"Top" of the morning to you...

Are you a topper?? I love to make quilt tops and then make more quilt tops and so on and so on. My favorite parts of the quilting process are picking out the fabric, finding the perfect pattern and then piecing the top. The making of the quilt sandwich and the quilting part...hmmm, not so much. Don't get me wrong, I have done my fair share of quilting, especially for gifts. To help ease this topping addiction, I started selling just quilt tops on ebay about 3 years ago. I haven't done it for a long time now, but what a fun process. I sewed my heart out and made a little extra money to buy more fabric!!! Thought I would show you some pictures of tops I've made in the past. Sorry for the quality of the photos...if I only knew I would be blogging in the future!!

This is a Moda Kitty quilt top:

Another Moda:

Thimbleberries Table runner:

Thimbleberries Checker Board, I covered buttons for the playing pieces:

Thimbleberries Fall Wall Hanging:

3D patriotic pinwheel table runner

Thimbleberrries Table Runner:

Christmas Table Runner with real ribbon on each gift package:

Quilt by the month:

Thimbleberries pillow to match a little doll quilt (not paper pieced...I don't recommend it)

Hope you enjoyed the show and have a great weekend...

~Karen~

Some special quilts...

Even though I'm not quilting at the moment, thought I would show you a few pictures of quilts that I've made in the past. I have sewn most of my life...clothes for the girls when they were younger, curtains, pillows. You know, all the usual things, but I started quilting in 1998. I took my first class and made this quilt. It is a small lap quilt made with homespuns. Yikes! not a good fabric to learn to quilt with...that stuff stretches. This is my one and only hand tied quilt.




This next one is a scrappy zig zag.

This red, white and blue quilt is my first using setting triangles and a quilting technique on my machine that looks like hand quilting. You use white thread on the top and clear thread in the bobbin.

















This next one is very sentimental in many ways. I made it for my mom. She was the seamstress in the family...a perfectionist. She sewed everything, she even made my wedding dress and hand sewed on every bead and pearl. She never ventured into quilting though. I made this quilt with the spools of thread pattern made with all different colors of purple...her favorite color. I was piecing this quilt on the Tuesday morning of 9/11 while watching The Today Show. We all know where we were and what we were doing on that dreadful day. This quilt was the first and only one so far that I have hand quilted. My mom loved this quilt...she passed away the summer of 2007 from a very long battle with Parkinson's Disease. I miss her so much.



This last quilt I'll show today is a wall hanging I made for my sister after we lost our mom. I made up this pattern and used all my favorite fabrics from 3 Sisters by Moda. The center of the quilt has fabric frames where I placed sepia toned pictures of my mom and sister when she was little. I sewed some of my mom's favorite sewing tools, rulers and even a little personalized label my mom always sewed into everything she made. There are also little fabric envelopes where my sister can tuck in little memories of our mom. (sorry for the not so great pictures. The last one seems to be the true colors of the quilt.) I borrowed this quilt from my sister recently to take pictures of it for the heading of this blog. Keeps mom in little places all over.





Hope you all have a wonderful day and kiss the ones you love!!

~Karen~

It's not #1, but I love it...

Although quilting is my #1 hobby, organizing is right up there at #2. I haven't quilted since before Christmas, so I have nothing to show you right now (soon though...I have a gift certificate to my favorite quilt shop to buy fabric. Yay!!) Thought I would show you some of my favorite organizing must haves from the office supply. They are business cards, name badge holders and clear protective sheets.

I use the clear protective sheets for patterns, magazine clippings, recipes etc. They're great because you can clip them in a three ring binder. I use Microsoft word for the business cards to print hang tags for gifts, gift bags and gift baskets. When the girls were younger, I would write encouraging words and slip it in their lunch bags. I also use the cards with the name badge holders. The holders already have holes in them to tie onto baskets or boxes with a cute little ribbon. You can easily change out the card in the holder when you change the contents of the baskets. The picture below shows the baskets in our medicine closet, labeled so everyone can find what they need. The baskets on the stairs are called "crap" baskets. I know, not a great name, but when I find everyone's crap (hairbrushes, nail polish, shoes, jewelry, gloves, scarves, etc) all over the house, I pick it up and put it in the basket on the stairs. When anyone is on their way up the stairs, they grab the basket to unload in their rooms. Don't ask how long it takes them to put their stuff away once they unload it, that's a whole different story!!

I'm new to posting, so I wanted to try and link again. Jodi really helped me out with this. Oh look, yay, it worked. Thanks Jodi...you're the best.

More organizing to come and hopefully some sewing!!

And Sew it begins...

Here we go! I'm jumping into blogging feet first. I've loved reading and following so many blogs this past year, I thought I'd venture into one myself. I really want to thank 2 wonderful people that I've met through blogging. Jodi http://simplythisthatandtheother.blogspot.com/ and Vanessa http://adayinthelifeofthechristensons.blogspot.com/ They have encouraged me so much...I wouldn't have started this without them. I have so much to learn about all of this...like how to link to a blog, because I know that can't be right. Oh well, wish me luck!!!

~Karen~

And here's what you should eat to delay aging!!

What foods to avoid to prevent aging and wrinkles

Simple tips for aging,allergies and general skin care

Someone rightly said,"skin is the reflection of your inner self".Skin is like a mirror of your health and habits. Many health problems are reflected by telltale signs on the skin. just a small example,If you have spoon shaped nails there is a high chance you are anemic(low haemoglobin in blood).There are many many others.My focus for this article is not to teach you medical terminology but to focus on easily preventable skin problems by using simple tips that you can use safely without medical supervision.

WRINKLES & LAUGH LINES
Starting with wrinkles and laugh lines.If you have wrinkles on forehead there can be multiple reasons for it.I will try to focus on aspects that you can take care of easily.
Sunlight-Excessive skin exposure can cause skin aging prematurely.Wear a suitable sunscreen when u are outdoors. If you have too many lines around your eyes called 'crow-feet' one reason could be looking directly in sunlight.As you try to close eyes due to bright light wrinkling occurs around the eyes.With time they form permanent lines.This can be easily avoided by wearing dark glasses in the sun.

Post Menopausal - Menopause is a time of hormonal changes of the body.wrinkling is just one aspect of it. medically prescribed hormone replacement therapy is also not prescribed beyond 5 years after menopause.Soyabean is a natural source of female hormone estrogen which can be included in diet if you are post menopause.Many skin creams are also being manufactured that include Soya as its ingredient.

Wrong method of applying cream there is a video on this blog about home facial techniques.It you use it even for applying cream daily on your face it will be very beneficial.Do not use random strokes while applying cream. It will only promote new lines on your face.

Dehydration-I keep mentioning this point repeatedly because this is the most preventable aspect of wrinkilng phenomenon.

ALLERGIC REACTIONS
skin can be allergic to anything and everything.Medicine being a common cause.Others can be metal jewellery, hair dyes, bleaches , cosmetics (including nail polish!) ,creams etc
Here are some tips to avoid allergic reaction on your skin.
1.If you have a history of allergies (allergic rhinitis,asthma,allergic dermatitis) then be careful while trying a new cosmetic.
2.Always tell your doctor about your allergies while taking a new prescription.Many reactions can be really dangerous!
3.Many products like bleaches advice you to do a patch test on small area of skin before using.Never skip this step.
4.Never apply a product on a sensitive area of skin like lips,undereyes,forearm,thighs unless it mentions that it is safe to use it there.

SKIN CANCERS
if you notice a change in
color
size
shape
suface
bleeding
of any mole on your body do not ignore it.It could be a melanma(a type of skin cancer).

VITAMIN DEFICIENCIES
Skin vitamins are Vitamin A, Vitamin E, Vitamin C and Vitamin B.Out of there only vitamin B and C should be taken without prescription.Vitamin E is being included in many skin creams and is safe to use it that way.Vitamin A should be taken only on a doctor's prescription.
Problems like drying scaly skin,cracking of mouth angles are taken care of by Vitamin B.
Vitamin C is particularly useful if you have a healing scar/scars such as acne scars.But once the scars have already healed it will not help.Vitamin A & E take care of skin maintainance.