Sometimes...

Sometimes I expose my dual personalities (lol)

Positive & Negative
Happy & Sad
Hi & Low
Busy & Bored
Love & Anger

They are huge impact on myself and my family.
When the bright sides shine on me and my family,
we are so connected and bonding,
but
when the dark sides step out of my feeling,
everything are destroyed.
No connection, bonding, caring each other..
all gone.

How should I control the both sides every day?
How can I keep my chin up and smile toward my family?
Struggling, struggling,
thinking, thinking,
wishing, wishing,
overcoming, overcoming.

Someday, all heart-broken feeling will become
a good and bitter sweet memory for every one in this family
and
we will talk about it with big smile on our face.
Just cross my fingers.

This is one of my favorite drawing that my daughter created
as well as the one on the top.
Somehow she got artistic talent and loves to draw whenever
she finds paper and white board.
Her style is very natural and all pictures come from her feeling.

No immitation or copies from anybody else.
Her own art and beauty.
She is now 4th grade and these drawing were made
almost 2 years ago.

Another hope, she will enjoy and improve her talent
for her future.

Happy quilting!

Fall Event... Part 1

Since the first day of fall, it's been nice weather around here. Yesterday was also such a gorgeous day. So my brother-in-law & his wife took me and my daughter to one of the famous apple orchard and we all enjoyed picking goooood apples!! When we got the orchard, there were many cars parked in the field but it was not hard for us to find a spot to park. We started picking Jonagold and red delicious. While we were picking apples, I tasted one of them and it was just good and very juicy. So they are my harvest for the season (lol)



Then we stopped at the farmars market across from the orchard and I bought those gourds. I have never seen the one on the left and some lady standing by us told me what it was cold but I forgot it. Oh, I made this wool penny rug a couple years ago and my daughter drew this pumpkin. This is just a simple and cute rug for us to enjoy every fall.



You just saw apples' "Before" shape... then this is their "after" outcome.
I baked apple cobbler this afternoon and it turned out so good. Apples are so tender and juicy. Yummy!!! That's why I love the fall season.


Here is the new doily that I have been working on for a few days. I chose this purple thread and just have been wondering how it would look when I would finish it.


I don't know if any of you might remember, in earlier this year I made a resolution (yeah, right!) and one of them was clearning up my sawing room. Then after nine months later, my room is nothing but a mess like this. It is just hard to keep my room clean and neat... no excuse but because several projects are always going on at the same time, right, my fellow quilters??!!!!

See the nine patch quilt top? I have to add eleven more blocks to make the full size bed spread for my daughter's bed. It's almost done, though. I have only three more blocks to go and put them together soon.

Slowly but surely....

Happy quilting!!

Bicycling & Chrochet

I know the title of today's post is literally what I've been doing recently.
When I got cold almost a month ago, I could not get back on exercise and have not done anything since. Then a couple days ago I started riding a bike again and went on a few miles. I felt so good and realized how tired I felt after all. So I've been riding a bike everyday since.

There is another reason why I started doing it. About three weeks ago I had kind a strange feeling on my lower back and around right buttocks. I thought I must have pulled the lower muscles or something so I put "Mineral Ice" on my back and used the electric muscle relaxer. (see below)


This machine? works so well. Those soft pads stick to the skin and stimulate the area where the muscles are tired or stiff. It has various types of massaging options like patting and/or squeezing with changeable strength and speed. I bought this in Japan long time ago and it still works fine with a 9V battery.

I still have a slight pain around the buttocks but it is not bad as it was before. So I can ride a bike everyday. Today I rode five miles and I think I might exercise with a jump rope tomorrow!!



As I did not go to the park near our house lately, I was so surprised to see quite yellow leaves fallen on the ground already. Some of the leaves on the trees started changing their colors and they look they are ready for the fall. I love to feel this cooler and crisp breeze on my face when riding a bike.



Ta Daaah! (does it spell right?) I finished this 3D doily!! Men, I had a hard time to connect those flowers to the doily. It was just confusing but I think it turned out okey...
I am now making another doily with purple thread. Hope I will finish it by this weekend and post the photo by then.

Happy quilting!!

Pumpkin Story

I made this pumpkin quilt almost 4 years ago when my daughter was in the kindergarten. One day she brought a copy of the cute booklet that her teacher made and these pumpkins were in the story. Kids practiced reading simple words and I just thought I should make a quilt using them as the templates. This is completely a scrap quilt from my "autumn" theme fabric collection.
I can tell you, every fall when I put this quilt up, my daughter must read this whole thing and talk about her kindergarten teacher who got retired the following year after teaching my daughter's class. So this is not only a funny pumpkin but also a good memory for my daughter and myself.

As far as my nine patch scrap quilt, I just realized that I still need to make 11 more blocks to fit my daughter's full size bed. I just finished 24 blocks and I thought that would be big enough.. NOT!! Then I was going to make a small purse with wool scrap today, but I guess it will be a little bit later.

Happy quilting!!

Labor Coach

Besides the hurricane aftermath, it was quite busy last weekend.
One of my coworkers' wife was having a baby last weekend and she was required some language (Japanese) assistance while she went to labor. Actually from the day one of her pregnancy I have been going to her doctor and finally the big day came.
This is the second labor she was experiencing here in the U.S., (She has already three children) and I performed as a labor coach for her last time, so I was very used to do it this time.

It took her only a few hours from the beginning until the baby was born, so it was quite easy for everyone in the room. Her hubby was taking bunch of pics and I was talking with the doctor and the nurse with big smile and the mother was so happy and relieved after she gave birth to a healthy baby.

Well this is part of my job whether you would believe it or not.

************* ***************** *************
Other than such a eventful weekend, I was kind of lazy not doing much quilt or crochet for the last few days, but tonight I finally finished that crochet with 3D flowers, so I will post some pictures later. As far as my scrap nine patch quilt, I have three more blocks to go until I put all blocks together. Hopefully I can finish them within a couple of days and start working on the border soon.

I'll start planning Christmas project very soon but will need to make a Halloween dress for my daughter this year. She wants to be one of the "Cheetah Girls" (from recent Disney movie). Hope I can find the fabric and pattern locally. Maybe at JoAnn? I've got to save that coupon!! (lol)

Happy quilting!!

Hurricane Affect

Yesterday afternoon was quite a chaotic around our area. I did not realize how badly the hurricane Ike would affect our area. Here are some piccutes I never imagined would have happend...

That tree snapped and fell on two doors down house from our house. My husband and other neighbor guys were helping cutting that trees together. TEAM WORK!!

When it happens, I was in the house but could hear that snap. WOW!!

Here is another tree 2 doors across from our house. That tree is old and quite a huge trunk. My husband's chain saw kept dying but managed somehow. He loves to collect any tools to appreciate only (not use them usually!!!) but I really thanked he got some USEFUL tools this time.

Such a big root exposed. Another team work, guys!! Thanks! After they took care of this tree, some of them still walked around other neighbors with tools to help them out.

We had very bad high winds yesterday afternoon and lost power around 4:30pm until late last night. This morning most of city schools around this area have been closed due to power outage. My husband (city worker) and daughter are off today. NOT ME!!! So I got to go to work soon!!

Hope you guys had a nice weekend not like ours. If some of those who got damaged or any affect by the hurricane, I pray for you...

Happy quilting!!

A Tribute to the Human Spirit

NEVER FORGET

A Little Progress

First of all, thank you, ladies, for your nice and warm comment about my sickness.
I ended up staying in bed for FULL 2 DAYS which was just unbelievable! I don't even remember the last time I took a nap in daytime, but this time I could not get up at all. I was jut miserable and felt exhausted so much.
I am now feeling much better and in fact I rode bicycle for 3 miles a couple days ago and felt great. I just did not want to overload so only 3 miles made me feel satisfied.

While I was sick in bed one of those days, my daughter had the first soccer game that night and I missed to go to cheer the team. Of course they lost the game!!! (sad) Well, the season just started, so I guess their coach even did not expect winning the first game (lol). then they got tie on the second game, then they WON the third game!!! See, they are picking up on their sense and technique kicking a ball to the goal as well as how to keep the ball from our goal. My daughter played as a goalie twice already and she really did a good job. They will have seven more games to go and we are so excited about more fun to come.



OK here is what I have been doing for recovery from the yucky virus... (lol)
I started working on the nine patch quilt as I mentioned in the last post. I took this picture a couple nights ago and I made more blocks since. As you see I started with using the same beige fabric for both patterns. I might run out of this fabric before I finish all necessary number of those blocks, so I will mix with a few different beige/off white background fabrics. I also started quilting the double Irish chain quilt and had to hold off while I was sick. I will get back on track of this soon, though.



This is also one of my favorite things to do. Crocheting is my night routine for a while and I usually do it when I stay in my daughter's room until she goes to sleep every night. I know my girl is NOT spoiled!! (lol) I love pineapple crochet and this has eight pieces of dimensional motifs to be attached. I will post the progress of this doily too.

Happy quilting!!

That's all I did

Did we have 3-DAY-WEEKEND?????
or Did I??? I just remember the weather was just gorgeous and hot for all 3 days... I was outside almost everyday cleaning up "jungle" looking flower garden on the both front and backyard. I was slightly hoping that I could do some quilt work on this relaxing (NOT) weekend but look what I did! I just cut all beige fabric for a new project. THAT'S IT!!!





I took some plaid scrap fabrics out of the closet and looked for a design for the lap quilt with those fabrics. I looked, looked, and looked through all magazines again and finally found this design.
This quilt was designed by Kathie at Inspired by antique quilts, one of my favorite wonderful quilters on McCall's "America Loves Scrap Quilt" magazine in Spring of 2007 edition. I just love her simple and cozy quilt design. Thinking of scrap quilt, I think I will mix plaid and other scrap to blend in that quilt since I realized there are not enough plaid I have. I'm looking forward to working on this quilt and hopefully I will finished it by the end of this year.






As far as my workout routine is concerned, well, I've had to take a break for a few days as I've got cold from my daughter (sore throat, sneezing, and slight fever...) and maybe hormone stuff has been through lately. Hope I will resume my routine later this week as soon as I feel better. My daughter just told me tonight that almost a half of her classmates are having a cold now. Is this something a new school year's tradition or something??? (lol)


Happy quilting!!