thankful heart

I recently recieved a "thank you" in the mail...a thank you for the "Wool Crazy" book give-away... 

Betty from Missouri was the winner and as a thank you for the book - well, she just stitched me a thank you heart.  And doesn't it look like a thankful heart???  She also let me know in the thank you note that she now has a group of nine, I repeat, NINE!, women meeting to work on Wool Crazy!!  If you recall, Betty is a wool rug-hooker, so she said she has the wool scraps already, and she really was excited to win the book as she was going to try to talk her friends into doing the Wool Crazy along with her.  (She must not have had any problem talking friends into doing the project since she already has nine!) 

Look at her stitches in this wool heart...

she will have no problem at all with the stitching, will she?

The best thing about the give-away?  I feel like I won also!

Thanks from the bottom of my heart, Betty,

for the very generous thank you for the Wool Crazy book.

This is going right onto a patch in the first quarter of my Wool Crazy.

I will put Betty's initials and state on the corner of the patch and

will be reminded every time that I see it

of all  of the great people you "meet" in Blog-land".

That sure is a nice way to start the week!

Pineapple week wishes

Sorry, gals...
The winner of the Wool Crazy Book/Anniversary give away? 
Betty in MO? 
I was awaiting her response by way of email, as she doesn't have a blog, so I wasn't able to tell her directly that she was the winner!

Well, Betty contacted me, so the book will be winging it's way to Missouri first thing Tuesday morning
(not Monday a.m. because I just realized that tomorrow is a postal holiday!).
Congratulations to Betty - she is a hooker as her hobby - wool hooker that is, and she said she was telling her hooker friends that they should do this Wool Crazy thing together.  Now, she will have the Wool Crazy book and be able to start stitching.

I am sending along a little something extra to "welcome" her to this Wool Craziness addiction.

The pineapple has became a familiar symbolic image of welcome, good cheer, warmth and affection.

I heartily welcome Betty to the Wool Craziness!!! In fact, "Betty, I welcome you with good cheer, warmth and affection and a wool pineapple to stitch onto one of your blocks!

Hope all of you folks had a great weekend and enjoyed your valentines day. 

I cooked a comfort food meal:  meatloaf, baked potatoes, broccoli and some apple dumplings.  Yum to all of that! 
I didn't make any cut-out heart shaped cookies this year, though.  A little too busy, and I'm trying to cut back on white sugar.  Notice I didn't say  eliminate white sugar.  That would be a little too much, cold turkey and such.  But cut-out sugar cookies?  With Butter-Cream/Whipped Ice Cream Frosting?  PURE SUGAR, almost...  so, if they are not here, I won't eat them.  And since it's just sweetie and myself and I made them?  Well, we would have eaten them all, white sugar cut back or not!  At least the apple dumplings had FRUIT in them!  And we had some of the food group Dairy with them - ice cream.  If anyone asks - That's my story and I'm sticking with it!

More snow is a-comin' and it's making me smile.  We did take down the icicles from the back of the house.  They were definitely becoming weapon-like in appearance.

Night, everyone. 
Thanks for stopping by and I hope your week is a pineapple week - filled with good cheer, warmth and affection!

1-ice, 2-comments, 3-WINNER

Ok, girlies....
Three things....

Firstly:  the weather lightened up just a little around here. 

Don't get me wrong, it's still February in Ohio!

And another couple of clippers are a comin' this direction! Yay!

I know the following couple of pictures show a problem with roof/heat loss and possible gutter trouble,

BUT, (and notice that's a BIG but...not to be confused with a big butt!)

I love the look, so I let them "grow" (still not to be confused with a big butt!) 

Check out the "bars" of which I am emprisoned behind:

I am entitling this photo "February Prison" - (no, I am not speaking of my anniversary! - that was romantic and relaxing and a fun day, oh yeah, we also did our taxes! :)...)
Today, I did a self-imposed lock-in behind the icicle wonderfulness:  lots of sewing, some good food, and some quilting finishes which I will share tomorrow.

Secondly:
Thanks so much for all the congratulations on my anniversary-I can't believe that I had over 60 responses! 
It sure has been a fun 32 years, and yes, the years have flown by.  Seems like just yesterday sometimes.  Also seems that I should be able to open those double closet doors today and see the whole closet just filled to bursting with all those blanket gifts!  Wish I had taken a picture of that!  Thanks too, for all the stories shared about your anniversaries and multiple gifts and weather occurances.  It was fun to read about all of our memories, so many similarities, and you added a lot of smiles to my week.  So here's to many, many more years for each of us.

Thirdly:
And probably what you are really here for,

The give away for the Wool Crazy Book by JoAnn Mullaly!!!

So many comments, so many names.

I put all the names in a box and shook it around.

I included all the comments from this blog and the comments from the Wool Crazy blog.

Then I had my Sweetie draw one slip of paper.

Just one name. 

He is sure that there was no favoritism, as he admitted he was half asleep when I had him do the drawing!  (He says he was watching the opening ceremonies of the Olympics, but I'm pretty sure his eyes were mostly closed!)

OK, OK, no more stalling!

The winner is...

Betty said... Hi,
I had to laugh about the blankets because in my wedding showers we received TOWELS and lot of them. It was years before we had to buy towels. DH and I are working on our 49th. year.
I would love to have the new book. I have been reading so much about it. I have made several penny rugs and I'm now ready to make a crazy quilt.
Congrats and many more!
Betty in MO.
February 10, 2010 4:58 PM
 
Yee Haw, Ya hoo, and yippy!!!
Congratulations to Betty in MO!  (Betty, you are a no response blogger, so hopefully you will read this and let me know your postal address by emailing me (You can get my email in my profile) and I will ship a.s.a.p. so, you too, can start this Wool Craziness!!!  I hope you love it as much as I do!  (and yes, if Betty doesn't reply in a timely manner, I will re-draw).
 
Everyone, congrats on all your anniversaries, and thanks again for all the comments, encouragement, laughs and links.  I think I have visited each and every one of you and thoroughly enjoyed my time!
Now, back to watching the Olympic openings (I have them recording!!).

32 and GIVEAWAY

Comments now closed!
2/12/10 10:37 p.m.
Winner to be announced shortly
give me an A------A

give me an N------N

give me another N------N

give me an I-------------I

give me a Versary --------Versary.

what's that spell?  Anni - Versary

Say it again-----------Anni - Versary

Say it 32 times.

Ok, you get the picture.

Sweetie and I have been married for 32 years today. 

We married the year of The Blizzard. 
The Ohio Blizzard of the winter of '77-'78.
It started before dawn on Thursday, January 26, 1978: 
heavy snow, winds of 50 to 70 mph.
These conditions, combined with additional heavy snow and blowing of snow already on the ground, caused extreme blizzard conditions all across Ohio. 
Enormous snowdrifts covered cars and houses,
blocked highways and railways, and closed the airports here for two days. 
Because of the blowing, extreme drifting and cold temperatures, 
most of the state was shut down for 5 days.  Really, Shut Down...
I remember there being power losses and food shortages and national guard rescues for stranded motorists.  There was neighboring with folks who had fireplaces, sharing food and warmth. 

Here's a picture of that snowstorm, after the wind had died down.  This picture was pulled from the Marion County Historical Society, but it could have been my road.

Fifteen days after that storm,
sweetie and I were married.
Yes, our wedding pictures involved large snow banks and massive amounts of snow and cars put onto the top of massively large snow banks (thanks, brothers). 
And wedding gifts? 
We received many, many, many blankets. 
Blankets too numerous to count. 
(Only two toasters though.) 
And all of those blankets?  I kept them all. 
How could I have gotten rid of or exchanged something that I would use and that someone picked out especially for us?  And I have to admit that I now have no new blankets to pull from the closet.  I have used them all. 
After 32 years, most of them have been worn thin, recycled or sent on to that big blanket heaven in the sky.  There are still a couple of them left on beds.  And a couple of hand-made ones are in the blanket chest or across the end of the couch or bed. 

Today, Wednesday, February 10th, 

all the county schools are closed, 

the State has issued a level 2 snow emergency,

the wind is howling, the snow is coming down and drifting,

and it is a beautiful winter wonderland for my anniversary!!!

So, in the spirit of the blizzard-like conditions here in Ohio today

AND my 32nd wedding anniversary,

I am having a give-away. 

A little anniversary gift give-away. 

I'd like to say the give-away is a very nice blanket or quilt....

but, are you crazy,

I just told you I don't have any extra blankets just lying around

& I didn't plan far enough in advance to make a quilt for this give-away!!!

What am I giving away, you ask???

I have a copy of......

Wool Crazy, by JoAnn Mullaly!!!

Just leave a comment on this post if you would like this book

and I will do the random draw later this week.

After I have shoveled out and celebrated my anniversary!!!

wool craziness - round two and Farmer's Wife

Progress.
All different kinds of wool - most of it re-purposed - old camp blankets, jackets, skirts, a sweater or two.  A little of it is new wool from Week's Dye Works.
Some of my stitching:  chain stitching, flower bases with lazy-daisy leaves, blanket stitch, a chevron variation and even a little cretan stitching.  I think I will use old buttons for the flower heads in the long orangy-pink panel here top-left.  There's some feather-stitching also called the fly stitch if it's in a straight line.  I haven't pulled out any of the basting yet.  I like to leave it in until most of the applique is on, I think it helps keep the foundation a little more smooth and free of wrinkles.  The white area I will spray with "Distress It" regular spray. 

Distress It is an antiquing or tea dye spray that is used in making primitives: quilts, wool hooking, doll making.  I found this picture online at ColonialCrafts.com. It is an antiquing solution for punchneedle and other fibers available in Slightly, Regular and Extreme concentrations. I purchased mine at the local quilt shop.  She was more that happy to order it in for me.

Lastly, this old, tin Pic-a-nic Basket is my work basket for this project.  It  holds a good amount of thread, wool scraps and do-dads for ornamentation, along with the project, needles, applique scissors and thread snips.  The great thing about this Pic-a-nic Basket is that it has little "breath holes" in the back so that the wool can breath!  The needles I am using are Piecemakers Chenille #22.  They are sharp and have a large eye.   Not my most favorite needle for this type of project, but they do the job, and that's what was in my bag I grabbed to go on vacation.

The last pic shows a few of the blocks from my "Farmers Wife".  I hope to do about 6 to 10 blocks a month.  Four down, and I didn't bring all the template patterns with me, so I need to do some math and do some figuring before I do a few more blocks.

wool, applique, embroidery, craziness

Yes, I am half-crazy. 

And now there is wool involved.

Wool Crazy...

Here's the whole mess pile mess of wool and floss.

This doesn't count the wool that is felting in the dryer right now.  It is from the salvation army store and they were almost giving it away!

Yes, this is the pattern from the book Wool Crazy by JoAnn Mullaly.
Here's the layout:

Most of the foundation is covered with wool that is pinned on and overlapping.  The pins that I used are way too big, but that's what I brought with me on vacation for some reason, so that's what I used.  There are a couple of "bright" wools that I will spray with tea dye at some point.  They didn't look that bright just laying out, but with the camera, they stand out like, well, not a sore thumb but a bright wool sore thumb!

The foundation is almost all covered with wool, just a few more pieces to put on.  And everything that is on is basted...you can kind of see the running stitches.
And I have started the crazy stitching....
just a few lines here and there.
There are also just a couple of pieces of applique on at this point, but it seems to be going together rather quickly! 
Until I start adding more and more crazy stitches and applique pieces, that will add to the time, I'm sure!!!

On another note:
I went out of my vacation hide-out cave this morning and saw my shadow...I predict another 6 weeks of winter stitching!!!
Yay!!!

fabric is addictive

Sunday:  a whole lot of sewing (snowballs are all in rows, and half is a quilt!!!, which is good, since the challenge deadline is one week from today!),
then, just 'cause there are too many things going on,
I decide I needed to move around things in my sewing studio. 
Everything a quarter turn clockwise! 
Maybe I was thinking I was getting ready for "springing forward"????? Who knows?

Now my sewing desk faces into the room instead of against a wall of shelves stacked with fabric. 
Now the cutting table is under the wall of shelves stacked with fabric. 
Now the design wall has moved clockwise.
And a WHOLE buncha, buncha stuff is stacked on the bed in the guest room. 

You know, stuff like fabric stacks and project bags and project containers and rulers and fusible stuff and more fabric and tubs of wool and baskets of scraps and, oh, you understand, I'm sure. 
That will be another few days a weeks work to get it back in and in place. 
If you look at the stuff I have moved back in already, you think it's a nice studio with a nice stash. 
Then you look at the stuff that isn't back in yet, and you might ask: 
"What was she thinking?" 
I don't really believe I will live forever.
Really, I don't!, Promise! 
I haven't found the fountain of youth. 
Nor do I have the "Tuck Everlasting" secret.
I need to get a handle on this. 
I really think that fabric is addictive. 
What else would explain it?

So, I'm working tomorrow at the LQS,
Here's Not a smooth transition:
Oh, and, I ordered another book ----
I know, another book in my just organized room!!!???,
BUT.... the plan is to use up some wool scrap! 
(No, that is NOT justification!!!  Is....it....?, Nah....)

Here's the cover picture.  It's called Wool Crazy
and written by JoAnn Mullaly.
And here's a picture of the finished project.  Each quarter of the quilt measures 24 by 24 inches. Put the finished quarters together, then you add sashing and borders, so it's pretty good sized! 

Now, that should use up some of those scraps!