Guess Who is Having a Birthday!

Stash Downsize Project
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, here you see what I've been up to lately. This is a folding banquet table that I'm working on in our dining room.I 've only got 3 more color drawers and the metallics to go. You can just see a glimpse of the yellow drawer on the left and the cream and green pile on the right. I had to stand on a high stool and put the camera on the ceiling to take this picture. Got it on the 4th try! LOL Seems like I've been sorting, pressing and cutting for months now, but it's only been about 3 weeks with MANY interruptions.

All this is because space in this tiny house is at a premium and I need the room. In order to make room in these drawers for my "reads-as" color cotton fabrics, I have decided to seriously downsize my fancy fabric stash again. Mind you these fabrics are the ones that I selfishly kept for myself when we were planning on moving to a larger place. So, there's a lot of wonderful things in there and many one-of-a-kind pieces.

Now for the surprise I promised. Today is my birthday (and AllieA's as well)! If you leave a comment on this post until May 5th, I will enter you in a drawing. Remember, you have to leave the comment on THIS message. And I must be able to click on your name and get a link to your email unless you include it in your comment. I'd also like you to tell me your favorite color and why it's your fav maybe. I'm curious!

#1 winner will get a hand picked just-for-you Stash Stretcher packet.
#2 winner will get a combo packet of 10 fabric cuts & embellishments.
#3 winner will get an embellishment package in his or favorite color.

I sell Stash Stretcher packets for $12.50 and that includes first class shipping. Postage for multiple orders varies.

Stash Stretcher packets contain 25 pieces of fancy fabrics cut approximately 6" x 10" because I and my students have found that rectangles work best for cq piecing. Less fabric is wasted and we NEVER want to waste fabric, right?

I also include a surprise in each packet. The surprise could be anything from a little ziplock of beads to trims to mother of pearl buttons.

So! Now I'm done workiing and I will spend the day relaxing, reading & stitching maybe. Perhaps I'll also eat light to prepare myself a bit in for the dinner out G has planned for this evening!

Stitch on!

Further Catching up - April Free BOM Design

April Free BOM Design
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, it's the 29th of the month and although I've had this design ready for some time, I just now have time to get it up here on my badly neglected blog.

Been super busy with a lot of things. G's best friend had a stroke and has now been moved to a rehab factility that is a 30 minute drive away. His wife cannot drive, so there has been the necessity to get her there each day and pick her up as well.

Secondly I've been busy cutting up all my crazyquilt fancy fabrics in order to make up Stash Stretcher packets again. The packets will be the same as I sold before when were planning to move. Space is at a premium, but as long as we must stay longer I decided to majorly downsize my cq stash in order to make some shelf space to display my doll collection.

No sense even HAVING a doll collection if I can't see it, right?

So, my need for space will benefit others who may not have been collecting fancy fabrics for 13 years. Keep in mind these are the fabrics that I selfishly decided to keep for myself when I did the last downsize! There are some real goodies in there!

That said - IF you too like fabric, be sure to come back here tomorrow for a SURPRISE!

Now about the Easter Mouse design. I was just going to do a decorated egg or perhaps a bunny. I did this design because I have a close friend who loves mice and I thought perhaps she might be inspired to actually DO some embroidery if she had something to do that amused her. She has seen the design and says she really likes it!

Will you do it in colored embroidery? I think I will, but I also think perhaps that my mousie might just become the first in a 12 month series of embroidery designs.

Meanwhile, don't forget to come back tomorrow! It's going to be a SPECIAL DAY!

Stitch On!

P.S. I forgot to mention that you can click on the design to print it and it should be about 7" wide. Also you can go to:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14575046/April-BOM-Design and print it from there!

Catching up - March BOM Redwork Embroidery Design

March BOM Redwork Embroidery Design
Originally uploaded by lasassone

This is my free BOM offering for the month of March - offered up late as I warned you all.

The box around this design was drawn 7" x 7" - just so you know it's original size. This flower (or weed, if you prefer) is the Contra Costa Wallflower. It is an endangered species of Spring wildflower that almost exclusively grows here in our county.

It appears always sometimes in March and has yellow blossoms. They compete in early spring with the wild mustard over our velvet green hills. That is to say the hills are green IF we've had enough rain. Weather people say we haven't actually HAD enough rain this year, but our hills did turn to green velvet while I was gone to AZ.

This is a design that will provide challenges for a beginner embroiderer for many reasons. One is the interesting angles of the leaf tips. Getting sharp angles/tips is always hard when you first begin. How do YOU handle it?

Do you make each tip a fly stitch? Do you go down at the tip and come back up a ways down the other side of the leaf?

Enjoy the design! Stitch On!

P.S. I forgot to mention that you can click on the design to open it, but you can also go to:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/14460717/March-BOM-Free-Design and print it from there.

REGARDING MY BOM FOR MARCH

Just a note aside for those who have been printing off my embroidery Block of the Month. There will be a delay in the March block. It will be posted in April along with the April block. I am going to be away from my computer until the end of the month and I've just been too busy to get the March design ready. I feel guilty but it couldn't be helped.

so sorry; you all keep stitching while I'm gone!

Easter Pillowcases

Easter Pillowcases
Originally uploaded by lasassone

These are for our 3 grands in Atlanta. Yesterday I mailed off the ones for the 2 in TX. Pink for girls, blue for the boys. Figured I best get them mailed out so that they can use them for awhile. I've been told by one of my daughters that they loved the Halloween ones I made in 2007, so I decided to make Easter ones this time. Perhaps next I'll make Christmas ones for this Holiday season. I surely have enough Christmas fabric to do many many! Might have to buy yardage though for the body of the pillowcases. Have loads of prints for hem & trim though.

Stitch On!

Block 1-Ruby McKim Farm Quilt

Block 1-Ruby McKim Farm Quilt
Originally uploaded by lasassone

For some time I have been trying to get to this design set. So with a trip ahead of me, I thought it might be a perfect time for a new Redwork project. I traced off the first 3 blocks and then finished this one this morning. So, I have two to take on my trip to work on in my spare moments.
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I am using DMC color #355 which is a copper-red hue. The reason for the color is that I was spurred to do these blocks when I found the perfect fabric to use as alternate blocks in a quilt or wallhanging. I matched the thread to the major colors of the print which is an all over print that looks like Fall scenes of a farm and rolling hills. I plan to fussy cut scenes for the alternate blocks.
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The embroidered blocks are approximately 7" square and I am using regular outline stitch for the major parts of the designs and backstitching for the small details such as the window panes. In the case of the attic window in this design, I even went down to just one strand of floss.
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The next block I'm doing is the farmer on the old fashioned tractor.
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Stay tuned & Stitch On!

2008 Take It Further Challenge - August Block

I have finally gotten back to stitching on my Take it Further Color challenge blocks from last year. Because of many things I had gotten stalled on the August block but I finished it today!. I actually have all the rest of the months' blocks pieced and just need to do the embellishing on the last 4 months. The 12 blocks will then be put into a wall hanging which will hang somewhere in our home.
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August was the month of the Olympics in China, so I have applied a copy of the olympic flag on the upper left patch.
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On the lower left is a depiction of the Chinese character for "Harmony" which was the theme of the 2008 Olympics.
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In the upper right, again because August is a summer month with much warmth here in Northern California, I applied a bright gold sun with a rhinestone center.
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In the lower right corner, in addition to the badly embroidered name of the month, is a silver ring which I found at Michael's in the bead department. On it is incised the work "harmony" twice.
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In the center I have again done a web and spider on the pansy print. This time I used a small round piece of jet for it's body.
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All the stitches I used on this block are copies from my workbook of stitches I have observed on antique crazyquilts.
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If you scroll down and click on the link to my flickr photos on the right of this blog, it will take you to my photostream and you can see 4 closeups I have posted there.
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Now it's on to my September block!

Stitch On!

Stash Enhancement Road Trip

Yesterday 3 friends and I went on a journey into the Bay Area of No.California in search of Crazy Quilt Goodies. We made up our own little Shop Hop, but in the end only made it to 3 places. Place #4 in Berkeley was a bit of a dud because of a function in the nearby park. We circled a 2 square block area three times and were unable to find a parking place. So, we reluctantly gave up, headed towards home and stopped for dessert at Marie Callenders aka Marie Calories.......I had cheesecake!!!!

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Our first stop was a quilt shop called Quilt Fans in Alameda, California which was a new place to all of us. It's a wonderfully friendly quilt shop with a high ceiling, tons of natural light and even has it's own resident cat called Bella. The first above is of a Fall-themed panel I purchased. Also you can see a peacock feather print and a coordinate for the panel. The panel has 4 small images which I plan to set at each corner of the larger panel and then in the center of the sides and middle I plan on doing a rectangle of crazyquilting. I plan this to be my next crazyquilt project after I finish up my Take It Further blocks from last year.

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The other pictures shows the beads & spool of gold Nymo beading thread I got at our 2nd stop in Alameda called Bead Inspirations. It's a great little shop with a very VERY unique inventory that was also new to all of us. A tad pricey compared to other bead shops across the country that I've visited, but I saw things there that I have NEVER seen before. The beads I bought, 2 flowers, a starfish and 2 lady bugs, are all cloissone. The rings, squares and rectangle are hammered shiny brass and copper and I will be using them as bases for ring motifs. I'm actually glad we included the shop on our jaunt because we never made it to another beads shop we'd heard about in Berkeley. When we couldn't find a parking place at Lacis, I was majorly bummed and the general consensus was that we were getting tired, so we just packed it in and headed west over & through (tunnel) the hills towards home.

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I purchased all the threads shown in that same picture (and also the 4 cards in the fabric picture) from Needle in a Haystack aka (for me) Thread Heaven! It's a hard shop to visit if you are unfamiliar with different threads or on a budget. For some reason they never mark prices on anything and I know for a fact that they lost some business on the 4 of us because of that. 2 of the group had never been there before and said at lunch afterwards that they would have bought more probably if things had been marked. Me? Well, you can see that I just go in there every time with my thread inventory and get a little of everything.

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Yesterday I decided I would treat myself to 6 each of Rainbow Gallery's Elegance silk pearl, Rainbow Gallery's Splendor 12 ply silk floss and Caron's Wildflower cotton pearl. The 4 cards laying on the fabric are Kanagawa silk and were the last 4 in their $1 sale bin. They have decided to not carry the Kanagawa anymore and they have also discontinued the J. L. Walsh silk threads which are so wonderful and which have been my main & favorite embroidery threads for years. They won't even do special orders, but they have been kind enough to tell me of another place where I might get them.

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The 2 skinny spools are Trebizond silk pearl. The color names on the spool are Cinnamon & Brown, but they look like gold to me. It's a thicker thread - more like a size 5 pearl. There's also 2 spools of black Anchor pearl cotton in size 8. I needed this because I have a UFO project tucked away because I ran out of that black pearl cotton. I can't find it locally at all.

I also got 3 hanks of Gloriana hand dyed 13 mm silk ribbon which is very nice. I have known the owner/dyer of Gloriana threads & ribbon since high school. Her stuff is very high quality. She used to work at Needle in a Haystack before she became "big time!"

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We left at 9 a.m., put 107 miles on my van and got back about 5 p.m. stuffed with goodies from Marie Calories and each carrying our little bags of wonderfulness.

Off to pre-wash my fabrics and "file" my other goodies!

Finished Block for Dee's Memorial Quilt

Block for Dee's Memorial Quilt
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I have finally finished my block for Dee's Memorial Quilt Project that Kate is coordinating. The block will be winging it's way to Illinois this afternoon. I you click on the picture, not only will it get larger, you will also be able to see the detail pictures I took of each of the 4 corners and the middle.

I wish I was going to be able to be in Omaha to see the project or projects that Kate will make from the donated blocks. I bet they will be great!

Now I must get busy and finish up my Take It Further blocks from last year. August is almost done and September through December's blocks are pieced and waiting for embellishment.

Stitch On!

Sneak Peek!

Upper Right Corner-Dee's quilt block
Originally uploaded by lasassone

Well, despite the problems I'm been having with my hands I have managed to almost finish my block for the quilts being made to honor Dee from Holland that Kate is gathering. She will be making the many beautiful blocks she has gotten into at least a couple wall hangings I think. You can see the blocks sent to her at www.fairykate.eboard.com

As I struggled with my painful handsd I saw a note from someone else on the CQI list that is having the same problem with her hands. She has decided to divest herself of much of her stash in anticipation that she will have to eventually discontinue her cq work. I truly hope I am not ever faced with having to make that choice. Since becoming immersed in the art of Crazy Quilting, I have found the work so challenging, pleasurable and satisfying. My life would be incomplete without crazyquilting.

My Mum had the same problems with osteo-arthritis in her hands. Hers was aggravated in her 50's by an accident with a wringer washer and she eventually did less and less embroidery. When asked to make a set of pillowcases for someone like my daughter the first year she was married, she produced them, but she was no longer as prolific as she had been when she was younger. She gave away so many wonderfully embroidered gifts that I sometimes wonder when I see when others score beautiful things at thrift shops, etc. if some of them were done by her. I have the last pair of pillowcases she made for me and I have never used them. I also have many thread bare pillowcases with perfectly good embroidery work on them from her that I hope someday to make into a little wallhanging.

The picture shown here is just one corner of a block I have made for the memorial project for Dee of Holland that Kate Hollifield is coordinating. I hope to finish the block and get more pictures posted over the weekend as I plan to post this to Kate on Monday. If you click on the picture after Sunday, it should take you to my Flickr pictures where you can see more closeups.

Some good news here is that I am going to be a Great-Aunt in October. My brother's only granddaughter is expecting her first baby and now all of you who have been laughing at me for making all those baby things, can stop laughing! I'm ahead of the game now!

Stitch On!

Daughter's Scarf Done!

Whoa! Two posts in one day from me! Don't faint now!

Today

Daughter's Scarf
Originally uploaded by lasassone

I finished this scarf for my eldest daughter, so I thought I'd take a picture of it and post it. I love how it turned out and hope she likes it. I had finished the actual knitting of a couple days ago, but this afternoon I blocked it a bit and now it's all ready to pop in the mail to her on Tuesday.

This pattern is called Feather and Fan and there are many free versions of it on the internet. I cannot seem to find the exact one I printed off, but there is a very similar one at this website. Look down on the left for a link to the free pattern.

I think this pattern is very feminine looking and looks especially pretty done in variegated yarn. I cast on 42 stitches with #8 needles and made it 50" long as my daughter requested. The yarn I used is called Red Heart Collage in a color called "Ice Storm." For a 50" scarf it took about one and a half of the skeins which are 3.5 ounces each. If you'd like more length, using two full skeins would give you a nice long scarf.

I'm waiting for the reaction she gets from her daughters, my 2 eldest granddaughters. If they like it perhaps I can make 2 more. If I did that, I'd use the long #8 needles and make both at the same time! The pattern is THAT easy!

Blocking a scarf was pretty easy. I'm still trying to figure out what configuration of tables I'm going to need to block the bias knit baby blanket I finished a couple weeks ago. I've always said procrastination is my middle name, but more and more I'm thinking that I am just plain lazy.

However, today I got so much accomplished that I'm pretty proud of myself. Besides blocking the scarf, I did a load of towels, added a patch over a rip in some golf pants for G, cleaned my stove front panel, cleaned both bathrooms and all the mirrors and glass shelving in the house. Then I unpacked my miniature chair collection and set it up for display before making a run to Costco aka "the $100 store."

Right now G has gone off to buy us a take-and-bake pizza for dinner and I'm going to prep some redwork squares or perhaps work on the block I'm making in honor of Dee for the Omaha Memorial quilt. I really need to get the block to Kate ASAP!

Stitch On!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!

Happy Valentine's Day Everyone!

My morning started by discovering that G had snuck off to the gym early and when I went into my studio I found that he had left 3 giftees and a card on the chair! One is a box of chocolates which I don't dare open right yet but it appears they come from See's! The 2nd thing is my own copy of Randy Pausch's book "The Last Lecture." I have already read this book, but it was a borrowed copy and I have wanted my own copy to keep. My youngest daughter and I agree that it's a book that should be read at least once a year. The 3rd thing, on the desk and not on the chair, was a red miniature rose! A few years ago I put a couple miniature roses in one of our gardens and so this deep beautiful red one, after I enjoy it inside for awhile, will join them!

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I hope your Valentine's Day is great. If you don't HAVE a "valentine", treat yourself to something special today because you are special!

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The image at the top of this post is of my class sample for a class I taught in Omaha in 2004. Called "Crazy for Redwork" the class combined my 2 loves and was a joy to teach.

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The block's center originated in a basics of Redwork class at the yearly NQA annual conference/show when it was in Reno, Nevada in perhaps 2001. It sat in my UFO box until some of us in our local CQ group began thinking of doing monthly themed blocks. I pulled it out and used the class piece for the center of my February block. I think it's among my favorite pieces I have done over the years.

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And I think it's totally appropriate for today's post!

Happy Birthday Mr. President!

Abraham Lincoln
Originally uploaded by lasassone

On this 200th Anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, it seems only appropriate to remember him by posting the redwork portrait I did a couple years ago. The iron on image block was a gift from an internet friend who loves all things Lincoln as I have since I was a child. I have collected books and newspaper memorabilia for many years.

I did this portrait all in outline stitch with the spooled Sulky cotton thread that is size 12. It's a lovely thread to use for hand embroidery, makes a fine line of stitching and comes in a wide range of colors. Quite easy to find on the internet and in shops, I have bought most of mine at Creations in Kerrville, Texas which is an awesome and very friendly quilt shop a morning's drive from my youngest daughter's home in San Antonio. When we drive there for a visit, we always spend out last night on the road in Kerrville - for 2 reasons.

One is so that I can visit Creations and the other reason is that I'm a "foodie" I guess. That is what my late brother called G and I. You see, in Kerrville there is a Culver's restaurant in the front of the local Super Wal-Mart, so G is happy - he loves to visit the Wal-Marts wherever we go. My stomach starts growling the minute I see the Culver's sign! I was introduced to Culver's in Minnesota by my good friend Mona.

I wish Culver's was closer to us; I'd give up In and Out Burger in a heart beat! Their ButterBurgers and frozen Custard are to die for!

Gosh! I must be hungry; it appears I must need breakfast!

Stitch On!

Have you ever just had a string of mishaps and they never seem to end? I have finally managed to upload my February free BOM design to Flickr where, if you click on the image above, the click will take you to the design and you can print it off. OR, choose all sizes, pick large, right click on it and save to your desktop or file where you keep designs to later print off.

*** (I can't seem to make paragraph breaks so this is my solution for now!)

If you prefer to download a .pdf file, here is a link to one:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/12132392/February-Free-BOM-embroidery-design

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Again this month I designed this stitchery to be 7" high and 7" wide, but you can print it off in your own software any size you like.

For a hint last month I asked you what kind of quilter I am and thus for February I am offering a crazyquilted heart design. There are many ways you can use this design. As far as stitching, if you know the stitches portrayed, by all means stitch away. If they are unfamiliar to you, just use straight stitches, stem stitching and lazy daisy stitches.

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The little hearts on the top left seam are actually just fly stitches if you know how to do those. When I catch up with things around here, I will no doubt do this design two ways. One will be totally red stitching on white or cream and the other way I will do some crayon work and use colored embroidery floss. The chocolate truffle at the bottom I think would look neat colored brown with pink zigzagging around it to represent the paper cup and then white chain stitching for the icing squiggle.

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Further embellishment of my design is up to you and I would love to see what others come up with. I think even adding charms in place of the words "love" and "be mine" might be fun. And how about perhaps sewing lace around the whole thing when it's done?

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I had to include a chocolate truffle on this heart because on Valentine's Day I always think of my Mum, Lulu, who used to work in a candy factory dipping chocolates and knew what all those little squiggles on the chocolates meant. She always helped me avoid the pieces with nuts in them; I do NOT like nuts in my chocolate! As an aside, you can see many of Mum's recipes on my other blog; there is a link up top here.

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Next month, March, might not be much of a surprise to anyone. St.Patrick's Day is in March and also the First Day of Spring!
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What are the first flowers that bloom in YOUR Spring garden?
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Stitch On!

Can Spring be far behind?

Sunday we had rain showers and periods of sunshine so I took a very short walk around our gardens to check out how the plants have been faring with our recent cold temperatures. I was surprised to find a few signs of the garden waking up and getting ready for Spring.

Always the first to bloom, you can see in the 2nd picture that the snowdrop bulbs are up and waving their sweet blossoms in the wind. We were given a large clump of these by our next door neighbor almost 25 years ago when we first moved in. A couple years ago G divided up the clump and replanted these in the beds around our swimming pool. This year they are looking more well-established and the old clump, still there, even looks like it could be divided again!

Since the first year the Snowdrops have reminded me of the Lilies of the Valley that I remember as a child. Unfortunately I've tried to grow those here, but for some reason I cannot get them to grow.

The 1st picture is of the berries on a plant I think is called Heavenly Bamboo. This plant is at least 20 yrs old and this is the first time I recall ever seeing such pretty red berries on it. Nearby in the same area is a potted jade plant that is also blooming. I thought I took a picture of it's pretty pink blossom clusters, but I couldn't find it on my disk this morning and it's now raining again, so you'll just have to take my word on it. The jade usually blooms at Christmas time, but perhaps because it got left in the garden in it's pot instead of being brought in under the patio cover, it was too cold to bloom until now.

For those looking for my February BOM free redwork pattern, please be patient. I'm having a couple technical issues which I hopefully resolve later today and get it posted. For now I am off to my yoga class to rejuvenate!

LouAnne

Free Redwork BOM - January

Some of you know that I planned a Redwork BOM series for 2009 and most likely have been wondering when I'd get to it, right? Well, here I am in the month of January just by the skin of my teeth!

First let me say that this will NOT be a year long snowman BOM! I had to get that out of the way because it seems there are a LOT of free snowman BOM's out there this year. Each design will be month-appropriate but each will be different designs. I'm hoping that I've done the scanning properly and by clicking on the picture you will be able to print off the design each month or save it to your desktop. I intend to test this myself right after I finish posting. I also intend sometime in the next few months to learn how to create .pdf images for my designs. I know some embroiderers or collectors of patterns prefer images to be .pdf images. Keep your fingers crossed I can figure it all out, okay?

UPDATE: this image works fine if you save it and then print in the Irfanview program and it may work in other image programs as well. However, when you click on the above picture and directly print it, it prints too large and cuts off the date and month name at the bottom.

I have figured out how to make this design a pdf file. However, I have not figured out how to imbed it so the link uploads right here. Click on this link and it will take you to the Scribd site where you can print this design out in the exact size I intended:

January Block

For saving designs what works for me on other BOM sites is to right click on the enlarged picture and then click "save as" and save it to my desk top. I actually have a folder called "To Print" on my desktop. Then later I open the image in a free program called Irfanview. There you can make the image any size you want. If you do not have Irfanview on your computer do a google search for it and download it. It doesn't take much disk space and is an incredibly useful program. I use it for all designs and, by the way, mostly print off my patterns in a size that will fit within a 7 square inch space. That way I can cut my fabric for embroidery 9" or 10" square and trim it up later to fit a project. Another plus of the program is that you can flip images, enhance them and also crop portions of designs when there's full pages and you only want to print one.

I must give some credit to my dh, aka G, who had to help me a smidge with this design. He's always there for me when I'm drawing up designs. His background in art has been very helpful in many ways for the last 41+ years!

I hope you like my goofy January snowman. He can be done in true redwork, bluework or even in colors. In a few days I will post my finished block for you all to see. To say I'm a little behind would be an understatement!

Next month's design will be something totally different. I'll give you one hint.......do you know what kind of quilter I am?

Get Stitchin!

I'm Back & Out of Hiding

I'll bet most everyone has given up on me, but in case there's still a few readers of my two blogs who have hung in there, today I'm back trying to get with my normal routine. I've actually been back in California since Christmas, but the holidays, including New Year's sort of slid by me. Except for the non-verbal postings of Christmas and New Year's greetings, I'll admit I've been hiding, not just from you all, but from the world at large.

My only brother, Stewart Lisle Sterling, Jr, who was an voracious reader, went to read with the angels on December 21, 2008. In his last days he was surrounded by family (wife, 3 sons, a daughter, her husband and G and I. He, along with all of us, were given tremendous support by the amazing angels of Hospice. Although not an easy experience for any of us, we managed to have some valuable family time of re-connecting, sharing and love. Not to mention some awesome meals mostly cooked by one of my nephews who is a fireman and an awesome chef!

A few days ago on January 25th it would have been Stew's 79th birthday. He was 12 years older than me; yes, I will be 67 in April. Our 2 parents both lived to be older (84 and 91). That fact and the reality of his being gone so fast after the cancer diagnosis in October was a shock to all of us. He was "my rock" and not a day goes by still that I don't think of something to ask him or tell him. There's a huge hole in my heart and life. But in the past week I've been feeling him nudging me to get on with my life.

So! Here I am. This morning I finally searched down the pictures of my brother that I needed to find. I have to send an obituary to the newspaper in our home town in Minnesota and that will be my last sad task. I've been very bad at procrastinating over all this. I know he would understand, but also would scold me for it.

Below I have added some pictures that I found today. On the left is Stew at 2 in 1932. On the right is his graduation picture in 1948. The picture below was taken by G in October 2008 when we were visiting him and his wife.

I know he was proud of the fiber art work that I've been doing for some years now. In addition to the embroidered portrait of his 2 Chaussie cats I recently finished and sent to him, I also some time ago made a southwest style pillow/cushion for him and his wife as a gift. I know he showed it off some because after I got home I received a message from one of his friends and she told me how he showed her my fiber work when she and her husband visited recently. I have pictures of that pillow somewhere and I am going to try to find it and add it below. I may have to put it in a separate post; I'm a little out of practice with this blogging stuff!

Stitch on my friends!

Bring on 2009!

My wish for you all is that 2009 will be filled with good health and happiness.

and

May you have many hours of quiet stitching time in the New Year!

Holiday Greetings!

From Our House to Yours

Merry Christmas to All!

Comfort Quilt for my Brother

Comfort Quilt for my Brother
Originally uploaded by lasassone

A quick post here to let you know that I'll be gone for awhile. We are headed in the morning to AZ to spend some time with my brother who has stage 4 lung cancer. He is my only sibling and our parents passed away in the early 1990's. He has 4 children who have all arrived ahead of us in AZ.

I originally started this quilt for him to be used for chemo treatments. However, the doctors have decided he is too weak for chemo and he is now home under Hospice care.

Would you believe I had enough cat prints in my stash to cut 59 different 6" blocks? I only used 45 unique ones in the quilt; one of the corner blocks is an accidental repeat! The back is fleece and if you click on the picture it will take you to my Flickr pictures where you also can see the label I made for the back. It has pictures of my brother's two exotic Chaussie cats named Bonnie & Clyde.

So, I don't know when I'll be back, but I will be back blogging soon. If I don't make it back before Christmas, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas if you celebrate the holiday. And may all your stitches be snug!

Stitch On!