Journaling Away

So geeked! I'm on vacation this week, and I actually have time to catch up on my personal quilting. I've kept current on my journal quilt, but I need to sew several rows together before sharing an update.

This was the perfect year to do this journal quilt! Olympics, Presidential Elections, Mayan Apocalypse, a new love.... Can't wait to see what the new year brings!

Guess the Mayan Apocalypse Didn't Happen?

Good thing.. I need more time to work on my Some Kind of Wonderful!

Happy Winter Solstice!

In The Holiday Spirit!

Tee hee… just figured out mobile blogging and giving it a go!

Happy Tuesday!
Elisa

Winter Makes You Think Of.... Log Cabins?

Like several other bloggers I follow, I received an email a few days ago asking if I would review the latest free ebook from Fons & Porter called Build Your Best Log Cabin.  You can get your copy here: http://www.fonsandporter.com/landing/free-log-cabin-quilt-patterns   

I knew I would love it (and not just because it’s free).  I’m a HUGE fan of Fons & Porter, and their log cabin ebook is layed out like their magazine: clear instructions with many pictures, size charts, suggested layouts, quilter tips and all the extras.

My favorite part is always the extras.  I love that they included history in the booklet.

They also included tips on quilting, piping, and lumpless binding.

Truth be told, though, I think it’s missing one thing.  In one of their issues several years ago was this FABULOUS pattern for a Texas Log Cabin. GORGEOUS!  I’ve been working on it off and on for the last two years. 

Click the link and get your free copy now!

Happy Stitching!Elisa

Oh Deer!

Yesterday was my nephew, Jon's, 13th birthday! He's an absolute delight, and he loves nature. At the last minute, I decided to attend his hockey game, take him for coneys, and then off to a nearby nature center. Although just a few miles away, I'd never heard of the 100-acre Lloyd A. Stage Nature Center in Troy, but many people said you can see deer there.

Can you see deer? We lost count after 22! Here's a few highlights from his day!

At this point, still no deer.... And then... Bam!

It was really cool! Some of the deer grazed within 5 feet of us and several literally followed us, after dusk, along the trail back to the nature center!

What a great place, and Jon said I'm the best aunt ever!

12-12-12 Flashing!

Right now I'm sitting with my feet up, working on my Some Kind of Wonderful project. It's the first time in months I've had a chance to work on my own stuff. I'm wearing my flannel jammies. Ginger is purring next to me. My house is decorated with my favorite Christmas quilts. I'm really feeling in the holiday spirit.

So, how did you celebrate 12-12-12? If you were a geocacher, you were probably attending a flash mob! Me and my caching buddies (CB's Da Finns & TaGeez) attended 3 events, went on 2 cache runs, and had 1 First-To-Find!

Here are some of our moments:

12:12:12 am flash mob

12:12:12 am flash mob

TaGeez - scrapcat - Da Finns

WikidKriket - scrapcat - SnakeyLicks - TaGeez

12:12:12 pm flash mob

Souvenir issues by Groundspeak to any cacher that cached or attended a caching event.

 

No pics from the last event - too tired!

Happy caching!

Elisa

 

The Big Reveal

My friend, Dave, saw one of my other Memory quilts, and he asked me to make one for his wife for Christmas. Today was the big delivery day!

When he saw it, he cried. His mother-in-law passed away 9 years ago, and the clothes had been in a bag ever since. He immediately recognized her favorite blouses (she made many of her own clothes & all of the cat fabric came from her blouses). He also recognized two jackets (handmade) that she had worn to weddings).

This was a difficult quilt to make as all the fabrics were from the late 90's (large stripes, thin stripes, polka dots, florals, paisleys, novelty, etc), and I struggled to put them together into a cohesive quilt. The only purchased fabric was the border fabric.

Now I can spend the rest of the holiday working on my own stuff!

Happy stitching!

 

Another Finish

My friend, Lauri, wanted to know in my last post what I was binding.....

She only has one more day to wait.....

 

Tool Time: That's Using My Head!

I love tools. I love using everyday items to improve my life, and I'm always giddy when I wander the aisles of a hardware store. The other day I was working on the binding of a quilt (sewing black on black) but was having a hard time seeing where to stitch.

I have plenty of light, but it hurts my eyes having to turn everything on to see my work. I have a table and a floor Ott lamp - but I do have to contort a little to avoid shadows and get direct light. Then, I had an epiphany! Some of you may recall that I'm a geocacher...

The other day I bought new headlamps! It was an impulse buy at Home Depot. I bought a set of 2 headlamps (each with an adjustable tilt, 4 settings, and batteries) for $10 total!

And, also on impulse, while working on that same binding, I put it on, and it worked like a dream!

I wish I had a better picture, but I took it late last night. One word of advice, though.. Don't wear it in front of the front picture window... Passerbys might give you a weird look!

Happy caching! .... Er.... Stitching!

Tis the Season

I have a fabulous friend in Utah that's in love with her personal printing presses. I received this great card in the mail!

I love being surrounded by such talented people!

Great job, Lauri!

 

November Showers Bring... December Flowers?

Wonder if this is true in life as well as in embroidery? Because November was not phenomenal this year.

A little wonky, but it will make a wonderful addition to my journal quilt.

Happy December!

 

I Have Not Been Nabbed By Zombies...

Life has taken many turns in the last six weeks.... Sorry for the absence... It had nothing to do with zombies. To make it up to you, here's a cute picture of Ginger:

Thought I'd share my latest Facebook post, too:

Alot of pressure starting New Years resolutions on New Years Day. So I decided to start a month early and start small. Resolution #1: I vow to be supportive of my sisters-in-law's baking habits. I will do my best to sample everything this season :)

What do you think? A realistic goal?

Happy December 1st!

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

I am thankful for my family, my good friends, my Love, my health, my job, my life.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

For the Love of 4-patches

Working on another memorial quilt.....

What is it about a pile of four patches? Such a simple block, but they fascinate me in scrap quilts.

E.

 

 

When Least Expected

As you know, I belong to a wonderful International stitching group working on a project called Some Kind of Wonderful. I love this group - being from different parts of the world, I see different techniques, color combinations, fabric selections. I've made some dear friends.

One friend is Hanne in Denmark. Hanne was new to the group and wanted to join, but there can only be 100 users who could post to this site. I adopted her and would post her updates for her. Eventually, an opening appeared, and she can post herself.

Sweet Hanne wanted to thank me for adopting her so she sent me a gift for the upcoming holidays! How awesome is that!?!

She sent handmade potholders and tea mats. You can see the adorable birdhouse pin in the lower right.

She also included chocolate, but one bar didn't last long enough to be photographed!

I truly feel blessed and surrounded by friends,

Happy Sunday!

Elisa

 

Free Christmas Patterns

Hi!  If you haven't checked them out lately, visit Connecting Threads (no affiliation) for their latest free patterns.

I have to finish up a few things before I can start this one, but I have it saved!

Happy Stitching!
Elisa

Small Finish

It's small, but it's a finish. Another block in another strip of my journal quilt.

Happy Stitching!

Elisa

 

My Pretty Boy is Posing!

Oscar has dropped by the blog today to say HI!

He says his momma will be back soon - she's busy stitching!

Fall in Michigan

Had a great time geocaching with my Sister at Tollgate Farm yesterday!

It was a absolutely gorgeous!

And we had the nature trails all to ourselves!

After, of course, attending the Lego Kidsville in Novi first!

Happy Sunday!

Elisa

 

My House is a Home

Finished another block! Woot!

Kinda re-thinking the yellow door, though...

Happy Saturday!

Elisa

 

Thursday Thought: Be Your Own Person....

 

I Love My Reference Library!

What is the longest aspect of making a memory quilt using a loved one's clothes? Figuring out the best pattern to compliment them. Really. Sometimes I can be stuck for days or weeks. Things I have learned:

1. Separate all clothes that definitely will not work in the quilt (loosely knitted sweaters, fake fur colors, etc)
2. With the remaining clothes, place all clothes in XXL Ziploc bags so you can look at the patterns and colors when you are relaxing until inspiration hits. I leave my bags in my living room so I can see them in passing or can glance over while watching TV.
3. You want to make sure the pattern you select will feature the fabrics - the bigger block pieces the better so the loved ones can recognize the clothes in the quilt. Patterns based on baby patterns or flannel quilts work well.
4. Use your reference library.
5. Use your reference library.
6. Use your reference library.

While drinking tea from the mug your sister gave you, flip through your reference library. This includes quilt catalogs, magazines, quilt books, old calendars, clippings on your bulletin board. The Internet is great but it can be limiting - many sites tend to focus on a certain quilt type (example: sites that focus on Civil War repros, flannels, art nouveau, etc). A paper reference library gives you the gamut.

At least, this is my excuse each time I'm at the periodical checkout.

Happy stitching!

Elisa

p.s. When looking in the magazines, don't forget to look in the ads! Sometimes my best inspiration appears there!

Another One to Check Off

A girlfriend (Hi, Lisa!) once told me that she never makes New Year's resolutions. Because once you fail, you think, "There's always next year." Instead, she makes monthly or weekly resolutions.

So, instead of stressing over my pile of incomplete blocks, I'm celebrating my little victories. Hope to have another to share tomorrow or Thursday.

Happy stitching,

Elisa

Sew with a Relaxed Bottom

As I've mentioned in the past, I'm working on another memory quilt for a coworker. It's been rough - I've been dragging my feet - because it's sad work going through someone's final belongings. She made so many of her own clothes and there are still straight pins and unfinished seams.

It's been sad.... Until this evening.... Pulled this out of the bottom of a bag...

Sew with a relaxed bottom???

Is this the funniest knit top or what? It caused a good chuckle. I just don't understand it!

Happy stitching!

Elisa

 

So Relaxed I'm Purring

A good, new friend invited me up to her family's cabin near Caseville/PortAustin for the weekend. The scenery was stunning (just the start of Michigan's color change). The food was fabulous (produce from the Farmer's Market and burgers from Walt's whose motto is "Nobody beats Walt's meat!"). And really relaxing and enjoyable company. I really loved spending time with the Lemmens & Somershoes! They are good people.

Missy and Diego, as well as Marilyn and Mike, drove me all over the tip of "the Thumb".

We visited lovely beaches. The water was so blue but low. Missy said water levels are 2 feet below normal and sand bars are more visible.

This park was really cool because the beach was so pristine that you could see small bird tracks and snake tracks in the sand.

We stopped at a wonderful Farmer's market in Port Austin.

And saw a really cool bank (converted into a restaurant) near the entrance.

Mibbs & Merlirin also gave me a tour of several historic cemeteries in the areas. Diego is standing next to a really cool headstone at Port Crescent Cemetery. The man buried here helped make the bricks used to build this chimney - aftera fire destroyed the chimney, his family used the stones to build his headstone.

This cool stone, which looks like a Chinese coin, is in the Caseville Township Cemetery.

Of course, the highlight of a trip for a group of geocachers is exploring the local geocaches. And my tour guides rocked! Headless Horsemen Bridge, the "Froggy" cache, their personal caches and a great bridge from the Michigan Lost Town series. This is the Village of Port Crescent bridge.

This Geocache series features Michigan towns that no longer exist. Reading the history is very cool - many in the Thumb were destroyed by the Great Fire of 1871. Here's a really cool gas station that Missy stopped at on the way home - the cache was missing, but the location was really neat.

I must admit that I'm saddened the weekend went so quickly. I had a blast talking with my new friends, playing card games, discussing our favorite episodes of The Big Bang Theory, eating ice cream at the local putt-putt.

But, maybe if I'm on my best behavior, they'll invite me back next year!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!

Elisa