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“I have given skill to all the skillful, so that they may make all that I have commanded you. “ Exodus 31:6


“O Thou who art the all pervading glory of the world, we bless Thee for the power of beauty to gladden our hearts.
We praise Thee that even the least of us may feel a thrill of the creative joy when we give form and substance to our thoughts and, beholding our handiwork, find it good and fair. “.
Walter Rauschenbusch


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"Come, and listen, all you who fear God; let me tell you what He has done for me.
I cried out to Him with my mouth; His praise was on my tongue.
If I had cherished sin in my heart, the LORD woud not have listened and heard my voice in prayer.
Praise be to God, Who has not rejected my prayer or withheld His love from me!" Psalm 66:16-20
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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Gardening news

My Silver Fox !
The squash plants just exploded with growth after a week of flooding rains.

They put out TONS of baby squash, and then about 3/4th of the babies rotted !  But we have picked 7 or 8 or so beautiful big squash and shared them already with family and neighbors.

I'm having trouble getting my fried squash to stay crisp this year, though.  By the time I get them onto my dinner plate, they're soft and floppy and I have trouble swallowing them.  If they were crisp, they would break up better with my teeth, and swallowing would be easier, I think.

The cucumbers don't look great AT ALL, but they're covered in blooms, and I did pick one that was about 6 inches long today.   I couldn't chew it, so I hope to pickle some and give some away.  I also picked one of the MANY bell peppers that are covering those plants.   The tomato plants are loaded, and have yielded one red small one and one nearly red medium-sized one thus far.  The okra plants are slow but steady.

I tried to use the alphabet characters on the new sewing machine to write something on a t-shirt, but I guess that solvy stabilizer was not the right choice for backing it, because the machine's throat plate ATE the t-shirt.   Very disappointing, but difficult to get much information on procedure online.

Otherwise, the only sewing I have done is to make a strip and flip style toilet rug for my little bathroom.

 I used a towel as a backing, and started with a half-block (these were all from my scrap basket).

Then I just started adding a strip at a time to the two sides of the half block, working my way up the drawn outline of the shape that I wanted to finish with.  After all of the piecing, I cut out my final shape and then bound the edges with bias binding.  I used my old dependable Singer machine as this became quite thick in places.

I hope to be able to make a matching rug to go in front of the tub.


Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The prizes are for REAL !

It's been a LONG, nearly 3 weeks, ESPECIALLY considering all the 'poor, pitiful, foolish woman' looks that I've received from my husband during that time, but my Melody BabyLock sewing machine that I won from Amy's Bloggers Quilt Festival arrived yesterday !

I was getting ready to go and work at the church like I do each Tuesday afternoon, and I looked outside to find that a truck had just stopped at my house and left a big cardboard box on my front bench !

  I could tell from the labeling what it was,........and while grinning at my husband from ear to ear, I rushed around the house, trying to keep my mind on the afternoon's work ahead.   I went off to the church and told everyone who would give me time and their ear,.....all the time thinking of how much fun I was going to have when I got home to 'play' !

Well, I was tired when I did get home, but I got the box opened this morning and spent about 4 hours just learning the basics and playing around with the features.

  She's a beaut !




I don't see myself using her for piecing, as I never even got around to making a quarter-inch seam, but you never know !  But I did find that she has a beautiful serpentine stitch that I can't wait to use to quilt something, a wonderful,what I used to call, 'buttonhole stitch' for applique, and she came with a walking foot and extension table.  And the 3 alphabets are fun, too.

Soapbox speech welling up I always get my back up when I hear people talk about how 'lucky' they were, so I'm going to squash that little expression right here...........God blessed me with winning a new machine at a point in my life where I figure I'll never again consider that a necessary or wise expenditure.  And I think that's just GRAND........and maybe even GLORIOUS !
 Yes, .......praise and glory to God, my father, my provider, my JOY !

Friday, June 6, 2014

just couldn't wait.......

......I printed some equilateral triangle paper from an online source and started playing around with a design, hoping that it would  be my first project on the new machine that I won in the Blogger's Quilt Festival.  But, Amy hasn't let me know when to expect it  yet, ANTSY, ANTSY, ANTSY, and I just couldn't look at the laid-out design and NOT piece it !

So, here's what I've done.....
My own totally original design........as far as I know !

I was aiming for another big couch quilt, around 60 x 80 inches, but I miscalculated on the needed triangle size, so it came out measuring about 44 x 64 inches.   Just as well, I think, because I feel like the design would have been hard to make out, up close, if the triangles were much bigger.........they're about 4 x 5 inches, each.

I like it !

  Maybe it will be the first thing I QUILT on the new machine !