The Cardinal Quilt

My mom loved cardinals. They were her favorite birds. As Mom got older and we kids left home, she stopped decorating for Christmas. (I didn't understand how she could do that back then, but I sure do now!) So, when I found this fabric with cardinals on it, I decided to make this wallhanging for her. That way she could enjoy her cardinals AND do at least one easy decoration for Christmas. This is about 30 inches square. This quilt lives at my home now, so now I get to enjoy it. And it reminds me of my mom, which makes me happy.

I don't remember doing this machine quilting with metallic thread. I'm surprised to see it looks as good as it does! I didn't have a very good sewing machine at that time and it hated metallic thread! The pin dots on the green fabric are metallic too. It's from the glitzy 90's - I made this in 1994. I know this because I actually put a label on the back of the quilt. Woo hoo! (more on that thought later)

Last week we had some pretty cold weather for here, and lots of local fog. One day we were really foggy. Then, about 2 or 3 in the afternoon, the sun actually came out! DH took this picture in our back yard. We thought it was really pretty to see the sunbeams through the fog. That grey area on the right hand side of the picture is fog on the lake. By the time he got out there with the camera, the fog was dissipating pretty quickly.

I have some more links to share:

First, remember that I told you to remember about quilt labels? Well, Carrie from Miss Rosie's Quilt Company, has some wonderful suggestions AND instructions for quilt labels on her blog La Vie En Rosie. She tells us what she uses to write the label with, how she incorporates the label into the backing of the quilt and even that she puts quotes she's collected onto her quilts. It's very informative and some really great ideas! I'm inspired to actually do some more quilt labels. Because, truthfully, I've gotten lazy about putting labels on quilts and wallhangings. I think it's important, but I'm just lazy about it. And I think a lot of quilters are that way too. I know I wish my grandmothers had labeled the quilts that I now own. It would make the quilts even more special to me.

Kim at Kim's Big Quilting Adventure blog has a post that's an easy Christmas Santa applique tutorial. It's very cute, and pretty darn easy.

There's been a wonderful ad on TV (I know, that sounds impossible, doesn't it?). I love this ad. It's the best I've seen in a long while. It's very heartwarming and always makes me teary. I love the little penguin. Believe it or not, it's for the Washington lottery. Although I'm pretty sure it was filmed in California - it looks just like the Mission Peak area. Anyway, it's called "Every Bird Should Get To Fly". Take a look and see if it makes you teary too! (maybe I'm just wierd)

My DD sent me to this fun little game. As a quilter, I pride myself on my being able to "eyeball" measurements, etc. Well, this one will test you! It's called the "eyeballing game". You have to "eyeball" parallelograms, right angles, midlines, and other geometric shapes and things (but no 1/4 inch test!). At the bottom of the screen on the left-hand side, is a link to Help/About that will help you understand how the game works. You go through the measuring things 3 times to get a score. My first score was bad, because it took me a couple of times to figure out what you're supposed to do. I'm finding that I'm consistently good at some of them, like the convergence point and the circle center, and consistently bad at others, like the parallelogram. It's fun to see how you do, as the game gives you a comparison to what you thought it should be and what it really is.

And last, here's another fun "find out about yourself" personality test. But this one has a twist! It's all visual! It's called Visual DNA. I don't know about most quilters, but I'm a very visual person. So this was fun. The email I got about it said this:

VISUAL DNA
This is not scientific but fun. At the end where they give you the results, you have to click on the tabs of the notebook and it'll open into a new page. Interesting . . .This is different...try it !When you click on the link, a series of about 14-15 pictures will come up. Click on a photo in that category that appeals to you. Again, 14-15 different pictures will come up, click the one for you and move on. Just continue to keep picking. At the end it will give you a profile of yourself.... It's called a visual DNA.... Your choices dictate your profile.

Some catagories, I didn't really like any of the pictures, so I don't know how that skews it. I didn't learn anything new about myself, but I still like taking these "tests". My test told me that I'm a "hands on" artist. That's it in a nutshell.

Have some fun with these. They're a good break from shopping, gift wrapping, cookie baking and all that other fun Christmas stuff!