On the way back

I often mention my "lists" which include places to visit. quilts shows to see, museums not to miss, and foods I want to make. I also have the crafts and techniques I want to try list which included needle sculpting. So when I found out that Kathy Houser was teaching a workshop for our guild I convinced myself I would be over surgery in time to check needle-sculpting off my list...I was partly right.

(Kathy with her "IGORS")

For once I planned ahead and pulled all the "stuff" needed for the class a month ahead of time and packed it into small easy to carry bags. Since it didn't look like that much sewing/machine work my friend Paula and I agreed to share one machine so we wouldn't have so much stuff to carry around. So of course the day before class I end up in the emergency room with a raging fever...duhh. Post op stinks.

Day of class. Paula isn't feeling well...I not sure...what the heck. After coffee and shower we both decide to try it. I'm glad we did. The space we have workshops in is very bright and large. Each student had their own large table to work on! Kathy is a very patient teacher. Only one of two of us had ever made a doll before so the techniques were new to us.

She had lots of example on hand for inspiration. One of the interesting things is how different each doll came out. My little Autumn sprite is already sitting on the mantle piece (though missing some clothing still...some well placed pumpkins did the trick for the phots shoot!) I think I will try a witch and a santa......
So today I am paying for dragging myself out but the good news is I successfully checked off a list and that is a good thing!

Playing on the porch

Woohoo, found a 5 foot snake in the tall ground cover yesterday while walking the yard with the gardener...he jumped and screamed like a teenage girl! Macbeth came to the rescue and stood between us and the snake. The snake was smart and retreated to the other side of the fence. Macbeth was smart enough not to chase him. All good. Now I don't mind snakes but it did give me reason to spend more time on the porch! Maybe that is why the little guy in the photo hangs out here has well....(he is the perfect color for my porch!)The porch - the real reason for today's post. We gave away our deck/porch furniture when we went overseas. I have been shopping around for the past few months and haven't found what I want. What I want is my porch that doesn't look like everyone else's in the neighborhood. I also don't want to spend a fortune...seems like those two plans were at odds.

So I took a page from that home show that only uses stuff you already have (except I allowed myself a $100 to buy paint and repair stuff since we couldn't ship that and so have zilch in the garage....) This has been a lot of fun! I'm using colors I love (I know I do because when I was emptying a box of stuff in the garage I found color chips from 6 years ago that match what I am using now!) And it is color...I am so tired of brown, black and beige I could scream!So what have I done so far...I painted some old wicker chairs lilac (before and after shot above.) I painted a discarded iron table bottom a textured black. I primed a 3 foot by 3 foot piece of wood and broke up lots and lots of chipped china to make a mosaic table top. I found a small canvas "rug" I painted years ago and some tin folk art for the side of the house. Fun no? So far I have spent about $40...couldn't even get a decent chair for that!

I am debating with myself on the china...I definitely want to go with the smaller pieces but do I only want to use the china? It was starting to look a bit girl-y...so I tried tossing in some beer caps and buttons and beach glass....definitely shook it up a bit....I'm going to wait a day before gluing it down to make up my mind. Besides I have to smash some more china (very therapeutic I may add....) Also there are a few pieces that I have to use the nippers on to make sure I don't lose the pattern like on this china mark....Still lots to do but it is way more fun than shopping (who would have ever thought I'd say that!)

The basket quilt came out of it's bath in good shape. There are still a few stains but I'm going to wait and decide how much they bother me. It may do more damage to try and get them out. At least it is clean and smells good! Important in a quilt! Photos later...still a bit damp in spots and is doing its final drying in the dining room....oh and here is a Brownie photo for Dianne....I suspect Brownie was out there hunting the little lizard...oh, dear. Both cats like to hang out around the lavender plant...wonder what it smell like to them?

Back to normal

Well after a week of "all things golf" here in Augusta today we have a bit of rain and a bit of normalcy returning to the area. Yards still look beautiful, the golf carts are still in the front of local stores, an a half-million Mercedez is parked at the entrance of the next subdivision but those will all be taken care of soon (and unfortunately that includes the manicured yards!)
I did watch a bit of the tournament with my DH. It was exciting as area all Sundays at the Masters! In honor of the day I made some of these very fun pincushions that go into your spools of thread using a golf tee! (This really did make my hubby shake his head but during a commercial he went into his golf bag and fetched a few for me...good hubby....) The tutorial for this was at Polka Dot Pineapple's blog. The only thing I changed was substituting ultra suede for the felt - ony because that is what I had on hand! Also I used boiled wool/felt for the center and stufed it with wool scraps...I love how that feels on the needles.

My other big accomplishment this week -my water barrel is full! First I had to built up a stand for the barrel. That ment digging down a few inches, adding stones and sand then putting in a few large pavers to raise the barrel up so I could get a watering can under the spout. The guys came in and put the the gutters just in time for the rain the other night. Voila - a full rainbarrel! Now it may not do much for our lawn (watering restrictions are already in place!) but it should really help the 4x12 raised bed veggie and herb garden going in right next to it later this week.

Now, off to baste a quilt top...really need to get a few things moving this week!

MS Awareness...

What a great list of ways to make our quilting life easier you are all posting in my comments...keep them coming! If you missed my last post...there is a give-away going on....

MS Factoid for the Day: What is Multiple Sclerosis According the to MS Society booklet Just the Facts, MS is a chronic, unpredictable disease of the central nervous system. It is thought to be an autoimmune disorder. MS can cause blurred vision, loss of balance, poor coordination, slurred speech, tremors, numbness, extreme fatigue, problems with memory and concentration, paralysis, blindness and more. These problems may be permanent or may come and go.

My take on this: The toughest part of having MS or living with someone with MS is the unpredictability of it all. Note the "thought to be" and "may come and go" in the paragraph above. I was an A type personality when this started. I wanted real facts. Why did it happen? What do I do to prevent it? What is going to happen next week? next month? next year? Not lots of answers...I did finally wind down to a low B minus personality type...at least most of the time.

If I were to have one wish (besides not having MS at all) it would be for a better way of knowing what would be happening in the future. It has changed a lot of things. I much more careful about finances (maybe I should thank my MS for getting me out of the market early?!) and more careful about things like traveling (maybe taking that camel ride in the dessert is over-rated...how about shopping for rugs instead?)

(And if I could slip in one more little wish - would Dr House stop diagnosing MS every other show and it never being the right diagnosis...it freaks my DH out!)

I am doing things other than thinking about MS this weekend. I started working on reviving my old spice cabinet. Not exactly quilt-y but it is a craft of sorts.The original cabinet was harvest gold...ugly but a useful size. So about 15 years ago I painted it white and stenciled a coffee pot on it. 15 years ago that looked good. Now...not so much.

So I took it apart (again...since this is a redo does that count as recycling for my carbon footprint? just a thought...) I've sanded it down and painted it it a deep green.
I am playing with a rather large collection of bottle caps trying to decide if this is the project to finally use them on....the a hardest part of this project has been flattening the caps so I can attach them to the cabinet and to get the caps away from Brownie who likes to use them to play hockey across the kitchen floor....

The photo on the top of this post is one of the rare pics of Brownie and Goldie together...can you tell they are sisters?!

A flourish of finishes...

I love words...a murder of crows, a exultation of doves, a crash of rhinoceros, and a parliament of owls. So why not a flourish of finishes?! (which has me thinking what would you call a group of quilters....)

Anyway, the little quilt-lit on the top is 15 inches aby 15 inches and was started...wait for it...in 1997. How could something so small take so long? Got me. It has only needed binding for about the last 5 years but kept slipping into the twilight zone we lovingly call my quilting room. Amazing how these little projects can hide....
Since I have been so good about meeting my goal of finishing one old project a month I let myself play with some little projects this weekend. After working on quilts that take months (ok, I admit it...years) to start and finish something in an afternoon is eye-opening. Big sigh....


Now of course we get into my bizarro world " if there is an easy way of making something then I will find another way..." The directions for making these little Airplane Art Binders are posted on Terry Atkinson's blog. They are pretty straight forward sooooo...why use a single piece of fabric for the feature fabric...I have all these strips left over from the blue courthouse steps...and well I don't have any deco bond so lets use some fusible fleece...oh, and wouldn't a button look nice....got the picture. Anyways, my first didn't quite come out like I wanted, but after a tiny adjustment (and a bit of experience) my second one is better and actually fits all eight pencils. (note the first only fits seven pencils...duhhhh)

Well, off to do some gardening this morning. Some girls get roses and chocolate for valentiene's day...I get a composter and three blueberry bushes. Isn't it convenient though that this morning cutting his bagel he also cut his hand so he can't help dig them in? And isn't it convenient he had the money in his wallet to pay the teenager down the street to help me today? Convenient, I dont' think so...Ah, how far my Dh will go to not get his hands dirty....