Who Needs the Quilt Gift of Love MORE & Apples?

Log cabin blocks set in Courthouse Steps pattern.  Individual blocks made by Sister _______, (can't remember her name!  We can call her Sister Generous Soul) who gave me boxes and boxes of "antique" looking fabric before she left on her mission from Baltimore Stake to Guatemala.  Sister Generous Soul was once the sister-by-marriage to our first landlord (D. Bradford) in Springville.  I wish she could see this quilt! 

I sewed the blocks into two quilts and taught the Relief Society sisters how to quilt.  The first one using "Crow's Foot" stitches-my personal favorite tie method, and this one, using traditional knot ties.  The first one I got bound, finished and delivered to Salt Lake City Welfare Square as a donation.  This one has (embarrassingly) sat unbound for....years?   Too long.  It is finished, finally, and going to a good home today:  new baby girl and family in need of some extra love.  Yes, it is great to donate to rescue missions, disaster areas, Church projects, but sometimes help a little closer to home is what is needed more.  I hope it helps this family stay warm this winter, and that they know lots of love and learning hands went into making it.  Everyone helping a little bit can make a difference!  Thanks to Tiffany for organizing friends and helping us be aware of a real need locally.

Happy Rosh Hashannah meant a day off of school.  Both of these children are in a serious growth spurt.  Good helpers.

GIANT mitsu apples.  Thank you to friend Laura who taught me where to find them!

1821

The Methodist Church on route 136 is 190 years old.  We  helped my friend/old boss Joan celebrate with her congregation.  Suzanna was the harpist.

Costume borrowed from Joan, complete with pocket and chatelaine. Loved the bonnet and hat.

Does she know how beautiful she is?  Great classic look!

Working Wardrobe?

Once a week I go into a fancy office wearing a skirt, dress shoes, nice blouse.  Earrings.  My engagement diamond.  I style my hair, make sure my make-up is conservatively modest.  The rest of the week, depends on the project!

I can dream about being the star decorator on HGTV someday...The worse part about being on one of those tv decorating shows:  what to wear?  Really?  I am a messy painter, making sure tarps are down.  The artists look fake to me, when they are duded up fancy, wearing new/clean/stylin' clothing. 

I paint wild!  Clothed.  Crazy hair.  No jewelry.  Often mis-matched.

I read a wardrobe book that said a normal adult person should only have one set of "paint clothes."

I have enough to wear for a week, changing every day twice...

How does one acquire such a wardrobe?  Years of painting projects/messes.  I use my shirt to wipe paint boogers (stray brush hairs, dried bits of paint, dog hairs in a hairy house, spiders that crawl the wrong way) I've pulled off the wall (usually I wipe them off my shoulder, where it can dry chunky).  If I don't have a rag or paper towel handy, I have used the hem of my shirt to scrub wet paint off.  And my elbow.  Some clothes have become paint clothes when I forgot/too much in a hurry to change.  Comfy stretchy pants are a priority, but not ones that are falling off if you have to hoist them up often...  POCKETS are great (love my overalls).  My orange crocs are now painting shoes after doing fire hydrants, plus I learned from my brilliant sister-by-marriage/shoe z-coil salesman that painting barefoot on cold tiles was probably the reason my feet hurt so badly...

I even have painting socks.  And a painting manicure (that's a joke).  And my (stupid, as opposed to "smart") phone is now a painting phone. 

(I do try and change out of them before I pick the kids up for school or show up in public. My favorite place to go in paint clothes is Home Depot. And the grocery store. Not the mission thrift store. She almost didn't charge me anything when I went in looking derelict and homeless, in my working clothes.  "That'll be a dollar, hon."  I must have looked really down on my luck.)

One Thing Leads to Another-Tracking Influences

I finished up this nightstand (for the client with Not-Rapunzel's pink castle room/Tulum, Mexico home) to match a sibling's bedding...paisley, medallion flowers.

Combo of paint, scrapbook paper, ModPodge, lots of polyacrylic, and some shiny crystal drawer pulls later it earned it's $45.00 make-over.
That was last week's project.
I will travel to paint, and the distance required a hotel room or...?  Client was a friend of another trusted client, and after talking to her on the phone, decided to guest in her home while I painted two rooms for her:

1.  Dinning Room/Entry

Looking towards the left to the stairs,

To the right and straight ahead towards the great room/kitchen

And out the front windows.  You can see my blue chalk lines generously helped by a hoola hoop.

Because I needed BIG CIRCLES!

To the left, completed, looking towards the stairs.

Sideboard buffet will go on this wall.

Ahh, the shine of still wet polyacrylic sealer!  Client could not WAIT to put her new green curtains up!  You can see a peek of the strong, beautiful turquoise on the entry wall:

Making your own medallions?  Think back to your geometry lessons, bisecting circles...Circles within circles and pointed petals=two arcs.  Blue chalk showed up nicely.   Love my sidewalk chalk (the big, thick ones made for little friend fingers!)  Love my hoola-hoop tool--I bought a FLAT edged one that snugs against the wall, not the old rounded edge ones.
2.  Master Bedroom Ocean Retreat

See my art blog for more photos.

Three hour drive one way and three days of painting standing up 7 am-7 pm and I am having a day in bed reading to recover.  Couldn't do this every day, or every week, but it was fun while it lasted.  Flurry of decorating, mural-making, back to mom-me-ing.  And I think I owe a mini-quilt to a Wild Threads member?  Ooops.  That deadline is tonight?!  I am living my blog title.

Treasures I Found Searching for Something Else

Grandma Lucy

Three children moved out:  2 in college &  1 on mission.

My parents, younger than we are now!

Art on Every Floor of This Home!

Do you know where in the world this is?  Is it recognizable?  I spent 6 hours painting this scene...

I love to see the finished mural with furniture in place!

Before:  Downstairs Powder Room.  Dark Marine Blue on far wall, beige wall opposite toilet & sink.  This is the view when you walk in (with my chalk mark calculations in place).

Notice the circle doorstop?  Sometimes it makes best sense to paint right over things and make them invisible.

After:  Tulum, Mexico, Mayan ruins near the ocean.  This family's heritage is south of the border, and they wanted something to tie in with the pool in their backyard.

View from the door as you walk in.  Not so claustrophobic as it was!

Fun couple of days painting!

After (Princess Pink & Cream)

In process...When the real 3 year old princess saw her room at this point she pointed to the water and said, "And this is where Flynn will be in his boat to rescue Rapunzel..."

Teeny tiny "not-Flynn" in his boat coming to rescue the princess.

Mini cherry tree.  Topiaries in front of the castle Edward Scissorshand-style. 

Ladybug, butterfly, worm, toadstools.

Lilies and stars-NOT-lanterns.

Pink cherry tree that will hug her headboard when the bed is moved back in place.

Before

Pink & Cream bedroom for a princess, before I got started.

Her favorite movie is "Tangled" but it is a Disney film and they never give permission to copy...

Off to work, and hopefully "After" photos to show you at the end of the day!

Empty Images & Short-Term Memory

I just tried to download pictures from my camera, and nothing was there.  Empty disc.  Here is what I remember:

The beautiful brown eggs from my brother's chickens.  They were speckly-warm reddish brown with rich, golden yolks.  Gone.  (Well, I could say they are re-purposed into Heath-Bar Pecan Cookies, hidden in oven so they don't disappear.  It's not just hiding them from the kids, but from me, too.  Out of sight is out of mind.)

Close-up views of Polly's quilt before I sent it away.  (And she loves it!  So glad!)

My new glasses.  Love them.  All me.  My last pair broke Harry-Potter-style right at the bridge of the nose.  I had to tape them together at work to drive home.  (If they had ORANGE ones, I would have gotten those.  Not metal-gold, not the same thing.  The new ones are pink on the inside, striped black and white on the side bars.  Called "Petunia" from our local W____-David-doesn't-like-store.  They have my prescription.  AND while I was picking up my glasses I met my walking buddy's other work-out buddy, another Keri.  She heard my name and asked me about my shin splints!)

Picture of my two young 3 & 4 year old friends making caramel popcorn yesterday.  Cute picture:  both on stools  snugged up to the counter, pulling the paper wrapper off of frozen butter sticks and putting them into the pot.  Popcorn EVERYWHERE.  We sang "I looked out the window and what did I see?" and had a great time.  I thought we had had an all dry "Dora the Explorer" panty day, but I found a small puddle and wet foot prints after she left---so sorry I missed that one.  It was inbetween changing a little brother diaper and getting out the play food and singing "All Creatures of Our God & King" with the puppet animals.  It warmed my heart when this young friend burst into chorus "Alleluiah" on her own.

Help me remember with words, what I failed to capture electronically.

Why I Need a Community: Q & Exercise

Left alone with my own thoughts, I often spiral into despair, start seeing negative-worse-case-scenario details.  I need to stay busy, distracted, active, positive, optimistic with action. 

I need to ask for help, talk to others, let go of the pride that makes me too independent.  Be vulnerable and real, honest, and not fear that it makes me look weak.

Polly's quilt is finished, finally.  T-shirts and ties from her late husband, sweet Bro. Scoville.  I found the Ethiopian-looking fabrics for the backing and behind the ties to fit in with his Peace Corps days.  Amazing how much personality comes through, just looking at this.  Quilting by my friend Shirley "Cabin in the Woods" pattern, on her long-arm.  I could not have finished this without her help.  It took a year longer than I promised.  But it is done and delivered (Brother John stopped by last night.)

Exercise by appointment works really, really well for me.  At the beginning of the summer, this neighbor-friend called me up and asked if I wanted to walk with her in the mornings.  She walks fast.  I huffed and puffed trying to keep up those first weeks.  Gave myself horrible shin splints.  Thought I would die.  But it has gotten easier.  I feel stronger.  I can breather easier.  My heart rate stays below 120 briskly walking at 3.8 miles an hour (John and I went to the gym today and used the machines with the technology). We weave in between our two homes, up and down the alleys for 45 minutes on school days, longer on Saturday/holidays.  Sunday we rest.  We've only been rained out once.  When she went on vacation she texted me that she was walking, and when I went, I told her I was, too.  There is  power in reporting in, being accountable, having a buddy who is expecting you, waiting for you.  On Labor Day we both showed up in sparkly t-shirts and I had to get a photo, when we looked beautiful, not all sweaty.  Do the scales lie?  The clothes fit better.  Still a long  way from my goal, but moving the right direction.  Walk & talk power.

Copy Cat Copy Wrong

You think there are no new ideas?  In my art education classes, I learned the benefit of having students copy the Masters.  They learn by trying to replicate, reproduce the layout, the composition, colors, lines.  Big art classes have an advantage over small ones, in that good ideas can inspire someone else to try something new.  I love energetic groups like that, where the ideas bounce around, and you think of something you never would have because of the influence of someone else's work.  It is a reason I really like "One Pretty Thing" craft round-up (see more blogs I read on right sidebar).

Looking for crocheted hat patterns with braids for my visiting teaching friend, I ran into these bearded hats.  Love them, but can't really get one for missionary son, or BYU son.  Maybe husband.  Patent pending on them.  So I am not going to just copy them.

John's Sunday School lesson was on honesty.  There is a new sentence in the 2009 printed "Gospel Principles" book that wasn't there before.  So our Family Home Evening lesson this week was on honesty, and NOT stealing, pirating, copying illegally, being really careful of media aquisition/downloading.  Giving credit where due.  Getting rid of all computer games that got downloaded with lax standards that we didn't pay for.  Trying to figure out which PopCap games we bought, which we should delete.  Sobering.  Didn't go over really well with the children.  I may have played my last Plants vs. Zombies.  But I am willing to sacrifice that for being honest.  Just because you CAN get it on line, doesn't mean it isn't cheating someone, getting something for nothing...interesting how gambling,  pride and entitlement feelings fits into that definition. 

Moving on, from this time onward, credit where due.  Honest aquisition.  Being better about showing where the ideas come from, what influenced a project, linking more...and paying for what we want.

Spontaneous Trip to Temple

What do you do when you have an unplanned weekend, nothing on the calendar?  We decided to go down to Kensington/Bethesda area, to the temple.  We try and go once a month.  And somehow we hadn't put a date on the calendar for September.  I knew it would be harder next weekend, and the following weeks I am painting for clients out of town.  This was it.  We left by 6:30 am so the children wouldn't be alone too long.  They didn't even miss us.  I am a relaxed passenger as long as I have crochet to concentrate on doing.  As cars drove crazy-fast past us, John told me about the Grand Prix going on downtown Baltimore. 

We parked next to a car with this sticker in the window!  This is where our oldest son is serving a full time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Flowers outside were beautiful.  Saw a couple of wedding parties coming out.  Lots of happy people!

We need to schedule an October trip.  Make it happen.  On purpose.  Planning is good.