Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A Difference of Night and Day



It never got over 58* in my office yesterday, so I gave up and took the afternoon off. It was warm this morning, and I was told a fuse had blown. Next time I'll check that first. I've been choosing fabrics for my house quilt and am ready to start. This is going to be lots of fun! It's not too late to join in, if you want to.

OK, so I decided to be a non-conformist and make my quilt 'night' instead of 'day'. I chose fabrics for the first block. And here is the result. Not great, but I'm not going to obsess about it. we'll see how it all turns out . . .

Monday, January 26, 2009

Sign on the office door


I decided to try to 'tough it out'. There's so much to do here. I closed the door and cranked up my little heater. I should have closed the door when I came in - it might have been warmer by now. Oh well . . .

The quilt block is calling me. I want to work on it. Also, I'm working with a jewelry company, to make a 'blank' I have in mind. The big decision is - do I market it myself and retain the design as an exclusive, OR - do I just let them market it?

NEWS FLASH. I just heard, on the radio, some 'stuff' about Blogo (That's our illustrious Governor, for anyone who doesn't know) Someone called in and said she was embarrassed for him. Another said she thought he was setting up an insanity defense. He's a real 'trip'!

Thought you might like to see the sign I made for my office door. It used to be outside, when we were upstairs. I'm rounding up other sayings I like and I'm going to make a set of signs to sell inexpensively. We need stuff that can be purchased 'now' - I'd like some 'impulse shoppers' to come in.

Short Day



This is going to be a short day. I don't think the heat is working in our building. Usually when I open the door in the morning, the heat hits me in the face. This morning it was cold air that hit me! The temp read 53*. I'll probably leave after the mail man comes by. My friend Karen had a cool quilt on her blog, with a challenge to join with her in making it, one block a month. Of course, I couldn't resist - like I need something else to do (she said sarcastically)
It looks like fun - so I'm in. What about YOU? Here's the link, if you are interested. http://www.forevergreenquilts.com/free-quilt-block-patterns-BOM2009.html Please let me know if you decide to join in.

Friday, January 23, 2009

Amy has a great 'Eye'


Amy has taken some fantastic pictures of the kids. I'm sharing a few of my favorites. I think this one is 'amazing'!

This is Groovy 'fishing'. She will stand in the water as long as permitted, and has caught fish, really! I love the reflection.

Reilly, Groovy and Lucky


Three of my grand-pets watching a bunny in their yard.

Mosaic Quilt


I LOVE THIS QUILTING METHOD! I have done several pictures, trying to zone in on how the colors work. The first, that I 'just let happen' was pretty effective. Then I decided to control where the colors went - and had two failures. (sigh) After that, I decided to choose a color family and not mess with what goes where - and Viola! a recognizable baby.

We had a friend, Margaret Walsh, staying with us while I was working on this. I didn't tell her what it was going to be - I wasn't positive it would be 'anything'.

From previous disasters, I learned to approach this in an orderly way, row by row - no skipping around. All the little squares have to overlap in the same direction, kind of like cross stitch, where to same stitch should be on top every time. So, I started at the top, and worked my way across row by row.

Back to Margaret - she watched this quilt growing every evening, with interest. She is an artist, too. Margaret was in 'town' working on the Nadar campaign, as was Bob, and we were lucky to meet her and get to know her. Anyway, one morning she commented that she could tell that the 'baby' was a relative of mine. I thought that was amazing - that she could see a family resembelance. Actually, the baby is me. I needed a contrasty picture for the technique to work effectively. Isn't that cool!

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Amy's Blog - mfa'sblog.blogspot.com



This is my oldest son,Tom and Kim, my favorite DIL at one of Elgin Fire Department's Memorial Day services. Check out Amy's blog (mfa'sblog.blogspot.com) for a great picture of Tommy with Lucky (I think). Tom does water rescue, among other things. Yesterday he was in the icy Fox River, looking for a man who fell through the ice while snow-mobiling, two days earlier. He found him.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Wedding Tree II


I've added some new ornaments to my Wedding Tree. Almost everyone is represented, now. I'm still looking for my in-laws wedding photo. The one I have is just my MIL with her sister and brother. I'm hoping for one with both FIL and MIL. Maybe one of the 'cousins' will have it.

My Beautiful Family!


My daughter Amy, tells me that if I'm going to blog, I have to do it every day! I'm not sure I can keep up with that, or if it would be 'good' or 'interesting' if I did. I guess I don't know the answer to that if I didn't either???

I took a few more pictures of my studio/shop and some of my recent projects. One of my favorites is this set of pillows, each has a close-up, contrasty picture of one of my 'kids', plus Bob and I. They were fun to make, and would great on a red couch, wouldn't they?

Tuesday, January 13, 2009


This is my 'little window to the world.' I'm leaving my family wreath up for a while since it isn't strictly 'Christmas'.

I love my Wedding Tree! Actually, it's the family pictures I love. The oldest is my Great Grandparents wedding, May 15, 1882! They were married in Germany. My Grandparents, Parents, In-laws, Brothers, Children, Nieces and Nephew and, of course, my own are all included. Some of the weddings were very formal, some not so . . My brother Chip was married in the '70's in Breckenridge, Colorado on the side of a mountain. One Nephew was married on a deck overlooking a lake in Michigan. All the weddings were beautiful.

I'm really having fun working with the 1"x3" pewter forms that hold the pictures. Cropping the pictures to fit is interesting and fun.

Wedding tree


I haven't quite figured out how to upload my pictures and words together. This is a test. The description of my wedding tree is above.

Monday, January 12, 2009

Ornaments for Alex, Janell and Oliver



Did you ever see anything as cute as this picture of Oliver in the little yellow hat? He has been coloring, and has red crayon on his cheek. His grandfather, my brother Marty was an artist and it looks like Oliver just might take after him.

Hilary's family

All of a sudden, it's 2009

What happened? It was warm, then we had tons of SNOW, which quickly turned into SNIRT, followed by temperatures sooo d--m cold you almost can't breath ...
Then it got warm and we had rain storms and flooding in the church, and now we have 8" of snow/snirt again, the neighbors flooded yard is an ice pond and my toes are frozen! Don't you just love the change of seasons?

Everyone that I heard from, loved the ornaments I sent for Christmas gifts and I do too. I'm making a family wreath, that can hang all year 'round, with both Bob's and my families. And my new favorite thing is my 'wedding tree'. It's so cool! I have wedding pictures that go back to my great grand parents who were married May 15th, 1882 in Germany. I love the way the pictues look in the 1" x 3" 'frames'.