Midnight...again!

I am practicing my free motion quilting on this small quilt.  Why do I show you my practice in all it's messiness???  Because when I was quilting along, humming a song...all of a sudden the post concussion stuff kicked in...again...got dizzy and could not do this circle quilting.  Amazing, after 6 months!!!  Was going to do a little whining and then I watched Call the Midwives holiday special.  Now, that stopped any whining in a mini-second!  If that was not enough, the news flashed on that Hillary Clinton is in the hospital with blood clots from her concussion and she is my age.  Now I am all about celebrating that I am doing as well as I am.  Falling from that height to the wooden floor, I am grateful that I did not die or break my neck!!!  Amen.....

And, on to better things.  When we first moved to Charlotte from Miami, 18 years ago, it snowed.  No, not snow like the North gets, but certainly a big snow for this Miami lady.  I hunkered down in the warm house and experimented with paper mache.  Now, every year this silly bowl comes down with the Christmas stuff from the attic.  I think I am going to re-do it with quilting paper.

 Tonight was about getting ready Grandma's ornaments for re-gluing.. 

 This Puss in the Corner quilt top was purchased from a dealer at the Metrolina Antique Show here in Charlotte for $15.  She only bargained with me because I told her I was a quilter and agreed to make it into a quilt.  My friends helped me tie it and encouraged me to put a wool batting inside.  It is my favorite quilt for cuddling in front of the TV or reading on a cold night.  When I do, I always think of who made it and carefully hand pieced the whole thing.

 Someone else likes it too and is quite ready for a photo-op!

Antique Quilts

I am spreading out some of my quilts on my daughter's bed, now that the room is once again empty(: I am documenting them here too for future reference.  This Checkerboard quilt I paid $50 for last year at a Charlotte antique store.  When the owner was called for price negotiation, she said that she had too many quilts and was downsizing, but knew nothing about the quilt.  It is all hand pieced and hand quilted, 100 years old and in excellent shape.  I really needed to wash it so I could use it, but I had been unable to do it in the bathtub.  Because it is a utilitarian quilt, tonight I took a risk in my new and awesome washing machine and washed it on delicate.  Then I put it in the dryer. Lucky, lucky me.  It came out beautiful, but now it is all crinkly when before it was not.  My guess is that it has been washed before, but never put into the dryer.  I will have to take a peek into a seam to see what the batting is.  I took a chance that it was not wool.

 This 100 some year old Chips and Whetstones, I paid $300 for 35 years ago in a Phoenix antique store.  She had purchased it from a Sun City estate sale.  It it has never been washed by me.  It is hand pieced and hand quilted. I am so afraid it will bleed, but I would like to wash it.  I have memories of putting a wet white cloth against the red and it bleeding, but tonight when I did it again, there was just a bit of pink, not much.  This is for sure a bathtub quilt..I am just scared.

 This basket quilt I bought last year at an antique store here in Charlotte for $70.  There is color damage and some fading damage.  It is all hand quilted in a fan design and hand pieced.  There is no batting, only a flannel backing.  It is huge, you can see how far it falls to the floor, on both sides, on my daughter's double bed..  I could use some help in dating it.  Looks a bit Amish, but I cannot be sure.  There are places where you can see the darker green before it faded to tan.  That the orange stayed so bright is a wonder.  I would like to wash this quilt too so I can use it on my bed...again..scared.

So now I have added my Peony from New England.  I paid $125 for this 35 years ago.  Hand pieced and hand quilted with the green faded to tan.  It was dated by an appraiser 25 years ago about 1860.  Now if that is true, I have put the two quilts next to each other to compare the fading greens to tan...if that means anything.  It may not.  It is interesting, however.  I bought the Peony quilt at an antique show at Dinner Key Auditorium in Miami, Florida.

 I still cannot believe how huge the basket quilt is...and note the baskets are facing each other in the middle.

Silly me...

This is it...all done....Zigzagging rick-rack on produce bags????  I just gave myself permission to throw all the rest of the saved produce mesh...away....just did it...I am done.

 In the kids kitchen drawer, which is thankfully outside of the kitchen, are the supplies.  The spoons which they have almost outgrown, the birthday candles and the straws.  All organized and they can help themselves.

Moving right along....

So, my girl is on the plane, her suitcases filled to the brim with my love and my FABRIC:)  We had the best time ever!! Thought that I would adjust to all that today, by using up a saved produce bag...asparagus...I think....  Put in a Velcro closure and added some vintage rick-rack from Auntie Eileen's estate sale!  So I am moving right along here..

A link.....Thank u Cathy....This is hilarious...

Then too, I am thinking of 2012 and 2013.  What did I accomplish in 2012??  Well, I have it all documented here on my blog...However, I do NOT see; a finished or started basket quilt from my collected Civil War fabrics,  nor do I see a finished political medallion quilt.  Where is the finished Zigzag, or the London Olympic quilt??  The Swedish flag quilt or my 3 year old Grandson's Dr. Seuss quilt???  Granny Square is started, Christmas trees are started and I have three project boxes of "made" fabric from scraps.  What about that Giant Snowball from my African fabrics that I planned to put in the March show?  If I list the rest, the post will be too long.  So do I continue to do what I want, like random potholders from memorabilia??  Or do I finish up what I started?  Ha Ha...Time will tell and it is not 2013 quite yet:) 

I'll cry if I want to.......

My daughter left today.

Our first trip to Ireland as a family...She was 18 months...who would have thought...

A Cradle Song

The angels are stooping

Above your bed;

They are weary of trooping

With the wimpering dead.

God's laughing in heaven 

To see you so good;

The Shining Seven

Are gay with His mood.

I kiss you and kiss you,

My pigeon, my own;

Ah, how I shall miss you

When you have grown.

__W.B Yeats

Sewing friends are the best kind

Ruth and Emily have been friends for almost 10 years, in fact they both learned to sew at my house!!  Up last night till 2 am..laughing and sewing..what better friends than that..Beneath their sleepy eyes are the zippy pouches that they made.

Once again..fun..

CMQG Secret potholder challenge:)

Numero uno

Numero dos

Wow...just wow....

And what surprises do we find under the tree this evening??  Hand made baskets that our daughter made in Ireland and carried in her suitcase home to us.  Wow!!  Her man's father was a known basket maker in his community.  In the first year that Emily lived in Ireland, he taught her how to make these baskets.  Sadly, he died this summer from a surprise ailment.  His legacy lives on.  I continue to be amazed by my daughter.

 Felt tags she made and embroidered with my machine while I was not looking:)

 She took some of their pictures, printed them on fabric and made potpourri for me...

 backings...

And for her daddy comes a calendar made from photos she snapped of the Irish landscape as they travel around the land..

 My heart...Thank you, my dear daughter...the best Christmas ever!!!

Carefree Christmas Day

Merry Christmas again!!...We celebrate on Christmas Eve...so today is a day of leisure, doing what we feel like doing.  Mr. O'Quilts is hitting some tennis balls on the backboard courts behind our house, my daughter is making Martha Stewart pancakes from scratch, and I am going thru some of the things from the attic that Em brought down for me.  My son is going to be 28!!  In one box I found this t-shirt purchased in Chinatown...when he was 6 months old.  I told you that I was a heavy duty saver...Some things have gotta go...I cannot...I can...I cannot...I can..kinda,,,

 The potholder queen here has found a way..........practicing freemotion and different thread choices..I have a  "vintage" memory for my kitchen:)

Merry Christmas

Season sights at our house

Feliz Navidad !

 Happy all Holidays?

 The night before the night before..Em finished her pillowcases for the grandkids and has vowed never to make pillowcases any other way...u go burrito..  Carpenter's Wheel, 100 years old, traditionally  graces our wall at Chrismas time.  Vintage Telefunken from our childhood still brings memories..  Starting to feel like Christmas...Oh,...it is...Merry Christmas once again....

New age Christmas cookies

I mean as in new age...my new age...!!!  Every year, I reproduce my grandmother's Christmas cookies.

See last year's example

This year brings my back that cannot bend to cut out cookies, my concussion fatigue,etc....so rather than not make them at all...I rolled the dough in waxed paper, refrigerated them, and slice and baked them.  They taste wonderful...I think now it is time for the next generation to make these cookies, Emily might try them tomorrow.  As for me, I think that I would rather eat them now, than make them!!!!

The Kindergarten Cure...

 What makes me happy??  Returning to the Kindergarten crafts!!!  I took the tops from Mr. O'Quilt's oatmeal boxes, cut the pictures to size, glued on construction paper to the back with the date and with glitter on the front....voila...a Christmas smile for all!!  We still have these on the tree from when my children made theirs........They are their favorite ornaments.

 2012

2010 

Understanding what is not understandable

I guess that Christmas is a mishmash sometimes....When my daughter showed my mother my blog yesterday, my mother said that she had never seen it before..not!  She wondered why I was sewing and not visiting her.  She does not understand how I tell her that I visit and that she forgets...she is wondering if I am distorting the truth.  Sigh......It is hurtful that I visit and she does not remember.  I know that Parkinson brings with it processing and memory problems.  It is just that there are extremes...We can have a wonderful talk..me feeling that I have my mother back.  Next day she does not remember. This never happened to my grandmother.  She died months short of 100 with perfect memory and clarity...but then she did not have Parkinsons....  This is the second year now that Mom will not be able to come for Christmas..she is too feeble and tired. It is sad. Sometimes it is just hard to wrap my mind around it all.  Here she is in better times....

 Today's good times....last night was fun at my house...peaceful 

 A Merry Christmas sign still here with the good time memories...

The Everlasting Relaxing Log Cabin

Fun!!!  Folks relax in different ways.  Mr. O'Quilts and our daughter are playing tennis in the park behind our house.  I just finished putting those randomly found 12 red squares into a log cabin.  You just know that this is way more relaxing than tennis!!!!!  My favorite chill in the whole world working with scraps.  Nothing here is cut but the borders and the binding...These scraps from my one and a half inch scrap drawer...sigh....A totally "no think" quilt top.  I am happy.  I think that this is a log cabin at dusk.

Back to Basics....

Making Christmas....together:)

Pears and Patches

A Little Night Music....is my sewing machine humming along...While I was trying to clean up, I found 12 little  red squares.  That took care of the cleaning up.  Took out that drawer of 1.5 inch strips and started something...

 My daughter made poached pears tonight.  Yummy...I never had that before.  I liked this picture of the treat on my Riviera ware...She had it with butter pecan ice cream and cream.

 She liked the picture with the cinnamon stick...I ate it with the whipped cream left over from my cake last night.

Neither picture really does it justice...Thought I would share the night's doings before bedtime....

The Birthday Party that never ends....

My Wednesday night quilting group came tonight...My daughter made this cake for me.  She is so fast and smart and wonderful.  We celebrated my birthday one more time...great to be 65!!!!

 The huge surprise came after the laughter and cake.  Emily had organized a quilt for me with my friends.  They made scrap blocks and mailed them to Ireland...can you believe it???  Little scrap blocks from fabrics I know and love...I would be speechless...but..ha ha...that will never happen.  I am delighted, surprised, touched, elated and very very proud of my daughter.

This is one of my very favorite quilts, Scrap Vomit, by Katie at I'm A Ginger Monkey