The Name Game!

Since blogger doesn't want to upload my picture at the moment let's play a game. This is called The Name Game. I found it on Calamity Kim's blog, here. If you haven't visited Calamity Kim before you might want to get a snack, something wonderful to sip, and plan on being there for awhile!

Now, on to the game...

1. YOUR ROCK STAR NAME (first pet, current car): George Ion

2. YOUR GANGSTA NAME (fave ice cream flavor, favorite cookie):
Tin Roof Brownie

3. YOUR “FLY Guy/Girl” NAME (first initial of first name, first three letters of your last name): S-Bro

4.YOUR DETECTIVE NAME (favorite color, favorite animal): Red Dog

5. YOUR SOAP OPERA NAME (middle name, city where you were born):
Elaine Tawas

6.YOUR STAR WARS NAME (the first 3 letters of your last name, first 2 letters of your first): Bro-Su

7. SUPERHERO NAME (”The” + 2nd favorite color, favorite drink):
The Yellow Cider

8. NASCAR NAME (the first names of your grandfathers): Gordon Earl

9. STRIPPER NAME (the name of your favorite perfume/cologne/scent, favorite candy):
Lilac Chocolate

10.WITNESS PROTECTION NAME (mother’s & father’s middle names):
Ann Lester

11. TV WEATHER ANCHOR NAME (Your 5th grade teacher’s last name, a major city that starts with the same letter): Silloway Seattle

12. SPY NAME/BOND GIRL (your favorite season/holiday, flower):
{Day of the} Dead Gardenia

13. CARTOON NAME (favorite fruit, article of clothing you’re wearing right now + “ie” or “y”): Strawberry Socky

14. HIPPY NAME (What you ate for breakfast, your favorite tree):
Cereal Willow

15.YOUR ROCKSTAR TOUR NAME (”The” + Your fave hobby/craft, fave weather element + “Tour”): The Stitching Sunshine Tour

This was a lot of fun to do. Some of the answers are "better" than others but I guess they can't all be winners. If I wrote fiction I'd seriously consider using a couple of them for character names!

Remember This?

The other day I realized the Fabric of Life quilts are due next month (now that it's September!). After a moment of panic I dug out the top, my notes, and the pile of fabrics I was working with at the time. I wasn't feeling particularly energetic at the time so I put aside the idea of free piecing blocks to go at the top and bottom of the panel and just cut my mask print into strips. It took some doing to preserve the slant on the bottom edge and still please the eye with a level top line but I think I managed it. (Although it makes it look like I took this picture at an angle to the design wall rather than directly in front of it.)

I hated trimming off the orange/purple/white/green stripe at the top and bottom edges but it was the only way to make the masks look like they belonged with the medallion. I'm pretty sure this is the end of piecing the top. The indigo will be used to bind the quilt. What I'm struggling with now is how to quilt and/or embellish the piece. There are lots of things I'd like to do; I just have to decide what is most appropriate for this piece. (And what I can reasonably accomplish before the due date!)

UPDATE: The due date for the Fabric of Life quilts has been pushed back to early December - whew!

These quilts will be displayed and then sold to support the Here Je Center in Mali, West Africa where young girls are given skills and education that will help them generate income and become micro-entrepeneurs. The two fabrics in the center of my quilt were made by the young ladies at the Center.

FINALLY!!!

DGD#2 has arrived!

But not without some drama!

DD labored for 7 hours on Monday but then contractions stopped and she had a decent night's rest. DSIL, on the other hand, had to be on the job until four in the morning (Tuesday morning). Three hours later he was awakened by DD and told to call labor & delivery at the hospital to give them a head's up. They probably should have gone to the hospital right then but they didn't want to leave too early like they did the first time around. Three hours later DD was on the floor in the living room screaming, "I have to push!" Fortunately her SIL is a birth coach and was staying with them. Michelle got out the potty pads and towels, DSIL dialed for emergency help, and Susan Marie was born at 10:17. There was a cadre of military police guarding the premises (DSIL is in the Navy), a firefighter actually caught the baby, and the EMT's took mother and daughter to the hospital to recuperate.

Baby weighed in at six pounds, 12 ounces, and measured 20.5" long.

Big sister had been staying with her other grandmother and saw an older cousin off on her first day of third grade. She was a little tired when she arrived at the hospital, being only 2.5 and overdue for a nap. When she saw her mom she asked, "Mommy have baby?" That was confirmed and she was asked if she knew what the baby's name was. She promptly replied, "Baby Susan." Absolutely right! She wasn't thrilled at having to leave her mommy in the hospital but, all things considered, handled everything well.

Grandma Sue got to spend the day at the hospital with DD and DGD :- ) And I didn't even have to wear my mask as long as I stayed in the room DD had all to herself!

4x6 Lives

I've been wanting to do another 4" x 6" quilt so yesterday I wandered around the studio trying to find something that felt good to work on. Played in my silks a bit, considered the novelty prints (Tonya at Lazy Gal Quilting is showing her Halloween quilts and had me thinking along those lines myself), and then dug into my bright scraps bag. Nothing really spoke to me until I happened upon some leftovers from a fabric challenge I participated in a few years ago. The theme was Jamaican Getaway. The quilt was auctioned off to raise funds for our local Hospice organization. I don't believe I have any pictures of it anywhere or I would show it to you. (I'm really bad about that. I don't have pictures of most of the things I've made.) I was quite pleased with that quilt.

Anyway, I found one pieced bit that was already 4" x 6" so I just slapped it on a piece of batting and basted them together. Then I found a couple more bits, sewed them together, and I had a second 4x6 top! The second one I made is the one on top in this picture:



It's also the one that spoke to me the loudest. I have a pair of whimsical fish earrings that I picked up at the thrift shop; one of those fits perfectly in the big blue shape in the middle of the quilt. But that will go on last because it's so dimensional. Last night I beaded the leaf/feather shape in the upper half of the quilt and then echo quilted in a single strand of rayon thread around it. I tried not to feak myself out by thinking of it as echo quilting though. In my mind I was just seed stitching in a pattern around the shape. If I'd been "quilting" it I would have been trying to have perfectly even stitches, blah blah blah. I'm working very hard to overcome those perfectionistic tendencies! (That's why I'm not even thinking of these as "postcard" quilts. If I thought there was any chance I'd be mailing them I would automatically restrict the embellishments I would allow myself to use. Honestly, Perfectionism is a disease.)

I would like very much to pick this back up and stitch some more on it but DH has a major garage-organizing project underway and requires my assistance...

Update on Journal Quilts

So here's my finished journal quilt for the month of July:

I'm very pleased with the way it turned out.

And here's what my journal quilt for August looks like at the moment:

Could it be more crooked?!

I have actually taken several interim shots but because of the difficulties in posting they now seem obsolete. In fact, I had a set of three buttons on the lower right-hand side where there are now a series of sequin flowers. The buttons were just too obtrusive. They were "stealing the show:"

So I took them off and replaced them with the sequins.

If you'll go back up and look at the more recent photo you may also notice that I have bead embellished the orange strips of the left-hand log cabin block. (It's pretty hard to see.) I've decided that those beads represent the stump fences so common in the area where our summer cottage was. I know the sun will also be beaded; I'm thinking of leaving the water of the lake untouched. Part of me wants to also bead the print over the house that reminds me of the aurora borealis I saw in the sky one summer night. But that might be too much!

DD is still not-so-patiently waiting to deliver her second daughter. She was so hoping to have an August baby! Instead she may very well end up being one of those mothers who ends up in labor on Labor Day. (The idea does not amuse her.)