Sunday, March 31, 2013

More on the Easter thing...

From across the sea, Auntie Em and Uncle Bri sent an Easter package which was opened today with great glee!!  Oh, NO...silly Grandma...wrong holiday, it seems....
Then there was the visit to Great-grandma....  yup..but it was nap time at Sunrise..never mind, the children could relate..
 My mother's hat collection...my son and his family...
and a very jealous cat of 8 years...Sunny..(after Sunrise) ha!

I think that I gave up cleaning my sewing room for Lent...it surely looks like it anyways...Tomorrow one piece at a time.

Happy Easter!

Hope and Love, renewal and memory making..... .Lynsey, age 4 and her Great grandmother, age 91....


Saturday, March 30, 2013

This and That

My daughter and her man went to Malta for a weekend trip...How fun is this!!!


Everyone went to Sew South here in Charlotte but ME!  I thought I was too old.... whines Herself.... (actually I was not up to it, but..ha ha)...and waiting and waiting am I for all the fun posts about it....Come on...Inquiring minds need to know....

Now, my friend Andy had a moving sale a few years back.  I nabbed this vintage Wilton Easter egg baking pan:)
 This is the first time I have used it.  There are little stands for the egg halves to rest on..cool...I should have pressed them together for the egg look, but too lazy here.
 Andy used to have an  Awesome blog..but guess she got too busy because I have not seen a post there in over a year...sad(:   Anyway, Andy is a brilliant baker, brilliant cook, brilliant seamstress...etc....I am NO Andy...A little green coconut on my mother's old platter is the best I could do.  I think the children will love it.  Thank you Andy.

Friday, March 29, 2013

Spring break begins.....

First of all...racing to finish these for Finish it up Friday.  Linking up here...to Amanda Jean.   I used a different free motion quilting design on each one....oh, Leah Day...;be so very proud of your student!
 Cute IKEA hedgehog backing here...


 Then a road trip with friends to see Wanda's latest show of "Exuberant Color"!!  Good job Wanda.  Met the fun Tina there who lived 20 some years in Miami just like I did...we had a chat about hurricanes by her exhibited paintings.
 And today was the Good Friday Easter egg dying...Even with a sunny Carolina day, it was still a mess....here is the creating...
 and..here we have the clean up!!!!

Sunday, March 24, 2013

THe cuddle thing

I am about to baste this hospital quilt which will make four basted for practice on my free motion and my sewing machine and donation.  After this...I promise self to ........I promise.....I do have other, bigger things to finish or work on....It is the lazy thinker in me that procrastinates so....


The reminder....

Just sharing the joy of sewing and putting things in perspective...like my stash and my designated sewing room.  I love this lady already and I do not even know her.  Thank u Beth...thank you mucho....
The photo celebration


Mahafaly woman carrying sewing machine, Southern Madagascar

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Process

I am doing the process thing to help me with this jelly roll cut up.  Putting it online gives a perspective that you cannot get somewhere else.  Already, I can see one of the issues...The lattice is too wide.  The top one looks better because the value on the border is similar, but it is too pinkish...I think I must be in my using up solid pink stage!
 Below was supposed to be a primary border, but I see that there is too much motion in it, so I stopped.
 The blue has potential because of the value, but maybe the chicken coop wire is not needed.
 The white just doesn't cut it.  So none of these works...yet.  This is why I have drawers of precuts..by me that is...These borders are all three inches and will now go in the three inch draw for a life somewhere else.  Stopping now at the midnight hour....just sharing my process on the design wall on a Saturday night.
And why am I putting so much effort into a cuddle quilt??  I do not know.  Wanna get it right and too strung out to work on something that needs concentration.

Actually, an exercise in value is not a waste of time.  

A brilliant clip

  I do not know how long that this link will be accessible, but.....This is brilliant

Friday, March 22, 2013

Start it up Friday????

Today Marie hosted a CIQ bee Sit and Sew at her house in Waxhaw..So much fun it was.  When I am out and about with folks, I have to make my sewing easy, so I brought one of my boxes of 2.5 inch strips.  Silly me thought that I would empty the box on a jelly roll race quilt..Wrong!!  Now, I know about scraps.  They multiply in the night like rabbits and can never be used up...but I kind of thought that the strips would be different.   Here I am with the same box I brought...as you can see, hardly a dent!!!
 The quilt turned out a bit on the long and skinny side, so I cut it apart.  Below is what I got.  On the right, a cuddle quilt top and on the left strips for a strippy quilt or something else.  Here I am starting something new...again!


We also played with the cutting machines that Jean and Marie had...cutting out flowers and birds.  Jean had the great idea of first ironing Wonder Under onto the 5 inch strips before putting them through the machine.  Wow..this is the first time for me. I brought home cutouts that are all ready to iron on a quilt.

Updates on my mother.  She is from Phoenix...ha ha...I think she is really from the mythological Phoenix the way she repeatedly rises from the dead!!  My sister reported that yesterday she went to the lunch bunch with her assisted living and that today, not only did she get her hair done, but also went on the bus to Target.  A miracle.  She is counting the days till Cinco de Mayo when she turns 92.  She is has ordered a very big party for the entire world to come celebrate with her.

Finish It Up Friday...


I had fun finishing off these cuddle quilts for the hospital while practicing my free motion quilting and using my new Janome 8900 sewing machine.
 I could not decide which pictures to use, so of course I used them all....
 Leah Day suggested that we use a panel to practice our FMQ...As it happened, my sister had just found one on sale at Hancock's.  I went around the animals and did some funky stars.  There is a ...new to me... stitch that is a double serpentine.  I used that here on the binding.  I never drop my feeddogs to FMQ..just like Leah...a Leah wannabee....but on the 8900, I found that I had to....hmmm  I also had to move the needle pressure to one instead of the average five.


 There is a feature on my machine that is a tacking feature.  I tried it out here in the center of the pink squares after free motion quilting the main parts.

Today, I am linking up to Crazy Mom Quilts for Finish it up Friday!

Wednesday, March 20, 2013

The CIQ Challenge Great Reveal

Here we go...after  two months..
the reveal of our challenge.  Terri
on the left..a table runner.  Marie
on the right a work in progress.

Mary Pat below...a wonderful tea cozy...two sides!


Sherry shows her two sided strippy quilt.


Muggs peaks from behind her table runner.....and because this is my blog..you can see my wall quilt for my mother and not me!!!!  Yes!....I gotta take control someplace... This was sooo much fun, that we have decided that it is our first annual challenge...Guess you can tell the challenge fabric...the directions were to make anything you want using the fabric.  Fun...As always, thanks to Mary Pat for making the tea every single Wednesday night at my house.  And for my husband for making the bread and getting the chairs and vacuuming...For Margaret for laughing so hard...at 95, you surely do have a great laugh.  It takes us all to have so much fun.

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Happy St.Paddy's Day

Happy St. Paddy's Day....enjoy An Irish Blessing!
Here we are...off to the party...all dressed in shirts that Granddaddy and Auntie Em got in Ireland... My grands...ages 7, 4 and 3..
 Joining in the dancing...
They helped Granddaddy play the piano..but I am not allowed to show it(:
A good time was had by all....
Not a lick of sewing done today.....
Do not forget to check out what patterns Michelle has to offer today.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Overdoing it!

Then, crawling into bed, I could not help snapping this.....Like , Who could be morose sleeping once again until a quilt more than 100 years old..on a cold March night??  Who??

Now...Good Night......

Misc......up and down and all around...

  How hilarious is this.....She made a quilt called, "One Cat Shy of a Hoarder"!!  Ha ha...check it out here.

Moving on....Mr. O"Quilts and I needed some continuing education credits, so we went together today to a workshop on Teen Suicide..  Good thing that I had these with me to make!!!!!!!  It sort of softened things...

Back in the day, my children went to high school at  Northwest School of the Arts here in Charlotte... She for music, he for technical theater.  It was so wonderful then, even though we had to bus them across town.  As it happens, it is still a wonderful school.  During lunch we had a presentation that students had written...see it here..... Teen Health Connection, Youth Suicide Drama  They did a brilliant job!!  Standing ovation:)

The crowds and power points clicked in my concussion stuff...ever lasting, but Himself was with me and we carried on with some interesting lectures.  At home, exhausted, I realized how much it impacted me, even though I have been in the field for 35 years. I think the concussion has sucked my energy.  I am changed. I started feeling sad that I am not strong enough to take my grandchildren to the St. Paddy's Day parade tomorrow, etc, whining ad nauseum.  All  out of sorts.... I am...thinking I will just go to bed.  But, of course, what does a good quilter do first to try to get right with herself....a few four patches.  That, and the morning light is all that is needed!!!


Tuesday, March 12, 2013

My Heart Beats....

Sometimes a Grandma just has to share...My cup runneth over... Look who decided to organize the thread holder in color order???
 The excitement of a future fabric lover.... 
 A design board for each and every person....
Learning the folding process in cleaning up.....I am really happy for help in that department!