Sewing Day

It felt really good to be sewing today. I almost have a top assembled. Will finish it up tomorrow. A beef roast in the crockpot is smelling wonderful.

The cable company came out today to install new boxes for these that weren't working. I'm glad I was here because they put some sort of booster up in the bedroom that knocked out my computer. Anyway, all is fixed now, and I've had the TV going all afternoon. Hmmmmm, that may not be such a good thing! LOL

This quilt was made at Alex Anderson's Quilt Retreat in Nov. 2002. I grabbed a bunch of fabric and threw it in my suitcase for the retreat project. I was just thinking red/cherries, green/leaves. It wasn't until I starting assembling it that I realized it looked awfully Christmassy. So it's named my Very Merry Cherry Christmas Quilt.

I realize I'm posting these quilts at all the wrong times of the year, but I just want to get as many of them documented as I can before I forget the details. Frequent brain fades here!

Oh, funny story about the cable guy. He looked around and said, "So you make blankets, huh?" He walked over to the quilt Judy gave me that was entered in Road to California show this year. He said, "Do you sell these to like Sears or Marshall?" I told him I didn't sell my quilts. He said, "I'll give you $20 for this one?" I started laughing (hysterically). He came back with, "Okay, $30 and not a dollar more."

Jane and the Cream Puff

My friend, Jane, is a very special friend. She's hung in here with me through the trials and tribulations of the past couple of years, always knows when to offer advice, when to just listen, when to roll her eyes at me so I won't take myself quite so seriously, and, most importantly, has taught me to say, "No, that won't work for me." I'm still practicing that line!

Jane gave me a bag full of fabrics for a present a couple of years ago. I don't remember now if it was Christmas or birthday, but I was delighted with those fabrics. She even included a lovely handwritten note with suggestions for their use. She pulled from her stash all the neutrals, and enough fabric for the sashings, cornerstones and binding.

When I was marathon cutting before my surgery, I decided to take out the neutrals, and I spent a delightful afternoon looking through them. Jane has a stash that would shock the most die-hard fabric collector. Her stash makes mine look pitiful by comparison. But the thing about Jane's stash is there isn't much of what I'd call 'serious' fabric in it. Jane has the most wonderful sense of humor, and her stash reflects that!

Take, for instance, these neutrals. All right, they're neutrals. So what? When you look closer, you see dogs and cats and all sorts of things hidden in there. But the most coveted square in the quilt is the square of frogs! You see, Jane is a frog person. She loves frog fabric, and almost all of her quilts have a frog in them somewhere. I figured I must be a real friend, indeed, if she was sharing her frog fabric with me!

This was another one-handed quilt that was pieced after my shoulder surgery. It's so simple, and yet I just love this quilt. It needs to be laid out flat for a while to get rid of the creases. I think I'll just put it on my bed!

My friend, Jane - my friend.

Very First Quilt

My very first quilt. Nothing spectacular, just a triple rail. This was the result of my first quilting class in Sept. 2001. I was off and running!

I need to store my quilts better. I pulled this one out of a stack of quilts in the closet, and it's horribly wrinkled and has deep creases. I need to come up with some system for storage. I am going to find something for my foyer area in which to display some of the quilts, and I know those will be refolded more regularly. If anyone has any suggestions on how they store theirs, I'd love to hear them.

Today was a bear at work. I won't go into details except to say that my Acctg. personnel decided to post things differently and managed to wipe out the entire 2006 accounting system. After many hours of anguish, I was able to restore it from yesterday's backups, only losing today's work. Sheesh, you can't turn your back for a second!

I got the most beautiful letter today from a lady whom I have not met. She's affectionately called Grandma Jane by my friend, Sally. I am not going to be able to attend a retreat this spring, and so Grandma Jane is going to take my place. Grandma Jane sent a picture of herself and also pictures of a few of her quilts. What a love! I have no idea of her age, but I'd guess it's over 80. Getting her letter is one of those unexpected things that made my heart sing. As Jeanne would say, a Gratitude!

I'm sitting here at my desk and looking at the things I hung above it - my court reporting certification, association certificates, my presidency plaque. I don't know why I hung those again. It's been 12 years since I retired. I guess it was such a major part of my life for so long, over 20 years, that it's hard to let go. I really should hang a quilt there instead.

Hooray! I finally got Direct TV to agree to come out Saturday between 9-3:00 to replace the two boxes that haven't worked for a couple of weeks. I've called every single night. Persistance pays off. Well, it might have been the threats of legal action....... now I get to quilt all day while I wait for them! :)

Thinking of Judy tonight on her travels toward home. Judy, safe travels. I'm jealous!! LOL

Stars & Stripes Sampler

Another early quilt; another lousy picture. The quilt doesn't have a hump in it, but is laying on a rather uneven deck! This was a Fons & Porter BOM that I signed up for before my first quilting class. I didn't know better! But I finished it and it now resides with my ex. I think Laurie quilted this one for me a couple of years ago.

Amazingly, I made it home from work tonight in 31 minutes. Of course, that's because I left work exactly at 5:00 as the boss is out of town! :)

I'm heading in my sewing room to sew for two hours tonight. That's my new pledge beginning this week. I haven't made that goal any night so far, but tonight may be it. I'm making progress on this quilt and I want to finish it up by the end of the weekend. There are oodles of new quilts I want to start, and oodles of quilts at various stages of completion. Time's a-wasting and I'm not getting any younger! It would be nice to leave finished quilts when I'm gone! LOL!

And speaking of things unfinished, last night I dug through two very large plastic tubs of Civil War and '30s blocks that I purchased on eBay a couple of years ago. There are some tops that just need quilting, lots of real Civil War era fabrics that I don't even want to cut, and a lot of feedsack scraps. I need to pull out a project or two and get them on my to-do list. The problem is I just keep thinking that anything I do to them will ruin them. I guess that's why I haven't touched them yet. Aside from some of the uncut fabric, they're not that valuable. Their true value is the joy I have when I look at them, and imagine some person making them many, many years ago. I wonder if they were like I am - too many quilts and not enough time. Like I don't have enough of my own UFOs without acquiring those of others!

To-Do List

I really had a time making my to-do list - truly! These are some of the ones that are all kitted and ready to start. I'm afraid the only stash busting for these quilts will be the backings and possibly some small applique pieces. Can't possibly do all of these this year, but I sure can get some of them going.

Confession is good for the soul, so here goes:

1 Give Thanks by Rosalie Quinlan Designs, piece & applique
2 Bittersweet by Elizabeth Scott, Late Bloomer Quilts, piece & applique
3 Bubblegum Dreams by Alex Anderson, piece & applique
4 Christmas Greetings by Verna Mosquera, piece & applique
5 Holiday Lights by Alex Anderson, piece & applique
6 Rabbits Prefer Chocolate by Bunny Hill Designs, piece & applique
7 Catch a Christmas Star by Bunny Hill Designs, piece & applique
8 Friends for Christmas by Lynnette Anderson, applique
9 Cranberry & Cardinals by Barbara Brackman & Karla Menaugh, applique
10 Home Sweet Home by Barb Adams & Alma Allen, piece & applique
11 Wool Bed Rug by Lakeview Primitives, wool applique
12 Celebration of American Life by Barb Adams & Alma Allen, piece & applique
13 Baskets of Treasures by Edie McGinnis, piece & applique
14 Snappin’ Green Beans by Tammy Tadd Designs, piece
15 Postcards from the Past by Robyn Pandolph, applique
16 Everything’s Coming up Roses by Kim Noblin, piece
17 Silver Trees by Fumilo Shimizu, piece
18 Girls Gang Club from two years ago, Jan Patek
19 Cottage Garden by Alma Allen, piece & applique
20 Classic Santas by Quakertown Quilts, piece & applique
21 Christmas Memories by Barb Adams & Alma Allen, piece & applique
22 Daisy’s quilt, piece
23 Bento Box, piece
24 Dressed for Dinner by Pearl Pereira, piece & applique
25 Snow Day Quilt by Polly Minick & Laurie Simpson, piece & applique
26 Vintage Valentine by Verna Mosquera, piece & applique
27 Women of Grace & Charm by Barb Adams & Alma Allen, piece

There are probably 20 more kitted, and a couple whose fabric I released back to the stash because I knew I'd never make them up. It's funny how our tastes change. Quilting is just a 4.5 year adventure for me, and I can already sense a shifting in my quilting desires. Okay, I'm fickle, but when you're having this much fun, why not be fickle!!

Daisy Days

No, not the dog. A quilt! LOL! I'm having a ton of fun digging through the piles of quilts stacked in a closet. This was done about three years ago during one of my "I only want to applique" periods. I've kind of gotten over the Thimbleberries phase but I like this one. It's actually a nice flat quilt, but you can't tell it from this picture - it's laying out on the lawn.

I'm about to get real angry with Direct TV. They fried all the boxes in this area trying to download something on their end, and I can't seem to get anyone out here at a time that's convenient to me to replace the two I have here. I rushed home tonight only to be told that they have me scheduled for Thursday. Grrrrrr........ okay, deep breaths! I don't watch a lot of TV but I do like to turn on the news in the morning when I'm upstairs getting dressed. It probably didn't help that I told the smart-aleck young man Saturday that if I ran my business the way they're running theirs, that planes would fall out of the sky! One of these days I'm gonna learn to keep my mouth shut!

I spent all day yesterday at the sewing machine and it felt really good. But I can't post pictures of what I'm working on, so only old quilts will be posted for a while longer. Boring, boring! Next up, though, I'm going to attack that pile of quilts that just need backings pieced. Yep, I'm just going to do it! Once that stack is taken care of, then I feel I can move forward. There's a pile of fabric up there that's screaming, "Use me! Use me!"

The Nelly Table

My friends, Sally and Jace, surprised me with a Nelly Table last year. I love this table. It's always on the arm of my sofa, and keeps my applique stuff handy for night stitching.

The original table was made for Sally when she needed a place to put her mouse for her laptop. Jace is amazing. Give him an idea and he's off and running. His work is absolutely beautiful! Here's a link to his site. http://www.webersfurniture.com Some of the most dilapidated and abused pieces that have been stored in barns and attics for decades have been restored to their original beauty by him. He's a true artist!

The Nelly was named for their late cat, Nelly. She used to sleep straddling the arm of their sofa just like this table. The picture they sent me was hilarious! Anyway, it was fitting to name this piece for her.

I was constantly losing my needle threader, etc., but now everything is handy and nothing falls between the cushions of the sofa anymore. The Nelly is my all-time favorite quilty gadget!!