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