A Quick Post

 Feeling gloomy today...So it is best to cheer up by visiting you all on my blog...Aging is indeed a challenge..good and bad...In my circle today, I count several dear ones with cancer and several with heart disease...hmmm...Then I look at our crazy news....hmmm..Our news is awful!!

.Looking for the light, I return to my sewing. . 

 Below is the flimsy of my latest Ronald McDonald house preemie car seat cover.  A bright African fabric border should make it happy.

Below is picture of the child's quilt made from thrift store cloth..I keep trying to get the color right, but oh, no...I give up...Also giving  up on cropping pictures properly.  I crop and it posts without the cropping...Letting it go.  I cut up an old lady's blouse from about 50 years ago , that I found in our thrift shop...so loved the color and the thrifting bit.  Wish you could see how the colors sparkle.  Mary Jerz does my quilting now that I am not what I used to be...Grateful for her!!

Candace gave me another of her "Just  Joey" roses...Tears in my eyes as I remember my man and his love for this rose color.

My dear friend who helps me with my physical therapy had a birthday today. She is a bridge freak...playing all over the state and all the time!!   Perfect card fabric here for this zippy coin purse.  I put in a bright new penny for good luck.

Today, I wore a sweater for the first time since April last year.  Light wind, Carolina blue sky and sunny day made it perfect.

I just spoke with my dear grandson, Dylan. When I just now googled "Dylan"  looking for a picture of him now at 16...This baby quilt came up...So  many years ago.  Now he is a junior in high school, has a big truck that he bought with his own money, has a job and a girlfriend...Oh, my...I miss the little years.

I love my grands....Now the one in Portland, Aoife, I have only seen 2 or 3 times in my entire life.  She is 6 now and only knows her only Grandmother from Facetime.. So sad she  lives so far away.  She really only knows her Irish kin.  Well, we do know, she knows her chickens!!!!

The hip replacement surgery a year from last May, left me with very little balance.  Trying to walk with a cane, last week, I fell... My body is fine, but my ego is demolished...Trying to get a grip and be glad I do not hurt is good gratitude, but  my ego realizes, once again that I will  never be what I used to be..

Acceptance means I can sew little presents for people here...  Happiness is my little red sewing machine waiting for me in our art room, and my wonderful Janome 8900 humming along in my apartment.

Tomorrow is sewing in the art room and voting in the afternoon..

Tonight is sharing with you all and chocolate and bed xo

The October Record

OMG  Here I am!!!!  Whoever did this...I love you  so....

What else keeps me as sane as sane can be??

Potholders....sigh...The bottom small panel...eg panelette  is from Spoonflower!

I know that this is an Accuquilt die...big fat spider...I have either loaned it or lost it, never to be found again....sad.

This is the back of the potholder

Friend, Betty is a stain glass artist.  She asked me to make a carrier to bring her glass to the art studio on lesson day...Lucky me found a $4 Guatemalan piece at our thrift store...It made a perfect outside cover for the bag.

Mary K has her 90th birthday in a few days.  She is our swimmer...winning medals and medals in the senior games.  Again, Spoonflower provided this piece which, ironed onto a terry cloth, makes a fine piece to take to her meets.

Old pictures, good memories:  Aoife and her chickens out by their run at Christmas last year!

Again, my Portland family loves fun things.  A few years ago, they took a llama trek through the Oregon mountains for a few days...

Diane K sent me an adorable homemade card!!

Friend, Sherry is  on a bootie call for her church!!..

Back to me...as I calm my soul with potholder making.

Again, our Aoife and her Bock Bock by the sewing machine...I  think  this is the hen's first lesson!!

Thank God for sewing and sewing friends and sewing family and sewing chickens:

Here We Go Again.....a Post

 My  quilt is quilted...Thank you Mary Jerz!!!!  I am naming it "The Beguine"...after the Cole Porter song, "Begin the Beguine"    So bright...colors not clear here, but you get the idea.  "The Beguine" is a dance and music form with roots in the Caribbean.  It combines Latin folk and French ballroom dance styles.  It is bright and happy  just like my quilt.

Being a bit cheap on buying more fabric, below is the pieced  backing:  Again, colors not bright enough.

Below Is my finished bag from a linen towel I found for a dollar.  Batik lined, I am pleased.

This is the third preemie donation quilt for the Ronald McDonald  house. It is 21 inches by 21 inches...Guess preemies are tiny..These are for the car seat going home.

Here where I live is a friend who grew up loving chickens.  She follows  my blog and even met Emily when she visited a few weeks ago.  A chicken potholder for her...She loved it.  Last time I heard, she was showing it around to her friends.  She has a chicken statue in her garden.

My friend Lee is some artist ....I love this painting she did.   My apartment complex is full of talented people.

I loved this quote, but now I cannot read it....

Mary Katherine lives across  the hall from me. Two days ago she competed in the senior games in swimming....She came home with 5 medals, 4 gold and one silver.  MK turns 90 in a month!!

The weather is changing in Charlotte, just a little....but enough to feel more comfortable.

My physical therapist wants me to lie on my stomach and lift my legs up.  Impossible.  I have not done that in years.

My darling grands came today to go with me to the grocery store and help out a little bit....How very very lucky am I.  I love them so....16 and 17. They are so helpful, shopping faster than I can move; Lynsey putting everything away before I get into the house, Dylan hovering over old Grandma like I was 150 years old.  I am so grateful.

Even September is Hurrying Along

My girl came  to visit me here in Charlotte for four days...We  got alot done and of course, I felt loved  She filled my heart with joy as  always.

We watched below:  The Great British Sewing Bee!!!  Fun!!  She sewed and I sewed.......

My new favorite quote:

“A little too much is just enough for me.”  

Carl Van Vechten

Big Thanks Marilyn for  this "Member Spotlight" in our Guild newsletter.

                                                     

Now, I am getting together some tops for my longarmer, Mary Jerz.  I am grateful for her.  Everything is together now, but for piecing a backing..I think that is .annoying, I do not want to buy more fabric when I have so much.

More fun from Oregon....Aoife brings "Bock Bock" to the neighborhood Labor Day get together!!

Saturday after my daughter left, I arranged a pity party dinner with friends here...Look what Candace made me....HA!!!   Well, it all worked;  Two hours of laughter and fun and not a tear in sight...Lucky me with friends like this!

Politics is  giving me a stomach ache....However, tonight I went to a "meet the local candidates" hot dog dinner...I was so amazed at the enthusiasm of the youthful candidates...Well worth the visit.

Came home to news of more  family drama...Maybe I should just go to bed.  I  usually like to stay up till 2 am sewing, but now, at 11...bed is calling!!!

xoxo

Never Too Late to share in a Post

God help me...posting is getting harder.  I think there has been some new challenges  with the computer..I just may no longer be up to them....  A big thanks to those of you who have commented or emailed...I love to keep in touch...Just slowing down...

That being said, below is my second donation to Ronald McDonald's house for parents of preemies.  These  21x21inch covers are for their tiny bodies as they go into their car seat, finally headed home.  All done with scraps...so satisfying ..

The back of this cutie is covered with lions.  The baby this quilt went home with had been in the  hospital 5 months.

                                               

                                                   

A lovely visit with Marilyn Gore last week brought these lovelies:  Marilyn is one of North Carolina's most well known maker of African quilts...Lucky me for the visit.

Above is my first grandson...now 21....Below is my second grand...now 17.

  Time  flies..I.love them so.

Lynsey's new boyfriend spent quite a bit of time cleaning threads from my sewing chair...wow...Thanks to him, I can now roll my chair again.

The Portland family has arrived home after two weeks in Ireland...Awaiting them were Stitch, the cat and Rosie, the dog...all on my antique quilt....sigh..

I did not go to Ireland, yet I am exhausted.  I did not clean the wheels of my chair..again, exhausted.
So grateful for my family..and all the love we share.

A blue bottle tree graces my garden....My too many bottles went down the  hall to another quilter....Here is her lovely one:

Two Clemson potholders finished and delivered...

All done for now.

Good night!!

UFOs and Such

 A friend fell out of her big heavy duty electric wheelchair  last night...She is all banged up and in the hospital now..We think  her MS has progressed...I mde this flower hanging to cheer her with a card on the door saying we love her.  This flower is made by ironing scraps on fusible fleece, quilting it..Then running it thru an Accu-Cutter shape.  Cute button from my button collection  adds the touch.

The first UFO finished today is a chair pad.  Wiggle stitches on a piece of baby water resistant flannel, covered with African fabric.is a perfect protector for chairs that somehow might be otherwise stained with red wine, grape jelly, chocolate, etc.  Not that I take in any of these...it is just a precaution:)  On Saturday afternoons friends meet at the Art Room to visit and work on projects..Lucky me was able to bring my 11 pound red Jamone travel machine down there....The hum of the machine and the act of sewing is my best meditaion ever!!

WIP on my bed with random scrappy squares:

A donation quilt top in the works

Just need a border here for a scrap baby quilt...A donation shirt from a  charity store for $2...at least 50 years old gave me the shade of green I wanted.  Just waiting, again....for the border.

A lovey WIP or UFO, six  year old Aoife with her 7 year old cousin, Abby...on vacation by the Irish sea.

Today was a great  day ..Grateful.

Summer Color

 My little porch garden has been tended by a friend on the 3rd floor.  She is passionate about gardening and I am not..I gave my garden to her.  This is a wonderful gift for both of us

The Clematis by my blue bottle tree....In Southern tradition, the blue bottles send evil spirits on their way to somewhere else..Grateful, I am.

My barn star from Oregon, still graces the garden.

Ronald McDonald House in Charlotte is collecting knitted or crocheted small blankets to cover preemies in their carseats for the going home ride.

The size was 20 to  24 inch square.  Below is my quilted offering, made with random scrap HSTs

Very, very fun to make.

The back:

In the Oregon family tradition:

Questions:

1.  Does our cat, Stitch, love fabric???

2.  Is six year old Aoife now a chicken???

Is this really her bedroom???

As my son continues to find himself, my daughter-in-law has stepped up...She came today with the two girls, for lunch and an outing to Trader Joe's..

Grateful xo