My Brother's Woodworking

I can't believe that I have hardly posted in the past few months, and now in just 2 days I have posted 3 times. I guess once I get started I can't hush up.
I wanted to share some more of my brothers tables. A few months ago he made me a laptop desk very similar to these, and I guess he liked it too because he has made himself these two. The darker one is walnut and he made it first for a laptop table for himself, and then he made the second from cherry and just finished it in the past few days. He wanted it to hold an old singer sewing machine that he had gotten for himself and uses occasionally, although he is not a quilter. The legs were a little short so he added some ebony wood and it looked nice so he also made an ebony knob and added some little round insets on each side that he made from oak and dyed ebony. Between the three of them, they are similar but a little different from each other and I love all 3. I'm really proud of his skill, he just started a few years ago and is self taught and does really beautiful work. He does almost everything himself except cut down the tree, when he starts it is a big heavy rough board and he goes from there. I think he is quite something.

Shopping

I've been doing a "little" shopping, some not so "little". I have been wanting to get a new car for several years, and due to something my daughter said, I went ahead and did it. I have some buyers remorse, but hopefully, it will be a good thing. We were talking about a 40 something friend of hers who has shingles and the treatment for it. She said something about her friend being young, but people who are 60ish, as is usual for shingles, only having 10 or 15 years to live (quoting from her friend's doctor). After I got over my initial dismay I decided that hopefully, I have many years more than that, but just in case, what am I waiting for. I want to enjoy my new car while I am able and I feel like having it will hopefully get me out more and keep me a bit more active. The fear of making such a purchase in hard times is giving me my buyer's remorse, but hopefully it wasn't a mistake. I talked myself into thinking I deserved it, lol. We got it the day before Father's day, so my husband likes to tell everyone that he got it for me for his Father's day. It's about the same color as this print. Khaki.
I went to the quilting group that meets in our town last week for the first time, and was shocked to see that there were about 35 people there. This is the slow time too, as in the winter when the snow birds are here they have close to twice as many. One of the ladies had some of their challenge fabric and asked if I'd like it as she didn't plan to use hers and I said yes, thank you. The smallest fabric below is the challenge fabric, and I purchased the others today to go with it. I'm thinking that I'll make one of the little baskets that are on so many blogs courtesy of Pink Penguin.

The fabrics below were on sale for $5.00 a yard, and I needed some neutrals. The wild one just caught my eye, and I was surprised when I got home that my DH really liked it, too.

I also signed up for my first "shop hop", and am looking forward to going around to the different shops. There are only 4, and one is about 5 miles from me, so it should be fairly easy. It goes on for 4 days too.

About a week ago I went to Joann's Fabrics and got a few things that I had been needing, basting spray and invisigrip, and some that I had been wanting the Gingher rotary tools. Unfortunately, after using it about 20 minutes on and off I dropped it on the blade, and now that blade is ruined. Luckily, I got the extra one, and I got them for 50% off, but I had read in one of the groups that one lady had been using hers for a year and hadn't had to change blades yet. I sure didn't get my year.

All Five Little Girl Quilts Finished

These two quilts look a lot like each other, and a lot like the one that I finished a couple of weeks ago. It went to the little girl across the street, and I received a very nice thank you note from Katie and her mother. Katie is 5 and a half. I made them from Quiltmaker's Super Sized Nine Patch pattern and just super sized them a bit more to the size of about 4 feet by 5 feet. They are for 2 of my nieces children who are toddlers about 2 and 4 years old, and the Strippie quilt from Mary's pattern is for her third little girl who was born December 2008. She has older children also, but these are for her 3 little girls who are still home. The older ones are all in school, and not so apt to be needing a quilt for napping. These were mailed off to Iowa yesterday.






















The little quilt below is for my granddaughter, Breanna, who will be 4 this summer. It isn't very big, but neither is she, so hopefully she will be able to use it for the next year or two. We will hopefully see at least some of her family this weekend and give it to her then.














Julie was sweet enough to send me some of her hens and chicks and another succulent a while back, and I have actually been able to keep them alive, although something seems to want to eat them up. A couple of days ago I looked on the porch and there was an odd little yellow thing peeping up. A few hours later I looked again and it was about 4 times the size. The next morning it had turned into this mushroom looking growth so I took some pictures. It is on the back porch and we do have mushrooms grow in our yard at times, but they never have looked like this, so I assume that this is the "flower" of one of these plants. I'm still amazed at the speed of growth. It's kind of like an exotic umbrella.
I hope that you are all having a nicer day than us weather wise. We are having rain all day, which we need, but I'd rather have an hour or two and then it's over.

It's Me Again

I'm finally back to working on my quilts. This one isn't fancy, but it's a beginning, and it is finished. I wanted to try the Sharon Schamber method of boards for basting, and ended up doing an adaptation of it. I used the boards, but instead of doing the hand basting I spray basted. It worked pretty well and was quick. I don't quite trust the spray 100%, so I pinned around the outside edge and went for it. My free motion is pretty sad, but I did another one today, and it was a little better. I have one more like this put together to quilt, and then 2 more little girl quilts to do. When I finish the bunch, I will take a picture and put it on my blog. The little girls are from one to six years old, so I don't think they will study my stitching too closely.








My daughter has been working long and hard taking college courses while raising six children by herself, and she was beaming when she got her AA degree with honors. She's still deciding if she will take more classes, right now she is just taking a break.

We have our first married grandchild. The next to the oldest, Nathan married his sweetheart Marcy on my birthday. The first picture is the one they used on their announcements and the second was at their reception. It wasn't an expensive wedding, but it was very nice and everyone had a good time. My daughter and her kids, all six of them, danced up a storm.

My daughter came over on the first anniversary of my mother's passing with this rose. It was very thoughtful, and the rose was beautiful.