A SURPRISE AND A CAMPER!

Yesterday I received a surprise package in the mail from Lisa in Montana. She wrote me a sweet note thanking me for helping her with her blogs and projects. I'm going to show my age here, because I can't for the life of me figure out what she is referring to and worse than that, I don't remember who she is! Please, Lisa, if you see this, let me know where our paths have crossed before! Thank you so much for the charm pack and pattern! I love them and want to make the table runner with 3 of the larger print flowers as the focal point. I'm beginning to wonder if I am going nuts here. Hee Hee! Let me know if I'm the wrong person!

We have been looking for a camper for a long time and debating about what kind to get, etc. We finally settled on a truck camper and we found this one on Craigslist. It had all the features that we wanted and was nearby. DH was sick and we couldn't go look at it when we wanted to and were afraid someone else would snatch it before we had a chance to see it, but we finally were able to go and decided to get it!
It is a 1994 Lance camper with a tiny bathroom. It has a microwave, stove/oven, generator and one of the best features is the Stable-lift system for getting it on and off the truck. The next thing we need to do is find a truck to put it on. I can fit my featherweight sewing machine in it also!!!
Now we need to get it organized so we can fit all our clothes, food & sewing stuff inside! Then, we can hit the road. We probably won't go anywhere for a while because we have lots of other things to do as well, like paint some rooms in our house, have a garage sale to get rid of some junk, etc.

PAPER PIECED WALL HANGING

This is a Judie Rothermel kit that I purchased from another blogger. I think it was Cootie Bug but I'm not sure as it was several months ago that I got it. I rarely buy kits and this was a spur of the moment decision! I'm not very fond of paper piecing, but this was easy because it was all strips and I'm happy with it (and happy to have it done - almost)!

This morning I have sandwiched 2 doll quilts, the above wall hanging and four other smaller wall hangings. I pieced some batting together and pinned all the quilts as they aren't very big.
This is one of the doll quilts that I put together yesterday from some leader/ender scraps.
Some people said they would like to see the mittens that I still have from my grandmother. Here they are. She must have gotten maroon yarn on special, because I seem to remember that all the mittens had some maroon in them (which I didn't like)!
I think I have been averaging at least 6 hours of sewing per day this week - not counting the hand quilting while I watch TV. I have so many projects going on it's ridiculous! We are planning to start doing craft shows again soon, so I need to get some projects ready for that.

VALENTINE'S DAY - MY GRANDMA

My grandmother, Ingeborg Opdahl, was born on Valentine's Day, 1876 in Mansfield township, Minnesota. She married my grandfather, Albert Monson, on July 1, 1899. They moved to Chicago, IL so grandpa could find work as a carpenter

Grandma set the example of a woman who could sew, knit, crochet and tat. She used to knit mittens for all the grandchildren using up all the scraps of yarn. I still have a pair of mittens that she knit. At the time, I didn't really like the mittens very much because she used up all her scraps of yarn and they were striped and didn't necessarily match. Sometimes there would be a stripe of a different color around one thumb . She always crocheted potholders for herself and her daughters. She also tatted and crocheted around hankies. She made pajamas for her grandchildren. I remember watching her make an angel food cake from scratch with a hand whip for beating the egg whites. These are a few of the memories I have of my Grandma.

She had 5 children. Her second child was a daughter, Cora, born in 1903. This valentine is from Cora to my Grandma, as you can see in the 3rd picture. I don't know what year it was given to her, but Cora died from scarlet fever when she was 8 years old, so it could be from the Valentine's day of 1912.


Isn't it sweet? It brings tears to my eyes to think about my Grandma losing her little girl. My Mother was just a year old at the time, so she didn't remember her sister.

I didn't mean for this post to be sad, but I wanted to put in the vintage valentine. I'm so glad I have it.

THIS AND THAT

Everyone has been showing snow pictures, so I decided to put in one of our front yard. This is Texas and in the 27 years that we have been here, this is the most snow we have had. It beat the record for the amount of snow in a 24 hour period. It sure was pretty. It's starting to melt now.

I found this little (14") doll cradle in an antique mall in Florida so I made a mattress, sheet, quilt and pillow (with pillowcase) for it. I think I will paint the cradle. I don't really like the color of the wood.
Crazy Old Ladies are having a really neat give-away on their blog. Click on the link to find out all the details. Double Bubble is one of the 5 new patterns the winner will receive!

There is also a fabulous Valentine's Day give-away at Quilting Can Be Fun so go over there to enter. There will be three winners!

Good Luck!

MAKING PROGRESS

It is so nice being retired!!!!! I'm starting to make a dent in some quilting projects. I'll show you a few. First of all, I'm over half way finished with the hand quilting on my tumbler table runner!

We have a niece who is expecting in July, so I'm putting together an "I Spy" baby quilt. I haven't sewn the blocks together yet because I'm waiting to see if she's having a boy or a girl. Most of the blocks are good for either sex, but some would not work for a boy (no pinks or girly girl stuff). I might come across some more good fabrics in the mean time too, and I have a few more months before I will need to get it finished.

My quilting guild has accepted the American Patchwork & Quilting's challenge of a million pillowcases to donate to charity, so I made a few pillowcases and took them to my guild meeting last night.
I'm had this music fabric for quite a while, so decided it was time to use it.
I love this old-fashioned valentine fabric and have used it to make several pillowcases before, but had enough left for one more. It is so sweet!
Now, back to income tax....Ugh! However, I can only work on paperwork for so long and then I have to get back to sewing!

CHEDDAR CHEESE & CRACKERS QUILT TOP

I finished the doll quilt top!! I have never worked with 1" pieces before and didn't realize how much work would be involved. I'm not going to quilt it right away because I want to hand quilt and I'm busy hand quilting my tumbler table runner right now. Hopefully, I'll get to it soon! I haven't decided on the backing or binding yet, either, but they will be different fabrics from what I used in the top.

Then I will need to get busy piecing the second doll quilt! Yikes!! I cut and did a lot of the piecing while making the first one.
Now that I'm retired, I should have lots of time for quilting, but I find there are so many other things to do too - things that I didn't have time for before (like cleaning)! Tee Hee!

A QUILT ALONG

This is my design wall with the Cheddar Cheese and Crackers doll quilt that I am making (I'm going to make 2 of them - for some crazy reason). This little quilt it taking a while. I have been digging (literally) through my stash looking for reproduction browns, blues and pinks. I also bought some FQs and a bag of scraps from a scrap bin to get more variety.

Lori at Humble Quilts started this quilt along and I didn't get going on it until Tuesday because we were in Florida! It was kind of confusing at first, but I'm getting the hang of it. Lots of little pieces!!!
I think I'll really like it when I get it finished.

GRANDMA'S SCISSORS

We just returned from our 2 1/2 week trip to Florida and it was a wonderful time. It was hard to leave DS, DIL and Abigail! Boo Hoo!! I hope we can go back soon.

We stayed with my cousin, Mary, in Fort Pierce and she showed me a small sewing cabinet that had been our grandmothers. Our grandmother did a lot of sewing, tatting, knitting, etc. She used to make pajamas for us at Christmas. I was in awe over the sewing cabinet, because I remembered it and Mary had left grandma's sewing supplies in the drawers! She said if I wanted anything from the drawers, I could have it. In the bottom, under some stuff, I spotted these buttonhole scissors, which I remember grandma using and I asked Mary if I could have them. She said yes!! These are a treasure for sure!!

I worked on hand quilting my tumbler table runner while riding in the car and since I'm quilting the fan close together, it is going to take me a while to get this quilted. I'm doing it free hand, so it isn't perfectly spaced.
I gave Mary one of these bottle cap trivets and also made some of these during the trip.
AND I visited some quilt shops in Florida!! I'm sorry I didn't get any pictures, but I shopped at the Whippoorwill Station in Belleview, FL, Peggy's Heirlooms of Tomorrow in Ocala, FL and Bernina Connection in Tallahassee, FL. The fabric I bought is pictured below.


While at Mary's we spent an entire afternoon with another cousin, who I haven't seen for decades. Such fun! I also got to see my brother for a brief visit. Mary lives 2 blocks from the Atlantic Ocean, so I was able to walk on the beach. Dummy me didn't take a picture to prove it.

Now I have to get my house in order and put my Christmas decorations away!

PIECING AND QUILTING IN FLORIDA

Piecing and quilting is fun for me, so don't think I am working on my vacation! I finally finished the hand quilting on this charm quilt. It's not real big - about 40 x 40 (guesstimate). Now I have started quilting the matching table runner. I'm also quilting it in the fan pattern, but I'm doing it much closer together and it is "free motion" by hand. I'm not drawing any lines.

Here's the back view.
I also pieced 102 of these scrappy 5 1/2" blocks.
Today I made a bunch of flying geese which will be used to make sawtooth stars for a small doll quilt. Tomorrow, we're going to my cousin's for a few days. I don't know if I'll have internet access or not there, so bye for now!

VISITING ABIGAIL (AND FAMILY)!!

I got a lot of cuddles in with Abigail over the last week. We had a wonderful time visiting with DS, DIL and Abigail! She is one year old now and is walking and starting to talk! Such a fun age!! What a little sweetheart! Wouldn't you know that we went to Florida during the record low temps of below freezing just about every night we were there! The last few days were pretty nice during the day, however.

One day we went to Foley, AL and had fun at the playground in the Tanger Outlet mall.
Mommy, Daddy & Abigail
We also ate lunch at Lambert's Cafe, where they throw the rolls at you. They feed you REALLY WELL at this place!!
Grandpa & I left Pensacola on Friday and drove to Tallahassee, FL. Today we went to Pebble Hill Plantation. It rained all day, so I didn't get very good pictures. Also we couldn't take pictures inside the house we toured. It was a wonderful tour and we really enjoyed it.
I set up my Featherweight in the motel room and got in about 2 hours of sewing today! I have been missing it! I'll try to get a better picture tomorrow of some of the sewing I did.
I also was able to stop at a Bernina shop and get some fabric! Tomorrow we leave to visit my cousin in Fort Pierce.

A TRIP TO FLORIDA

I was trying to decide what to take for hand work on our trip to Florida and decided on this table runner that I hand pieced. I'm going to hand quilt with the fan pattern using 1/2" intervals. I love these fabrics. I'll be using the beige thread for this one instead of the brown thread I used below.

I am hand quilting this larger one which is going to be a wall hanging with the fan pattern and I'm almost finished.

The backing is some fabric that I got on sale and it's an 1861 reproduction. I'm using the same backing on both quilts. They are also both charm quilts.

I'll try to keep up with blogs, but don't know if I'll be able to post while we're gone.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

We spent Christmas with DS#3 and his family (Jonah pictured below licking a spatula) and DS#1 and family (they came from Oregon and we all went to Arkansas). We had a great family time with them and 3 of our grandchildren!

While there, we went to the Air Force Base and took a tour of the radio tower. Unfortunately, the elevator wasn't working, so we had to walk up about 9 flights! That is a lot for an "older" person! But I survived. Hee Hee!!

Lori at Humble Quilts is having a "quilt along" to make a replica of an antique doll quilt. I decided to join in and went to get some cheddar fabric needed, along with some other fabrics that I might use for the doll quilt (or something else).

The quilt shop also had a scrap bin, so I selected a bunch of them for $2 (for filling a plastic bag). Most of these might be able to be used in the doll quilt also.

Thanks for all your comments! I haven't been able to respond to all of them. For some reason, my email wasn't going out while we were using the lap top on our trip. I hope we get it figured out because we're leaving for Florida Thursday for a 2-3 week trip. I love being retired!!!!

CHRISTMAS QUILT, ORNAMENTS AND GIFT

I finished Bonnie Hunter's Christmas Lights mystery quilt before Christmas! It was published in 3 different issues of Quiltmaker and I had never done a mystery quilt before. I was able to use mostly fabric from my stash, including a lot of scraps.

When I finished the top I didn't know if I had any fabric to use for the backing and then I remembered some fabric I had bought at a garage sale in Oregon - it was perfect!
Since Christmas is over, I'm now able to show some things I made for Christmas too - some I made way back in January, like these pillowcases.
This quilt was a gift for the judge I worked with before I retired.
I made a bunch of these ornaments last January (I did most of the stitching while DH was in the hospital). It was great to have them finished early - I've never been that early before! Hee Hee!
The pattern was from Abyquilt

I received this darling dish towel before Christmas from Carolyn (no blog) of Lee Prairie Designs in Des Moines, IA. She had several of her patterns published in the premier issue of "Make-Ability" which is available now. Isn't it sweet?
I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas with your families! We are still visiting with ours!