Design Wall Monday - 6-16-14

There are a lot of projects going on in the Ivory Tower this week!

And I'd better get get crackin' too, because our sweet 16-year-old granddaughter is coming next Friday for a nice long visit with us, and I want to spend as much time as I can just being with her!

First of all, I'm wrapping up a few little designs for Jacquelynne Steves' adorable new fabrics from her Cottage Charm line ....



Just a few peeks....

My mother always taught me to make lots of pockets - in everything!!!!

You won't believe how easy this pocket zipper can be!!!!

Yep, this fabric line makes me "Imagine" all kinds of wonderful project ideas!

The completed projects, along with instructions to make your own, will be included in Jacquelynne's new summer e-magazine, The Art of Home, coming out in July, so be sure to sign up to receive it HERE!  The magazine is FREE and contains all kinds of wonderful ideas for you to enjoy .... recipes, sewing and craft projects, printables, and much, much more!

Next up, I'm putting the final touches on a pattern that I will be teaching at Runaway Quilters Retreat in September - Amish Beauties!

Another sneak peek!!!!

And of course I can't forget - the new July Bertie BOM came in the mail last week!!!  Boy-oh-boy, does Bertie play the part of "hayseed" this month, or what?  Love her spitting out that watermelon seed!  And these red fabrics are so deep and rich - such a joy to play with!

Google defines "hayseed":  A person from the country, especially a simple, unsophisticated one.
Just sayin' >^.-.^<

I hope to at least get started on that today, but I'll have to see how the day goes :)

To Do List for the rest of the month:

*  Get Baby Bargello quilted and bound....

This little quilt is for Phyllis' Angel Babies,

a Music City Guild charity group that provides quilts

to Down Syndrome babies born in Nashville hospitals.

*  Yellow Hootie!

*  Get busy stitching down my pieces for Tree O' Life!

*   And maybe somewhere along the way get this July Calendar wall quilt done ...

Quilt by Karen Schaefer
Copyright Calendar Quilts

I love Karen Schaefer's Calendar Quilts!

I've made a good many of them, but I've been wanting to do the July quilt for quite a while now.  This will take care of my NewFO and Let's Book It challenge projects for the month if I can manage to squeeze it in :*)  (If you're new to my blog, see my sidebar to learn more about these fun challenges!)

So included in this post is a camera lesson for you - free of charge LOL!!!  Today's pretty pictures come to you courtesy of some research I had to do on the web because I was so unhappy with how my camera was taking pictures last night!  Yes, it was nighttime, but usually if I get some decent lighting on the subject I can get decent pictures.  Last night, everything had a dingy cast to it, no matter how much light I put on it.  Then I noticed that the same dingy look was happening this morning in the bright light! This is a fairly new phone too - the camera is supposed to be a really, really good one for a phone camera.

Ever feel like you're getting "pooped" on?

(I followed this truck down the road the other day and 

couldn't quit laughing long enough to take a picture LOL!!!!)

So I did some research on the web, and guess what I found?  OPERATOR ERROR!!!!  Yes, really.  I know some of you are totally stunned that I am not a knowledgeable, professional photographer, but so it is!  What was my problem?  Somehow, inadvertently and without even knowing there was such a thing, I had turned on the Yellow Filter on my camera!  See the below "Before" and "After" pictures.....

See the colorful dots at the bottom of the left picture?  That was supposed to tell me that a filter was in place on my camera.  What did I know?  I thought that was just for me to push if I wanted to split it into 9 different pictures!  The picture on the right shows the corrected camera view (notice the dots are now colorless).  To fix the problem, I touched the colored dots and got this menu....

Then I chose "None" - and voila!  

My pretty unfiltered view was back!!!

So I'm wishing all of you a "Poop Free" week, my friends!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday - Patchwork Times

Tuesday Linky Party - Freemotion by the River

Ahhhh..... It's Good to Be Home!

I really enjoyed my recent adventures at the Red Rooster Retreat and then visiting with family in North Carolina!  But it's always nice to come home again, isn't it?

This is how I spent yesterday morning .....

I love this view from our covered side porch :)  My Guy put up the hummingbird feeder (yes, we are a little late!) and repotted some luscious red summer geraniums while I was gone, and my favorite oriental lillies are blooming - everything just looks so relaxing and inviting!!!

I got SO MUCH done at retreat!  In addition to finishing up and hand-delivering little man Hudson's carry-around blankie (see post HERE), I also had tremendous fun playing with Jacquelynne Steve's lovely Cottage Charm fabrics!

Panel square from Cottage Charms - designed by Jacquelynne Steves

Everyone was ooooohhhh'ing and aaaahhhhhh'ing over these fabrics!  Which, by the way, are NOW available on her website - JacquelynneSteves.com !!!  Fat quarter bundles are HERE and the cute panel prints are HERE.  Go see them now!!!!

I also am happy to report that I have my June Bertie all stitched down and embroidered!

Machine stitching around the pieces.....

Hand stitching the embellishments .....

And the top is now a finish!

Now I just have to find time tomorrow to get it sandwiched and quilted so it can go on the wall June 1 :)

 I also crafted a removable Luggage Strap for my Vera Bradley bag that My Guy gave me for Christmas....

I didn't want to check any baggage on the plane trip to Carolina, so I packed my smallest suitcase and carried my essentials in this bag - it worked out perfectly!!!

And On the Needles, I finished up my Purple Kroy Socks!!!  This is my second pair in this yarn because my daughter claimed the first pair before they were ever even off the needles LOL!!!  They are just Plain-Jane design, toe-up, two-at-a-time with Magic Loop.

This bright and happy yarn is going On The Needles for my next pair of socks!!!

Not very shapely yarn cakes are they?  LOL!!!

The day after I got home from retreat, I had to be at the airport at 7am for my flight to Carolina!!!  While there, I got lots of time with the sweetest grandkids in the universe!!!  I was blessed to be able to attend this granddaughter's performance of a lead part in her school play.....

Sara with her mom (our daughter Christy) after the play

And we all came together as a family to celebrate our oldest granddaughter's graduation from high school - GO EMMA!!!!!

No, she is NOT happy about the cap-and-gown get-up!!!

Watching my son giving his little first-grade soccer players an impromptu bible lesson on the field at half time was a blessing I won't forget soon either..... notice there are players from both teams in that huddle :)

It was a lovely short visit and I miss them all already!!!

Thanks to all of you who asked about My Guy's knee - he's doing great and getting around with barely a limp!  We'll be finishing up the studio redesign soon and I'll share pictures as we do :)  Several of you also were curious about the tables in the picture I showed of our sewing area at the Red Rooster....



As nice as that would be, the Sew-Ezi tables were not provided by the Red Rooster.  Most of us at the retreat sew together often, and when one finds a tool that they love (like the Sew-Ezi table!), we all have to have one!  You know how that works, don't you?

Hope you have a HAPPY FRIDAY!!!!

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Down the Rabbit Hole......

Spring is rabbit season!!!!  I know, because we have them hopping about all over the place in our backyard, and there are even little babies in our neighbor's yard - those little babies are just too darn cute!!!!

Some of you may have been thinking I had fallen down one of those rabbit holes LOL!!! 

Down the Rabbit Hole
Original Acrylic Painting by Carolee Clark
Credit Source - Etsy

I know!  

I've been gone from Blogland for WAY too long!!!

There are - as always - lots of reasons for my absence, and I promise not bore you with them all.... pshew!!! Aren't you relieved?  :*)  Suffice it to say that things have been a-hoppin' and a-jumpin' at the AQAP household!  Well, all except My Guy, who is doing NO hoppin' or jumpin' for a little while....

Nothing like a little knee surgery to slow a guy down, right?

Our upstairs Heat & Air unit finally bit the dust, which of course required lots of men in jeans and boots tromping up and down the stairs for a few days.  No getting in the sewing studio during those days!  Then, when the HVAC guys did their survey, we discovered there was no insulation in the outside walls or the floor of my sewing studio (over the garage) - and that's why it's colder than a .... (well, you know the rest of that phrase) .... in there every winter!  We had to cut holes in the walls .....

.... for them to crawl through and stuff in the insulation.  And then they punched a million holes in the ceiling of the garage (with hammers!!!!) in order to pipe the insulation between there and my studio floor .....

My sewing room was a wreck with my stuff piled everywhere!!!

(This was the only picture fit for public viewing!)

I couldn't find anything or get to my machines for a week, so no sewing for me.  We decided since everything was in an uproar anyway, it was time to do a little rearranging and reorganizing.  This wall used to have a long table with fabric and projects loaded up on top of it, and boxes of projects stuffed to bursting underneath it - pretty messy!  Now it looks like this.....

Of course, I still can't find anything LOL!!!  It may take me a while to figure out where I've put everything in the new organization :)

You should all thank your lucky stars I don't have any "before" pictures to show of my studio closet - it's a wonder we didn't find fossils in there!!!  But here are a few pictures of the wonderful shelves My Guy put in for me.....

And before anyone gets the bright idea that all this work is what caused My Guy's injury, let me put your minds at rest!  Actually, he did a lot of this after his injury and before the surgery.  I never cease to be amazed at what that man can accomplish, even on a pair of crutches!!!

Unfortunately, things aren't going to settle down any time soon around here either.  I'm preparing now for a much-looked-forward-to retreat at Red Rooster next week with a group of my bestest friends - yippee!!!!  And the day after I return from retreat, I'll be heading out to Carolina to see my 16-year-old granddaughter perform in her school play.  So, I apologize in advance for being away from the blog for so long, but LIFE in capital letters sometimes simply takes control of our days.

However, while I'm at Red Rooster next week, I'll be working on some fun stuff....

The June Bertie is in the house!!!

And because I'm such a lucky girl, I get to play with these beautiful fabrics from Jacquelynne Steve's newest collection, Cottage Charm - YUM!!!

Little Man Hudson has grown very attached to his quilt I made for him when he was born and wants to carry it everywhere, so his mom asked if I had any of the minkee fabric used on the back left, and could I make a small quilt for him?  I was delighted to find just enough in the scraps and just need to decide which fabric to use for binding....

That will be a quick finish at retreat, and then I hope to find time to play with a new project.....

It's from this book by Piece O'Cake Designs...

I've been wanting to make something out of this book in quite a while, so I'm really excited about this little wall quilt project :)

I've washed greens for the May Rainbow Scrap Challenge until I feel like Elphaba - you know her, right?  The green Wicked Witch of the West?

Hahaha!!!  

Hey, wait a minute... you are laughing, aren't you?  

Okay, just checking!  

No blocks done yet though and it's not looking good the rest of the month either.  I may be doing a lot of RSC catch-up next month.

I'm taking my knitting along to retreat for relaxing in the evenings.  I got quite a lot done on the purple socks while waiting for My Guy to come out of surgery, and now they are almost done .....

..... and I've popped this fun spring-colored yarn in my bag for my next pair!

I'll do my best to send post some updates from retreat to show you what I'm working on.  Really looking forward to checking out your blogs too, to see what you've been up to while I've been gone :)

Hugs & Blessings!

Teresa

=^..^=

Linking up with Judy's On the Needles