Monthly Archives: February 2012

Baguettes Getaway, part 3

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 This is a football quilt I made for my grandson, Thomas. It is a late birthday present. I was determined to finish the top at our getaway, so I can get it quilted and give it to him a month late. I had all the fabrics chosen, and the design, but was waffling about doing the work. Having my friends to talk with made it go so much faster.

This quilt was all done but the binding, so I finished it up. Usually I sell quilts, or make them as gifts. So I seldom get to keep the prettiest ones. But I feel a need for some pink in my life, so this is on my reading chair.

I missed getting a picture of Deb’s tablerunner, in red and white. Maybe she’ll post a picture of it on her blog. Take a look here.

The time we spent together showed us again how we value our friends. We have been meeting regularly for 9 years now. We have shared weddings of our children, births of our grandchildren, aging and deaths of our parents, illnesses, fears,  tears and joys. And we share a love of creating art and beauty, the work of our hands. We are woven into the fabric of each others’ lives.
This brings my count to 60 things made this year.

Baguettes Getaway, continued

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 After taking care of business the first day, we felt like playing. So, inspired by a picture in a magazine, we decided to each make a small quilt using circles appliqued to a pieced background.
Julie is good at staying on task, and made this lovely little panel.

 Deb changed her mind about the circles, and put squares on hers first, topped with circles.

 I started out okay, with some bright fabrics. But they were chattering at me, so they turned into Monsters In Love.

Then, because I had strayed so far from my intent, I made another one. But after all the piecing and recutting and more piecing, I wanted to quilt designs on it, instead of applique circles.

Baguettes Getaway, 2012

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 These are some of the Baguettes. We had our semi-annual artist’s getaway this weekend. Only 4 of us could make it, due to illness. But we had enough fun for the whole group of 8.

Nan worked on making beautiful beaded designs, that will eventually be on a fabric box. She also did more on her counted cross stitch photo of her nephew and his baby. She was a sparkler the whole time. You can she how she brought light into the room.

Julie and Deb and I worked on sewing projects.

This is the quilt top I finished for a friends’ new grandbaby. She loves antiques, and romantic florals.

 Deb sewed a border on this quilt, a group effort of Running With Scissors Fiberartists’.

 Here is Nan, diligently working on her portrait.

Julie put together this quilt, called Short Stacks, using Kaffee Fassett fabrics.

Catch-up pictures

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 This is my granddaughters’ dresser. The painting is done, but it needs to be sealed, when the weather is warm enough to spray. It has flowers, bluebirds and a fairy on the front…

 a palm tree and monkey on the left side…

 a tree, puffy clouds and bumblebees on the right side…

 a happy moon and stars, and fairies on top…

and a bluebird and fairies on the back. Number 55.

Lights!

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 Ooh! By 3 p.m. I had new lights. Still have to get the right bulbs for the cans, and fix ceiling, but it looks good. A few holes won’t bother us while we work.
My number of items made this year count is suffering from all the house renovations. But I am so glad to be doing this.

Big Surprise

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I woke up today to the sound of holes being sawed in the kitchen ceiling. Now we have 5 of them. Rick decided to put up the new ceiling light, and 2 recessed can lights. He has to drill through 3 joists to do the wiring, and mount the new electrical box, and run wires to the new can lights. I have 5 women coming for a three day sewing and art adventure on Thursday.
I’m sure it will be usable before then. I am confident that we wouldn’t have stayed married for 42 years, if he didn’t know it had to be usable by then. Not completely finished. It takes time to repair holes in drywall. And it will look great when it’s all done. The fixture he’s replacing is a fluorescent square, mounted on the ceiling. Now we’ll have a lovely curvy fixture over the island, and 2 cans. So the floor looks great, and soon the ceiling will too.
Also, my daughter, who is off work this week, brought over paczkis today. They were from Benny’s’ Bakery, and were quite delicious. That was a nice surprise.

Dining room done

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It takes much longer to put things back, than it does to empty a room. In an hour or less yesterday, we removed everything. Today I have worked for 3 hours putting it back. I must have had 30 things hanging on the wall. There are a couple places that I clustered a bunch of small things. Foolishly deciding that it would all look fresh if I changed the positions of things, I rehung them differently. There are a few unhidden small nail spots now, too bad. I’m tired.
And because stuffing everything in the living room overnight made it a big mess, I have been trying to rearrange all the decorative stuff there too. I missed my calling. I should have been a museum coordinator, I have all the exhibits to fill a large warehouse. It takes years to cull the tchatchkes from a collection. You know how 3 items of one theme make it a collection? I unwittingly have collected collections. More purging is on the way. And you know as soon as I get rid of it, I’ll want it for a good reason.