Liberated Round Robin 2-step 2

I love a liberated round robin.  You have no idea where you are going.  It really is a great imagination stretcher.  I started with 5 liberated slash and stash blue stars and a reject Block Lotto violet.

In round 1 I used one star and the violet and came up with this.

For round two we were supposed to incorporated "made" fabric from scraps.  I used the yellow as an accent for my made fabric, but when I tried to add it to this first block, that hot pink was just too......pink!  So I cut the pink down some, grabbed two more blue stars and put the pieces back together.  This is what I came up with.

I like it.  We'll see what round 3 will bring.

Liberated Round Robin 2....step 1

I'm trying my hand at another Round Robin. This one is intentionally liberated, so it could have some crazy steps.  We'll see.  For round one, the instructions were to start with some orphan block and "liberate it" by cutting, slashing, adding too, whatever.  I am starting with these.  The five stars are already liberated in that they are a little wack-o in shape.  They were an experiment in the technique of stacking five pieces of material, cutting them apart, reorganizing them, and then sewing them back together.  They have been sitting around for quite some time with no idea how to use them.  The bright pink violet is a reject from the Block Lotto.  This one didn't line up right, so I couldn't use it for Block Lotto because I have to send them to someone else.  While I don't mind imperfections for myself, I can't send them to other people.  After selecting these, I stared at them for quite a while to figure what I wanted to do. I really didn't want to slash the stars further as some of those pieces are already pretty small, and as I said they are already liberated.  So the answer, of course, was to slash the violet and then piece them back together.

Here's what I ended up with:

I think I like it.  We'll just have to see where the other steps go to see if any of the other stars can find a home in this quilt too.

OH, and a political sidebar.....
Here in Missouri we had a Republican Primary and Republican Caucus. The Primary was not going to count, it was just a beauty vote since the caucus is how the delegates are picked.  None the less, Santorum won the primary by a big margin.  Well, the caucus a month later, in Greene county the people attending the caucus picked something like 64% of the delegates to be for Ron Paul, ignoring the primary vote completely.  Somehow, that doesn't seem right to me.

American values

"I stand for honesty, equality, kindness, compassion, treating people the way you’d want to be treated and helping those in need. To me, those are traditional values. That’s what I stand for…I also believe in dance.” - Ellen

I listen to all this campaign rhetoric.....all the personal attacks...all the biased twisting of the facts.  So many people seem to be afraid.....of people of a different race....of people of a different religion...even of people who are unemployed or in need of government assistance for one thing or another.   The people that scare me the most are the ones that buy into some of these fears or some of these political statements without any thought or investigation of their own.

Just saying.....

Accomplish....my word for 2012

Here we are in a new year...and I have a new word....ACCOMPLISH

This year I want to stick to my plans and finish some of my mountain of projects.  I'm not saying that I can't start anything new, I just want to temper my enthusiasm for new projects and promote the joy of completing some that have been around for awhile.

My list of things to work on includes...
exercise..I've rejoined the Y and Paige is going to help me with this
piano...Leann is going to help me with this
quilts...of which the above clover top is only one.....
and of course, playing...It's so much fun that the kids are getting a little older and we can actually "play".  I love games and they are so great at imaginative play, and it's still cool for them to play with me, so I better enjoy it while I can.

Here's to a great 2012 where lots of things get accomplished throughout the year!

Busy season...So why not do more?

November-December is such a busy time.  All the holiday hustle and bustle, at work and at home, should tell me not to take on more projects.  But no....I'm knee deep in projects right now. These are my curved rail batik blocks.  Pretty, aren't they.  I actually won these from Block Lotto in September.  I'm still waiting on the last of my "winnings" but then I'll be able to play with setting these.  They are what is up on my design wall right now.  I imagine it will be awhile before I actually sew them.  It's actually kind of relaxing to experiment with rearranging these gorgeous blocks. 

This one, you may remember from a while ago.  It is also made from Block Lotto winnings.  I am finally in the process of quilting it.  I'm hand quilting it, just because if feels like it should be hand quilted.  I have some embellishments planned too. It's now on my quilt frame in the living room, so it's easy to do watching television, whenever I have time for that.

I also am still working on my log cabin quilt from Lyn Brown.  It's fabulous, but I can only work on log cabin blocks for a little bit and then I have to go do something different.

The something different is a mystery quilt from my friend, Cindy.  I'm only at the cutting stage, but it's fun to not know where it's going.

Throw in Thanksgiving plans and Christmas plans, and playing with the kids...and I love love love this season...but it can be rather exhausting.  So why shouldn't I take on another quilt along?  Thanks, Jennifer, at That Girl That Quilt, for coming up with a chevron design I just adore.  I'll make copies of all the steps, but I imagine I won't actually start this one until after Christmas.  In fact, I don't expect any of these projects to be finished by Christmas... I just plan to enjoy the process..and the diversity of them for now.

It's a sad sad day.....Goodbye Texas University....

I know college football is a business.
I know college football is all about money and politics.
I understand that money and politics led Texas to its television deal.
I understand that it was difficult for Texas A&M to recruit given what Texas had to offer kids.
I understand that is one of the main reasons A&M wanted to switch to the SEC

but.....

That being said, I think college football is also about tradition and rivalries.  With all the conference swapping, a lot a traditional rivalries are falling by the wayside.  That's sad...but none quite as sad as Texas announcing that they do not have room in their schedule for the Texas-Texas A&M game.

What?????

Texas and Texas A&M have been playing the traditional rivalry game on or near Thanksgiving day forever.  I know my family has personally followed that rivalry for close to 100 years, sometimes quite heatedly with people supported both schools.  I'm sure I have relatives rolling over in their graves with this announcement. Why would that game not have already been penciled in on everyone's schedule on or near Thanksgiving day well into the future?

The timing of Texas sudden "full schedule" looks like sour grapes and political games to me.  I guess the A&M fight song is just becoming more and more literal.  After all, it starts out "Goodbye to Texas University...."

It's too bad college football has come to this point.  What next?...no Army-Navy game?

Can you believe Christmas is only 73 days away?

I saw that number and panic set in...but wait...no need to panic.  I've been buying things, taking advantage of sales and what ever since last Christmas.  The problem is now, I don't know what I've bought or made, and who for.  I need to go dig the stuff out, sort it, and take stock.  There are several gifts I want to make.  I still have time, right?

Deep cleansing breaths.  That's what's called for right now.  The next 73 days are going to be crazy, with a major remodel at work thrown in to all the regular Holiday hustle and bustle.  I love holidays, but I think the big trick now, is to make them fun, but not to overdo at the same time.

My geese are dressed for Halloween.  So I'm off to a good start.

May the Spirit be with you!!!!