Pay It Forward (PIF)

Recently on Shari's blog she had a PIF sign up. I was fortunate enough to be one of the first 5 to sign up and am now obligated to Pay It Forward.

This is the way it goes...
The first 5... yes five... people to comment on this post only, within the next 10 days, that they are willing to PIF....Will receive a gift made by me.

There is a CATCH.. PIF

1-You MUST do the same... post this on "Your blog" and pass on to FIVE folks as well.

2-You will receive this gift within the year.

3- I'm getting ready to start stitching my gifts to the 5 people.

4- If you don't want to Pay It Forward please leave the space for someone who would like too.

5- It MUST be something handmade/created by you in your favorite technique. It doesn't have to be a large gift, just heartfelt and it would help if you would be happy to receive it yourself.

Can you believe this?!

My good friend Shari sent me some stash! Another good friend posted a comment on my last post saying that all of these generous people are 'angels' but Stash Goddesses! She is completely correct! So, that is what I'm saying from now on lol. I've been sent another Stash Goddess!

All of these fabrics, I am pretty sure, are recycled or upcycled, however you want to call it lol. I love this because it helps me in what to look for when I go to the thrift stores myself. Not to mention, look at that cool vest! And the mans shirt in the first photo is so cool, it has palm trees and a hammock! I would have never thought to look for stuff like this. And the silk ribbon is so beautiful!

In this picture there is a piece of hardanger that can be used on a crazy quilt block! I told her I don't know that I want to use it for that lol. It's too pretty! I would like to learn it at some point also! And, look at all of the beautiful lace motifs, lace, hankies and those are yo-yo flowers!

And the lace she sent....OhMyGosh! There are laces that I had no idea was out there!

Isn't it gorgeous?!

The two on the bottom on the above photo look vintage. I could be wrong...what do I know lol.

And these awesome trims and threads! The packages on the left she found at the Dollar Tree. Full of beads that can be used in a block! How creative!

Thank you Shari! I can't say enough how much I appreciate all of your generosity. Not only sharing your stash but your time in mentoring me in this wondeful art!

Second Round Robin Block

This is how I received Vicky's block after Leslie worked on it! Isn't it beautiful! When Leslie posted the picture when she was done, she also mentioned that the block had an Egyptian feel to it so that is the direction she took with it. I promptly stared to Google Eygpt to get some ideas of shapes or objects I might be able to use myself.

I found that a Lotus flower is a native in Egypt and could picture it sitting on that blue patch. With the help of my Mentor Shari from StitchMap, I was walked through making my idea come to life! And look! Isn't it pretty?! LOL The close up of the flower didn't turn out well, sorry! And, actually the water lines that show in this picture were ripped out and new ones put in place. I wanted to get a close up of the flower posted.

The above picture is a close up of the work I did. The Lotus flower, green beads added to the gold trim on the bottom right, yellow and gold beads added to the red trim on the right, gold ric rac around the silkie with a red Kreinik metallic thread and ribbon roses on the top left corner of the silkie with glass leaf beads. Then I added a seam treatment of Ahnks across from the red trim to the ribbon roses with sequins and beads in between the Ahnks.


And the above photo is after mine and Leslie's work. This was a neat block to work with. It would normally be out of my zone since these are not my colors but I had a great time trying to figure out what to do. Once again...thanks Shari for the help! :)

Wait until you see the next block I have in my posession! Sheila's block is beautiful so far and I already have ideas in the workings!

Have a great weekend everyone, enjoy the 3 days!

Life is good...

More Stash Angels

This world is full of giving people. After watching the news every day, one begins to wonder. Then, Angels appear and wipes the wonder away and reminds you that this *is* a good world. The people in the world of Crazy Quilting and Needleworking are full of Angels! And once again I have been blessed by them!

Leslie was kind enough to send me all of these flosses! Just starting out in the crafts, my stash is very low. This will help tremendously! Thank you so much Leslie! Aren't they beautiful colors? Like a rainbow!

Susan sent me all of these wonderful beads and buttons. OMG! I love them! There is also a container of purple and white ones but those are in use at the moment lol. The green beads came just in time for the last RR block I was working on! Speaking of which, I'll be posting pictures of it tomorrow!

All of this goodwill came from a group that I belong to, StitchMap. The link is on the right side bar. It's a wonderful group of people and a great idea to boot! lol If you are interested in learning a particular type of needlework, you sign up and are assigned a mentor. If you are just beginning and need stash, Angels fly your way. All that is asked of you is that you sign up! Wow! How cool is that? Nothing more is asked. If at some point you feel you are able, and you feel like it, then paying it forward is always appreciated.

I am no where near the point of Mentoring anyone yet myself lol and I am still stash building so I try to promote as much as possible. I still don't feel like what I am doing is enough to "Pay it Forward" from what I have received, but I will get to the point of contributing more. :) I not only received my Mentor's precious amounts of time but stash from many Stash Angels and many new good friends.

Go ahead....you know you want to....click the link in the right side bar and get hooked. ;)

Life is good...

Greatest Appreciation to another Stash Angel, long over due

Look at these gorgeous fabrics! A wonderful person from one of my Yahoo groups was reading my blog and saw that I am new to this world of Crazy Quilting and sent me an email offering Stash Enhancement!

And did she ever enhance my stash! Nancy jam packed a large mailing envelope with tons of these beautiful fancy fabrics!

I spent days just fondling it all lol.

There are so many gorgeous fabrics and the ideas started flying through my mind of what I could do with it all!

I wish you could fondle all this awesome stuff too...the pictures just do not do it justice.

And then she emailed me to tell me that she was sending another, smaller package full of laces, trims and awesome goodies!

LOOK at these beautiful laces!!!

I was overwhelmed with the amount Nancy shared with me!

And look at the trim on the bottom of the picture below....it's fuzzy!


Beautiful ribbons, laces and motifs! I have paisleys now!

These trims are very very cool too. What fun they will be!

Nancy, thank you so very much again. I hope you know how much joy you brought to me! I am still totally overwhelmed by your caring and generosity. Very big hugs to you Nancy! You are awesome!

My Colors

I belong to a wonderful Yahoo group called StitchMap. This group has Angels, Mentors and Apprentices. And a love of stitching of all kinds and a community spirit that brings people together over the miles and over electronic lines. On Thursday we have what is called Thursday's Talk Shop Segment, or TTSS. This past Thursday's talk was about 'colors' and how they worked in our lives and effected us.

I didn't really give a good answer right away because I can't correspond colors to thread colors. I haven't been using threads long enough to know numbers and which are my favorite. I should start writing thread color numbers down that I like a lot though. That would be a neat on going journal of sorts.

I'm not sure what happened or what was said but I realized that I didn't need numbers to share my colors and what they mean to me.

So, I went to the yard today and took some pictures of 'my' colors.

And, these colors are always changing. The spring colors I am posting now are different than the spring flowers I posted a few weeks ago. Isn't that awesome?

These two pictures are of our woods. For a very short time every spring these wondeful flowers appear like a blanket of snow, ok, purple snow but still....

Part of my reply to the topic was that the greens in the woods are so alive yet so silent that this is the only place that gives me inner peace like nothing else can.

So, what are your colors? What do they say to you?

I'm sorry I didn't get the stash angel post up, that will definitely be tomorrow. I really wanted to share my colors with you first.

Until tomorrow...

My Weekend - Bad Ass Baker Bunch

This weekend at the race track we had the Sports Car Club of America, or SCCA. We love when this group comes out and runs our road course. As per proper road course protocal, we have a fire truck, ambulance and wrecker on each end of the road course. One group is called Abel, the other Baker. As you can see, we at Baker call ourselves the "Bad Ass Baker Bunch"! We love to have fun, this is part of our set up, palm trees and pink flamingo's. This is me after using an oygen tank to fill the palm trees up lol.
SCCA likes to take an hour lunch break in the middle of the day so the Baker Bunch brings a grill, food and everyone comes together for some good old eating and fun.
This springs EMS crew. Minus me taking the picture lol.

Just a couple of the cars running over the weekend.

The SCCA people had a huge cake there. It was 8 full sheet cakes big! That is a lot of cake lol. This was part of the cake.

Always a fun weekend, we have decided to make Hawaiian shirts mandatory!

I have had Stash Angels blessing me! Keep an eye out, I will be posting tomorrow to show you some of what I have received! Hope you have had as good a weekend as I have!

Family

I love this picture! Left to right, my aunt, my mom and me.

They spend a few days together every year. The past couple of years I go for a day and visit. It's too bad we can't do it more often but that is what distance brings.

Even though yesterday was rainy and cloudy, it was still a beautiful day spending time with these two awesome ladies.

Stop and smell the roses....

Blech!......in suspension.

Fungus out of our yard. Blech! My husband thinks these Morel mushrooms are da bomb! They've been sitting in the frig and for some reason the water froze. These sell for $25 a pound in the store! My husband thinks we have been blessed to have them right in our yard lol.

I still say....blech! I mean really....look at them!

Thrift store finds today. This silk tie is really unique, I think. 50 cents, couldn't pass it up. Now I just need to know if I take it apart or put it in a CQ just the way it is. I found a couple of bracelets that I might be able to use on the next block I'll be getting. Those flower earrings look like Mother of Pearl and a neat little kit for beginners Pulled Thread! Wish me luck on that one! lol

It was a beautiful day and the sun was shining and I had a very nice time with my mom at a mother - daughter dinner at her church.

Life is good...

Beautiful Beginnings Round Robin

I have mentioned that I am in a Round Robin in the Yahoo group CQI novice group. There are 5 of us in the group, we each do part of a block and mail it on to the next person. I have finished my part of the first block that I have received! Yay! This is Leslie's block, or blocks. She sent out 2 - 6" blocks. I chose to work on the one on the right. I love both of these blocks, the color and type of material is just beautiful.
This is a close up of my finished product! I did a Herringbone stitch in the upper left corner with DMC Rayon thread along with straight stitches and beads on the bottom. A feather stitch on the right below the spider web in Vicki Clayton Silk Perle 8 thread and the leaves are DMC Perle 5. The Lazy Dazy flowers are a Vicki Clayton Silk Perle 8 variegated. I love the variegated threads. Adds such dimension! I used a Sulky thread for the spider web, another great thread! The ribbon rose is made out of The Thread Gatherer ribbon, Fairy rose.
And this is the whole block. I so enjoyed working on this, I didn't want to mail it on to the next person! LOL I love the colors and how it turned out. I guess I will just have to start making something for myself soon!

The weather has been dreary for days! I am so ready for some sun! Is there a sun dance...you know...like a rain dance? I would be more than happy to do a sun dance if there were such a thing. ;)

Stash ANGEL!

I know, I'm a day late! Sorry but here it is....I have mentioned before that I belong to a Yahoo group, CQ for newbies and that I have an awesome mentor, Shari. Shari emailed me one day to ask if I minded giving my address to her to pass on. One of the lovely ladies on the group saw that Shari was mentoring me and asked Shari what I needed. Shari told her anything and everything lol. Sometimes I'm a little slow on the uptake but not this time...I said, of course that is ok and here is my address lol! A week later a big squishee postal bag landed in my box and this is what I got. In the picture above is a beautiful winter silkie. I can't wait to use it. I see a Christmas Crazy Quilt something. Silk ribbon, lace, beads and buttonhole twist thread. I think that is neat within itself just cause it has Japanese written all over it lol.
In this picture is more silk ribbon, perle cotton, wool thread and silk thread.
All the material is velvet of some sort. The pictures turned out terrible but the picture above is all purple! My FAV!
Look at these beautiful reds! And the patterns on them!
That really is a green. I have no idea where I went wrong with these pictures but there is black and blue in there also.

I can't seem to get away from buying cotton at the store. I don't know if that is because that is what I used to buy all the time for crafting I used to do, but thanks to others, my stash is expanding to "fancy" fabrics.

I am so grateful that I have found this Crazy Quilting community. These are wonderful, caring and giving people. Like I said when I received this in the mail....it just made my heart sing.

Thank you Stash Angel....you truly are....an Angel.