Halloween sign

Hello and welcome to my blog.
Today I'm showing the sign I was inspired to make for the neighbor kids from a Happy Halloween sign I saw a while ago on one of my blogs.... probably "One Pretty Thing" - I really don't remember where I saw it. Anyway, this is what I made:



It's from a roll of white paper that I dyed with strong coffee - not just a breakfast drink - and used paper piecing quilt patterns from SewHooked.com for the letters. (It is a free pattern site, just so long as you don't sell your product you are okay with the copyright laws.)  I used the letters to figure out the numbers and put the numbers on with removable tape so I can change the sign every day.  I also burned the edge to make it look like old parchment.  (Backed it all with heavier cardboard - the bit between layers of TT at Costco. - free for the taking!!!)  What'd you think?  I love it, and I hope it conveys to the neighborhood how excited I am that Halloween is coming soon.

I also took a couple of pictures of the trees in my yard - some of you have not been here in a while so you haven't seen my Squirrel Tree (an oak) that has started making acorns!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Still don't know how to turn the pictures upright.  Anyway it's on the side of the driveway and for years we tried to pull it out, cut it down, and finally left it grow... a squirrel must have planted it - thus it's title - because there are no oaks within earshot of our house.  He plants them in my potted plants, too.  I don't know if you can see it on the next pic, but there is a different kind of oak in the pot of my Silk Oak that I started from seed.  I am really proud of that one.  I didn't even know if what I planted was the seed or a grain of dirt!  There is a Silk Oak in our neighborhood - a few blocks away - that I scavenged "seeds" from, and in about 4 years I have this:

It's in the pot behind the chair needing transplant into a bigger pot, but we needed to get more dirt.  It is a frond sort of leaf that makes it look silky.  Can you make out the little plant at the bottom - that is a totally different kind of oak planted by that #@!!!%&$ squirrel.  (Why did the computer put that in blue and underline it?)  Anyway, 2 other potted plants carry that extra squirrel tree.  I hope I can keep them alive to put with the little plants for Halloween, but I have to transplant them to some other pots.  My work is never done!
Hope you all are in fine fettle again.  Love to all my readers and especially to my followers!
Terri

What a sabbatical!

No particular reason, just didn't know how to share all that had happened.  Since I posted last I went to a lovely wedding - outdoors in a wooded, shady garden behind the St. George Hotel in Volcano, CA.... one of my favorite places in CA.  My sis and bro-in-law drove all the way from SD to be there and were our house guests for a short visit.  (Hadn't seen them since 2002.)
       The groom (my son) got misty eyed when he saw his bride walk down the isle... we were all touched. (He's the one that just got back from HazMat type training in the Army - big tough guy.) I cried, but I have no idea why.  The mom of the bride was dry eyed.  I envy her control, but then I am older, and we older women tend to let it all hang out - which you can see on the pictures..... LOL.  I enjoyed the wedding, and the guests, but best was seeing my son #2 and his family that I haven't seen in almost a decade.  (They are a career Air Force family, so we haven't seen them since they were stateside in NC.  Now stationed in Alaska.) Granddaughter 2 is taller than me now (at 16+), and Grandson 2 is also (at 14+). Imagine how tall they will be when they stop growing!  And my #1 Daughter-in-law...Love you girl!  Precious moments.... We took the kids and DIL to see the Jelly Belly Factory!  It's a sweeeeeet destination in CA.
       Also got to see #1 Grandson.  He is now 18+  and quite the gentleman.  In the reception line he was mistaken for the brother of the groom (who is almost 40 but still looks young enough to be the groom to his bride in her early 20s.)  Somehow I think my grandson was happy about looking older, but he is the groom's son! He lives in Florida, so we don't get to see him that often, either.  I always wanted to be the "hands on" grandma... babysitting, baking cookies and spoiling the little ones... didn't happen.
     Since the wedding I've just been sewing and watering little plants.... so elated to see the day lily seeds I harvested (out of free plants from the local nursery).  Here's a picture:

In the picture you can see the 3 of the four day lilies have germinated!!!! Hurray!!!  And then there is a Columbine to the right of them, above that is a Crown of Thorns that has gotten leaves, too.  My babies are growing up. Sweeeeet!

          So I'm back to blogging, and will show some quilt works in the next few.

Love 2 all my viewers and especially all my followers!

Terri

Reading blogs!

Dear Readers,
I just finished enjoying the blogs I look at every day.  (You can see my list on my profile. It doesn't show very well with this background, and I didn't choose that color for the link that will bring you to it... well, I'm just learning this blogging thing.  It's under that paragraph.) Most don't blog every day.  In fact, I just started one that has not blogged in over 2 years, but I love to look at a different part of it each day, and when I've finished seeing all that is there to see I'll probably cut it loose from my list.  I just appreciate the "eye candy" and the sharing that goes on even after the blogger has moved on to some other interest. The sharing and caring is lovely!  I was so excited to see that one of the blogs I really admire left me a comment.   I feel like I've been visited by a celebrity!  (Well, let's just throw caution to the wind and try something new - to put a link here to her blog...)  http://exuberantcolor.blogspot.com/  Wanda blogs every day, sometimes twice a day - and that is really impressive in itself, but then most of those days she also has new quilting done to show us, or pretty bird or garden pictures to share.  She is  inspirational. (I suspect that there are more than 24 hours in a day where she lives.)
I enjoy the trips I have been on while sitting here in my easy chair.  Today  at  http://athomewiththefarmerswife.blogspot.com/ we went to a living history museum in Tennessee. I love that!  I've been to castles with http://jellybeanangel2.blogspot.com/ and on Holiday with http://nostalgiaatthestonehouse.blogspot.com/ to Scotland and places around England. Reading blogs has found me lots of fun things to make, and shown me how to make them on tutorials at many different craft blogs. Here's one for a cute "recycling" project. http://www.instructables.com/id/How-to-make-pendants-and-charms-from-old-CDs/  I won't show you all the tuts I've saved on my favorites.  You might be getting something for your birthday or Christmas from one of them. 
I even love reading blogs in foreign languages.  It's fun to see what their language looks like and try to read it.  Here's an example of one I like in Norwegian.  http://solvi01.blogspot.com/  There usually are  pictures to help.  Suffice it to say, I love reading blogs!  And that is why I'm writing one.  I want to pass on some of my enjoyment.  Keep on reading!
<3
Terri

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