Ho, Ho, Ho...

On Friday we ran up to Davis, for a quick visit. Two of our boys are there, and our youngest just turned 20. This was a quick chance to swing by and wish him a happy day in person, even though we were a week late.

Here we are, at Burgers n Brew in Davis. We've got all of Adam's roommates (Adam is far left), both of Daniel's housemates (Daniel's head is "touching" the propane heater), Andrew (left of Daniel), and Pete (who was the only one who didn't pay attention to my request to "Smile!")

We gave Adam his gifts, and he sat with them for a while, then wanted to know if he could open them. Sure. The first was a bathrobe, this was the other. What can it be? "It feels like clothing."

Oh!! SWEET!!


A Santa Sack too?!!!

The table was roaring, and requests were coming in from every quarter. "You have to come to my class during finals!" "And my class!" "I really need an elf suit, can I come with you?" I have to say that I've never seen a gift so appreciated by so many people. :)

The next day I followed him home and asked him to try it on. Here he is, what do you think?

He can even rock the suit from behind.

I suspect that it's going to be a holly jolly Christmas this year in Davis, with Santa sightings EVERYWHERE, doncha know? :)

And just to see if it was as much fun as I thought it might be? I couldn't help myself...

Merry Christmas, it will be here sooner than you think!!! :)

Heading Out...

No pictures today, but be prepared for later this weekend.

We're heading to Davis to take last week's birthday boy out to dinner. It's always a lot of fun to get together with the boys and their friends. He says he's invited his roommates - he lives with 7 other guys. Add that to our three, and we're going to have a party!!

The secret something that I've been working on is finished and wrapped. I expect it to be unwrapped and on display some time this evening. I will take pictures.

Thank you so much for the encouragement after my last post.

I LOVE Del's comment, comparing rejection letters to mosquito bites. That's so true. They are annoying, but not as painful as they used to be...

Well, I've got some things to take care of before we hit the road.

Have a great weekend!!

Rejected

*sigh*

Dear Suzanne Kistler,
Thank you for submitting your entry, Be Still: Psalm 46:10, blah blah blah, we regret that we are unable to include your entry in this year's show.

*sigh*

You know it's a bad sign when acceptance letters come out December 1 and you receive a skinny envelope in the mail on November 12.

It's not like I'm not used to being on the receiving end of these letters. It's just that this particular quilt is probably the best quilt I've ever made, and I can't seem to get it into very many shows. When it does get in, it shows very well.

I know, I know, you're all saying, "It's your photographs." But if you remember from this post a few months back, I invested in the proper background and lighting and everything else needed for awesome quilt photography.

It's just not to be.

Rejection helps to keep me humble.

My roll is over...you know, as in "I was on a roll, and every quilt I entered for 5 years got into every show." I guess that went to my head, because judging by my towering stack of rejection letters, I seem to be requiring a lot of humbling these days.

Okay, so maybe I exaggerate. It's just a stack. It's not in danger of falling over. It's not really a tower. It just seems like it.

whine, whine, whine. Yes, I WOULD like some cheese with that. :)

Here's hoping that I'm the only one of my friends who received a copy of this letter today.

Ironically, I spent the morning getting the entry forms printed for our show. Next week is our mailing party, and the forms should be at your doorstep before Thanksgiving. As a word of encouragement, I'll tell you that we have a very good acceptance/rejection ratio, unlike the shows that I've been collecting letters from.

Stay tuned. As soon as our entry forms are available online, I'll let you know!

And on that, I'm back to the Studio.

oh! And I have NOT forgotten the 12 Step program. I just haven't had time to think about what my Step will be. Has anyone else out there identified a Step? Or are we moving into holiday/end of the year mode, with the Steps stopping at 10? Time will tell...

My Baby is 20!!!

How did it happen? Where did the years go? When did he grow up? I tell you, blinking is a scary thing! :)

Here are a few pictures of my joy boy, taken during the past couple of years...

"Mom, can you make me a Mr. Incredible suit for class color day?"

"Mom, I want to be a yellow teletubby for class color day..."

"Mom, I need a Peter Pan suit..."

"Do you think you could make a toga?"

This one's not dress-up - they had a huge air-soft battle earlier this year. My boy was prepared.

Last year he took out the Christmas tree for us. It's a real tree, and it was at least 11' tall...

Here he is with Charlie. :) They both like to sleep a lot. I think Charlie wins, if it's a contest.

Hello? Hello? One of the phones is dying, but which one?

Little boys love playing in the sand...

These are my most recent pics, stolen from Facebook. This was taken on the Tuesday before Halloween,

I believe this was taken on the actual day...

Happy Birthday, Adam!!!

And of course, the only picture I took of his birthday card loads twisted. I've loaded it twice, but Blogger insists. Turn your head to see the card....

And that's all I've got for today!!!

An Empty Shelf!

Here it is, isn't it beautiful? It's been two months since I've seen emptiness atop that shelf. It means that the last quilt-for-hire has been quilted. hip hip hooray! hip hip hooray!! :)

The last quilt was a 40 year old top, originally meant for the owner's son, who now has his own son. The maker was the owner's mother, so in some sense it's a 4 generation quilt. wow. I'm glad to be part of helping it get finished. All it needs is binding.

With an older quilt like this, I hesitate to do anything other than stitch in the ditch and outline. I want Great-Grandma's handiwork to be the focal point, not the quilting.

And there you go. That's it for today's episode of "In the Studio." Perhaps tomorrow will be more exciting... :)

It's The Little Things...

It's that time again, a few of my friends are having birthdays. I've had a few spare minutes, and so have put these together. The first is for Kathy. Today is her birthday, I just delivered it.

Several years ago Kata gave me the photo transfer rose in the top right corner, along with the quote from Georgia O'Keefe. I finally found a way to use them.

Kathy's birthday card - 5" x 7"

Here is the little piece I showed you yesterday. I was able to work on it and finish it. It's Wendy's birthday gift, her birthday was one month ago tomorrow.

Here is a picture of her with her little quilt, to give you a sense of its actual size. I really enjoy making these little vignettes. They don't take forever, and they are quite satisfying.
Rather than make these little beauties, I coulda shoulda been working on a guild challenge. Today was the unveiling. I had a good idea for an entry, I still have a good idea. I will eventually make the quilt, but who knows when that will be. Definitely not today. :)

The theme was "circles," and the challenge was to include a circle in the super-secret-don't-let-anyone-see-it challenge. wow. There were 17 entries, which is a great turnout for our guild. Often quilters will start a challenge, but not all get them finished...

Diane (pineapples), Marcia, Wendy (butterfly), Wanda
(Helen working in the foreground)

Jeanette (with Sallie's quilt), Randi, ? (can't recall her name!), Diane (with yellow), the edge of Elaine...

I shouldn't have started naming names because I'm blanking again, ?, and is it Shirley? and Patty....

Ah, and here are Patty, Barbara, Ann, Jenny and Emma...

If you click on the picture, you can see Patty's wink...or blink...or...yeah, she probably wouldn't say this is her favorite photo... ;)

And that's all for now, although I hope to have more projects to show you later this week.

This n That

Well that just looks strange. Blogger feels flip again today. sigh.

Did I tell you about the sticks at Hartland?

I took a nature walk on Sunday, looking for a stick for a particular idea. As I walked, I picked up sticks. Each time I picked one up, I felt guilty. For those of you not from CA, it is illegal to pick up anything in a forest, whether it be stick, stone, pine cone, whatever. You MUST leave everything as you found it - you wouldn't want to desecrate our pristine surroundings. (That attitude has led to horrendous forest fires, but that's a story for someone else's blog.)

So I picked up sticks, and as I returned to the retreat area, I saw a number of men who either are or have been intimately involved in the running of Hartland. I asked if it was alright for me to take some sticks, and showed them what I'd gathered.

I gave them all a good belly laugh. :) They invited me to pick up all the sticks I wanted. "Bring your friends! Bring a truck! We'll get you a rake!" I guess every spring they have a big clean-up where all the sticks are brought together and - shudder! - burned! ;)

Needless to say, I brought home some sticks.

Malcolm thinks they are for him. He loves the way they smell. I actually gave him one of the bigger sticks, that still has some bark and moss on it. He rubs his head on it and chews it. He is a very strange cat. :)

Here are two little items that I put together at Retreat. The bottom one may measure 9" square. I have plans to do some thread painting and beading on both, so you'll probably see them again in a few days.

Other than that? My real job of "housewife" is interfering with creativity. Then again, as I've discovered, messes severely interfere with creativity, so I really need to get this place in order. Or something like order. Or better than it is now.

Goals are good!

Some Work From Retreat

I promised to share pictures of some of the things I worked on at Retreat. I didn't take anything that required much concentration, because I don't sew well or think well in a busy workroom. Here is my Friday project. I had a stack of over-cut blocks leftover from my daughter's graduation quilt. They are FINALLY sewn together. Go Bears!

I had 18 to sew, and was thrilled to complete the task by about 8pm Friday night. Here is the complete set. I was even more thrilled to count and find I now have 40 blocks to play with.

My Saturday day-waster is still in a bag. I haven't been motivated to unpack it. I need to take a "before" picture, so you can see where I should have added another 1" border. I'll add the border, take the picture, and then post the pictures side by side. You may be waiting for a while.

Next up is my Saturday evening project. It went really well until midnight. I should have stopped at 11:30pm. I cut the hole too big. groan. I spent two hours on Sunday morning, trying to repair the damage. I just made it worse. It took three hours yesterday to achieve this. I think it's done for now. (The fish was made about 8 years ago. It's been looking for a home.)

I worked on something else for the remainder of yesterday afternoon. Again, it was one I began at Hartland. I'll share it later this week.

While I was working, I noticed Edgar out on the lawn. His ears were perked, so I knew something was up. You can't quite see it...

See it now?

Big tough gopher kept jumping AT the cat...

Doesn't Edgar look gorgeous? He's got quite a mane this winter. From the picture you'd never realize that he's a dinky little kitty, barely weighing 8 pounds...

I think the game is almost over.

"Lord, for what we are about to receive, we give You thanks..."

I do hope that this is/was the invader that decided to tunnel through my "secret garden" next to the front door. I couldn't believe it when I saw a hole as close to the house as he could possibly get. Edgar, you are my hero!!!! xxx ooo

Let's Retreat!

Well, I've been there and back again, and I must say to retreat is a treat. I didn't get a lot done, but I did have a chance to not think about much of anything other than sewing the next seam. It was very, very nice.

This third annual Quilter's Retreat was held at Hartland Christian Camp. I've gone each year, and each year has been a bit more ambitious than the year before. With almost 50 quilters, we moved to a different building. The Sequoia Chapel looks quite unassuming from the outside.

Once you entered the doors, you found a city of industry. This picture was taken Friday afternoon, before all of the quilters had arrived.

Here you can see the center cutting table, set up for all to use. The blue Bernina in the foreground is my machine.

This picture was taken from the opposite direction at 6:30am Saturday morning. If you click on it, you'll be able to see exactly who the early birds were that first day. (There were more of us the second day, when we gained an hour.)

Each time I saw Rose, I laughed at her accessories. When I expressed my desire to take a picture, she quickly brushed off much of the thread. I made her stop, here's about a third of her collection. :)

There was plenty of beauty outside, if I could ever tear myself away from my machine.





There was wildlife, along with plant life, but I only saw one kind. Swarms of "bugs" were everywhere. It wasn't until I caught sight of one in the bathroom mirror that I realized what they were.

All too soon the weekend ended. I was pretty entertained by the drive home. I'd seen the "cow crossing" sign the mile before, but this was the first time it was needed.

Finally, I saw this spectacular view of Sawtooth, and had to take a picture for my daughter. She's actually climbed to the tip of that pointy rock just right of center. Brave, brave girl!! (Must be her father's daughter!)

And that's it for now. Once I take some pictures of my projects, I'll try to get them posted. Hope you enjoyed these pics!