Sunday Quilt Inspiration: ROSES

Roses are blooming in Louisiana. They are, of course, beautiful and smell wonderfully sweet.

Although I don't have a great number of roses as I've had in the past, I have a few favorites.  After I spent a few minutes appreciating the roses, I decided to pin a few more pictures to my "red rose, china" board.  It's been a while since I last pinned to this board since I pin mostly quilts these days.  

What's a GORGET?

Yesterday I visited 
South Carolina via The Crafty Quilter's Closet.   Kristin's beautiful license plate includes a palmetto tree and gorget. 

Now, I know lots about sewing and have made some interesting pieces, including a few costumes, but I had never heard of a gorget.  

Kristin was sweet enough to define it, "A gorget was orginally a protective military throat covering, although over time it as become an ornamental military piece."  

Oh, yeah, that clears it all up!  Just kidding, Kristin, it actually makes pretty good sense, but I am not one to be satisfied with a bit of good sense.  I am an English teacher, after all, and we need to know all the unimportant information.  

I did what any one of my students would do: I googled it.  I discourage them from "just googling" but I do like that Google has great pictures: these all came from that very quick search.  The one here has both the gorget and epaulettes, which served the same purpose of protection as the gorget.

In addition to being made of various materials--wood, metals, leather, and fabrics--some gorgets were very ornamental.  Some consist of two pieces to encircle the throat and neck completely, others were a single piece.  Regardless they all needed a strap or tie to hold them in place.  

This one reminds me of the collar my husband wore after his neck surgery.  Actually, that would make sense, wouldn't it.


 How about that?  I expected to have fun on this blog tour, but to learn a new sewing word, also?  Well, that's was an unexpected pleasure. BTW, there are patterns available on the Google images page.  For the push that Kristin gave me to learn something new, thanks Kristin.

Before I close, I need to correct something that I wrote yesterday, the blog tour happens Monday through Friday only, so there is no one scheduled for today.  I don't know which part I forgot, but I do apologize for my confusion.  This means that New York and North Carolina will debut their license plates on Monday.  I'll see you there then.

Happy weekend,

Friday Finish

I am completely finished with the teaching quilt that I started a few weeks ago with the intention of using it to give a talk about my art quilt process.  Last night I added the hanging sleeve and label. Can you believe that this means that I am finished early?!!  I know, I know.

 School ended for me today, thank goodness!  This means I can quilt to my heart's content....at least for the next couple of months!''

I'm only a week away from debuting my license plate block for American Made Brand by Clothworks. I thought I was finished with it, but I added another small element and now I'm done. Really. I am.  I wish I could show you, but I have to wait.  Of course, you don't have to wait to see the New Hampshire and Virginia plates.  They were debuted today.  


Unfortunately, typepad.com was down again today, then up again, and back and forth, so who knows if it's working.  I haven't see Pat Sloan's block because each time I tried typepad was acting quirky. I finally got to see it and say hello to Pat late this afternoon.  It is worth the extra work.

Tomorrow, head on over to New York (Quilts from my Crayon Box) and North Carolina (A Stitch in Time).  While you're visiting these great blogs, learn a bit about each state and don't forget to sign up for the giveaways.  Each one is giving eight fat quarters from the AMB collection--of which there are 50 colors! 

Clothworks was generous in providing so many fat quarters for our blog tour, don't you think?  To add to the fun, some bloggers have additional prizes--most of them unique to their state!  Can we say whoo-hoo and thank you?

Hope I see you at one of the blogs on the tour!  

School's Out for Summer!

Are you ancient enough to remember that rock song from the 70's? I really don't remember much of it except this one screaming line, but I do feel like screaming it for a few seconds. 

I had a good year...not as successful as I would have liked; still, my students succeeded in helping our school scores and the vast majority have passed to the next level.  

Of course, I'd prefer that they all be successful in the sense that they appreciate learning and score in the top percentile, but that is certainly not always the case.  Although I can be quite patient, I have reached my limits and I do desperately need a break from the kiddos and from the stress.  I don't think people realize the stress that we teachers have.  Of course, it's not the most stressful career choice, but it is certainly not the easiest job, either.


However, on the up-side, we do get some fairly nice breaks!  I'm looking forward to kicking back a bit, doing some serious sewing, and playing with the grandchildren.

Before I leave you, here's a reminder to visit the AMB Blog Tour.  Today's states are Maryland (Spring Water Designs) and South Carolina (Crafty Quilter's Closet).  Both of them have such pretty license plates that you'll want to see them, plus they both have very nice giveaways.  

It's finally occurred to me that you may be reading this post at some strange (to me) time of day or night.  (I always write after supper or just before bedtime, so surely that's when you read it, right?)  That means, I should tell you what is on for the AMB Blog Tour for tomorrow: New Hampshire (Park Hill Farm) and Virginia (Pat Sloan's Blog).  Visit them on Friday to see what cute license plate ideas they've got and sign up for their giveaways, too.

Happy Quilting,

Pin It Weekly #66

Happy Wednesday!  Yes, I remembered in time!

Before I begin pinning, I thought I'd update you on the AMB Blog Tour that is happening in the 50 states and hosted by Clothworks.  Well, they are providing the eight fat quarters that each blog is offering as giveaways.  Go check out the lovely license plates that are being debuted on the blogs.  Today's states: Alabama (Green Quilts) and Massachusetts (A Quilting Jewel).  

And now for some fun pinning.  I'm all into the modern quilt thing, so I've been looking at all sorts of modern quilts.  No, don't jump ahead....I'm going to do a little thinking about some traditional quilts just to give them a chance.  What do you think of these pretties?

If you like this quilt style, go here to check out my "Traditional, Quilts" board.  

If there's a traditional quilt type that I love, it's Dresden plate quilts.  Of course you can do it up in all styles, including some beautiful modern fabrics, but these are more traditional in nature.  Or not....

Have a great rest of the week.  I have one more day of students and one day of records and then.....woo whoo!  Quilting all day long....24/7.....unless there's a nap on the schedule.    

Good, good, great!

I have some good news and some great news and some just news.  Too silly?  Yes, probably so, sorry.




First, my students performed well on their EOC (standardized) tests and while it's not a good as I'd hoped, the scores are still much better than they had been before and, really good news, our school score is looking very good.  There are still some results pending, but we can begin to breathe again.

In other news, another of my tutorials was accepted and is now on Totally Tutorials.  This time it's the one I posted not so long ago about adding lace to a plain tee shirt to dress it up.  You can read that post here.


And finally, the American Made Brand blog tour is in full swing, despite the TypePad woes.  Candice over at AMB made a few changes in the blog order to accommodate those bloggers who can't post right now.  

If you are following the blog tour, you may want to go to AMB website to see the new arrangements.  Click on the link above or on the yellow license plate on the right.  

Yesterday we visited Delaware and Pennsylvania; today it's Georgia (Butterfly Threads) and Idaho (Quilt Taffy).  I won't spoil the surprise, but you definitely want to go!