Quilt top process

The question is:  How can I best avoid cleaning my office for a full day of work tomorrow?  Easy...first I take a lovely nap, snoozing peacefully on my screened- in porch reading a quilt history book.  Then I pull out of the stack this quilt top that I have not worked on in about a year.  I added the yellow border with the purple squares matching.  Matching is quite an achievement for me..  This yellow border looks garish, but I remember that a quilt is not finished until it is quilted and bound.  Sometimes it is the binding that really makes the quilt.  So this border is not the final one and an inch will be taken off of it before the next border is added.  A border a year...that is not bad now!!  Stay tuned.

Now to maybe sew a butterfly on Evangelina's quilt.  I know at two weeks she is not sleeping thru the night because she does not have her quilt!!  I bear a heavy burden!

Trip top

Trip around the world process

I have cut backs and battings for two quilts now...moving right along.  Now I have decided to make my Trip quilt a bit larger with borders....auditioning a green or purple strip between the greys...Hoping to get this ready  for basting tomorrow...I love progress:)  It is funny how one little 1.5 inch strip can alter the look.

Five days old...an I-Spy quilt beginning......for...

Baby quilt process

Once upon a time there was a baby who knew her own mind from the get-go.  Even though her due date was September 10th, she wanted to be a Halloween baby....so she waited and she waited...but, oh, no her mother made her come in September and the doctor agreed!!

 Because I know that this baby is special and wants things her way, I have decided to use the light box for the first time in forever.  I cannot get the "E" right, but I will keep trying, even if it takes till Halloween:)  I want it perfect, just like she is.

I am using the light box here to reverse the letters for applique.

Priorities

To day is the day to remember with gratitude that I am loved.  My husband gave me flowers.  Flowers that money cannot buy...only love.  He picked them by the creek on his walk and carried them home, just for me.

And today is to remember my priorities with my favorite poem from e.e. cummings:

let it go – the
smashed word broken
open vow or
the oath cracked length
wise – let it go it
was sworn to
go
let them go – the
truthful liars and
the false fair friends
and the boths and
neithers – you must let them go they
were born
to go
let all go – the
big small middling
tall bigger really
the biggest and all
things – let all go
dear
so comes love

The Special Visitor

Last night, lucky me, met Shannon.  She was home to Charlotte from South Africa where she teaches impoverished children in the country.  AND, where she blogs, cooks and creates with great cleverness under circumstances quite foreign to me sitting here in my comfy home. At 28 years old, she is already making a difference in this world. Along with her brave mother Andy, and her sister Suzannah, I was surrounded by the pleasure of artists.  Lucky me.

The Beautiful Day

Last night we went to a lovely party celebrating 25 years of the Irish Society of Charlotte.  Of course the piano player (my husband) is always the last to leave.  This morning my cat and I slept till 11:30. My husband was long gone to watch the All Irelands game downtown at the pub.  What old lady in her right mind would sleep away half the day????  Guess you know!  So how to make the best of what is left of a beautiful day????

Scraps in another fashion

My wonderful husband and I were married on June 1, 1980, 31 years ago.  This was my wedding china...a pattern I have always loved and use daily.  My father bought me this teapot as a special gift.

 Johnston Brothers "Rose Chintz"  

 I have always wanted to make some mosaics, but didn't know how.  Finally I "winged it" with a package of clay from Michael's Craft Store, making the stepping stone below to immortalize my china..

Of course, since I didn't know what I was doing, the rounded edges of the broken cups are jagged and sharp.  But, it is in the garden.  I am a quilter...but, I feel inspiration from this blog to branch out, http://multicoloredpieces.blogspot.com/  Some day, I will learn it the right way and continue to bring back to life all the many scraps of my life.

Emily

I miss my daughter who is far far away in Ireland.

The busy...

  So, what am I supposed to do while the ongoing drama of the new kitchen proceeds.  Cannot walk on the newly laid tile, gotta get all those potholders done..DONE!  30 potholders...I have outdone myself.

 10 are spoken for for the fall bazaar, 4 are gifts of great thanks for folks who were irreplaceable when my mother was in the hospital, 2 are for my sister who wants to give them for gifts and has no time to make them herself...That leaves only 14 for my holiday giving.  But, as we know, done is such a wonderful word in this busy life of ours.  Remember this post, http://oquilts.blogspot.com/2009/11/potholder-tutorial.html if you want to make some yourself.

 Above you can see the gift of love as friends help baste a small quilt made by my sister for a soldier's child.

Potholder art?

I think I am getting philosophical (nutty) in my old age..Potholder art?  Am I as bad as my husband and his peaches?  Making potholders is a messy business for my sewing room.  Snippets of scraps are everywhere waiting to be the chosen ones.  So maybe not art, but folk art, or just pleasing to the eye.  Because for me, if it is not "art" in my little way, then why bother?  I am past the day of lets just get it done.  I am in the day of lets do it pretty and share some joy. Contentment in a potholder..in the making of it and in the sharing of it..every minute counts.  I know in my heart that my roast chicken tastes so much better when I take it out of the oven with a pretty potholder!

Mother Theresa said, "Small things with great love".  Even in a potholder (I added that part:) lol  P.S My husband just came in and wondered outloud! how was it that I was putting myself and Mother Theresa in the same blogpost...Everyday a new laugh:)

New to me blog ,http://multicoloredpieces.blogspot.com/ brings the world just a little bit closer, encouraging  the mind to see just a little bit further.  From the small spot across the world to the small spot in my yard, life is good.  Below, Lynsey checks out the green peppers still growing in the back garden.

 The wonder of the worm...the absolute wonder...

 When we lived in Miami, my husband grew roses on 80 rose bushes.  The work he did and the prizes he won.  But, life has changed and here in Charlotte, the Knock-out roses grow themselves with no work at all.  At our age now, that is the way we like it...automatic roses! Totally spoiled!

 The winter garden has not yet been planted, but there is hope...lots of hope..the lettuce, broccoli, sprouts and cabbage are just awaiting!

 And then there are the peaches.  Today we took the grandchildren to the farmers' market by the airport.  In Charlotte it is the end of the peach season.  Mind you, our extra freezer in the garage is already chock full of peaches...but that didn't stop Himself..OMG, I think he got carried away again..We will be having peach milkshakes, peach crisps, peach oatmeal et al...till the next Fourth of July!

Next came  the honey.  At the farmers' market there were several people selling honey from their own hives.  Evan bought a jar of honey from someone who had brought the bees with him so we could all watch what it was all about.  This six year old was thrilled.  He said that he would rather have the honey from those bees than the popcorn he had been hoping for.  As he rode off with Granddaddy today toward home, he had between his knees, his newest treasure...the honey.

I used to think that I was so wonderful and open minded that there would certainly never be a generation gap with me...special me..But, as our outing today progressed post farmers' market to the airport to watch the planes take off and land, my six year old grandson announced that this real airport was cool...as he had never  actually seen an airport, but he knew all about them from playing a video game.

Small drops of joy...Lynsey

The simple life is taking Monkeys for a walk.

 One fell out and bumped his head!

 Reading Doggie a story while Monkey rests with his boo-boo!

Two and a half years old..such joy...how could I ever be sad?

The gratitude and the Dolly quilt

 Yesterday I finished the quilt for my Dolly.  I am thrilled that I tried the free motion quilting and felt successful..it was after all a small project.  Using up scraps was the least of the fun.  It was just fun and I am grateful.  It was a take on the quilt done by...Melissa on the post she shared on Moda Bake Shop a few weeks ago.

 I am so grateful that I have quilting to enjoy...so very grateful.

 And with quilting comes quilting friends...yup..more gratitude..sounding sappy here...well so be it.  Sounding repetitive...well I am getting older..so I can get away with it!!  I hope:)

 Today'sit and sew brought so much fun.  A wonderful group of friends, the hum of the sewing machines. And, look...I finished ten potholder tops and one set of strings for the season's gifts.  I would never have accomplished so much without my friends and of course the M&M's my sister brought:)  A wonderful potluck lunch didn't hurt either.

And then there is the mother thing.  I hope you all do not think I am arrogant in thinking that my mother is so special.  I am very grateful that I was able to laugh over canasta with my grandmother when she was 99 and a half.  And I am grateful that I am able to laugh and chat and gossip with my mother at age 90.  But, I think I have got it now.  My mother is special to me and she has not been the same since she got home from the hospital.  She has not once picked up her beloved Kindle that she got for her 90th birthday.  She is forgetting how to use the computer and thus struggles with her poetry.  She is unable to stand like she used to and today Patrick had to lift her from the wheelchair to her recliner. That is something that never happened before.  She struggles swallowing and without food, her energy is weak.  She feels sad.  I get it that I cannot fix these things.  I get that life comes like a river and I cannot stop the river.  My worry and fight will not fix whatever is going to be.  So I will bring her flowers and sherbet and chocolate milk shakes with protein and visit and laugh with her and work hard on acceptance, very hard. 

Sit and Sew

Had a wonderful sit and sew at my house today.  When we finished laughing and sewing...some sad old someone told me he had been neglected!

Bragging to self!!

I had 7 Green Peppers left on my plants...eeekk..look at our lunch cooking in the oven.  I even used some of our fresh Basil.

I am a Charlotte wanabee:)

Sure wish I could do what Charlotte can do:)  You go Charlotte!

Talk about loving orange....

Beans

That dollar spent on a package of bush bean seeds was well worth it.  This is my third crop, ready for dinner tonight.

 If you want to be happy for the rest of your life...sew!!  Everything can be about quilting:)

A lot of nothing and a little of something

The lack of posting around here has had many reasons, family stressors aside.  The other day,  I was trying to chill on my porch reading the latest issue of Studio magazine when I got totally inspired.  I decided to go into my quilting room and re-do.  Of course all that did was make a just terrible mess in both the room and in my disposition.  On and on and blah blah blah....Today, I feel better with this small corner organized.  My Civil War fabric, fabric that is already ironed on on Wonderunder for applique, "new" fabric made from scraps, and scraps from oil cloth etc are all in labeled boxes.

 When I was taking a picture of the organization, I decided to also photograph Emily's jacket from 3rd grade. The summer before I had had a terrible back injury leaving me unable to sit or walk seemingly forever.  When finally I could sit awhile I took this old jeans jacket from Goodwill and sewed her name on the back in sequins, by hand.  At the time Emily was in a prestigious school where the girls already were comparing labels on their clothes.  All the girls in her third grade class wanted a jacket like this with their names.  We didn't tell them that I had made it, so they assumed it came from their favorite (at that time) store, The Limited!  There were a few lessons in status and labels learned that year. That was 18 years ago and the jacket on my wall is now practically Vintage!

 Today I went with friends to IKEA.  In the children's department, I found this duvet set.  This child's duvet cover for $8 or $9  gives me 2 and a half yards of fabric almost 50 inches wide, plus a little pillow case.  I am delighted.  I think it is adorable.

As for quilting, I am working diligently on Evangelina's quilt.  I cannot show it because her mother, Joy is nosy.  Evangelina is refusing to be born because her mother is sooo ready for her.  A portent of stubborn things to come:)