Tired Of Drippy Weather

I'm tired of cloudy and drippy weather. Aren't you? To cheer us both up here's a picture taken this summer of the sunset from my back porch.

Unfortunately it isn't green anymore. The vegetation  is now brown and crunchy. Sigh.....

Now a question for my readers. As I have already stated a couple of posts ago, I'm changing the appearance of my blog. In researching how to improve it I came across an article in which they questioned readers of blogs if they liked having music playing on the blog they were looking at. A LARGE majority said they didn't care to visit blogs where music played. And when I was viewing other blogs today I clicked on a blog that had 'Boogy Woogy Bugle Boy' playing blaring on it. It really was obnoxious and distracting. I didn't stay on that blog long enough to look around.

As you can hear, I have some musical selections playing now and I try to keep them somewhat low key. Do you, my readers, think I should keep music playing on my blog or not? Please leave a comment and let me know your opinion.

I Just Wiped My Post!

What can I say but that it was accidental. Blogger just isn't cooperating tonight so I'll try to reconstruct it. Shaking my head in disbelief at hitting the wrong keystroke. There goes the last half hour.

Starting again: I admit I've been neglectful with posting on my blog. I am too easily distracted by the internet. I read too much news and check my email and FaceBook page too many times a day. This, in essence, eats my time and I don't get anything accomplished. I need to get my priorities in order so I wrote out a time schedule. Ha! Wouldn't you know it, the card this schedule was written on disappeared! Oh me!

I haven't produced any quilting lately but I did make a pouch for my Bamboo tablet and a cover for my printer this weekend. I didn't take pictures of the finished products because they are merely utilitarian but I wanted to share the fabric I used.

Sheep!

 Isn't this cute? I just couldn't resist it! Since I spin fiber, mostly wool, I'm always on the lookout for fabric with a sheep motif.


 A friend and I have signed up for online art classes starting in January. The first class is in mixed media (my favorite) in January. The second class is in watercolor in March. I hoping this will jump start me back into making art.

Tuesday night is the start of the eight day celebration of Hanukkah The Feast of Dedication. I want to wish everyone Happy Hanukkah!

Time To Change The Look

I have been thinking of changing the look of my blog. I've puttered around a bit with it by trying out different colors but, alas, it doesn't satisfy. I think it's getting a little tired. Actually I'm getting tired of it. I've been looking around at other blogs and there are a lot of interesting designs out there. So beware, I will be changing things in the future. Soon I hope.

Gotta change the baby!

I've been nosing around the blogger interface and there are some interesting features available. I can  add my own background, add pages, etc. Woo-hoo! I originally wanted to blog about my art, etc. and somehow it became more about my quilting. I still want to blog about my art and other interests so maybe having other pages on the blog will be a motivator to produce more work in those areas.

And now on to the banner. When I chose the design it was to set the primary flavor of this blog as an art blog. The image of the girl reminded me of myself at nineteen. Sigh! I think I owned a similar pair of slacks too. I think a blog banner is like curb appeal for a home or like the front door to a house. If it grabs the interest of the viewer perhaps they'll come in, look around and stay awhile.

And oh, the gadgets available to add. Another woo-hoo! Where will it all end? It all sounds like a lot of fun and an opportunity to stretch my computer abilities. Oh, the sugarplums that are ideas dancing in my head. Stay tune!

And The Winner Is...

Me! And it was quite a surprise. I don't even win at Bingo! LOL I entered a giveaway at the2spies blog and little Moshe pulled my winning ticket from the pile. And my prize was... well take a look:

A tree planted in my honor in Neot Kedumin, the biblical landscape reserve in Israel

Hadassah  from the 2 spies planting my tree

All these goodies: an Israeli flag, an IDF tee shirt, notecardes with Hebrew art on them, Turkish coffee, Zahatar seasoning, a chocolate bar with hazelnut (a favorite of mine. How did they know?), a CD rom of the Hebrew Scriptures and a bookmark with the 2 spies carrying a giant bunch of grapes from the Promised Land

I think I hit the 'mother load'! Thank you to the2spies.blogspot.com precious friends from Israel.

After The Turkey

I'm back! There's been too much on my plate lately including a lot of turkey. I haven't forgotten my blog, I've just been a bit distracted. But I have found time to work on my Stay-At-Home Robin. I'm thinking of not adding any more rows and turning it into a wall hanging instead of a full size quilt. I think it would look great on the wall over our headboard. What do you think? Should I continue and make it full size or make it a wallhanging?

You've Got Mail!

...or should I say I have too many email addresses. Sounds dumb doesn't it? Well to tell the truth I have 5, yes count them, 5 email addresses. How did I get so many do you ask? Let's see now.
     1.My original address where I get most of my mail.
     2. The second address was created for taking care of a bill for my elderly father.
     3. I set up a third address because I wanted to join an online spinning group and misunderstood
         the directions and thought I had to set up a special account just for that.
     4. The fourth address was strictly for ebay.
     5. And lastly, another address I set up for a different social media group I tried to establish but 
         didn't work out.

Now this is where it gets confusing. LOL! It seems that somehow when I've answered your comments from this blog or sent email from the second address it crossed over to the first email when I dispatched it. Are you as confused on this as I am? The only answer was to change my email contact on google to the first address. Whew! Hope it works.

Now I'll end this post and leave you with a pretty photo and a reminder that too many email addresses can give you a headache!

My SAHR Is Progressing

 

 This is my latest progress on the Stay-At-Home-Robin a group of us are doing over at sunny-quiltingdreams.blogspot. Isn't this cool? I can't believe it's coming out so nice. I really like raggy quilts and they're especially nice because you can 'fudge it' when things don't come out perfectly and no one notices.

And I managed to squeeze out one more pot of hazelnut coffee from the bottom of the bag. Doin' the happy dance here. So I'm back to nursing the last again. But....I'm determined not to give in and make the coffee company any richer so when this is gone, it's back to the tea.

Nursing The Last Cup Of Hazelnut and More Pictures From the Quilt Show

Here I am up too early and enjoying my last cup of hazelnut coffee. Yes, that's right. It's PROBABLY the last hazelnut coffee I will brew at home. Unless, of course someone gifts me with a bag of it. (hint, hint, family members) The problem is that the coffee brokers had gotten my ire up. I went to my local Wegmans supermarket last week and, lo and behold, they had reset the coffee isle. That wouldn't be a bad thing except for the fact that they have eliminated the large bag of a certain brand of hazelnut  coffee and the small bag they still have on the shelf (only 11 ounces) is suddenly $5.19. Armed with that information, I proceeded to check out two other supermarkets close by. One did not carry this brand at all. And the other one was charging $5.99 for the same sized bag. And yes, there are four other Wegmans stores in the areas that I pass through from time to time and before I give up totally I will check them out. (Not all branches of this store necessarily stock the same.) I even checked out this brand of coffee on the brand's website. Errrrrgh! Even more expensive. So in all good conscience I refuse to pay the higher price.

So it looks like I am switching to flavored teas. I have quite an assortment of them that I've accumulated, plus the pretty new teapot I acquired this summer.  I suppose I'll have to make a teapot cozy. You saw that coming, didn't you?

Now I've vented my frustration about coffee which, of course, I don't really need, I'll treat you to the last of the pictures I took at the quilt show.

So many of these wonderful quilts had embellishments. I know these pictures don't do them justice so you'll just have to use your imagination. Enjoy!

More Pictures From The Quilt Show

Now that garden has been prepared for fall and the garlic is safely planted I can get back to my blog. I promised that I would share more photos from the local quilt show my daughter and I attended so here goes:

A little eye candy can be very inspirational.  I have a few more to share but you'll have to wait until I post again! Tootles!

An Envelope of Time

It's beautiful out this morning and I was planning to get out to clean up more of the garden  but I needed to start dinner so it's ready  for my husband when he gets home from work. The garden will have to wait until this afternoon. What to do while I'm waiting for the stew to cook and the man to come home? Can't go outside while the stove is on...not a safe idea. Got my email, read the news on the internet, cut out some fabric for my SAHR and I'm sitting here writing this blog. I promised to share photos I took at a local quilt show the weekend before last so here goes:

Weren't these awesome? All this eye candy makes me want to live in a quilt store!

These last two pictures are for my quilting friends at Zahava Quilters in Israel. This quilt is made of mens silk neckties. Recycling never looked so good!

I have more photos to share but I have to get back to the stew and add the potatoes. And then the garden awaits my attention.

Yes, I've Been Procrastinating.

Wow, it's been almost a month since my last post. It's not that I don't have anything to post just that I've been lax about it. There you have it, I've let everything else distract me. Okay, I've just been lazy. Now that I've confessed let's get back to my post.

Whew! That nasty Noreaster just missed us. No snow here, Not one flake! I'm thankful and I do sympathize with those affected. I read there was 31 inches in one locality. My friend in Virginia told me yesterday that they got six inches but that it was already melting. the weather here will be in the fifties this week. Perfect for putting the garden to bed for the winter.

I went to a local orchard to pick apples about three weeks ago. The apples were awesome this year. On the way home I made sure take pictures of the fall colors.

In my next post I will be sharing lots of photos of my visit to a local quilt show. 

No, I Have't Fallen Off The Face OF The Earth!

Here it is 10 minutes after midnight and I'm still awake because I'm unhappy with this new laptop. I can't go more than ten feet from the WiFi router or I lose my internet connection. Makes it a bit hard to work in the studio. No, it's not the router. Our other laptop works fine with it.( I can even go outside with the old one...no problem.) It's under warranty but if we can't figure this out, then back to the manufacturer. I really don't want to do that because I'll have to delete everything I've downloaded. I'm just glad I didn't add all my programs to it before we found there was a problem. Sigh :(  Sorry, I just had to vent.

You deserve to see something besides my complaining. This is a wall hanging I made a while back and just recently quilted it. I had a lot of blue in my livingroom for 23 years before we moved where we live now. Now my decorating colors are red,sage, and brown. Blue doesn't fit in anymore and after 23 years of it, I've really had enough. So, what to do with it? Hmmmm....

I was just looking for some more clip art from my files on this computer to add to this post and just numbers show up on the window, not thumbnails. This is Windows 7...auuuugh! Whatever happened to XP? Frown :( Forget it. I'm logging off and going to bed. Night all!

Feast of Trumpets

Tonight starts the Feast of Trumpets, the first of God's Fall Feast Days. Sound the trumpet! Be sure to scroll down on this site and disarm the playlist in order to listen to the shofar blast!

A Finished Wall Quilt

Hi everyone! It's been busy around here. I've been trying to transfer everything to the new laptop and Whew! this is like moving a household. Unless you've done this before, and I haven't, it's a big job. Too many days trying to get set up again! Plus I have to learn how to use my Photoshop program so my photos may not to be up to par until sometime in the future.

But I do have something to share. I have finished the wall hanging I was working on. I wanted to embellish it with antique lace but couldn't find what I wanted in my lace stash so off to the fabric store I wandered. Alas, there was a pretty beaded ribbon trim and I scooped it up. I placed it on the sewing machine block and I think it mimics the  decals that are found on an antique sewing machine.

Last Post On The Old Computer

This is probably my last post on my old laptop. I got a new speedier one and hubby finally got it up and connected to the internet. The old laptop is going to a new home (BIL) just to surf the internet after it gets some maintenance. And I thought I'd share the first row on the stay at-home-robin I'm participating in over at quiltingdreams.blogspot.com

It's coming a long. I'm not happy with the points but I got tired of ripping out seams so it is what it is. I would, however, not recommend that anyone do piecework with homespun plaids. Their beautiful but too easily stretch out of shape.  Regardless of the problems I had with the homespun, I really like the effect that this border gives on my center block. Hope you like it too.

Where I Went and What I Did Last Weekend

This is the second time I've started this post. Last night just as I got into it, an old friend phoned me and there went the time. Don't think I'm complaining. It was nice to hear from her. After our conversation, I had to get my husband Jerry's 'breakfast' before he went to work. And before I knew it, I was yawning and decided to call it quits for the night. So this morning, now that I've caught up on my email and had a cup of coffee, I'm ready to go at it.

Last Sunday I went to the Finger Lakes Fiber Arts Festival. This is a yearly event and a major source of fiber for my spinning wheel. I try to go every year. It's a 5 hour round trip from our house and I consider it a 'mini vacation'. Jerry isn't interested and doesn't care to go with me. So off I went armed with my CD's to listen to on the trip, chicken salad for my lunch (I don't care for the carnival food that is provided on the grounds and it's too expensive. And there's more cash to use for my purchases that way!), and my camera. Can't forget the camera! *note on the chicken salad: To a can of chicken (drained) I added sliced celery, chopped apple, and dried cranberries, and mayonnaise. Next time I make it, I'll add chopped walnuts too.

 

 

Entering the festival

Guide to the festival

Spinning in the sunshine

Inside one of the display areas

Some of the items available

She's spinning right off the bunny!

A whole lot of spinning wheels

Sheep sheering

After sheering

Enjoying the festival so far?

Alpacas

An exhausting day perhaps?

My husband's Uncle Rollie would have called this one 'a noble beast'

A free wagon ride around the festival grounds

Just wanting attention

And now for a look at my purchases. I purchased so much I had a hard time stuffing it all into my two cedar chests along with the fibers that were already in them. So no trip to next year's Fiber Festival. I have enough to supply my spinning for a long time to come.

New acqusitions

A closeup of a red and black blended wool

Another close up. The fiber in the bag is milk fiber. This should be interesting to spin.

Well, there you have it. I purchased wool of different breeds of sheep, some alpaca, llama, etc. The spinning isn't a problem but what to make of the yarn that results is a challenge.