Pages

Monday, December 31, 2018

2018 Recap

Here’s how 2018 finished out:

UFOs : started with 50, finished with 45. ( 35 prior 2018 plus 10 from 2018)

Lifetime stitches on longarm machine: 7,441,409 as of 12/21/18 Denim Centers being last one added

2018 stitches: 1,389,887

12 Quilts LA’d for Guild Charity Projects 

18 Books were enjoyed

Gifted 19 completed projects

Presently have 4 finished quilts waiting for proper homes

Lessons learned:

Having a daily accountability method is paramount to my progress 

Intentional reviewing and reflection helps with direction

Walking away from ‘drama’ and ‘negativity’ is most often the best diffuser 

Final Take Away:

Count your blessings
Name them  one by one
Count your many blessings
See what God has done.

If I were to count my blessings instead of sheep, I would always have restoring sleep. 

May God bless each of you also
Luann






Friday, December 28, 2018

Thursday, December 27, 2018

Grrrrr ! ! !

I want to say thank you to everyone that has ever left a comment. I really appreciate them.

So, why the Grrr ! ! ! ? You asked a good question.

Earlier today I received a text message from a friend that reads my blog. She let me know she had left a message but it didn’t show up. This is because I have ‘moderation’ enabled. I had received some very inappropriate comments awhile back and wanted to make sure that none of my followers would be seeing that sort of ‘talk’, ???  Well, as I was checking my emails (which is how I am supposed to be notified of any and all comments) I didn’t have any current ones. I decided to just go check for myself. This is where the GRRRR came into being. Not only was today’s comment sitting there, so were several from a few months ago. I had no idea that these had been made. I was never notified, and because I haven’t been blogging much lately, I just figured other folks were pretty busy too.

Then after I published those I could find from ‘real people’ and tossed the others into ‘spam’, I decided to check what got published. According to my side of this blog, only one comment from Terry got lost in space, but I’m not sure how things will show up on your side of things. Please, let me know if you are still getting the posts delivered to your inbox. For some reason, Blogger won’t send me copies of my own posts. I have gotten to the point that I have the hubby forward them when he gets the email.

Technology can be a real pain when it doesn’t go as planned, but when it works ‘as planned’ it’s a great way to share with so many others.

Let’s Create
Luann

Friday, November 30, 2018

Sept. Oct. Nov.


This post is covering quiet a few months, sometimes that’s the way life happens. 

I’ve really gotten into this whole Bullet Journal thing I’ve been hearing and reading about. Can’t believe just how much it has improved my progress in getting things accomplished.
This was a pickup truck bed full of fabrics that couldn’t be utilized in quilting. I brought them home, washed them, and sent them off with people that will use them in their projects. Table was finally cleared except for the few “treasures” we found. These were very old blocks, some dating back to 1921, really, no kidding. Hopefully we’ll find the proper home for them too.

After being bitten/stung by some type of ant/bee I couldn’t walk for almost a week. One of those nasty bites was on the inside arch of my foot. But eventually they healed.  Miss Wendy’s quilt was completed and delivered in early October. And the back of my Creative Adventure Journal cover got underway with lots of colors.

Another requested quilt is on it’s way to keep someone warm this winter. As long as the other person doesn’t continue to hog the covers,,,  
Our time in the Midwest with family is never long enough. We enjoyed field trips again this year.

Fall activities are underway for all the grandkids.
A beautiful picture of new fallen snow from Heather.

Friday, August 31, 2018

July and August



George put together a new bench for our screen porch. The center section raises up for using as a table. Miss Wendy Beth’s requested quilt is underway. And Hannah doing one of her favorite activities. 


Hannah and Molly are such sweet kids, always willing to pose for pictures. 



I’ve invested a bit of time cleaning up the edges on my batiks, hoping to make a piece like the inspiration I found on Pinterest.


George has been busy building and planting in the gardens.

End of summer pictures:

Saturday, June 30, 2018

April, May, and June 2018 Review


Here's what I’ve been up to;

Locker Hooking another cover for a journal book.


1&2 of 8 quilt tops that were given to me for longarm quilting. These are for the Doors to Freedom facility in Charleston. More are on the way. 



 3 & 4 

 5 & 6


 7 & 8  

Then we were on vacation and  adventure time with our grandkids. Voyageurs Rendevous in Illinois. 

There’s always something interesting going on with the kiddos. 

It is always a welcome sight to see the Swan’s when we return to the UP of Michigan. 

I guess Chloe likes the quilt her mom got. 

Visiting the Anderson Japanese Gardens in Rockford. We watched a muskrat move through the creek bed up and over the dam area to the upper reservoir. 

Stopping at Vintage Wings and Wheels Museum, located by the Poplar Grove Airport, is something we look forward to. 

The Burpee Museum of Natural History held many interesting items. Jane, the Dinosaur, was one of them. 



George built another beautiful arbor for the backyard and we’ve gotten ourselves some lovely flowering plants for the front entry. 

More pictures from the Anderson Gardens. It's pretty obvious that we had a great time with the kids. 

I’ve made progress on some quilt projects. The purple jelly roll race needs some pizzazzing! Borders are needed for the modern jelly roll race.  The 2" squares I was given last spring are finding their way around some blue chambray fabric squares. I'm going for a more modern look on some of my quilts and hopefully this will look like floating grids when done. 

 This one is starting to grow on me. When I first looked at the jelly roll of Tiger Lily I was soooo disappointed. The orange was just too intense for even me! My oldest son said, "give it time and keep your eyes open, you'll see just the right fabric(s) to put it with". Boy was he right! I don't remember just how it happened to get placed next to a jelly roll of Kaffee Fasset pieces, but that was when I knew I would put them together and I'm liking it more daily. 

 After putting several of these blocks together, I realized that the low volume difference was going to work to my advantage, as I hadn’t turned my units correctly on some spots and they are each an individual design. LOL


Because I have finally figured out how to blog from my iPad Pro I may just get back into doing this more frequently. It isn't as intuitive as my older iPad but it gets the job done. 

May God bless each of you and your families with a summer warm enough to enjoy and cool enough to enjoy. 

Let's Create Something Special for Someone Else Today, Luann. 

Monday, April 2, 2018

March Review


I've been working on this tank top since February. I finished it before midnight, then I had to get the photo taken, so even though it looks like an April finish, it was done in March. 


Clip boards were given a coat of gesso. Then fabrics were cut to size, after attaching fusible webbing to the back side. I painted the edges with Lumiere paints to finish them off, after they got a good sealing coat of Mod Podge. The fronts and backs are coordinated for each of the 'littles' that will get them. They work wonderfully for playing car bingo. 

Here are some progress photos from work I've been doing on my Creative Adventure Journal. Brenda gave me an armful of upholstery samples. I cut them to a dimension I wanted and removed some of the information stickers from the backside. I ended up taking them apart once and trimming one that was too tall for the locker hooked cover I wanted them for. I sewed them together in groups, like book signatures. I used a sturdy mesh as an insert, but found that it didn't stand up along the spine. So, I tried an accordion folded piece of Decorbond. That worked great but it still needed more support for the cover insert areas. I finally decided to glue it to a couple of book covers that I had salvaged last year. Now it slips easily into the journal's inside flaps and I've already started to tuck in some goodies. 

And because I enjoyed making the cover for the Creative Adventure Journal #1, and I have some pieces that are much larger that I want to use in the same manner, #2 is underway. Progress seems so much slower on this one, but it is 4 times larger, so I need to exercise my patience muscle! LOL

A while back I chose these four fabrics to do an experiment with. I layed them all on one stack, and cut through all four at once, several times. Then I started playing with which pieces would touch each other, and from there I would refer to it as my 'What Was I Thinking?' piece. Three of them are very soft and will become pillow covers at some point in time, but one was put together on that famous Decorbond product that I bought so much of! It will become a 'page' in Creative  Adventure Journal #2

I was gifted this lovely assortment of vintage hankies. I've already been given the suggestion of making one into a pillow for Miss Hannah, she was born in Kentucky so I'm sure you know which one is on her radar. 
Aunt Marjorie had a special Birthday gathering, she has turned 90! I pray that God gives me the mobility and grace at that age that she displays. I made this lap size quilt for her. We asked those attending to write on the back and most everyone did. We used an Identipen. Many of the signers were surprised at how easy it was to write with it. And the buttons? Well, if I was going to embellish this quilt with some, these would have worked perfectly. (And I needed another image for the collage)


So many people just love purple that once I started this one, I knew who it would go to. Molly and Hannah said the fabrics were terrific and they were sure their mom would like it. The final picture doesn't show how pretty the colors were, something with my lighting at midnight? Perhaps. 

The clamshell quilt has had several starts. None of them are working for me. I'll keep searching until I find a good way that works and doesn't send me looking for headache medicine. Until then, I'm coloring mandalas while I ponder the possibilities. 

It was only taken me 5+ years to do the final trim work around the edges of this jacket. I think this will be gifted to ? I love the colors but the size isn't quite what I need now, argh!

Last fall I order in some packets of Cake Mix Recipe #7 papers. How these work is; you put two 10" squares together with right sides facing, pin this on top, stitch on the lines, cut on the other lines, press, then remove the papers, and you have perfect half-square triangle units to sew together in any way you chose. They include 6 possibilities, but there are several more. I pulled out several stacks of layer cakes (that's what 10" squares are called, in case you aren't a quilter). I didn't agonize over the matching up process, just tried to get some reasonable contrast going on. I've started on my first little group. These were squares from the Sand In My Shoes collection, matched up with Kona Cotton Solids from a recent order of mine with Missouri Star Quilt Company. I really enjoy beachy colors. 

We spent some time visiting Hunting Island, Hilton Head Island, and Beaufort (SC) at the beginning of March. It was a great time and we were able to met up for brunch with Ken. It's always pleasant to see old friends that understand about 'barking spiders'. If you don't know about them, consider yourself special!

We always enjoy time spent at Middleton Plantation. The flowering trees and bushes were spectacular. 
And in our own back yard there's always something to enjoy. 


May God bless the work of your hands.