MODA PIECE AND PLENTY BLOCK OF THE MONTH

Posted By drsao on September 18, 2008

I have been playing CATCH UP on my Moda Piece and Plenty Block of the Month Club. Sunday we get our last two baskets and the instructions for how to put the sampler together……so I said, “Self, you really SHOULD get this done.”

I also had a very bad toothache and was experiencing discomfort (something unique for me because I have a high pain tolerance level and a positive thinking coping strategy. ) Doing something tedious and time consuming kept me distracted from what could have been a miserable four days. Instead, I am all CAUGHT UP with my blocks, I had a GREAT TIME and I had a root canal today……so this story has a HAPPY ENDING.

Here are some of the blocks that I made…….I am doing the all blue and white version (as if I NEEDED to mention that!) 🙂 I am including them OUT OF ORDER and I have labeled them with my OWN titles! There may be a couple of blocks that I left out – but this is the GIST!

Basket with Bows - the first block Woven Basket

Vase Basket

The Tall Basket

I really like this TALL BASKET….and the border is made with 20 flying geese pieces….20! I made my own fillers for this month – and I can’t remember which other months that I substituted fillers, but I know that I did when I felt the urge to be creative. Remember, I don’t really like to follow directions! lol

Round Basket with Curvy Handle

Several Filler Blocks

It is going to be interesting to see how these filler blocks fit together to produce the end result.

Moda Block #8

I really did a lot of MODIFICATION OF THIS BLOCK….it had lots more flowers floating in space and I just prefered more order and simplicity. I also LOVE LOVE LOVE the tiny 1 1/2 inch square checkerboard blocks so I substituted those for the basket filler blocks that we were supposed to do. 🙂

GRAPE BASKET with Pinwheel Fillers

I really had fun making this basket with the pinwheels!

Bucket Basket

I am not sure but I think this one might be my favorite one. I keep changing my FAVORITE ONE!!

Paper Pieced Basket Fillers

Bird with the Basket

I think my bird is facing a DIFFERENT DIRECTION from what the designer intended!

Bear Claw Basket

Here are more fillers with my favorite little 1 1/2″ pieced checkerboard squares!

Basket with YO YO HANDLES TO BE ADDED

This one will have yo yo handles but I can’t put them on until after the quilt is quilted!

Basket with Buds

Several Filller Blocks

May Day Basket

Woven Basket

So there you have it – I am all caught up with the pieces of the puzzle – so the next picture will be with all of the pieces put together into a quilt top (how is that for positive thinking!!!!!)

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HALLOWEEN

Posted By drsao on September 18, 2008

OH dear – I know that I am rushing the season. AND I KNOW THAT MY DAUGHTER SAID “No Halloween Decorations out until October 1st.” But, what can I say? I LOVE LOVE LOVE HALLOWEEN. It is on my list of FAVORITE THINGS…..

so….I have sneaked in a COUPLE of Halloween Decorations……maybe my daughter won’t notice? I think she noticed this one already – it was HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT in the middle of the dining room table. But who could resist little pumpkins and spiders! They make me SMILE!

Spiders and Pumpkins

These cute little dolls sit on a bench in the bathroom and keep bathroom visitors “FAMILY.” My grandangel Harry started this WIDESPREAD FAMILY EXPRESSION. When TRAINING HIM we went into the bathroom with him to WAIT FOR THE MIRACLE TO OCCUR SO THAT WE COULD CLAP OUR HANDS IN WONDERMENT and we told him we were “KEEPING HIM COMPANY.” He started asking for us to “KEEP HIM FAMILY” when he felt a PERFORMANCE coming on….and the expression has lasted 13 years – give or take….:)

Cat Doll

CAT AND COUNTRY STAR

And this CAT and STAR just jumped out at me while I was strolling through the MIDLOTHIAN ANTIQUE MALL. Honestly, who could walk away from this cute little cat with a star on its belly and the lovely country cloth star with a “rusty” bell. LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT!

So – with or without the shared enthusiasm of my family – I AM HAPPILY RUSHING THE SEASON AND CELEBRATING HALLOWEEN EARLY! COLOR ME HAPPY!

Category: Halloween, My Favorite Things | No Comments »
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September Birthdays

Posted By drsao on September 18, 2008

September marks the BEGINNING of my FAVORITE SEASONS……Fall and Winter! And what better way to start the BEGINNING OF LOTS OF FUN than to celebrate birthdays! Here are some of my favorite September birthday folks……

First is Lil – my daughter in law who met my son Rob on the internet – can you believe it! They now have blessed me with FIVE GRANDANGELS. Happy Birthday to Lil September 12. Here she is with my namesake, Shirley Anne. Now how nice a daughter-in-law is this to name her only daughter after her mother-in-law! 🙂 She teaches me all of the best coffee drinks at STARBUCKS and she also taught me to play BINGO!

Lil and Shirley Anne

I have TWO SPECIAL QUILTING FRIENDS who had birthdays – both on September 17th! How much fun is that? I HAVE TO GET MY CAMERA OUT THE NEXT TIME I SEE THEM…….watch out Sheddy and Carmen…the paparazzi will be lurking! Sheddy has CHANGED my life. She got me HOOKED on Quiltville.com and all of the FUN MYSTERY QUILTS!

TODAY (September 18) is my grandangel, Lacy’s 19th birthday. I call her LUCY LACY because she reminds me of LUCILLLE BALL of “I LOVE LUCY!” She is a sophomore at Berkeley having lots of fun living in the sorority house this semester! I wonder if she has offered to cook for her sorority sisters? She once fixed me rice and cornflakes (that was my first course) and RAW TOP RAMEN NOODLES with mustard (my second course) and for a MOVIE SNACK she made popcorn (burned) with pepper (instead of salt) on it. She and I have a lot in common – we both get lost easily and we are both vegetarians who are health conscious! LOL

Lacy is 19 September 18th

Tomorrow (September 19th) grandangel James will be 6 years old. Here he is with his cousin Cooper (5) – they both love playing on the WII and are great buddies. Both of these boys are FUNNY and FUN to be with! James is a COMPUTER GEEK at 6 years old…..and I think that both of these boys have the family PING PONG GENE!

Cooper (5) and James (6) with the LEGO shirt

And then there is ME…..my birthday is the 24th. This year I am excited because my daughter Christi and my grandangel Sarah are taking me antiquing on Saturday….and this is SOME KIND OF A MIRACLE because this is the FIRST TIME that Christi has suggested such a FUN THING!!! 🙂 You can’t believe HOW EXCITED I AM.

sao, Christi, Sarah, Leanna and Cooper

My parents sent me yet another birthday present…..cake carriers – for my quilt pieces (I am packing them for the upcoming COUNTRY PIECEMAKERS’S RETREAT!) I had so much trouble finding these in Midlothian. I went to WAL-MART 3 thee times but they were always sold out. So mine came from WAL-MART in Kansas City, Missouri! Look at how much fun I had unpacking! My daddy is the WORLD’S BEST PACKER. There were newspapers, pieces of foam, bubble wrap, file folders – you name it…….there was NO CHANCE that anything was going to happen to those boxes in the mail. It took me 7 minutes to get it all unpacked (yes I did time it!)….there were layers upon layers of tape in all sizes and colors.

..so it took a full 3 minutes to get the top open!

But hey, they made it without a scratch!

Three Cake Carriers

Category: Life Comments, SAO's Family, SAO's Grandangels | No Comments »
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I hope your day is SUFFUSED with JOY!

Posted By drsao on September 15, 2008

I just love the Word of the Day for Monday, September 15, 2008 from DICTIONARY.COM

so I just had to share it!

suffuse \suh-FYOOZ\, transitive verb:

To spread through or over in the manner of fluid or light; to flush.

She gave me a long slow look, as if she were deciding something, and then she allowed herself to blush, the color suffusing her throat in a delicious mottle of pink and white.
— T. Coraghessan Boyle, T. C. Boyle Stories

Have you ever felt happiness suffuse all the cells in your body and a smile light up your face?
— Sarabjit Singh, “Queen of the Hills”, India Currents, November 30, 1996

Like an angel or an earthquake, it isn’t there and then it is; it doesn’t steal over us andsuffuse us with a festive spirit like the gradual effects of alcohol or good deeds.
— Barbara Peters Smith, “Gladness descends on her home”, Sarasota Herald Tribune, December 27, 2003

Suffuse comes from the past participle of Latin suffundere, “to overspread; to suffuse,” from sub-, “under” + fundere, “to pour.”

My evening was suffused with joy last night when I coached grandangels COOPER (5) and SARAH (8) through the construction of a WEBKINZ Sleeping Bag. They were just suffused with happiness after successfully using Molly – my new Hello Kitty Sewing Machine!

Cooper has to stand up to sew

Cooper did this all by himself with only verbal instructions (I cut the fabric) and it was TOO FUNNY because he was so short that he had to stand up to reach the foot pedal! He was so excited – well, suffused with joy! I was pretty amazed that a 5 year old could do it (without a second pair of helping hands to keep things in line!)

Sarah made her sleeping bag PINK!

Sarah was so suffused with excitement that she thought maybe her GIRL SCOUT TROUP could make a quilt for the troops serving abroad and they could earn some kind of a coveted patch. She demonstrated how she could sew two squares together with a straight seam. Maybe I can find some red, white, and blue scraps in my stash…….HMMM……I guess I had better go count the sewing machines in my collection! :):)

MAKE IT A GREAT DAY!

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Country Piecemakers Baby Quilt Sew-In

Posted By drsao on September 14, 2008

The Country Piecemakers had so much fun Saturday making baby quilts for the ICU. Each group of quilters at a table pooled their efforts toward making a baby quilt. Our table made a quilt-as-you-go strip pieced baby quilt (I am sure it had an official pretty name!) I was absolutely THRILLED to learn to do this!

MOLLY - Makes a debut

Molly, my Hello Kitty sewing machine made her debut at a quilt guild sew-in! 🙂 I kept thinking that this must have been the kind of fun that my grandmother and her neighbors had when they got together to help each other quilt their quilts! Just look at the colorful array of fabric in all of the little piles – everything from little duckies and sailboats to Clifford the big red dog were spilling out of shopping bags and baskets! And – just look at all of the smiling faces of the quilters!

Mountains of colorful fabric everywhere

Happy Smiles - Snug and warm wearing a TABLE RUNNER?

Look at the happy smiles!

Sara, the Country Piecemaker’s Guild Leader for the making and distribution of the baby quilts looked pretty happy. I can just imagine these tiny little people snuggling under these quilts. Actually I think the quilts will be on top of their ICU unit to block out the bright lights!

Some of us trimmed blocks...

We ate, we laughed, we sewed, we shared scissors, we lost scissors, we RE-ARRANGED our blocks, and we even engaged in a bit of ripping now and then……but no matter what our task, we all had a great time! It is amazing at how much got done! TEAMWORK! 🙂 I am thrilled to see that these blocks are quilted as they are pieced together. Sew the blocks together and VOILA – it is ready to be bound!! 🙂