Sorry ladies, in the pics below I obviously added the little black fan shape in 3 times. You only have to look once.

Hugs Freda

Here I am back after a few days absence. Didn't have much to show or say until now. I have been working erratically on the new blocks. I am trying to restrain myself until we get home where most of my stash and dyes, lace, etc. are. I like to start putting these around before I do too much. I mentioned the beading I was doing on the scalloped fabric. This is what I ended up with. Do you thing it time to stop or any suggestions?

Next I did a silver thread featherstitch following the lines but it did not show up so I went over it with some knitting ribbon I had in a silver color . then it looked better and I added a little zigzag bead trail between and that picked up the bit of color in the silver ribbon. I was hoping this picture would go in front of this paragraph. Obviously I am not doing something right. They keep going up top. Help someone. Tell me how to get the picture below or above the paragraph. I have more to add so I guess they will be the same until I figure this out. Also why is there always 2-3 inches between paragraphs that I have to go back and move up? Anyone know?

Next pic was a bead trail I did down the silver and grey stripes. Hard to know what to do with stripes. This in't the greatest but can always be pulled out later if I decide I can't live with it.

Next I added a piece of tatting to the little black piece with the green motif that was embroidered on the fabric. It had very faint black spokes radiating out from the middle so I used greenish beads to match the clor and just did spokes to fill in. Also on this piece is the little piece of ribbon I found that I had done awhile ago. I also added a pic of this whole block.

Just to let you know I am almost finished with the pink quilt. I have added a piece of an old flannelette sheet that I tear up and use for dusters. It was the perfect size and I did as Allie suggested. I invisibly hand stitched a lot of the quilt parts to the flannel to give it more body for hanging. Next is adding the pink backing. I will be very glad to see the finish of this considering I spent 2 years on it and have no idea where it is going to hang,

Probably under the bed in a box where my kimona is now residing.

I have one daughter who lives in the Chicago area and has 3 boys ages 6-13.

She was a kindergarden teacher before she had the boys. Because she knows what it is like to teach and how much teachers appreciate the help she volunteers at the boys schools. She spends one afternoon a week helping in the kindergarden and one afternoon in the library plus she arranges for the other mothers to help. She is not a quilter and is more into paper type crafts, stamping and does beautiful creative memory scrapbooks.

She was working with the children from kindergarden thru 6th. grade drawing pictures that she took home and made up the quilts with other fabrics added in. They are for the Linus Program. Here are 3 of them. If I manage to put these pictures in right you can tell the older kids handwork all the way down to the kindergarden one. The last one is being held by my grandson Luke. He was the cowboy boots boy I made the images of a few posts back.

I am very proud of my daughter as she volunteers not only at school but at church and does Pads when it is their turn. Now to try as Debra and MaryAnne told me to download. Last first so here goes.

Well ladies it worked. Thank you.

We went to the Apopka plant and craft sale today. It is a great plant sale as all the nurseries and growers in the area are there and you see very unusual plants. It is alway so tempting to me but knowing we are leaving in 2 weeks and have no room to carry anything home I have to curtail my urges. It was a pleasant day to just be out wandering around. We bought hot dogs, pop and chips from a little league group and that was lunch. Sat. night is always pizza night for us and we just finished. We will top it off with ice cream later. We try to keep the ice cream down to once a week. I have high cholesterol and have to watch it. Harv's is low but he has to watch his weight not getting physical exercise anymore.

What I really wanted to tell you about is at the flea market last week I found 2 packages of white rick rack shot with silver. I usually buy the white and dye it and wondered if the silver would take it. Well it took it very well. I dyed a piece pink and the silver metallic stayed silver and looks good. What I did find out and want to warn you about is I used the dyes that we put the fabric, lace, etc. in the microwave to dry. I thought of the silver so wrapped the tape in about 3 thicknesses of paper towel and put a glass of water in there also. After a few seconds I heard sparks so shut it off immediately and dried it with a hair dryer. There is enough metal in there that it cannot be dried in there. I took a pic of the white original and the pink I dyed. Actually if you look at yesterdays post it was the pink I used on the curved piece. Not sure if the silver showed or not. Hope it does in this pic. At least we now know we can dye it and still retain the silver sparkle. I will be using this dyed in various colors throughout the quilt.

Have a great rest of the weekend all.

I see from the weather reports that the Midwest states are having a heat wave. In the 80's. It was 86 today in Florida according to our outside thermometer.

I had a haircut scheduled then stopped at a store to buy a couple of pairs of shorts. For some reason I took a lot of them home and only left a few here so picked up a couple of pair then on to the doctors to drop something off. I remember the days when I only went to the Drs. about every 5-10 years but now it is about 6 different guys we have to see twice a year. Getting older keeps you busy.

I do not have too much to show today except I started working a bit on 2 patches. I put rick rack and thread and beads around one of the circular pieces, did another feather and then embroidered and beaded above it. When finished I think I went a little too close to the feather but in the overall when finished it will never be noticed. I had some ribbon that I had played around with doing some little thread and bead designs and it has been hanging in my sewing room here for a couple of years. I saw it and one section was the perfect colors so that went on a block. You will see 2 butterflies made with beads and wire that are just sitting on the fabric. This is not where they will stay but I just wanted you to see them as there is a story here. I believe most of the cq gals know Marie Alton from Canada who developed the gorgeous Melanie Rose and does gorgeous work.

Well Marie is helping her niece Amy who is doing a ride for Cancer from Toronto to Niagara Falls. I can't remember how many miles but it is probably 2 hours by car from Toronto. If you would like to read about Amy's trip and what it is about go to her link here: http://amysride.blogspot.com/

Now to enourage and help her Marie has or is making small beaded ornaments and she has them listed for $5.00 each. If they all sell that will be $250.00 and the best part is Marie herself is going to match that amount

so if we all buy 1 or 2 Amy could get $500.00 from this alone for breast cancer. Marie's email is: SREDeluxe@blogspot.com.

Please pass this info along on your own blogs if you read this and see if we can't get that $500.00. I ordered 2 butterflies and they arrived today. The postage for this little package cost $2.11 so Marie is absorbing the shipping costs also so all your money goes direct to breast cancer.

I just noticed that the one picture just shows the beginning beading I am doing on this scalloped piece of fabric. I did a leaf in green and already ripped it out. So may stay with just the one color. They are delica beads and are my all time favorites for color and sparkle. Will show what I end up doing. May need some help from you all here.

I have started doing a little embellishment on the butterfly blocks. I never know in which order the pictures are going to appear so will describe what I have done and you can try and find the right pic. Little brain game. I had printed a feather with a stamp and silver stamp pad and it turned out but not as bright as I would have liked it. I sat and went over it with silver thread. I did a chain stitch up the middle then just straight stitches of various lengths. Next I did all the silver butterflies adding additional beads on them and all around where ever a tinsel dot showed up. In person it added a lot but in the pic I am not so sure if you will see it all. The large piece of lace I used I did small silk ribbon roses in 3 rows in shades of purple, pink and variegated shades of same. I did silver beads around the center flowers before adding the little roses. It still lacked something so I took mattte green beads and did the stems between the flowers. Just a small touch of green. I wondered about adding beads to the other things on the lace and did 2 or 3 then pulled it all out. It was too much. If you remember I used 6 of one butterfly on 6 blocks and 6 of the other fabric on the other 6 blocks.

I added some beads to these silver ones also.

Lastly I had a large peony type flower that was dark grey on tan dupioni. I kept looking and thinking I don't like that. When going thru the embellishments I came up with a piece of white dupioni that I had beaded a motif on when I first started beading. Luckily the piece was on the outside corner so I undid it and was able to put the beaded piece in there. The colors work perfectly. This probably won't be the only piece I change before I finish. What looks good when you piece often doesn't once you start embellishing or at least it seems like that to me.

To change the subject the fisherman in the family did catch fish on Sunday after nary a one on Sat. He actually came second in the bank group and won $80.00 prize money plus a bag of fishing stuff, 2 t-shirts and 2 hats.

They do pay to enter this and it was actually $80.00 which helps to pay for all the goodies they give out so it turned out to be an even draw moneywise. He is brown as a berry while I am my usual Irish white skin.

People look at me when I get home and say how long were you in Florida?

My days of sunbathing are over for me after having a number of small skin cancers removed in the last few years. Another small one on my face and I go to the dermatologist on May 11th. back in Chicago. He will just burn it off and all will be well. If you ever have a small spot that does not seem to heal make sure you go to a doctor because that is what these small skin cancers do but are readily taken care of. Advice from Mother Butler.

It is a beautiful Sunday morning here in Florida. The birds are chirping and we have seen a few cardinals this past week. Have not seen them all winter so whether they go farther south and are heading north or here to stay is anyone's guess. We usually have a couple of pairs in our trees in Chicago and I just love seeing that flit of red flying by. My hubby is on a 2 day bass fishing tournament. He is in the bank division which means they do not go out in boats. It was very windy yesterday and he came home and had not caught one fish. Hopefully the wind has gone down and this is a new day. They do catch and release but weigh them first.

A lady asked on the list if anyone had used silk ties in their cq. Well I use them often and have made both a vest and a wallhanging with them. I am going to post a pic of the wallhanging and the vest if I can find a picture of it on here. Not sure if I have one.

Have a great day wherever you are. Just hope not in Colorado where they had an unbelievable amount of snow for April.