Blue Monday

Today is Blue Monday, supposedly the "lowest point" in the year for many people. Not sure if that's because of that recently-arrived Visa bill from Christmas spending, the short cold days of winter and lack of sunshine, low motivation and the desire to just hibernate, or maybe all of the above! I know I certainly get "down" a bit in the winter; I've never been a "winter sports person".. I just don't enjoy being cold. Period. Winter can't end soon enough for me. So today, following a significant amount of snow and ice pellets from yesterday's big snowstorm, I'm choosing to dream of spring and my garden, and the beautiful blues I will find there. I thought I'd share some (blue) garden shots with you; you've seen them before if you've been following me for a while. Obviously they weren't taken today - my gardens are under several feet of snow...

I get through the winter by dreaming of spring and summer in my garden. I know you're not supposed to wish your life away... but it helps me through the cold winter months. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

I read an article this morning on Blue Monday and it offered a few tips on beating the winter blues - they all made good sense to me. 1. Pamper yourself. (I like this one!!) Treat yourself to a spa date or have a pedi, buy a nice bottle of wine or some special chocolate and a good book, pick up tickets to a show you've been wanting to see... just treat yourself to something out of the ordinary. You're worth it!
2. Go to bed earlier. The benefits of sleep cannot be disputed and a little extra time in zzz-land will give you extra energy for tomorrow. (Of course, I have to learn to close the book and turn out the light....)

3. Watch a funny movie. Or take in a comedy show. We all could use a little more laughter in our lives. Lighten the mood!
4. Book a holiday. We may not all be able to afford a trip to the sunny south to escape the cold, but plan a trip somewhere. Why? To give yourself something to look forward to. This works for me. Of course it works even better if it IS a sunny southern location I'm planning to visit, but just planning a get-away to somewhere will put me in a better mood. Try it and see!
5. Perform a random act of kindness for someone. It doesn't matter what it is, large or small, helping out someone else makes YOU feel good too.   :)

What helps you get through the winter, or beat the winter blues? Do you have any tips to share?

Happy Blue Monday! Be sure to return on Wednesday, I'll have blossoms of another sort to share with you...


Peace,
Linda

If you have the power to make someone smile, do it. The world needs more of that.

Blue Monday...

Silly me! The day is almost over and I just realized it's "Blue Monday". Supposedly the toughest day of the year.. (maybe because the credit card bill just arrived?) Well to me it sounds like the perfect excuse to  celebrate the most beautiful color of all (in my humble opinion!)  Lest some of you start thinking I'm headed over to the dark side with all this talk lately about red....  lol

So, since we are in the depths of winter and I'm already getting tired of white... here's a collage of  a few of my fav pics from my garden, featuring that beautiful color BLUE! Enjoy! I hope it brightens up your Monday, especially if it was blue!

Peace,
Linda

"Nature is a painting for us, day after day, pictures of infinite beauty." ~ John Ruskin

Blue Monday

Today I have another small "finish" to share with you, and, no surprise - it's blue! I was so happy with the small table center I did at Christmas from a Charm Pack, that I decided to cut up some stash to do an "every day" one for my kitchen table. And here it is. Another quick and easy Disappearing Nine Patch. It's quilted with a King Tut blue/purple variegated from Superior Threads - I love this thread!
Another busy week coming up, with my two kiddos home for their Spring Break... likely won't get a lot of sewing done this week.
What are you working on these days, to pass the cold winter? I can hardly believe February will be over in another week. With March just days away, surely we have a little warmer weather coming our way. That's what I'm choosin' to believe anyway... Are you with me?

Piece,
Linda

No matter how long the winter, spring is sure to follow.

Blue Monday

Here it is Blue Monday once again. I am sharing some more garden photos with you today, for if you are like me, you are getting just a teensy bit tired of winter. When I look out at my gardens, they are under feet of snow and the only blooms I can see, blue or otherwise, are in my mind. Instead I am looking at blue shadows on the snow. Let's just hope that little groundhog forecaster was right and spring is soon on it's way... I can't wait to once again be enjoying these Chionodoxa (Glory-of-the-snow). They are one of my favourite spring bloomers - they just seem so cheerful! So I hope you will enjoy these blue blossoms below, and I hope they warm you up! They are, in descending order, Myosotis (Forget-me-not), Iris, Campanula (Harebell) with dragonfly visitor, Clematis, Echinops (Globe Thistle), Veronica (Speedwell) and Platycodon (Balloon flower).












Peace,
Linda

"Blue thou art, intensely blue; Flower, whence came thy dazzling hue?" ~ James Montgomery

Blue Monday

Here it is Blue Monday again. It's a sunny crisp blue sky January day here with lots of snow on the ground. Typical winter day... when I love to dream of spring, summer and my garden. So today I'm going to share with you some of the blues from the garden... Not much to say - just hope you enjoy my photos, and may they be a reminder that warmer days are coming.. albeit slowly...
I'm spending some studio time this afternoon putting together the lap quilt I mentioned a week ago. Just three more rows to sew together and the top will be done. Hopefully I'll have a photo for you in the next day or two. It's very contemporary and different for me.. and it's NOT blue.... of course purple is a close relative...
Actually some of these blooms are a purpley-blue.. my favourite shade... Enjoy!












Piece,
Linda

"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience." ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson

Blue Monday

I LOVE BLUE! This is not news to those of you who know me well. You know I often wear blue, I live in a grey-blue house, my kitchen and bedroom are both blue, and, lucky me- I have a blue-eyed hubby. Blue has been my favorite color for as long as I can remember. And no big surprise, it's my first choice to use in a quilt. So today I'm sharing a few of my blue quilts with you.




At left is the very first quilt I made after joining the Guild. I had made one bed quilt previous to that, a Log Cabin cut with templates and shears. (God Bless whoever invented the rotary cutter!) This blue Trip Around the World resulted from my very first workshop. Isn't it fun to look back at early projects and see how far we've come? I can remember what a difficult time I had choosing 7 fabrics ranging from light to dark. I was so grateful to that sweet little gal at Delong's who helped me out. Lesson learned on this one- not to use poly-cottons (the borders rippled). Although this is 20 years old now, I still like it and it hangs over the railing at the top of my stairway. It is 40" square. We sure have "come a long way" with fabrics - look at all those little calico prints...

After my very first quilt (the blue Log Cabin) faded terribly, I decided to make a smaller "keepsake" version of it from the leftovers. This is an exact replica (same fabrics in same positions), except this is square and my double bed quilt was of course rectangular with one more row of blocks. This is 27" square and I have been careful to keep it out of the light so there has been no fading. Lesson learned- keep your quilts out of direct light!



This lap quilt, called Friendship Star is another Guild workshop product. It was quick and easy and a great way to use up a lot of scraps. I can remember doing this workshop, sitting beside my friend Barb F. who was a new member. It was her birthday that day, and we shared fabrics - what a great way to spend one's birthday- sewing with friends... Lesson: quilting is more fun with friends! Even better? Friends with fabric!!



I call this single bed quilt Blue North Wind. I love the rich blues especially  those with purple overtones. The orange-y yellows seemed to be the perfect "zinger" to add a bit of punch. This quilt was the result of a Birthday Block exchange in 2006. A small group of friends committed to this "challenge" for one calendar year. In the month preceding your birthday you would give the group your instructions and color suggestions for the block of your choice. Then the next month for your birthday you would receive the blocks - can there be any better birthday gift than blocks already made for you?? One in the group whose name is Susan, has a definite dislike for Sunbonnet Sue so she had us each do a "Bad Sue" block, where sweet little Sunbonnet Sue had to be doing something naughty. I think that one was the most fun of all...
This last one is a Miniature- it measures 11.5" square. The design is called Spool and Bobbin and I'd love to do it again some day. It is foundation pieced and machine quilted. I love doing miniatures; I have sixteen 1.25" blocks all done for another which I will call Blueberries and Cream; I just can't decide how to put it together. It's on my "Must Get Back To.." list for this winter... stay tuned for that one....

So there you have it for another Blue Monday..

Piece,
Linda

"Happiness is an attitude. We either make ourselves miserable, or happy and strong. The amount of work is the same." ~ Francesca Reigler

"Blue Monday" on Tuesday?

Edit: This post was ready for yesterday but once again I was having trouble with my server, and photos would not load; by end of day I could not even sign onto my blog... so hence Blue Monday "on Tuesday"....

Apparently yesterday, January 17, was "Blue Monday". According to media reports, Blue Monday is the most depressing day of the year. (I wonder if it's because most people have just received their Visa bills for December? lol ) Studies show that many people seem to be at a "particularly low ebb" right now..."feeling blue"...
Well, I'm not! Yes it's cold (-19 last night - brrrr) and I don't particularly like winter. But I have a good store of chocolate on hand from Christmas, I have several projects underway (both quilting and stitching), I'm learning to hand quilt (more about that later), my stack of books to be read is growing... what more could a gal want in the depths of winter?
And I LOVE blue!! Anyone who knows me well knows that... So I've decided for the next few Mondays, I'm going to do a post called Blue Monday, to share some of my favourite blue things with you... Today, to get started, several shots of my collection of cobalt blue glass in my studio window, both shots taken by daughter Laura. Thanks hon! Next Monday- blue quilts...

Peace,
Linda

Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact. ~ William Jones