Digital scrapbooking-Brigit Kerr

I had two days off and played scrap booking with some fun digital scrap booking stuff. I must thank Jessica Sprague,for her free tutorials, and Mary! from Mary Quilts on whose blog I found the the afore mentioned Jessica.
And if you are so inclined, the website, Scrapbookgraphics is where I bought the virtual design elements, The Valentine Kit, by Birgit Kerr, that I added to my layouts...elements are the things like back round paper, the book, the ribbons and doo dads that you place on your canvas to tell a story. The fun part of this is for me that you do not have to actually have all this stuff. It is all digital. I love this computer stuff!
The 'Basil' one has far fewer elements, but they are there in the back round and help to unify the piece.I kinda went crazy with piece for the girls, I could not stop adding things to it. There was so much cool stuff in the package that I bought. So much fun for seven dollars. Oh and photshop elements...which I had on my mac.
I did not get alot of sewing done, but did finish my second swap apron, and it is in the mail. and some more inklingoing for my Jane Austen replica. And I am relaxed and ready to go back to work.

more fun with photos

Ok. I am addicted to photoshop elements. I am not proud. I do not need CS4. I can quit any time.
One of the nice things about being driven to work is that I can stick my iphone out of the window and take pictures. Of course I could not do this if I were the driver-not unless it was a really great picture. Sometimes I do bring my regular camera. The pictures used to make this page were taken with my phone on different mornings as Mike drove me to work , going east on the loop parkway the north up the meadowbrook parkway. I have often wanted to stop and walk with my camera but never have. It is not pedestrian friendly.
It is often beautiful if you can ignore the cars and the fact that you are hurtling through space at 70 mph-if you are to be on time-and if you are going much slower than that, the driver, who shall remain anonymous, is delivering expletives and "scrubbing " his tires to pass the poky old folks who are driving in front of us. Sometimes I feel compelled to remind him that we are the oldsters now. He is usually not receptive.

Fun with pictures

Tonight I played with pictures using Photoshop Elements and tutorial from Jessica Sprague's wonderful web site. I wish that the tools that I have now had been available to me when I was a young mom. I would have had fun with digital scrap booking. If I had extra hours in the day I could go back in time and scan a thousand or so pictures that I want to play with.
I won a blog award from Cyndi! I met Cyndi in a cross stitch swap and we have been reading each other's blogs since then. She makes supportive comments which are always appreciated. As all bloggers know, sometimes it is lonely at the keyboard. You wonder who, if anyone, is reading the words you write. So, when people leave comments, it does make a difference. It does make a blogger want to keep on tapping on.


So with out further ado, I will fulfill the conditions of the award I am so humbled to receive and list five addictions. I will not list unhealthy addictions, rather the passions that I am joyously and ravenously feasting upon.
1. I love to make things, from children to quilts. I love creating beautiful objects artifacts beings rooms and relationships.
2. I love to read great books. I am not a reader of 'lightweight' literature. I love poetry and language and writing that illuminates truth.
3. I love my community of people, most of whom I have never met, who have joined me in the pursuit of accomplishing fiber nirvana and sharing in these forums on the internet.
4. I love art and art supplies and computers and good erasers and sharp scissors and good brushes and the smell of paper and the smell of linseed oil, piles of clean pressed fabric and yarn and sewing machines and fine pochades. I guess I love the things that make the processes of creation pleasurable. And books to show me how.
Oh, and my camera. I love my olympus.
5. I love my home and the people who have made it here with me. And for the two or three people who have had the balls to stick with me through my tumultuous journey, I love you too.
Five blogs I love:not in any order and I do not even know if anyone will play contest with us but that is ok. I will just keep on reading them anyway...and pass the award on down the line..
Diary of a self portrait
Brooklyntweed
the old professor
inklingo projects
Crazy aunt Purl

notes

pinging

Ping is getting some quilting done on it. I am not quite up to a thread a day but I am making up for it when I can. It helps that I am able to leave it out and have all the supplies handy to pick up on a whim. It also helps that it is visible and I see it waiting all the time. If it were tucked away, as it was for a long time, then I might 'forget'. I have not yet pieced the borders and I am not certain I am going to. While I have little use for a couch quilt, I am pretty sure I do not want to do the borders that came with the kit. However the jury is still out. I would love to have this as a bed sized quilt-for me. No worries. I have plenty of time.

One sock

Pattern from Vogue Ultimate Sock book. Opal self striping yarn. Beautiful rosewood needles. The second one will be cast on today. I will not succumb to one sock syndrome (oss)....
And the pin cushion, inspired by the new Inklingo Projects blog, is made with squares from the Le Moyne star collection. the fabrics will also be used in my swap apron...which I cut out this last few days.

Val's Pincushion

Val made pincushions to sell at the Rankin Quilt show last year, and I was lucky enough to get one.
Be sure to check out Tilde's new blog for Inklingo projects.

more pink snowflakes

AND SOCKS!!


More snowflakes of the fabric variety. My interest in these has been reignited. I am having a terribly a hard time choosing just one thing to work on. The Jane Austen patchwork diamonds are halfway cut out and they may actually get machine stitched to expedite the process, leaving me the snowflakes to do by hand. These, and knitting, should keep my busy when I am not writing and drawing, cooking and. oh yes, at work.

First Finish!!

I hemmed a pair of pants! woo hoo
and I wrote a poem
made baked oatmeal in my crock pot
and knitted on socks
good day off
see that apron on the side bar?
an apron swap-how cool is that?

Things I am working on

Ping-quilting panels. My first go at 'quilt as you go', which is going slowly.
I am printing and cutting Inklingo patches for the Jane Austen Patchwork quilt. My plan is to have all the pieces cut before I sew. I have the sashing all cut and about half of the center diamonds. I need to do the border half diamonds and the tiny border diamonds...thousands:) o scrappy heaven.
I have mused upon all of the usual declarations and resolutions and I guess I will toss my hat into the ring. I will do all the healthy self nurturing things that I can. And that is it. I will give myself time and silence to think and write. I will buy a new journal, a big one.
I will likely finish one major quilt -Ping and begin at least one other-The Jane Austen Patchwork-as presented by Linda Franz.
I will probably do at least one mystery quilt just for fun, using fabric I already have.
I will spin some and explore that fiber realm.
I have joined a swap for aprons. I will probably join other swaps that tickle my fancy, but probably not the kind where you have to send a multiple of the same item or send something monthly, as I found these types of swaps very hard to keep fresh.
This year, my youngest child will leave for school and leave me and Mike, together alone, in our home where all my kids grew up and became adults. Having been ruthlessly moved from place to place at the mercy of my mother's illness, I consider this a huge triumph in my life, to have provided a place from which my kids would eventually emerge adults. We are in part what we are born and in part what we choose. So it will be an ending and a beginning, a significant one. I have been dreaming of living somewhere in a loft, or somewhere in the hills, somewhere elsewhere. Literally dreaming in my sleep, still looking for somewhere to belong. So part of my resolution is to follow that dreamstream and see where it leads...