Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Some Journal Pages


I am back after surviving the weekend of babysitting! It was lots of fun, but also totally exhausting.  There is a reason.that God gives babies to younger people!  Thankfully,  it was nice enough to play outside, and the older kids made up all kinds of fun games, like sliding down our hill on boogie boards.  And no one ended up in the pond!



Lily lost a tooth, which meant I had to get up in the middle of the night and go out to my car to find a dollar for the Tooth Fairy!


The baby was delightful, and enjoyed playing with her big cousins.  She also discovered my Tupperware cabinet, and enjoyed it so much that she climbed right in!


I still do not have a laptop, as I am waiting for the insurance money to come through.  If it takes much longer I will have to go ahead and get one, because an I-Pad and an I-phone just can't do the same things.  

A repairman is here today to fix our front door (which a burglar busted down two weeks ago and has been boarded up ever since.). You can read about it in an earlier post.

We are having Thanksgiving at our house for the first time since 1983!  In the spirit of Thanksgiving, here is a little turkey I painted in one of my journals last year oe the year before.


Here is another bird that I tried to paint in the loose, juicy, colorful style of my recent workshop instructor, Fealing Lin.



And this is another face I'm practicing in a journal, courtesy of a model in a cosmetics ad.  Working in journals is a very non- threatening way to try out new color combinations.


That's it for now.  My fingers are getting cold since the front door has been open for three hours while john the carpenter is trying to build us a new door frame and  repair the lock.  

Happy Thanksgiving!



Thursday, November 21, 2013

Delectable Mountains

My next addition to the red and white sampler quilt is a complicated pattern called "Delectable Mountains."  But I just had to make it for our mountain cabin!

So I METICULOUSLY followed directions and labeled my rows.  Then I decided to take the rows to the living room to pin them while I watched the news.  Bad idea!


Can you see the mistakes?  Yep, some of those mountain peaks are suffering from erosion!

I decided to just unsew the half-square triangles pointing the wrong way.



Okay, now it's all better!



This weekend I am babysitting for all four grandchildren!  Should be fun but the weather is turning cold and rainy on Saturday.   Wish me luck!

Sunday, November 17, 2013

Red and White Blocks

I am still having trouble uploading pics from my phone to Blogger, so I will try using some photos from my IPad.

You may remember that my quilt bee in Wake Forest, the Whacky ladies, made me some gorgeous red and white quilt blocks when I moved recently.  I have been buying some red fabrics, and made three new blocks this weekend.

The first is Pine Trees, which I thought would be perfect for our mountain house in the mountains of North Carolina.





next Is Log Cabin, an obvious choice.



Finally, I spent many hours making Grandmother's Favorite.  Guess what?  It's not!


Here are the three new ones together.



And here are mine along with the ones made by my friends.




I don't know how I will set them yet,  but I know I will need to make more for a king-sized quilt.

It's nice to be sewing again!


Friday, November 15, 2013

A Bad Day

On Wednesday morning,  I came home from my water aerobics class to find my front door wide open and every drawer and door in the house open.  My first thought was to find my dog, who had been in the house.  I could hear her barking somewhere, but a quick walk through the main floor did not locate her.  Usually she bolts out the door the minute I get home.

I realized the burglars could still be in the house downstairs, so I went back out and called 911 and my husband.  We found the dog confined in our bedroom.  The deputies checked that the house was clear.  Then we had to start figuring out what was missing.  Turns out that they stole both of our laptops and a chest containing our silver tableware.  I am thinking now that maybe I surprised them and they took off out the back when I drove up.  There was a camera by the back door that got left behind.

Anyway, since they broke down the front door, we had a maintenance guy come out and board it shut from the inside.  The whole door and frame will have to be replaced.

So, no pics today, since I can't figure out how to get them on here yet.  But my art quilt group met here on Monday and I have lots of nice photos when I figure out how to upload them from my phone to blogger.

Everything's okay, no one was hurt, and stuff can be replaced.  But it is a sickening feeling to have your home violated.

And what they don't tell you on those TV crime shows is that fingerprint dust is almost impossible to remove from painted surfaces.  I'm still working on it!




Friday, November 8, 2013

Fall in Raleigh

Fall is looking colorful and beautiful here in central North Carolina.  Our leaves are at the peak and I am enjoying our very woodsy yard.



I have put out baskets of mums by our front door, and the camellias in the garden beds have decided to bloom.  I put a little quilt banner in the garden.


I took our dog for a beautiful walk around Durant Nature Park in north Raleigh.  We both enjoyed the lakeside trail and the colorful reflections in the water.  (I enjoyed the reflections, she enjoyed the water!)


I have been dabbling at the two portraits that I started in my watercolor class, but I think I should have left them alone.  Too much mucking about can ruin them.  I'm still not satisfied...  but here is a funny little portrait I did in one of my journals.  The lady started out as a cosmetics ad in a magazine.  She probably never dreamed of being quite this colorful!


I have been enjoying my baby granddaughter, who turned ten months old this week.  She has been practicing walking behind this toy I bought her.


She took her first steps when I was there on Tuesday!  Look out world, here comes Charlotte!  But she also LOVES to watch Sesame Street.  Up close and personal!


This weekend we are staying in town.  My husband and his partners are throwing their annual client pig-picking on Saturday.  His brother, who does Elvis impressions, will be arriving tonight with his wife, Phyllis.  We are going to take them to the Angus Barn along with our friends Pauline and Tom.

When they leave Sunday, Charlie is driving to the mountains to be there for a Monday morning meeting with the contractor, site manager, crane operator, and concrete trucks.  We are getting close to getting the foundation ready for the modular log cabin.  It is sitting in a parking lot in South Carolina, wrapped in Tyvek, waiting for our lot to be prepared.  Lots of government red tape to deal with.  One of these days we will have a house in the mountains!

On Monday, I am hosting my art quilt bee.  I have been trying so hard to get boxes unpacked and find places for everything  but almost every room has a corner piled with stuff that has not yet found a home.  Oh, well, we will work around it!