Dove wisdom

 As you may know, Dove chocolate always includes a saying on the wrapper. Lately they have included those sent in by fans. Well, today, when I unwrapped my morning dark chocolate (they say you should have some dark chocolate every day, right?), the wrapper said, "Celebrate the small victories in life."Debbie from Fairfield, OH.

In light of the very long list I am working on, I decided that is what I would do. I am celebrating the fact that I finally got that pedicure I needed, pulled some of the dead flowers from the garden, went to the grocery store, purged some old papers from the pile... and the list goes on. Boy, do I love crossing things off my list!

The other thing to celebrate is the fact that at 61 I don't mind running out to the store without makeup or freshly coiffed hair. But then there is always Murphy's Law which says when I do that I will ALWAYS run into people I know. Today I saw one of my neighbors and a friend from church. Lucky for me, they have both seen me looking better.

I am enjoying the open windows, maybe the last day for this, and the gorgeous weather. The leaves are absolutely brilliant. Don't know how much longer we can enjoy those. While I love the flowers in spring and summer, there is something about the red, yellow and orange of fall. Maybe part of it is the short time we have to enjoy them.

This was the view out my front door this morning. What a sight to behold.

Now, back to the list. If I can cross everything off today, the one thing on it tomorrow will be sewing!

On the road again...

I made a trip to Atlanta this weekend to visit my sister and brother-in-law and to attend the Country Living Fair at Stone Mountain. It was as they advertised, just like turning the pages of the magazine. The setting was wonderful, meandering throughout the woods near Stone Mountain. And the best thing, it was a lovely day. The weather held out all weekend and only changed today. My flight was delayed by the thunderstorms this morning.

I had to share the pumpkin picture with you. The face was made by the arrangement of Fanta soda six-packs. Pretty amazing, huh? Makes you smile as you enter the store.

The picture above is the guest room at my sister's house. She did this for her granddaughters to enjoy when they visit. Isn't it just the happiest room to stay in? The stencils go around the room and the clouds have a bit of sparkle in them.

These pictures give you a taste of the fair. It was such fun to stumble upon the quilts that were hanging in the woods.

This bag was made by a woman from Florida. She made one for herself and her daughter and was very accommodating when I asked to take a picture. The fabric was from French General and the chicken pattern came from the Martha Stewart website. Another project for my list!

Have a happy quilting week, everyone!

A few more blocks and a view

I added a few more blocks to the quilt project. I am loving this project and the book I shared a few posts ago. It is really helping me get this together. The directions are so easy to follow and it mostly is cutting lengths of the 2 1/2" strips. I love it. I have some more blocks to make and then filler blocks to decide on.
I made the hearts last night and then in about 20 minutes I had the dog block finished. It still needs embroidered eyes and mouth but that can come later.

I'm really noticing the changing leaves in our area now. As I was looking out my window this morning the Linden tree was starting to show its color. It was looking good even though it was a cloudy and rainy morning. I took the picture this afternoon after I got home. This is the view out my window as I'm sewing. If I sew during the day I can enjoy the leaves and then another view in winter when the tree is bare. It is a great spot to sew. Can't wait for snow days to sit and watch the snow coming down.

Not sewing but checking it off my list!

I am so happy to say that I finally got the clothing switch taken care of. Those people in the south won't understand the job this can be. I had to haul out the tubs and bring on the sweaters and warmer clothing that have been languishing in their spot all summer. It is a little exciting to see clothes you haven't seen for a season. And I did take the time to weed out some clothes to be donated. Always a good thing.

One other thing I forgot to share was the speaker at our Guild meeting on Monday night. Dalen Keys offered a delightful presentation about his experiences with writing and quilts. His wife is the quilter and he is the writer. He has self published a book called Just A Quilt? which is about a little boy who uses a quilt for so many different things. All about using imagination. The quilt in the book was inspired by another quilt made by his wife. I bought the book, quilt pattern, cut strips for the quilt and a special ruler. The quilt was such a happy quilt and hard to resist. You can find more information at www.dalenkeys.com.

Sewing for sure tomorrow!

I have a winner!

The Fall into Fall Giveaway has come to an end and before I name the winner, I want to send a big thank you to Debi for putting this all together. It was such fun for bloggers and visitors alike. And I also want to thank everyone for stopping by to comment and also to become followers. I am overwhelmed. It has been a very rewarding experience. Can't wait for the next one. 

And now for the winner. The winner, chosen using the random number generator, is Mariliz.

Mariliz said...

My favorite thing about Fall is all of the beautiful leaves..it's breathtaking.

Mariliz can be found at her blog, http://marilizsmusings.blogspot.com/  Be sure to stop by and say hi to her. 

I have emailed Mariliz and look forward to getting her address from her. I want to send the fabric right away. It does have a Christmas flavor and I just heard today that Christmas is only 70 days away. Yikes! Time to get back to the list of projects!

Today is the day

I am traveling and won't be near my computer until later today. Can't wait to pick the winner of the Fall into Fall Giveaway. As soon as I do I will send an email to the winner and post at the top of the Giveaway info from October 1.

Good luck and thanks to all who entered!

A place that quilters can love!

I am down the shore with some friends and this morning we went to a darling restaurant for breakfast. As you can see from the pictures, there are handprints all over the walls. We went there last year on my 60th birthday and our handprints are still there! They were all decorated for fall and it is a riot of color. I even toyed with the idea of doing that on my walls but was quickly talked out of that. But wouldn't it be fun!!!

I have to tell you the best part of our visit last year. When Valarie, the owner, heard it was my birthday, she had the whole restaurant sing to me and a handsome stranger even kissed me on the cheek. And THEN she gave me chocolate cake for dessert. You know, that idea of dessert for breakfast is not a bad idea.

Just a reminder, Fall into Fall Giveaway ends tomorrow.

Time to monitor and adjust!

I finally had the chance to do some sewing tonight (see the strips all in a row) and ran into a slight glitch in the plan. I was ready to finally work on the jelly roll strip quilt I planned as a wedding gift. Well, I got out the strips and the pattern and discovered that I cut them wrong!!! AAAARRRGGGHHH. Okay, so I backed up a bit and started looking at other patterns. I think I found a solution and can I say, it pays to be a packrat. Fortunately, I had just bought another strip quilting book.

The pattern I'm going to use has different picture blocks to sew. Each block is 10" so I chose the ones that I liked and then can fill in with other 10" blocks. And I think I like this idea better. I chose hearts, a dog, houses and a few other things that fit the newlyweds. I'm excited.

Here is the first block I was playing with. Not sure about the fabric in this one but I do like the idea. It will take me a bit longer since each block is different but I do think well worth it!

Here is the book that is saving my sanity. I am so glad that I bought it.

Just wanted to be sure that I remind everyone that the Fall into Fall Giveaway is ending on Friday, October 15th.  This has been so much fun. I loved all the comments and really appreciate all the new followers. Thanks so much for joining. I really wanted to respond to every comment but my learning curve on this was slow. I finally realized how to do that in an expeditious way. So, for those who didn't get a response from me, I just want you to know that I did so appreciate your interest. I promise to do better from now on.

To check my giveaway offering, you can click here. http://sillystitching.blogspot.com/2010/10/fall-into-fall-giveaway-october-is-here.html

To check the others, please click on the scarecrow on my sidebar. Debi, who did so much to make this happen, did such a great job with the organization. I think we can all say a big THANK YOU to her for that.

And I want to say, good luck to all who entered. Check back on Friday, after noon, to find out who won. I will email the winners first before posting their name.

Hope you enjoyed this as much as I did. And thanks for listening. 

Sewing coming soon...

I can't believe I still haven't done any sewing. That didn't happen but I am glad I can say that I did get a few things off my list. I do love how that feels.

I gave a tour of the Pearl Buck House today to three lovely people. They were from Clinton, NJ and Orlando, FL. It is always so much fun to take people through the house and share it with them. Since it is an intact house, left the way it was when Pearl Buck was alive, it is hard to keep remembering not to touch anything. You always feel like you could just sit down and relax.

It was very fun today since they were setting up for a wedding. Girls in simple green dresses with great fall inspired necklaces. They were very lucky that it was such a nice day since the ceremony was outside. it is a lovely setting for a wedding and they do have many of them throughout the summer. There is an enclosed tent for dinner and dancing.

You can find more information about the site by visiting their website at
http://www.psbi.org/site/PageServer

I did touch fabric today when I packed some material to send to a friend's daughter for pictures with her baby. I love looking at all the pretty colors and patterns. Maybe there will be sewing tomorrow.

No quilting pictures. I just thought I would leave you with an image from the summer as we get deeper and deeper into fall.

Redwork for me!

I'm so excited. The little quilt that I won came in the mail today. And it is Redwork. When I got the call, she said it was red but I really didn't know which one it would be. It is so ironic because I commented on something else that was redwork and told my friend I really wanted to do some of that. Now I have a model to follow. And I love it.

I have to extend kudos to the Courthouse Quilters in NJ. For the little quilt raffle you only had to write your name once on a numbered card. Then you got tickets with that card's number on it. You just put the numbered cards in for the quilts you wanted to win. Such ingenious raffle planning.

The picture at the top is my table today. A friend that I hadn't seen for awhile stopped in to visit on her way home to Maryland. We had such a nice visit. Always a good thing to catch up with old friends. So today was a visiting day, not a sewing day. Love it.

Where does the time go?

Again, I really hoped that I would have some quilting to share but... life got in the way. But I will say in a good way!

I worked yesterday and then I was out to dinner with some friends. Today I met some friends in the city for lunch and a visit. Haven't seen them for a while so we had a lot of catching up to do. I made a few stops on the way home, including Michael's, and only bought the adhesive I went in to buy. I wasn't home very long and my neighbor stopped over to see if I wanted to go out to eat. Well, we did walk to the restaurant, a neighborhood favorite, so felt very righteous in going!

On the list for tomorrow is the great clothes changeover. It was a beautiful day today but know it has to be done. Hope it can be accomplished in one day.

And the pictures, I just remembered that I'm still looking forward to getting the small quilt I won in the mail soon. I decided that I could share this little quilt with you. I won this one at a quilt show 2 years ago. Yes, I'm a very lucky person!

Another fun meeting + a surprise.

I just got home from our group's quilt meeting and once again, I am inspired by the others in the group. We were missing Lynn tonight but happy to welcome Peggy to our group.

Everyone had the chance to share their work and then we shared our paper-pieced blocks. Well, almost everyone shared their block. One forgot and one didn't quite finish. There was a little frustration with the paper piecing. But we did agree that the results were wonderful. Yes, you do see a water glass being used as a place holder for the missing section! Always amazing to see how the same pattern + different fabric yields a totally different look.  I love them all.

The sharing was once again pretty terrific. From Fran's beautiful batik (among a few others on display in her home), Cindy's awesome t-shirt quilt, Fran's beautiful Eagle blue quilt and fun puppy love,  Peggy's amazing huge quilt, with fabulous hand quilting, Dru's cute table runner and Laura's pretty pink quilt with accompanying heartwarming story. I loved them all. I got to share the pictures of the 60th birthday quilt. Hope I have a bit more to show next month.

Now we are on to the block for next month. Laura wanted to make us do curves for the next one but, lucky for us, she didn't have it ready. All I can say is phew! Don't have to stretch that far in the next month. But someday...

Almost forgot! Before the meeting I got a phone call telling me that I won a small quilt at the Quilt Show on Saturday. Not sure which one but can't wait to see it. Yes, I'm a very lucky person! I'll share it as soon as I get it.

Happy Quilting, everyone! And Lynn, hope you feel better already.

A little sewing

I finally had the chance to do some sewing tonight. Our quilt group is meeting tomorrow night and I had to get my block finished. This was a paper piecing star which took me quite a while to complete. Of course, it didn't help that I had to start all over when I realized that some pieces weren't the right size. Can you spell aggravation? And of course, one of the fabrics I used was in short supply. So, yes, there is more than a little piecing in there. Makes mine unique, I guess. Can't wait to see how the others fared in putting theirs together. And it fits well in my land of good enough!

I'd love to hear how all of you feel about paper piecing. Do you love it or loathe it!??

Over the weekend I went to the Quilts in the Mill show put on by the Courthouse Quilters in Stockton, NJ. The setting for these quilts is absolutely fabulous. Such a rustic mill and great presentations. I've included a few for you to enjoy. Take special note of the quilting on the blue and white quilt. Very unique.

I have really been enjoying reading the comments on the Fall into Fall Giveaway. Check here if you haven't checked my giveaway yet. http://sillystitching.blogspot.com/2010/10/fall-into-fall-giveaway-october-is-here.html  If you want to check out the other bloggers who are participating, just click on the scarecrow. So many great blogs out there.

Just a reminder to those participating, please make sure I have a way to contact you if you are the winner. I have been going back and trying to respond to all the comments and notice that a few are no comment. The giveaway will end on October 15.  I have been overwhelmed by the response and really appreciate all your comments.

Fall into Fall Giveaway - October is here!

I have a winner! Mariliz at Mariliz's Musings. I have emailed her with the good news and am just waiting for her address to send her the goodies. 


I do wish everyone could have won. Thanks so much for all your comments!


Happy Fall everyone.

Can you believe that it is October already? Where did September go? It was a very busy month starting with my nephew's wedding and ending today with the birth of a close friend's first grandchild. Such an exciting time for everyone.

Now it is our turn to get excited. Debi at http://www.debiquilts.blogspot.com/ is hosting a Fall into Fall Giveaway. She has so many bloggers participating that all of us who love giveaways will be very happy.

Now for the giveaway on this blog. I chose to give away 10 Fat Quarters of Minick and Simpson Christmas Past. Even though it is Christmas fabric, the colors reminded me of fall.

Now for the rules of this giveaway. You can have 2 chances to win.

1) Post a comment on this blog. I would love to hear your favorite thing about fall. (Right now, since it is still very hot and humid here, I think it would have to be return to cooler weather for me.)

2) Become a follower or let me know if you are a follower already.

The giveaway is open from today until October 15 at noon.

And don't forget to visit all the other blog giveaways. You can find them by clicking on the Fall into Fall giveaway picture on my sidebar.