Monday, October 25, 2010

One True Thing

This movie  (One True Thing) was playing last night on Lifetime.  It is one of my favorites....Meryl Streep is terrific....take a glance:


http://www.imdb.com/video/screenplay/vi3774087961/

Be sure and have your kleenex ready....you'll need it!


Favorite quote of the movie: "It's so much easier to be happy. It's so much easier to choose to love the things that you have, instead of always yearning for what you're missing, or what it is that you're imagining you're missing. It is so much more peaceful."

Friday, October 22, 2010

THANK YOU TEXAS RANGERS



For all the games Hubs and I went to see at the old ball park...before we were married and new to this City.

For opening day of the new ball park which Hubs and I  were able to make...and where I used our binoculars to scope out Troy Aikman (!)

For Nolan Ryan and his seventh no hitter which Hubs got to see...and he came home like a little kid bouncing off the walls....

For Nolan Ryan  putting Robin Ventura (the player that charged him at the mound) in a headlock (!)...Hubs loves the replays of that....and you can see it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POcFvPafTo4


and for making it to the World Series!!!
 
THANK YOU RANGERS! :)

(and a moment of silence for the New York Yankees...how can you not like Derek Jeter?)
 Yum!

Saturday, October 16, 2010

THE VIRGIN QUILTER

My "piecing" of the table topper was done....now to quilt.  I am new to quilting as in I HAVE NEVER QUILTED ANYTHING BEFORE.  Time to jump in...but I should quilt something small first.  There are so many blogs out there to help new quilters... I especially liked Tall Grass Prairie Studio (what a wonderful quilter and provides such encouragement and inspiration!);  Oh Fransson; Anyone Can Quilt; Stop Staring and Start Sewing; Posie Gets Cozy; Fresh Squeezed Fabrics; Sew Mama Sew and many others. 

I better quilt something before I try to tackle the topper.  I whipped up a mug rug (I love this Martinque fabric)






O.K.  I know how to put on the walking foot...that's good.  I have a free motion foot... that's good.  But....how am I going to quilt my table topper?  The idea that kept coming to me was a spider web....I searched for images of spider webs and began to play around with the idea in my head.

The next morning....I took the topper and drew (with my blue disappearing marker) the spider web (on husb's big poker table but don't tell him)

Now to cut my backing fabric........oops.....too short.....time to recut my backing fabric......


Time to cut my batting (Warm and Natural)....wow...that is a little messy.

Time to make the quilt sandwich.....oops....
Time to make the quilt sandwich......oops...
Time to make the quilt sandwich......oops....I feel like I am making a quilt thanksgiving meal rather than a sandwich.  I  DO NOT like this part.
DONE!

OK...put on my walking foot and here with go....oops broken needle number one
O.K....here we go.....oops broken needle number two....time to use the right size needle
And we are OFF....hey  I'M QUILTING!!! I'M QUILTING!!!!

It reminds me of What About Bob and sailing....'I'm Sailing, I'm Sailing!!"






 This is actually going pretty well...I am 1/2 way through....break time.....

Back to it....almost through.  I decide to check the back side...MOTHER OF PEARL....what the heck??
It looks like all the quilting I've done since the break doesn't look as good as the first part.  Oh wait...when I turned the machine back on it didn't go to the settings I had for tension and stitch length...grrrrrrrrrrrrrr



Time to RIP OUT ALL OF THOSE STITCHES....grrrrrrrrr!!!!!!

Time to start again!

I never expected to enjoy the quilting aspect so much....the feel of the fabric with the batting.....positively yummy.  And there is certainly a quilting zone you enter.....

Everything is quilted.  Now time for the binding!!!  Probably the one thing I disliked throughout the whole process.  Since I don't know how to sew, I don't know how to hand sew binding on the back.  I ended up  using a blanket hand stitch which was fine for this project...not so much for the next.  Plus, I am pretty sure my binding should also show on the front and mine didn't....oh well...here is the finished project.

Hub's quilting effort shown above





Positive:  I love the way it looks on the front...almost exactly like I envisioned
Negative: The back (since it is on a neutral fabric) shows ALL quilting mishaps.  It looks like my spider took a hit of acid before she started spinning....or she is Charlotte's crack whore sister, Charlene.
But hey, I was able to quilt it and that feels great!

Do you think Gwen would approve?  or Jacquie (Miss Tall Grass Prairie)?

THE LIBERATED TABLE TOPPER

For the past month, I have been working on what has become a table topper for Halloween.  My fabric choices were from Minick and Simpson (love them!)....




for some reason, this fabric reminds me of being in grade school during Halloween....I love it so much.

Being inspired by Gwen Marston, I decided to let this " become"as it evolved...no patterns or preconceived ways it should look.  I started with the phrase "Happy Halloween."  I drew those free-hand, scanned and then printed as a mirror image.  That got traced to my freezer paper and then ironed onto the fabric.  THis is so easy to do when the husb and son are watching football.   Then, I put the project away for awhile.


One inspired Saturday,I began to play with the fabric.....fussy cutting here and there.  I really just played with making different shapes.   I eventually ended up with a number of pieces for a table topper.   I pinned all the pieces to my background fabric and took it to my friendship group meeting for DMQG and received positive feedback.  I was  excited to continue.


I added fusible webbing (Seam2Seam) and then appliqued all the pieces to a piece of fabric.  My sewing machine foot went crazy on me during this time and I had to order another one....work got busy....project put away for awhile.......


Finally finished appliquing the pieces to the background fabric.  I then added a two inch border of Denyse Schmidt Hope Valley (basketweave, I believe)....

Here is the finished project before quilting





This has been so much fun creating....now on to quilting!

Friday, October 1, 2010

HAPPY DAY

It is SOO beautiful here today...a perfect rendition of Fall.  I still have alot of "real" work but this weather makes it so much easier!  My daughter just texted me....they are at Ogelthorpe College this weekend to play soccer.  She said it is beautiful there also...and the campus reminds her of Hogwarts! :)  My own little Hermione.  And I got an email that a skirt I ordered which was on  11 weeks back-order was shipped today....yippee.. Life is good.  Besides my "real" work...I am going to try and finish a Halloween table topper I've been working on.....we''ll see.  Enjoy this weather and have a good weekend and we'll do the same.