, spellcheck wants to change that to impulsiveness. Which is correct??)



Over the weekend I made 70 crumb blocks! Half of them were made from yellow scraps, so they fit into the Lemonade theme. Plus, they are making lemonade from lemons, after a fashion.

After a two-week break, I returned to work today. The first day back is always exhausting. Tonight I'm exhausted, so I'm not writing any more. Ta-ta.

Is Your Name Carol?

I'm copying this idea from Julie at Floribunda, who got the idea from someone else. A good idea is worth copying, isn't it? I want to create a link on my sidebar to quilt bloggers named Carol... just for fun. And who knows? Maybe some day we can do a round robin thingy or some sort of exchange or a challenge. How about it? Let me know if you're a quilt blogger named Carol!

And please tell me your middle name if you want to... I'll bet you're either Carol Jean (that's me) or Carol Ann.

Block Parties and an Ugly

I'm playing along with Quilt Pixie as she makes somewhat random blocks each week. She chooses one block out of many, and the rest of us play along, just for fun. I like the idea, because sometimes I love to just sit down and make a block. And I get to play with random fabrics that I love but that are not in current projects in my to-do list. This is my first block: Broken Dishes Variation.



Then I also decided to make a few blocks for Mary and the Heartstrings Project. Here are mine.



And here is my Ugly Quilt. Got it over with on Jan. 3, so the rest of my 2009 quilts will be gorgeous. Isn't that the rule? I made it from scraps and named it Leave No Scraps Behind. I think I should have, though. To make up for its ugliness, it will have this bright and fun backing. Whoever gets this quilt can just turn it over and use the orange side as the top.

Yoo Hoo! Maaarrrrjorie!

Has anyone seen my book, They Named Me Marjorie? It was making the rounds among several quilters who wanted a turn to read it. Finn even made a bag for it to travel in. I completely lost track of who had it last, and I would like it to come home now.

Do YOU have my book? If so, I would love to see it return to my mailbox. Marjorie is feeling homesick, I think. Please help if you can! Just ask, and I'll give you my address.

Two Wrongs Make a Right

Here's a quilt made from red scraps, and the setting squares are the Very Hungry Caterpillar. (I read that book 400 bazillion times to my daughter back in the day.) I couldn't figure out a good border. I had these two reds; one was two orangey, and the other was too deep and "adult" looking. So I just put 'em together and they turned out cute and added to the scrappiness, don't you think? I was happy with this border!



So I made a similar border on the next quilt. These are blocks I won in a Lotto. I finally put them together and decided to border them with squares like I'd done with the red. I like how this turned out, too! WooHoo! She's on a roll! (It's probably a cinnamon roll with frosting.)



This is one of my activities from New Year's Day. A mob scene! But they were a pleasant and polite mob. Colorful Quilts in St. Paul is going out of business! Huge sadness! But today was the first day of the sale, and everyone in the Twin Cities wanted to be there to grab the best fabrics. I could barely get in to see the stuff on the shelves! But I didn't let that stop me. I bought umpteen yards of gorgeousness. It only took me about 25 minutes standing in line to pay. Before that, I forgot to notice the time. What the heck. We were all having fun, surrounded by fabric.

I dragged my hubby out to dinner, and we had a good time. That always happens. You'd think he would remember that it's fun! But the next time I ask him, he probably won't want to go again. We ate at Teresa's, a new Mexican restaurant nearby that has been working on opening F.O.R.E.V.E.R! I had almost given up hope. But was it ever worth the wait. Yum!! The food was delish. We ordered beef fajitas For Two. Isn't that cute and romantic? The leftovers in the fridge are calling to me right now...

Mission Accomplished!

I am thrilled! I had 19 comments at my #400 post, and many people had great responses to my introduction of Heifer International. Some readers even made contributions and/or plan to save up to make future donations! That just thrills me! Thank you so much! I went online and purchased a Flock of Hope. Turns out it was partly in celebration of my blogging days, and partly as a gift to my brother-in-law whose father just died. Life's ups and downs keep rolling along, and we do what we can to help each other. I am truly grateful that many of you chose (or will choose) to help others through Heifer.





Here are my first completed quilt tops of 2009. Not super exciting, but they'll be a comfort to a couple of kids somewhere. I have one more top that needs a border, but I don't have an appropriate fabric. Darn, I'll have to go to one of the quilt shop New Year's Day sales I happen to know about.

It's 2:00 a.m., and I stayed up this long sort of by accident. But now my first wise move of the new year will be to go to bed! Nighty-night, and happy new year to all.

(Hooray - another great mission accomplished - in 20 days we get a new president!!!)