Thought Provoking

Please watch this video.



The title of this video is a James 3 Story. I had to look the passage up, because I couldn't remember what it was about.

How many of us are guilty of this exact thing? Please tell me I'm not the only one who gripes at her husband, then gripes at her children, and then goes to church and puts on a plastic smile.

Verses 9 and 10 of James 3 say, "With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in God's likeness. Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers, this should not be."

I am convicted. I will be working on my tounge today. And this week. If I can get through today without griping or "cursing" my children, who were most certainly made in God's likeness, then maybe I can get through tomorrow. But for now, for today, I will work on my tounge.

Something to think about.
Hugs,
Melinda

Guild Challenge 2009

Last post today... I promise.

The challenge for the guild this year was called "Quilter's Paradise." We were given a piece of blue fabric and told to interpret the theme however we wanted. Pretty much no limits.

Quilter's Paradise for me means my mom. I would love to have my mom to quilt with again. But interpreting it into fabric was difficult. I had the challenge fabric for over 4 months and couldn't figure it out.

Here's my quilt. The saying is "Happiness is a good friend and a finished quilt." The blue fabric is the challenge fabric.

So how did I translate my mother into fabric? Simply used her fabrics. These bright fabrics around the challenge piece were all her fabrics. In fact, the only fabric that is "my" fabric is the white and black in the smiley face eyes.
Of course, I also had to use her picture. This is her, maybe in her mid 20s. She was so pretty. She was always pretty. But she never realized it.

This picture is a special memory for me. My mom found a poem called "Pennies From Heaven" sometime during my senior year. Shortly after she passed away, we found tons of pennies. My dad and I were sitting there talking about how many we had found, and just jokingly said, "Momma, if you're there, we really could use some quarters." I think in the next week we got about $4 worth of quarters.

Last week, I was sewing something else, and feeling very down. I said, "Momma, I need some pennies. Say 3 of them?" The next day, I found these three ... in a row.

My mother taught me to sew and to quilt. My mother influenced a lot of my fabric designs. She was my teacher, my encourager, my confidiant, my best friend. This might not be the best quilt ever, but it means so much to me. And that is my "Quilter's Paradise."

Hugs,

Melinda

Study of Cells

One of the things that Sweet Pea has been excited to study in our homeschool is the Human Body. I want to study things that she's excited about, because I think it will help in the long run. But I also felt that we needed to study about cells before we study more about the body. We started our study of cells this week.

By making a 3D cells out of jello and candy.

Here's Little Bit's animal cell.

Here's my animal cell
Here's Sweet Pea's Plant cell.

And no, we don't have it memorized. One of my goals for this year is simply to inspire the love of learning, to bring back her excitement of living. We're getting there... we're close. See the marshmellow? That's her idea. :D

Hugs,

Melinda

Stairway to Heaven?

Not really, but I heard that song yesterday and it seems appropriate for this post.

We let the girls paint. They painted their stairwell.
Little Bit loves painting. With watercolors. She was thrilled to paint with real paint.

We picked this dark blue, because we are going to be adding glow in the dark stars soon. It's supposed to be a night sky.

Anyway... thought you might like to see the "paint experts" in action.

Hugs,

Melinda

Surprise Party, Pt. 2

So as I said, Melody thought she was having a Pampered Chef show. Here she is with her niece who is also her assistant. They are setting up for the show. They are at the sink prepping the apples for the Taffy Apple Pizza. Her niece is in on the secret and is getting called back to help deliver the balloons and cakes. Melody still has no idea at this point. Here's Tiffany explaining that "Surprise." It's a birthday party, not a Pampered Chef party.
And here's Melody blowing out the candles. I don't think it still had sunk in at this point.
All in all, it was a good night. I think everyone had a lot of fun. I do know that Melody really appreciated everything. It was fun to surprise her. Now... who can we surprise next?

Hugs,
Melinda

Surprise Party, Pt. 1

So last week, my friend Tiffany had a Pampered Chef Party. Only it wasn't a Pampered Chef party. It was a Surprise Birthday party for the Pampered Chef consultant. I got to make the birthday cake.

Chocolate, of course.

A yellow cake for those of us who don't like a lot of chocolate. The colors come from the plate that this cake is sitting on. No one knew her favorite color. LOL More detail practice photography.
But I saw something I wanted to try to photograph. See the salt and pepper shaker? They are from my mom's china collection. This shot makes me happy, but I'm not sure I can explain why.
These are the cakes on Thursday, before Tiffany came to get them.

Hugs,

Melinda

Visitor

I finally caught a picture of my front porch visitor. I would be sitting at the computer, and all of a sudden he would pop his head up. He was normally eating.

Isn't he funny?

Hugs, Melinda

Vaile Mansion

There are a group of quilters that meet at my church building. This group had been asked to take some of their quilts and display them in the Vaile Mansion in town. Just for the record, this house is AMAZING! It is so beautiful and antique and gorgeous and jaw dropping amazing.

I got to take some of my quilts too. I thought it was sort of neat to see my contemporary type pieces displayed among the Victorian furniture. LOL So here's my collection of quilts at the Vaile Mansion.

The patriotic signature quilt I made for Dale while he was deployed. It's underneath the blue and white one. This is the "water tower" room. It was used as a sort of breakfast nook.

The Waffle House Challenge from my guild in Georgia. I thought it went perfectly on the cast iron stove in the kitchen.
A close up shot of my Waffle House quilt. We had some good lighting that day. This piece is called "Tighten the Tension." Francie, the unofficial leader of the group told me that one of the ladies who leads tours in the mansion called her after we got through arranging everything to tell her that there was a piece falling off, and she was sorry that she may have damaged the quilt already. I had a good laugh. That's the way it's supposed to be. :)

This is a quilt my grandmother made.

This is the very first quilt I ever finished. Doesn't it just look darling in the "red parlour?"

This quilt is also in the red room. Marie and Sarah and I did this for a Christmas project one year. I would like to try it again sometime.

Irony: Having your own version of "Crazy Quilt" put in the fancy shmancy music parlour where it sticks out like a sore thumb.

Momma's English Garden Window quilt got put under a fancy bowl. It looks good from this angle. (In case you don't know this, I'm always practicing my photography skills.)

This is my Stained Glass Window Quilt. This one has the honor of hanging in the very front entryway, so the sun can shine through it. It looks really cool there, I think.

A close up shot showing how you can see the backside of the stained glass when the sun is shining brightly.

My Storm At Sea. I still love these colors.

It got placed on the dining room table. It's odd, but it felt like it belonged there.

My Baby Blue Rails Quilt. Another one of my first quilts. Doesn't it look gorgeous draped over that wonderful comfy cozy chair?

This quilt deserves a post of it's own really. This is the Blooming 9 Patch my mother made. It is probably one of the last full size quilts she completed. She made several others, but the quilting wasn't finished or the piecing isn't completely done, or the backs are not put on, or the binding.... This is my quilt now. This is one of the only times I've had it open all the way to display, and I knew it needed a bed to be on.

The room is perfect. I love this room. I want to live in this room with this quilt and this lamp and these curtains and shutters.

A different shot. You can see the king size quilt on the full size bed.

Natural Lighting.

Flash Lighting.... I think I'll stick with Natural light. ;)

Anyway, those are my quilts. If anyone comes to town before the end of October, I'll take you to the Vaile and I'll show you all my quilts in person. :)

Hugs,

Melinda