Origami Cranes

I've been away from here for awhile.  I've been working on different things, but I really have nothing to show for most of it.  I seem to be going from one thing to the next lately.  I've been working on something fun, though.  I have always wanted to learn origami, but never had the courage to try it.  I learned to make an origami crane and then I made more origami cranes and then I thought, what in the heck am I going to do with all these cranes?  So, I decided to make a couple of origami crane mobiles.  I made one for the bedroom and one for the sunroom.  Now, I can't seem to stop making them, so I'll probably end of making more for the house.

This one is one I made for the bedroom.

This is the one I made for the sunroom.

I really think they are pretty and I love looking at them.  There is something relaxing about seeing them gently flying.

Oh, there is one other thing ... I bought a Kindle from Amazon last month and I absolutely love reading on it.

And the other exciting thing is that our library dean in the library where I work is buying us all iPad 2's. I've never had one before and I've coveted the ones that others have, so I'm looking forward to getting it and using it work pleasure as well as work.

Quilting Fever

For the last couple of weeks I've really had quilting fever. It all started when I watched Sewing With Nancy and they were talking about Bargello Quilts With a Twist. It looked really complicated and it was challenging for me, but I actually managed to make a couple of wall hangings and I will share pictures soon.

So then, after that I was in the grocery store and bought a Quilt Almanac for 2011.

It was around $9.99, but I hadn't bought one in awhile and I thumbed through and saw several things I was interested in. And I ran across this.

And I thought, oh boy, that doesn't look hard at all. And it wasn't hard. Not at all. It was fun.  The least fun was cutting the pieces out, but the hardest part for me was being able to find batik fabrics in my area. Most of the very few quilt stores that we had have all closed up, so I've been getting most of my stuff from Joann's, Hancock's and Hobby Lobby. Hobby Lobby doesn't have batik fabrics at all, but Joann's and Hancock's have a little bit. Enough for me to make this:

I didn't want to tackle the big quilt, so I decided to make a small wall hanging. I'm really happy with it.  I haven't quilted it yet, but tomorrow I'll be marking it and quilting it by hand.  I've tried my hand at free motion stitching and that didn't go very well.  I guess it takes practice, but I was really discouraged and I don't know if I'll try that again.

Then I found this pretty thing:

It's called Flip Flop Flakes. I may have seen it advertised in another quilting magazine. I can't remember now where I saw it, but there was information for how to order it. It doesn't look too hard and I'm looking forward to making that one. I went ahead and ordered the kit for it from Quiltmaker. I must have seen that in Quiltmaker magazine. I started to just try and buy the batiks, but I wasn't sure I could find everything in the colors and I really liked the colors of the one in the picture, so I broke down and bought the kit. I can't wait to get it and try that pattern.

I had to go today to the Singer Sewing Center to get a 1/4" presser foot for my sewing machine because I'm tired of trying to guess what 1/4" is. I love my new presser foot. I also needed a new foot pedal for my machine since my old one had started sticking and it was very frustrating, especially when I was trying to free motion quilt and it was hard to keep a steady pace going.

I'm trying to decide if I'm going to the American Quilter's Society quilt show in Knoxville in July. I haven't been in 2 or 3 years and I would love to go again seeing as how I seem to be having a quilting fever right now. I'm used to going to Nashville, though, to the Opryland Hotel, but for some reason they stopped having it there. It could have been the big flood that had awhile back. Anyway, I'm sure it's just as good in Knoxville.

More Flowers

Just a few more flowers from my garden.  My peonies and white irises are doing really well this year.



It's Spring!

I haven't been blogging much lately.  I've been working on several projects, some knitting and sewing some small purses.  I plan to take photos soon and post them here to share with you.

I did get outside and take some pictures this week.  I couldn't help myself.  Everything was in bloom and I thought I'd better grab my camera before they were all gone.  So, here are a few pictures I'd like to share with you of pretty blooms in my garden.  Most of them are of the beautiful wisteria that was blooming a couple of weeks ago, and my hens and chicks are green and healthy and abundant this year.  I have some more pictures of my pretty peonies that I will post later on.  

Multnomah Scarflette/Shawl

I have not been a good blogger.  I've neglected my blog lately and I really hate it because I want to post more often.  There just doesn't seem to be anything interesting enough going on in my life to post about sometimes.  I do work on knitting and crochet projects, but then I get distracted by other necessary things like spring cleaning, housework, etc. and it seems like it takes me forever to finish a project. 

There is one project, though, that has really caught my attention.  I was in my local yarn shop one day and one of the shop owners was wearing this beautiful scarflette/shawl.  I asked her about it and she told me that she got the free pattern here.  She also told me that she made it with sock yarn.  So, that day I bought some sock yarn that she recommended and came home and started it.  Well, I really did not like the colorway of the yarn that I bought, so I ended up taking it all out and putting it aside.  Later on, though, I got to thinking about the scarf again and I decided to go back to the yarn store and see what I could find.  There was a different lady there this time and she showed me some yarn that was so pretty and it is an absolute dream to work with.  It's expensive, but I think it was well worth the money.  Here is the scarf:

The yarn is by Schaefer Heather and it is a handpainted 55% merino wool superwash, 30% silk, and 15% nylon.  One hank is about 400 yards and the scarflette pattern calls for 412 yards, so I was a little short on my yardage.  It was ok, though because instead of doing 10 repeats of the feather and fan border, I only did 8 and it came out fine.  This yarn is a beautiful variegated aqua blue color with some lavender and navy and green.  I loved knitting this and I love the way it came out.  I went yesterday and bought some more of the same type yarn, but in a different color and I'm getting ready to start another shawl/scarflette using this yarn, but in a different color.  The pattern is very easy.  When you get to the feather and fan pattern, you have to pay attention at first, but once you get the repeat pattern down, it gets easier as you go.  Believe me, if I can do this anybody can.  The pattern says to block the shawl once you are finished.  I don't have any way (or the space) to block it the traditional way, so I just pressed mine gently with a steam iron and viola!  it's blocked.

Friendship Bread and Letters From Home

I was excited to receive another advanced reading copy of a book yesterday.  The title of this book is Friendship Bread by Darien Gee.  The summary/review is as follows:

An anonymous gift sends a woman on a journey she never could have anticipated.

One afternoon, Julia Evarts and her five-year-old daughter, Gracie, arrive home to find an unexpected gift on the front porch: a homemade loaf of Amish Friendship Bread and a simple note: "I hope you enjoy it." Also included are a bag of starter, instructions on how to make the bread herself, and a request to share it with others.

Still reeling from a personal tragedy that left her estranged from the sister who was once her best friend, Julia remains at a loss as to how to move on with her life. She’d just as soon toss the anonymous gift, but to make Gracie happy, she agrees to bake the bread.

When Julia meets two newcomers to the small town of Avalon, Illinois, she sparks a connection by offering them her extra bread starter. Widow Madeline Davis is laboring to keep her tea salon afloat while Hannah Wang de Brisay, a famed concert cellist, is at a crossroads, her career and marriage having come to an abrupt end. In the warm kitchen of Madeline’s tea salon, the three women forge a friendship that will change their lives forever.

In no time, everyone in Avalon is baking Amish Friendship Bread. But even as the town unites for a benevolent cause and Julia becomes ever closer to her new friends, she realizes the profound necessity of confronting the painful past she shares with her sister.

About life and loss, friendship and community, food and family, Friendship Bread tells the uplifting story of what endures when even the unthinkable happens.

I can relate to this woman's loss over having to take care of the starter and bake the bread and then give some more starter to her friends.  I remember back several years ago some coworkers of mine were into the friendship bread starter thing.  Everyone was making it, growing it, giving it to everyone.  At the time I was living at home and unmarried.  I had absolutely no interest in taking care of a bread "starter".  At the time I could barely keep my plants watered, so I didn't want to take on another thing I couldn't do.  Some of the women even seemed offended that I wouldn't want to do this.  Another coworker of mine didn't do it either.  She said she had done it years ago and that it was a never ending thing and that you have to take care of it like a pet.  She said if you go on vacation you have to get someone to come in and feed it.  It sounded kind of humorous in a way.  You know, now that I think back on it, I did try it one time, but I missed one day of watering or mashing or whatever you are supposed to do to it and it just went bad.  That's when I decided that I just wasn't interested.  This sort of thing reminds me of a chain letter, where you have to keep it going or something bad will happen.  I'm sure this is wonderful for women who really want to do it and that it does forge lasting friendships, but it's just not for me.  I am, however, looking forward to reading this book because this type of story is the type of reading I love.

There is another book that I learned about today that I've ordered a copy of and it really looks good too.

Inspired by the true story of her own grandparents’ courtship during World War II, Kristina McMorris captures the heartache and sacrifice of love and war in LETTERS FROM HOME, an award-winning debut novel that is timeless, tender and unforgettably moving.

In the midst of World War II, a Midwestern infantryman falls deeply in love through a yearlong letter exchange, unaware that the girl he’s been writing to is not the one replying.

Chicago, 1944. Liz Stephens has little interest in attending a USO club dance with her friends Betty and Julia. She doesn’t need a flirtation with a lonely serviceman when she’s set to marry her childhood sweetheart. Yet something happens the moment Liz glimpses Morgan McClain. They share only a brief conversation—cut short by the soldier’s evident interest in Betty—but Liz can’t forget him. Thus, when Betty asks her to ghostwrite a letter to Morgan, stationed overseas, Liz reluctantly agrees.

Thousands of miles away, Morgan struggles to adjust to the brutality of war. His letters from “Betty” are a comfort, their soul-baring correspondence a revelation to them both. While Liz is torn by her feelings for a man who doesn’t know her true identity, Betty and Julia each become immersed in their own romantic entanglements. And as the war draws to a close, all three will face heart-wrenching choices, painful losses, and the bittersweet joy of new beginnings.

Beautifully rendered and deeply felt, LETTERS FROM HOME is a story of hope and connection, of sacrifices made in love and war—and the chance encounters that change us forever.

I'm really looking forward to reading both of them.

Other than that, not much is going on right now.  I've been really busy at work.  We are 5 weeks into the semester at the community college library where I work.  Time is going by so fast, that this semester will be over in another 10 weeks and summer will be here.  It seems like we just had Christmas and now the weather is getting warmer and nicer here.  I'm sure we're going to see some more frost before it's over, but right now it's very nice and we've been enjoying it.



Beloved Pets

I work in an academic library, and today I was helping a student insert a photo into a Word document and putting a soft edge on the photo.  It's something I didn't know how to do and I was excited to learn how to do it.  After my shift at the help desk was over, I came back to my office and for some reason decided to do an image search in Google for Border Collies.  Eddie I used to have a Border Collie many years ago.  His name was BoBo and he was such a sweet dog.  He died of old age a really long time ago, and I really miss him.  I found this picture on the Internet and it isn't him, but it looks so much like him.  This is really a pretty dog too, just like BoBo.

Sometimes I wish we had another dog, but we have a cat and he's perfectly happy being Number 1 in the house.  I really don't think he would allow another animal in the household.

Faux Lavender Wreath

I don't know what possessed me to do this, but I saw this idea on another blog and I thought, well why not, that looks easy enough. So, I went to Hobby Lobby this afternoon and they had all of their dried flower bushes on sale for 50% off and all their vine type wreaths. So I bought a couple of faux lavender bushes and a wreath. It was fairly easy to do. I just used wire cutters to cut the greenery from the bush and then separated the lavender blossoms from the greenery. Then I put the greenery in the vine in a spiral shape, the same shape as the wreath. Then I put the lavender flowers in the same way. It's kind of funky looking. Some would say it's really dead looking, I guess. Eddie will probably laugh at it. He's at a ballgame right now, so he doesn't even know I made it. I hung it in the kitchen. I like it.

The Paris Wife

I was surprised and happy to receive yesterday an advanced reading copy of the The Paris Wife by Paula McLain.  I work in an academic library at a community college, and a coworker of mine had started receiving advanced reading copies of books.  She said she had gone to the American Library Association and filled out something at one of the publishers booths and she started getting advanced reading copies of books.  So, I went to one of the publishers websites and sent an email requesting advanced reading copies.  That was months ago and I forgot all about it.  Then, yesterday I received this.  I hope this is the first of several, but it may have just been a random thing.  Anyway, I started reading it and I'm loving it so far.  It's a fictionized story of Ernest Hemingway and his wife.

Nothing else really going on.  I made an eyelash yarn scarf (picture to come later) and I'm working on another one.  Today I'm off to get one of those $6.99 haircuts at Great Clips before the offer runs out.  Then I'm going to Joann's and Michaels to look for some fabric to make curtains for my bathroom.  It's way past time to redo the bathroom.  It has pink tile and there is not much I can do with it except I decided to redo it in pink and black.  I don't know when I'll get started on that, but I'm so ready.  There are some other things we have to do around the house first, but those things will have to wait until spring when the weather gets warmer.  I wish I could start now.

What I've Been Up To

I've been a really bad blogger.  I don't want to be one of those bloggers who hardly ever blogs, but for some reason the month of December was so busy that I hardly blogged anything.  I had quite a bit of time off from work since the college campus where I work closes down every year for a couple of weeks at Christmas.  Then, right after that we got snow and had some more days off.  Last weekend we had about 9 inches and that pretty much shut the whole city down for about 2 days.  We just don't have the equipment to handle it all since we hardly ever have snow.  We've been getting it the last couple of years, though, and it's been nice.  We do get cabin fever, though, and even though I had to come back to work yesterday and today, it was nice to get out of the house. This morning as I was parking, I saw the prettiest site. A blanket of snow in my headlights and it looked like there were little twinkling stars on top of the snow. I tried to capture it with my camera, but I don't know if you can really see it.

Over the month of December I worked on several crafty projects.  I don't have pictures of them all here, but I do have a few pictures of some pillows I made.  I posted earlier about the crochet pillows I made, but then I decided to make a couple of yo-yo pillows.  I saw some pictures on other blogs that gave me inspiration and this is what I came up with.

I really enjoyed making all of these pillows.  The yo-yo's were fun.  It helped that I had a bunch of yo-yo's already made.  All I had to do was sew them together.  The top yo-yo pillow is one that I bought at Target on sale for about $5.00 and then sewed the yo-yo's to it.  I figured that by the time I went and bought the fabric, fiberfill, etc., that I would have spent more than that, so I just bought the ready made pillow.  I did sew the rectangular shaped pillow.  I saw one similar to it in blogland and I just had to have one, so I made this one and it came out really well.  I love it.

When I got back to work this week I had a really nice surpise waiting for me.  One of my coworkers had mentioned that he and his wife had been traveling Tennessee on the route for Tennessee Quilt Barns.  That is, barns in Tennessee that have a wooden quilt block on them.  He is a photographer and he decided to take pictures of some of them and make a calendar from it.  Here is the result:

I asked him if he would forward the website where he made his calendar because I thought that maybe it would be nice to use some of the photos I've made with my new DSLR camera to make a calendar and give them as Christmas gifts this year.

Talking about not blogging much in December reminds me of what I want to work on this year. We always talk about making resolutions and I really hate to say I'm making resolutions because I almost never keep them. So, I would prefer to say that there are several things I want to work on this year. That just seems more doable to me. One of the things I really want to work on is spending more time in Bible study. I love doing Bible studies and I enjoy reading the Bible, but somehow this always gets put on the back burner because of other things I put before it. So, this year I really want to work on doing more Bible studies. I'm really interested in the women in the Bible. I just finished a small study about the book of Ruth. While doing that study, I read about another woman in the Bible I want to read about and that's Tamar. Then I also want to study Esther and Dorcas. There is not much in the Bible about Dorcas, just a few chapters, but her life seems so profound to me that I'm disappointed that not much more was written about her. In fact, her story is so short in the Bible that I think I'll post it right here:

Acts 9:36-42 (New International Version)

36 In Joppa there was a disciple named Tabitha (in Greek her name is Dorcas); she was always doing good and helping the poor. 37 About that time she became sick and died, and her body was washed and placed in an upstairs room. 38 Lydda was near Joppa; so when the disciples heard that Peter was in Lydda, they sent two men to him and urged him, “Please come at once!”

39 Peter went with them, and when he arrived he was taken upstairs to the room. All the widows stood around him, crying and showing him the robes and other clothing that Dorcas had made while she was still with them.

40 Peter sent them all out of the room; then he got down on his knees and prayed. Turning toward the dead woman, he said, “Tabitha, get up.” She opened her eyes, and seeing Peter she sat up. 41 He took her by the hand and helped her to her feet. Then he called for the believers, especially the widows, and presented her to them alive. 42 This became known all over Joppa, and many people believed in the Lord.

It just seems to me that her story is so important for us today that I'm really disappointed that so little was written about her. But then, I don't have a Bible concordance, so I'm going to look her up in one and see what else has been written. For some reason, I feel led to write a Bible study about her life, but with so little in the Bible about her, I don't know how I'm going to do that. With the Lord's help, hopefully I'll figure it out.

Well, that's it for now.  I will try to be more diligent in writing this year.

It's Beginning to Look Alot Like Christmas!

I've been such a bad blogger.  I've been so busy, as I'm sure so many of us are right now.  I did want to post some pictures of what Christmas looks like at our house right now.

Animals of YouTube sing "Deck the Halls"

I made another round pillow this week to give to a very good friend for Christmas.  I hope she's not reading my blog, or else it won't be a surpise.  LOL  I made it in green and decided to embellish it this time with leaves, and I added a small pearl to the center of each flower.  I think it just adds something to the pillow.  I also added leaves to my pink pillow.  Now, I have to make some more of these pillows to keep for myself.  I just love them because the round shape is so unique and Victorian looking.

Last week our Christmas cactus at work started blooming.  I had been meaning to take my camera to work so I could get a picture of it and this morning I finally remembered to bring my camera.

Another Christmas Doily

After I made the first Christmas doily, I decided that I needed another one, so I made another one, but in a different pattern.  I've made this one before in another color.  I thought it would be pretty to put under a candle or something like that during the holidays.  I'm pleased with the way it came out.

I ran across this picture tonight of a supper we had back in the summer.  It just looked so pretty that I took a picture of it.  That night we had friend salmon patties with homemade tartar sauce, fresh sliced tomatoes, green beans, fresh fried squash and cornbread.  It was delicious!  I must be getting hungry again because I want to make this meal again.  I won't have the fresh tomatoes or the fresh squash, but I have some store bought squash in the frig, so maybe I will make this meal tomorrow.

Round Crochet Cushion

For the past couple of weeks I've been crocheting again.  I made the Christmas doily and then I made another Christmas doily (photo to come later), and now I've made a round crochet cushion.  I've been seeing these in blogland and I think they are so vintage looking.  This is my first one and I was trying to decide whether to put leaves on it or not.  I may still do that, but for now, this is what it looks like.

Christmas Doily

Lately, I haven't been much interested in doing anything crafty.  But, I saw this pretty doily in the current issue of Crochet World magazine and decided to try it.  I'm loving it.  It really came out pretty, but after I finished it I noticed some discolorations in the red thread I used.  And I'm REALLY aggravated about that.  It's not as obvious as it is in the photo, so I'm hoping no one will notice.  I don't have any idea how to get the discolorations out, so if anyone has any ideas, I'm open for any and all suggestions.

Art Featuring Women

The other day I talked about art featuring women and that my dad had taught me when I was small to draw a woman's body and face.  I actually just doodled around the came up with a face, but I already had the basic body.  There is nothing exciting about any of these, but I found some that I had drawn awhile back and thought I would post them.

You can see from these drawings that I was just doodling and basically having fun.  I do want to make more art, though.  I really like to draw the upper body best because then I don't have to worry about arms and legs and shoes.  So, I'll probably practice that.

Flower Ink Pens and Art Featuring Women

Lately, I've been doing some "Fall" cleaning and I haven't really been interested in doing anything crafty. I guess after seeing all the UFO's I have and the stuff I've bought to do something with and then never did anything with them, must have had an influence on that.  I do have a couple of new interests, though.

One is flower ink pens. That's ink pens that have a pretty silk flower on top. I just started seeing these in the last couple of months at different stores and workshops that I've been to.  It's a small thing, but it makes me happy to work my crossword puzzles, write in my journal, and do the writing I do at work with a pretty ink pen.  It's a good way to dress up those boring old black pens that you have at work and at home. A new Joann's opened up last week near where I live, and when I went for the first time they had a table set up for customers to sign up for prizes.  They were using these cute pens and I asked one of the sales associates about them.  She said they made them using silk flowers and floral tape. What you do is you go and buy some ink pens that have the removable top (not the kind that click), buy some inexpensive silk flowers, and some tape to attach the flower to the pen. I will say that I tried the floral tape and I didn't like it. It was too sticky and didn't seem like it would hold very well. I guess floral tape was suggested because it was green and would look like a flower stem. I had seen some made here at work using just black electrical tape and it looks fine. It does a much better job and it accomplished what I wanted so I decided to use that.  I also read that some folks used colored duct tape.  That would work too, I guess, if you can find colored duct tape.  I try to find supplies that are easy to find.  I hate having to order supplies online and pay shipping.  I want something that easy to find in the stores.  I made several of these pens for work and home.  If you decide to do this, I'll warn you, they don't take many supplies, they are a snap to make and are very addicting.

You need some silk flowers (Walmart or Dollar Store), floral tape or electrical tape (also Walmart) and some ink pens with the removable top (Walmart).

Here are the ones I made.  They look really pretty in a coffee cup when you are not using them.

The other thing that has recently rekindled my interest is art that depicts women.  When I was a little girl, my dad taught me how to draw a woman's body and head, etc.  Now that I'm an adult, I've used that to draw a few women in various dresses, gowns, etc.  I recently found an Etsy store that has some beautiful paintings of women on pillows, eyeglass cases, tote bags, and more.  I am so inspired by this artist.  The Etsy store is here.  There is also another Etsy store that my good friend, Linda has where she has her Girlfriend Art for sale.  I am very inspired by this artist as well.  Her Etsy store is here.  I want to take some ideas from both of these artists, plus my own experience and see if I can create some art featuring women.

My photography class ended a couple of weeks ago.  I'm glad I took it, but I was a little disappointed.  It was a condensed version of the class.  In other words, we combined a whole semester into about 4 weeks.  I was hoping that we would do more projects with maybe field trips and stuff like that, but all we did was bring in photos that we had made and looked at them and critiqued each other's work.  The class didn't really tell me how to use my camera to make better pictures.  I guess I was just hoping for more.  The good news is that my new Canon DSLR camera is working now and I love it.  You can see some of the photos I've taken with it if you go to my Photography blog here.  I am very inexperienced at this, but I have really enjoyed taking photos and plan on taking some more soon.  I hope to get some photos of the leaves turning in our area soon.

Biblioburro: The Donkey Library

My husband Eddie and I met while we were both working on the Bookmobile at our public library. We used to take the Bookmobile into all kinds of diverse areas of our city. It was very important to us to make sure that the children who were truly interested in these areas, were able to check books out. This video was of interest to us because of the way that they deliver the books to the children there. We had a nice, air conditioned bookmobile trailer that was about 36 feet in length. Very portable, although it took some preparation to get it moved and set up. I can't even imagine how hard it would be to transport books by donkey. This is an amazing thing, but I have to admit that I'm feeling a little sorry for the donkey.

Flower Picture

I am so excited! Now that my camera is finally working I went outside this morning and just took some random shots to check it out, make sure it was working correctly and to make sure that the focus is correct, etc. I took this picture of a little bitty flower that is in a planter on my back deck. Once I cropped it, I was amazed at the detail. I think I'm going to love this camera.