For Dad

Today I remember my Dad.

How he went to war.

Lost so many of his friends.

Saw things a person should never have to see.

He drove a tank across Europe.

Patton's army.

He came home, married the love of his life and raised 6 kids.

We are a close family.

Dad loved his family fiercely, possessively. 

And he loved the Lord most of all.  

He was a great man, a remarkable man.

 

There was a whole generation of them...men like my dad.

Men who didn't make excuses or complaints.

Men with integrity.

Men who revered the truth.

Men who sacrificed.

Men who kept promises.

Men who were proud of doing for themselves and their families and their country.

Men who did what had to be done and prayed that they would live through it.

 

I miss him so much. 

And so does the world.

Back in the Saddle Again

Stumbling out of the mullygrubs and working on several wallhangings. They are patterns from the Accuquilt site, and I am enjoying them very much.  They are layered and ready for quilting so should be finished by Monday, depending on how much time it will take to get some software updates applied to my Mom's new computer.

The Go! Baby I won is really getting a good workout and I'm adding new die sets to my wishlist almost daily. 

Will have to pace myself, for sure!

Here are two of the three I'm ready to quilt:

 The one above is from the book

"Quilting on the Go!"

I changed it up a bit.

This is a free pattern from Accuquilt. 

I changed it a bit also. Will be adding stars to the four corners.

Pretty plain. Not sure if I want to embellish it more or not. 

Any advice?

Changing the subject...the blistering hot weather has arrived and with it a gusty, dust-blowing, withering wind.  The desert plants seem to be OK with it.

Here is a shot of my neighbor's century plant (agave americana), sending up its flower stalk. 

After the flowers develop into fruit, the whole plant dies.

Pretty impressive, eh? 

You can see the eave of the house which gives a reference point for the height of the stalk.

Well I'm off to bed.  I work at the LQS for the next 2 days so gotta be rested to lift bolts, cut fabric, haul sewing machines, stock merchandise, and walk walk walk!

Happy Days,

Gramma Sheri

Resentment

Warning: this is not a post about quilting!

Resentment can gnaw away at your inner parts until, one day you wake up and you are all gone.

It's horrible.

While it eats away at you, it immobilizes you in a frozen fury:

you feel powerless, suspicious, distrustful, victimized.

Living in a community you loathe can plant the seeds of resentment.

Losing your independence to care-giving responsibilities can do it also.

The list of things that can cause resentment is almost endless.

Resentment's bosom buddy is Guilt. 

Together, they can totally destroy a person.

I'm working hard to get rid of them.

Prayer.  Lots of it.

Thanksgiving.  Even more of that.

My sermon, to myself.

gramma sheri

Design Wall Tutorial

This is my first real attempt at a tutorial.

I have been planning to make a design wall since I restructured my sewing room last fall. 

But I hadn't.

Until today.

 Inspired by the May for Me celebration, I decided to give it a shot. 

 

Here are the supplies I used:

-Two 2 ft x 4 ft foam insulation panels (these are about 1inch thick and look like sheets of styrofoam)

-Photo spray mount adhesive

-Furniture tacks (like thumb tacks, but a bit longer)

-Gorilla tape (or duct tape)

-Four pieces of batting, about 28 x 52 inches

-A plastic tarp to protect work surfaces from the adhesive

 

Here is what I did (outdoors, because of spray fumes!):

Took a panel of the insulation (the side with printing is the back)

 Sprayed the entire surface of the front (non-printed) side of the panel with the adhesive

Centered the first layer of batting and smoothed out from center, stretching slightly

 

Centered the second layer of batting (or poly fleece, in my case) over the first layer

Folded half of it back and sprayed the exposed first layer of batting

Smoothed the folded half out over the sprayed first layer, stretching slightly

Repeated for the second half of the second layer of batting

 

Smoothed both layers of batting over the edges

 

Ready for finishing the back

 

Flipped the panel over on its front

Trimmed corners on the diagonal, about an inch away from the panel

(Hooboy! When did I get THOSE hands!??)

 

Pulled both thicknesses of batting toward the back and trimmed, leaving about 1 inch to adhere to the back

 

 Sprayed the adhesive close to the panel around the edges

Starting with the corners, pulled the batting diagonal cut over the corner and adhered

 

 The corner looked like this after the sides were glued down

 The back, all glued down

 Took the Gorilla tape and ran it around the edges to make sure the batting stayed in place

 The finished back

Finished the panel by pushing furniture tacks in around all edges

(the package of tacks are hanging on the front panel...forgot to remove them for the picture)

ONE DONE, ONE TO GO!

So, go back to the top and repeat the steps if making another one!

Here are the two panels hanging on the wall in my little sewing room, with a few of my unfinished projects already in place, reminding me that they want to be finished.

Well, at least the design wall is done...

One last note:  hubby nailed a few finishing nails (the kind with no flat head on them) into the wall studs and we just pushed the panels onto the nails

If I need more stability, I'll just use that picture-hanger goo on the back of the panels

Long post, but it was fun!

Happy Days,

Gramma Sheri

May for Me, Thus Far

One of my friends, a coworker at our LQS, left me a little baggie filled with leftover bits from a table runner she had made for a shop sample.  She was teasing me about keeping the leftover triangles from our shop-hop quilt.  (See the posts about that here and here.)

This is what she had made:

Pretty, huh?

So I took the little baggie of leftover fabric bits and made this:

Cute, huh? 

(I made my own teeny-tiny Twister template.)

Here they are together:

Mutt and Jeff .

(Youngsters reading this: google it.)

I returned MY leftover bits to her in that same baggie.

Haven't seen anything back from her yet.  heh heh heh

Hugely enjoying myself.

Sunny Days,

Gramma Sheri

Fun Mail!

Arrived home from my Mom's late this afternoon.  Stayed with her for a couple of days after her dental surgery on Thursday, and then ran a bunch of errands on the way home today.  

Tired.

Hot.

Unpacking to do.

Dinner to fix.

(pity party on the horizon)

Then I went to the mailbox and....

My Rio Mini 90 Aqua Pump/Power Head arrived!

Thank you so much, Josie!

Oh wait...that's not right.

The lovely pineapple pincushion I won came! Thank you so much, Josie! 

(The box threw me off for a minute...:D )

Josie of Insanity Defense  hosted a giveaway which was this lovely pincushion that she made, and also the pattern for it.  The pattern, Pineapple Crush, is a new one by Rana of Pieces of my Life, and can be found here. 

Aren't the colors Josie chose simply wildly perfect?  I have the pincushion sitting atop my sewing machine to brighten my day.  Now to find some pins deserving of such an awesome pincushion!

Suddenly, I feel all wiggly happy.  Thank you, Josie and Rana!

Happy Days,

Gramma Sheri