I'm going to sound like a fan (read weird fanatic)...and I probably am, but Pat Winter was in an online group with me a while ago and I developed a real appreciation for her stuff.

So, I was happily managing my "bloggers who embellish" webring I got an email from her, it appears that "gatherings" is her blog. Be sure to peruse her pictures. She's very talented and this is a fantastic place for eye candy and to get inspiration! I'm so glad you're in the ring and blogging Pat!

In trying to catch up with the webring (wow, it's grown!), I also ran across Lazy Gal Quilting who has some wonderful 4th of July quilt ideas and has a neat and creative approach. I also noticed another ring she belongs to called quiltmavericks - and I thought it was a cute idea for a ring and perhaps of interest to a lot of you who read this blog.

Today I'm working in the studio (gosh, I love saying that!) for the SECOND DAY IN A ROW! I'm trying to get some "work" off the table so I can do fun stuff. I have some mending and icky things that appear with my sewing (hack, hack stuff) but this afternoon I'm hoping to have some pictures of projects in process! Hooray...getting things done! Stumble It!

Here's more eye candy from that fantastic crazy quilt I got to see and photograph. I think the work on it is fascinating. The owners are on vacation, but I'll try to furnish more fascinating statistics when they get back.



Note and update: I have deleted my erroneous date "guess" (see comments) - I'll update you all when I get more information about them! Stumble It!

Well thankfully all of my car woes are over - for those of you who didn't know, all of our cars went belly up in the heat and so we were carless, then not carless then broken down and walking with two kids home at 10pm. All is well tho, and the other car will be home on Sunday...my nice parents have loaned us a car for a few days to get through some "double" car issues. Here (mostly for the grandparents) is Matey Moo's new haircut (none of mine yet...gotta get Rex to take a picture):

I'm a wimp. I HATE heat! So, today we are hiding in the house. It's supposed to be 104 degrees today and we do not have air conditioning. I did go out and buy another fan, which should help. Oddly, I've actually been getting quite a bit of work done this morning, but UGH....I hate the heat (have I mentioned this?).

I have done NO stitching. I'm really hoping to get back into it this afternoon, but I've set a goal on my web design stuff that I have to do before I can have fun. However, here is the mostly finished workspace downstairs...I got my bead shelf up again and some things on the walls.

This is the front view...I think the bookcases to hold the door up (the top is a bifold door) is pretty clever for storage (that's actually a sweater drier stuffed under there for the time being). Well, I'm off to get stuff done. With any luck I'll have some stitching to show tonight.
Stumble It!

So, I have been keeping this blog for a year. I've worked on projects, bored you all with stories of my kids and home life and all sorts of things. My audience seems to range from my family (Rex's parents and my parents primarily - who now miss it if I don't update every day!) to my good friends (Hi Anne!) to all of you on the Bloggers who Embellish and Artful Quilters Ring and some Crazy Quilting friends from other sources (Hi Louanne!).
Artistically I have learned heaps! Everytime I got stuck all of you were there. I appreciate all of the encouragement and comments that you all posted and I appreciate all of you who read and don't comment!
I don't really know what I enjoy about blogging, but it's become part of my life and I'm glad for it. Maybe it's just a great outlet for things that my 3 and 4 year old and husband aren't interested in...or it's just a great place for me to babble!
No one has asked me in a long time, but my first post is where I got my title...Cheryl Wheeler is a favorite singer of mine and this is one of her great songs...much to my dismay, it turns out most people (mostly family) thought I picked the title because it suits me (harrumph!) - I actually picked it more as a comment on society, but I guess (she admits VERY grudgingly) that it does fit me a little! ;-)
Thanks to all of you...I wonder what next year will bring?
Stumble It!

What started as an icky weekend...(we had car trouble on Friday) ended up really nice. We thought we'd stop and see some friends while taking the car to be worked on (we take it to the next town because we have a trusted mechanic....can you believe there is such a thing!) and they ended up providing us with a lovely day!
We went to lunch and to an a Picasso exhibit at the local museum and then boating on Lake Loveland! The kids were really funny....Matey Moo, who is normally our thrill seeker, was - well, we weren't so sure about him. He kept say "again, again!" when we stopped, but when we went really fast on the boat he didn't actually look too impressed. And MISSY C, who normally hates anything too scary LOVED the boat! She couldn't get enough! Well, the day was full and really exciting and we were tired today. Just work and hanging out! I did get my studio all sorted out tho, so hopefully work and pictures tomorrow! Stumble It!

I wanted to share some pictures of the from our Rocky Mountain Crazy Quilters class today about ciggies silks. Holly has a HUGE collection (I'm not sure what Holly doesn't have a huge collection of) and so was willing to share them as well as a bit of history. For those of you who are not familiar with them, they came with packs of cigarettes and with cigars at the turn of the century. The first ones were cards like these - kind of like baseball cards:

These are a small sampling (I have more pictures and you can see some of these are actual stacks) of the ciggie silks that Holly had to show today. I like the green one (and the ones behind it were of the same subject matter) of the silent film stars:

These are some of the larger ones...I was especially amazed at the colors...considering the ages of them.

Crazy quilts also became popular at the time and so quilters would work them into their designs...thus making them also very popular with crazy quilters today!

On a more personal note (and for the grandparents who read the blog) Missy C and her Dad got haircuts today. I think Missy C's is particularly cute. She refuses to let me put her hair in a pony tail, so it was time for a short hair cut!
I like Rex posed with the Taco Bell dog...and yep, he's engrossed in a computer game!

Stumble It!

Dioramarama is starting a modern quilt along...she even got a comment on her blog from the authors of the book she's using (neat eh?)...so go check it out!
I refuse to start ONE MORE PROJECT! I'm working in my new studio right now and I think the next thing is to update my UFO list...there's always something new eh?
Tomorrow is our Rocky Mountain Crazy Quilting Group meeting and we're learning about ciggie silks...I can't wait! Stumble It!

Well, not to pat myself on the back, but the bloggers who embellish ring has grown to be quite a nice list. I've been trying to go through and maintain it a bit today. My apologies for still not putting up a tutorial on how to add the code page. I was hoping to get some hints from ringsurf, but they appear to not really be on the helpful side! :-) One side note...we had a discussion on Current Projects blog about what "dispatched" means on the ring. It means that your blog has sent someone into the ring...someone saw the ring code there and started to surf from your blog.
I'm totally avoiding work this morning. One of the bad things about working from home is that you never seem to get time off, so I decided to goof off this morning and not feel bad about it, then it's "nose to the grindstone" this afternoon.

So, in hanging out and surfing, I ran across these great new blogs on the ring: Pumpkin12pm Presenting... - Journal - Beth has started a new blog about fiber art, collage and mixed media art. Very interesting artistically. She would appreciate feedback, so you might pop by and give her some! :-)

30 days of DO is interesting...as the title suggests Robin is trying to commit to doing something in her studio every day for 30 days! She appears to be quite the dog and cat fanatic, so there's some great pictures too!

SCquiltaddict - Margaret Hunt - absolutely LOVELY work and discussions of technique. This is one I have a feeling I'm going to look at every day!

I just want to thank all of you in the ring! I really enjoy (and am sometimes completely awed by) your company and hope all of you will keep posting and surfing the rest of the group! Stumble It!

Here is the room as you walk in the door. I'm actually folding laundry in here now - it isn't so dark and dingy and it's kind of nice to stand in there....great area, eh?
Then this is my old file cabinet full of fabrics (all organized by color in ziplock baggies - I need to mark the outsides of the drawers) with the chest freezer which we just swaped, we used to have a much larger one and this one is smaller and tidier and probably more fuel efficient (thanks Scot for that).
This is the inside of the closets...I get about 1/5 for my hobby storage...I've got some of Missy C's craft projects and my scrapbooking stuff in there. Ooo, and my laundry sorter - I love it...I've had it for a long time and it's wonderful.
Last but not least, my craft table. Which is two closet doors with a bookcase at either end for storage (pretty clever if I don't say so myself). I still have to hang up my bead storage shelf and some other storage units, plus a few decorative things. The loveseat is actually a crib/loveseat/single bed that I was NOT willing to get rid of yet...both kids slept in it as a crib and I'm attached. Plus, the practical angle that it's still useful. Not sure if you can see, but both cats are pretty happy here. The old one pretty much lived in this room when it was a disgusting shop and I'm hoping she likes it better this way.
So, we still haven't put anything on the walls, but this is the "work in progress". Rex is currently building some shelves in the garage so we can get that area organized, but it's all coming together. Whew. I'll put one last photo up when I get it all "purty". Stumble It!

Here are a couple of very quick pictures of the empty finished room (it doesn't look ANYTHING like this anymore!

This is truly quicky pics! I'll have more pictures of the "finished space" tomorrow! :-) Stumble It!

I've added more of the big elements (yep, there is a BIT of pink) I want to be part of the block and finished the ribbon with french knots on the one side. I also did a little feather stitch at the top. So, now I'm breaking and hunting through all of my stitch guides and surfing the net for more stitch combo ideas. This, I think is the hardest part of cq is filling it up with the "right"stitches...although with this block I seem to be having a lot of fun doing it and a bit more momentum to actually finish it?!

This weekend should be wonderful! Not only is it a long holiday weekend (4th of July for you folks outside the US) but we are going to paint what will be the new SEWING ROOM!!! Whooopeee! I'm so excited...can you tell? LouAnne S. who is in a couple of online groups with me and also always has good tips sent me these FABULOUS links (LouAnne WHEN are you going to start blogging?). First, I am DYING for this sewing table...so now I have to spend the summer finding the right table at an estate sale and then hound Rex until he does it! And she recommends the book by this gal (this is when she was on Simply Quilts) . Thanks LouAnne for the great info!

So, depending on how all of this goes I'll either be really quiet this weekend or frantically updating with photos! Wish me luck! Stumble It!