(NOTE:  There is still a slot open for one more PAY IT FORWARD participant.  Read about the conditions below, and if you’d like to pay it forward, leave me a comment!  –Sue)

Julie K had the nicest offer on her site:  the first three interested people to respond would receive something handmade from her in the next year; in return, those three people would also post a Pay It Forward offer on their blog.  All in the interest of making the world a happier place!  I couldn’t resist.  I have found quilters to be very generous people, and that is especially true of blogging quilters.

So here it is.  I am extending a Pay It Forward offer to the first three responders to this post (a handmade gift from me in the next year).  You must also indicate that you are willing to pay it forward with the same offer on your blog (sorry, but this will only work if you also have a blog).  So what do you think?  Are there any takers out there???

Sue

PS:  I won’t make you wait a year for your surprise!

This is what happens when you don’t have grandchildren — you post a photo of one of your grandpuppies.  So, this is Tucson.  Tucson lives in Virginia with our oldest son Dave.  Or maybe Dave lives with Tucson.  I’m not sure.  Anyway, isn’t he cute?  He looks like he’s ready to save the world!

Sue

 Who needs a Halloween purse, you may ask?  Probably nobody.  But this was so much fun.  I have a link to a placemat purse tutorial on my sidebar under “Quilting”, and loosely follow the instructions in that tutorial.  I have made several of this type of purse, and as a result, I’m always on the lookout for an interesting placemat.  This placemat was from Target.  I lined the purse in orange, added a zipper, and put a few crystals on the spider web and one on the spider itself.  And this is the first sewing I’ve done using Sewphie.

We’re going out with friends tomorrow night, and I’m wearing all black, except for my jazzy Halloween socks and my new stylin’ purse.

Boo!

Sue

We’re in Port Aransas, Texas, for our fix-up/clean-up week.  We have a small 1-bedroom condo, plus an efficiency next door to serve as a second bedroom when needed.   The 1 BR is our retreat in the coldest of winter months, and we put both units into a rental pool for the time we’re not here.  Summer is “high season” here at Port Aransas, and so it is rented virtually all summer.  Helps with taxes and insurance, but it’s always a surprise as to what we’ll find when summer’s over.  So we come down here for a week in the fall to assess the wear and tear, and freshen things up.  That way, when we come later, it still looks nice.  We look out to the southeast, so we don’t actually see the sunrise, but I love the look of the sun and shadows in the dunes.  It’s 63 degrees this morning, with only some thin clouds that will quickly burn off.

Nothing major this year.  The TV remotes were still here (a first), and the usual scrapes and dings from luggage coming in and going back out.  And Housekeeping did a better job this year (hurrah!).  Last year I scrubbed for two days to get a layer of dirt off all the hard floors.  This year was so much better — a pleasant surprise.  Yesterday I did the necessary touch-up painting in the 1 BR while DH did other Mr. Fix-It jobs.  Today is a trip to Corpus Christi to get some needed supplies and maybe a stop at Krispy Kreme?  They sell T-shirts that say Korpus Krispy.  We don’t buy the little air- and fat-filled pastries at home, but here it seems almost necessary.  They freeze very well, so we buy a dozen and bag them up, two by two, and into the freezer.  Probably something you didn’t need to know.

Friday we switch over to staying in the little efficiency.  It’s really just like a hotel room.  It needs a total paint job, new microwave (part of the Corpus trip today), and some other touches that we won’t worry about this trip.  If we can get the painting done, that will be huge.  Okay, that’s the beach part.  Now on to the socks…

I am a pretty fair knitter, but haven’t tackled anything harder than a dishcloth or a baby bonnet for ages.  I have been wanting to knit socks.  Where do these urges come from?  You can buy socks, just like you can buy dishcloths.  But no, I want to knit socks for my own Size 8W clodhoppers.  I have many friends at home who know how to knit socks.  So what do I do?  I start knitting socks on the plane traveling away from those friends.  I have two books to assist me, and have 3″ done, starting from the top, using two circular needles.  I’m already sweating coming to the heel flap.  I think this self-striping yarn is just amazing. It’s so much fun to knit up.  So, Friends in Blogland, please check back from day to day to see if I’m stuck — especially if you know how to knit socks!  I try to understand everything on paper before trying it with needles, and the heel flap isn’t clear to me.  Usually, though, when that happens, I can work it through when I get that far.  I tend to over-think sometimes.

For fun, I’m going to try and get a trip to Paradise Pond in today.  It’s my favorite bird-watching spot, and it’s only about 1 1/2 miles or so across the island. 

I will find a couple of links to insert into this post in case you’re ever interested in visiting Port Aransas, you can check things out.  We love Port A.  It has a rustic charm, things aren’t very fancy, some very good Mexican and seafood restaurants, plus a good barbecue place, burgers, etc.  Then there’s the Island Cafe.  I will have to post after we’ve eaten there, because I don’t know how they can function with the low prices they charge.  And the food is very good.

Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce

Interesting Port Aransas Info

Wikipedia on Port Aransas

So there you have it — Socks on the Beach.  G-Rated.

Sue

Yes, it’s finally happened.  I have a new little one at our house.  A whopping 11 pounds, and cute as a button.  She doesn’t seem to need much attention.  She just lies in her little black cradle, patiently waiting for someone to need her.  And she doesn’t cry, but rather purrs so sweetly when you push the right button.  I’m simply ga-ga.  And here she is:

And her full name is Sewphie Agnes Singer, but she will be known as Sewphie for short.  I have been pining for one of these babies for quite some time, partly because of the fun of having one, but mostly because of the strong connection I feel to my two grandmothers, both long deceased.  One was a quilter/crocheter/crafter/Scrabble player; the other was a seamstress/accomplished knitter/fisher-woman/hunter, and they both have had a strong influence on me.  And my grandmothers’ names?  Jeannette Sophie and Ida Sophie.  So you see, my new little girl had to be named Sewphie in their honor.  I only wish my grandmothers were still here so I could share Sewphie’s arrival with them. 

Oh, the Agnes part?  Agnes was the original owner mother of this little baby, and although I don’t know anything more about Agnes than her name, I would like to honor her as well for taking such wonderful care of Sewphie, for she certainly has been loved and well tended to.

Welcome home, Sewphie!

Sue

I’ve been working on Judy Laquidara’s Quilt for an Hour quilt, Shine on Bayou Cane.  I thought this would be a great gift, but the greedy part of me wants to keep everything for myself.  Solution?  Make two.  Well, I will get two done, but I’m not saying when.  (By the way, the block is straight.  It’s my photography that’s crooked.  Really.)

I’m not done making my quarter-square blocks, but I got tired of just looking at “components” and wanted to see some finished product.  So I put one block together.  I like it!!!  My star fabrics are primarily from a 32-fabric pack of fat eighths, so it will be plenty scrappy.  In Judy’s instructions, she has you making two blocks alike, 15 times, for a total of 30 blocks.  Stay with me — that’s all the harder the math is going to get.  So I am making 30 different blocks, two each.  Divided into two quilts.  This way, each quilt will have 30 different stars in it.  Sounds good on paper.

I have too many other irons in the fire right now, so this project is going to get set aside for a few days, but I’m hoping to finish up pretty quickly.  Thank you, Judy, for another rewarding project. 

Sue

A year ago son Tony and new daughter-in-law Lynn were married!  Wow.  We were all so busy last fall with all the preparations.  They had a wonderful October day for the wedding, and we couldn’t be more pleased to have Lynn in our family.  Here is a little photo collage to commemorate their 1st Anniversary (you can click on the photo once, maybe twice if there’s still a + sign, to enlarge the photo).

A year goes by so quickly.  Then it’s ten years, suddenly twenty, thirty, etc., etc.  So I guess the lesson today is to enjoy every single day with the love of your life.  Even the ordinary days.  Maybe ESPECIALLY the ordinary days.

Love you guys,

Mom

(p.s.:  I forget that not everybody was at the wedding!  DH Jim got to walk Lynn down the aisle as her family is all in China, and they were unable to come here.  To celebrate both cultures, we had a Chinese meal for the rehearsal dinner (first picture), and American food for the reception dinner.  Lynn’s brides’ maids wore qipao (CHEE-pow) dresses, which were custom made in China.  Lynn also wore a qipao for the rehearsal dinner.  I passed on the opportunity to wear one.  The idea of custom-fit shiny fabric on a body shaped like a sausage didn’t sound very pleasing to the eye.  They are just adorable though on the young women!)

Wednesday we took a bus trip (through the senior group at church) to the German-settled community of New Ulm (about 2 hours southwest of Minneapolis).  What a perfect time of year for a visit!  They had already celebrated Oktoberfest the previous two weeks, so we had a perfectly lovely (and not too crowded) day for a visit.

 Starting at the top left is a photo of the Cathedral of the Holy Trinity off in the distance.  The cornerstone was laid in 1866.  A close-up photo of the cathedral is right below, lower left.  Following along the bottom is a tree in all its fall glory.  Sorry, I’m not good with tree names, but by its color, could it be a maple (Doug, are you reading me)?  And the photo to the right of the tree is of a path down the hill along the Way of the Cross.  Each of these small buildings is a station of the cross.  It is a lovely walk, and at this point we were on a hill overlooking the town.  Really beautiful.  The path is lined with pavers now, but was originally a dirt path.  And we “topped off” our tour of New Ulm with a stop at Schell’s Brewery!  (Did I mention this is a German town???)  The most fascinating (to me, anyway) part of the brewery tour was the peacocks and hens that roamed the property.  And isn’t this guy inspiration for a quilt!  Just look at those greens and blues.

While I was browsing around the web this morning, I happened on Mary’s site.  She is using this fun collage feature of Picasa 3.  It was easy to install and get started.  What a neat way to display pictures!  You’ll have to check out Mary’s site as well (she’s a quilter in neighboring Minneapolis), and she has some lovely fall pictures of the Minneapolis close-to-downtown area.  Thank you for the inspiration, Mary!

And don’t you think this collage format would be wonderful for a Christmas card picture, or how about for a postcard?  Oh, the possibilities…

Sue

I know I’ve been delinquent lately in updating my blog, but the next couple of weeks will be busy, so I can’t promise I’ll be any better!  Wednesday (yesterday) we went on a bus tour to New Ulm, Minnesota.  It was a wonderful fall day, and we all thoroughly enjoyed the sights.  I will be posting pictures when I sort through them and try to narrow them down to a very few.

So on to a bit of progress in the quilting part of my life.  Judy Laquidara has posted Block 6 of her Star BOM, and tonight seemed like a good time to jump right in and get it done.  This block went together as easy as could be.  *whew*  But I think I was a little more watchful on my measurements.  It doesn’t take much to throw the whole block off.

The colors are much more accurate in the “group photo”.  It must be the light, but sometimes I just can’t get the colors to look like they’re supposed to!  Anyway, I’m loving every single block so far.  The background fabric is somewhere between old gold and brown paper bag color.  I want the stars to all be a variety of jewel tones, with dark green sprinkled throughout.  I’ve really enjoyed checking out the progress of the other bloggers who are doing these blocks.  Everybody’s is so unique, we should have a show (even if it’s just a virtual one) of all the quilts when they’re finished!

Sue

The fall colors are so pretty this year, although they are starting to fade with the rain we’ve had off and on this week.  I love the look of leaves with the sun coming through them from the back.  Somehow the pictures never quite look as good as I think they should, but I did like this one.

Sunsets are another subject matter I struggle with, but that doesn’t stop me from trying.  That’s the beauty of the digital camera — shoot, shoot, shoot, followed by delete, delete, delete.  This is from our deck across our small pond.

For this photo, I zoomed in on the “hottest” part of the sunset.  The color was so incredible on this day.  Looking at these pictures, I can almost feel the heat!

Here is DH Jim.  Last year he made a Murphy bed for our guest room/excercise room.  I wanted to put a queen-sized bed in there, but then the exercise equipment would have to go.  Since the guest bed is probably only used a couple of times during the year, this was a great solution.  And didn’t he do a nice job?  (The pattern for the quilt on the bed is “Mama’s Scrap Quilt” by Tara Lynn Darr.  It’s such a happy quilt, I always smile when I see it. 

And this is me!  I love this picture.  Years ago I used to dress up as a witch to answer the door on Halloween.  (Where we live now, NOBODY comes to the door except my friend Jean and her family.)  Every year my witch disguise (yes, this is a disguise — it isn’t natural) got weirder and more disgusting looking.  It was wonderful!  I’ve told my DH that this is my favorite picture of me and I would like it displayed at my funeral.  He said no.  Some people just have no class.

Sue