A WIN AND PERSONAL DELIVERY!

I can't believe it's been 10 days since I posted!  We are in Oregon now visiting our oldest son & family. We have already participated in some fun family events, like our GS's piano/organ recital and his band concert.  He is very musical and even won an award for his musical talents last night from his band teacher.  

Right around the time we arrived in Oregon, I was notified by Quilting Babcia that I had won her giveaway.   When she realized that we were nearby, she suggested we meet at the local quilt shop!  Great idea!  We met there and went to a coffee shop to have a cup and chat.  We had a delightful visit and discovered we had some things in common besides quilting.  The six FQs are by Robyn Pandolph and are gorgeous green with pink roses.  I love pink and green together and my dishes have green in them - wallpaper has pink, so I think the fabric will be perfect for making a table runner.   The color is much better in person than in the picture.  Thanks so much for the beautiful fabric!  

When my GD got home from school (or work), she wanted me to go to the LQS with her - it's a tradition, after all.    Below is my purchase from the shop.  She likes to sew and she wanted to start a new quilt.  I showed her Bonnie Hunter's site and she picked the Bricks and Stepping Stones pattern.  We got started on that, but she needs more black fabric.  I'm sure we will have more sewing sessions when she has time between class and work.  I think school is out June 12 or 13.

My purchase from the LQS

Since then, I have been able to finish some log cabin blocks.  I had started these before our trip, but finished 58 blocks.  They measure 5 1/4" unfinished.  I think I have 146 blocks at home (at least), for a total of 204.  I figure I will need 360 for a queen size quilt.  This has been a travel project, so we shall see how much I do on this trip.  I brought other projects along as well.

Log cabin block made with CW reproduction fabric

I have been trying to keep up with blogs, but the computer isn't always working, so I haven't been able to do it as much.  Thanks for the comments!  

VOTE FOR QUINTUPLET MOM

I have shown you a picture of me with the quintuplets that I was helping with and there is a "Mom" contest on the James Avery web site.  If you have a facebook account, would you go to vote for her?  You can vote once a day until the end of the month, I believe.

Here's the link, which will take you right to the picture (although you have to "like" James Avery Craftsman first if you haven't already):

   A mother's love is multiplied, never divided. 

Thank you SO much!

The photo of Carrie with the babies is adorable.  Maybe you can vote without having an account, I'm not sure.   Here's the picture that is on Facebook to vote for her.  Aren't they adorable?

Grace, Will, Seth, David, Marcie with their Mom, Carrie

APQ BLOCK SWAP QUILT AND MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK

DH and I are on our way to Oregon and decided to stop at Mesa Verde National Park.  However, before we went there we stopped in Albuquerque, NM to visit Marsha of Grandma's quilts and an APQ block swapper with me and about 10 or 11 others.  Below we are holding the quilts that we made from the swap in 2010.  This was the first time that Marsha and I have met and she brought some other quilts to show me.  I also showed her the quilts that I have in the camper as well as a few projects that I brought with me to work on.  It was wonderful to meet Marsha after all this time.

Me and Marsha

 At Mesa Verde National Park we took a tour which included Cliff Palace as seen below.  We took this picture from across the canyon.  You can see the railing of the observation deck in the lower right hand of the picture.  To get down to the cliff palace, there are metal and rock steps that lead down from the top of the mesa on the left side of the buildings.

After the Park Ranger gave us a tour of the palace area, explaining how they constructed it and the information that they know about it, we had to climb up some stone steps and some ladders to get back to the top of the mesa.

DH ready to ascend the steps (our bus tour guide is sitting on the left side of the steps)

Here I am climbing the ladder to the very top.  It wasn't as bad as we thought it might be!

Here's another view of the crevice that the steps and ladders are in.

Mesa Verde is an amazing national park and we would definitely recommend it.  It preserves a spectacular reminder of the ancient culture of the Anasazi people, which is from a Navajo word sometimes translated as "the ancient foreigners."  They are now called Ancestral Puebloans.  They lived here for about 700 years until the late 1200s.  

DOLL QUILT

In my March 31 post I showed this doll bed that a friend gave to me (actually, she forced me to take it). Have you seen the foam mattress pads that have the bumps all over them?  I think it is supposed to make an uncomfortable bed comfortable.  We had an old one - it came with our first camper and we never used it.  Well, that's what I used to make the doll bed mattress.  I just cut it to size and then cut off the bumps the best that I could.  The smooth side will be up, but the uneven underside doesn't look or feel bad once the mattress cover is on.  I still haven't covered the mattress or made the sheet for it, so I thought I would show you what it looks like.

Today, I finished the quilt top that I will be using for the doll bed, so I put it on the doll bed to show you what it will look like.  I guess I forgot to take a picture of the whole quilt top - you can't see the border at all in these pictures.  I am going to hand quilt it.

Here it is with the doll on top of it.

I think I saw this idea on someone else's blog, but I am going to use this tea towel as the "top" sheet.  I really like the way it looks.

Oh, BTW, I have added a few things to my secret blog.  

MEMORABILIA AND A DONATION QUILT

I finished my display case with my maternal Grandma and Grandpa's memorabilia in it.  There is a picture of them on their wedding day, July 1, 1899, and another picture of them on their 50th wedding anniversary.  Inside the case is their wedding invitation, Grandma's buttonhole scissors, Grandpa's bank book and three items that Grandma made, including crocheted lace that had been on a pillowcase, an appliquéd butterfly quilt block and a pair of mittens.  The printed paper is the text that appeared in the Villa Park Argus in Villa Park, IL (where I grew up) regarding their 50th anniversary.  

My Grandma always was working on something, be it knitting (mittens), crocheting (potholders), tatting (around hankies) or sewing on her treadle sewing machine.  She made mittens and pajamas for her grandchildren, pillowcases trimmed with lace for wedding gifts and hankies - I suppose she gave those to ladies in and outside of the family.  I remember her making an angel food cake from scratch and beating the egg whites with a hand beater made for that purpose.

Grandpa was a carpenter and Grandma was the oldest girl of 13 children.  Both were raised on farms in Minnesota, but Grandpa didn't like farming, so they moved to Chicago where he could get work as a carpenter.  That's how my Mom and Dad met.  Both sets of my grandparents went to the same church.  My Grandpa helped my Dad build our house and then G&G lived with us while Grandpa built his own house near ours.  While he didn't like farming, he did like to have a large garden and I remember him showing me his row of "pop" corn.  I was very surprised that pop corn grew like regular corn.

I volunteered to quilt a donation quilt that someone else had pieced and I got it finished and bound in time to take it to my guild meeting on Monday.  This will be for a teenager and will be donated to Children's hospital.

I quilted it with a loop the loop and put in some dragonflies and flowers from time to time.

Have a nice weekend!

SOME PROGRESS MADE

I finished my April appliqué baskets on May 1 and expect to receive the May fabric this coming week - so, just in time!

More pictures of my "Seasons in a Row" very old UFO quilt.  I got the binding sewn on this morning and took some close up pictures.  Some of the embellishments are just placed on top to give you an idea of what it might look like.  I have some eyes for the snowmen as well as carrot noses on order.  The small black beads will be sewn on for the mouth.

January, February and March

April (bunny tales need to be sewn on) and May (buttons need to be sewn on also)

June, July, August & September - all finished

November & December - Santa's eyes need to be sewn on

Picture of the whole quilt top.  December's row doesn't show up very well,  but it will be staying that way.

This afternoon, I'm going to baste a donation quilt.  I didn't make it, but will quilt and bind it before our guild meeting on the 13th.  Last night I attended and joined the Dallas Quilter's Guild for the first time.  I decided to join so that I would be able to attend a workshop by Bonnie Hunter in September.

Working on my Oldest UFO

I have been really busy, but don't have a lot to show for it.  I spent most of last week working on my secret project.  It was very tedious, so I have taken a few days off from that.  

My oldest UFO is a pattern called "Seasons in a row."  It was a guild project more than 10 years ago and I had completed through September.  Today I worked on that project and finished the October and November rows.  I started on the December row of Santas, but then it was time to fix supper.  I want to get the top finished, but don't know when I will have time to quilt it.

Pumpkins for October and Turkeys & Corn for November

I got my Pheasant Hill table runners quilted and posted them on my Etsy site.  

16 1/2" x 38"

7 1/2" x 14"

Thanks for visiting!