12-12-12 and a christmas wish

December 12, 2012 or 12-12-12 will be the last date of it's kind when all three numbers in a date are the same. The next time something like this will happen will be on January 1, 2101. According to popular belief, 12-12-12 is a lucky date that will bring good fortune.

i hope that your holiday is a reflection of this good fortune.

within the above image you will notice that there is a sweet little flying geese quilt. i received that from Maureen of Pursuit of Quilts. she made four small wonders using some left over flying geese that she had after working on her "October Surprise" quilt (shown within this post). October Surprise was a beautiful quilt and each of the four smaller pieces were just as wonderful. she gave the first two away and did a give-away drawing for the other two. i was thrilled to be one of the lucky recipients~!!~ this little quilt has so many lovely reproduction prints within it and Maureen's work is absolutely perfect~! THANK YOU so much Maureen. i love it~!!~


i haven't actually sewn much of anything since just after thanksgiving.
the carpets were all cleaned a few weeks ago and moving everything was lots of work. i decided that since i was shifting things around (and then back again) i would take the opportunity to do some other cleaning as well as some sorting out of things no longer needed and/or wanted. this slowed things down a bit but feels good to be doing. i've also been working on a bit of face-lift magic in the studio as i go; more shelves, more sorting, more folding and organizing of the fabrics and hopefully more clean surfaces by the end of it all. i guess i have spring fever a bit early this year . . . so-o-o not a lot of sewing.
no progress on TAST at all so i have a lot of catching up to do when i get back to it.
the 15 minute challenge has been designated to studio planning and organizing as i wade through these tasks.
even my photography has dwindled down to a trickle . . .
however, i was able to snap a few still life shots using some pomegranates and that new little quilt that recently came into my life. i layered my favorite with a shot from my archives of some spiderweb that had a heavy frost on it, did some blending, added text and then added a couple of festive borders to it all to create the above christmas "card". 

in addition to all of this cleaning and sorting i've been doing the same sort of thing mentally. thinking about the past year's activities and accomplishments as well as considering various challenges and tasks that i would like to line up for the next year. still mulling all of that over but i'll have it all figured out soon.

this past week has brought me a broken heart. i had to find a good home for River to move away to. i've been in denial for quite some time about my inability to manage two large and very active young dogs. i thought that if i just kept trying and hung in there until my health would give me a reprieve, than things would get better. unfortunately that's not the way it's gone and so with the wonderful daughter's help, River is safely into a new home. i just received word yesterday that she is doing well. she now lives where she is the one and only dog which means that the attention that she craves will not have to be shared with any other dog. she will like that. there is a cat but that has never been a problem with her and in fact, she seems to enjoy their quiet company so i expect that will work out well too. the adoptive owner seems very prepared and has experience with rescued dogs so she understands that River is dealing with abandonment issues from her past as well as the loss that she feels from leaving us. River and i had a special bond and this whole thing has been much more than difficult but i am sure that the right thing has been done and that she is being well looked after. my wish is that the new owner and River will forge a bond that is just as special and that it will last for the remainder of her life. she deserves it.

meanwhile, i will continue to love and care for my grand-dog until the wonderful daughter can take over the task. life is noticeably simpler and quieter which i need it to be in order to deal with my health issues. such a bittersweet ending and so many tears but life goes on and all will be well.

i promised to share photo's of the contemporary/modern piece that i created for a good friend's birthday. it's now been happily received and i can share those.

the piece is runner sized but could also be hung on the wall as skinny art. i think the picture is a bit overexposed so the colors are somewhat washed out but the detail shot does give a little bit better idea of the color.

when i was cutting and pasting the shot of the whole quilt (within photoshop) i didn't completely crop the bit shown in the detail, which is one of the reasons that i have included it. feel free to look at any of the photos in a larger format by clicking on them.

i think i still have a lot to learn about modern quiltmaking and i'm grateful that my friend happily receives experimental pieces from me. there are so many nice examples out there of this style and clearly i need some practice with it in order to achieve those kinds of results.

i am really in love with all of that quilting though~!!

 

 

 

i also have the november postcard that was made for the wonderful daughter. btw: those edges are straighter than the border/edge treatment would lead the eye to believe. i was happy with the results and she seemed happy to receive another card. 

i have begun work on the december card which i will show you within my next post. however, i have decided that i will take a holiday blog break and won't be posting until after the new year. with any luck, i'll have caught back up on my TAST stitching/christmas stockings and have some progress to show you.

i will find time to visit your blogs once in a while as i do still want to keep up with those of you who are blogging throughout the festivities. 

i hope that your holiday season is wonderful and that you are looking forward to what the new year will be bringing as much as i am.

recent gifts include:

• finding an outstanding home for my sweet River
• the smell of hot apple cider simmering on the stove
• a mug full of that apple cider on a cold afternoon
• twinkling christmas lights
• a new little dolly quilt  :-D
• christmas party visiting

today was a great mail day~!!~ full of fun and fabulous surprises.

i recently participated in a give-away from Cathy of Big Lake Quilter and low and behold ~!!!~
i actually won~!
a beautiful collection of moda fabrics as well as an Omnigrid Mini-FoldAway. i work small a lot of the time and expect that the miniature cutting and pressing station will come in quite handy. as for the fabrics . . . they are so yummy that i'm bound to find myself starting a (forbidden) new project . . . i could sure see these fabrics making a sweet little doll quilt or two . . .  hhhmmmmm . . .  maybe a great way to pay the give-away goodness forward . . .  it is about time for me to have another one i think . . .  how's that for a tease?
thank you so very much Cathy.

i also received a totally unexpected card from Jay of  Creative Crone from studio Q. she is a zentangle artist extraordinaire as well as a fellow quilter. she has challenged herself with creating regular zentangles as well as an accompanying haiku with each one.  i LOVE visiting her and seeing her newest creative tangles.
and today, totally out of the blue, i got a card from her that was full of loving kindness as well as one of her beautiful zentangles.
on the back of the zentangle is it's very own haiku written by Jay:

 "Giving is Pleasure.

No matter how large or small,

The thought is the gift."

how true and how blessed i felt to be the one thought of in this special way. thank you Jay.
btw: can you guess what proud state Jay is from? there's a clue within today's photo.

in addition to all of that goodness i received the newest issue of the Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine.
i've been so busy admiring my other goodies that i haven't even cracked the cover yet but am looking forward to taking it to bed with me and possibly staying up late soaking up much of what is within it's pages.
a fabulous way to end this abundant day.

today's gifts include:

• the generosity (of both spirit and gifts) from friends i've made while blogging
• a walk with River and my wonderful husband. the new hip is feeling really GOOD just lately
• the lovely feeling of excited anticipation

i received my giveaway package from Eileen of Keeping it Rural in Wisconsin (http://ruralwisconsin.blogspot.com/ )

and it is truly fabulous~!!!!~

i love the way that she bundled up these vintage linens into such a charming presentation~!!~

but that was only the tip of the iceberg . . . (and who doesn't love an iceberg arriving in the mail on a hot sunny day~!?!)

this package was stuffed FULL of all sorts of beautiful things vintage and i can hardly wait to do some clever fun stuff with my incredibly varied and wonderful treasures~!!!~ but for now, i just want to look at it all and admire, aka fondle every single bit of it~!~

i'm not exactly sure why but the flickr mosaic that i created and pasted into this post has decided that it is going to stay HUGE. so if you click on it you should be better able to see all of these charming details and hopefully enjoy them almost as much as i am~!!!~


don't you just love the way a person's handwriting is almost as revealing as their photos/portraits~!?!~ some of the antique/vintage postcards had lovely old handwriting on them which i think makes them as fascinating to look at on the back as the front . . .

THANK YOU SO VERY MUCH EILEEN~!!~

i couldn't be any happier with this incredibly generous giveaway goodness that came in my mail~!!!~ you are an angel~!~





and now, regretfully, back to the more mundane in my life:
i've managed to sew up five Christmas postcards for my daughter's collection.
she chose some fabrics before she left that she thought might work up nicely into holiday cards and i think that they are working out very well. i will spend the next week or two embroidering/embellishing and binding/finishing them up for her and of course i will post them here as they are finished.

the other bit that i worked on this past week was a child/crib sized quilt top from some nine patches that i had made up from my scrap management project. they were re-cut into a disappearing nine patch setting that i found on flickr. it is currently too small and i will need to add some borders to bring it up to size but i expect that to go quickly and then it will be on it's way to the machine quilter's house. when it is finished and bound i will put it into my "gift and/or charity stash". it's always nice to have a few things on hand for those purposes as there seems to be no end to the need for those quilts.

btw: i'm considering a skinny yellow border followed by a fatter red border followed by another skinny yellow border . . . what do you think?

progress on this quilt will be duly reported in future blog posts.