Sunday, August 30, 2009

Finally Finished!




Finally finished the double wedding ring quilt. It turned out pretty nice I thought. The customer gave me permission to put pictures of it on the blog and promised me a picture of it bound and at the reception. It was the first double wedding ring that I have done, and took longer than I thought, but it was worth the effort.


This is on the machine. It sure looks big! It sure was big!


This is on the bed. I would love to have it on my bed!


All the swirls and leaves turned out very pretty.

Friday, August 14, 2009

What a Week!!!

This has been a busy, busy week with a few surprises thrown in just to make life exciting. I have been canning all week and have done green beans, apricot jam, raspberry jam, dill pickles and sweet pickles and even processed pickled beets for my daughter, Angel. All that plus working on a double wedding ring quilt for a customer.

Last Saturday I took two quilts over to the County Fair. I have not entered a County Fair before and so I was a little nervous, but decided that I might as well give it a try. I had shown some of my quilts at our community Heritage Days for the last two summers and a favorable response gave me courage.

On Tuesday, I couldn't wait any longer. I had to find out if I had received a blue ribbon or what. I decided that I would stop in and see if I could get in because I knew that the vendors would be setting up that day for the opening on Wednesday. As I walked into the building I got so excited. There was my quilt hanging right out front with a big beautiful ribbon on it! Wow! What a thrill! My quilt received a "Best of Division" ribbon.

I say "my" quilt, but in truth, it was pieced by my daughter Amber and quilted by me. We were both thrilled. The quilt that I had quilted for my Grandson, Taylor, received a blue ribbon. That was neat too, even if they did hang his quilt sideways. Amber pieced that one also. She has become a talented quilter with a keen eye for color. I have been grateful to be able to work on her quilts.


This is not a very good picture, but I just had to have one of it hanging there with the ribbon on it and all.


This is a somewhat better one of it a few weeks ago at our community Heritage Days celebration. My sweet husband made the stand for it and it hung outside of the building to let people know where the quilt show was.


I just love it when I can get a picture that really shows how it was quilted. Amber gave us the quilt top for Christmas and it is so beautiful. I didn't quilt it for quite awhile because I couldn't decide just how to do it. When it was all finished I decided to name it "Dancing Dogwoods" because the quilting added so much movement.

What a week! I'll post some pictures of Taylor's quilt when I get it back and get to take a few pictures. (And thanks Taylor, for letting me borrow the quilt off your bed for a week or so).

Friday, August 7, 2009

About Grandkids

Well, its been a busy day. I have been thinking as I've been quilting and my thoughts turned to Grandkids, as they often do. I have quite a number of Grandkids and have really enjoyed being a Grammie. We have moved around a fair amount and this is what I told my children that I wanted my Grandkids to call me. In the south Grandmothers are called Maama, but that seemed foreign to me, not being from the south (even tho we lived there for 20 years). In the east my grandkids call their other Grandmother Nanna, and my husband's mother was Grandma Gifford, so that didn't seem to fit. Anyway, Grammie it is.


So, as I got thinking, I thought about the quilts that I have done for Grandkids. I was not quilting when many of them were small, but the last one was born after Grammie got rolling with her long arm and so I have quilted several for her. She is a sweet one year old with a three year old sister. I did several for her when she was born, one from Grammie and one from Aunt Am. I also have quilted several doll quilts for her older sister.




This is the quilt which Am pieced for Iyla. I loved the colors, and so does Iyla!



This is the quilt that I made for her. I love Beautric Potter and when I saw this material, I just had to make it. I loved doing all the tiny leaves in the sashing and the larger ones on the border as well. It was pre-printed, so there was no piecing involved, which just seemed to fit my busy life and so it seemed the perfect choice.



This is the doll quilt made for Isabella's birthday. The little bears were trapuntoed (is that a real word? Maybe I just misspelled it), so they stand out a little. I understand that this blanket gets drug round the house a lot. That delights me! I got to know these two little girls much better this summer at the family reunion and what a joy that was!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Home at Last

Wow! I'm home at last! I really enjoyed my trip, but I missed quilting everyday. I have to get busy now as I have a number of quilts to get done. I enjoyed the break, but it is always nice to be home in your own bed, if you know what I mean.

It was fun to come home and see the comments on the Blog. Lisa commented about "Pirates Treasure" and so I thought you might like to see it.






This was Logan's mom's first quilt and I think it turned our really nice. Logan loves it and that is the most important thing of all!

Well, guess I'd better get busy. The new quilt is calling my name!