Hand Made Birthday Cards

I love the friends I've made through quilting. Some of them are so artsy-fartsy (and I mean that in a good way).

I thought it was particularly interesting that both cards had special stamps on the back.
Margaret's made me say 'awww, sniff sniff' and go look for a kleenex.


Susan's funny little stamp made me laugh - I hope you can read it.

Thread-tales of Woe & my Birthday

Did you know that when you spill your morning bowl of oatmeal it looks just like throw-up? But it saves a few calories, so you can have a piece of... Birthday Cake! happy birthday to meee... We usually have a winter storm around my birthday, but today it's raining (raining in February???). The cold front will move in this afternoon, so we will miss all the snow. It will turn to ICE instead.

My birthday plans are:

1. sleep in (nope- dh was making way too much noise for that)
   
2. take a nice girly bath this morning instead of my usual hurry-up shower
   
3. call Mom and tell her it's my birthday so she can sing to me
   
4. call a nice restaurant so dh can take me out for supper
   
5. Maybe take an afternoon nap, since #1 was a bust

I was doing a brain puzzle on the internet last night. You have to match the animal sound to the correct picture of the animal. Apparently I have NO idea what a deer sounds like - I kept picking a bird picture. What were these people thinking? Who talks to deer? Couldn't they stick to cats & dogs? If I keep at the game, maybe I will learn - ya think?

Have I mentioned that I love bright quilts? This is a beauty - the small version. There was a matching large version.



I also love scrappy quilts.







Floyd is habitually a GREAT quilting machine. But about once a year he has a case of PMS (pick my stitches). What takes 10 minutes to stitch takes about an hour to pick out. I had one earplug in because I'd been working with my ear next to the motor (can you say Industrial Deafness?). I thought I heard a funny noise, but I just wrote it off to the earplug. Well, Hellooo dummy - you've had the plug in for an hour and the funny noise just started. Warning Warning: Machine problem. But do I pay any attention??? Nah! So much for making any money on that job. I think the top thread popped out of the tension discs. Or there was too much lint in the bobbin area. Or he needed oiling. Maybe a combination of all three things.

But here we go - all done and looking lovely.

Sharing Knowledge

I asked Threddy Krueger to clean my workroom while I have my lunch. He's so accommodating. :-)

In Singapore, wandering around little India, I stopped in at The Yoga Shop. I purchased A Pocket Book On Virtue by Dadi Janki, published by Brahma Kumaris. Here is a quote:

ENCOURAGEMENT

When I have learned to love and accept myself, I no longer compete with others but enjoy encouraging them to reach for their dreams. I can genuinely celebrate their success and enjoy seeing them go ahead of me.

This perfectly describes Linda V. Taylor, longarm Queen to whom I bow down.

That is my little thank you to the universe today.

Tokyo - Log Cabin Quilts

Today I thought I would entertain you with the Log Cabin quilts from the Tokyo show. Ohhh, teeny tiny logs. Sometimes they use this as a palette for applique. You may also notice the colours are quite subdued in most of these quilts.








I look at mine, which are usually made from 2 1/2" strips. Then I look at these. I look at mine, then look at these. I feel like a kindergardener who is learning to sew by stitching yarn through a paper plate.

vacation story

Part of my vacation was spent in Singapore visiting my niece, who teaches grade 3. Doris and I volunteered to spend a morning with her kids and make postcards with them.

I don't have children. And I was the baby of the family. And I never babysat, so I'm very intimidated by kids (there is a really good horror movie stored in my brain somewhere). The kids were pretty good, although there was this one boy who had a zillion questions and did NOT like my answers. He was making me very tense but my niece saved me by making him start looking for pictures for his card. whew. Doris was a great help because she has LOTS of experience with kids. Here is the before and after of our little class.







My niece also wanted us to have an ADVENTURE while we were in Singapore, so she took us for a foot reflexology session. The trick part of that little spa session was the 20 minutes with the fish that eat the dead skin off your feet first. Can you say "eeuuuwwww!!!!". We did - trust me.
Interested??? Sentosa Island

Mostly we were out for lunch and supper, but one day Doris and I decided to cook our lunch at the apartment. Scrambled eggs and toast - excellent idea! Hmm, can't seem to get the stove to work?

Me: " Um, Doris, have you ever cooked eggs in the microwave?"
Doris: "No."

Scrambled Eggs in the Microwave
Instructions: 2 eggs mixed up in a small bowl. Cook 20 secs, stir, 20 secs, stir, 10 secs, stir, let stand. File this away in your brain - you never know when you'll need the information.

Tokyo Quilt Show - Group Quilts

Like all the quilts at the show, the group quilts were fantastic. This is a small sample - there were lots of group quilts. Many were very whimsical, as you will see.

The bear cutting his way out of a crazy quilt made me laugh out loud. And all his little friends helping with the quilt!









There were several quilts at the show that had 'connectors' to hold them together, as you can see in the taupe coloured quilt. In every case, the technique was beautifully executed.






























I belong to a guild that has done a bang-up job of making a group quilt. These made me want to start another one that goes beyond the traditional (habitual?) choices we tend to make. You really need to have confidence in the workmanship of your partners when you tackle a project like these. I mean, LOOK at the tiny stuffed strawberries in the teddy bear's picnic block. Trust me... they are very very tiny. And if you check out the bear with the blue bonnet you will see more yo-yos around the border.

Yo Yo quilts from Tokyo Show

Here are some of the yo yo quilts from the show. When we were wandering around the vendor mall it finally became apparent that they do these the old fashioned way. No one sold the yo yo makers.
































Lunch the first day at the show was ... inventive??? Doris had a banana (contraband we had smuggled out of the hotel breakfast buffet) and a beer. I had a compatriot banana and a Baskin Robbins ice cream cone. For dessert we had granola bars. I think between us we covered all the necessary food groups. I was glad to see when we returned home that my bathroom scale was stuck on the same number as when I left. Nice, eh?

We had taken the train to the show and were a bit lost. We asked a nice fellow where the Tokyo Dome was and he sent us off up the street and around the corner. Yup - Tokyo Dome straight ahead. This was the first time I noticed that the sidewalks were painted with directional arrows. After that I started noticing this all over the place. Many of the Japanese were very disobedient and were walking on the wrong side of the sidewalk, but I did not see anyone get a ticket.