well, would you look at that . . .

Hello.  My name is Inigo Montoya . . . 

Wait, that's not right.  This isn't Princess Bride.  It's me . . .daNeesey, from Count it all JOY!  (Which has been a real challenge over the last three years. But I digress.)

So lemme try this again.  

Hey, this is Denise.  I'm a crafter of an eclectic mix of stitchery crafts (think wool applique, quilting, needlework, cross stitch, crochet, etc.), a Neesey (my grandma name is Neesey), a cat mom (that's new!), an apartment dweller (also new), a violinist wannabe (practice, practice, practice), a widow (which is still so sad and weird to say), a tea drinker (who now hows an entire cabinet dedicated to tea—seriously), a lover of books and the written word (who now has three sets of bookshelves), a writer who refuses to give up the dedicated two spaces that are meant to follow a period (:P to APA), a poet (betcha didn't know that one) and a soon-to-be-regular blogger (again) (hopefully).  There's so much more, but that's a good start and gives me loads of opportunities to fill in the blanks.  Just think of it as blog post opportunities.  Y'all, I'm trying.  

So instead of going back to July of last year–my last post–and catching up, I'll just start where I am.  I feel like that's a solid plan.

Me with the local family, just last night.  Aren't they beautiful?! 

I love my new apartment.  It's four minutes to my local grands, has a pool, and an elevator, which is important if you're on the top floor.  It also has a Nook to which I do not have to go outside to get to (which is really only important if it's dark and bears or wolves might get you, or if it's raining/stormy).  The new Nook also has a new sewing machine! The space is messy right now (always) and you can see I share this space with the kittens. The walls in here are mostly bare, but I've got a design wall to install on the back wall, behind my sewing station, so that will add color, as well as two bulletin boards and a painting.  I'd also like to add a strip to hang smaller wall hangings on.

This is my new Janome—Horizon Memory Craft 9480 QCP.  It stitches like a dream!

I've got a lovely balcony . . . it's west facing, so I enjoy marvelous sunsets and a view of the pool and the lake, and the constant sound of waterfalls (fountains), which I adore.  I really enjoy sitting out there early in the day and in the evening.

All our deck furniture from the Camp came over and fit nicely.  I added a huge potted plant and the fun rug.  It's comfy!

It's a sweet little complex with lots of amenities.  I like I can still see stars and trees and horizon.  

I'm still working out who I am, now that my better half and best friend is gone.  It's a process.  Being close to family and having the girls (big girl kittens, as Ezra refers to them) helps.  Pictured below, Starry is the silver point and Celeste is the all-white.  They are full Maine Coons, and they're just babies (9 months old).  Maine Coons mature more slowly than other breeds and can take 2-5 years to reach their full growth!  Aye yi yi!  They need a full bloggy intro post of their own, so I'll just share their photos here and call that finit, for now.

Starry is the oldest by two weeks.  Quiet and a bit aloof, but has a purr like a race car! She's also incredibly smart and curious: a dangerous combination in a cat!

Half sister, Celeste, is a snuggler and a bit like a puppy.  She plays fetch until I wear her out, and she follows me around the house.  She's deaf, so she definitely needed a cat companion!

I've spent the last year collecting fabrics <ahem>, so I'm working hard to spend time every week in the new Nook stitching.  At my annual SASsy Retreat in January (three of us in a cabin in Seviereville, TN), I set a goal to complete at least one three-yard quilt (or better) a month.  Have you heard of those?  Fabulous! Quilts for everyone!  That's the target, anyway. I missed the mark in March, but it's a work in progress.  April's is planned and should work out quickly!  Here are one finish, three in progress, and one ready-to-get-started project . . . 

My February and first 3-yard quilt top finish.  Love the colors/prints in this!

My second 3-yard quilt.  I just need to stitch the rows together an attach the simple borders.

I upped my cross stitch game over the last year.  This is Coming to American:  The Women of the Mayflower, by With Thy Needle & Thread.  I've never stitched up a project of this scope, but I felt it was a must, seeing as how I'm related to five of the women listed!  :)

Spangled, by Granny's Legacy Patterns.  I've never done beaded wool work, and you know what a sucker I am for anything patriotic, so there we are.

This pretty grouping will be used in my next 3-yard quilt.  Yes, there are actually four yards.  I've never been able to do much of anything strictly by the book!

I'm also slowly starting to get back into social things, like guild, Stitcher's, etc., and have enjoyed seeing friends. Bit by bit.  I miss life at the Camp, but it was just too hard:  physically, mentally and emotionally.  I did bring a piece of it with me, though . . .

These four canvases are photos of four of my very favorite places in the Camp, in each season.  It makes my heart happy to see them on my wall.  To everything there is a season. ♥

I've missed my bloggy friends, too!  Here's to new starts or restarts or whatever this is. See you again soon!

:)

back-up beeps . . .

I realized that before I could share more about my quilt shop adventures, I had to have pics of my purchases, which I haven't taken yet.  Mainly because I've been going pretty much non-stop since I got home from California!  Then I also realized I wanted to share my quilt-related Christmas haul, and that I could also share some quilt finishes (of which I had FOUR in December)! So let me start with those . . .

All three girls were super happy with their Christmas quilts! They're so sweet! ♥ 

Leia even got in there and tested its catability. It passed with purrrrfect marks!

I did all the labels the same . . . the names were changed accordingly. *wink*

This is Olivia's finish . . . 

I can't believe I didn't think to get a picture of her with it. Doh! She was thrilled with it, though!

I really like being able to print a label, press it on, and blanket stitch around it.  

Here's my Christmas morning haul . . .

Didn't my family do good??!  I was thoroughly tickled!  There was one more book, which came in late, from Todd. 

It was Art to Heart's I Believe.  I love those Art to Heart books! 

He also got me the updated All-in-One Quilter's Reference Tool on Kindle.  This is a fabulous tool for quilters and I'd consider it a "must have"!

Then there was one more quilty-gift.  A class!  My mom has talked about taking a beginning quilting class for a year or two and I told her I'd take it with her.  Todd gifted me with that!  The class is taught by Barbara Black, who is a sweet friend, and I know that I'll pick up some good tips and learn a lot!  This is the quilt we'll be making . . .

Our first class was on Tuesday, and she walked through supplies and fabrics.  And then we shopped.  Tough class, eh?!  Baahaaahaaaa!  So we were supposed to pick a focal fabric, a fabric for the sashing, a background fabric, and fabric for the inner border.  Then were were to pick three groupings of colors with a light, medium and dark value.  Then we needed a "pop" color.  So here's what I ended up with:

This is my first four.

Here's grouping one:

Here's grouping two:

Here's  grouping three:

Here's my groups with the 'pop' color ... it's pretty easy to spot, eh?!

And here they are all together!

I think this will be a fun quilt.  It finishes at 49" square, if you leave the borders as is.  Not sure what I'll do yet.

I also saw this darling folksy animal print and decided I *needed* to have some of it, too. 

It reminds me of a Hungarian Camp MACOBA scene, with all of our little animal friends!

So there it is.  Not sure what this weekend holds.  Our guild (the membership committee) is hosting a New Member Tea that I'm helping with, but we also have severe storms/tornadoes/flooding in the forecast for Friday evening and Saturday.  It's been such a crazy winter here in North Alabama!  I do hope to get in some stitching time, though!

Have a terrific weekend!

:)

one, two, now three . . .

So, family is coming in from all over the USA over the next several days . . . Virginia, Texas, California, Georgia . . . even Alaska! So you can imagine where my focus will be over the next week, right?!

The next installment of A Quilter's Journey was published in the May issue of our guild's "Fanfare".  It's the prelude to our challenge show, so it's kind of funny that it follows my last post revealing my challenge piece!  Enjoy -- and I'll see you in a week or so!

Challenges. Quilt challenges, that is. Regardless of how long you’ve been quilting, this can be an alarming word! I remember my very first HQH challenge very clearly; I was still a relatively new quilter, I had never been to a quilt show (local, national or otherwise), and I had absolutely NO CLUE as to what was expected of me in a challenge (beyond what the rules listed – I got that). But as a newbie quilter, thinking outside the box, in both a vague (create what you want) and specific (but follow the rules) kind of way, was quite alarming. 

The theme that year (2008) was Quilt the Vote. Essentially the rules were that we had to make our entry voting or patriotic themed – it was an election year – and we had to use a specially purchased piece of them fabric. 

I was stumped. Seriously, I had no idea how to proceed from there. What I *should* have done was to go back to the guild’s scrapbooks, kept in the library (which is located in back room of Patches & Stitches), and thumbed through pictures of past challenges and entries, so I could have had a better idea as to how to proceed. 

But I didn’t. 

Instead, I went over to Quilter’s Cache and looked for blocks that I could possibly use for a voting theme. I came up with two. A paper-pieced star and the Alabama block. I put them together, using the specified fabric, and fashioned it in a sort of flag shape with quilted stars in silver thread and with a silver metallic binding. I have no idea what I called it and to be honest, I didn’t really like it (I’ve always wished I’d been able to “think outside the blocks”). But . . . I. Was. Determined. To. Have. An. Entry. 

I sat out the next challenge. In retrospect, I wish I hadn’t – the theme was really a really cute one: In the Cards. But I was still recovering from both the first challenge and entering a quilt in my first guild show. The next time I attempted a challenge it was the guild’s Still Crazy After All These Years challenge. That was 2012 and I was a little more seasoned as a quilter and had an easier time thinking “outside the box.” I was having fun trying different techniques, and at the time I was playing around with faux applique, using colored pencils and a special color setting liquid. My entry that year was Crazy in Color and won a ribbon! (I rarely share that it was the only entry in its category.) 

Challenges stretch us as quilters. They call for us to dig deep and to be fearless! They want us to have fun, and be innovative and creative! They demand we keep secrets—which for me now, may be the hardest part—and they give us a show like no other! 

I’m already stitching up this year’s challenge entry for Stitchin’ the Blues! and I’m so excited for our show! I’m looking forward to seeing all the lovely quilts, to seeing how members interpreted the theme, and all of the wild, wonderful ideas that are presented. And I truly hope everyone will consider joining in on the fun. After all – the more the merrier! 

My name is Denise and I’m a quilter. :)

lots of goodness . . .

Super busy week at work . . . my poor coworker thought she had an ear infection, but it turned out she had shingles in her ear canal. Ugh. Needless to say, she went home and stayed home. I was very glad when 5:00 p.m. on Thursday rolled around!  On Friday, Todd and I launched the boat and took our last 'date day' for a couple of weeks.  

I never, ever get tired of this view.  Gosh, what a beautiful day we had! Not quite as fishy as the last outing, but Todd did pretty good. I opted to pick up my book instead of the fishing rod. LOL!  We've got Campers on Mission coming to the camp for the next two weeks, and they'll keep us quite occupied!  Our next opportunity to take the boat out will be mid-May, when we head to Tim's Ford for a bit.

Baby Edie and her family continue to do well as they make adjustments! They had a newborn photo shot and gosh, it makes me {happy} cry, how beautiful this family is!

Edith "Edie" Rose - isn't she precious?

Evey & Ellie - I adore this picture of them!

The Family - my hearts bursts with love for these guys!

Jason was home from work last week and a couple days this week, so I've not intruded.  But Friday I'll find my way over there to do some serious Neesey/Edie bonding (if Ellie will let me -- I'll have to fight her for holding time with Edie)!!

Yesterday I joined 45 other ladies and got on the bus our guild charters, bound for Paducah!

This was my 'hang out' group!  :)

It was a great day. I didn't take as many quilts photos; I should have brought the camera for this one. I'm so used to just using my iPhone, but the photo taking eats the battery big time, and I didn't want to kill my phone.  My absolute favorite quilt in both the large and mini categories was Christmas-themed (the mini quilt was under glass and I couldn't get a good photo due to the glare):

Interestingly, both of them won second place in their divisions.

I loved this one, too . . .

It was really fascinating to me! There were a lot of beautiful quilts. One trend I noticed this year was the number of whole cloth quilts with ribbons.  In the mini quilt section, four of the six entries were whole-cloth. A lot of Japanese winners, too.  

And then there were the vendors. Let's just say I did my part to help keep quilt vendors thriving.

No need to stop and look . . . keep moving . . . there's nothing to see here folks.

Actually, I'm really pleased with my purchases, which is 50/50/50 wool, hexie items, and fabric. LOL! And since I'm back at work, I'll count this toward retirement stash. Teeheehee!  Would it surprise you to know that I visited both the physical shop Paper Pieces has in Paducah *and* their booth at the show? No?

And of course I purchased something(s) at both locations, too! Another thing I noticed this year was the lighting. The strong overhead lighting really washed out the top of the quilts and photos of them. It may have always been this way, but I really took notice of it this year.

As we left the convention center and loaded the bus, I was so tickled to hear all the happy chatter as ladies got settled in and had impromptu show and tell . . . 

The long bus ride to and fro (about 4.5 hours each way) enabled me to both sleep and stitch.  I got some nice work done on my wool card trick . . .

Now on to the borders for it. And I *finally* finished that second EPP flower . . .

I really love the looks of this . . .

I've pressed it so it's time to remove the papers and applique the flowers onto the background. I hope to have this piece on my table come June! I have a really cute "orange" Yankee Candle that I'll use with it! Anyway, lots of slow stitching still to go.

Okay.  Enough for me. We have another major storm front pushing its way in, and it's given me a headache beyond belief. I hate being a natural weather barometer! Besides, I think we'll probably need to unplug all our gadgets in the not too distant future!

Linking up to Kathy's Quilts and hoping I'm not slow stitching in the dark this afternoon!

:)