positive progress . . .

Short and sweet today.  I did get in my (at least) 15 minutes of sewing each day this past week, I'm happy to report!

I'm pretty sure it really was just 15 minutes on a couple of those days!  But hey, it all adds up, right??

My stash report took a small step in the right direction, too . . .

Still a ways to go.  If I can ever get this pineapple quilt finished up, that will be a lovely chunk!

I have a couple of different projects lined up for my Sunday afternoon. I remember now why I put the pineapple quilt up.  I'd made a mistake in construction the last time I had it out.  I dealt with the front side, but now I'm having to deal with the back side:

Hand stitching up *both* sides of the strips that cover my zig zagged seams, where the blocks are connected.

If I get tired of that, I've got a new little project I'm working on that I can switch over to:

One side finished!  When they're all stitched, I'll whip them together up the sides and fill with stuffing. Voila, a pretty Easter egg!

Linking up today with the stash report at Patchwork Times and slow Sunday stitching at Kathy's Quilts! Happy Sunday!!  (Edited to add:  Also linking up with the design wall post at Patchwork Times, seeing as how these projects are my proverbial design wall!)

:)

picture this . . .

I've recently noticed a lot of bloggers who've encountered the annoying "sideways picture" problem and haven't been able to get their pics loaded into the posts properly.  Sometimes they just give up and use the picture in the awkward orientation or worse, they don't post the picture at all.  I have found a little trick that works (with Blogger) every time and I thought I'd share it here!

Most of the time, this happens when you've changed the orientation of your picture.  For some reason (and really, with no rhyme or reason) Blogger feels the need to arbitrarily change the orientation back to the original setting.

And you end up with pictures turned on their sides like the above, forcing readers to move their heads into unnatural positions to view your work correctly.

To get your pics righted, click on your 'insert image' icon and then when the 'select a file' window opens, click 'choose files'.  This will open up a directory on your computer.  

Once you've navigated to the location of the photos you want to upload, highlight the photo (or photos) you want to upload.

Once you've highlighted your photos, hover your mouse over one of them, and right click to bring up the pull down menu.  Click on "rotate clockwise".

This will rotate your pictures clockwise one turn.  Keeping your mouse hovering over one of the selected photos, again right click to bring up the pull down menu. This time click on "rotate counterclockwise".  

This will rotate your pictures back to their normal orientation and at this point, you will want to click "open" to upload your photos into the blogger screen:

And voila, they'll be uploaded correctly and, more importantly . . .

Will look far more superior in your blog post than the picture turned on its side!

As I've said, I've *never* had this method fail for me in Blogger (and generally speaking, I walk through these steps the FIRST time I try to upload).  I've made all the pictures in this post clickable so you can see them 'big' and feel free to comment or email if you have any questions about the process.

Happy blogging!

:)

farming . . .

Finally, finally . . . got moving and grew me some nice looking carrots!!  Haha!!

Isn't it darling?  I went with the "stitching right sides together" method so I could stitch the green tops into the seam.  I was so pleased with my creation, I went ahead and stitched up another . . .

(Please do NOT look too closely at my ironing board cover ... it's a mess!)  Then I promptly wrapped them up and handed them off to their new owners . . . Joc and Kim!  I handed them off in the parking lot of the Botanical Gardens, which is where we all met yesterday to play.  I had a little *seasonal* treat for the kiddlies, too . . .

Though Ellie was the only one who wanted to wear hers right then and there for any period of time!  Sweet little bunny girl!!  We had a fun time, hanging around in the sand piles . . .

All three--Sawyer, Ellie and June--had fun flinging sand.  When I sent the above picture around to my sisters, one was quick to send it back . . .

Water colored! Isn't that cool?  It's an app on her phone -- Waterlogue -- that does it.  I 'luff' it, as Ellie would say.

Sawyer and Ellie, taking advantage of the free wagon ride:

Sweet cousins!

Kim and June (who is sitting comfortable on Miss Olivia)!

We had a fun day!  Even if it was a bit blustery, it was nice to be outside after such a very cold start to the week of SPRING BREAK.  LOL!

Today I'm scanning more magazines . . .

At least my "to do" pile (on the right) is less than my "finished" pile!  Of course, I won't mention that there are about ten more *piles* to go through!

I've also pulled all the elements of the pineapple quilt back out.  I've got to cut strips to cover seams on the back of my center, and then next will be putting these elements together:

These will make up the borders and corners of the quilt. Once their done, I can start assembling it all.  I'm really not that far from a finish!

I'm offering up a feline flashback for Friday, in honor of the forthcoming Spring . . .

Sweet boy. Merlin's always enjoyed finding unusual ways to make his presence known!!  TGIFF!!  (Thank goodness it's Feline Friday!!)

:)

what's up, doc . . .

I've been talking about a carrot table topper/runner for the last month, now. I've finally pulled the fabrics, gotten them ironed, and started working things out!

That looks like a carrot shape, doesn't it?!  :)

I'm still trying to figure out for sure if I want to cut it out, sandwich it right sides together so I can sew it up and turn it right-side-out and then quilt it, *OR* sandwich it right sides out, stitch the outline, and then cut it out with pinking shears (no binding either way). Still deciding, but I'm leaning toward the former option, because I *know* how I want to create the green, leafy stems. 

Those I'm going to outline stitch stems across the width and then cut out the stem shapes with the pinking shears and stitch into the tops of the carrot shape. I'm sandwiching the stems with green felt since I'll leave the sides open . . . 

That way you won't see any 'white' in the stems ... just that darker green from the felt.  Linking up today with Esther Aliu's WOW = WIPs On Wednesdays!  Esther is scanning quilting magazines today (which I'm doing as well)!

In other news, I'm hoping that by introducing Spring into my interior decorating...

...it'll coax it into my exterior!! Y'all, we had SNOW flurries yesterday and temps overnight dipped down into the low 20's. I was so concerned about our daffodils, I culled about half of them and added them to the vase I already had going!

My vase overflowereth! Haha!! Get it??!  I'm so punny! :)

Thankfully today is supposed to be the last (last) day of bitter cold temps, but as the warm front and Spring move in, so does the threat of severe weather.  Out of the frying pan, into the fire?!  At least it's warmer in the fire!  LOL!

:)

cardinals, cats, and daffodils . . .

Ugh.  Last week wasn't a total loss, but I ended it feeling rather poorly, so my 15 Minutes report isn't looking so good . . .

*sigh*  On a positive note, I tidied up my sewing bunk room on Saturday.  It was in desperate need.  I'd come home from retreat (at the end of February) sick and things never really got put away.  I have a *really* tough time creating when things aren't in order . . . 

Everything's in its proper place now -- I'm just running out of space in which to put it.  Aye yi yi!  RV living.  :)

Fortunately, I didn't add to my stash this past week:

Unfortunately, I didn't use any of it, either!  Ha!

I did make it to our guild meeting last Thursday.  Our speaker was Kathy McNeil (of Audubon's Christmas fame) and I was SO looking forward to hearing her!  Once I got there, though, I just felt so worn and blah, I couldn't stay.  But I didn't leave before picking up a couple of things from her table . . .

The cardinals are my *favorite* part of her Audubon quilt!  And the DVD was a fun listen, plus it's got patterns for the entire quilt shown on the cover. Schweeeeet!

After church yesterday, we headed over to our old house to make sure all was well.  I got a little bonus . . .

The daffodils are thriving over there, so I brought home some so I didn't have to cut any of the ones here at the Camp.  Haha!  I do dearly adore daffodils -- they're just SPRING!

On the design wall this week is still the pineapple quilt (now that I have a solid supply of the Kona black) and the carrot table runners:

Not sure which I'll get to first, though . . . I've got some transcribing to get finished, first!

And finally, since I pretty much fell off the face of my blog since *last* Monday, Leia told me she needed to make an appearance . . . 

She doesn't want you to think that she's always growly/cranky. She sometimes (very rarely) can be quite docile and sweet.  Can't you see that?!?

Linking up to the stash report and design wall posts on Patchwork Times and Feline Friday on sarah did it!. Happy Monday!

:)

éirinn go brách . . .

I've lost a bit of my mind . . . I had a book giveaway posted last Sunday and forgot to draw a winner!!  I let random.org do my *dirty* work this morning and it came up with lucky number three, which was:

Gwynette in NW Arkansas who said, "The mystery and intrigue of Paul ..... Fascinating. Always eager to find a good read!!!"

Yay for Gwynette!  I'll get it off in the mail to her lickety-split!

Spring is definitely "springing"!  My daffodils have gone crazy!

In honor of the day and St. Patrick, I'm working on my 2015 March mini-quilt stand piece:

After I finish this and the carrot runners, I'm going to start working on fall stuff. It just makes so much more sense! And I won't feel like I'm always working *behind* -- LOL!

I also decided, in honor of the day, to sketch out my next hexi-crazy quilt block.  My first block is the "me" block . . . 

But my second block chronicles my trip to Ireland . . .

I have a couple of charms I'll add to it and I need to work on my seam treatments. The center square is the Irish flag, which I'll piece. I did kiss the Blarney stone while I was there, though I never did find that pot o' gold at the end of the rainbow! I went ahead, pulled out the crayons, and added some color to this block. 

Please tell me I'm not the only one who re-arranges the crayons in the box so they're more color oriented?! Haha!!

Linking up today's post to the design wall at Patchwork Times and to the HeLP for Hexie-aholics linky party over at sarah did it!

Todd's dad continues to do better.  He's off all the machines now and is able to sit for extended periods. We're expecting he'll be moved out of ICU and into a room today and that they'll have him up and walking. Yay! I so appreciated all the kind words, prayers, and comments!

Happy St. Patrick's Day -- go green!

:)

bunnies and wattles . . .

This past week was rather topsy-turvy.  Todd's dad had heart surgery on Friday and there were a lot of pre-surgery appointments leading up to that and of course, Friday was spent in the cardiac waiting room.  His surgery went well but he's still in ICU for the time being.  Needless to say, there was a LOT of waiting time during which I stitched.  And stitched and stitched and stitched!  (Except for the fifteen minutes I spent on my knees, picking up tiny yellow seed beads off the floor of my car. UGH!)

So, the two projects I started on Monday, filled my entire week . . .

And the nice thing about that is, I have two finishes!

"Wattle" stitchery.

Bunny Candle Mat. I'm not sure which I like most!  But I do know I will probably (most certainly) make two more Bunny Mats before Easter, if you get my drift!

I got the loveliest package in the mail yesterday, too . . . 

Is that fun, or what??!  It was the perfect *happy* on National Quilting Day!  It's a 'follow-up' to Jean's first package!  Does she know me?!  Haha!!

That fabric made me SMILE!  And it also -- along with two yards of Kona black I purchased for the Pineapple Quilt -- increased my stash!

It's starting to creep out of control!  I need to have a big finish here soon!

I printed out my Irish Blessing last night and will do some stitching on that, between church and the hospital. Linking up to Patchwork Times and Kathy's Quilts: Slow Sunday Stitching.  Have a happy Sunday!

:)

tgiff . . .

Spent Thursday with my Brig-a-JUNE!  We had a fun day together ... she's such a cutie-pie!

Been able to get a little stitching done on my 'wattle' piece . . .

Nothing but beading left!

Leia was particularly interested in the bunnies . . .

I think she's anxious for spring, too.  TGIFF!  (Thank goodness it's Feline Friday!)

:)