Say What You Mean, Mean What You Say!

When we arrived in the Midwest 17 years ago, it was the beginning in that we noticed people would say they would do something that, in the end, would never happen.  Lots of those so called empty promises were not necessarily meaningful.  But the ones that required planning ahead are most relevant.  Too many times we found ourselves waiting for...nothing.  We found ourselves contacting the involved party to get more details to plan better...the involved party suddenly had no clue what we were talking about.  Now we're back here on the west coast and it's happening here.  What gives?! 

Do so many people just talk to hear themselves talk?  I just cannot even imagine telling a friend I'd do something and then completely nonchalantly act like I never really meant it or simply think nothing of not remembering.  I know forgetful, that's when you truly intend to follow through...but that isn't the case here.   If this never happens to you, consider yourself lucky. 

This falsehood in communication can be disappointing and in many cases, hurtful.  No matter how innocently it has been presented.  Please people, think before you speak and say what you mean and then mean what you say!

Well don't I feel better now!

So let's go sew something...

Annie

It's Me In Fabric

I'm #9 in Carol's (mamacjt) Ladies Series! I'm so flippin' honored to be included in these awesome fabric creations! Thank you so much Carol!

Don't I just look absolutely wonderful?!  She got my age exactly right - 26!  My body might not agree with that age, but it's all mind over matter...and my mind says I'm 26.

Carol told me while I was traveling across the US in a little postal truck that she wasn't real happy with my hair color because it blended into the white background too much.  Well, when I arrived yesterday afternoon...looking absolutely fabulous, I might add...I thought a little trip to the sewing machine beauty parlor and a bit of a medium brown thread outline just might do the trick to separate my hair from the background.  I think it worked.  Carol thinks it's better but a bit on the wild side now....well, that's me!

To top off this package, she included a book, "Out Of The Box with easy blocks" about free-form piecing.  This looks quite interesting.  And a couple of fun fabric pieces...look at that strip of selvage on that bright stripe!  Fun! 

Again, thank you so much, Carol!

Have a great day everyone!

Annie

Mail Art

When I have the time, and I feel my mail recipient will enjoy it, I love to send their mail addressed in a fun way.  I do this because I think it is/would be fun to go to the mailbox and collect an artful envelope mixed in with the dreaded bills.

You all know that I love making and sending fabric postcards.  I've only managed to find two postcard swaps  to participate in and both are finishing up right now.

First was The Great Big Stitched Postcard Swap with the theme, Bloom.   The card could be made with any media or mix of media but had to have some stitching on it in some way.  My interpretation and creation with this

Always Look Your Blooming Best

I printed the woman from an add out of an old magazine onto photo paper then cut her out (except for her head).  I then rubber stamped the pocket watch, words, numbers and dots.  After that I stitched the photo in place, adding the fabric rose bud for her head and added some stitched lines.  This postcard was sent to New Zealand.

From my partner I received this beautifully sewn "Bloom" postcard that traveled to me all the way from North Yorkshire, England from Sarah.  It arrived marked "Royal Mail"...awesome, eh?  Thank you Sarah!

Also was the Fabric Postcard Swap with an End of Summer theme where we were to create in fabric our interpretation of what the end of summer means to us.  I stuck with a blooming theme with this postcard

The end of summer means the end of the explosion of color with flowers in the gardens that are everywhere we go.  I will miss that during the darker months (although those months won't be near as long here in California as they are in Wisconsin!)

And from my partner in this swap I received this one from Lisa, miniaturequilter.

She and her friend like to picnic and sew together in the summer.  She's got such cute fussy cuts added for the picnic but those marching ants really get my attention.  Thanks, Lisa!

I always send my postcards naked because to me, that's how postcards are meant to travel the world.  These little jewels of creation would be so fun mixed in with ordinary "bills" and "junk" mail.  But, alas, mine always come tucked inside an envelope, not looking much different than the rest of my mail.  I'm going to keep playing and one day I'm sure to get a naked postcard in my mail.

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by,

Annie

First Birthday and registered for gifts?

Somebody please tell me this isn't true!

Boy, I must really be out of touch with the children's birthday party circuit.  I don't even know what to say about this except, huh?...excuse me, did I read this right?  I'm not usually at a loss for words...but I am on this one.  It's a first birthday party...not a wedding or baby shower.  The child is going to be 1 year old...it's not like he's going to have any clue what the heck is even going on.  How long was I in Wisconsin anyway?!

All In A Row wall quilt inspiration

I made this little quilt for the Little Quilt - Sew, Vote, Swap Group

I was inspired by these quilt as you go blocks by Marianne Haak, MariQuilts Strips On Stripes.  Marianne's style for quilts is so awesome!  I could look at her quilts all day long.  Anyway, I started with a favorite piece of fabric of mine...the black and white stripe.  I cut through it to insert the black and white check.  Since it's a quilt as you go (QAYG), I layered the batting and just a muslin back since it's intended to hang on the wall.  Then I started choosing fabrics to sew/quilt between the stripes...making new colorful stripes.  I loved the way the strips were making the check look.

This little quilt was always intended for the swap.  But I really liked it and did not want to let it go.  I hung it on the wall thinking I'd get tired of looking at it.  Then the more I looked at it, the more I thought I'd like maybe the same thing with a bit more white in the background and less black stripes.  So I went scrounging around for a different b&w stripe.  I found this:

It's an inexpensive grade of fabric (you can tell when you work with it it gets fuzzy looking) but it would be good for a trial run as a mug rug.  I could let my husband use it and not care when it turned coffee stained.  It came out looking like so:

I liked it, it showed more white, but I wasn't real happy with the stripe.  I  

decided the background fabric needed to be white with a black pinstripe.  Well of course I decided that...I could not find that fabric anywhere local or in cyberland.  If I wanted that, I was going to have to make it myself.   

So I did.  I sewed fat white strips of fabric to black strips of fabric so that the black strip would end up being 1/8".  I really hate when my plan of attack doesn't work out!  That wasn't straight no matter how careful I was.  You guessed it...you're NOT gonna see a picture of that!

For several days I "mused" on this seemingly impossible want.  It finally hit me!  The way to make my own stripes and have them straight was to paper piece them!  Geezelouise why did that take so long?!  so I did these paper pieced stripes:

and then stitched in the checks:

and then stitched in some colorful stripes and added the binding for this end result:

All three of these little quilts turned out different looking.  I'm considering taking the black binding off this last one and trying either white or one of my other b&w tiny tight stripe bindings.  But at the moment, my first one is still my favorite.  I guess I have to call it Julie's now, not mine...it's been mailed...it was so hard to let it drop into that big blue box knowing I could not get it back out.  hahaha.  I've teased on flickr that if my partner seriously doesn't really like it, she could send it back to me.  Which she can, but if she does want to keep it, I COULD make myself another.  I'm just not good at making the same thing more than once...so it'll probably never happen.  I hope you enjoy my little quilt, Julie.

I received this meticulously created little quilt in exchange.   It was created by Martha Wolf (moogiequilter). 

I love this little creation so much that I'm not missing mine quite so much anymore.  Thank you Martha!

Thanks for stopping by today,

Annie

Why Flickr if you're just gonna say "Blogged here"

It took me forever to Blog because I found blogs confusing and couldn't figure out how to find stuff on them. So prior to now blogging, I only flickr'd.  Now, I think most people that upload photos to flickr are hoping to get some nice comments on their photography or their artistic abilities of their crafts. 

When I click on someone's photo, I'm hoping to also get a description of the scene location or a description of the artistic craft, or why it was made, etc.  When I would see "Blogged here" as the description, I'd think, ok, the photo is for their blog not for flickr purposes.  As more and more people blog, this becomes more frequent.  I deal with it by saying to my computer screen as I click the back button, "If you can't be bothered to tell me something about your photo, then I can't be bothered to leave you a comment.  I'm here on flickr and I'm not going to go chase down your photo on your blog." 

photo from Lisa's Altered Art

For one, I may only just have found your photostream today and that photo is on page 2 or so in your photostream, taken 3 weeks ago and not likely to be on the front page of your blog when I get there.

Now, while having my blog lesson on inserting photos into my post, I learned that photos can come directly off your computer...they don't need to be uploaded to a go-between such as flickr is for other community forums that require a go-between to post photos within their forums.  So, here we are arriving at my question...Why bother with flickr if the photo is just for your blog?  Are you using flickr to get people to your blog?  Speaking only for myself, I'm not going to your blog to find out about your photo.  I don't want to know about it that badly.  However, if you would give at least a brief description on flickr and then add something like "more info can be found on my blog", you'd have much more of my attention than you are getting now...on both your flickr photostream and your blog.  Muse on it.

I do a lot of musing while on the back of this bike.

Washing the Lint Catcher?!!!

Yes, wash your dryer's lint catcher...

Just do it!  Take it to your kitchen sink, put some dish washing detergent on your sponge scrubby side and scrub that screen. 

I am a believer of nothing! 

But this one really does work!  Go give it a try, see if your dryer runs more efficiently when it can breath easier!

Is your laundry done and all intact?

Earlier in the week, one of the guests at Sew We Quilt  guest #16, Lisa, an embroidery designer at Lazy May has an embroidery pattern titled One Red Sock.  Ok, that got me musing about lost socks in the laundry.  I know this is a tired old topic but this has always fascinated me because, ...are you ready?...I have NEVER lost a sock in the laundry!  And I haven't ever had an opportunity to say that.  Am I really the only woman in the world that has never lost a sock in the laundry?  I thought I did a few times, but it turned out not to have gotten sorted and was just in a different load. 

Well, a couple of weeks ago I got so excited...I thought I finally, after all these years, lost a sock in the laundry!  Not so fast girlie...yep, didn't happen.  Yep, it was in a different load.  But here's what happened...  The lint catcher was upstairs drying from being washed (you have to wash the gunk off those things now and then, you know.  It clogs up the little screen holes and your dryer has to run longer to get the clothes dry...did you know that?), that was a few days ago and the lint catcher hadn't made it's way back to the basement yet.  I forgot about it.  I put a load of clothes in to dry.  Soon my husband comes in from outside asking if I want my dryer sheet back and suggested I replace the lint catcher.  Silly me.  When I folded the clothes and one sock was missing, I was sure it got into the dryer vent and blown out into the yard just like the softener sheet was.  I asked hub if he found any of his socks out in the yard...nothing like sending a man on a wild goose chase - eh?

Have you really lost your footwear in your laundry?  I feel like I'm missing out on an important part of womanhood!  Well, tell me...

Make this day a memorable one!

Annie

NOTE:  Since blogging is so new to me, I have a musing from my pre-blogging-strictly-flickr-only days...come see me on Monday and we'll discuss it.  Oh dear, miss nicey is already beginning to fade away...

I can't believe I'm a Blogger now!

In the end, do we all attend a 12-step program for this?  Well, until then, I am Annie.  You may know me as freezeframe03.  I've had a flickr photostream for three years.  I kinda treated it like it was my "blog" and diary for my photography, at first, then my sewing/quilting, that I'm better at than photography.  So far I've managed to stay under the 200 photo limit (always deleting the lesser photographs and sewing projects) to keep it a free account.  I see no need to pay until there is a need...which is beginning to sneak up on me.  There's a button or some sort of block thingy over there on the right that you can click on to visit my flickr photostream, if you'd like.

And now I've decided to join the life of blog owners.  I've followed, I've visited, I've bookmarked and now I want to speak...oh goodness, help you all!  I have opinions and I'm not afraid to speak them!  So, what will you find here on my blog?  All kinds of stuff.  Like...

my sewing,

fabric postcards are my absolute favorite small project to make.

And wall quilts are a favorite.  I only have 3 throw quilts under my belt because I only just figured out that straight line quilting is ok.  How dense was I being - eh?!

You'll find fun photos of our 2-wheeled outings,

most will start with "At 60 mph..." because there is no stopping for pictures.  I also love riding my pedal power bicycle but it isn't happening in my current situation.

You'll find what I've read lately.

I'll chat about this book soon.  Very interesting.

And probably most frequently you'll find my musings and opinions on just about anything in this life that catches my attention and makes me think about it.  Good or bad.  There will be no wearing of rose colored glasses at this blog!  And be prepared to participate, because when I want to know something, I'll ask anybody anything.  I've embarrassed many a friend with my blunt curiosity.  But if I don't ask, I'll never know.  I figure if it's none of my business, I'll be told so.

I love it when I learn something new...even if it's something I should have known all along...like straight line quilting is ok...geezelouise I can't get over that one!  Once in a while I've even changed my opinion or musing when someone puts forth a logical/reasonable rebuttal...nothing is ever one-sided.  So, follow me if you like and feel free to comment and participate on my musings with your thoughts of whatever the subject might be.  You may even trigger a new musing in me.

I'd love to know how you found me, and if you decide to follow me, welcome!  If you have a blog, leave me the info so that I can come check out your blog and follow you if I don't already.  Thanks for visiting.

Make every day memorable!

Annie