Sunday, December 22, 2013

Twas the time before the holidays……….


Twas the time before the holidays and all through the sewing room
the machines sat idle while I awaited impending doom
the pillowcases were made to wrap the finished UFOs
but the woman who made them, just didn't have time to sew!
the buckeyes were made, the anise cookies cooling
the patterns were waiting, but the holidays movies kept spooling
hour after hour, on four different channels, oh my!
how to watch them, tape them, DVR them, I sigh
yet out like a flash, I need to out, at night, I do go
prairie wife, stacking wood, feeding the stove and shoveling the endless snow!
the stockings were hung with nothing to fill them
the cards left unsent, but I Ebay'ed a gem!
Cindyloo whoo will be coming real soon
joining the Grinch, Heat and Snow Miser, I am over the moon
I beat the last bid, I outwitted that shopper
my, oh my, Christmas is just going to be a Whopper
no turkey, no stuffing, no fix ins for us
just movies and sweets and all that good stuff
but papa will be returning from far away lands
and make me cook and sew, he must take a stand
because I, in my fuzzy jammies, just want my wine
so I whine and I whine and I say to all of my kind
make merry, merry everyday and enjoy each and every day
for  someday, we will cook, sew and clean, YES we will shall PAY!

Enjoy

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Happy Turkey Day and every day!

Another holiday, another time to reflect that I ate too much again!  You, my relatives are all away for actual day, who cares, as long as we get to celebrate a day, together, which we did, in loud style!  Loud because we are mostly hearing impaired and have lots of grand children who run, scream and yell to make sure we remember they are there!  Seriously, any day we see a member of a our family is a great day.  My mother always said that "it is not the extraordinary day you remember, but the days that all seems well and you are upright!".  Well,oct of us were upright by the end of the day!
My husband and I will celebrate a quiet day ripping up our only closets in the laundry room and bedroom, to get ready for an expansion, of course during the winter, where the roof will be raised and baby it is cold outside with snow already here!  Then he will leave me alone, the prairie wife, for a few weeks while he travels to Asia.  Keeping the home fires burning, I shall forge ahead! As always.
I have made 50 pillow cases, some with some great looking boy toy fabric, to wrap Christmas presents in.  No paper here just getting rid of the fabric I need to get rid of to make room for more.  Started making, finally,  a belated birthday and Christmas table centerpiece for patient friend.  Need to make 5 assorted baby quilts for past showers and future ones.  I may as well get ahead of it.
I will make a turkey for Thanksgiving as we love leftovers, just like I love all those left over fabrics that call for a scrap quilt, so one of those is on my a gender!
My nights are filled with taping and watching 3 movies at a time, all the Holiday movies need an audience!
My wish for all is that you get up every owning and can't wait for the day to enfold.  That your sun, whether snow or rain , will always be in your sewing room.  That you thank God and those who encouraged you to sew, thanks Mom, and you never beat on your sewing machine the way I do!
Have a great life!
Jessica

Thursday, November 7, 2013

The Selvedge Queen and King!

I have had a busy weeks!  Yes, that is plural as I have the Concord Piecemakers Quilt Show 1 st week, then I did 2 Selvedge Queen/King events at A Quilters Gathering  in  Manchester, NH, and then another speaker event in Saugus, MA, for the Hammersmith Quilt Guild!  Made 3 Holloween costumes for my grand daughters and bought my grandson his "Rocker" one.  Now, it is time to be a vegetable, too tired to contemplate that in between I went to Smith College for a docent tour of their art museum and had a fender bender and then a parking ticket.   Don't over park in a parking space in the city as they will give you a ticket for taking up 2 parking spaces and denying the town, Northampton, MA of revenue!  Only is MA!   Plus, I have 9 body forms looking like a sex orgy and smelling like a moldy cellar in my SUV to bring back to my local Historical Society.  Fun times, fun times!
Never a dull moment in the life of me!
These first photos are from my Selvedge Queen show for Hammersmith Quilt Guild in Suagus!

I always take self portraits!  Who can show the real you but you!


They have many things, like most quilt guilds going to help embers participate in guild activities and also meet others!

A surprise member of this guild who used to belong to my home guile, Material Girls, in Leominter, MA




If you were queen, like me, you would take many self portraits!

I made the aprons for a quilt show basket for Concord Piecemakers  a great show to buy at!


Some of my grandchildren standing in front of Memere's weird garment, although they do not think I am weird!

We, or I, am resting, long day on bad knees!

I can't make faces so I made their backsides and photographed some of them as is!




My best work, Elise's Starburst!  Now she will jump on it and probably other bad stuff will happen but it is done!

A Quilters Gathering in Manchester, NH with the Selvedge Queen and the Queen of Hearts!

Selvedge Queen 2013

be aQueen, Queen Bee!

Add caption

Boys and girls celebrated!



Hat created from the outfits selvedges and crocheted in a bee hive!  Of course!


Selvedge Queen talk at A Quilters Gathering!  The king came too, he arrived to see his wife model and my king was in Kenya so I chose a new one!









He  has arrived and so handsome and such a great sport to model my strange wear!


We won!!!!!  What?

Costumes for some of the grand children, the Bee and the Purple mermaid who has a Nemo patch because the new serger "ate" some of the fabric!



Friday, October 18, 2013

Bad but Productive, maybe!

Elise and her Starburst which I took from her to be in a show after I saw her and her sister Jocelyn and jumping on!  I will give it to after!


very Provocative ""Still" "Life"" show at the Fitchburg Art Museum current show which I am a Docent!!  until January!  Awesome!


Details of a visit to CambridgeWear in Acton, a ready made awesome, clothing store!
So, I already admitted I am bad at updating Blog but also a procrastinator so..... I have been been making progress on that.  I have finished  quilt and 2 garments for a "A Quilters Gathering" in Manchester, NH  October 31 through November 3, 2013, except sewing on labels and sleeve.   Come and find me as I will be the one dressed funny!  Ha!  You must come and see my hats!   I have finished garment,"Opposites Attract",  garment for the Concord Piecemakers Quilt Guild at St Matthews church in Acton, Ma, October, 25 and 26, 2013, except for sewing on the labels, due for  next weeks show, Oct, 25 and 26!  I also have another garment and a couple quilts, one of which is Elise's Starburst" which I believe is my best and most complicated quilt of Karen Stones.   I bought the fabric for my  3 girl grandchildren Halloween costumes but not made them and can't figure out what to do for my boy grand child, Buddy's, Rock Star costume, even though I am a child of the 70's!

Ahead, but not done yet..... I still would like to make a dress underneath my Selvedge Queen costume for my "A Quilters Gathering" opening night  Gala event as their Fashion Show Coordinator.   Also PJ's as their Saturday night speaker!   I want to make wings for my "be a Queen, Bee Queen" garment, I need to attend other quilt guild Quilt Shows this weekend,  as we should support all guilds in these economic times.  Cut the Bull, we need to be inspired!  by others always!  Sew labels and sleeve and deliver to "A Quilters Gathering"  and drink, sleep, read and be merry!  Maybe.....


I have done a "Slevedge Queen" speaker event at at Berkshire Quilter's Guild in Great Barrington, MA.  and stayed overnight, for the first time, at a members house and it was the greatest!  We talked, I drank, we went to the Pumpkin Patch Quilt store in Lee, Ma for a morning class and it was so rewarding to see and hear that all quilt guilds, including the 3, I belong to, have the same issues.  Volunteer, I can't stress that enough.  I am a docent at the Fitchburg Art Museum and I always raise my hand to volunteer to say "YES" as you get to control what and when and where you do volunteer.  Otherwise, some of us know we will will say yes, to something, and end up doing we truly don't want to do.  Find ways to make money as a; guilds need money to pay expenses, such as rent, speakers, a must, maintenance, save for quilt show expenses, and other issues like 1 day insurance issues.  Imagine you spend X amount of dollars to put on a quilt show and a mini micro burst comes through your community.  It happened to our guild on the last day of the show, thank the heavens,  and people could not get to it.  Imagine an actual tornado comes through and your guild quilt show is at the same time.  No one would be able to get to it.  It happened at another guild.  You spend the money, yet no one comes, through no fault of their own, or your advertising.  All guilds should have a nest egg of at least 1 full year of total expenses and that is why we pay dues and donate to our guilds.  REMEMBER, they are your guilds and WHAT would we without them!!!!!!



Come and visit

Jessica
Me, of course!


I have the cutest and best grand children, ever!


My car, a large trunk show!


setting up





me, my alter self?


More stuff in trunk show





My garments, not wearable!


stuff a friend Ann and I made for Concord Peicemakers Quilt guild raffle basket! Aprons, table runners, napkins, etc


New exhibit at the Fitchburg Art Musem and my "Still"" Life""


Help me celebrate my 40th Anniversary this October 20, 2013.  It is a milestone for anyone who has been married this long and appreciates it!  It takes hard work, commitment and love to get here and also understanding that everyday will not be easy!