Good Morning

As previouosly mentioned on another post, I finished Cheryl's nephew's quilt and snapped a shot but never gave you a glimpse at the finished top. Here it is.



That's all of the quilt I could get from laying it on our bed, grrr! the effort of living in a samll home! Another friend, Carole is doing the machine quilting on her gammill named Penelope. I do promise to show you a better shot of it after I bind it when it comes back, so that is one more project hanging o'er my lil' head.

I've been remiss in my blogging lately, so I offer you my apologies. No, I didn't fall off the face of the earth, just have been real busy. My Mom was up north visiting for 6 weeks as you know and I brought her to the airport last week. That woman can really get so much done. She accomplishes so much and I have always marveled at her time schedulings and things she completes. She has lists of what she wants done by whichever dates and meets those self inflicted deadlines consistently. This last visit I had as Oprah would say an ah ha! moment. She is a task quilter while I on the other hand am a process quilter. Her satisfaction is when she completes a task. It drives her to continue to the next step. Now me, I'm liking the process so I'll putter away on the project and love my time spent while doing it, not hurriedly get through it just to get to the next stage of the project.
With the grandkids here and chaffeuring DH since his medical problem, I would get the next fabics cut for a couple of projects we worked on together before heading out the door. Between feeding the grandkids, getting myself ready for a trip to town 3 days a week, plus all the erands and business to-dos while there and then meals, besides measuring and cutting fabric for Mom to have something for her to do while we were gone, are you getting the picture. It's a wonder I kept my "calm" sanity and didn't start barking orders like a mad woman to get my list of to dos done!
Anyhow, all the projects she brought North with her were completed so we looked at some baby quilt "kits" I had in and thought we could finish a couple baby tops before she had to leave. We worked on those together. She did all the pinwheel piecing and assembled the centered parts. I did the measuring, cutting, fudging how to come up with more panel fabric and only some border assembling. The result. FOUR BABY quilt tops made!

So Peeps - for your viewing pleasure the tops that I actually found time and backings for, that I layered yesterday while DH was at rehab. I'll let you in on a little secret I did. Shhhh! In one of the medical buildings close to DH's rehab, the hospital has 2 conference rooms with tables already set up. I know this because we used one during rehab. for a stress management class AND because any time it rained and I didn't walk the city streets I used the stairs and walked hallways so I saw how often thsoe rooms were empty. Another ah ha moment, bring in the pressed tops, batting and backing and spray baste my quilts there instead of my usual moving furniture, laying them out on the living room floor and doing it on my knees.
A VOILA!





Four quilts basted! Would you believe I had 2 of the same baby kits and I purchased a couple of yards of complimentary fabric for them at the time ( I was thinking of backing) and all 4 of these quilts were made out of that. We made them even larger than the pattern thanks to some stash diving and getting other complementary fabric to make the first borders for all of them. AND I still ahve enough fabric to make one more baby quilt, albeit it will have to be a different pattern, time will tell. I'll tackle that AFTER I get these quilted, finish the UFO's I wanted to work on but slid to the side to enjoy time with Mom and of course besides finish two quilts I entered into our guild quilt show coming up in October. The patience corners and my C.O.C. (Cadyville Orange Crush). Eeeeks! I just threw myself into a panic, best get my butt moving.

Ta Ta For Now,
Jane

Going, going, going along smoothly...

My schedule is still rather busy and the days are just flying by. Actually got out to do some yard work with DH this am since cardiac rehab doesn't happen on Tuesdays, Mom is visiting a sister in Vt and the grand kids are now at day care. Felt so nice to work several hours without any interruptions, just the times needed to take a break with our health issues. We actually transplanted rhubarb and created a newer bed near the grape arbor.



The technique to make this raised bed was done by the mode I learned last year on the garden tour. A gentleman with an absolutely gorgeous raised bed gardens told me how he did his so we are trying that this year. His method was to cut the sod in a 10x10 area on three sides and then flip it onto the tops on the neighboring sod. It allows an edge around the garden perimeter while elevating the interior of the garden. He said that by flipping the sod it kills the grass especially when mulched. We did leave one rhubarb plant alone since it is rather hot for transplanting. For the rest, we actually cut off the rhubarb vegetation and nested the split roots into a manure compost before burying them with thick layers of newspapers and finally topping them off with mulch. I hope this works, time will tell.



The island garden where the rhubarb was, had overgrown badly with weeds, so I suggested we cut it down and then start working the soil. While in the middle of doing this, I thought, why bother having this garden here at all. We could have the perennials planted as edge type along the property boundary. So we plan to move the rest of the perennials in the spring, when we have more raised beds ready. It will be so much better than these smack dab in the middle of the backyard. As for the camper, instead of storing it near the back boundary of the woods, we could park it behind the garage, away from the eye sight line while on the decks,m but readily available and much handier behind the garage.

Last week while Mom and I had a few hours we managed to make these small purses. Guess what the fabric is?

They are Dish towel Bags. What cute towels. Mom brought these towels up with her from Florida thinking that it would be a fun and quick project and she was right. It took more time thinking about how to make them than it did actually making them. There is an outside pocket that has a separating seam down the center and the inside of mine, I also placed a pocket along one side, that's the aqua one. Mom place a smaller pocket inside her cahrtreuse one too.

Here are a couple of snaps of my current focuses:

Shabby Chic's BOM and I finally got the January block embroidered!

The quilt I am making for Cheryl's nephew Chris.


We did have a couple of family BBQs this past weekend. DH and our son stoked up the smoker grill and we dined on turkey, pork butt, bratwurst, kielbasa and even a few Chicken breasts. We didn't actually have all of that at one dinner, just smoked them all at once while it was smoking. Makes meals easy this week with everything all cooked, I just needed to throw some salads together. What a breeze!
While the smoker was cooling down, the grand kids decided to have a little race, even the fourteen year old had fun. Of course I was still in the kitchen picking and washing up, so they called me outside to have a chuckle too!





The 14 year old (PGS#3) actually was riding the hot Diego hot wheels too! Kids! Gotta love em!

Jane

Remembering Cheryl

My circle of Friends quilt group gathered today and it was a bit bittersweet. It's always great getting together and sharing projects, lives and stories but today, our friend Cheryl was absent. She left the bonds of this earth on April 2nd. The strength she had to graciously endure her cancer and the pain that it involved was a testament to the type of a person she was. Even on her death bed she was able to laugh and share stories knowing her demise was close at hand. As I write this my love for her is formidable. Cheryl, I know you now are at peace and I thank you for your friendship.

Two friends of our group assisted Cheryl's family in finding and re-establishing homes for her projects and supplies. While we gathered yesteday, some of that was taken care of. I came home with a project intended for one of her nephews, Chris. Though only in his twenties, what a doll he was to Cheryl. Tending to her needs, and just being there.



So it is with love for our friendship and pride that I will make this quilt she had packaged and tagged for him. The numerous projects she had were very organized and I even know how she wanted this quilt done. Hopefully I'll be able to complete it just as she'd want it AND within a timely manner.

Jane
PS; I have tried to make Cheryl's picture larger than the fabric panel photo but my computer skills are lacking, my apologies.