A Beautiful Day

Thank you God, for this beautiful day! Although it started out a little humid after a little night time rain, it ended up being so beautiful this afternoon and evening. The sun came out, the humidity went down and it got cooler.However, not far away, 4 inch diameter hail stones and downed trees. Some more people to remember in my prayers tonight and another thing to be thankful about. Have you ever really thought about how many things happen in a day that we have to be thankful for? We are so blessed in so many ways. Speaking of beautiful, I got a close up look today at the RJR fabric line,"The Roaring Twenties." It is a beautiful line of 1930's reproduction fabric and I love every piece of it. Man, did that set the old wheels a turning! I am totally amazed at all the beautiful fabric lines available,and they keep coming and coming. Someone asked me if I was going to do any fabric designing since I do pattern designing, and I said," Not while they keep turning all these beautiful fabrics." The biggest problem is what to do with all I already have. I know there is always charity and I have every intention of sending some that way here in the near future. I was contacted by a gal who works with an organization called Patches Of Love. They make and take quilts to homeless orphans in disadvantaged countries. You can look up their organization on line, it is called www.patchesoflove.com You can send them either quilt blocks already made or you can send them the quilts. They ask for quilts about crib size and you can see where they have been and where and when they are going on their next trip to take quilts to orphans.We are so blessed in this country, most every little child I have known in my life has had several quilts. It is hard to imagine that there are some with none. Besides designing quilting, one of my passions is too draw, sketch and paint. Today, I was thinking about sunflowers, and how they are colored. If you ask someone what a sunflower looks like, they will probably say, yellow flower with green leaves and stem. But the real striking sunflowers are those that have reddish petals and are multi-colored. I will never forget this town I came through one time in southern Minnesota and someone had planted sunflowers right up to the highway in the little patch of dirt that lies between the sidewalk and the curb. They were mixed, multi-colored, and so tall and they greeted everybody who came into that town. It was so striking, I will never forget it. Anyway, that would be my dream to have a patch like that down by my mailbox to greet passer-bys. And as an added dimension right next to the American Flag hanging from a flag pole. Oh, and we might as well stick a birdhouse or two in there too. I think I better dream on that tonight and see if I can make it happen this week-end. Tune in later to see what happens, maybe if it turns out good, I will even post a picture. I do have a drawing of some sunflowers that I will share tonight. Enjoy, and keep on stitching!Monday, May 21, 2007Change Is Good Every day I am reminded that changes are good for you. Living here in Minnesota, you better get used to change. Today, our morning started at about 45 degrees, and right now at 4:00pm, it is a very humid 85 degrees. We have had wind, rain, sunshine, humidity, calm, cloudy, and stormy. It is true what they say, if you don't like the weather one minute, just wait a while and it will change.I need to get some of my annuals planted yet, once the weatherman can promiseme that we are not going to get any more frost. Some parts of our state had a half inch of snow yesterday.It is absolutely the best time of the year. The hummingbirds, wrens and orioles have arrived and the chorus they send up every morning is like being in heaven. I have a little Berwick wren building a nest in a birdhouse that is sitting in the corner of my deck that I have not even got put where I want it, I guess it will stay there until the little ones are hatched. It is a treat to sit in my screen porch and watch it flit from tree to tree in my back yard staking out it's territory. Bird behavior is so interesting to me, maybe it is because I was a psychiatric nurse for many years that I am interested in their behavior. You can learn a lot about nature by sitting and watching them as they mingle with the other birds at the feeders, and protect their territory.Aaah! Birdwatching is great. But do you know what makes it even greater?? If you have a piece of stitching in your hands while you are sitting in the porch while watching them; it doesn't get any better than that. Oh, did I forget to mention a big cup of strong coffee and a good stitching friend? That helps too!! My porch is one of my favorite places these days, can you tell??I am stitching on several different projects right now. I feel bad for people who have not been exposed to the world of stitching. It is such a big part of my life. I truly love making miniatures and most of all I like designing my own ideas. I have made some miniature table runners that you can check oput on my website. These have really gotten to be a lot of fun for me, and very easy. They also have many wonderful uses, being great for end tables, coffee tables, and also accent tables. I made a pattern for Autumn, Christmas, and Spring. Each pattern has five different designs and none of the three patterns are alike so there is a total of 15 different desgins. Check them out at www.chickadeehollowdesigns.com. Well, I better get back to designing before the day is done. For those of you who are folowing my blog, I apologize for not posting for so long, but we have been busy doing some changing and re-organizing here. Until next time, grab a cup of coffee and some stitching and head for your porch, patio, deck or whatever you have and take in some of the wonderful sights and sounds of spring. Keep on stitching!!Friday, February 9, 2007 Happy Stitching! Carol
Happy Stitching! Carol

Happy Stitching! Carol