What I've been up to!

So..no progress pictures were shown before Christmas...because dd#3 reads the blog. This quilt is much further along than the picture above shows, and 300% brighter. I used a string block variation, where I began with a foundation piece (in this case the polka-dotted fabric in each diagonal center) and worked outwards toward opposite corners. This makes it so the seams are all encased between the strip on top, and the foundation piece on the bottom. I placed a purply red mottled fabric as a 2" border and a final row of blocks all around the edge. All the fabrics are batiks, and variations thereof, mottled, fossil ferns, overdyed prints, etc. The batting is a bamboo/cotton blend.

It's all layered and pinned, and I am in the process of machine quilting. I had preplanned the quilting, but the best-laid plans don't always work out. This is a large piece for me, my largest in fact! It's about 68x84 and I don't have the space to do lay it all out and get fancy. I am ending up stitching in the ditch around the blocks and on each side of the diagonal, using a multi-color orange thread. The binding will be random pieced of the quilt's fabrics...or the same as the border, really not sure yet.

Gosh, sure hope she likes it! It's got a long journey ahead to Iraq, I've got my fingers crossed for it's safe arrival and many years of snugglies.

Merry Christmas Peach!

Saturday's Progress
Meal planning - nope
Grocery shopping - a little, whatever we could carry home
64 oz water - 32 oz
A bike ride - nope; walked 1.7 miles instead
1 hour of Quilting - yup
1 hour of Studio Cleaning - nope

Sunday's Goals
Take down Christmas lights
Grocery shopping
1 hour of Quilting
1 hour of Studio Cleaning
Walk around the block

A New Beginning Again

Not going to beat myself up over this. Yes, you are! No, I'm not! Yes! You are! No! I'm not! Oh Lord, I'm hearing voices.

A new year, a new chance, another try. As long as I keep trying, I think I'm A-OK. I refuse to give up. Yeah, I'm that stubborn.

A little more focus this time. Water and a little more exercise are my target. I drink literally NO water as a general course, so as easy as it sounds, it's NOT. I have a new bike, and two legs...so come on now, how hard can this be? The weather is cool, and I really don't have many excuses left!

On tap for Saturday:
Meal planning
Grocery shopping
64 oz water
A bike ride
1 hour of Quilting
1 hour of Studio Cleaning

Sunday Sundae

When Maj Art LaFlamme orders, we listen!

Art, also known as IBOL Guy, says he'd be pleased if those of us "with" could help the "without". We came thru in spades. As close as I can calculate with good numbers, he has received 367 bundles + 150 bundles sold from Sew Mama Sew + 5 from my friends the Serial Quilters + 1 from my Canadian bestie + 1 additional bundle from me. Well over 500 bundles to be distributed to the Iraqi. I'm suitably impressed.

One per CAN make a change.

Then, the man in charge, aka IBOL guy says we need to celebrate with ice cream sundaes. Oh boy! Yeah, I can do that. Dh, dd#2 and I all had a sundae this afternoon. Yum-o.

My dd#1, also in Iraq followed orders from her superiors.
Her battle buddy followed orders too.

Great way to celebrate a fantastic humatarian effort, wouldn't you say?

Lovely photo courtesy of ErikaJean, IBOL supporter extraordinaire!

IBOL..huh?

Quilters think in terms of "projects", and how they can help a people less fortunate. Project Linus, Quilts for Katrina, the Australian Bushfire quilt project, etc.

When you are the son of a quilter, husband of a quilter, father of a quilter, some of the craft begins to wear off on you. When you are a soldier, and are working to help a people who are without the basic necessities for daily living, and have all these quilting influences, the next thought is, "How can I help?"

Major Art LaFlamme began a project called Iraqi Bundles of Love (IBOL). Now stationed in Iraq, he has arranged for quilters worldwide to send him bundles of quilting supplies that are being distributed to the Iraqi homemakers!

From Art's blog
"Iraqi Bundles of Love is a short-duration project, set to last about six weeks (around Sept. 7, 2009), to surge fabric and sewing materials into the area around which I live in Iraq. It is timed to coincide with both Ramadan, and the departure of my units from Iraq.
It is intended to be a simple project, requiring little effort and little expenditures from those wishing to participate. It is based upon my assessment that sewing fanatics and quilters tend to have stashes that far exceed their actual needs, and that sewing fanatics and quilters are passionate both about sewing / quilting, and about sharing with others.
The general premise is this. I am in Iraq, and I can get mail through the US Postal System. Willing contributors can send to me a flat-rate box of sewing / quilting supplies, all bundled up. I'd open the box, pull out the fully-contained bundle, and hand of off (with others) to our counterparts in the Iraqi Security Forces (Army and others) or the local police, for them to distribute. The stated intent of this operation is to put sewing and quilting supplies into the hands of two types of recipients: locals who desperately need such things, and local sewing co-ops who have received grants or loans (typically to purchase sewing machines, rent space, etc).

****************
As mentioned above, the deadline to help this effort is September 7, so that bundles arrive in time to be distributed by the end of Ramadan. They are arriving already, the US Postal Service delivers Flat Rate box after box. (They are up to 105 currently!)

It is one man (the Major) and his Tucson native battle buddy (the Captain), who tells one woman (his wife), who tells her blog readers (me), those readers take the information and run with it. It's gone viral (well, on a quilting scale anyways!). Isn't the internet an AWESOME thing?

Check-out some of these other blog entries about IBOL:

Kristin, his Wife
Sew Mama Sew
Pink Chalk Studio
A friend's blog
The Happy Zombie

I'm getting my bundle ready this weekend, what are you waiting for?

Camera Operation 101

This could be a repeat post, lol...but I'm old "now", I'm allowed. I just ran across this photo on KMVT's website and wanted to post it.

My husband would tell you that the experience we received regarding camera operation isn't anything like the "real thing". What I would tell you is that I wouldn't trade what I learned, and the fun that I had, for anything!



We received free training while I was an Administrative Assistant at a small Community Television station in northern California...and HE went on to a CBS Affiliate station here in Arizona. Not sure how that happened, and YES, I'm green with envy. We do view television a bit differently now days, "Hey, look at that green screen shot!" and, "Look, she missed her cue!"

Personally, I still like to look at the bump shots of my husband as they cue out the news, and his inclusion in the promos. *grin*

"Tap, tap, tap...Is this thing still ON?"

Yeah, so I have NO idea what happened to the last 6 months.

Some of the things I can remember tho:

First - A MAJOR guest bath reno. We decorated around the shower curtain (which you see reflected in the medicine cabinet mirror) yeah, I'm impractical like that! It is terra cota, and I'm loving it. I promise you, it's not as pumpkin as it appears. We replaced the towel racks, toilet tissue holder and light fixture in brushed nickle. Since replacing the sink and vanity really weren't in the budget, we painted the contractor's grade cupboard using a carmel color. A little remnant left from hemming the shower curtain went on a spare towel.

The second thing I've remembered: Hexagons!
I use mass transit to get to work. My employer thankfully subsidizes our bus passes by 50%, making it quite affordable. Parking in a City lot is $8/day which seems like a good chunk of money. I can't imagine some cities that charge $20 or more/day...ouch!

Riding the bus gives me 20 minutes in the bus each way, and I generally have 30 minutes to spare after eating lunch. I've been toting English Paper Piecing with me, a fantastic handwork project. Below is a pic of my work so far, it's destined for a wallhanging for my cubicle at work. I think it would look best with one more row of 3 diamonds., it's a design-in-progress.

I need suggestions for the borders, I can't decide if I should applique the hexagons onto a border or have the outer row of white be used as part of the seam allowance. What do you think? AND..what color borders? All the fabrics used have a small print, including the white. They are Aunt Grace-like. (I think I made the pics clickable-IF I remembered how, lol.)

Thirdly, my daughter #3 is now in Iraq, a reservist in the Army. Her first request was for "girly sheets". Here is a tease...cuz my soldier reads my blog! Sorry Peach, ya gotta wait for the box, you should get it in a week, it's going out in Monday's mail. Her sisters are having fun gathering items to send, dd#2 has already managed to get a box to her. Dd#1 has a box ready to ship too!

Her box is jam-packed, it'll probably SPRING open! I couldn't even send everything I intended. Guess she'll just have to wait for the next shipment. YES Peach, I won't forget the banana bread, lol.

I invite you to read her blog: www.400daysinIraq.wordpress.com and her battle buddy Erin's: www.erininIraq.wordpress.com . It will give you a good idea of a soldier's view of things.

That's all I can think of from the Sonoran Desert. The monsoons were a bust, they're pretty much over. They're promising an extra wet winter, I'll be waiting!

Nacho Casserole

Easy peasy, and pretty darned good!

1 can cheddar cheese soup
1/2 c. milk (any type)
12oz picante sauce (I used mild)
1lb. ground beef, cooked, drained, & finely crumbled
7oz corn chips
10oz can refried beans
1c. shredded cheddar
1 sm. can chopped green chilies
sliced black olives if desired

In a glass 13x9 mix soup with milk.
Spoon half of picante sauce on top and spread as evenly as possible with spoon back.
Layer 1/2 of corn chips over picante.
Layer cooked ground beef.
Layer refried beans.
Layer rest of corn chips.
Add rest of picante over top.
Top with shredded cheddar, green chilies and black olives if desired.

Bake at 400F for 20 minutes.

Thank you!

Sonja had a contest just before Christmas and I was the lucky winner. Pop over to see her, she has a sweet blog.

WHO.COULD.NOT.ENTER.A.CONTEST.FOR.CHOCOLATE???

I may be the last to fall off the turnip truck, but I had not ever seen a Kinder Egg up close or personal, lol. These are darling trinkets.

The eggs are hollow and have a smaller plastic egg inside. The trinkets inside are precious and very detailed...not to mention CHOCOLATE. O, yummy.

I saved 2 for dd#2, since she told me about the contest. Had to share. 8^)

Thanks Sonja!

Tombstone Caching

Look at this worthy geocacher, ready to walk miles and miles (and miles)...ok, so it's usually not more than ONE mile, lol. But UP hill, of course.

We found El Diablo's Treasure cache today. It's clearly the best staged one we've found so far. It was just outside of Tombstone, AZ, which is where the OK Corral was and where Wyatt Earp and associates had their famous shoot-out. So, you'd expect the unexpected, right? It was published to be a "Halloween" cache and definately was not meant to disturb or make fun of anyone's beliefs, etc.

A plastic skeleton, a HUGE rubber spider, and the area was surrounded with skulls on fence posts. I first thought it was a burial ground, and didn't want to enter!

One happy hubby displaying a necklace of bones!

On to the next cache. It was 8' off of the roadside. It's pretty creepy looking near someone's house, but the GPS is rarely wrong, and what are you gonna do? It was in the removable cap on the top of a fence post. You need to be clever when looking for these silly things. I happened to notice that the cap had a bolt in the end. Hmmm...not normal.

It was suspended on a wire hanging from the bolt in the cap. Ta-dah! We hit paydirt again!

A little bit of Tombstone for you, a hot afternoon in the Sonoran Desert.

Can you imagine walking down these streets with all those petticoats and high-buttoned shoes? Ick.

Wilcox tomorrow!

Nanocache ka-ching!

We were 6 for 6 out geocaching today.

Geocache-spoil-alert. Don't read if you intend to geocache Tucson!

You can't beat the weather, it's been around 64 degrees F most of the day. Saturdays are usually chore day, Sundays are getting to be our favorite geocaching day (pronounced geo-cashing, btw).
It was so small, my dh thought it was a magnet and the cache was lost! Inside, (the piece on the left) you can see the tiny scrolled paper where you log your name and date. Screw the sides back together and place it exactly as you found it.

Our new found hobby is cutting into my sewing time, but as the summer in the desert gets closer, we'll stay closer to home and away from the rattlesnakes!

Two daughters have recently ordered their own GPS units, dd#2 is geocaching while she is visiting in Ohio, dd#3 is out geocaching while waiting for #2 who's getting her hair cut & colored. The dd#1 has downloaded the program to her IPhone. I think we started something!

Wanna join us?

"It's COOL because Holly does it!"

Peer pressure.
I needed to do it to be cool.
Made me feel better to be like everyone else.

Balderdash.
It looked sooooo cool, I wanted to do it.
Needed to do it.
Holly first got me interested, but I let the idea stew. Then I bought Dh a GPS *snicker*.

Where are they going?

WHAT are they doing?

ew.EW! What IS she pointing to?

She's lost her marbles? Maybe she's found them?

YES...YES...YES! She found it. 2 other noble pirates looking for the treasure and the MOTHER found it

This egg was a "microcache". It carries only a visitor log. This was my second find. Boooooring, lol.

BUT! Look at the booty this first GEOCACHE yielded. Score! You take one item, and put another in. You make it home, and long onto www.geocache.com and record your find, and the items you both took and added. We took the rusty nail, and replaced it with a Brazilian coin. (It's to be of equal value.)

So we are now addicted to Geocaching. What fun. What strenuous exercise! I ache all over! Guess that's good for me. We live in the Sonoran Desert, but there are ALOT of mountains and they are prime location for great hiding places. Mountains, rocks, sandy dry river washes, etc.

What is geocaching? You use your GPS (global positioning system) and enter the longitude and latitude of a prospective hiding place. Getting to it is one thing, FINDING it is another. As you can see above, the parcels can be of different variety, and can be buried, tied to a tree, covered in rocks, magnetized to something...anything the hider can think up.

These two finds were last week, and today we found 2 more. What fun, but boy am I pooped.

Great way to start out our New Year, and a fun family activity for my Dh, dd and me. Dh and daughter and dd have even gone out geocaching WITHOUT ME! Heaven forbid.

2008 Christmas Gift

Last year, Marcie from Patchalot More generously published a pattern for free public use. It was an adorable Christmas Table Topper. Lots of suggestions for variations, and easy instructions. THANKS MARCIE for all you do! She posted another pattern this year as well, so please visit her too!

I made two versions, but you're only going to see ONE. Just as I inserted the second photo in my blog today, I noticed a glaring error. I should never have looked, I'm sooooooooooooo sad. Dh says "chalk it up to experience." I left out an entire row of inner border.

Yes, I know, "We've all done it."

Yes, I know, "It's your humility piece." AND HOW. I knew they weren't the same. I knew for some reason they weren't the same size, one came out more rectangular. I never, ever stopped to look at them to see why tho. (grumble, grumble)

I don't know which of two brother's families received which table topper. I couldn't get to any decision of who should get which. I'm mortified tho, and that's something that goes way under the skin.

I'll pull on my big-girl-panties now and move on.

***********

Lesson I learned - No matter how hard you try, nope girl, ya ain't perfect.

Something that made me happy today - Two gifts created with my own hands, for ones I love.

Bonus - Using mostly stash for my gifts! 8^)

Finding Lost Loved Ones

Back in the day, you could blame distance for lack of communication. Remember when Grandma would call and you would really hustle to talk “LONG DISTANCE?”

How many of you have lost communication with someone you held dear because of elapsing time? Some one moves away, you loose a phone number, delete a phone message in error. Any number of things can get away, not to mention family crisis, divorce, and the obligatory responses.

If you don’t already fear it, the internet is your friend, your ally.

Fifteen years ago, my Venezuelan son went missing. (Figuratively) I managed 6 counties for Youth For Understanding, and Oscar was my exchange student placement in my home. During the year he was in our home, our whole family fell in love with this boy, etching his place in our heart forever. Returning to Venezuela was our last real contact with him. The phone system was less than idealic, he would call and virtually yell, “MOM??” The line would promptly go dead. It’d ring again, we’d answer, it’d go dead. Ultimately VERY depressing, we wanted and needed to connect, but never did.

We’ve never forgotten this sweet boy.

Thru the years I’ve resorted to reading Venezuelan phonebooks. I don’t speak Spanish, lol, but I would not be deterred. I even looked in their Yellow Pages under both of his parent’s professions. Blah.

I have searched thru AOL’s database, ICQ database, Yahoo’d, Google’d, and come up empty-handed.

Dd#2 encouraged me to sign onto Facebook a few months back. Mmmm…a new database I could utilize. I did search his name, with no success.

A few nights ago I had the brilliant idea to search for Oscar’s younger and older sister’s names. Several entries appeared, but lo and behold, one sister’s “friend” list contained the other sister’s name.

I.was.speechless. I eagerly sent an identical message to both possibilities, and the younger sister wrote back immediately. She gave me Oscar’s email address, and I have no reconnected with our sweet MAN. OMG, he’s married! He’s got 2 little girls! He’s all grown up! (How did that happen?)

I also helped another blogger find some missing friends. The world may be big, but I’ve been shown once again, just how very small it really is.

On another note, look a few posts back, and go to my dd#2’s blog. She has another contest!

My Daughter COOKS THANKSGIVING!

This is WHY I'm thankful:

...and now we're headed to the casino for some fun!

Have a happy safe day wherever you are.

Fitzy

PS..Thank you my creative child, loves you!

Blog Contest!!

My Best Daughter (who has hacked into my blog and is actually writing this) is running an awesome contest on her blog! It is really easy to enter, I promise! Well, what are you waiting for??

GO CHECK IT OUT!

Five Friends

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

Could you stand to win a $25 Gift Card?

Some I know...

Some I actually gave birth to...

Someone who actually lives in my home...

Is giving away a $25 Best Buy gift card. Woo-Hoo!

Run.Don't walk. Visit Erika's blog!

So I've lost a little speed?

70 words

Speed test

I first did the test in (maybe) Spanish, because I didn't realize I had a choice, lol. There I did 40wpm. It was HARD to type words you don't commonly use!

I used to type 80wpm. I figure 5wpm is lost in improper posture as I slump drastically to the left to key on the laptop. It's precariously perched on the arm of the sofa. DH occupies the other end with his laptop...DD#2 occupies the easy chair and her laptop. We're impossible, lol.

So go'on and try it, I dare you!

My First Wool Hooked Rug is FINISHED ! !

Presenting my first originally designed and first wool rug ever FINISHED!

I'm VERY good at beginning projects, but really b-a-a-a-d at finishing. It's something like loosing a friend when I finish a project (or even a good book!) and no one likes that!

I can proudly say I'm done. Every bit, bob and tail. It's been freshly steamed and is drying on my Big Board. It measures 19 x 25 and will rest by my (rarely used) front door. Yes, yes, INSIDE the house, lol. The wool is cut into a #8 which is 1/4" wide.

I am completely self-taught, and used Wendy's Site for help with the binding. I purchased my wool from Wendy as well, and I strongly recommend her company. She traded several emails with me to aid in my selections. Funny thing, her shop is about 10 miles from where I lived Ohio. Too bad I didn't rug hook then! Wool seems a little scarce here in the Sonoran Desert, d'oh!

I designed it onto freezer paper and transferred the design by taping it to my large sliding glass door. It was nice not having to reverse the pattern like you would do with applique.

I want to get a second rug designed and started..."Oh Wendy....."

Enjoy!

A Creative Kid, another milestone

I really wasn't going to post that I'm "getting older" today, but how can you resist showing off your kid's work? This is what awaited me this morning, I'm such a happy older person!

Thanks Erika, you're one of the best!
xo, Momma