Thursday, September 22, 2011

Hi there. I am off to Colorado to visit our daughter and son-in-law for a few days. I love Colorado all year, but especially in the fall.
I found a new blog to follow. At thequiltshow.com they are playing several free shows. The one I watched yesterday was from Cindy Needham. She takes old linens and makes whole cloth quilts. I LOVE it as I have several old linens and 50's tablecloths that are stuck away in a drawer. Now I know how to use them so they can be seen. AND now I can collect more of them!! FUN FUN FUN.
   I have started a new program called Take Shape For Life. It is fantastic and I feel healthier now than I have for many years. It involves the 5 in 1 plan where you have 5 Medifast meal and 1 Lean and Green meal a day.
So far I have lost 8.5 pounds in 10 days and lots of inches. I never feel hungry as I eat ever 2-3 hours. The food tastes really good, so easy to do. I will keep you posted on my progress. If you want to know more email me at donnasartquilts@msn.com.
   Have a fun weekend!!!




Sunday, September 4, 2011

This is one of the best sayings I have seen:
         " I've learned so much from my mistakes that I'm thinking of making more"
         Too many time adults do not allow themselves to  make mistakes, especially quilters. We need to make mistakes, that is how we learn.

  Well, I know I haven't posted for a while, sorry. I have been working on a baby quilt with my husband's cousin's daughter. She is six and wanted to make her soon-to -be-born sister a quilt. She picked out 20 fabrics and put them in the order she wanted for the 4 square by 5 square quilt. I had to cut  each square 9 1/2 inches each so that all the motifs she wanted in the fabric fitted into each square. Sewing the blocks together was fun as I had help from her and her 4 year old sister. Then I finished putting the blocks together and quilted it. The baby's room is decorated with owls and I happened to find owl fabric which I used for the back. Some of the fabrics were polka dotted and others had cute bugs, butterflies, etc. on them. I quilted some book titles onto a few of the dotted fabrics; such as"Goodnight Moon"( where I, also, quilted crescent moons) and "The Very Hungry Caterpillar"( where I quilted caterpillars). There is no photo to post now as the 6 year old was VERY eager to give it to her mom. Each of the two girls decorated fabric with fabric markers and I cut them into cupcake shapes which I fused to the back of the quilt. There is also a cupcake for the new baby which both girls decorated. I added the date so this would also be a memory quilt. Only one thing was wrong, I put the wrong month in the date!!!!!!!!!!! Oh well, I just told the mom she would always remember the date as one month sooner.


 Here are a few photos that may become art quilts.


This is a petunia that was growing in a large planter on a city street corner. Since they had just watered the planter, I was able to capture the water droplets.
This plant is Lady's Mantle. The history of this plant suggests that is was named for the Virgin Mary's mantle (her cape). My favorite feature is the way it catches the dew drops and rain drops. It has just rained a little that morning. I have this planted by a window so I can look at it each morning. I, also, like how the new leaves unfold like a fan. You can see the segments on this leaf.
This is a photo of the inside of a cantaloupe that we grew in our garden. I had never stopped to look at the design of the seeds and how they are divided into 6 segments. I used a photo program and enhanced the seeds a little.
This is a Anemone Robustissima from my garden. There are two reasons that this is one of my favorite plants. First it blooms in the fall when most of the flowers are done blooming for the year, and second the light pink color.  The bee gathering nectar was a bonus. You can see the bulging pollen sacs in his legs.

As I looked out my window, I saw this view and had to take a picture. I like the way the silhouettes of the trees partially encompass the moon and I like  the clouds in the sky. There is a tinge of orange on the horizon.
I took this photo of a cluster of acorns on our young oak tree. I like the contrast of the rough acorns and the smooth shiny oak leaves