4th of July edition...

Quote for the Day:

"You cannot do a kindness too soon, 

for you never know how soon it will be too late."
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Happy "4th of July"...or "Independence Day"...as we call it here in the United States. 

Yep...today is the anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, which was the document adopted by the Continental Congress on July 4, 1776, that announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, were now independent states, and thus no longer a part of the British Empire.



This weekend, while the States celebrated this historical event, Andy & I celebrated another historical event.  Yesterday, July 3rd, was our 29th wedding anniversary as well as our son & daughter-in-law's 6th wedding anniversary!  WOOT WOOT!  

 July 3, 1982

July 3, 2005

So how did I spend the holiday weekend???...

...making a quilt for the daughter of a very good friend.  You see, the daughter was in a bad car accident last Wednesday and has been in the hospital, first in Surgical Trauma ICU and now in the Trauma Step-down Unit.  So far she's had one surgery and multiple blood transfusions and has a long rehab before her...and possibly more surgeries.  After seeing the picture of the car, you realize how lucky she is to be alive! 

So what do quilters do in times like these???  They QUILT!  Some people cook or bake to bring a gift to the family in times like this...but quilters quilt!  'Cause when you are wrapped in a quilt, you are wrapped in love!  Can I get an "Amen, Sista"???

I had some crumb blocks stashed away that I had made at some point.  (I like to make crumb blocks and string blocks when I want to do a little "mindless" sewing.)    "Crumb" blocks are made from the little pieces of fabric that are leftover from the making of other quilts.  You see...I'm too frugal to throw out those end pieces....so you just start sewing them together until you have the size of block you want...

These are some of the crumb blocks...if you own a quilt made by me, you may recognize one or more of the fabrics from your quilt in them!  LOL  

Anyway...I've had a BUNCH of them stored for a little while now...had no sure plans of what I was going to do with them...so they've been on my shelf, stored in a clean pizza box.  (Yes, I buy new ones especially for this use.  My local pizza place sells them to me for 50 cents!)

So Saturday I pulled them out and started joining them to plain white-on-white squares...

Here they are on the design wall...

 
After sewing them all together and adding a cheery border (yellow with blue lollipops!), I embroidered some flowers on some of the plain blocks (I love my embroidery machine!!)...

I hope you are looking closely to see if there is any of your quilt's fabric in it!  :D  Trust me...making a scrap quilt like this is a walk down memory lane for me!  There's leftover fabrics from my kitchen curtains from my previous house, fabric from a skirt and top I made myself, some fabric from a skirt I made for Erin when she was in 4th grade, and even some fabric that I had inherited from my mom's stash when she moved from California to Illinois in 1978!!!  LOL    Yeah...sorry...I'm that frugal!  :)

Anyway...moving on...
I machine quilted the quilt yesterday and then washed it...

...and here is a close-up showing the crinkliness (is that a word?) that washing creates.  (You can see the border fabric in this one, too.  Don't ya just love those lollipops on the border fabric?)

Today I delivered it to the parent's house so they could give it to her.  Her mom was at the hospital and her dad was leaving shortly to go over there, so hopefully, she will receive it today.   (Later we found the card that had been in the bag with the quilt had evidently fallen out and was in the back seat of the car.  :(   Oh well...)

BTW, using those crumb blocks didn't even make a DENT in how many I have!  LOL  Not to mention the fact that my scrap bins are starting to overflow again...time for more "mindless" sewing, I guess!  :)

Hope you had a great holiday weekend!  

Loretta