A few days ago I gave you a couple of quotes from my dear friend, Joanna Fritz-Reed, who passed May 19, 2007 of breast cancer. Today I would like to share another one of the quotes on the bookmark handed out at her two memorial services.
"enjoy every second of the lifetime which you are being blessed with"
Now at first glance you don't think too much of that. But then remembering that it was a quote from a woman who was battling breast cancer you may grasp it with different significance.
Go forth today and every day, remembering the blessing that is YOUR life. :)
hugs
denise/deBRAT in too hot for December Florida
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
Tuesday, December 11, 2007
what color is your brain?
well while reading my Bag-A-Holic yahoo group posts today, I clicked on a link to something, which took me to somewhere else and you know how the rabbit trail happens. next thing I know I'm looking at a wonderful sunrise picture! I decided to leave a comment, because a picture that beautiful certainly deserves a comment and next thing I know I'm reading portions of her blog further down... and have to find out what color is my brain.
my brain is purple by the way, same as hers was.
Your Brain is Purple
Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense.Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries.You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.
here is the attempt at putting the link to the quiz in here
http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorisyourbrainquiz/
and this is the blog I was at for the sunrise picture!
go down to wednesday, december 5th, 2007
http://craftycarole.blogspot.com/
so now i have posted again and wish i could post pics of the finished skulls cap for the exiting director at work, or the neon lime green face cloths i gave her to go with the joke skulls cap... or pics of the modular to-be-felted tote bag that is to match the Modern Quilt Wrap I made for my sister in law for Christmas this year... but alas, the laptop is at home and work does not provide me with any media slots for downloading pics. the nerve of them, not giving me a media slot!
have agrand and glorious day all,
denise/deBRAT in too dang hot for December (84 today!) Florida
my brain is purple by the way, same as hers was.
Your Brain is Purple
Of all the brain types, yours is the most idealistic. You tend to think wild, amazing thoughts. Your dreams and fantasies are intense.Your thoughts are creative, inventive, and without boundaries.You tend to spend a lot of time thinking of fictional people and places - or a very different life for yourself.
here is the attempt at putting the link to the quiz in here
http://www.blogthings.com/whatcolorisyourbrainquiz/
and this is the blog I was at for the sunrise picture!
go down to wednesday, december 5th, 2007
http://craftycarole.blogspot.com/
so now i have posted again and wish i could post pics of the finished skulls cap for the exiting director at work, or the neon lime green face cloths i gave her to go with the joke skulls cap... or pics of the modular to-be-felted tote bag that is to match the Modern Quilt Wrap I made for my sister in law for Christmas this year... but alas, the laptop is at home and work does not provide me with any media slots for downloading pics. the nerve of them, not giving me a media slot!
have agrand and glorious day all,
denise/deBRAT in too dang hot for December (84 today!) Florida
Thursday, December 6, 2007
Panera Bread and mountain sunrise in Florida
Heading to work today I stopped at the new Panera Bread that opened 1 mile from my house. I had clipped a buy 3 bagels get 3 free coupon and did not have time to pack a lunch today so I thought I'd fill my belly with bagels. Well as I drive into the parking lot what do I see during the very foggy sunrise but "mountains" in Florida. now the highest elevation anywhere near where I live in the Tampa Bay area is an On-Ramp to any highway. And as I just returned from Hawaii you can imagine my only 2 1/2 hours sleep surprised eyes! I had the camera with me and snapped a couple of pics. The first is just set at auto, the second taken on the sunset setting(no sunrise setting guess it is suppose to do double duty) and this is what I got
.
On closer inspection (read as: blown up onto 19" monitor screen) i can clearly see that those are not mounds of dirt for the "developing" that is going on there, but actually the housing development behind this new Plaza. The mound in the foreground near the pitiful looking scrubby oak tree IS a mound of elevation raising/leveling dirt for the continued construction.
I almost wish I had not looked at the full sized photos so I could still think there were mountains of developing dirt piles in my site. If I had taken the pictures before I went into Panera they would have been less distinct and thus, no unveiling of the realistic truth that indeed, my quiet quiet neighborhood is becoming the new suburb to the suburb to the suburb of Tampa. sigh, in time, all things must change.
Have a blessing filled day and do a random acts of Kindness today in memory of my dear friend Joanna who passed of breast cancer in May '07. On the bookmark made for her memorial were several quotes. but two I will remind you of today:
Kindness Matters
monthly self-exams can save lives, but a cure would be nice too
teary eyed hugs,
denise/deBRAT
.
On closer inspection (read as: blown up onto 19" monitor screen) i can clearly see that those are not mounds of dirt for the "developing" that is going on there, but actually the housing development behind this new Plaza. The mound in the foreground near the pitiful looking scrubby oak tree IS a mound of elevation raising/leveling dirt for the continued construction. I almost wish I had not looked at the full sized photos so I could still think there were mountains of developing dirt piles in my site. If I had taken the pictures before I went into Panera they would have been less distinct and thus, no unveiling of the realistic truth that indeed, my quiet quiet neighborhood is becoming the new suburb to the suburb to the suburb of Tampa. sigh, in time, all things must change.
Have a blessing filled day and do a random acts of Kindness today in memory of my dear friend Joanna who passed of breast cancer in May '07. On the bookmark made for her memorial were several quotes. but two I will remind you of today:
Kindness Matters
monthly self-exams can save lives, but a cure would be nice too
teary eyed hugs,
denise/deBRAT
Wednesday, December 5, 2007
RAK contest at another blogger's site
Hi all
Ruth (on a laceknitters yahoo group) posted today that she is having a RAK contest. So hop on over to her blog and leave a post with your RAK today! She is giving away some nice prizes and two others jumped on in and offered up a couple of prizes too! People can be so nice :)
http://pencraftco.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/another-rak-contest/
now if you came from my post on Ruth's blog you saw my discretionary income. the amount is correct. Yes, I went to hawaii this year. dh had a business trip there so no flight or hotel cost for him. He had enough free mileage to purchase me a ticket (read as free) I gave up my chiropractor appointments, my massage therapist appointments, worked through every stinking lunch for months at work so I could pay for the time off and have some money to spend while there. And my birthday was 5 days before that. more incoming money. And our 22nd wedding anniversary was the day we flew back from hawaii. So no, I did not do it on the $5.67 a week I can spend how I please, but I found a way to "do" this trip-of-a-lifetime as I doubt the chance will EVER occur again! Oh, and my dear quilting friend put me up at her condo in maui and drove me absolutely everywhere on Maui so I had some me-and-my quilting friend time too!
I did not want anyone to think I was talking out of the wrong side of my mouth when I posted on the RAK contest.
So the link again is
http://pencraftco.wordpress.com/2007/12/
and after yo upost your RAK to Ruth's blog, be sure to go back to the link she gives to Sheri, at The Loopy Ewe's blog to enter "her" RAK contest that inspired Ruth's.
have a grand day everyone, mine is warmer and looking up!
denise/deBRAT-jane in cool today, bound to be warmer tomorrow Tampa Bay Florida
Ruth (on a laceknitters yahoo group) posted today that she is having a RAK contest. So hop on over to her blog and leave a post with your RAK today! She is giving away some nice prizes and two others jumped on in and offered up a couple of prizes too! People can be so nice :)
http://pencraftco.wordpress.com/2007/12/05/another-rak-contest/
now if you came from my post on Ruth's blog you saw my discretionary income. the amount is correct. Yes, I went to hawaii this year. dh had a business trip there so no flight or hotel cost for him. He had enough free mileage to purchase me a ticket (read as free) I gave up my chiropractor appointments, my massage therapist appointments, worked through every stinking lunch for months at work so I could pay for the time off and have some money to spend while there. And my birthday was 5 days before that. more incoming money. And our 22nd wedding anniversary was the day we flew back from hawaii. So no, I did not do it on the $5.67 a week I can spend how I please, but I found a way to "do" this trip-of-a-lifetime as I doubt the chance will EVER occur again! Oh, and my dear quilting friend put me up at her condo in maui and drove me absolutely everywhere on Maui so I had some me-and-my quilting friend time too!
I did not want anyone to think I was talking out of the wrong side of my mouth when I posted on the RAK contest.
So the link again is
http://pencraftco.wordpress.com/2007/12/
and after yo upost your RAK to Ruth's blog, be sure to go back to the link she gives to Sheri, at The Loopy Ewe's blog to enter "her" RAK contest that inspired Ruth's.
have a grand day everyone, mine is warmer and looking up!
denise/deBRAT-jane in cool today, bound to be warmer tomorrow Tampa Bay Florida
Sunday, September 23, 2007
Florida-meets-Alaska-Norwegian-Thang
A quick pic of my most recent knitting project for my friend in Alaska who I will finally get to meet in Maui in just 31 days!
this was a week ago, now it is done down to the bottom and waiting on sleeves and my edging decision. i finally ordered two skeins of www.knitpicks.com donegal fingering weight superwash yarn. if it is white enough it will be a large portion of the sleeves. if not i will have to koolaid dye it and then it will be a large portion of the sleeves.
it is meant to be an oversized, very cuddly wrap. i hope it fits her as such. i just found out she is about a medium, as she says she has put on a lot of weight. and she stands only 5'2' !!! it will be down below her butt at the length I made it. and it will certainly go OVER other clothing as she is much smaller than me. it fits me perfectly as a cardigan in length and width and i'm a tight medium sweatshirt and 5'6" tall. oh well, she DOES live in Alaska, as my hubby says, it will be perfect!
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
The Memorial Tree
Oh my, I have been so far behind in everything I do that I have yet to post the picture of the Memorial Tree we planted to remember our two doggies, Snicker labor Day September 1996 and Chocolate (Choco to those who knew him) June 9th, 2007.
http://www.fastgrowingtree.com/indexT2.htm
Found on the left side at the link above.
We chose a Royal Empress Tree because when i googled (now officially a word in the Dictionary I believe) when I googled draught tolerant trees for my growing zone it returned only three. two were in the fir/pine family and as I'm allergic to several of those, including the Australian Pine in our yard already, I figured those were easy "no's". The only one left was the Royal Empress Tree.
(Here you can see my foot -a size 7 for those who must know- next to the tree. It has 10 leaves at this point but you cannot see some of them underneath the large ones on the far side.)
It arrived on a Monday , hmmm lets see if I can figure out which Monday. Choco died Saturday the 9th, there is no way it arrived on 11th so therefore the earliest it could have been here was the 18th of June. it had to sit out in the yard in the shade (under a table LOL) to aclimate itself and then slowly Neal moved it out into the yard. For some reason I think this was two weeks, or just shy of two weeks time. At any rate, it went in the ground on either June 24th or July 1st. When it arrived it had only two leaves, large-ish but drooping down the stem/trunk that was only about 6" high and not even as big around as 1/2 of my little finger!
(Here you see it from above looking much larger than you would expect it to get in what, three weeks?
soon it was sprouting two new leaves about every 5 days! When I went in to tell Neal that 11 and 12 had shown up as wee buds at the top between the last two leaves to come in the other leaves had begun to get very large!
(As you can see here! The leaf my hand is on actually has another 3 -4 inches of leaf off from where my fingertips end!)
Now looking at this same picture, just to the right of my wrist between the smaller leaves showing, are the buds for #11 and #12.
On Monday, July 16th (Brother in Law Brian's 50th B'day and Neal's first day at the new job) it now had 20 something leaves! It has begun to get buds at the base of all the stems the 1-12 leaves are on the "trunk"! It is a riot to watch and I'm so pleased that we chose this tree to grow never having seen another one in our entire lives! So brave we are.
I hope I remember to snap a picture of it tonight with all of the new buds coming out. the best way I can describe them is they look like the "sucker" leaves tomato plants get that they tell you to pinch off. I don't want to pinch these off until I know for sure they should be. Surely there is a world of difference between a tomato plant and this gigantic-to-be Empress Tree?
So here are the pics finally of the lovely tree we planted after Choco died. He is right next to Snicker and they will end up being directly to the left of the tree as I look out into the yard from my sewing studio window.
Have a grand and glorious day all,
denise/deBRAT in too hot, too humid, but thankfully we're still IN Florida!
http://www.fastgrowingtree.com/indexT2.htm
Found on the left side at the link above.
We chose a Royal Empress Tree because when i googled (now officially a word in the Dictionary I believe) when I googled draught tolerant trees for my growing zone it returned only three. two were in the fir/pine family and as I'm allergic to several of those, including the Australian Pine in our yard already, I figured those were easy "no's". The only one left was the Royal Empress Tree.(Here you can see my foot -a size 7 for those who must know- next to the tree. It has 10 leaves at this point but you cannot see some of them underneath the large ones on the far side.)
It arrived on a Monday , hmmm lets see if I can figure out which Monday. Choco died Saturday the 9th, there is no way it arrived on 11th so therefore the earliest it could have been here was the 18th of June. it had to sit out in the yard in the shade (under a table LOL) to aclimate itself and then slowly Neal moved it out into the yard. For some reason I think this was two weeks, or just shy of two weeks time. At any rate, it went in the ground on either June 24th or July 1st. When it arrived it had only two leaves, large-ish but drooping down the stem/trunk that was only about 6" high and not even as big around as 1/2 of my little finger!
(Here you see it from above looking much larger than you would expect it to get in what, three weeks?soon it was sprouting two new leaves about every 5 days! When I went in to tell Neal that 11 and 12 had shown up as wee buds at the top between the last two leaves to come in the other leaves had begun to get very large!
(As you can see here! The leaf my hand is on actually has another 3 -4 inches of leaf off from where my fingertips end!)Now looking at this same picture, just to the right of my wrist between the smaller leaves showing, are the buds for #11 and #12.
On Monday, July 16th (Brother in Law Brian's 50th B'day and Neal's first day at the new job) it now had 20 something leaves! It has begun to get buds at the base of all the stems the 1-12 leaves are on the "trunk"! It is a riot to watch and I'm so pleased that we chose this tree to grow never having seen another one in our entire lives! So brave we are.
I hope I remember to snap a picture of it tonight with all of the new buds coming out. the best way I can describe them is they look like the "sucker" leaves tomato plants get that they tell you to pinch off. I don't want to pinch these off until I know for sure they should be. Surely there is a world of difference between a tomato plant and this gigantic-to-be Empress Tree?
So here are the pics finally of the lovely tree we planted after Choco died. He is right next to Snicker and they will end up being directly to the left of the tree as I look out into the yard from my sewing studio window.
Have a grand and glorious day all,
denise/deBRAT in too hot, too humid, but thankfully we're still IN Florida!
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Stashbuster's July '07 Weekend Retreat Mystery Quilt
Here are some terrible pictures of fabrics used in the original quilt. these fabrics use COLOR rather than value for it's look. sorry they are terrible pics but the real camera is dead and the phone camera takes a terrible picture it would appear
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Fabric A
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Fabric C
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Fabric B
Monday, July 9, 2007
yellow skirt finished! (title added on april 19, 2011)
hmmm no ability to click in the Title space so this post will be title-less?
oh well, the long awaited picture of the Stashbusting YELLOW skirt is here! it is such a happy skirt. I wore it to the dinner for my dear friend Joanna's b'day party, 5 days after her death. I wore it to the local, non-traditional memorial service on June 3rd 15 days after her death, and numerous other days... including today. This morning dh (dear husband) was awake and up and about this morning so I had him take a picture with the phone camera and here it is!!!
wow! the walls we just painted in the kitchen are sooo bright that my white on top, yellow on the bottom shell top appears beyond-white-white! and you can see my barefeet. glad the trashcan appears mostly empty! do not mind the over-tired-workworn-sleep-deprived woman wearing the skirt... don't look above the skirt teehee!
it is 6 tiers of various fabrics and I can't wait to have time to make another skirt from my stash! I want to make a purple one, and a purple top for my b'day in october. I will be official red-hatter age on the 19th of October and I can hardly wait for it to get here! but i have so much to make before then that I will not rush it along. now to see if i have any purple stash left. i used a lot of different bits for a 3 1/2" nine patch block swap (on block_swappers list) recently and i'm hoping that I can salvage enough from that bin of fabrics to make the skirt and top from. in any event, here is the skirt and hope you like it!
denise/deBRAT-jane off work today at 2 pm to go celebrate my step-dad's 84th b'day at Red Lobster for dinner tonight. can you say, cheesey biscuits? yummmmmmmm
oh well, the long awaited picture of the Stashbusting YELLOW skirt is here! it is such a happy skirt. I wore it to the dinner for my dear friend Joanna's b'day party, 5 days after her death. I wore it to the local, non-traditional memorial service on June 3rd 15 days after her death, and numerous other days... including today. This morning dh (dear husband) was awake and up and about this morning so I had him take a picture with the phone camera and here it is!!!
wow! the walls we just painted in the kitchen are sooo bright that my white on top, yellow on the bottom shell top appears beyond-white-white! and you can see my barefeet. glad the trashcan appears mostly empty! do not mind the over-tired-workworn-sleep-deprived woman wearing the skirt... don't look above the skirt teehee!
it is 6 tiers of various fabrics and I can't wait to have time to make another skirt from my stash! I want to make a purple one, and a purple top for my b'day in october. I will be official red-hatter age on the 19th of October and I can hardly wait for it to get here! but i have so much to make before then that I will not rush it along. now to see if i have any purple stash left. i used a lot of different bits for a 3 1/2" nine patch block swap (on block_swappers list) recently and i'm hoping that I can salvage enough from that bin of fabrics to make the skirt and top from. in any event, here is the skirt and hope you like it!
denise/deBRAT-jane off work today at 2 pm to go celebrate my step-dad's 84th b'day at Red Lobster for dinner tonight. can you say, cheesey biscuits? yummmmmmmm
Thursday, May 31, 2007
Joanna, more to remember
If you read this blog I thank you for putting up with me posting my random posts about Joanna to my different yahoo groups so I can have all my rememberances in one place.
Re: quilt displayed at services
sorry if this does not belong here but i promise to be brief.joanna was a quilting student turned friend. and in her case myvery bestest friend i have ever had in my entire life! the quiltwas made at her request. the ladies at the quilt shop wanted tomake her a quilt but rather than making it for her and giving it toher they procrastinated and it never got done. so on May 5th,Joanna, her mother-in-law, myself, her friend from VA who flew inthat day to visit with her went to Rainbow's End to ... pick fabricfor her mother-in-laws very first quilt... pick fabrics for joanna'svery own quilt at her request made from my pattern magically fastcrazy blocks-the basic method (basically stack n slash with a coupleof twists to give you more flash for your sewing time) and it was torecreate one she had made the summer before as a housewarming giftfor a cousin who's house they stayed at on their dream trip toFinland. The quilt is very much like the original only queensized. my mother who lives not far from Rainbow's End in Dunedin,FL met us there and we had lunch at Jolli-Mons and laughed andgiggled and had the very best of times!On the following Saturday, a group of us got together at the LQS tosew the quilt top for her. We got 30 14 1/2" blocks sewn, trimmedand into a top (sans borders) in ONE day. there were three sewers:her mother-in-law linda who had NEVER sew anything on a machinebefore, the other student-turned-friend and her daughter(7 yo) asthey asked to help, and Caroline (one of the couple's card /gameplaying friends)myself and one person was sick with a cold so couldnot be around Joanna with her immune system so non-existent. webegan shortly before 10 am and finished at straight up 5 pm and agood day was had by all. That was the first time I saw Joanna astruly looking sick. her eyes were a horror movie yellow and herskin a green from her failing liver. :(that week i worked many 8-8 shifts and so on the friday of Mother'sDay weekend I sewed on the borders, pieced the backing, pieced thebatting (we wanted Thermore and that was not quite large enough).saturday i went to another friend's house and used her large formallivingroom floor to roll up and then spray baste all the layers with505 spray and fix. saturday and sunday i quilted it in straightlines until there were enough diagonals and horizontal and verticallines to hold it together with the thermore batting (up to 9" apart)more quilting would have been nice but time did not allow for it. idid quilt the 7" border in a 1" apart channel type quilting so itwould look nice once washed. you know, that old fashioned puckeringlook you get as if you had used a cotton batting? I put the findingto the front with the machine and considered it a night. My dh hadkept saying to me to take a break and I kept saying oh let me finishjust this part here then i'll take a quick break and come back atit. i never took a break except to eat dinner that night.monday, at work i whipped the binding down to the back by hand. Italked to Joanna several times that day and her one thing was "don'teven call if you finish it tonight please" at 7 pm that night ifinished the last stitches on the binding. at 8 pm i left work. at8:15 she was sitting in her special chair with the quilt over herand the biggest smile you could ever imagine on her face. pettingit and crooning over it. when i realised that she had a heating padon to relieve the ache in her belly (we are in florida it is HOT) welaid it on the bed. Joanna got up to see it laid out on the bed andgave me what was to be the last hug I would get from her.tuesday, I spoke with her several times and laughed and joked. wewere all about hte laughter. the last lengthy conversation i hadwith her that day at the end of the call she said okay bye, I saidbye she said Good bye. it took me until the next day to realise shesaid a true good bye to me that night. we rarely said bye when wehung up it was catch you tomorrow, let me know when you get out ofchemo... etc. but very rarely bye. i spoke with her very brieflythat night when she returned a call showing on the house phone whenshe was resting and her dh took the call. i had volunteered to ridewith them on saturday if she wanted company in the "rented van" forthe 4 hours drive to her parents where there was to be a bigbirthday party for her. she was so glad i had volunteered to rideover and entertain her :) her party was not to be. the day of theparty was the day she died. the next thursday, the 24th she wouldhave been 33.so see, the quilt is not from her clothing, or even a spectacularpiece, it is just a quilt that she spent the last 5 1/2 days of herlife petting and wrapped in saying "my friends made me this" overand over again. this quilt was mentioned on the "list/carepages"that her dh kept to keep everyone informed and so it is appropriateto display it at the gathering(s) for people to see the last thingthat meant so very much to her.sorry this has gotten long... i loved her so much. she was a partof nearly every portion of my days. she brought out the very bestin me, even the brattie part of me she adored. I asked her once howwe wound up friends. She said, we are kindred spirits. I saw inyou myself. I tried to deny that saying what a mean person i am etcand she would not allow me to say that about myself. truly, theworld has lost a kind and wonderful person that given more time andmore energy would have made a huge difference in so many people'slives.and now that you are this far down the post, i will ask you to tellsomeone today that you love just how much they mean in your life!if you find it hard to begin with words then get the sappiest cardyou can find and send that! that should open the lines ofcommunication for you to say it. joanna was 16 years my junior butnever once did i feel i was a mother figure. i always felt herequal. she just made everyone around her feel good aboutthemselves. I wish for you a friendship that is this deep andtrue. but caution, it will mean a loss greater than you could everimagine should that person pre-decease you.now wipe your tears away and hug on someone you love and go forthand have a grand and glorious day for it is gorgeous outside, evenin the rain and wind or snow....thank you for reading this and for allowing me to share.denise/deBRATi'll try to put a picture of it on my blog, providing there is acopy on my work computer. i think it may have to come from mylaptop which i have not turned on since tuesday at work.http://debratsquilting.blogspot.com/
Re: quilt displayed at services
sorry if this does not belong here but i promise to be brief.joanna was a quilting student turned friend. and in her case myvery bestest friend i have ever had in my entire life! the quiltwas made at her request. the ladies at the quilt shop wanted tomake her a quilt but rather than making it for her and giving it toher they procrastinated and it never got done. so on May 5th,Joanna, her mother-in-law, myself, her friend from VA who flew inthat day to visit with her went to Rainbow's End to ... pick fabricfor her mother-in-laws very first quilt... pick fabrics for joanna'svery own quilt at her request made from my pattern magically fastcrazy blocks-the basic method (basically stack n slash with a coupleof twists to give you more flash for your sewing time) and it was torecreate one she had made the summer before as a housewarming giftfor a cousin who's house they stayed at on their dream trip toFinland. The quilt is very much like the original only queensized. my mother who lives not far from Rainbow's End in Dunedin,FL met us there and we had lunch at Jolli-Mons and laughed andgiggled and had the very best of times!On the following Saturday, a group of us got together at the LQS tosew the quilt top for her. We got 30 14 1/2" blocks sewn, trimmedand into a top (sans borders) in ONE day. there were three sewers:her mother-in-law linda who had NEVER sew anything on a machinebefore, the other student-turned-friend and her daughter(7 yo) asthey asked to help, and Caroline (one of the couple's card /gameplaying friends)myself and one person was sick with a cold so couldnot be around Joanna with her immune system so non-existent. webegan shortly before 10 am and finished at straight up 5 pm and agood day was had by all. That was the first time I saw Joanna astruly looking sick. her eyes were a horror movie yellow and herskin a green from her failing liver. :(that week i worked many 8-8 shifts and so on the friday of Mother'sDay weekend I sewed on the borders, pieced the backing, pieced thebatting (we wanted Thermore and that was not quite large enough).saturday i went to another friend's house and used her large formallivingroom floor to roll up and then spray baste all the layers with505 spray and fix. saturday and sunday i quilted it in straightlines until there were enough diagonals and horizontal and verticallines to hold it together with the thermore batting (up to 9" apart)more quilting would have been nice but time did not allow for it. idid quilt the 7" border in a 1" apart channel type quilting so itwould look nice once washed. you know, that old fashioned puckeringlook you get as if you had used a cotton batting? I put the findingto the front with the machine and considered it a night. My dh hadkept saying to me to take a break and I kept saying oh let me finishjust this part here then i'll take a quick break and come back atit. i never took a break except to eat dinner that night.monday, at work i whipped the binding down to the back by hand. Italked to Joanna several times that day and her one thing was "don'teven call if you finish it tonight please" at 7 pm that night ifinished the last stitches on the binding. at 8 pm i left work. at8:15 she was sitting in her special chair with the quilt over herand the biggest smile you could ever imagine on her face. pettingit and crooning over it. when i realised that she had a heating padon to relieve the ache in her belly (we are in florida it is HOT) welaid it on the bed. Joanna got up to see it laid out on the bed andgave me what was to be the last hug I would get from her.tuesday, I spoke with her several times and laughed and joked. wewere all about hte laughter. the last lengthy conversation i hadwith her that day at the end of the call she said okay bye, I saidbye she said Good bye. it took me until the next day to realise shesaid a true good bye to me that night. we rarely said bye when wehung up it was catch you tomorrow, let me know when you get out ofchemo... etc. but very rarely bye. i spoke with her very brieflythat night when she returned a call showing on the house phone whenshe was resting and her dh took the call. i had volunteered to ridewith them on saturday if she wanted company in the "rented van" forthe 4 hours drive to her parents where there was to be a bigbirthday party for her. she was so glad i had volunteered to rideover and entertain her :) her party was not to be. the day of theparty was the day she died. the next thursday, the 24th she wouldhave been 33.so see, the quilt is not from her clothing, or even a spectacularpiece, it is just a quilt that she spent the last 5 1/2 days of herlife petting and wrapped in saying "my friends made me this" overand over again. this quilt was mentioned on the "list/carepages"that her dh kept to keep everyone informed and so it is appropriateto display it at the gathering(s) for people to see the last thingthat meant so very much to her.sorry this has gotten long... i loved her so much. she was a partof nearly every portion of my days. she brought out the very bestin me, even the brattie part of me she adored. I asked her once howwe wound up friends. She said, we are kindred spirits. I saw inyou myself. I tried to deny that saying what a mean person i am etcand she would not allow me to say that about myself. truly, theworld has lost a kind and wonderful person that given more time andmore energy would have made a huge difference in so many people'slives.and now that you are this far down the post, i will ask you to tellsomeone today that you love just how much they mean in your life!if you find it hard to begin with words then get the sappiest cardyou can find and send that! that should open the lines ofcommunication for you to say it. joanna was 16 years my junior butnever once did i feel i was a mother figure. i always felt herequal. she just made everyone around her feel good aboutthemselves. I wish for you a friendship that is this deep andtrue. but caution, it will mean a loss greater than you could everimagine should that person pre-decease you.now wipe your tears away and hug on someone you love and go forthand have a grand and glorious day for it is gorgeous outside, evenin the rain and wind or snow....thank you for reading this and for allowing me to share.denise/deBRATi'll try to put a picture of it on my blog, providing there is acopy on my work computer. i think it may have to come from mylaptop which i have not turned on since tuesday at work.http://debratsquilting.blogspot.com/
Monday, May 21, 2007
quilt strings, coasters and heart ache
this may be a repeat of another post or part of a post but just in case i have not done so yet i am copying and pasting this here, yet again. thanks for your patience to any who read this. ~denise
15 minutes today
today i spent a bit more than just 15 minutes taking the leftoverstrings from the quilt top we made for joanna 2 saturdays ago andturning them into the 5" squares. heartstrings style. i will thentake some of the fabric from my stash that matches the fabric used inher quilt and turn them into coasters. i will quilt them with asingle heart shape and sign them on the back with her name and thedates and "friend of my heart"these will be presented to the women who worked on the quilt forjoanna and to her mother. if i have enough strings from the fabricused in the quilt i will give themTom, her husband, to be distributed to whoever he sees fit.thamnk you for listening to me once again about how much i loved mydear friend and how horribly my heart aches knowing i will neveranswer my phone to hear her say "hello, friend."stashbusting hugsdenise/deBRAT in windy and coolish today floridaoh and i updated my quilting blog today too with copies of my variousposts about joanna so i do not lose that info over time. i hope tohave enough composure to look on my camera memory disks this week forsome pictures i suspect are still on there somewhere.www.debratsquilting.blogspot.com
15 minutes today
today i spent a bit more than just 15 minutes taking the leftoverstrings from the quilt top we made for joanna 2 saturdays ago andturning them into the 5" squares. heartstrings style. i will thentake some of the fabric from my stash that matches the fabric used inher quilt and turn them into coasters. i will quilt them with asingle heart shape and sign them on the back with her name and thedates and "friend of my heart"these will be presented to the women who worked on the quilt forjoanna and to her mother. if i have enough strings from the fabricused in the quilt i will give themTom, her husband, to be distributed to whoever he sees fit.thamnk you for listening to me once again about how much i loved mydear friend and how horribly my heart aches knowing i will neveranswer my phone to hear her say "hello, friend."stashbusting hugsdenise/deBRAT in windy and coolish today floridaoh and i updated my quilting blog today too with copies of my variousposts about joanna so i do not lose that info over time. i hope tohave enough composure to look on my camera memory disks this week forsome pictures i suspect are still on there somewhere.www.debratsquilting.blogspot.com
Sunday, May 20, 2007
Got a good Friend? Then TELL them!
here is some advice I posted on the dear jane list on Wednesday, May 16th. I heard from many other janiacs but one wrote me telling me she had written a long hand written letter to a dear friend of hers of many years. Please do this! and if you can, let me know you did by posting a comment on here. Tom, asked us to do something that would continue on in Joanna's honor, this is my attempt at carrying on a portion of my wonderful friendship with Joanna.
Thank you. ~dmw
May 16th, 2007
Now i'm going to attempt to tell you something I hope you take to the
very core of you.
do NOT stop and think just DO THIS! tell someone or everyone TODAY
that you love them. that they make you smile from the very bottom of
your being. that you would not trade an instant of any moment in time
you have spent with them for anything (even chocolate!) in the world.
yes it sounds sappy. and yes you may both cry, but oh so much better
to cry over the joy having shared your love and gratefulness with your
loved ones now while you can each go forth knowing just how deeply you
treasure every memory you make together, rather to be expressing your
sentiments during their final days. The sadness of the situation over
shadows the joy of the expressions of love and laughter.
If it is hard for you to express your feelings than buy a card and
send it. send the sappiest card you can find! then use that to open
the door to say it OUT LOUD!!!! And when you share this with the
loved ones in your life, know that you did this in honor of Joanna
Fritz-Reed, breast cancer fighter.
i am going to type here for you the verse on one of the many cards i
purchased for Joanna last week. Oh and the reason i bought cards (as
I am more of an email and in person person, is because she had shown
me a card her mother-in-law sent her and it meant the world to her.
her eyes lit up, her smile broadened and i knew that i needed to put a
smile on her face like that daily. then, because i am human and weak,
I resorted to my "old me" ways of not doing snail mail, and i did not
mail the cards. Now I will be bombarding her with cards instead of
one daily. so FORCE yourself out of your comfort zone. emails and
ecards are nice but Joanna has not looked at email in months! and as
I talked to her every day and sometimes several times a day AND see
her in person once or more a week, i let the cards slide. shame on
me. such joy i could have brought to her all along. so MAIL cards I
don't care that postage just went up, it will make the specialness of
the cards seem all
the more.
okay before i go into a more lecture mode or cry and have to leave my
desk, here is the verse:
love to ALL of you. For you are my dear jane sisters and we will
ALWAYS have THAT in common,
denise/deBRAT in florida
"God watches over us
every minute of our lives,
and once in a while,
we are blessed
with an exceptional gift-
a true friend.
I believe that's
what God gave me
when He created
our friendship.
You are one
of the few people
I can really be myself around.
I can joke with you
and know that you'll
share my laughter.
I can cry with you
and trust that you
won't ever take advantage
of my vulnerability.
I'm not afraid
to be honest with you,
because we're secure
in our friendship.
There's no doubt about it,
God has brought us together.
But every day,
through caring and understanding,
we are the ones
who make sure
we stay that way."
~Tara Jaye Morrow
Thank you. ~dmw
May 16th, 2007
Now i'm going to attempt to tell you something I hope you take to the
very core of you.
do NOT stop and think just DO THIS! tell someone or everyone TODAY
that you love them. that they make you smile from the very bottom of
your being. that you would not trade an instant of any moment in time
you have spent with them for anything (even chocolate!) in the world.
yes it sounds sappy. and yes you may both cry, but oh so much better
to cry over the joy having shared your love and gratefulness with your
loved ones now while you can each go forth knowing just how deeply you
treasure every memory you make together, rather to be expressing your
sentiments during their final days. The sadness of the situation over
shadows the joy of the expressions of love and laughter.
If it is hard for you to express your feelings than buy a card and
send it. send the sappiest card you can find! then use that to open
the door to say it OUT LOUD!!!! And when you share this with the
loved ones in your life, know that you did this in honor of Joanna
Fritz-Reed, breast cancer fighter.
i am going to type here for you the verse on one of the many cards i
purchased for Joanna last week. Oh and the reason i bought cards (as
I am more of an email and in person person, is because she had shown
me a card her mother-in-law sent her and it meant the world to her.
her eyes lit up, her smile broadened and i knew that i needed to put a
smile on her face like that daily. then, because i am human and weak,
I resorted to my "old me" ways of not doing snail mail, and i did not
mail the cards. Now I will be bombarding her with cards instead of
one daily. so FORCE yourself out of your comfort zone. emails and
ecards are nice but Joanna has not looked at email in months! and as
I talked to her every day and sometimes several times a day AND see
her in person once or more a week, i let the cards slide. shame on
me. such joy i could have brought to her all along. so MAIL cards I
don't care that postage just went up, it will make the specialness of
the cards seem all
the more.
okay before i go into a more lecture mode or cry and have to leave my
desk, here is the verse:
love to ALL of you. For you are my dear jane sisters and we will
ALWAYS have THAT in common,
denise/deBRAT in florida
"God watches over us
every minute of our lives,
and once in a while,
we are blessed
with an exceptional gift-
a true friend.
I believe that's
what God gave me
when He created
our friendship.
You are one
of the few people
I can really be myself around.
I can joke with you
and know that you'll
share my laughter.
I can cry with you
and trust that you
won't ever take advantage
of my vulnerability.
I'm not afraid
to be honest with you,
because we're secure
in our friendship.
There's no doubt about it,
God has brought us together.
But every day,
through caring and understanding,
we are the ones
who make sure
we stay that way."
~Tara Jaye Morrow
Another missive on Joanna
a portion below posted ot stashbusters on thursday, may 17
Hi alllast night was the first evening when I was not working until 8 pm,or going to a department dinner, or getting massage therapy, or ableto visit my dear friend Joanna in a very long time.I sewed up a pillowcase that Joanna got the fabric for when we sewedher quilt top a two saturdays ago. now I need to remember whichfriend she intended it for when she got the fabric. it is santassurfing and relaxing at the beach. and it is really cute! but mostimportantly, now done!I hemmed (by machine, Life is too short to have done it by hand) a 6tier skirt I started on nearly a month ago. and i put the elasticwaist band on it. thank you to the Mary that sent my elastic awhile back when I first mentioned using stash up by making someskirts. i am wearing it today in hopes that Joanna will want tosee me briefly tonight after work. As it is all yellow fabric withflowers all over them she will have a huge smile on her face whenshe sees it. I plan to make more of these from my stash. it used,hmmm how much fabric did it use? pardon for calculations.....it used 6 1/2 yards cuts and one 1/4 yard cut and several FQ's andanother 1/4 yard cut for the waistband. so that is , drumrollplease.......4 1/2 yards! woohooowhat else did I do. I thought I did something else in the sewingroom last night. Oh well, today dh leaves to spend a couple of dayswith his dad (83) as his mom travels to accept a roller skatingaward for them. She is (82) and if you roller skate(or did) youwill know of them as George and Gladys Werner who inventedthe "Werner Tango". The were pro's and actually coached a Canadianroller skating team years ago too. They are in some skating hall offame type place in Ohio (ithink it is Ohio) too. so... if you eversee their name on a plaque or in a newspaper know that I am theirdaughter-in-law. They are the ones that treat me like a princesswhen i go to visit. anyway, mom (mil) was too worried about dadbeing alone after all of his back and hip surgeries that she was notgoing to go. but with my dh going over for a couple of days to keephim company, she is now off to wherever it is to receive the award.dh will be doing lots of "yard" work for his mom while he is there.he had a list of gardeing gloves, 3 sizes of bush shears and pottingsoil.well i can't recall what else i did and as it is lunch time i'm offto go sit in my hot car and begin reading a new book (The StoneMonkey)have a grand and glorious day and HUG and TELL someone you love themTODAY! right now!denise/deBRAT in too hot florida and no rain in sight
My dear friend Joanna left her earthly cancer riddled body yesterday(Saturday, may 19, 2007) in the early afternoon to trade it in for a quilter’s-delight-stay-up-all-night body in heaven!
I can now relate to why people in the Bible tore their clothing upon the loss of loved ones. I do not know how to express the total devastation this has wrought upon my heart.
Soon after we met her cancer returned and Joanna never had the strength to continue with any of the wonderful crafts she had learned or desired to. The toll the chemo and cancer took on her braincells made it hard for her to grasp new tasks and her hands and feet began the descent into uselessness before the rest of her body followed over 16 months. To honor her love of quilting and crafting I am attempting to stay motivated and to not “hide” as I did when Winnie left us. This is proving to be very difficult. I hope to work on and finish my turning 50 self portrait Picasso style quilt wall hanging soon. First I need to find the diamonds I started for it. While Joanna did not understand the red hat people she did understand “my” desire to finally achieve my goal to be FIFTY!
Today, enjoy the visit of a chipmunk, smell some flowers, hug someone dear to you, cry a little and laugh a LOT!
In quilting friendship
denise/deBRAT
posted to stashbusters on Monday, may 14th the last time I saw my dear friend Joanna.
15 minutes braggie
hi alli am STILL behind on emails, i am currently on April 27th... sighBUT today i am putting the binding onto a quilt that i machinequilted this weekend for my dear friend Joanna that i have postedabout the past couple of weeks. She told me tonight how much sheappreciates that i am working on her quilt and that she knows I amso gungho about it because i did not get to finish Winnie's (OurCivil War Winnie for those who are janiacs) until after herpassing. Joanna had to say it to make me "see" it. She was right about my subconcious. She is so often right.so my braggie is that if I get a move on on this quilt binding ihave about 120" left to go and i'm a slow hand binder-whipper-downerLOL then I can get it to her tomorrow after work. she said bring ittonight but i want to wash it and get good pics of it before i turnit over. then again, i just might take it to her and then go to herhouse on friday night and wash it for her and take the pics whilethere! I ahve a photographer's background stand and I use that totake good pics of my quilts. well, I "should" use that but often iam in a hurry and don't get a "GOOD " pic just a fast pic on thefloor while standing on the arm of my sofa (oh so safe, eh?) whichis exactly what i took BEFORE i invested 80 bucks in the stand. LOLoh well, the quilt will not get done if i am typing. thank you forbeing there for me so I could braghugs,denise/deBRAT-jane
Hi alllast night was the first evening when I was not working until 8 pm,or going to a department dinner, or getting massage therapy, or ableto visit my dear friend Joanna in a very long time.I sewed up a pillowcase that Joanna got the fabric for when we sewedher quilt top a two saturdays ago. now I need to remember whichfriend she intended it for when she got the fabric. it is santassurfing and relaxing at the beach. and it is really cute! but mostimportantly, now done!I hemmed (by machine, Life is too short to have done it by hand) a 6tier skirt I started on nearly a month ago. and i put the elasticwaist band on it. thank you to the Mary that sent my elastic awhile back when I first mentioned using stash up by making someskirts. i am wearing it today in hopes that Joanna will want tosee me briefly tonight after work. As it is all yellow fabric withflowers all over them she will have a huge smile on her face whenshe sees it. I plan to make more of these from my stash. it used,hmmm how much fabric did it use? pardon for calculations.....it used 6 1/2 yards cuts and one 1/4 yard cut and several FQ's andanother 1/4 yard cut for the waistband. so that is , drumrollplease.......4 1/2 yards! woohooowhat else did I do. I thought I did something else in the sewingroom last night. Oh well, today dh leaves to spend a couple of dayswith his dad (83) as his mom travels to accept a roller skatingaward for them. She is (82) and if you roller skate(or did) youwill know of them as George and Gladys Werner who inventedthe "Werner Tango". The were pro's and actually coached a Canadianroller skating team years ago too. They are in some skating hall offame type place in Ohio (ithink it is Ohio) too. so... if you eversee their name on a plaque or in a newspaper know that I am theirdaughter-in-law. They are the ones that treat me like a princesswhen i go to visit. anyway, mom (mil) was too worried about dadbeing alone after all of his back and hip surgeries that she was notgoing to go. but with my dh going over for a couple of days to keephim company, she is now off to wherever it is to receive the award.dh will be doing lots of "yard" work for his mom while he is there.he had a list of gardeing gloves, 3 sizes of bush shears and pottingsoil.well i can't recall what else i did and as it is lunch time i'm offto go sit in my hot car and begin reading a new book (The StoneMonkey)have a grand and glorious day and HUG and TELL someone you love themTODAY! right now!denise/deBRAT in too hot florida and no rain in sight
My dear friend Joanna left her earthly cancer riddled body yesterday(Saturday, may 19, 2007) in the early afternoon to trade it in for a quilter’s-delight-stay-up-all-night body in heaven!
I can now relate to why people in the Bible tore their clothing upon the loss of loved ones. I do not know how to express the total devastation this has wrought upon my heart.
Soon after we met her cancer returned and Joanna never had the strength to continue with any of the wonderful crafts she had learned or desired to. The toll the chemo and cancer took on her braincells made it hard for her to grasp new tasks and her hands and feet began the descent into uselessness before the rest of her body followed over 16 months. To honor her love of quilting and crafting I am attempting to stay motivated and to not “hide” as I did when Winnie left us. This is proving to be very difficult. I hope to work on and finish my turning 50 self portrait Picasso style quilt wall hanging soon. First I need to find the diamonds I started for it. While Joanna did not understand the red hat people she did understand “my” desire to finally achieve my goal to be FIFTY!
Today, enjoy the visit of a chipmunk, smell some flowers, hug someone dear to you, cry a little and laugh a LOT!
In quilting friendship
denise/deBRAT
posted to stashbusters on Monday, may 14th the last time I saw my dear friend Joanna.
15 minutes braggie
hi alli am STILL behind on emails, i am currently on April 27th... sighBUT today i am putting the binding onto a quilt that i machinequilted this weekend for my dear friend Joanna that i have postedabout the past couple of weeks. She told me tonight how much sheappreciates that i am working on her quilt and that she knows I amso gungho about it because i did not get to finish Winnie's (OurCivil War Winnie for those who are janiacs) until after herpassing. Joanna had to say it to make me "see" it. She was right about my subconcious. She is so often right.so my braggie is that if I get a move on on this quilt binding ihave about 120" left to go and i'm a slow hand binder-whipper-downerLOL then I can get it to her tomorrow after work. she said bring ittonight but i want to wash it and get good pics of it before i turnit over. then again, i just might take it to her and then go to herhouse on friday night and wash it for her and take the pics whilethere! I ahve a photographer's background stand and I use that totake good pics of my quilts. well, I "should" use that but often iam in a hurry and don't get a "GOOD " pic just a fast pic on thefloor while standing on the arm of my sofa (oh so safe, eh?) whichis exactly what i took BEFORE i invested 80 bucks in the stand. LOLoh well, the quilt will not get done if i am typing. thank you forbeing there for me so I could braghugs,denise/deBRAT-jane
Life: Joys and Sorrows
today is May 20th, yesterday my dear friend, Joanna Fritz-Reed left her cancer riddled earthly body and went to enjoy her heavenly body. I am beyond saddened by this loss. I want to "keep" a couple of the postings I made recently on a yahoo group I'm on so I can remember some things better. My memory is not what it once was and I want to be able to take out these memories and enjoy them often.
so here are some clippings from my posts:
onMay 7th on Stashbusters I wrote:
okay i have no clue what day is the brag day anymore as I'm nowclose to 1200 msgs behind.but on saturday a group of us got together and made a quilt for mydear friend joanna who is stage 4 breast cancer. we sewed togethera quilt top that is 70 x 84 currently and I will add the flange and7 " all around border as soon as i can (this is the nearly two weeksi work 8-8 most nights) i did sew the backing on saturday night andsunday i went to my other friend's house where the mid-arm islocated. I played for 4 hours on that thing and STILL can't get alocked stitch. we think we have narrowed it down to how i amloading it on the rails. sigh..... i only wish it had beensomething easily fixed!the good news is: when I finally get the bobbin thread and the topthread to form a completed stitch i will have nice even quiltingstitches in the project! my holes were evenly spaced LOLi worked on scrap fabric so....the other braggies are:i used up over 2 yards in my girlfriends quilt as my stash had someof the fabric she needed to "re-create" a quilt made over a yearago. AND i used over 2 yards of fabric messing around with the darnstitches formed, or rather NOT formed on the longarm.anyway that is my bragging for today, may 7th now i'm off to run tothe ladies room so i 'll be already to answer the phones come 5 pm.
denise/deBRAT in too hot florida with NOT enough DAYs let alonehours in those days
May 14th~
hi alli am STILL behind on emails, i am currently on April 27th... sighBUT today i am putting the binding onto a quilt that i machinequilted this weekend for my dear friend Joanna that i have postedabout the past couple of weeks. She told me tonight how much sheappreciates that i am working on her quilt and that she knows I amso gungho about it because i did not get to finish Winnie's (OurCivil War Winnie for those who are janiacs) until after herpassing. Joanna had to say it to make me "see" it. She was rightabout my subconcious. She is so often right.so my braggie is that if I get a move on on this quilt binding ihave about 120" left to go and i'm a slow hand binder-whipper-downerLOL then I can get it to her tomorrow after work. she said bring ittonight but i want to wash it and get good pics of it before i turnit over. then again, i just might take it to her and then go to herhouse on friday night and wash it for her and take the pics whilethere! I ahve a photographer's background stand and I use that totake good pics of my quilts. well, I "should" use that but often iam in a hurry and don't get a "GOOD " pic just a fast pic on thefloor while standing on the arm of my sofa (oh so safe, eh?) whichis exactly what i took BEFORE i invested 80 bucks in the stand. LOLoh well, the quilt will not get done if i am typing. thank you forbeing there for me so I could braghugs,denise/deBRAT-jane
NOTE: i delivered it that evening at Joanna's insistence without pre-washing it for her. Taht was the last time I saw her :( She was so happy over the quilt being finished
so here are some clippings from my posts:
onMay 7th on Stashbusters I wrote:
okay i have no clue what day is the brag day anymore as I'm nowclose to 1200 msgs behind.but on saturday a group of us got together and made a quilt for mydear friend joanna who is stage 4 breast cancer. we sewed togethera quilt top that is 70 x 84 currently and I will add the flange and7 " all around border as soon as i can (this is the nearly two weeksi work 8-8 most nights) i did sew the backing on saturday night andsunday i went to my other friend's house where the mid-arm islocated. I played for 4 hours on that thing and STILL can't get alocked stitch. we think we have narrowed it down to how i amloading it on the rails. sigh..... i only wish it had beensomething easily fixed!the good news is: when I finally get the bobbin thread and the topthread to form a completed stitch i will have nice even quiltingstitches in the project! my holes were evenly spaced LOLi worked on scrap fabric so....the other braggies are:i used up over 2 yards in my girlfriends quilt as my stash had someof the fabric she needed to "re-create" a quilt made over a yearago. AND i used over 2 yards of fabric messing around with the darnstitches formed, or rather NOT formed on the longarm.anyway that is my bragging for today, may 7th now i'm off to run tothe ladies room so i 'll be already to answer the phones come 5 pm.
denise/deBRAT in too hot florida with NOT enough DAYs let alonehours in those days
May 14th~
hi alli am STILL behind on emails, i am currently on April 27th... sighBUT today i am putting the binding onto a quilt that i machinequilted this weekend for my dear friend Joanna that i have postedabout the past couple of weeks. She told me tonight how much sheappreciates that i am working on her quilt and that she knows I amso gungho about it because i did not get to finish Winnie's (OurCivil War Winnie for those who are janiacs) until after herpassing. Joanna had to say it to make me "see" it. She was rightabout my subconcious. She is so often right.so my braggie is that if I get a move on on this quilt binding ihave about 120" left to go and i'm a slow hand binder-whipper-downerLOL then I can get it to her tomorrow after work. she said bring ittonight but i want to wash it and get good pics of it before i turnit over. then again, i just might take it to her and then go to herhouse on friday night and wash it for her and take the pics whilethere! I ahve a photographer's background stand and I use that totake good pics of my quilts. well, I "should" use that but often iam in a hurry and don't get a "GOOD " pic just a fast pic on thefloor while standing on the arm of my sofa (oh so safe, eh?) whichis exactly what i took BEFORE i invested 80 bucks in the stand. LOLoh well, the quilt will not get done if i am typing. thank you forbeing there for me so I could braghugs,denise/deBRAT-jane
NOTE: i delivered it that evening at Joanna's insistence without pre-washing it for her. Taht was the last time I saw her :( She was so happy over the quilt being finished
May 17th
last night was the first evening when I was not working until 8 pm,or going to a department dinner, or getting massage therapy, or ableto visit my dear friend Joanna in a very long time.I sewed up a pillowcase that Joanna got the fabric for when we sewedher quilt top a two saturdays ago. now I need to remember whichfriend she intended it for when she got the fabric. it is santassurfing and relaxing at the beach. and it is really cute! but mostimportantly, now done!I hemmed (by machine, Life is too short to have done it by hand) a 6tier skirt I started on nearly a month ago. and i put the elasticwaist band on it. thank you to the Mary that sent my elastic awhile back when I first mentioned using stash up by making someskirts. i am wearing it today in hopes that Joanna will want tosee me briefly tonight after work. As it is all yellow fabric withflowers all over them she will have a huge smile on her face whenshe sees it. I plan to make more of these from my stash. it used,hmmm how much fabric did it use? pardon for calculations.....it used 6 1/2 yards cuts and one 1/4 yard cut and several FQ's andanother 1/4 yard cut for the waistband. so that is , drumrollplease.......4 1/2 yards! woohooowhat else did I do. I thought I did something else in the sewingroom last night. Oh well, today dh leaves to spend a couple of dayswith his dad (83) as his mom travels to accept a roller skatingaward for them. She is (82) and if you roller skate(or did) youwill know of them as George and Gladys Werner who inventedthe "Werner Tango". The were pro's and actually coached a Canadianroller skating team years ago too. They are in some skating hall offame type place in Ohio (ithink it is Ohio) too. so... if you eversee their name on a plaque or in a newspaper know that I am theirdaughter-in-law. They are the ones that treat me like a princesswhen i go to visit. anyway, mom (mil) was too worried about dadbeing alone after all of his back and hip surgeries that she was notgoing to go. but with my dh going over for a couple of days to keephim company, she is now off to wherever it is to receive the award.dh will be doing lots of "yard" work for his mom while he is there.he had a list of gardeing gloves, 3 sizes of bush shears and pottingsoil.well i can't recall what else i did and as it is lunch time i'm offto go sit in my hot car and begin reading a new book (The StoneMonkey)
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Four Patch Frenzy Surprise
Happy first weekend of Spring! and a gorgeous day here in Tampa Bay Florida it is too. Sky is clear and just the right amount of breeze!
Today I finally settled on my Four Patch Frenzy Surprise Fabrics (mystery quilt by Tara Kos for Quilts by Kos yahoo group quiltsbykos). Of course, it helps that we are 11 of the 15 clues into it already, in order to make a decision. I only waivered on one choice. I wanted to use a 1/4" black and white check (with a slight waving to the lines of the checks so they were not a cut and dry type of check) but the mystery uses 2 1/2 yards of the dark and I decided that was a LOT of checks. I thought of making it the light at only 1 1/2 yards but then decided I had so many clues I could use the SUNFLOWER fabrics I wanted to use in the proper sections to show them off in all of their regal glory!
so from the left:
Dark = assortment of deep blues all of the same tone of blue
Medium 1 = Sunflower fabrics in two different sizes of flower. large robust 5" across sunflower heads and smaller, 2" brown-eyed susans.
Medium 2 = assortment of deep greens all of the same tone of green
Light = assortment of light blue sky prints. there is one yard of the print with the birds in it. used properly (remember i have most all of the clues now LOL) the two prints with flowers on them will make a nice addition too.
So you can see this will be a sunshiny happy quilt
OH the bottom two fabrics are companion prints I felt went with the original thought process but don't sit well in any cutting. i'm think of some sort of border if i decide to go bigger than Tara's generous lap sized quilt the mystery is already set at. or fun pillow cases to match.
anyway, these are my choices and now i have another PIG to add to the mental list. just as soon as i get time to sew though... these babies are getting cut!
have a "SUN"flowery day
denise/deBRAT
Today I finally settled on my Four Patch Frenzy Surprise Fabrics (mystery quilt by Tara Kos for Quilts by Kos yahoo group quiltsbykos). Of course, it helps that we are 11 of the 15 clues into it already, in order to make a decision. I only waivered on one choice. I wanted to use a 1/4" black and white check (with a slight waving to the lines of the checks so they were not a cut and dry type of check) but the mystery uses 2 1/2 yards of the dark and I decided that was a LOT of checks. I thought of making it the light at only 1 1/2 yards but then decided I had so many clues I could use the SUNFLOWER fabrics I wanted to use in the proper sections to show them off in all of their regal glory!
so from the left:
Dark = assortment of deep blues all of the same tone of blue
Medium 1 = Sunflower fabrics in two different sizes of flower. large robust 5" across sunflower heads and smaller, 2" brown-eyed susans.
Medium 2 = assortment of deep greens all of the same tone of green
Light = assortment of light blue sky prints. there is one yard of the print with the birds in it. used properly (remember i have most all of the clues now LOL) the two prints with flowers on them will make a nice addition too.
So you can see this will be a sunshiny happy quilt
OH the bottom two fabrics are companion prints I felt went with the original thought process but don't sit well in any cutting. i'm think of some sort of border if i decide to go bigger than Tara's generous lap sized quilt the mystery is already set at. or fun pillow cases to match.
anyway, these are my choices and now i have another PIG to add to the mental list. just as soon as i get time to sew though... these babies are getting cut!
have a "SUN"flowery day
denise/deBRAT
Friday, March 23, 2007
Remembering Our Civil War Winnie Quilt MAILED!
mailed sunday march 18th to Tom Ledoux and family. more later right now just pics uploaded. denise/deBrat-jane
okay from the top, the label for the civil war winnie quilt. The last bit of binding was stitched down late on Sunday, February 25th, 2007. It is my first UFO finish of the year. It is hand quilted, though VERY little. As it has Thermore batting and that can be quilted up to 9" apart and I just wanted it DONE, I hand quilted down the middle of the sashings. The solid triangles in the border are quilted 1/4" away from the seam and the kites (corners for your non-dear jane people) are quilted according to them "talking" to me. I would have loved to put more quilting into but as the backing is ANOTHER quilt top and they don't line up, all those seams were killing my hands, fingers and toes! I actually snapped 5 needles while quilting this one due to the over lapping seam allowances. So more quilting was not a mentally or physically "able" choice in this case. I'm sure Winnie will forgive me and be happy that so many sent such lovely blocks to keep her family comforted and comfortable as they wrap up in this gift from many countries.
If you don't know what a dear jane quilt is you can see it at Brenda Papadakis' website but before I give you the link I will warn you, dear jane blocks are addicting.
www.dearjane.com there is a button on the left to janiacs with a bunch of links to different baby janes in various stages of completion all over the world! make sure you have your glasses on and your coffee mug filled!
Thursday, February 8, 2007
Gauge, Gauge, GAUGE!
Yuck! I hate gauge.
First off I have to think every stinkin' time I type it so I get the u and the a in the proper order. Always wrong the first time too.
Second, I find that my gauge from a year ago is so much different than it is today. Why you might ask (and please do ask!) Well, because after pondering this for the past 39 rounds of this "second" sock, I realise why it is off. Let's start at the beginning... a very good place to start. (hear the do re mi?)
I am on a no spending diet. It sucks but it has to be done. So in an effort to have something to do "any" thing to do, I have pulled out my old knitting projects that are already started. You know, those otherwise known as UFO's UnFinished Objects! So in the past few weeks I have finished a very plain shrug in very bargain-in-my-stash-sale yarn. Jo Sharp DK Wool in seashell
pattern here
http://www.caron.com/projects/shadows/sss_shrug.html
yarn here
http://www.josharp.com.au/Yarn/Yarn.html
I have finished one pair of socks which needed only the decreasing for the toe on the second sock... shameful I know.
I have finished a shell top in tagliatelli merino tape raphael colorway
pattern booklet but not the pattern showing here, and yarn shown
http://www.threadbearfiberarts.com/yarn/colinette/tagliatelli.php
I have finished another pair of socks, well no I have finished ONE sock with size two dpns and cast on for the "mate" sock twice in two different sized needles until I realised that I must have used size ONE dpns to make the sock. The bottom part of the first sock (after all the decreasing was done) does not matter that much that it is in 2's vs 1's but I have a tiny ridge where I first tried the size 3's LOL
Well anyway, on to the "mate" sock. The size 2's were too large when I cast on so I had to wait until I went home (I knit at work remember?) and then I had to dig and dig and dig until I found the pair of socks that DID have the size 1's dpns IN them (the original one had stitch holders when I picked it back up) and so now
EEEK ! the rest of my clever post disappeared!
First off I have to think every stinkin' time I type it so I get the u and the a in the proper order. Always wrong the first time too.
Second, I find that my gauge from a year ago is so much different than it is today. Why you might ask (and please do ask!) Well, because after pondering this for the past 39 rounds of this "second" sock, I realise why it is off. Let's start at the beginning... a very good place to start. (hear the do re mi?)
I am on a no spending diet. It sucks but it has to be done. So in an effort to have something to do "any" thing to do, I have pulled out my old knitting projects that are already started. You know, those otherwise known as UFO's UnFinished Objects! So in the past few weeks I have finished a very plain shrug in very bargain-in-my-stash-sale yarn. Jo Sharp DK Wool in seashell
pattern here
http://www.caron.com/projects/shadows/sss_shrug.html
yarn here
http://www.josharp.com.au/Yarn/Yarn.html
I have finished one pair of socks which needed only the decreasing for the toe on the second sock... shameful I know.
I have finished a shell top in tagliatelli merino tape raphael colorway
pattern booklet but not the pattern showing here, and yarn shown
http://www.threadbearfiberarts.com/yarn/colinette/tagliatelli.php
I have finished another pair of socks, well no I have finished ONE sock with size two dpns and cast on for the "mate" sock twice in two different sized needles until I realised that I must have used size ONE dpns to make the sock. The bottom part of the first sock (after all the decreasing was done) does not matter that much that it is in 2's vs 1's but I have a tiny ridge where I first tried the size 3's LOL
Well anyway, on to the "mate" sock. The size 2's were too large when I cast on so I had to wait until I went home (I knit at work remember?) and then I had to dig and dig and dig until I found the pair of socks that DID have the size 1's dpns IN them (the original one had stitch holders when I picked it back up) and so now
EEEK ! the rest of my clever post disappeared!
Friday, February 2, 2007
Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down
Some how I just can't get the picture of Sally and her brother sitting before the window staring at the rain out of my mind! It is gloomy here. It is rainy here. It is dismal here. It is cold looking here. It has looked this way since early December some time! What is WITH this weather? I swear most days it looks like it could snow!
I am not knitting today at work. Why not? because in my haste to get out the door and get to work while a parking slot near my building was still available, I forgot to grab the bag with the Tagliatelli project in it! So I do have the dayflower scarf project but no needle to thread the lace pattern place marker thread with through the row. As I ahve not yet switched over to Super dental floss, I need the needle to mark where I am. I do NOT relish the thought of starting all the way form the beginning if I mess it up without the lace pattern place marker in sight. I have three repeats done already! 16 rows to a repeat. whoooopeeeee
So to do something sort of knitty I am reading two blogs from gals in my knitting group. I even clicked on the link to one of their husband's blogs to read his even-shorter-than-her-blog blog. sigh.... here i sit... just staring out the window watching the grey grey grey grey go by.
Oh I did do something technical today. I set up my phone to be able to send and receive the occassional text message. now DON"T go sending my text messages as they cost me ten cents a piece! but today more tornados rippe through Florida and 14 people died and I was all concerned about my son away at college (Daytona Beach Embryy-Riddle Campus) as his campus was the one hit Christmas Day last year. So I called the cell phone company... 611... and then chose a million different numbers to finally get to a "live" person to see if I could indeed set up my phone to be able to send and receive txt msgs with a per msg charge. yupper roonies! so she set that up for me. Then embarrassingly enough, i had to ask her "HOW" do I do that? Send a text message that is. So she looked up my phone and gave me step-by-step instructions to send a message and Bless her heart, how to READ one too.
THEN I sent one to my son (thinking he was in class at that hour) explaining WHY I was txting him (tornados near him) after an agonising 5 minutes I have it ready to send and presto in less than 10 seconds I have a lengthy reply from him! geeesh I can type for this blog MUCH faster than I can txt msg. And I used abbreviations too. So, as you can tell from the fact that he replied, he is okay and was sleeping!
He has an interview tonight for Resident Advisor and I hope he does well at it. It would be a nice savings next year on the "room" part of college. And the privacy factor (he would not share the room, but would the bathroom) would be a nice plus for an only child. Don't you think?
well off to stare out the window some more
have a grand and glorious day
denise/deBRAT text messager novice!
I am not knitting today at work. Why not? because in my haste to get out the door and get to work while a parking slot near my building was still available, I forgot to grab the bag with the Tagliatelli project in it! So I do have the dayflower scarf project but no needle to thread the lace pattern place marker thread with through the row. As I ahve not yet switched over to Super dental floss, I need the needle to mark where I am. I do NOT relish the thought of starting all the way form the beginning if I mess it up without the lace pattern place marker in sight. I have three repeats done already! 16 rows to a repeat. whoooopeeeee
So to do something sort of knitty I am reading two blogs from gals in my knitting group. I even clicked on the link to one of their husband's blogs to read his even-shorter-than-her-blog blog. sigh.... here i sit... just staring out the window watching the grey grey grey grey go by.
Oh I did do something technical today. I set up my phone to be able to send and receive the occassional text message. now DON"T go sending my text messages as they cost me ten cents a piece! but today more tornados rippe through Florida and 14 people died and I was all concerned about my son away at college (Daytona Beach Embryy-Riddle Campus) as his campus was the one hit Christmas Day last year. So I called the cell phone company... 611... and then chose a million different numbers to finally get to a "live" person to see if I could indeed set up my phone to be able to send and receive txt msgs with a per msg charge. yupper roonies! so she set that up for me. Then embarrassingly enough, i had to ask her "HOW" do I do that? Send a text message that is. So she looked up my phone and gave me step-by-step instructions to send a message and Bless her heart, how to READ one too.
THEN I sent one to my son (thinking he was in class at that hour) explaining WHY I was txting him (tornados near him) after an agonising 5 minutes I have it ready to send and presto in less than 10 seconds I have a lengthy reply from him! geeesh I can type for this blog MUCH faster than I can txt msg. And I used abbreviations too. So, as you can tell from the fact that he replied, he is okay and was sleeping!
He has an interview tonight for Resident Advisor and I hope he does well at it. It would be a nice savings next year on the "room" part of college. And the privacy factor (he would not share the room, but would the bathroom) would be a nice plus for an only child. Don't you think?
well off to stare out the window some more
have a grand and glorious day
denise/deBRAT text messager novice!
Friday, January 26, 2007
So What's in a Number anyway?
Well I'm perplexed. I'm rather good at math. Well basic math anyway. You would think that being good at basic math would mean that you could add up how many 5" sashings and how many 8" triangle sides and how many 16" kite pieces you have in a quilt and be able to come up with how many total minimal quilting inches that mean. You would think. But in actuality it has proven to be so much more complicate than simple math.
That lovely spreadsheet i have been keeping where the formula is built in to subtract the day's total quilting accomplishments from the total needed and render a "left to go" figure is... well it is not cooperating. See as of yesterday I came to have a NEGATIVE number in the "left to go" cell of the spreadsheet and as I sure as heck have not done more than the minimal quilting I am in a state of confusion as to how my math could be off some 300 plus inches without even factoring the four 16" of kites yet to do today.
the chart as it has progressed most recently
1/22/2007 170 707 left to go
1/23/2007 319 388 left to go
1/24/2007 337 51 left to go
1/25/2007 416 -365 left to go
oh well today i have already done 16" to finish of the last triangle's two sides and I will go merrily on my way to the kites so that I can get the binding on it this weekend.
And yes, I have flirted with the idea of doing more quilting on it, but my hands are holding up and I hate to start more quilting and have them falter and not get it finished for mailing. I used Thermore batting so it can be quilted up to 9" apart and this has mainly spaces that are 5" apart in it. I will pre-wash it with a dye magnet to make sure nothing will run and to get all of my hand oils(not lotion jsut what we naturally produce) out of it before I send it off to be loved!
I am in the works of trying to contact Tom Ledoux to confirm he still has the same mailing address and then this quilt full of memories and tears and prayers and hugs will be off to keep the grandchildren warm and comforted when they visit grandpa.
happy friday all!
denise/deBRat-jane already thinking of what finishing this will mean for the "next" project in line!
That lovely spreadsheet i have been keeping where the formula is built in to subtract the day's total quilting accomplishments from the total needed and render a "left to go" figure is... well it is not cooperating. See as of yesterday I came to have a NEGATIVE number in the "left to go" cell of the spreadsheet and as I sure as heck have not done more than the minimal quilting I am in a state of confusion as to how my math could be off some 300 plus inches without even factoring the four 16" of kites yet to do today.
the chart as it has progressed most recently
1/22/2007 170 707 left to go
1/23/2007 319 388 left to go
1/24/2007 337 51 left to go
1/25/2007 416 -365 left to go
oh well today i have already done 16" to finish of the last triangle's two sides and I will go merrily on my way to the kites so that I can get the binding on it this weekend.
And yes, I have flirted with the idea of doing more quilting on it, but my hands are holding up and I hate to start more quilting and have them falter and not get it finished for mailing. I used Thermore batting so it can be quilted up to 9" apart and this has mainly spaces that are 5" apart in it. I will pre-wash it with a dye magnet to make sure nothing will run and to get all of my hand oils(not lotion jsut what we naturally produce) out of it before I send it off to be loved!
I am in the works of trying to contact Tom Ledoux to confirm he still has the same mailing address and then this quilt full of memories and tears and prayers and hugs will be off to keep the grandchildren warm and comforted when they visit grandpa.
happy friday all!
denise/deBRat-jane already thinking of what finishing this will mean for the "next" project in line!
Thursday, January 25, 2007
It is Thursday morning
It is thursday morning (well for 5 more minutes) yippeee! I LOVE thursdays. Thursdays are generally the day my massage therapist comes to the house. And yes, she will be there tonight. thursdays are the day after "hump" day in the work week and so therefore the weekend is finally looking like it might actually arrive. Thursday is the last day of the week that there are a bunch of students in the computer lab I work in so it is my last busy/hectic/noisy day at work. Fridays only the die-hard students come in to the lab so it is quiet and I can get more accomplished (not in work but on whatever project I am working on at the time)
Today I worked all the ends in on my shrug... knitted from seashell Jo Sharp DK wool from this pattern
http://www.caron.com/projects/shadows/sss_shrug.html
mine is very plain, and the knitting appeared to go on and on forEVER..... but it is mine. Next time I think I'll use a variegated yarn or self striping sock yarn or something.... pictures after I remember to take one and then find my cord to download them to the pc from the camera. Need to find the tiny little adapter for my phone's camera chip too because there are pics on there from October.... only 2006 LOL
so anyway, last night after seeing how far I had left, or rather how little I had left I quilted at home on the Winnie's Memory quilt. I now have only like 107" to go. seems like too little but hey, its only numbers right? so I'm going to post this sucker, where I appear to only be talking to myself (whats new? dh catches me walking around the house talking to myself all the time. he thinks its weird. i think it is productive. exercise those thought demons!) anyway, off i go to hopefully finish the triangles today. then I have just the kites. if the massage therapist was not coming tonight i'd get the binding on and whip it down by hand at work tomorrow. guess it will be this weekend instead.
have a grand and glorious day all, in the scheme of things it is but one day so enjoy all the GOOD things and blow off the bad,
denise/deBRAT - still the philosopher extradinaire
Today I worked all the ends in on my shrug... knitted from seashell Jo Sharp DK wool from this pattern
http://www.caron.com/projects/shadows/sss_shrug.html
mine is very plain, and the knitting appeared to go on and on forEVER..... but it is mine. Next time I think I'll use a variegated yarn or self striping sock yarn or something.... pictures after I remember to take one and then find my cord to download them to the pc from the camera. Need to find the tiny little adapter for my phone's camera chip too because there are pics on there from October.... only 2006 LOL
so anyway, last night after seeing how far I had left, or rather how little I had left I quilted at home on the Winnie's Memory quilt. I now have only like 107" to go. seems like too little but hey, its only numbers right? so I'm going to post this sucker, where I appear to only be talking to myself (whats new? dh catches me walking around the house talking to myself all the time. he thinks its weird. i think it is productive. exercise those thought demons!) anyway, off i go to hopefully finish the triangles today. then I have just the kites. if the massage therapist was not coming tonight i'd get the binding on and whip it down by hand at work tomorrow. guess it will be this weekend instead.
have a grand and glorious day all, in the scheme of things it is but one day so enjoy all the GOOD things and blow off the bad,
denise/deBRAT - still the philosopher extradinaire
Wednesday, January 24, 2007
A visual of the quilting progress
Wow! You never know how far along you are until you put it on paper and in COLOR too!
i quilted through the center of the 1/2" finished sashings (or in case of the long outer border, 1/4" wide sashing) and in the PLAIN pointing inwards triangles.
Sashing that is cheddar colored has been quilted. (Except for the bottom right narrow inner border that last 5" piece. EQ5 does not allow for me to differenciate (show the difference LOL) for that small part)
Triangles that are colored Cheddar have both sides quilted. (I quilted 1/4" away for the seam)
Triangles that are pink colored have only one side quilted of the two. (Again, EQ5 does not let me show you that)
So, in the overall of things, it is progressing very nicely. Too bad noone is reading this, eh?
here is the snapshot from EQ5. ~hugs denise/deBrat-jane a visual madness type person
Now I wish I had quilted today, I could have been all done that inner part. well off to pick it up and see how much I can get done in less than 2 hours left at work. It is only135" left of the sashing. well 140" with that odd place at the bottom. more hugs...... denise/deBrat-jane inspired once more!
i quilted through the center of the 1/2" finished sashings (or in case of the long outer border, 1/4" wide sashing) and in the PLAIN pointing inwards triangles.
Sashing that is cheddar colored has been quilted. (Except for the bottom right narrow inner border that last 5" piece. EQ5 does not allow for me to differenciate (show the difference LOL) for that small part)
Triangles that are colored Cheddar have both sides quilted. (I quilted 1/4" away for the seam)
Triangles that are pink colored have only one side quilted of the two. (Again, EQ5 does not let me show you that)
So, in the overall of things, it is progressing very nicely. Too bad noone is reading this, eh?
here is the snapshot from EQ5. ~hugs denise/deBrat-jane a visual madness type person
Now I wish I had quilted today, I could have been all done that inner part. well off to pick it up and see how much I can get done in less than 2 hours left at work. It is only135" left of the sashing. well 140" with that odd place at the bottom. more hugs...... denise/deBrat-jane inspired once more!
procrastinating.... again.
Like everything else in life, too much of a good thing can be well.... too much. today i have not even unfolded the quilt and I'm wondering why i bothered to even carry the bag with it in it. sigh. I did get a total of 319" done yesterday which leaves me with 388" left to go! I'm thinking this is not quite right as I have most of the triangles and all of the four kites to put quilting in still and at least 3 horizontal rows of sashings to do. hmmmmm. mayhap it is time to do a clip of what i have finished?
maybe more in a wee bit
denise/deBrat Procrastinator extradinaire
maybe more in a wee bit
denise/deBrat Procrastinator extradinaire
Tuesday, January 23, 2007
More hand quilting on "Remembering Civil War Winnie"
Well no pics yet, but how about some numbers? Remember I had spray basted the quilt on Monday, January 15, 2007 (Martin Luther King Day) and began hand quilting it at work the very next day.... here is a little chart (hope it copy and pastes into this) to see my progression so far. Looking good. Again, hand quilting is NOT my best form of quilting, but it is the fastest form right now as I have time available at work but not at home to progress on this project.
1377 total bare minimum
1/16/2007 75 1302 left to go
1/17/2007 80 1222 left to go
1/18/2007 215 1007 left to go
1/19/2007 0 1007 left to go
1/20/2007 130 877 left to go
1/21/2007 0 877 left to go
1/22/2007 170 707 left to go
1/23/2007 150 557 left to go (but hoping to get much more done on it today as it is only 11:30 AM
well that is where I stand right now on the quilt. I better get to trying to find the binding. Surely when I cut all these sashings and setting triangles I prepared my binding for this quilt?
lots of quilting hugs
denise/deBrat-jane
1377 total bare minimum
1/16/2007 75 1302 left to go
1/17/2007 80 1222 left to go
1/18/2007 215 1007 left to go
1/19/2007 0 1007 left to go
1/20/2007 130 877 left to go
1/21/2007 0 877 left to go
1/22/2007 170 707 left to go
1/23/2007 150 557 left to go (but hoping to get much more done on it today as it is only 11:30 AM
well that is where I stand right now on the quilt. I better get to trying to find the binding. Surely when I cut all these sashings and setting triangles I prepared my binding for this quilt?
lots of quilting hugs
denise/deBrat-jane
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
January 16th 2007
I imagine everyone has given up on my ever posting to this blog again, but should they ever return they will see that I have indeed surfaced to this blog once more.
Now be sure you are sitting down when you read this next bit of the posting, I have finally basted Winnie's quilt and am hand quilting in the sashings as of 1:20 PM today. Yesterday, being Martin Luther King day and celebrated at all Florida Government offices, USF was closed. My dh had to work so I did the project that requires him to NOT be here! I spray basted the quilt on the livingroom rug. It went together quite quickly and I think now that it has been so many months since Winnie left us to be with Our Lord I think.... i can handle working on this quilt for her family.
I don't know if I wrote anything about my dear friend Joanna here but she and Winnie told me on the same day just hours apart that their breast cancer was back and had masticized. Winnie passed on May 9, 2006. Joanna has been fighting an uphill battle all these months, most of them without the benefit of chemo treatments due to many other things. Pain/radiation/blood counts/illness. With my dear friend who lives only 15 minutes from where I work so ill and with the same ailments as Winnie suffered earlier in the year, it has been too hard to work on Winnie's quilt.
I think it is a big step in "my" healing that I am able to work on it now.
Another thing that was helpful to me is even though it has been pinned to the design wall in my hallway all this time, it was pinned there with the backing blocks sections on top. So when I spray basted it and am now quilting it, it is NOT the part I have been looking at all this time but the fresher "front" of her quilt. It is amazing to me that state of mentality is so important in my quilting.
I have many projects I NEED to get done this year. and many more that I would LIKE to get done this year. Last year, shortly after Winnie passed, I took up soapmaking. I think I "hid" there until about November. Then regular life and holiday time things took over and now I can start fresh after the turn of the new year.
So dear friends, if you are reading this, I am still able to be reached at the email address you had for me all this time.... debrat @ you know where . rr. com..... let me know that you are there cheering me on to get this project off of my quilting lap and on to the laps of her grandchildren when they visit their grandfather.
Have a blessing filled 2007
Denise/deBrat feeling as if the whole world is no longer all on her shoulders.
Now be sure you are sitting down when you read this next bit of the posting, I have finally basted Winnie's quilt and am hand quilting in the sashings as of 1:20 PM today. Yesterday, being Martin Luther King day and celebrated at all Florida Government offices, USF was closed. My dh had to work so I did the project that requires him to NOT be here! I spray basted the quilt on the livingroom rug. It went together quite quickly and I think now that it has been so many months since Winnie left us to be with Our Lord I think.... i can handle working on this quilt for her family.
I don't know if I wrote anything about my dear friend Joanna here but she and Winnie told me on the same day just hours apart that their breast cancer was back and had masticized. Winnie passed on May 9, 2006. Joanna has been fighting an uphill battle all these months, most of them without the benefit of chemo treatments due to many other things. Pain/radiation/blood counts/illness. With my dear friend who lives only 15 minutes from where I work so ill and with the same ailments as Winnie suffered earlier in the year, it has been too hard to work on Winnie's quilt.
I think it is a big step in "my" healing that I am able to work on it now.
Another thing that was helpful to me is even though it has been pinned to the design wall in my hallway all this time, it was pinned there with the backing blocks sections on top. So when I spray basted it and am now quilting it, it is NOT the part I have been looking at all this time but the fresher "front" of her quilt. It is amazing to me that state of mentality is so important in my quilting.
I have many projects I NEED to get done this year. and many more that I would LIKE to get done this year. Last year, shortly after Winnie passed, I took up soapmaking. I think I "hid" there until about November. Then regular life and holiday time things took over and now I can start fresh after the turn of the new year.
So dear friends, if you are reading this, I am still able to be reached at the email address you had for me all this time.... debrat @ you know where . rr. com..... let me know that you are there cheering me on to get this project off of my quilting lap and on to the laps of her grandchildren when they visit their grandfather.
Have a blessing filled 2007
Denise/deBrat feeling as if the whole world is no longer all on her shoulders.
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