Hoppy Leap Day!

Such a Sew and Sew is hosting a Leap Day Giveaway Blog Hop. There are lots of great blogs participating and all have wonderful giveaways up for grabs...sounds like a great way to spend leap day to me!

AAQI March Quilt Auction

Have a look at the AAQI Quilts that are up for auction in March!  Does one of the quilts look a little familiar?  Maybe like you have seen it somewhere before?  Maybe a little (or a lot) like my Crystal Blue Persuasion quilt?  Yes, that's it!  I am honored (and more than a little excited) to have one of my quilts as part of the AAQI auction this month.  The auction begins March 1st and runs through March 10th at www.alzquilts.org/quiltauction and remember...profits from all sales and auction purchases fund Alzheimer's research!

Silent Sunday

Balancing Act

Back in October when a few friends and I decided to form an art quilt group I really didn't think about how I would fit it into my already busy schedule, I just knew it was something that I wanted to do!  Then the challenges started and I realized just how much time could be spent planning and making each quilt.  How in the world was I going to manage to do all the things that I have to do along with all of the things that I want to do?  The answer was KISS...which stands for Keep It Simple Stupid!  I do agree that it's good to push our limits every now and then, but simple is good sometimes too especially if it helps keep everything in a harmonious balance!  Would Gail Garber even recognize her free form flying geese technique in this simple little quilt?  I don't know, but I do know that I met the challenge requirements and kept my sanity at the same time, so it's all good!

Unruffled

I love the ruffled scarves that are so popular this winter, so now that my holiday gift knitting is finished I thought I would make one for myself.  Unruffled starts out with 100 stitches and is a simple pattern of knit and purl rows, but if I had done a little math before I began I would have realized that it ends up with about a million stitches on the needles before it's finished!  I'm going to keep knitting, but I'm not planning on wearing this particular scarf until next winter!

Leave The Light On

As a little girl when my mother would put me to bed at night, I always asked her to leave the door open and the light on.  Her reply was always, "I'll leave the door open a crack and the light from the hall will be enough."  Just a tiny sliver of light coming into the darkness, but it was enough to every now and then catch a glimpse of my mother going about her evening routine.  Enough to know that she was still there.  Alzheimer's disease is much the same...closing the door slowly until there is only a crack of light and only a glimpse of our loved one remains, but enough to know that they are still with us even if we can't see them as a whole anymore.

Leave The Light On is my contribution to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative for the month of February.

Several readers have asked how they can purchase my Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts.  If you click on the AAQI tab near the top of this page it will take you to a list of the quilts that I have donated to the Alzheimer's Art Quilt Initiative.  Click on each quilt title to see a photo of the quilt and its status with the AAQI.

To see the list of all of the Priority: Alzheimer's Quilts that are for sale visit www.alzquilts.org/quiltsforsale.html

Silent Sunday

Word Verification

Have you noticed the new two word verification that Blogger just introduced?  If not, it's time consuming and very hard to decipher!  There is no doubt it will keep robots from commenting, but I'm afraid that it will also keep humans from commenting as well.  For that reason, I'm choosing to remove the word verification feature from my blog and I will filter any spam that makes it way to my blog manually.  I certainly don't want to have something on my blog that will prevent my friends from sharing their thoughts and ideas with me...I love hearing from you all!  

Happy Valentine's Day!

Wishing everyone a very happy Valentine's Day today!  (Original artwork provided by the lil' cowboy...with a little help from his mommy!)

Lots Of Crochet

It was cold here this weekend.  Not only was it cold, it was snowing and blowing too!  We haven't had a whole lot of snowy weather this winter, so it was the perfect weekend to sit by the fire and work on a cozy fleece blanket or eight!

You can find my crocheted edging patterns HERE and HERE.

Silent Sunday

Fleece Blankies

I found some great fleece remnants in a bin all marked 50% off the last time I was at Joann Fabrics and with a 20% off everything coupon it was just too good of a deal to pass up!  I'll cut the fleece into child size pieces, use my skip stitch blade to perforate the edges and then crochet a fancy edging around to make blankies for a local children's hospital.

You can find full instructions for these blankets at www.skipstitch.com/instructions.

Ready For Delivery!

In September, the Mountain Laurel Quilt Guild began making texture quilts to donate to local nursing homes for patients with dementia or those who are vision impaired.  Over the past few months we have sewn squares together, sandwiched and tied 15 quilts.  We began the binding process at our last charity quilting day and with a little a lot of help from my friends the quilts are now finished and ready for delivery!  Many thanks to all of the guild members who helped with this project!

Another Challenge

Back in October a few of my quilty friends and I got together and challenged each other to make a small art quilt with fabrics outside of our quilting comfort zone.  Even though we all grumbled our way through the project we also decided that it was quite a bit of fun and that we should try another challenge.  AND what a challenge it is!  We are to make a small quilt using Gail Garber's technique for free form flying geese.  If you aren't familiar with Gail's work click HERE and then you will see why I nearly passed out when I heard about our next challenge.  I am a simple girl who makes simple quilts and Gail's quilts are far from simple!  Yes, indeed...this is going to be a challenge! 

Silent Sunday

Grape Jelly

I am on a mission to use up some of my scraps and the first out of the box...purple!  I cut all of my purple scraps into 2 1/2" strips and made this jelly roll quilt top in hardly no time at all...
but that is only if you don't count the 15 years that it took to age some of the fabrics!

No Fabric Before Its Time

Paul Masson Winery would sell no wine before its time and I shall use no fabric before its time!  Can you see the date on this Moda marble?  Yes, it says 1997!  That makes this fabric 15 years old!  I think it has aged long enough!