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!