A Charming Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

I did manage to do a bit of sewing today. The first thing I did was the president's block for my guild's outgoing president - and none too soon. I have to take it to the meeting tomorrow night - nothing like waiting until the last minute. lol. We were supposed to use a bright citrusy fabric so this is what I came up with:



The kit they handed out included some Thangles. I'm probably the last quilter on the face of the earth to use Thangles. They are wonderful! I'm sure I'm going to be using these again.

I almost finished my diningroom wallhanging. I still need to put a hanging sleeve on it.



Mother's Day is a hard holiday for me. My mom has been gone almost ten years. I can manage her birthday, Christmas and all the other holidays okay but Mother's Day frequently finds me falling apart. Mom was not big on jewelry. She mainly wore her wedding ring and that was all. For special occasions she had a charm bracelet. I have a charm necklace. Each charm represents something in my life. It's getting rather heavy so I don't wear it too often but I love it dearly. I can take it out and look at the charms and remember special times and special people.



These charms will be added today.

Last year we went to National Zoo in DC. One of the things we all were thrilled to see was an orangutan that was loose in the zoo. It played on the wires above the trees. It was such a lot of fun to watch.



Years and years ago Rodger and I used to play cards every weekend. We started here in PA with our best friends and my in-laws - Spades, May I and Pinochle were the favored games. We continued when we moved to NY where we mostly played Spades although we threw in some games of May I now and then.



And this one is a birthstone ring.



All in all - it's been a good day.

Hugs and stitches. Jody

A Trunk Show and A Quilt Show

Unfortunately most of the quilting in my life lately has been limited to looking at someone else's quilts. But beautiful quilts they were.

First was the trunk show. My quilt guild hosted Sue Paul. I can't remember laughing so hard in a long time. The quilts were beautiful and Sue has a wonderful sense of humor. She specializes in scrap quilts. I am not a scrap quilt lover. But she does a lot of what I call controlled scrappy - fabrics within a color family or a limited amount of different fabrics. I loved many of the quilts she brought. And I took lots of pictures. Too many to post here but here are a couple of my favorites:




The rest of the pictures I took can be seen on my webshots account by clicking here

This was a great week for my quilt guild. First the trunk show and then this weekend was our bi-annual quilt show. We had well over 200 quilts entered in the show and there were some really lovely quilts. Again, too many to show here but this was my pick for Viewer's Choice in the wallhanging category:



And my pick for Viewer's Choice in the full-size category:



The remainder of the pictures I took can be found here

I've been advised that I will need more baby quilts. I think now we have one in August, one in September (which I have learned will be a girl), two in October and two in November. I have two tops done so I'm well on the way.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

National Quilt Day

has come and gone. And I didn't get much of anything quilty done. sigh. I did get lots accomplished otherwise but not much quilting.

I did finish one block for a BOM. This one is pieced and appliqued and there is a good bit of work to it so I am fortunate to have had enough time to finish it:



Not done on NQD but still a recent finish is a new spring tote bag:



I've been working on baby quilts. I've decided to work with the Downy Touch of Comfort quilt project and have the first top finished and ready to quilt. A number of people I work with are expecting babies. We'll be blessed with one in September, two in October and one in November if all goes according to schedule - so I have quite a few quilts to be working on.

So until next time, hugs and stitches, Jody

Quilting Changes

take some getting used to. As I mentioned earlier, this year I'm scaling back on my projects. I'm working more hours so I have less time and I'm ready to start working on some bigger projects, which require more time to complete. I'm loving the projects I'm working on - but sometimes I do feel like it's been so long since I've completed something I really just want to hold up something and say "finished!".

So here it is: lol.



I had this table runner done except for the binding last fall. So I did up the binding and now I have one more item in the finished column. lol.

Work continues on my BOMs. Here's the third block I've done in the Pushin' Up Spring BOM.



I have a rare treat - two and a half days off work in a row - over National Quilt Day no less! So I'm going to do my best to squeeze as much quilting as I can into that time while still keeping my house from looking like who did it and ran.

Hopefully there will be lots of pictures of progress even if nothing gets finished.

Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

Another BOM

I'm such a sucker for BOMs. This one has been going on for a while but I'm just getting going on it now. It's called Pushin' Up Spring and it's being done by Apple Blossom Quilts. If you copy and paste this link:

http://www.appleblossomquilts.com/newsletter/subscribe/

it will take you to the page to sign up for the newsletter. You can only get the link to the pattern download by subscribing to the newsletter.

Since there are eight blocks out and I'm just starting, I can pretty much start where I want. So here is block 2:



which I did first.

This is block 6:



These blocks are terrific for someone new to applique as the pieces are quite large. Connie Sue at Apple Blossom is doing her quilt scrappy. I'm am so not into scrappy so I'm doing the "frame" in the same fabric throughout and will have the flowers coordinate.

I can't resist adding this picture. This is my dear son Joe who just turned 13. This picture was taken the evening of the day after his birthday sleepover.



It's hard being a teenager. lol.

Until next time, hugs and stitches, Jody

The Blizzard Continues

As if one storm wasn't bad enough, we got whacked with another one just days later. So of course this presents all sorts of time in the house looking for something to do. What a great time for a quilt-a-thon!!!

Well it would be if I didn't have dishes and laundry and family wanting attention and.... But I did manage to get a couple of things done.

I have long wanted to do a school house quilt and replace the section where the windows are with a small quilt block. I've actually started it a number of times and not really been happy with the results. But I'm a glutton for punishment so I'm trying it again. I have such trouble with the roof section. I hate templates and I really dislike adding things to the side of a triangle because no matter how careful I am I always end up with way too much at the top or the bottom.

This is the completed first block. Of course everything doesn't line up as well as I'd like but I'm hoping by the time I get to the last one I'll have tweaked it to be just as I want it.



I have actually spent a good bit of time sewing. But I really don't have much finished to show for it because I've been hand quilting this:



I did finish one thing. As I've been doing a lot of hand quilting I have been spending a lot of time cutting thread and threading needles. I have a number of pincushions (from swaps) but I have them in a cabinet and didn't want to use them. So I made this one:



The picture isn't really clear so you probably can't see the button in the center. I was going through my buttons looking for just the right one and then there it was - it has a snowflake in the center of it. I thought that was just perfect for my snowy day (or week as the case may be lol) project.

Thunder is loving all the snow.



Until next time, hugs and stitches. Jody

SNOW!!!!

Well here we are on the East Coast, hip deep in snow. I'm planning to do some sewing today and have actually been doing some hand quilting but I'm taking a break to post some of our snow pictures. It seems like it may have stopped at long last and we think we got a bit over two feet.

From the front door first thing this morning before anyone went out:



Thunder loves the snow:





Timmy - hard at work:



From across the street:



Joe - hard at work:



The front porch (that snow blower is about to start earning it's keep lol):



And one last look out the patio doors into the backyard. Check out the picnic table:



Hoping wherever you are, you are safe and dry and warm. Jody