Busy October...

Where HAS the time gone?! I got a late start on the September BOM, so October's fell fast on its heels. Instead of knocking it out in the first couple of days, I saved it for Quilt Camp!

Gwen hosted her First Annual Quilt Camp! From the sixth through the ninth of this month, I enjoyed a delightful little getaway—three nights away from home! Along with two sisters and and a sister-in-law, there I was! We had lots of sewing, laughter, conversation, challenges, creativity, wine-o'clock (what happens at quilt camp stays at quilt camp!), and poignant insights (personal, relational, artistic, and spiritual).

Here is a composite image of some of the quilts that were worked on or brought for show and tell. Julie, the seester-in-law from Arizona, prepared a couple of 'breakout sessions.' She showed us a couple of tricks with 9-patch and 4-patch blocks. A couple of the girls used the 'Disappearing 9-patch' (click here for blogger Susan Wood's technique) to start new quilts.

Julie also brought a nifty little tool with her. In the 'real' world, it's a wide-angle viewer (under $5) one might use for a front door. In quilt world (over $12), it serves as a scope enabling the viewer to see the whole quilt at one time. Even better, Julie picked up some while we were on a mini road trip and gave each of us one! Thank you, Julie!

Another hit of the weekend was a belated birthday gift I had for GweNaomi. Again, in the real world ($8), it's a suction cup grab bar that could also be used for gripping/moving glass and mirrors. In sewing/quilt world ($20), it's a sturdy and stable way to hold onto one's rotary cutter guide template. I think I first saw one in use about a year ago but found the less expensive substitute at Harbor Freight on sale for a dollar less than normal.

This is also evident in something as simple as pens. The big buzz in sewing/quilting community is about Pilot FRIXION pens—at Staples (plenty of stock), three for under $6; quilt store (if they can keep them in stock) only two for the same price. On paper, they are erasable—cool enough. On fabric—just iron over the mark and it disappears! Lesson: If you see a sewing/quilting tool you like, try finding its counterpart in the real world—you'll save lots of money!

One of the projects I took to quilt camp was my October BOM. I ran into a little trouble when I mis-cut one piece of fabric and had to substitute it with a batik I'd bought on sale earlier that morning. Sewing has always been a solitary activity for me and I suspect all the social distraction took its toll. But all was well—I finished the block and moved on to another project. Even better—I am only one month away from having all of the BOMs and border!

Update on the hooded towels project. Sadly, none were bought. I was hoping Autumn would embroider one with the OU logo so they'd more quickly sale/invite orders, but there were too many personalization orders to get that done that weekend. So now they're going into a consignment shop—we'll see what happens there. It's disappointing but hopefully they'll find a clientele with a different marketing strategy. Or EVERYBODY gets hooded towels for gifts this/next year! I'm not kidding! Lucky you!

Sock Monkey! Years ago, in college, I think, I bought a pair of the traditional Rockport Red Heel Socks and made one. I don't think I had one as a child, but remember seeing them around. Maybe my Aunt Velma had one, along with those wonderful yo-yo dolls (made of puffy fabric discs strung together [I've got some patterns to make a cat, dog, and monkey yo-yo critters]) and chenille bedspreads. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, Paton yarns sent me an email describing their new book of Sock Monkeys to Knit or Crochet. Oooh, aaah! I downloaded the book and was able to get started right away. This is what I have done of him/her so far. I've also done (and customized) the ears and muzzle, but they get sewn on later. I still have the arms and tail to knit. I'm looking forward to finishing it!

Zipper Bracelet. I first came across this a few weeks ago on Pinterest. Once I read the instructions, I knew I wanted to make some. Hmm...now where to get the zippers? As it happens, a friend was starting a jeans quilt a couple of weekends ago and has a stack of jeans zippers to spare! I expect to have those in a few days. Yippie! So far I've experimented with a couple of metal zippers out of Tom's retired khaki slacks.

Zentangles®. It was just over a year ago that Gwen had her Zentangle workshop. I was an instant fan and had plans to get down to drawing. Enter sewing. And quilting. And every other distraction. I got back to sketching some of the patterns again by using a quadrille rule composition book to practice eight designs per page. I'm still having that little battle within—do I have to practice ALL of the tangles and not just the ones I like? There are some I just find unappealing or don't like drawing. Should I feel compelled to draw them, too? Silliness, I know.

Tonight was paper bead night at Jana's! A few of us who have not seen each other for awhile got together to chat, catch up, dine (luscious!), and make paper beads. I think everyone had  lots of fun!

With Halloween upcoming, Tom is finally ready to costume himself as a superhero! Yes, he's already MY superhero, but who he wants to be is Mermaid Man (the elder), as seen on Spongebob Squarepants. He's 'threatened' to do this for a few years. THIS year he's gathered all the clothing and props necessary so I can't wait to see it all pulled together!

There are still 11 more days left to the month. Hopefully I can keep up this pace or things slow down! It's all good!

BOM Seven...

12 September Here's how the newest Block of the Month should go together. I am putting off cutting/piecing this until I get another time-sensitive sewing project done—hooded towels—several. In addition to making larger hooded towels (for larger child or small adult), my friend Autumn suggested I could make infant-size ones—three* per beach towel. I bought four beach towels on clearance this late time we were at the BX and have a dozen small made.

After a hiatus of almost two months, I've bought a couple dozen fat quarters, and some other yardages—

mostly coordinating patterns/colors for binding the hooded towels. But I found this incredible border print that absolutely took my breath away!

I Present to You: Effervescence by Amelia Caruso for Robert Kaufman fabrics. The artist, Amelia Caruso has some great paintings that just bubble off their industrial surfaces. I bought two yards of this, one yard of the stripes, and only a fat quarter of the green (it's all they had). Here's the whole line. Sigh.

Fast forward—it's 17 days later

I got all the towels sewn. There were 26 altogether, but I think a dozen of them might be practically given away. *I misread Autumn's instructions and made the hooded towels from beach towels quite a bit smaller than useful—three from one towel instead of three from TWO towels. Am hoping she could sell them cheaply for baby dolls or something.

For the solid color towels, I attached a print binding. For the white ones with color stripes, I simply sewed the hood into the towel's hem, and usually put some solid binding (taken from the solid towel's end hem) along the hood edge. I made extra ones in red or red/white in hopes shoppers will buy/order them on which to have the OU logo machine embroidered. I've already heard from my OSU friends and the reason I'm not making extra orange ones is that Autumn has only purchased the license to use the OU logo and not the OSU logo. In any case, GO COWBOYS!

And I jumped back on (or fell off?) the fat quarter wagon. I've made up for lost time and recently bought 40. I find myself amused with what colors/patterns may catch my fancy any given days. And do I think with a plan in mind? Yes, and no. "It's pretty" is usually good enough for me. I am thinking a little downstream that I'd like to do an art quilt in batiks, and find myself buying batik colors for that someday project. Speaking of someday, someday I'll have to show you how I document my fabric inventory!

Pinterest! This is my new online time-gobbler. You look around the Web and find photos, videos, and pages you like and 'pin' (kind of like tagging) them to your personal 'boards.' Here are mine—click the link and see all my boards and pins. I think this is great for the middle age brain—fleeting glimpses can be saved and revisited, often! I think one can create as many boards, and pin as many items as they wish. Shown is a screen shot of the index page of my boards. For example, I've got a board called "Zentangles® and More Drawing." I want to get back to Zentangling (quilting displaced my initial interest last winter).

Last weekend, I finally got around to my September BOM. As I was cutting the pieces from the month's fabric allotment, I came up short (again) on one of the pieces supplied. I know they're getting tired of me coming up there showing them where they went wrong, but ya gotta know I'm kinda tired of being shorted. It makes me hesitant to subscribe to another BOM there.

But here it is. Month number seven's BOM! I'm looking forward to finishing it in a couple of months, then choose its binding and backing, and get it quilted. There's a guest room bed on which it might fit, but am thinking, especially due to the fact our pets have free run of almost every space, it will become a wall hanging.

Can't believe tomorrow is already the last of September! My minds has been stuck in April or May, so SWOOSH went all those other months. I've got that speeding ticket to pay off regardless of the fact the officer wrote in the wrong time, by 12 hours! Alas. Shut up, pay it, and be glad they happen only every 30 years!

Here's how the newest Block of the Month should go together. I am putting off cutting and piecing this until I get another time-sensitive sewing project done—hooded towels—several. In addition to making the larger hooded towels (for larger child or small adult), my friend Autumn suggested I could make infant-size ones—three* per beach towel. I bought four beach towels on clearance this late time we were at the BX and have a dozen small made.

October is already starting out as a busy month. Sunday, October 2nd is Baptismal Bash at our church. It's not unusual to baptize dozens of people, and with the new campus open, they'll have lots of folks to baptize in Midwest City as well. It always so heartening to witness.

And I get to attend a quilt retreat next weekend. It's my first and I expect it to be lots of fun. Who knows, I may actually get something done out of it!

Which reminds me—I'll close on this photo I found online. I used to be this person. Now, I LOVE the feeling of finishing projects!

Quilt One (2010–2011)...

The rest of the story...

At the end of 2010, I decided 2011 would be the year I'd make a quilt. 2010 became a year of considerable fabric acquisition. I got hooked on fat quarters and quilt fabric shops. I mean, really, how much trouble can I get into only one little rectangle of fabric at a time? Fat quarters made excellent little purchase to supply my Christmas gift sewing, so I was especially happy to discover them. Organizing them becomes a whole hobby in itself.

As it turned out, waiting until 2011 to start the quilt was not happening. A couple of days after Christmas, I started scanning some fabric and 'building' my quilt in Photoshop. I chose these three fabrics—one yard each of the stripes and two yards of the plaid. Over five years ago I bought them from Hancock Fabrics as part of their then-sponsored St. Jude Quilt of Dreams partnership. This fabric sat around as a good intention all these years. One of the reasons I probably never did anything with it before now was that the color palette was not my favorite—perfect for practicing.

I arranged the scanned layers of cloth into a simple blue stripe and green stripe checkerboard in Photoshop—three-inch squares. I then added the plaid panels in different sizes over the field of striped blocks. Everything moved around and I settled on my design. I then divided up the design into nine-unit blocks—five across by seven down.

Once I had the layout, I created a spreadsheet in Excel to determine if I had enough fabric to complete the design. I numbered each 3x3 block; counted how many of each size block I'd need, and so forth. This is probably not the normal procedure, but my left brain jumped in and insisted she'd be in charge. I humor her as much as possible.

I started cutting and sewing and pressing and was well on my way to finishing the top in just a couple of days. One thing I discovered along the way was I had not taken uneven stripes and pattern orientation into consideration. There were definite east/wests in the green stripe and north/souths in the blue stripe. I had a stack of blocks 'done' and had to rip and resew almost half of them. But I'm glad I did.

I stumbled through choosing batting and finding nice, wide backing fabric. I opted to hand-tie the layers together. Thank goodness for the hot tub cover. It's an expanse almost 8x8 feet and at a good height. Down the road, I'll send one out to be stitched down. No plans to buy any quilting machines. For now, me and my 1975 Lady Kenmore machine have done fine.

Insert the 2010 Oklahoma City Quilt Show. I figure I was risky—about to finish my first quilt and think I was invincible! I attended last Friday and came away with a clue or two how to do the binding. Turns out I had just enough information to be dangerous and wound up adding a detail I hadn't planned. Ah, my best friend, serendipity. I finished by hand-stitching the binding over a couple of days and finally finished it two days ago. And at the end of the day, it feels so good curling up with, yet, another finished project!

Hmm...what's next? Maybe some time for drawing some Zentangles; organizing my fabric for real and on my iPad (my newest tool toy); sewing up a tote bag or two; deciding on something to make for upcoming newborns coming into the the world; planning that next great quilt; or maybe, even, dismantling my office and repacking it with a bit less clutter. We'll see!

Bearing Fruits...

of a creative season. I've wanted to blog about them all along, but because most were Christmas gifts, I needed to be cleverly covert or just wait. Given the hit-or-miss accuracy of subtlety, I decided to wait.

Months ago, when I was working on a special black-and-white rooster pin cushion for one friend, another friend casually mentioned she'd like a rooster pin cushion, too. Well, that chicken finally came home to roost on an evening filled with friendship and the new tastes and textures of Ethiopian cuisine. Karen is such an incredibly wonderful friend and someone I've like practically from the instant of meeting her. Hmmm…how long ago has that been? I'm guessing maybe four or five years ago? Wow! And thanks to some of her travels, I have got some great photos from Israel hanging on a wall and can't wait to get at least one from the Italy trip to grace another. Oooh, and I need to ask if she took photos in Greece! I love traveling via her camera lens' eye!

I've had this project in mind for awhile, and eventually, all the pieces fell into place. For months I've been saving Gwen's Inchies with the intent of putting them all in one place. Thanks to a Shutterfly coupon/certificate, I had credits for an 8x8 book and a place for my idea to grow. A little Photoshop magic and some simple page layout later, I ordered and received my special treat. At that point (end of November) the most difficult thing to do was to hold on to it (and keep my mouth shut) long enough to save it for Christmas giving. About three weeks later, I finally got to give it to GweNomi. I could have never predicted its reception. I am still so touched and humbled that something I created helped make someone SO happy!

I have long heard that it's the family traditions that make holidays memorable. I can't think of many traditions my families have held/established (other than making sure Matt gets chocolate covered cherries for Christmas) so being a part of others' traditions is treading into interesting territory. This year, I had the chance to be part of Naomi's family tradition of decorating sugar cookies. It was so much fun seeing her mix up three colors of freshly made icing, having some white icing in a piping bag, and then assembling a tray of at least a dozen jars of sprinkles, nonpareils, sugars, and candies. Whoa—this is serious business! Being neither much of a freehand sketcher, nor having a T-square close at hand, I had the opportunity to 'wing it.' And as much as anything, it was just lots of fun. Only later did I realize it could have been a great Zentangle opportunity! I came away living important statement—it is never too late for a happy childhood.

This has also been a sewing season. This year's special and personal gift to give was a rework/resurrection of an old design from my home sewing days twenty years ago. After a little resizing, I came up with a small coin/card case I could customize for each friend based on their interests/style.
I have bought LOTS of fabric (have I mentioned my fat quarters addiction?) the past few months and used many pieces for each of the 20+ cases made. I was happy to finally come up with a pretty way to gift wrap them after the first few were 'plain Jane' approaches. 

The week before Christmas, Toni, one of my favorite friends was in town from Colorado. I had the chance to spend some of that Monday with her. In addition to having Braum's Hot Fudge Peanut Butter sundaes for brunch, we also needed to fabric shop so I could make her a purse like mine. We shopped at Oklahoma Quiltworks and she found two perfect patterns. I discovered it's kinda fun having someone else buy the fabric for something I get to put together! 

Toward the end of December, I resolved that I would create and finish one quilt in 2011. Lofty goal, but attainable. I started thinking about a design. Knowing it would take me too long to decide among other peoples' design, I started piecing together (on my computer, in Photoshop) a maze of interlocking "S" shapes. Then I had to think which fabric (of my stash) I'd use. I remembered some pieces I'd bought from the 2005 edition of the St. Jude Quilt of Dreams line at Hancock Fabrics. Its patterns did not lend themselves well to the "S" design, so I came up with a modified 9-square pattern. It's comprised of 35 squares arranged five across and seven down. Before I knew it, I was cutting fabric and had a pile of ironed and starched squares complete. What a great feeling! I spent my New Year's Eve piecing together blocks into strips into a whole patchwork top about 45" x 63". I am not quite sure what all comes next, but I'm thinking I might get more than one quilt finished this year! What a great way to start a new year!

For Christmas, I received my official Zentangle kit from Tom. It's a beautifully boxed collection of tiles (pre-cut squares of the very nice official paper), booklet, drawing implements, and instructional DVD. Oh, and I almost forgot, a lovely calligraphed custom gift tag! My plan is to put/add more tangles in my life. I'm now carrying a medium size Moleskine grid notebook in my purse to capture and practice patterns.

One very important thing I learned about myself lately is I am most happy when I am creating something—anything. I went through several days of just spinning my wheels and feeling agitated and frustrated. Creating keeps my mind, hands, and heart busy with more than just busy-ness. It keeps them busy with love.

Happy New Year!

Electrifying...

Zentangle motifs in fabric

Due to a bit of inconvenience (electrician rewiring areas of our house), I was freed up to make a pilgrimage to Prairie Quilt in Hennessey a week ago. I went solo this time and kept myself entertained with singing along (loudly) with my favorite CD of praise music. To compound the crime, I recorded myself via my new Android app—AndRecorder. (I haven't listened to the audio files yet and hope I can be charitable.) That said, I'm betting GweNaomi was happy to miss this trip.

I think I officially looked at ALL the fabric this time. In addition to a handful of fat quarters, I found four little quilt square kits and fabric with Zentangle Patterns! Does that make the whole trip worthwhile or WHAT!? Although the first one I found was in browns, I later found these blues in another area and they photographed better. Before checking out, I edited down my pile of fat quarters from fifteen down to ten (plus three pieces of cut goods). Oddly enough, the ones I put back were mostly ones I saw when I first came in the door. When I come away with an assortment like this, I always wonder if there is a repeating theme/pattern to my choices. What do you think?

The day's bounty included half-yard cuts of my already made purse fabric.

It felt like I was doing a little 50's-60's time traveling with Sputnik. Then I moved into this dark, bold-n-gold space. Interesting. I even contemplated if the ladies working at this store could tell lots about the personalities of the quilters who come through there, based on their fabric selections. I suspect my selections most say I am not working on a quilt at all, which is true. For now.

Baby J was born on Sunday, January 21. She's a beautiful young lady and her parents are beaming! Next up, our church family awaits the births of Lady Smith and Baby P next spring!

New life for old...
Another project I've had in mind was what to do with my old journals. I started keeping one back in 1977 and stayed with it inconsistently for more than 20 years. There comes a point where they've done what they needed to do and can be released—but how? Hmm. Hmm? Hmm! Paper-making! Several months ago I ran many pages of journals through my cross-cut paper shredder and saved the shreds in two BIG Hobby Lobby bags.

Next in the process is to use a blender to pulverize the shreds, mixed with water, into a pulp slurry. Surprisingly it wasn't gray or white, but a very neutral green which reminded me of that 'eye-ease' paper from steno book, columnar pad, and lab/engineering grid paper days.

BIG NOTE TO SELF: Hold down the lid on the blender very securely because when an unchewed wad finally hits the blade, the mass will erupt everywhere.
 

Did Maytag his THIS in mind?

After the pulp contains no remnants of the paper, I poured it into a plastic dishpan. In 'normal' paper-making, this is where one would stir the pulp to align the fibers and then dip their framed screen into the mixture. I didn't make any of these screens but got the bright idea to pour the pulp through one of my clothes dryer's flat drying racks. Okay, I used two of them. I let them drip dry over the sink for awhile, so the drips from the uppermost rack would not drip 'holes' into the still wet pulp below, then slid them into the dryer closet for at least 24 hours. I ran the heated cycle a couple of times then just let them air dry.

Note the screen texture on the edge.

And voilà! The finished sheets are very bumpy and have very low tear resistance. But they're writable-uponable (my made up word). Without all that water, the paper dried to be mostly white. More than paper, it reminds me of the fiberboard molded drink carriers you get at drive-throughs to carry up to four drinks. I'm going to investigate some more techniques, find out how to strengthen the paper, build a couple of small frames, and try adding color, leaves, petals, etc. Hey, I might even wind up making something with the paper—how about the cover of a gratitude journal?

More than anything, this process mirrors my own redeemed life—shredded, crushed, mixed, poured out and made anew—ready for my new story to be written. Thank you, Jesus.

Placed and Paged...

First, I absolutely love this new tool I've added to my arsenal, MSC Scoring Board. Thanks to it, I've had much more success scoring card stock for different paper projects. I learned about it from a blog I visit for ideas.

Last week, a friend who hosts our ladies community group I attend asked me to make place cards for our fall dinner party this Friday night. I had great aspirations to formally hand-letter proper, pretty little cards, but one new set of markers and pages of practiced names later, I remembered script computer fonts for a time such as this. Yep, I copped out. That said, I spoke with our hostess and got an idea of her place setting/table color scheme.

I was going for a rich, layered look. One trip to Hob Lob, and I gathered supplies—foiled card stock and vellum in both gold and a dark bronze. (Oh, and that set of calligraphy markers I wound up not using this time. Used my 40% off coupon. [By the way, did you know you can show their online coupon to the cashier from your web-enabled phone to get the discount? No need to print and take in coupon.]) From 12x12 sheets of card stock, I got nine cards per sheet. I scored each 4x4 square at the two-inch mark. I printed names out on the inkjet paper onto the gold velum. The dark bronze vellum ran through my Gypsy/Cricut and cut out small circles. Then I cut notches into the folded card and inserted the dark bronze semi circles to hold each person's name, sort of like photo corners. I taped them down securely with Mavalus tape. (This stuff is great—I keep a loop of it stuck to my top kitchen cabinet door for holding recipes when I bake.) One of the benefits to hand lettering the names was I could add new names up to the last minute and they'd look like everyone else's. Oh, well. I know it's going to be a fun time with great gals! 

Zentangle Sketchbook

After the Zentangle class in October, I've been looking for 'just the right' sketchbook to collect and practice patterns. After several 'maybes,' I found a sure thing. Again, Hob Lob to the rescue. Not only is a square format, the paper inside has a nice amount of 'tooth' for sketching/inking. Additionally, there is a clear plastic pouch in the back—perfect for holding printouts of numerous Zentangle patterns for quick reference or inspiration.

Then my left brain took control of the situation. Certainly I can't be left to having all that free roaming white space—gotta rein it in, or at least keep it in tidy, manageable formats. What I need is templates—oooh, aahh... Yep, it's THAT bad. So I measured the pages; got on the computer; created several different formats based on various column widths; and printed them off on plain card stock.

Again, using my scoring board, and then trimming each to page size, I cut out each of the 'windows.' Each template is placed on a page, pencil traced within and lifted away. Tah dah—now I can color outside the lines. Yeah, right.

I've got some supplies gathered for Christmas hand-mades (secret surprises I can't share here) so am looking forward to getting started. And there's another project I need to finish NLT next Monday. My freelance client is happy and their project is getting closer to going to press—both good. Add into the mix the electricians will be here for a few days in a row to work on our wiring. Temperament, tasks and timing must adapt. Sigh.

Working Backwards...

"What I did on summer/fall vacation…"

Knitted with Red Heart "Heart & Sole" Green Envy

Sock knitting:
Yesterday, after two weeks' work, I finished my first ever knitted sock. Have started its mate and anticipate an easier time of it—not so many unravels/reknits.

Zentangle drawing:
On Saturday, 30 October I took a class in the drawing technique called Zentangle. Along with a baker's dozen's worth of other girls, we learned about the process and how to draw some patterns. Here's a couple of photos from Gwen's blog. Barbara LaGree was a wonderful instructor. I enjoyed how we each came up with something unique from the same instruction. My friend Toni (now too far away in Colorado) does some fantastic doodles and might really enjoy the technique.

All's quiet as we concentrate and focus

My busy hands

Some really good news about Zentangling is that the materials used can be quite basic—a Micron 01 pen and a tile. Official tiles are 3.5" square pieces of high quality watercolor paper die-cut to imitate a deckle edge. The process is really quite simple yet can be truly glorious and grandiose in scale, if you wish. Replicate established patterns or design your own—newly created patterns, reflective of your world and unique to you. I can't wait to immerse myself in some pattern discovery and Zentangle drawing.

Anything is possible…

one stroke at a time.

From Trend Lab Versailles Black & White pattern

Gift for Baby J:
Using a valance of my friend's nursery pattern, I created a throw pillow, using the main fabric, complementing one, and some black satin ribbon trim. I particularly enjoyed transforming one item into an altogether different item. I guess today it's call 'repurposing.' The goal, to give her something completely unique that will completely match the other nursery items. There are fewer than three weeks until Miss Baby J makes her debut! Way to go Jessica and Jimmy!

Original baby-size

Crocheted Pumpkin Hats:
Miss Peacock started a craze! She saw a cute little pumpkin hat for a baby and knew she wanted one for her upcoming grand-daughter. Several of us got the pattern and started making ones for our own circumstances. My first (test/trial) was for one of my stuffed animals. (Yes, really.) The second was a larger version for myself. I had a girls' group tea party to attend in October and the only requirement was to wear a hat. And finally, I made one for a real, live baby! My former editor has a new grand-niece and now has a new grand-niece with a punkin' hat! 

More Sewing: 

In addition to resurrecting (and wanting to reproportion) an old coin purse pattern, I've been drawn back into the world of fabric/sewing. After many years' absence, I've begun browsing and shopping at Oklahoma Quiltworks again. Upon my return I discovered two fantastic poppy-theme quilts and fabrics. I've been going a little fat quarter and linear quarter-yard crazy lately. (But they are arranged so beautifully!) One Thursday afternoon, Gwen and I went to Prairie Quilt in Hennessey (via Okarche and Eischen's!). I was practically dumbstruck by all the fabric! I came away with a pattern and a project—a roomy handbag/tote. It was finished in a couple of days and I've enjoyed carrying it. 

And then there was the pincushion I just HAD to make for Gwen—a chicken like her beloved Ambrose and Alistair.

A home for a trio of typewriters

Beth Moore Esther Study:

Back together again, most of the original Over 40s Women's Bible Study group. From mid-September up and over in two more weeks, we've been having a great time of friendship, fellowship, and learning. Missing Linda, Pat, and Phyllis! And, yeah, sometimes It's Tough Being a Woman!

And from August… 

All of my typewriters found a home together on this nifty end table I picked up at a yard sale. In addition to what looks like a metal inlay, this tiered table has a very nice style. Back when I was a teen, I remember asking someone what the term 'conversation piece' meant. Oh. Well, I think it's safe to say my house is all a-chatter considering its contents.

Before I got over-involved with all this handwork, I managed to read six books in the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency series. I'm sure there's much I've forgotten, but I am so pleased to have FINISHED so many projects! I've already got ideas/fabrics for this year's Christmas sewing. Stay tuned for more!