Sunday Quilt Inspiration: S T A I R S

Are you wondering why stairs today, the last Sunday of 2017 and on the brink of a new year? Well, I had this idea that we'd all be going up in some way in the new year. May as well be positive, right? So, to go up, we need stairs. (Assuming you're a mere mortal, not able to fly.) So stairs. 2018. Stairs.

I happened across these rugs and thought you'd appreciate them. I really like both.

But there are quilts in stair step designs also. Here are some of my favorites, but before you argue that one or two are really stair step, I challenge to think of the many designs in which stairs are built.

A Quick Recap of 2017

While reading some of my favorite blogs, I naturally stopped over at Kaja's Sew Slowly and Ann's Fret Not Yourself where I was reminded that it's time for AHIQ. I shared a post to Kaja and Ann's linky party since the last two things I created are both improv pieces. 

Kaja posted a recap of her quilting for the year, and I thought it such a good idea that I decided to do something like it. 2017 must have been my year of small things. I made ten quilts total: almost all are small. The few larger ones are AmandaJean's QAL and a couple of tee shirt quilts for customers. 

It almost seems that I did more sewing than quilting. I made shorts for Rory's girls, a dress for myself, some quilted buckets, purses and bags, lots of quilted pillow covers, and several pieces of quilted art. I seem to be moving into the realm of art quilting with absolute abandon: I'm making what I like. I have now five pieces that are complete. Today I started a new one. This one will be painted like the cotton pieces. In fact, I may go back to cotton one more time. It's so much fun painting something close to my heart. 


But I also want to capture some of the sights we saw on our travels. Nebraska haunts me. Reading Willa Cather like a madwoman this year probably adds to that sense of wonder.
The Professor's House is my fifth book by Cather, though I didn't read them all this year! 

Interestingly we've visited all of the states that provide settings for her books, so I have seen the corn and rye and wheat swaying in the plains' winds. 

I have to do something with the haunting images of Cather's books and my experiences. I have yet to figure it out, but it must be done. 

What awaiting plans haunt you in the sense that you can't let them go? Does your heart ache to think of them? How close are you to seeing them through? 

Pin It Weekly #227

Although I haven't been blogging as I should, I have remembered that there was a time when I had plans. I'll revisit those later in the week. I'm curious about how I (and you) have managed the plans we made way back in the beginning of 2017.  I wonder what those were?!

Frank Malan is a follower with a board called "Fashion Illustration." At first glance it seems to be men's fashion, but there are other pins tossed in, so I'm not totally sure. However, there are some interesting men's fashion pins included.

So apparently I like the way men look when they walk. Interesting concept to learn about myself.

Ever wonder how many spoons you can find on Pinterest? No? Me either, but Lesa Bolman has. In fact, she has a board of "Spoons, etc." with 280 pins. Here are just a few:

Priscilla Gray has a board called "Celebrities." I don't recognize very many, but you may. Take a look.

Amanda Seyfried

Emma Watson

Channing Tatum

Taylor Swift

Kate Blanchett

Jake Gyllenhaal

And that's a wrap. Have a wonderful New Year's Day (and weekend).

A Camper for a Camper and other Christmas Stories

What family, temporarily living in campers, would give the one permanent camp child a camper? This. One. of course.

Poor child. Her own personal Barbie/baby doll camper as small as Grandmay and Poppa's. She's living in a camper the size of her new (in process of being built) house. And her dolls will have to share the smallest camper available to dolls. Wait, it's the size of the camper I'm sleeping in tonight. 

It's been a while since we've had a baby to open gifts. What fun! Doesn't the look on her face tell the story?

At some point we were finished opening all the gifts and moved on to supper. One of the advantages of having Will and crew living in the house is that they did the cooking. And it was delicious!

Earlier in the day Richard and I attended mass and spent some quiet time before the chaos began. When the kids arrived in the afternoon, we took photos in a sleigh that Will made just for this purpose. It started out a two-dimensional drawing, but he kept adding to the idea until it became a three-dimensional sleigh with a bench for sitting and two crazy log reindeer. 

Rich's parents were with us for gift-giving and supper, but it began "getting late" as soon as we served dessert. We love to play family games, so I made a few plans for after they left. Unfortunately they can't handle the noise and chaos of family games. Two of the games we played are below. The first was a hoot! Everyone wanted in on this game!

Treasure Chase
Necessary items: plastic wrap (Saran or Cling); small tokens, such as pony tail holders, candies, gum, lip balm, and so on. I also gathered a few odd things from around the house: safety pins, bobby pins, paper clips, zip ties, coins, ribbon. Anything small will work but avoid sharp, pointed objects.  

Start with a medium-size prize and wrap it in a wad of plastic wrap to form a ball. Then add more "sheets" of wrap around that to add to the ball. Cutting the wrap into sheets means the players will have to pick at the wrap to find the beginning of each. With each piece of wrap, add tokens enclosing them and pressing down to make the wrap stick to itself. It takes hours to use up a 300' roll of wrap. Several hours. Eventually I had a ball of tokens and wrap about the size of a volley ball. 


To play one person races to unwrap the items while the next player throws a die. We had already decided that the number to switch on would be three. When the player rolled a three, he took the ball and began trying to get items out while the next player tried to roll a three. It was such fun to see how the kids played. Some of us, it turns out, cheat. I loved trying to keep Lane from getting the ball from me. He's 6' tall, so reaching over me was not a concern. 

For the most part our games have no rules, and everyone just plays for fun. Some of our prizes were useless. For example, I included a sewing machine foot from an old machine. The idea is that no one knew what to expect, but it was fun to find out. I hate to admit but had any of the prizes been expensive, someone may have been hurt.


Candy Cane Catch
To play this game, you'll need candy canes, ribbon and prizes. Divide into teams of two players. One player (standing on a chair) drops the candy cane to the second player (sitting on the chair with back to player one). The player holds the ribbon out-stretched and tries to catch the candy cane on the ribbon. They may communicate but may not touch each other. The first team to catch the candy cane wins the prize.

You can find directions to both of these games on the internet. I found the first one here.  And though I don't remember where I found the Candy Cane Catch (my title), there are many holiday family games at Happy Home Fairy.