Wow! So lets talk about how cold it is! Holy cow! At the cottage at the bottom of Afton Mountain it was 9 degrees yesterday morning and 11 degrees this morning with a dusting of snow on the ground. Well, maybe more than a dusting, about 2 inches I guess. Temperature has not been over 29 degrees in 4 days. Knowing that this is the time of year when I usually go to the Caribbean and this year that just isn't going to happen....that makes the cold worse in my book. Unemployment is not fun but the light is at the end of the tunnel! I am finished with the training portion of the ALF administrator's course so all I have left is the test and then a job. YEA! Unemployment for 6 months is not okay, especially when I should be in the Caribbean. No news on the parents front. I have decided to let go of some of the responsibility I feel about the situation. I am letting them do the paperwork for this process and keeping my nose out of it. I have enough on my plate. I finished up the black and white quilt I was working on. I can't ever remember making a black and white quilt with applique before. I know I made a black and white quilt for my son years ago but that's the only one I can remember. At any rate, here's some pics of the black and white. I made it from Moda "Little Black Dress" fabric and I think it's quite smart, don't you? I have enjoyed working with charm squares and finding a different way to make quilts with them. Let me know what you think.  Till next time, stay warm!  sharon

Sharon Britt

Sharon Britt

Glorious Applique: Princess Feathers

Glorious Applique: Princess Feathers

RAISING PARENTS-We go into 2 days past working with the attorney to file the bankruptcy for my parents. Dad is convinced that this is the right road for them to go down and I tend to agree with him. He is handling this better than I thought he would. I was afraid his generational issues would hold him back or make him think he's doing the wrong thing or somehow being afraid of getting in trouble. Although I never could figure out who with. He's always paid his bills, he's always had too many but that's a different story for another day. We talked on the phone today, he went to church, has made some friends, is willing to chip in and volunteer for some things at the church that he can do so I'm feeling that he is on the right track, at least for now. Mom, on the other hand has no interest in doing any of that and somehow I think that's better. It allows him to make a life without her. He will go crazy if he can't get away from her. I understand that. He's going forward, that's all I can ask. I've been working on a black and white quilt top made from Moda's Little Black Dress fabric. It really is quite striking, I'll post some pics later.

I spent today being part of something that I never thought I would be a part of. My parents who are 78 and 77 years old have never been money managers. Throughout my life they have always lived well but never saved anything and consequently at this late age have nothing more than social security to live on. Throughout the years my mother who has managed the money, used credit cards for "a cushion" and they have acquired almost $20K in debt. Now finding that my father cannot work anymore, which he has done up until last September they find themselves confused and dazed as to what happened? How did this happen? And when did they get old? There was no plan. I am an only child, all my life I wanted a brother, never happened. I'm firmly convinced that my mother didn't want me. In her heart I think she loves me but she did not want me. So I come to the place in this journey with them that I am now becoming the parent to them. Not that I didn't expect that, I've watched other people's parents age and seen them become who I am now and it was not unexpected. I've worked in nursing and in long term care and hospice long enough to know what happens, how to look for the signs of Alzheimer's, how to be supportive, how to handle physical pain and ask for the right medicines, all of the things that go along with aging. It's not that it's different than I expected, I'm just kind of caught up in the sadness of it and trying to protect myself and keep my sanity, but I digress.... We spent the morning in the office of a bankruptcy attorney. Finding themselves in the position of not being able to pay their bills anymore and not knowing what to do we have decided that bankruptcy is the way to solve at least some of the problems. Again, I never thought I would be here, I don't know where I thought I would be.....but it wasn't here. Thank God for quilting, at least some of the sadness goes away when I create. Thanks for listening.

I promised I would give you directions to the Mini Charm Pack block I made so here goes: First cut the background fabric, white was what I chose, so you can choose the color you want and cut a 12 inch block Now, take your mini charm squares, randomly sort them into 2 rows of 6 squares, sew those together. Then randomly sort more squares into 2 rows of 8 squares, sew those together. You should have rows that look like this You'll want to press (not iron) the seams away from the white fabric. The first two rows should look like this: Now take the 2 rows of 8 charm blocks that you've sewn together. Sew them to the other sides of the white fabric. Like this! You should have a bigger block now that looks like this: YEA!!! Now you're ready to place your applique pieces. You have a standard 11.5 x 11.5 block so you can just about put any kind of applique design in there that you want. My preferred method of applique is template so I've already prepared mine. When I have a square block apposed to an on-point block I like to make my design on-point. I think it adds diversity to the block and everything is not in a straight line. Also, one of my favorite things is to take these lovely, bright colored fabric and then bring in a bit of tradition with a Baltimore block design! You can do just about anything, let your mind go crazy! So there you have it, the tricks of mini-charm squares. I have also found that if you have 42 of the regular charm squares you can cut them into 2.5 squares and make 6 of these blocks. I just did that with a charm square pack from Moda called "Little Black Dress" but I want to make it a nine or twelve block quilt so I need to buy more fabric. That's a shame...........till next time! Happy Piecing, Sharon

I think anytime I find out something I didn't know, it's a good day. One of my Facebook daughters (I'll explain that later) put up a status that she didn't think it was nice that the Presidential Inauguration was costing $45 million dollars given what the deficit is in this country. I do agree but that got me thinking....where does the money for this celebration come from? So, where do we go for all the answers? Google, of course! Type in "who pays for presidential inauguration" and yipee! you get the answer. It seems that people are asked to donate to this cause and the top donation can only be $50,000. That's where the money comes from! The other part of FD (Facebook Daughter) comment was that this money could be used for the deficit and I have learned that it is against the law to donate money for the deficit?? What? Given the political state of this country, doesn't surprise me a bit. At any rate, I worked part of this morning and then came home and sat down to work on "Little Black Dress". The results are below. Facebook daughters- see I told you I would get to it! I have two children, Tiffany is now 40 and Bubba (yes, Bubba) is 36. When they were younger and growing up I had the usual children of their respective ages tromping through the house. My daughter Tiffany had 3 very close girlfriends, Christina, Diane and Wendy. They spent more time at our house than they did in their own so they became my "daughters" as well. Kids being kids, go to school, move away, get married, etc. and I lost contact with all of them for years. Recently Tiffany found them again on Facebook so I now have all my daughters back. Keep quilting until you can't see! Later! Sharon

As promised, I thought I would go ahead and share the latest and greatest tops with you. I meant to do this earlier but we tried to set up the humidifier, (who doesn't have dry skin now?) and the one we set up (we have two) decided to pour water all over the carpet. Hmm, something must be wrong with it? Ya think?! So after mopping up the water we have now settled into the bed with the laptop. Isn't life wonderful? So here are some of the newest tops:

The top was made with a layer cake of Riley Blake fabric. I just love her design, very, very nice. Now to the favorite of the day, ready? Drumroll............ "Little Black Dress" by Moda I made this one out of a layer cake as well. And the leftover fabric.....we can't throw away fabric....so I took the fabric made squares out of it and put the squares on the corners. Pretty! Anyway, happy to share, if anyone has questions or wants the pattern glad to help out. Have a good Wednesday, oh, and for all you football fans ROLL TIDE!! Great game last night Crimson Tide!

January 8, 2013 We've gotten off to a good start this year. I've developed and written my very first pattern for sale based on a pinwheel quilt that I designed. I'm very excited to offer that up for sale on Etsy! Also, I have submitted an idea to Moda fabrics using pre-cuts. They are asking for ideas and wouldn't it be fun to get to design new quilts based on new fabric not even out yet?! My Etsy store has done better than I thought it would. I've been selling quilt tops on Etsy now for several months and it was really slow to begin with but the sales have increased steadily. Everyone in this house is still looking for a job. In my spare time I am continuing to study for the ALF administrator exam and hopefully will be able to take that in February. It would be nice to be gainfully employed again even though my spirit loves to design quilts and play with fabric. Blanche (the old cat) continues to enjoy life by the wood stove. She lives in her basket by the stove as you can see below.

This is my "Moda Pre-cuts" idea that I sent in.

I'll list the instructions for the Moda later or tomorrow. The sun is shining, it's a good day!