These tulips are making me happy today.  What has you smiling?

Last week, I finally got my hands on the December/January issue of Cookie Magazine.

If you turn to page 42, look what you'll find...

Yes, that's me.  Well, it's another version of my packing list, at least!  I was honored that such a fun, cool magazine would ask me to contribute this little bit.  It was a fun project to work on to boot!  There is supposed to be a version on the Cookie website to download, but it isn't there.  I'll let you all know when it's up.  And if it is your first time visiting this blog, welcome.  I am so excited that you are here.

We had a nice Thanksgiving with my family and friends.  The weekend was low key with a bit of organizing thrown in for good measure (thank you, Georgia).  Today it is snowing and raining depending on the hour (snowing now) - I think it'd be a nice day to stay indoors and sew or knit.  Unfortunately, I have way too much on my to-do list to sit still.  Off I go to check off some things.  I'll be back in this space tomorrow.   See you all then.

I missed my blog birthday.  It was Friday.  I've been at this thing for two years now and I continue to be amazed by the community I've found.  I am so thankful for all the encouragement and support I have received from my blog readers.  I appreciate all the comments you leave - I read them all and try my hardest to respond to as many as I can.  Thank you for enriching my creative life.  I continue to be inspired and motivated by all your creative endeavors, too.

I've received some lovely awards from different bloggers over the last couple of months.  I am always honored and flattered to be chosen, but I rarely pass them on.  I don't want anyone to think that I am ungrateful.  That is not it.  I just could never choose a handful of bloggers to single out.  There are too many wonderful and crafty blogs out there to choose from.  And I hate that I-am-the-last-one-chosen-for-the-team feeling.  You know the one I am talking about, right?  So please know that I really appreciate it even if I don't pass it along.

But, I've been tagged for six random things.  Twice.  This I can manage.

1.  I wear very little make-up:  eyeliner, mascara, lipstick.  Eyeshadow and blush if it's a fancy party.  That's it.

2.  I have no issues putting the laundry in the washing machine.  I can even move it to the dryer.  I despise folding and putting it away.

3.  My closet is a mess most of the time.  See number 2 above.

4.  I love to bake, but I don't do it often because I love baked goods.  And I would eat them all.

5.  I go through the mail when it comes and take out the good stuff.  Once a week I deal with the rest of it.

6.  I'm happy that school is starting, but I am sad that summer is ending.

I'm not going to tag anyone, but feel free to play along.

This photo has nothing to do with this post, but I really love it.  It was one of many magical moments this past weekend.  Hope yours was great too.

Awhile back, I was asked to write an article for Stampington's magazine, Somerset Life.

It's been out there for awhile now - the issue hit newsstands on July 1st.  In the article, I talk about my experiences blogging.  Actually, now that I think about it, it's kind of funny to be blogging about an article about blogging.

So there you go.  I was flattered to be asked to do this - the magazine is so beautiful.  It was also a good challenge for me, too.  I'm not the most comfortable writer, but now that I've had time to read it over about 10 gazillion times, I feel pretty good about it.  And seeing my own photos in print is the icing on the cake.  That is pretty cool.

Enjoy your weekend, everyone.

Have you seen the project that Emily, Rachel, Alicia and Heather are doing?  If not, you really should check out echoes.  I was enamored with it immediately.  They have a flickr group so that the rest of us can play along.  I joined.

Although I am feeling a bit frenzied, running around, trying to get ready for our trip, I am still taking ten minutes to paint a little something every day.  It's been way to long since I did anything artistic that didn't involve fabric, thread or yarn.  It feels so good.

I have gone and done something crazy.

I have entered my still unfinished x-string quilt in the state fair.

Here's the thing:  for three years now, I have said that I wanted to enter something I made in the state fair, but have never done it.  Two years ago, I didn't have anything I really wanted to enter.  Last year, I was going to enter an apron, but I missed the deadline.   This weekend I finally finished quilting (!) the x-string quilt and it dawned on me that I might be able to enter it in the fair before the deadline.  Oh no - the deadline was July 1st.  Next year, I thought.

I tell Fatty that I missed the deadline and that I can't enter without paying a late fee.  On top of that, I am not finished and the drop off days at the fairground are the one weekend in August when we will be out of town.  How much is the late fee? he asks.  You pay $15 instead of $8.  He looks at me and I can see it on his face.  You want to do this, right?  Yes. Yes, I do.  Pay the late fee and find someone to take it over to the fairgrounds for you.  You can finish it in time.  You always do.

So, that was that.  I poured over the categories in the catalog and tried to discern the differences.  I settled on machine pieced and machine quilted.  I hope that is the right one.  I'll have four days when I get home from Telluride to finish the binding and sew a sleeve on it.  Then I will have to persuade a friend to drop it off for me.

Am I nuts?  Probably.

But I'm going to have a quilt in the state fair.  And I think that is pretty damn cool.

I spent most of the weekend sewing, but I don't have anything to show for it.  All of the projects are in different stages of "not yet finished."  I have myself to blame for this:  running out of thread seems to be a specialty of mine.  And now, I can add math miscalculations to the list as I cut a two and a half yard piece of batting in to a completely unusable mess along with squaring a full size sheet incorrectly.  Yikes.  I think I might start chanting, "Measure twice, cut once" but I am not sure it would help.

The good news is that there are a few things making my heart race lately.  The first is Sarah's latest gocco swap.  Oh boy!  I love me some good looking notes.  See the button on the right side bar?  Click it and sign up.  You know you want to.

Second is Pam's February Lady Sweater.  Seriously.  I have spent a couple weeks deciding if I love this so much because it is the most perfect shade of green or because I really like the sweater.  Turns out, I think it is both.  So now I am on the hunt for the most perfect yarn in the most perfect green.  You know, so I can knit the most perfect sweater.  Preferably wool - suggestions?  I won't start it for awhile - the wrist, you know.  But the girls and I are headed to my favorite place at the end of the week (another thing making my heart rate rise) and the tangled yoke is coming along.  It is the only crafty thing I'm bringing.  That will be either disastrous or genius (the wrist,  you know).  Only time will tell.

Finally, Blair sent Emily, Tracy and I our new assignment.  (As an aside, can I just say how happy I am that Blair is back at the blog thing?  So very happy - I really missed her words).  I pulled out the dictionary - man, oh man!  There are lots of choices with this word.

Cover.  Noun and verb.  My initial thoughts surprised even me.  Wordplay is so fun - it gets me thinking in so many different ways.

Enough for a Monday morning.  Back tomorrow with quilt news.

When I opened the envelope from Jen six weeks ago, I was thrilled to see the word bloom.  The first thing that came to mind was the saying, "Bloom where you are planted."  And I knew exactly how I wanted to proceed even though I wasn't sure how it would all come together.

Although wordplay is a collaboration with Tracy and Emily, I wanted this project to go further.  I imagined a wider collaboration, something that I could make with bits and pieces given to me from different people.  I was thinking about flowers and gardens and how so often people dig plants up and divide them between neighbors and friends.  That's what I wanted:  a community garden of fabric.  And so, I asked for vintage sheet scraps and boy, oh boy, did you guys comethrough for me!  Seventeen of you to be exact.  There are just somany good floral prints in a wonderful color palette in those oldlinens.  I wanted a large variety and small bits.  You all had the best stash of scraps a girl could wish for.  And you were willing to share - for that, I thank you.

I found this aqua linen on clearance and thought it would be a perfect background for the various colors in the sheet scraps.  I began by cutting out concentric circles from different prints - just eyeing them and cutting, no tracing was done here.  Once I had a decent stack of "blooms", I started laying them out on the fabric to see what I had.  I cut some more flowers until I had a random scattering around the perimeter.  I had planned on embroidering the saying by hand in the middle somehow, but felt I needed something to signify myself to anchor it so I cut the one large bloom for that space.

I appliqued the individual flowers to the quilt top by stitching three straight lines across each one.  My original plan was to tie the center of the flowers using embroidery floss, but once I had the quilt sandwiched, I realized that I would need more quilting to hold it nicely together.   I improvised by quilting three circles around one flower.  Initially, I wasn't looking for the wavy lines that I got, but when I stood back to look at it, it was perfect.  It reminded me of my favorite flowers and I smiled.

I had so many scraps to choose from that I ended up using some for a strip of patchwork on the back.  I sewed a label on there, too.  It got quilted over and I really like how it made it blend in a bit more.  The quilting on the back is my favorite part.  Even if the words read backwards, I like it.

I think "bloom" and "Bloom where you are planted" are about finding your hidden potential no matter what your circumstances are at the moment.  I know that if you had asked me nine years ago where I would be in 2008, I would have never imagined that my life as I know it.  I would not be living in this town.  I would have more children.  I would not be sewing as much as I do and certainly not quilting.  I might be knitting.  I would not be writing and designing.  And I most certainly would not have this group of peers, people that I have never met in person, that support, encourage and inspire me.  But I do!  What a great surprise!  And I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such amazing talent.  I have planted myself in this blogging community and in turn, you have planted seeds of inspiration in me.  With a little of my own creativity and time, I am growing in directions I had never imagined.

I had fun making this quilt.  I haven't made anything for myself in a long time and I plan on keeping this one.  It measures 45" x 51" - a perfect summer-nap-in-the-chair size.  Thanks, Jen, for a great word to get me started and thanks, too, Emily and Tracy for playing along.

Life is about the now, not the past or the future.  And if you are successful in living in the moment, I think that you have no choice but to bloom.