THINGS I LIKE APR 27

Greetings!

Thanks to Lee Anna of Not Afraid of Color I get to focus on sharing things I like today instead of moaning about negative "stuff'. Thank you Lee Anna.  It seems like everyday lately, there is another negative news break.  Gheeze.  I am so happy to have an outlet like Quilting to run to for therapy.

I digress.

Here are my likes for this week.

1. Making another quilt for donation.  This one came about thru a local church.  I volunteered to quilt up a top, batting and backing provided by the church and then add a binding.  It was really difficult because the batting was a high-loft and hard to corral. I had never worked with such batting before and will never do so again. Ugh! I also managed to re-injure my neck and shoulder due to reaching and guiding  the quilt thru the sewing machine for quilting. It's a full size quilt, soft and pretty so I'm pleased someone will have comfort :

2. New mini planters for my dining room window.  Aren't they cute?  Found the tray with the planters included at the "At Home" store nearby.

They have a slew of items with this design. Just sayin.( I spray the rocks with water to add humidity to the indoor plants).

3. A Patriotic Pillow Cover for my daughter's home.  We wanted a subtle, old fashioned look to coordinate with a pillow I made for her last year.  The fabric is from a layer cake of Sandy Gervai's Red, White and Free. I have made many items from this layer cake!

4. A finished quilt- the Large Thread Spool quilt.  This is about 50 inch square which is my favorite size because I quilt my own projects. The larger quilts are a killer on my neck and shoulders-see comments in number one.  I love this quilt and placed it on the wall over my sofa. It is made of leftover charms and jelly roll strips and inspired by Jenny Doan's (MSQC) tutorial on making spool blocks but I made some small changes for my design.  Very very easy to put together.  I added a Connecting Threads backing from the stash:

As you might have guessed it was a busy week of sewing-best kind. And, there are a few blocks on the design wall!  Guess I needed a lot of therapy. hee hee.

I hope all of you are having a good week and please stop to see Lee Anna's post for positive energy!
mary

Things I Like Apr 20

Greetings!

Here are some happenings I like for this week:

1. My new pink shirt:

This is the only shirt I own with text!  I'm fairly conservative with my wardrobe or maybe that should read casual.  Anyway, I saw this shirt on Facebook in black and ordered it.  It was quite an extravagance for me.  I have been a fan of Willie Nelson for many years.  His music soothes my soul. Country Music is not my favorite but he seems to cross over into jazz, pop, you name it.  Unfortunately, the shirt does not fit or even come close. So far, I shortened the hem but I will have to alter the sleeves. I might even cut out the center and applique it onto a shirt I have that fits!  Or even make a pillow!

2. Dyeing unusual Easter Eggs to keep the young guy interested in this tradition.  My daughter and I were all set to color eggs but realized my 12 yr old grandson wasn't interested and would rather watch tv with the men.  Until I suggested we could make "Monster Jam" eggs.  Well he couldn't move fast enough to the table to help. Hysterically funny. Due to his Cerebral Palsy, there are few "toys" he has ever played with but recently went to Monster Jam with his dad and is hooked. So, I had a few stickers from an arena I built for him out of cardboard boxes and we stuck the stickers  on the eggs. That led to plain stickers for some family members, fictictous names and sports heroes:

The event was so much fun even Dad helped.

3.Building a Monster Jam arena for my grandson.  I'm not usually this creative especially with cardboard boxes, but this was fun. There is a ramp and 2 boxes which are the side arenas.  I just purchased party favors, and  attached contact paper with washi tape to the boxes. He can pretend to have the trucks do their tricks in the middle of the "arena":

Hope everyone is enjoying Spring and please see Lee Anna's Likes at Not Afraid of Color.
mary

HAPPY EASTER

HAPPY EASTER

I pray everyone has a blessed weekend.
mary

THINGS I LIKE APR 13

Greetings!

Hope you are enjoying spring. It's that time in the week for a concerted effort to actually write down things that I like! This is such a great exercise.  Thank you to Lee Anna at NOT AFRAID OF COLOR for allowing us all to take part in this positive energy.

Here we go:

1. Avocado toast for breakfast. Just avocado, mayo, salt and pepper. I buy these little mini's that are just avocado - no other stuff like guac. I have the worst time buying fresh avocado, judging the ripyness correctly etc.etc.etc. Or, maybe I don't want avocado for a few days and end up throwing it out. This is so more convenient and just about 4 Tablespoons worth in each serving.  I hope everyone has these available in your area.

Yes, this is more expensive about $4, but I'm not throwing any away.  Avocados are just so good for you. I happen to like them.

2. Art that moves me.  I love going to the  Phoenix Art Museum and do not go often enough.  I am in awe of any artist but some just take my breath away. When I started to quilt 5 years ago I did not know how artistic I could become. Now, my own art moves me -occasionally.

3.  The Voice on NBC. I love music, so this was an easy choice, but it's the format and judges that make the show. We look forward to a happy tv show when  other channels keep running bad news-real or imagined.

4. Seeds for Autism.  This is a program that provides jobs for adults with autism when the unemployment rate for these adults is 85%!  We found an outlet for them at our local nursery, Summerwinds , in Glendale, Az.

I purchased zinnia seeds, small pot, and a garden butterfly.  I then found another of their displays with small plants and tools, so I purchased a "coffee arabica" plant.

I don't know anything about this plant except it likes humidity which should be interesting when we live here in the desert. Since it  is a houseplant, I may be able to control the humidity. It's such a beautiful dark green.

4. Holiday table runners.  This is one for Easter :

It's not the best photo, but cute nonetheless.

 Here's a close-up of the center applique:

I didn't have a pattern, just started putting scraps together. Such fun.  I no longer have a rectangle table so I put this on my hope chest instead!


Well, guess these are my favorites for this week.  Hope you get a chance to see everyone's list at Lee Anna's post.

ART ON CINNAMON ROOST

Greetings!

My daughter and I had such a great time at Art on Cinnamon Roost. I was very good in that I only purchased a few gifts.

This is for my grandson. The author signed the book to him. He will be so pleased. They are a series of books, mostly in rhymes and are educational but fun.

This is a bowl with a recessed area for your thumb. a great salsa bowl and I purchased a special spoon to go with.

A Bejeweled spoon!  The artist wrapped tiny beads around the spoon with thin wire. Very cool. These 2 will be given to my son as a housewarming gift when his new home is completed.


So, except for eating unhealthy food, I did good.

Here at the farm were at least 50 sheep grazing next to the art festival. All in the middle of the city.

So fun. Hope everyone is having a great week!
mary

I like Thursday Apr 6

Greetings!

I'm grateful for the opportunity to post  likable thoughts thanks to Lee Anna at NOT AFRAID OF COLOR. It's an opportunity to focus on positive energy in a mixed up daily environment. I hope ya'll take a moment to check out all the good stuff over there.

In the meantime, here are my "liking" thoughts for today:

1. An anonymous post I saw recently:" You are what you love." So I am definitely a mom, gramma, quilter.

2. Farmer's Markets and outdoor art/craft festivals. .  We only have a short spring, so I have to get out there and check out the ones close by. I am very excited to go to one on Saturday:

This is "Art at Cinnamon Roost"at  a local small farm right in the middle of the city. This is such a cute place-goats, many sheep, chickens, donkey, ducks etc.  The owner, Melanie, is such a sweet person who has a family, works full time outside her home and manages with her husband to keep this farm running. Then, remarkably, has these Art fairs twice a year. This spring there are 50 vendors! Heaven.

3. Making holiday/event quilts for my daughter's home. (As if I need another reason to quilt). My daughter has a really busy schedule working full time and raising a special needs child so she likes to decorate for holidays or special events with sofa quilts, pillows and table toppers. Yay!
This week,  I made her a Spring Quilt:

This is from "Spring Fling" by Me and My Sister for Moda -a panel.  I then added leftover Bandana charms for the border. The backing is a pale green geometric print(sorry, forgot to photo). The binding is my new favorite Robin's Egg Blue from Bella. The quilt is small - about 38 x 49 inches. I only had a few days to pull it together so was thrilled it went well.
So cheery!

4.  On a serious note, I like Norton Security software for protection on my PC now and other electronic devices in the near future. This week, our US Congress passed a law undoing a previous law that protected our privacy on the internet and Trump signed it.  Now, Internet providers can sell our private information we have listed on the Internet.  So, immediately I received a notice from Norton Security because I have been a client of theirs for many years. I added WIFI protection to my security yesterday. This prevents servers from obtaining my personal data via my wifi. I am not paid by any sponsors on my blog, I just wanted to recommend everyone get their own protection. Just google WIFI Protection to see what's available for your needs. In the future, we may have to get even further protection of our personal  information unless our government changes these laws. The only other option is to not use the Internet.  That won't work, because companies and the government use the Internet which contains our personal data-banks, doctors,IRS, SSA, ....... Sorry for the downer but I felt this was an important topic.



Have a wonderful day and don't forget to see Lee Anna's post.
mary

A QUILT CARRIER

Greetings!

Hope you are all enjoying this week. We are having wonderful weather here in the 70-80's.  Some of you who are enjoying the final four NCAA basketball championship games might be interested to know that took place 2 miles from my home. I noticed the tv stations were showing our beautiful weather. The bad part of this is the wind is blowing pollen EVERYWHERE! I'm sneezing my head off.

Each month I go to my favorite quilt shop for a full day of WIP (and snacking, and visiting, and fabric purchases...) It's like a mini retreat for me. I look forward to each month. I've been getting away like this for over a year.  Finally, this last week I made a Quilt Carrier from some scraps I had:

It's just a simple tote about 18 x 15 but I made a 6 inch boxed bottom so I can carry either 1 large quilt to show off or 2 small ones.  I've been just carrying them in grocery bags!  This is so much nicer and easier. I made it in 2 afternoons which was so fun.  I had a lot of yellow ribbon so I just sewed it to the exterior panel with my Janome ! Didn't even know I could do that.

My WIP projects are all in those square plastic craft holders. Some people use those craft holders for paper scrapping.

On to my next project......

Have a great day!
mary