Blogging - Are You Addicted?

Apparently I am. One of the blogs I follow, Zquilts, had this quiz, so I had to take it. I scored a 75%. That is really bad...or perhaps really good. I learn a lot and got lots of inspiration but I am not creating as I want to. What do you think, are you addicted?

ONE World ONE Heart

I found this wonderful concept and site while doing some blog surfing. A woman by the name of Lisa Swifka, a whimsical bohemian, created and hosts the One World-ONE Heart. Bloggers from all over the world join together. This is a once a year event. There is a list of participating bloggers who are doing give aways during the event. You have a chance to win prizes from every blog you visit. The blog addresses will stay available for 6 months at the close of the give away so you can go back again and again to check out all the blogs and bloggers. What a great way to visit and meet new friends from all over the world! Currently there are close to 800 bloggers participating.

I am participating for the 1st time this year.

How does it work? All you have to do is leave a comment at the end of this post, and only this post, by midnight EST on Feb 11th. I will chose 3 winners via a random number generator on Feb 12th. I will notify the winners via email so please make sure I have a valid email address to contact you if you are a lucky winner. You do not need to have a blog to participate, just a valid email address.
I look forward to meeting all of you and hope to start friendships with fellow artists, or those interested in art or my blog.

To see the rest of the participants please click on the logo in the right sidebar.
I have a option on the right sidebar that allows you to follow my blog. If you follow me, visitors may click on your icon as a follower and it will take them to your blog - another way to keep connecting with new friends. You can also subscribe. This allows you to be anonymous, no one else knows you are following my blog. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed your stay and come back again.

All of the prizes are hand made little quilts. They are created with Shiva sticks (an oil based paint) on muslin, stenciling and light quilting. The decorative design was created with my specialty stitches on my machine. Each has a sleeve on the back so they can be hung with a small dowel. They will be given away by size and drawing number.

First Place This piece is approximately 18x7 inches











Second place is approximately 6.5x 9.75 inches
























Third place is approximately 5x6 inches

Closest book to you

I got this from Tie Dye Judy's blog (she has one of the blogs I follow) who got it from Michele's blog:

Here is how to play the game.

* Grab the book nearest you. Right now.
* Turn to page 56.
* Find the fifth sentence.
* Post that sentence along with these instructions in a note in your BLOG.
* Don't dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual... Use the CLOSEST

I picked up Blogging for Dummies. Page 56, the 5th sentence is:
"As blogs emerged as a new Web medium, they became associated with some styles of writing and types of content, and then a loose set of ethics and standards emerged that an ideal blogger adheres to."

I am not a professional blogger by any means. I do it when I can and about what strikes my fancy, what is important to me at the time. I do have ethics and standards. I give credit when appropriate, I don't steal content, I link to someone's site so my readers can read it for themselves. I follow about 55 different blogs either as a follower, if they have that option, or as a subscriber when they don't. I like being able to follow other bloggers because I am able to see the people who are following them. I have found some great blogs that match my interests. I hope those who follow me by whatever means will have ethics and standards too. I trust people to do the right thing, until I am proven otherwise. So my friends, feel free to link back to me if I have anything you would like to share with your readers.

What do you think...are bloggers following so sort of ethics and standards?

Fleece Winnie the Pooh blanket for "Baby Mac"

I get lots of help in my quilting studio. Conway Twitty the Kitty has taken over his brother's spot on top of my rolling carrier for my sewing machine. I finally gave up chasing them off and covered it with a towel to keep it clean. Don't know why they like it but they both do...a lot



Then there is Clarise. Her invisible fence collar is almost as big as she is. Right now she is sleeping on the cat stracching post with a seat on it. The cats don't use it so she does. I think it's a territory thing with them.









Here is the fleece Winnie the Pooh blanket. My DIL asked for a fleece blanket that could be used in the baby car seat. I took a 60 x 108 inch piece and cut it in 2 lengthwise. This is not a conventional size but will be extra long to double up or put under and over the little one. Since there are so many fun colors in this blanket I used a rainbow colored binding on it. It just makes me smile.

As you probably saw on the baby due date count down meter at the top of my sidebar "Baby Mac" is due in just 7 days. (But who is counting?) The kids have picked out Irish names but I'm not letting the cat out of the bag yet as to what they are. So until the baby gets an official moniker it will be "Baby Mac" When I spoke to my son it was so fun to hear him talk about the baby is starting to drop and other OB terms, like he's a pro at this. Well they both will be shortly.
I bought my plane tickets last night so I'm already to
go. Can't wait to get my hands on the new one and the twins. The cousins will live about 11 miles apart while we are a 12 hour drive away. I can see how I will be racking up those frequent flyer miles in the future.

Homeless Teen Quilts, TX

One of the blogs I follow is Debra's Design Studio. She has committed to making quilts for homeless teens in TX. When I 1st decided to make a quilt there wasn't anyone to help me. I went to a big box fabric store, it may have been a Joanne's. I bought a starter kit, cutting board, ruler, rotary cutter and a beginning to quilt book. I didn't know anything about perfecting a quarter inch seam, how to design a quilt, nothing at all. I did most of it wrong. Cut my squares using the cutting board as the guide for the size. As you can imagine the quilt didn't come out like I envisioned. For about 10 years has been sitting in a plastic box waiting for it's moment to shine. When I found Debra's blog I knew where this quilt top needed to go. With great glee, I boxed up the top, extra blocks and another quilt top I had created as a Mystery Quilt project New Year's Day 2008 and sent them to Debra. Look what she has created!(Top 1 on the frame, Top 1 completed, Mystery Quilt completed) New homes for quilts and blocks I would never use - it's a wonderful feeling to assist in this worthy project. If you have UFOs, orphan blocks please contact Debra - she can sure use them.

Barack Obama, George Bush, The Change

I have read so many blogs today that are thanking God we have a new president and change has come. Not one blog has expressed any good sentiment about Mr. George Bush. I am also pleased we have a new president. I am grateful our democratic process works, that we the people have the right to chose who will lead us. I pray the new president leads us well.
I want to be at least one blogger that thanks Mr Bush for his service to this country. Did I agree with all he did? No. Only time will tell us what kind of president he truly was. I was taught not to judge without walking in someone else's shoes. We don't know, what President Bush knew as he made his decisions leading our great nation. Remember the people once elected him too, twice. Our nation has not been attacked since 9/11. Has Mr Bush kept us safe, without us knowing all that he did to keep us safe? Probably. For that I am grateful. The presidency is a difficult job, one I would not want to take on. Have you noticed how each president ages so quickly? President Obama will too. Does this mean I am bashing Obama? No.
I took lunch today with a number of nurses and residents in a nursing home. We sat, all of us white, and tears were in more than a few eyes as we watched the inauguration. Hope is what we talked about, hope is what we crave. Hope that President Obama will also be able to keep us safe, that he will be able to make those hard choices that are going to come his way. Will the American people agree with all he does? No, but we need to give him a chance and the time to let hope come to fruition. Farewell Mr Bush, Welcome President Obama.
Please tell me what you think.

Baby Shower for Baby Mac

My DIL sent pictures of the baby shower yesterday. I wish I could have been there but it's just to far for a quick trip. Looks like they had a great time.

The presents.
















Someone created a cake with baby items and a monkey. What a great idea.























Then showing the quilt I had done for Baby Mac.























The last pic is of a knitted outfit by Baby Mac's other grandmother.

Road to California Quilt Show

There is no picture to pique your interest in this post, you will have to click on the link provide to see some AWESOME quilted EYE CANDY. They say a picture is worth a thousand words and it is certainly true in this case. Words do not do them justice. This link will take you to The Road to California Quilt Show winners. I have been hearing about the progress of the Best in Show, Grape Harvest, (1st picture) and Best Group Quilt, Queen Mary (15th picture down) in one of my quilting groups. Marilyn and Lynn are certainly 2 very talented ladies. Congratulation to both of them. In addition Sharon Schamber took the Best Large Quilt category with Spirit of Mother Earth (9th picture down) She has a detailed view of part of this quilt as the header on her website. Congratulations to her as well. I hope you enjoy looking at all of this eye candy. Please let me know what quilts you like the best and why by adding a comment.

Cold Weather Quilting

As the north and even here in Western NC it is COLD. This morning, actually it was yesterday morning now, we had the coldest temp I can remember in our almost 8 yrs here in the sunny south. It was 4 degrees F. Apparently by the time I got up we were having a heat wave, it was up to 5! We moved south to get away from this kind of cold. We are blessed compared to those who are really up north. My nephew in WI was commenting on the snow they had been having. When I let him know we had snow as well he was amazed, didn't think we got the snow. All in all, I'm glad he is up there experiencing the cold and snow he is and I am only temporarily in the cold, arctic blast. My heart goes out to all enduring this brutal cold. Some of my ancestors come from MN. I was thinking about how they survived this type of cold in the 1800 and earlier 1900's without the conveniences we have today, central heating, running water, well insulated homes. I am grateful to be living in these times.

I have been so busy at work that I haven't had any time this week to quilt but the weekend is here and I plan on 2 days of quilting until I drop. The newest grandchild is due in 20 days. I have already made a quickie quilt and a bunch on fleece burp cloths, sent off earlier this week so they can be here for the baby shower this weekend. I wish I could be there but am saving my time off for when the baby gets here in Feb. I wish I didn't have to chose but we live 12 hrs away so it's not possible to pop in for a few minutes. I will be making several quilts with BABY GENIUS fabric for the new baby and the twins who turned 1 earlier this month. We will celebrate their birthday when we go north, hope it's warmer by then.

I added a new feature at the bottom of the blog. If you like puzzles, scroll down and enjoy. This is one of my mini landscape quilts titled Purple Mountains Majesty. I was created from the class Mini Landscapes taught at QuiltUniversity.com by Susan Brittingham. I just love Quilt University!

Quilt Art website and mailing list

For those interested in Quilt Art you can subscribe to a QuiltArt mailing list. Here is the link to the web site. This is not a blog, it is all via email. It is free but they do accept donations to help defray the costs to keep it up and running. It is a great group of talented, sharing artists. Here is the info if you are interested in joining.

*QUILTART INFO*
Visit http://lists103.his.com/mailman/listinfo/quiltart to subscribe
or unsubscribe from Quiltart.

In the short time I have been subscribed to this list (I am on digest because they are a prolific group) I have made new contacts, and more importantly learned so much from some of the best artists there are.