Comfort for Karen, Part II

Some of my readers might remember this post from last year when I told of my childhood friend's battle with Lymphoma and the quilt that I made for her. Earlier this year she was given the all clear only to be zapped again with the news a few weeks ago that the cancer has returned. 

I was working on these socks and immediately knew that they would be sent off to Karen as soon as they were finished. I hope they will keep her feet warm as she must endure another rigorous Chemo schedule. I wish I could do more, but living 3000 miles away means all I can do is send thoughtful cards and PRAY like there's no tomorrow.

Some readers have asked where I got my sock blockers. I ordered them from Purrfectly Catchy Designs on Etsy. 

Sock Stats:

Sock Name: Variegated Color Block Socks

Pattern: My own Basic Sock with a Fish Lips Kiss Heel 

Yarn: Hand Dyed Yarn by The Flying Kettle on Etsy 75% Superwash Merino wool, 25% nylon. Colors: Crush, Tango, Retrograde,  Poolside, Glow Worm and Manic Monday

Needles: 24" Addi Turbo Sock Rockets Circular  US Size 1 (2.5mm)

Italy Trip, Part Two

For the next segment of our trip we drove across Italy to the Puglia region. Although this part of our vacation involved a lot of driving, it also was one of the most interesting; from UNESCO World Heritage sites to food tasting to staying on an Agriturismo. We had a lot of rain while here, but luckily it was almost always when we were in the car and didn't keep us from seeing all that we wanted to see.

The photo pages I have created show some of the amazingly beautiful places we visited. So many movies have been filmed in Matera. This has been on my bucket list for a while. It has been a city for 6700 years!

This was also the part of our trip where the mosquitos discovered me and made me miserable. Benedryl became my best friend, because the anti-bug creams and lotions just do not work for me.

The Masseria Zambardo is a working olive farm and a beautiful location. It was far from everything, which had it's advantages and disadvantages. The last night we were in the region, we had dinner at the sister location, Incantalupi. It was a pre-fixe dinner, but was not nearly as good as the dinner we had at the Masseria il'Frantoio in Ostuni, 8 years ago. This was another beautiful location and one we wish we could have seen during the day. Our location was so pretty, especially the pool and patio area. The view from the breakfast room was lovely.

The second day in Puglia, we drove to Alberobello. Another UNESCO World Heritage location. You can stay in the Trulli, which is what the buildings are called. They were built like this to avoid taxes. By removing one brick the roof would crumble and the house would be taxed at a lesser rate. Even centuries ago people were trying every way they knew to avoid paying taxed!

The olive oil tour was very interesting. Our guide was the owner of the business. We had a "hands on" tour...meaning we got to put our hands in the olive oil!

All photo pages were created on my iPad using the Project Life app. I really like using this app and it makes documenting our travels so easy. (All opinions are my own)

*I am having a Blogger issue and cannot seem to get the photos to center all the time. Sorry for the weird layout of this post.

Italy Trip, Part One

Last month Mr. Romance and I enjoyed two weeks in Italy with our friends of 40 plus years. We have been planning this trip for about 6 months. Debi and I met in high school and we are fortunate to have traveled with them before and get along great with both her and her husband, Greg.

Instead of writing a day by day account of our trip, I am posting a few pages from the album I am making using the Project Life app.

I have been making scrapbooks for more than 20 years and digital scrapping for more than 10 years. The Project Life app makes it all so easy and although it doesn't have all the capabilities of a desktop program, it sure does make it easy to make pages on the go. I made these on the plane while flying home from our trip.

These pages are memories of our time in Rome, Sorrento and Capri. 

Next time I'll re-cap our days in the Puglia region.

Curves, NOT Curves

I am excited to be the queen bee this month in the Stash Sew-ciety Bee and hope my bee mates will like making the blocks I have chosen. My friend, Trudi Wood, in England, designed this quilt for the Sizzix Blog and I fell in love with it. She calls it, "curves, NOT Curves" and I am sure you can see why. The two block quilt gives the illusion of curves. I have done a mock up in PhotoShop Elements (a little off kilter) using the two blocks that I made as practice blocks. Even though Trudi designed it to be made using the Sizzix die cutter machine I have figured out the pattern and with Trudi's permission, I am asking the Stash Sew-ciety bee to make one of each block.

The first block

 The second block.

This will be a black, white, cream and grey quilt.

Thanks Trudi for allowing me to recreate this as a paper pieced and traditionally pieced quilt.