the emotional life of sølje

Today was a quiet, pleasant, foggy morning. But there was a flurry of activity through the trees and the bird feeders. Though, it would appear that Daniel’s peanut butter pine cone with birdseed was a little more popular with one bird. I am not positive, but I think this might be a Goldfinch. I will have to scour bird sites and see if I can find a match. If I had Kevin’s camera, detail would have been much better, but this bugger kept flitting from one spot to another. I would have probably missed him in the process of finding him!

It’s narrowed down to a warbler. Townsend Warbler?

Tags: A Family Affair, Washington State by Solje
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First, Julie… I am so laughing right now! I JUST read your comment about suggesting a red border etc! Guess what I did?

I am thinking about adding some length to it, considering some scrappy squares or something (like a pillow tuck), and continuing the border I created today. I am liking how it is coming. The red added some excitement to it.

I am so ready for this week to be over. I am hitting my limit on parenting/ADHD issues, and learning about being badmouthed on a forum I had no clue existed (beads!) has really kept me on edge. I take things to heart and it has been hard to let it go. I would prefer people ask for clarification on my words rather than simply making presumptions. Usually when I am in the middle of a scrap, I’m at least 50% to blame–along with knowing it is going on.

My batteries need to be recharged in a bad way.

One nice spotlight was Darrin had his first haircut yesterday! Those wispy baby hairs are something else. Kev and I went back and forth about going to his barber or not, but yesterday we just decided we’d give it a try at home. Kev does Daniel’s hair, which is pretty easy, but Darrin’s being so straight–mistakes would be quickly seen! I think Kevin did a great job

Tags: A Family Affair, Quilting by Solje
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sorry for not doing a better picture. I didn’t want to move my table because it has things underneath and it was too much of a hassle for this quilt in progress.
Blocks together (grrr on the corner starting to fold down). Now what. It needs something else.
size approx: 56″x56″

I don’t have enough of the black/white batik to use in a border, I was thinking gaudy… red/white candy cane striping around the quilt Ok, kidding… just making sure you’re paying attention! LOL! Maybe a row of something Christmasy or something, a scene? I’ll let it simmer a little longer.

Tags: Quilting by Solje
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Here are a little less than half of the blocks. I tried out another fabric (posted at flickr if you’d like to see the difference) that looked like I had enough yardage to use as the background triangles, but I think this black/white snowflake batik had the look I was going for. I am thinking about a prairie braid border, but haven’t decided yet. It would definitely add to the strippy-ness of the quilt. We’ll see. I am liking how it is coming along.

Yeah…. it’s Friday! Tomorrow Kevin and I are going to the performing arts center at Bothell High School to see the final showing of “I Remember Mama”, a play! I am very excited. This is a Christmas gift from Kev, and when I opened the envelope telling me we were going, I started crying! It reminds me of my family, not too mention we’d watch the movie every year around Thanksgiving. I hope they have Uncle Chris is in it, a good black Norvegian! This will be a first date alone in a long time!

Tags: Quilting by Solje
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ok, so it wasn’t muddy water. Had Kevin chosen to be baptized during the summer, perhaps so since our church goes to the lake for baptisms. Instead, it was in a hot tub My sister and her family came for the event, and Kevin’s testimony was beautiful.

So, I was wondering offhandedly if there is a bachelor party the night before a wedding, what is there pre-baptism? anyway… Kevin’s testimony had the inclusion of our son (who had been asking a lot of questions regarding God, Jesus, and everything in between) who basically led us back into the church, and Pastor John Czech had a nice statement (”out of the mouths of babes”) thanking Daniel (who, in front of a few hundred people, replied, “you’re welcome”) for leading us there. It was a journey for us, and the time was right to seek spiritual guidance.

Friends of ours had been attending this church for a few years, and had on occasion suggest visiting. They had checked out other churches in our area (I think eight?), and found this one on a whim after being discouraged on not finding a right fit. I’m glad they laid out the ground work, we are hooked

We had lunch afterward with friends and family and had a great time.

Love this song (not too mention I have a crush on Trace Adkins)…

Tags: A Family Affair by Solje
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I love Troll Beads. If you haven’t discovered them yet, either don’t… or be ready to get sucked in (btw, bring your $$). I just went out to get the mail, found a package from Denmark, thinking that I hadn’t ordered anything from there lately, and was surprised to find some Troll Beads and their marketing project. They sent out “give away beads” to be placed in a envelope along with a yellow smiley face saying to go to their website and tell them how you found your bead. You also get a chance at winning a bracelet with a double lock by doing so. You can also look for other beads to purchase if you wish too (that’s where I’d get sucked in). http://www.foundabead.com

Locally I’ve seen the glass artists hide glass balls, but to find beads is a first that I’ve seen. How fun!

A close-up of the very cute glass/silver lined beads. I see three smiley faces and one bead with teddy bear faces.

Picture below are most of my Trollbeads. I am thinking about making a different bracelet with fewer beads but haven’t decided yet. It is pretty heavy to wear with all the silver.

I have room for three more beads.
Clockwise from the clasp:
1. Mocha
2. Faith, Hope, Charity
3. Scroll w/etching
4. mice on cheese
5. Tupilak masks
6. The Trinity
7. Scroll w/more etching
8. Treasures
9. Roses
10. Scroll w/even more etching
11. Mermaid
12 Thumbelina

Tags: Art by Solje
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I was in need of a sewing project and looking through Bonnie Hunter’s site, I came across the String-X Quilt. I had the strips for it from an exchange I did with another WASIQ quilter years ago–Christmas fabrics, about 80 different ones. Now I am trying out different backgrounds. I am not sure if I want to do two different hst’s or all the same background fabric. I am thinking about a combination of the cream snowflakes and one of the other two grey/blue fabrics. Or maybe I’ll do something entirely different.

Most of the strips in the last pic. So far I have 40 different fabrics sewn together. The longest strips were cut in half as when we cut strips from fat quarters, we included two to make up for the lost width, so I had a great equalizer idea to cut the long strips–plus I can get different fabric combination to help with the scrappiness of the quilt. Anyway, I am not really thinking clearly tonight, so if anyone has questions, I’ll try to answer For each 20/22″ strip set (using 10 strips in each set), I can get four 4.5″ x 10.5″ strip sets.

Tags: Quilting by Solje
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