Good Friday

Now from the sixth hour there was darkness over all the land unto the ninth hour.

And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?

Some of them that stood there, when they heard [that], said, This [man] calleth for Elias.

And straightway one of them ran, and took a spunge, and filled [it] with vinegar, and put [it] on a reed, and gave him to drink.

The rest said, Let be, let us see whether Elias will come to save him.

Jesus, when he had cried again with a loud voice, yielded up the ghost. And, behold, the veil of the temple was rent in twain from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent.

Matthew 27:45-51

Picture Heavy Post!

Mum and I went visiting tonight, to our friend Shirley's house. Shirley is my spark - she's the one who taught me to quilt, be creative, dare to be different. Over the years we've spent many happy hours brainstorming and creating. I love her to pieces. She's my adopted mum - her daughter was my friend since 6th grade, and I always wanted to trade homes. So did my friend, lol.



Shirley had called me and told me she grabbed a shirt from her hubby and painted it. I couldn't WAIT to see it. Here it is:



















She really astounds me, lol. She took off part of the collar and sleeves and added the turquoise fabric, and changed the buttons.



She also has a lovely sewing room, with interesting occupants.











Those are Lulu and Zulu. There's another smaller one in the living room named Oolu. She also collects masks from all over the world.







There are closer pics on the flickr pages. If you click on a picture, it will take you to the flickr page.



She also taught me how to do painted quilts. Her Picasso:







My head is buzzing with so many creative ideas after spending time with my lovely friend! Sorry the pics are so bad, it was dark - I'd love to go to her house with a good camera and bright daylight. There are more pics of her masks and various things at my flickr.

Oh - Sam slept under his quilt last night - I forgot to get a pic of the whole thing done. I'll try to remember tomorrow - I must get pics of my quilts, lol!
Allie

Treasure

Of all the gifts God gives to us, a good friend is right up there among the best. A friend that understands your tears, makes you laugh, and doesn't tell you you're being stupid when it's quite obvious that you are....well, I'm blessed to have friends like this. And one of them sent me a gift today.



This is a necklace, with a picture of Russell covered in his quilt that I made him. She MADE this for me. Betty, you've no idea how you've touched me. No idea at all. I will treasure this my whole life. I'm sorry the pic is so blurry, I'm still learning about macro and breath-holding.

She also sent a mini-quilt she found on her trip to Oregon.



If you click on it, you'll be able to see the large size and read what it says. It is SO ME. How nice to have a friend that knows you so well, lol!!!!!

On the home front, Sam's quilt is quilted, the binding is on the front, and I'm halfway done with stitching down the back. It will be nice to get this done.

Blogger seems to be cutting off my pictures on the right side. I'm not sure what to do about it, maybe try a different layout.

Allie

Lots to Post Today

I went to Russell's service today, online. It was amazing. What a lovely, stirring tribute to such a fine young man and his family. Please, keep them in prayer.









This is a [bad] picture of a quilt I'm making for hubby. These are machine embroidery designs from Embroidery Library - however, they are NOT suitable for quilting cotton. I tried everything I could think of to make them stitch out well, with no puckers, to no avail. I contacted Embroidery Library, and they suggested a denim or canvas-style fabric. Having just bought many yards of the buckeye cotton, I wasn't about to start over. So - I printed out the designs, traced over the lines with a black marker where the thread colors changed, and traced them onto the fabric. Then I got my acrylic paints and a WEE TINY paintbrush, and got busy. You can see on this block I had a smudge by the bear's nose - oops. It'll have to stay, lol. These are not easy to paint!



So far I only have 4 designs done. They get harder. I'm not looking forward to some of them. I'm using regular craft acrylic paint, I've used it for years for painted quilts and it works just fine. After washing, it gets soft and like it's dyeing the fabric. I do heat set, just in case, but have you ever tried to get paint out of your clothing? I can't afford the pricey [but oh so lovely] specialty paints out there, so this has to do. Usually I only use it for wallhangings, things that won't get washed a lot, so this will be an experiment in tenacity.



Hubby loves it. He wanted it embroidered, but likes it painted even more. The Design Pack is the Native American Creation Quilt pack. I love Embroidery Library, but not this pack.



Here is another painted quilt:







I used white muslin and just painted the black. I love the picture, but really wish I had heavily quilted it. I could NOT get a good picture of this quilt.



Here are a few more: this was the first ever painted quilt, it was six feet long and my own design. I thought I was so cool, lol. After looking at it for a few months, I hated it and threw it away.









These two hung in my bathroom. The turtles were kind of neat - I used fabric paints and made designs all over the shells. Also my own design. Also thrown away.







This one was a favorite. It was from a Laurel Burch poster or something. NOT thrown away, but given to my cousin.









One thing that I would do [and will do] differently now - I will seriously quilt my painted quilts. Back when I did these, I didn't have a machine, and hand-quilted everything. I quilted before painting. Now that I have a serious machine that will quilt through anything, I'm going to take advantage of it. Quilting would really have helped all of these, and I might not have thrown them away, lol.



Lauranie tells me that I have to tag 3 people. Now, I don't know you all very well yet - so forgive me if you didn't want to be tagged. And picking 3? I read over 400 blogs, dear ones. They're all stacked up in my google reader.

So I tag: Susan who makes me laugh so hard milk comes out in places it shouldn't, and makes the most amazing works of art; Allie because we share a name and she is uber-talented and somehow, modest about it [the girl can PAINT!]; and Pam because she has an amazing blog, and she's doing a Neighborhood BOM [way cool] and she lives near me and I might get to meet her soon. Ladies, you're supposed to list 7 things you love.



Allie

I've Been Tagged!

Lauranie tagged me to list seven things I love. Only seven???? Gosh. Let's see.

• First and foremost, my Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. In Him I live, and move, and have my being.
• My family. *smooooooooooooooch* You sustain me.
• My friends - you make life worthwhile.
• My oh-so-fat kitty. May your purr machine never be broken. You make me laugh daily.
• The sound of my children's laughter. I'll do almost anything just to hear it, no matter how embarrassing.
• Quilting. There is no work so satisfying as putting a needle to cloth, and wrapping someone up in something you've worked and prayed over.
• Blogging! Who knew?

Ok Lauranie, I hope this is good! LOL! I have NO CLUE who to tag - I haven't been at this long enough - so I guess I'll go check out Donna and Elizabeth to see how they do! Back tonight with a peek at my hubby's quilt.

FIFTY???? Say It Ain't So!

Today [Tuesday, although it's so late it's Wednesday now] was my birthday. The big five oh. The big UH-oh. One thing you don't understand when you're young, is that when you get older, you're still going to think of yourself as young. Oh, you'll FEEL your age - every creak and groan - but mostly, you forget you're older. At least, I do. Looking in the mirror is still a surprise. In my head I hear aged relatives saying "my, how she's grown!" Sigh.

But what nobody can tell you, and you wouldn't believe them if they did, is how comfortable it is. How nice it is to not worry about a pimple, or a hair out of place, or are you wearing the right clothes. It's NICE to put on bifocals and be able to see well, and not care that someone will see you with a line in your glasses. It's a freedom you don't get with youth. To be able to speak your mind with love and experience instead of wondering what "they" will think of you. To know that you won't please everyone, and be ok with that. {Yes, I was a very insecure teen}.

Getting older is like wearing pajamas all the time. Comfortable with your own skin, wrinkles, sags, and liver spots. Since menopause, the drama is gone - not the joys, not the sorrows, but the life-and-death drama. Remember your first break-up? Oh the agonies. Especially if it wasn't your idea.


I'm comfortable here at 50. I like it. I think I'll stay here....for about a year.