In a 'bind'?

Isn't it great when you have completed several projects all at once? Sure, except 'finish' is a relative term in quilting.... We finish the blocks, finish the tops and even finish with the quilting but it still is not finished until it has the binding finished (and a label!!) I'm 3 quilts, 1 vest, 1 jacket behind on my binding, just from last week!  Labeling all of these at once will make it a quick project, (I print them on fabric treated with Bubble Jet Set) & may be able to do all of these on one sheet!
The first is a 'bolero jacket'; I've had this 'See & Sew (Butterick)' pattern (#5085) for almost 20 years and finally made one. It was a little tricky since the shoulder seams are offset to the front - (note to self - don't forget to mark the dots!) so when you are setting the gathered sleeve you put the gathers in the right place the first time. This is a size 12 and the shoulders are a little tight getting into it but it fits me nicely. I think it will fit my Aunt, if not, then its a good thing it fits me! The photo looks like one arm is longer than the other but it is just the way one of the sleeves is folded over.

This vest is so simple, if anyone out there has never made a garment, any vest is a great first sewing project. 4 seams and a finish-binding in this case! The crosshatching was not the best choice for quilting this but I had a quilt on the frame and this was quick and easy at my 'sit down' machine. had to Git 'er done!

The flip flop quilt is for my grand daughter. The scrappy one - I was very brave and used RED thread to quilt. Every mistake jumps out but I kept telling myself it is a scrappy utility quilt, it's OK. I'm happy with it and will likely make it my new traveler. The last one is going to to my neighbor, who is a Vietnam Vet suffering the effects of agent orange. I think it will qualify as a QOV but have to check with those folks to confirm and document - it has a plain muslin back and the QOV folks want printed backs.

For my regular followers, I wanted to follow up with you on the vintage selvage quilt. I inadvertently left it hanging out on the porch rail after day 2 of letting it 'air'. Well, it rained overnight so when I looked out that morning and saw it, I ran water in the tub and added a little soap; rolled the quilt up and transported to the tub, unrolled and pressed into the water. Repeat 4 TIMES and rinse, and then gently rolled and pressed the water out. placed dry towels under and over, press and switch towels. I threw the original ones in the dryer and switched them again until I had most of the water out, enough so I could carry it back out to the porch rail and  then before night fell, I threw it in the dryer on the 'low heat' and tumbled it for about 20-30 minutes. She is fresh as a daisy and back in the bowels of quilt storage, until I find that teddy bear pattern....Great, another project to add to the 'list'. Today I have a fairy frost fabric quilt to load on the longarm and do a panto on. 4 quilts, a vest and a jacket to bind....

I have Nott fallen off the face of the earth!

but it likely seems that way from my blog. I apologize to my follower's, you deserve better so I will try to get back in the groove! I've been on a couple of road trips w/DH, reclaimed my sewing room and gotten the longarm back up (cut her back to 8') and tackled the very long list of UFO's or WIP's, whatever you like to call them. I actually made a list which for some reason was so daunting, like the quilt police are going to penalize me? While making a list may not seem like such a big deal to you, mine is a spreadsheet, columns A - O and about 35 lines deep, Phases 1 -3; 1 is a kit or project in the planning stages; 2 is broken down into quilt tops/panels/paper piecing/hand projects/other projects; 3 is the longarming, binding and labeling (binding is broken down into cut/attach/finish). I had to do it this way, it was far to alarming to put each item in a single column, that is heart attack material! This makes me some special personality type but I don't know which, if you know please tell me, unless you see schizophrenic tendencies. I don't need to know about that. Anyway, it is working for me cause I have finished 5 tops that only needed assembling and/or borders, quilted 1 and almost finished another on the longarm and  decorated this little denim skirt.

Two of the quilts were flip flop quilts, one I satin stitched, the other I used a short stitch length and left them raw edge. I think it will be cool once it is washed. These will be on the quilt frame soon as they will be fun and easy background fill mostly. I anxious to put the ribbons on, branching out into a whole new area - embelishment, which reminds me of my dolly dresses panel and the clown quilt I need to start.....

The other 3 tops are approx queen size, one is a gift for a special aunt, (it is all fairy frost and I have heard longarmer's don't like it so we'll see, fairly soon as it is a P1 on the spreadsheet). I'll surely post a pic when it is done. Right now, I'm in wearables mode and going to finish that jacket I started last year....

Selvage surprise!

My dear friend Jane sent me this gift she found at a trade days/flea market about a year or so ago and in my recent 'cleaning/organizing project', it has surfaced from the depths of quilt storage. I was not up to  actually starting on the work that this baby needs but thought a good 'airing' would be nice and I could make notes on exactly what needs to be done. Maybe an appraisal?

The batting is cotton wadding! The hand quilting is giant baptist fans, one of my fav quilting designs!

Imagine my excitement when I found not one but TWO selvages!

The giant prints appear to be decorator fabrics, very thick; some of the center blocks are pieced in crazy patch style and then large strips were used to 'get er done'; definitely my kind of quilter. The back is a very sturdy (and dirty) muslin. The majority of the wear and tear is around the binding and on the edges. I would love to restore this baby but what a project! Washing it in the tub is the only option I know of but with that batting, I doubt I would be able to lift it out of the tub once wet. Anyone out there ever taken on a restoration project? Any tips or websites? The selvage nut in me is screaming "take it apart and check out the selvages, you know they are there"!

Good Grief! How is a Grand-Ma to keep up?

Technology has run over me like a steam roller in the past few weeks. It all started when T-Mobile offered a BOGO sale and DH got me a 'smart phone' cause he 'absolutely had to have a new one'. (Really! I was in agreement.) So this thing connects to gmail and does everything but wash the dishes but somebody has to show me how to make it happen! Just transferring my contacts took me days to figure out so I was feeling a bit disconnected for a while.
So, I also have a laptop that has only been used for business so I'm thinking I really want to do away with the old desktop as it has become a magnet that keeps me tied to the desk, (2006 model) so while the geek kid was here I want him to 'do the deed' and transfer everything to the laptop. We were trying to do this while taking care of Gabe and Renee was grooming the dog out back. The whole process he expected to take hours but one or the other of the 2 computers would go to 'sleep' mode and interrupt (cancel) the process so I start manually moving files, i.e. the fewer files to be moved the shorter the process?
In the meantime I get an E-mail announcing the opening of the Online Quilt Museum from Karen over at the selvage blog and sign up right away! Great, all my pics are on the laptop and I'm still working off the desktop. Karen was a doll and offered to post the pics for me from my webshots album since I was in technology crisis mode. There are issues with the pics but the thumbnails aren't bad. I have to resize the pics, another challenge! Technology 'bullying' me around again. And what the heck is Windows Mail and where is my Outlook Express? Did I mention I'm determined to learn this EQ5 program (maybe before EQ47 is released!) and cannot find the disk?
OK, Windows has this cool transfer wizard but I (duh) gave it a new identity so would you believe I now have 2 users on the laptop, pics are in original owner users files and everything else is in the 'new' users identity. Alas, they can share files, yeah, technology is grand and my name ain't Grand-Ma for no reason! XP to Vista, why can't I just skip up to Windows 7? It costs how much???? Gabe, at 9 months is already playing with an IPad!

Vienna on my mind

Vienna was my DH's previous wife, they had 3 children (Chris, Brandon, Melissa), then Vienna married Kenny and had 3 more (Sarah, Frank, Amy). Vienna passed away (breast cancer) when Amy was 3. That was 5+ years ago. Vienna's first grand child was born on the same date she passed away, 5 years later.

Fast forward about 9 months....Gabriel came to Texas to see all his family! 

Grandpa is so talented....can hold Gabriel and take a self pic at the same time!

Melissa, Sarah & Amy.

Great Grandparents, Jack & Lois Weikel from Montana...

This is a group shot of almost everyone who came, Jeff is the photographer so he's not in there and George & Carol Miller from Waco, TX. had already headed home. Thanks so much for coming everyone! I had a wonderful day.

Vienna took me by the hand and looked me in the eyes before she died. She said, 'Thank you for taking care of my kids'. I didn't really understand at the time, but she did. I could not figure out what I had done that she was thanking me for. Now, I get it.

'No, Vienna; Thank You!' They bring me more joy than I could have ever imagined, so much so, that I sometimes feel guilty for experiencing the joy that is rightfully yours, that comes with nurturing them, no matter how old or how big they get. Happy Mother's Day to all women, even the one's who never gave birth.

The Airing of the Quilts

If you happened to be in Huntsville, TX. on the first Sat. in May, of any given year....you are truly in for a treat! Even if you don't particularly get excited about quilts, you can't possibly resist this display of color!

Despite the threat of rain, volunteers arrive at 7AM to begin hanging the quilts.

This one caught my eye from a block away. 'To Grandma's House' by Helen Belcher. Helen has always been a big fan of redwork but now she has moved on to black. I love it Helen, in any color!

Check out this quilt called 'Fireman's Pride', made for Houston Firefighter Captain Don Gray from shirts worn during his years of service, received upon his retirement. Made by Pam Boyle.

The photo didn't catch the number of this entry so I do not know who made it but WOW! Love your boldness with the sashing/border colors!

Last, but my favorite of all is this hand embroidered beauty. The embroidered blocks were a gift (can you believe it?) to Charlene Foerster, who assembled the blocks in order of admission to the Union. Really beautiful Charlene. Bug, are you seeing this?

I only got a few shots, so to experience this, mark your calendar for the first Sat. in May, you want to be in downtown Huntsville, TX. More pics should be on the website in a few days, (takes them a few to recover) so visit the Tall Pines Quilt Guild for more....

And look who arrived at my house yesterday......

I gotta go play now, Gabriel is up and feed and ready for his first full day at Grandma's House!

More Gardening Than Quilting….

I'm quite proud of my little garden, even if I will have to spend a big part of the summer in the chiropractor's office. Wonder if he will take squash for payment? Don't laugh, we're getting there! I won't go off on politics, I'll leave that to DH....anything to keep him out of my sewing room!

These amaryllis's all came from my Aunt Nelda's yard when she passed away 4-5 yrs ago. I brought them home and stuck them in the ground, have never done anything else to them. the white-ish with red one has more than 20 blooms on it now and 6-8 more buds.

One of the stems was laying over from the weight of them all so I tried to 'prop' it up and snapped at the ground. I took the shot next to a bar stool for posterity! Fresh flowers in my house? Is company coming? Well, yes, in-laws, outlaws, kids and grandkids! The flowers were not my idea, that was God's doing!

Hello Hattie! (my mom) This is her Christmas Cactus, still in the same pot it was in when she died 12+ yrs ago. I have pinched and rooted dozens more from it and it never gives up, even this past winter when almost all if my cacti literally froze, even in the shed, with a droplight for heat. We rarely get below 20 degrees here and if so, it is only for a few hours but we had about 48 hrs of below freezing in Jan.

Here is what is left of Hattie's Bird of Paradise; she had it in a half whiskey barrel and moved it in and out every year - not me! I put it in the ground under a tree when we bought this house 8 yrs ago. I has not really grown any larger since it was really root bound and impossible to pull the roots apart when we set it out. It has a dozen or so blooms every year but has never done what is should. Sorry Mom, maybe this will help?

It covered this entire area of dirt B4 so this is a major trim. Look what I found while gardening in my flip flops! Picture definitely tells a story. I'm wondering where his momma and siblings are?

One more pic, cause this IS a quilting blog....

PS: the 'golden' machine is still in the shop with no call from them so what little sewing that is happening is happening on my classic Elna Stella. This is a 30+ yr old gem for traveling, only weighs 11 lbs and, unlike a Featherweight, has a zig zag stitch!

Hope you enjoyed your little tour of my backyard! Happy Spring!