Poor New York City

Frogs and the Chicks are home...smile

My husband likes to buy me roses.  I'm so blessed.  When the roses are on the fading end of beauty, is when the frogs come out.  I don't why they are called frogs, but, for minimal display of flowers, they are best.

My chicks are both home, well, sort of.  You know we want them to have friends, but, we like to have them see us too.  Our lovely Chelsea is just way too popular for her dad's and my liking.  I guess I should be happy she's here for a week and we get to see her some.  She's too old to ground and who would be in New Mexico to make sure she stays there.  Maybe we could pay her lovely dog Fawn to do the dirty work.

...So you won't be USING this quilt...hmmmm

That was a line said to me by one of our newer quilters in the Northeast Quilting Friends group of which I am a part.

Quilts are "used" in so many ways.  First and to me foremost as a work of art.  Whether it adorns a bed or a wall.  Tradition and function collide in the quilt world in that way.  A quilt is to be used for warmth and snuggling is probably the traditional thinking of quilts.  To me an art quilt is also functional in that it is used to warm the heart just by it's "mere" existence on the wall.

So there, quilts are great, no matter what they are used for.  This one, may be for either purpose, it can hang on a wall or to snuggle.  I don't think the embroidery will be any worse for the wear.

Here is what you see when you walk in my house at Christmas time.  I like kitchie things...smile.

Finally feels a lot like Christmas around here...smile

Wow!  It's been a rough few weeks.  I've been under the weather a bit after returning from family in Oklahoma at Thanksgiving.  Why can't we make a national vote and spread this fabulous holidays out a few months!

Oh well, off my soap box for now.  We got rid of my 7 foot tree and have scaled back to a 4 foot one.  I still have the tree skirt for a big tree and I have an angel for a big tree.  I think I'll keep my tree skirt but, I need a new topper.  Don't you think?

We've also been snowed in here for a while and not even the snow can brighten the grey days of winter.  Oh well, these are great quilting days.  Hmmm...I just realized I'm working on a project that is taupe-grey, what's wrong with this picture?

Actually it's a project that includes embroidery.  The embroidery work "bleeds" onto the quilt blocks.  I've said it before, if you to want to renew your interest in quilting or any hobby, go back to what excited you when you first began.  I began my obsession while living in Houston from 1985 to 1996.  There of course is the Houston Quilt Festival where there are so many teachers available to the quilter.  I took a lot of classes.  As a child I was an embroiderer, so crazy quilting was what really lit my fire.  So, going back to it, even on a grey quilt project during the grey winter days lifts my spirits.

My family...smile

And so it was back to dreary, poetic, Oklahoma. Okay, so it's dreary almost everywhere in the USA, this wintery time of year. Unless you have a white Christmas, it usually looks like this, sans the broken tree limbs. Everywhere there was WW3 looking devastation. The area was struck by an unusually big ice storm. The branches were over burdened and could not hold the heavy ice for very long and it was the oldest and most beautiful trees that seemed to sustain the most damage. My folks live in Claremore, Oklahoma and my hubby's folks live in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. Don't ya just love that we took their land and their chief's names?

Ah well, on to my family. This is Rian and the newest member, Tucker Dean, to the Blanchard Clan. Pure entertainment at this age, 10 months. Tucker Dean loves my dad. I made acamouflage baby quilt for him. You can see it in the slide to the right with the Quilt's I've Made title. Here is my MIL that received the Diamond in the Rough quilt. She really hates anyone taking pictures of her, so I won't show her more than this. This is my mom with her baby, schnauzer, Daphne who is a reincarnated soul of Mother Teresa. Like MT, she goes where she is needed. Anyone in the family that needs her-mainly my mom, who just survived breast cancer and a mastectomy. If anything happened to her it would be bad. I'm sure if they had the money they'd buy a big RV to drive around with her in the windshield, surveying all that is hers to have. Some animals are like that, they are there for us to forget what ails us.

This is my dad, who is semiretired and lives to play online poker. Nothing makes him happier than to win 3.00 in a 10 cent game. This is Margie, my grandmother. People wonder why I call her Margie, when we were young, they all thought it was cute when we said Margie girl and Teddy Boy, so it stuck. She is the one I have made a few quilts with.

Last but not least here's my immediate clan, the Brunners. My hubby, Bob and a painting of my 2 girls, Chelsea and Jennifer, that my mom painted.

This is Chelsea with her score of an Ipod and Jennifer, who begs often for a moppy little dog. This is the only kind we will get for her-it's a bar of soap.

So there you have it, dos in the series of tres stages or parts, if you will of my one long and hopefully, less boring filled blog update.

It's quilting tomorrow.

So much news to report, I think it'll be in 3 stages...

Another Christmas holiday come and gone like the water that rises and lowers in the creek banks behind our house. I've got so much to write about, I'm going not bore the reader with a too long installment and will write 3 stages.

The three stages of blogs will be 1) movie reviews-as I was able to catch 2 really good movies while in Oklahoma with my family. 2) meet my family. 3) quilting of course.

Go see Atonement!! It's so gorgeous and good. It's one of those period shows that turns in and around itself. You know what I mean, it starts at the end and then goes back to the beginning at different stages of the movie. Warning-do not go to the bathroom you'll miss a lot.

The other great movie, but, not for the faint of heart, Sweeney Todd, staring Johnnie Depp. It's a musical with some rather shocking sights. There is a lot of blood, plain and simple. Johnnie Depp holds his own, with his singing voice, but, it's the director's wife, Helena Bonham Carter that will probably get an academy award or at least be nominated.

So ends the first of a short and sweet, three stage blog report.

What's it beginning to look a lot like?

Hmmm...now what could it be? Nope, well, yes it's beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but that's not it. Yep, there's the border, can you see it peaking out at the lower end of the the quilt? Sooooo, it's beginning to look like I'm almost finished quilting my queen size, Diamond In the Rough quilt! WooHoo!!

Here's some of the quilts I've made.

Here's a few of the quilts I've made. One of these days, I need to get out all my quilts and have a picture taking day. I like to take my pictures from my top deck looking down on my bottom deck. As you can see from our second story window, it's a pretty slushy day here inthe blue grass. Mudders are great days to bet the horses, cause long shots win.

It's Christmas time so I get out my crazy quilt stockings. This is mine. Before I was a quilter, I liked to embroider. Didn't everyone start with stitching? Or did you jump right into sewing/quilting?

I've shared quilting with my grandmother, here is a quilt we made together. I've shared quilting with my mother, I don't have any pictures of hers, cause I gave them back to her after I quilted them.

These are slushy pictures of my backyard. Grey days in Kentucky, USA, are always good for quilting and sewing or embroidery.

Here's some of how I'm quilting the Diamond in the Rough. Click for a close up.