Wednesday, October 31, 2012

Happy Halloween


Happy Halloween, everyone.

It's such a cold and gray day that I actually keep forgetting that tonight is Trick or Treat night.  I need to get out that candy stash.  Since I live up a hill, and since there aren't many little ones up here with me, there usually aren't many kids out.  I'm guessing that tonight there will be even fewer than usual.

Sunday, October 28, 2012

The Bear's Pumpkin

Look close and you'll see a black bear eating a pumpkin.  At the zoo.  I wonder if the zoo animals are excited about pumpkins or whether they only tolerate them during trick-or-treat time.

This month is going my far too quickly.  Amazing how that happens.  So many projects, so many inside and outside chores,  Holiday planning.  Work days, away and at home.  A sleepover last night with my grandguy.  Trips to the zoo and Kings Island.  All good.      

Thursday, October 25, 2012

Awake in the Night

Mending.  I'm going to see Sarah next week and have a couple of things to take to her.  I love mending.

Things that keep me awake in the night:

How can we as a nation find civility, respect, collaboration? 

What has happened to unbiased news reporting?  Why do we now expect our news to come from a liberal source or a conservative source?  Do people understand the bias?  What has happened to the concept of the editorial page?

Whoever thought that Super PAC's were a good idea?  Or, did they evolve in ways not originally foreseen?

I hope that whoever wins this election does not consider it a mandate.  I hope that he is open to the other 50%.

 


Monday, October 22, 2012

Costume Reveal

Kings Island yesterday, and the reveal of Shark Boy and Lava Girl.  The kids glowed whenever someone recognized them and commented.  Tomorrow night will be a costume skating party.

The weather was perfect, the park was crowded but not terribly so, and Steph and I got to ride the Diamondback while the other grandparents took the kids trick or treating.  I've renewed my season pass for next year, it's so nice to have since I live so close. 

Saturday, October 20, 2012

New Beginnings

I am pretty much a bargain shopper when it comes to fabric.  Of course these fabrics were on sale, but I got them because I really, really liked them, not because I could fit them in.  I'm thinking the paw prints would make nice little quilts for the grand-dogs.  And the jelly rolls?  One's for a baby quilt, and the other for a Christmas lap quilt.

I really enjoy making the jelly roll quilts from time to time, relatively mindless piecing.  Very fast, once the strips are all pieced together.  I could start one tonight, but I think I'll just go to bed and read.

Friday, October 19, 2012

Fall at the Nature Center


I finished my front desk duties at the quilt show today and headed out the back door just as the rain started.  I hurried to the pond and took this quick picture, went to the parking lot, and turned on the heated seats in my car.

Not what I had in mind, and yet - how can I be unhappy with a picture like this?  And with heated seats? 

Thursday, October 18, 2012

View From the Porch


This morning I worked on the porch at the Cincinnati Nature Show main building, helping make floral arrangements for my quilt guild's annual show.  Last year it was so cold and rainy, and it started out that way this time, then warmed up.


This was the view from the left of the porch, down the path going to one of the hiking trails,

and this view was directly across from the porch.

Tomorrow I work at the show until 3, and I'm hoping for nice hiking weather once my time is finished.  For sure, I'm going to wear the new earrings I bought today at the gift shop.

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Love the Concept

 
I love the concept of a little guy, struggling a bit over the past few days, out on a date with his mom, and coming upon some random fireworks in the middle of October, at the shopping mall. Sitting on the car, totally surprised, king of the world, being an only child since his sister was at home with a friend, glowing. I love that concept.
And then a free balloon at Kroger, where he could pick the balloon color (blue,) the string color (blue,) and the clip color (blue.)  I love that too.

Saturday, October 13, 2012

Pumpkins


It's great to have a friend who grows pumpkins.

Friday, October 12, 2012

Costumes


I realize that there are only a few years left when the grands believe that I can sew anything.  This year, though, my reputation remains, when I could produce Lava Girl and Shark Boy costumes.  

Lava Girl has matching pants with more lava and lightning.  Pink hair spray.


Shark Boy has a black turtleneck and black pants.  Black gloves.    The fins slip over his sleeves.  Black hair spray.

Can't wait to see the kids all dressed up.

Thursday, October 11, 2012

Change of Plans

I started this quilt as a baby quilt donation, but as I worked on it I thought it would be nice for my grandgirl's wall instead.  Then, back to being a donation.  But, in the end, it will be a birthday gift for Nora.  It's been a couple of years since I've made a quilt to hang on her wall, and the last one, with trains, went to Aaron.

It has tons of free motion, lots of negative space, looks pretty darn modern, and I really like it, can picture it it Nora's room.  So, I'll start on a different baby quilt, with stripes and dots and frogs.

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Summer Quilt Challenge

This challenge was actually due on the first day of fall, but on this 10th day of October, the iron is still hot from pressing down the binding.

This summer the grands spent two days a week with me and we went lots of places.  Aaron has chubby little feet and shoes feel confining to him.  So, all summer, I followed these brown and orange flip flops, or a pair of blue ones, everywhere. 

There is even a sub-story:  on the way to Asheville, we stopped in Knoxville and when he got back in the car, his blue flip flop fell out.  It was a long way down the road before we realized that it was missing.  His mom got this pair in Asheville, and he loved them, but we stopped at the same spot in Knoxville on the way home, just to see . . . and his blue flip flop was sitting on the curb.  So then there were two pairs, and each one walked for miles during the summer.

Monday I was looking for a particular little quilt and I came across some blocks with pumpkins that I started long ago and set aside.  They will be the basis for my autumn quilt, so hopefully I can get that one finished in a timely fashion, all the more so because the due date on first day of winter is right before Christmas.

Tuesday, October 9, 2012

Kings Island Halloween

 Check out the eyes in the owl.

Kings Island knows how to do lots of things right, including Halloween.  It was a chilly day on Sunday, but that, plus the Bengals game, lightened the crowd.  There were lots of fun seasonal things to do in what normally is Soak City, and the lines for rides were short. 

Today I really need to put out a few pumpkins and put the orange lights on the porch railing.  I don't know why I put it off, because I really enjoy the decorations once they're out.

Monday, October 8, 2012

Unlock Your Colors

Tonight is the deadline for submitting quilts for my group's annual quilt show, and I have to admit that my President's Challenge quilt was still undone, with the key that was part of the challenge still hanging behind my computer.

So, I did a little gentle recycling, took off the embellishment from the little quilt above, and added the key on a ribbon, as well as a line of hand stitching and a sleeve for the back.  My challenge piece is called "Unlock Your Colors."

Now, to get my inventory work done and finish one more sleeve. 

Friday, October 5, 2012

606

I recently learned that at Goshen College soccer games with 6:06 left to play, fans sing hymn 606 from the Mennonite Hymnal.  "Praise God from whom all blessings flow, praise him all creatures here below . . ."  Apologies to my Goshen soccer-playing Luginbuhl relatives, and to my Goshen alum sister for not knowing this before.

We sang this hymn as an offertory hymn at First Mennonite Bluffon, and we sang it before special meals at my uncle and aunt's house.  I thought this was a hymn everyone sang, sort of like Silent Night.

I did a little research after learning about the soccer singing and learned that it isn't a common hymn after all, primarily sung in Mennonite churches, and not all of those.  According to Rebecca Slough, "'606' is the Mennonite anthem for white, Anglo, educated Mennonites with Western European roots.  For other congregations - those with members who are Spanish-speaking, new Mennonites, or non-Mennonite educated - '606' is often outside their congregation's ethos, singing styles, or soundpools, so they rarely sing it in church."

And that, furthermore, it is being sung less in Mennonite churches and is not always being taught to new members or children.  Things changed when I wasn't paying attention.  I'm trying to remember the last time I heard it sung at my current church, Cincinnati Mennonite Fellowship.  I really can't remember, (but that doesn't mean that we didn't just sing it last month.)

Wednesday, October 3, 2012

Coke Truck

Yesterday was a work day for me, and I looked outside to see this Coke semi at the Family Dollar across the street.  Now surely there was lots of Diet Coke in there.

This morning my goal is to put the hanging sleeve and binding on a tee shirt quilt I've been making.  The sleeve will be part of a skirt the young woman wore, complete with ribbons and lace.  Probably the fanciest sleeve I'll ever put on a quilt.  I had the idea just last night of using the skirt for the sleeve - I'd hoped to incorporate it somewhere but the fabric is light and I couldn't figure out where to get it in the quilt.

I'm always a little surprised at how a quilt takes on a life of its own, how it tells me things, how the next step comes along as it should.  How ideas that don't seem to come from my head suddenly appear there.  I know that some people plan a quilt carefully before they begin, know just how it will look.  I have a feeling that most art quilters aren't like that.