Monday, February 23, 2015

Thankfulness

Sorry, no pictures today.  Rather, I am feeling a little philosophical.  You will just have to put up with this post and spend a little time thinking or maybe just hitting the x button now and leave this page.

We Americans, humans, women, members of the Lewis family, etc. all seem to lack an ability to take time to measure our 'wealth' in this world.  I decided to list  just a few of them.  If I missed you in this post it isn't because I am not thankful for your life but because I am composing this at my computer and am not always able to remember all my blessings and blessed people in my life.


  • I should start with my parents who raised me in a way that enabled me to go out into the world and seek my fortune and become ME.
  • That one was pretty 'heavy' as we would say in the 60's but not all of them will be so 'deep'
  • My youngest brother is cancer free after yet another scan
  • My husband is the most wonderful man for me.  He has allowed me to blossom as a woman and I am thankful daily for his love and companionship.  (Maybe I should have put that one before the one about my brother but once again, I am just composing as things pop into my head.
  • The sun is shining today even though it is below zero outside.  I have a warm house to shelter me from the cold.
  • My TN nephew, niece and their children survived the ice storms and were able to keep electric power the whole time.  
  • My niece, nephew, and babies still have a sense of humor out on Cape Cod even though they are being dumped on by snow almost every other day.  
  • My niece, her husband and cute little baby in Grand Rapids are precious to my heart.  I am a sucker for little babies that smile ALL the time.
  • BOOKS!!!!  I had a rough patch of finding good books right after Christmas and then Diana recommended the book Zippy and the follow up book of She Got up Off the Couch.  That broke my curse and I am just finishing All the Light You Cannot See.  I don't want it to end because I will have to find a new book after that and even though I have a stack of them I'm not sure the next one will measure up.  
  • Tomorrow our friendly builder will come to our house and remove that LARGE tub in our bathroom, the one that we never use and is too big for our hot water heater and we can't fill it anyway.  I think the last people to use it were Sara and Jessica, in their bathing suits many years ago.  Since then it has just collected dust and I hate cleaning it out.  I will send pictures of that remodel.  
OK, I am rambling on and on and on now and that book is calling to me.  I only have a few pages left to read and want to finish it before The View.  

Remember to be thankful for something today, even if it is small like that Latte' you get at the coffee shop.  


Sunday, February 15, 2015

Divas for lunch and sewing

This past Thursday was a FUN afternoon for my lady friends and me.  I invited MaryAnne and Kathy over for lunch and an afternoon of sewing.
I made my wonderful vegetable soup (just like my mom made it, thick and full of just a few vegetables) and then after lunch we were off and sewing.  
I have been wanting to make this little purse/wallet that everyone in my quilting group has been making. (It is called the DIVA wallet if anyone is interested in making it and that kind of explains the title too.) It is so cute but sometimes the directions for such projects aren't so clear. So we thought that 3 minds would be better than one and decided to do it as a group project.  As it turned out, the directions were a little 'sketchy' at times and the 3 of us had to talk through a lot of parts of the project.  
 MaryAnne is a friend from way back, we taught together and have keep in touch.  You can see that we were concentrating a lot while working.  Sometimes we were talking out the steps aloud to each other and then sometimes just to ourselves.
 Kathy and I go way back too.  We were in AAUW together and of course she is my Ann Arbor Art Fair companion.  We share a love of sewing and rings.
 Then there was me, trying to keep up with these women.  It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and my dining room table was a flurry of activity.
 MaryAnne had to leave early so she charged ahead but didn't quite get the 'hardware' on hers before she left.
 Kathy and I soldiered on and finished after she left, screwing on our hardware and completing the project.
This little purse/wallet is really quite cute.  It has a zipper pocket (it had been a long time since I had put in a zipper but I managed to get it done)  It also has several 'card' pockets for credit cards and such.  Finally it has this cute little bar closure on the top.

We had a wonderful time and hope to do something like this again together.
I strongly recommend getting together on a cold winter day and having some fun with friends.  It is nice to have a project completed when you are done but not necessary.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

Quilt show

I guess it has been a LONG time since I posted but it seems that I don't have many viewers and maybe not enough to say or captivate an audience.  

 Anyway, the quilt show started this weekend.  I had 5 pieces in the show.  I made many of them since Christmas so I guess that is what I have been doing in my sewing room.  It was fun to get ready for this show, knowing that they would be viewed by many people in the community.  They are for sale but I put pretty high prices on them and will be VERY happy if the big ones don't sell.
This one above is called Wildflowers.  It was a lot of fun to make.  I especially like the checkerboard border on this piece.  It adds a bit of color to the piece although it was pretty colorful before.  I will hang this somewhere in my house if it doesn't sell.
 This is a little piece I did before Christmas.  It was a project in my quilt group.

 I did this piece several years ago with my quilt group.  I was the teacher with this project.  It has been hanging in my quilt room for a while and wouldn't be sad if it sold.
 I did this piece as an experiment after seeing a local artist working on a piece for his shop.  I wouldn't be sad if it sold either.  I would just use the money to buy more fabric.
This is my final piece and I LOVE it.  I really hope it doesn't sell but I could make it again if necessary. I am planning to hang this in my dining room when I bring it back home.

The "Opening Night' of this show was this past Friday night.  I took cookies and stood around explaining my pieces to friends that came to the show to 'Meet the Artist'.  Fun Fun Fun.

Hey, let me know if there is anyone out there??????????