Poem contest winner!

Thank you to everyone who helped me finish my poem. You all had great ideas, and some were so similar! Great minds think alike, obviously.

I wish I could send each of you something, but the postage might get to be a bit much for my budget. My plan was to choose as winner the one with the lines I liked best, but about half way through the contest, I came up with lines that I feel best represent my personal thoughts on the subject:

I pray that I may crazy quilt until my dying day!
And when it comes to my last stitch I then most humbly pray;
When to the Lord's great nimble hands my spirit starts to soar,
That in His mercy I be judged a UFO no more!

I suppose it only makes sense to those of us who know what a UFO is in quilt-speak. For those who don't know, it is an Un-Finished Object.

Leslie had the finishing line that most closely matched the thought behind mine:

That in his mercy I be judged embellished enough to keep!

So I declare Leslie the winner, and she may now choose her prize: some CQ stash or a finished CQ item!

Connie's For the Birds

Oh, wait. I didn't mean that Connie is "for the birds". I meant these blocks belong to Connie in our For the Birds round robin. But you knew that, right?

These are Connie's blocks, and I just love the color combinations.

I chose one of the yellow birds and added the deep reds, turquoise, and purples from the other blocks. This was such fun to work on that I had it done about 3 weeks early. I'll probably hang on to it and see if more inspiration strikes before sending it on to the next person who is "for the birds".

Until my dyeing day!

I'm pretty sure that the thing that got me thinking about making a CQ version of the fisherman's prayer poem (see previous post!) is that Lauri and I HAD a dyeing day on Friday. I'd been buying a few alcohol ink dyes at a time and finally figured I had enough to do some good mixing and blending.
Here's Lauri, giving me a fierce look because she hates to have her picture taken. I reminded her that she snapped a photo of me with my hair in a towel when she arrived to take us to the retreat in September. But to her credit, she hasn't posted that photo....yet.....she looks like she might be changing her mind though, doesn't she?


Here are some of the things I dyed:


Here's our set up. We used ice cube trays to mix the dyes. It really takes a very small amount of dye, so the individual cups are perfect.

Here are some of Lauri's things, including a square of velvet that got a rainbow wash.


And a few more of mine:


We had great fun, but I didn't do any threads, so hopefully I'll find time to pull out everything again soon.

Crazy quilter's poem: contest and give-away!

Have you ever seen this poem for fishermen (and women)?


I've been thinking about a version for crazy quilters, and this is what I've come up with so far:

I pray that I may crazy quilt until my dying day.
And when it comes to my last stitch, I then most humbly pray;
When in the Lord's great nimble hands and peacefully asleep,
That in his mercy I be judged
_______________________________!

The last word should rhyme with "asleep", or "asleep" could be changed to something else that would rhyme with the last word.

Help me finish the poem and I'll choose one winner to receive either a baggie of CQ stash or a finished CQ item, winner's choice. I want to give everyone a bit of time to think about this, so let's say you need to have your suggestion to me by January 23rd (leave a comment containing your suggested ending on this post or email me directly). Kick it around your brain for awhile and let's see what you all can come up with!

I'm signed up to do a round robin with the theme of "words" and this little poem would work up perfectly....if only it gets a good ending! Thanks for your help!

Jewels on Black and For the Birds

Here's the latest block I worked in the Jewels on Black round robin. This one belongs to Rita in Kansas. The butterfly lace motif is one I dyed at the retreat in October. I used size 8 perle cotton for most of the stitching, except for the yellow roses, which are size 5.

We're just beginning the For the Birds RR. I fussy-cut bird motifs out of the leftovers of my new kitchen curtains, then pieced around them using cream on cream cotton prints and a batik print. The plan (and yes, I do have one this time) is to make a smallish wall hanging for the kitchen or dining room.