Conifer Cone Flowers

From Oma’s Tree

Natural

Colored with alcohol inks, and some paint

These will find their way into Easter decor. 

Part 1 complete

These are the finished first sections for my quilt project. They will be assembled together later when more elements are completed. I’m sorry now that I didn’t prepare and bring along the next group of sections since I still have another week here. 

 

 

Sprouted!

Look What’s Up! 

Easter Crafts

Ladies Time

Two of us spent an afternoon preparing table arrangements for the Easter season. At least we started. We painted trays, conversed, went to the garden store to get flowers, conversed, painted more, conversed, cut, taped, collaged, wrapped, conversed, re-painted, conversed, and finally called it a day. It was good. Progress.... not so much... but we have days left. 

Patterns

For Spring and Easter

These are the patterns for some of the project items I showed earlier. I am (finally) preparing to scan them, so they can be mailed. If you want them, let me know. 

The Holy Week Story Cross and Easter Cross patterns will be included. 

Baby Quilt

My latest completed quilt project- a crib quilt for a first time mama we all know.....

This was made entirely from my fabric scrap bag in the favorite colors of the little mama. There are historic fabrics in this quilt, including scraps from the kitchen curtains I made in my first house as a young bride forty years ago.

I was about four inches short in the length for the backing fabric so I fudged in some extra fabric.

This baby quilt is also another practice opportunity for my machine quilting technique.

Now I am waiting for the baby girl to arrive and then I will send this off in the mail.

Flying to Georgia to greet my new grandson I couldn't resist photographing the beautiful fluffy cotton clouds above Texas. Artists see art in all of God's creation. It is marvelous to ponder how especially blessed we are as humans in history to see beautiful clouds from above!

It is well into the spring season here in the south where February brings citrus fruits on the trees!

This is a calamondin- a Philippine lemon. I squeezed the juice into my water today and it was delicious!

Everyone has palm trees in their landscape here. It has been a rainy winter so though now the rains have stopped, the ground is like a wet, soggy sponge. This is a marshy region.

The pink blossoming trees seen everywhere are witchhazel. The azaleas will be next.

I brought with me the next quilt project to get started on. These are the batik fabrics. (The colors do not show accurately in this photo. The dark fabric is cobalt blue with black design.)

This is the pattern I will be using. I utilized the pattern maker's website software to arrange my fabrics and decide their exact placements. Again, the colors are not true. The deep blue is that dark fabric for the border and center star. The software at least helped me to place the fabrics in a pleasing arrangment of light and dark and medium values.

 

The piecing for this pattern is very complicated and precise. The technique is paper piecing and results in fine points and accurate seams.

This is a look at the paper piecing technique that uses a template with sewing and cutting lines. The pieces of fabric are sewn on one by one in a special order. This ensures accuracy and sharp points and perfect curves. It is complicated but once the technique is mastered the assembly line process is very fast.

I have the first set of components complete. These will be the center star.

Holy Week Meditations

Available 

I finished writing up a set of lessons and devotions for very little children, to go with the decorations. The writings are set up to be used with on-hand items to illustrate or demonstrate the story. Most of the telling is scripted. These are suitable for as young as eighteen month old children. While they won’t understand the words and concepts, they will begin to grasp some of the solemnities of the season. Then each year parents can build on that foundation. There are devotions for each day of Holy Week, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday. If anyone would like these devotions or patterns for any part of what I showed here, let me know, and I can send scans by email.

And Violets

More Flowers Coming

2021 Bullet Journal Tour

I was actually planning on showing you this weeks ago, but things always didn't quite work out, plus there were so many cloudy/rainy/snowy days this winter when I couldn't really get good pictures. (Spoiler: I still didn't get very good pictures, but that wasn't the sun's fault.)

Usually I'm all "eeeek!" about sharing so much online, but I figured I really don't have anything that personal in my BuJo so far, minus what I blurred out, and also I don't think there are that many readers that come here, too, right? XD Anyway, here is the most extensive look at my bullet journaling I ever shared to date, haha!

(I kind of like the floral thing I am doing for my year's theme this time.)

 

So, the index and the numbered pages are what hold the organization together, for the most part. This year I added an Expenses tracker/ledger page(s), because I'm curious to know how much I cost - what's the minimum amount I need to live and whatnot haha Also, it's probably just a good idea in general for me to be keeping a little better track of my budgeting...I don't know; it's mostly just a recording of my flailing and penny pinching and not so much of a Plan. XD (I have a photo of the page further down.)

I seem to adjust what kinds of pages I add (or leave out) a little with each new journal, and that's totally expected and fine. It's all about finding what works for one's own self, and getting a little creative while staying semi- or very organized, whichever one wants to do.

The Key and Abbreviations (also acronyms) pages are basically so things don't get so cryptic and inconsistent that even I can't understand it.

The yearly calendar is both one of the most fun as well as most frustrating pages to make (featuring white out) and then I list my yearly goals...nothing huge - mostly projects that I want to complete during the year.

Don't stare at the mistakes haha - I only noticed them after I put the picture into my computer.

The Future Log is more of a monthly and quarterly overview/breakdown of goals/calendar events...I actually added to these this year, also: I didn't note the holidays here before.

and here's that Expenses page

After the main yearly/monthly goals and keys and whatnot are down, then after that it's just a matter of setting up each month as it comes along; so it doesn't take a TON of time to set up my bullet journal at the beginning of the year, and very little time each month.

I pick a different decorative theme each month, too, besides having a general theme for the year. Usually it only involves a different font and maybe one color or two. It depends on how excited I am for the month, how creative I'm feeling the day I set it up, and how much time I have to play with it that day as well.

For instance, I don't know if you can see that January is pretty basic, just a little bit of a typographic variety - and then I changed the font and threw extra hearts at February lol My everyday lists and normal writing stay the same, of course.

Then at the beginning of each week I just have to throw together a simple two-page planner spread, featuring the month's lettering theme, unless it's a new month, then I set up the two month pages as well. Sometimes I'll do that the end of the week before though, instead of at the beginning.

I put a little space with a heart at the end of each day to write something I'm particularly thankful for that day; it helps me to look for the silver linings even on a "bad" day, and sometimes what I list is something kind of silly XD

I'm just using a medium-size sketchbook thing for my bullet journal. There are journals you can get that are specifically for official Bullet Journaling, with dotted grid papers, or you can use just a lined journal or an actual planner or something. I find that for me, it's least distracting to just use blank paper and a ruler to cut my own crooked paths through, like the roads in a Dr. Seuss book. (Okay, maybe I'm not quite that messy, but you get the idea.) I've been doing this for enough years now that I know roughly how many pages I need to be in the book at least for the whole year, usually leaving extra in case I want to add sections of things; and beyond that, I like to look for brown paper or pretty covers or whatever. *shrug* I've toyed with the idea of trying to make my own hand-bound sketchbook for my bullet journal a couple of times, but that would be another project I probably "wouldn't have time for" so for now it stays only a fun idea.

At the end of the year, I use the yearly theme again at the back of the bullet journal to recap and regroup things, as part of my reflection and wrap up type of thing. And if there are extra pages left, they get drawn on later.

Some people don't start a new journal for every year, and just keep going right on through into another book, but I like to group mine this way. Again, it's what works for me.

I think that's about it! Happy year to you!

Holy Week Cross

For Little Ones

This is to help tell the stories of Holy Week, leading up to Easter.

Each box is for the events of that day of the week, starting from Palm Sunday and going through Holy Saturday. 

This would also work for children to narrate back what they heard, if they are old enough to do so. 

On a base of black paper (or it could be purple), the story cross is glued to one side. The other side has a white cross glued on it for Easter, and can be decorated. 

If anyone wants scans of these for the children in your life, I can email them. I plan to do a story outline for each day also.