karen ponischil

March 31st was Riley’s 3rd birthday and we celebrated on Sunday the 30th with a family get together. (L to R: Maureen, her daughter Megan, Great-Grandma Margaret, Elizabeth and she is holding Jack-Jack, Patty, Riley and me.) You’re probably asking yourself where are all the boys in the family? Well, for the longest time there hasn’t been a male born in the family. But thanks to Jim and Elizabeth they have broken the all-girl spell by having Jack. We are all thrilled! I know Daddy is smiling down from heaven on us and he’s especially happy because his great-grandson has his name.

Here is my latest project or the project I keep looking at on my design wall and saying to myself…”what can I do with this?” I think I’m going to add the stems and leaves, a small border and bind it. I have a beautiful hanger that is about 12″ long that I can hang it on. Now I need to figure out where to hang it in my house.

Although this isn’t a great picture, this is one of my favorite quilts. It was done by my sister Patty a few years back.

Here is a close up of one of the sunflowers. Patty used a very innovative approach to the center of the flower….fabric is bunched and stitched with all types of threads.

Since it almost my favorite time of year, I wanted to celebrate with some flowers.

Can you smell them? Well, almost. These 2 blocks will be part of a larger quilt that hopefully will include all different types of flowers and greenery.

But first, we have to have the Daphne-Do seal of approval.

I’ve been practicing and practicing and it’s time to quilt the quilt. I’m using my fancy new Bernina 440 to do the quilting on my black and white and a little lime quilt. I’ve made progress with the quilting but I still have a long way to go. And, now it’s actually kind of fun. But, I must remember to stretch my shoulders and breathe and keep practicing.

I’ve been seeing this game of cyber tag for several months on some of my favorite blogs. I’ve been tagged by Ellen Guerrant. Ellen is a wonderful quilter and teacher.
And now it’s my turn. It’s fun and easy to play.

Rules
1. Place the name of the person and URL on your blog.
2. Post the rules on your blog.
3. Write seven things about yourself.
4. Name seven of your favorite weblogs.
5. Send an email letting those bloggers know they have been tagged.

Okay, 7 things you probably don’t know about me.

1. I studied fashion design (received an associated degree) from The Fashion Institute of Technology in New York City.

2. I am a registered nurse. Yes, an RN.

3. I am a partner in a communications firm. We specialize in print collateral for medium to large corporations. Check out our website: www.moonlightcreativegroup.com

4. I don’t like soy sauce.

5. I’m very superstitious about the color green. I got this from my mother who is 100% Irish. (She used to tell me, “green is bad luck.”) My husband is helping me over come my problem.

6. I am a native Charlottean.

7. We have 4 cats.

Here are the seven bloggers I’ve tagged:
Rhondi Mullins her quilts are beautiful and her blog is very spiritually inspiring.

Patsy Thompson is an incredible free motion machine quilter. I’m amazed by her talent. Check out all her free downloads.

Violette is an amazing Canadian artist/illustrator/free spirit. Her work is so inspiring.

Susan Sorrell is an talented fiber artist in South Carolina. You can take one of her classes on Joggles.

Cheryl Prater is a talented collage artist. You can see her work in Cloth Paper Scissors.

Vicki Hallmark is an amazing glass/fiber artist. Her style is totally unique.

Mandi aka the fabric princess is talented art quilter as well as an animal lover.

Everyone in our family is so excited because the stork has made a recent delivery.
John “Jack” Malcolm Brown.
He was delivered March 7 (my birthday too!)
Time: 11:37 am
Weight: 7lb, 4oz
Length: 20″

Riley is over the moon. She is so excited to have baby brother. Can you tell?

I’ve been quilting every night like a mad woman. I’m trying to get a piece done for the upcoming show. (sorry it’s sideways…but you get the general idea of the design) Unfortunately, I don’t think I’m going to make it. I’ll do my best but there is still a lot of quilting to be done and then there’s the binding. Well, at least I’ll have one piece in the show and a piece for the auction.

And here is the real reason my quilting is so bad. He’s called Fred. He’s so laid back but don’t move too fast, he scares very easily.

Here he is on my quilt while I’m trying to work. He’s always making a comfy spot for himself. He especially loves this spot because he can see outside and keep watch on all the birdies.

Here’s the “Daphne Do” taking a cat nap in my fabric bin. She loves batiks as much as I do.

Take the Quiz here!

I was doing my usual blog reading and I came across this quiz and I couldn’t resist. I love all things “Jane Austen”. If you are interested take the quiz.

I’ve been doing all of my machine quilting for the upcoming show. I will post some images soon.

I’m constantly cutting the tags out of my clothes. They’re too scratchy and the older I get the more sensitive my skin is. Now the question is, what type of quilt can I make with all these tags? I saw a small rooster quilt made out of tags that was too cute. Collect on.

Here is the project I’ve been working on/thinking about for most of 2007. I did a sketch of the idea first and then began translating it into fabric. The initial idea was for the piece to go over a switch plate on a 2 1/2 wall in our hallway. Now that I have some of it done I can’t bring myself to cut a hole in it. I still have lots of work to do on the faces, plus the quilting and it will definitely need some beads.

I got this Karen Stone pattern from my sister Patty about a year ago. She pieced one section (red & black) when I found it among her stash. I fell in love with it and decided I had to finish it. I didn’t realize how difficult it would be. Ideally, I wanted to use only batiks… Little did I know how challenging it would be. Oranges are hard to find and yellows are almost impossible. So I’ve mixed in other fabrics that I think work well with batiks.

Now, I need to finish the corners, join all the pieces, quilt it and name it by March. Any suggestions for a name would be appreciated.

Quote of the day….

“I, not events, have the power to make me happy or unhappy today. I can choose which it shall be.”
– Groucho Marx