FUN DAY AT "LOVE'S"

Today was the day that Jennifer and I went to visit Love at her home.  We had such a wonderful time!!  She showed us all the wonderful quilts that she has, some of which are antiques from family and some of which she made.  Her patriotic quilts were awesome - in fact, all of the quilts she has made were.  You wouldn't believe (or maybe you would) that we talked for hours about quilts, family, quilting, and more quilting with never a lull.  Ideas and inspiration flowed back and forth between us!

Before I left home this morning, I was able to make the Civil War block of the week.

The free motion quilting challenge was my main goal for the week and I was able to get the border quilted on this half of my basket quilt.  I layered the quilt in two pieces, so I have the other half left to quilt.  I feel pretty comfortable with feathers, but still need a lot of practice.  I have gotten so many ideas from other quilters doing the challenge and will be trying to put them into practice as I continue to quilt my own quilts.

QUILTING PROGRESS

After 6 days of practicing Free Motion Quilting, you can see some of my progress on this wall hanging.  The second picture of the back shows it best.  I am feeling a lot more confident doing feathers.

I did feathers around the center oval of the wall hanging and stippling in the middle.

This is my latest project from the Jo Morton's Little Women class at Lone Star House of Quilts in Arlington, TX.  I am almost finished binding it.

I turned the corner back so you could see what's on the back.  I love that fabric!

Saturday I am going to "Love's" home for a visit.  Her blog is here.  Jennifer, from Purple Heart OriJennals will be there too.  I'm sure it will be a fun time.

CW BLOCK AND BOOK REVIEW

I love this week's Civil war block.  It was very easy - just up my alley!

I saw on someone's blog that you can volunteer to review books, so I decided to sign up to do it.  Right before we left on our last trip, I received 2 emails from Bethany House Publishers asking me to select a book from each list, which I did.  When we returned, I received both books and just finished reading

Paradise Valley by Dale Cramer.

I received this book from the publisher in exchange for reviewing it, but that hasn't affected my opinion.  At first, I assumed the book had been written by a woman, and at one point, I wanted to see something about the author.  That's when I looked at the back and found out that Dale was a man!  I appreciated the page at the front where he lists the family members of Caleb and Martha Bender.  Not many books list characters, but I love it when they do.  The story grabbed me right away when Caleb Bender and other Amish fathers were arrested for not sending their children to public school.  As Caleb became aware of property available in Mexico and decided to move there, I wondered if this story was based on historical fact, and was amazed to find out that it was.  The trials and tribulations experienced by the family weave a story that is hard to put down.  I have always been fascinated by the Amish people and enjoy reading about what their lives are like (past or present).  It's a story about faith, love, family and work.  There is hope for the future, too, as this is the first of a series about the daughters of Caleb Bender.  I will definitely be watching for the next book to come out and also want to read the other books that Dale Cramer has written.

BTW, if any of you are interested in reviewing books for Bethany House Publishers, you can go here to do so.

FIRST DAY OF FMQ CHALLENGE

For you non-quilters, FMQ means Free Motion Quilting.  In other words, quilting by machine mostly without marking a design on the quilt first.  Of course, you will have a design in mind.  The design that I want to learn is feathers and below are my practice pieces.  The one on the left is my first one.  The right one on the darker fabric is my second practice section and on the left is my third.  I think the third one is definitely better than the first two, so I am already encouraged.  I want to quilt feathers in the border of my Mansfield Park basket quilt.

Here's part of my basket quilt.  I have about half of the block quilted and I would like to finish the quilting before we leave on our next trip.

 Next, below is my current Jo Morton's Little Women class project.  The next class is Tuesday, so I'm going to try to get this quilted by then.  Not sure how I will quilt it.

On my trip I worked on hand quilting this Cheddar Cheese & Crackers quilt.  I'm about 80% finished with it and I'm trying to work on it a little every day.

I know I'm nuts, but I have wanted to at least get started on the Gone to Texas quilt.  I will be making blocks in between other things.  The ones in this picture were pieced in the camper because I had cut some fabric ahead of time.

Here's a picture of the Gone to Texas quilt.  It seems like this is a "pioneer" quilt, so I'm trying to make it with "old" looking fabric - in other words, reproductions - so what else is new.

I have been busy this week making some play outfits for Abigail.  While I was in Florida I made her a couple of these tops and a cobblers' apron.  This time, I made some shorts to go with the tops, along with a couple extra shorts.

These shorts are made out of fabric from Guatemala.  Do any of you remember Jackie, the missionary from Guatemala?  She sent me this fabric and I thought it would make good play shorts.

 This baby afghan was found at a garage sale in Florida for $2, so I'm going to donate it to children's hospital.  It was new and made by a 92 year old woman.  The garage sale was to raise money for a missions trip and the lady holding the garage sale goes to the same church as my DS & DIL!  My DIL is hoping to go on the missions trip to India and then stay longer to spend time with her family.

Today I'm meeting some friends for lunch, so I better get going.

GETTING BACK IN GEAR

Jonah ready to go to Mother's Day Out - Notice stick in hand!

One of the first things I wanted to do when we got home was to get caught up on my Civil War blocks.  So I finished up the last 3 blocks.

Below are some paper piecing that I worked on in the camper while we were gone.  This is a perfect "Camper project"  because I just need a bag of scraps and can cut pieces as I go.  I have 5 1/2 of these circular blocks all paper pieced now, so soon I need to start sewing them together.  I blogged about these a while ago here.  I've never pieced curves before, so that will be a new challenge for me.

I joined the Free Motion Quilting Challenge led by Thread Head.  Here is my first try at feathers.  Kind of wonky!  The idea is to practice for 15 minutes every day for 2 weeks, because practice makes perfect. We will see.  Hee Hee!  I am hoping to quilt feathers on the border of my basket quilt, so that gives me good motivation.

Well, I'm going for a walk now.  I need to get back to walking every morning, so see you later!

Home Again!

Friday we arrived home safe and sound after being gone 4 weeks.  As always, it's good to get home.

We had a wonderful time with our sons and their families!  While in Pensacola, I did manage to go to one fabric shop - A & E Pharmacy.  Yes, it's a pharmacy on one side and on the other side, it's a fabric store with a huge selection.  Below is a picture of my purchases.

 On our way home, we stopped in Natchitoches, LA to do some sightseeing.  Below is a picture of the house where the movie "Steel Magnolia" was filmed.

 Then we went to the Cane River Creole National Historic Park.  The Prud'Homme family begain farming the land in 1785 and continued living in this house (built in 1821) until around 1990 when it was donated to the National Park Service.  We received a very informative tour of the home with much interesting information about the family and the plantation.
In the girls' bedroom, there were some quilts on the beds which I took pictures of.  The tour guide didn't know who made the quilts.  I asked her because I always wonder about the person who made the quilts and like to know when they were made.

This is the master bedroom with it's beautiful appliqued quilt of red flowers.

If you ever go to Natchitoches, LA, I hope you will take the time to visit the plantation as well.  BTW it is free!

Finally, there is a great giveaway at onemorequilt.blogspot.com, so go there to sign up if you are interested.

A LITTLE SEWING IN BETWEEN MORE IMPORTANT THINGS

More time spent with our DS, DIL & Abigail.  Below, Abigail is eating some strawberry shortcake.  Yum!  Yum!

 Flying a training jet at a local park!  We are real close to the Naval Air Station where the Blue Angels are based, so the local park has a training jet for kids!  We also get to see the Blue angels practice right over where we are camped!

 We spent some time at the beach too!

 Abigail playing with dominos in the camper after eating lunch here.

 Some beach pictures too.

 Here are my Civil War blocks that I've completed while here.  I didn't have enough fabric to complete the one on the bottom, so I'll have to finish it at home.  Other than that one, I'm up to date on them.  I didn't really bring very much fabric with me - a mistake I hope I don't make again.

Thanks for visiting!

ABIGAIL'S TURN

We arrived in Florida on Tuesday without a camping site reservation and a couple places we checked were already full!  Spring break going on!  We were very lucky, however, to get a spot just around the corner from DS's apartment!  I had checked with this camp ground before, but it was more than we wanted to pay.  Guess what!  They had lowered their rate!  So now, we're just a stone's throw away - literally!  If the fence wasn't up, we could take the shortcut because the apartment complex is just on the other side.

Here's a few pictures of Abigail at a park climbing on the climbing wall!

 What a big girl!

 Looking down from above.

Shortly after arriving in Florida, our truck starting making a noise.  Uh Oh....   We took it to a mechanic that our DIL has known quite a while and he's going to look it over.  We need it to be in good working order as after this trip, we have a BIG trip planned.

We will be posting more pictures of Abigail soon.