Vintage stuff

I've been spending the morning going through some boxes of "stuff" that came from a family home that we cleared out a couple of years ago. I should have done this much sooner but with moving and all over the last year, I just didn't take the time. Since I am the oldest in the family now, I seem to be the one who got a good bit of the old family photos, albums, and other miscellaneous little things. The boxes had some old costume jewelry that belonged to my aunts and grandmother. I didn't know what to do with all the jewelry so I decided to put some in shadow box frames to hang in my bedroom. Here is a picture of a collection of brooches. I went through my own jewelry and found that I had quite a bit since I can't seem to throw anything out. I had a few things that were my mother's, too. I arranged some animal pins and some cameo pins but my camera battery went dead so I couldn't take pictures of those...will have to post them later.

I feel more like an author

The publisher just sent me a copy of the cover of the book I have been working on in a PDF file. I can't upload a picture because it is in the wrong kind of file but it does look good!

I need a wizard!!

I've been working on the wizard quilt the last couple of days. I originally planned to use only fabric from the wizard line but I thought it was making the quilt too dark - even the pink in the line didn't help so I decided to add some white (I always keep yards of white on hand!). The white is helping. Since the quilt will be a sampler type quilt I have been trying different blocks related to the wizard theme. So far I have Friendship Star, Homeward Bound, and Heart blocks. The other blocks done so far have fussy cut panels from the fabric. The quilt is taking a longer time than usual because all of the blocks are different and I have to modify some patterns to make the blocks similar in size and I design as I go.

I took a break today from sewing and taught in a third grade. I didn't think the schools would need so much subbing so late in the year ---school is out around here on June 9. The sub coordinator called last night and booked me for seven days. I could have done more but wanted some time for myself. It is nice to get out and work with the children, see what they are doing, read them some stories, and the like. It was a good day!

I need to work on my writing this weekend. My assignment for my writing group is due and I need to get it emailed to the others in the group by Monday. It is good to have deadlines...keeps me focused and energized.

Rain and Wind!

Over the last couple of weeks I have had a wonderful time with children and grandchildren but now I am ready to spend some time on myself. I had hoped to take a picture of my garden to show the growth over the last month but we are in the middle of a coastal rain storm. During the night, the wind blew porch furniture around and the insulation from under our sunroom all over our yard and our neighbors'. We had taken the lattice off underneath the sunroom to do some work on the deck and I guess the wind was able to swirl around and catch hold of the insulation. Oh well, I guess it's a good day for inside work and quilting! The wind and rain is to continue through tomorrow.

I did have a chance to go to our quilt guild new member tea this morning. I braved the wind and didn't have any problems getting there except that there was a tree across the road on the way. Some areas are experiencing coastal flooding and schools have dismissed but we are in an area that is a little farther away from the water. The only flooding we have is a great big puddle in the middle of the front yard. Rain doesn't really bother me and I sure like it better than the snow storms we had in the mountains of PA. Since I actually joined the guild within the last year, I was invited to attend the tea. It was a lovely experience to get to know more members outside of the large monthly meetings.

Today I am actually going to start my Wizard of Oz quilt. It will be an original design and be more like a sampler with different blocks that are of different sizes. Since I am a design as you go person, this will be fun!