My Devout Acorns...

When we first moved to Florida, I dabbled a bit in jewelry making. I also made a few rosaries as gifts. Although I'm Methodist, I've always been fascinated by the significance of rosaries, and I've always found them to be beautiful devotional items. I've been collecting rosaries for some time. And I've been collecting acorns for much, much longer. Can you even imagine how excited I was to find this unique and elegant rosary? It features acorns instead of beads.
The acorns signifying the ave beads are all in silver, and the acorns signifying the pater beads are in gold. The links, crucifix and center medallion are all in silver. I think this rosary is simply stunning, and I so happy to add it to my collection(s).

PS. The "Charmed" quilt tutorial is finished and can be viewed here. I've also added a link to it from my "Free Patterns and Tutorials" link at the top of my blog so you can find it any time.

I Have A New "Dress"...

Well? What do you think? My new dress design is complete and Karen (my blog heroine) uploaded it today. You may have noticed that I kept my same header. I want to be able to change that element out from time to time, rather than have a different one forever. I also love that my typeface is larger. It makes it easier to read, don't you agree? I really like the way everything turned out...especially my sweet acorns! Do you love my new look? Is is me?

You can click on Karen's image above to go to her design website. She offers a lot of different service, from the tiny favicon in my url box (the little acorn replaces the Blogger "B"), to the little elements that now appear between my posts. Have fun shopping! I'm sure you're going to find something you need to have for your blog. Thank you, Karen!!!
My "Charmed, I'm Sure" quilt is finished. I added the binding yesterday, and sewed my custom label on the back.
I use a washable cotton fabric for my labels. Mine were purchased through Blick Art Materials website (here) and made sure I got the cotton that could be washed. No quilt is truly finished until you sew the label on it. Now, off to finish my lavender "Faerie Glen" quilt!

I haven't finished loading the rest of the tutorial into my Flickr album yet. I think I took close to 30 photos to help show how I apply the binding, but I promise to do it today! Hope you accomplish something creative today.

Bindings, Bobcats and Bomb Scares...

On a scale of 1-100, yesterday was a 90, and I'm not talking just about the temperature! It was pretty darn eventful! I spent much of the day in the studio creating the binding for the "Charmed" quilt, and photographing the process for what has become a tutorial. I'll be adding photos to the tutorial today to share more of my "how to", and I'll finish that quilt later this morning. Now, I know that doesn't sound really exciting, but bear with me. It gets better.

Tuesday evenings are Books A Million "girls night out" for a group of us who get together to knit, crochet, sit around, drink coffee and chat. We all look forward to it.

I went through the garage to go to my Explorer (parked on the driveway) and saw - at first glance - what I thought was a large cat. It was sitting at the back of my vehicle and watched me punch in our code to close the garage door. It sat there as I walked toward it to get into the car. When I was still about 20 feet away, I said, "Hi Kitty" in a sweet voice. It stood up and just sauntered around my car, away from me, and it was at that point that I saw the short tail that gave away its identity.

Internet photo

It was a bobcat! I'd seen a larger bobcat here last fall, and then a young one this spring (sitting on the top of our mound system), so they're no stranger to our semi-rural neighborhood, or even our yard. I think this one is the young one I saw, now about four months older.

When I got to the car, I walked to the back side to be sure it wasn't under the chasis. I saw her standing about 15 feet from me, looking at me and swishing her tail. I lived with cats as a kid and knew that a swishing tail isn't something I wanted to fool with. I casually got in my car and backed out to go to Books.

When I got into the main part of the drive, there she was again. When she saw the car, she hightailed it back into the brush. I'll be watching for her now, and I understand what seems to grab Kes' attention now when we go out to the mailbox. She must be sniffin' "bobcat"!
I drove to Port Charlotte without incident. I got to the shopping center where Books A Million is locate only to be greeted at all entries to the parking lot by squad cars with lights flashing. The officer just directed traffic to the right as we entered, and then I saw people standing all around and a section of the lot cordoned off with police tape. What the...?

I parked and walked to the entrance to the store, and although the lights were on, all the doors were locked. Hmm? I asked a lady who was passing by what was going on. She told me that there was a car in the lot that had a sign on the windshield saying that there was a bomb inside the car! She was upset because her car was inside the police tape and they wouldn't let her move it and go home. Everything was on lockdown, employees and shoppers were all evacuated and at 6:30 pm - at this shopping center - commerce had come to a standstill.

My cell rang and one of the gals told me they'd all moved across the street to Panera's, so I got back in my Explorer and drove over to join them. I'm still surprised that the officers even let me into the parking lot for Books a Million. We watched the flashing lights on the squad cars all evening. When I left Panera's, it was 10:30 pm (Alright, so I got into a lengthy conversation with my friend, Krisann and we lost track of time.). The police had left the parking lot across the street only a half hour earlier. That shopping center was locked down for over four hours! I can't wait to read today's paper to find out how this all played out. (UPDATE: Here's a link to the story that appeared in Wednesday morning's local paper about the incident.)

So, there you have it. My day of "bindings, bobcats and bomb scares". Who would have thought?



PS. I still haven't found my seam ripper, but I like Rettabug's suggestion to get a magnet wand to look for it! Who knows what I'll come up with! xoxo

A Tutorial For ZuZu...

I received the comment from Zuzu of A Cottage In The Woods, after I finished the lavender quilt top last weekend.

Zuzu said...It's gorgeous! What wonderful times these lucky little ones will have snuggled up in their quilts! I am very interested in how you finish your quilts, Donna. I made a quilt top years ago, but never finished it, because I just don't know how to. If possible, could you share how you pin the layers together & finish them? I'd love to learn! :)

Zuzu, dear, this is for you and anyone else who wants to know...I'll post a few photos here, but anyone who wants to know more about how I finish my quilts can get all the steps and processes by clicking on my Flickr album here. I don't have room to do large quilts in my studio, but these photos will give you an good representation of how I do the stitching on my own smaller quilts. I do my pinning on my antique oak table in our dinette area. (And, if I had more room, I'd certainly follow the same procedure for a larger quilt.)
In addition to the items I have on hand to do the quilt assembly (shown in this photo), I also used 100% cotton batting and bull dog clips (clamps). I machine quilt, so of course, Prissy got busy yesterday afternoon, too! (I couldn't do it without her or Miss Ellie. I have a nice, big quilting table surface attached to my Espire (quilting) sewing machine (nicknamed Prissy), so she's my go-to gal for these projects.
Here's what the "quilt sandwich" looks like after it's pinned and ready for sewing. Remember to decide on how you want your stitch pattern to look and then pin the pieces together so that you don't stitch over them when you're actually sewing the layers.
You can see in this photo that I have everything assembled, pinned, rolled and ready to quilt. The first photo is my finished "stippling", also called "meandering", pattern. I was lost in the movement of the fabric under the needle in the afternoon and time just seemed to fly. I haven't tackled the binding yet. My plans are to finish stippling the other quilt top and then doing the binding on both on the same day.

I hope you enjoy looking at the album (sort of a tutorial, I guess). Thank you, Zuzu, for the request. Anyone wanting more information from my posts, should know that you're welcome to ask me anything, anytime and I'll try to accommodate you. I really appreciate your comments and like to help whenever I can.

ps. I'll post the balance of this tutorial when I trim the quilt edges and add the binding in the next day or so. Then the tutorial will be complete.

Charmed, I'm Sure...

I knew when I got up yesterday morning that I'd start and complete my second quilt top. I thought I'd decided on the fabrics ahead of time, but by morning's light, I'd changed my mind about my choices. I opened the doors on my cabinets and started pulling fabrics. I settled on a collection from Benartex (Called "Charmed") in shades of sweet pinks and yellows.
My second decision was how I wanted to arrange the fabrics, and I decided on pinwheels for the little lady who will receive this finished quilt. I spent the next hour cutting all the fabrics into 5 1/2" squares. From there I joined fabrics and cut them to become assembled squares of half-square triangles. (I'm posting this album to show you the actual steps, in case you're interested.)
I added a sweet plaid sashing to the edges, and entire pieced quilt top measures 40" x 49". I'll quilt this one myself, too, and I'll start that later today.

I had so much fun with both of the quilt tops. The one I shared yesterday I'm calling "Faerie Glen", and this one will be called "Charmed, I'm Sure". I'll quilt them this week, photograph the to share with you, and they'll be on their way to their new homes.