The Kennedy Center awards

Wow! What a summary of my life.....Paul McCartney....the idol of my teens, memories of a seventeen year old, "I Want to Hold Your Hand", "Hey Jude", "She Loves You" still my favorite music. Merle Haggard, the early honky tonk years with Cleve. "Hello Dolly" the only broadway show I ever attended. One of Cleve's attempts to give a rez girl a taste of culture. I loved the show!! Then Oprah, a woman who gave me courage to be who I am. Her magazine gave me permission to write my thoughts about racism, my right to be a professional Lakota woman activist and to become more self-confident than I had ever been. These people all played a part in who I am today. Their music, their influence touched my soul and soothed me. Tonight has been pure nostalgia and wonderful memories.

December 27th Post

Well Christmas is over for another year. Santa was good to all my family. I did finish some Christmas gifts by Christmas eve, but didn't take pictures. I finished candlemats for my sisters, some of my ribbon embroidery ornaments. I am working on a journal for myself, which I plan to use daily, since I have gotten away from writing for the past few years.

I am on vacation from work, but have some reports that need to be done, so I will be working in my office for a day or so. I want to do some sewing and work on finishing up some of my UFO's. I also need to finish three applique calendar blocks, February, November and December. I am going to do those today, since they are on my sewing machine waiting for quilting.

I hope all my friends had a happy holiday and I wish all of you a Happy New Year.

December 20th Post

Only 5 days to Christmas! I didn't get much of anything done for homemade gifts this year. I've just not been motivated. This week-end I finished a stocking for William and sewed the binding on a star quilt that I've been working on for awhile. Today I am working on some ribbon embroidered stocking ornaments for the grandkids. I cut out candlemats from felted wool for my sisters. Hopefully I'll get them done before Christmas eve. lol.

The picture is the stocking I finished for William.

Yes!!! I finally am sewing and finishing things. I made 4 of these placemats yesterday. They are a gift and I was really happy with how they turned out. I'm trying to use up my Christmas fabric this year so I can buy new next year. LOL.

Last week was a terrible week and I hope that this week is 200 times better.

Tonight I'm going to work on a quilt top to mail out to Toni. The blocks are all done and I have to put them together with sashing. Once the quilt top is done, I'm going to make William's Christmas stocking. The cuff is all cross stitched, I just need to quilt the fabric, cut and sew the stocking.

On Friday the University is having its Annual Elder's Day Dinner. It is a lot of work, but so worth it. The staff of SGU provide the food and gifts. Usually there are about 300 elders attending the dinner. Last year some of the elders played instruments and sang oldies. They had a lot of fun. Hope it all goes well this year.

November 26th Post

Where did this month go? It's only 4 days until December 1st. Today I am working on Christmas gifts for my family. I have way too many to get done. Today I am going to finish my oldest UFO.

Yesterday was Thanksgiving. We have a tradition of going around the table at dinner on Thanksgiving and saying one thing we are Thankful for starting with the youngest. My grandson, Greyson's...."I am thankful for the turkeys...and I am glad this one sacrificed its life to feed me." All in all I forgot my vegan diet and stuffed myself.

Picture is my daughters, Sammie & Mary, my son, Richard, me and my Mom.

November 15th Post

It is Monday again. Last week I did no sewing at all. I gathered and prepared for sewing on Saturday, but didn't get to it. Tonight I am going to finish a lap quilt top for a friend of mine. The blocks are all done, just need to add sashing and borders, then it will be ready to go.

My goals this week: Some snap bags for Christmas presents, table topper and matching placemats for a Christmas present, a quillow for a Christmas present. I will post pictures as I finish each project. Maybe I can break my loooong non-productive streak. I can't believe I have not completed one quilt top all year and this is November. I have only done small projects and mostly just calendar blocks for each month. I think I'm down to candlemats and candles for Christmas presents. LOL.

I have gathered all my UFO's, listed them, gave away some, prioritized some, but finished none. Some of the blocks are going to become smaller projects, i.e. candlemats, wallhangings, placemats. I found that working 15-30 minutes a day on a project does not work for me. I need to have big blocks of time to keep my attention on the project.

In searching the garage for my Christmas fabric, I found another box of scraps that need to be sorted. I also found several boxes of fabric that need to be sorted into FQ boxes, yardage boxes. As you can see, lack of fabric is not my problem.

Fabric Postcards

These are fabric postcards I received in the swap we did on Quilts on Review. These postcards were made by Lorri Chambers, Judy Adams, Veronica Goff and Inge Boskamp. I have a couple more coming that I will post when they come in.

Postcards from Exchange

These are the some of the postcards I received in the Postcard Exchange from Quilts on Review. I love them all. The top one is from Nancy Guss, the left one from Yvonne Fisher, and the right one from Suzy Broussard. I have some more to post later when I find my USB cord for my camera.

November 9th

I spent three days last week in New Orleans. Although much of the time was work, New Orleans stays open 24 hours, so I got to enjoy the blues and jazz and company of friends I haven't seen for awhile. I brought home beignets and chicory coffee. It was a great trip.

This week-end I sewed a wall hanging for Christmas. It just needs quilting. Yesterday I worked on sorting my stash in the garage. I found another storage box of scraps. That should take a week or so to sort out. LOL. Isn't it funny that when you start sorting scraps you remember what you made with a certain fabric and get that joy of finishing a project all over again.

The weather here has been beautiful, but with that little crisp feel of fall. Geese were flying south yesterday. I hope that doesn't mean a storm is coming.

This week I'm going to work on Christmas gifts for the babies.....McKenzie, Jazzie and Pacie. I'm making them quillows. I'm making a Christmas stocking for William, since his didn't get done last year. I don't know what I'm going to make for Hayden, yet.

Halloween Day.......

Last week was a major busy time for me. I didn't get any sewing done. Today I'm going to work on my November calendar block and some small Christmas gifts.

I'm looking forward to seeing all the little ghosts and goblins tonight. On Wednesday I'm going to New Orleans for three days. I wish it was a vacation, but it is work.

I spent yesterday with two of my children and two of my grandchildren in He Sapa (Black Hills). We enjoyed the visit and the good food. We got a Halloween costume for Lacy. The hood is too big, so I am sewing it in so it fits. I'll post a picture when I get her dressed up.

October 25th Post

I didn't get much done last week in the quilting area. I did get my "hoarders paradise" cleaned out. Now I don't want to get out stuff to work on because I love the order I created by sorting and getting rid of stuff. Mailing first batch of fabric postcards today. Will post some pictures later. I received some really lovely postcards from the swap. Still have finishing touches on embellishments for the rest of mine, then in the mail they go.

This week I am going to sandwich a quilt top and begin hand quilting it for a Christmas gift and begin working on Christmas ornaments for gifts.

October 17th post

Missed last week's post......time moves too fast for me to keep up. I finished October's calendar block and have been embellishing postcards so I can get them mailed. I sorted my UFO's and am continuing to work on sorting scraps. My bedroom looks like a hoarders paradise right now. My goal today is to clean the bedroom, then work on postcards. I'd like to get them in the mail sometime this week. I have decided to machine quilt some of my quilt tops because there are just too many to hand quilt. This week I will be working on finishing some of my small UFO's for Christmas gifts.

September 27th Post

Lone star quilt quilted and ready for binding. October calendar block in progress. I guess that's a start. I want to finish up some of these projects so I can start on some Christmas stuff. This Santa has a list.......

September 19th Weekly Post

I didn't get much done last week, but I am determined to finish SOMETHING this week. I did start on my October calendar block. I am hand quilting a star quilt for my sister and have only two more side triangles left to quilt. I also worked on fabric postcards for the exchange I am in. Hopefully I'll get them all done this week. I'm still working on sorting my stash and my scraps. I have far too much fabric for one person to ever use in a lifetime. Thankfully, I have a quilting daughter who helps use it up. LOL. Sammie made a really beautiful baby star quilt last week. She pieced, hand quilted it and is working on sewing the binding down.

I made apple butter last week. I harvested about 20 bushels of apples from my two apple trees. I gave some away, made apple crisp, apple pie, apple cake, froze apples and them made apple butter. I still have about 4 bushels left. I need to buy more jelly jars before I can make more apple butter. Lot of people are going to get apple butter for Christmas. LOL.

This Week's Post

Well, last week I finished a project. I finished my September calendar block. I worked on my 30's quilt. I unsewed the star background for Mom's "Indian" wall hanging. This week I am determined to finish the 30's quilt top. I have everything ready for a quillow. I need to layer it and put it together. I plan to do that tonight. I am going to work on X-Mas gifts starting this week. Fall weather puts me in the mood for sewing.

My Week......

I can't believe it is already September 1st. Last week was really busy, we registered students for the Fall Semester and had Graduation on Friday. It was also Rosebud Sioux Tribal Fair. I didn't get to go because it was too hot and windy, which makes my allergies act up. I have to stay close to my nebulizer when the weather is like that.

I finished piecing my September calendar block, worked on the '30's Churn Dash and cut out a wallhanging that my mom wants for her cousin who is here visiting from California. She wants it done by the 5th. Hopefully I will get it done.

I just simply haven't had time for sewing this week.

This Week's Post

This has been a special week for me. I met Ann Fry and her friend Sally. We had a wonderful visit.

I finished my August Calendar Block this week. I am working on a '30's Churn Dash Quilt that has been a WIP for several years. I have to finish three more blocks, put it together and sandwich it for quilting. I want it for a Christmas gift, so I'm really going to have to work to get it done.

I made three postcards for the postcard swap and have three more ready to sew. My goal for this week-end is to get all of the postcard swap postcards done and ready to mail.

I haven't done any work on my BOM, but hope to get to it in September.

I'm going to try writing in this blog weekly for now, but hopefully I will get to it more frequently.

Finished Products

This week-end was Finish It Up week-end for me. I finished a quilt for me which I called my charm square quilt and I finished a beaded bracelet that I started a month ago. I pieced my August calendar block and hope to finish it yet tonight.

Quilter's Block

I have serious quilter's block. I did finish my July calendar block which is seven inches x nine inches, but I didn't finish my June calendar block. I still need to bind it. I haven't been able to finish quilting the final border on my charm square quilt and I've been hand quilting it for over a year. I wanted to finish my butterfly wallhanging and get another UFO out of the way, but I didn't even get it sandwiched to quilt.

I joined a postcard swap. I hope that will get me past this slump in production. LOL.

I haven't posted since April. I am going to try to post everyday just to keep a record of what I'm doing. I have a new laptop so I don't have any excuse not to do this. I have been working on a charm square quilt. I finished hand quilting the main part of the quilt and marked the borders last night. Hopefully, I'll finish it in the next two weeks.

I finished appliqueing my June calendar block, but still need to sew on the binding. I used the butterfly block from Pat Sloan's Meadow Breeze mystery quilt on-line. I'm only twenty-one days into June. LOL.

My UFO for the month is a black butterfly wall-hanging that we did in an exchange on QOR. We made the middle block and our partner finished the top. I think Kate Mutch finished mine.

Blue Sunday

I haven't posted for awhile. today has been a blue day for me. It would have been Cleve's 75th birthday. He has been on my mind all day and I haven't really accomplished anything today. I have been restless and couldn't concentrate on anything. I really miss him a lot yet. I wonder if I will ever quit missing him?

Irish Angel Done!!!

I finally finished my Irish Angel wallhanging after several years of procrastinating. We are hoping that replacing the January wallhanging will finally bring Spring. The other day my DSIL asked his wife if I knew that it was March and not January. LOL.

Christmas 2010

The Green Star bag was made for my daughter Mary for Christmas.

The black print bag was made for my daughter Sammie for Christmas.

The Wallhanging was my Christmas wallhanging that I finally finished. I started it in 2004.

2010 is Here

Well, it is the New Year. Gee, 2010 came so fast. It seems like only yesterday that we were anticipating Y2K and wondering what was going to happen to computers. This past decade has brought so many changes to my life and not all positive.

This year I am going to quit smoking, lose weight and complete all of my UFO's.