Ohio Snow & Sew!

I visited my family in Ohio - we got over 16" of snow while I was there!
BEFORE:

AFTER:

See more birds in the snow on flickr. We were snowed in for a couple of days. We had the two essentials: chocolate and electricity. I used the time to piece two Nickel Quilt tops which are graduation gifts.

Easy Schlep Bag - Natalie Made One!

During an Ohio visit earlier this month, my sister, Natalie and I worked together to make a Schlep Bag. I read the instructions, Natalie sewed. We used large "scraps" of heavy-weight "Save Our Planet" fabric for the outside. Because I just grabbed all the odd pieces of fabric when I packed, we only had enough for one bag. Natalie got to keep it - she will be using it for one of her many knitting projects.




Natalie contributed a cute smiley face cotton fabric for the lining. So bright & colorful! The bag is big and roomie - I can visualize it in a smaller size too. There are free instructions on the web - google "schlep bag" to find them. It took us about an hour to make it. I think the 2nd one will be faster!

Quilt for The Gathering

Teri Quinn, friend and fellow member of The Cottonwood Quilters took on the HUGE task of providing quilts for The Gathering, a fundraiser for a local private school. I agreed to quilt one of ten quilts which will be auctioned. Janice Lippincott and June Jensen combined blocks from a Houston class and made a beautiful top using colorful batiks and black and white prints.

I quilted it using a free-form spiral feather design. The thread is Superior Rainbows #821 - a multi-colored thread that was PERFECT with the batiks and showed up just as I wanted on the B&W prints!





Janice pieced a batik back that is as wonderful as the front! You can see more detail of my quilting in this photo of the back. I can't believe I didn't take a picture of the entire quilt! The quilt is in the hands of yet another volunteer, who is doing the binding. I will add a picture of the finished quilt when I see it again! You can SEE MORE detail pics of this quilt on flickr.

Jack Frost Stopped By

I woke up this morning to a beautiful white world. A hard frost produced white frosty needles on branches, sticks, even my scarecrow! The needles were on fruits, grass, even the fence around a rose bush.




Although it was harder to see, even the edges of the snow has sharp frosty needles!

A low-hanging fog shrouded the world in white, shrinking my world to a just a few nearby houses. See more Frost Pictures on Flickr. As I write this, the sun is shining, and Omaha is expecting temperatures above freezing for the 2nd day since early December! Our 24+ inches of snow is going to turn into a mushy mess!

A Black Belt Quilt For Alyssa

To celebrate her First Degree, Level 1 and Level 2 Black Belts in TaeKwonDo, I made Alyssa a quilt. Each fabric in the braided sections represents one of the belts she earned as she worked her way to the black belts. The separator bands (sashing) between the braids represents the First Degree, Level 1 belt. The outer border represents her First Degree, Level 2 Belt. This belt has their name and rank embroidered with gold thread, so I quilted it on my HQ16 using yellow thread. In the braids, I did a free-form spiral-y feather.


In the outer border, I wrote the ten tenets of Ho Am TaeKwonDo - Honor, Courtesy, Integrity, Perseverance, Self-Control, Courage, Community, Strength, Humility, Knowledge. In the sashing, I wrote the dates she earned each of her color belts. The center of the quilt back is a straightforward look at the color belts, white, yellow, green, senior green, blue, senior blue, brown, senior brown, red and senior red.

You can see more pictures of the quilt, including closeups of the quilting on flickr.

Close Encounters with a Hawk!

We have snow. A LOT of snow. Around two feet fell in December, more already in 2010, and another storm is expected to dump 3-5" on Omaha tomorrow. When the snow started on December 8th, we made sure the bird feeder was full. The birds who come to our feeder include birds we like - cardinals, blue jays, juncos, finches and wrens, birds we don't have strong feelings about - doves and sparrows, and birds we could do without - starlings and grackles. One unexpected visitor was this sharp-shinned hawk.

He (she?) saw the birds around the feeder as a full menu buffet! We're happy he is catching just starlings (so far!). So revolves the circle of life!



He has been back a couple of times - see more of the pictures I took of our hawk on flickr.

Happy Birthday to Me!

Today is my birthday. Happy Birthday to Me!!

Happy birthday to several friends who share this date with me: Mary R, Sandy R, Bob W, Brian B. Hope you all have a wonderful day!

Celebrities who also share my birthday? Mary Martin of Peter Pan fame, Woody Allen, Bette Midler, Walter Alston (Dodger's manager) and Reggie Sanders (former Reds player), Lee Trevino and Treat Williams. Many more of course, unknowns like me, whose day will be acknowledged by friends & family instead of the media. Happy Birthday to us all!