Ready, Set, Go

I am almost packed for my weeks visit with my mother.  We will be celebrating her 92nd birthday as well as doing some shopping and visiting.  She recently moved into a new house so I am excited to be seeing it and, if necessary, helping to unpack some of the boxes.








I also have packed three knitting projects: green socks (just started on the foot), brown sweater (working on the yoke), and dishcolths (bought new yarn).  I probably won’t get a lot done  but if we have some just sitting time I can keep my hands busy.









I also have completed the laundry, did the dishes, watered all the plants so that pretty much all DH has to do while I am gone is care for himself and the puppies, cats, and birds.  And this is why you see him resting

while I was getting it all together.  



And speaking of being busy, I started working on my replacement for the HSTs some of the owls were surrounded by in the designer’s layout.  First I cut strips of my tree fabric.  The strips are longer than the background fabric: you will see why soon.










I then backed the end sections of the top and bottom strips with fusible and cut out the dark parts, not an easy job, by the way.
















When I was done this was the frame I came up with.  I am so excited at how this came out.  As you can see there are only 6 owls that will need frames so with one down we are on our way, again.
















Because I have another quilt to put on the frame I decided to finish this little baby quilt.  It is not a very large quilt, based on how much fabric I had, so I decided to leave the tumblers uncut. 











Of course that meant that I had to bind all those angles.  I guess I really like a challenge cuz it was one.  And I used leftover 30s binding (I keep using that fabric but I can’t use it up  )













I even got the label on it.  This quilt is going to a student of my husband’s so I didn’t put my name on it, just the date.  The baby isn’t due until October so this one will have to wait a while to be loved.













On a completely unrelated note, here is Stubby, sleeping in his 4th floor loft. She can be found in any one of these shelves which keeps her up and away from the dogs when they are out on the deck.







So I will be up early tomorrow to pile everything in the car and hit the road.  It is about a 9 hour drive, longer if I stop at a quilt shop or antique mall, so I need to get an early start. 




Have a great week and be sure to check in at Patchwork Times.     Gari

Sewing Withdrawal

I have been out of town since Tuesday and am suffering from sewing/quilting machine withdrawal.


However, on Monday, knowing I wouldn’t be able to stitch a stitch for awhile, I put this little leftover piece from Easy Street on the frame and quilted it.  Then I cut it in half (two little pieces)











And made these: two great mug rugs.












The next morning I filled my car with travel food and hit the road for a visit with my mother.









I got a very nice hotel room and decorated it with one of my favorite quilts.










I even have a sitting room where I am using one of my new mug rugs (hidden on the side table).










And in the bathroom I found this.  Now I have never taken towels but apparently others have since this card was prominently displayed.














For two days Mother and I have visited, shopped and fed our faces.  We have laughed a lot and even spent some time with her doctor, who smiled and laughed along with us.  It has been fun but both of us are very tired.

Right now I am getting my things packed so I can leave early tomorrow morning.  And hopefully I will be able to rest enough to be able to get some sewing done soon.  Sewing withdrawal can be really tough.

On The Road

So, every once in a while I have a bright idea. The most recent one was that since we were planning to drive the 1000 miles from home to DS#3 in MD, we would take a nap in the afternoon and start our trip at around 6pm. That way we could drive all night, miss rush hour traffic in Atlanta and DC and arrive at a reasonable, visiting, hour the next day. And, unlike some of my other bright ideas, this one worked perfectly.



On Monday we packed the car.

The boxlike structure in the back seat is our travel refrigerator. This is a wonderful invention. We carry canned drinks, fruit, and can store the second half of Subway footlongs to have later. The large bag in the back is my “handwork:” a little hand embroidery project and a large (Alabama Escargot) quilt to finish binding.

Except for one small 22 mile detour to get back on the right highway, the trip went smoothly and was uneventful. We didn’t even encounter any crazy drivers: not bad for 17 hours. I, unfortunately, didn’t think to take pictures of the beautiful Shenandoah Valley as we passed through it: maybe on our way home. And we arrived in good shape (DH was walking a little funny).

DS had taken the day off from work to be here for us and, after a trip to Best Buy, he and DH were busy working on a computer project.

NOTE: All three of my sons are computer whizzes.

While dinner cooked I presented DS and DDIL with their somewhat late wedding gift, now a wedding and new house gift.

This quilt was started in October 2007 for the wedding in March 2008. I had gotten 3 flower blocks done when the fiancé told me her grandmother had commissioned a quilt pro to make a wedding quilt for them. Well, I was STRUGGLING with the appliqué and somewhat overwhelmed with how many I still had to do and the whole project came to a halt: I machine embroidered a table cloth and napkins for them and put this quilt away. Then sometime this past spring I started working on it again. Later I will blog some of the pictures and what it was like but, again, the further along I went the more I loved it.

When it was almost done I did make the decision to machine sew the label into the binding thus ensuring that I gave it away rather than keeping it for myself. LOL

Today, both of our hosts are working so we are resting and will do a little exploring on our own. I have heard there is a great quilt shop not too far away so, with my GPS, I hope to do a little fabric shopping. Yea!!

A Little This, A Little That

The weather has been wonderful: low 90s, sunshine and a nice breeze. I have found myself balancing piecing with reading (and of course housework). And look at what a week of rain and then sunshine has done for my plants. My hydrangea flower is getting bigger and my roses are outdoing themselves.








I did get all my Dresden plates done and have started working on a layout.






I also have been working on the A Tisket A Tasket BOM at Bunny Hill. I got a late start with these but have now gotten them done through May.

And, I have made another Quilt in a Cup.

They have come out with a lidded cup so, of course, I had to have one. It arrived Wednesday and Thursday I was busy making a little quilt for it.

See, I even made a label for it.

DH and I will be leaving for Maryland on Monday so I am putting together some things to work on while we are traveling and visiting. Each of the above BOM blocks have a small amount of hand embroidery to complete so I am bringing them along. I did a lot of hand embroidery MANY years ago so figure I can do a little now. LOL I will also be sewing down the binding on Alabama Escargot. Any bets on how much I actually get done?

I am currently enjoying an evening “home alone.” DH has been assisting with a college musical, Footloose, and the first performance is tonight. I went to the dress rehearsal last night and it was terrific. Tonight I am finishing the laundry, reading blogs, and beginning the planning for packing. And I guess that sitting here writing/reading on the computer isn’t getting any of that done so I better get off and get busy.