Home battered and badly bruised but alive and well!!

DH had a very bad accident toward the end of  his trip...  He was crossing a foot bridge over some rapids in a nature preserve in Croatia.  Unfortunately there were no handrails.  He lost his footing and  fell into the rapids of a river which carried him down into a lake..  He kept his arms around his head to protect it  but the rest of him was badly beaten by the rocks.  He had all his clothes on (including a  jacket and sweatshirt) and had great difficulty swimming ashore where someone helped him out. They took him to the hospital to be checked over.....  Luckily nothing was broken but he is very badly bruised from the rocks...  And also unfortunately he lost both  his hearing aids and his glasses..

So he is convalesing with Morris's help and in this photo trying to read the paper with Morris sitting on it. We all feel lucky.....

A Easy Journal Cover - My Pet Project

"A Easy Journal Cover - My Pet Project" or "What to do while you wait 2 hours while your brakes are being fixed"  I ALWAYS keep a cheap old aluminum TV tray in the trunk of my car for when I want to stitch in waiting areas and that is where this project was finished..

Susie W. had gifted me with this lovely  journal with graph paper to record seams... I had wanted to make a cover for it and guess who is the "cover boy"?  And I was sorting and cleaning up laces from the Suffrage quilt...

I thought it was serendipity that Susan Elliott posted about embellished book covers as I was working on this...This was an easy project and I will share my clever secrets with you for making it even easier.








First start with something retangle.  It doesn't have to be a correct size....just wider so any extra hangs out top and bottom  and longer so you can have flaps to fold back..  You could even combine two (or more) pieces to make the rectange...  I started with a rectangle doily about the size of a placemat....

I added all my bits and pieces before I folded the flaps back.

Now the big secret....when it was all embellished ..I laced it top and bottom with gold, elastic gift wrap cording.... just a little snug... The when slipped onto the journal it fit just perfect and the elastic keeps it tight and from slipping about plus it gathers the excess lace just a bit....

When I added the elastic cording I started in the middle (both top and bottom) and went across one way going through the flap and then turned and went ALL the way across through the other flap and back to the middle... Then I could knot the ends and leave a little hanging for adjustment...  Now it is gussied up and ready for Carole Samples class in Wichita...I may add a few beads and a button or two to it yet... And doesn't Morris look sooooooo handsome!!!!

Now don't forget to comment here to get into the Nov. 3 drawing for the BoHo bag kit...

Giveaway - BoHo Bag Kit.....

I finished my tutorial a couple weeks ago and forgot to post about it.... To celebrate I'm doing a giveaway for one of my BoHo bag kits.  Just leave a comment on this post and the drawing will be November 3rd....

This kit includes a  piece of high quality, home-decor focal fabric approx. 18 x 30"   plus:

•  12 coordinating pieces of   fabric large enough for 2-4 patches each and a variety of textures, sheens, colors, and patterns.
•   Various lengths of coordinating gimps and cording.
•   4 lengths of various fringes suitable for use on pocket or flap might including  2 chainettes, 1 tasseled, and 1 bullion

•   1 piece of fancy beaded fringe suitable for use on pocket or flap.
•   1 long piece of coordinating fabric suitable for a handle or for extra pieces.
•   AND a surprise piece of lace or two  .

Not only did I finish the tutorial for my kind of bag but Pat Winter just published her book on BoHo Fever...which is available in print or digital version at http://www.magcloud.com/browse/issue/288760/follow 

And I have about 1/2 dozen kits available on my Esty site... http://www.etsy.com/shop/olderrose

Mystery block is solved....

 Had the following comment from Sharon Boggon this morning so now we know who the mystery stitcher was of a block I found on an internet bulletin board... She made it from a kit in 2007 and even sent along a link to read about it!!  Thanks Sharon...made my day!


"The stitcher unknown is me ! Thanks for selecting me. I am tickled Here are some more close ups of the block too
http://www.pintangle.com/journal/2007/3/6/bliss-bag-block-complete.html "
Deb suggested I talk about some of the "best" blocks on Block Talk and tell why I picked them...  I thought that  was a great idea and will start soon...

CQ at its best and what now????

(image to left by Jo Newsham.)
In August I spent hours and hours going through hundreds of CQ images from sources on the Internet  looking for the best of the best...  Not only was I interested in the very best, I was looking for diversity in style.

Once I had narrowed it down to several hundred I started sifting and sorting to end up with a little over 100 examples of stellar crazy quilting from all over the world...

When we do have occasion to see blocks it's always at a distance and the wonderful detail is lost to us.  It was my vision to compile these images and show them on a large screen at the retreat... expecting oooooooohs and aaaaaaaaaaaaaahs at the beauty of seeing them  larger than life.

(image at left by Laurie Burgesser.)

Well of course as so often happens to the best laid plans  if anything could go wrong it did...  But the worst was the fact the facility had windows 20 feet tall and absolutely no way to darken the room nor anywhere to put a screen that it would show the images..

We ended up putting it in the kitchen which had the least amount of glare but the ceiling was so low that the screen wouldn't open completely and people had to sit in the dining room looking over the bar..... And due to the location of the outlet it also necessitated me to stand with my back to the audience to operate the computer.  I was devastated.

(left: Sharon Boggon) The second set of images were RR images and we did that at night.. But the best of the best were lost..  Can you just imagine how beautiful this block would have been on a seven foot screen?

(left: by Maire Courtney) So here I am trying to decide what to do with the results of my efforts.. So after the first of the year I will put the word out that I will go to any meeting in town to show these images for no charge....  Rotarian's, quilters, seniors, ditchdiggers ....anywhere.

(left: by Cathy Kizerian.) And I will start with the asking the local embroidery guild to let me show them at one of their quarterly meetings...  And as many times as I have gone through these images I never tire of looking at them... They are just joyous... Have screen  ....