Manly Quilts #2 and #3 Finished and Shop Hop

 These are for my brother in Jacksonville and his son.  They are both dedicated fishermen so the borders on both have fish and the little sub-borders at the top and bottom of each quilt have the others border fabric.   The top one is my brothers.  DH and I are driving to Gainesville about 2 hours away or so on Monday to meet both my brothers and deliver these.  My Georgia brother already has his and loves it, and he will just be coming along for the company and so we can see each other.  It has been since the spring since we have gotten together.















DH and I went on a shop hop the other day, a different one than we had been on before and much more stressful as so much of it was in dense traffic.  The little snowman panel above is one of eight that you received at each shop, I'll eventually make a quilt or table runners or something with them.   The fat quarters and charm pack were at various shops and just because, except for the one that looks like bricks.  I hope to use it when I eventually get to a trees wall-hanging from this tutorial from Joanna of Applique Today.  She does a lot of cute things on her blog. 
The fabrics below were from a shop that I used to visit a lot over twenty years ago, I haven't been in probably ten years and it had hardly changed except they used to carry Bernina and Singer, and now they carry Babylock and Brother.    The fabrics that I purchased were half price and if I had been in the money I would have been tempted to get more.   No particular plans except for the Lady Liberty, unless I can work them into Bonnie Hunter's new mystery in November.   Last shop hop I had gotten some red and blue fabrics for this flag tutorial from Lola and her blog "and Sew On".   It is still on my list of to do's and I thought Lady Liberty might fit right in.
The bottom picture is fabric from the $5.00 rack at my local quilt store, again no particular plans for them at this time.  
One happy surprise at the last shop was they are a Juki dealer.   My Juki is a couple years old now, and it's nice to know that I have a place for service and parts and such.   I spent too much money, but I did learn something, lol.

 

A Little Tidbit

I just discovered something interesting (to me, at least).  If you go to someones profile and you click on one of their interests it will tell you how many other bloggers also have stated it as one of their interests.
I clicked on quilting and the result was:

Results 1 – 10 of 2,810,000

Oh no, I don't know if Google Reader will follow that many blogs, lol.  
If anyone feels like a minority, now they can feel like one of a multitude.

 

I thought something was lacking so I added a gratuitous baby picture.  

One More On the Pile

I hate this new blogger so far, just saying.   (I already hated it, but I really hate it now, as it just took away all except the first sentence of my post.  Do you think it can read?)
Anyway, to repeat what I was saying!
Yesterday in my sewing room (which is supposed to be getting neater and better with everything that is finished and out of here, but instead seems to be getting worse) I got tired of leftover batting pieces falling down every time the closet door is opened.    I decided that maybe I needed to do another quilt to use up the batting.  I racked my brain for an easy to finish up project and thought of the quilt center that my granddaughter had made.  I called my daughter and asked her if she thought that Tabitha (who works 2 jobs) would be happy, sad or mad if I finished it for her.  She guessed happy so I added the final border, butted batting and stitched, and made the binding and backing (another Target sheet bargain).  I like the sound of butted batting, it's kind of catchy.   One of the really good and unselfish quilters who shares patterns and tutorials says that she only uses 2 pieces of batting pieced and this one probably has a dozen, but I think that it will be ok, if not I guess I'll make myself feel better by telling myself that finished is better than perfect, hopefully Tabitha will agree, too.   First it was four in progress and one was finished and now it's back to four again.   It was nice to work with some girly fabrics though.

First Manly Quilt Finished

 One down and three to go.  This one just needs to be washed and mailed and hopefully within a week I'll have a happy brother.  This brother is the one who made my mother's end table, which I have now, DH and my drop leaf table, and my laptop desk, so it's nice to send him a little something.  He also made me a ruler rack and a thread stand for my machine embroidery.  Kind of makes me wonder what took me so long, lol.  The backing on this is one of the Land's End flannel sheets, and boy does it feel nice, the border is United States Marine Corps logo fabric. 

One Basted and Family Pictures

One of the four is basted.  I was going to continue my assembly line, but I think I'm going to go ahead and finish this one and get it in the mail.  It's for my Georgia brother, and he is probably the only one of the four who cares if he gets it now rather than later.   It's not at its prettiest stage right now, hopefully even my mediocre FMQing will work it's magic.  The Lands End flannel sheet that I'm using for backing sure does feel soft and cushy.
Then it will be on to my Florida brother and his son.  I wish theirs were already done, as my nephew recently had an accident on his four wheeler and it fell on his head and damaged his ear about 30 something stitches worth.  It's so lucky that he wasn't hurt worse.   I don't think that he even knows he's getting one though so hopefully it will be a nice surprise and my goal is still to have theirs in the mail and hopefully received by the end of the month.   The last one for my grandson will be hopefully done by then, too.   It's for the grandson below in the red shirt with lots of pretty red curly hair.
Today I had my nose to the grindstone except when I got a visit from 2 grandsons, grand daughter-in-law, great grandbaby, and my daughter.  It was a nice visit and my daughter had picked up a disc of pictures from Walmart.  I'll try to  add a couple to this post if I can make blogger like me, lol.


















My daughter's children, six of my many grandchildren.

 My grandson, grand daughter-in-law and great grandbaby




















My oldest grandson, his girlfriend and her baby, Dominic who received my three day quilt.

My daughter and two of my grand daughters, her daughter and her stepdaughter.

I Almost Forgot

My Granddaughter-in-law sent me a picture of a cake that a friend of hers made.   I had forgotten until I saw a cricut for cakes on HSN as I was channel surfing, and it reminded me of it.  Pretty cute cake I think.
I wonder if she has a cricut?

A Little More Progress

 I have had distractions, but have gotten a bit done.  I have the backs made, just simple from sheets, the right for my brothers, flannel from Lands End and on the left for my nephew and grandson, 220 thread count from Target.  Quite a difference don't you think.  Not only that, I had looked up the dimensions on Lands End and cut the Target sheet first.   Unfortunately, Target's are 10 inches shorter and 10 inches skinnier.   A couple of extra seams, it would be farfetched to call them design elements, lol.  It's for a 22 year old single guy who lives with other guys and a dog.  I don't think he'll care too much.  All the names are machine embroidered on the backs, too.  The funny looking stuff is wash off stabilizer.

The picture below is all the parts assembled and ready to be put together.   Just need to get some finger cots to protect my right pointer finger from extreme pain (maybe a slight exaggeration) and I'll be ready to spend hours and hours basting.  Can you feel the love.  I'm anxious to get these done, as other projects are tempting me.   I need to keep on with my finish it up state of mind though, so I'll either bite the bullet and finish my monster quilt (Iowa Christmas) or finish up my Paintbox quilt.   The Paintbox quilt sounds like more fun, so that's probably what it'll be.

I had purchased a 30 yard roll of batting, and the last of these took the last and had to be pieced together with some leftover pieces.  I'm glad that it is getting used, but I sure hate to have to buy more.  The corner of my family room looks better though, lol.

Quilting in Bulk

I've been working on my Manly Quilts and have all the tops done and the bindings prepared.   Now on to the backs, labels, batting, basting, quilting, and bindings again.   Hey, this sounds like work, lol.

I changed the template on my blog and picked the books as I recently got one of the new more inexpensive Kindles.   I have read 3 books so far and am enjoying it a lot.   I probably have about 75 books on it now and have spent less than 5 dollars on books.   If only I could stay awake better, I could have probably read 10 books, lol.   I take medication every day that makes me sleepy and at times I keep dropping my Kindle which wakes me up.  Getting older is truly not for the weak.

I also got a thank you card for my 3 day baby quilt.
   Thank you for being so thoughtful.
   Thank you so much for the quilt you made for Dominic.
   It is absolutely beautiful.
     -Sarah and Dominic
Luckily, she hasn't seen some of the "absolutely beautiful"  quilts made by so many in blogland.  If so, she would have had to say it was cute, lol.

Great Mail Day

Yesterday our mail was delivered and I had the pleasure of receiving a stack of thank you cards from my niece's family. I made 3 quilts last year for her three smallest (and had already been thanked) and this summer had made quilts (which had been started a year or two previously) for her 4 oldest children. I just thought I'd share:

Logann (5), Maisyn (3), Kolbie (the baby)
Dear Aunt Candace,
Since we were all writing our thank yous the girls decided they would like to write you a letter too. They both say thank you for their quilts and for letting them play with your toys when we were down there last summer. They say it was fun and they enjoyed it. They also said they love you and they hope to see you again.
Love you,
Logann, Maisyn + Kolbie

Jensen (10)
Dear Aunt Candace,
Thank you for the quilt. It is very nice. I love all of the designs.
Love,
Jen

Morgan (12)
Dear Aunt Candace,
Thank you for the quilt it is really comfey and I think it is a cool design. (the one on the left)
Sincerely,
Morgan

Harper (14)
Dear Aunt Candace,
Thank you so much for the quilt. It is beautiful, it makes my rainbow room a lot better. And thank you for coming and getting me from the airport when I came down. I hope I get to see y'all again soon.
Love,
Harper

Dakota (16)
Dear Aunt Candace,
Thank you very much for the quilt. I appreciate you taking the time to make those things for us they are very nice. I use it every night and it's very good in the summer because its light and keeps me cool. It is also nice because I can keep my comforter on my bed so my room stays cleaner now. Well anyway how are you guys doing? I'm doing good, staying very busy with my various things I do. Well I will talk to you later hope to hear from you soon. (the one on the right)
Love you,
Dakota

I was very touched and proud of them all. I think they did a great job, and not a single one called their quilt a blanket, lol.

Manly Quilts and Baby Quilt Label

My three day baby quilt is officially done done. I got the label made and sewn on, and now just have to check with my grandson to see if he prefers washed or not. I think that I prefer washed, especially for a baby.

My four manly quilt centers are done, now on to the borders. At least now they will be a little different one from another.



PS Dominic Carmine - do you think the little guy may have some Italian in there.