Leslie's Housewarming!

Just got a chance to post a few pictures of Leslie's party. As you can see by the photos, most of what I did was keep an eye on Kai (just my mom, Kai and I went from CT... as Lee and Julie were working). I did get to visit with Leslie and Scott, but I didn't take any pictures of them. Now I wish I had....It was fun, but I wish I'd gone with Lee and we would have stayed longer....into the night maybe. Here's Kai and his friend he made, Ian.

Back to Blogging and quilting

Oh my Gosh, it's nice to be quilting again...

This was me at our last Peace by Piece Quilters meeting (I've since cut my hair VERY short!). We did get some great things accomplished. We got 4 quilts back from our quilter and have the bindings for all of them cut and in the process of being sewn on, then labeled. That should be done by next month. We checked out over 100 Christmas stockings that our ladies worked on at home (made some repairs), that are going to the troops, via Fran B in IL. We tried to plan our group's agenda for the next few months.

Mom got a chance to come up to my 'new sewing room' to play, too. I say 'new' because my design wall (behind mom) used to be laid up against a twin bed and box spring (Murphy-bed style), but now my little two-year old grandson, Kai, needed a "big-boy bed". (He was crawling out AND back in to the crib WAY too often!)

Here he is in his first real bed, though let me tell you, he STILL gets out of it and comes stomping upstairs to visit everyone a few times a night (He and his mom are in the basement).

On to quilting things..... Since I had to move things around in my sewing room to get Kai's bed out, I figured I had to clean it up major-ly before I could sew again, so I started moving furniture, had to go out and buy a plastic drawer set to put all the things that my Murphy-bed edge (on top) held. It was a great shelf while it lasted....

Here's the new shelves (already filled with UFOs and ophan blocks (in the upper three drawer section)... projects in the individual boxes...

The ironing board and cutting table have a window to the right of this picture (not sure how I like the placement of the table yet... we'll still see....

The sewing machine and design wall are easily accessible to each other and it feels like there's more room, even though you can't see it in these pictures.

So now that I've made the room neater, I've been playing with a new book I got recently... Quilts from the Selvedge Edge, by Karen Griska. Great selvedge quilts! I've been making them on the sly (before I got the book)... little 5" blocks. Some day I'll put those together and post a photo.

Here are my very neat selvedge (see I'm getting organized with everything!)

Of course, these are my selvedges when I'm using them....

Messy, huh?

Here's a take I put on one from her book. (I used very large florals and HATED the first 4 blocks I'd covered, but kept going.

I think I like it now. I've decided to call it Lisiere de Garden (Selvedged Garden). I've since put it together, but not finished yet.

Oh, and just some 'eye candy' .... one of the ladies (Dot G) in our quilting group, showed off her large queen-sized quilt at our meeting, that she had just finished! Beauty, eh?

Couple of new 'tests'...

This is a bunch of heartstring blocks Marilyn made for our quilting group... She made 16 of each type. I could see if I should make two baby quilts with borders or one such as this.

I have a compilation of heartstring blocks that were done at the last meeting of the Peace by Piece Quilters. I've 'tested' them out on my floor, but will wait until next mtg in Oct. to see how they like the layouts.... The challenge was to make them with a bright strip in the middle and on the corners, with white on one side, and black on the other.

Not sure if I like them with cool colors on the 'boys' and warm on the 'girls', or mix them up.

Hats off to two of my 'quilters'!

Our group of quilters at church are a varied bunch with different levels of skills, but they all have one thing in common.... heart. They dilligently show up month after month and do what they can for whatever charity we are working on next. I love them!!

But I want to take my hat off and bow down to a couple of ladies who, without them, we would never get our quilts done as quickly as they are. Laura McCarrick, is co-owner of a local quilt shop (my favorite!) and a professional machine quilter and teacher,... and a gift! She happened to see what we do and made the offer to help us get our quilts quilted at no expense. Since we are a self-funded group (we sell items to the parishioners) and have received many offer of fabric, thread, batting, etc., once we have the basics, the work is ours to complete. The quilting of the quilts takes so much time and we just don't know how long it could take if we had to rely on just ourselves. Sometimes I think God sends you angels that come in very beautiful forms. The two quilts I just received back from you are GORGEOUS! The pattern you quilted into the quilts is so perfect... 'angel wings'! Thank you, Laura. I'll post some pictures when we get them bound.

The other 'gift' is Mary Johnson, who is a HUGE part of HeartstringsQuiltProject. She has taught us many things, including how to make a string block look beautiful in sooo many ways. She also has quilted many, many quilts and helps to get them where they need to be, whether it is in her direction or ours. The patterns always seem to highlight the piecing done on the quilts and the quality is wonderful. Your 'wings' have given us our 'wings'. Thank you Mary.

Fall Fairs and the Quilt delema

I took my grandson, Kai to the first Fall Fair of the 'season'. We went early, since his nap time comes around noon and we had a blast!

This is us at the top of the Ferris Wheel!

He loved the animals (of course, he's only 2 1/2 yrs old) and was fascinated that he could 'tickle' the sheeps ear! He just didn't want to leave the HUGE, full-fluffed turkey who was doing the 'dueling gobbling' with his buddy in the next cage!!

The rides were a GREAT idea from the ground. This is inside a 'spinning dinosaur'....

Once he was on them, he was either very good on them or he was a little apprehensive.

We cheered for the oxen pulls, and the go-karts, had the 'healthier side of the foods (is there such a thing at the country fairs??)-- Hey, we did have some tabouleh, fruit cup and, oh yeah, a chocolate milkshake...and since I knew he had his fill of stuff, I ventured into the 'crafts building'.

I always wonder whether to enter a quilt in the crafts building, but my fear of it being damaged, stolen, etc. overrides my curiosity on how it would be judged. I've entered a crocheted christening gown and hat once, but it never occured to me until I heard the 'scary' warnings of other quilters about making sure you are RIGHT THERE to pick up your quilt at the end of the fair! I've never entered one, and I should (just for HA-HAs)... maybe next year. I guess I really enjoy just looking at them - eye candy!

At the end of the day, we left with our 'spoils' and he was asleep before we went 3 miles.

It gave me a chance to get gas in MA (we were only in Woodstock, CT --a few towns away from the state line) at $3.50, cash only! Not bad, when gas in CT was at $3.65 a gal.

I could have been QUEEN! Yikes!!

This is the next UFO to be worked on...

It's terrible when you have limited access to your computer.... You don't post as much, even if there is interesting things going on in your life, you certainly can't check your 'yahoo groups' which leads me to the upcoming delema! I COULD HAVE BEEN QUEEN!!!

You think that's a good thing, but it's not. It means I have to finish a UFO by the 6th or I send penalty FG's to Cher (Stashbusters).... I also have to get busy and quilt something I really haven't been in the mood to finish, ... but I will.

After making oodles of mistakes in the construction of it (and fixing them), it's finally finished!

It's a 5-Star Table runner, that I started in 2006 at a quilting class at Quilting by the Yard.

Mini-Vacation, before the next quilt project

I went up to my favorite cabin in VT for my yearly ritual (which is actually a JOY), to help my mom (who is 80 now) pack up and clean/close down the cabin.

It's a family owned cabin (my dad's side - cousins) that I've been to almost every year since I've been 2 or 3). I hope to have part of my ashes scattered there some day. We had the most perfect weather there.

I even brought home my supply of slate (from the dirt road on my walk) for my garden. (that is my annual thing too! I pull them out of the gully and then drive down the dirt road to put them in my car.... My hubby will be sooo thrilled! LOL

This is the spring-fed pond down behind the cabin (picture taken from the deck). I wouldn't swim in it, since I remember the 'boys' dumping the 'commode' in the pond before there was running water in the cabin-1960's-70's... but I think the 'kids' take the floats and tubes in it....YUK!

Mom said she had many 'guests' while there; my brother and his wife and son for the first two days (they help her start up the cabin), then my sister, her 2 kids plus two other neighbors from CT for 4 days, her husband and 2 of his friends (they came up on motorcycles and slept in the 'shed' for a couple of nights), they left Wed and my other brother and his daughter came up Wed-Sat,

they stayed in their tent. Then MY daughter, her son and her friend arrived Thurs, I arrived (alone, hubby was working on the weekend) on Fri, and we all left on Sunday morn. If the truth be known, my mom doesn't really like to be alone up there since my dad died. It's got too many memories that she'd like to share with him.... hence, all the guests!

Here are some shots of the inside of the cabin...

Did I forget to mention that the cabin is one room, has two bunkbeds, enclosed porch (with 3 cots on it-- that's where I slept) and a large deck with railing seats?? ..... Believe me, we all fit somehow. I even got to see a deer in the middle of the field before dawn on the day we left! (I always think it's my dad showing up). Anyway, it's really Heaven to us....