MORE BLUE AND BROWNS DONE

This is block N-10, Diamond Friendship, in Harper's Ferry fabric by Nancy Gere and Thimbleberries Lodge and Lakeside.

And here's the same block in Judie Rothermel's The Old Sturbridge Village Collection. I'm really enjoying working in these colors.

DJSS GIFT

My Dear Jane Secret Sister gift for July and August arrived. My goodness, how generous and wonderful is this???

I received 4 yards of Laurel Burch Christmas fabric, a Laurel Burch zipper case(handy for quilting tools), a tote and quilt pattern, and a mat smoother.

It is so fun receiving these gifts, as well as sending to my SS.

SEWING IN PARADISE

These are pictures of my sewing studio in Michigan. It is 1/2 of the loft. My DH has the other half for his work -- mainly just a computer station. The sewing desk and large bookcase are from our family room, when we lived in Saudi Arabia, which is the furniture my kids (31, 33, 36) remember growing up with. The cutting table I bought here, because I really need one the proper height, and because the one that goes with the furniture is in the family eating area now. The 'kids' say it brings back memories of many family meals ages and ages ago!


Here's the floor, which will be doubling as my design wall, I think, LOL.

Here's the view. With the windows open, it feels like I'm sewing in a tree house!



That's Lake Superior in the background.

BLUE AND BROWN

I've been working on my Blue/Brown Swap blocks. The deadline has been extended, but I'm pretending not, so that I will complete them soon!

This is B-4, Children's Delight, in Judie Rothermel Civil War fabrics.



And here it is in a Sandy Gervais shooting stars fabric with Micheal Miller Krystal chocolate brown. I love working with the Krystal. It may become one of my favorite tone-on-tones.

NATURE'S BOUNTY

This is the first picking we've done of the many wild blueberries that grow on our property in Michigan.

Whitefish Point is the Wild Blueberry Capital of Michigan, and at one time pickers were brought in to harvest them and they were shipped out all over the country. The blueberries took over after a natural forest fire swept the land in the early 1900's. The acid and sandy soil that remained after the fire was perfect for the wild blueberries. Their growth lessened as the forest came back, but it's still very easy to find blueberries growing in the wild here wherever the sun can get through the forest.

QUILT FOR A FELLOW QUILTER

Jennifer Chiaverini posted this photo of the completed quilt a group of us contributed blocks toward. It went to one of our SBS quilters whose son died while serving in the military. She recently received the quilt.

My block is the fifth across in the second row down, the square-in-a-square block. I wrote a condolence message in the inner square.

I hope this quilt provides some comfort to the mom. I really think it's important for all of us to honor all our military, past and present. It is so easy to sometimes take for granted their huge sacrifice.

NINE MORE PINK & BROWNS

Here's another set of nine, of the blocks I received.

BIRTHDAY FAT QUARTER SWAP ARRIVES!

Birthday FQs were waiting for me in Michigan! I'm in a FQ birthday swap this year. I requested purples and greens. What a lovely array I received. I have four more that arrived before I left Florida, that are not in the picture. Visions of possible projects (WHIMMs) are dancing in my head!

AND ANOTHER NINE PINK-BROWNS

I received 50 blocks in all. Here's another nine.

PINK AND BROWN SWAP BLOCKS ARRIVE!

Here's my first of several photos of the wonderful blocks I received in the pink/brown swap on SBS. I just LOVE all of them and each of them!

CHRISTMAS IN JULY

Renae is having a Christmas in July giveaway on her blog, My Little Raggedy Blessings. Click here for a chance to win, and to see her beautiful blog.

LAND OF LIBERTY FREE BLOCK A MONTH

Isn't this a great patriotic quilt? I love it! It's being offered as a free BOM from Project House.

The fabrics needed are posted now, and the blocks will be posted on the 15 of every month, starting tomorrow.

There's a link to this quilt bom on my blog. Scroll down on the left.

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE, RAHAB, JERICHO WALLS

Rahab is the subject of our study this week, in my on-line Women of the Bible class. Rahab followed the instructions of God's messengers, and didn't tell anyone of their plans, she placed a red chord in her window so her family's quarters could be identified, and she kept her family inside, as Jericho was attacked.

Her family was saved and went on to live with the Israelites. She became the wife of prince Judah, mother of Boaz, and one of David's grandmothers, placing her name in the genealogy of Jesus.

I used black and gray for the stone walls of Jericho, and the scarlet for the chord in Rahab's window. My block shows some wonkiness -- not intentional -- but it does remind me of the falling walls of Jericho.

BIRTHDAY GIFT

My dear friend, Carol, gave me this cute quilted wall hanging about friendship for my b'day yesterday. We took a picture of both of us holding it together, but I decided to crop us out. It wasn't our best look, LOL!

The quilt however is lovely. Here's the label on the back. It's more how we looked in our younger years, LOL. I'm fortunate to have such a dear friend.

MY SEWING STUDIO

I think it's fun to see where other people sew. Here's my studio.

Entering my room, the first thing you see is the cutting table wall. Under it I store current projects in individual bins. The small file cabinet under the table holds books with my current WHIMMs (works hidden in my mind). On the bookcase to the right are do-dads as well as functional tools. I love the wall words "Sewing mends the soul," because for me it really does!

Moving left around the room flimsies waiting to be quilted are displayed on the quilt rack under the window.

My design wall has two Friendship Swap group projects on it right now. The crates below contain my smaller pieces of stash. The bottom row of crates are FQs. The top are 1 yard and under. Larger pieces are tucked away in the closet and under the cutting table. On top of the crates are projects in line for the design wall. The door into the room is on the left, and behind it hides my full-size ironing board. The pad on my cutting table works fine for working on blocks.

My serger is tucked into this cabinet. I rarily use it. Fun stuff hangs above.

My sewing table is right next to the serger. Bottom right is my rolling sewing machine caddy and bottom left (hiding under the snippet project) is my rolling cart with my pillow, etc., all ready for a retreat!

The supplies that are on the sewing table are contained in baskets and can easily be moved to give me more space to work on something large.

My thread is handy.

On the wall opposite my design wall, is an alcove. The door in the center leads to a bathroom.

There's a handy sink on the left.

And the intended linen closet.

On the right is a walk-in closet. In the file I store my magazines and books. The stack of drawers has stuff like zip-lock baggies, fusibles, and other stuff.

This is the upper walk-in. Some of the bins contain fabrics by category, like 1930's, and some are projects I'm collecting for.

My cabinets are Koala Cabinets and they send a regular and tiny Koala with each piece(sewing table, cutting table, and serger case). So I have three little ones, and two of the bigger ones hanging around my studio. I think the grands have the other one.

Figment, the Disney character from Figment of the Imagination, hangs out on one of my lamp poles, always inspiring the creative juices.

And here's the floor! I actually have floor space now, and can even walk around, LOL!


I've spent 2 weeks of Cinderella'ing getting it this neat and organized! Now I'm ready to sew!

MUSIC GOES

I was really surprised at the huge majority of those who prefer silent blogs, as evidenced by the poll I ran.

33 voted to leave the music, 54 to remove the music, and 1 to play different music.

Thank you to those who participated. I have listened to what my readers like and the music is gone.

HAPPY FOURTH OF JULY!!!

HAPPY HOUSES QUILT TOP

The neighborhood from the happy houses swap is now a complete top. The quilting will wait until my shoulder is much better, as this is a bed size quilt, and I do my own quilting.

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE, MIRIAM, FOLLOW THE LEADER BLOCK

Gosh, I hope her name which "her name may mean bitterness" doesn't. I like Miriam. What a devoted sister she was. She was brave and she had strong leadership qualities. Yes, she made a mistake. Who doesn't make mistakes?

Three siblings in leadership roles, Moses, Aaron, and Miriam, all working toward the same thing would, of course, have some struggle to it. God's strong action in punishing Miriam may have been the strong wake-up His people needed at the time to stick together and quit bickering.

As for dancing, men and women still dance in separation in the Middle East, or at least in conservative societies. The question about when you have danced for joy brought to mind my on-line quilting groups. How many times have we heard women say, "Doing the Snoopy Dance," when they have finally constructed that difficult block or finally completed a quilt top? To me it's a lot like "jumped for joy."

For my quilt block I used fabrics that convey dancing and following the leader -- some movement and some following.

MUSIC ON BLOGS

I read somewhere that some prefer silent blogs. I decided to poll my readers to see what they prefer. If the majority would prefer silent, I'll remove the music.

Personally I like relaxing music on blogs. If its a certain genre that I don't like to listen to and read, I just silence my volume on my computer, so as not to be distracted.

Majority will rule here, so thanks for voting.

Pat

THE ROWS ARRIVE!!!

After 10 1/2 months in transit, my rows are home! This swap started last summer, when each of us made our theme row. Mine was the spool flowers row.

Then they passed to 6 other gals, each adding a specific row, curved piecing, squares and rectangles, hearts, triangles, applique, and ending with free-choice. They each chose their own pattern and fabrics.

They also each signed my journal with thoughts about their quilting, family, etc., as well as signing their name on the top of a spool, and their location on the bottom, and signed a signature block for the back of the quilt, telling which row they made and dating it.

I'm just so excited to have this swap home. It's been all hush, hush, secretive all year, and I had no idea what anyone else did for mine. It's been fun as the other gal's rows passed through my sewing room, and I added to theirs.

What fun! And what a talented group of ladies!

WOB, MOTHERS OF MOSES, SUNSHINE AND SHADOW BASKET

Here's my block for the mothers of Moses. I chose the blue for the Nile that little Moses floated down, green for the reeds and grasses he passed through, and browns for the basket. I like how the pattern has the sharp diagonal line (or horizontal when you place it on point). This to me represents the two mothers, so different, and yet so the same in caring for and protecting Moses. Sun and Shadows. Sun and shadows.

I was confused by this pattern. Where is the basket, where's the sunshine, where's the shadows? Which way is up? In the end I like how it turned out.

THE NEIGHBORHOOD IS GROWING

I received 12 houses back from the swap, and have made 8 more to join them, so the neighborhood grows! At the bottom are the fabrics I plan to use for finishing the quilt. The yellow circles are for sashing with the bright stripes for setting corners. The purple house print is for the border.

I hope it all goes together. There are so many colors and fabric styles in the houses that it was hard to come up with something.

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE, POTIPHER'S WIFE, JOSEPH'S COAT BLOCK

When I think of Joseph's coat, I must admit that I think of the musical, Donny Osmond, and The Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat. OK. Technicolor wasn't in the bible, but still...........

OK. This block isn't about Joseph, and this is a different cloak he lost anyhow. It's about Mrs. P. clinging to the empty coat, after being turned down by Joseph.

I think of Mrs. P as wealthy, wearing make-up, and also with lots of gold. So I used a magenta with gold to represent her. I choose a tan to represent Egypt -- sand, camels, all things tan, as the desert is a million colors of tan. And my other fabric has triangles to represent the Egyptian pyramids. It also has gold, representing the wealthy in Egypt, like Mrs. P., not the slaves, like Joseph.

It's not Joseph's block, although that is the name, Joseph's Coat. It is Mrs. Poliphar's block. These are the women of the Bible.

WOMEN OF THE BIBLE, TAMAR, PALM

While working on this block I was thinking about palm trees. In my youth, in Michigan, my whole experience with palm fronds was on Palm Sunday, when they were passed out at church. They always seemed exotic and a bit surreal, like many things at church when you are little.

Now that I live in Florida, palms are everywhere, of course, including my front yard. I love the way the sway and block/filter the light. It reminds me of Tamar hiding her identity from Judah, blocking who she was, yet at the same time with him.

I used dark green for the palm branch and a yellow-green for the background. Is that the light shining through, or yet another palm frond behind? I like it to not be obvious.