Santa Carving - Update

A while ago I gave myself a challenge to carve 100 Santa ornaments or pins this year. I went on to say that I would donate them to someone who would be sure to use them to benefit others.

In this box are 72 Santa ornament and/or pins that have been carved. Most must be painted and finished. I never said they would be life sized. Most of what I like to whittle and carve is small.

These are some of the smaller items that I have recently carved. The front row are Civil War busts. The back row has a hillbilly, 7 wizards on a quarter, a mountain man, and a gnome. The largest of these might be 2 inches tall.

Gnome Angels

"To my amazement I have heard that there are people who have never seen a gnome. I can't help pitying these people. I am certain there must be something wrong with their eyesight." Axel Munthe

Gnomes (G-guardians and, N-nurturers, O-of, M-mother,E-earth) can live to be 400 years old in this earthly realm. But gnomes do pass on from this realm to another, as all creatures do. They have no sadness at this passing. In fact this passing is just another door to another realm.

It is with this in mind, that there must certainly be gnome angels. Those gnomes that have been endowed and blessed with special powers (even more than as a gnome here on earth) become angels. These gnome angels continue to carry out their mission as guardians.

This gnome angel was carved for a very special person......

St. Patrick's Day - Whittling

St. Patrick's Day is March 17th. In preparation, I've whittled a bunch of little Leprechaun pins. If you all remember, last week I had a very bad day, that included breaking the tip off my favorite carving knife. This is the knife, after the tip was reground and sharpened. Since there is a slight difference in the shape of the knife blade tip, I'll have to get used to the knife all over again. I was my favorite knife, but it will have to earn that place all over again....It's funny how one gets used to something and then nothing else seems to work as well. I guess there's all sorts of parallels to this idea too.

Mini Quilt In A Bag Swap - Charm Pack

In yesterdays post I shared the little quilt that my swap partner
http://arnden.blogspot.com/ made and sent to me. This is the little quilt that I made and sent to her. This little quilt was made from the Charm Pack that she sent to me. It's the traditional Snowball Square, with ties instead of hand quilting. I was trying for the 30's ol' timey look.

Mini Quilt In A Bag - Swap (Charm Pack)

I better "splain" this one. This is a little quilt that I received as a result of my participation in a swap. It work like this: Interested folks sign up, and are paired up with someone. You send a Charm Pack to your swap partner, and your swap partner sends you a Charm Pack. You use your swap partners fabric from the Charm Pack they sent, to make a quilt. And of course your Swap partner does the same with the Charm Pack that you sent to them. Finally you send the quilts to each other. It's more fun to do than try to "splain". This is the 24 inch x 24 inch quilt that my swap partner made for me from the Charm Pack that I send her. And I would be very remiss if I failed to mention her name. OK I'm remiss! But! check out her blog:



http://arnden.blogspot.com/


This is a wonderful little quilt, and will be right at home here, with my other little quilts from other swaps.

More Quilt Pics and a Comment/Question

This first pictured quilt was fantastic. The photo does not do it any justice at all. It looks like a tapestry. It was done in kind of a "water color" technique, with tons of very small pieces. This is a full/king sized quilt.

This one is just a fine example of a beautiful quilt.

This is one of those "stack and wack" / "slice and dice"; put pieces in the bag and "mix and match". Kinda different.

All and all, I'll be returning next year for this show; it was a good one. All except the judgement of the "best of show" quilt. The good things I can say about the "best of show" quilt is that the accuracy of the pieces was good. I'll not say any more about it.

Now, on to a comment and a question. I remember when I was employed and actually worked for a living that I could not wait for the weekend to arrive. Friday night was the much awaited for time. And as I remember the days went by so slow. Fridays seemed always way out there. We even named Wed. as "Hump day", or half way there. Now, however, every other day seems to be Friday. Forget the fact that when one is retired, every day is Friday. What I mean is that the days are just flying by. The older I get the faster time goes by. Is this just me, or do others experience the same thing?

More Quilt Show Photos and a Comment

Here's some more random photos of some of the quilts that were on display at the Lakefarms Quilt Show, in Kirkland, Ohio.

This quilted wall hanging features antique linen hankies.

An interesting Sun Bonnet Sue full size quilt.

This is a close up of a full sized quilt. The squares are about one (1) inch is size.

An interesting and continuing mind set was also noted when I attended the quilt show with my daughter. There was a very large crowd, made up of mostly women. Maybe 100 to one ratio, women to men. And most of these men looked like they would rather be having a root canal than be at a quilt show. There were vendors there, and of course I had to make some purchases. The perception that all things sewing and quilting are in the female domain is alive and well. All conversation about quilts and quilting were always directed toward my daughter and away from me. But my daughter always came to the rescue, with "Oh, I don't quilt, my dad here is the quilter".