Beading in Belgium

Yes, here I am - slow at posting again. It's now time to think about the holidays and that's a really busy time at my house.

I know that many quilters also have an interest in beading and I met the nicest lady via the internet who taught herself to do exquisite beading in Belgium. Let me introduce Renata. Her artistry and determination to be successful are inspiring. She has not one, but three Etsy shops where you can see her work and find out more about her.
Seadbeady
SeadbeadyBridesJewel 
and also a shop with her paintings
SeadbeadyArt

As Renata explains: Art and music have always been a large part of my life since I was a child. I took drawing lessons and sang and later on I learned to play the piano. Up until 2007 when I had to stop it all, because of severe problems with my back and joints. My cartilage is of very poor quality and as a result I have had several surgeries. Singing in a choir or band was no longer an option, because it got to be to painful. I needed to find another occupation or hobby to keep my mind of the pain.

That way I came to the idea of starting to make my own jewelry. The question was how to start. Internet has no secrets for me so I started searching diligently on the web and taught myself how to make jewelry. In the beginning they were very simple necklaces by just stringing beads on a wire.
Giving up was not an option and I went on a search for more intricate beadwork that I would be able to make. Not just something I could shake out of my sleeve. So I discovered the magazine Bead&Button, which contained a lot of special beadwork. I bought the book Creative Beading, which was a compilation of all the stuff they had published in their magazines throughout the past year. That way I learned a lot of different techniques and got inspired to make my own designs.

Nowadays practically all of my spare time goes to beading and designing jewelry. Everything in my shop is made by myself. A lot of those pieces require a lot of technique and 3 or more days to make. But I just love making special jewelry, original and unique pieces of art.

This beautiful beaded box really caught my eye. Can you imagine all the hours that went into making it?

She also shows pictures of her works in progress. It's amazing!

Working on a new Bargello necklace in Rose gold white and ivory with Swarovski crystal 

As for me, I'll try to be back online soon to post again. Perhaps I'll focus on my progress at decorating the house. I have one Christmas item on display so far and yes, it's a Christmas quilt! Most of it is the result of a block exchange with the guild that I belong to. I had it on display one year at the South Carolina State Fair so perhaps I'll find a picture of it to share.

Happy "Get Ready for the Holidays" Everyone!

 

2017 Quilts

I can't believe it has been so long since I posted here! I'm still quilting and here are some things I made earlier this year. The first one is a quilt top made for Quilts of Valor. I've wanted to do this for a long time. The white stars are actually the same size. I didn't have a place to hang it so you could see it that way.

Next is a quilt that I made for my younger granddaughter. Yes, I was very slow at getting this one completed. She got it when she turned 8 months old. It's special because she has an older sister and the pattern is called "Sisters Forever". I had some fabric that showed 2 sisters together in a variety of poses (likely the print design comes from a vintage sewing pattern). It's larger than what I would normally have made as a baby quilt, but with the odd layout of the blocks, I didn't want to try to adjust the size.

I also made a tied blanket with fleece fabric for one of my triplet grandsons. I'll look back to find a picture of it to add later.

We had a big family gathering here for the week of the solar eclipse. We had a total solar eclipse here and it was fantastic! A special time because we all live in different states and don't get the chance to be together very often.

That wraps up most of my news! I'll certainly post something sooner next time. I hope everyone had a good summer.

Galaxy Stars and Exchange Blocks

Finally, I'm updating my blog!

It's been a long time since I took a quilt class, but here I was in mid-August enjoying the Galaxy Stars class taught by Anita Bowen. I struggled deciding on colors for the quilt. Yes, it's bright; isn't it?   I wanted a quilt featuring pink and brown so I went with that and included some golden yellow.
(Thank you to Anita for taking this picture and sending it to me.)

I've also been working on exchange blocks for our guild. I'm one of the people working on guild programs this year and proposed several categories people could choose if they wanted to be in a block exchange. We'll be swapping our blocks in October. I signed up for two of the themes, but my groups are small. I just completed my exchange blocks for the Gingerbread category. I don't want to uncover the surprise early, but here you can see that my block includes freshly baked cookies cooling by the window.

Next on my list to do will be my blocks with the theme Quilts on Barns. I'm excited to see what I come up with for that one.

Happy Labor Day, everyone!

It's Time for an Irish Blessing

May your day be touched
by a bit of Irish luck,
brightened by a song in your heart,
and warmed by the smiles
of the people you love.

I'm not a bit Irish, but I always enjoy celebrating St. Patrick's Day - corned beef and cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and onions and a batch of green cupcakes to finish things off.

Yes, you've probably noticed that it has been awhile since I posted anything. It seems I get busy on so many computer sites these days. Also, with my eye trying to recover from surgery I haven't been sewing lately. I'll be sewing soon!

All of my grandchildren have their birthdays from the very end of February to the very first part of March. Perhaps that's good because I have something to post since one of my grandsons wanted a blanket for his birthday. This was my first time trying to make a fleece blanket with the fringe holding the two fabrics together. I'm posting a picture so you can see it. It's chocolate brown on one side and has a dinosaur print on the other. Another of the other triplets wants one now and I bought the fabric, but it will likely be a week or so before I can make it. The hardest part seemed to be trimming the two pieces of fabric so they were square and the same size. I suspect a really large table would have been handy.

Hopefully I can post again before Easter.  Enjoy each day as we move into Spring! 

Happy New Year

Happy New Year!
I'm always amazed when I log on and see "how long it has been". Perhaps 2016 will be my year for logging on more frequently.

So, what has been happening? Well, the New Year got off to a rough start. The corner of one of my front teeth broke off on New Years' Day. I knew there wouldn't be any way to deal with it until Monday. Then to top things off I was due to have cataract surgery on Wednesday.

So, most of Monday was spent waiting to hear back from the eye surgeon's office about whether it was okay to have the tooth taken care of that close to my cataract surgery. It turned out that if there was nothing done that impacted my gums, it was fine to get it repaired. I talked with my dentist's office and they got me in for a Tuesday appointment. Tooth repaired without using any injections and I was good to have my cataract surgery on Wednesday. So far, this eye is doing so much better than last time. I changed surgeon, surgery site, and all eye drops that were used. The last surgery was such a bad experience and this time is so much better.

There hasn't been any quilting or other sewing going on so far. My eyes tire pretty easily and bright light is still bothersome. Once I can deal with the bright light I use next to  my sewing machine I think I will work more on the Greater Columbia Quilters 2015 Mystery Quilt. I'll be sure to post a picture of it next time. The fabrics I am using are some that I had been saving for a special project.

Speaking of "special project", I'll share pictures of the I Spy quilt that I made for my granddaughter for Christmas. This was my first time adding "minky" as the backing for a quilt. What an experience! I read somewhere to use spray adhesive to hold the layers together. Spraying the whole thing at once was not working for me. Finally I had better luck spraying one row at a time, quilting that one row and then spraying the next row. I think this will be my one and only quilt backed with "minky" even though I love how soft it feels.

The Post Surgery Post

I realized I had not been back here since I had my surgery towards the end of July. There was plenty of reason why I had so much pain when I posted last time. The surgeon talked about using robotic surgery to do repairs and I waited extra time to get on the list for that, but once surgery started not much of my surgery could be done using robotics. Nonetheless here I am a few weeks later with stitches pretty much over my entire abdomen but not much that is visible from the outside. The marvels of modern medicine! I'm still in the healing phase but hopefully it will heal nicely. (That's in contrast to two years ago when much of my surgery resulted in "on the skin" stitches and staples that really looked nasty ... but it's great that scars begin to fade in time.)

So where have I been since my surgery? Well, one outing was to the surgeon's office to be checked after two weeks. Then last week I decided it had been long enough and I drove into Lexington for a much needed haircut. Meanwhile to keep myself entertained here at home, I've stepped into the world of card making with a new machine that cuts and embosses. I'm teaching myself how to use the supplies that I've ordered. Of course it didn't take me long to discover that You Tube has many demonstrations on how to use a specific die (or whatever)! I had no idea paper could be so complicated. My favorite papercuts are using the dies that produce something that looks like lace.

Here's a photo of one of the dies I bought. 

Hopefully there will be all kinds of beautiful things made of paper at my house soon and I'll be back to working with fabric. I pulled  my crochet hook out a time or two but that's still a work in progress.
I hope everyone is doing well and had a good summer.

The Week with Too Much to Do

I'm sorry that I haven't posted in such a long time. It's the usual excuse - when I have things going on, I don't have time to post and when there's nothing going on, there's nothing to write about.

I'll begin with a quilt related picture. Our quilt guild had Susan Lentz as the speaker in April and she has such interesting work - the program she presented was based on "Last Words" and I love how she incorporates vintage lace, vintage embroidery, and even vintage buttons into her art. Many of the pieces began as tombstone rubbings. If you want to read more about Susan, she has a web site you can visit it at http://www.susanlenz.com/

Now back to my heading for this post. This past week was one of the busiest I've ever had. My husband was in the hospital so I was the only one at home and I was visiting the hospital for as many hours as I could every day. I was so happy when he got to come home Thursday afternoon! Any time there is just one of us at home, there is so much to do. If it hadn't been for fast food and the drive-in lane, I don't know how I would have managed to eat dinner. I ate lunch at the hospital, my better choice, and was amazed by all the choices they had and at least I ordered healthy meals there.

Then to add to all the problems, I felt really bad nearly all week - extreme abdominal pain. I plan to go the doctor tomorrow to see if they can tell me what is going on. My older horse joined in on the medical problems on Wednesday evening. He had colic, which is pretty serious and can be deadly for a horse. Luckily some wonderful neighbors came over to help me and I called the equine vet so she could come out to treat him. By the time she got to the barn, it was dark so I was very thankful for the lights at the barn - not quite like daytime, but not too bad either. My horse was a wonderful patient. My neighbor and I had walked him for 90 minutes before the vet arrived so we got a workout, too. Then he got a bit sedated and lots of "treatment". He's doing really well. However, after a colic, they are very limited as for what they can eat so along came a complicated feeding schedule for him and I was having to separate the horses while they ate so he wouldn't eat some of the other horse's food. Some may know that I got this Arabian horse when he was 6 months old, so he has grown up in the family. There was a well-know Arabian stud named Dixie Fireflash and many of his offspring have been very successful in a variety of endeavors. My horse is a son of Dixie Fireflash. He was in some local shows when he was younger and he would watch the other horses so he knew what to do.We have been impressed by his intelligence many times. 

All I can say is "I Survived"! Thanks to all the friends who said a prayer or sent good wishes to get me through the week. Here's a quote about endurance that I though you might enjoy.

Hope is endurance.
Hope is holding on and going on and trusting in the Lord.
- Michael Novak

And before I close for this evening, I'll be wishing a Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers next Sunday.
Hopefully my absence from this blog won't be so long next time.

Snowy Start to November

 

This is the view out of our back door on November 1. Snow definitely came to South Carolina - the earliest recorded snowfall ever and that goes back to the 1800's. You can see some of the branches and trees that came down. We have a little over 9 acres of  heavily wooded property so it's a mess. My husband works out there nearly ever day clearing up more of the fallen limbs, branches, etc. We have to feel fortunate that our vehicles and our house were not damaged.

We lost electricity for most of the day, but it was back on a little after dark so I have no complaints about that. However, our phone and internet service were gone until November 11. I still can't believe it took them so long. We have our lines underground and there was no damage anywhere along the road that should have impacted us. The final report was that a pin was out at the junction box. That means nothing to me and doesn't sound like the kind of repair that should take 10 days, but what do I know?

I finished my Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt which I made as the result of Bonnie Hunter's class for our guild last fall. I like how it turned out. I added the additional borders based on my personal preference and like them on there.

There has been a lot going on, but most of it is just normal day-to-day events. My Arabian horse returned in October. He had been living in North Carolina for about 3 years so my daughter could enjoy him. It took a little while to get the two horses used to each other, but they are pretty settled in now. They actually did really well the second day. Here they are eating hay together, but then the dominance games began. Neither is fully willing to concede that he or she is not the one in charge.

I'm sure to be working on Christmas gifts over the next few weeks so I'll be back to post some of my projects soon.

Pink and Brown Irish Chain

My list of UFOs is long... I finally decided to dust off my sewing machine and get to work!
This table runner is made from blocks that I received in 2009 from the GardenWeb Quilt Group Birthday Block Exchange. I love the pink and brown and Irish Chain block.

I hope everyone had a good 4th of July. The weather was so nice here. An unexpected treat because the summer is usually so hot and humid.

Happy sewing!

A Quilt Top Completed: Scrappy Trips Around the World

I took the Scrappy Trips Around the World class with Bonnie Hunter in the fall. Voila! Quilt top completed!

After I get it back quilted, I will post another picture so you can see the completed project. I'm sorry you have to look at it here over the coverlet on the bed. I know the toile fabric doesn't go well with "Scrappy."  The two cream borders with the alternating scrappy blocks inbetween were of my own creation and I really like the contrast. The binding will be black with a non-metallic gold in the print, matching the center panel of the back of the quilt  This should turn out to be reversible with 2 entirely different looks.

I hope everyone is tolerating the heat. I admit, summer is my least favorite time. I don't like heat and humidity so the only plus for me is the additional hours of daylight although I must admit I am quite a night owl, so after dark suits me fine as well.

Everyone have a safe and Happy Fourth of July!

The Garden in June

Happy International Picnic Day!
I was outdoors early enough this morning that I walked around the gardens and took pictures of some of the flowers that are in bloom. Fortunately day lilies love the heat and the sun so they are blooming away!

 

 

 

 

I hope everyone is having a wonderful day!

Master Gardener Jamboree

This is a picture of my picture as posted at the Master Gardener Jamboree last week on Friday. I didn't win the hat contest, but I did have lots of fun. I restrained myself and only came home with 3 new plants. Part of that might be the problem in finding a place for them and having to deal with the hot weather and lack of rain that decided to show up recently (or maybe I should say the rain that decided NOT to show up recently; that seems more accurate). I am not ready for hot weather. My garden bloomed just beautifully in March and April, but now the struggle to keep everything watered begins.

Grandmothers, as you know, must mention their grandchildren. My new granddaughter continues to do very well. Can't wait to see her again. She is now 2 months old. My triplet grandsons in California are doing well also. They look so grown up in their recent pictures.


Enjoy a wonderful Spring!

Blessing of the Easter Food

This Easter season has me posting a lot more frequently!

Here is my basket.

My church did something we had not done before. We had the Blessing of the Easter Food this morning.
I had heard about this. It's a tradition dating back over 1,000 years and practiced quite a bit in Eastern Europe. In Poland, it's called Swieconka. On the day before Easter you assemble some of your Easter food and take it to church for the priest to bless. The basket is traditionally lined with a white cloth and is decorated with boxwood. It was a rainy morning here, so my basket was rather small - I didn't really want to carry a ham with me anyway! Attending the blessing was fun and definitely a new experience for me. Apparently in parts of the US, people make butter lambs to include in the baskets. Maybe a thought for me for next year...

Here's the scene of the blessing of the baskets at church. We managed to wish each other a Happy Easter in many, many languages.

Other than that it has been a sleepy day here with all the rain. Maybe I'll work on a quilt for awhile before it gets too dark. Happy Easter!

Easter Week

Easter Week has been a busy one for me. Just so I don't forget, I'm wishing you a Happy Easter right here at the start!

On Tuesday, my quilt guild met and we were wonderfully entertained by Cathy Miller, the Singing Quilter. If you have seen the YouTube with "You Can Quilt That Out", that's Cathy Miller's song. Also, I couldn't resist taking a comfort quilt packet home with me. Once it's stitched, I'll return it to the guild and it will be given to someone. Our guild makes quilts for so many deserving groups.

Are you a Snoopy or Peanuts fan? I think this is going to turn out really cute.

On Thursday, I attended the Lexington County Master Gardeners meeting. We had a speaker who provided information on that wonderful plant - the Hydrangea. I won a door prize and here it is! Look at the size of those hydrangea blossoms!

 

Arrangement with dried hydrangeas

So what did I do today? First time ever, I made pierogi (a traditional Polish dumpling type of food.) My husband helped. Some batches of the dough worked better than others. The fillings were one of two types: sauerkraut with mushrooms and onions - or ricotta cheese with onions. The recipe says to use farmer's cheese, but I've never seen that sold around here. I added some seasoning to each.

The bad part was when I got to the cooking instructions and it said to boil each one individually for 5-8 minutes. We made over 2 dozen! Anyway, we ended up putting them in boiling water 2-3 at a time and it worked fine. I thought we did pretty well considering I had not attempted this before. Here's a picture. As you might guess, it's supposed to look like a half-circle. This was photographed after the "taste tester" checked it out!

We have rain arriving today and apparently it's going to continue to be wet through to midday on Easter.
However, the Easter eggs have been boiled and dyed. I think I'll be ready for Easter Sunday!

Little Girl Things

I've found that after that beautiful granddaughter arrives, you develop a special interest in "little girl things."
I'll start out with a newer picture of my darling granddaughter, Miranda.

With Easter coming up, I had to get this cute little bunny hat for her. It's not listed on Etsy right now, but comes from the shop https://www.etsy.com/shop/HookedByNurseSharon.

As you may recall, I am captain of two teams on Etsy. The baby girl items have caught my attention. I think Miranda needs all of them!  Here are some cute items from 2HeartsDesire First of all, look at this pretty card to welcome a new baby girl.

 

 Then there are these adorable teething ring rattles. These work for a boy or a girl.  :-)

 And how about this beautiful pink wooden Easter to celebrate Baby's First Easter?

Check out all of these items at  https://www.etsy.com/shop/2HeartsDesire

Miranda might need to be a bit older to appreciate something like this, but one day she will simply have to have an American Girl Doll. Look at this cute outfit:

This dress and many other outfits for American Girl Dolls can be found at DonnaDesigned.
https://www.etsy.com/shop/DonnaDesigned

And we can't forget Dr. Seuss. In fact, Miranda was born on what was Dr. Seuss's birthday!

 This print and others as well as photographs can be found at SoupDimples:
https://www.etsy.com/shop/soupdimples

Well, I think Grandma needs to stop shopping now. Enjoy the Springtime weather if it has reached your area by now. We've had a few really beautiful days and my plants are responding.

Introducing Miranda

My sweet little granddaughter, Miranda Cadence, arrived on Sunday, March 2. She is doing really well and is at home now. The weather has not been too kind to her (who expects all this snow and cold weather in the South when it's almost Spring), but her mommy and daddy are taking really good care of her. I think she is very lucky to have them as parents. Hopefully we will see you soon, Miranda!

Valentine's Day Snow Delay: IOU

When our newspaper arrived after a couple of days of snow, sleet, and rain I had to laugh a bit about this Valentine's Day IOU. It was a full page ad.

I made the photo large so hopefully you can read it. Yes, a Valentine's Day Snow Delay...
and here is the coupon your can present to your special sweetheart.

This one might be a bit harder to read so I typed out the wording on the coupon:

Dear _________
I'm so sorry your Valentine's Day gift is running late. If you will give me a little more time, I promise to make it a little more special. There is no amount of snow that can stand between us, so let's celebrate on February ____.
Thank you for your understanding!
Love always, ______________

I've never seen anything like it before. Fortunately I shopped early.  Unfortunately, even though we sent the packages priority, one didn't reach a daughter and son-in-law in time. (A priority package that was mailed in South Carolina took 6 days to reach North Carolina. The South Carolina to California package made it in time.)

My husband and I exchanged small gifts and cards and last night was our special meal - cheese fondue with two types of bread, Granny Smith apples, celery, cauliflower, broccoli, and carrots followed by Valentine cookies. It was so good!

Lately I've been working on my Scrappy Trips Around the World quilt... at my usual slow pace.

Snow, Freezing Rain, and an Earthquake

What a week last week was. We had our second bad winter storm of the month: this time with rain, snow, sleet, freezing rain, and more snow. The ice build up on the trees was just short of what it would have taken for lots of us to lose our electricity. In the next county over 90% of the people lost power.

Here you can see lots of layers of the storm on our porch railing.

 

 

Here is ice coating all the trees.

Then to add to all that on Valentine's Day evening, we had an earthquake. What? Exactly what I was thinking. It was just a rumble and I wasn't even sure what it was until the local weather interrupted the Winter Olympics to say there had been an earthquake.

Certainly this week can be better than last!

Snow! A Winter Wonderland

It has been a few years since we got snow in this part of South Carolina, but we woke up to snow yesterday. Of course that meant I needed to take my camera outside and snap some pictures. I hope you enjoy these. What a magical winter wonderland!

View out the front door

Big Fluffy Flakes That Stick to the Trees

No Gazing in the Gazing Ball Today

Would you like a seat in my garden anyway?

View on the way to the barn.

Piper says "Neigh" to the snow and Sydney doesn't care for it either!

Thanks for visiting and stay warm!

Andrea's Baby Shower

The baby shower for my younger daughter is the most I have been involved in creating quilts and other things for quite some time so I'm sharing. This is the quilt that I made for her baby shower. I finished it at 1:30 a.m. on Friday and the shower was on Saturday. Oh, well, it was completed and wrapped by the time the shower started. What more can I say?

We had a wonderful time at the shower and for those who might want ideas for baby showers or just a peak at the fun we had, I'm posting some pictures. Sorry about the lighting and lack of clarity on some. It was a hectic time and my camera, for some reason, doesn't do well in the light that we have in the family room and that's where we were most of the time.

Here's the diaper cake that I made with my husband's assistance:

It was the first time I ever made one and wasn't too bad to assemble. I highly recommend an assistant to help by holding the rolled diaper as you tie it. We used various sized pots and pans to hold the diapers in place until we could tie them and that seemed to work really well. The bottom layer has Hershey bars included. An idea I saw on Pinterest was to shade in the "she" with pink highlighter. We did it, but it wasn't as easy as I thought it would be. It took several coats. We also highlighted the "her" on some of the candy bars.

 

We asked the guests to write baby advise on the little paper baby clothes and put them up on a ribbon that said "It's a Girl." They are attached with little pink clothespins. This was lots of fun and something my daughter can have as a keepsake of the shower. It also worked well for guests who could not attend. We just added their words of advice.

We had goodie bags for the guests to take home. I included pretzels, pecans, M&Ms, and pink peppermint popcorn that we made. It was an experience to have all the cookie sheets of popped popcorn waiting for their peppermint drizzle! The pencil tied on the bag is special for 2014 as the "Year of the Horse."

Here's the cake that I made for the shower. The theme was Carousel Horses. I had a very hard time finding anything with that theme that could be used at a baby shower. These carousel horses are Valentine cards that I ordered online. They are held up by pink drinking straws. There are also some fresh strawberries on the cake. Hollowing out the center of a large strawberry helped to hold up the straw that supported the center.

You might guess that my daughter and I like horses. She is holding up a gift that I bought for her. I marked the tag so it came from her horse. The quote is from Shakespeare: "Though she be but little, she is fierce."

My daughter with one of the gifts from her older sister - a super awesome baby carrier.

One of many presents from Andrea's mother-in-law. This outfit says "Who's Sleepy?" So cute!

And who can resist horse booties?

The horse related presents were a hit with both of us... and how about those people who gave baby advice that every little girl needs a pony? All of the presents were wonderful and my daughter, son-in-law, and I appreciate the people who showered her with such wonderful gifts. I also appreciate all of my husband's help in getting ready for the shower. He was "Super Husband."

Thanks for sharing the baby shower with us. I have 2 more UFOs completed off my list and February should bring my first granddaughter. It's so exciting! We can't wait to meet you.