Billy Connolly and Another Hexagon

Yes, I finished another hexagon while I was watching Billy Connolly. Needless to say, I was laughing out loud while I was sewing. Thank God, I can multi-task. Connolly was touring his country Scotland, and also doing some hilarious comedy routines on the stage. He is by far my favorite comedian. I had such a good time making the block, and maybe that is why it turned out so cheerful looking.

I am returning to the show, as he is showing The Highlands, which is drop dead gorgeous just like our Donegal is.

Siggies and Extraordinary Postcard

I received two lovely siggies which were both from Germany. One was from Claudia, who machine embroidered the cutest dog ever in her centre block, and the other was from Femija, who obviously is a cat lover. Thank you so much!

Then I also got the lovliest postcard ever from Maggi, who lives in England. She used silk paper for the background and the stitching she did on it was incredible...It created the loveliest grid imaginable! She also did some hand embroidery in the wee block which used stunning fall colours. Thank you Maggi from the bottom of my heart. I will treasure it always!

Finishing Little Women and One More Geisha Block

It is raining here in Dunfanaghy, but we have not been out for our long walk yet. I hope that it stops before we have to do that.Early in the morning, I finished my hexagon block. I then watched the rest of the movie "Little Women" as I was doing another geisha quilt. Needless to say when Beth died, I shed some tears, even though I have seen that scene countless times. I have the hankering to buy the book and read it again.

The colours required for this geisha block were a lovely red, green and black, so it turned out very vibrant. The stitching time has averaged around 46 minutes, but the preparation time is what takes a while. If you are a machine embroiderer, you know what I mean.I will have to clean the machine tomorrow before I continue to machine embroider the blocks, but I will have to do my work in the afternoon, as Joe and I are spending the morning in Letterkenny. We are waiting for the postman to come with our mail, and then we will head out for our walk.

Tonight, I have a quilting bee at Pauline's Quilt Shop from 7-10 PM while Joe is at home watching tv.

Little Women and Another Geisha Block

I spent a lovely morning watching for the umpteenth time "Little Women" and doing my machine embroidery for the next geisha block. I love the music in the movie, but I think that I know all of the lines as well. Joe asked me how I can watch the movie so many times, and I said, "Very easily, indeed." Well, I had to work on the design in Embird, chose the appropriate Madeira threads to use, and then wound the bobbins that I needed. I needed black the most, and I will have to order at least 4 more black threads from Barnyarns, as every block utilizes that colour. The time just flew by. I didn't finish the movie, but I will tomorrow when I do the next geisha block. I was up to the point in the movie where Amy and Laurie start to have feelings for each other, and Jo was in New York where she was falling for Professor Bear. The sad part where Beth gets really ill is coming up, but all that will have to wait till tomorrow. The rest of the day, I will be taking a long walk with Joe through the hills that bypass the Famine Graveyard, and then I will finish my hexagon flower that I started yesterday.

Finally, Mother Superior's Blog at http://superiorthreads.blogspot.com/ is having a giveaway...you can win a 100 dollar gift certificate.It's Bob's birthday, and he is feeling generous. What fun!

Have a great day!

Woodland Centre Block and Quilting Day With the Guild

The Sheephaven Guild met at one of our local church halls to have a quilting day from 11-4PM. We had lunch, and spent a lovely day finishing any UFOS that we had. I took my Thimbleberry project with me, which was the Woodland Centre Block. I had my 1953 Singer Featherweight with me, and even with all of the chit chat, I finished the block. Now, mind you, it took, me hours to do it, so you can well imagine how much talking was going on. It was a wonderful time of sharing our work and just being with friends. I now only have one section to do, and then I put the top together, so tomorrow, I will be busy with that. It was a great day with the gals at the guild, and all of us got lots accomplished, but most of all, it was a day of sheer fun.

PS: There is a great giveaway at Lola's And Sew on, which can be found at http://ansewon.blogspot.com/2009/02/giveaway.html . I entered that one, so while there is still time to enter, do so. I am sure that you will love the prize.

My Anniversary and Thoughts of Wuthering Heights

When I met Joe 12 years ago, and we were literally 3000 miles apart....we of course were writing each other by email initially.....I have been thinking back on how we met and got together, and it was so magical. We are soulmates, and we can't imagine life without each other. My favorite movie of all times was "Wuthering Heights", and it so reminds me of our love for each other. I am thinking of all of this, as our anniversary is on March 14th. Both of us are planning and plotting what we will get the other one. I know that the most important thing that Joe has given me, which can't be bought by money, is "love", and that our love is timeless and everlasting. I thought I would share a few pics of Wuthering Heights. I think that the line that I will remember most from that movie was when Heathcliffe said,"What do they know of heaven or hell Cathy, who know nothing of life?" I don't have to be reminded to know that life without Joe would be meaningless indeed and that death only means that we would be together for eternity. My favorite pics of the movie are the ones that I have included. When Joe and I walk through the hills of Donegal or we are alone on the beach, it reminds me of Heathcliffe and Cathy in the moors...with the wind in their faces, holding hands, and only seeing each other. I have included my favorite pics of us together ...We don't have too many pics of each other, as we don't see anyone around where we usually walk, but when we do, we occasionally ask them to take a pic of us. It is always nice to think of Joe, so I thought I would share my thoughts with you.

PS: I should have included that our song is "For the First Time"...sung by Rod Stewart. You can hear it, as it is in my playlist. Joe played it for me on the phone after we had written thousands of letters to each other. That was the first time I heard his voice on New Year's Eve. Then he came to Philadelphia and we met. At the end of that month, he asked me to marry him. That's the story in a nutshell, as they say.

A Lazy Day and Another Hexagon

I had one of those lazy, lazy days. I went back to bed after breakfast and slept an additional two hours. In the early afternoon,I read a Patchwork and Quilting Magazine that came today, and there were great ideas that I wanted to try out, but not today.I loved reading that magazine with my cup of coffee, as I sat in the most comfortable leather lounge chair that you can imagine, while Joe was taking an afternoon nap. I mustered the strength to then finish another hexagon, and just didn't want to do anything else, except play Ico on my Playstation 2. I will get back to my other projects tomorrow. Gee, I just won a Creativ Blogger Award, and look what I did today! Well, we all have our lazy days. As to why I felt this way today.... I think it was because my dog Rufus kept us up last night till some ungodly hour, so I blame this all on him.LOL Lately, Rufus has enjoyed keeping us up, and he chews his nails, licks his paws, and then comes up to our bed making slurping noises....all to get our attention and keep us up. He finally decided to go to sleep, but in the meantime, we had become totally unsettled with it all, even Charlie who growled at Rufus when he tried to wake him up. Well, I still managed to get all the hexagons cut out for my next flower.Tomorrow, I will make another geisha block, sew a siggy that I owe someone, and also work on my Thimbleberry quilt. I have to admit in all honesty that I enjoyed being a bit lazy and just lounging around.

I got the Kreativ Blogger Award from my dear friend Maggi whose blog is at

http://todreamtostitch.blogspot.com/ I am supposed to give the award to three creative awards. I agree with Maggi when she said that picking only three is the hard part. I will be notifying them that they won the award, and here are the creative bloggers that I am nominating:

1. Dzintra at http://dzintrastitcheries.blogspot.com/ who is a dear friend of mine and a wonderful sweet, creative person.

2. Pat at http://poshandtrendy.blogspot.com/ who when you visit her blog, you will see why I nominated her. She is so innovative and boy am I lucky to have her as a friend.

3. Marie at http://mariequilts.blogspot.com/ who is "my girlfriend" as she affectionately always calls me, and who is multi-talented.

You will have such a treat when you visit all of the blogs above. Well, I will have to get my creative juices flowing tomorrow in case the award is withdrawn. LOL ...just kidding.My goodness, this has turned out to be a great day!

Thanks again to Maggi who gave me the award. What a wonderful and generous gesture!

Hugs,

Micki

Geisha Blocks Continue and Classic Movies

I am getting into the routine of doing my machine embroidery in the morning in the bedroom while I watch a classic movie. I did another geisha block and had the movie "Rebecca" on with Laurence Olivier and Joan Fontaine. I decided that I will see all my favorite classics again while I am working. The next two movies that I will watch are "Jane Eyre" and "Wuthering Heights." I finished seeing "Little Women" when I did block one, so this has turned into a fun journey of creativity and entertainment all rolled up into one.

Joe and I just finished lunch, and we are waiting for the mail so we can go on our long walk. I think we will head out to the beach again, as it is sunny, and that doesn't happen too often here in Donegal County. Then I am getting an other set of hexagon blocks ready to do at the quilting bee tonight in Pauline's Quilt Shop from 7-10PM. I got into the habit of doing my hexagons in the evening, so I will only need a small bag to carry the supplies. This afternoon before the bee, I will complete two siggy blocks that I need to mail, and get the 10 hearts that I made for a heart swap ready to be mailed to Cindy from The Friendship Group. It is not due till March 31st, but I want to be ahead of the game.

Tomorrow, we head out to Letterkenny, so we will be gone most of the morning. I will have to do my machine embroidery in the afternoon.

Hexagon Flower #3

Here is the third flower that I completed for the hexagon quilt. Tonight, I cut out the hexagons for the next one, and will do number 4 at the quilting bee tomorrow night. I really have to say that I love making hexagons, especially large flowers like this. It is the perfect thing to do when you are watching tv at night. I can't say enough about it. It is just such fun! I have made a diagram of the planned quilt on hexagon graph paper. I will need to order some half hexagons when I have all the flowers connected, so I can finish off the edges with them and then add the borders to finish off the top. I can't recommend this enough, but definitely would say that using jelly rolls has made the process so much easier for me.

Off to cut out the the hexagons for the next one.

Two Siggies and Another Geisha Block For My Oriental Qult

I received two wonderful siggies today. Once is from Katrin who is from Germany, and she and I are forming a lovely friendship. Her centre is lovely, as she embroidered a lovely heart, which reminds me of a Celtic design. Then I received a siggy of Renate, also from Germany, who put a cube in her block centre. It is very similar to a cube that I did for my Sylvia Bridal Sampler. I love the colours and the fabrics used in the siggies. Thanks to you both!

I also made another geisha block for my geisha quilt, and I used the Janome 35oE to complete the machine embroidery. I love the Madeira thread colours that are required for each design...very subtle colours, but beautiful in its simplicity.There is some yellow in the sashing, but that did not take for some reason with the flash of the camera. Also, all the backgrounds for the blocks are a pale pink fairy frost, and goodness, this looks like pale violet. Well, you get the idea.LOL I am finding that when I use the Madeira Stable ironed onto the back of the block, and the Madeira Tearaway, it stitches really nice.

I am also in the process of finishing another Hexagon flower and will post a pic tonight, if I finish it. That is always a joy to do. I am taking to it like a duck to water.

Hexagon Block 2 and The Wonderful Torvill and Dean

I finished my second hexagon block for the hexagon quilt that I will be making. I hand sewed it while I was watching "The Story of Bolero With Torvill and Dean" on tv. What a nice evening I had, as I am throughly enjoying making hexagons, and absolutely love Torvill and Dean.I have included a pic of them dancing on ice to "Bolero", and that performance was magical! they received the Olympic

Gold Medal and the perfect score of six from each judge. You can see the performance here at the following link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t2zbbN4OL98

I now have 40 blocks to go...no big deal. I will have a light blue connecting row for all of the blocks, so all in all, I will come close to 2500 individual hexagons that I will make.

A Siggy and a Gorgeous Postcard Arrived

I received a beautiful siggy from Decool who lives in France. I always love flowers, so the fabric was perfect, and who can resist cats. Thanks so much!

I had a swap with Dianna who is from the Postcard Pizzazz Group. She made a gorgeous lace fabric postcard, and wrote on the back:

"The silver foil is from a Cadbury Carmello Bar which I sacrificed for you."

That made me laugh out loud. I hope you endured eating the bar!LOL Boy, do I love Cadbury....actually, I love any chocolate.

I was busy today making a fabric postcard for Maggi, who is swapping with me. I can't post it, as I want it to be a surprise, but I did use my Janome 350E to machine embroider it...that is it...no more clues...mum is the word.

Winners of My Giveaway

Let's have a drumroll with fireworks exploding, and the winners are:

First Prize Goes To: Dzintra whom you can visit at http://dzintrastitcheries.blogspot.com/
She has won the book and the lace bookmark!

Second Prize Goes To: Maggi whose lovely work can be seen at http://todreamtostitch.blogspot.com/ She has won my handmade machine embroidered lace bookmark.

Third Prize Goes To: Phyllis whose incredible blog can be visited at http://spinknitandlife.blogspot.com/
She has also won my handmade machine embroidered lace bookmark.

Here is how the winners were decided: I told my husband that there were 17 entries and to choose three numbers from 1-17. Without looking at the list of course, he picked numbers 4,7, and 11. I then counted down and gave number four on the list first prize, number seven second prize, and number eleven third prize. Yes, he was my random drawer.

Congratulations to All! I will have your prizes in the mailbox tomorrow. Please email me your addresses, so I can send them to you. Enjoy!
Of course, all of you who entered are winners with a capital "W".

Puzzle Swap

I have joined a swap again. Pat Winter is hosting the swap and the swap information is at Pat Winter Gathering which can be seen at:
http://gatherings100.blogspot.com/2009/01/pieces-of-friendship-puzzle-swap-list.html There you can see the pattern for the puzzle pieces that we all will be making. I will be machine embroidering my puzzle pieces and will post the pics when I am done all of them. I intend to make a wall hanging out of the puzzle pieces that I receive, and it should be very different and lovely.

It is not due till June 1st, but I will try to get them done over the next month and get them mailed off.

If you want to join the swap, write Pat Winter angell100@comcast.net and tell her that you want to join in the fun! If you want to just try the pattern, Pat has the patterns on her site to copy.

Let me warn you, that making the puzzle pieces can be very addictive.LOL

My First Hexagon Flower

I ordered from four different places, and lo and behold, all four packages came at the same time yesterday. I never had that happen. One of them was from Paper Pieces, and it was the 1200 hexagons that I ordered and the Grandmother's Flower Garden book by Kate Hardy. I immediately went to work on using the jelly rolls that I ordered to cut out the fabric that I needed for the hexagons. I used a beautiful floral print fabric and a plain off white fabric. I used flower pins to pin the hexagon pieces to the fabric and cut them out leaving a quarter inch seam allowance. Each flower, I decided, would have the same off white hexagon centre, a different second and third round, but when I am connecting them, all of them will have that connecting round in pink.

After al the hexagons were hand basted, I began hand sewing the rounds and combined three rows of hexagons into a large flower. It took me hours, but I did most of it while I was watching tv. I really enjoyed the whole process, and as you can see, it turned out nicely. I haven't decided yet if I will make a wall hanging or quilt out of the flowers. I am still looking at the book to get some ideas. We shall see.

My Prayers to All Australians

I am sending to all Australians, who are going through such difficult times, my love and an Irish Prayer . My thoughts and prayers go with you all.

An Irish Prayer
May God give you...For every storm, a rainbow,For every tear, a smile,For every care, a promise,And a blessing in each trial.For every problem life sends,A faithful friend to share,For every sigh, a sweet song,And an answer for each prayer

God bless you all!

Thimbleberry Centre Block Finished

Yesterday, I began working on the Thimberry Centre Block. I put the applique pieces on the block with Bondaweb, which I love.I used a clear plastic square to find the center points of the quilt center section, so that I could place the pieces accurately. Today, I machine stitched the applique pieces, and I used tearaway stabilizer to the backside of the block so it would lay flat while I was stitching.I used a lovely sailboat print for the triangles to sew to the center block. It is a twenty and a half inch block, and I was happy with how it turned out.

Now, I have two sections to go. I will get them done this week, and then I can put the top together following the diagram provided. When I put all the sections together, the quilt center will measure around sixty four and a half inches. Then I will have to see how many borders I will have to put on to make it a double sized quilt, as the pattern is for a queen sized quilt, which will be too big for our bed.

Yes, there was snow in Ireland. I couldn't believe it when I woke up and saw it. It really created a magical scene here in Dunfanaghy. We were off to Letterkenny that morning, and the bus driver, who usually drives quickly was steering the bus very cautiously. The roads were pretty hazardous, and Dunfanaghy made the news because of our road conditions. Many of the schools closed, and I am sure that the kids enjoyed that. I have to admit that I enjoyed our drive into the city, as the scenery was incredible. As you can see by the pic, Dunfanaghy was lovely with the snow covering Horn Head. Now, why couldn't it have snowed during Christmas? I am still looking forward to spring though, so I can be reminded of what the sun looks like.LOL

Just a Reminder About the Giveaway

Just to remind you all,I have a giveaway that I posted earlier on January 20th. I am changing it to my own giveaway as I must have not met the deadline for the One Heart, One World Giveaway, so I am not on that list. As I still wanted to give away the prizes, it is still on, as I will thoroughly enjoy mailing the winners their prizes.

If you want to participate, the last day you can post your comment is on February 11th. Please post your comment on the January 20th post to qualify. I don't have too many entries, so why not give it a go and try to win the book and bookmarks? Make sure that there is some contact information so I can tell you that you won. I will post the book and bookmarks to the three winners this week.

The book is awesome and I think that you will love the bookmarks that I machine embroidered. All the best,

Micki

Thimbleberry 2008 Quilt in Progress and Yummy Fabric Purchased

I am determined to finish the Thimbleberry Quilt for 2008. Here we are in 2009, and it is not finished. These are the parts that I have done so far. Today, I did the Bears Paw Block, and I have three to go, and one of them is an appliqued block. which I adore doing. It really is very dramatic! Normally, Thimbleberry projects tend to be colorless, but they have been providing brighter alternatives, so that is why I chose this one.

Tonight is a quilting bee at Pauline's Quilt Shop in town. I am only a 5 minutes walk to the shop...boy am I lucky with that! The bee will be from 7-10, so it should be great fun. I am taking the next Thimbleberry block to cut out, and also a heart runner which I am making .I am slowly but surely getting rid of those dreaded UFOS.

I also ordered wonderful material for the borders of my geisha quilt. Both are Japanese fabrics that I got from Shibori Dragon which you can see at http://www.shiboridragon.com/ I am now machine stitching my geisha blocks and will also add some pagodas and flowers. I was thrilled with the material that I got from Shibori Dragon, and I can't wait to see the quilt on our bed!

The Great Hexagon Quilt-Along Group

I just got accepted in the Great Hexagon Quilt-Along. Robyn is the originator of the group, and as she said, "It is like a big, online quilting bee." We are all making hexagons, and I will be starting with them. If you want to see what everyone is doing, go to the group site:

http://hexagonquilt-along.blogspot.com/ Also Robyn's blog is http://daisyquilts.blogspot.com/

I am really looking forward to making the hexagons again. Here is a really cool pictorial tutorial on English Paper Piecing: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sunshinescreations/418177276/ .

Also, please take not of this tutorial that I found at:

http://sewmanyways.blogspot.com/2009/02/granmothers-flower-garden-paper-piecing.html

This is the best tutorial ever on English Paper Piecing.

If you want to make hexagons or try other shapes using the English Paper Piecing Method, then supplies are readily available at Paper Pieces which can be seen at: http://www.paperpieces.com/ I just ordered a 1200 bulk pack of hexagons for a great price and got a book called Grandmother's Flower Garden, but they also have several other books and videos to get one started on English Paper Piecing. Next time I order, I will get the half hexagons and get myself another book.

Well, I will keep you up on this project, and post some pics.
I can see myself doing this by the fire as I am watching tv.....Perfect! That is I will be doing that in addition to my knitting. But since it is so portable, I can really take it anywhere. This is going to be loads of fun!

February Star: Dzintra

I am lucky to have formed a friendship with Dzintra, and she is my February Star. She is really inspirational, and such a nice person. She loves walking on the beach as much as I do, and when I see her pics of the sea and the beach, it always reminds me of Killahoey Beach.
Here are her interview questions, and have fun getting to know her better:

Interview for February

1 A Bit About Me: I am a Mum to 3 wonderful children, Nanna to a Grandson and Grand-daughter and soon to be Great Aunt. I am doing an 18th month Cookery Course to be completed mid-year. We have a daughter with an intellectual disability who teaches us much about life and what really matters...you could say we see things as they are...and we also have the privelege of being able to see things through her eyes (so to speak)!!!

2 What Inspires Me:
A salty blue day would come pretty much up the top of the list...getting up in the morning to lovely sunshine, warmth and the smell of the salt in the air.

3 What I Love to Do the Most Creatively:
I love to look through inspiring cook books, plan a meal, set the table with flowers, candles, music...set the scene for the occasion
4 My Favorite Fabric and Designer:
My favourite fabric would have to be luxurious velvet...and designer would be Anni Downs from Hatched and Patched

5 UFO I Intend to Finish First:
A little cross-stitched needlecase that my Son brought home from Scotland

6 What’s on the Design Wall Now:
Faerie Quilt with squares needing to be attached

7 Who Would I Love to Meet:
My new blogging friend Simone

8 If I Had One Wish:
To be fit and healthy into our old age so that we could give the best possible care for our daughter

9 Plans for the Future:
mmmm...would love to have a weekend a year's break with my Husband, knowing our daughter is cared for and happy...(is asking for a week too much!!)

You can also visit her wonderful blog at : http://dzintrastitcheries.blogspot.com/