In the quiet of the desert......

Friends, It was a wonderFULL afternoon yesterday. Noah began school and I began to work at the office once again. I felt a sort of "coming home" as I perused favorite "go-to" blogs and those of new neighbors.....I skipped from corner to corner and then arrived home (literally my home) to combine the inspirations into my Psalm 40:3 quilt.........

To return to LIBERATED blocks in my sky, collage of desert terrain

and "chat" with Sandra the Cumberland Chick as I pieced the heavens....

This project is one that I hope conveys a quiet comfort from Mary as she blends with the sky and is noticed/ or simply feels her comfort by the onlooker who is looking for her....

As I continue to peek at it on the table I wonder what color to do a liberated border....I am think browns but also wonder about a pop! factor. Thoughts? And how about Unruly lettering in the border, Yea or Nay? So much to consider....

Off to play in the wilderness and will be fun envisioning this piece waiting for me to arrive home tonight and arm myself with glue sticks and Roxy panting in the background excited to decorate! And of course.....find a tiny bell for the bell tower.
Love, Em

When you play with ideas for a new quilt before going to bed, Do you..............

Section 2 of the ACT exam. Please make sure your No. 2 pencil is finely sharpened and remember to fill in the whole bubble when answering........You may have a snack on your desk but I would ask that you have all else cleared....oh and you may have some fabric, your favorite quilt book, a rotary blade and green mat...BUT aboslutely NO phones....except if it is saved on your favorite blog....and if you MUST bring your favorite mug rug, that is admissible.....Ah hell! Let's get examining!

Your first question covers the subjects Science, Logistics, Art..

1. When you play with an idea for a new quilt before going to bed, do you..
a. wake up at 4:30 AM with the "I got it!" feeling
b. take a bathroom break and then get curious if your phone has an email waiting from a blog friend
c. you stroll down the hallway to the laid out fabric and illustration ideas in and begin to cut...in the middle of the night
d. you don't miss out on your sleep for anything...not even a new project

2. This is an essay, short and sweet equals COMPLETE!
....Em is writing a ditty on her blog for Michele Foster's, Quilting Gallery blogger highlight and wonders what her readers enjoy about her blog and keep coming back for more...If you have a word or quilt that you think of when EM CELEBRATES! is mentioned....what is it?

3. When I say "jeep roll"...do you think sushi? If you answered NO and wonder why this exam is asking....head to http://generationqmagazine.com and take a peek at the Saturday's article about a Jeep roll. Good old Sue, up to her antics!

4. True/ False...Isaih 40:3 CELEBRATES! the desert and is the inspiration for this next quilt.

5. I spy.......Do you see the Mary of Guadalupe in the blue batik? Excited to use her in the sky as a quiet comfort for the piece. Thank you, Jenny at cut.sew.iron.repeat.blogspot!

Happy TOOsday!

Em

Moo-La-La! From desk to mail squishy!

I share this photo of Noah and Jim playing chess at Crystal Pier and think.....An elderly man alive and keeping his mind nimble in older years to prevent aging take over his mind...There are so many articles about how to prevent dementia....I like to think the AAQI funds for Alzheimers Research will one day unlock the key and proclaim, "CHECK MATE!"


Once again I thank you for the incredible support of AAQI! Ms. Cow sells for $100.00 and I am excited for her to fly your way, BJ

I took this photo in the back of my car as I was riding home from California. The Lego box was perfect for a desk because it is stiff and also reminds me of creativity being fun and silly and for all ages! As I created on this "desk", I thought of Sue who claims a lot of Legos in her work office...Hmmmmmm, I wonder the stories she could tell!

I am going to create a desert bargello with a mustang for my next AAQI. I hope that its warmth of my neighborhood will melt your heart and inspire a bid in the auction!

Off to play with scraps and glue, Em

BJ, If you can please email me your address. Congrats on winning the bid!

Monday's Mantra....Wink wink!!!!!

May this sunshine be a ray of hope and comfort for friends and family affected by Irene.

The past several days have been full of WONDER as I played in Vegas and San Diego. It was fun to find a quilt show and chat quilting for an afternoon with Sheila. A night in Old Town was mystical, Noah enjoyed chess with a man named Jim who sets up his board on the wall by the ocean and a lego box was my desk for my current AAQI quilt for the bidding.... Ms. Cow is 1/2" too big....can you believe it?! If you like her....let's have another bidding starting at $20.00.....So often I thought of so many of you as I played, quilted, glued and just was reminded of friendship and support as emails would be exchanged. Thank you for you!

Love, Em

My sis proclaims......

"I finally finished!"

How often have each of us made the proclamation and CELEBRATED! the finish! May this beauty be a shining star for starting your week!

Love, Em

"Michele and Quilt Diva, You warned me.........And i THANK YOU!"

You will have 1 minute to complete this section of your ACT exam.....Plesae fill the bubble that corresponds with the correct answer in completely with a No. 2 pencil. When you are done you will have 10 minutes before the next section....

(ACT: A trademark for a college entrance exam
act: a state of real existence rather than possibiity
act: the process of doing something, a charitable act)

celebrating... THE act!!!!!!

1. When creating a teeny tiny quilt for AAQI what are the measurements not to be exceeded?

A. 10 X 20"
B. 9 X 11"
C. Size doesn't matter because they will take anything!

2. Why would a quilter who has limited time make a quilt for AAQI?

A. Be a martyr
B. CELEBRATE! feeling great about supporting a wonderful and personal cause
C. Give the lemonAID business a try



3. True or False: It is more fun to create the wrong size and host your own auction of 2 quilts and raise $175.00 for research.

Do you see the silhouette the the little girl on the bike? I love the back of quilts!!!

Thank you, Kat at http://kellygirlquilts.blogspot.com, for buying this piece for $100.00 and donating to the Alzheimers Research! I will be binding it today and then in to the mail it goes.

Friends, I am off to San Diego and Las Vegas for the next 4 days and will be glueing more auction pieces. Send me a note if you have an idea you would like me to play with or a fav quilt I have done on this blog that you would like a mini of......Just may get your wish!

Love, Em

Stephanie, Do you recognize the text fabric?!!!!!

Amidst the text is the beginning of Roxy's quilting for IMAGINE....Do you see the shape?

As I turned the quilt over to check the tension of the thread I was struck with the thought, "When given a "cross to bear", what are my thoughts and what gets me through....Words of wisdom that echo........ I love symbolism and this becomes a mediation for me as I read the words and trace the cross....

Off to the woods but just HAD to have some Roxy time first!

What is it that just HAVE to do today to treat yourself?

Love, EM

Imagine + Rippling of Diane Hire Curves= teeny quilt for AAQI celebrating! Grandma

Friends, Thank you so much for participating in the auction today and the bidding was so amazing to me! What a wonderFULL show of support for Alzheimer's research! Tonight I closed the bidding and Quilt Diva Julie is the new owner of HOPE. I am so appreciative of the bids that came through after I had emailed Julie and apologize that I had closed without posting.....THANK YOU!!!!!

It was so much fun that I have created a Diane Hire-inspired quilt measuring 8 X 11 inches. IMAGINE is my playful interp of my grandma looking out of her window and smiling at a small girl biking by with her kitten and naivetely waving. I can hear her voice as she tells me a story...she was my room-mate for years and I miss her!

I love the ripple effect of friendship and good works and I celebrate these curves rippling outwardly.....can't wait for Roxy to accentuate the curves tomorrow!

"Cross to bear"....How many of us fear that as we age we will one day burden our children.....Window panes- I remember looking into Grandma's eyes when she began to slip and think, "They say the eyes are the windows to the soul"....

i IMAGINE one day hugging grandma and asking her, "Do you remember the Christmas holiday that I was in Florida sleeping and you visited me in my dream and you asked me to come to you.....I awoke with the most scared feeling of wondering/ imagining...did I have a near death experience..." I will never forget the feeling of being sucked towards her and then the reliquishing of the pull and waking.....

This piece will be quilted in the next couple of days and then off to the auction....God Bless Grandma, the glue stick and IMAGINE-ing!

Love, Em

When life hands you a lemon 1/4 inch to0 wide.....Make LemonAID!

I want to thank you all so much for you kind words and support about my adventure over the weekend in Baby Jeep. Do you ever think about a happening in your life and wonder, "Hmmmmmmmmmmmm......?" I feel loved and i THANK YOU!!!!!

I am known at a local quiltshop as the Lady who Makes Napkins.....my quilts are small and now they are hip since the invention of the mug rug. He he he!......But did I ever think that a napkin of 9.25 inches by 10.5 inches would be considered too big.......Yes, ladies and gentleman, my HOPE was denied for being too big. Dog gone it! And I say this with a smile......

This is now my second quilt for the Alzheimer's fundraiser and the second quilt to measure too big. I thought I was so careful this time.....darn glue stickinig!

Well, I told myself this must be a Godwink and that I will host my own auction for this little ditty. If you would like to purchase this piece, go ahead and bid starting at $10.00 and I will have the check made out to the Alzheimers fund, sent directly to them as a donation and then send you the quilt.

Love, Em

Roxy smirked and said, "Are you open to me saying...I told you so!"

What a weekend!!!!!!!!!! Roxy was a busy woman playing with me and quilting 2 projects and she was a little sassy in the beginning!

Excited to have escaped the summer heat of St. George, I was gung-ho to join Sean and Noah for a "muddin" trip in baby jeep.....Beauty galore and an oppurtunity to be reminded of our blessings....

Driving along and then....time stands still as baby jeep pauses.....and then we roll...."Noah, are you ok?.... Well, let's get her back up right".....With my boar-huckin' mama muscles, Sean's calm demeanor and strength and Noah's tree trunk for a lever equals back upright and off down the road....I sent the photo to our oldest son and texted, "When you think you have found the right woman for a spouse, roll your jeep and see how she responds..." He wrote back ha ha ha and knows that this is how we roll in our family!..Thank you God that we are all safe and looked at it as an oppurtunity!

When I arrived back, Roxy was in the garage of the trailer looking out of the screen at the gorgeous view and smirked...."Well, I won't tell you 'I told you so!' but I am tempted. She can be sassy and we then got down to work and quilted like there was no tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed the photos and may this week be wonderFULL!!!!!

Em

What do I do when I am at a dodgeball arena for 4 hours?

A very primitive wonky piece for the Alzheimers auction....I am disappointed that it looks so off and uneven but I guess that is what happens when you cut and glue with a glue stick and wish you had a machine in a place with ode to sweat. he he he! I went to the psychiatrist for a summer my first year of quilting due to my perfectionism with traditional quilting....it was an expensive summer to learn that to have fun I will need to turn to the Wonky-side...never been back! I think of redoing it by piecing but am going to quilt and see if it will work.....Today was a riot at the dodgeball arena because the owner came up out of curiousity and then let me know she is a quilter and putting together her Dear Jane blocks. We chatted about the hobby, kids and the talent of our local lady, Green Fairy. We are both green with envy of her gift!!!!

Off to walk Porsche and then Roxy and I have a date to quilt Onna...The day is young, right?.....

Love, EM

I wonder why today was the day I created this quilt?

I created this story quilt to honor a very special dog, Onna. She died several years ago and I have always wanted to gift to Becky and Arden a piece that would CELEBRATE! her life and today was the day. I awoke and knew exactly how I wanted to create it and yet the piece has been stewing for weeks since I found a children's book that depicted a black dog chasing a squirrel. Whenever Arden would speak of Onna, it was usually in the context of a story of chasing a squirrel. In the beginning my goal was to creat a squirrel but then I decided to use a stash fabric with squirrels scattered willy-nilly knowing that Onna would love the abundance of options instead of a single squirrel. I imagine that she is still chasing squirrels in heaven and I cannot wait to quilt her tomorrow and send her in the mail.

Some people come in to your life and you are never the same...

So it is with this couple and my life!

I am the clinician, the woman, a mom largely because of one man.....Dr. Weintraub.

Sincerely, Your Forever Nurse Jonas

PS...Do you notice the feminine shape of the tree....Not on purpose but I am thinking it may become a habit!

A bustling beehive of people's hands and their stories! Thanks, Sue!

"Isn't it interesting...."
"What?".....


Sue is CELEBRATING! the hands at her work and the beautiful stories that belong to each person. ENJOY!!!! and then visit Sue for some more photo fun at http://zzyzx-and-sue.blogspot.com. Sue is so much fun! and the most wondeful fmq artist!!! Check out her card she sent me on the sidebar of http://fmqcelebration.blogspot.com! She has definitely DOODLED her way in to my heart and I am so grateful!!!!

The story for each picture is at the bottom of the page since I am having difficulty with my blog design today. I apologize that the stories are not under each photo!

Which is your favorite? Mine.....greasy fingernails!!!!!!

Henry is one of our new car get ready/lot guys. At home, he & his wife are foster parents. He is always so calm, and always keeps busy. Several of us bring him our recyclables, so he can turn them in for a bit of extra cash.

The 2 holding hands are me & my friend Juline. She's been through some family health scares recently (which she just got a GOOD report on - hurray!), but she is a sort of Mom to us all. Juline is definitely one-of-a-kind! After living with her own mother's decline thru' Alzheimer's, she was a great help to me when I was dealing with the same thing.

Mallory is one of the youngsters, and a terrific artist in her "other" life. She makes beautiful, vintage-syle jewelry, using antique papers & resin. She's organized & coordinated 3 car shows at work, that all raised money for charity. Next Friday is one of them, and part of the money will go to the local humane society. (It will go to 4 different charities in all this time)

The one with the 3 hands are some of our sales team. Kristen is the sales mgr, Michele is an asst. mgr, and Brent is one of the salesmen. They make a good team!

Ron is our service mgr & electrical tech. It was hard to get him to sit still long enough for the shot - I got him while he was waiting for the computer to program a radio. He's a dad & grand-dad and a cowboy too.

Sheri is our business mgr. She's one of those horrid people - tall, thin, beautiful...and NICE to boot! She's been through a lot the last few years, living with MS and the loss of her 20-yr old son to cancer (note her "LIVE STRONG" bracelet). But, she's now looking forward to becoming a grandma for the first time, thanks to her lovely daughter.

Did you notice the difference in the quilts? I had the quilt wrapped for shipping and noticed something nagging in my brain about the quilt. I got out the camera and looked at the photos and realized that the crosses were uneven. I had measured and pinned and measured again.....and hence the roses to distract and I am so grateful that a mistake was what prompted softening the edges of the crosses.

More hands to come!!!! I apologize, I am behind with having been out of town and gratefully being able to say that I am being a very hands on Mom and hence less computer time :). But the stories that await you and the photos from a car dealership.....just a teaser!

Love, Em

Doctor, doctor! Do you want to raise your pulse with a sight of creative fun?

Immediately leave my blog and head to http://quiltdivajulie.blogspot.com for a wonderfull and inspiring project that has just been completed and let its color and creativity inspire you!

OOOOOOOdles of OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO's....Jacque's friendship and hand!

Thank you, Ms. Jacque at  http://lilypadqulting.blogspot.com/ for this very poignant photo.  I  smile big when her snOOdles email address pops up on my phone because I am reminded of all those little O's that I love so much and her friendship!!!!  This photo is particularly powerful for me seeing it in contrast to the black background.  Jacque's lovely ode to her husband...

"Hi, Em.  I love your posts celebraring hands, life, and all of our blessings.  I found this picture in my files and got misty eyed; I wanted to share it with you.  This is a photo of my husband's hand..... one of a pair that belong to a 6 foot 4 inch frame- yes, he's tall.  And these hands are big....but I have seen these calloused hands gently comfort a crying babe, and tenderly bandage a toddler with an ouchie.  When I see these hands I see love.

Celebraing that love, Em!

Have a spectacular day!"

And may her wish be to you all for today the weekend, May it be spectacular!

Love, Em

"May I trace yours?"......All in a day's work! CELEBRATING! Kim

Do you recognize Kim's hand?  She Celebrated this fun giveaway about hands with 2 photos..ENJOY!  I love her narrative that reminds me how much our hands can do in a day and that at the close they fold in prayer.  Visit Kim's wonderFULL blog and enjoy!  The title of her blog is an ode to hands in itself...http://pokeytown3.blogspot.com/

A birthday quilt...Lucky kid!

"Hi, Em.  I have always loved hands too and I am constantly asking children if I can trace theirs.  Sometimes I take that tracing and sew it into a quilt for the child...that is always a big surprise for them.

Here is my hand at the end of the day in which I volunteered, gardeneed, planted ghubarb, moved my lawn, weeded my gardena dn made a meal and did kitchen clean up.  And now I am going to sew :).

Hand to work, hearts to God.

Hugs, Kim"

Keep the photos and wonderfull stories coming, I am loving them and will giggle as I read and enjoy during my weekend of camping.    This collage I created is a culmination of the sentiments I have felt since we started this CELEBRATION! this week.  Thumbs up to rising above! 

Love, Em