The Quilt that Walked To Golden

Ok, so I tried to actually do this so it didn't look like a shameless plug (trust me, except for the click throughs to Amazon, I don't have a connection). I got this book for Christmas and have been "stuck into it" as my father in law would say. It's really good and well written (if you've read "The Persian Pickle club" you'll know the author) - it reads like a novel.

At any rate, living in Colorado and being into quilts it's a really interesting book. It's even got a great section about crazy quilting with some excellent examples.

Next Stop...the Denver Art Museum, which houses several of the quilts!!

Also, I don't know who else picked up on the link on Sharon's blog, but the Sewing rooms list is back (someone moved it or something). It's really fun to drool over some of the fantastic sewing rooms!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/30/2004 05:11:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Regrets and New Years Resolutions

Nope, my New Year's resolution is NOT to go on a diet (although I'll probably do it anyway) and it certainly isn't Missy C's goal (this, by the way, is what happened to the Gingerbread house!) !!

My inlaws are still here from Australia, they leave on Tuesday and I think the transition of all this grandparent attention to just me is going to be hard on the kids. The good news is that they start back to preschool the same week, so hopefully that will help. As we transition from Christmas to the New Year and back to a more regular schedule, I've thought a lot about regrets and the new year.

This year I lost contact with a lot of friends...some of whom I have some real regrets about loosing touch with. My old boss and his wife (years ago, they were like second parents) had been on my "to call" list for forever - when I finally did call two months ago, Barbara, the wife, had died of cancer just this summer.

Then, I had also lost touch with an old friend...the sad thing was that I KNEW his Dad had died of Cancer and I kept waiting for a "quiet moment" (yeah right) to get back in touch. As it turned out, he didn't know how to contact me and so I didn't get invited to his wedding this past summer. I feel so bad. There is one other set of friends that - well, I'm not sure if we're "at odds" or have just lost touch, but I'm hoping it's the latter. So, my first new years resolution is to get back in touch with them (I already have the other two) and to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again. I find it's so easy to get "busy"with our own lives and forget that others lives go on too.

My second resolution is to have more people over for dinner and make more friends...kind of an extension of the first resolution. With little kids it's been easy to just pull myself out of that, but I miss it, now it's time to get back in the social scene again.

3rd is to get really involved in learning more "tricks of the trade" with art quilting and crazy quilting. I love it...it's a total escape from everything and an outlet for my creativity.

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/30/2004 03:20:00 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

Metallic thread, stitching (or lack therof)

So, Arlee at Albedo designs (who called me "lovely and talented" - WOW! :-) - yikes, hard to live up to!) is looking for thread. I mentioned my metallic thread find which looks like this:

And she's looking for the stuff posted in the pic on her blog. I actually did a bit of a google for it and there seem to be "look alikes" on ebay, but not sure if they are what she's looking for! :-) Good luck!
So, I'm piecing this afternoon....my border (#3) and it's coming along ok. I seem to always look at the way I want the pieces to go together and have to spend some time figuring out how to make that happen....does anyone else feel that way?

So, here's my little band....aren't they cute?

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/29/2004 04:03:00 PM 1 Comments Links to this post

Firefox, My Yahoo, RSS and more geeky blog stuff

So, I've been geeking out on my blog the last couple of days. I downloaded the Firefox Browser and it's pretty cool. The neatest enhancement to old IE is the tabs...if you bookmark a lot of stuff (like blogs) you can bring them all up in tabs across the top and just cruise through them. Works great with blogs...normally I can tell at a glance if they've been updated.

The second thing I've been doing is working more on RSS (feedburner in my case) and syndication. I noticed that you could pick up several of the cool quilt blogs on My Yahoo, including About Quilting and Inaminuteago(sorry, you didn't win the best crafting Blog Sharon...I thought you would...NEXT YEAR!!!)! So, I went poking around to see how to get added. Turns out you just have to add one of thier buttons to your site (see my right column) and go. Kind of groovy.

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/29/2004 03:34:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Make-a-Flake - A snowflake maker by Lookandfeel new media

This is a VERY cute snowflake maker...you can download them and share them, or just sit and cut snowflakes (no mess necessary).
Nice relaxing way to spend a Tuesday morning...which I need because Alec got me up at 5:00 AM this morning...I am SO tired...oh well, maybe I'll get a nap later.

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/28/2004 08:30:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Fractal Art Quilts Blog

Rose Rushbrooke's blog about her Fractal Art Quilts. Her latest entry is about her spot on HGTV's Simply quilts...I think I saw this one, but it was before I found this site, so I'm not sure. Her blog seems to be quite interesting and packed with information!
I love it when Quilters share! :-)

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/28/2004 08:02:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Fairy progress: not too bad. I've pieced two more sides, added some machine-done dragonflies and started embellishing...just with my groovy metallic thread I got at Wal-mart. I really need to go back and get some more of it.

Anyway, it's coming along nicely. Hopefully I'll get some more done today.

I had a bit of an epiphany/soul-searching moment this morning. Rex had this morning with the kids so I could sleep in, which gave me mental space and two more hours of sleep. As I was falling back asleep (Matey Moo had crawled in with me at 5:30am) I was thinking about my new-found love of quilting and my art degree. I have a graphic design degree from Colorado State University. However, I never wanted to become a graphic designer. I always hated it, but I figured I could make money and wouldn't ever make money as a fine artist. Now, later in life, I'm regretting that. I wish I'd spent more time doing illustration and now with this interest in art quilts I'd like to pursue that.

So, I've been thinking about going back to school. But frankly, that's not totally appealing. My brothers both love school. I always hated it. I also seem to find myself on the opposite end philosophically with most art professors. So, all of you out there who do art quilts or any sort of art...do you think it's necessary to "study" more? I wish I had more technical skills, ie, sewing, embroidery, etc, but I can take little area classes for all of that. I have a heap of art theory, art history, etc. I'm just trying to decide what I'm lacking or if I just "go for it".

Hmmm, well, that's my musings heading into the new year...I really have enjoyed the artistic "flexing" I have been doing with crazy quilting, applique and all of these fiber arts, and I'm looking forward to doing a lot more. I guess I'm finding out that I'm a bit more serious about it than just having it as a hobby. Not sure where that leads me tho....

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/26/2004 01:24:00 PM 2 Comments Links to this post

Gingerbread house, the ENTIRE Stocking and the "day after"!

I hadn't posted a photo of the gingerbread house I made...with Missy C's help! I think it's cute. No idea what the "wall" is in front...started out being something else and kind of became a wall/blob with little bears on it. Last year was the first year I missed making a gingerbread house...kind of fun to get back into it.

Also, here's a photo of the finished stocking for Alec...I had to scan it in pieces before because I didn't have a DIGITAL CAMERA!!!! WOOOO HOOO!!! Guess what Santa brought me...ok, not Santa, Roger (isn't he fantastic!). You have no idea how many pictures I've already taken of Christmas day, but it really is fun.

At any rate, it's all over and (as always) the stuff is all looking tacky and getting on my nerves. I can't wait to take it all down. I love Christmas, but when I'm over it, I'm OVER it! Lots of fantastic gifts, a LOT of food and heaps of fun! It was a great day!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/26/2004 12:16:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Wishing all of you Happiness and Peace!

Wishing all of you hope and happiness this Holiday season.

I hope you are all warm, enjoying family, friends, pets or whoever brings you comfort.

Let this year bring peace, prosperity and joy to all of you!

Happy Stitching!!

Mary-Frances

Missy C, Matey Moo, Rex,

Pascal (doggy) , Harry (kitten), and Dodger (cat)

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/24/2004 07:52:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

If only I had my digital camera! (hint, hint!!)

If all of you could have seen me yesterday afternoon, I had my fairy project spread out all over the table - I finished piecing the remaining 3 borders so I can start similar embellishments on all 4 sides and also need to figure for overall size, etc.

I think the fairy is looking pretty good (of course you can't see because I dont' have a digital camera...hint, hint Santa!!)...but she still needs heaps done to her. I want to make the border fairly heavily embellished, but I don't want it to fight with the fairy either. Ah, the joys of balancing. This is a fairly major project for me. I'd love to finish just one of these.

Matey Moo was up sick night before last with the same illness Missy C had about a week ago, so hopefully it will be short lived too! I'm enjoying my new blog layout (thanks for the compliments Sharon and Maureen), its sort of like rearranging furniture...makes you feel like you're on vacation in your own home!

Oh, and thanks to Sharon for her fabulous stitch diagrams Christmas gift!! I'm already getting heaps of ideas from it!

I really hope to have lots of time to stitch today....I found the most wonderful embroidery thread at Wal-Mart, it's a copper metallic and it's actually fairly easy to work with and I have to actually piece the borders so lots and lots to do! I'm still having issues with piecing and embellishing long strips like the border...it all seems to "regular" and not crazy enough. Maybe I'll applique on a design or two so I can break it up a bit.

Stumble It!

posted by Sharkeysday at 12/22/2004 07:40:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Being a graphics geek & appreciating some sand sculpting!

Well, Missy C was up 1/2 the night last night throwing up, so very little sleep made me creative. I got the hankering to redesign my blog...what do you all think?

The good news about this is that I can change it at will now...it took a little learning about bloggers ins and outs, but it's kind of fun now that I'm getting a grip on it. Kind of embarrasing when you do web pages and design for a living and then have a (gasp!) template blog!!! Anyway, it was a fun way to spend the afternoon.

The great news is that there has been no more throwing up, so it looks like tonight I might actually get to sleep. Unfortunately, no stitching either...I must get back to work on things. I'm actually wanting to get back to my fairy project...be fun to make some more progress on her.

So, speaking of cool impressing artistic sites, I really enjoyed this Sand Sculpting - it appears they do this for a living. Amazing what folks find to do with thier lives, eh?

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/18/2004 04:47:00 PM 3 Comments Links to this post

A Month of Softies - crazy quilt style?

I don't know how many of you have run across Loobylu, but she does a really cute thing, A Month of Softies, they are basically challenges to make stuffed animals (or really any craft that meets the theme, the rules are pretty liberal) of a different theme each month. I think someone needs to do a CQ one. I might try one, but it won't be for a while (still working on that lap quilt).

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/17/2004 06:00:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Blogthings - Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

Okay, this was kind of fun! Roger is logical-mathematical.

Your Dominant Intelligence is Interpersonal Intelligence

You shine in your ability to realate to and understand others. Good at seeing others' points of view, you get how people think and feel. You have an uncanny ability to sense true feelings, intentions, and motivations. A natural born leader, you are great at teaching and mediating conflict. You would make a good counselor, salesperson, politician, or business person.

What Kind of Intelligence Do You Have?

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/15/2004 01:19:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Cool little clock utility

One of the cool things about surfing blogs is all of the funny stuff people produce to put on them, but I really liked ClockLink.com . The clocks are really sophisticated (see my sidebar) and fairly easy to modify.
I did a Sydney AU and a Denver one because hubby is from Sydney and we live in Denver! :-) The Sydney one has a couple of uses, I don't have to do complicated math to figure out what time it is there (remember it's tomorrow!! LOL!) and also my Australian readers can see our time difference. Maybe I'll even get my mother in law using it! :-) She's forever getting up at 4am and chatting with me on IM and we quite often spend a bit of it figuring out the time!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/14/2004 09:40:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

A little correction - but lots of neat links!!

Well, blogging has one ugly side effect, everyone can tell how quickly (aka haphazardly) I do things a lot of the time. Like when I posted messages saying they were from one of my brothers and it was from the other (those things are fine until you make them public) and it turns out my last posting is actually about two Maureens.

In my defense it turns out there are a lot of Maureen's in the world of crazy quilting! LOL! There are a bunch of them out there!

However, Maureen Grantham writes "Tangled Threads" and Maureen Greeson (you can see the similarity in the names) has a store - they are two different people on different continents (the store is in the US and Maureen Grantham is in Australia!) Oh, well, I'm learning!!! I have told you all I'm a newcomer to this world and I'm enjoying meeting everyone - and it turns out keeping them straight too! - as I go along!

This is also the second time this week I've been pointed to the Kaliko Kottage Forums :: Index - there are some fantastic pictures there and inspirations galore! Thanks Linda for pointing that one out!!! (I'm not going to link to your site in the horrible fear that I actually have two Linda's who are helpful and email me a lot!!! ROFL!!)

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/12/2004 10:20:00 AM 3 Comments Links to this post

Maureen's Crazy Quilting supplies

I have been meaning to post this for a while, but just as I found out that Maureen at Tangled Threads also has a store - she's decided to go out of business! Say it isn't SO Maureen! I guess I need to hurry and buy a bunch of stuff from you then!

If you have read her blog, you will see she does fantastic stuff and her store has some really really cool Crazy quilting stuff!!! However, yesterday and today her blog seems to be having some "issues"...I don't seem to be able to pull up much more than old posts and part of the front page.....sounds like Blogger strikes again. Sometimes this is a silly program!!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/11/2004 09:26:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Best Knitting/Craft Blog: Nominations

So, it took Rex a while to get up this morning and so I've been surfing BlogExplosion - especially the Hobby Section which is where the knitters and crafters are. First, a really pitiful self promotion....I have no ratings yet! :-) If someone has some time (and wants to surf some other blogs) I'd love to have at least a few votes and ratings there (yes, you can rate me however you feel is fair! :-)) . I just hate being lonely and looking like I don't have any friends...gosh, I'm pitiful! I always have a link to BlogExplosion in my sidebar, so it's a great place to waste a bit of time, but I have to say I surfed some really really bad blogs today too!

Speaking of this, I also read on one of the blogs about the bob awards - I would highly recommend that all of you knitters and crafters who are major blog readers go vote at:
Best of Blog (BoB) Awards 2004: Best Knitting/Craft Blog: Nominations . I have a feeling if we don't some juvenile and silly knitting blog will win (no offense knitting bloggers...some of my favorite blogs are knitting blogs). Gosh, the world is being taken over by knitters...I think we need some quilters, needleworkers or (gasp!) crazy quilters on there!

Anyway, go vote! I think we should get some really great blogs on there! I think my vote would have to be for Sharon at In A Minute ago....she's been in China and I have to say the blog world has been a little dry for her absence. I can't wait to read about her trip to China and see all of her pictures!!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/11/2004 07:01:00 AM 2 Comments Links to this post

Knitters, Book club and other hobbies!!!

Last night was book club night! We did it a little differently and made it a stitch and bitch/book club night and it was really fun. Of course, it was me...the crazy quilter in a sea of knitters, but oh well. Those knitters have taken over the world! I wonder what it would take to convert them to CQ'ers. The great news is I made more progress on my block.

The book we read (or are reading, it's really slow and none of us completely finished it) was Reading Lolita in Tehran (you can get it pretty cheap on Amazon right now by the way). The book is fantastic. It made me feel pretty parochial and isolated - and made my little issues seem very petty, but isn't that good in a book. It's very well written and we all enjoyed it a lot.

In our knitting discussions, Amy has a subscription to a very "dated" knitting magazine and so I was telling them about knitty.com . Especially funny is this little project I ran across! (might give you all a giggle!).

Well, I'm having a bit of a creativity spurt on poor Leslie's website that I've been "working" on...so hopefully I'll get it up and running soon!

This afternoon we're going to decorate cookies at "Granny and Gramps" house (my Mom and Dad's), so that should be fun. If all goes well, I'll let the kids and grandparents decorate and I'll work on my Christmas blocks more!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/10/2004 01:15:00 PM 0 Comments Links to this post

Inspiration amid a world of chaos

So, I've been having the few days from he**. I told you about my banking issues, well, they continue. I'm just totally stressed out about the whole thing.
Amid all of this, I'm working on 4 large Christmas blocks that a person on one of the crazy quilting boards sent me. They were fully pieced and so now just need embellishing. Seems easy? Well, it isn't...I sit and look at them and totally block as to what stitch to put where.
A little teaser because I"m only using the scanner right now:


Anyway, lots of blank seams to go! And this is only the first of 4 blocks. For inspiration I've been visiting Linda' Crazy Patchwork Page - really great eye candy! She does some great cross stitch and tatting, but her CQ is absolutely fantastic! Don't hate me Linda if I steal some of your ideas! ;-)

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/08/2004 05:20:00 AM 9 Comments Links to this post

Ah, if banking were done by Simoleons

Well, some drama with our bank today. Totally their error and I'm sure they will fix it, but for now it may leave us with no spending money for the weekend! YIKES! Anyway, I will be on the phone to the bank in a bit. I hate a Saturday morning with a fight! ;-)
On a more positive note, my mother in law is a total knitter...I'll try to post some pictures of the cute stuff she's done for the kids. But she loves our local yarn shop:Showers of Flowers (thier blog) - the have an online store too, so you knitter types might want to take a look. It really is a very cool store!
Oh, and I have a confession - I love the Sims. So, one of the downers about being without money this weekend is we were going to go buy this:


I can't wait to get into it! It really is supposed to be cool - I know, I'm a geek! I admit it!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/04/2004 08:41:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

"And the Stockings were hung...."

Hooray! I've finished Matey Moo's stocking! And in order to get at all legible photos I used the scanner! I really really need a digital camera (note to the Main family Santa!!), so I don't have a nice "full stocking" photo of it. I am really proud of it tho, the lining was something new and other than a few little "issues" with it, it turned out pretty well.





One of the wonders of the internet and blogging is being able to preserve different parts of our lives. Over at Wee Wonderfuls, she has finished Oscar's Baby Clothes Quilt! and it's fantastic! I really love the design and the fact that she documented the quilt squares with the pictures of him wearing the outfit is fantastic!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/03/2004 10:41:00 AM 0 Comments Links to this post

Treasure Purses

I just love some of these Treasure Purses - they are really fun to look at...the differences in ideas and styles is really really fun!

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posted by Sharkeysday at 12/03/2004 07:15:00 AM 1 Comments Links to this post