Surprise Gifts from Germany... & Photo u/l problem solved!!

Friends are so wonderful! Not too long ago a surprise package arrived from Germany. Brigitte had knitted a beautiful shawl for me- see below - and our mutual friend Katrin made me a Pouch and hand crocheted Key Cover to tuck inside the package! Big surprise!
The darling pouch holds my new iPhone perfectly and safely - the front pocket holds the 'ear buds' or the charging cord.  I just love the fabric Katrin used!

See my iPhone - the black, just barely peeking out the back pocket??

I just love the darling lime green closure snap. Not sure what it is made of... plastic maybe? Never seen them before. Because it is soft, there are no worries the phone screen will get scratched.

Hand crocheted KeyCover - created by: Katrin /Cattinka

The beautiful shawl below, was knitted by Brigitte. Isn't it gorgeous?!! Thank you so much. This lovely shawl is the pefect size to wear draped over one's shoulders, or looped and secured with a shawl pin [like a scarf]. I've worn it both ways and absolutely love it!

A big hug to my DD Laura who agreed to model the shawl so I could get some pictures. Thank you, Laura!

This great pic really shows off the beautiful yarn Brigitte used.

Thank you again, Brigitte and Katrin. I'm overwhelmed by your generosity and I will always treasure these lovely gifts.

Blog photo u/l problem solved: A HUGE Thank You to Cath, Mary and Tina who offered excellent advice in their comments regarding the photo uploading problems many of us have been dealing with lately. Today's fix turned out to be a very simple one: I tweeked Tina's suggestion and just toggeled between "compose" and "html" in the post editor. Select 'html' to u/l pics, then toggle back to 'compose' to move pics around, add captions, edit/write the text, etc.. Worked like a charm!  One note: b/c I am a novice with HTML, I found it easier to select/copy/paste and move the text around... NOT the photos. Was pretty easy.  Thank you again, ladies... aren't bloggers wonderful?!

Until next time. . .

Quilty Hugs,

GIFTS FROM AFAR. . . + A new "notion"

Isn't this sweet? A darling MugRug all the way from The Nederland. Thank you, Marianna. It is the perfect size to fit beside my laptop. I just love it! Thank you so much.

DJ MugRug by Marianna

And. . . Marianna's Mother made me this gorgeous card! WOW! Thank you. I love it... it is beautiful!

Hand made card by Marianna's Mother

A new "notion":  Have you heard about the great new tool for frog stitching? I first heard about it via Quiltville and Bonnie Hunter. It's actually a personal grooming aide - let me say I would never let this thing near my face!, but makes a fabulous un-sewer. It will undo tiny stitches in PPing in a wink. But be careful as it is very very sharp!

Eyebrow Razor: makes a super un-sewer for tiny PPing stitches!

Until next time, I hope projects are getting done and everyone is having fun during this Joyful Season.

Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah. . . what ever you celebrate, please share your Joy with others!

Quilty Hugs,

CORNER TIME... DJ TLC & A Great Notion

Yesterday and today was very productive. I worked on the Top Left Corner kite for my Dear Jane quilt. Here she is all completed:

DJ Kite: TLC Sadie Rose - completed Fri, 11/16/2012

There are several ways to complete this block, but I decided to mostly just piece it. I made FP templates by printing the block from the DJ software onto a sheet of FP; cut apart. Press the FP templates onto b/g fabric. Cut 10 squares of focus fabric for the octogons. Lay octogons out into their grid shape 3x3 and piece the edges that touch.

Applique-piecing using LadderStitch - not EPP. No whip stitches!

Press under the remaining edges of octogons and lay on center b/g square.

Piecing the center area of DJ-TLC

 Sew b/g pieces together [catching all the outside edges of the octogons in this seam allowance]. I left the FP on while machine stitching... worked great.

Stitching next to edge of FP template - adding the 'side-wings' to TLC

Applique the pressed-under edges of the octogons to the b/g; and, applique the top octogon onto the topmost point piece. Done. I really enjoyed making this block. It is not hard to do, but is a bit time consuming.

Back of TLC showing construction - FP templates left on to stabilize edges during sewing.

A great notion: My wonderful friend Jill encouraged me to try the "Prep-Tool."  What a fabulous tool it is! Now that I've tried it, I love it! If it hadn't been for Jill, I never would have. Aren't friends great? Thank you, Jill!

PrepTool - perfect scant 1/4" s.a. & corner "nipper"

Notice: Spammers have been working overtime lately. Bummer. It is no longer possible to leave an annonymous comment on this blog. I am so sorry - hopefully this will only be temporary. All "registered and OpenID" commenters will publish. It is so easy to get a FREE Google ID... I hope people will, as comment-love is wonderful to receive. It's one of the ways we interact and share with each other.  The only other choice is to put the "word thingy" back on... I don't want to do that, as I find it difficult and I hear many of you do too. Thank you for understanding.

Until next time. . . I will be spending the day playing with SnowPeople parts. What are YOU going to do?

Quilty Hugs,

SUPER RULER... Precise Trimming & DJ Triangle LS-9

Yesterday at Friendship Group I had the opportunity to try a BlocLoc Ruler. I LOVE this ruler! I used it to trim up a stack of tiny 1.25" waste HST blocks. Wow, no slipping, sliding, or "ruler-rocking" over the seam allowance. The square ruler size I used is 6 inches, which could have been a problem with another ruler, but this larger one still worked very well. A huge thanks to my friend Jill, who taught me how to use this nifty ruler.  I have no affiliation with BlocLoc, I am just a very happy camper and plan to purchase a few of these rulers.

BlocLoc ruler and 1.25" trimmed HST blocks

Please look closely at the bottom of the pic above and you will see a 1/4" area running horizontally that is not clear like the rest of the ruler. This narrow "trough" is where the seam allowance sits which is what keeps the ruler flat against the block to be trimmed. Nothing moves! It's great.

DJ Triangle: LS-9, completed 11Nov'12

Until next time, it's back to working on DJ Triangles for me. I finished one yesterday: LS-9, an easy one, just simple applique.  But I need at least one more DJ block to meet my personal commitment for the DJRetreatYahoo group BOW.  What are YOU working on???

Quilty Hugs,

It's A Wonderful Day... hey, it's been a great WEEK!

No quilty projects to share with you today, but. . . Oh Happy Day! It's my birthday and I have been spoiled rotten so far! lol.

My sweet friend Marianna, in the Nederlands, sent me this darling card and quite a bit of gorgeous RED fabric. Love it! A girl can never have enough red in her life! lol. Thank you, Marianna!

Not a day goes by that I don't say a "gratitude prayer" that I'm lucky to have family and friends that care about me and say so. I feel so blessed. What are you grateful for today?

Thank you for stopping by for a visit. I hope where ever you are that you have time to create something you love.

Quilty hugs,

FLIMSY FRIDAYS -- even tho' it's Monday, we're talking about it!

Pat and some of her blogging buddies came up with a nifty idea: Flimsy Fridays. An effort to tackle some of those UFOs hanging about and other projects that only need a little of this-or-that to be complete. Go check out Pat's blog for all the info. Good idea, Pat!

This idea fits well with OPAM: One Project A Month. Please find the OPAM button on my side bar.  Flimsy Fridays can get us to One Project A WEEK! Yippee. Please give it a try and let's see how far this can go.

That's all for today. Thank you so much for dropping by to visit. I hope where ever you are, you have time to create something for someone you love!

Quilty hugs,

IT BEGAN AS SIMPLE... then moved on from there

It really did begin as a simple idea: take 3 fabrics; cut into 5" squares; stack them up; make a couple of cuts; and, sew back together. Ok... I wanted to make more than two cuts b/c my beginning squares would be larger -- 6" rather than 5". Now I needed more squares [you need one more square than cuts you plan to make].

Well, so far so good, except I cut across a CORNER instead of cutting across the square! This tips the balance of the seam allowances which is why my finished 'squares' are rectangles.

I like to "clean up" the diagonal before sewing the last corner piece on... just keeps things neat and easy.

Now we have wonky sort-of-rectangles. Not to worry, a bit of squaring up and a touch with an iron will make them look pretty and neat:

I wanted to keep my blocks very simple, so I chose to do a feather stitch with my Janome6500 and King Tut variegated thread. The hearts are cut-outs left over from a H2H Swap I did a couple of years ago. I thought it would help settle the white areas down -- nope. Don't like it. Doesn't go well with my fabric, so I put them on my friend's blocks -- voila! Looks great [pic below]

This was a quick and fun project to do with a friend. We plan to take our "experiments" to Friendship Group with us tomorrow [Tuesday] to share.  Perhaps they will want to make some too.

Thank you for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your visit and will come back again -- leave a comment and say 'hello' -- It is always interesting to hear the thoughts of others.

Quilty Hugs,

A LITTLE QUILT SHOW... the gals at Tuesday Group have been busy.

The gals at Tuesday's Friendship Group Meeting sure have been busy, especially Rosemary! She made several quilts in the last couple of weeks. Here are a couple:

Rosemary also does beautiful embroidery!

The happy quilt below was made by Joy. She cut up a 'cheater' panel; added wedges to skew the blocks, then added sashing and a great pieced border. Very effective. She also designed some embroidery for the center block to embellish it.  This is Joy's original design -- great quilt, but I'm sorry I took such a poor photo:

Jill brought a fun gadget to share. It is a portable, hand-held scanner that she can carry in her purse. Her goal is to scan fabrics as she shops for them in order to create a personal fabric history.  Then she can upload the scans into her new EQ7 program creating her own personal Fabric Library to design with. Sounds like fun.

So, just for fun we scanned some of my Fruit and Veggie fabrics that I had in my sewing kit... just to see how it works, you understand...lol. . . we learned a little about the scanner by trying it out. . . here is the Corn FQ:

Today is a very short post. Tomorrow or Saturday I hope to post pics of my Hexie blocks. . . I have a TON of them! lol

Until then, thank you for stopping by. . .

Hugs,

HOME. . . It's Great To Be Home!

Travel is nice, but it is wonderful to be home. Things have been a bit hectic here. The next day after returning from Hawaii -- which was wonderful! -- my DD, her Hubby, and my Great Grandson came to visit for a few days. It was a whirl-wind visit, but it was great just the same. We managed to visit, camp, BBQ, shop, hit a few restaurants; also, Auntie and Andy even took a small trip around the Harbor in a Paddle Boat!

I caught the girls "being girls" in a candid shot at the Harbor.

Here is evidence of our BBQ necessities! LOL

Roasting marshmellos for Sa-Mores -- what a great way to finish up a lovely evening!

Tuesday was Friendship Group Meeting and several members shared their current projects:

Suzanne shared a quilt made by kids. They 'rubbed' crayons over leaves. Wonderful!

Deb's batik Star Quilt... Deb does amazing and beautiful work!

Another of Deb's beauties: A mini DJ -- the blocks are half-size. . . that's only 2 inches, folks! Wow.

Some of Susan's "10 Minute Blocks" made from 5inch batik charm squares. Nice! [Click on 10 Minute Blocks and you will see a U-tube vid on how to make these cute and easy blocks.]

The Southern California Quilt Run is on this weekend and next weekend. Many shops are participating and they are spread out over 3 or 4 counties. This means a lot of driving! I will be volunteering at a LQS. It's been a lot of work, but Thursday and Friday were fun days. Had the opportunity to meet many wonderful quilters who drove long distances to visit with us in San Diego County.

My current goal is to get busy on the big pile of UFOs that are stretching to the sky! It is time to get going on some of these many projects and not begin any new ones until some of the WIPs are finished! Yes... I'll hold my breath. LOL

Thanks for stopping by. . . I hope where ever you are that you can visit with those you love, and of course find some time to stitch!

Hugs,

Eat Less, Move More. . . That's my plan

The truth is I need to lose 50 pounds! Sheesh... but, hey, doc says so.  Hard to argue with reality! lol.

My plan is to: Eat Less and move more. Also to increase Veggies and Fruits, eat more Whole Grains, limit sugar and reduce caffeine. Sounds reasonable. . .ya?!  We'll see. So far over the past 12 days I've lost 4 lbs, but I expect the rate to slow down to 1 or 2 lbs per week, which is a reasonable goal. Golly. . . Pacing, Moderation, Reasonable... haven't been my fave words, but I'm trying! lol. 

Right now I walk around the house for 5 minutes, 3 times each day. I'm doing stretching and a few "chair exercises"... arm movements, etc..  I can walk outside when I am accompanied, as I still have some dizzy problems from the stroke in March and recent surgeries. In preparation for that, I'm looking for a BIG hat to shade my face from the sun while outside.

Please wish me luck and success.  The other part of my plan is to post here and update the 'ticker' in the header of my blog. . . I'm hoping this will keep me "accountable."  If you happen to be on a similar journey, please feel free to post a comment here or email me and we can support each other. 

My real inspiration came from my dear friend, Elaine, who is amazing and dedicated to improving her health and well being! Another friend, Rosa, is also on this road. I got the 'ticker' above by clicking on Rosa's. So, if you want one for your blog, just click on mine. ; -)

Thanks for listening. . . talk to you soon with some quilty stuff!
Hugs,
Cyn; -)
PS: My "weight tracker" has been changed and moved to the side bar.

Friendship is Golden!

Hello. . .

Thank you everyone for the beautiful emails and well wishes you've sent me. I'm still healing, but things are going along well.

This beeee-oooo-ti-ful Orchid was sent to me by five lovely friends. Isn't it wonderful?!  I just LOVE orchids!

The picture below is a closeup of the fabulous Lapis Blue Ceramic Pot that this gorgeous Orchid was delivered in.  It has been at my house for several weeks and it is still in BLOOM! Wonderful. I will treasure this plant for all the years that it decides to live with me!  Orchids thrive on neglect, so that's good news, and my kind of plant! lol. Thank you again dear dear friends... you know who you are. ; -)

Here's a closeup of one of the flowers... orchids facinate me with their shapes and color shading.

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This post is just a quickie... but I'd like to mention that I'm taking pics of some easy small projects I'm working on and will share them with you soon. Also have designed a new project I'm calling "MicroMitts".  I'll post the pattern here just as soon as I work out a few more kinks! lol 

As it's been a month, almost to the day that I've posted, I just want to say "Hi!" and "thank you" to everyone. . .I sure have missed Blog-Land.

Many Hugs,

Cyn; -)