FINISHING UP AND STARTING ANEW

now that christmas is over i have to finish the gifts that did not get done in time. i completed this tote bag for my mother in law for her knitting.





i finished this purse for my stepdaughter. it was out of amy karol's bend the rules sewing and i thought it was easy and fun. as you can see i did not stray out of the lines. i will branch out the next time i make this with different markings and fabrics. it was fun and i am pleased with the result. very roomy purse. larger than "the everything bag" out of seams to me.





i am very excited about finishing the last of the projects for christmas because i want to start on all of the quilts i have been hoarding. i am especially excited about the release of the "gee's bend" quilt fabrics and kits. i have ordered and will be starting on one right away. i am pushing all of my other projects back because of this. the history behind these quilts is simply amazing. the books are fascinating. they even have a childrens book that is so adorable. they can be found on amazon here.



they are fascinating to view. this collage belongs to blogger oh liza jane. i just can't get my mind off these quilts.

remember for those of you participating that the new years challenge is closing in. i will NOT be winning as i am no where close to where i thought i was and i am blogging now instead of sewing. i am off to sew .....so....i can begin on the NEW projects that have been in my head for months.

love to all,

les

FAVORITE GIFTS....GETTING AND GIVING

i hope all my friends had a wonderful christmas. i do not know how many of you are glad it is over. i, for one, am thankful for that. now, a lot of us had to wrap things up in a snowstorm,
some of you could not even meet with family for christmas due to weather (i am sorry.) in the end, i feel it was a wonderful year.


i feel very blessed and i hope each and everyone of you feel an inkling of how i do. my favorite present? my marriage of course. see previous post on that matter.




second would have to be this....the above snowstorm resulted in the loss of our previous vehicle.


yep, i have an awesome husband...and if that weren't enough


i got this...
thanks ashley from film in the fridge for the photo.

on a different note. i do not have the pictures to reflect my favorite face shots of people i gave things to. i have two. the beatles quilt went over wonderfully.....and zoe was pleased with her stocking.




my daughters quilt was and still is stuck in the blizzard

my son opened his early and pretended he didn't. (i left it there thanksgiving for him to open on christmas) he got the jedi robe. he was very happy about it though. my sister and brother in law were happy with the navajo vessell i found in a great antique mart on my way back from oklahoma.

my husband got his gifts over the entire month of december because i can't wait...i have to give it right then....he is also happy with the jeep. especially since he wrecked the explorer.

merry christmas everyone!

DON'T LOOK JULIEANN!!

one more quilt finished before christmas and was it a challenge. my daughter had a comforter a long time ago that was a laura ashley pink/white ticking with rosebuds. she loved it and wondered if i could make one "kind of like it." well.....it is nothing like it with the exception of the pink/white ticking and rosebuds. it is a mish mash of rose fabrics from tanya whelan, quiltgate, liberty, kona and joann's. i had to tea dye a couple of them so they would not clash too badly. then i stared at all of this for a long, long time. i drew pictures. i played with blocks, i walked in circles. i threw all the fabric in a chair and retreated, then i began to line them up....i kinda liked it. i played with them, drew a bunch more pictures, tried to decide whether to do this in three pieces or one. three would have been easier.

now i have a quilt that is the first one i have ever named.

JULIEANN'S ROSEBUSH

that is what it reminds me of. if you can't see a rosebush just consider me deranged. it is very muted, subtle and sweetly feminine. the polar opposite of the last quilt i made for christmas. it is machine freemotion in a meandering pattern, hand bound....can i just say.....i hate, hate, hate to bind? it is labeled, washed and now documented.

i am really happy with it but more importantly, i think she will be too.

julieann, if you are reading this you know how you are going to feel xmas morning with that wrapped box in your hand and the entire family looking at you....*wink* she won't be able to stand it. she is reading this.

have a great day. i am off to start yet another and pray i can finish in in time..

love, me

A VERY HAPPY ANNOUNCEMENT!

those of you close to me have known what roads i have traveled to get where i am today. there have been many hurdles along the way.

in the last few years of my life something wonderful and magical happened to me and changed my entire life. i was given a gift i do not feel worthy of. it was the gift of true, unabandoned love that was beyond anything i had believed existed.

i can only hope for every person on this planet that they can or will find what i found. it is what i believe we are here for. to find our way, through love, to spread goodness in every way to all people we meet.



i met that one person who is by my side accomplishing this with me.


i love him like no other.


i married him this weekend.



this was the most magical weekend of my life. it was the most perfect and beautiful ceremony i have ever attended. our vows, not written by us, were so perfect it was like everything else about us....they were magical. they are too long to blog but if you would like them i will be happy to send them to you, just ask. i will end this blog with an excerpt from these vows.....

from the book Gift from the Sea by Ann Morrow Lindberg. "The Winged Dance"

"A good relationship has a pattern like a dance. The partners do not need to hold on tightly, because they move confidently in the same pattern. To touch heavily would be to arrest the pattern and check the endlessly changing beauty of unfolding. There is no place for the possessive clutch, the clinging arm, the heavy hand, only the barest touch in passing. Now arm in arm, now face to face, now back to back-it does not matter which because they know they are moving to the same rhythym, creating a pattern together, and being invisibly nourished by it. The dancers who are perfectly in time never destroy the winged life in each other or in themselves."

thank you for listening. have a wonderful weekend and holiday season.

all my love,

leslie

goodnight monkey quilt in use

sewing for this baby is sooo worth it.

SEWING FOR JACKSON

i never touched a sewing machine in my life with the exception of a home economics class when i was 12. i never thought i would. i was a career woman working all my hours as a registered nurse in home health. the hours were long and i had no time for sleep much less a hobby.

fortunately for me i met the love of my life and with many life changes, including a well deserved sabbatical from nursing, i found myself with time on my hands. i have always been involved in creative things...art, photography, etc. and i went down the list. no. no. no. what about sewing? i started looking at fabrics, then quilts, then more fabric. now, i never thought of fabric as art...or entertainment. now...well...i could write a book on the art of fabric design, OCD and fabric obsession.

in january of 2009 i was blessed with my first grandchild jackson. i decided i would teach myself how to quilt so i could make jackson a quilt.....(boy did that open a can of worms. more like pandoras box) so i bought a sewing machine and began to sew.

what in the world do you sew a little boy other than a quilt? i needed practice. so i bought lotta jansdotter's "sewing for baby." i was hooked. i made all kinds of quirky little goodies while working on a quilt. i finished the quilt and some of the other items and saved the bulk of it for this christmas. i delivered that box over the thanksgiving holidays as jackson is now 10 months and VERY interested in everything but the main thing i wondered about was red.

here is RED. i made him from the above book. i thought he was very easy to make, has tons of personality and would be safe and interesting for my precious baby.

i would highly recommend sewing this toy if you have a little one. the link below is my jackson playing with his friend red.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vfyv5_AdXR0

have a GREAT DAY!!!

i am off to sew more for christmas. how about you?

MUNKI MADNESS

if you know me personally you know if you talk to me i now speak in munki. i clip tiny pieces of fabric and basically "deal" them online with other people that speak munki as well...

it is an illness....an intense fascination of themes and drawings that depict childhood in all its innocence. the tiny pieces of fabric contain something that we munkites can relate to. something deep down. we can only thank heather ross for bringing these images alive in our imaginations and onto fabric where we will weave them into something wonderful for ourselves or our children and grandchildren.

i have paid enormous amounts of mula for pieces of these fabrics...i keep them in airtight boxes with snap lids so nothing can get them and yes......i have a fireplan.

i wanted to blog about one more thing....a GIVEAWAY....from http:/www.sayyesjuliet.blogspot.com. she is an adorabable girl that i met while "dealing" fabric on the internet. so if you want to know what all the hubbub is about go to her site...enter to win and maybe YOU will know the madness we call munki......

love, me

oh, by the way i have not been blogging as i have been "dealing" and more importantly...making quilts for my loved ones. i would love to blog about them but then "they" and you know who you are would see your christmas present and we can't have that now....can we?

look out! it is juliets giveaway!!!! can you resist.....no.