Lazy Days of Summer

I walk 4 or 5 miles each morning and I like to do it early.......The days have been getting shorter so it's still dark when I start on my walk......We have street lights, so it's not scary to be walking in the dark......Sometimes I take the dog with me.....

On the next street these huge mushrooms had popped up overnight......They were beautiful......Before I got close to them I thought some kid had left a giant ball in the yard......


I just had to go into the yard to get these pictures, was hoping I wouldn't be seen........The large ones were at least 12 to 14 in across and stood about 10 or 12 inches tall......I had never seen any this big.....They were gone the next morning....... Wish I knew what kind they were.........

This and That

This week has been so hot I've tried to stay inside and get caught up on all my many projects.........I've finished quilting two quilts, so this afternoon was spent making binding.......all ready to be sewn on tomorrow........

Finished the July blocks for the Christmas Town Sampler........August blocks will be reveled Saturday........I'm hoping I can keep up with the blocks so I will have a finished quilt at the end and not another unfinished project.





Finished another block for Birdie Stitches...........Now to my book that I've been reading.........I am reading three different books.......Always have to have a lot of things going on........Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Featherweight Cleaning

I went to a class on cleaning your featherweight sewing machines last week. Our guild hosted the teachers, Diane Lowe and Jo Reid for a very informative workshop.....I was surprised how easy it was..... Diane and Jo are members of TVQA..... They know their machines.......After taking their class you are so much more confident about working on your machines.....I cleaned and serviced my other featherweights this week......


I have been working on my Manor houses for the Christmas Town Sampler hosted by Patchwork Times, 7 and 7, Quilting tizzy and Just Quilting bloggers. I hope I can keep up as they are posting a new part the first Sat. in each month.



I have finished half of my Birdie Stitches blocks.......I am really enjoying the embroidery......... I seem to be doing a lot of little things.......need to have some finishes instead of starting new projects.........
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Reverse Sewing

I have spent my afternoons this week reverse sewing..... By reverse I mean ripping out what I have sewn...... Ann,one of my co-workers called it reverse sewing when she taught quilting classes and I remember her each time I have to take out what I have sewn......

I am making a quilt out of my Mom's sheets.... She always had pretty sheets, when I was small she would iron her sheets after bringing them in from the cloths line.......

I saw 8 1/2 sheet squares for sell on Etsy to use to make a quilt.....I thought I have Mom's sheets, why not use them and make a quilt....I fussy cut all the pretty flowers from the sheets......I thought I would just sew together randomly which I did....
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OH--NO.... I did not like it.... I love scrappy quilts, but controlled scrappy......What to do???
 By the time I got it together I wanted this quilt so bad.....So I have been taking it apart this week and putting back together.

 I added a border from my stash and I will use another one of her sheets for the lining.........I will use on my bed, perfect, because the dogs sleep on the bed on top of the quilt and I can wash as often as it needs without worrying that I would ruin the quilt.......

All I have left to do is quilt it.......Glad I have a long arm machine.......When I had a quilt shop, I always advised people to never use a sheet for quilting......Never say Never......

T-Shirt Quilt

This is the second t-shirt quilt I have made from my son's t-shirts........I wrote about the first quilt in an earlier post......This quilt is made from some of the t-shirts that he had when he played softball........ He was good at softball and a powerful hitter.......I loved going to watch his games........many happy memories there.

I put some images of him on the quilt........ This one was of him when he was about seven years old....... He played all the sports as he was growing up, with us tagging along to watch.......





I'm sure he was caught as he slammed the ball for a home run in the next two pictures......
These pictures say a lot about who he was...... Everything he did he gave his all.......

It was a hard process making the two quilts......I wanted to make
the shirts into quilts so that they would be preserved for future family members to remember Tony.......I have enough of random shirts to make another quilt.....We will have to wait and see if I can summon the courage to do that.

Catch Up Day

 Worked in the gardens this morning while it was cool...... The hot (103) degrees afternoon has been a great time to finish a few things that had been setting around, patiently waiting for me.

One of the charity projects that our quilt guild supports is making small quilts for the preemie babies that are born at local hospitals.

A 12 x 12 quilt is tiny..... Little kits were put together at the guild one month..... I've finished six little quilts this afternoon...... All are a pre-printed Christmas fabric with  small borders...... So simple, yet enjoyed by the parents and nurses.


This is the start of a small wall hanging, Primitive Pinwheels,
by www.primitvegatherings.us  I bought this pattern at the
Cincinnati quilt show..... I will use the lil' twister tool to cut this
little quilt apart, block by block and row by row.... I will then sew the rows back together to finish the wall hanging......

oops!!!!!!!Look at all that white around this picture.....oh well,
I didn't realize that the design wall would show up so much....

I will finish the binding on the t-shirt quilt tonight.......having it ready to show you next post......Stay Cool....
                                                                  

Hardest quilt that I've made

This quilt was so hard to make...... I lost my precious son several years ago......I gathered all his t-shirt with the intention of making a quilt....... I stored them in a huge tote....... Over the years I would open the tote intending to get started on a quilt, but seeing and feeling them as I cut a few would be so overwhelming that I would sat and grieve a while and put the box back into it's storage space.......

I finally realized that when I joined him one of these days if I hadn't made quilts from his shirts they wouldn't be preserved....He had so many shirts, body building, softball and random shirts......I decided to make three quilts..... I divided the shirts into themes....
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He was a serious  body builder, had a fantastic body......worked out at the gym most days after work.....I would start with those shirts.... I used his Zubaz pants that he worked out in for the setting strips....When I got started, it was a wonderful labor of love and remembrance of his life.......

The top was finished....What was I going to do for the lining?    I wanted something special...... I thought about it for a few days.......Some time my best decisions are made when I'm sleeping.....woke up about three one morning with this in my mind.

Two of his work out outfits sewn on to the lining fabric.....Look at the pants, they show the wear over the years.....I cherish them....

I quilted it and put the rest of the shirts away for a while, about six months.....I had to finish the other shirts......I'm sewing the binding on the second quilt now......Stay tuned for that quilt next.

Thinking of Dad

As a child growing up I followed my Dad around a lot....... He had a small country store and I was there every day. The store was the hang out for our neighborhood......... Farmers would gather to play checkers and shoot the breeze as they use to say........In the summer all the young people gathered on the front porch with our cokes and peanuts or a candy bar....... As we got older he would leave my sister and I in charge if he had to go to the house or work on our small farm which was behind the store....... I guess that is the reason I've always loved retail.

Later Dad had a family clothing store...... He and Mom both work at the store....... When they retired I had my quilt shop so they would come and help me do inventory or take care of everything when I went to market or set-up my booth at the many quilt shows........


  Can you guess what these are?   He liked to whittle and made the little pressing tools for me to sell in the shop........

     He would make these walking sticks and I sold a few of those especially when he was at the shop telling people about how he got the marbles in the holes..........


He was a great Dad and I miss our times together.

New Embroidery Project

         I have started an embroidery project.......Birdie Stitches......After browsing blogs I happened upon www.littlemissshabby.com blog. She has so many wonderful projects. She did an embroidery block of the month last year.......It just tuck me a year to find this blog........I guess there are so many quilting blogs that you could find a new one each day.

 She still has this project on her blog and it's free. I downloaded each month plus the instructions, ordered some new fabric......Sunkissed by Moda.....A girls gotta have new fabric to start a new project.........I have made all twelve blocks.....The little birdie is different in each block.... I realized that the Sunkissed charm packs had no blue fabric so I added a blue and a small blue and yellow plaid fabric to the blocks.......I'm making this as a baby quilt and with the blue added it can be for a boy or girl.......Hint.....Hint......Hint....I'm ready for another grand baby...........I'm working on the second block, using three strands of thread. It works up fast.

I'm also working on this........I use to own a quilt shop and in the early 90's before all the quilt kits became the rage. You could get these kits, pre-stamped on fabric........A lady bought this kit and cut all the leaves and flowers out then brought it back to the shop, she said she could not get them to line up with the design stamped on the background fabric.......Being the wonderful shop owner that I was, I refunded the price of kit back to her.......This became my travel work......I appliqued all twelve blocks then put it away, came across it about a year ago.......It became my project to take to Sit and Stitch or other meetings to do the embroidery on each block.........My goal is to finish this quilt this year.

Granddaughter's Graduation Quilt

This was a fun quilt to make. I knew that Granddaughter # 2 would like it. I made one for Granddaughter # 1 when she graduated...........I used a pigma pen to do the writing around the white middle border, then pressed using a vinegar solution, spraying the lettering then ironing.......The quilt will be a remembrance of her high school  and college friends........ Amanda wants me to make her one combining left over fabric from both girls quilt..........Will have to see how that works out....... I will eliminate the white border..........
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We were at Amanda's shop when I gave it to her, see all the sports bras hanging in background...........They are as bright as the quilt.........Amanda's company is www. spandees.com.........It is a small company specializing in fun spandex shorts and tights for sports teams......... I have a pair of them that I use for yoga.   

Hubby's Gardening

Most mornings when I come back from my walk, this is what I see...... Hubby works is the yard a lot..... The entire yard is shady...... He spends a small fortune on fertilize, grass seed and any thing that will make the grass grow.

His most favorite thing to do is water, if he's not holding the hose the sprinkler is on somewhere in the yard or he's washing the drive, courtyard area or deck.......

We have an Africa Grey and a Green Cheek Conure. Their cages needed cleaning, so we decided to take them to the deck, clean cages and let them enjoy being outside.......Guess what?????

  Alex decides he will whistle. He does this several times and then start saying, where's momma two or three times. Our neighbors were outside and here they come, they thought Hubby was whistling and talking to them.

The outside keeps hubby busy and I can stay busy with my quilting. It was a big challenge when he first retired. He'd never been home all the time and I'd not had anyone around since the kids had left home. We each had some adjusting to do. Now we are at a point were we are enjoying it.

Out and About

                                                       My precious Aunt Doodle

Yesterday we had a wonderful day taking my Aunt to  Granville Heritage Days. She had the most wonderful time. She is the only one of her generation left on her husband's side of the family. You can imagine the excitement when we ran into her niece and nephews that she hadn't seen in years. It was like old home week for me also seeing so many old friends and relatives.

After several hours of visiting all the exhibits, watching clogging, listening to the wonderful music and eating fried apple pies we went and had lunch at Helen's eating her yummy fried catfish.............Wished I had taken a picture.

Graduation quilt

I have been as busy as a little bee trying to finish this quilt for my granddaughter's high school graduation. I made it so she can have her friends sign the white center strip and when she takes it to college, her friends there can write on it also.

I wrote her name at the top in the white center border, her school, Dana Hall class of 2012 in the bottom center border.  I wrote "May you find strength in the love that surrounds you" on the left side and on the right side is written "Believe deep down in your heart that you are destined to do great things."  I found these quotes several years ago, liked them and wrote the same on her big sis's quilt when she graduated.

I made a king size quilt like this for our Pastor and church members filled the quilt with wonderful thoughts to him and his family.

I like the pattern and guess what I have a lot of left over blocks so number four might be for me.

 Will post a better picture when it's finished.     

Thinking of Mom

Mom has been on my mind today and I was looking at some of her beautiful things that I have. She collected dolls, I have some and the rest we sold at her estate sale.

I made the dolls above, the one on the left for my Mom and the one on the right for my Grandmother. These were made when the Cabbage Patch doll craze was going on.

LA, my daughter, had gotten an original doll made by Xavier Roberts in 1979. They were called Little People at that time. She did look like a relative!!!! Her doll is signed on the butt with his name and the no 138.

 Alberta Bridgett resides in my attic with all LA's other childhood toys waiting for LA to have her own little girl.   Too much digging and too many photos to go through to find a picture of her.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone.

Suprise Visitor

Our no.1 granddaughter Sam called Thursday night asking would we like some visitors for the week-end. We both were beyond excited. The girls had been given the week-end off from Lacrosse practice.

Saturday morning started with a huge southern breakfast, home made biscuits, country ham,  bacon, eggs, hash browns and gravy. They had never seen gravy being made. They don't have that in Ma. and Ca.        For dinner we had buffalo burgers a first for them also.

They got to go downtown Saturday night for St Patrick's  and March Madness. Sunday morning another big breakfast, this time I made chocolate gravy. The next time they might bring the entire team. lol.

Courtney wanted to learn to knit, we found thread and needles, started her on a scarf with knit and purl stitch. I might have to go visit their college and teach her to bind off.

Sent them off with  lots of hugs and prayers for a safe trip back to SC. Granddaughter Samantha is on left. Isn't she beautiful?  A wonderful, blessed week-end.

Quilt Storage Closet

I have a closet in Mom's old room that is 42in by 14ft that I store my quilt and all the quilts from my Mom, Grandmothers and Aunts. I also have a lot of their vintage crochet tablecloths, bedspreads and afghans. I have about a hundred quilts in it. 

The closet was called the sewing closet on the original house plans. When we moved in Mom had this as her room when she was here. Guess it will always be called Mom's room. I miss her so much, but can go into this room and set in her chair, read her Bible, look at her things and remember her furious love for all of us.

Mom's sewing things

My Mom had a very unique system storing her fabric scraps and sewing supplies. She only bought fabric for what ever she was working on. One quilt at a time, she would piece and quilt until she finished it. She saved or shared with friends the scraps that were left.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    These tins were found under her sofas in den and living room, filled with sewing supplies and fabric scraps. The bakery must have gotten a deal on the tins. I have 15 and they are all the same design. Fifteen years of saved tins.

 Mom and Dad always bought a fruit cake at Christmas and the tins were what it came in. I could not let someone else have these so I bought them at the estate sale. They are still filled with the things Mom put in them.

Vintage Paper Piecing

As I was going through a box of my Mom's scrap fabrics today I came across 30 paper pieced blocks. They were pieced in the fifties. She used newspapers for her pattern and then sewed fabric scraps to the paper until the pattern was covered. She then trimmed the fabric to the paper pattern.

I

I had a dress out of the fabric with the triangles...........I also have some of the same blocks pieced that I did in the 50's when she, my Grandmother and Aunt were each piecing this pattern. I pieced my first quilt when I was 13 or 14 and they quilted it for me.

My Mother called this the Snowball quilt when it was set together with white or muslin centers. My Grandmother set hers together with yellow centers and she called it the Sunball quilt. I have the quilt that she did with the yellow centers.

See the advertisement at right Goodlettsville- At Solitude Farm apartment for rent. I was amazed when I saw this. I lived about a mile from this farm for 25 years. My youngest daughter's best friends family owns this. Small world.!!!!!!!!



See the paper in the bottom picture.......You could buy
a 1953 Mercury for $595.00.......A 1952 Ford for $425.00.......

       I guess I need to prowl around in my stuff and find my Snowball blocks and put them with Mom's. I would never piece them together, too much fun reading the paper on back.

        I treasure my Mom and Grandmother for teaching me hand work at an early age. We lived close to my Grandmother and Aunt. They were always at the house together, cooking, piecing, crocheting or whatever needed doing. They helped each other, it might be at our house one day, my Aunt's another day or my Grand parents home. When the men came home, we would all eat together before everyone went to their own home.  Great memories.

A Little Bit of This and A Little Bit of That

Seems like I have been doing a lot of little things this week, but I did finish piecing my 36 block quilt. I got the inspiration here Sew Mama Sew blog, I have been working on it as I piece other things. It was so easy to piece using the 2 in. blocks as leaders and enders.

It will get quilted as soon as I finish quilting the quilt that I have on my machine now. It is a Halloween quilt that I made using a pattern from Blackbird Designs.

I have so many things I want to do or make that I guess I will keep on doing a little bit of this and a little bit of that until I'm in that Heavenly place. I don't know I may still  be able to keep on doing what I've always loved, working with my hands.

Window quilts

I have Anderson bay windows at my kitchen sink, even with the double panes at times it still feels cold. I made small plain quilts for the windows in the log home we use to live in. I decided that's what I need here. They are simple, two pieces of fabric with batting inside. I layered all three pieces, sewed around leaving enough room to turn. I then turned, pressed and did a simple square stitching. I attached two pairs of sashes on each side of the window quilt. I can roll the quilt up and tie when I want to see out or it's warm.   You would be surprised how much cold air they keep out.  I can insert my hand between the quilt and window and feel the difference.

A Year of Letting Go

Brrrrrr......It was so cold this morning as I got ready for my walk, that I bundled up as if I was starting for the North Pole. The gloves were the first to go, then scarf, hat and after four miles the jacket was tied around me. Felt like I was doing a strip walk..........the shoes helped me walk faster.

I began to think how I tend to keep things I might need again and decided that this was going to be a year of letting go of some of my "stuff".   I gave daughter #2 a clock that had been my Mother's as she was getting ready to go back to NY.    I just took off wall and said would you like to have this? She took it and was gone before I could change my mind......She was out of here with it before I could take a picture......She knows her Mom very well, she was afraid I would change my mind.