Sold!

I'm so thrilled to announce that my dear friend, Carol, has purchased Release - after I made her wait months for it. She first expressed interested in buying this quilt in August, I think it was, and I made her wait because I was getting ready to travel to the states for a month. Not too smart of me, but there it is. However, I couldn't dissuade her desire to purchase this quilt, and yesterday it became hers!
The best part about this sale, other than the quilt going to a friend, is the fact that she had a good understanding of what the quilt design meant. I don't usually mean much by my designs, but this one had some significance, and she got it. That is so cool.

Enjoy your new quilt, Carol. And thanks a bunch!

Work In Progress

Well, it makes me anxious to post pictures of works in progress. I'm worried about criticism, about someone stealing my design. Pretty silly, isn't she?

This is actually a sketch that came out of a sketch that didn't work. Often, I make a sketch and go with it without pausing to think. But this is a second attempt, which means I might still need to refine it before it gets made. But for now, I'm totally happy with it.




This design feeds out of the last series I was working on, which I finished yesterday but haven't post a pic of yet. You've seen some of it, tho. But I will get a good pic to post tomorrow.





And here is the design partially filled in. Raspberry lemonade, anyone?

Happiness in Sewing

I am so thrilled with my new sewing machine, it has made all the difference in the world for me.

For those who don't know, last July or August I purchased a Janome 6500 sewing maching off Ebay and had it shipped to my sister's house until such time as I could come and collect it. Well, I had that opportunity recently, and now I have my new machine set up and am using it joyfully. It gives me such better control, handles the different threads so much better, everything about it is superior to the old machine I had. Here's an example.



Over and over again this last year or so, I would come up with a quilt design I was happy with and would execute the fusing part with no problem. The trouble would start when I would go to quilt the durn things. Pay attention to the quilting outlining the circular shapes here - just the outside quilting. The interior quilting I did on the new machine, and it made me want to rip out the exterior quilting and do it over again. So I did.



This machine has allowed me to go from sloppy to meticulous. Now you can hardly even see the outlining on these shapes. And it wasn't any harder than doing it messily. I'm so thrilled!

This has given me new confidence, which I think I needed, and I can't wait to get off the computer and into my studio! Woohoo!

Random Acts of Chicken Giving

It is so thrilling to give something of yourself away, even if it's something cutesy and not life-supporting like say, a kidney. I asked and was invited to participate with the lovely people at The Toy Society. So I made a Little Orange Hen and finally got the chance to leave her for someone when I was in the states last month. I kept trying to do it here in Singapore, but it was always raining, and I was worried that L.O.H. would get moldy.

Well, you just have to go see for yourselves.

Back in The Swing of Things

Well, I've been back in Singapore for over a week now. Like 10 days, actually. I had an easier time with the jet lag than I did when I got back from England. I think that is because I was determined to not sleep through my life. So I kept my naps to a minimum and just really went to bed early. It seems like I'm back on my normal sleep schedule, and for that I'm thankful.

I also spent the last week doing housework. Not just the obligatory dish washing and laundry, but changing sheets and towels, sweeping and mopping, dusting and throwing stuff away. There was something territorial about it. And it helped with the feeling of being somewhat depressed because I'm still living here. Well, if I have to live here, I'm going to make it as nice as I can!

I bought a Christmas panel by Laurel Burch at Hancock's in Paducah when I was there, and I took some time after cleaning my studio and setting up my new sewing machine to make a border for the panel. Man, it's been a long time since I made a pieced border for anything!



Pretty durn colorful, no?

So, all in all, I feel like I'm back in the swing of things and everything has settled down to a quiet roar, as usual.

In The Right Place At The Right Time

So today was Carnival Day at my daughter's school. We weren't really committed to going, but then she decided she wanted to, so off we all went. On the spur of the moment, I decided to bring Release, the latest quilt, because a friend (Carol!) said she was interested in buying it, but she's never even seen it in person and I expected to see her there.

As soon as I walked onto campus, I was accosted by the woman who was organizing a quilt show for the carnival. I had no idea they were even having a quilt show. She hoped I had a quilt in that bag I was carrying, she said, and I did. But I wasn't planning on showing it, I assured her. I just brought it to show to Carol! Being taken off-guard, I argued a bit and then acquiesced and agreed to put it in the show.

I went and looked and my friend Marianne had entered two of her quilts, and that was all there was. So OK, I displayed my quilt and didn't think another thought about it.

Later, someone congratulated me on winning first place.



Isn't that a hoot?

And here's a picture I forgot I had in my camera of my daughter on her school's picture day. She's so gorgeous, if I do say so myself.

She had PE that day, or she never would have worn those shoes. And yes, my studio is a mess. That's why I cropped most of it out of the picture.

My Mornings

Well, after being diagnosed with kidney stones, I was further diagnosed with a staph infection in my urinary tract, so I have been mostly just convalescing for days and days now. Not much interesting to report about that, but I'm off my antibiotics and have been released to take caffeine again, so it would seem that whole episode is behind me. Funny thing about drinking so much water everyday: your body gets really used to it and you feel thirsty if you don't drink. My doctor didn't leave me with a prescription for how much water I should be drinking now, but 1 and a half to 2 liters a day feels about right, with at least 300 ml of that being tea! Woo hoo!

So, I thought I would talk about what I do every morning. I get up as soon as my husband gets in the shower, to iron his shirt. I actually lay in bed until I hear the water hitting his body before I get up - dragging it out, see? I know, I could iron his shirts the night before or during the day after he's gone to work, but I like having to get up that early because then I can see my daughter before she leaves for school, too.

After I iron the shirt, I sit down at the computer with my breakfast. Lately it's been blueberry yogurt. I have all my blogs open in tabs so I can just click one after the other, and that takes some time to load, so that's when I go to the kitchen and get breakfast. I take my yogurt to the computer, and usually all my sites are loaded. Here they are, in the order I look at them:


Fibermania: My sister's blog. We often communicate about what she or I have blogged for the day, altho I haven't left too many comments there lately.
Exuberant Color: This is a blog I just recently started visiting regularly, and I got to her from my sister's blog. They are friends, and I enjoy reading about what she's making and about the weather in northern Illinois.
Craftzine: This is one I find inspiration at regularly. Always has several posts for each day, usually something catches my interest.
Softies Central: This blog is a little less consistent since the author moved to Los Angeles and seems to hate her job there (poor thing) but when she's on, it's really good. I like soft sculpture.
The Needle: This is a site for softie makers to post their creations, and there's always something cute/interesting/disturbing to look at here.
Create!: This is the blog of a woman named Alicia Kachmar. I first found her site after a google search for amigurumi. Alicia is a crocheter, but her site is about all sorts of things.
From One Chick to Another: I came to this site after doing a search for silver seabright chickens. This is the type of chicken I want to own in some far away someday I dream about sometimes. This blog is created by a Christian woman in Canada, and she has chickens, ducks, goats, horses, pigs, and she takes great pictures. Funny how you can get hooked on reading the blog of a perfect stranger.
CraftyStylish: This is another collection of creative-types posting articles about various things, some of which I'm interested in. Jeffrey Rudell is a regular contributor that I really enjoy - he does amazing art with paper.
The Toy Society: This is a woman in Australia who started this site as a way to keep track of soft toys she's made and abandoned in various places in Australia, with a note saying Take Me Home I'm Yours and instructions for toy recipients to contact her to let her know they've found the toy. Almost as soon as she started the site, tons of people contacted her to ask if they could participate in their own towns, and she agreed. I was one of those people, and I have a toy all ready to be abandoned, but I've been sick and it's been really rainy in Singapore. Hopefully soon I will have something to post about this.
After these sites, I have two blogs done by friends, and I'm not sure they would want me to post a link here, so I wont.
Lastly, it's: Flickr SingPacer: My husband's flickr account. Since he often works on and posts his pictures while he's at work, I'm not always aware that there's something new to look at, so I just check it regularly.

Oh, I almost forgot. I also regularly visit Pixdaus, which is a site like Flickr, except it seems to be managed over on this side of the world as many of the photographs are from Asia and Eastern Europe.
And lately my obsession has been with this Free Rice site. Warning, highly addictive! It's a site created by a dad of a 15 year old boy who didn't want to study for his SATs. Apparently, the dad was a computer programmer or something like that, and he worked with charitable organizations. So he created this site to help high school students study for their SATs (I never took one, you know) and it has all these different categories. For every correct answer, they donate 20 grains of rice to someone who needs it. For every incorrect answer, they give you the correct answer and then they give you the question again, a little later, so you have the chance to learn it.
My favorite categories are English vocabulary, English grammar, Art, World Capitals (I suck at this, but I'm getting better), French, German and Spanish. I never go near the math or science stuff, but then I don't have to. Great site for those of you with high school students! Or not, like me.


Taking a look at all of this blogs/sites can take very little time, or it can tie me up for an hour. Especially Free Rice. But now that I'm feeling better, I plan on visiting one more site on a regular basis: the blogger create page. In other words, I plan to blog more frequently.

I'm back!