Merry Christmas to All

And to all a good night. . .

Cracked Up

There are so many awful things in this world to worry about: 

Famine

Slavery

Wars

Poverty

Unjust Governments

Tornados

Earthquakes

Tsunami's

There is so much that needs to be fixed but yet right now I am selfishly grieving the loss of my laptop.

This isn't a photo of my computer but it resembles the carnage that occurred when the laptop slipped from my hands yesterday.  I have been in a funk ever since and am doing my best to put the whole situation into perspective.

There could be worse things going on in my life.

I have a desktop I can use (if I can get my teenagers off of it).

It is only a machine afterall.

A machine that has a lot of my life on it.

Thankfully that memory is all intact, it's only the viewing of the memory that is difficult.  I can connect the laptop to a moniter and use it as a desktop but it is still a loss I am working through.  I'm not ready to replace my beautiful red laptop yet but I will work through this and move on.

Star Challenge

This year's Quilter's Holladay guild challenge was "One Star, few star, red star, blue star" or in other words, "Make a star quilt."  We had 10 beautiful entries.  Part of the fun of a challenge is not knowing who made which quilt, but when you've been in the guild for a little while you learn about a person's favorite color choices and the techniques that they like to use most and so you can make a pretty good guess at who the creator is.   I did pretty good at guessing this year but there was one which surprised us all.  More about that later.  

Let's start with the first place winner . . . drum roll please. . . .

Kaye

Kaye likes bright colors and is so technically spot on with all of her projects.  These were little pieces and they were pieced perfectly.

The second place winner was. . . .Nan

Nan is one of the few who hand quilts still.  She has a great sense of color and beautiful stitches.

 Ugh, my brain has gone blank as to who made this lovely.  I should know this.

This piece is from Marie.

I knew it was hers because the quilting was so outstanding.  She is a long arm quilter who does such tight clean work.  I want to quilt like Marie when I grow up.

This string star beauty was made by Alice.

 Alice was celebrating her 95th birthday Tuesday night.  She is another fabulous hand quilter.  She has made over 150 lap quilts for Walter Reed Hospital but now that they are closing she is making all her quilts for Quilts of Valor.  They are a very lucky group to have Alice on board.

This bright and beautiful piece was made by Andrea.  She started it for last years Ostrich challenge but didn't get it finished in time.  Fortunately for her because of the stars in the corners it fit this years challenge as well.

Way to go Andrea. 

Unfortunately Mitzi took her red and blue star quilt down before Barb got a chance to photograph it.

It's difficult to see but there is a star bag hanging on the corner next to Andrea's quilt.  It was made by Mardi, our charity quilt coordinator extraordinaire. If charity quilts and projects can reserve you a mansion in heaven then Mardi has a great big one with a spa waiting for her.

This last century pink lone star bed quilt is the one that surprised us all.  It was made by art quilter Lisa B.  She made it a number of years ago and it is nothing like the bright quilts she makes today.  We all grow and change in our color and design choices but obviously from looking at this quilt, Lisa B's always had amazing skills.

And last but not least is my quilt.  

I used deColourant Plus on a piece of my ice dyed fabric to paint a small lone star and I almost cried when the colors I painted were not playing nice, however when I turned the fabric over I discovered something beautiful.  The removal of the color on the back was great.  I quilted around the star and then pebble quilted around the entire star to make it pop a bit more.  It's the first piece I have quilted on my new Juki TL2010q.  I love how it quilts.  I'll need to take a close up of the quilting so you can see how well it helps me quilt.

Thanks to Barbara H. for letting me borrow her photos since I forgot my camera.

A Keeper

I've been busy trying to get Christmas presents made, which means I have a number of things made that cannot be posted here.  However among the Christmas deadline I also have other sewing deadlines I can share.  One is this Scrappy Zigzag quilt top I am hoping to teach at a retreat in the spring:

 I will be adding one more black border before I quilt it.  I love the bright colors against the black background and for a real change of pace, I think it will be staying at my house.

In the Dark

We've had some big wind storms here in Utah last week.

There were several trees that went down because of the wind being so strong.  One in particular caused our local power to go out at 4:30 a.m.  My girls were very disappointed that there was still power at the school.  After I sent them off to school I sat in the dark with a candle and suddenly noticed the beautiful patterns that were being cast by the candle.

 I had to take photos.

 Just a typical jelly jar with a grape motif.

 But the designs were delightful

The power was out all day and once the sun was up I crawled back into bed with a good book and snuggled down.  I was suppose to be cleaning and sewing but as I had been sick with a stomach bug the day before I thought it was a great excuse to spend some down time with the cats.  They didn't mind a bit.

This is one of the many trees that came down in my neighborhood.

This beautiful blue spruce which came up by the roots, was in my backyard neighbors yard.  The amazing part of the story was that the tree went down right inbetween two houses and the only thing lost (besides the home for many birds and Mr. Squirrel) was a rain gutter.  We're thankful no one was harmed.

New Book

I know it's almost Christmas and I really shouldn't be buying things for myself but. . . I guess I will just be on Santa's naughty list.  After the Zentangle class my friend, Dawn, wanted to learn Zentangle using a book and there weren't any Zentangle books in the library.  We were shocked. We decided we should order some from the local bookstore: The Kings English.  

She got this one on the basics

and I bought this newer one.

The books came in yesterday and Dawn picked them up for us.  I excitedly gave a quick look through and I am very happy about what is inside.

I've been sick all week and unable to work on anything which has really put me behind on my projects.  Why are there so many deadlines in December?  (Sing that to "Why are their so many songs about rainbows " - it works nicely, not as pleasant but you know. . .)  So I guess I will have to put this new selfish purchase aside and get back to the grindstone.  I promise myself I will read and play with it again soon.