SUNDAY PAPERS

Working in my "Glue Book" Journal today...Images cut from magazines mostly, but also from junk mail; a few pieces of fabric, and some scrapbook quotes, stamping....just randomness...and slow
S L O W work....this way, that way, trimming, placing....to make a collage of places in my mind....

Here, my love of buildings..how they reach up into trees and skies...two of these (on the
right hand side ) are from a Bennington Pottery (in Vermont) catalog.........

When we first married, we used to travel up there of a Sunday afternoon; wander through the potters shed and pick up bits and bobs,,,,then,  sit out under the big old trees in their yard
 and have herbal tea,
                                             cool breezes and quietness.........
                           I still love their cups and mugs--all glazed and lovely

                 My desire for cooler weather and lower dew points (lol) is showing up in this page....

I have always found this kind of work/play relaxing....gathering, sorting, choosing, gluing
all playing as in childhood....Perhaps I am in my second childhood....

hugs on this quiet day, our 51st Wedding Anniversary....
Julierose, La Blageuse (paperie-euse)

K A P O W !!!

                                SHA ZAM 
hide thine eyes; danger, danger.....
Yikes!  Here are my two "see if I like it" blocks for Connor's college bound quilt
                                ..............Man oh man--I could never sleep
                                  under this vibrating thing!!  It moves before my eyes....

Hubby (arbiter of all things "Male" with regard to colors, says it gives him a
headache and blurs his eyes!!) ;000000

Back to the drawing board for Connor's favorite "Red" colored quilt...

I only have really ever used reds along with greens for Christmas stuff; (and of course
in all postage stamp quilts), but not as a main color...I really don't know what (E A S Y !!)
pattern to use to make his now...I am SO happy that I made some test blocks instead
of just factory sewing all those squares together in twosies...PHEW!!
(patting me on the back LOL)

Any suggestions for a teen's mainly red quilt??? I was thinking of two options:
9-patches of gray squares with a red center and alternating with a square red block....
or square within a square blocks featuring red centers   I wouldn't use those 2.5" squares
  for the 2nd option, but cut larger ones...(I do have a 5" square die)  Hmmmmm....nothing seems to hit me.
And here, Greg's quilt went together so well colorwise...I guess red is hard for me....

Tonight will be  homemade chicken soup for supper,
 with a side salad (the ever-present salad!!) and
with 1/2 store bought garlic bread--(I buy the Pepperidge Farm one--it is yummy!!) .

I boiled down the chicken carcass yesterday and will skim all the fat off today before using the
chilled broth.  We are trying to eat lighter these days...especially at dinnertime...
Meanwhile, the WEIGHT stays the same (within in 1-2 lb variation)!! :00000

We plan on a walk around 4 before dinner--hopefully it will have cooled down a bit by
then as it is now 80 degrees with a dewpoint of 72--Hot hot hot....ugh!! Isn't it Fall yet???

hugs to you all
I am off to pin baste Greg's opus...
Julierose La blaguse (dizzy-euse) ;~~~~~~000

BLUES FOR GREG (Backing Edition)

Her is the untrimmed backing for Greg's college bound quilt....

Hermine was not cooperating--getting pretty windy here..{I'm sewing
as fast as I can lol}

Greg loves dogs and I thought this was just the ticket for the top border....

(Woof, woof, Libby and Kota agree ;)))  ) 

All my grandchildren have gotten Christmassy backings on their quilts--the challenge for my older ones is to find those kinds of prints that are not baby-ish.  
(You realize that each quilt then becomes=2 tops??--what was i thinking...or not???) :0000

And here is the bottom border and the sides--very Wintry  :

                                A snowy scene...to curl up under...

And here is what I could get of the center with the winds whipping around....

I L O V E this print...Wintry trees decorated in white....

Blue is Greg's favorite, so both the front and back should be have a bounty of
                                               B L U E S

Hermine thought she'd take a look at this and send it for a whirling ride....

                              And here was our sky last night.....so beautiful....and calm....

hugs to everyone on this LABOR DAY holiday....I hope you are getting some
sewing time in.... 
Julierose, La Blageuse (sewing-euse)

MONDAY MACHINE WORK

i am machine quilting the first half of "Blues For Greg" this week....

one straight line across each horizontal--lots and lots and lots of lines, people!!;0000

I set Helga's stitch length to "4" for a longer looking stitch and her pressure to "3".  I will say that it is easier to Quilt As You Go in two sections...

I almost forgot to add the top and bottom borders, though ---oops--brain strain....

This is what the following week will look like...a bit each day.
I now have the first 1/4 done...

I will have to go and get some more Warm and
Natural batting to set up the 2nd half. 
 Hello, JoAnne's (40% coupon at the ready).

i am reading some Martha Grimes' books I missed; and enjoying Inspector
Jury's figuring out "whodunnit".  So far, "Vertigo 42" is very good....I rest in between sections of quilting with this book.  

Today it is hot and humid AGAIN!  I am hopeful that the dewpoint will drop over the course of the day so that we can enjoy the back deck at cocktail hour {4pm here;))))  }

Hugs to you all...Moms with "back-to-schoolers" I can hear your cheers...
ROTFLOL

Julierose, La Blageuse (machine quilting-euse)

BLUES FOR GREG

                                    Here is a portion of Greg's college bound quilt..

.I have made 25 blocks and each one has 18 (2.5") little squares --
sewn into three strips,  separated by three maroon-ey strips...(.I can't get far enough away from my design wall in my tiny sewing room to get a full picture...)
                                                Here are two other portions:

AND this:

I hope to sew them together this week.  They (obviously)
need trimming up to one consistent size.

A lot of these squares are from the swap I  did two years ago and also some mini-charm packs--
so,---- 2.5" per square is just a "suggestion".  Hahaha....
;0000

I have ironed all the seams open--lots of up and down from my sewing chair--that has to count for something, right????;)))

Today was a blessed relief from heat and humidity --lovely cool breezes from the
northwest flooded our area....aaaaaahhhhhh
hugs
P.S.  Am now collecting red 2.5" squares for the other twin's (Connor) quilt
--so far I have 222--I need a total of 450
 uhh....
that's how many I used in Greg's quilt...and yes, I am crazee
 about working with squares  that is....and maybe just a little mentally, ya think????
Julierose, La Blageuse (scrappy-euse)

BABAR and DIETING

       As many of you followers will know, I have been assiduously trying to lose weight.
          ( "WARNING, WARNING WILL ROBINSON" (see robot comment below)

.....Caution a long venting post follows--

I went on Atkins a year ago and lost 30 lbs...and now they have ALL
gotten together and found their way back on....ME!! and I am feeling and looking like Babar the Elephant!!  Aaargh!!

So, in my inimitably brilliant fashion, I have been figuring that if I eat less of everything, I won't feel deprived --like I would on some diet regime--
and I'd HAVE to lose lbs!!
  
                 No way, no, nada, ne rien, nil, nothing--NOPE!! 

And I have been walking more and trying to GET UP out of my seat (offa ma butt!!) and move around.  I weigh more than I did when I was preggers for my son--for heaven's sake!! 

One of the things I have always used to keep my hand out of that potato chip bag (oh yeah, hubster does not gain weight from snacking--even at night--
now how is that fair??? ;(((   I ask you!)
--anyway: is handwork and cups of tea to stay full--many, many cuppas....

so, I am resolved to take my hexies out and work on them while I watch my Red Sox and "Murder in the First" (my, isn't she the thin one???)
and "Humans" (they are all thin as robots--I mean who in their right mind would make a fat robot--right???And another big sigh****) 

DH says I eat like a bird--yeah, well this is some BIG BIRD (apologies to Big Bird on Sesame Street--after all, he's tall enough to carry it off and I am only 5'4.5--used to be 5'5"--but of course, my HEIGHT is shrinking--sigh*****
not anything else apparently!!)

He feels bad for me and says tentatively:"Well, maybe now that you are in your "Golden Years " {hah!} you will have to get used to carrying more weight around"  He is trying to be nice, ladies, and he is most likely --well he sure 
must be !!--sick of hearing me blab on and on and on about weight, 
diets etc etc
 ad nauseum....

Listen, I even moved my ironing board to the other side of the room so that I have to GET UP and walk over to it to iron each seam....what else is a lady to do??? I am totally sick of diets...I have had to , as they so sweetly say, watch my weight since I was 13--yep, puberty did it...All my paternal Aunts were big women...and my Grand-mere was no little gal either....


Everything I do requires me to sit: quilt, sew, knit, embroider, play piano, 
read (well I could read on the treadmill, I guess--but I don't see that
 happening anytime soon)--
And so, This is My Life right now...
Hugs and thanks for listening to my whining...

julierose , La Blageuse (Elephant-euse);0000

THURSDAY WIPS

Working through the Postage Stamp leftovers (2.5" squares)
--I've culled all the blues.... and:"Am I Blue?" is the working
 title for this one...fun to stitch...; a bit on the dark side--
but I am in a dark-ish mode lately...
I sometimes think if you just start sewing with no idea in mind 
your "mood" will take you to places you've never visited before....

I L O V E this fabric and have never been able to actually "CUT" into it...
enough of that, mes amies!! In keeping with my "use it up" mode for the rest of this year (and most likely the rest of my lifetime to use all I have on hand!! ;000)--I have cut using-- GO!BABY (GO!! I sound like Dr. Seuss hahah)
 2.5" strips---it just looks so real and yummy.....
I've been petting it....;))))
THEN:

Remember this one?  I plan to do raw edge hand applique-ing on her --
(flowers are seemingly feminine to me)....I have no idea where 
this will lead me either...("Inspiration is Funny, it makes the bee 
think of honey" to paraphrase yet another tune)

And peeking out right next door is my combo of "Circles of My Life and Grief Cloth":

another hand work piece...I may be going to add some beads to that
center piece...the top and bottom blues are sun dyes 
that I made years (another lifetime) ago...
they include prints of some of my Grand-mere's doilies...
pineapple crochets and birds...I am linking to Audrey's blog with these

And that is what's up on my wall today....
I am figuring that  if I see them each time I walk by 
or go into my room, I will be compelled to actually work on them---

they have been in the "DRAWER" for a long time.....they need to breathe...
and i need to breath some life into them....

Hugs on this sultry, hot day...
Julierose, La Blageuse (back to stitchery-euse)