I got presents!!

The darling little elderly lady next door is moving into an assisted living facility today. Yesterday I went over to chat with her and she gave me an awesome gift!!
She had this tucked away in her closet for who knows how many years....

It is an unfinished quilt top - Tumbling Blocks in some very interesting prints. It has a few stains but should be ok after a good soak. I am hesitant to soak it before it is finished and quilted as it might be too fragile....Unfortunately it will sit on my shelves for a while until I finish up a few other projects.

I think it will look great in the guest room, which is done in Americana/red, white & blue colors...

Dear Hubby bought a new iron just for little ole me!
He has a lovely habit of ironing his work uniforms on high heat with starch and our old iron was always a mess. I had to clean it up everytime I needed it for my quilting. Now I have one of my very own for my quilting/sewing projects.

Isn't she a beaut?! Pretty good score, if I do say so myself.

Hope you all are having a great weekend too!

TGIF !! It has been a while since I have been on Blogland...

I have been busy with life but I am finally ready to start a new project - a baby quilt for my fourth Grandchild! The baby is due in September and we do not know the sex yet. I had some of this super fun Sock Monkey fabric in my stash ~

I want to keep the quilt light so I added in a light green, but I might add a little of the red and brown bananas into the mix as well......

..and I found this adorable panel print of the Monkeys jumping on the bed story for a wall hanging.

I found an adorable pattern in a quilting magazine, which I will blog about later as I post my progress.

I have also been busy making two pillow covers for old couch pillows. I will post about those when I have pictures to show.

Have a wonderful Friday and a fabulous weekend!

Finally finished!!

Well, its has been forever since I blogged, but I am finally finished with the wall hanging a friend/co-worker hired me to make. It seemed to take forever as I dealt with family matters and then the holidays hit. Better late than never ~ Here she is ~

Sorry for the crummy lighting, my office has yucky florescents. It is sized to hide an electrical panel in her guest room and the fabrics were chosen to coordinate with her existing bedding. Next, I will be making a coordinating bed skirt out of the green vine fabric.

Have a great day!

Learning to Fail with Grace

Well, I finished my first commission project yesterday; a T shirt memory quilt for a co-worker's daughter. I was quite pleased with it....unit I washed it!!!!

Here is the completed top -

The batting is bunched up in some places and feels completely absent in others. I could just cry! I was unsure of the batting at the start and I should have listened to my gut. I will spend the next two evenings carefully removing the binding, snipping the ties and starting the "sandwich" process all over - with better batting of course!

A friend of mine asked me where the lesson in this was. hhhhmmmm, I think it must be lesson in patience as well as learning to accept failures with dignity and grace. Not sure I am going to pass this lesson!

Who needs a good thrashing?

Supposedly it is Fall here in the mountains of Western North Carolina but it is still as humid as all get out! We have been trying to cut costs by not using the air conditioner unless absolutely necessary. Yesterday when we got home from work, the hubster decided to turn off the AC and open the windows. Normally I am ok with this, I love fresh air, however as the temp inside the house climbed to 79 degrees, I was at my limit. Being a big girl as I am, in the midst of menopause, I do not tolerate the heat as well as others. So, there I was, huffing and puffing as I washed the dinner the dishes. Sticking my hands in hot soapy water in a 79 degree house has always been my idea of a good time. NOT!

Hubster walks in and says, “What’s wrong with you?”     “It’s hot in here.”    “No it’s not. Is this another one of your heat thrashes?”   
Heat thrash?! Granted, the guy learned English in a foreign country but that one about killed me! Heat thrash. If you think about though, it sums it up pretty well. I know when I get one of my dreaded hot flashes the first thing I want to do, (If I am not able to get completely naked and stand in from of an industrial sized fan) is to thrash something, someone, anyone! He did make me laugh though. And the house did start to cool down……..

Blood Types and Memories

My son and I were talking about our blood types last night and it sparked a memory of how I found out what my blood type was, waaaaaaay back in 8^th grade Biology. We all had to prick out fingers with those evil little metal lances and put a drop of our blood on a glass microscope slide. While I do not recall the exact process, we all got to find out what our blood type was. Pretty cool, huh?! (Mine is O+ in case you are wondering.)

The Biology teacher looked like an elf and he always wore horribly colored plaid golf pants with a white belt and shoes. Although it was the early/mid 70’s, it was still really tacky! He was an odd little man.

We had the usual biology experiences, dissecting large earth worms and then frogs, all heavily saturated in formaldehyde, but there is one particular experience that stays very fresh and vivid in my mind.

It started out as a normal school day in sunny San Diego as I took my seat in the back of the class. No, I was not a really cool kid, or trying to be. Eighth grade was one of my “Dark Years”. I was a bit of a loner and just wanted to be left alone and blend into the woodwork.

Well, anyway, I took my seat and after the class got settled, that happy little elf, errr, teacher, came to back of the class to show us his new prize, I mean experiment! Right smack dab next to my chair was a galvanized garbage can with a lid on it (Thank you for at least putting a lid on it!) He proudly opened the lid to show us his treasure. Low and behold, it was a hammer head sharks head in the can which was filled with MAGGOTS! You could actually hear them “working”. I do love science and I have a pretty high tolerance for grossness but this was a bit much.

If I remember correctly, I skipped class the next day and told my parents they had to get me transferred out of there. I do not remember the why’s or how’s but I was not able to get a class transfer. I spent the next few tortuous weeks sitting next to that disgusting can, which of course he would remove the lid from during class time, so we could “witness” biology in action. (I told you he was odd!)

Thankfully we moved to another school district not long after that so it was a blessing in more ways than one. I got out of that crazy man’s class and I got to attend a new school where no one knew me and I could blend into the wood work really well!

*Sigh* The teenage years are such a traumatic part of growing up.

Commission Work!

I have been commissioned to make a T-shirt memory quilt! And there is a possiblilty for more T-shirt quilts in the future. I have also been asked to make a wall hanging for another person! I will be spending the weekend, trying to do some materials and time/labor calculations so I know what to charge. That is the hard part.

Could it really be happening? Am I starting to see a twinkle or a glimmer of light? Maybe it is time to seriously look into getting that business license I have been putting off. This could turn into something someday! Woo Hoo!

Can you tell that I am excited?