Happy Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Christmas, or whatever you may be celebrating.

(from peggy apl seeds)

As for me and my house, we Believe in the birth of Jesus Christ and will be celebrating Christmas tomorrow.  Whatever you do, wherever you are, I pray you are safe, happy, and fulfilled.

~ Jodi ~

Huge comfort in wake of Ct tragedy...

from The Scrappy Appleyard by John'aLee


A little comfort.....the most comforting thing I've read since our nation has been rocked by the terrible tragedy in Conneticut...

Sentiments of Hope

twas' 11 days before Christmas, around 9:38



when 20 beautiful children stormed through heaven's gate.

their smiles were contagious, their laughter filled the air.

they could hardly believe all the beauty they saw there.

they were filled with such joy, they didn't know what to say.

they remembered nothing of what had happened earlier that day.

"where are we?" asked a little girl, as quiet as a mouse.

"this is heaven." declared a small boy. "we're spending Christmas at God's house."

when what to their wondering eyes did appear,

but Jesus, their savior, the children gathered near.

He looked at them and smiled, and they smiled just the same.

then He opened His arms and He called them by name.

and in that moment was joy, that only heaven can bring

those children all flew into the arms of their King

and as they lingered in the warmth of His embrace,

one small girl turned and looked at Jesus' face.

and as if He could read all the questions she had

He gently whispered to her, "I'll take care of mom and dad."

then He looked down on earth, the world far below

He saw all of the hurt, the sorrow, and woe

then He closed His eyes and He outstretched His hand,

"Let My power and presence re-enter this land!"

"may this country be delivered from the hands of fools"

"I'm taking back my nation. I'm taking back my schools!"

then He and the children stood up without a sound.

"come now my children, let me show you around."

excitement filled the space, some skipped and some ran.

all displaying enthusiasm that only a small child can.

and i heard Him proclaim as He walked out of sight,

"in the midst of this darkness, I AM STILL THE LIGHT."







Written by: Cameo Smith, Mt. Wolfe Pa.

Posted by John'aLee at 2:20 PM

Please stop...

shooting those guns.  We live pretty close to a "sportman's club", shooting range, whatever it's called. As I sit here now typing this, 10:15 Monday morning, three days after the horror in CT, (our neighboring state) they are still firing, sporadic shots, one right after the other.  I don't understand.  We usually only hear it on Sundays, but my husband commented on Saturday how much more we're hearing the shooting.  Is it, in protest?  Is it, in support?  Is it, just because they can?  Every    single     shot     reverberates       through        me         down to my very soul.  
        Please stop shooting those guns...

RI Modern Quilt Guild

I joined the Rhode Island Modern Quilt Guild which meets at RYCO in Lincoln.  I don't know hardly anyone's name yet, but here's some pics of the December 1 show and tell.  This first picture is Cindy Hamlet's WIP: 

Then:

There were lots of beautiful quilts, as you can see.  I'm sorry I can't give credit, but I will be getting to know these quilters, and I'm looking forward to it!

 Here's Carole Ann with some fun blocks.  I only got a pic of one, though.

 These next three are quilts from Jeannette Jacobs.  She demonstrated how to make these art quilts.  Absolutely stunning!  I hope to learn this technique some day.

 I should have taken notes as she spoke  :-(

 And a small wall hanging:

 These next two pics are Tara's.  She's only been quilting for the past year, and she's made 30 quilts in that time!  This one is so pretty, and she did curves!  She's going to show us how in one of our upcoming meetings.

 And here's the back:

I had a great time at the meeting!  Next month is sure to be fun, too, and I hope to get better pictures and give credit where it belongs.

Whole cloth quilt

 How old this is, I have no idea.  I received it from a coworker whose partner's 85-yr-old mom recently passed away.  She hand-quilted most of this, and beautifully.  I am honored and humbled to finish it, although my hand-quilting skills are amateurish, at best.  I also received the quilting hoop which is on a stand.  You can see in the above photo the dark lines of her basting stitches and her quilting.  The entire quilt is stamped with a very nice pattern.

Both front and back fabrics are a soft muslin, and she was using a creamy cotton thread.  I hope to be able to find out more about the quilter and the quilt and share it with you.  I also want to put her name on the label, and then when I have completed it, I will ask if her daughter would like it back.  (I kind of hope she says no) 

~ Jodi ~  

Thank you for your vote...

when I entered this quilt:

in the Quilting Gallery Beginner's Quilt-Along.   This is what I won:

Thanks, Auriful, Quilting Gallery, and all of you who voted for me!  I truly appreciate it!

~ Jodi ~

Easy Street

These colors are not true, at all, and I don't know if I'm going about my selection of fabric in the right way.  I'm linking up to Bonnie Hunter's Easy Street mystery project.  So far I have MOST of the unit ones complete.  Instead of gray I used blue with the black on white for the four patches.  The above print is a Kaffe Fassett, but I think I'm only using that as a color guide, not because I don't want to but because it's a mystery so far.  I did not get color cards as Bonnie suggested, only because I don't have time to go to the store, even tho my son works at Home Depot in the paint department  :-)

Above are my Unit ones, 194, (almost).  Here's the post link if you want to check it out:
http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-2.html
* I made a mistake - that's NOT Kaffe Fassett fabric, that's Philip Jacobs - Coleus!
~ Jodi ~

A purple theme emerging?

Yesterday I posted my purple African violets, today I notice these blocks have purple in them,

and so doesn't that gorgeous purple cauliflower from our FarmFresh basket we just received. 

The above four blocks have been fun to make, but I think I'm done.  In order to get a larger variety of fabric, I will have to cut into stash because I don't have enough scraps, so I might make this into a wall hanging or table runner.  On the other hand, I do have quite a bit of these same fabrics already cut into 3" and 31/2" squares so I probably should keep going.  Decisions, decisions.

I've also started a mystery quilt with Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville.  We'll see how far I get with that.

And, I want to participate in this: 

https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi63S_G9ySknDeNqjJC2ghjbiztdhLX8D83crXurXwU05nbyun1EA1wU_YvPZexlA1rhJe65L3pzIsCyMDah59FaJH2dcF-EP5Pfuu1j2_49CQ6ykXHOPo1kqUQbIKULZry3gJL4YZgq2i7/s640/December+Photo+a+day+Challenge+copy_thumb%5B6%5D.jpg

Okay, that didn't seem to work.  Here's the blog post:

http://mamaforpeace.blogspot.com/2012/11/december-treat-for-myself.html

We'll see how far I get on THAT, also!  

Have a good weekend!

~ Jodi ~

Random

I've had these African violets, (one was a gift from my sister when I had surgery), for about three years, 

and this is the first time I've managed to coax them into flowering, so I just wanted to share a bit of purple beauty in November.

Have a wonderful Friday!

~ Jodi ~

Three years ago...

I lost my mom.

She was only 79 - lung cancer.  Life has not been the same, especially this past year, which has been harder than the first two.  I don't know why that is.  She actually left this world on November 28, but for me it will always be today, the Saturday after Thanksgiving.  Some day, we will meet again.

On a much lighter note, here is a quilt she made back in the late '70s/early '80s.  I think it's the only one she ever made.

"No more sorrow, no more pain..."

~ Jodi ~

Mod Bento Box

I finished, after probably two years or so.  And I love it and it's ours.  Finally, a quilt for our home for us!  Or maybe me.  My husband thinks it's too busy and crazy.  He likes order and sameness and conservatism, which to me equals boredom!  Plus, it is very pink, so I'll give him that.



The pictures wouldn't load the way I wanted them to.  I did some cross-hatch lines, and then in the white border I did FMQ.  That picture up above shows what I used for the backing, which is a sheet I purchased on sale at Target.



And these show some close-ups of all the fabulous fabrics.  I did NOT make all of these blocks, or even most of them.  It was a swap I participated in, which was so much fun.  I think I made 36 blocks, kept six of those, and then received 36 different ones from all over the country (USA), and some other countries.

So it's washed and nice and soft, and ready to be used.
Thanks for visiting my blog, and I'm sorry if sometimes I don't respond to comments, although I always try to.  Have a good Monday, everybody!
~ Jodi ~



Low volume high volume quilt

I stole this block idea from Lynne who thinks it might be a depression block but she couldn't find it on the web.  I'm going to call it low/high volume.
Here's a link if you want to check out her beautiful finished quilt:
http://pieceful-lynne.blogspot.com/2012/11/recession-quilt.html

And the above pic is an example of a lesson NOT learned.  A couple of posts ago I showed a table runner that I made and some of the fabric melted under the iron.  Well, I did it again.  I knew this bottom right fabric was not 100% cotton and used it anyway.  And, of course, it melted.  So I removed three blocks and replaced the fabric with something else.  BUT I noticed after posting the photo of the two blocks that I missed one.  You probably can't make it out, and I don't know how to use those fancy arrows that some people use to pinpoint something.  Anyway, I'll be getting Jack out again.  All in all, these are fun blocks to make and I hope to have an entire quilt soon.

Have a wonderful weekend, everyone!  May you bless and be blessed!

~ Jodi ~ 

November family party

Because I started this blog as a journal for my own use, I want to document the way my home was decorated for a family party we had at my house over this past weekend, so you may want to ignore this post and move on.  Otherwise, I hope you enjoy some pics of my home, or at least my living room.

 We had a sit-down dinner for 19 people.  This table is at least 80 years old, maybe more.

 My husband inherited it from his grandfather.  It comes in quite handy when you have huge families like we both do.  Eight kids on his side, five girls and three boys, same as on my side:  eight kids, five girls and three boys.  Then add significant others, and you need a lot of room!

 My daughter made this bunting for us to hang.  Isn't it pretty?  It's made out of paper and ribbon.

 She gave me enough for two doorways.  I had to hand them high because we had some six-foot plus people in the house.  I think a good time was had by all.
~ Jodi ~

* I changed the comment moderator on my blog so hopefully you don't have to jump through hoops anymore to comment.  At least, I HOPE I did!  It can be very frustrating to try to figure out the symbols. 

Blue and white stars IS coming along...

You probably don't recognize this quilt, it's been so long since I've shown it, I think.  I made it eons ago (well, over a year anyway) but it does not seem to want to be completed.  I just finished ripping out some FMQg I did on a longarm rental - ONE WHOLE ROW - it's a king-sized quilt!  The woman at the shop said she wouldn't charge me for it.  I'm pretty sure that the shop owner should be responsible for making sure the bobbin tension is correct.  This was my first stint at the longarm machine. Your first 20 hours are considered a learning curve and you pay as a beginner, thereafter you pay a different price because then you're considered experienced.  The woman helping me kept checking the bobbin stitching and saying she was going to tweak it to get it "better."  Well, I finally said to myself, "you better take a look at the back to see for yourself."  Gah!  It was horrible in places!  I never saw such a mess!  You can imagine my dismay.  I went home sick, knowing I could not live with it this way, OR give it to a friend.  What a job ripping it out was but I'm glad I did.  Now one more trip to Mansfield, then I can do the binding and give it to her.

If you have some comment or insight into this experience I had, please feel free to educate me on the niceties of longarm rentals.  But be nice, please!

~ Jodi ~

Another autumn table runner

 This is for a friend who is turning 60 soon.  I did have an issue with the fabric in the top row, second from left.  It's a yellow and white gingham.

When I ironed the seam, it actually started to melt!  Maybe I should have replaced it, but I didn't.  Has anyone had that problem with any fabrics?  I'm not sure where I got it.   

I 

This is just the top.  I haven't backed it yet so stay tuned and I will show the finish soon.

The fabric in the middle bottom row with the large orange dots is actually a light-weight upholstery fabric.  You can't see it in the pic but it has silver lines in it and it's really pretty.  These pictures don't do the fabrics justice at all - very disappointing.  But, alas, some day I will get better at the photography aspect of blogging.

Take care, and God bless.

~ Jodi ~

 . 

AUTUMN TABLE RUNNER

Wow!  The color on this pic is scary in the early morning hours.  My dining room is not this golden, trust me!  I want to show you the table runner closest to the bottom of the photo.  (The other one I posted about last year)

Moving into my sewing room, this is a bit better.  We're going to a dinner party at a friend's so I wanted to bring something.  Whipped up this narrow table runner last night.

I can't remember what the color scheme is in her house so I hope this works.  Is it possible for orange to clash with orange?  If so, the above pic portrays that!  But anything with Kaffe Fassett is okay in my book.  Love that guy's designs!

Cute little owls.

(Don't pay attention to my cornice above)  I made a drawstring bag out of this black, brown, reddish-orange flower fabric and I get tons of compliments on it.

And this is the backing fabric I used - a freebie from a curtain shop near my home.  They were going to throw out about three yards of it out!  A sin, in my book!  So I rescued it and love it.  It has a Moroccan look, I think.  I hope it comes out of the washer and dryer all right.  I have to do that lickety-split when I get home from work this afternoon.  I did simple quilting, just Xs in every block.  And I'm so proud of myself - I didn't even need to draw any lines, and they're 5" blocks.  Nice and straight.  Of course, the machine-sewn binding is a little wonky.  Unfortunately, I should have photographed the better side.  Most of it is very straight and even.  Someone told me once that a quilter should never reveal his or her boo-boos.  Oh, well.  Just keeping it real!  :-)  Have a wonderful weekend!
~ Jodi ~