First Quilt Finishes for 2011

Finally, two finishes.  This one is for my cousin Michelle, who is the age of my niece.   These were her wedding colors.

And this one is for Tina, my granddaughter-in-law's mother who is an expert on geneology and who did our family a very important favor and service.   Now, I am torn between finishing my Paintbox quilts, finishing my Iowa (Carolina) Christmas, or working on my RRCB.   I have a sneaky suspicion that I'll be finishing my Paintbox quilts.   I'm on a roll now for finishing projects. 

Flu and Misc.

We had planned the dinner for my DD and her new husband, but it wasn't to be at this time. The day they left for their honeymoon the flu started and then we were dropping like flies. DH and I had flu shots, thank goodness, as it was still very miserable and had hold of us for several days although the first day was the worst. We try not to go around where there is illness, but the baby (13 months) had it, and we were happy to help with her. Poor little thing, she had it the worst and the longest, even to the point of an emergency room visit, but she is doing well now, too.
I did manage to finally get Tina and Michelle's quilts basted after starting to feel better. Tina's was finished this morning. Now on to prep my machine and myself for the free motion quilting. I do enjoy it even if I am rather challenged, lol.



















I was very excited to win Kathy's giveaway from Kathy's Quilts. I had admired her Ho Ho Ho quilt and wallhanging and now I have one all cut out and even partially sewn and ready to go, and she did the work for me, lol. I had made a pumpkin table topper for fall and then gave it to the lady who has cut my hair for the past 4 years, and so I hope to get another table topper and my Ho Ho Ho wall hanging done in the near future to be ready for next year's fall and Christmas seasons. Isn't the Ho Ho Ho ornament that she sent with it adorable. There was also chocolate candy, but even sick we managed to finish that off.

Backs Ready for 2 Quilts

Flannel backs seemed right for these 2 quilts (Tina's and Michelle's) as they both live where the winter's get cold. A while back Penney's had a sale (don't they always) and I got a good deal on a set of twin sized flannel sheets. They feel very nice and soft, so the quilts should be comfy. The quilts should finish at 62 inches by 78 inches and I got a back from the top sheet and made a pieced back from the fitted sheet, and I still have the pillowcase for something else. I love it when I feel like I got a bargain.

















The colors are off in this picture, they are more like the picture above.













Now, I'm anxious to get basting and quilting, but alas, my DD is on her honeymoon, a cruise, and they are coming back Saturday and my DGDIL and I are having a reception, welcome home dinner for them on Sunday. I think I need to put the quilts aside and work on the dinner. The day my DD and her new husband left for their trip her youngest woke up with the flu (or at least flu symptoms). DGS and DGDIL and my great grandbaby are staying with the youngest while his mama is gone and now this morning DGS woke up with the flu. Oh oh, I hope it doesn't go any farther. I am kind of wondering if we will have to postpone our dinner, hope not.
Tina does genealogy, that is why the thank you quilt, she was able to go back farther in DH's family than anyone else had gotten, and Michelle is a teacher. I thought the wheat and the apple were appropriate.

Tina's Top W Borders and Pillowcases

I have the borders on Tina's quilt as you can see. I think that I like it, I hope that she does. Scraphappy suggested green for the small border and I had thought of it, but didn't think I had enough. I'm glad she suggested it as I checked and I had just enough for a 1" border. I asked my granddaughter-in-law what she thought for the large border (since Tina is
her mom) and she picked the yellow.












I wanted to make my brother in Jacksonville small pillowcases to go with his quilt and they are my first finish for the year. I thought 1 yard should be enough for 2 little pillowcases, wrong. I had to make a trip to my LQS, and they didn't have the exact fabric, but they had some that goes pretty well, from the same line, I think. They are 2 different sizes, for the pillows he uses in his living room, one is a little longer than the other.

Jan 2, 2010 Sea World and Thank You

January first we went to St Augustine for DD's wedding, and then January second we were off to Sea World thanks to our new Son in law who works there and shared some passes with us. It was quite exciting for DH and I who are pretty much homebodies.
We went with my grandson, granddaughter in law, and great grandbaby and we saw quite a bit and were there from about 4 pm until after 10.
There were some very talented entertainers there, a great saxophone player, a wonderful singer, and an excellent barber shop quartet for examples. In the fourth photo DGS is enjoying the music and singing along.

I also have noticed that I have quite a few new followers in the past few days and I just wanted to say thank you for your interest, it is very appreciated. Those of you who have blogs, I will be visiting in the next few days. I apologize, I am behind in my blog viewing and my comment answering and it's not because I am unappreciative, it has just been a busy time.

01-01-11 Wedding at 1:11:11PM

My DD is really into numbers, so getting married on January 1st 2011 at 1:11:11 really appealed to her. The pictures are out of sequence, but it was a very small wedding, just DD her new husband Ernie, DH (Ernie), the innkeeper (Justice of the Peace) Scott and I. It was very nice even though small. It wasn't a first marriage for either of them and that was how they decided they wanted it.
The fifth picture is coming down the stairs after the ceremony, and the sixth is in the B&B's parlor after the ceremony which was on the second floor veranda where he had proposed to her a couple of years ago.


This picture (The fourth) is pretty self explanatory, cutting the cake in the little parlor where we had cake before we went out to lunch.




This (#2) is on the veranda where the ceremony was. We were in the trees on the second floor.



(# 3)My camera wouldn't cooperate and I missed the original wedding kiss, so they were nice enough to recreate it immediately after.

(# 1)This is the B&B's brochure and information book in their room, the honeymoon suite.

Sorry, Blogger is putting my words way apart from the pictures so I numbered them. Then I accidentally erased some so they are all askew now.

Tina's Top No Borders

As far as I can go until a decision is made on the borders. I ordered the other two colors since they were on such an excellent deal, so can go anyway with it.
Everyone have a
Happy New Year.

Thank You Quilt for Tina

Here are a few blocks on my design wall, I see that the top left one is turned wrong, but no matter, it isn't sewn yet. The blue is like a robin's egg with speckles. I thought that the color was closer to the turquoise in the border fabric than it is, so I'm not sure whether to keep it anyway since there aren't any colors not in the quilt, lol, or if I should get some of the fabrics below instead. Here is a picture of the original quilt that I did like this, which is the pattern that Tina picked for hers.
















On Thousands of Bolts, they call the
one below that isn't pink (I don't know where blogger will put it) purple, but it sure looks blue to me. What do you think, especially you, Tina. I may still be able to get some of the blue or pink background border fabric.

Christmas, Shopping and Math

I hope that everyone had a wonderful Christmas or if you celebrate a different holiday, or it was just a day, I hope it was a wonderful holiday or day. This is the restaurant where we ate, the Columbia in St. Augustine. It was a very pleasant meal with good company and the food was good. I think that their bread and salad was so delicious that I could have just stopped there and been happy. This is my brother from Georgia, Vince and his son Robert. Robert had hat hair, but I hope he wouldn't mind me putting his picture here. We hadn't seen them for several months and it was so good to spend a few hours together. Christmas 2010 was different, but very good. There were 8 of us including DH and I, Vince and Robert, and my DD and her soon to be husband, her son Micah, and his daughter Christi. Three teenagers, but they were all a pleasure.
This is my shopping loot, it almost feels like ill gotten gains as it was such a good deal, and they told me Thank You! Z and S Fabrics had a brief half price on everything sale, and since my fabrics were from their clearance, it was about $1.65 a yard. I got 2 penguin panels, 2 pairs of Mundial scissors, 5 rotary blades, and 17 yards of good fabric for $59.44 including shipping. I wish that I could have splurged more, but then I have to remind myself that I don't want a big stash, I want to keep it small and use it up. I have to remind myself often, especially when I see sales.
I thought that I had enough 16 patch blocks to make my Thank you quilt, but alas, I was ten short. I did some seaching and cutting and then figuring, and thought I had enough for 10 to 11 blocks, but I must need some remedial math classes, as I ended up with 23 blocks. Somewhere along the way I must have forgotten to multiply by two. I enjoyed having my sewing room look nicer for a few days, but I couldn't stand it, I needed to get going on my projects, at least a little.
Have a happy holiday season. Christmas is over, but the season still has a week. Hope yours is awesome.
(Blogger wouldn't let me add pictures today, so I had to go back to the old way. Thank you fellow blogger, whoever you are, for the reminder that we could do that. Sorry, I can't remember which of the blogs I follow that passed along that helpful tip.)

Calling a Truce

I have 20 string blocks now and was hoping that maybe I could catch up in a few days.  Then Bonnie put out step 5 and I knew that I needed to put RRCB aside for a little while.   I did blocks 2 at a time this morning, and 2 take me about 45 minutes, so I figure I have another 15 hours of string blocks to do, then there is step 4, and step five looks to be very time consuming and fiddly, too.   I haven't even put up a Christmas tree yet, and I have two other quilts that I need to finish and get to people, so this one will be there when I get back to it, probably after the first of the year.   The good thing is by that time more clues will be out and I'll have a pretty good idea of where it's going.   Bonnie's quilts are always beautiful, and I'm sure this one is no different.   I think it is funny that on Quiltvillechat some people love these blocks and others are just girding their loins and gritting their teeth and forging ahead.  So far I am in the forging ahead group, but I'm hoping they grow on me as I haven't seen a string quilt that I didn't like.   I find the process of trying to find strips long enough very time consuming and a little frustrating.  My foundation papers are 8.5 inches by about 8 inches and I think that makes part of the problem.  I think that if the papers were as big as the blocks you could tell at a glance.  Next time, if there is a next time, I'll do 8" blocks.  I still have plenty of papers.