In memory...

Last week, my mother called to let me know that Grandma had passed away. For those of you who have been followers since my blog beginning, you've already heard me talk about Grandma from time to time. She was my last living Grandma and was the one who moved out of her apartment and into a nursing home in 2007; at which time I was gifted all of her quilting supplies and fabric. This was also the time when my quilting moved into a state of obsession, much to do with all the fabric inheritance.

In 2009, I finished Grandma and Me and gifted it to my parents. My mother brought it out for the wake and funeral and asked me to type up a dedication printout to show along side the quilt.

In memory...

Count with me...

ONE: Country Spirit

TWO: Double Wedding Ring wall-hanging (34" x 34") (for my bedroom)

THREE: Grandma & Me (66" x 66")

All finished TODAY!

Country Spirit was started on 1/18/09 and was made as a QOV, to be donated to Alycia's (Alycia Quilts) project. I haven't measure it yet, nor do I recall if I used 2" finished strips or 1.5" finished! June's UFO Challenge - DONE!

The Double Wedding Ring wall-hanging was a sample kit I purchased and started on 5/9/09 while on the way back from a Math convention. This is the pattern that my MIL and I are using to make the larger bed-size wedding quilt for a family friend. That one is STILL a WIP.

Grandma & Me started originally as Scrappy Baskets back on 5/11/08, and has gone through a few name changes (including Grandma & Katherine), but I have settled on Grandma & Me, mainly because when I look at it and I think of Grandma. The colors are "grandma," and much of the fabric and thread used was from Grandma's inheritance. THIS has been the monkey-on-my-back, without a doubt! February's UFO Challenge -- FINALLY DONE!

Ahhhhhhhhhhh......
I love seeing progess.

OH! And the most exciting and wonderful news of the day: while rummaging through the stash to find a backing for Grandma & Me, I took a moment to clean out the cutting cabinet drawers. Guess what I found?!?!?! My quilting gloves! Dear Candace must have hid them in their while playing "mommy" one day; I have been missing them for about a month. NOW, the quilting of the DWR will be a bit easier! Whew!

Happy Saturday.

Yesterday morning, I started the day by sewing on the borders for Nancy's (Life is a Stitch) mystery, and also sewed together the bonus triangles to make 24 pinwheel blocks. I see Nancy has posted step 6, but I haven't jumped into that one yet----but I sure wasn't expecting Piano Keys (step 6) for this border. How cute! I'll have to see how I can incorporate these pinwheels with her mystery border suggestion.


Once that was set aside, I plunged back into the Scrappy Baskets and Diamond Stings quilt, which I am now calling Grandma & Catherine. I still had to tinker around with the inner border(s) in order to get the outside string blocks to fit nicely. The difficultly I'm having (had) was that blasted light fabric I used in the string blocks. It's SO THIN, definitely NOT 100% cotton! It was from Grandma's stash and I used up everything that was left over from the OC quilt last year.

Anyway, at this point, it'll lay on the floor so I can see it everytime I pass by. I'm not ready to put on a final border (the fabric shown on the bottom left). I will make this bigger, so.......thinking about what I can do to accomplish that. More blocks? More borders? That's what I have to figure out......

DH shooshed me out the door at 10:00 cuz he knew I wanted to go to the LQS (local quilt shop). (and he wanted to go fishing when I returned).

As always, I ONLY had intentions of visiting and do some window-shopping. Yeah right! I saw a crate of FQ's (10 for $15.00); a BEAUTIFUL pack of greens caught my eye. BUT, dutifully, I placed them back and kept window shopping. Then, I went to the back "clearance" room and saw some lovely creams and golds, but once again I was desciplined and walked away. As I walked and chatted, I walked by the FQ crate again; those greens kept calling my name. So finally.....I caved! Then I figured since I had a handful of greens, I might as well go back and see about those creams and golds. In the end, I didn't go too crazy, BUT I did come home with some beautiful fabrics. The entire time I was picking them, I was thinking about the "March" calendar picture. So, upon returning home, I turned on the computer and played around with a layout (using Excel----I don't have any quilt design software. Excel is limited to what you can do, but it works well enough for me.)

Since then, I have been pressing and cutting and sewing and pressing some more and cutting some more and sewing some more. :0) One thing about buying fabrics from this shop---THEY SMELL SO GOOD when I press them! Her shop ALWAYS smells lovely!

There have been two ladies requesting some simple directions for this quilt, so I'm ending this post in order to put another "tutorial" post together.

Happy Sunday!

Seven Shirts progress

Since Nancy (Life is a Stitch) posted yet another step for the Sevens Shirts mystery, I figured it was time to get downstairs to make the blocks from step 3. Ho-hum, ho-hum, an hour-n-half later, not only were the Snowball blocks finished from step 3, but they were also paired up and pieced into the quilt's center (step 4). THANKS NANCY! This went lickity-split!





However, sorry Nancy, but I just couldn't see those little "trimmed-corners" going into ANYTHING other than some bonus triangles! So, I eye-balled up each corner-to-corner piece on the snowball blocks, then double-sewed in order to get 48 bonus tris! Whether these get used up in the border (???), or if they get saved for some other scrap project, it doesn't matter to me. But, once again, just LOOK at what can be saved and "recycled" instead of simply tossing as scraps.!!! I'll be able to piece 24 pinwheel blocks, finishing at 3" (3.5" unfinished).



Last night, after volleyball, DH and I stopped at Walmart to pick up a few odds-n-ends. While walking down one of the center aisles, I noticed a few racks of clearance items. HOLY BUCKETS! These are Plus-sized capris (size 20W). 98% cotton, 2% spandex....I couldn't resist! They were only ONE DOLLAR! Not only did I pick up these, but there was also a hot-pink pair (size 16W) that I grabbed for $1 as well. AMAZING deal! Sometimes my DH can just be goofy! When we got home, he (for some reason) felt he needed to model the capris for our babysitter! We had a good giggle!

Friday tomorrow!!!! Let's see----goals for the weekend:
BESIDES housework: Depending if Nancy posts anymore clues, I might try piecing the Diamond Strips & Scrappy Baskets together since I THINK I know which avenue I'll head down now. THANKS for all the suggestions, by the way! I thought about the name for the quilt while I was mindlessly piecing the snowball blocks tonight-------I'm thinking: Grandma & Catherine. Catherine was my Aunt who passed on from pancreatic cancer many years ago. My mother is thinking MOST of the "stash" I received from Grandma ACTUALLY belonged to Catherine. And since so much of the scraps that were used in both sets of blocks came from Grandma's (Catherine's) stash, it just seems very fitting to me. I can't help but think about both of them anytime I work with much of the stash/scrap fabric anyway.....

Also, I think DD has been on hold long enough; perhaps I'll dig into step 3 with that as well.


Happy "almost" Friday!