Cross training...

Hello My Pretties...

Since I haven't any cards to show you - I've given them all - I'll show you a piece of Zentangle I've been playing with.

I like it all except the four petal flowers... maybe some spikes on them will improve their look. I especially like the scalloped vein with the dots in a wavy pattern. I like my doodling.  I thought I might - someday - use a doodle to design a quilt.  I've seen some that have the curves in them.  I have instructions on how to... just not the courage, I guess.  I've decided the quilt du jour is going as a Project Linus quilt or two.  I'm not enjoying the making of it for the previous purpose.  I enjoy the making more if it's for charity.  Quilts tend to turn out better when they're going to be for a charitable cause.  The previous purpose can be better accomplished by come purchased item - shopping time and effort only. 

Well, I guess I'll get back to it.  I had a really clever post made up earlier, but had to edit and finally delete it cause I couldn't get the text to stop wrapping around the "picture".  It didn't show up in the input section... only once I published it.  (Hope it works out this time.)

Promise to get some cards on here soon.  Maybe a tutorial or something.  Anything you'd like to see?

Love you,

Terri/Mom/Grammy

Innovations!

It only took me (so) many years to figure this out... it may have been obvious to many of you, but I had to figure it out the hard way.  I've been having to jump up from the sewing area and check the previously sewn and ironed seam allowances to see which way they went... Now

I put a paper arrow on my row to show which way the seam allowances were pressed on that line, and won't have to check back.  Genius, right?  How could something so simple elude me all these years?  Anyway, that is it for today!
Love to you all,
Terri

There's a new fabric store in town!

Hello Friends,
Thanks for stopping by my blog.  I really appreciate all my followers, and your comments - please leave more.
While driving in Folsom, a small town near us, we discovered a new fabric store has opened up. Hurray!!!(Folsom has a wonderful quilt guild so it always seemed odd that they didn't have more fabric stores.) It is Sew Fun at 150 Natoma Station Dr. Ste. 200. That's a street just off of Folsom Blvd. Lyon's Real Estate is the biggest place in this small shopping mall. If you need directions, call them at (916) 353-2700. The two ladies there are really helpful and very nice. I got 3 pieces and could have bought 10 others... they have really nice choices. Here's what I bought.

The scan does not do justice to the coloring.  The two on the right come in alot of other colors, and it was agony to settle for these only.  I will be shopping there again! 

Got all the squares for the current quilt done... sewing them together today, (and probably for the next week).  Wish I could show it off, but that'll have to wait for a few weeks.

Over and out - for today.  Keep cool!

Love ya,

Terri

What a day!

Sunday was filled with "Old Folks Fun" as I call it.  We went out for lunch (Wendy's dollar menu and senior drinks) and as we drove through Folsom, we went slowly past a grove of eucalyptus.  That's it! That's the fun stuff.  We love the scent it puts in the car for a few minutes.  We open all the windows and turn on the A/C and breathe deeply.  You young un's don't know what fun this is.
Oh, and then later on the way home we drove past the local park - soccer fields and a vast field of natural grasses, vernal pools (now long dried up) and studded with ancient Valley Oaks.  He says - all excitedly - "there's a fox".  Well, we had to double back because I did not see a fox... Turns out he didn't either.  It was a coyote.  Quite a tame fellow, too, cause he didn't run when I rolled the window down and had a little conversation with him.  It's quite unusual to see one this near to a road, especially in a residential area, but then it was quite near the river and the wilds surrounding.  We have seen them before, but always from a distance... get out the binoculars kind of distance.  This one wasn't 30 feet from us!  (Once, down on the river walk, we saw a baby coyote.  So cute.  And  Hobby  has seen a mountain lion when he went for walks along the river walk alone. That scares me.  For a while we called him "lion chow", mostly to impress on him how dangerous walking by himself really is. 
He's had quite a few "Indian" names.  The first was "Hunts with Tissue" because of the spider killings... and since his sister, Wonderful Woman, took up the naming practice there have been a whole series of funny names for him.  She named me Woman of Courage or WOC, but we won't tell why.
Well, for you youth, there is a glimpse into the world of fun-to-come.  Enjoy all that other stuff while you can.
No pictures today... gotta get to the laundry and the current quilt - more old folks fun.
Love to all you followers,
Terri

over 200!

Hi again,
So we were sitting on the back patio and enjoying a day that didn't even get to 80!!!! in August??? unheard of!  Anyway he starts to count up the Halloween plants... Just counting ones that actually have green shoots (not the ones where a seed was planted and has not yet germinated) there are over 200 - if you count the ones in the house, too.  We usually get close to 200 trick or treaters, so I should be done.  Oh dear... that is just too final.  I have lots of plants I want to make cuttings of yet, and decided I now know why the cherries, etc aren't germinating, so I've hatched a plan to put a few into the refrig for a few days to see if that'll help.  Picked some day lily seeds today, and planted them into yogurt cups.  I tell you it's alot of work, and I love it!  How can I stop now?  I guess I'm one of those obsessive personalities.
We had lunch at Costco and then shopped.  Got a few of those lids from boxes that will be really nice for the little plants to be conveyed to the garage.
Here is a bit from the past - one of my UFOs.  It is almost sewn together, but not in this picture.  It is only 8+years old.  9 patches in orange, yellow and red.  That'd wake you up, wouldn't it?  Again I'm having trouble getting it to go extra large.  Do you see a blue shadow around the picture?  I think that is where the image should be.

So that's all today.  Have a great weekend.  :~)
Terri

Pocket ID

Hi Friends,
Today I have scanned a picture of the pocket I put on the back of Granddaughter II's quilt.  It's paper pieced and I use the pocket to house the birthday card, and to be the label on the quilt.   Here's the pic.

   

I don't know what caused this long break, something to do with the photo and wanting it to be extra large.  Maybe it will rectify itself once published???

 I'm catching a whiff of rosemary on myself.  I've just been out in the garden/patio putting my neighbor's name on a pink rosebush.  Last week or so I told her hubby that I had a rose with her name on it, and had to make sure it did.  Anyway, any time you brush against rosemary she scents you.  I picked beans before lunch.  We got some for supper and to freeze and to give away with the rosebush.  Carrots are doing okay, and there are more tomatoes - still green - and one of my peppers is turning red!!!!!!!!!!  Transplanted a 2" tangerine for S & E, today.  Gotta transplant a bunch of other Halloween plants.  They are getting root bound in those yogurt containers. My little ones are growing up.  Sniff.  Soon they will be off to find their own way in the world.  Hurray!

    Found another quote I like:

"When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us."    ~   Helen Keller

This one is so true in my life.  I've been looking at a closed door for over 44 years!  About time to turn around and see the beauty in this other doorway.

   Well, I'm off (really - off my rocker, literally) to work on the latest quilt.  Gotta go cut some more fabric...

Cut, Sew, Quilt!

Lotsa love,

Terri

Adding an element...

The quantity of civilization is measured by the quality of imagination.


Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
 
I have always liked quotes, and for this first addition of a quote to my blog, I chose one of my favorite storytellers.  There are alot of well known quotes about imagination. (I'm thinking especially of the Albert Einstein phrase: "Imagination is better than knowledge.")  It is a quality that is not taught, neigh, even encouraged by schools or parents, for the most part.  I say spend a few minutes every day to imagine a better world. 
 

And here is my quilty picture of the day - scanned from a photo (I'm an expert now), a bit blurry... sorry. (Can you guess what the green blob is?  Why, you are right!  It is me!)  It is the first quilt I made from the snowball pattern I found in a magazine.  I've made 6 more since, and others that were mixed with other blocks.  This one went to Project Linus, too. 

 
Love to all my followers... you know who you are!
Terri

Quilts Past

Two for one!

Hi Fans!
Well, the Hobby came home for lunch and "fixed" the camera... So hopefully here are the promised pictures.

This is the modified 9-patch currently up on the design wall. See the alternating block with only one
smaller square of color?  That will create a secondary design once the blocks are all sewn together.  (Notice my Grandma's pin cushion hanging on the wall.  It is so convenient right there.)

The rest of the pictures are just some of the little plants earmarked for trick or treaters.... There are some trees started from seed - catalpa and one acacia - there is spearmint, wisteria from seed, mother-in-laws tongue, Christmas cactus, friendly cactus, and these aren't even the ones that inhabit my window sills!

Part of the project is to reuse and recycle containers to use as pots.  (The kids last year were impressed that they could identify where the containers came from.  A good lesson to learn, I'd say.) Some of the containers are from yogurt and for the ones outgrowing those "pots" there are 2 liter soda bottles with the tops cut off. They work great for the larger plants like trees or vines.

Some seeds are not working... I'd say I have as much success as failure.  If the seeds don't work in a month or so I use the pot for some cutting.  At the front of the table here you can see Mimosa trees that were growing (as weeds) in my veggie garden.  I just plucked them out and planted them into a yogurt container.  There are very few plants in my yard that I haven't yet tried to get a cutting off of.  Honeysuckle works great!  If you look closely at one of these pictures you will find a soda bottle with a palm tree that was growing right next to the garage.

Okay, you'll have to tilt your head... don't laugh... I can't figure out how to turn this one.  You can see some of the larger plants here.  I have 2 roses left over from last year and some devil's claw.  Near the right about half way back is one of the California Buckeye.  I picked seeds in the woods and started them in pots.  I don't think anyone has one in their yards because they go dormant in July... Just a mass of interesting sticks until March or so.  It is a tree with the shortest growing season I have ever come across.  I'm going to suggest that the kids plant them into the walkway near us... they can watch it's progress there.

 Last picture today.  Behind my couch are plants!   Doesn't everybody grow plants in their living rooms? These are in a "tray" (box lid from Costco).  Some plants just can't handle the extra light outside.  There are a couple of hoya and a couple of hoya leaves... see if they will root.  It is all experimentation. All the friendly cactus - they turn bright yellow and then rot if left outside - are inside, and all the MIL tongues.  If I knew how to edit the photos I take out the dust catching walking machine next to the plants.  I like plants - not exercise.
    So thanks to Mr. QuiltNCards you have some pictures today.  I'll try the window sill ones tomorrow.
    Let me know what you think... I'd love to get some comments!  Until tomorrow.
    Terri

I missed you yesterday!

Hi Follower Friends,
    I did miss you yesterday, but I got alot done on the current quilt and I did get pictures, but somehow our camera made the pics into movies!!!!!!!!!!!  Is nothing simple in this world anymore?  I remember my first camera... no multipage manual to work it.  Put a bulb in the socket, film in the insides, and point and click.  Done!  It made good pictures and there was  nothing frustrating about it.  Now in order to show you the little plants and the quilt I have to go read up how to use the camera and how to delete the movies, or learn how to make movies (for things not moving) to put on the blog.   I think that will be another day.  I have quilt making to do. I still understand how my sewing machine works!
Terri

Quirky Life

Hi friends,
Here's a short story about life.
       Sunday we went to Costco for lunch... m-m-m pizza. The man orders while I scavenge for a place to sit.  I find a spot - Hurray!  I'm sitting next to a big bear butt!!!!  No, I did spell bear correctly.  Someone was buying a giant teddy and had it in their cart.  We spent lunch trying out different ways of addressing this in the blog.
      Then today there's an article in the paper about dorm life these days.  When I went to college I stayed in a dorm of only girls. The other dorm was only boys and never the twain would meet.  We had a 10 pm curfew on weekday nights and 12 midnight on  Friday and Saturday... (I'm sure no one in college ever heard of a curfew these days.) Now the article says that in the "dark ages" (yes this is the exact phrase used) there were boys and girls on the same floors, but in different rooms and that now they are allowed to cohabitate in the same rooms!!!!  There are two things wrong with that.  1) That puts me before the dark ages - stop laughing!!!!  and 2) That's just not fair!  (See how I have suffered!)
       Tomorrow I promise to try to show pictures of the Halloween plants.  I transplanted the two tangerines today, and took some cuttings of my evergreens to try... see if they will root.  Lots of this is experimentation.  I'm a mad scientist.
Tune in tomorrow.
Terri

no pictures today

Hi friends,
I'm still working on that learning curve, so since it is laundry day I decided to take it easy on myself and just refer you to a really neato site I read this morning.  Actually it was more like a video - okay, it is a video - on
www,athomewiththefarmerswife.blogspot.com
(Sorry I couldn't figure out how to make that interactive... it must be a bell curve and I'm at the left side!) The video whereof I speak is near the bottom of the page - lots of great photography and a very interesting presentation... I think Ashleigh will really enjoy it.  If you don't go today it may turn out to be on the farmer's wife's second page.  I like her blog... even though it is mostly words.  She just has a way of turning a phrase. 
    So until tomorrow - when maybe I'll figure out how to scan in some of my older photos.
See ya, wish I was with you!
Terri

Grandniece Wedding Quilt

This is my most recent finish.  I made this quilt to look somewhat like my grandniece's wedding invitation.  It was all light blue with an assortment of white butterflies.  I made the bflies all the same, but I quilted them to look different.  I'm glad the photo doesn't show how bulgy it turned out.  I'm so sorry I just am not that good at quilting with my sewing machine.  Gotta have more practice, or send them out to get the treatment.  Anyway, this is how I look when I don't think the camera will take a picture that far down.  And that is my very excellent design wall that my hobby (okay that should be a "u" instead, but it's a more fun spelling this way) made the wall for a Christmas gift 4 or 5 years ago.  It's the gift that keeps on giving.  I've use this gift more than any other, I'd guess. He used foam core and nailed it to the biggest wall in my sewing room. I use pins to attach pieces. I'd like to show you what is on the wall now, but it's top secret... and I'd best get back to it, too.  I don't have that long to finish.  Deadlines!
Did you notice I made some more improvements to the look of this place. Come on back to see what's next.