Made by my great-grandmother

Found this pillow cover made from a quilt square in my linen closet. It was made by my great-grandmother who was a prolific quilter.

The colors aren't great and God bless her, she used what she had and composition wasn't her strongest forte.

I gave the pillow cover to my quilter friend Dori and hopefully she'll be able to use it for inspiration and perhaps even a pattern for a copy. Imagine it with coordinating print fabrics. It's got potential, I tell ya!

Take a look at the hand stitched piecing.


I feel lucky to be able to see and understand my great grandmother's handiwork and blessed to have a willing recipient as a friend who will appreciate it more than me.

Proving I am NOT a hoarder,

I am,

Skitzo Leezra

(Wh)Organizing deep thought

I sometimes perform freelance organization jobs on the side. For an hourly rate, I help folks organize their closets, garages and homes. It brings me joy to root through "stuff" and leave it in better shape than I found it. They're happy, I'm happy plus I earned money doing what I enjoy.

Anywho, a few years ago, I helped to organize a friend's home. She is a lady with a great heart, wealthy means and cool stuff so the work was fun. We pulled everything out of her "gift closet" to ascertain the keepers and tossers. She was quite embarrassed to find 5 very nice personalized gift Bibles with the intended recipient's name in gold leaf. The Bibles were to be high school graduation gifts. 5 years ago. She couldn't bring herself to give the 5 year old gifts to the intended recipients so donated them to my church's outreach program.

A few days later I read a church sign with the following message:

A small gesture

is more powerful

than a great intention.

It perfectly summed up the misplaced Bible experience and it became my New Year's resolution. Because the real reason we do nice things for others is because it feels good. Your recipient receives the gift of your generosity and you gain the warm and fuzzy feeling of sharing but it doesn't work if you cannot find the gift and the moment (day/week/month/year) passes.

Later, I spoke to my friend Dori. She sounded horrible. Dori felt sick and miserable. She had everything she needed so I asked if she would like some fresh satsumas my co-worker brought from his tree just that morning.

"Would love it!"

Well, how to carry them to her? I found a small plain paper bag in my desk drawer. Filled bag with satsumas. Folded over top of bag and creased. Punched 2 holes at top. Poked a satsuma twig through the holes to secure the closed flap. Left bag on friend's front porch.

Fast forward a day or two later when I received the nicest thank you note: she squeezed the satsumas into juice and felt the healing properties of citrus but she raved about the "presentation" of the simple bag with twig closure.

It was simple gesture that made her feel good.
Made me feel good.
AND my co-worker was happy that someone enjoyed the fruits of his labors.

Win. Win. Win.

80's style country cross stitch strikes back!

Diggin' through my cross stitch crap and found this jar topper with blue ruffle. Oh fuh Gawd. Back in the day, country decor crazed folks would have loved to see a stitched cow or some such barnyard critter. Um, no. Instead I attempted to jazz it up with blue beads and taught myself a little hide-the-thread inside the ruffle trick. Those blue beads are from Dori's installation"people give me stuff" stash.

People give me stuff, part 4

My buddy Dori invited me to peruse the goodies before being shipped to the local charity thrift store. WooHoo! Thanks, Dori!

• Gold ribbon braid
• Gold floss thread
• Multi-color braided trim
• Assorted grosgrain ribbons
• Sequin adhesive stickers on a roll
• "Rat tail" ribbon in pink and fuschia
• a whole mess of beads plus the bead box!