Crazy For my Camera

I got my camera back this week. It's so nice to have it again. Now if I could just figure out where I put my 2GB card for it! Grrr...

It's working beautifully, & they cleaned it up nicely. Back to "Factory spec." I snapped a few pictures of the crazy quilt. I actually haven't worked on it much this past week. I am re-reading the "Twilight" series, & can't get my nose out of them any better than the first time I read them!

I've added buttons & beads, & some funky yarns, & different stitches.
Here's a little better picture of the eyeglass cabochon.

I love stones too, so I put this agate on with some old lace under it.

Here I used a bit of artificial Abalone for the center of a flower.

This design was quilted on first, then embellished with beads & yarn.

We had a reprieve in the weather for a while, but today we got a good foot of snow in the yard again. It feels like winter is starting all over.

Here is another scanner image of the Crazy quilt project. I did a little beading & embroidery on it last night. I used an old lens from Aunt Ethel's glasses to cover an old-fashioned picture, then captured the whole thing with beads. To the right of that I did a row of satin stitching with Pearle cotton & a big needle. My hands were cramping when I got finished with that. To the left is a row of bumpy yarn that I stitched down & added a row of stone beads.

We spent a quiet evening watching DVDs, as the Chinook wind was blowing & the satellite dish is useless in the high winds. It looks like tonight will be more of the same.

We have gone from sub-zero temps, to 49 degrees. The hill was an icy toboggan run yesterday. I went to go down the hill, creeping out of my driveway at under 5 MPH, slid into the ditch on the right, managed to pull myself out..spun 2 full circles, ending up in the ditch on the left, then backed out into a neighbor's driveway. She has it plowed like a large parking lot, so I pulled in, & (thankfully I was smart enough to wear my crampons), & I hiked back home. I called the hospital & let them know that I wasn't going to make it in. Warren had to hike a mile from the bottom of the hill to get home. It was a good thing he didn't have to work last night too.

Getting back in the groove

On Friday I cleaned my studio. I hadn't been able to get in there & do anything since I finished the few small Christmas projects I had done. It was too messy, & I just couldn't get going, so I cleaned. I sorted. I tossed out old junk mail & Christmas cards from 2 years ago. It felt good to get things in order again.

Saturday I was able to put a quilt on to Lily. It is a small Grandmother's Flower Garden, that my oldest sister Vicky made, several years ago. It is the first quilt she ever attempted. All hand pieced. She didn't know how to finish it, so I brought it home with me, & quilted it for her. I'm going to send it to my other sister Em, & let her bind it. If my camera gets here before I send it out, I'll post some pictures.

I also had plenty of spare room on my backing fabric, so I added a 17"x17" square of Warm & White batting, & put together a crazy quilt for the Alliance For American Quilts 2009 Crazy for quilts contest. It's all Allie's fault. She made me do it.

I had been kicking around an idea, of doing the actual piecing & quilting at the same time on Lily, so I thought a small size like this (actually it's 16x16, I trimmed it down), would be a good size to try out. I started with the back & batting, then laid the first piece in the center, & quilted it in place. I then placed & quilted each piece until it was done. Now I will bind it, & hand embellish the seams.

I used my flat bed scanner to show you what it looks like right now. The white center piece was cut from an old blouse, the embroidery was there, all I did was quilt around it.

I think this is going to be fun!

Stuporous

That's the word for today!

STUPOROUS!

-suspension or great diminution of sensibility.

I'm not a morning person. When I stumble out of bed, & up the stairs to the kitchen, I push the button on the coffee maker, then go sit on the couch until the coffee maker beeps & lets me know my brew is ready. Two large mugs & an hour later I can function.

This morning I did the usual, didn't hear the beep, but decided the coffee MUST be ready by now (20 minutes had gone by). I walked into the kitchen & realized there was SLUDGE in a big puddle all around the coffee maker. I had put the carafe into the dishwasher last night to clean it, before I went to bed. The coffee maker won't drip without the carafe in place, but the water will continue to run into the grounds filled basket until it just overflows everywhere. Nice mess!

I cleaned it up & went back to bed. Slept for 2 more hours. Now I've had coffee, & I feel alive!

Thanks for all of the input on my "new friend vs scam". I had already asked for a reference from a local quilt shop & explained my hesitance. She said she would be gone until next week, so we'll see if I hear from her again. Not to worry, I wouldn't send samples until I'm sure it's safe, & I would only send them to a legitimate Quit Shop or guild, never an unknown individual. I had just wondered if there had been anything like this out there, & if it sounds familiar to a few of you, then my guess is, my gut instinct is right, & I won't be seeing the Carson Valley this spring! Not a problem!

It has warmed up to -2 today! Heat wave! Ha!

Thanks again!

In the Deep Freeze

We ended up staying home New Year's Eve. I was all set to go, when I found Warren setting on the couch with his eyes closed, looking miserable. He had a migraine starting up, so I called Mindy & let her know we were staying home. He went to bed at 9 p.m. & slept all night. He felt better the next day.

A celebration of Alaska's 50Th year of Statehood, activities are now happening in downtown Anchorage & all across the state. Yesterday there was an array of venues & the Anchorage Daily News has a slide show of pictures. I found friends Corinne McVee (holding the flag)& Mona (front & center, who has a new last name that I can't remember, she just got married).

You can tell from the pictures we are still in the deep freeze. Temps got all the way up to -8 here yesterday. It was -18 last night when I checked. Right now it's -12.2 at our house in the middle of the day.

I'd really like to go the the Museum to see the "quilt" display. Actually they are panels that we pieced together. I worked on one of them. We are going out for dinner & maybe a movie today.

We saw the "Curious Case of Benjamin Button" on New Year's Day. It was OK. I didn't love it, nor did I hate it. It was entertaining, but weird as this sounds, from someone who loves Sci-Fi, & Fantasy books & movies, I have a hard time getting into a story where the character is aging backwards. It just defies all the laws of nature. Why would the magic in Harry Potter be more acceptable to me than aging backwards? I just don't know.