Happy Anniversary

Today is our 54th anniversary...we didn't have a formal wedding ceremony.  It was at the worst time of the Viet Nam war....everyone was being drafted, I was working and the Mr. was finishing up work at the winter sugar beet season and preparing to start farming, anticipating the inevitable draft notice for men not in college or those without children.  The draft notice did come and he enlisted in the Navy which sent him on three west pacific cruises and our first child was born while he was away.  But we have survived all of these years without many heartaches and are truly blessed.

I have been trying new patterns, one of which is above.  I have seen pictures of these miniature dress forms and this one is a pincushion. My goal is to make several pincushions for a quilt retreat for late summer and this might just be one of them.  I made curtains for my sewing room window which has no view.  In the basement, my room has egress windows with window wells so there is no view and very little light, but I wanted to hide some of the metal which can be seen.  There are blinds, but I still wanted a little "girlie" touch.  Working with really cute fabric with birds on it, I labored and used velcro tabs to secure it and after two days, realized that I had hung it with the birds upside down! I took it down and redesigned it and the dress form above is made from the same fabric and it is perched upon a candlestick purchased at the Goodwill.  I received an Accuquilt Machine last week and have been so pleased with how it works.  It will cut up to 6 pieces of fabric in a precise manner and will give me the ability to cut pieces for a quilt so much faster. There are of course different dies for different sizes of pieces, but this first one I have allows 4 different pieces to be cut at once if need be.  My quilting friends have other dies and we will eventually be able to share as they are quite pricey.

We have been watching the Olympics and these athletes are so amazing.  I find that I make apologies for being too busy to blog, but.......

"Happiness walks on busy feet." ~ Kittie Turmell