My Mamal

     Early this morning, my Mamal went to heaven to be with lots of family members that are already there. She was 92 years old.  I am so glad that I went to see her for her birthday in October. She was a neat lady who went through a lot in this life - good and bad.  While I was growing up in California, she lived in upstate New York, so we didn't see each other a whole lot and it was the days before "Skype" and "FaceTime".  We wrote letters and my mom would wait and call occasionally after 9 p.m. when the rates were lower, of course.  There were visits though, she would come out and we would go to Disneyland and Busch Gardens.  We were always so excited for her to unpack her suitcase, since she would generally have a little something in there for us.
     One year, we flew to New York, then got in the car and drove to West Virginia for a family reunion. Mamal sat in the back with us 3 girls (wide old car, no seat belts) and told us stories the whole way there, we made her tell the turtle story over and over again, we loved it!  When we were at her house, in New York, she baked us our favorite pies and ate our vegetables for us too! She did ask my mom not to give us quite so many though.  She had an old claw footed tub and the only shower she had was in her scary basement.
     When I was married and she would come to California, she would come out to my house to see me and my family and she would do some little thing, like clean my toaster all sparkly! It has never been as clean before or since.

Here is a picture of 5 generations, with her on the right in Arizona a few years back. She came out to live with my Aunt Linda in Arizona for the past few years as she needed more care. Aunt Linda and her wonderful family took great care of her and we are all grateful. Today I am grateful for my family and the love, because even as we are all struggling along doing the best that we can, we all love each other A LOT!

Modern Girl

     We are headed to a family reunion for Thanksgiving this week and I volunteered a quilt top to be 'tied' (I know, perish the thought) and given away during the reunion. So, I need to piece the back (exact size - gack!) and scare up some batting that won't be terribly hard to pull the ties through, which I probably will also need to piece together, etc.
     BUT, the other day, after getting back from visiting a friend who is having her 5th baby as we speak, I decided to whip her up a little quick quilt for her new little guy. I came home and got it done after some head-scratching math, that still was off somehow. I made this from a  12" block pattern in my block book. The block finished 12", so I multiplied the pieces by 300% to make it approximately 36".  It is 39" and I had to do some fancy trimming to get it put together. I know those of you who actually took (and passed) geometry in school are laughing at me right now, but such is my life.

The beauty of it is the back doesn't need to be pieced! So I can get it quilted up quickly. By the way, this is a "Modern Quilt", I know this because at my last quilt retreat, I took a little lecture on modern quilting and one of the things that make quilts "modern" is blowing up a block like this. That said, in the class, we talked about how modern quilting is just a little bit different take on the same (wonderful) old quilting that has been around for centuries.
     So, yesterday, I headed back down to the studio (ostensibly to work on the backing/batting issue for the reunion) and I started a whole new quilt! It's going to be really cute, but I don't quite know how it jumped in front of my other projects that have a deadline…
     While I was downstairs quilting it up, Mr. Handsome was putting up the Christmas lights!!

He is so funny, he only likes to put them up if he can do it differently each year. As you can tell by our house shape, it's kind of hard to get creative, but he manages, last year there were giant X's on our roof. The nice thing about this year is I can see my own Christmas lights looking out my own windows, I don't have to cross the street to see them.

Moving Along

So, I've been working on this quilt for my newest little granddaughter and after some fighting with the tension on my quilting machine, I got it finished today! I did have to vacuum up copious amounts of picked out threads, but it looks great! (Or as great as it gets with my meandering quilting, with a word thrown in here and there). Ready to bind.

I have also been working on this Christmas Quilt for a family member and I had it on the design wall and was vacuuming near it and the vacuum caused a breeze which blew off a couple of blocks and they got SUCKED up in the vacuum! We had just gotten our old vacuum serviced and I can certify it's got the suction restored for sure!

So I fished them out of the bottom, ironed them and starched them and am currently ignoring the slight dirtiness that got on them.  Today I finally finished sewing the rows together:

Super simple pattern, just took 3 sets of charm packs, then I cut white on white fabric into 5 inch squares, then made half square triangles out of them, and sewed them together like so - ta-da - an argyle looking Christmas quilt is coming soon.

I saw this on Facebook the other day and I feel like these could be my New Years' Resolutions (If I ever actually made any)

I would have to add sewing to the list, of course, but other than that, it looks pretty darn good.

Bad Blogger

     Hello - I am writing before I dash off to another quilt retreat (Yay!!!). Headed to Park City tomorrow for 3+ days of quilting and partying and laughing! I am hoping to have lots to show when I get back, I have been remiss about posting, but part of it was not my fault! (I know, excuses, excuses) My computer bit the dust, so I now have a new computer, but it is a MAC, which is new to me, so I definitely have some figuring out to do!  I think I will love it, but there is always that headache producing new phase of figuring and head scratching with a small amount of swearing and crying thrown in.  If you were expecting pictures, you will be sadly disappointed as I have not figured out how to find my pictures on here, but fear not, I WILL figure it out when I get back! I did download all 20,000 of them somewhere on here!
     I am in the full swing of gorgeous Fall around here! Did I mention I LOVE that time change "fall back" thing - whoopee for me, no longer a lay-about lazy person sleeping in until all hours, I am awake at 7 a.m. - (not up, but awake).
     Anyhoo, hoping your Fall is going great! Happy Quilting!

Next Big Project

Okay, here is my next "big" project that I've started - but it's sort of cheating, as it is a Block of the Month, so I just have to pick up my sweet batik fabrics (in blues), and build it little by little each month. (Speaking of which, I pick up my 2nd pack in two days and I haven't done my first pack!!)

Quilt Festival was fabulous! My classes were lots of fun and I learned about designing quilts (I will master EQ 7!), a new paper-piecing method, scrap storage and usage, a little needle-turned applique and I felt like the star in the "Organizing your Quilt Space" class, because the teacher came and took photos of my very own, beautiful, remodeled studio for her slide presentation.  She saved it for last and when she showed it, people actually gave a little gasp, because it is so gorgeous. Lots of people came up and said how pretty it was after class, (I felt so popular). I enjoyed the yummy lunches, my wonderful quilting friends, etc.
Since it was not too far from home, Mr. Handsome came up a couple of times to visit, once with some of the sweet grandbabies for a little swim.
AND, so excited, my car comes tomorrow night!!!!! So, my plan is to get lots of quilting done tomorrow, since I will probably be tooling around all creation after that!

And the pictures

Here is my eight year old granddaughter's quilt:

 

 

 

 



Gotta Love Quilting Season!

     I have been a busy girl, spent a wonderful week in Missouri, visiting my daughter and meeting my newest granddaughter, Holland Danielle, she is beautiful, but perhaps a wee bit crabby at times.  Here is the quilt I took for her (gray minky on the back)

     Our oldest wonderful granddaughter was baptized, so I took her a quilt too, I meant it to be a throw, but it seems to have turned out more twin-sized-ish: (For some reason, blogger won't let me post it!!!)
Next time...
     Tomorrow I head out to Quilt Festival!!!! So excited, 4 days of classes, friends, and fun - all revolving around quilting, of course!  My new car still has not made an appearance, so that will be a few more days that I won't need a car, it has been promised for next week, I surely will be appreciating it when it comes, having "done without" for 2 months, if you can believe it (I hardly can).
     Looking forward to learning lots of new quilt techniques, or at least one. I am taking several lecture classes, my favorite, no prep work, just sitting back and enjoying the quiltiness. Hopefully I will be able to get my pictures up when I get back - toodles!