wishy washy weather . . .

Can you believe the above?  That was from Wednesday. The official high that day was 77 degrees.  The official low was 27 degrees. Today is March 6th and there is ice all over the place. Tomorrow our high is 55 degrees. Aye yi yi! How is it that this is the deep south??

Speaking of early in March . . . Tuesday was Bibliophile Files day and I missed it. I am doing some reading this month, along with my morning quiet time reading that's a yearly goal.  This month I'm reading a Bethany Publishers book for review.  Beverly Lewis's The Love Letters, to be specific.  I've actually started that one and so far it's quite intriguing!

I've also checked out a library book to read. It's the second novel of the Mrs. Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children series, Hollow City by Ransom Riggs.  The first book of the series was fascinating -- kind of fantasy/intrigue/historical fiction -- so I'm looking forward to reading the second.

And the third book is How Sweet the Sound, by Amy K. Sorrells.  I actually downloaded this as a freebie on Amazon for my kindle. It's free through today, I believe, if you want to check it out on Amazon.

UPDATED:  I just saw on my favorite tea blog, Tea with Friends that Amazon is offering another Kindle freebie:  Jesus, Me, & Afternoon Tea, by D. L. Stalnaker. I don't know how long it will be available, but *I'm* sure going to add it to my reading list for the month!! Doesn't the cover just appeal to you all that are tea drinkers?? I can't wait to download it and 'flip' through the pages. I think I've got a little bit of Earl Grey and lavender tea that would be the perfect brew accompaniment to an afternoon read.  :)

The positive side of ice storms in March is an unexpected day off . . . which meant I got in some more nook time!  I printed off the photo for the back of my Kentucky Crossroads block and got it bordered . . .

And then sandwiched the front and back together and choose a quilting design (at least for the center of the block). 

You probably can't quite make out the markings on the piece, so I'll make it easier . . .

I liked this design because the points traveled nicely up the length of the 'crossroads'.  I'll do something scrolly in the red portions, and then probably outline stitch all the way around in the light border, just off the red.  The binding will be the darker blue.  Should be a pretty little finish to put in the mini quilt stand!

So that's it for me. Tomorrow we're headed out to spend the evening with the collective families, celebrating the first of our family's March birthdays . . . my Jocey! Happy Friday, Happy weekend!!

:)

wow . . .

aka, Works in progress On Wednesday!

I've gotten a bit more finished on Mr. Owlie . . . specifically, the red flowers at the top left.  LOL!

I think I may have spent more time trying to make sense of my flosses than actually stitching.  C'est la guerre.

I got a whim and headed out to the Nook yesterday morning to work on my book block. I was so pleased to find I had *all* the fabrics I'd originally used -- and in fact, it looked like that block was the only use for the red print and the shirting. So here it is now . . .

To back it, I thought it would be fun to give a nod to the whole reason I'm doing this to begin with -- it's in a book -- LOL! So I snapped a shot of the the block in the book, with the book's and author's name, along with Barbara's personal inscription to me.  I'll print this on white fabric and block it in the blue floral -- here's my mockup in EQ:

How fun is that??!  I'm really so excited about this project -- is that silly? All that's left to do now is to decide how to quilt it . . .

 

 

Those are my original top four templates. Still playing it out.  Hmmmmm.  Todd likes the fleur de lis (top right).  I'm not sold on any particular design. Regardless of which of these I'll use, I'll still have to find something to do in the setting and borders.

So that's my works in progress for this week! Linking up to Esther Aliu's blog today . . . head on over and take a peek!

:)

old block revisited . . .

Waaaay back when, I got a wild hair and for about three weeks, played around with Barbara Brackman's Civil War Sampler quilt blocks, as they were posted on her blog.  I happened to catch weeks #33, #35, and #36 .... and then I forget what happened--maybe a foot surgery?--and that was it for me on the Civil War blocks.  But I'd faithfully uploaded the three I'd done to the Flickr photo stream for the group, and lo and behold, several months later, I had an e-mail from Ms. Brackman herself, asking if she could use the photo of one of my blocks in her book, Civil War Sampler.  Uh, yes!  That was a no-brainer for me! (I blogged about it here and here.)

So, back to the present, I stumbled across that block (Block #36 - Kentucky Crossroads) in the transition from RV to Nook. It was kinda sad, just seeing it in a box of unfinished stuff.  It really bothered me.  So after some thought, I've decided I really need to do something with that published block! I'll never do the entire quilt (I'm just being honest), but that one block deserves preserving. I mean, it's sorta famous, right?? LOL!  So I thought I'd set it, do some really fancy, pretty quilting on it, notate it's page in the book (of course!) and make it a candidate for my mini quilt stand! Here are some setting ideas I've come up with so far . . .

So on point or straight?  

Use the original fabrics to set it, or use different solids to make the original block stand out?

This is just another example of how EQ is so cool!  I was able to take a photo of my block and break it up into 2" squares of each print . . . and import it into my fabric library. So the first image up there is an actual photo of my block.  The rest are EQ generated images.  Pretty nifty, eh?!?  

Anyway, that's the extent of my design wall this week.  What are *you* working on??  Linking up with Patchwork Times today!

:)

i burnt the bacon . . .

. . . but the biscuits were okay.

Actually it was the toast.  Sounds like a bad country song, right??  It's my life. Which leads me to believe that most of those unbelievable country song lyrics may have a hefty thread of truth to them!  But I digress . . . I did burn the bacon.

Todd came in off shift this morning bearing mail.  One big box, one small box and one large, padded manila envelope.  The name on the return address on the manila envelope made me squeal and drop *everything*.  

Barbara Brackman.

Can you guess what was inside?????

Whoooohoooo!!

And look at the inside cover . . . 

"Daneesey, Thanks for your help!  Barbara Brackman December 2012"

I know, right?  How in the world did I help Barbara Brackman!!  See page seventy-eight:

Bottom of the page.

That's me.

I'm in a quilt book.

**squeeeeeeeeeeeal**!!!  Here's where I first blogged about the Kentucky Crossroads block.

And that's why I burnt the bacon.  It's totally understandable.  I'm still glowing.

:)