I felt like making a Quilt

Wow, that's a funny title for a blog post, isn't it?    Well, it will make sense in a few minutes.   ggg    I don't know about where y'all live, but here in my neck of the woods, today has been a really great day.    Y'all, this is my kind of weather.  Finally, it feels like Spring.   It was in the upper 50's most of the day!   Yay!!!!   There was a bit of rain and mist in the early morning, but, by afternoon, the sun had popped out and was "doin' it's thang!"   Such a beautiful afternoon!    I hope and pray that where ever all y'all live, it was beautiful there also.

I had an FCE meeting to go to today and we was all bringing different types of salad.   One lady brought chicken salad, another brought tuna salad, we had potato salad, a pasta salad and a congealed salad.   I brought a salad also.   I wanted to share with y'all a wonderful, healthy, fresh, vibrant salad that is really easy and nothing but "good for you" stuff in it.   Here's what it had in it:

Avo-mang-toes Salad

2 avocados, diced
2 mangoes, diced
2 tomatoes, diced and drained of any excess juices
1 tablespoon finely diced jalapeno pepper
1 large lemon, juiced over all of the above

Toss all of the above in a good sized bowl, stir well.   Refrigerate for a few hours or overnight.   Stir again before serving.

It is such a colorful dish.  It is really cooling.   Very refreshing.

This is what I call a "make do with what you have" salad.   I knew if I had anything to bring home, I wanted it to be healthy.   Now, don't get me wrong, I LOVE all the not so healthy stuff, that's why I'm a little too fluffy.   ggg

I hope if you try this, you will let me know what you think of it.

Now, about the quilt.   Last year I made a cardstock quilt for a swap.   I really liked it a lot and I wanted to make myself one as close to it as I could, so, I finally got around to doing that last night before I went to bed.   I was really happy with it and I hope you are too.

It is five layers.    I used a file from the Silhouette Store that was a card.   The top two layers was from the original card.

I brought the two pieces up in my designer software and enlarged it and then done an offset on it, and another offset, and then the final offset.   I finally got it enlarged to where the back white piece of cardstock would fit on the width of an 8 1/2 x 11 piece of cardstock.

I inked around all the edges and let that dry.  Then started putting the layers together, back to front, with my scrappy tape.

The very top piece was the hardest piece to place perfectly.   Believe me, it's not placed perfectly, but as good as I could get it anyway.

After I got all the layers adhered together, I took a white souffle pen and done my pen stitching around all the layers except the back white layer and the purple top layer.   I was really happy with the finished project.    I may try to age it a bit more and then put it in a frame.   I had been wanting to make one for myself ever since last year, but just hadn't done it.   It really helped me to just make something for myself and have fun with it.

I really hope that you have enjoyed my quilt project.   Quilts are very comforting for so many reasons.   My mother used to make quilts back in the day for utilitarian purposes, to keep us warm.   Then after we all got grown and had homes of our own, she made all of us a quilt.   She has made her grandchildren quilts.    I have made several quilts myself, over the years.  So, I love quilts and the ones that my mother made for me are very special.    When my father died in January 2012, a former Pastor's wife came to the funeral home to see me and brought me a quilt that her mother had made for her.   She gave me that quilt because she loves me and knew I would cherish it, and I do.   So, when I was making the little quilt last night, it made me think of all the quilts that I have been blessed to be given, and blessed to have been able to make the ones I have made.   I hope y'all have quilts that have special memories tied to them.   I hope you know the comfort of wrapping up in one of those quilts.   There's just nothing quite like it.

As I leave you this evening, I ask you this question, do you have any fears in your life that are unresolved?    There is stuff that comes up every once in a while, in our lives, that causes us to have fear, as a first reaction.   The second reaction we should have is to seek the Lord in prayer and turn those fears over to Him and He will see us through our fears.   We all know people who are going through uncertain days.   We just don't know what lies ahead for us, but, our Creator does.
   
Psalms 34:4  I sought the LORD and He answered my prayers and delivered me from all my fears.

When we have the uninvited interruptions in our lives that make us fearful, we need to seek the Lord in prayer first.   God never turns a deaf ear to someone who is earnestly seeking Him.   God is faithful and He does hear our prayers.    He will deliver us from our fears.   David knew about fear and he sure had his share of fear and he also had reasons to be afraid.   But, when he sought the Lord, the Lord delivered him from all his fears.

I hope you seen something here that you enjoyed and if you did, tell someone.   You can even leave a comment for me, if you choose to.   I would love it.

Ladybug, I hope you have had a spectacular day.   Sweetpea loves you!

Goodnight y'all.   I hope and pray that all of you have a wonderful night of refreshing, restful sleep.   God love y'all and so do I.   hugs, Patty

Woopppeeee...I can now reveal...

...what I could not reveal on Friday, the 11th. of October.   It seems like a whole life time ago that I posted about three swaps I am in this month.  I have certainly not been up to"snuff", as my late grandmother would say, when she wasn't feeling really good.  gggg   But, I praise the Lord for people in my life that are willing, at the drop of a hat, to lift me in prayer to the Lord.  I love you, ladies, and need for you to know that!!

So, I have been working on these projects like a busy little "worn out" bee! hahaha  I am quite pleased with the way they turned out.  I do give all the credit and praise to the Lord for blessing my efforts.

So, here they are:  The first two pics are of the mini hanging quilt, but I set mine on an easel, instead of making it a hanging.  If Ms. S. wants to hang it, she will be able to do so.  If you look closely, you can see that it is actually four layers of card stock.  Then I done the marker "stitching", and it kinda does look like hand stitching.  Then I lightly inked most if not all of the cut edges.  Then of course, what is a project without bling!!

The next pic is of an ATC swap.  We were to make artist trading cards depicting something we are thankful for.  I am thankful for the Fall season.  So, that is what my card is depicting.  Pumpkin, leaves and an acorn, all three yell Fall to me.  I took a piece of cereal box and and covered both sides with decorative paper and cut out the cards.  I inked the edges and then done some stamping on them. I marker stitched around the card.  Then I colored and inked the pumpkin, leaves and acorn.  When they were dry, I commenced to blinging them up with faux stickles (glitter glue).  The back is also decorated and stamped and written on about the info for the particular swap.

The next photos are of the Altered Item Swap.  Guess what I altered, go ahead, wrong!!!!  hahahaha  These are tags to go in what I actually altered.

 This is a Mini Tag Book, made from toilet paper rolls.  I flattened them with my cuttlebug, then covered them with Patterned paper.  Inked all edges, then used my crop-a-dile to put in some eyelets to use seam binding as the book binding.  Lots of stamped images, stickers and bling later, and this is what it looks like.

Anyway, this is what my swaps turned out looking like.  I do hope and pray that the recipients of all of the items I made are happy with what I done for them.  I did pray for each one of them as I was making their swap items.

I do hope that y'all enjoyed what you have seen here today.  If you did, tell someone.  Send them here to my little fun place for a little inspiration.

As I leave you this afternoon, I pray that your day has been filled with peace, love and joy.  I pray that you will share that peace, love and joy with all the people in your life.  Tell someone you love them, not because you have to tell them, but because you really do love them, and want them to know it.  My hearts desire is that each of you that visit this little place will leave knowing that you are precious in the eyes of God, after all, you are created by Him, and created in His image!!!  Have you ever made something that you were really proud of?  Do you know that feeling of accomplishment?   Well, that's how God feels, multiplied by millions!  God Loves You!!!

Be Blessed Y'all, and Hugs, Patty

Really excited.....

I can't post pics yet of what I'm excited about, but I will share a little with you, without giving away what they look like.  I recently joined in some swaps on one of the crafting yahoo groups I belong to.  I found out a little more about what needs to be done this morning.  So, I have till the end of the month to get the three swaps ready and mailed out.

One of the swaps is a "quilt" wall hanging swap.  It can be made of any media.  So, I made a quilt from card stock.  I am so stinkin' excited about this one.  I had a ball making it, especially after one of the other swappers mentioned she was going to make one from paper and cardstock since she does not sew.

Another swap is "anything altered".  I can't say much about this one, because I don't want to let the cat out of the bag as to what I altered.  But, I do love the idea of taking something that may have ended up in the trash can and re-purposing it to a thing of beauty, or to something useful.

My third and final swap for this month is Artist Trading Cards featuring something we are grateful for.  I have never made these before, but I am quite excited about this.  They are, the best I can figure, similar to the sports type trading cards.  Art work is on the front and back, but the back will also have some info on it about the the artist and what have you.

I can't wait to post pics, but I will as soon as I possibly can.  I am just jumping up and down.

As I leave you today, I leave you with fall blessings.  I pray, that sometime soon, we will take inventory of all that we have to be thankful for.  If we look  purposefully, at everything, we will find that we have so much to be thankful for.  I am thankful for this time of year because it is the changing of the seasons.  Summer is over, fall is the transition period that gets us ready for the winter season.  I always look forward to fall because of all the pumpkins and winter squash.  And sweet potatoes!!  Sweet potato pie, y'all!!!  What is better than a sweet potato pie?  "Well, git outta here, nothing is!!!!"

Thank God for everything sweet and special in your life.  I guarantee you,all of it came from Him.  As we are taking account of everything we are thankful for, lets keep God, the Father at the very top of that list.  God bless you all today in a very special way!

hugs,  Patty