Amulets to share with my friends and their friends!

When you visit me you will see this tray of amulets on the entry table. Each is a piece of polymer clay art I have created and signed.

Please take two of these when you visit me. Keep one and give one to someone else.
They symbolize friendship and good luck.

Here is a closeup view of some of them so you can get a sneak preview before you visit. When you come again chose one more. You then can give that one away or you can give away the one you picked on your last visit.

You can keep them in a pocket, your purse or out where you can see it.


I have this one sitting on an end table by the chair I often sit in.

If you would like your amulet to have a shine you can rub it on a piece of cloth, your clothing or with your thumb.

You can study these as you work the puzzle which uses my all time favorite puzzle cut - lizards.

The countdown has begun - only 17 more days until Christmas!

Where do I begin?

I am often asked how I start a project.
Whether I am making a quilt or decorating a house I need someplace to start.
For me the art often begins with color or colors.


When I decorated the great room in Florida I chose silk in bright colors for my pillows.


I like to use a run of color - in other words, each color is related the the previous and the next color.



This run of color is almost a rainbow or color wheel.


These pillows were made from affordable Molas I purchased on eBay. They each feature a tropical bird.


In reality I don't consider them Molas since they are appliqued. To me a Mola is reverse appliqued.

Each Mola was framed with Dupioni silk. Silk takes color so beautifully.

Even though the colors were chosen to create a run of color, I do not use them in color run order on the furniture. I relate them to the things that are near them to accent the colors.

Of course I had to use the bird puzzle cut for this one!

Who made this quilt? - and an important blog date!

When I was going through and organizing the stuff in the drawers, shelves and containers in my Florida studio I found this quilt. I looked at it and thought "I wonder who made this quilt?"
It took me a minute to remember I made it. It is definitely not my usual style. It is a mixture of silks and cottons and is fused. It is a cheerful quilt. It has not been quilted but I finished the edges. I may quilt it and I may not!

I have mentioned before I started blogging on September 14, 2008. I had no idea what I was doing or where I was headed. I have thoroughly enjoyed the experience and also documenting much of my work and various other things.

Eventually I found out you could track the number of visitors to your blog and where they are from. One year ago today I started keeping track of the number of visitors.

I am overwhelmed realizing in just this one year I have had 45535 visits to my blog from 104 countries. The newest country to visit my blog was Tunisia on November 11, 2009.

Thank you to all of you who visit my blog and come back again and again.

I know my puzzles are one of the things that keep many of you coming back. I've been told many of you find them addictive. A good kind of addiction for sure.

Santa's Christmas Stocking and Candy Cane Dreams Tea

In our community we have a club called Tequila Rose Tea Club. Each year the club sponsors a Spring Tea and a Christmas Tea. They are such festive happenings.
Ladies volunteer to set a table that represents the theme for that particular tea.

Each table has a hostess who sets the table and a butler. The men in the community serve as butlers and serve the food for each course of the tea. There are 4 courses and the tea ends with a Tequila Rose liquor toast.

In addition to the butlers several of the ladies serve as tea pourers and circulate and keep your tea cup full.

This table did not use the typical reds and greens. It was just lovely.

This table did an excellent job of representing the theme and no detail was left out.

She had full chair covers decorated with the candy canes.

This is a closer view of her lavish centerpiece.

Here is another table that interpreted the theme in a very creative way.

As you can guess the limited number of tickets available for this event sell out immediately. I did not get a ticket this year. The room is open for those of us who didn't get tickets to come in and view the tables and decorations 45 minutes before the tea. In the past I have served as a hostess twice. It is something I have enjoyed doing.
It is also one of the few times we get a chance to really dress up and many of the ladies also wear hats.

I chose this centerpiece as my puzzle for tonight. Enjoy!

Christmas Decorating is done

I've finished the Christmas decorating in Florida. My Oaxacan frog is holding two ornaments to match those on the tree.

I made this arrangement for the coffee table. Yes, my coffee table is turquoise. It is my grandmothers library table which we cut down and antiqued years ago. Recently we took it to an auto body shop and had it painted turquoise.


I love amaryllis. To me they are a christmas flower. I have to admit I leave these out year around but the branches are definitely a Christmas item.


I hung the guest towels in the guest bath and decided that was it for this year.

The house has a holiday spirit but it is definitely not overdone!

I hope you enjoy tonight's puzzle.

My New Great Studio

Many of you have seen the photos of my Florida studio on March 13, 2009. I decided to make some changes since I am sewing more this year.

I have moved my sewing machine to the great room. It has a perfect view of the TV as I sew. I also have a view out the sliding glass doors of the golf course. I can open the sliding doors to enjoy the glorious weather. I've even considered moving the machine to the lanai! This is also a perfect set up if I have a friend come and join me to sew since a sewing machine can be set up on the kitchen table or the small folding table I have.
I am keeping the ironing board in the other room for now. I will get more exercise and in a small house like this you don't get enough exercise.
The bar you see behind the machine belongs on the lanai but we have not moved it out there yet. It makes a perfect place for me to put things I will need as I sew.

I wanted to layer and baste this Eight Point Star for a One Arm Quilter and figured out a way to get a large enough area. I brought my folding table into the kitchen eating area and wedged it up against the peninsula counter. Even though there is about a 1 inch height difference it worked perfectly. I taped the backing down with painters blue tape and layered the batting and the quilt top. Now it is ready to quilt any time I have the inclination to do so.

A studio can be created just about anywhere you have a little space if you really want to sew.

Oh, Christmas Tree!

I put up the Christmas tree today. Certainly not a traditional tree. It took a lot of research to find a purple tree. The lime, magenta and black ornaments and the garlands were easier to find.

It took me 10 or 15 minutes from start to finish to put up the tree and decorations on the prelit tree.



The reason I can do this so fast is because I simply wrap the tree in Magenta Saran Wrap and put it out in the garage. I even match the color of the Saran Wrap to the tree and my house!
My plan for this evening is to turn out the lights and watch TV.
Tonight's puzzle is a close up of my tree.

Traditional Quilt - final block arrangement

This is the final block arrangement for this quilt.
I clipped coupons last night to go shopping for Black Friday deals. I woke up this morning and decided to go back to sleep and forget it. I still feel I had the experience just by clipping the coupons! It was a good decision since I really don't need anything and my Christmas shopping is taken care of.
I spent the day straightening up the house and changing some of the blocks around on this quilt. There were some similar blocks that were too close together and just stood out too much on the first layout.
My goal was to have a quilt where the colors and values were somewhat evenly distributed so your eye wasn't drawn to any one particular area. I think I accomplished that. As you look at this on the computer your eye may be drawn to an area but it is because of the color and value in specific blocks, not because similar blocks are too close together.
I have taken the blocks off my design wall and they are stacked and labeled row by row. I can now sew them together when Pat and I get together on Tuesday for a sewing day.

Cyprus, Students Tesselations and Thanksgiving

At 3:16 p.m. EST I had my first visitor from Cyprus on my blog.
Welcome to you.
There seems to be a lot of interest in my students tessellations on my blog recently. I had the second highest day ever of views of my blog a few days ago and the Tessellations seemed to be the big draw. Wonder what sparked the interest?

Like many of you I enjoyed the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade today. I haven't watched the whole thing yet as I recorded it so I could get some things done today.

I thought the hats these two children were wearing at the parade were a lot of fun.

One of my favorite parts of the parade are the balloons. Spiderman was a big hit.


I enjoyed this turkey float. I can't think of Thanksgiving without thinking of the turkey we have always enjoyed on Thanksgiving.

I had Thanksgiving dinner with my friends Karen and Jerry. Karen set a beautiful table. I'm so proud of myself for remembering to take photos of the table before we ate. The meal was delicious - all of my favorites - turkey, dressing, cranberries, salad, rolls, sweet potato casserole and of course pumpkin pie with whipped cream for the grand finale. I feel full and content after a great day.
I've used a photo of the dinner table so you can enjoy it a little longer.

What do you do without a design wall?

I've probably had these 63 blocks finished about a week now. I don't have space for a design wall here and was trying to figure out what to do. Yesterday I came up with the "brilliant" idea of pinning a piece of cotton batting to the large quilt I have hanging on the wall and using it for a design wall.
It worked extremely well.


This shows all 63 blocks with the orientation I expect to use for the quilt. This is the first photo just as I put them on the wall in a somewhat random arrangement. It is quite obvious that I will have to move some of them around a bit.
It is much easier for me to see that in the photo than by looking at the blocks on the wall. I will start to move them around and take more photos evaluating each arrangement as I go.
Once I am pleased with the arrangement I can take them down by row, label them and sew them any time.
I will not make a border fabric selection until they are sewn together.

I used the light bulb cut since I had such a light bulb moment with my design wall idea!

Almost Crazy Christmas Quilt

I realize I said this quilt would be done before this. It is one of those quilts that does require perfection in workmanship. I was not programmed for perfection the last few days. I spent my time organizing the studio and doing some sewing practicing imperfection.
Finally today I was able to work on it. It will be done soon, but I'm not promising anything as far as a completion date. It will be for sale so keep your eye on my blog if you are interested in it. It is more than twice the size of the first Christmas quilt.

Ladies Who Lunch are back!

Today I met Karen and Lynn at the clubhouse for lunch. We were celebrating Karen's birthday which is today and Lynn's which is Saturday.
We had a delicious lunch and stimulating conversation. It had been almost a year and a half since I had seen Karen so it was so good to see her smiling face. She's always smiling. Maybe it's about her 9 grandchildren under 5! She and Lynn share 3 of the grandchildren since Lynn's son and Karen's daughter are the parents of those 3!
After lunch I took a quick trip to the quilt shop. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful quilt shop about 4 miles away. I found some fabric to finish the companion quilt to the one I posted and sold on this blog last night. Hopefully it will be finished in another day or two. Keep watching, particularly if you may be interested in purchasing it since the last one sold so quickly.
After dinner and a little nap I sewed a little more on the traditional quilt. Tha will be in progress for a while! After I put the pieces of this puzzle together I'm heading back to do a little more sewing.

As you put this puzzle together you can think about the delicious lunch we had!