HOT, HOT, HOT

Yes, I understand that it's summer, but THIS summer it is just ridiculous! Near 100 degrees daily for what seems to be forever (and 120 on my very comfortable deck ).  As I sit in my sewing room sweating through the latest projects, I think back to other days...when the weather didn't dictate what I could manage to work on.

At any rate, I have managed to complete the blocks I have committed to, even though this is the third month of the block swap, and I have only received one block in return.....I do remain hopeful!  This block is going out to California.  My July partner requested blues and browns, in scrappy form.  What she didn't know is that SCRAPPY and CINDY have a real love/hate relationship!  Love to look at them, can't for the life of me figure out how to do it.  I can not seem to just throw together different patterns, I need a plan.  I do, however think that this looks pretty nice, and the fabrics look well together.  I hope it fits into what she wanted!

Then there is the block lotto.  Oh boy.  This gal has been having trouble with the blog setting (this one included) as I can't always get into the page to write the darn thing.  Adding pics is another challenge!  I am hoping to use this whole experience as a learning type thing, and by years end to be proficient in the use of these things.  Time will tell, right now I am giving myself a grade of C, and that is generous.

So, having finally gotten it together for Junes Block Lotto, I mailed out my blocks to a new friend in the Sultanate of Oman.  Yup, I too had to look it up in Google Maps, feeling like a high school drop out or something.  Jo is originally from the UK, but living now in Oman, and will be receiving the 6 missing blocks from June.

Julys challenge is something called  Liberated Checkerboard.  Let me start by saying that I didn't feel at all liberated!  But, they look pretty good for a funky type block.  It was a real challenge for me, as I really prefer intricate piecing, but I think that whoever wins all the blocks will have a beautiful, and unique quilt.

Well, that's all for now.  With any luck I will remember how to get back in here next month, and it won't be as long between posts!  Keep cool, and keep on stitching!

Slow going!

So, I finally got a block together that I can be happy with, and it's ready to send out.  But, no one answers me from out there in cyberspace as to what happens next!  This isn't going the way I imagined it.  I thought, "Wow!  A bunch of women with like interests...new blocks every month, and new friends."  How great that would have been.  It hasn't been that way yet, but I will post a pic of the block, and then mail it out, and hope for the best.

Well, here I go, jumping into cyberspace!

So, here we are...a blog!  When I first understood what a blog was, I was watching the charming Amy Adams in her movie about Julia Childs.  It was an interesting idea, and I was amazed that people actually followed it.  Now, because I decided to join a quilt block exchange, I am joining the countless others talking to themselves (!?) on the computer.

At any rate, I am joining this exchange in an effort to reach out and find others who are as crazy about stitching as I am.  Friends and family know that I get the "DT's" if I can't stitch something, anything for more than a day at a time.  It is my meditation, my peace, and even my pain management as I head through each day with my arthritic knees and creaking titanium.

Those who have known me a while know that I do lots of kinds of stitching.  Quilting, apparel, home decor, knitting, crocheting, cross stitch, and onward.  If it has been invented I have probably tried it and stashed away enough materials to keep busy should the apocalypse actually occur.  If it hasn't yet been invented, I probably have dabbled in it's early creation.  I most likely spend at least five hours a day creating something, begrudingly cleaning the house during my stretching breaks.

I have a happy, simple life, and if you catch a glimpse of me I am usually smiling.  There are lots of bad things out there, but life itself is good!

So, there you have a little bit about me.  More later as we get going in this mysterious, and hopefully fun event unfolding!