Three Quilts Gifted...

Over Memorial weekend, Andy & I traveled to Illinois for a family visit.  On the way through Ohio we stopped at my brother's house for a visit and to deliver some quilts that I had made for three of his grown children.  

The first one was for Leah.  The embroidered top was purchased from Ebay and I added the borders and hand quilted it.

The second quilt was for Sarah.  This was a top that I started as a craftsy.com block-of-the-month, but ended up deleting a couple of their blocks that I didn't like and adding a bunch more that I found online.  It is hand quilted. 

The third quilt that I gifted in Ohio went to my nephew, Daniel.  He served our country for 4 years in the Marines just a short while ago, so I made his "Red, White, and Blue" in tribute to his service! The pattern for this one is "Blue Ridge Beauty" by Bonnie Hunter and is hand quilted, also.

I gifted one more quilt when we got to Illinois, but I will blog about that in a separate post.

All the quilts were received with much appreciation and the appropriate amount of "oooooh's and ahhhhh's"...and that does a quilter's heart good!  :)

Loretta

Busy Busy Busy...

"It's the thought that counts".  

If that is true then I have blogged many, many times over the last couple of weeks because I've "thought" about it a LOT.  Putting fingers to the keyboard is another thing altogether.  

I've been trying to get a couple quilts ready to gift...which I thought would be happening around the beginning of the new year.  However, our plans have changed a little so the quilts will be hanging around here with me a little longer.  BUT at least they will be ready to gift when I get the chance because I've been busy binding and labeling them!

In the past couple of weeks, I finally finished up the Sherbet quilt...

...but haven't had a chance to take pictures of it.  I will post pictures of it soon, though.  I really love the way it turned out!  

Here are the labels I've made for 2 of the quilts I've finished up in the last couple of weeks...

For obvious reasons, I've had to blot out the name of the recipient until such time that they have been gifted.

I finished the quilting on the Daffodil quilt 2 years ago, but had never put the binding on it.  

BUT...I can finally remove that task from my "to do" list and now the quilt is ready for labeling!  :)

See...I told you I'd been busy!!  LOL


Today Andy installed some much-needed track lighting over my cutting table!  

I can see now...it's a Christmas miracle!  I have angled the far right light so it shines on my ironing board.

Tomorrow when I am in town, I will go get some conduit to attach and cover the cord along the wall.

Loretta

Updates...

Quote for the Day:

"Man is so made that he can only find relaxation from one kind of labor by taking up another." 

~Anatole France 

This past weekend, Andy & I left for a brief get-away.  We left Saturday morning and drove the back roads to Charleston, WV, the state's capital, and returned on Sunday evening.  

Along the way, we stopped when we felt like stopping, ate when we felt like eating, and, in general, just had a good time.

We stopped at some yard sales, thrift stores, and antique stores along the way and got to chat with a lot of interesting people!  

While passing through Glenville, we stopped at Smokehouse Barbeque, 10 N. Lewis St., and had lunch.  

 
We thought the food was very good!  Loved their homemade "sweet" BBQ sauce!  It had a "kick" to it so I can't even imagine what their "hot" variety was like!  But if you like "hot"....they had you covered!  They also had jars of the homemade sauce for sale and I wish now that I had bought one or two.  

As we continued on down to Charleston one of the stops we made was downtown Spencer, WV, where there were some thrift stores and the Spencer Antique Mall.   The antique mall had the women's bathroom decorated in a way that I have never seen before...

 
 ...yep...that's right.  It was set up like a bedroom...complete with hand made quilt on the bed!  LOL  The toilet was around to the left as you entered the room...just out of site from where I was standing to take the picture.  I was so fascinated with how they had decorated this bathroom that I asked Andy to open the door of the men's bathroom to see if it was also uniquely decorated.  The answer to that one was a resounding "no".  :(

Antique store bathrooms are frequently decorated with unique items, but I can honestly say that I have NEVER seen one set up like a BEDROOM!   LOL   (Remember...it takes so little to amuse me!  LOL)

We spent Saturday night in south Charleston...nothing unique...just a Holiday Inn Express.  But we did feel so much SMARTER in the morning!  LOL  (For the foreign readers, Holiday Inn Express's commercials play on the premise that people who stay there are smarter after they check out than when they check in.)

After toodling around the town a little more on Sunday, we headed back home.   (Charleston is about 2.5 hours drive from where we live.)


Now...onto some quilting news...
After we returned home, I spent a couple hours quilting and was able to finish up the quilting on the daffodil quilt....6 months and 3 days after putting it into the frame!  :)

I still have to trim off the excess batting and backing, bind it and label it.  But here is is...as is...spread out on our queen-sized bed...

 
Here's a close-up of the hand-quilting...

 And here's a picture with a corner turned back showing the backing fabric...

 I'm glad to have it "done".   I have some other things to do first on other projects before I bind and label it, so you probably won't see/hear anymore of this quilt for a while.

Pictures of upcoming projects will be coming soon...I hope!  :)  There is a quick, non-quilting-but-quilt-related project I want to do before I start on the next quilt.  Does that have your interest piqued, yet?  LOL

The next quilt to go into the frame is a "customer" quilt that my massage therapist commissioned me to do... hand-quilt a quilt top that her mom made for her.  But I won't be able to get it into the frame until I do the aforementioned non-quilting-but-quilt-related project since the "project" will tie up my quilting room until it is complete.   I promise that I will post pictures of the "project" when it is done!  ")

Loretta

Back to "Normal"...

Quote for the Day:

"Normal is just a setting on the washing machine"

~Erma Bombeck

Last week was a first for us.  Our granddaughter, Sera, came to stay with us without her parents for five days.  Sera is five...she will be six in two months.  It's been quite a while since I've been responsible for the care and feeding of a small child for more than an hour or two!  Wow...were those skills ever rusty!  LOL

Let's just say that they need LOTS of food throughout the day...small snacks, say, every 15 min. or so!  LOL  And they need LOTS of activities as they are in CONSTANT motion.  And the caretaker needs LOTS of sleep, caffeine, and sugar just to keep up!  LOL

On July 4th, I drove four hours each way to Kentucky to pick Sera up from her mom and dad.   Andy had to be on-call for his work so he was unable to go with me....to do the driving, of course.  (That's his job as the man of the family...driving on trips...and opening tough jar lids..and killing large, ugly bugs.  Those are his jobs.)

While Sera was here we were suffering through an oppressing heat wave with outrageous humidity, so the outdoor activities were limited to what could be done in the morning before it got too hot and what could be done in the shade.  Most of the mid-day was spent indoors playing Wii, Memory, watching movies, and coloring.

Note to self:  A woman of my age whose brain is chock full of useless information, like the lyrics to "Jeremiah Was a Bullfrog" should NOT play "Memory" with a 5 year old whose brain is still in the "soaking up knowledge" state.

It took me 3 days before I was finally able to beat her!  Out of the 3467 games of "Memory" (or "Membry", as she called it), I won exactly TWO!

Here's proof of one of my wins...I had to take a picture so that I could be sure of this info in the future.  My stack is on the left!  :)

Grandpa bought an inflatable pool and it was a GOD SEND!   Not only did it keep her entertained, but it kept her COOL, too!

On Friday, we went to the park before it got too hot.  Let's just say, we were back by 11:00 AM!  Whew!  It was cute to see her play in the same park, on the same equipment that her mom had played on!  In fact, the first week we moved here, this park equipment was being built by community volunteers, and Andy went down and volunteered and helped to build it!  :)

There is a huge wooden "castle" with connecting tunnels, etc., that connects all the slides and other equipment, and she enjoyed playing that she was a "princess" in the castle!  :)

Andy, Sera, and myself all went yardsaling on Saturday and she had a great time and got some "new" toys to take home with her!

On Sunday, Andy & I took her back to the meeting place (Cracker Barrel, LOL) in Kentucky to be reunited with her parents since I had to return to work this week.  :(   Another long, eight hour car trip, but this time Andy was there to do the driving.

On the way coming back we were looking for an Exxon station to get the car gassed up, and lo and behold, looky what we found at the same exit...

 
We took it as a "sign from God" and went in for a browse.  Although the prices were not bad on most things, there was just nothing that jumped into our car, so we left empty-handed.  (I find it hard to pay "retail" prices after yardsaling the day before!  LOL)

With Sera here for five days, I didn't get much any quilting done and was starting to go into withdrawals.  Luckily, yesterday I was able to get a couple hours in before going to work.  

As you can see, I'm on the last set of blocks before I get to the last two borders!  I'm very close to being done with this quilt and have given myself the goal of having it done by July 19.  That will be six months from the day I put it into the frame!  This quilt is a over-sized queen. 

Here's a close-up of the hand quilting.  There is a LOT of quilting in this quilt because each flower/stem/leaf/petal has to be outline-quilted to five the flowers definition!  

Loretta

Book Reviews and Quilting Update...

Quote for the Day:

"Whatever you do, do well. For when you go to the grave, 

there will be no work or planning or knowledge or wisdom."

~Ecclesiastes 9:10, Holy Bible, New Living Translation

Happy Sunday to all.  Hope your new week is starting out great!

We've been having snow and a cold snap since Friday here in West Virginia.  At our house we've only had 3-4" accumulation of snow, but some higher elevations have had more like 6-8".  The temperatures have only been in the low 20's F during the daytime and 5-10 degrees F at night.   BRRRRR!

We can't complain too much, though, because we have had a very mild winter so far...which suits me just fine!  :)   (Helps keep the heating bills down, too...which is a "good thing"!)

In January, I loaded the daffodil quilt top into the hand quilting frame and thought you might want to see what a block of it looks like quilted...

I'm really liking the way the quilting helps bring the flower and stems to life and give them dimension.  However, there is a LOT more quilting involved in this quilt than I thought there was going to be, so I don't think I'll be getting it done in 3 months like I had originally thought.  I would guess it will take more like 6 months.

I wanted to share a book review/recommendation, too...

"Perfection:  A memoir of betrayal and renewal" by Julie Metz is an EXCELLENT book!

• Julie Metz had seemingly the perfect life—an adoring husband, a happy, spirited daughter, a lovely old house in a quaint suburban town—but it was all a lie.
  Julie Metz's life changed forever on one ordinary January afternoon when her husband, Henry, collapsed on the kitchen floor and died in her arms. Suddenly, this mother of a six-year-old became the young widow in her bucolic small town. But that was only the beginning. Seven months after Henry's death, just when Julie thought she was emerging from the worst of it, came the rest of it: She discovered that what had appeared to be the reality of her marriage was but a half-truth. Henry had hidden another life from her.
  Perfection is the story of Metz's journey through chaos and transformation as she creates a different life for herself and for her young daughter. It is the story of rebuilding both a life and an identity after betrayal and widowhood, of rebirth and happiness—if not perfection. 
  
  Warning:  Don't start reading this book in the evening.  I was unable to put it down for the first 1/2 of the book!  If you start late in the evening, you will be up half the night reading it!  You've been warned!   :)
  
  Loretta

  

Random Stuff...

Quote for the Day:

"A mother becomes a true grandmother the day she stops noticing the terrible things her children do because she is so enchanted with the wonderful things her grandchildren do."
~Lois Wyse

I'm very excited to announce that we are going to be grandparents again!!!  :)   We found out a couple of weeks ago, but I was waiting for my daughter-in-law to make the official announcement before I let the news out!   Trinity made her announcement today, so I feel free now to shout it from the rooftops!   :)

Last fall I made this scrappy baby quilt top, Scrappy Carpenter's Star, but didn't add borders, yet, because I figured I'd wait until it was "needed" and then I'd add borders based on the sex of the baby.  

I can't wait to find out what color borders to put on and then finish this off for my new grandbaby!  (Secretly, I think the borders will be pink!)  :)

While machine quilting today on the feed sack quilt, I ran out of white thread.  Who runs out of white thread???  It's such a basic color!   LOL   Oh well...I had seen I was getting low, so last Sunday I ordered a bunch online, as well as some other basic colors.  My order should be arriving soon so I can get that quilt finished up.

In the meantime, I decided to pull this quilt out and get it into the hand quilting frame...

It's a vintage, hand-embroidered block quilt that I purchased off of Ebay several years ago.  The embroidery was complete and all of the blocks were sewn together.  All I did was add the two borders using fabric from my stash. 

The above picture shows it being loaded onto my 3-rail Hinterberg hand quilting frame.  It's now all loaded and ready for the first stitch!  

I just love embroidered quilt tops and am excited to quilt this one!  I'm hoping to have it done by Spring and ready for the bed this summer!  :)  I think it should take me 3-4 months to get it done. 

Here's a close-up of the embroidered block...DAFFODILS!  :)
 

Except for my quilting, I'm not very "domesticated" and don't cook very often.  But tonight I thought I'd make my special home made potato & ham soup...a favorite with my family...

Hubby loved it!  And that makes me happy!  ❤

Loretta