Santa and Satan and a Design Wall

Oh oh.  Did  you know  Santa and Satan are spelled with the same letters?  Don't ask me how I found that out today, but I did.  Satan aside, we did some really good work today.  By lunchtime we surpassed the number of photo packages we did last year!  This is our second largest fundraiser for or spay and neuter programs.

I know we hit the 100 package mark but I not sure how many we went over.  Charles picked up the computers after the last person checked in and Carrie and Hugeaux had come in.  I was taking a load off my aching feet and talking with my GrandDog.

We had face painting and cute little girls all white and red.








We had strollers full of 10 little dogs.....yes, 10 little dogs all in one double stroller wheeled themselves in.   About half of them were poodles.

We had HUGE poodles too!  Look at these beauties.

Cole, does this make your tongue drool?

 We had dogs with 3 legs and those with 4 legs.

This white guy is a Clumber Spaniel.  you don't see those a lot.  They were my doggy clients from a while back.

Look at these cute faces!  Both have golden hair, red bow, expressive eyes.

 Santa had his elves working with him as well.  This one does our newsletters!  No way could I pull that outfit off as well as she does!

 At the end of the day even our dog wranglers seem a bit crazy!






 And we had Cavaliers who WERE related to me and some who WERE NOT related to me. 

My feet are killing me!


I had a chance to finish up 8 more of the 100 blocks last night while Frank was watching football, LSU I think. That makes it 20% done right now.  But I can't stop.

So this is what  my design wall looks like  

Check out Judy's blog to see what others are working on.



For the Stash Report I am going to call the inflow of Pat's scraps and the outgo of my blocks as a wash, since I am cutting up the bits and bits and pieces of incredible colors.  Why are his scraps more exciting than mine?

I am just loving these 100 Modern Blocks of Tula Pink.  They are so addicting.....

Design Wall Monday 2-3-14

I hate to put on labels, and I have three pieces to do.  Teal Twins and Low Volume Baby will be FINISHED!

I need to work on the Tea Towel Challenge, mine is the London Fog tea towel.

I have the Leaves to find a backing piece for and I can quilt it.  Frank really loves this one.  So I

am guessing it will be his.

Carrie wants to get together this week and make at least one of the boy baby quilts for another of her friends having a boy.  16 of her girlfriends have been pregnant or are pregnant.  15 are boy and only one girl.  You can't repopulate the earth with odds like that!

I am still working in what I was working on last week for some reason.  In addition, this morning we hung the CFAL Show.  I have three pieces in it.  Meet the Artist is on Friday so you need to come out and see the pieces with the artists there.  We love to talk about our pieces and what we did with them.

Here is a taste of what is there.  (If you are  quilting purist -- close your eyes!)

 My friend Tracy has her Crawfish in the corner.  See the splash of blue?

The rectangle to the left of it is a hooked rug

 Renee's 3 D piece is in the far corner nook.  Two pieces blend to show you an under the sea adventure.

See Michael's Kimono in the center?  He has several he has made over the years.  They are all amazing.

I will show more of the show if you are interested later in the week.

Design Wall Monday 1-20-14

What is on my design wall?  What am I going to try to get done this week?  Sit back and take it all in!

1.  Get the River City Challenge Quilted (Can't show you that one!)

2.  Get the Maple Leaves put together and add some additional

leaves to the mix.









3.  Finish tea Towel from last year's challenge

4.  Lay out new tea towel challenge piece

5.  Make backs and quilt 2 quilts on the Avante!


  If I can just get a couple of these things done I will be very very happy.

Design Wall 8-12-13

Today is our actual anniversary.  41 years.  Can you believe I am that old?  I can't.

I went to a Contemporary Fiber Artists of Louisiana (CFAL) meeting yesterday and got inspired.  There are some fabulous fabric artists in this group.  One works with recycled garments; another with her own dyes; another with bits of things woven into her pieces; another with books.

One announced that she has 4 pieces accepted into various parts of the Houston Intn'l Quilt Show this year.  I rub elbows with greatness.......full of themselves, but greatness nonetheless.

This week, my measly self will work on figuring out how to quilt the 5 pieces that came home with me from the retreat a few weeks ago.  I have another retreat at the end of this month.  I am going to see what I need to finish and start compiling stuff.  Grouping, any way.  Grouping things that need to be finished that I can work on there and get done.

I need to get some grey for the Taking Names quilt to finish up those sides.  Rest assured, it is actaully even, but my angle is not.



Last time I was in the Felicianas at the retreat, I did the Ker Bloom. Remember that?  Maybe I will actually get that quilted soon!

 I hope you have a great week.  Mine will be busy once again!  I am going to get over to see Charlene since I miss that face!  Monday, hopefully.  If it doesn't rain on my parade!

Design Wall Monday - 7-1-13

Well, Happy July everyone!  Carrie's birthday was this weekend, go to my Fabric 365 Blog and see the miniature book I made for her!  Fabric 365 is where I am doing the 365: Make Something Every Day and Change Your Life book with my subject as fabric, obviously. It is designed to spark creativity and I must say that I am certainly sparked!  LOL.

This week on my design wall are two things I need to approach.  One is the Betty Alofs photo quilt of my house.  I took the class from the fabulous lady about 4 years ago now. and it needs to be quilted.  It needs free motion special quilting and I am afraid I will ruin it, you know how that goes!

And the other is a project I need to complete, just because.  It is from this year and I love it, but it needs to be finished.  It is about 3/4 done.  Maybe I will actually have time this week to work on it.

I have made tremendous headway on clearing out my "junk room" that is my quilt studio.  I got a number of large boxes and put a large amount of stuff in them.  Now I am able to work, if I remember that I need to PUT STUFF AWAY!

I still need to work on it a lot more, and am thinking of ways to get more storage.  I do, of course have a lot of stuff in boxes............

Design Wall 6-24-13

Design Wall is odd.  I am working on the mystery quilt this week, and still quilting on my Box of

I did trim it, just didn't
take a picture of it trimmed

tops in the Quilt Your Quilts in June Challenge.  I have quilted 5 so far for a total of about 14,832 square inches:  Kangaroo,  Baby Squares, Dinos, two Halloween Table Runners, Buggy Barn Dogs.  The Kangaroo put me
over with 8010 sq inches.

I am sure PattyA will be hitting the bricks hard after her tooth is fixed.  I hate tooth pain, and dentists, but the pain more so I go to the dentist!

We had the first snake of the summer yesterday.  I guess the lateness of the heat deterred them from hatching earlier.  Carrie and Andrew were here around lunch, we took them out to Walk On's for a nice salad.  Andrew was working on my computer and replacing the modem.  Now maybe it won't lose the internet at midnight each night anymore.

McGee is the hero for finding it for us.  Not that I wanted a snake but I am so glad Andrew was here.  Frank gets scared and inadvertently lets then go and we have to deal with them again.

Here is the proximity of the Wandering Jew to the Patio.  Right along the walkway.  This is a photo from like April, now the plants are grown up a lot more and there was a nice hiding space.

It was McGee's excellent nose that found what Andrew said was the 4 foot water snake.  I think it was more like a 6 foot python.......

I made Theresa a covered journal book with some bike fabric.  She is an avid biker and rides in these long long long marathons and trains 20-30 miles EACH DAY!

I do the spin class for 45 minutes and think I am hot stuff!

This Is a Bad Bad Thing and Day 3 of 365

Day 3 is not bad, but what I am doing tonight is!  LOL.  I am starting a sock knitting group here in town.  Aughhhhhhh!  Do I need another thing to do?  NO, but I am dying to make socks for some stupid reason.  All this talk in blogland about socks, and I want to make some.  I have this crazy vision of making a pair for everyone I know.............yeah, right.  I will be lucky to make this one pair!  So don't hold your breath!

I think I have worked out the linking thing, I will get that done, most probably tomorrow.

I was reading a blog of someone who is creating a sketch of something she bought that day for her 365.  She is nearly finished with her year and looks forward to a second year.  She says, I thought I would tire of this thing by about 3 months, and here I am in YEAR TWO!

Day 3 of the 365: Journal of Creativity was an interesting challenge.  Here is my result.  When I was making the Soar! Quilt's airplanes I folded up a couple of sheets of computer paper, we used to call it typing paper.  I took pictures of it and printed them out.  Really what I did was nearly like Chloe's head yesterday and the kangaroo.  I drew the lines from the 2D piece and made a paperpiecing pattern out of it.  Here are the paper airplane and the quilt block.

I am rethinking the
chevrons for a border,
what do you think?

My Design Wall has a couple of things on it.  One, the Soar! quilt needs to be trimmed and sandwiched.  Meanwhile I have the large Kangaroo quilt that needs to be trimmed and the binding put on.  That one should get counted this week, both in the Stash Report and the Quilt Your Quilts In June Challenge numbers.  Right now, PattyA and I are running neck and neck and I need a powerhouse swing to run her over!

The other thing that needs to be done is the cleaning out of my room.  Frank says there are some large boxes in the garage I can have.  I will place my stuff in those boxes and clear a way so I can re-align the shelving in the room   I wanted cute before, now I want functional.  I can use the existing boards but I need the shelving brackets.  I can get that at the hardware store this week and have my dear hubby put it up next weekend.

Yes, that is the plan.....for now.  Socks and shelves.  And smashing PattyA!

Design Wall Monday 6-10-13

What a day!  Already? you ask.  Yes, I reply, already.

I was going
to post the Design wall early and get in on the beginning of things, but at 5 AM Frank woke me up from a sound sleep saying he needed to go to the Emergency Room because he was having another kidney stone.

Well, that wakes you up pretty quickly.

I did the test for appendicitis, determined it was not that, and knew if it was kidney stones we would be there most of the day.  He wasn't going to die immediately and I had time.  I fed the dogs, washed my hair, cancelled my dentist appointment, cancelled my lunch engagement, took the dogs to the corner and came back to get him.

A Judy Original!

He was all dressed in his work day clothes with his keys in hand and his black folder.  He looked for all he was worth to be heading out to work.  I was confused.  Had I dreamed all this?

He went to the bathroom and felt better.  I could have killed him.

I got the dentist back, and the lunch.  I have not heard from him so far, I imagine he is not dead alongside the road somewhere.  Assuming someone would call me if they found him.

And back from my dentist appt, the house is 85 degrees and the outside is 82.  I am thinking the A/C has breathed its last.  It is only 31 years old.  And I couldn't reach him on his cell when I called.  So maybe he is dead and I can use the insurance money to buy a new A/C.

This was Cindy's
 I can't find the other picture

I am working on my Quilt Your Quilts Challenge and have two quilts ready to be worked on today.  Not sure how much work I will get done in the heat.  The fan has not stopped cycling.  Fun.

And no telling where he is today.  It could be Mississippi for all I know.

I call the yellow quilt African Women because of the border that is not in this picture.  Blue.  African women, of course.

Whooooo it is quite hot.

Deisgn Wall Monday 6-3-13

June already?  I am still working on getting used to 2013!  I seem to get older by the day.  Danielle said in her Truth bomb today that "the universe only trades up."   I thought that was an interesting comment, considering that all the hurts and sprains and tears I have had all my life are now combining in my old age to come back and plague me.

I wonder where the trading UP comes in!

I have been hampered by the installation of the tile disrupting the house and the poking of my eye disrupting my sight and have not been sewing on anything lately.  In fact this is still on my design wall..........

For the month of June, I will be working on the Quilt Your Quilts Challenge finishing up of all the quilts that need to be quilted in June.  Join in, there are prizes to be had!  All you have to do is to post that you are playing along, and give us the amount of inches with width x height and keep adding them together for all of June.  PattyA has a nice start I am sure for the weekend!

Please join me in the 365 Creative Push.  And I am going to being the 365: Journal of Creativity on June 15.  Check it out in yesterday's post.

The concept of Noah Scalin’s "365 method" is simple but inspired: Choose a theme or medium, then make something every day for a year. Noah made 365 skull-themed projects . . . now he invites you to choose your obsession and get creative!  The book offers 365 project prompts to kick start your creativity, plus plenty of room for journaling, sketching, and jotting down ideas. Learn how to choose your subject and document your work, and see examples from other artists and crafters who took the 365 challenge. In addition, master new techniques to incorporate into your projects, including quilling, clay-making, paper pop-up engineering, and more.  With 365: A Daily Creativity Journal you’ll get charged up, get messy, and get inspired, and you’ll see how making something every day can change your creative process—and change your life—forever!

And that is QUILLING not QUILTING that I underlined.  I did quilling with my cousin many years ago.  And actually found some pieces when we cleaned out the closets for the tile.

Noah Scanlin has offered some suggestions each day to trigger your creative urges.  Things you would never think of, like Use the world of Birds as your inspiration today!  Or make a robot out of everyday objects.

I plan on working in fabric as much as I can, but there are some days where you just can't.  Like when you play with your breakfast!  I am going to take a picture of it and post it in my daily posts.

I have to think of a cute moniker for the project.  Remember the only rules are that there are no rules!  LOL.

Design Wall Monday - Water and Halloween

I hit the button too soon, lack of sleep I guess.  So this is supposed to be my monday morning stash report.  Just ignore until tomorrow!

You may be getting quite bored with the Nudes but they are nearly complete.  I put the tulle water on yesterday.  And decided that they needed to be bound first before the leaves went on.  I still need to make one more set of leaves for one of them.

Here are pictures of the whole piece and close ups of the nude.

At the urging of my "fans", I am going to do a series of these nudes.  I couldn't sleep last night thinking of all the places they could be.  Walking on the beach, walking her dogs, swinging, playing Carmen Miranda!  I don't know where that came from but I was certainly sleep deprived.

Anne of Quilting in the Desert (not dessert like the chocolate swirl cheesecake I made) says we should make purses with the nudes!  So I think Carmen Miranda will go on my purse!

I bought some Las Vegas fabric when I was out there and not hugging the porcelain throne, no i was NOT drunk.  I wanted to make a purse with that, I wonder if my nude can shoot pool?  Or craps?  Or maybe the slots!

Obviously Chocolate Swirl
Cheesecake

Actually that cheesecake came from the Diabetic Cookbook and is not really sweet.  It is really good, and healthy for you.  It is sweetened with stevia and agave.  Both are nice to cook with because they hold at high temperatures.

In addition to that, I am  trying to clear out some UFOs.  I assembled the blocks from the Twisted  Halloween quilt with that Twisted Sister block ruler.  I did a baby quilt for one of Carrie's friends last year with that ruler.  Pretty cool.
I don't remember making all these Halloween
blocks but I have enough for a huge quilt and another smaller quilt and two table runners.  I can do 3 table runners with the smaller quilt blocks, and I just may to that and spread the love between more people.  

I make the label into the back.  I HATE HATE HATE sewing on labels.  So I do that as I am piecing the back together and I don't even feel it!


This is the back over the front on the design wall.  I do this so I don't have to keep measuring and measuring and finding I am just 2 inches too short for one side.  I just make all the fabric cover the front and overlap about 2 inches on each side.

The back is bright, it is the same as the outside border.  In fact, if i hadn't done the border I would have had enough for the back,  geez.  I did have other fabric I could have used for the border, but I thought I might be able to do it.  But no, it wouldn't make it.  Darn. Darn, Darn.

This will go into the Cream PattyA Pile for the June Quilt Your Quilt Challenge.

Are you in?

Design Wall Monday

April Fool's!    This is the REAL post!  Got cha, didn't I!  McGee, while not totally well behaved, did not eat my Nudes........yet!  LOL

Even though I only worked on my Nudes Bathing last week, you know they are so small they just use bits of material, I am still down about 20 yards in my stash.  Well that will end this week.  And its not my fault!

My cousin Karen brought me two bags of vintage materials from her mom's stash of 50's and 60's pieces when she was sewing stuff.  So it really isn't my fault!  LOL.  But they are really cool things.  I will show them this week, I have misplaced my camera and have no idea where it is.

I think I left it at the Donahue's party.........and they have not returned my phone call yet.  I sure hope they have it!  I don't know where else it would be.

I plan to spend time this week working on some backings, which will use up a lot of fabric.  I want to get some of these tops out of the way, or at least lined up for June.

What is June all about?  Well, PattyA has challenged me to have my annual Finish-All-You Can-Do-In-June called the Quilt Your Quilts Challenge finish month.  I find some prizes and we see how many people can finish up things in June.  Are you in?  You have a couple of months to ready yourself.  Last year Patty won the overall with her great push to finish a ton of quilts.  I looked back to see how many, and all i could find was that she had 18 finishes so far in 2012.

I spent the day making strawberry jam from a flat of local strawberries I got from the Farmer's Market yesterday.  The pics were taken by my iPad, not bad! I got 18 pint jars from 12 pint baskets of huge sweet strawberries!

And i went to the Donahue's and traded out some pints of jam for my camera!  YEAH!