Life is about using all the crayons in the box

Read this on a billboard yesterday and it spurred my need to write on my blog.  I find there are certain days I go into the quilting room and I am drawn to colors and not so much to other colors.  I am brainstorming the fabric for one of my "package" design quilts for a Christmas gift.  I am just fascinated by the number of red hues there are in the industry.  So because of that, I have decided to use forest green with the black background piece I have decided to use.  Pictures later.
About the crayons in the box. . .  Lately I have been pulling them out like crazy.  My primary color has been blue as it relates to my husband and his health issues right now.  It seems we have spent two months in and out of medical offices.  I have been taking my knitting along to stay calm and wait for results of tests and appointments.  I am blue about his pain, frustrations, and the worry of what the prognosis may be.
Another color vivid to my life this past week was yellow.  I spent six days working the field with colleagues from Ohio.  We are working with teachers to promote innovation in their classrooms to make the learning more relevant and culturally appropriate.  I feel bright yellow when I think about the changes in these Native American childrens' education as the result of the planning their teachers did last week.
I am red with excitement regarding our family vacation coming up next week.  The chance for Papa and I to spend a week with our children and their families is just too much to anticipate.  I am planning games and meals and can hardly wait to swim and watch them have some fun.

It Is About Time. . .

Time is something we waste, watch, and lose if we are not careful.  Time is a matter of priority.  I have been thinking about posting because I really have been busy sewing and creating but then time gets away from me.
I have a number of projects to share with pictures and I will start doing that with this blog.  I have been organizing and trying to make reason out of my chaos in the sewing room.  Vince has helped with that and I will show you his addition.  I have a new sewing machine which is lovely.  Finally I had a chat on Saturday with two quilting friends and we started to plan for our Christmas projects.  We met at my house because I won the prize for most stash and we have a great start on our first endeavor.  I will keep you posted.
Now for my first update.  My friends at the Chamberlain quilt shop sent me a pattern last spring for a birthday crown and we decided this would be a nifty tradition for our little Magdalyn.  So she is wearing the crown I made her for her second birthday which was in June.

Spools and Selvages

I must admit I have become quite interested in Pinterest and enjoy looking at the ideas.  As I was viewing sites pertinent to quilting, I came across a quilt covered in spools (I have always saved my wooden thread spools from Grandma's sewing drawers).  Anyway that idea intrigued me.
The next day I had a visit from my two little grandsons who live in our town and needed a place to stay because the blizzard was blocking the road to their day care.  Such a problem!  I love having them visit and they wanted two new pillowcases which were not a problem to make out of my stash.  While I was sewing, they were investigating the storage totes in my room and the next thing I knew they had two years of selvages heaped on the floor.  I should have taken a picture as it was as good and jumping in a pile of leaves in the yard.  They began to find pieces they liked and I decided to make little bags for them.  I took jean pant legs below the worn out knees and covered them with selvage pieces they selected.  Turned and seamed across the bottom of the leg and trimmed the top edge with rick rack and we called them "Ricky Racky Sacks".  They were enchanted and I even gave them some nickels to put in the bags.  Then we played "hide the thimble", a game I truly love and they got to take home the thimble in one of the bags.  Oh the wonderment of a three and four year old!
Laying awake and thinking about the sewing room led to my creation.  I asked my very talented husband if he could cut a piece of wood that would resemble a spool.  We drew it up and measured my selvage pieces I had already created.  6 inches wide and 11 inches long.  One of the spools is all the numbered parts of selvage where they give you the color guide.  I just couln't bear cutting the top and bottom pieces out of brown cloth and then try to back it with something.  The wooden back seemed so much sturdier and I intended to make these hang on the wall.  Well, as always, Vince used his skills and imagination and thus we have created another "Pay it forward" gift.  This one goes to my long time friend from junior and high school in Michigan.  She has a blog about herbs and loves to garden so I used selvages with floral prints as her spool.  What do you think?

This bottom one looks like it is more narrow at the bottom than the top but that is an optical illusion.

Susan's gift

I posted a Pay It Forward idea on Facebook last month and the first of five is finished.  I love to knit and decided to felt a bag for Allison's dear friend, Susan, who replied to my FB post.  I love the colors and I am still experimenting with how many stitches for certain yarns.  This is Brown Sheep Bulky and I love to handle it and it is quality yarn.  This time I made the strap of the felted piece by folding a strip in half and stitching on the sewing machine then I finished it with a blanket stitch of the black.  I then needle felted her initial with a simple dot or three.  I love it and I hope she does also.

For my sewing room and by the phone

My grandmother gave me some old Mason jars (blue) and of course I have old awards (wooden plaques) laying around.  For the phone, I combined the two with an old fork that I bent into a hook for keys and away we go.

The sewing room board was a "Welcome" sign at a garage sale for $1.  I painted over the words and added a pair of scissors Cathy gave me a few years ago for sewing room decor.  I then added the clamp and Mason jar and this handy storage is not right above my sewing maching.  (I use the word "I" to mean that Vince was by my side assisting).  Bless him.

Some crafting today

I took a dress back to TJ & Max and got a store credit.  Found this lamp on the clearance table for even more off the price.  Loved it and since I don't have any original thoughts, I had seen a number of things decorated with the lyrics to one of my favorite songs, "You are my sunshine".  So I took the linen type shade and a permanent marker and printed the words on the shade.  I have loads of buttons in a jar in my sewing room so I added some color with various buttons. The word love looks like a botch but really it is a heart shaped metal button I found in the jar.   I love it the look.

Can't Believe It is February

We just got back from a ski weekend with my son and his wife and two of his three sons.  We had a great time and I carried my knitting with me once again.  I am working on a project for a Pay It Forward I joined on Facebook.  The first project is something for a high school friend of mine and I am anxious to finish it and send it to her in Michigan.
While we were out west we visited Vince's cousin, Cleo and her husband Alan.  It is wonderful to connect with family.  Vince was an only child and values his relationship with his first cousin.  We will visit them again soon.  They have a lovely home and she is an excellent cook.  It reminded me of the title of my blog, seams sew simple.  We don't take enough time to be with the people we love and enjoy our lives.

The decoration above is something I saw on Pinterest and decided to replicate for Valentine's Day.  Buttons, white top straight pins, yarn, ribbon, and time.  It was fun to make.