Evening Edition-- Free Kindle Book !

This is a disjointed post.

I’m thinking on a couple of things. First at the top of the list have you checked out ALL the link-ups on last Monday’s Mystery Link-Up post?

It is the last one we are holding for Orca Bay – and I’m so sad to see it over! It’s been so fun to visit each one and discover new bloggers, new friends, new ideas for the same quilt we were all making!

This was SO cool, all the way through November til now. You can click HERE to get back to the post. Pour yourself a hot cuppa something yummy, and settle in and visit!

The next thing on my heart is my sadness over the passing of Whitney Houston. Oh, I have heard such varying things from "What a sad loss of such a beautiful voice”, to “What did she expect? She did it to herself, she made her bed and can lie in it.” And my heart weeps for her family, her loved ones, and most of all for Whitney herself.

It's sadder than sad. She had so much potential – but perhaps she never believed in herself enough to see that she deserved to make a better choice. I don't believe in speaking ill of the dead, nor in rubbing their noses in it after the fact. What good does that do?

I only hope and pray my children know how much I love them, and know they are worth the world to me, and love and respect themselves enough to never walk the path that Whitney couldn't get herself out of once she found herself hooked. I think it would be every parent’s nightmare to watch an adult child take wrong turn after wrong turn, and the only thing you can do is love them in spite of their choices and hope that they will start to choose differently.

I will miss her. I will miss her ethereal voice, and put it down as a tragedy. My friend and I were talking about Karen Carpenter the other night, and how there has never been another voice like hers since either. Anorexia. A desire to be what the public wanted to see, what was acceptable to others….bad choice. Sad choice. We have lost so many wonderful talented people who should have been kinder to themselves, should have loved themselves more. How is it that WE can expect so much from people and not see that they have feelings, hopes, fears, dreams as fragile as the next person? Do we expect too much from those who give of their talents so much that the fame and media pressure pushes them over the edge, and then we blame THEM for their actions? What part do WE play in the tragedy of those who choose to take their own lives, or make choices that ultimately end their lives? And then we tsk tsk tsk and rub their noses in it. I'm so sad.

I know it’s deep. I wish the world would have been kinder to these two ladies. I wish that they had felt worth it, felt loved, just as they were, without having to fit some mold that society forced them into. I wish they had felt strong enough about themselves and who they were to make a better choice.

Do you love YOURSELF enough to make a better choice? I hope I can show that kind of strength. Do *I* love myself enough to make a better choice? Sometimes it's not easy.

This is how I choose to remember Whitney:

Beautiful lady, I'll carry the echo of your voice within my heart.

And on to our freebie book! This was still free for me a minute ago when I clicked it after finding it. Check before clicking that it is still free for you.

The One You Love by Paul Pilkington is free today in the Amazon Kindle store

Genre: Suspense/Mystery

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

Emma Holden's nightmare has just begun. Her fiancé vanishes, leaving the battered and bloodied body of his brother in their London apartment. Someone is stalking her, watching her every move.

And her family are hiding a horrifying secret; a secret that threatens all those she loves. In a desperate race against time, Emma must uncover the truth if she ever wants to see her fiancé alive again.

With over 300,000 downloads worldwide, The One You Love is a fast-paced suspense mystery, full of twists and turns, following in the tradition of writers such as Nicci French and Sophie Hannah.

Holding a Wake ----

Yesterday we joined a bunch of DH’s work staff and their families, and trekked over to Wake Forest University to watch the Demon Decons get TROUNCED by the Clemson Tigers!

We had high hopes at the beginning of the game….the one thing I can say for Wake Forest is that they have TEAM SPIRIT! And it is infectious. You can’t help but root for them because the cheer team, the dance team, the band and all others put so much into it.

I think our favorite part of the whole game was watching the pee-wee basketball league of 8 to 10 year olds play a game during half time.

Watching these little guys try so hard to dribble that ball, to get it across the court, to grannie shoot a basket ---one little kid was bound and determined to make a goal for the OTHER team…he didn't want to take the ball back down the court to his OWN team’s hoop…he wanted to shoot it at the closest one!

The whole crowd was yelling “Wrong basket….go the OTHER WAY!!” And when the light bulb finally went off for him, everyone cheered as he dribbled that big ball down the court to go attempt a basket in the “RIGHT” hoop. TOO CUTE!

And it reminded me that this is what sports should be about. This is why we love college sports while not really paying attention to professional sports. Some of the joy just goes out of the process when there is money involved. When it is a job, instead of a love.

SO --- our team got SLAUGHTERED! But we had a wonderful time, and came home with DOOR PRIZES, after all, it was Free T-shirt Day!

It’s a pretty gastly picture! But we were having a good time. And the best treat of all? ICE CREAM! Wake Forest’s colors are yellow/gold and black. And they had Oreo Cookie ice cream that they had colored yellow with the black cookie bits in it----FUN! Should have taken a pic of that, but I was too busy eating it!

It was a great way to spend the evening with DH’s co workers and their families….I hope we can do it again!

Sew Day in the Basement!

We had a great time loading on Laura’s beautiful sampler quilt, choosing a design to go on it, picking out a thread color to quilt it with, and seeing this flimsy top turn into a real quilted quilt!

Sometimes picking thread colors can be the HARDEST choice of all. How do you choose?

I pretty much live by the “unwind several different choices of thread over the quilt top, being sure to cross light and dark areas and pick the one that is the LEAST obtrusive.”

I want something that isn’t going to look too light in the dark areas, nor something that doesn’t shout out too dark in the light areas. Most of the times this means we go for something medium.

In Laura’s case we chose a medium toned lilac pink.

The label actually reads as “Wild Rose” – I had to walk over to the machine and pick up the cone and check it to satisfy my own curiousity as I was writing this post!

There isn’t an overabundance of pink in the quilt itself –there is “SOME” pink, but the pink thread just traveled so well from area to area and blended in with all the batiks--- be they brown, green, red, purple, blue, aqua, turquoise, yellow or cream. The pink was a happy mixer!

As a piecer, my focus is usually on the piecing first, and the quilting comes secondary. I want texture, LOTS of texture, but I don't want it to look like thread is just laying there on top. I want the thread to sink in and just leave me texture.

I love this swirly feather that Laura chose from the patterns I had available. And see? That pink thread adds to the colors in the quilt, but doesn’t stand out so much that it overpowers what is going on with the piecing. This swirly feathery design is called “Feather Meander #1" and is designed by Jessica Schick. Isn't it beautiful?

Here’s the whole quilt as it came off the machine:

Isn’t it fabulous?! One thing I’d love to point out…don’t just think because the blocks are already large….((The blocks before the borders are 12” finished)) that you can’t add MORE to them, making them even bigger, but at the same time adding more intricacy to the over all design. The simple framing inner border around each block brought more color to play within each block. The “Lady of the Lake” style triangle second border around each block is another place to add some dynamic motion. The final narrow sashings around the outside of the triangles bring another place for your eyes to rest a bit…and make it so you don’t have to worry about matching triangle seam to triangle seam if you were to join this quilt block to block to block as this one is.

And I love the final border that is just a “Use up whatever is left until it is gone” kind of happy parade.

It’s a winner, Laura, it really is!

PS…I write my posts in Windows Live Writer, and spell check does NOT like certain words. It always wants to say that piecer is not a word, and nor is sashings. I got tired of it and clicked “ADD TO DICTIONARY”. HA! Maybe now it will believe that I know what I’m talking about and not just making up words to be words. It also drives me nuts that any time I type SEW in a message on my iphone that it automatically ”corrects” it to SEE or SEEING instead of SEWING. I need to have a talk with Apple about that. They too need an “ADD TO DICTIONARY” feature!

Enjoy your Sunday, Everyone!

Love from the Basement ---

Evening Edition: Free Kindle Book!

It’s cold and blowing out there. The kind of blowing that cuts clear through when you aren’t used to these kinds of temps…..when we left home to go to the Wake Forest game it was a brisk and bright 41 degrees. By the time we left the coliseum and headed home the thermometer had dropped to 27 degrees, and I bet it’s even dropped farther now that it is dark out.

BBbbrrrrrr! My poor daffodils may be frozen by morning. I never did get out there to trim a bunch to put in a vase in the house.

As we drove home I thought of the warmest, quickest thing I could make for dinner --- and realizing I had all the ingredients at hand just waiting for me in the kitchen, I made a huge batch of potato soup to warm us through. You can find the recipe HERE. It’s a “cook on the stove” recipe, and I can have it on the table fairly quickly, versus something that has to cook in the crock pot all day long, so it’s good in a pinch!

And even better, the leftovers will be so good tomorrow for an easy Sunday at home day.

I’ve just sat down to check email and do a bit of web-surfing before getting back to some sewing tonight…and this freebie came along. I just clicked it, it was free for me, so hopefully it will be for you too.

My Temporary Life by Martin Crosbie is free today from the Amazon Kindle store, and has received a perfect 5 out of 5 stars based on 16 customer reviews.

Category: Drama

Product Description:

“I kept thinking is this a true story, I couldn't put it down, I loved this book!”

“Martin Crosbie has created a world where a hero can emerge from the ashes of sadness and fight for those who cannot fight for themselves.”
“It's a "coming of age", a great thriller, a true romance, the journey of one man's life and the thrilling road he took for his own redemption. Then there was Hardly, oh Hardly...”

Heroes are not born. They’re made.

Malcolm Stewart’s strength was forged during harsh childhood days—ugly days when he faced down schoolyard bullies and endured the neglect of a promiscuous mother. It is a strength that he has wielded to defend himself and his friends.

Yet those years and traumas have taken their toll. Somewhere along the way, Malcolm Stewart lost his love of life.

That changes the day when beautiful, tempestuous Heather enters his world. He feels the stirrings of something long dormant. And when he learns of Heather’s own abusive childhood—and the daughter that she was forced to leave behind—Malcolm knows one thing:

He must help Heather get her little girl back.

Their harrowing quest takes them from Scotland to a remote corner of Canada. There, Malcolm faces more than he bargained for—from being accused of kidnapping, to being targeted by an enraged psycho. And he discovers that Heather’s story is more tragic than he could ever have imagined.

Yet his love for this woman with the flaming red hair—and for a little girl he has yet to meet—gives Malcolm Stewart the one thing he desperately needs: A chance to be reborn.

A chance to become the hero he never dreamed he could be.

Martin Crosbie’s debut novel has been attracting extraordinary attention. Read the first few pages and you will see why. This thrilling romantic suspense will take you on a journey that you’re not likely to forget.

Laura and I had a great time working on her quilt! I’ve got just about 1 1/2 rows left to finish….we ran out of time before it was time to leave for the Wake Forest game – so I’ll finish it up and drop it off to her at guild meeting Monday eve. I’m looking forward to the meeting – Miss Lisa is giving us a program on machine maintenance – boy do I need it!

What will you get up to Saturday Evening? I just might find myself tucked back under that pink & brown Dear Jane quilt and putting in some more hand quilting stitches ---whatever you do, take some time out to enjoy the warmth and love of those around you. Sometimes we need to step AWAY from the machines, get out of the basement --- and just go be in the presence of those who love us. Just Go Be.

Iphone-O-Gram!! Whoops!

One diamond sewn to one triangle is good.

Two diamonds stacked and sewn to one triangle is NOT good!!

This thing is flapping its tongue at me and mocking my lack of attention when sewing!!

Anyone seen my seam ripper???

Bonnie

Like a New Old Friend!

I love this networking thing!

It is amazing to me how I can just let a “NEED” out there and someone comes to my rescue SO generously that I am completely blown away.

It is my deepest wish that I can also be aware of those opportunities when it comes to giving to others. I know what it feels like to be on the receiving end. I need to push my giving end more, and I'm learning so much by watching those other givers around me.

For instance --- Remember me talking about my K-Tec mixer and how I loved it, but the only way to get it to run anymore was to hold down the “pulse” button because the on/off button had quit working?

Well, I got a very generous email from Mary M who said “So glad you love your K-tec, and sorry to see it’s not working. I have an extra just sitting here, would you like it?!”

Would I like it?! Oh my goodness! Just like that, I had a replacement mixer winging its way to me. I’ve used the new old mixer – it has replaced the old one and has become just like an old – but NEW—friend! And I am so grateful for people who are so giving and generous.

The same thing happened when quilters found out about machine needs. You know I’ve had a hard time with the demise of my Bernie. It’s still not over ---I’m seriously thinking of sending her in to Big Bernina in Chicago and just having her worked over until she is good-as-new. It’s just that “nagging” thing that putting good money after old may not be the brightest thing to do. I’m still sitting on the fence and watching and waiting and checking shops to see what trade-ins they have available. My ultimate dream would be that someone trades in a gently used 1080 or 1090 and she could come live with me happily-ever-after.

But in the mean time, through a network of quilters who had read about my plight, I came across this little work horse!

She is now at home with me. I set her up in the usual “Bernie Spot”. She fit the feet of my old Bernie like a charm. The plexiglass table fits. She doesn’t have many bells or whistles, but she has that wonderful Bernina straight stitch and feed dog motion that I love. She is completely mechanical, not a computer circuit board to be found. She will do zig zag and a few other stitches, but mostly --- I just PIECE. And piece and piece and piece and piece. And I think she will be happy to ride shotgun with me without worry of shaking a circuit board loose.

I ride my machines hard…and this one….she now has a place in my “Fleet!”

We spent some time bonding yesterday. That seam allowance is still right on, as it should be…she is wearing my old Bernie’s 1/4” foot! It was like meeting a New Old Friend. She is her own individual self though. Her motor hum sings a pitch a bit lower than my 1080. She has her own feel and things will take some getting used to.

Isn't it funny how we are such creatures of habit? I kept reaching for the "back up" button in the same place it was on my 1080, and it isn't there! I *KNEW* it wasn't there, but that motion of habit is so ingrained that I kept pushing where there WAS no button! Sweet girl, we will figure this out, the two of us.

Together, she and I made quite a pile of pieces! Here I’m working on the border for the Midnight Flight Quilt ----I’m teaching this in Williamsburg in August, so you’ll get to see lots of this in progress along the way!

Another friend, Laura, is on her way over to sew today! She has a beautiful quilt she finished at Camp Dogwood Retreat last month and I offered her machine time on the longarm to get that big puppy quilted…and let me tell ya, Laura knows all about BIG PUPPIES! She has a couple of the biggest great-dane sized puppy dogs at home that I have ever seen! We are sure to have a fun day ----

This afternoon, DH & I are headed to Wake Forest University to go watch the Demon Deacons take on the Clemson Tigers in Basketball! It’s great to spend a weekend at home with my peeps!

iPhone-O-Gram! Dear Jane Style!

Just a bit of later night hand quilting in the recliner--feet up, needle pulling thread!

Indiana Jones is on the TV and I'm marveling over Harrison Ford in Raiders of the Lost Ark

Just a bliss moment! Commercial time--where's the popcorn?!

Bonnie

Just a bit of Florabunda---

Last evening I got the hankering to take the Florabunda blocks that I’ve done so far, give them a good pressing and lay them out.

I’m a bit more than half way --- there are currently 37 blocks done out of 72.

The first thing I noticed is that there isn’t a lot of interesting ones yet…

Right now it looks more light than it does dark or vibrant in the yellow department, but when I looked at what fabrics I have still to sew, I saw that I still have a lot of the darker ones to go into the mix yet:

These are pairs of triangles and pairs of strips ready to be chain fed through the machine for the next dozen or so blocks…I was going to sew those last night, but well --- you know how it goes! I was clearing off the cutting table to straighten things up a bit and, before I knew it….I had taken a small pile of scraps that had already been pressed for cutting into bow-tie pieces and instead of herding this pile of already pressed scraps from one section to another, I simply began to cut them….and I ended up with THIS:

Which really isn’t a whole lot of anything at all, but there are about 20 more sets for bow-ties here, all from really unruly “can’t really be worth saving” scraps.

Also on the table was the rest of the Florabunda strip sets, with the wider rectangles ready to be cut into half square triangle units:

These strip sets are even brighter/darker yet, so I’m hoping they will balance out the very light ones that were at the top of the pile and are already sewn. I’m hoping that what I have thrown together will closely resemble the original:

I know that I had “MORE” variety in the value of my background yellows, but at the same time I wanted to clear these out, and several pieces that were 1/4 yard or so are now completely gone thanks to this quilt. I also know that I have many more “light light” ones than the original antique quilt, but in the spirit of “Use It Up” I think it’s going to be great.

This is a quilt I want on my guest room bed Spring through Summer….that is if I can push it to done and get it quilted and bound and ON the bed…I’m planning it for an every day use-it-and-wash-it-and-use it-and-wash-it kind of cheery quilt, much like the circa 1950-1960 one in the above picture was.

I know not everyone loves yellows ---I’ve gotten comments of things like “That is the ugliest color combo I’ve ever seen” ((Thanks to it being so easy to express yourselves anonymously in the blog comments….we speak quickly without thinking of how it is going to come out or come across!)) but I love the 1950s/60s fabrics and how splashy they were ----I make no excuses, I make what I like for the reasons I like them, and it’s going to look great on the bed!

The big florals remind me of the quilter bathrobe that my Grannie used to wear with I stayed with her over the summers as a teenager. It had BIG roses on it, and I loved seeing her padding out of her room in the morning wearing this floral robe and her pink terry slipper-slides.

Original fabrics closer up….wish some of those age spots weren’t there! I love the white-ish paisley at the bottom right! And that one yellow that is almost green!

Emmy Lou giving her approving step-test on the blocks on the floor ----Yep, mom, I think this will do JUST FINE!

I’m back off to the chiropractor again this morning. No adjustment yesterday, just xrays and “tingle” therapy. Today….we’ll go at it again. I’m going to need a few adjustments before things start feeling better. Thought I’d go for a walk yesterday afternoon, but could barely make it to the top of the driveway without hurting so gave up on that idea….And into another day we go!

Classes Filling!

A special thanks to Sew Cal Gal for her shout out on the Glendale California show!
If you could, would you do me a favor and post the link to this post on any of your message boards, your facebook page, your blog and email lists? We need to get the word out a bit farther -- the show is only a month away!
The classes are filling, and we are excited to see them full of quilters ready to have some fun.
If you missed the post, you can click HERE for a recap!


There are still openings in both Pineapple Blossom and Scrappy Mountain Majesties ----both of these are FUN and EASY workshops, and you get a lot done IN class. We can even swap fabrics with each other for more variety. You will have a great time!


>For more information, please contact Rasa
Please let her know that you want to join us for these classes!My hope is that we can help fill these class spaces up to make this show

iPhone-O-Gram! Call it thread play??

Yes, Doctor E, I am a quilter! Could it be the thread adhered to my socks that gave it away!!? Lol!!

Ok, I was really embarrassed when I took off my shoes for my evaluation and there was a huge thread ball in the top of my sock!

So what do I do? Grab the camera to document of course! Now you can laugh WITH me!!

Bonnie

A Day in Annapolis!

Monday showed us such a beautiful February morning! I met with the Annapolis Quilt Guild at the Severna Park Community center..what a great location! LOTS of windows for tons of natural light, and since Mr. Sun decided to shine gloriously all day, it even got a bit roasty-toasty there by the windows. Those who sat in the back row commented that after lunch they were ready to curl up like cats in a sunny spot and take a nap.

Well Why not? We’d been power sewing all morning! This was a Virginia Bound workshop, so we had buckets and boxes and bins of strings flying – and such different color combos!

It made me all that more anxious to dig into more string projects when I got home….have I had a chance to do that yet? NO! Book edits are starting to come back, so I’ve had my nose back into the manuscript sections brainstorming with my editor on how to do what and which would show this best and take up the least amount of space ---we want LESS WORDS and MORE QUILTS. That is not easy for me, I’m a very wordy-girl ---so we are looking for a happy balance of a quilt book that reads like me telling stories, and not just a recipe for how to make what with no personality to it. ((Think this way….we don’t want the Charlie Brown teacher going “whha wahhh whhhaahh” Sew this to this. End of story!

Take a look at what these gals got up to!

		Virginia Bound, Annapolis, MD 2012 VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I’m off to run errands this morning….different from yesterday ---this morning it’s the chiropractor. That nasty bout of sciatica is just not going away, and I think it’s been aggravated by long hours in the car. My feet hurt from long hours of standing. Turn 50 and begin to fall apart, isn’t this how it goes? How can I be active and keep up going to the gym or even power walking if the back hurts, the legs have nerve pain and the feet are screaming?! >_< So….I’m hoping this appt with this new guy today will get me on the path to being straightened out into MORE freedom for being active, not less.

Happy Thursday, Everyone!