I Can Do It All!

Sitting on the family room hand sewing the binding on the christening quilt and watching both the Michigan/Michigan State game and Quilt Cam with Bonnie Hunter!

Busy Week!

I don't know if it's good news or bad news.  Probably more bad than good or maybe I'm just making lemonade.  My leg with the tight IT band has been giving me problems so I decided to go to the doctor to try to resolve this.  I want to be able to work out in earnest once my trainer, Sara, is back from maternity leave in mid-November.  I have used this extra time to get some sewing done.  I got a call from the long-arm machine quilter that I have used for the first time that both my quilts were ready!  I'm really happy with them!

Cinnamon Stars

Close-up of Cinnamon Stars

Okay, I'm officially frustrated with trying to get the blog to put the pictures where I want them!  I can't get my cover photo and captions the way I like them either.  I think I'll have my kids help me when they get home for Thanksgiving.  So until then, please bear with me!

The other quilt I got back was Trail Mix.  This is the quilt I worked on when we had out home on Cape Cod.  I have so many quilts that just need to be quilted.  I love doing the surface designs but it takes so much time and wrestling on a domestic machine I find it a love/hate relationship.  Which brings me to what else I've been doing!

I'm researching getting a long arm machine.  I've been getting books on what to look for and some of the ins and outs of long arms and doing research on the internet.  I'm going back down to Houston to the Quilt Festival so I can test drive all the brands in one place.  Just when I think I'm leaning in one direction, someone says something or I read something else and I'm back to square one.  One of the other big decisions is where I'm going to put it.  They are HUGE!  How big do I want, both width wise and length wise.  I talked with Joe about it and we are considering putting it in the living room and making it into my sewing studio.  That way I won't have to sacrifice one of the bedrooms for when the girls come home.  We don't use the living room that much and this way it would get lots of use!  I'd need to put doors on it to close it off when people come over.  I'd have lots of light and I wouldn't feel so closed off from the outside world being down in the "Lair".

Grandma Boom's piece

Then, yesterday and today I have been working on a Christening Quilt for Bryn's boyfriend's mother to be given to Jim's older brother and his wife.  The baby's due any minute now.  She's in labor right now and I'm waiting to hear!  Anyway,  Jim's mom, Kathy, approached me about it and I started researching it.  Not a whole lot out there on them.  She gave me a small piece of Grandma Boom's wedding dress, her wedding dress, Corey's (the mother of the baby) dress, a few snippets of 3 aunt's dresses and a flower from another aunt.   She said she just wanted something about 3' x 3'.

Kathy's Dress

Front of Corey's dress

Back of Corey's dress

Aunt 1

Aunt 2

Aunt 3

Aunt 4

 The only thing she requested was that Grandma Boom's dress was in the center.  It was a ragged cut about 15" x 5".  I wasn't really sure what I wanted to do but "I had a dream"!  I cut Grandma's piece into 2 1.5" strips and made it into a cross with pieces of Corey's dress.

Center cross with Grandma's dress

I sewed the lace on the piece of dress from Aunt 1 and put the sheer piece from Aunt 2 over a piece from the lining of Corey's dress and topped it with the little flower from Aunt 4.  Aunt 3 sent a piece large enough for her own block.

The Aunt block

The blocks finished at 10" making the pieced top 30" square.  I then made a 3" border from Corey's dress bringing the finished size to 36" square.  I'm going to get some fusible batting to help stabilize it then just stitch in the ditch

The completed top

After the quilting is done I am going to add some of the sequenced lace from Corey's dress in 2 corners.  I'm really pleased with how it turned out!

Errand running tomorrow and I start physical therapy for my leg.  I'm looking forward to getting back to my workouts!

Happy Stitching!

Back From Chicago!

I tried posting from the airport on Friday but the connection was SO SLOW and frustrating!  I'm home for a while now!  Whoo Hoo!

So I'll catch you up!  I've been to northern Michigan with some friends, then to New Orleans with Joe then to Chicago to visit my eldest daughter.  Now I'm home until I go down to the Quilt Festival in Houston!  So what have I been up to?

  I got Lotus Temple quilted and bound before I went up north!

 In northern Michigan we stayed at one of the girls' cottage.  When I went into the room I was staying in there was an antique crazy quilt hanging on the armoir!  I had to take it down to inspect it!










There were award ribbons in addition to lots of embroidery, velvet, satin and tapestries.

 Upon closer inspection, I think someone had taken an old, worn crazy quilt, cut out the deteriorated pieces and re-pieced them, added new pieces and re-assembled it.  There was also a new backing on it.  It was really well done and a great way to preserve a beautiful antique quilt.

The weather was touch and go with rain moving in and out all weekend.  It did make for some dramatic cloud scenes!

Two days after I got home, we went to New Orleans.  One of the things I did was went on a tour of the city.  We went to the 9th Ward and saw some of the re-birth.

 Some of the devastation was apparent.

 Other areas have come back.  This was a playground in the Musician's Village area.  The structures were in the shape of musical instruments.

 We drove around the Garden District.  I wanted to go on a Garden District tour but since I was there in the non-tourist season and mid-week, there were no available tours.

A really fascinating parts of the tour was the cemetery.  The tour guide explained about the burial practices.

Then there was Bourbon Street!  We had not been there in 20 years and it has changed so much.  It used to be centered around the music with a few strip clubs.  Now it was predominately strip clubs and all about drinking.

But now, back to the sewing!  I have set up a sewing station in my family room to be up in the natural light.  I've started working on my Hidden Circles quilt and have been paper piecing the spiky section! 

I got 32 sections done, enough for 8 blocks!  I thought I would start putting a few blocks together and discovered I had done everything in reverse!  Neutral where the color should have been and vise versa!

I'm putting this project away for a while and going back to finishing another UFO.  This time I am going to finish my Log Cabin Stars.  Pictures to come.

Got to go to my workout.

Happy Stitching!