Miscellaneous

My niece and her children are safely back in Iowa and had a very nice vacation, I hope. A couple of the kids told me they can't wait until next year when they can come back, so I think that they enjoyed themselves. The last day they had to get up at 2:30 AM to catch their 6:00 AM flight, so I'll bet it felt really good to get home.

Rebecca read my blog post and the remarks about her home and she sent me this email:

"Dear Candace. I just got back from my dad's and was finally able to look at this email. You have no idea how you and your friends have made me feel. I have tears in my eyes!! Thank you so much for giving me this gift of kind words. Love, Becky Rebecca (either one is fine)"

She made my day with her kind words.

I forwarded the kind and complimentary posts about my brother's ruler rack to him and he was also touched, but told me that if I sent anymore he would get a big head.

The picture above is of the last blocks out of the seventy required for the Crazy Mom Quilts sew along. Yeah! Now, it needs to go back in the box until I get the 6 quilts finished for my grandson and nieces and nephews.

PS I was glad to see when my niece was here that she had brought the little girl quilts with her and the kids were using them. It warmed my heart.

Wedding and Ruler Rack

Busy is the word that comes to mind to describe the past few days. My niece and her 7 children got here Wednesday, the day we (DH and I) went to the ball game, and the next day we did errands getting ready for the family get together on Sunday and visited twice with Kerri (my niece) and her children. Friday we did yard work and my brother and my nephew got here. His son, my nephew, stayed with my grandson and my brother stayed at my house, which is the usual way that we do things, as his son and my grandson are both 13 now, and their birthdays within a month of each other. They share many interests, including computer gaming. Saturday was my granddaughter's wedding. I don't know why, but I didn't get many pictures that day, but it was a beautiful wedding. They had it at the Melbourne, Fl. zoo, and the lodge inside was decorated beautifully. The ceremony was on the big porch in the back, and then we were back inside. She looked beautiful and very happy. There was lots of delicious food, and I think that we were eating most of the time. That's my second grandchild to marry this year, now my daughter and my son each have a married child.
My granddaughter was sweet she pointed out to me that she had made her veil, and added shiny rhinestones to the back. She thought of me when she did it, as she knows that I sew.

My brother brought my ruler rack and put it up for me. You might be able to tell that it started out life as a drawer that he was unhappy with, although it looks perfect to me. When I asked him to use it for my ruler rack, he added the 2 extra boards in the center and the notches. It is beautiful and works just perfectly. It is in my sewing room closet, so was a bit hard to photograph hanging, but I did the best I could. Boy is it nice to get my rulers in one place and off my cutting-ironing table. It's a wonder I didn't wear them out moving them back and forth from the table to the bed. Again, my brother did an excellent job, and made my life easier. I feel bad because it seems like every time he comes there are jobs at my daughter's house and my house. The same with my other brother. This time he hung the ruler rack and replaced a dimmer switch at my house, and did a brake job and replaced a radiator for my daughter's car. He isn't that healthy either, so I always try to make sure that he doesn't overdo, but I still hope that next time he can just visit and no jobs. Both of my brothers are very handy, and very sweet about helping.

Sunday, we had our family get together with my nieces family from Iowa, my son and his youngest daughter from Mulberry, Fl., one brother and his son from Brunswick, Ga., my other brother from Jacksonville, Fl. with his children from Lawtey, FL., and some of my grandchildren from Melbourne, Fl. Then of course my daughter and her family and DH and I from the Clermont, Fl. area. I did take pictures, but with my son's Nikon DSLR D90, it was fun to use, but went home with my son, of course. The thing is, sometimes he's not too good at sharing his pictures, but if he does I'll post a couple.

Oh, I forgot to mention. My brother made a cleat for the back of the ruler rack, a board with a 45 degree angle attached to the wall, and another board with a 45 degree angle attached to the rack, and then it just sits on the cleat, but is sturdy and easy to remove if necessary. It was the first time that he had tried that, but I'll bet not the last.

A Nice Day

Yesterday was a nice day. DH and I started out by going to the local quilt shop and visiting their $5.00 clearance. I had made another 20 9 patches the day before and found myself short of fabrics to make more and keep it scrappy enough. The picture that I took of my 9 patches was so horrible that I didn't add it to this post. My artfully stacked blocks could give anyone seeing the picture an excedrin headache. I got 12 half yard pieces of fabric and since each block takes one 2 1/2 inch strip, will have enough to add to more scrappy quilts as time goes on. I am not real discriminating, as Bonnie Hunter's saying about if it's ugly you didn't cut it small enough rings in my ears. A 2 inch finished patch is pretty small. We went from there to a near by mom and pop restaurant and I had a very nice coconut chicken salad (which I hadn't ever had before) and DH had their 4 cheese grilled cheese sandwich. We both enjoyed our dinners and then shared some strawberry cake for dessert.











From there we drove 100 miles to St Petersburg to a baseball game between the Rays and the Red Sox. I kept thinking that it's too bad Paula isn't here instead of me, as she is a huge Red Sox fan. The only problem would have been that she'd probably rather sit with her DH than mine. I know the Red Sox players and am fond of many of them, but at a game I mostly look at the people and squirm. My husband loves the game and the Red Sox are his team so it was worth it for him to be able to go. DH had tried to get tickets before the season started and was unable to get them, but I got an email from the ALS Association about tickets for the game so it was very emotional for me to go as my mother passed away from ALS. They had a brief ceremony before the game during which they read the speech that Lou Gehrig gave when he retired, and the first pitch was thrown by a gentleman who has ALS. We got home tired but happy at about midnight.

Detour

I've given up on my good intentions on the quilts. My brother is coming and will need the bed (I use the bed to lay out the spray basted quilts) and since I know that I couldn't finish 6 quilts in time, I decided to put them aside until after my niece's and my brothers visit and resume later. My niece will be here from tomorrow until next Thursday, and my brother will be here for the week-end. I'm doubly excited about my brothers visit as he is bringing me a goody. For one of his tables he had made a drawer that he wasn't happy with and I asked him rather than demolish it if he could put some notches in it and then I could use it for ruler storage. He got busy on it and improved on my idea with some additional supports down the middle and a super dooper hanging system, and he is bringing it with him. It is mahogany and even though it was originally a drawer and most of it was more roughly finished than the front of the drawer, I'm sure knowing him that it will be beyond my expectations. It will be so nice to get the rulers off my cutting-ironing table.In the meantime, I decided to work on my way behind Crazy Mom Quilts Nine Patch blocks. The 4 rows on the left are the ones I did yesterday, out of the material from the boys quilts. In each yard there was enough for the blocks for their quilts and one or two 2 1/2 inch strips. I now have 32 of the 70 blocks done, and hope to get more done today. They will be some crazy nine patches, florals and geometrics and camo, etc.

Tea at Rebecca's

In our church we have visiting teachers, which are ladies who try to drop by once a month for a visit and to leave a short message on a gospel subject. Mine for the past few years has been Rebecca (she used to go by Becky but is trying to change to Rebecca). Rebecca is a single lady and a school teacher. She is very talented musically with a beautiful voice and plays piano (and probably other instruments too) wonderfully. I guess that she is also a do it yourselfer, as she took on an old house and has turned it into a beautiful home doing much of the work herself. The work is still going on in fact. Above is a picture of her yard which is a double lot in the little town where I live in Central Florida. The picture below is the front of her house which was built many decades ago by a prominent politician as his summer home. A couple of weeks ago she had several ladies over for a "tea", there wasn't any tea, but there was juice and fresh fruit, ham, roasted potatoes a breakfast casserole and several other yummy dishes. I took a plate home for DH too, as he loves fruit. I asked her a couple of days later if I could come and take some pictures of her home for my blog and she graciously allowed me to. Her floor she laid herself from boards she got from a house that had been build around 1918 and was being torn down. She got some discouragement from some of the men in the church, but she persevered and it is beautiful. I think that the aha! gives her a little pleasure, she is human after all. Her ceiling is stencilled, and her kitchen cupboards came from another house that was being demolished. They have the old wavy glass and are quite beautiful. We have a new outdoor mall about 12 miles from us where Joann's fabric store is, and that is where the house stood that she got her cupboards from. It's an unusual home and I was happy to have been invited and I hope that you enjoyed the little tour also.

An update on my quilts. I have the tops and backs done and next need to cut the batting. I am holding off on one boy quilt, but have two girl quilts to do for a total of 6. I have given up on the idea of having them done by this Wednesday, but I hope to have them done not too long after.

Five Down! On to the Borders

I'm keeping my nose to the grindstone, I almost feel like Amy or Soscrappy who get 'so' much done. I have my five tops ready for borders, the red strips and then each boy will have a different five inch border. The leftovers from the blocks I have cut out three and a half inches wide and I'm going to sew them together and put a pieced border on the top and bottom of each quilt. Then it's on to backs and embroidering names and I'll be getting closer and closer.
My grandson was over yesterday and he liked what he saw, so hopefully they will be a hit. I don't know if I'll be finished when they all get here, but I'm sure going to try.

Will Work for Crumbs!

I've been sewing quite a bit this past week, and sometimes it is also thinking time when you are sewing full strips assembly line style. I am trying to do quilts for several young people and with just a "little" encouragement. That's what I mean by crumbs. One is due to:
"I get cold too, Grandma.", another when my niece got the quilts for her 3 little ones the older ones were there and wondered if there was something for them too, and the one for my nephew is due to his getting tearful when he accidentally burned a hole in the fleece blanket that I made him. Just a little bit gets me sewing, and I'm sure I'm not the only one.
(Edited to leave out parts that could be seen as negative)
I got a package from Thousands of Bolts today. The red is for a little border around each quilt, and the other fabrics are for 5" borders. That way they will be similar to each other but different.








The other picture is my new iron. I had a $15.00 off coupon from BJ's, but unfortunately they were out of that iron. Since I had a lot of strips to iron I wanted one "now" so I got this Black and Decker. I have a Maytag cordless, but it is across the room and I was walking myself to death and taking up way too much time. The geometric fabric is what I bought for the binding, and the tan fabric underneath is for the backs. My husband says that way maybe they'll like the fronts better, lol. I got the tan fabric at Ikea for $2.99 a yard and it is 59" wide. The last fabric I got there seemed to be good, and the price was right.
This is the first top without borders, and it doesn't look too good in the picture, but in person it has promise.

It's a Big'un

My Strip Twist from Bonnie Hunter's pattern is back from the longarmer. She did a nice job, and it is huge. It's for my oldest grandson, hence the dark borders, I was trying to boy it up since there are flowered fabrics in there. I usually try to stay away from flowers for the males, but he is 23 and has females around, so I figured that he's old enough that it shouldn't be too bad. If he doesn't like it, I'll keep it and try again.

Problems at the Quilt Shop

Not really, but so far my blocks kind of look like there was an explosive illness at a quilt shop. These are piles of 4 blocks each, and I have 2 more sets of 16 blocks of 4 each to do. I'll end up with 192 blocks, but all the same 16 fabrics. Hopefully, with the different combinations of blocks and the borders and quilting, the quilts will be something that will please boys and young men. If not, I'll give them to them anyway and they can keep them in the closet in case of emergency.
I promise, the picture of the quilt that I saw on the ladies blog was quite pretty. Of course, it was pretty florals and in one basic color scheme. Details, details.

Assembly Line Sewing

I haven't gotten to the sewing part yet, but I have been cutting strips. I decided to make 5 young men quilts for my niece's 2 boys, my nephew, and 1 grandson, 2 grandson's if the other shows any interest, or for me if he doesn't, I really like some of the fabrics. I saw a quilt on a blog that I liked the looks of and that I thought that maybe I could assembly line enough to get them done in a few weeks. I wish that I remembered which blog so that I could ask permission to put the picture on mine, but I can't. It is just 3 different width strips for each block and then they are turned different ways. I plan to put a narrow probably red border and then different larger borders for each one. So they'll be the same but different. They won't be art, but they will be warm and hopefully will turn out cute. Size about 57" x 81", enough to tuck under the toes and under the chin.
I had enough of the fabric left to make a 2 1/2" strip from each fabric to use in my 9 patch quilt from Crazy Mom Quilts sewalong so that is still in the works and I also need to quilt the 2 tops that I have for my niece's two girls so I have plenty to keep me busy.
I may not be able to reach my goals, as I think that my niece is coming the second week of August, but maybe I can get at least her kids and my nephew's done by then if I keep my nose to the grindstone.