Cards of love...

A couple of cards I made for family members. My great neice, Lauren, graduated from St. Pius High School this year, and my great neice, Jennifer, got married.

I'm trying to finish the last quilt I posted. I ran out of steam. Our trip to Paris took all my energy and I'm doing some soul searching about what type of craft I want to pursue now. My good friend, Karen, gave me some paper making stuff and I have been gathering and getting ready to dive into that. I love paper and to create it is fulfilling. Next post will show some of that, I hope. Until then, I keep working on my Paris notebook and pictures. It is a way to re-live that most special time. Merci, Paris!

New quilt design

A new year and a new quilt I am currently working on. I think this one will be very interesting when its put together. The name is One Block Wonder, and it certainly is!
I will be sewing it into rows soon, the size is much smaller than I thought it would be, but that's ok, I'll just have to have large borders. This has been a fun one to work on since everyone in the class has a different design. It has been a new challenge for me, but fun.

Merry Monkeys!

This is the last blog of 2011. Sounds scary, doesn't it? But, I am looking forward to the new year and lots of new projects to begin. But, I can't forget the Monkeys I did as my last endeavor for this year. These little guys, and gal, were dressed to mimic my grands Halloween costumes. We have, LtoR, Sonic the Hedge-monkey, The Assassin-monkey, Tinker-monkey, and Alvin-monkey. The kids loved them and I do, too!

My new passion!

I have been taking an online class in journal making. This is a unique way of using paper and fabric scraps, sewing them together to create special vignettes open to writing on. It's fun and challenging, and I get to use up some of my treasures I've been hoarding and put them in page form to create a place to showcase my collage abilities, then I get to write on them.  Fun and frugal--just the way I like it.

Fall is in the air

August is cruising by and my garden is still growing. My tomato plants are taller than I am. I harvested my herbs and gave away 4 small bags of parsley, lemon sage, mint, and thyme to my Alanon buddies. Now I'm hoping my tomatoes will start getting bigger. Meanwhile there is time to work on my latest quilt. The material I showed in the last post is now all cut, sewn into blocks, and ready to be put together. This style was our "Mystery Quilt" for the summer class. Lots of tiny pieces. I enjoyed working with the colors I chose. I'm signed up for the next session and hope to finish that and 3 others I have. I will NOT buy more material (a common mantra from many quilters!) until I finish these I have started.

Lavender and sewing

 I have been harvesting my lavender and making some scent sticks to put in the bathrooms. It's heavenly working with these tiny blooms. I get the best feeling from growing and cutting the stems.
My other project right now is a Mystery Quilt. I have chosen to go with teal, aqua, white and some batik with waves of the same shades of blue greens together. (not pictured) I am enjoying my class on Wed. taught by Bobbie Porter. She's a genius with material and ideas with fabrics. I am also finishing three other quilts I have posted before in their beginning stages. I have hired a person to "quilt" them on her long arm machine. I hope to have them finished and posted here soon.